If you aren’t plugged into the who’s who in the marketing world, you may not know this woman’s name, but if you’re a consumer who enjoys beauty products, toothpaste, or keeping up with your finances, you certainly know her work. With nearly 30 years of experience, Nadine Karp McHugh is a seasoned marketing and media executive who has been at the helm of brands including Colgate, L’Oréal, and Goldman Sachs, responsible for budgets ranging from $120MM to $1BN. She also worked on the agency side with Mindshare, where she led the Unilever US business.
With her well-rounded experience across an array of clients, she’s now the founder of Evolve Up Inc., a consulting firm focused on marketing transformation and leadership development. Nadine sat down with us to discuss how she implements key strategies into modern marketing campaign methods, faces change head-on when many others shy away from it, and shares advice for those looking to make a career pivot within the marketing industry.
Her Agenda: How did your experience managing P&L accounts ranging from $5MM to $2.5Bn at WPP shape your approach to leadership and strategic decision-making?
Nadine Karp McHugh: I started at Ogilvy as a planner, and when I left, I was working at Mindshare as the chief client officer of the New York office, so I had a lot of accounts, I had a lot of different sizes and scopes, and roles. The one thing that I spent a good deal of time on was running the Unilever business in the US. The work that was recognized there got me promoted to be the chief client officer, so I learned a lot while I was at WPP (Mindshare), and I certainly learned how to lead, I had anywhere from one assistant planner reporting to me to over 100 people on the Unilever account to all of the accounts in the New York office, and so I learned how to drive transformation across businesses and also within an account. It’s where I really fell in love with organizational creativity and change leadership. The work there sort of led to my pursuit of science, organizational creativity, and change leadership. I learned how to move teams forward to be comfortable driving change…relevant change in order to drive business results. Most people aren’t change-friendly. I tend to go towards the fire. I like to live in the what-if. I learned about change leadership, driving transformation, always with what’s right for the business, and making sure that you measure things so that you’re driving results. That’s what brings everybody along with you.
Her Agenda: What were the key strategies you employed to drive both day-to-day operations and new business development during your time at Mindshare New York and Unilever US?
Nadine Karp McHugh: When I was leading the Unilever business at Mindshare, communications planning started in the US, and it was all about honing in on very consumer-centric insights that were true for the consumer and also for the brand, and it was finding that sweet spot that you could create ideas, campaigns around that would help to propel the business forward and so it was always trying to make sure that you were doing what was always right for the business, what resonated with consumers and ultimately the goal was being your client’s most trusted advisor. I worked on Unilever for around 17 years, so I made some really lasting professional friends and personal friends now over those years, and so I think that I could not have done that, and we could not have driven the business forward like we did collectively if you didn’t have that trust, didn’t focus on what was right for the business and what was truly going to resonate with consumers.
Her Agenda: Managing media budgets from $120MM to $1BN at Colgate, L’Oréal, and Goldman Sachs is no small feat. What are the key factors you consider when allocating such significant media investments?
Nadine Karp McHugh: In all of those companies, one of the things that I was tasked to do was to drive digital transformation. It was about looking at relevant consumer consumption patterns, really honing in on insights and looking for that white space that the brand had a right to play in [that] would resonate with consumers and then negotiating deals around [it]. So looking for those little nuggets that would drive competitive advantage, that white space, and then creating something there that was relevant that was going to make a difference.
Her Agenda: Can you tell us more about Evolve Up Inc., the consulting firm you founded? What gap in the market were you aiming to address there?
Nadine Karp McHugh: Instead of going back into the industry for another big corporate role, I decided that I really wanted to go out on my own. I’m fortunate that I’ve had both client and agency experience, so I have successfully driven change across big matrix organizations, and I know what it takes to drive that change.
At Evolve Up, we’re helping marketers, publishers, and ad tech companies find their North Star, which feeds into their go-to-market approach. I’ve been sold to, and I’ve sold to others for many, many years, and I know what you need to look for, what should be in a value prop, what the meaningful parts and approaches of the different products and business approaches to take in order to create business results. Over the course of my career, I’ve developed integrated campaigns across categories, and they’ve penetrated the culture and they’ve allowed brands to box above their weight.
