TL;DR
Empower just appointed Sangita Woerner as Chief Marketing Officer. (Source: Empower Press Center)
She’s led brand and growth at Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, and Unilever. Now she’ll steer Empower’s brand, multi-channel marketing, and customer engagement.
This is a notable signal for financial-services marketing: story-driven brand building is moving center stage, alongside performance and product.
Why This Hire Matters
Empower competes in a crowded retirement and wealth space where trust, clarity, and simple experiences win.
Bringing in a leader known for compelling narratives and measurable growth suggests a playbook that blends:
Brand consistency (financial decisions require confidence and familiarity)
Customer-centric innovation (personalized journeys across web, app, email, and advisors)
Channel orchestration (paid + owned + partner distribution with tight feedback loops)
As we’ve seen across multiple CMO transitions, the first 180 days set the tone: tighten positioning, sharpen the value prop, and align product, data, and creative around one metric that matters.
Key Takeaway
Here’s how you should expect Empower’s marketing to shift, and what you can steal for your own roadmap:
Narrative first, numbers always
Expect a clear promise that shows up the same way in every touchpoint.
Then gets proven with outcomes (savings rates, plan participation, advice adoption).
Build your own “narrative scorecard” to check for consistency before you scale spend.
Lifecycle > one-and-done
Retirement journeys are long.
The growth lever isn’t just new accounts: it’s activation, contributions, and advice usage. Map your lifecycle like a product, not a campaign. (If you’re job-seeking, we broke down lifecycle roles and salaries in our 2025 Remote Marketing Salary Report, which you can grab in our salary benchmarks guide.)
Owned channels as trust engines
Financial brands live or die by email and in-product education.
Build modular content blocks so every message can localize by segment, life stage, and risk appetite, without reinventing the wheel.
Creative that explains, not just entertains
The best FS creative translates jargon into simple choices with clear next steps. Audit your last three campaigns: where did you ask people to think too hard?
What You Can Do Today
Job seekers: CMO transitions create new openings in lifecycle, content, analytics, and brand ops. If you’re targeting roles like Lifecycle Manager or Content Lead, watch for Empower and peer brands to hire.
See current openings on our curated Remote Marketing Jobs board.
Leads & ICs: Borrow the “first 180 days” plan. Pick one north-star outcome, align channels and ops, and publish a 1-page brand brief everyone can use.
Keep learning: We unpack practical frameworks every week in the Marketing Blog and track leadership moves in Marketing News.
What To Watch Next
Hiring signals: net-new roles in brand strategy, experimentation, and product marketing.
Channel mix: stronger multi-channel orchestration (search + paid social + affiliates + advisor co-marketing).
Customer metrics in public: expect more emphasis on adoption and engagement in updates and thought leadership.