UT San Antonio Seeks Creative Services and Branding Support for NSCC Stakeholder Outreach
At a Glance Buyer: The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) — National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC) Industry: Higher Education Location/markets: San Antonio, TX; South Texas and beyond Primary scope: Strategic communications, creative services, and Drupal web support for NSCC (multiple service pools) Key deliverables/channels: Strategic frameworks + exec comms coaching; branding/graphic design collateral; Drupal web design/dev/maintenance; accessibility … Get Unlimited NextBigWin Access Subscribe to become a NextBigWin Pro member and get access to all our exclusive content. Turn access and intelligence into your next big client win. Already a member? Login Subscribe to NextBigWin Pro
Arizona Department of Administration Statewide Marketing AOR With $185M Recent Agency Spend
At a Glance Buyer: Arizona Department of Administration (State Procurement Office) Industry: Government/public sector Location/markets: Arizona statewide Primary scope: Statewide marketing, advertising, and public relations services via task orders Key deliverables/channels: Integrated plans; media planning/buying (TV/radio/print/OOH); digital/social/streaming & influencer; creative & production; website dev/maintenance (WordPress or site builder) + accessibility; PR/crisis comms; events; research; analytics/reporting Budget: Not specified (as-needed usage; no guaranteed spend) Contract type/term: Mandatory statewide contract(s); task-order/as-needed; 12-month initial term with extensions up to a 5-year maximum aggregate term Key dates: Pre-Offer Conference: Feb 26, 2026, 1:00–2:00 PM Arizona Time. Proposal deadline: Mar 25, 2026, 3:00 PM Arizona Time Eligibility/must-haves: Submit via Arizona Procurement Portal (APP); meet accessibility expectations (ADA + WCAG 2.2 Level AA); multicultural focus (including translation when required); dedicated account/project manager; proof-of-performance reporting; bill in 15-minute increments; fingerprint clearance card for certain personnel (as applicable) Why This Could Be Interesting The State of Arizona, through the Arizona Department of Administration’s State Procurement Office, is establishing mandatory statewide contracts for marketing, advertising, and public relations services that eligible agencies can use statewide. This is a bench-style, task-order program: agencies can bring in contractors for projects ranging from a few hours to several months, based on program need and funding. The base term is 12 months, with extensions allowed up to a 5-year maximum aggregate term, and the State may make one or more awards. Work is issued on an as-needed basis, with no spending guarantee. The upside signal is scale plus breadth. The RFP notes that prior contracts were used by 30+ agencies (including Tourism and the Lottery), and that total marketing services spend from 2022–2025 was $185 million. The scope spans integrated planning, traditional and digital media (including streaming/video, audio, and influencer), creative and production, email/CRM support, PR including crisis communications, events, and research—plus website development/maintenance with WCAG 2.2 Level AA accessibility and WordPress or site-builder backend access, with deliverables treated as work for hire. Best suited for agencies with public-sector process, measurable reporting, and accessible, multicultural-ready delivery (including translation when required). Proposal deadline: March 25, 2026, at 3:00 PM Arizona Time Download the full RFP here.
CMO Moves – Week of February 16, 2026
Highlights Ariel Kelman named President & CMO at AMD AMD builds high-performance computing and AI solutions for data centers, embedded systems, PCs, and gaming. Kelman steps in as AMD expands its portfolio and aims to accelerate momentum in high-performance and AI markets. He’ll oversee brand, communications, events, developer relations, and go-to-market strategy to sharpen storytelling and deepen engagement across the technology ecosystem. Agency lens: This rol… Get Unlimited NextBigWin Access Subscribe to become a NextBigWin Pro member and get access to all our exclusive content. Turn access and intelligence into your next big client win. Already a member? Login Subscribe to NextBigWin Pro
OpenAI Marketing Signals as Adoption Shifts to Brand Building
At a Glance Interviewee: Kate Rouch, Chief Marketing Officer Company: OpenAI Estimated Revenue: $20B+ annualized revenue for 2025 (reported) Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA Website: Openai.com Industry: AI research and deployment Company Notes: Marketing is shifting from viral growth to planned brand building Best-Fit Agencies: Brand strategy, integrated creative, media planning and buying, performance growth, PR and corporate affairs, developer marketing Source: Breaki… Get Unlimited NextBigWin Access Subscribe to become a NextBigWin Pro member and get access to all our exclusive content. Turn access and intelligence into your next big client win. Already a member? Login Subscribe to NextBigWin Pro
BNI Global’s Digital Modernization Agenda Takes Shape
An analysis of the executive conversation and our research, surfacing the priorities and opportunity lanes agencies can leverage to win new business. At a Glance Interviewee: Heather McLeod, Chief Marketing Officer Company: BNI Global Location: Charlotte, NC Website: https://www.bni.com Industry: Referral networking and business community, franchise-led model Company Notes: Global member network with weekly chapter meetings and a structured referral process Best-Fit Agencie… Get Unlimited NextBigWin Access Subscribe to become a NextBigWin Pro member and get access to all our exclusive content. Turn access and intelligence into your next big client win. Already a member? Login Subscribe to NextBigWin Pro