My sweet spot really with Evolve Inc. is transformation, creative problem-solving, team, and professional leadership development.
Her Agenda: What is some advice you can give to somebody who wants to go in this type of career route who may be pivoting from other careers and not necessarily started in marketing from the get-go?
Nadine Karp McHugh: I’m using the experience that I’ve had to move into the next act of my career.
At the point that I was at, I looked at what I’d done, and I could have done it again. I know the formula for marketers to transform, drive business results, and resonate with consumers, but I thought that a better way forward, based on where I am in my life, was to be more fluid in my career approach. And so if you’re somebody who’s comfortable in a corporate environment and wants to stay there, then I think that’s fine. For me, I wanted to try something else. I’m leveraging the experience I have listening to the marketplace to see where the white space is.
There seems to be a need for people like me who have client, marketer, and agency experience and a deep understanding of how all of the media works to drive business results. I have digital experience, so I’m leveraging all of that in my independent consultant role. But I don’t think that’s for everybody, either.
You have to really look at what it is you want out of your life, and where you think you could make an impact. One of the things I always wanted to do was drive value and add impact. And so that was a filter for me when creating Evolve Up.
If you have the courage to do it, you could be really happy and live the life that you want to live. But you have to be honest about your skill set and what you want to do moving forward. And then you have to put in the work, too.
Her Agenda: You’re passionate about leveraging new technologies to drive impact. How do you balance the implementation of cutting-edge technologies with the organizational changes required to support them?
Nadine Karp McHugh: In any big organization, organizational buy-in is important. You need to find like-minded people and objectively share your recommendations.
I always said numbers don’t lie, and business people see that, they respect that. While everybody might have different day-to-day objectives, all marketing organizations have the same overall goals, right? It’s about doing what’s right for the brands and the businesses to drive results. You can win the hearts and minds of consumers and sell more products and services to those consumers if you’re doing it from a place of relevancy, where it makes sense for the business.
Her Agenda: When you wrote your master’s thesis, it focused on how to build a creative DNA for any business. Can you elaborate on what the creative DNA entails and how companies can implement it?
Nadine Karp McHugh: Creative DNA is a creative problem-solving approach which helps people embrace a way of interrogating problems to come up with new solutions. It gives them an organized way of having permission to discover what’s possible. We’ve never lived in a more rich environment where if you can think of something, you can pretty much create it, thanks to technology. And there are approaches that allow teams to interrogate the possibilities and come up with new, ownable ideas that can drive competitive advantage.
Her Agenda: You’re known for building highly functional teams. What are the key ingredients for cultivating a team that thrives in any corporate culture?
Nadine Karp McHugh: One of the biggest things that you need to do is create a trusting environment. We had a culture within the team that permeated all divisions where it truly was one team. And it took a while to get there. You need to make sure that you mean what you say and say what you mean. [When] people see that in a consistent way, they know that you’re coming from a place of good. The other thing that we did that I thought was really important was we created a mantra for the team, which was ‘no divas, no wallflowers.’ What it meant was nobody was too big. No one could have too big of an ego. We’re all in it together. That was the ‘no divas’ piece. The ‘no wallflowers’ piece was everyone should feel that they have a voice and that their ideas, any idea, could be a good idea, and they should feel comfortable enough in this space to speak their mind, give their opinion, and share ideas if they have them. It really helped to create this wonderful team spirit and vibe that helped us to do a lot of great work together.
Her Agenda: While on the board of She Runs It, you chaired the Mentoring Committee. What do you believe are the most effective ways to mentor emerging leaders, particularly women and underrepresented groups?
Nadine Karp McHugh: One of the things that I learned once I got to a certain level, I felt somewhat alone at times and everyone was speaking a different language. And oftentimes women and underrepresented groups probably get that same feeling.
What I learned over time was that my feelings were not unique to me, and that I was not alone. It’s important to give people a safe space to talk about what their ambitions are, but also what their fears are so that they feel seen and that they know that they’re not alone and that nothing is insurmountable.
[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
