In keeping with The 2025 Sprout Social Index,™ round three-quarters of selling leaders say natural and paid social media advertising are prime priorities for his or her group. However many practitioners are skeptical, as they wrestle to safe the headcount and sources they want.
To be a advertising chief who totally understands social’s potential, you want trusted inspiration and steerage. We’ve curated a listing of 11 advertising leaders charging towards a brand new age of enterprise—one with social positioned firmly on the middle.
Flip to this record while you want a recent perspective on constructing a leading edge advertising plan and actual world examples of social-first technique.
Tulani André, VP of Social, Nationwide Geographic
Tulani André is the Vice President of Social Media at Nationwide Geographic, a model that boasts over 800 million followers on social. Sure, you learn that proper.
Nationwide Geographic is a bonafide powerhouse within the media world. Their first printed difficulty ran over 100 years in the past, and so they’ve continued mixing a ardour for nature and dialog with a deep understanding of their reader base to seize curiosity and encourage motion.
André makes use of her ardour for group constructing to not simply develop Nationwide Geographic’s followers, but additionally inform compelling tales that get their viewers engaged. Whether or not it’s providing recommendation to preserve a nutritious diet or sharing movies concerning the each day lives of snowy owls.
André believes the synergy between Nationwide Geographic’s social content material throughout platforms contributes to their success, and why constructing a loyal, lively group might be extra impactful than follower rely. As she informed Sprout Social’s Cat Anderson in an episode of Social Creatures, “Prime-of-mind relevance is our focus. We’re dedicated to rising engagement and loyalty, and reaching youthful audiences.”
To maintain up with André, observe her on LinkedIn, discover her on stage at a advertising occasion close to you and take heed to her full episode of Social Creatures for extra recommendation on constructing a social-first legacy model.
Leslie Berland, CMO, Verizon
Leslie Berland is the CMO of Verizon, an iconic telecommunications firm incomes a popularity for best-in-class natural engagement on social.
The recipe for Verizon’s success is rooted in daring inventive and taking massive swings, whereas nonetheless folding in relatability and adaptability. They discover moments to take part in (and create) tradition on social, and pave new paths ahead for his or her model.
Underneath Berland’s management, the social group has the area to achieve new inventive heights, whereas leaning into data-driven insights. Her method to social-first advertising helped her earn a 2024 Adweek Advertising and marketing Vanguard Award. She often shares highlights from her group’s newest advertising campaigns on LinkedIn—from IRL occasions to billboard campaigns to influencer partnerships.
Keep related with Berland by following her on the platform and studying her thought management options.
Jo Boundy, CMO, Commonwealth Financial institution
Commonwealth Financial institution CMO Jo Boundy has a background that spans a number of industries, is a repeat South by Southwest Sydney speaker and has agency views on outdated promoting greatest practices. As Boundy stated on social, “What if I informed you manufacturers are getting promoting all improper?…We have to cease interrupting and begin being the leisure.”
That bodes effectively for the method Commonwealth Financial institution takes to leisure and edutainment content material. The multinational financial institution is well-known for its sports activities advertising ways on social and IRL—together with sponsoring Australia’s ladies’s soccer group, the Matildas, and the 2023 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup.
In reality, the media has acknowledged CommBank, as they’re affectionately recognized, for being the greatest built-in advertisers in Australia. With Boundy’s course, the corporate has turn out to be intertwined with sport and ladies’s soccer in a means no different model ever has. Comply with her for the most recent on utilizing leisure to deepen model communities on social and past.
Nicola Jones, Head of Digital & Social Media, Aldi UK
Aldi UK’s Head of Digital and Social Media, Nicola Jones, is the chief behind one of many web’s wildest personas that delivers a few of the trade’s greatest social ROI. The UK department of the worldwide grocer lately received two 2024 Effie Awards for Social Media, together with one for Sustained Success.
As Jones stated in a current LinkedIn submit, “These wins mirror the end result of a transparent, long-term sustainable technique that’s been on the coronary heart of all the pieces we’ve delivered. Whereas it could look like we’re simply out right here cracking jokes for laughs (and sure, that will have been the case at instances!), the reality is our social content material has constantly delivered a few of the highest ROI throughout Aldi’s advertising efforts.”
Like Jones alluded to, the model has mastered an unhinged persona on platforms like X and Threads, successful over audiences and effortlessly becoming a member of trending conversations. Aldi UK is cemented not solely in on-line tradition, however within the minds of their loyal followers and clients.
Although Jones lately introduced she was leaving the corporate, you’ll be able to keep within the loop on her subsequent chapter by following her on LinkedIn.
Nathan Jun Poekert, CMO, Normal Thought
Nathan Jun Poekert has constructed a reputation for himself on LinkedIn. With greater than 40,000 followers on the platform, Jun Poekert is effectively often known as an professional in natural, influencer and paid social technique.
After serving as Head of Social, Content material & Digital Innovation at American Eagle, he transitioned to consulting manufacturers on their social methods, and constructing a popularity as a thought chief and creator. He pivoted his social expertise into the position of CMO at Normal Thought, a model company behind main style moments.
Even whereas juggling his new place, Jun Poekert stays an lively on-line persona and creator. His posts look at the philosophical and moral questions of working in social, whereas strolling followers by way of the true greatest practices of working a profitable model presence.
To remain related with Jun Poekert, observe him on social and rewatch a few of our favourite webinars he took half in, together with Navigating Social in an Election 12 months and Underneath the Model-fluence.
Todd Kaplan, CMO, Kraft Heinz North America
Todd Kaplan is the CMO of Kraft Heinz North America, and has helped the model usher in a brand new period of transformation within the digital panorama. As he informed Adweek, his type of management helps his group “discover the candy spot between creativity and enterprise goals.”
