Oregon Health Authority Launches $10M Strategic Communications Search for Statewide Outreach
At a Glance Buyer: Oregon Health Authority, Public Health Division, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Section Industry: Public health Location/markets: Oregon statewide Primary scope: Strategic communications and social marketing services to prevent and reduce excessive alcohol use and related harms Key deliverables/channels: Audience and message research, creative development and testing, advertising purchase and placement, social media strategy and maintenance, website strategy and maintenance, community engagement, campaign monitoring and evaluation, training and technical assistance, public relations Budget: Estimated not-to-exceed $500,000 for the first year; estimated total five-year not-to-exceed amount of $10M, subject to future budget approvals Contract type/term: One contract anticipated; initial term through June 30, 2031, with options to amend for additional related work and funding up to a cumulative maximum of seven years Key dates: Proposal deadline April 30, 2026, at 3:00 PM PT; optional Round 2 interviews June 5, 2026; notice of intent to award approximately June 10, 2026 Eligibility/must-haves: At least one key person with health communications, public health social marketing, and community co-creation experience; at least one senior management key person with experience working with culturally specific communities; no direct or indirect relationship with tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis industries Why This Could Be Interesting The Oregon Health Authority is hiring for a statewide strategic communications and social marketing engagement tied to one of its highest-priority public health issues: reducing excessive alcohol use and related harms. In plain English, this is a broad public-sector communications brief. The selected partner would help manage brand strategy, research, campaign development, paid media, social, website work, community engagement, reporting, technical assistance, and public relations for Rethink the Drink and related prevention efforts. What makes this notable is the combination of scale, term length, and breadth. This is not a narrow creative project. It is a multi-year operating role inside a statewide public health initiative, with an estimated first-year ceiling of $500,000 and a projected five-year ceiling of $10M. The scope also signals complexity. The agency will need to work across priority populations, support culturally responsive communications, provide translation and transcreation on request, and collaborate with local public health authorities, community groups, coalitions, and Tribal and Tribal-serving organizations. Best suited for agencies with deep public health or public-sector communications experience, strong multicultural strategy and community engagement chops, and the operational discipline to manage complex stakeholder environments and public funding accountability. Proposal deadline: April 30, 2026, at 3:00 PM PT Download the full RFP here.
The Talent and Process Shifts Shaping Appriss Retail Marketing
At a Glance Interviewee: Sarah Cascone, Chief Marketing Officer Company: Appriss Retail Website: apprissretail.com Industry: B2B retail technology and profit protection software Company Notes: Enterprise platform helping large retailers reduce returns, fraud, and shrink across stores and ecommerce Best-Fit Agencies: B2B SaaS positioning, ABM and lifecycle, retail thought leadership, experiential and field, PR and comms, data storytelling Source: CMO Journeys Interview The… 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
Inside Visa’s Push to Win Trust in AI Commerce
At a Glance Interviewee: Frank Cooper III, Chief Marketing Officer Company: Visa Estimated Revenue: $40B Website: visa.com Industry: Digital payments and commerce infrastructure Company Notes: Visa operates in more than 200 countries and territories and is pushing beyond payments into trust, AI commerce, and merchant intelligence Best-Fit Agencies: Brand strategy, integrated creative, commerce marketing, sponsorship activation, CRM and lifecycle, marketing analytics Source:… 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 April 6, 2026
Highlights Katelyn Zborowski named Chief Marketing Officer at Jack in the Box Jack in the Box is a major quick-service restaurant chain. The appointment comes with a stated focus on driving demand through innovation, delivering profitable value, and bringing “Jack’s Way” to life across the brand. The company also framed the hire as part of a broader push to strengthen the brand and improve how it shows up for guests. Agency lens: Expect continued emphasis on traffi… 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
Josh Churnick’s Eclectic Path to Practical Marketing Leadership
