Esi Eggleston Bracey on Leadership, Change, and Doing You
Executive: Esi Eggleston Bracey, Former CMO Company: Unilever Industry: Consumer Goods Company Snapshot: Global consumer brands company Format: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Esi Eggleston Bracey did not set out to become a marketer. She thought she was headed toward a very different future. But once she found brand building, she found the thing that matched how her mind works: solve problems, understand people, create value. That is what makes her journey worth studying. It is not just a story about rising through big companies. It is a story about trusting your own instincts, growing through discomfort, and staying human while leading at scale. For agencies, her view is especially useful because she is clear about where outside partners matter most. That is also why her perspective will resonate well beyond this conversation, including at POSSIBLE, where she will help lead a broader industry discussion about where marketing and agency value go next. Their Path, in Short Esi grew up in Chicago and describes herself as a kid who loved numbers. Math was her favorite subject. She was curious, active, and, in her words, precocious. Her mother was a lawyer and civil rights activist. Her father was a math teacher. Marketing was not on her radar. She calls herself an “accidental executive,” and that feels like the right place to start. She did not map out a career in business or brand management. What pulled her in was something simpler: she loved solving problems, and she loved people. Once she started at Procter & Gamble, the fit clicked. She realized marketing let her connect insight, creativity, and business in one place. Some of her earliest lessons came from small moments that turned into big ones. As a young brand assistant on Comet Cleanser, she looked at the tear tape on the package and saw more than packaging. She asked whether it could help build awareness for a new product. It could. That simple idea became a major driver of awareness. For her, it was an early lesson in what happens when focus, creativity, and analysis meet. That pattern kept showing up. She talked about helping develop Febreze by connecting a real human tension to a business need. She talked about CoverGirl and listening to people who did not feel seen by narrow beauty standards. Across those stories, her approach stayed the same: understand what people need, then build something that answers it in a way that helps the business grow. Her career also stretched her personally. Moving to Geneva while expecting her second child was one of those moments. Leaving the culture of P&G and stepping into new environments was another. She does not tell those stories like they were easy. She tells them as moments of uncertainty. Then she tells you what she did next: she jumped in. Big Themes From the Conversation The biggest theme in her story is growth through challenge. Esi said every challenge is an opportunity for growth. That is not just a leadership line for her. It is how she has moved through both professional and personal change. Scary moments, in her telling, often became the most transformative ones. Another theme is individuality. Early in her career, she realized she had been trying to conform. She thought success meant studying the environment and matching what she saw. Over time, she learned the opposite. One of her clearest principles is, “Do you. It’s your superpower.” She says it simply, but it carries weight because it came from experience. She also talks about energy in a way that feels practical and personal. She said she manages energy, not just time. Time is limited. Energy can be renewed. That tells you a lot about how she thinks. She is not interested only in output. She is interested in what allows people to keep growing, leading, and showing up fully. And throughout the conversation, she keeps coming back to people. Not just consumers in a narrow sense, but whole people with tensions, needs, and desires. Even when she talks about building brands, she talks about helping people first. That is part of what makes her leadership style feel warm instead of abstract. Watch CMO Journeys Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked her how she thinks about agencies, she started by zooming out. The fundamentals of brand building, she said, have not changed. You still have to understand people, create desire, and turn that desire into commerce through reach, engagement, and conversion. What has changed is the ecosystem around that work: the tools, the channels, the speed, the expectations. That matters because it shapes how she sees agency value. In her experience, the most irreplaceable thing agencies bring is ideas and creativity. Not just campaigns. Not just ads. Ideas that can travel. Ideas that connect to culture. Ideas strong enough to live across different voices and formats. That is where she sees real outside value. She was equally clear about what marketers need to own. In her view, the marketer has to be the integrator. The ecosystem is too complex to outsource the full picture. Data, commerce, media, innovation, and creative thinking all have to connect, and the brand owner has to hold that together. Agencies can support that work with media strategy, planning, execution, insights, and intelligence. But support is different from ownership. That is also why she pushes back on the simple idea that AI means cutting agency spend. She does believe there is waste in the system. She does believe productivity should improve. But she separates that from the bigger question. The better question, she says, is this: what creates irreplaceable value for growth, and who is best equipped to deliver it? That is her standard. Agencies that stand out are the ones that challenge the status quo, bring breakthrough ideas, and help translate those ideas into productive growth. The roles may evolve. The need for value does not. What Stood Out What stayed with me most
