The Jeff Clark Masterplan, Kirsten Allegri Williams and Explaining Explained over a Cocktail Episode

This week, like an '80s Frankie Goes to Hollywood remix, we go long, as we have three great conversations to share this week.

We take a deep dive into campaign planning and how to drive this across global marketing teams with Jeff Clark, former Research Director at SiriusDecisions/Forrester, and Rockstar CMO Advisor.

Our guest interview is with Kirsten Allegri Williams, the Chief Marketing Officer for Optimizely, a modern Digital Experience Platform. Kirsten leads global marketing, communications, and sales development.

Before Optimizely, Kirsten was the CMO for SAP SuccessFactors, the world's leading technology solutions provider for Human Resources. And her career has included rebranding and relaunching the digital presence of Ariba, another of SAP’s global software businesses, and led partnerships with the United Nations to help businesses everywhere forge sustainable supply chains.

Kirsten is also an advocate for women’s equality and empowerment in the workplace. Kirsten has been honored by many organizations, including The Internationalist as a “Next 50” top marketer. She is a graduate of Santa Clara University with a B.S. in Political Science and a B.A. in Music. She received her Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music in classical voice and sustained a career as a critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano.

In our broad and fascinating conversation, Kirsten shares her marketing inspiration, a behind-the-scenes view of Episerver's acquisition of Optimizely, the decision to rebrand the new organization as Optimizely, despite Episerver being an established brand in its category, creating art as marketers and the future of events.

This week, our visit to the Rockstar CMO virtual bar finds Robert Rose, Chief Trouble Maker at The Content Advisory, talking about “the illusion of explanatory depth” as we explain the art of explaining.

The people:

• Ian Truscott on LinkedIn and Twitter 
• Jeff Clark on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Kirsten Allegri Williams on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Robert Rose on Twitter,  LinkedIn, and The Content Advisory 

Mentioned in this weeks episode:

• Optimizely
• Episerver Becoming Optimizely
• The Content Advisory Blog

Rockstar CMO:

• Rockstar CMO on the web, Twitter, and LinkedIn
• Previous episodes and all show notes: Rockstar CMO FM
• Rockstar CMO Advisors

The wonderful Piano Music is by Johnny Easton, shared under a creative commons license.