The most innovative CMOs in the world — The Storytellers

Business Insider

Business Insider has published its inaugural ranking of the 50 most innovative CMOs in the world.

Here we celebrate the "storytellers."

These are the CMOs who have mastered the art of telling stories across platforms; the marketers who have created appointment-to-view advertising campaigns that consumers actually choose to watch; and those who have turned around the perception of their companies with messaging that gets to the heart of what their brand stands for.

Scroll down to see which CMOs made the cut. Our "Storytellers" list is organized in alphabetical order.

Additional reporting from Lori Janjigian and Hannah Roberts.

Dana Anderson, Mondelez

Anderson is a true storyteller, bringing to life and building the profiles of everyday food brands like Oreo, Cadbury, and Ritz through creative campaigns that break the usual sweets-and-snacks mold. Recent examples include the "What are you breathing?" campaign for Halls, an "alpine fairy tale" for Milka, the "Made for More" Triscuit spot, and the Lacta Greece ad "Love like there's no tomorrow."

Anderson has also led Mondelez's push toward a content monetization model, shifting from the traditional media-buyer model to becoming content investors and producers. The aim is to monetize up to 10% of Mondelez's global media investments by 2020 — transforming what was usually considered as a cost into a profit center.

A recent example of this approach was July's Stride Heaven Sent prime-time event on Fox, in which skydiver Luke Aikins jumped from a plane at 25,000 feet with nothing but the clothes on his back — and landed safely.

Anderson has also enacted a "fly fearless" initiative that aims to improve the way Mondelez works with creative partners. Pilots so far have seen a 43% reduction in average time from idea creation to launch, a 25% drop in average team size, and increased return on investment — every dollar spent returning $1.38 in value, according to Mondelez.

Gary Briggs, Facebook

Briggs became Facebook's first chief marketing officer in 2013, jumping ship from Google.

Last year, he explained how Facebook has brought a lot more of its creative in-house — rather than using agencies — "for speed." Most of Facebook's advertising output now is developed by its internal creative team, The Factory, which also creates work for other companies and counts a number of former senior agency creatives among its ranks.

Recently, Facebook invested in a multimillion-dollar global ad campaign aimed at educating people on how to use Facebook Live. Every video and image as shot using Facebook Live on a phone, and none of the dialog was scripted, Briggs said.

Briggs isn't just responsible for marketing the Facebook website and app — he's also charged with weaving together the positioning and communications of its other big bets, such as its Oculus Rift virtual reality system, and Facebook's goal of connecting underdeveloped parts of the world to the internet.

Outside of his role at Facebook, Briggs serves on the advisory boards at the Lagunitas Brewing Company and Lending Club, and is a board director at LifeLock.

Craig Inglis, John Lewis

Inglis was promoted to the newly created role of customer director in September 2015, with the expanded remit to cover the whole customer experience alongside his previous marketing and customer insight duties.

The UK department store has become famous for its Christmas ads, with a combination of a big creative ideas supported by social media activity and exclusive promotional products.

John Lewis just released its 2016 ad, a two-minute film based on a dog named Buster who takes a turn on the trampoline gift intended for the young girl in his household. "2016 has certainly been quite a year, so we hope our advert will make people smile," Inglis said. "It really embraces a sense of fun and magic, reminding everyone what it feels to give the perfect gift at Christmas."

This year's campaign smashed its previous spots in terms of social media shares. "Buster the Boxer" was shared 218,000 times across social media in the first 24 hours of its release, according to Unruly. Last year's "Man on the Moon" campaign hit 175,000 shares in its first day. "Man on the Moon" has been viewed more than 25 million times on YouTube, and John Lewis saw a 5.1% uptick in sales over last year's Christmas trading period.

The industry publication Campaign called John Lewis' relationship with the ad agency Adam & Eve/DDB one of the world's "most creative partnerships." And Inglis described the key ingredient of their consistently creative marketing as "breathtakingly brutal honesty."