How to get better PR coverage with Campaign US Editor Luz Corona

0:04Luz Corona:Hello, everyone. Welcome to Question Everything, a podcast all about learning from the successes and the failures of those who dared to, well, question everything. This podcast is part interview, part therapy, and part price is right. We have our own game board stacked with questions that'll make even the most successful CMOs sweat. I'm your host, Ashley Wolters, CMO and partner at curiosity. On today's episode, I sit down with Luz Corona, editor at Campaign US, known for being tough but fair on the industry's top happenings and running the highly coveted Campaign Agency of the Year awards. On this episode, you'll learn what immediately sends your pitch to the trash, four things every winning agency has in their award submissions, why Luz thinks the industry is in its indie era.

0:55Luz Corona:And the one thing we all really want to know, do Ad Age, Ad Week, and Campaign really get along? So delete that draft and prepare to start from scratch. Luz is running a masterclass on how to win big with the press.

1:15Luz Corona:Luz Corona is a seasoned media and marketing leader whose career spans agency execution, brand storytelling, and advertising journalism. Now the U.S. editor of Campaign, she brings in operator meets editor lens, pairing deep industry experience with cultural insight to elevate the story, shaping modern marketing. She's also one of the hosts of the Campaign Chemistry podcast. Previously, Luz was a community editor at Adweek, where she led DE &I initiatives and co-hosted its flagship podcast. Before that, she worked in media buying and content supporting brands like Coca-Cola, JPMorgan Chase, and General Mills.

1:56Luz Corona:Always the host, rarely the subject. We're excited to finally put Luz Corona in the spotlight. Luz, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Ashley. I'm going to need you to intro me when I come into any room, I think, from now on. That was great. I will be your hype girl. I am so excited for this. I've been anticipating this conversation for so long. You're always on the other side of the mic. How does it feel to be on this side? Pretty nerve wracking, but I hope I can do you guys proud. Oh, I have no worries. Now, tomorrow's a big day. It is. It is. A lot of things are the way. What's happening?

2:35Luz Corona:What's the big event tomorrow? I'll be in New York. My flight's at 7 a.m., so I'll be at the airport probably at 4, I guess. But I'll see you tomorrow night. um we will have a good time it'll be worth it uh tomorrow is our agency of the year awards always a really fun festive night uh so we're just getting ready putting the final touches on the write-ups and everything going live after the show so yeah it'll be a good night congratulations the competition this year is so fierce do you feel that like in every category it's like stacked Yeah, when I saw the shortlist and the finalists, I was like, whoa, like it was really great to see.

3:14And we introduced nine new categories this year, too, because the landscape is changing so much. So I'm excited for those winners to also emerge.

3:23Luz Corona:That's great. And one thing that I think sets your award up that's different than some of the others are the judges. Can you speak a little bit about that whole process? Yeah, for sure. So what I love about how we judge at Campaign is there's a jury of esteemed marketers. I mean, for our honorifics, like 40 over 40 and inspiring women, it's past honorees. But for agency of the year, it's top brand marketers. I mean, I don't think we had anyone under SVP. It was like SVP, a lot of CMOs across different brands, across different verticals. And they are tasked with, you know, first doing a first round, looking online, kind of putting their scores in there.

4:06And then we this year we did a virtual live judging to finalize, you know, the finalists there.

4:13Luz Corona:So cool. Well, I can say as past winners, past standout agency, the award means a lot to us. it means a lot to the industry. So thanks for all you do to support all of us out there. Yeah, no, thank you. I know it's a little like, I have to say, it's funny, because I know we're one of the few awards that doesn't tell agencies in advance. And we're getting the texts, we're getting the emails, like, can you tell us, you know, things like that. But I'm, you know, I think it's just be in the room the night of and see people genuinely surprised when their name is called makes it so worth it. And, you know, if you think about like can awards or things like that, people don't know in advance, you know, if they're getting it.

4:57So the surprise element is so worth it.

4:59Luz Corona:Love that. Okay, I didn't even text you or call you or ask. So I feel like I'm, I'm winning there. I did ask you to come on the podcast, though. So totally fine. I'll take it. All right. Well, you know how this show works. I've got 12 questions. I've got a game board. You don't know what's behind each of the numbers. The power is totally in your hands. we'll pull up the game board now and then you can tell us which number you want to go to first number eight okay i know there's some psychology behind numbers here one day i'm going to do a study in it i swear all right so i'm curious about this you know a big uh group of listeners we have are actually client side and so i'm curious from your perspective from like a a journalist perspective and a press perspective.

