Colette Dill-Lerner, CMO of Growth Channel: Leading Marketing in the Era of the CFO

Colette Dill-Lerner, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Growth Channel, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how marketing leaders are navigating pressure, complexity, and financial accountability. Her perspective is shaped by a career across direct response marketing, consulting, private equity-backed companies, and ad tech.What the Conversation Covers• Colette’s unconventional path into marketing, from political science and early startup exposure to senior marketing leadership.• How her direct response background shaped her focus on customer acquisition, revenue, LTV, CAC, and business fundamentals.• Why today’s marketing environment is increasingly shaped by CFO scrutiny, tighter budgets, and the need to prove financial impact.• How Growth Channel is approaching go-to-market through relationships, in-person events, useful content, and strategic client support.• Colette’s perspective on agencies, including why they may become more valuable as companies face smaller teams, more pressure, and growing complexity.Guest BioColette Dill-Lerner is Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Growth Channel, a platform helping agencies and in-house teams simplify programmatic advertising across channels including CTV, audio, display, and retail media. In her role, she leads marketing, strategy, client success, and client advisory work, helping brands and agencies connect campaign execution to broader business goals. Her background includes direct response marketing, consulting, healthcare, private equity-backed companies, and ad tech.About the PodcastCMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.