Financial Marketing Changes With Alex Craddock, CMO of Citi

Welcome to this episode of the Advertising and marketing Vanguard podcast. Right now, we now have a particular visitor: Alex Craddock, chief advertising and content material officer at Citi.

Be a part of host Jenny Rooney and Alex as they talk about his distinctive journey from gross sales to advertising management, the evolution of economic providers advertising, and the way inventive constraints can drive innovation. 

With expertise spanning automotive, digital advertising, and monetary providers at corporations like Visa, BlackRock, and now Citi, Alex brings a wealth of data about reworking advertising organizations and driving enterprise affect by progressive methods.

“When budgets get reduce and issues of that nature, everybody’s preliminary response is shoulders drop and all, woe is us,” he says on the podcast. “Simply give it some thought as one other constraint, and I assure you, you’ll have some actually good concepts that might be simply as impactful, if no more so, at a decrease value.”

Previous to Citi, Alex spent eight years at BlackRock, the place he led international advertising for the iShares franchise and served as international CMO. His profession consists of vital roles at HP, Visa, and numerous different international organizations, the place he has constantly pushed transformation and development by progressive advertising approaches.

Key takeaways:

[19:41] The Evolution of Monetary Companies Advertising and marketing — Alex emphasizes that monetary providers advertising has advanced from being primarily gross sales enablement to changing into really strategic advertising. He notes that the trade’s complexity, from serving retail to institutional purchasers, mixed with the necessity to stability model and efficiency advertising, creates distinctive challenges and alternatives. The disruption from new entrants within the house has pressured incumbent manufacturers to change into extra progressive and entrepreneurial of their method.

[11:14] Advertising and marketing Transformation at Citi — Alex discusses Citi’s current transformation underneath Jane Fraser’s management, highlighting the shift to a extra targeted international group. He emphasizes the significance of unifying beforehand fragmented advertising groups to create a extra built-in, client-centric method. The transformation goals to harness collective advertising experience whereas sustaining a constant model message throughout completely different viewers segments.

[23:48] The Energy of Artistic Constraints — Certainly one of Alex’s key insights is how constraints, whether or not regulatory or budgetary, can drive creativity and innovation. He shares that a few of his group’s greatest work has emerged from durations of funds constraints, forcing them to assume in a different way and extra creatively about partaking clients and driving affect.