5:44Luz Corona:Is great creative on its own enough to win awards, win press without sharing the business results? And why do you think CMOs should be a bit more vocal about sharing some of their biggest wins? Well, I think, yes, I think great creative can be strong enough, even if it's like without the business results, just because of the innovation out there. I mean, strong creative will always be inspiring and might spark inspiration to other creatives, you know, and things like that. It's sometimes it's obviously today, it's all about, I know some people hate the performance marketing, either you love it or you hate it, the term, but you know, it's all about like the business results and things like that, of course, because marketing budgets have kind of plateaued, right?

6:29So everybody has to make sure that they're really contributing to the bottom line. But there are just some executions out there that just hit the nail on the head when it comes to understanding consumers and just having something fun. And like, it could totally be more for a brand awareness play. And that still counts, you know. And then the second one, what was the latter question I had?

6:51Luz Corona:Just should CMOs, you know, be willing, do you think, to share more? I mean, we hear a lot like, we don't want to spill our secrets. We don't want people to know, like, curious your take on the press side of it. There's real benefit to sharing the work and sharing your stories? What do you say to them? I completely agree. I mean, I think we could all learn from each other. One thing that I wish CMOs would be a little more honest about are just the failures and the lessons learned. I think it's, you know, you're never too, I think that's really incredibly self-aware and just kind of be like, look, we tried this.

7:27It didn't work. We learned for next time. And maybe like if there's a successful campaign after that, they can talk about the one that was before that didn't really work out. But I think just being a little bit more honest about the failures because every brand has them, you know, so that that I would love to see. But yes, CMOs can always learn from each other.

7:45Luz Corona:That's great. I had a guest on the show, Kelly Leonard. He's really high up at Second City. I love improv. And he told me a story of how he had a really big failure. It was well written. And he actually printed it off, hung it up in his office and like stared at it all the time as like a reminder. And he's like, people care actually more about your failures than they do your successes. And so I always thought that was really fascinating. But that's great advice. I think it's hard sometimes for CMOs to be vulnerable. I think the position is very volatile. I don't even know what the average tenure is anymore, but it feels like it's just constantly dropping 18 months, maybe less now.

8:26Luz Corona:And so maybe that could be in part why they're they're not as willing to share for sure and I think also I mean CMOs now it's like you know the term that's going around is CMO plus you know and everybody has it's not just that role that was like even like two or three years ago you know like either you're a chief brand and marketing officer or you're a chief growth officer or you know we're seeing CMOs go up to president roles you know or CEO roles now so there's such a wealth of expertise to be shared there. Good and bad. Yeah. Yeah. Good. CMO plus. CMO plus. I like that. We'll see you start saying that on LinkedIn, I bet.

9:08Luz Corona:All right. Let's go back to the board. Okay. I'm going to go with an odd number. No lie. Number five. Shocked. What is one conversation you think the industry should be having right now, but it isn't. Are we okay? Sometimes I really wonder if we are all okay. Like with, you know, I'm just thinking about it. I'm like, surely it can't just be on the journalism or press side, you know, that we're seeing the news and things like that, that, you know, feeling certain way some days, but there's so much turmoil going on now. And not to like even, you know, hype up the headlines or any like kind of like clickbait kind of thing.

9:49I really think there's genuinely a lot of change. We've seen the layoffs. AI is coming into play, you know, and people are genuinely like excited and scared about it. If it kind of takes off too fast or gets in the wrong hands. So, you know, with all the and not to get like political, but just a lot going on in the outside world right now that I wonder. Obviously, advertising is great. I love advertising every spot, every out of home billboard, you know, things like that. But there are moments where it's just like, okay, but the world is burning down outside or maybe personal life got a little crazy one week over the other.

10:27And it's just I don't know if we're asking each other enough. Like, are we okay?

10:33Luz Corona:That's a very profound question. I like that. And I mean, as an employee and a friend, we do need to ask each other that more. But then I put on my employer hat. And what are employers doing to go above and beyond and make sure their people feel supported and taken care of and have space to think and be and, you know, get their hands dirty and be in the community and do all of those other aspects that make them a whole human? Are you hearing anything on your end of how, like, agencies are kind of stepping up right now or anything come to mind like that? Yeah, I think the ones that kind of stand out to me are the leaders like such as yourself, just being super conscious of it, you know, and just being flexible at the same time, you know, it's completely understandable leaders are in the position that they are because they are tasked with driving business growth, right?

