"Bubbly and blunt."
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| Banikarim |
Following are excerpts from stories about her:
From Crain's New York's "40 Under 40" in 2008; don't miss the video interview with her:
For as long as she can remember, Banikarim has been in motion -- fleeing Iran for Paris with her family after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California before settling in New York by way of Buenos Aires.
The experience of adapting to different cultures was part of what prepared her to become the first marketing chief at Hispanic media giant Univision Communictions.
"Being a good marketer takes curiosity, empathy and the willingness to take risks,'' says Banikarim, who also speaks French, Spanish and Farsi. "Moving a lot -- making new friends being in new situations, being thrown into risk -- you had to have those things."
From Flooring the Consumer: Brite '08 in March 2008:
Banikarim joined Univision in 2002 just as the Spanish-language network first experienced slow growth. So, she brought in a more consultative and strategic approach. She hired account planners to talk about consumer insights and connect emotionally and MBAs to analyze. She decided that marketing would run programming and sell emotion, using a new format for its 2007 Upfront Event for selling programming to advertisers titled "I heart Univision." The format included consumer generated media with testimonials and user-generated content.
From her New York Times wedding announcement in March 1997:
Banikarim left Iran with her family when she was a young girl, moving first to Paris, then to San Francisco, and later to London. Banikarim's sister, Susie, says she was always energetic, artistic and precocious. In Paris, she was drinking espresso and reading the existentialists at 12. Now, she is so esthetically particular that even her paper napkins come from the Museum of Modern Art.
''She is a monsoon of a life force,'' said Mary Jane Brennan, a friend. ''When we would go out, people used to think she was Indira Gandhi. Then, if she wore sunglasses and dressed up, they thought she was Madonna. She has this mystique about her.''
From the Daily Beast's "Buzz Board," Banikarim wrote in July 2009:
As a marketer it's all about being current. One great idea from Tom Kelley's book The Ten Faces of Innovation is the "reverse mentor" (in chapter 3: cross pollinator). Get someone younger to keep you up to speed on all things Twitter, disqus and friendfeed. Tom offered to lend me his reverse mentor—but I need my own! WANTED: Twenty-something tech-savvy mentor to keep me current.
From a Univision press release, announcing her promotion to chief marketing officer in June 2005:
"Maryam's entrepreneurial spirit and proven success in developing and implemeting strategic marketing initiatives will be a tremendous asset to us. We are confident that she will take us to new heights in her new role."
Earlier: GCI said creating chief marketing officer job
Yes, she has bounced around quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteOk...here is how I read it...
ReplyDelete1. She is taking over where Robin Pence failed.
2. Strange that they would announce her AFTER the new corporate branding campaign. After all, she is now "inheriting" this new brand as the CMO!!!
3. Maybe she does not want her fingerprints on this branding facelift? Maybe she was involved in the background? Doubtful, since all marketers like to take credit for the "brand" reinvention.
4. She will be gone in one year. This is a rebound job for her as she was just fired from NBC Universal.
Yeah, it does sound odd that she would come aboard AFTER the launch of the "we're within reach of everything" campaign.
ReplyDeleteIt's so much better to be part of the proces and not just the inheritor.
I wish her luck.
We'll see what Corporate says -- assuming this gets confirmed soon.
ReplyDeleteOh please 3:40! She wasn't fired. Why do haters like you always have to take the low road. You are so representative if what is wrong with the world. This woman is a major get for any media company. You embarass yourself with that comment. You may now go to the head of the Lemming Troll line. no, forget that. It would be too insulting to the LTs!
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of being roundly criticized, this woman appears to have some street cred. Maybe she can instill an entrepreneurial and creative spirit within an organization that sorely needs a new and progressive mindset. It's far too early to pass judgment. Let us not shoot arrows if she can produce results.
ReplyDeleteI agree with 5:19. Why is it necessary to bash her before she arrives? Simply question.
