Based on The 2025 Sprout Social Index,™ round three-quarters of selling leaders say natural and paid social media advertising and marketing are high priorities for his or her group. However many practitioners are skeptical, as they wrestle to safe the headcount and sources they want.
To be a advertising and marketing chief who totally understands social’s potential, you want trusted inspiration and steering. We’ve curated a listing of 11 advertising and marketing leaders charging towards a brand new age of enterprise—one with social positioned firmly on the heart.
Flip to this listing while you want a recent perspective on constructing a leading edge advertising and marketing plan and actual world examples of social-first technique.
Tulani André, VP of Social, Nationwide Geographic
Tulani André is the Vice President of Social Media at Nationwide Geographic, a model that boasts over 800 million followers on social. Sure, you learn that proper.
Nationwide Geographic is a bonafide powerhouse within the media world. Their first printed concern ran over 100 years in the past, and so they’ve continued mixing a ardour for nature and dialog with a deep understanding of their reader base to seize curiosity and encourage motion.
André makes use of her ardour for neighborhood constructing to not simply develop Nationwide Geographic’s followers, but in addition inform compelling tales that get their viewers engaged. Whether or not it’s providing recommendation to keep up a nutritious diet or sharing movies concerning the each day lives of snowy owls.
André believes the synergy between Nationwide Geographic’s social content material throughout platforms contributes to their success, and why constructing a loyal, energetic neighborhood will be extra impactful than follower rely. As she advised Sprout Social’s Cat Anderson in an episode of Social Creatures, “High-of-mind relevance is our focus. We’re dedicated to rising engagement and loyalty, and reaching youthful audiences.”
To maintain up with André, comply with her on LinkedIn, discover her on stage at a advertising and marketing occasion close to you and take heed to her full episode of Social Creatures for extra recommendation on constructing a social-first legacy model.
Leslie Berland, CMO, Verizon
Leslie Berland is the CMO of Verizon, an iconic telecommunications firm incomes a popularity for best-in-class natural engagement on social.
The recipe for Verizon’s success is rooted in daring inventive and taking large swings, whereas nonetheless folding in relatability and adaptability. They discover moments to take part in (and create) tradition on social, and pave new paths ahead for his or her model.
Below Berland’s management, the social group has the area to succeed in new inventive heights, whereas leaning into data-driven insights. Her strategy to social-first advertising and marketing helped her earn a 2024 Adweek Advertising and marketing Vanguard Award. She usually shares highlights from her group’s newest advertising and marketing campaigns on LinkedIn—from IRL occasions to billboard campaigns to influencer partnerships.
Keep related with Berland by following her on the platform and studying her thought management options.
Jo Boundy, CMO, Commonwealth Financial institution
Commonwealth Financial institution CMO Jo Boundy has a background that spans a number of industries, is a repeat South by Southwest Sydney speaker and has agency views on outdated promoting greatest practices. As Boundy stated on social, “What if I advised you manufacturers are getting promoting all fallacious?…We have to cease interrupting and begin being the leisure.”
That bodes nicely for the strategy Commonwealth Financial institution takes to leisure and edutainment content material. The multinational financial institution is well-known for its sports activities advertising and marketing ways on social and IRL—together with sponsoring Australia’s girls’s soccer group, the Matildas, and the 2023 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup.
In actual fact, the media has acknowledged CommBank, as they’re affectionately identified, for being the very best built-in advertisers in Australia. With Boundy’s path, the corporate has turn out to be intertwined with sport and girls’s soccer in a method no different model ever has. Comply with her for the newest on utilizing leisure to deepen model communities on social and past.
Nicola Jones, Head of Digital & Social Media, Aldi UK
Aldi UK’s Head of Digital and Social Media, Nicola Jones, is the chief behind one of many web’s wildest personas that delivers a few of the trade’s greatest social ROI. The UK department of the worldwide grocer not too long ago gained two 2024 Effie Awards for Social Media, together with one for Sustained Success.