Executive: Josh Churnick, Chief Marketing OfficerCompany: Vertex Service PartnersIndustry: Residential exterior home services (roofing-led, multi-brand platform)Company Snapshot: A platform of regional brands supported by shared servicesFormat: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Josh Churnick didn’t take a straight line into the CMO seat. His path runs through very different worlds, and it shaped a leadership style that’s both creative and deeply practical. He talks about marketing as a craft you can measure—because the customer always tells you what’s working. And for agencies, his viewpoint is refreshingly direct: he’s clear on what earns trust, what breaks it, and what a real partnership actually requires. Their Path, in Short Josh describes his career as “eclectic” until he found the lane that fit. Early on, he wasn’t trying to become a “home services marketing guy.” He was trying to become a better marketer—period—by learning different categories and different ways customers make decisions. One of his earliest chapters forced him to learn the basics in a hands-on way. After high school, he built a digital platform for independent music artists. The idea was simple: give artists a place to create profiles, share show dates, and grow an audience. He partnered with Billboard magazine and worked around performance venues connected to that ecosystem. It wasn’t a neat corporate role with a neat job description. It was the messy kind of work where you learn what people care about because you have to earn attention. From there, he moved through a mix of industries—entertainment, consumer packaged goods, restaurant groups, and insurance—building a broader sense of what makes marketing click. Over time, he noticed he was drawn to roles where the feedback loop was clear. He liked being able to set up tracking, run a campaign, and see the results plainly—“in black and white”—instead of having performance judged by taste or office politics. That preference eventually led him into home services, where response can be direct and attribution can be tight if it’s set up correctly. For Josh, that environment made marketing feel honest. If something works, you see it. If it doesn’t, you see that too. And that’s where his voice as a leader sharpened: do the creative work, yes—but let reality decide. Big Themes From the Conversation Josh sees marketing as the bridge between what a company offers and what a customer needs. When marketing is great, it doesn’t just “look good.” It communicates value in a way a consumer understands and acts on. That’s why he keeps circling back to the balance of art and science. Creative matters. Messaging matters. But he doesn’t treat creative like a mystery that can’t be tested. He talks about trying things, comparing performance, and learning through outcomes. The goal isn’t to win an internal argument about what’s best. The goal is to find what customers respond to. A mentor’s advice helped lock in that mindset: don’t worry about what you like—worry about what works. Josh repeats that because it’s a trap he’s seen again and again. Teams fall in love with their own ideas. They chase the “cool factor.” And then they confuse their preferences with the customer’s reality. He also talks about personal growth in a way that feels honest. Earlier in his career, he admits he cared too much about how “cool” the brand seemed. Over time, that changed. Now he defines success by impact: if marketing helps the business run better, helps the teams downstream perform, and supports the people doing the work, then marketing is doing its job. Even when he touches on technology like AI, he frames it as exactly what it is: a tool. Useful, powerful, worth exploring—but not a replacement for judgment. In his view, marketing still needs people to guide it because marketing is still aimed at people. Watch CMO Journeys Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked Josh what makes an agency relationship work, he didn’t start with awards or big names. He started with behavior—and he didn’t point the finger only at agencies. His philosophy is that agencies are extensions of a marketing team. That means partnership has to be real, not performative. And the first test of “real” is transparency. If an agency is expected to drive leads, then the client has to share what happens to those leads. Without that, the agency is flying blind. Josh’s clearest example is disposition data—what happens after the lead comes in. Did the lead convert? Did it not convert? What were the common reasons? If the client withholds that information, then optimization becomes guesswork. In his view, that’s a fast way to create frustration on both sides: the agency can’t improve what it can’t see, and the client can’t get better results from a partner it refuses to equip. He also has a sharp definition of credibility: outcomes. In home services, he says, attribution can be very clear when tracking is built correctly. That means performance can’t hide behind pretty reporting. Results show up—or they don’t. So when agencies talk about expertise, Josh listens, but he ultimately checks whether the work drives measurable impact. That’s why he’s cautious about “category claims.” Some agencies say they know home services, but when you look closer, their experience is thin or short-lived. Josh doesn’t say agencies can’t learn. He’s saying the learning curve can be expensive if the client becomes the training ground. At the same time, he doesn’t want partners who only know one world. Josh credits his own mixed background with giving him ideas he can apply in new places. He values a partner with range—someone who can bring in outside lessons without losing respect for the category’s realities. But range alone isn’t enough. He’s wary of agencies that feel “all over the place,” because they may not understand the mechanics that matter in a performance-heavy environment. The best partners, in his telling, combine real proof with real curiosity: they show they understand the category, and they show they’re still