ReplyDeleteWhat street cred? I have read all those stories looking for something that she did, and I don't see it. She gets good press, but I'm looking for concrete results. Maybe you can tell me what impresses you.
ReplyDelete5:31 you are such a hater. Her work at Univision is legendary. She established many advertising partnerships bringing in millions of dollars in revenue. Do a little more homework buhby!
ReplyDeleteI thought Robin was responsible for marketing. Does Robin now report to Banikarim. Perhaps this explains the mysterious absence of any GCI press release announcing this appointment.
ReplyDeleteGuys let me stop you. This is a legit big time hire. Whether the powers at be have the courage to let her work her magic is yet to be seen but don't try to demean her, she is the real deal. If you loved Jabba the S, you will adore her!
ReplyDeleteIf this is all real -- the job, her getting hired -- I would imagine she would be brought in as a senior vice president, on par with the level of authority Chris Saridakis had. That means a seat on the Gannett Management Committee, alongside Dickey, Lougee, etc.
ReplyDeleteLess than that -- say, vice president -- would put her on the same footing as Robin Pence. And that would mean the chief marketing officer didn't have as much authority as a job like that should.
Jimmy you are going to be so surprised.
ReplyDeleteShe is half of a power couple. At the time of their 1997 wedding, the NYT says, her husband Andrew Lerner ran "his own capital venture fund specializing in start-up Internet businesses."
ReplyDeleteToday, that business is Inter-Atlantic Group of New York. "Lerner holds a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University and an M.B.A. in Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,'' the firm's website says.
5:31 If her work at Univision was so legendary, why is it the company didn't bother to fill her position when she left? Looks to me as if someone decided it wasn't bringing in money or they would have kept it going. I'm not a hater, and don't know her. Just looking at what has been written about her. Maybe you know her?
ReplyDeleteDoes this all mean the reach out marketing campaign was the disaster that many of us here thought it was? Just asking, not hating.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe they would make a senior appointment like this without announcing it with a press release.
ReplyDeleteThe Media Daily News story could be wrong. Or, it leaked before Corporate had a chance to announce it.
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ReplyDeleteFollowing is an edited version of a comment posted at 6:43 p.m.:
ReplyDeleteI worked with her at NBc and let's just say that she is no picnic. [XXXXX]. I think she won't work out here. [XXXXX] they won't know how to deal with Maryam. She is another Saridakis according to some insiders here at Gannett.
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ReplyDeleteFollowing is an edited version of a comment posted by 6:53, regarding a remark by 6:43:
ReplyDelete[XXXXX] your term for bright energetic smart female who gets shit done....and doesn't suffer fools easily. Time will tell.
Any successful woman who doesn't suffer fools is labeled a B! The double standard is still alive and well. Bring it on Maryam!
ReplyDeleteThis is a funny job...Chief Marketing Officer for Gannett. A company that is made up of 85 newspapers, 23 tv stations, a commercial printing press, elevator advertisements and some random online properties like Careerbuilder and pointroll and Cozi.
ReplyDeleteDo the executives at Gannett actually think they can brand a patch work of randomness? And you hire a CMO fwho has never marketed anything like this to do what? Print new stationary with the new logo? Is Maryam going to set up trade booths for Gannett? Maybe she will present at the next UNITY conference with Virgil and the other EEOC entitled employees that have lifetime employment at Gannett because of their race.
Hiring a CMO when we do not even have a Chief Digital Officer is a joke! Is the future of Gannett now their brand? Have we given up on the revenue?
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ReplyDeleteMaryam if you're reading this blog, "F" the naysayers and go for it! Sounds to me like you don't need the money and that's just great. Hope having a sense of financial freedom gives you the courage to stand-up to the knuckleheads on the gannett management committee. That's what we need Maryam, someone with the brains and forgive me but also the balls to match Martore's. Good luck!
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ReplyDeleteSo, maybe it is easier to hire a CMO instead of a CDO! Who is prioritizing the hiring at Gannett? Maybe it was the brand that was holding back the sales?!?
ReplyDeleteThis woman has no idea what she is getting herself into.
