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The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX
#753: Wrike CMO Christine Royston on building marketing teams for agility
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Liberty Mutual Spokesperson
And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.
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Christine Royston
Hey everyone, check out this guy and his bird.
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Greg Kilstrom
What is this, your first date?
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Liberty Mutual Spokesperson
Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.
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Christine Royston
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.
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Liberty Mutual Spokesperson
Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent.
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Christine Royston
Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty.
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Strayer University Announcer
At Strayer University, we help students like you go from Is it possible? To Anything is possible by offering access to up to 10 no cost gen Ed courses so you can reach your goals affordably and fast. Visit Strayer. Edu to learn more. No Cost Gen Ed is provided by Strayer University affiliate sophia. Eligibility rules apply. Connect with us for details. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Chev and has many campuses, including at 212150 17th Street north in Arlington, Virginia. The Agile brand.
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Podcast Host
Welcome to Season seven of the Agile Brand where we discuss the trends and topics marketing leaders need to know. Stay curious, stay agile and join the top enterprise brands and martech platforms as as we explore marketing, technology, AI, e commerce, and whatever's next for the Omnichannel customer experience. Together we'll discover what it takes to create an agile brand built for today and tomorrow and built for customers, employees and continued business growth. I'm your host Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1000 brands on martech, AI and marketing operations. The Agile Brand Podcast is brought to you by Tech Systems, an industry leader in full stack technology services, talent services and real world application. For more information, go to teksystems.com to make sure you always get the latest episodes, please hit subscribe on the app you listen to podcasts on and leave us a rating so others can find us as well. Now onto the show. Is your marketing organization built for disruption or doomed to be disrupted? Agility requires both rapidly responding to market changes while also anticipating and shaping your products and services to map to evolving customer expectations. This means embracing new technologies and strategies while maintaining a laser focus on delivering value. Today we're going to talk about how leading marketing organizations are leveraging AI and collaborative work management to not only survive but thrive in today's dynamic landscape. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Christine Royston, Chief Marketing Officer at wrike. Christine, welcome to the show.
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Christine Royston
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, really looking forward to talking about
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Podcast Host
this with you before we dive in
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Greg Kilstrom
though, why don't you give a little
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Podcast Host
background on yourself and your role at Wrike?
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Christine Royston
Sure, sure. I have 20 years of marketing leadership experience in B2B tech and at Wrike I lead global marketing, brand and communications and I'm really focused on enabling that high impact, data driven work across my team, across the organization, across our customers. And if you think about Wrike, we're an intelligent, collaborative work management platform. We help millions of users and many, many companies. It's really any company that needs to optimize their workflows. A couple examples of what those workflows could be, we've got Varsity Yearbook, so they manage their campaigns. In Wrike, we have Jaguar Land Rover that focuses on their product lifecycle in the product and then we've got Siemens who handles their client service, delivery and rake. So definitely focused on helping customers to streamline projects, connect their teams and figure out how do they do more impactful work.
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Greg Kilstrom
Nice, nice. Great. Well, yeah, let's dive in here then and we're going to talk about a few things today, but I want to start by you're CMO at Reich. Let's talk about that role of the CMO which has certainly seen its share of changes over the years, but particularly let's talk about recent changes. So you're navigating the complexity of the marketing technology landscape. How do you look at doing that while also making sure that your team
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Podcast Host
has the right tools and the right skills to succeed?
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Christine Royston
Sure. So I feel like Martech and that whole landscape has always been changing quickly. If you think about those charts that show sort of the volume of technology that's out there, I think the big difference now is I am seeing it evolve so much more rapidly. It is something that it's tough for an individual to keep up with and especially if you think about the acceleration of AI, what that brings to existing martech, it opens up new martech and so it's really, you know, it's really about not having more tools but making sure you've got the right ones. They're integrated into your tech stack, into your workflows. We're always evaluating our tech stack and we really look at how is it really enhancing the team, how is it making us more efficient, more effective. And then of course we use Wrike to centralize our work and think about how do we automate things and break down silos. You know, I think the key thing here is making sure that you're giving your teams the tools and technology that help them be more efficient. More effective, more creative. It's not about replacing people, but it's making the teams that you have today able to really deliver even better output.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. And definitely that the chief Martech. You can't even see the logos on it anymore. It's so small. Right. It's just like it's more an idea than an actual map at this point. And certainly with AI, there's not only all of the products have AI in it, but that's added a whole dimension of the separate sort of siloed AI tools as well. So adding even greater complexity with all of that, you know, whether it's, you know, separate AI tools, AI integration and just AI integrated into the role of marketing. You know, how does, how does the role of a CMO evolve with that? And you know, what, what kind of skills are either needed now or do you think are going to be needed for marketing leaders as things continue to evolve in that way?