What Eric Gillin Learned by Following the Biggest Problem
Executive: Eric Gillin, Chief Brand Officer Company: Trusted Media Brands Industry: Community-driven entertainment across streaming, social, web, and print Company Snapshot: Trusted Media Brands is behind names like Reader’s Digest, Taste of Home, and Family Handyman, reaching hundreds of millions through streaming, social, web, and print. Format: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Eric Gillin didn’t chase a straight line. He chased the biggest problem in the room—first in content, then in product, then in revenue. Now, as Chief Brand Officer at Trusted Media Brands, he’s connecting content, product, and distribution while pushing what he calls a “pivot back to brand.” For agencies, his viewpoint is useful because he’s worked in editorial, product, and ad sales—so he’s seen what actually moves work forward. And he’s allergic to shortcuts. Their Path, in Short Gillin breaks his career into three chapters. The first was as a writer and editor. He came out of college wanting to write, got pulled into the first dot-com wave, and went to TheStreet.com as a reporter. With no CMS, he learned HTML and “hand hack[ed] all the content.” He launched websites out of his living room, worked at Maxim, and later served as a digital director at Esquire and Hearst. In that chapter, he learned how to create, edit, and build the tools that help content work in a digital world. The second chapter was product. He went to Condé Nast and asked to work on product for Epicurious. That move blended his content instincts with product thinking and pushed him into a general manager mode—focused on how to run the machine behind the stories. The third chapter was sales. He moved into running sales for a group he’d been part of, then became head of U.S. ad sales at Condé Nast across brands and categories. He didn’t predict that path. But he says it fits his pattern: “I was always sort of going to where the biggest problem was.” Media kept changing, so he kept learning new languages. Big Themes From the Conversation Gillin’s engine is curiosity, but not the flashy kind. Early on, he watched friends get bylines and feel thrilled. He had bylines too, yet he realized he wasn’t “mega interested in being the center of attention.” What excited him was building: launching a site, hosting it, figuring out how systems work. “It felt good to build things,” he says—and that became the pull. He also carries a simple standard from his dad: “No one can take away the work.” Put in the time. Learn the craft. Gillin translates that into a warning against hacks: there are “no shortcuts.” The “cheat code” fades, so you have to come by the work honestly, start with the user, do something special, and then “insist on consistency.” That same steadiness shows up in his leadership style. He calls himself “jargon-free” and “drama-free,” and tells new teams, “I’m not a table flipper.” In a crisis, he leans on what he calls “service management”: “I work for my team. My team does not work for me.” If emotion creeps in, he takes a walk, takes a break, and returns to examine the problem clearly. And he’s blunt about uncertainty. Leading through the pandemic came with “no playbook.” AI brings the same feeling. In his words: “You just can’t depend on the past to get to the future.” Watch CMO Journyes Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked what cuts through when an agency or vendor reaches out, Gillin didn’t lead with credentials. He led with humanity. “Great ideas and brands cut through,” he says. Even with all the talk about measurement, he comes back to a simple belief: “We’re all human. And I think you know a good idea when you see it.” He also meets agencies where the pressure is real. He describes a world where “the math no longer mats out,” where “reach and frequency is broken down,” and where marketing decisions can shrink into spreadsheets. He doesn’t deny the math. He just doesn’t want it to be the whole conversation. So instead of starting with a CPM or KPI, he prefers to start with the audience. “Let’s talk about who you’re trying to reach,” he says, and how you want to reach them—through emotional connection, not just optimization. Otherwise, he warns, you may “get anything other than a spreadsheet back” that you feel good about buying, without changing anything meaningful. He’s quick to spot copy-and-paste thinking, too. He says he often slows work down with questions like, “Why are we doing this? Why are we doing it this way?” Sometimes it’s not a hard no—more like a “speed bump in the parking lot.” But the point is to challenge the comfort of “we always did it this way,” because “what worked yesterday won’t work today.” And if you listen closely, there’s a consistent thread in what he respects: honest work, clear thinking, and ideas that don’t depend on a temporary trick. He’s seen trends come and go. So the agencies that stand out aren’t the loudest. They’re the ones bringing a grounded idea that’s actually built for real people—and then showing they can deliver it with consistency. What Stood Out The most revealing moment wasn’t a framework. It was a cookie exchange. Gillin described a Taste of Home event in Cleveland that “sold out in six minutes.” Three hundred people showed up with cookies to swap, and he laughed at the sheer volume. Then he talked about a “peach cookie,” a Midwestern specialty he’d never seen—made to look like a peach and tasting “just like peaches.” He called it “mind-blowing.” It’s a small story, but it captures his whole approach. He’s chasing the human element: real people, real places, and moments that feel true. 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 NextBigWin Pro member.
