Scott Brown (IMC99)

Chief marketing officer at Hum Capital and limited partner at GTMfund

How have you applied the IMC way of thinking in the various roles you’ve had?

The IMC focus on being data and metric-driven has been a consistent theme throughout my jobs. Even when working with marketing executions that aren't "measurable," the approach at IMC taught me the importance of trying to make those intangibles "tangible" through operational metrics to help prove the value of marketing to business stakeholders.

What specific experience/opportunity from Medill has helped you in a certain aspect of your career?

The residency program and being sent to Silicon Valley to work with Northwestern alumni Andy Cunningham at her high-tech marketing consultancy completely changed my outlook on what I thought my career would be. I can truthfully say that I would not have the job I have today without the experiences I had at IMC.

What advice do you have for someone considering entering the IMC program?

So many of today's marketers are focused on the next, shiny, silver-bullet execution that they are convinced will solve all of their problems. For me, the biggest value of the IMC program is the focus on the fundamentals -- understanding the customer, planning activation and messaging that speaks to the audience, and measuring the business impact of those efforts. My advice is to not gloss over those fundamentals to get to the sexy, new tactics; there will always be new tactics and channels, but the fundamentals you learn in IMC will remain consistent for decades.