Skills
About
Kurt Uhlir is a Chief Marketing Officer, growth operator, and board member often described by peers as “The King of Scaling Companies.” He is known for creating and leading integrated growth engines that unify demand generation, organic acquisition, product marketing, and revenue operations into a single, accountable system. Kurt helped shape these playbooks inside multi-billion-dollar global enterprises and now applies them to growth-stage and mid-market companies to reduce risk and build repeatable, durable growth. He also serves in board and advisory roles and speaks frequently on leadership and execution.
Kurt Uhlir
Published content
expert panel
When a global brand stumbles in a new market, it’s often not because the product doesn’t translate well, but because the marketing doesn’t. Messaging that feels familiar and persuasive in one market can fall flat in another if it reflects assumptions instead of understanding. CMOs are often pressured to move fast, but sacrificing sensitivity in the interests of speed can derail multinational campaigns at digital speed. Surface-level localization may help a campaign look tailored, but the audience may find it irrelevant or disrespectful. Cultural missteps produce the worst kind of viral headlines; even worse, they erode trust with the very communities brands are trying to win over. Successful global branding requires the discipline to build processes that bring local perspective into campaign development early enough to shape the message before it goes live. So how can marketing leaders expand their reach without flattening cultural nuance, wandering into reputation-damaging mistakes, or completely reinventing the brand for every region? Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank share their insights on how CMOs can create campaigns that connect more authentically in unfamiliar regions and put the right safeguards in place before small misunderstandings become big problems.
expert panel
Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose; the same is true of brand authority. It can't be purchased with a bigger ad budget or manufactured through a clever campaign. The brands that earn it do so by being consistently useful, credible and clear about what they stand for. Buyers today are flooded with claims for their attention, and they’re savvy. They’ll simply tune out generic, promotional brand messaging that shows no understanding of their real needs. Conversely, a coherent narrative backed by genuine expertise and validated by real outcomes becomes something customers actively seek out. A brand that masters that kind of messaging shifts from just another seller to a trusted resource and, eventually, to the obvious choice. So what questions do businesses need to ask and answer about themselves, and how can they build brand authority systematically rather than accidentally? And how do the pieces—narrative clarity, a distinctive value proposition, subject matter expertise and proof points—fit together into a winning strategy that compounds over time? Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank discuss what this kind of disciplined approach to brand building looks like in practice, sharing their expertise in establishing the kind of authority that customers trust and actively seek out.
expert panel
A CFO scanning a marketing report sees it through a completely different lens than a CIO or a CCO. And if a CMO doesn’t address each C-suite member’s priorities and perspective when reporting results, it’s unlikely they’ll effectively pitch their vision for ongoing marketing strategy. For a CMO, building trust across C-suite relationships isn’t just a soft skill; it’s a core competency that separates leaders who drive brand momentum and bottom-line growth from those who simply draft and schedule routine marketing content. A CMO who falls back on industry jargon and data points instead of learning the language of finance, technology or customer operations undercuts and undersells their team’s impact. Marketing comes to be seen as a cost center rather than a strategic driver: perpetually on defense, justifying spend instead of shaping decisions. But CMOs who learn to translate their work into terms that resonate with their C-suite peers don’t just earn goodwill; they earn a seat at the table when it matters most. That balancing act is especially important in a digital age, when CMOs need input from peers and cross-functional collaboration to optimize customer experience and trust. So what does effective C-suite relationship management actually look like in practice, and where do well-intentioned CMOs most often get it wrong? Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank weigh in. With deep expertise spanning brand strategy, digital marketing, customer engagement and executive leadership, these industry leaders offer hard-won perspective on how CMOs can translate marketing’s business value in terms the whole C-suite understands and build the cross-functional trust that turns alignment from aspiration into advantage.