M&A Signals – Deals Announced Through April 8, 2026
Highlights Mercury acquired Central Mercury is a banking platform built for startups. Central is an AI-native payroll and benefits platform that handles payroll, benefits, PTO, HR administration, and state compliance for founders. Mercury said payroll was a major gap in its financial operations coverage. That makes this a clear platform-expansion move, with Mercury pulling another core workflow into its own system instead of leaving it as a connected tool. Agency le… 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
Funding Signals – Activity Through April 7, 2026
Highlights Saronic raised $1.75B (Series D) led by Kleiner Perkins Saronic builds autonomous ships and maritime systems for defense and commercial use. The new funding is meant to scale its autonomy-first shipbuilding model and expand production capacity in Louisiana and Texas. It also supports broader development and scaled production across its autonomous vessel portfolio as customer demand grows for greater range, endurance, and payload capacity. Agency lens: Thi… 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
CMOs Aren’t Stuck on Strategy. They’re Stuck on Decisions.
The Problem CMOs aren’t confused about what marketing should do. They’re stuck on something harder: what to decide right now, with incomplete information and real pressure to move. That’s a different problem — and if you’re an agency showing up with answers to the first question, you’re missing the conversation entirely. The Signal Across my interviews with CMOs, three decisions kept surfacing unprompted. Not as strategic debates, but as live, unresolved friction. Build vs. Partner CMOs with lean teams and PE-backed urgency aren’t asking whether to use agencies. They’re asking what to protect internally versus what to hand off without losing the muscle. The word that came up again and again: speed. Not quality. Not cost. Speed. An agency that can’t articulate how it accelerates results — not just delivers them — is invisible in this conversation. Bets by Market This one is more complex than “localize the creative.” CMOs are trying to figure out how to build an organization that absorbs market-by-market variability without constantly reinventing itself. For a fantasy sports app, variability is compliance-driven — state by state. For a global consumer social platform, it’s safety and culture. The mechanics are different, but the underlying question is the same: do we build one scalable play or multiple? And how do we stay coherent while doing it? AI Meaning Here’s where it gets interesting. CMOs aren’t just choosing tools. They’re deciding what AI is for their company — a productivity layer, a strategic bet, a channel disruptor, or a trust liability. A security company selling deepfake detection sees AI as a category definition problem. A media brand sees it reshaping the traffic economics they’ve relied on for years. When a client says “we want to use AI,” that sentence contains almost no information. The real question underneath it is the one worth asking. Why It Matters These three decisions share a common structure: the CMO knows something has to happen, doesn’t have complete information, and still has to move. That’s not a strategy problem. That’s a decision-under-uncertainty problem. And it changes what an agency should be offering. The Mistake Most Teams Make Walking in with solutions before understanding which decision the client is actually stuck on. Most agencies pitch to the stated problem. But the stated problem is almost never the real one. “We need a new campaign” often means “I’m under pressure to show results and I don’t know which channel to bet on.” “We want to use AI” often means “I need to look ahead without breaking what’s working.” Pitching to the surface locks you into a vendor position. Engaging with the underlying decision is how you get a seat at the table. The Smarter Move Before your next new business or renewal conversation, identify which of these three decisions your client is actually sitting in. Then ask what’s making it hard to decide, not what they need delivered. That question alone will separate you from most agencies in the room. Most are waiting for a brief. You’re showing up as someone who helps them decide. How to Use This The next time a client mentions speed pressure, market complexity, or AI uncertainty, resist the move to solutions. Ask what decision they’re stuck on, and stay there longer than feels comfortable. Signals aren’t permission to pitch. They’re guidance on how to show up with something worth hearing. These patterns come from ongoing CMO and brand leader conversations we share each month with NextBigWin Pro members. If you’d like access to the full briefings, you can learn more here.