How Sarah Cascone Leads With Clarity Under Pressure
Executive: Sarah Cascone, Chief Marketing OfficerCompany: Appriss RetailIndustry: Retail technology (returns, fraud, profit protection)Company Snapshot: Helps large retailers reduce fraud, manage returns, and protect profit across in-store and online channels.Format: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Sarah Cascone didn’t plan on a marketing career—and that’s why her perspective feels grounded. She learned marketing through live rooms and real conversations, then carried those lessons into SaaS and enterprise retail tech. Now, as the first CMO at Appriss Retail, she’s clear about what earns trust and what wastes time—especially with agencies. Their Path, in Short Sarah grew up in Brooklyn and studied psychology in college. She once thought she’d become a criminal psychologist, but chose a different path because that work felt too depressing day to day. Instead, she poured herself into events and conferences. At Worldwide Business Research, she learned how to plan and execute a conference from the ground up—connecting messaging, experience, and audience. Then she moved into SaaS and joined Bluecore in its early days. Over time, she expanded her scope from events into PR, content, design, demand gen, and product marketing—until she was running the full marketing function. That shift was defining: marketing couldn’t be separate activities. It had to operate as one engine, embedded with sales and customer success, with shared goals and accountability. Now she’s applying those lessons at Appriss Retail in a more complex enterprise context. Big Themes From the Conversation Sarah has a simple belief about speed: “Speed forces clarity.” Under revenue pressure, she said, you don’t have time for confusion or “politeness theater.” Direct communication becomes an efficiency strategy—clear feedback, tough conversations, fast decisions. Her events background still shapes her filter for what works. Events taught her pattern recognition—what lands, what doesn’t, and why. But they also anchored her in something more basic: everyone is selling to a human being. Being memorable, real, and trustworthy isn’t extra. It’s the foundation. And she uses a blunt test: if your message doesn’t work in a live conversation, it won’t work in a campaign. She’s also decisive about “no.” She pushes back on brand-versus-demand debates because she sees them as a false binary. She says no to work that doesn’t move pipeline, accelerate it, or expand it—and she says no to shiny objects without a clear business case. Watch CMO Journeys Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked Sarah what gets her attention from an agency, she didn’t talk about a portfolio. She talked about a point of view. She wants agencies to lead with perspective and evidence that they understand her business model. She said she gets too many pitches built for SMB or mid-market motions, even though she operates in enterprise. That tells her the agency didn’t do the work—and it signals a lack of respect for her time. That same respect-for-time lens shapes who should be approached first. Sarah’s view: It depends on the size of the problem and how tactical it is. If an agency is pitching something that clearly sits with someone else on her team, going straight to the CMO can feel misaligned. But if the problem is truly significant, then it makes sense to reach higher. Match your ask to the scale of impact. What separates great partners from the ones that struggle? Sarah said great agencies become an extension of her team—comfortable embedding not only with marketing, but with the broader org, and even working across leaders like the CRO and CPO. They understand strategy deeply, and the work reflects it. Most importantly, they reduce her cognitive load. They don’t create more decisions. They remove them. She described her marketing team as two pillars: product marketing, which tells the story in market (including content and thought leadership), and growth marketing, which distributes it (including outbound and events). And then there’s her favorite way to build credibility: executive conversation. Sarah described creating owned community moments for VPs and above—behind-closed-door strategy discussions that include customers and prospects, plus subject matter experts outside her company. The goal is to keep a real conversation going between major industry events, so the next step isn’t always “take a sales meeting.” It’s: add value without obligation, and earn the right to go deeper. She also chooses partners with intent. She works with a content agency, StoryArb, because they’re strong at editorial, subject-matter-expert-driven playbooks and newsletters—“the kind of content people actually want to read.” She also works with a retail-focused PR agency to extend the story through press releases, bylines, commentary, awards, and interviews. Agencies can learn from her community approach. Curated roundtables can build trust in a way cold outreach often can’t. That’s also why Next Big Win runs an Executive Access Program—executive roundtables designed to help agencies and partners build relationships with senior leaders through candid, small-group conversations. Learn more here. What Stood Out Sarah’s mix of intensity and self-awareness is striking. She talked about what it feels like to “shoulder an entire function,” and how that requires a personal operating rhythm that’s sustainable. She also named a hard unlearning: assuming she knows better than the person in front of her. That openness—paired with her speed—is a rare combination, and it says a lot about how she leads. 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 1, 2026