11:30So you have to make sure the bottom line is doing well. But I think with that, it's also making sure that people are okay. So I think flexibility is a big one there. Obviously, then you see the other end of the spectrum where the RTO mandates are coming in, and that's all fine, too. You know, we did it once before and it just depends on the business and what's a good fit. But I think with that, probably flexibility would be ideal. And I see it across, I guess, more indie agencies. Yeah, agree.

12:05Luz Corona:Yeah, I hate the phrase. I'm sure you hear this a lot too. Like we got to return back to normal. Yeah, what is normal? God, and was what we were doing before 2020 normal? I don't think so. No, it was like at a tipping point. I just feel like we're kind of I mean, we're getting real existential, but I feel like we're getting back to how things were before the pandemic in terms of like burnout and just like running a million miles an hour without stopping to catch our breath, you know, like mentally. and the pandemic forced everyone to kind of slow down and adapt to working from home and things like that and it's almost like that's it's like we we didn't really learn our lesson you know but yeah crazy times I remember going to work like three days before I gave birth to my first kid like just waddling down the subway steps and that was like normal and maybe that is again now but it's just kind of crazy to think about.

13:07Luz Corona:Yeah. And does it have to be? Like, surely we've come a long enough way to not have to do some of those crazy things that we used to have to do. Well, and I think going back to the generational question, I think these younger generations aren't even going to accept it. They're not going to allow it. I mean, it'll be really interesting to see what the workforce looks like in a few years with more influence from them. Yeah, 100%. And you know what, something that my husband and I realized, because he's also agency side and that's where we met. But remember, do you remember the days where we didn't have laptops?

13:40We just had desktop stations because I remember I'm like, no, a sick day meant a sick day. Like we couldn't bring our work home with us or anything like that. There was like just even from the parameters in place, we weren't able to force our way through sickness and still work, you know, but things are different now. Everything you can work from your phone, from your laptop. So yeah, it's just a different landscape now.

14:01Luz Corona:I used to bring sweatpants to the office and put them in my desk drawer. So like at six o 'clock, I could put sweatpants on at least at the office because I knew I'd be there really late. So smart. So smart. Smart or really stupid. I don't know. Maybe I should have just went home. Who knows? All right. Let's go back to the board. OK. There is a science to numbers because I'm being drawn to number 11. OK. Let's see. OK. Campaign US just dropped its 2026 leading women list. why does this list matter and what can the rest of us learn from the women on it you know i think i immediately think of just some of the talk tracks i've heard over the years even when i was at ad week and we had like our our women trailblazers list and you know people say well like why does it have to be women trailblazers why can't it be that i think it's maybe it's a hot take.

14:57But you know, the women in the workplace, it's we're not exactly advancing, you know, like just after following the pandemic following now with the RTO mandates coming back and layoffs. I mean, we've seen the statistics women are being impacted by all of this. So it's still it's important to champion these trailblazers that are really making a difference in the industry and getting recognized for it because recognition also isn't always there. So the categories. I mean, And I always get really excited. The vibes in the Inspiring Women room are just so fun and celebratory. Everyone's hyping each other up, the walk-up songs, you know, it's just, and it's also they, you have the option to bring your kid because it's bring your kids to work day so they can see, you know, mom up there doing her thing, you know, having a good home life and work life, you know, like killing it in both places.

15:50But I think it's important because there's also different categories. You know, it's women breaking barriers in media and technology, which is a male-dominated space still. You know, it's not like these are all kind of equally created spaces. So it's so important to champion the people that are paving the way for the next few generations.

16:08Luz Corona:That's great. Well, you said a lot of the things I would have followed up with. I think just like in looking at the list, a lot of the commonalities, a lot of these women are in male dominated fields. They're innovating. They're bringing just like new interesting things to market and ways of working. And just kudos to you guys for continuing to recognize them and bring their stories to the forefront. I think it's awesome and very inspiring for me as a woman to read about them and connect with them online as well. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's always like just a really inspiring event from an event from inspiring women.

