Kiran Smith's guest appearances

Kiran Smith

MediaVillage Podcasts

Ad Age Ad Lib

The Purpose at Work Podcast

Paul Marobella

Arnold Worldwide

Erika Nardini

Jeff Bezos

Danica McKellar

Candace Cameron Bure

Dennis Mortensen

David Collins

Olof Mathé

Marshall McLuhan

Phil Augusta Jackson

Lizzie Widhelm

Justin Sylvester

Dan Abrams

Ken Auletta

OwlTail

Kiran Smith is a former CMO and brand marketer who recently joined the agency world as CEO at Arnold based in Boston.   She brings her diverse range of experience within marketing and consulting to her new role on the agency side to help a write a new future for Arnold - focused on being the best possible partner to the modern CMO.    You can learn more about Claude by following her on Twitter: @KiranS93 or on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiransmith/   This episode is brought to you by Guided. Guided helps leaders eliminate the root cause of burnout and turnover by providing great coaching at scale so they can stop putting out fires and build great culture.   You can learn more about Guided here: www.getguided.co/   Thank you for listening to The Purpose @ Work Podcast! Spencer 

Kiran Smith is a former CMO and brand marketer who recently joined the agency world as CEO at Arnold based in Boston.  She brings her diverse range of experience within marketing and consulting to her new role on the agency side to help a write a new future for Arnold - focused on being the best possible partner to the modern CMO.  You can learn more about Claude by following her on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/KiranMSmith" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@KiranS93</a> or on LinkedIN: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiransmith/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiransmith/</a> This episode is brought to you by Guided. Guided helps leaders eliminate the root cause of burnout and turnover by providing great coaching at scale so they can stop putting out fires and build great culture.  You can learn more about Guided here: <a href="www.getguided.co/ " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.getguided.co/ </a> Thank you for listening to The Purpose @ Work Podcast! Spencer

#25 Kiran Smith - CEO @Arnold: How the Best Leaders Create Support Systems

Kiran Smith is four months in to her new role of Chief Executive Officer of Arnold Worldwide, and what intrigued me immediately was not only hearing a fresh perspective, but from someone who had never worked on the agency side before... Here's the topline. Listen to Episiode 23 of MediaVillage.com's Insider InSites for the full story!  E.B. Moss:  Kiran Smith, you were most recently Chief Marketing Officer at Brookstone, and before that you headed marketing at Stride Rite, and Shaw's Supermarkets. So you came up through the marketing ranks to be  CEO of Arnold Worldwide. Tell us more. Kiran Smith: ...As I said to the recruiter, "You know I don't have a day of agency experience, right?" He said, "That's exactly why we want to talk to you." So, I just expressed my opinions on what I thought about agencies and the opportunity for CMOs. ...CMOs are under more pressure than ever. Their budgets are getting tighter, their teams are getting leaner, and they're looking for partners to help them address the business needs, give them an independent perspective on what's going on in theirs and other industries. ..I'm not a creative person. I'm a business person and despite the fact that I'm a marketer, I am a computer science major, so it's a very atypical type of trajectory.... Arnold is a creative powerhouse; what I didn't appreciate was the amount of capabilities we have from a business insights, strategies and analytics standpoint, and that allows us to be able to better serve our clients. So, it's not about the creative alone, it really is about everything we surround the creative with. Moss: What are you recommending as new channels of application to your clients? Smith: Our job is to stay ahead of trends so that we can better advise our clients. What's going on with AR, with Voice, with AI? They need us to be their partner in looking forward so that we can tell them how we can apply it to their businesses. [But] the first thing we say is, "Just because everyone's doing it doesn't mean that you have to, too." .... Moss: In terms of how you prioritize your approach for clients, is it a split in terms of performance versus content? Smith: Content has to perform... it can't be creative for creative’s sake. What behavior are we looking to get from someone interacting with that content? All of that has to live in the analytics portion of it, because if we just do it because it looks good, sounds good, then we're not doing our jobs well.   Moss: What are some of your favorite examples of that amazing creative from Arnold? Smith: Progressive [and] the success of the Flo campaign...but also going into new parts. ...We just did an activation with Santander around homelessness in Boston which was unbelievable from an engagement, cause marketing, and use of AR technology standpoint. Moss: How do you approach storytelling at the agency? Smith: I give our creatives credit for working so well with our insights and strategy team to say, "Okay, tell me about the consumer. Tell me about the opportunity. ..." They take all of that into account and then they write the story. That, for me, is so much more impactful because it's creative with a purpose. Moss: Where do you pull your data from primarily? Smith: We obviously have syndicated data. We also do a fair amount of our own qualitative or quantitative research for every single client, both current and prospective ... With every pitch that we do I want to teach the client something they didn't know about themselves. When I was on a CMO side those are the agencies that I remembered. Moss: What do you think is new and next ...what about audio, AI, OTT? Smith: Specifically, I would say #AR is super important. #Voice, 100%. I think the smarter people who understand how to leverage and use them to their advantage and not get overwhelmed [by them], or so lost in it that they lose perspective in terms of what they're trying to do...are the ones that are going to win. Moss: The ANA just published their diversity report on the industry. Tell me about your experience creating a corporate culture and your plan for that? Smith: Diversity and inclusion has always been important to Arnold in terms of top priorities, so I am inheriting an organization that has all the ingredients there. Everybody's job is about D&amp;I, and it's not just about gender or race, [it’s including the need] to take into account how you think. ...Listen to Insider InSites to hear all Smith's thoughts on what's trending, if in-house agencies are a good idea, and creating a work/life balance. 

