Jed Mole, Chief Marketing Officer, Acxiom

What has been your path to power?

 

Wanting to know more about the increasingly important role of data, I joined Acxiom, now part of IPG, as a marketer just over twenty-five years ago.  While I started my career as a Royal Navy officer, my eyesight failed to meet the requirements at the time and I changed to business. Starting out with Ernst & Young, I quickly realised that being good at maths is not a guarantee you’ll like accountancy and so after a year I dove into marketing, joining the fast-growing UK challenger telco that was Mercury Communications. I left Mercury in December 1996 to join Acxiom, just as Mercury was changing, with the parts I worked with becoming part Virgin Media, part of Vodafone today.

 

Moving to Acxiom gave me a chance to move from “client side” to “agency side” as I became account director for our European business with P&G. I worked with other clients, too, most notably Dell, before joining Acxiom’s UK leadership, looking after marketing, sales support and consulting. I focused on marketing as Acxiom acquired, integrated and rebranded Claritas and Consodata before moving back to the client and solutions side across Europe.

 

I returned to marketing around in 2013, first as European marketing director before joining the global marketing team when Acxiom became part of IPG in October 2018. The exciting opportunity to become CMO for Acxiom came in April 2019, which expanded further in June 2020 when I was invited to integrate Acxiom marketing with the marketing functions of IPG sister companies Kinesso and Matterkind.

What impact has the pandemic had on demand from your clients?

It really was sector specific. As you’d expect, travel and entertainment were under enormous pressure to pull back as they had no supply to offer. Conversely, media companies had increased demand to support given the increasing amount of time people were spending in front of screens, especially for brands who were now more top of mind than ever, like grocery and financial services.

 

As we recover, we can see the pent-up demand in the market affecting our clients with some needing to market to get their fair share, whereas some others, for example automotive, depending on the brand, have a lesser need to market because they’re still behind with production. Worthy of note was the urgent demand from major brands at the start of the pandemic, for data-driven support in helping them better understand their customer base, to ensure they made the best provision for those requiring the most support, e.g. those in remote areas to have access to critical goods and services.

Do you get a seat at your clients’ strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get you there?

 

Few relationships are identical and across our client base we have clients who range from wanting execution or product-like solutions, to those who want a true partner. Naturally, it’s the latter where we have more strategic discussions.

 

I’m pleased to say that over the years, I’ve enjoyed strategic relations with clients, even in my marketing role. In terms of growing these relations and discussions, my view is in this increasingly complex world of data-driven everything, I have huge belief that we can make a big difference to our clients; they just need someone they can trust. And so, it’s not about selling, it’s simply about helping and seeing where that takes both parties.

 

What are your key areas of focus for the business in 2022?

 

From a company point of view, we’re continuously evolving our offerings and, more significantly, how they work together to provide a truly integrated solution for clients. From a marketing point of view, we know we have amazing solutions – it’s more about building our trusted brand with more audiences, sharing our stories so that marketers see not just companies they can trust, but people who will make their goals, real outcomes they can count on.

 

How do you apply your leadership skills a) within your own business and b) on behalf of your clients?

 

Personally, I want to be visible and engaging with the business, something that’s been harder due to the pandemic. I don’t want to lead through email, but rather through relationships. In terms of leading my teams, I’m very much about agreeing on a vision, building belief, and letting great people enjoy doing great things. The more you enjoy, the more you can do. For clients, it’s all this but transparency and integrity. We truly believe we can help you and we also believe it doesn’t have to be hard – partnerships eat vendor relationships for breakfast!

What key skills or attributes do you consider have contributed to your success in this role?

 

I’d like to think I am open and approachable. I’m also very collaborative but am happy making decisions. I really believe in the power of teams and the talent of people, that people want to do their best. I was told a story about the fact that gardeners don’t grow a thing, seeds know how do that, not the gardener. My job is to create the environment in which people can flourish and make a difference.

 

How did you develop – and continue to develop – these skills or attributes?

 

My parents, seriously! That’s why I am who I am; they gave me the nature and some great nurture around values. And, all the experiences to date have helped me learn from my mistakes, highlighting blind spots or areas I’m not strong. They’ve also reinforced my strengths and driven me, consciously but I bet also subconsciously at times, to find roles that utilise my strengths. Also, I do love training that challenges me as a person. I believe that people benefit disproportionately from the kind of training or coaching that helps people understand who they really are and how they can be their best.

How do you ensure that your proposition keeps pace with your clients’ goals and requirements so that you are leading rather than lagging behind their demands?

 

Our clients are typically our North Star and every year, we run a series of product advisory and client advisory boards to formalize their input. Of course, we also work with universities, commission research and thought leadership, for example our regular work with the global DMA around attitudes to privacy, the latest of which is ready to launch early this year.

 

We also participate in programs internally such as The Engine+, which is a Dragon’s Den/Shark Tank-like competition to promote and reward innovation across Acxiom, Kinesso and Matterkind. Despite or perhaps more because of the digital revolution, we’re here and have been for over fifty years. We focus on what we’re good at, we listen and explore but try to innovate around what will make the biggest difference to our clients.

 

Jed Mole
has been included in:
  • 100 Enablers 2022 (EMEA)

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