Heather McLeod’s Practical Leadership Lens on Growth and Impact
Executive: Heather McLeodCompany: BNI GlobalIndustry: Referral networking organization (franchise model)Company Snapshot: A global membership organization built around structured, relationship-driven referralsFormat: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Heather McLeod built her career in franchising by staying close to the people who run the business in the real world. Now she brings that same mindset to BNI, the world’s largest referral networking organization. Her journey is worth studying because she keeps marketing simple: find what drives revenue, then remove friction. For agencies, she’s unusually clear about what earns trust—and what gets ignored. Their Path, in Short After undergrad, McLeod struggled to land a marketing job in a saturated market. So she went back to school for an MBA. She later interviewed at The Dwyer Group (now Neighborly), a franchise home services organization, and said the fit felt right because she loved the people she met. That “people first” instinct became a pattern. “I’m a big believer that iron sharpens iron,” she said, explaining that she seeks leaders who make her stronger. Her first role in that world was as marketing manager for Rainbow International, a water, fire, mold, and smoke restoration business. She said she knew nothing about the category, so she immersed herself—spending time with franchise owners and letting them teach her what they needed and what would “move the needle.” She later moved to Mr. Rooter and worked for Mary Thompson, who would later become CEO of BNI. McLeod pointed out how relationships compound: the people you learn from early can reappear later, in bigger roles, when the stakes are higher. Over time, her definition of marketing expanded. She said she thinks broadly about what belongs in the “marketing bucket,” always asking: what are the revenue drivers, and how do we maximize impact there? In franchising, she explained, marketing is a major lever. Another lever is locations—helping existing locations market more effectively and putting more dots on the map through franchise sales. That mindset expanded her scope beyond traditional marketing. Big Themes From the Conversation McLeod’s energy comes from operators. She said spending time with franchise owners and master franchisees motivates her to do great work on their behalf. She also respects how complex multi-location really is. In her world, there are different owners in every market, different contact information, and a constant need for localization—“everything has to be able to be localized,” she said. Finally, she keeps coming back to scale. Franchise budgets, she explained, aren’t built like corporate-owned budgets because the corporate office is collecting a percentage fee to provide support. That’s why she needs solutions that scale, and why she often prefers approaches where “tech is doing the work and not people man hours.” Watch CMO Journeys Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked McLeod what she looks for in an agency partner, she started with a practical advantage: shorten the ramp. She likes partners who have worked in the industry because it reduces how much she has to teach. She’s happy to educate on brand. She wants industry best practices coming from the agency side. But she quickly clarified that “industry experience” is really about multi-location understanding. It doesn’t have to be the exact same niche, she said. What matters is knowing how to localize at scale and solve for complexity without costs going “through the roof.” In her world, that often means tech-enabled solutions that don’t rely on endless manual hours. Then she talked about delivery. She values agencies that deliver on what they commit to, and she prefers “over-delivering and under-promising versus the opposite.” She also noted a common frustration: the sales process can set one expectation, and the shift to account management can feel different. And she cares about chemistry. She wants partners she trusts and enjoys working with. On getting noticed, she didn’t mince words: stop with the really long LinkedIn messages. The kind that makes you scroll. “I can’t stand it,” she said. The bigger issue is timing. Most of the time, she doesn’t want to talk until she’s actively solving a problem. She gave a concrete example from her own work: she needed a website tool that could help users translate and move across multiple languages because she supports many countries. So she started hunting, checked what G2 said, researched options, and then booked calls. That’s why cold outreach usually doesn’t work on her. The exception, she said, can be face-to-face at events. And referrals matter. She leans on peers to ask, “Have you used a great agency in this space?” She uses those recommendations to validate options and shortcut decisions. She told one story that captured it. She worked with a social agency out of New York to help her show up more on LinkedIn. She wanted to post more, but she didn’t feel like anyone cared what she had to say. The agency helped her “get my feet under me” and find her voice. Later, someone at BNI noticed her LinkedIn and asked how to do something similar. When McLeod reached out, the agency founder replied with a twist: he was already in a BNI chapter in New York. McLeod loved that because he “got it.” What Stood Out McLeod is warm about the people she serves and blunt about what wastes time. One line captured her compass: “I want people who I can trust. I want people who I know are going to deliver on the things that they say.” It’s simple, human, and consistent with everything else she described. Inside Scoop This article focuses on the journey, the leadership philosophy, and how this CMO works with agency partners. To access the exclusive analysis, including priorities, initiatives, and opportunities, become a Next Big Win Pro member.