As Jones stated in a latest LinkedIn put up, “These wins replicate the end result of a transparent, long-term sustainable technique that’s been on the coronary heart of all the things we’ve delivered. Whereas it might appear to be we’re simply out right here cracking jokes for laughs (and sure, that will have been the case at instances!), the reality is our social content material has persistently delivered a few of the highest ROI throughout Aldi’s advertising and marketing efforts.”
Like Jones alluded to, the model has mastered an unhinged persona on platforms like X and Threads, successful over audiences and effortlessly becoming a member of trending conversations. Aldi UK is cemented not solely in on-line tradition, however within the minds of their loyal followers and clients.
Although Jones not too long ago introduced she was leaving the corporate, you may keep within the loop on her subsequent chapter by following her on LinkedIn.
Nathan Jun Poekert, CMO, Basic Concept
Nathan Jun Poekert has constructed a reputation for himself on LinkedIn. With greater than 40,000 followers on the platform, Jun Poekert is nicely often called an professional in natural, influencer and paid social technique.
After serving as Head of Social, Content material & Digital Innovation at American Eagle, he transitioned to consulting manufacturers on their social methods, and constructing a popularity as a thought chief and creator. He pivoted his social expertise into the position of CMO at Basic Concept, a model company behind main vogue moments.
Even whereas juggling his new place, Jun Poekert stays an energetic on-line character and creator. His posts look at the philosophical and moral questions of working in social, whereas strolling followers by the true greatest practices of working a profitable model presence.
To remain related with Jun Poekert, comply with him on social and rewatch a few of our favourite webinars he took half in, together with Navigating Social in an Election Yr and Below the Model-fluence.
Todd Kaplan, CMO, Kraft Heinz North America
Todd Kaplan is the CMO of Kraft Heinz North America, and has helped the model usher in a brand new period of transformation within the digital panorama. As he advised Adweek, his type of management helps his group “discover the candy spot between creativity and enterprise aims.”
Kaplan has been acknowledged by Forbes and Enterprise Insider as a high CMO, and was even known as a “Advertising and marketing Rockstar” by Rolling Stone. Kaplan spent most of his profession serving to PepsiCo develop and preserve cultural relevance. His transfer to Kraft Heinz in 2024 signifies a recent begin for the legacy model, and is already translating to elevated share of voice and on-line cultural competency.
On their social channels, Kraft manufacturers like Kraft Mac & Cheese carry a definite social-first aptitude to their content material, like this video tutorial of methods to serve their noodles “the suitable method.” Kaplan has shared in lots of interviews that he believes in balancing model and efficiency advertising and marketing, and it’s clear the group is utilizing that as a launch pad to unleash extra model constructing.
Sustain with Kaplan—a frontrunner well-known for his laidback type and dedication to his favourite sports activities groups—on LinkedIn for highlights from his newest media appearances.
Kikora Mason, VP of Neighborhood & Social Media, JP Morgan Chase
Kikora Mason is the VP of Neighborhood and Social Media at JP Morgan Chase. The multinational monetary companies agency is 225 years previous, but nonetheless invests in new methods to attach and develop its neighborhood—which is vital to its success over the centuries.
In her position, Mason leads a group centered completely on social listening and neighborhood administration. She opinions pattern analyses each day—all the time looking out for real-time engagement alternatives. As she advised us once we interviewed her for an article about social media govt profession progress, “It’s all the time vital to know your target market and base your technique on what is going to resonate with them and fulfill your aims.”
However JP Morgan Chase doesn’t chase traits for the sake of it, or run on the pattern cycle hamster wheel. As a substitute, they take a measured strategy and anticipate alternatives that align with their model. Mason suggested, “The web by no means holds again when a model is being inauthentic.”
Comply with Mason on LinkedIn, the place she shares takeaways from management panels she participates in and affords recommendation to younger entrepreneurs.