Highlights SAP acquired Reltio SAP is a large enterprise software company building around business data and AI. Reltio is a master data management software company focused on helping organizations unify and govern data across systems. SAP said the deal strengthens SAP Business Data Cloud and supports its AI-First and Suite-First strategy. The bigger signal is SAP’s push to make cleaner, interoperable SAP and non-SAP data the base layer for enterprise-wide agentic AI… 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 March 31, 2026
Highlights Qualified Health raised $125 million (Series B) led by NEA Qualified Health builds a secure enterprise AI platform for health systems. The funding will help the company deploy and scale AI across whole healthcare organizations, not just isolated pilots. That matters because health systems are under pressure to improve operations while managing rising labor costs, tighter reimbursement, and more complex care delivery. Agency lens: This points to likely nee… 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
Radar Report #004 – Week of March 30, 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. Acoustic Acoustic hired an external CMO with deep B2B growth, demand, and marketing operations experience, suggesting a stronger push toward pipeline efficiency and go-to-market discipline. Trigger Acoustic appointed Alexi Hatch as Chief Marketing Officer on March 1, 2026. She joined from Quantum Metric, where she led global growth marketing across campaigns, digital, web, marketing operations, analytics, SDR, and field marketing. Why This Matters An external CMO hire at a mid-sized software company often signals a need to sharpen growth execution and improve marketing’s contribution to revenue. Hatch’s background points to likely priorities around enterprise demand generation, funnel conversion, attribution, GTM planning, and tighter alignment across marketing, sales, and product. Agency Opportunity Enterprise demand generation Product marketing ABM strategy Marketing operations Funnel measurement and attribution Smart Outreach Angle Lead with ideas that connect messaging, demand programs, and performance visibility. A smart angle is helping Acoustic tighten enterprise GTM execution while improving conversion and proving marketing impact more clearly. Company Context Acoustic is a software company operating in a competitive B2B category where growth depends on clear positioning, efficient demand creation, and strong alignment between marketing and revenue teams. 6. Four Seasons Heating Four Seasons brought in an external CMO with direct-response and home-services-adjacent marketing experience, signaling a likely push to accelerate customer acquisition and brand scale. Trigger Four Seasons appointed Cameron Koslow as Chief Marketing Officer on February 1, 2026. He joined from Empire Today, where he spent more than a decade in progressively larger marketing roles, most recently as Vice President of Marketing. Why This Matters An external CMO hire at a large consumer services company usually points to a sharpened growth agenda. Koslow’s background suggests strength in measurable multichannel marketing, brand awareness, market research, and sales-aligned marketing operations, which fits a business likely focused on lead generation, local market penetration, and conversion efficiency. Agency Opportunity Lead generation strategy Local market media planning Brand positioning Conversion-focused creative Marketing analytics and attribution Smart Outreach Angle Lead with ideas that connect brand visibility to booked jobs. A smart angle is how to improve lead quality and conversion across seasonal demand spikes, local media, and service-line expansion without sacrificing marketing efficiency. Company Context Four Seasons is a consumer services provider in home comfort and repair, spanning HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services. Its model depends on strong local demand capture, trust, and efficient customer acquisition.
CMO Moves – Week of March 30, 2026
Highlights Mimi Swain named Chief Marketing Officer at Amazon Devices & Services Amazon is a global technology company with a massive consumer footprint. This is a senior marketing seat inside one of its most visible product groups. A move at this level signals fresh oversight across a business with broad brand, product, and go-to-market reach. Agency lens: Large, complex business units like this often put a premium on integrated brand and product marketing lead… 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