Kaplan has been acknowledged by Forbes and Enterprise Insider as a prime CMO, and was even referred to as a “Advertising and marketing Rockstar” by Rolling Stone. Kaplan spent most of his profession serving to PepsiCo develop and preserve cultural relevance. His transfer to Kraft Heinz in 2024 signifies a recent begin for the legacy model, and is already translating to elevated share of voice and on-line cultural competency.
On their social channels, Kraft manufacturers like Kraft Mac & Cheese deliver a definite social-first aptitude to their content material, like this video tutorial of serve their noodles “the suitable means.” Kaplan has shared in lots of interviews that he believes in balancing model and efficiency advertising, and it’s clear the group is utilizing that as a launch pad to unleash extra model constructing.
Sustain with Kaplan—a frontrunner well-known for his laidback type and dedication to his favourite sports activities groups—on LinkedIn for highlights from his newest media appearances.
Kikora Mason, VP of Group & Social Media, JP Morgan Chase
Kikora Mason is the VP of Group and Social Media at JP Morgan Chase. The multinational monetary companies agency is 225 years previous, but nonetheless invests in new methods to attach and develop its group—which is vital to its success over the centuries.
In her position, Mason leads a group targeted completely on social listening and group administration. She opinions pattern analyses every day—at all times looking out for real-time engagement alternatives. As she informed us after we interviewed her for an article about social media govt profession development, “It’s at all times essential to know your target market and base your technique on what is going to resonate with them and fulfill your goals.”
However JP Morgan Chase doesn’t chase developments for the sake of it, or run on the pattern cycle hamster wheel. As an alternative, they take a measured method and look ahead to alternatives that align with their model. Mason suggested, “The web by no means holds again when a model is being inauthentic.”
Comply with Mason on LinkedIn, the place she shares takeaways from management panels she participates in and presents recommendation to younger entrepreneurs.
Taylor Montgomery, CMO, Taco Bell
Taco Bell’s CMO Taylor Montgomery has been on the helm of the model’s advertising presence throughout their greatest social media moments—from recruiting Doja Cat to bringing again Mexican Pizza. Montgomery champions approaching social like a consumer as an alternative of a model, a technique that appears to be paying off.
Underneath Montgomery’s management, the model has constantly grown, and this development has been instantly tied to Taco Bell’s formidable digital advertising technique.
On social, the model builds hype for his or her newest menu drops and collections, influencer and movie star partnerships, and conjures up sturdy emotions of affinity and nostalgia.
Comply with Montgomery for the most recent and biggest from Taco Bell’s advertising efforts and overviews of his thought management interviews.
Scott Morris, CMO, Sprout Social
Sprout’s CMO Scott Morris is a prime advertising chief to look at (however we could be biased). With Morris’ management, Sprout has developed a sturdy influencer advertising program, launched a brand new digital launch occasion movement, crafted a “buyer zero” content material collection and attributed extra income than ever to social efforts.
Morris usually pushes our social group to suppose past tried-and-true B2B advertising formulation, a testomony to his brand-building experience.
On LinkedIn, he shares wins from our campaigns, the most recent product launches, and his takeaways concerning the worth of social and social insights. Comply with him there to remain present, and skim his rising library of articles on our weblog.
Josh Rangel, Senior Director of Social Media, Ogilvy
As a Senior Director of Social Media at Ogilvy, Josh Rangel brings nearly 20 years of social media expertise to his consumer work. Underneath his management, his group builds award-winning campaigns for a few of the world’s most well-known manufacturers.
Rangel can be a member of our Index Council, a cohort of social entrepreneurs and thought leaders who helped us form our information into the 2025 Index report. Rangel illuminated how he advocates for extra sources for social after we interviewed him: “Finances shouldn’t be a unclean phrase. Converse plain language that ties social media efficiency again to enterprise outcomes. Maintain it easy and concentrate on: 1) bringing the receipts, 2) positioning social as a laboratory for testing and studying, and three) sharing the price of not being a part of the dialog.”
On LinkedIn, Rangel shares extra concerning the expertise of talking up for extra sources and his observations concerning the newest developments, plus relatable memes that seize the sentiment of the trade and a relatable POV solely social entrepreneurs can perceive.
Sarah Thomas, CMO, Caudalie
When Sarah Thomas started her profession because the Social Media Supervisor at Caudalie Americas in 2020, it would’ve appeared unimaginable that she would stand up the ranks to CMO in simply 4 years. However that’s precisely what occurred—reinforcing the essential position social performs on the epicenter of all advertising capabilities, and the way profession paths will evolve in gentle of social’s upward trajectory.
On LinkedIn, Thomas shares a few of the model’s greatest advertising highlights and takeaways from social that inform her new position, just like the significance of reinventing your model id.
Throughout her tenure as Social Media Supervisor, the model grew to become a Gen Z darling, popping up in prepare with me movies throughout TikTok. In reality, one in all their hottest serums is offered each 30 seconds.
The 30 year-old magnificence model has simply as a lot fairness and loyalty as some newer emergent manufacturers, proving simply how effectively Thomas led Caudalie to achieve new audiences and develop affinity. Comply with her on LinkedIn for extra on the way forward for this model, and her sudden profession path.
Fill your feed with advertising leaders’ insights
These advertising leaders are redefining the position of social media in fashionable enterprise methods. From legacy manufacturers embracing innovation to trailblazers pushing inventive boundaries, they provide inspiration and actionable classes to information your individual social-first journey.
By following their work and studying from their successes, you’ll be able to gasoline your individual development and hold your advertising plans forward of the curve. Fill your feed with their experience to remain related to the slicing fringe of social media advertising.
For extra on constructing a compelling case for extra sources and mapping out a profession path that may match the place social is headed, learn The 2025 Sprout Social Index™.
