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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.

This week we interviewed Eric Toda, former CMO at Air, to discuss his recent documentary-style campaign with Air, taking creative risks, his marketing leadership archetype, and the power of standing up for his community.

You've spent over two decades in commercial marketing working for global brands like Meta, Snapchat, Nike, Airbnb, and most recently Air (for six hours). What are some of the campaigns that you are most proud of and why?

Night at the Movies for Airbnb is one I still point to. It was built for a specific moment, when people watched TV and Twitter at the same time. We had real regulatory limits. We couldn't mention actual Oscar-nominated films by name. So we handed that job to our community instead of working around it ourselves. They did it for us, and the campaign took off because of it.

The other one isn't a campaign in the traditional sense. It's Meta Prosper. It started as a campaign for AAPI small businesses during APAHM. It didn't stay a campaign. It grew into one of the most scaled and effective business units serving the AAPI community today. That taught me something I still carry into every brief. A campaign, done right, doesn't end when the media buy ends. It can become part of the actual product. Prosper is proof.

You recently "joined" Air as CMO as part of a B2B marketing documentary-style campaign. How did the campaign idea come about and what drew you to the opportunity?

Funny enough, it started because I was a free agent and Ari and I always wanted to work together. He pitched me the idea at a very high level, "Asian for Creative Tasks." I paused for a long time. Then I said yeah, screw it, why not, let's ride.

Why was Air the right company to do this campaign with and why now?

Air has always taken creative risks. They hit way above their own weight creatively in the B2B SaaS space, and honestly everything they make is surprising and fun. To me it was never a question of whether they were the right company. They're the company I should partner with to make something really, really hot. They love risk. I love risk. So why not.

Since the campaign's launch, what has been the most surprising response or result?

The reaction itself. In the comments, half the people love it, half are confused, and scattered in between is a full range from affection to offense. I love that range. If it was just the standard round of "congrats" after a "humbled and honored" post, I would be so sad. That wouldn't be me. That would be robotic and weird. I love fun, I want to have fun, and what we built was an elaborate magic trick in a space that rarely has any magic, LinkedIn. We lured everyone into a trap, turned it on them with the resignation, then pulled the rabbit out of the hat with the big reveal. Magic still exists.

What is your CMO Signal archetype and why? Do you have some examples of how you exemplify this archetype that you can share?

Maverick. I love to challenge, a lot. I don't respect boundaries for the sake of boundaries, because a lot of them are outdated or don't answer the moment when the moment needs it. I challenge when it's justified, when the risk is worth taking, like standing up for my community, or breaking something that needs breaking, like LinkedIn. Is that polarizing? Absolutely. But I have always believed it's better to do things for a good purpose than to follow the crowd. This isn't new for me either. Anyone who watched me push at Meta, when almost no one else in the room wanted to, already knows this about me. I think it was Thomas Jefferson, or maybe Ed Harris, who once joked that the tree of marketing must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of creatives and risk takers.

In one or two sentences, where does your archetype fit into your latest Air campaign work?

It's on full display. I challenge the idea that executives can't put themselves in content, especially in messy or testy situations, and I made fun of our own echo chamber on purpose, buzzwords and all, because that's the whole point of working in a creative space.

What's one tool, platform or ritual that you are using right now that is helping you keep your edge?

Staying off my phone. I spend my time living, not scrolling, and paying attention to what's funny, what's real, and what people actually care about. That's where the real edge lives, not in another app.

What are two to three things you read, follow or listen to in order to stay ahead?

I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do, it's Twilight Zone. I've seen every episode. I study the storytelling, the twists, the dark humor. Most of what's online right now looks the same, so I skip it. Instead I go back to older shows, DuckTales, Twilight Zone, Dinosaurs. They were hits for a reason. Study those reasons.

Do you have a favorite AI tool that's helping with your marketing work?

Claude. The API access is the reason. I love connecting it directly to the things I care about, not just chatting with it.

What's a book that has forever shaped how you think about marketing and culture?

To Kill a Mockingbird. I named my daughter Harper after it. It's the reason I took the LSAT. It's a perfect book about humanity, risk, justice, and bravery. Marketing needs more of all four.

What's the one marketing event you prioritize attending each year and why?

Cannes Lions. Most marketing conferences come with the job, so they end up feeling like work. Cannes is different. I get to see people I admire and ask them how they built their campaigns. I still treat marketing like a sport, and I still feel like a rookie. Watching Jonathan Mildenhall, Antonio Lucio, or Carla Hassan up close feels like watching a hall of famer.

What's one thing you are tracking in the marketing industry right now that you think more of your peers should be paying attention to?

Most CMOs are still measuring brand work with performance marketing metrics. That's backwards. The channels that build trust, like the Air campaign, don't show up cleanly in a dashboard the week they launch. The marketers who win the next five years will be the ones who can defend a bet on story and relevance to a CFO who only trusts a spreadsheet. That skill, translating narrative value into business language, is the real gap right now. Most people are still optimizing for the wrong scoreboard.

To learn more about Eric, follow him on LinkedIn.

Quick refresher: The Maverick archetype is one of eight CMO Signal Marketing Leadership Archetypes. Subscribe for more.

What’s next: Keep reading for six marketing signals you should be tracking this week.

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