Jody Kaminsky, Chief Marketing Officer at ICIMS, led a full brand transformation to reposition an established talent acquisition company around AI — in a category where being wrong about AI costs someone a job. She and Greg Kihlström get into what that took.
A brand refresh is a business decision before it's a design decision. Kaminsky weighs in on the business drivers that signaled it was time to change, what iCIMS deliberately gave up in familiar brand equity, and how the new narrative got tied to where the company is actually going.
"AI" is not specific enough to be a promise. A tool that speeds up work a person is still authoring and a system that decides and acts on its own are very different products with very different stakes in hiring. Kaminsky discusses how precise you have to get with buyers about which one you're selling.
The brand is tested in the product's behavior, not the campaign. What the platform decides, how it explains itself, and what happens when it gets something wrong all shape the brand more than the messaging does — and Kaminsky weighs in on keeping marketing's story and the system's behavior aligned as output scales.
About Jody Kaminsky
Jody Kaminsky is the Chief Marketing Officer at ICIMS, an enterprise AI talent acquisition platform, and former CMO of UKG who led the company through the Ultimate Software/Kronos merger. With 30+ years of experience as a CMO and marketing board advisor guiding enterprise technology companies through large-scale transformations, Jody's experience lies in leading brand evolution, shaping compelling brand narratives, aligning marketing with business strategy, and building credibility in a crowded AI market. Today, she applies that experience at ICIMS, which powers responsible AI hiring for more than 4,000 organizations worldwide, including The Container Store, Urban Outfitters, PetSmart, Canon, Heineken, and The Cheesecake Factory, giving her perspective shaped by some of the world’s most recognized brands.
Jody Kaminsky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodykaminsky/
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