00:00Cannes is a funny place to be, and I'll tell you why.
00:05The industry only shows its very, very best self at Cannes.
00:10And we don't often have honest conversations.
00:14And we know that there isn't a single CMO on the planet
00:19that knows how to navigate this tsunami of technical transformation.
00:32I joined Rocket Companies nearly three years ago
00:34with the mandate to restage every aspect of the Rocket brand.
00:39Last year, Super Bowl 2025, we introduced America to a new Rocket
00:44on the platform of the core creative idea, Own the Dream.
00:49Own the Dream is a call to action for Americans not to give up on the dream of home ownership
00:54and to work with Rocket to find different pathways into home ownership.
01:01In the last 24 months, we've been able to exceed every single brand metric and commercial metric set.
01:10And in fact, we've gone from brand laggard behind the three major banks in America.
01:16That's Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo,
01:20to brand leader in terms of brand awareness and brand affinity.
01:24We're now the number one recognized mortgage provider in America.
01:29It's been a complete enterprise transformation.
01:33And we've only just got started.
01:35As Chief Marketing Officer, it's my responsibility to set a very clear, ambitious, and compelling vision
01:43and work with the very best agency ecosystem to help us bring that to market.
01:50And we've done a number of things that I always like to call NBDBs.
01:56Did I get that right?
01:57Never been done before.
01:59So last year, at last year's Super Bowl, we ran our commercial
02:03and then we cut to a live broadcast of 65,000 people in the Superdrome
02:10down in New Orleans singing Take Me Home Country Road.
02:13It was a nerve-wracking moment.
02:15I was in the stadium, but we broadcast it.
02:19And as a result of that, a disproportionate share of PR and social media conversation.
02:25We also won our first CanLine Gold just four months after the debut of Own the Dream.
02:32This year, in 2026, we paired Fred Rogers and that beautiful piece of American popular culture,
02:43Won't You Be My Neighbor?, with the iconic artist Lady Gaga
02:47and had her reinterpret through her own style that wonderful call for all Americans to be more neighborly.
02:57As a result of this year's Super Bowl, we were able to generate $195 million of earned media,
03:06becoming the number one PR brand at Super Bowl 2026.
03:12As a result of that, all of our brand metrics and all of our commercial metrics have been met.
03:17My concern about the future of the advertising and marketing industry
03:25is that I don't believe that CMOs take enough responsibility
03:30for the ecosystem of agencies that we work with.
03:34As well as making commitments to the agencies that I work with,
03:38setting incredibly high standards,
03:40I also encourage my team and myself to practice radical kindness.
03:47And radical kindness is setting the environment
03:51within which agencies can recruit and retain top talent
03:57and have the confidence to push the client
04:01and the client's creative agenda to its maximum capabilities.
04:05And that means that CMOs need to set longer-term relationships with agencies,
04:13be very, very clear about their expectations and standards,
04:17and reward and recognize agencies for delivering creative excellence.
04:22When you're around Rocket's table,
04:25the one thing that I want everybody to feel is a sense of confidence.
04:29The creative journey is messy, it is chaotic, it is unpredictable,
04:34but you never want your creative partners to feel that the relationship is under threat,
04:41particularly when you've asked them to do the very best work of their careers.
04:46The role of a CMO is always incredibly hard.
04:51And part of the reason for that is that technology and media is constantly changing.
04:58But now, today, this is the first time that every member of the C-suite
05:05is faced with absolute radical change and transformation,
05:11regardless of the teams that they lead and their responsibilities in the business.
05:17And so because CMOs have been trained to deal with change and harness that change,
05:24this is a fantastic moment for the CMO to be able to work with all members of the executive C
05:32-suite
05:32and help all members process change at such massive scale.
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