Marketing Vanguard at Cannes: Stop Forcing Marketing Into False Binaries ft. Jill Kramer of Mastercard

Marketing Vanguard continues its Cannes 2026 series as host Jenny Rooney sits down with Jill Kramer, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mastercard. In this conversation, Jill reveals the false binaries marketing keeps boxing itself into: AI vs. creativity, brand vs. performance, strategy vs. execution, “what’s in” vs. what’s "dead." Her point is clear: the strongest marketing does not live at the extremes. It lives in the gray area where accountability, emotion, creativity, and business outcomes all have to work together.Jill Kramer is the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mastercard, bringing deep experience across brand strategy, creative leadership and enterprise marketing transformation. Before joining Mastercard, she held senior leadership roles at Accenture, where she progressed from Head of Advertising, then brand, and finally, to Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. Earlier, she also built her foundation on the agency side at BBDO. At Mastercard, Jill brings a perspective shaped by both sides of the table: the agency instinct for creative craft and the brand-side understanding of business complexity, accountability, and internal alignment. Her leadership is rooted in balance: brand and performance, creativity and AI, strategic vision and hands-on involvement.What You'll Learn:Why AI should sharpen creative focus, not replace the human craftHow brand and performance marketing became a false choiceWhy the best marketing happens in the “soft emotional middle”How prioritization can become a creative act for a new CMOWhy leaders now need to go high and deep at the same timeHow to shift from doing everything yourself to enabling the teamWhy the industry needs to stop arguing in extremes and talk more about the workThis episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Cannes 2026 and presented in partnership with Edelman  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.