M&A Signals – Deals Announced Through February 11, 2026
Highlights Eli Lilly acquired Orna Therapeutics — Deal value: $2.4B Eli Lilly is a pharmaceutical company. Orna Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on engineering immune cells in vivo. Lilly said the deal gives it a broad platform for long-term innovation in genetic medicine and in vivo cell engineering. It matters because the rationale is platform-led: the acquisition is positioned as a foundation for new therapeutic approaches, not just a single… Get Unlimited NextBigWin Access Subscribe to become a NextBigWin Pro member and get access to all our exclusive content. Turn access and intelligence into your next big client win. Already a member? Login Subscribe to NextBigWin Pro
The Best Time to Reach a CMO Is When Nobody Else Is Paying Attention
The Signal A new Chief Marketing Officer just joined a company you’ve never heard of. Maybe 500 employees, maybe 2,000. The LinkedIn announcement gets 47 likes. No press release. While everyone’s watching the splashy hire at Nike, you just scrolled past one of the strongest new business signals in your feed. Why It Matters Here’s what most people miss: there are 20-40 new CMO appointments every week at companies with 200+ employees. Not the big names, but mid-market companies actually building marketing departments, launching rebrands, replacing websites, and hiring agencies to do it. At major companies, 22% of marketing leaders have been in their role for one year or less. And 74% of marketing chiefs are first-time CMOs. These leaders are coming in with something to prove. They need quick wins. They’re assessing everything, including agency relationships, in their first 100 days. Research shows agency reviews typically happen six to nine months in as they “mark the start of a new era.” This isn’t just happening at companies everyone’s watching. It’s happening constantly in the middle market, where budgets are real but competition for attention is lower. The Mistake Most Teams Make They chase logos. When a new CMO lands at a brand they recognize, everyone piles on with the same message: “Congrats on the new role! We’d love to show you what we do.” Meanwhile, 30 other CMOs started the same week at companies you didn’t notice. The mistake isn’t just ignoring these opportunities. It’s not having a system to see them. Most teams rely on personal networks, referrals, and inbound. They’re not systematically tracking leadership changes because they don’t think of it as a signal. The Smarter Move Treat CMO moves at mid-market companies as a tier-one signal. This signal is different because it predicts action. You’re not interrupting business as usual. You’re entering during a natural assessment window. Reaching out in months 2-3 means you’re part of the evaluation, not fighting an incumbent. You’re there while they’re forming opinions, not after they’ve committed budget. But you need context, not just a name. When you know where they came from, what the company does, and what they’ve said publicly about their priorities, you can reach out with relevance. Not: “Congrats on the new role!” But: “I saw in your recent interview you mentioned building performance marketing infrastructure in mid-market B2B. We’ve worked with three companies in similar positions. Would it be useful to share what we’re seeing?” How to Operationalize It Track the signal systematically. Monitor CMO appointments at companies matching your ICP weekly, not randomly. There are tools built specifically for this. Platforms like NextBigWin Pro track executive moves at scale and filter by company size, industry, and role, so you’re not manually hunting LinkedIn every week. Layer in additional signals, such as a CMO move, funding, plus job postings, and it is a pattern, not a coincidence. Build context before you reach out. Spend time understanding their background, recent interviews, and what they’re inheriting. Time it intentionally. Not week one when they’re drinking from a firehose. Months 2-3 are the window. They’ve oriented, they’re assessing, and they haven’t locked in their roster. Offer perspective, not pitches. Share what other CMOs prioritized, mistakes you’ve seen, questions worth asking. While others chase announcements, there’s a massive middle market full of companies making real marketing investments, hiring leaders who need to prove themselves, and operating without entrenched agency relationships. They move faster, have fewer stakeholders, and are more willing to try something new.
Funding Signals – Activity Through February 10, 2026
Highlights Cerebras Systems raised $1B (Series H) led by Tiger Global Cerebras builds wafer-scale AI chips and systems for training and running large models. The company says the financing strengthens its balance sheet as the AI compute market expands and customers seek more high-performance options for training and inference. Agency lens: Expect emphasis on enterprise credibility—PR, clear positioning vs. GPU stacks, and partner co-marketing to reach large b… Get Unlimited NextBigWin Access Subscribe to become a NextBigWin Pro member and get access to all our exclusive content. Turn access and intelligence into your next big client win. Already a member? Login Subscribe to NextBigWin Pro
CMO Moves – Week of February 9, 2026
Highlights Marissa Fox-Foley named CMO at Sanctuary Wealth Sanctuary Wealth is a partnership platform for independent registered investment advisors (RIAs), operating as a hybrid RIA with partner firms across the U.S. Fox-Foley joins as Chief Marketing Officer to lead the enterprise marketing strategy and organization. The company says her mandate includes elevating corporate marketing capabilities and bringing scalable marketing strategies to partner firms, with em… Get Unlimited NextBigWin Access Subscribe to become a NextBigWin Pro member and get access to all our exclusive content. Turn access and intelligence into your next big client win. Already a member? Login Subscribe to NextBigWin Pro