David Feinleib: On today’s show I have Julie Clifford from Church & Dwight. Julie, so great to have you on the show. How’s it going?
Julie Clifford: Thanks for having me. Things are going really well. 2025 is not short on surprises and new opportunities.
David Feinleib: We first met at Shop Talk some time ago, that was fortuitous. We’ve really enjoyed working with you.
Julie Clifford: It was actually just Shop Talk last year, ironically.
David Feinleib: Just last year, that’s the environment we’re in. But we’ve made tremendous progress together, so it’s been really fun. Take us back, if you would, how did you get your start in the space?
From Art Teacher to Global E-Commerce Leader
Julie Clifford: As you know, I’m in global e-commerce, overseeing marketing technology and sales acceleration, and it’s been a journey. I started out as an art teacher in Springfield, Illinois.
My husband’s a teacher and has that deep passion for it. I’m still very involved in education, I sit on our school board, but teaching itself wasn’t where my passion was, I just didn’t know yet where it was. The truth is, what I do today didn’t really exist back then, this was about twenty years ago, and I don’t want to disclose my age beyond that.
I started out getting my feet wet at some small companies, and eventually made my way into an agency, which is really what gave me exposure to e-commerce. I loved so many things about it, the fact that you can actually see the impact of the things you do, and I love data, the insights, connecting those data points together. Fast forward, and I ended up at Church & Dwight as an e-commerce brand manager over our hair and skincare products, building out a strong team under Serby, who, if you missed it, was recently featured in Forbes.
David Feinleib: Saw that, impressive, amazing. She’s a force in the industry.
Julie Clifford: As I made my way through, I ended up on the global team, trying to help build out capabilities at a global scale, taking my expertise and experience from the U.S.
Making the Jump from Teaching to E-Commerce
David Feinleib: How did you get your first gig? You were an art teacher and now you’re a marketing expert, what was in the middle there?
Julie Clifford: I’d say a big turning point was having someone truly believe in me, a gentleman named Rohan Ambrahali, another name well known in the industry, who planted some seeds of interest in my mind. I went on to get my MBA, and from there entered the e-commerce space. I’d say I’ve always stayed thirsty for more knowledge, and this industry just keeps evolving and growing.
David Feinleib: And that’s what keeps it fun. Now, you spent some time in an Amazon liaison role. Tell us about that, what did you learn there, and how did it work?
Time on the Amazon Liaison Side
Julie Clifford: I’m a pretty scrappy person. If we can’t do something one way, I’m thinking, then what can we do, and how do we get there. I have a real deep passion for that, and it drives me in this field. I love that e-commerce provides data, and that it’s creative brain thinking too, the visuals, the storytelling, storytelling through data, but even beyond that, storytelling through the product itself, taking someone through a journey in a matter of microseconds when they’re shopping on that platform.
David Feinleib: You might be too modest to say it, but I’ll say it, you were excellent at your last role, really good at it, and then you decided to take this global role. What was your thinking, and how has it been?
Taking on a Global Role
Julie Clifford: It terrified me at first, honestly, I think because it was the unknown, I’d never done marketing at a global level before. But if something scares you, I think it means you’ve already made up your mind to do it, that you’re ready to take on the adventure, instead of taking it for granted or getting cocky about it. I really wanted to do big things, and it leaned into a lot of my strengths. I realized that the teacher in me had a lot to share, and the tools to help get us there.
David Feinleib: You have an amazing gift for vision, you’ve really shown us the path, and channeling that teacher in you to share that expertise and bring the rest of us along has been great to watch. How has Global been? Are you on a plane all the time, on Teams and Zoom, how does it actually work?
Julie Clifford: I spend about seventy percent of my time in this exact room, working remotely. What’s kind of fun about it is you really do work throughout the day, which, to be honest, is kind of exciting, because it’s not a standard nine-to-five. It lets me lean into different areas of my life at different times, and I know the work is always going to get done.
Why Brand Consistency Matters Across Markets
David Feinleib: We’re working together at It’s Rapid on content. Give us the big picture, what’s going on in the world of global content, and why does it matter?
Julie Clifford: As you move globally, with the internet and the devices we all carry, we as a world are very exposed to each other. When you think about brands, you want to be consistent in how you show up. I do believe in localization, you still need to take your branding and tweak it to fit different audiences in different markets, but in order to get real impact from your marketing dollars, you need that level of consistency, so that no matter where I go, no matter where I encounter this brand, I have the same experience.
