François KAHN, Marketing and Strategic Planning Director at CMI, shares his vision with us …
Can you introduce yourself in a few words?
Hello, I am François Kahn, Marketing and Strategic Planning Director of CMI Media.
Previously, I had a fairly varied background, between business strategy (in consulting and retail) and strategic planning in an agency (advertising, communication and design). I lead a marketing team of around fifteen people, divided into several divisions (insights, digital, brands, etc.).
How did you experience this special year of 2020?
It’s the least we can say ! First, there was the challenge of teleworking, and partial unemployment. But the whole team remained incredibly motivated and present, and we really learned to find our rhythm, to be united and to keep up with an activity that certainly slowed down during the 2th quarter, but that never stopped for all that.
And for good reason, 2020 has been a particularly active year, a year of even acceleration: we have launched a new magazine, S by Sophie Davant, the best start for the magazine press since Dr. Good! ELLE was the first female to launch its “premium”, paid subscriber section, as well as a digital sampling offer, “Wanted”. We have also rethought our diversification strategy by phygitalizing our events. We also took the opportunity to boost our social networks with dozens of new video meetings. And we brought in a new brand under management with the Routard site. Finally, let us underline the very good momentum of our Food Brand Trust alliance (with Reworld MediaConnect and Prisma Media Solutions), whose activity remained stable in 2020 vs 2019, a real challenge over the period!
Where do you go to get your daily info, news, pro, etc.?
It’s very diverse. Of course, there is the “pro” press, like emarketing of course but also Mind, Strategies, CB News, Influencia, LSA … But it can come from many other sources, like twitter, podcasts or newsletters I’m thinking for example of the Petit Web, the Hub de la Poste, Vox.com, the Nieman Lab… and a lot of serendipity. Within marketing, we have also re-structured our watch to feed an internal newsletter dealing both with the media and advertising agencies, but also with all of our captive advertiser sectors. This is the most important for us: knowing the issues and challenges of our advertisers to be as relevant as possible, not only on a media level, but also on a business level.
What was your best project this year?
In 2020, probably the human challenge, to keep in touch with the members of the team and the group. But in the end, the best project is always the following: let us quote perhaps new launches to come, a major call for tenders, and an overhaul of our CSR strategy!
Poke a CMO whose testimony you want to read. Why him / her?
Pierre Caffin, a former colleague of Dragon Rouge. He’s nice, funny and smart, and he’s now working for a nice company, izipizi!
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