“We try to find the best of the best for the panel, and ask the panel the hard questions. The questions that I put together are not easy, and it's not supposed to be easy,” said Garde, the chief growth officer of Ardelis Health and a Smeal alumnus.
As the panelists answered the wide array of questions, attendees could take away three key points for marketers.
No. 1: Be a good leader
Bayer stressed the importance of being a good leader. But, he shared how his leadership skills did not appear overnight.
“I made myself a CEO. I didn't earn it. I literally started a company. I called it Saxbys and I made myself a name tag that said CEO. ... I thought that, because I bestowed CEO on myself, I needed to act like I knew everything,” he said. “So, I shudder to think how bad of a leader I was back then.”
Bayer shared how he trusted his staff and learned the lesson of being a servant leader.
“I realized I hired a lot of really smart people at Saxbys who are experts far smarter, far more capable and experienced than I am. So, that was probably the biggest mistake I made as a leader was not being humble and not realizing that I'm a servant leader there to serve leaders in the company,” he said.
The panelists have all worked at the executive level at several large brands. They spoke of the skills needed to head large teams and pushed students to make themselves leaders. Because, as Bayer shared, leadership takes practice.
During Closkey’s two-decade tenure at Red Bull, he said his leadership had to grow and develop.
“When I became a full-time employee at Red Bull, I was 22, and I had a team of 15. I had no idea how to manage people, and I was the same age as them essentially,” he said.
Getting promoted and climbing the ladder is important, but Grant emphasized how leadership comes from growth.
“Don't chase titles. … The higher you go from a title, the less willing some people are going to be to give you that chance to grow,” he said. “So, you need to almost take a bet on yourself and sometimes take the plunge. Don't just chase a title, but chase the opportunity that you think is going to be best for yourself. Give you a chance to grow and give you the chance to learn.”
Leadership is not reserved for high-level executives. There are plenty of ways to grow and learn as a leader as a student.
Harmon-Madsen urged students to get involved.
“Be in this community. Be in Prime. Be in the ultimate frisbee club. Whatever strikes your interest, get involved. Try, learn and be a leader,” she said.
To tie it all together, Closkey gave three core values for a good leader.
“Be an owner, be adaptable and be a great teammate,” he said. “If you do those three things, everything else should fall into a place.”
No. 2: Admire the brand
Harmon-Madsen explained brand admiration with a story about her mother.
Her mother has been a client of American Express for 50 years. To commemorate her longstanding status as a client, American Express sent her a box with a cashmere wool blanket, a card thanking her for her business and old advertisements from the time she became a client.
“She not only called me with this when I went to visit her, but she pulled it out to show it to me. That to me is something that's admirable. It's what made her feel and what that memory evoked,” Harmon-Madsen said. “If you can be so lucky to be the marketing person at that brand, you've striked like that special secret sauce.”
The panelists emphasized that clients are not the only ones who must admire the brand. The marketer needs to admire and engage with the brand, too.
“I think what we're looking for from a marketer are people who understand and love the essence of what the brand stands for,” Bayer said.
He shared how he implements this mindset into his corporate structure.
“Every single person at Saxbys … guess where they started? In the cafes. Their first two weeks were working in the cafes and every six weeks, so every six months they go back into the cafes and work,” Bayer said.
This does not always need to mean working at the storefront, but it can be as simple as drinking a can of Red Bull.
“You have to show that you care about what we're doing and what our mission is. It's not just about researching a company … with a consumer package good that costs a couple dollars, you absolutely can,” Closkey said.
This allows brands like Red Bull to fully engage to understand their consumer base and specialize their messages.
“We always like to say that we like to be the local face to a global brand,” Coskey said.
No. 3: Be adaptable and change with technology
In honor of a decade of Prime, panelists discussed major changes and trends from over the last 10 years.
Harmon-Madsen stressed the changes in technology, especially in AI.
“I think the biggest change [over the last 10 years] is the speed of change,” she said.
She continued by discussing how brands are changing their strategies to include and address AI.
“They're taking a look at how brands are showing up across all the large language models. So, think about ChatGPT, Gemini and Llama … it used to be SEO or keywords a few weeks ago and now it's about how you're showing up there,” Harmon-Madsen said.
That related to what Grant shared about reinvention. As a marketing expert at L’Oréal, a brand that has been around for more than 100 years, he stressed how longstanding brands have a constant need to adapt and change.
“A part of what goes to the constant reinvention is frankly a humility There are times where new brands are coming out and starting to steal market share and you need to look at yourself in a mirror as a company and say, ‘What are the things we could be doing better?’” he asked.
The panelists discussed how so much has changed in marketing. From influencers and individual brands to social media and media technology, the need to adapt is bigger than ever.
As students listened to the panelists’ advice and asked questions, Garde shared how student questions cut deep and always showed their desire for professional development.
“They're brilliant. They've done their homework, and you need to come prepared with real issues,” he said.
Garde continued that the aim of the event is to have students walk away with the knowledge needed for this industry.
Joshua Gross (fourth year – marketing) shared how the experience helped him.
“It was cool because I felt like everyone was really down to earth,” he said. “They were saying that you don't need to get like a bunch of internships to stand out. You just really need to focus on being yourself and being authentic.”
Federica Roo, the president of Prime, said she was impressed by the potential the panelists demonstrated.
“Seeing all the opportunities the business school offers and the results of that was really cool,” Roo said. “You can see all these panelists — all of them studied here. You can see what we learn in the classroom actually turns into amazing results.”
Anyone interested in watching the Prime Branding Panel can view it online.