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Scratch: CMO Interviews

Scratch: CMO Interviews

Von: Rival
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Why do some businesses grow faster than others? What do the marketers leading them do differently? How can we learn from them to grow our own businesses and careers? Scratch explores the world of challenger marketing - the thinkers and doers questioning the status quo and rewriting the marketing rule book ‘from scratch’. Each episode will dive deep into the experience and perspective of an industry thought leader to understand the unique insights and ideas that have powered their success. We will interview some of the biggest names in the marketing world - the people with the most interesting stories to tell. We’ll hear from the CMOs of the biggest brands in the world, but also the entrepreneurs building hyper-growth start-ups to really understand the full spectrum of challenger marketing today. We’ll get into the nitty gritty: the details of how they think and what they do differently in order to deliver simple, clear, and actionable lessons for all marketers. Scratch is the ‘How I Built This’ of marketing - we hope to inform and inspire a generation of marketers to grow their businesses and their careers like true challengers ‘from scratch’ every day.2026 We Are Rival Erfolg im Beruf Management & Leadership Marketing & Vertrieb Ökonomie
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  • Checkout.com’s Playbook for Beating Global Giants: Pick One Fight.

    Checkout.com’s Playbook for Beating Global Giants: Pick One Fight.
    Jun 10 2026

    Rory O'Neill, CMO of Checkout.com, doesn't just solve for payments- he's solving for brand preference in a crowded payments space. And he's doing it by competing on what's different, not what others do better.

    That insight changes everything, from how you position payments to how you build a team that can sustain growth as a challenger.

    In the latest episode of Scratch, Rory breaks down the playbook that lets Checkout compete with global giants. Brand preference wins 95% of B2B deals before salespeople ever show up- so your marketing owns the invisible 60% of the buyer's journey. Challenger brands win by picking one fight and building culture around it, not chasing everything competitors do. He reveals the three-part formula: focus your core business, build your culture, reinvest profit. Consumer marketing skills-data, insight, action-are B2B's secret superpower. And his rule: if you wouldn't say it at dinner, don't write it in marketing.

    The key takeaway:

    1. Brand preference wins deals - 95% of the time, the brands on the day-one top-five list are the ones that win. B2B buyers spend 60% of their journey before contacting a salesperson.
    2. Define your focus as a challenger - Compete on what's different, not on what competitors do better. Checkout only does digital payments to stay focused while competitors spread across multiple business lines.
    3. Three elements beat category norms - Focus on your core business, build the human operating system (culture, people, vision), then reinvest capital in new products.
    4. Consumer marketer skills are powerful in B2B - Data, insight, action, brand building, and performance marketing from the consumer world unlock B2B success.
    5. Understand stakeholder maps - B2B is complex: CTOs influence CFOs, recommenders influence buyers. Map those relationships to win.
    6. Simplify your language - Ditch jargon like "frictionless" and "seamless." Use words you'd use at dinner. Marketing becomes more interesting and understood.
    7. Marketing is logic and magic - Be both data-driven and creative. Avoid letting fiefdoms kill integrated work. Join everything together.

    Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/chR0mn9Pum0

    Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he's joined by Rory O'Neill of Checkout.com in this episode.

    Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn


    Find Eric on LinkedIn

    Find Rory on LinkedIn

    Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we'd love to hear from you.

    Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

    If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024
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    40 Min.
  • The CMO Who Faked a Data Breach for Black Friday. The Payflex Playbook.

    The CMO Who Faked a Data Breach for Black Friday. The Payflex Playbook.
    May 27 2026
    In the latest episode of Scratch, Tracey-Lee gets into what it really takes to build trust in a controversial space, how she sells brand investment to a CFO who only speaks performance, and the Black Friday campaign where Payflex faked a data breach and somehow lived to tell the tale. The key takeaway: 1. Radical honesty is not a risk, it's a requirement In a controversial category, you have to be as loud with your rebuttals as your critics are with their attacks. Silence reads as guilt. 2. BNPL customers aren't who the headlines say they are Payflex users are not over-indebted people stretching to survive. They're actualizing. Identity-driven. The emotional need sits at the top of Maslow's hierarchy, not the bottom. 3. The two-year brand cliff is real Cut brand budget today, nothing happens for six months, maybe a year. Then sales tank. And to recover it, you spend two to three times what you cut. The lag is the weapon CMOs need to use in every CFO conversation. 4. Brief writing is a tattoo, not a tick box WATTW. What are we trying to achieve here. If you can't answer that before you brief, you shouldn't be briefing. 5. Marketing is an advocate for the market, not a go-to-market function Marketers need to be in the product room early, sometimes aggressively, because no product strategy survives contact with a customer insight that nobody bothered to bring in. 6. Learn the finances early The biggest unlock in Tracey-Lee's career was understanding what CFOs actually care about: customer equity, market share, lifetime value. Not ROAS. 7. Boldness needs justification, not just instinct The data breach campaign worked because it had a clear strategic logic behind it. Payflex is an innovator and Black Friday demands standout or silence. Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/fPIrrl9Qg3I Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Viren Samani, and he’s joined by Tracey-Lee Zürcher-Campbell of Payflex in this episode Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn Find Viren on Linkedin Find Tracey-Lee on Linkedin Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we’d love to hear from you. Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024
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    45 Min.
  • Social Is Becoming a Revenue Channel. Most CMOs Aren't Ready

    Social Is Becoming a Revenue Channel. Most CMOs Aren't Ready
    May 13 2026

    In this episode of Scratch, Viren sits down with Misbah Uraizee from Nectar Social to dismantle one of marketing's most persistent myths. The truth? Organic and paid media are complementary engines, and brands that still silo them are leaving serious growth on the table.

    Misbah breaks down the post-iOS 14 reality and reveals the exact playbooks modern challenger brands are using to scale today.

    In this episode, we cover:

    • The Post-iOS 14 Reality: Why the entire class of brands built on cheap paid ads simply no longer exists.
    • Year-One CPG Playbooks: What the fastest-growing brands actually do in their first year (hint: it has nothing to do with media spend).
    • Killing Vanity Metrics: Why follower count is the metric that refuses to die—and what you should be measuring instead.
    • TikTok Shop’s True Role: How to properly integrate it into your modern marketing mix.
    • Measuring the Unmeasurable: How to spot the "halo effects" that prove social is working before the revenue data catches up.
    • The AI Equalizer: Why "taste" is the last true differentiator for marketers in a world where everyone has the same AI tools.

    Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/v5lbv-u9bOk

    Links & Resources:

    🖊️Mentioned in the show:

    • MetiCube
    • Amp By Rival
    • The Rival 50: The Best Challenger Brands of 2025

    Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn

    Find Viren on LinkedIn

    Find Misbah on Linkedin

    Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we’d love to hear from you.

    Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Viren Samani, and he’s joined by Misbah Uraizee of Nectar Social in this episode

    Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

    If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024
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    42 Min.
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