CMO Leadership in Action: Navigating Growth, Partnerships & AI Complexity
Serving as an interim Chief Marketing Officer or Chief Communications Officer (CCO) means adapting on the fly. But stepping into a global, rapidly evolving company—with an expanding product line, a marketing team in transition, and a complex AI platform—meant navigating challenges at every level.
In the first 90 days, I focused on messaging, positioning, and building a marketing strategy to support growth in a fast-developing category that demanded clear differentiation. As interim CMO, I led the full marketing function, driving alignment across brand, PR, social, events and executive communications.
That meant working across time zones and continents while supporting two critical partnerships that opened new customer channels and strengthened tech industry credibility. Then came NRF—Retail’s Big Show. With a major presence at the event, multiple product announcements, two strategic partnerships, and a full website relaunch all happening at once, we had to ensure every message landed with impact.
Driving Clarity and Momentum
In my role as interim CMO, the priority was aligning messaging, strategy, and execution— translating a fast-moving business environment into clear priorities and coordinated delivery across the marketing team.
Clarifying a Complex AI Platform: Developed and refined corporate messaging to clearly articulate platform leadership in vision AI.
Executive Visibility and Thought Leadership: Guided executives on positioning, ensuring consistent and compelling messaging across all channels. Placed CEO profiles and Q&As in high-profile media to elevate market visibility.
Balancing Partnerships at Different Speeds: Managed both a carefully developing enterprise partnership that expanded customer channels and a fast-moving alliance with a leading tech company—each requiring a different communication strategy.
Scaling Communications to Match Business Growth: Expanded from messaging and PR to leading full-scale marketing efforts, ensuring that the company’s voice kept pace with its evolving strategy.
Executing a High-Stakes, Multi-Channel Launch: Orchestrated NRF announcements, product and partnership rollouts, and a full website refresh—simultaneously—while maintaining a unified narrative.
The Result: Industry Credibility and AI Leadership
A sharper corporate identity, stronger industry credibility, and a messaging framework that positioned the company as a leader in a highly competitive AI space. Media placements amplified executive visibility, key partnerships gained traction, and the company's presence at NRF delivered a clear, unified message to the market.
This work helped define the company's strategic direction in real-time—ensuring that as the business evolved, its positioning kept pace and reinforced its leadership.
Lorraine Hamby serves as an interim Chief Communications Officer and fractional Chief Marketing Officer, guiding technology companies through growth and transformation.
