Five Women Leaders in Digital Marketing

Meet five women who are changing the face of digital marketing at their big brands.

March is National Women’s History Month, and thus we’ve been talking a lot about female leadership, the gender gap, and related issues. Today I’d like to call attention to five outstanding women behind big brands who are taking the digital marketing world by storm. 

Here they are, in no particular order:

yin-woon-raniYin Woon Rani

VP Integrated Marketing
The Campbell Soup Company
Camden, NJ

You may have seen the commercial where a mom, pushing two wild kids in a shopping cart, exasperatedly grabs a bottle of wine and a few cans of soup as the report of an epic, school-canceling snowstorm plays over the loudspeaker. It’s part of Campbell’s Soup’s Made for Real, Real Life campaign (#RealRealLife), the brand’s first integrated advertising campaign in more than five years. The collection of 11 ads has run across TV, digital, and social channels over the last five months. As VP of integrated marketing, Yin Woon Rani has helped drive the campaign’s success as part of her efforts to modernize the marketing program.

Rani has helped reposition several of the Campbell’s Soup Company’s brands to better resonate with a contemporary audience. Overseeing the advertising, media, design, digital, and social media disciplines, she has helped accelerate the company’s digital and content marketing program. Rani also championed an increase in digital investment — which will shift to be around 40 percent of the media buy, up from 22 percent last year.

pamela-vaughanPamela Vaughan

Principal Marketing Manager, Optimization
HubSpot
Boston, MA

As principal marketing manager for optimization at HubSpot, Pamela Vaughan helps grow traffic and conversions from the company’s various marketing assets, with a special expertise in blog optimization. She has played a leading role in optimizing the HubSpot blog, which receives 1.5 million visitors and generates 14K+ new leads each month.

Vaughan’s recent post, Why We Unsubscribed 250K People From HubSpot’s Marketing Blog & Started Sending Less Email, illustrates her marketing-savvy and commitment to user experience. She’s definitely one to watch as content marketing continues to evolve.

adrienne-loftonAdrienne Lofton

SVP Global Brand Marketing
Under Armour
Baltimore, MD

Adrienne Lofton leads the team that serves as Under Armour’s brand compass and communicates the company’s “underdog” attitude to millions of athletes across the globe. A former captain of the Howard University NCAA Division I women’s volleyball team, Lofton has championed the company’s focus on the athlete, rather than the apparel outright. This ethos permeates the brand’s digital presence, and is a main part of the strategy that, no doubt, has helped Under Armour become the second largest sports apparel company in the U.S.

Pushing for confident and inspirational messaging, particularly for women and young girls, Lofton has driven several marketing campaigns that have taken the company’s digital presence to new levels. Videos from the “I Will What I Want” and #RuleYourself campaigns — created in collaboration with agency Droga5 — have reached viral status on social platforms. In particular, the #RuleYourself video featuring the USA women’s gymnastics team had nearly 10 million views on Facebook in just 3 weeks.

alex-hisakaAlex Hisaka

Head of Global Content Marketing
LinkedIn
San Francisco, CA

Alex Hisaka has scaled LinkedIn’s content marketing efforts to impressive proportions. Her team plans, creates, and markets content for all stages of the buying process, producing daily blog posts and almost-weekly ebooks, which has had a massive impact on business. With a background in copywriting, design, and social marketing, Hisaka oversees much of the work herself — and her high standards are well known and much praised by her colleagues.

Hisaka adamantly believes in the social value and authenticity of content marketing and how it can bring audiences together in a mutually beneficial relationship. She has become a leading voice in content-led lead generation and strategy. We look forward to hearing more from this talented marketer.

alexandra-wheelerAlexandra Wheeler

VP Global Digital Marketing
Starbucks
Seattle, WA

As vice president of global digital marketing over the last decade, Alexandra Wheeler has helped Starbucks strengthen the connection between the physical and digital worlds. This bridge is a key part of the brand experience, and one that Wheeler believes deepens the company’s relationship with its customers. Starbucks is recognized as one of, if not, the most socially engaged brands in the world, and business performance has mirrored digital growth.

Wheeler cites authenticity as central to the company’s success in the digital space. For example, when the team noticed customers posting selfies with their frappuccinos, they encouraged the #sipface campaign, which boasts over 15K posts on Instagram. Leveraging an authentic customer sentiment on the platform where they were already engaging is right up Starbucks’, and Wheeler’s, alley.

Who do you admire in the digital marketing world?

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