expert panel
Automation has a way of making marketing systems look busy—and therefore, healthy. Dashboards fill up, campaigns launch on schedule and follow-up happens at machine speed, creating the impression that marketing teams are becoming more efficient and effective. But activity isn’t the same as results. For a growing number of marketing organizations, automation has become a way to run faster in the wrong direction. Automation doesn’t fix fuzzy underlying strategies, scattered data or poorly defined handoffs between marketing, sales and product teams. It just moves them out of sight. A workflow that runs smoothly isn’t necessarily a workflow that works. Further, tool sprawl can leave teams struggling to manage and achieve ROI from an ever-growing, unchecked tech stack. That’s the uncomfortable reality many CMOs are grappling with right now. The proliferation of martech tools has made it easier than ever to automate nearly every touchpoint in the customer journey, yet in too many cases, revenue stalls, churn climbs and teams struggle to explain how—or if—automation is making a positive difference. The real job, then, isn’t just adopting better tools. It’s figuring out what the underlying problem is and whether technology will merely simply help a flawed process fail more elegantly. Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank—a curated group of marketing leaders with deep expertise in digital advertising and technology’s growing role in marketing—have been at the forefront of the AI revolution. Here, they break down the process flaws automation most commonly conceals and share practical diagnostics to help CMOs build on solid ground before adding more speed.
expert panel
Many marketing campaigns are built to grab attention—the scroll-stopper, the headline, the viral hit—with little planning for what comes after. Global ad spending is expected to reach unprecedented levels in 2026—topping $1 trillion—but a viral video, clever headline or packed webinar won’t translate to revenue if follow-through is an afterthought. The problem isn’t the creative; it’s the system. Marketing campaigns designed as moments in time rather than journeys can’t sustain buyers’ interest, achieve conversions or build customer loyalty on their own. Keeping customers engaged throughout every stage of the buyer journey is essential. Yet, in too many organizations, marketing hands off a lead, sales chases it down, and somewhere in the middle, the momentum built by that clever creative quietly dies. Marketing teams who focus solely on maximizing clicks, impressions and traffic often celebrate winning before the game is actually over. Tackling the harder work of conversion and retention requires rethinking how campaigns are planned, how teams are structured, and how success gets defined. The question, “Will this get their attention?” must be followed by, “Do we have a plan for what comes next?” Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank—a curated group of marketing leaders with expertise in brand storytelling, digital advertising, customer engagement and the rise of AI in marketing—have seen this challenge from every angle. Below, several of them share how to design marketing campaigns that are just as intentional about follow-through as they are about reach.
expert panel
Marketing has always been part science, part art. Increasingly, AI is bringing the science: It can process data at a speed and scale no human analyst can match, instantly spotting patterns across channels and audiences. AI is proving its value by helping teams process more data, identify patterns faster and move from raw information to action with far less manual effort. But effective marketing demands more—context, empathy and the kind of nuanced decision-making that comes from lived human experience. The question CMOs are wrestling with isn’t whether to adopt AI; most already have or are planning to do so. It’s how to deploy it in ways that genuinely sharpen performance without hollowing out the human judgment that makes marketing resonate. CMOs who get the division of labor right won’t be those who automate the most. Rather, they’ll be the ones who design teams and workflows that leverage the unique strengths of both technology teams and human beings. The members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank share deep expertise in brand storytelling, digital advertising, customer engagement and the rise of AI in marketing. Below, several of them share their perspectives on where AI delivers its greatest value and where human judgment remains irreplaceable—and how CMOs can architect ways of working that bring out the best of both.
Company details
ez Home Search
Company bio
ez Home Search is one of the fastest-growing real estate portals in the world, built to help people search, research, and plan real estate decisions with confidence. The platform was designed from the ground up to protect consumer privacy—meaning personal information is not sold, shared, or recycled—so people can explore the market without pressure or unwanted follow-up. Beyond search, ez Home Search operates as a platform company with an expanding portfolio that includes Sure Send, an AI-forward CRM and communication system, and ezverify.ai, which adds verification and consent intelligence across key interactions. Together, these tools create a more trusted, transparent experience for consumers and the professionals who support them. By aligning modern technology with responsible data practices, ez Home Search delivers a better way to discover real estate—one built around clarity, trust, and long-term decision-making rather than short-term lead monetization.