Kiran Smith is four months in to her new role of Chief Executive Officer of <a href="http://arn.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Arnold Worldwide</a>, and what intrigued me immediately was not only hearing a fresh perspective, but from someone who had never worked on the agency side before... Here's the topline. Listen to Episiode 23 of <a href="https://www.mediavillage.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">MediaVillage.com</a>'s Insider InSites for the full story!  E.B. Moss:  Kiran Smith, you were most recently Chief Marketing Officer at Brookstone, and before that you headed marketing at Stride Rite, and Shaw's Supermarkets. So you came up through the marketing ranks to be <a href="http://arn.com/latest/arnold-names-kiran-smith-new-chief-executive-officer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> CEO of Arnold Worldwide</a>. Tell us more. Kiran Smith: ...As I said to the recruiter, "You know I don't have a day of agency experience, right?" He said, "That's exactly why we want to talk to you." So, I just expressed my opinions on what I thought about agencies and the opportunity for CMOs. ...CMOs are under more pressure than ever. Their budgets are getting tighter, their teams are getting leaner, and they're looking for partners to help them address the business needs, give them an independent perspective on what's going on in theirs and other industries. ..I'm not a creative person. I'm a business person and despite the fact that I'm a marketer, I am a computer science major, so it's a very atypical type of trajectory.... Arnold is a creative powerhouse; what I didn't appreciate was the amount of capabilities we have from a business insights, strategies and analytics standpoint, and that allows us to be able to better serve our clients. So, it's not about the creative alone, it really is about everything we surround the creative with. Moss: What are you recommending as new channels of application to your clients? Smith: Our job is to stay ahead of trends so that we can better advise our clients. What's going on with AR, with Voice, with AI? They need us to be their partner in looking forward so that we can tell them how we can apply it to their businesses. [But] the first thing we say is, "Just because everyone's doing it doesn't mean that you have to, too." .... Moss: In terms of how you prioritize your approach for clients, is it a split in terms of performance versus content? Smith: Content has to perform... it can't be creative for creative’s sake. What behavior are we looking to get from someone interacting with that content? All of that has to live in the analytics portion of it, because if we just do it because it looks good, sounds good, then we're not doing our jobs well. Moss: What are some of your favorite examples of that amazing creative from Arnold? Smith: Progressive [and] the success of the Flo campaign...but also going into new parts. ...We just did an activation with Santander around homelessness in Boston which was unbelievable from an engagement, cause marketing, and use of AR technology standpoint. Moss: How do you approach storytelling at the agency? Smith: I give our creatives credit for working so well with our insights and strategy team to say, "Okay, tell me about the consumer. Tell me about the opportunity. ..." They take all of that into account and then they write the story. That, for me, is so much more impactful because it's creative with a purpose. Moss: Where do you pull your data from primarily? Smith: We obviously have syndicated data. We also do a fair amount of our own qualitative or quantitative research for every single client, both current and prospective ... With every pitch that we do I want to teach the client something they didn't know about themselves. When I was on a CMO side those are the agencies that I remembered. Moss: What do you think is new and next ...what about audio, AI, OTT? Smith: Specifically, I would say #AR is super important. #Voice, 100%. I think the smarter people who understand how to leverage and use them to their advantage and not get overwhelmed [by them], or so lost in it that they lose perspective in terms of what they're trying to do...are the ones that are going to win. Moss: The <a href="https://www.mediavillage.com/article/examining-diversity-in-our-industry-from-the-inside-out-a-report-from-the-ana/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ANA just published their diversity report</a> on the industry. Tell me about your experience creating a corporate culture and your plan for that? Smith: Diversity and inclusion has always been important to Arnold in terms of top priorities, so I am inheriting an organization that has all the ingredients there. Everybody's job is about D&amp;I, and it's not just about gender or race, [it’s including the need] to take into account how you think. ...Listen to Insider InSites to hear all Smith's thoughts on what's trending, if in-house agencies are a good idea, and creating a work/life balance.

From Retail CMO to Agency CEO - Kiran Smith of Arnold Worldwide

On the first day of her job as CEO, Kiran Smith broke her left foot. What could easily be interpreted as a bad omen turned out to be a blessing in a cast: Smith says the boot she’s had to wear these past five weeks have endeared her to new staffers and broken the ice with clients. She could use all the help she can get: In its second quarter earnings release last month, parent company Vivendi blamed weak organic results of its agency network Havas on “the impact of Arnold’s underperformance.” A veteran marketer — her most recent gig was as CMO at Brookstone — with no agency experience, Smith says she brings with her a fresh perspective to a gig that is sorely in need of one. She joins the podcast today to discuss the challenges she faces in her new job, what she brings to the table as a former marketer and what she’s learning from clients like Progressive and Jack Daniels.

On the first day of her job as CEO, Kiran Smith broke her left foot. What could easily be interpreted as a bad omen turned out to be a blessing in a cast: Smith says the boot she’s had to wear these past five weeks have endeared her to new staffers and broken the ice with clients. She could use all the help she can get: In its second quarter earnings release last month, parent company Vivendi blamed weak organic results of its agency network Havas on “the impact of Arnold’s underperformance.” A veteran marketer — her most recent gig was as CMO at Brookstone — with no agency experience, Smith says she brings with her a fresh perspective to a gig that is sorely in need of one. She joins the podcast today to discuss the challenges she faces in her new job, what she brings to the table as a former marketer and what she’s learning from clients like Progressive and Jack Daniels.

Arnold Worldwide CEO Kiran Smith