Looks like we have a real winner here....from the NYTimes
ReplyDelete"The relationship has been as monsoonlike as the bride. After business school, the couple lived together for a while, but after about a year Ms. Banikarim abruptly broke things off, afraid of even owning furniture with another person. ''She called 1-800-Mattress one day and moved out,'' Ms. Brennan said.
Ms. Banikarim rented a small apartment and spent a year thinking about whether it was possible to be both married and adventurous."
Since the board indicated it wanted any new CDO to be groomed to take over the company, Gracia has thrown every log in the road that she can to block a new choice. CMO is another matter. It is not even a position, and note how quickly Gracia created and filled it.
ReplyDeleteThis is not intended to be a partisan comment, but what does marketing bring me? I have puzzled over this as Gannett rolled out this expensive new branding campaign. Advertisers buy ads in a local paper and not Gannett, and readers read a local paper and not Gannett. So what is the reminder that we are a Gannett company intended to do?,
ReplyDeleteAnother brilliant quote from Maryam..."While I like Twitter, I’m not witty enough to be tweeting often. As a marketer I know that its important to be on top of all these trends, which is why I am a big fan of the reverse mentor idea… to be really up to speed you need someone in their tweens/teens/twenties to keep you up to date."
ReplyDeleteWell, she is definitely going to find out that she has NO MENTOR in the Gannett executive ranks, even if they are going in reverse!
Good bye to Robin Pence. This chick escaped from Iran. Robin escaped from Sprint!
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ReplyDeleteAnyone know the track record of Media Daily News, the group that first floated this item? I never heard of them before this.
ReplyDeleteSome folks have things so twisted it really lowers the level of credibility here.
ReplyDeleteMarketing and corporate communications are two different things. They may aim for the same goals, but they are different universes.
Robin Pence, who is routinely villified in this blog, is a perfectly fine and quite professional asset for the Gannett organization. She does her job well, is certainly more open than Tara Connell, and is well-liked and respected by most in the building and organization.
Marketing, in contrast, is a multi-layered job that includes research, sales tools, and the overall message for the company and its products.
Two different things, okay?
Also interesting that a woman gets named and articles are found casting her as a "bubbly", "force of nature" and similar things. Women have to be some kind of strange creature to succeed in business, it seems, while men are just...men.
Sad.
Welcome Maryam!
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ReplyDeleteMy Boss says: what is a CMO?
ReplyDeleteCMO=Chief Marketing Officer
ReplyDeleteNYTimes Monday Ad Column by Stuart Elliot did not confirm this hire. Means that either:
ReplyDelete1. its not true
2. media week printed on rumor and Gannett would not confirm it YET.
Maryam: If you are even thinking of doing this, don't do it. Take my advice and see that it will be nothing but misery. These people don't have any plan for what they are doing, and will just drain you of all your energy that you have left. It will be the most disastrous step you ever took in your career if you did this. You obviously don't need the money, and you certainly don't need the grief. Take it from someone who works here: Stay away.
ReplyDeleteI'll second that, 6:27 a.m. There are a lot of companies out there. Gannett shouldn't be on the list.
ReplyDeleteJeff Wilks over at USA Today must be very disappointed. He wanted that job.
ReplyDeleteFrom Paris? Won't use any paper napkins unless they come from the Museum of Modern Art?
ReplyDeleteSound like a regular person we can relate to ...
Actually sounds like yet another smug, snide elitist know-it-all.
I've seen them come and go.... mostly go...
Robin Pence. Tara Connell. Kate Marymont. At one time, all these women were hailed by some as saviors. What are their true responsibilities now? Are they doing anything positive, or just collecting the big checks and waiting to collect their cushy pensions?
ReplyDeleteSomeone undoubtedly will be booted out; Martore, Pence, Connell, Marymont and Banikarim won't last in a room together. Let the cat fights begin.
ReplyDeleteThe cat fights are on. Connell is the first out the door. Pence will be next.
ReplyDelete