Taylor Montgomery, CMO, Taco Bell
Taco Bell’s CMO Taylor Montgomery has been on the helm of the model’s advertising and marketing presence throughout their greatest social media moments—from recruiting Doja Cat to bringing again Mexican Pizza. Montgomery champions approaching social like a person as a substitute of a model, a technique that appears to be paying off.
Below Montgomery’s management, the model has persistently grown, and this progress has been immediately tied to Taco Bell’s formidable digital advertising and marketing technique.
On social, the model builds hype for his or her newest menu drops and collections, influencer and celeb partnerships, and conjures up sturdy emotions of affinity and nostalgia.
Comply with Montgomery for the newest and best from Taco Bell’s advertising and marketing efforts and overviews of his thought management interviews.
Scott Morris, CMO, Sprout Social
Sprout’s CMO Scott Morris is a high advertising and marketing chief to look at (however we may be biased). With Morris’ management, Sprout has developed a sturdy influencer advertising and marketing program, launched a brand new digital launch occasion movement, crafted a “buyer zero” content material sequence and attributed extra income than ever to social efforts.
Morris usually pushes our social group to assume past tried-and-true B2B advertising and marketing formulation, a testomony to his brand-building experience.
On LinkedIn, he shares wins from our campaigns, the newest product launches, and his takeaways concerning the worth of social and social insights. Comply with him there to remain present, and browse his rising library of articles on our weblog.
Josh Rangel, Senior Director of Social Media, Ogilvy
As a Senior Director of Social Media at Ogilvy, Josh Rangel brings nearly 20 years of social media expertise to his shopper work. Below his management, his group builds award-winning campaigns for a few of the world’s most well-known manufacturers.
Rangel can be a member of our Index Council, a cohort of social entrepreneurs and thought leaders who helped us form our information into the 2025 Index report. Rangel illuminated how he advocates for extra sources for social once we interviewed him: “Price range shouldn’t be a grimy phrase. Converse plain language that ties social media efficiency again to enterprise outcomes. Hold it easy and concentrate on: 1) bringing the receipts, 2) positioning social as a laboratory for testing and studying, and three) sharing the price of not being a part of the dialog.”
On LinkedIn, Rangel shares extra concerning the expertise of talking up for extra sources and his observations concerning the newest traits, plus relatable memes that seize the sentiment of the trade and a relatable POV solely social entrepreneurs can perceive.
Sarah Thomas, CMO, Caudalie
When Sarah Thomas started her profession because the Social Media Supervisor at Caudalie Americas in 2020, it would’ve appeared unimaginable that she would stand up the ranks to CMO in simply 4 years. However that’s precisely what occurred—reinforcing the vital position social performs on the epicenter of all advertising and marketing capabilities, and the way profession paths will evolve in mild of social’s upward trajectory.
On LinkedIn, Thomas shares a few of the model’s greatest advertising and marketing highlights and takeaways from social that inform her new position, just like the significance of reinventing your model identification.
Throughout her tenure as Social Media Supervisor, the model turned a Gen Z darling, popping up in prepare with me movies throughout TikTok. In actual fact, one among their hottest serums is bought each 30 seconds.
The 30 year-old magnificence model has simply as a lot fairness and loyalty as some newer emergent manufacturers, proving simply how nicely Thomas led Caudalie to succeed in new audiences and develop affinity. Comply with her on LinkedIn for extra on the way forward for this model, and her surprising profession path.
Fill your feed with advertising and marketing leaders’ insights
These advertising and marketing leaders are redefining the position of social media in fashionable enterprise methods. From legacy manufacturers embracing innovation to trailblazers pushing inventive boundaries, they provide inspiration and actionable classes to information your individual social-first journey.
By following their work and studying from their successes, you may gas your individual progress and hold your advertising and marketing plans forward of the curve. Fill your feed with their experience to remain related to the slicing fringe of social media advertising and marketing.
For extra on constructing a compelling case for extra sources and mapping out a profession path that can match the place social is headed, learn The 2025 Sprout Social Index™.