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
Every marketer anticipates that a new campaign will lead to strong engagement, healthy conversion rates and a measurable lift in awareness. They may hang their hopes on a clever turn of phrase or viral moment. But the campaigns people remember years later are usually grounded in something more: They clarify what a brand stands for, shift how customers see a category, or prove that a team’s instincts were sharper than the safer, more obvious play.That’s why “great marketing” can’t be measured only by whether a campaign hit its targets. The most meaningful campaigns often require leaders to make tough calls about what to emphasize, what to leave out and how much risk the organization is willing to take in pursuit of a bigger idea. Real, emotional connection plays a big role in customers’ loyalty to a brand, so marketing that makes them feel seen, understood or invited into a story is marketing that yields long-term results—and is far more memorable.Of course, that kind of impact rarely happens by accident. It comes from knowing when to trust the data and when to trust the room, when to polish a message and when to let it feel more human, when to center the brand and when to give the spotlight to the people it serves. Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank, a curated group with deep expertise in brand storytelling and customer engagement, reflect on the campaigns they’re proudest of leading and the lessons those efforts taught them about enduring, effective marketing.
expert panel
Despite regular stories about declining social media participation and algorithm fatigue, both B2B and B2C marketing teams are still convinced that social media marketing delivers real ROI. However, if brands don’t proceed with care, the line between engagement and extraction can get thin fast. Followers usually welcome a useful recommendation, a smart point of view, or even a clear offer, but if every post feels engineered to move them down a funnel, the relationship starts to feel less like a conversation and more like a checkout lane. That’s a critical misstep, especially as younger generations enter the workforce and command more purchasing power. Surveys have shown that Gen-Z turns to social media first for information—including when they’re on the hunt for products and services. If a brand’s presence on social media becomes too sales-heavy, it can weaken the very trust and attention that make conversion possible in the first place. So how can marketing leaders create momentum toward sales without turning every interaction into a transaction? Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank share strategies for balancing value, relationship-building and sales intent in ways that help followers see becoming customers as a natural next step.
expert panel
For many marketers, Reddit is treated simply as a community platform—a place to monitor conversations, answer questions and occasionally engage with niche audiences. But its role in the digital ecosystem has expanded. And that evolution creates a new challenge for CMOs.Brand perception is no longer shaped only by owned content, paid campaigns or carefully managed social channels. It’s also shaped by open, peer-driven exchanges where customers compare options, challenge claims, share frustrations and look for trusted perspectives before making decisions. These are exactly the type of discussions that happen on Reddit. Today, Reddit threads—including complaints about brands—are favored sources for AI engines. The platform has even struck a deal with Google that allows the search leader to use posts from the site to train its AI models. With consumers increasingly turning their attention to AI results when researching products and services, marketers can’t afford to underestimate Reddit’s influence. So how should marketing leaders rethink Reddit’s role in the marketing mix? Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank share practical insights on how CMOs can better understand and tap into Reddit’s growing influence on brand discovery, customer trust and the broader digital conversations that shape purchasing decisions.
expert panel
Marketing teams have long treated headlines, summaries and preview text as small but important pieces of brand real estate. They’ve studied the mechanics of search engine results pages, recognizing that search details are often an audience’s first introduction to an organization—a chance to frame the story, set expectations and earn a coveted click.But the framing of that first connection is getting less predictable. As Google and other platforms increasingly reshape how content appears in search results, social feeds and AI-generated summaries, companies may find that their audience’s first encounter with them is an intermediary’s version of their pitch, USP or vision. That changes a fairly simple question—“Did we get the headline right?”—to a much more complex one: “Does our message survive reinterpretation?”When the channels driving discovery are also translating, compressing and repackaging content, it can be tempting to retreat from outside platforms, but that’s not realistic; they’re too central to how people find information. Instead, marketing leaders need to think more carefully about how brand meaning holds up when it’s filtered through systems they don’t own. Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank discuss how CMOs can protect clarity, trust and differentiation as search engines, AI tools and other intermediaries reshape audiences’ first encounters with their messaging.
expert panel
Adweek recently reported that nearly half of executive-level marketers see revenue growth as their top priority, while just a quarter put long-term brand awareness first. That focus is understandable; no CMO gets kudos for “good brand vibes” if the pipeline is struggling. Even so, it’s a real strategic risk. If the bulk of budget and marketing resources are devoted to generating immediate business impact, long-term brand building can start to look like a “nice to have” strategy rather than a necessary growth engine. There’s no argument that revenue growth is a constant goal of CMOs, as well as an expectation from their C-suite peers. However, investment in brand equity builds stronger connections with consumers; further, it contributes to performance marketing efforts yielding better results over time. When marketing teams heavily favor immediate returns, they risk weakening the trust, recognition and preference that make future demand easier to capture. Conversely, when they lean too far into broad brand awareness without tying it to business outcomes, they can lose credibility with leadership teams that need clear evidence of revenue impact. So how can CMOs uphold both sides of the equation: measurable growth today and durable brand strength for tomorrow? Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank, a curated group with expertise in brand storytelling and customer engagement, share how to approach that balance and detail what tends to break when marketing strategy tips too far in either direction.
expert panel
B2B marketers used to be able to lean on a familiar set of channels and assumptions: Attend the right events, publish the right content, run the right ads, follow up with the right leads, and watch the pipeline take shape. However, today’s B2B buyers are harder to track, harder to predict and often far deeper into their decision-making process before they’re willing to talk to a sales rep. B2B buyers now complete more of their research independently before ever engaging with a vendor, making it harder for marketing teams to identify where decision-makers are accessing influential information. At the same time, CMOs are under pressure to prove sourced pipeline impact while working with limited resources and rising scrutiny over every dollar spent. That combination makes the old “more leads, more channels, more activity” approach risky. When pipeline pressure is real, the question isn’t simply where marketing will generate the most activity; it’s where marketing will produce the most meaningful results. The B2B marketing mix has become a higher-stakes leadership challenge that requires a clearer view of buyer intent, a sharper understanding of channel performance, and the discipline to shift investment away from familiar tactics that no longer produce reliable results. Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank—a curated group with expertise in brand storytelling, digital advertising and customer engagement—share what they’ve learned about improving sourced pipeline performance and deciding which channels deserve more budget when resources are finite.
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.