Executive: Colette Dill-Lerner, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer
Company: Growth Channel
Industry: Ad Tech / Programmatic Advertising
Company Snapshot: Growth Channel helps agencies and in-house marketing teams simplify programmatic advertising across CTV, audio, display, retail media, and more through one platform.
Format: CMO Journeys Interview
Why It Matters
Colette Dill-Lerner did not plan her way into marketing. She backed into it, laughed about it, and built a career around the pressure most people try to avoid. Her story moves from political science to dog walking, consulting, direct response, content, and ad tech. For agencies, her journey is worth studying because she sees marketing through two lenses: the human story and the business math underneath it.
Their Path, in Short
Colette’s career began with a twist that sounds almost too cinematic to be real. She studied political science and thought she might become an academic. Instead, she found herself in New York City, walking dogs, doing odd jobs, and figuring out what came next.
One of those dogs belonged to a woman who was a venture capitalist. That connection opened a door. Colette stepped through it. She describes her path as accidental, not scripted. “I have a plan only when I look back at what happened,” she said.
But the pieces do connect. As a child, she was curious, political, and deeply interested in people. She wrote to Ronald Reagan when she was six, read the newspaper young, and always had a book in her hands. To Colette, great marketing starts with understanding human behavior.
Her direct response foundation shaped almost everything that followed. At Guthy-Renker, she saw marketing as a business engine: customer acquisition, revenue, lifetime value, CAC, and the drivers of the business. She came to brand and storytelling later, but always through whether they help the bottom line.
At PopSugar, she learned that great content is hard, expensive, and not the same as making a commercial. Then came consulting, transformation work, software, and Growth Channel, where she now serves as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. The title fits because she leads marketing and client success, while helping agencies and brands think through campaigns, go-to-market plans, and board-level stories.
Big Themes From the Conversation
Colette is drawn to pressure. Not drama for drama’s sake, but high-stakes moments where things need to move. She realized at PopSugar that she was good in crisis situations and large, bold moments.
She is also honest about not fitting the tidy executive mold. She calls herself emotional, expressive, and “all over the place,” then speaks with affection about Boris Shimonowski, the mentor who helped her feel seen. He was controlled and organized. She was not. That contrast mattered.
There is practical empathy in how she talks about marketers. Teams are smaller. Expectations are higher. Tools cost money. The job can feel existential. Colette talks like someone who has sat in the chair and knows how heavy that pressure can feel.
She is also clear about what AI cannot do. It can help with production, patterns, and tested media plans. But it cannot replace creative judgment, because humans are, in her words, unknowable. If people were easy to understand, every campaign would work. They do not, and that is why human creativity still matters.
Watch Or Listen CMO Journey Interview
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How They Choose the Right Agency Partners
When I asked Colette about agencies, she did not treat them as vendors waiting to be replaced. She sees them as important partners, especially when marketing teams are under pressure and companies may not be eager to rebuild large internal teams.
Her philosophy is simple: do not cut agencies out. Growth Channel is intentional about working with agencies because agencies do not need another platform trying to go around them. They need partners who help them serve clients better.
What does that look like in practice? Listening comes first. Colette’s answer to what Growth Channel should build internally versus where it should lean on agency partners was direct: “We just ask them.” She believes people understand what they need for their business.
She also views credibility through the CFO’s lens. Agencies are often farther away from that conversation, but a useful partner understands that the CMO may be fighting for budget, the work, and the reason marketing deserves investment.
She notices partners who reduce pressure instead of adding it. Do not hand someone a requirements document with 950 things they must do before they can work with you. Make it easy to see value. Be flexible. Run tests. Connect what you do to something meaningful in their business.
When it comes to discovery, Colette talks less about awards and trade press and more about relationships, useful content, and meaningful conversations. She is investing in in-person connection because people want to do business with people they know, like, and respect. At events, what works is talking about something the other person can connect to their business.
The same standard applies to thought leadership. She wants content that is true to the brand, free of contradictions, and meaningful. Her bar is clear: relevance, usefulness, and business value beat empty volume.
What Stood Out
The most revealing part of Colette’s story may be how comfortable she is with contradiction. She is analytical, but emotional. She is performance-driven, but deeply human. She believes in metrics, but she also believes people are too strange and unpredictable to be reduced to them.
And then there is knitting. Colette says she is not great at sitting still. Knitting lets her watch a movie, sit on a plane, or calm her mind while still feeling like she is doing something. That feels like the whole interview in miniature: motion, craft, pressure, and curiosity.