Radar Report #005 – Week of April 6, 2026
7 Accounts Showing Buying Signals Each week, the Radar Report highlights companies showing signals of potential marketing investment. These moments often lead organizations to reassess agency relationships and growth initiatives. For agencies looking for new business opportunities, Radar Report surfaces companies likely preparing to invest in marketing and brand. 7. Cents Cents’ $140 million Series C signals a company moving from category traction into scaled market expansion across software, payments, hardware, and customer experience. Trigger Cents raised $140 million in a Series C led by Sumeru Equity Partners. The company said the funding will support AI product development, customer experience investment, product expansion, distributor and operator partnerships, and new payments infrastructure. Why This Matters This looks like a scale-up moment. The company is investing across product, support, partnerships, and infrastructure at the same time, which usually signals a push to widen category leadership and accelerate adoption in a fragmented SMB market. That often creates pressure to sharpen positioning, prove category authority, and support more complex go-to-market execution. Agency Opportunity Category positioning Product marketing Partner marketing Customer lifecycle marketing Corporate communications Smart Outreach Angle Lead with ideas for turning category leadership into a stronger growth narrative across operators, partners, and investors as Cents expands beyond core platform adoption. Company Context Cents provides software, hardware, and payments tools for laundromats, dry cleaners, and related laundry operators. It serves an essential but historically under-digitized SMB category. 6. University of Maryland Global Campus University of Maryland Global Campus’ external CMO hire points to a likely push to sharpen brand strategy, enrollment marketing, and communications across a large higher education institution. Trigger University of Maryland Global Campus appointed Daron Rodriguez as SVP and Chief Marketing and Enrollment Officer. He joined externally. Why This Matters External senior marketing and enrollment hires often signal a willingness to rethink how brand, student acquisition, and communications work together. In higher education, that can point to increased focus on market positioning, enrollment growth, and message clarity across a broad audience base. Agency Opportunity Brand positioning Enrollment marketing Audience segmentation Creative and messaging strategy Corporate communications Smart Outreach Angle Lead with a perspective on how a large higher education brand can connect enrollment growth, audience targeting, and message clarity without creating disconnected campaigns across programs and audiences. Company Context University of Maryland Global Campus operates in higher education. Its scale suggests meaningful complexity across brand, enrollment, and communications efforts.
Global Website Platform Rebuild (Private Introduction)
We are supporting a selective introduction between the Chief Marketing Officer of a global organization and a small number of agencies with experience building large-scale, multi-region digital platforms. Our role is to identify and introduce a limited number of highly relevant partners based on fit, experience, and alignment with the scope. What We Can Share (At a High Level) The organization operates globally across 70+ countries and 12,000+ local entities The business fo… 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
Ocean County Multi-Media Advertising Opportunity With Countywide Department Support
At a Glance Buyer: County of Ocean Industry: Public sector/county government Location/markets: Ocean County, New Jersey; campaign targeting based on geographic reach and audience demographics Primary scope: Multi-media advertising platforms for website, mobile, outdoor, digital, streaming, radio, television, billboard, and social media placements Key deliverables/channels: Media planning and placement, campaign flight schedules, targeting strategy, performance reporting, geo… 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
North Carolina Department of Public Safety Invites Marketing Agency Partners for Multi-Channel Support
At a Glance Buyer: North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) Industry: Public sector/public safety Location/markets: North Carolina Primary scope: Prequalification for marketing, advertising, and public relations services on an as-needed basis Key deliverables/channels: Market research, creative services, print, billboards, websites, social media, video, audio, script writing, account management, reporting, advertising, SEO, media buying, print production, copywriting… 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
Pinellas County Seeks Destination Public Relations Partner With Multi-Year Agency Upside
At a Glance Buyer: Pinellas County/Visit St. Pete-Clearwater Industry: Destination marketing and tourism Location/markets: Pinellas County, Florida; United States and Canada Primary scope: Domestic public relations services for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater Key deliverables/channels: Media relations, press releases, trend stories, influencer strategy, crisis communications, media visits, market missions, social media support, CRM tracking, monthly and annual reporting Budget: No… 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