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Christine Royston
So I do think the basics remain. You've got to be able to balance the company brand, the company reputation with driving growth and making sure marketing is contributing to business results. I think now CMOs are really needing to think about how do they become orchestrators of AI strategy across their team across marketing, as well as the pieces of the business that marketing is touching. So I think it's always been about managing resourcing. Do CMOs have the right team members? Do those team members have enough time? Do they have enough budget? Does the CMO have enough time to kind of think about strategy? But now we need to think about how do we leverage AI within all of that to be more efficient, more creative. So as I think about those future skills for CMOs and really any leader, it is about driving agility across the team as well as the go to market motions that we're always involved in and making sure that we're thinking about, you know, how are we leveraging AI ethically, how are we leveraging it in the right ways for the best output? So I think it's, it is a fascinating time to be, you know, a marketer, a cmo, as you think about just this, this constantly evolving world out there.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. I mean I, I feel like, you know, I got my career started at the early days of the Internet, so, you know, it feels like that kind of, kind of sea change almost in. I didn't have a lot of marketing experience prior to that, so I, but I, you know, that, that big change of just like lots of people trying to figure out how to best harness this, this, this power and you know these capabilities and I know Wrike has certainly expanded the capabilities within the tool itself using AI. Maybe can you share how you're using AI within because you use Wrike within Wrike. So how are you using AI within your marketing organization by using Wrike and other methods?
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Christine Royston
Sure. We recently released a copilot for Wrike. This really helps the team prioritize their tasks. It routes approvals, it auto summarizes project updates and that really saves the team hours each week so that they can focus on more strategic things. And then actually just this week at our annual collaborate conference, we announced Wrike's Agent builder. So it's a tool that's going to allow anybody to create custom AI agents using natural language. And I think this is really going to accelerate AI adoption across really any team. I'm super excited to see how the team is going to think about using this. It's going to really put them in control of how agents work and what do they need agents to do uniquely for their workflows. And then outside of Wrike tools, we certainly use AI for a lot of different use cases. It can be accelerating content creation, giving us the opportunity to do even more ideation around campaigns. Personalization is another big one. Really excited to kind of see how, how we can think about that personalization element.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, Agentix certainly is, it's an exciting part of that. I think, you know, it's kind of the next evolution of, of some of the gen AI stuff. So yeah, definitely excited to be able to see that as well. And I know Reich did some research recently on Agentic and highlighted some interesting findings. Do you want to maybe share some of the takeaways and how that can help marketing leaders prepare for embracing some of these things like agentic?
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Christine Royston
Sure. So some of the interesting statistics that we found were over 60% of workers are already using AI agents, but their effectiveness is being limited by siloed data, not enough context. Out of people who are using AI agents, more than half are using the tools daily. And, and even those that aren't using them daily, a big percent are using them weekly. And so if you think about employees who have access to, you know, both planning and, and execution tools, the, the question is like, how do you integrate those? How do you make sure you're not using fragmented data? You've got multiple systems that are potentially in packing the efficiency of AI agents. And so I think looking at that data, it's great to see this, this adoption. So it, to me it points to the fact that, you know, we don't have a risk in, in adoption or even that AI isn't going to help humans. I think the risk is, is AI using the right data? Is it using a complete set of data to help to, to move work along? And so I think that really points to the need for having this structured knowledge. Do you have all of your workflows documented so that AI has the right inputs to actually be helpful to you and give you the right output?
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Greg Kilstrom
You know, we've been talking about silos for a while, but you know, often referring to human teams and things like that. I think with some of the gen AI or AI in general that was the case. But I think with agentic, it brings this, it kind of brings this whole idea of collaboration kind of puts a new context. I think it redefines what we call teams, you know, within organizations because I mean there are or are going to be hybrid human and agentic teams within, within organizations. So that kind of brings me to the next topic and you know, maybe
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Podcast Host
focusing mostly on the human teams for now at least.
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Greg Kilstrom
But you know, talking about collaborative environments that it's so critical again for the, the silos that already existed. I think the more we can eliminate those, the, the better. But you know, how do you see just, you know, how crucial collaborative work management is in just making, you know, marketing and marketing ops move efficiently? You know, how, how, how do you think about that?
