Suggestions
Margo Spiritus
Global Marketing & Communications Executive | Digital Innovation & Emerging Technology | Startup Builder & Operator | Alum: Venture Studio, Saatchi Art, CBS Sports & The White House
Margo Spiritus is a seasoned business leader and global marketing executive, currently serving as the Principal and Communications & Marketing Consultant at Spiritus & Co. She has a significant background in brand marketing and communications, with experience spanning various industries.
Professional Background
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Current Roles:
- Principal at Spiritus & Co.: Margo leads strategic marketing and communication initiatives, focusing on innovative solutions for clients.
- Chief Marketing Officer at Studio6: In this role, she is involved in building companies that leverage web3, blockchain, and AI technologies.
- Advisory Board Member at the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission: Margo collaborates with the board to secure major global events for Los Angeles and has played a key role in the organization's rebranding efforts.
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Previous Experience:
- Margo has held positions as a Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at pingg.com, where she was instrumental in managing relationships with high-profile partners, including Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
- She is also a founding member of Chief, a network aimed at connecting and supporting women leaders.
Expertise
Margo's expertise encompasses a wide range of areas, including:
- Marketing strategy
- Communications
- Innovation
- Product development
- Partnerships in both artistic and brand contexts
Her work has consistently focused on driving brand growth and visibility, particularly in the realms of digital innovation and emerging technologies. Margo's leadership and strategic insights have made her a trusted advisor to CEOs and leadership teams globally.1
Highlights
I recently had the pleasure of catching up with my first boss, Sally Susman at her office in NYC. I worked for Sally when she ran the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Commerce and led international trade missions.
Sally has had an extraordinary career and today is the Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Pfizer, a public company (NYSE: PFE) with nearly 90,000 employees, a role she occupied during a global pandemic as her company raced to develop a life-saving vaccine. She recently added "author" to her list of accomplishments with her first book, Breaking Through: Communicating to Open Minds, Move Hearts, and Change the World.
I've read Sally’s book twice, and my copy is dog-eared and filled with notes and highlights. It’s packed with valuable insights and advice for business executives navigating today's complex landscape, where political and social issues intersect with social media and a 24-hour news cycle—a recipe for potential missteps for the unprepared.
As a marketing and communications executive, I found Sally’s custom framework for evaluating when to enter into the public discourse invaluable. In one chapter, she noted that, unlike other corporate decisions at her company, which had agreed-upon measurements (e.g., when to invest, how to appraise productivity, how to calculate risk), the approach to public affairs lacked similar rigor. She set out to change that and developed a framework (p. 84-85) for evaluation which I found incredibly helpful.
Begin with these five questions:
- Is the issue related to our purpose?
- How does the matter impact our stakeholders?
- What are our choices for engagement?
- What is the price of our silence?
- How does the issue relate to our values?
For anyone in business today, having a clear communications and public affairs strategy, as well as a crisis communications plan, is not optional. I highly recommend Sally’s book to any business executive. She provides a wealth of practical information that you can deploy in your own day-to-day role whether you're running a startup or a public company.
Read it!
P.S. If you’re an Chief member in NYC today (Tuesday, May 28), don’t miss Sally's panel at the clubhouse "Communicators-in-Chief: Communication as a Critical Tool for C-Suite Executives."
#communications #crisiscommunications #stakeholdercommunications #publicaffairs #book #chief #sallysusman
The art of technology. The technology of art.
There are few topics that I’ve thought more about over the past decade. From technology as a tool to make art more accessible to technology as a tool embraced by artists in their creative process to what is art and who gets to decide? After listening to this podcast, I couldn’t help but look back:
(**Note: I wrote this a day before the Apple iPad dust up which rightly struck a huge nerve around creativity and technology.)
’11 - ’13 “Nobody will ever buy art online." - Heard while CEO of Saatchi Art, the world’s first premium online art #marketplace for emerging artists.
’15 - ’17 “What do you mean by digital art? I’ll just go to Giphy."
- Heard while CMO of Niio Art, the first platform for the discovery, display, management & preservation of premium digital and moving image art.
’16 - ’18 “What's a business incubator for art and technology?”
- Heard while a Member of the New Museum of Contemporary Art NEW INC, an incubator for entrepreneurs working at the intersection of art, design & technology.
March 11, 2021 “You’ve been posting digital art on Insta since ’15. Does that mean you understand this #NFT stuff? Can you explain it? - Heard from nearly everyone after Beeple's epic $69M sale at Christie's.
’21 - '22 “NFTs are art!" “NFTs aren't art."
- Heard during endless, passionate debates on Clubhouse & Twitter Spaces. Luxury brands, celebrities and everyone in between raced to launch projects. #cryptopunks #bayc #artblocks dominated the dialog. What is art and who gets to decide?
’23 "AI art!" "NFTs are dead!"
- Heard while part of a brilliant team developing a Layer-1 blockchain purpose built for creators and artists.
’24 #Ordinals
- Buzzy topic on the early '24 web3 conference circuit.
Excuse me while I recover from the whiplash.
While most still conflate #art #digitalart #netart #mediaart #JPEGs #NFTs #collectibles #AIart #generativeart #dataart #ordinals #cryptoart #blockchainart #marketingassets #financialassets & #immersiveart and continue to argue about what is and isn't art, it’s been fascinating to look back at all of the artists, entrepreneurs, instigators, incubators, curators, tools, platforms and communities that have flourished.
Can't wait to see what the next decade delivers. Hopefully lots more ART, both physical and digital, as well as the tools to share, discover and buy it.
If you're interested in art and technology, I enjoyed this conversation with Sonal Chokshi #SimonDenny on the a16z crypto podcast.
