In partnership with
CMO Signal is a weekly briefing for senior marketers ready to decode the shifts, signals and leaders shaping modern marketing in order to crystallize their leadership style, build unshakeable visibility, and maximize their career equity.
This week:
We decode a Culturist at American Eagle
Explore Comic Relief’s campaign to fight poverty
Preview Smartly’s next marketing event, and more
Let’s track the signals.
The New Rules of Online Visibility
Your customers are searching in places your strategy doesn’t reach.
So before your business is buried and left behind, you need to understand the new rules of SEO.
BELAY's SEO in the Age of AI report explains how search is changing, what AI means for your visibility, and the practical steps small businesses like yours can take to stay visible.
BELAY’s U.S.-based Marketing Assistants turn strategy into execution, helping your business stay visible, credible, and competitive in every search.
Archetype In Action
Craig Brommers, CMO, American Eagle
Eric Toda
Archetype in Action is a weekly profile series featuring senior marketing leaders at the cutting edge of the industry. We build some profiles from public records and others are featured interviews. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.
Craig Brommers has run marketing for American Eagle since 2020, after stints at Calvin Klein, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Gap, where he led the RED campaign against AIDS. At American Eagle, he oversees both the flagship brand and Aerie, and has built out partnerships with TikTok, Snap, and Twitch that put the brand inside about 500 pieces of content a week.
The clearest Culturist move: signing Sydney Sweeney for "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans," which Brommers calls "the most talked about, most culturally defining campaign of 2025." The partnership drove 790,000 new customers and roughly 320,000 new social followers, and AE brought Sweeney back for a follow-up, "Syd for Short," built around jean shorts. Brommers' read on why the talent strategy works: "One of the successful parts of our marketing mix is working with boldface talent who are not just participating in culture, but they're defining culture."
While the work with Sweeney also drew the ire of some fans, the Culturist instinct is to stick to the cultural signals and not waver in the face of pushback. It seems that from Brommer’s “brands are streaming series” point of view, even moments that draw debate and discussion are useful to stay connected to popular culture.
That's the Culturist instinct in one line, pick people and moments already shaping the conversation, then build the brand's story around them.
Quick refresher: Culturists build brands by staying inside the cultural conversation, and treating relevance as a strategy rather than a by product of good creative.The Culturist archetype is one of eight CMO Signal Marketing Leadership Archetypes. Subscribe for more.
"Brands have to program themselves like a streaming series. Your audience tunes in because they know the main characters and the general plot. But to keep them on the edge of their seat, you need guest stars, plot twists, and even the occasional WTF moment. You have to program storylines that not only keep people watching, but bring new audiences.”
What’s next: Keep reading for six marketing signals you should be tracking this week.
Image courtesy of Comic Relief
6 Signals
AI & Tech: With the proliferation of AI, brands are rethinking how consumers discover them, from SEO to AEO to community conversations, marketers now have to think about AI discoverability alongside brand building and performance marketing (MarketScale)
By the Numbers: 96% of B2B marketers use AI, but hiring is moving toward judgement, strategy and quality control (MarketScale)
CMO Shifts: Salesforce names Erin Oles its new President and CMO. Prior to her current role, Erin served as EVP, Global Integrated Marketing at Salesforce, and has been at the company for more than five years. (LinkedIn)
Creative Campaign of the Week: Comic Relief and Quality Meats invented a fake advocacy group, "Not Our Problem," for people who'd rather leave childhood poverty to someone else, deadpan ads defending apathy, then redirecting to real ways to help. A smart move tied to it’s mission to use comedy for good. (Ad Age)
Creator Capital: Poppi hired creator Kitty Murphy to fill open jobs on its culture team, the same way they hire her to sell soda including vlogs, campus stops, and a TikTok comment section asking how to apply. Their college ambassador program already pulled 11,000 applicants last round (Campaign)
Offline: Smartly's ADVANCE returns to Spring Studios NYC on Sept. 29, pulling 750+ marketing leaders from Google, Meta, TikTok, NBCUniversal and Reddit into one room to discuss AI, creativity and commerce. Closing act is Knicks forward Josh Hart and PATH Talent CEO Matthew Hillman, co-hosts of The Roommates Show — talking building brands and community (Advance)
Thanks for reading.
Was this briefing forwarded to you?