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Christine Royston
Sure. I think, you know, at its core marketing is a truly collaborative function and that can be within a team, it can be with cross functional stakeholders. We certainly collaborate quite a bit across the organization. And so I think that the importance of collaboration on its own means when we're looking for technology, how can we find technology that is facilitating that, enhancing that? Because it's not just a requirement. If you have fantastic collaboration, it's going to be a multiplier in terms of your team's performance, your team's ability to deliver amazing work. And really you want the best ideas from all teams. You don't just want the person who has this job title thinking about driving this solution. You want to make sure that you're capturing input and ideas from across the organization. And so if I think of collaborative work management tools, I think it helps to facilitate those ideas and input. We actually launched a visual collaboration solution earlier this year that helps with some of that brainstorming, that ideation that can then pull those ideas, once agreed upon into a project. And then even once you've got the ideas and you've agreed on the plan. We all know things come up as you're executing campaigns and even as you're evaluating campaigns. And so having everybody on the same page of here's where we are or here are the results and everybody has the same access to the same data, it means you're going to continue to be able to leverage the best of the best from a lot of different team members with different perspectives.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. And maybe you could talk a little bit more about that part as well of just like how, you know, Wrike is able to help because there's a, they're measuring the success of this as well. So from a performance aspect and you know, just streamlining processes. Like what are some ways that a platform like that can, can, you know, meaningfully do that?
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Christine Royston
Sure, sure. And I can share a couple of examples from, from customers who are also seeing the benefit. So we have a customer who's based in the UK but, but is a global digital marketing agency called Jellyfish. And they have really focused on driving efficiency in their agency by leveraging Wrike. So they saw a 95% time savings when they just looked at how do we summarize client calls and capture the action items using Wrike AI to kind of kick off. Okay, we just had the call. What's the next step? And if you take a look at the, you know, the savings there, they save three, three to five hours a week just on individual workload. So even outside of that kind of collection of, of actions after a call with the client, individuals are able to save time that they're able to apply back to more creative, more strategic types of work.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah.
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Christine Royston
And you know, a totally different industry. We've, we've got Syneos Health, which is operating at massive scale. They've, They've got over 47,000 projects and they're using AI search across all that volume of data and workflow information to figure out, you know, what is the right standard operating procedure or document that they need. So they're not having to figure out, okay, where, where did we put that in hierarchy? They can use search, go and find it and make sure they're able to get that information to, to all their distributed teams. Definitely, you know, it's a, I think it saves time. It allows you to, you know, apply that time into more, more interesting ways. Things that, that people want to spend their time on but might be consumed with kind of manual task oriented work.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, I mean anything that saves me
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Podcast Host
having to look through 47,000 projects worth
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Greg Kilstrom
of documents is, is more than welcome. So, yeah. Nice. That's great. So, and, and you know, maybe, maybe along those lines, last thing I want to talk about is just, you know, we're on the Agile brand podcast. We'll, we'll, we'll talk a little bit about Agile. And you know, certainly agile marketing is something near and dear to, to my heart in building these organizations. I mean, there's, you know, we could always say that change is constant and we need to move faster and faster. And you know, I've, there's never been a year where it wasn't true that we needed to do more with, you know, we had more to do more with, or what, however you want to couch it. So, you know, we're always being asked to do more with less. Technology is increasing all, all of these things, all, all of these good reasons to be more agile and adaptable. You know, what advice would you give to marketing leaders that are, you know, certainly feeling that pressure, maybe feeling it more than ever, and just needing to build adaptable teams in this face of, you know, constant change, constant disruption.
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Christine Royston
Sure. So I think the first thing is about the team that you're building. So, so making sure that you are hiring people, that you are making it clear that you want people to experiment. You want them to experiment with technology, including AI, new ideas, you want them to learn from failures. You want to make sure people feel like they can try new things even if they're not 100% sure it's going to be a success. And I think that ongoing learning mentality and just an inherent curiosity is certainly something I look at when I'm hiring for team members. So I think that's the first thing is do you have the right team in place? And then I think the other piece, just definitely around being agile and being able to react to the constant change we're in is as you think about your workflows, your processes, certainly you want them to be robust and measurable. Now we need to make sure they are flexible because technology is changing so much. How are we going to apply AI and new innovation to those workflows so that we're not building something that's so rigid that we have to rebuild it when there is a change in process or when there is a new technology that's going to make it so much more efficient? So I think that's, that's the second piece just around that flexibility and agility. And then third piece, I think is, is something that is, you know, has been been constant throughout my career, which is making sure you, your teams your strategy are aligned to the company strategy. So does your team actually understand, you know, what does success look like, not just for them for marketing, but for the company? Because that's going to help them really build strategies that drive the right results and certainly, you know, using, using technology in order to support that strategy. But I think that helps to make sure that people feel empowered to say, I know what we're trying to do and I'm going to come up with some ideas to try to figure out how I support that broader corporate strategy or organization strategy.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. Love it. So, looking ahead, you know, let's say we have this conversation a year from now or so. You know, what are some of the biggest opportunities and challenges you see for marketing organizations? And, you know, how would they position themselves for success?