16:44Luz Corona:Awesome. All right. Let's go back to the board. Okay. I'm going to go with number one. All right. Behind number one. How is the industry really doing on diversity and representation? Are we making progress or are we just talking about it more? And what do you think still needs to change? So this is a good question. I think we are advancing. Look, the conversation is is still very much active. If the conversation was dimming down, you know, fighting down or dimming, I would be more worried. But the fact is, ever since, you know, kind of the last social reckoning that we had over the pandemic, like these conversations really rose to the surface.

17:30They're still very much there from based on what we all saw and what we all heard and witnessed. But there's definitely still more ways to go. I think the conversation is advancing, but I don't think it was advancing as fast as it was a couple of years ago. It's definitely scaled back. And this is, you know, to marginalize communities. So I think the conversation is advancing, just not as fast. And there was a really great op-ed on campaign. I think we made it free because it's like impact related. Anything DEI related, we, you know, put in front of the paywall. Don't tell my bosses, I told you.

18:08So with that, it was kind of like a post 2020. I believe it was someone from Duncan Shannon, sorry, mentioning another agency on here. That's great.

18:16Luz Corona:We love agencies. Yeah. Yeah. And it was, you know, kind of post 2020 reflection, what worked and what do we still need to do? And it was just a really great piece. And I recommend everyone going to take a look. And, you know, just kind of what I just said is based on that the conversation is advancing. Yes, We made a little progress, but there's still ways to go. I have hope, though, in just seeing the initiatives that some brands are doing, like a brand like Lush is so inspiring. Just kind of like when and also, you know, our Multicultural Agency of the Year. I don't know if I should say it, but I was just reading like the well, this will come out, but confidential.

18:55It's Alma as the Multicultural Agency of the Year. And they're a good example because, you know, and you'll see in their write up, they won some general market pitches and then added multicultural to it. So it just goes to show that a lot of some of these agencies and brands are thinking multicultural is mainstream because it is, you know, and kind of looking at you see it in the results, you see it in the business wins. So I have hope when I see things like that, when so many things feel like it could be going against the grain because of, you know, the narrative coming from the administration, then you see like other marketers and agencies going against the grain and just doing what feels right.

19:37Luz Corona:That's incredible. Well, congratulations to Alma. I can't wait to read their write-up. And I had Pedro Lerma on the podcast not that long ago, and he said some very similar things to me. And he's seeing some of those reactions in his business as well, where it doesn't have to start multicultural. But bringing a multicultural lens to it is a good business decision as well. And I just think the more agencies can start thinking like that, the better. From a brand side, are you seeing, you mentioned Lush, like what is there, what specifically are they doing or what's inspiring about them? So with Lush, you know, it's their brand pillars that they are, you know, a brand that's all about advocacy and inclusion and using their platform to drive messaging, to be more inclusive in the world.

20:29So, and they, and they live it, you know, that's the big difference between Lush and like, say other brands. I can't think about, I don't want to bash any brands, but with Lush, you know, they even you would think they're just like a bath bomb brand. Right. Not just a bath bomb brand. Like they use, you know, an example is like they and whether you, you know, agree with it or not, but they use their storefronts to. So a recent one, you know, a couple we've covered. Julia Walker has covered a couple of their, you know, initiatives. But I think it was when there was something with Governor Newsom and, you know, they kind of rebuttaled that they did something.

21:04I can't remember the specifics. And then most recently, they took a stand against the anti-immigration sentiment, you know, and just created, I believe, bath bombs like in honor of that. And, you know, maybe it's just the bath bomb, but really it's about a brand with a platform that's not afraid to be inclusive and, you know, speak its mind.

21:24Luz Corona:Yeah. Yeah, that's great. We'll link to those articles, too, that you mentioned. So everybody has access to them on your website. Awesome. Well, I think it's a really important conversation. And obviously, it's it's an area that you have studied and have a personal passion in and have for a while. So yeah, it definitely gives hope, you know, especially in this past year with the anti immigration sentiment, like I'm a child of immigrants. So it's it's hard to read the news and not feel a certain way that it that could have been me 30 years ago, you know, like our doors being banged down on. And we, I guess we just got lucky because of the time, you know, that we grew up in, but is it luck?

22:05You know, it just should be like just basic human rights.

22:08Luz Corona:But anyway, without getting too political or existential, I think it's really important for these brands and these agencies to keep doing what they're doing and just not be afraid and be unapologetic about what they stand for. Great advice. All right. I don't know where you're going next. I can't even predict. Let's see.