The brand I always think of with this is Coca-Cola. It doesn’t matter where in the world you’ve encountered a Coke or a Coca-Cola ad, there’s this natural feeling you get from it, and that’s where consistency becomes so important.
David Feinleib: So content globally, and consistency is really about knowing the brand in all these different parts of the world.
Julie Clifford: Exactly, it’s incredibly important to show up consistently, especially with something like eighty percent of people around the world now carrying smartphones.
Localization Without Losing Brand Identity
David Feinleib: So you’ve got to have content, you’ve got to be consistent, and then you’ve got to adapt for the local market. How was the organization approaching content before, when deploying it into these different markets?
Julie Clifford: Our approach has been fairly similar to what you’d see generally, leaving it to local marketing teams to drive what they believe is best for their markets. We do have brand books, and we distribute them globally, which is common practice, but one thing that happens is there’s always a different way to interpret them. They’re written in English, and once you start interpreting English into different languages, things get distilled down. Sometimes the way you say something in one language completely changes in another, or doesn’t translate at all.
So you still need strong localization, and it’s one of those constant hurdles, how do you maintain brand identity without losing brand personality along the way?
David Feinleib: That’s the fine line. You also work across different formats of content, we’ve worked with you on everything from PDP images to brand store. What other formats are you thinking about when it comes to connecting with the shopper?
Content Formats Across the Omnichannel Shopper Journey
Julie Clifford: If you walk yourself through a shopper journey and all of its touchpoints, and take a step further to look at omnichannel, it’s a blend of physical and digital touchpoints. So the opportunities to adapt a branding strategy that can really expand globally start to feel endless.
David Feinleib: We met when you were on the lookout for solutions that would help you create that consistency while still letting you deploy locally. What do you look for in solutions in this area, both from a product perspective and from an adoption perspective within your teams?
What She Looks for in Content Solutions
Julie Clifford: It needs to be intuitive. If you’re asking a marketing person to localize some artwork themselves, without pulling in a creative team, it needs to be quick, easy, and shareable. On top of that, when you look at artwork, it has to be agile enough to handle language changes, some languages in APAC render text much larger than English, others larger than Spanish or German, and some languages read right to left or even vertically instead of left to right. You need to be able to manipulate things easily for all of that.
You also want your local packaging represented in the image, you don’t want everything defaulting to German text on a can that should read in English, or vice versa. Data has shown us that you really capture your audience when you personalize your messaging, so how do you personalize at scale? You start with things like language or packaging, or even swapping in talent, so people see someone more representative of who they are, rather than defaulting to, say, an American model.
David Feinleib: One nuance here is the files themselves, we’ve worked together on layered files. For our listeners, when we talk about layered files versus static images, what do you mean?
Layered Files vs. Static Images
Julie Clifford: Layered files are things like your Photoshop or Illustrator files, PSDs and AI files. Static files are your JPEGs and PNGs. It’s really important to maintain a solid library of layered files. I know you all have the capability to go in and dissect flat files, and it’s certainly better than anything I could do myself, but it’s a much more seamless process when we can start from those layered files.
David Feinleib: Starting with layered files as the foundation. Now, on the other side of the equation, there’s the aspect of managing risk when it comes to content. What are some of the things you’re managing for, especially on a global basis?
Managing Risk in Global Content
Julie Clifford: When you talk about risk management from a content perspective, some things we can say to a consumer as Americans just aren’t viable in other markets. A great example: in Australia, you can’t claim a product is “drug free,” that language isn’t allowed the way it is here in the U.S. We sell a product called Viviscal, a hair growth supplement, and it is drug free, it’s a supplement, but there are real risks around language like that.
I’d say another risk is misrepresenting the brand, and then rights management is a big one too, because all photography has an expiration date, or a usage limitation. Since teams have traditionally worked in silos, you have to ask, do we even have global rights to these images? That’s something you have to watch closely as you expand content globally.
Evaluating Vendors and Technology
David Feinleib: You have your choice of vendors, of course, we’re grateful you decided to work with us at It’s Rapid, but what do you look for when you’re evaluating vendors and technologies?