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Christine Royston
So I think on the opportunity side, I am excited about this opportunity that we all have to rethink how work gets done. How are we leveraging AI? I think now more than ever, most leadership, most boards, investors are looking at how can teams come up with new ideas? Because we're all kind of feeling this pressure of how do we make sure we're maximizing AI? We know our competitors are. And I think one specific example of this is around personalization. I feel like we've been, we've been in these different phases of personalization and it's always been sort of the game changer. How do you give somebody exactly what is relevant to them? And I think it's actually, it's, it's going to become a requirement. If I see an ad, if I get an email and it misses the mark, I'm going to wonder, why is that? I know there's, I know there's technology out there that this particular person could have used to give me something that I find valuable. So I think that expectation is one that we can jump on as an opportunity and figure out how do we get ahead of that? I think on the challenge, there is this ongoing question of privacy and data accuracy. If you think about automation as well as you need to always be looking at, where is that human in the loop? Where do we sit as AI evolves, as technology evolves, how do you think about maybe I had to be involved in this piece of the workflow, I had to be involved this early in the process. But now that we're thinking about different ways to run our workflows, my team sits in a different place. And so you have to figure out where do you and your teams need to spend time, whether it's reviewing, informing, enhancing the output of AI. And so I think when you think about your teams and how you operate, it is making sure that you're thinking about this constant optimization of workflows. It is not set it and forget it. You're going to have to continue to think about how do you revisit. And one final thought here is I think it's going to be fascinating to see what new marketing roles are sort of created with this world. If you think about their roles themselves will change. We will still have digital marketers who do this, we will still have content creators who do this or. But I know there are going to be totally different roles out there for people who have this sort of blend of creativity, marketing chops plus technology background. And thinking about new roles that are being created every day I think is fascinating for, for marketing.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Well, Christine, thanks so much for sharing today. One last question for you before we wrap up. What do you do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?
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Christine Royston
Sure. So I, I'm always looking outside my, my company. I have a great team around me, I have great peers around me, but I like to make sure that I'm looking outside to see what are trends that I'm seeing from other CMOs, thought leaders, industry organizations. So I want to make sure I'm, I'm staying current and I make sure I'm actively setting aside the time on my calendar, block my calendar out weeks ahead of time to make sure I either have time to read that long list of articles or listen to podcasts or if I get invited to an industry event, drop it on the calendar so things don't get scheduled around it. So I'm, I'm taking that time because that is part of, you know, it's part of my job. It's part of any, anyone's job is to continually upskill yourself. And a lot of that is making sure you're, you're looking at learning from others. Certainly, you know, AI is a great time saver in making sure I have that time on my calendar for that creative thinking and that learning. And certainly, you know, want to make sure that my team is, is doing the same thing. So it is something that I, I encourage certainly using, using Reich to kind of stay on top of things that maybe I would have had to manually check in with the team and say, where are we at with this project? What's going on? I've got a CMO dashboard that I can look at to say, what's the progress is something in the red. What do I need to add to my next one on one agenda. But I think, you know, it's definitely fascinating time to be a marketer and I think focusing on what's important to you, your company, and then using technology and all of these tools to make sure you're still focusing on the right things. So definitely, definitely some of the things that I think about.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, love it. Well, again, I'd like to thank Christine
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Podcast Host
Royston, Chief Marketing Officer at wrike, for joining the show.
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Greg Kilstrom
You can learn more about Christine and
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Podcast Host
Reich by following the links in the show notes. Thanks again for listening to the Agile Brand brought to you by Tech Systems. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to subscribe and leave us a rating so that others can find the show as well. You can access more episodes of the show@theagilebrand.com that's theagile brand.com and contact me if you're interested in consulting or advisory services or are looking for a speaker for your next event, go to www.crick greggkillstrom.com that's G R E G K I H L S t r o m.com the Agile brand is produced by Missing Link, a Latina owned, strategy driven, creatively fueled production co op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Until next time, stay curious and stay agile.
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Strayer University Announcer
The agile brand. At Strayer University we help students like you go from Is it possible? To anything is possible by offering access to up to 10 no cost gen Ed courses so you can reach your goals affordably and fast. Visit Strayer to learn more. No cost Gen EDS provided by Strayer University Affiliate sofia. Eligibility rules apply. Connect with us for details. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Shep and has many campuses including at 2121 15th Street north in Arlington, Virginia.