ORLANDO – In an interview with Beet.TV at the 2019 Global CMO Growth Summit, Global Consumer CMO of Citi, Jennifer Breithaupt, lent insight on the company’s approach to employee engagement and advertising investment. In discussing causes that are meaningful to the brand, Breithaupt says that the commitment must be felt top-down from the whole organization. “It can’t be a hobby and it can’t be a moment, it has to be a movement,” she says.
Standing behind issues beyond the brand
In recent years, Citi has focused in on purpose-related causes as part of their strategy. Breithaupt says that this is not only important for business and good for the world, but it’s crucial in employee engagement.
“Employees feel better when they work for a company where they can be part of an action that’s driving something bigger in the world,” says Breithaupt.
Initiatives that Citi has been involved with recently include #SeeHerHearHer, a campaign launched on International Women’s Day that partners with musicians like Sheryl Crow, Maren Morris and Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard for mentoring initiatives, sponsorships and scholarships, and other efforts to strive for 50/50 representation of women in music.
Television investment
According to Breithaupt, television isn’t dead, it’s just evolving. That doesn’t mean, however, that it doesn’t have its work cut out for it.
“The piece where I don’t think it’s evolved quite enough is on the attribution side,” says Breithaupt. “I think all the attribution models are somewhat flawed— you have platforms that are, for lack of a better word, ‘grading their own homework’.”
Still, Breithaupt sees television as a space for great opportunity, and assures that enormous audience, emotional appeal, and both audio and visual capability still makes TV a medium ripe for storytelling.
This video is was produce in Orlando at the CMO Growth Council. The series is sponsored by iSpot.tv. For more videos from the event, please visit this page.