Julie Clifford: As someone who evaluates marketing technology, I always look at things through three lenses: is this technology going to make my company money, is it going to save my company money, and will it mitigate risk. It has to hit at least one of those, and ideally we can talk numbers and impact, so it’s measurable. One thing that drew me to It’s Rapid is that I see so much value in making our marketing dollars work harder, which saves the company money, and in aligning all of our markets around really strong branded assets, which can increase conversion and lead to more revenue. And when it comes to mitigating risk, once teams are working together instead of in silos, we really start to see what’s actually happening out there. I know there’s a new plugin you provide that connects to some of our internal systems, so we’re also mitigating the risk of losing digital assets, since they can automatically flow into our own DAM, our digital asset manager.
Training Teams and Rolling Out New Tools
David Feinleib: You have this natural ability to be hands-on in the product one moment, pointing out a feature or capability, and then in the next moment thinking through how to train the teams and roll it out across the org. How do you make that mental shift?
Julie Clifford: I was a teacher, so I remember that at some point, everyone is a novice with a new tool, this is all new to somebody. When I’m thinking through training, I take it slow, and this is my data mindset coming through, I dive into what am I actually doing, and why am I doing it, and build a bit of a story around that, so I don’t get too far ahead of people. I think it’s important to focus on exactly what they need to know to be successful. If we need to add more later, we just layer on additional training and capabilities over time. You don’t have to swallow the ocean in one day.
Where She Sees AI Heading
David Feinleib: Great insights. We can’t really have a conversation these days without talking about AI and automation. What are some of the areas you’re excited about there?
Julie Clifford: I recently sat in on a virtual summit on AI, and there’s always this narrative that AI is going to take over everything. One of the more impactful things I heard there was that it can’t, at least not entirely, because AI can only react to the data it actually has available. Unless we start removing some of the safeguards around things like our emails or health records, we’re a ways off from that. I do think the people who don’t lean into AI are the ones who risk getting replaced, because every day it surprises me, every day I find it more exciting, we’re living in the history of the future, and I find that incredibly exciting.
David Feinleib: It’s a great space, we’re seeing all sorts of use cases, most recently around analytics capabilities. I want to zoom out for a more personal note. Who are some of the people who’ve influenced you the most in your career? You’ve mentioned two industry luminaries already, are there others who’ve helped you along the journey?
On Mentors and Family
Julie Clifford: First and foremost, my husband. There’s no bigger advocate for me than him. On the days I question myself, like anyone, I have my moments of imposter syndrome, and he always reminds me, he’ll say, “If not you, then give me a name of who.” And I’ll say I don’t know, and he’ll say, “Then it’s you.” Even the other night, getting ready for bed, he told me how proud he was of me, and when I asked what I’d done, he brought up how, when we first moved in together, I was really struggling to launch a career and was in kind of a low place, and he just said, “You’re going to do it, I know you. You’re full of tenacity, vigor, and grit.” So I’d say my husband, for sure.
I’d also say Stacey Ramstead, the new CMO at Church & Dwight, another person who saw potential in me, opened doors, and really helped guide me in building the career I’ve landed on today.
David Feinleib: So great. You’ve got a family, you’ve got dogs we’ve talked about before, what do you like to do with your off time away from work?
Julie Clifford: I’m a huge fan of the outdoors, I love camping, I love hiking. There’s a beach down the road from where I live, so in the evenings we’ll often head out there and eat dinner on the beach. Otherwise, I do a lot of community work, I’m on our school board, I’m also vice chair on the board of a preschool called Growing With Grace, and I’m on our District 73 foundation board. I recently took on a mentoring role through Veteran Affairs too, helping people who’ve previously served our country figure out how to enter civilian life and grow a career, working with new mentees now, and I’m really excited about it.
David Feinleib: Incredible, Julie. You’re an inspiration on the personal front and the work front. I had a great time talking with you today, thank you for the incredible partnership, and I hope you’ll come back and talk with me again on Beyond the Shelf.
Julie Clifford: I’m going to be a little shameless here and put in a plug for It’s Rapid, what an incredible company you all have been to work with. You’ve been so responsive to feedback and to ideas, even the big ones, you’ll say, “actually, yeah, maybe we can do something with that.” It’s been quite a journey, and I know we’re still at the start of it, but I’m looking forward to bigger things as we look to the future.
David Feinleib: Most appreciated, and thrilled to be working with you. Come back on the show anytime. Thank you.
Julie Clifford: Absolutely. Thanks, Dave.