LinkedIn Top Voices 2020: Marketing & Advertising

Today we’re debuting LinkedIn News’ 6th annual Top Voices list, a collection of hundreds of experts driving today’s professional conversation. Below you’ll find the 2020 Top Voices in Marketing & Advertising, 10 leaders starting meaningful conversations and building communities in the industry. These are great people to follow to stay ahead on everything from marketing trends and new brand campaigns to job opportunities.

In the top spot is Mayur Gupta, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at Gannett, for his daily posts on topics like marketing challenges, leadership and brand purpose. Then you’ll find Steven Wolfe Pereira, CMO turned ed-tech entrepreneur, whose Spotlight Series highlighting Black and Latinx talent will instantly expand your network and knowledge of the amazing people you should be following. And rounding out the top three, you’ll find Mita Mallick, Head of Inclusion, Equity and Impact at Carta, who brings a delightful mix of the personal, sharing her own parenting challenges amid COVID, and the professional, shining a light on the brand leaders paving the way in activism, advocacy and inclusion.

To compile the list, we used a combination of qualitative and quantitative signals — including engagement (including reactions, comments and shares across each member’s content); posting cadence; and follower growth. You can learn more about the methodology at the bottom of this article and can check out all of this year’s Top Voices around the world here. 

Check out all of this year’s #LinkedInTopVoices in Marketing & Advertising — and follow them to stay plugged into the conversation.

What he talks about: Mayur Gupta may dream in LinkedIn posts. As one of the platform’s most prolific members in the marketing industry, he starts provocative conversations almost every day. Some of his popular musings from this year include why marketing is a specialized skill, the 3 archetypes of marketers, and why too much budget can be bad for marketing. 

His biggest learning from the past year amid Covid-19: “The principles and values that drive long term sustainable growth have never been more important. It's easy to drive short term success with fear, confusion, offers, money. However, long term success will always come from converging purpose and profitability, science and storytelling, emotional and functional value, brand and performance. Consumers do not isolate between the two and businesses should not either. It's a world of ANDs and not ORs.”  

 Follow Mayur Gupta

What he talks about: In June, Wolfe Pereira started a Spotlight Series on LinkedIn highlighting Black and Latinx talent. At the bottom of each executive’s feature he writes, “No more excuses about how folks ‘can't find’ diverse talent to fill the C-Suite and board rooms.” The series is resonating: Many of his daily posts garner more than a thousand likes and the CMO-turned-entrepreneur says people reach out to him to suggest talent to feature. You can see some examples here, here and here. 

His biggest learning from the past year amid Covid-19: “No matter how much technology permeates life, we will always need human connection.”

Follow Steven Wolfe Pereira

What she talks about: Mallick, who recently left a role as the head of cross cultural marketing at Unilever, is a passionate advocate for developing inclusive leaders who can create inclusive cultures. Her posts range from applauding brand actions and activism, highlighting the latest stats on the gender pay gap and how to support grieving colleagues to her regular features in Working Mom on the challenges of parenting. 

Her biggest learning from the past year amid Covid-19: “Kindness has for too long been an underrated leadership quality. The pandemic has taught us that kindness is needed now more than ever to get us to the other side.” 

Follow Mita Mallick

What she talks about: Scrolling through Mitchell’s posts on LinkedIn is a masterclass in marketing and content strategy and discovery. Her daily posts are thoughtful streams of consciousness on how to best use LinkedIn, her opinion on personalization in automated emails and polls on podcast discovery habits. A recent post highlighting the importance of a marketer’s resume and offering to send hers to anyone who asked garnered nearly 300 comments.  

Her biggest learning from the past year amid Covid-19: “People want so badly to be connected to each other. We crave social interaction. While social media and technology have their downsides, I think we saw during Covid-19 that they can be a force for good when the world around us is chaotic and unpredictable.” 

Follow Katie Mitchell

What he talks about: Kerbel shares much more than his own thoughts, often highlighting the creative endeavors of others -- be it brands or people. When he is spouting his own ideas, he posts missives including: “Controversial thought ?? If I was in charge of Progressive’s brand, I would definitely consider sunsetting Flo,” why Spotify should acquire all hold music and conference call companies, and why marketers should eradicate their use of the word “or.” 

A prediction for 2021: “Marketing as a function has been looked to more for leadership as a result of navigating the pandemic. StoryTELLING has become storyLIVING, meaning it's not what you say but what you do that's most important. Marketing is at the forefront of demonstrating how companies are living (or evolving) their values every day, which is likely to only accelerate with the coming of Gen Z.”

Follow Matt Kerbel

What he talks about: Following Hearn is like sitting courtside at a game with the team’s biggest fan. He’s a champion of others and has channeled that spirit into a way to give back to the industry. In May, Hearn launched the Monday Night Mentorship Collective, a network for marketers of color to share experiences, answer questions and find community. The LinkedIn Group, which has regular Monday night Zoom meetings, is now more than 2,000 people strong. He says, “It's been the most rewarding thing I've done in my professional career.” 

A prediction for 2021: “I believe 2021 will be the year where we close the gap between genders, races, religions and companies. COVID has shown us just how connected we all are to one another. Our sense of empathy for one another has been elevated to a state we won't ever come down from. This sense of elevated connection will result in flatter organizations, more partnerships and collaborations being made and more corporate dollars in support of social progress than ever before.” 

Follow Jabari Hearn

What she talks about: Kean is a breath of fresh air in an industry that often speaks in buzzwords and jargon. She’s not afraid to criticize the advertising industry and tackles sexism and discrimination head on, calling out conference organizers for hosting “manels” (all male panels). She points people to an organization she co-founded called D.I.C.E., Diversity & Inclusion at Conferences and Events, that provides guidance and certification to help organizers create inclusive and diverse events. She recently launched an interview series called HOW NOT TO. Her first episode? How not to be a terrible person on social media.

Her biggest learning from the past year amid Covid-19: “We need to really quickly work out how to recreate the buzz of creating and inventing in the office, especially for the younger generations...Where's the fun?...Inevitably the social side of WFH is lacking, but for some workers, that's what they live for! We need to fix this somehow, and fast.”

Follow Amy Kean

What he talks about: Mack posts a mix of what he’s working on at fitness apparel brand Gymshark, alongside his own form of market research. He asks his followers things like if they’d wear Amazon’s new Halo fitness band and for examples of the best online versions of IRL events that people have attended. A post asking people for their favorite podcasts garnered over 300 comments. And he can always be counted on for a good ol’ meme or Zoom joke.  

A prediction for 2021: “I believe businesses are going to look to their lateral thinkers and creatives a lot more for direction in 2021. The goalposts moved for every single one of us this year, so whilst train-track thinkers are amazing at getting things running smoothly and efficiently, they become a lot less useful when we need to rethink the way we do things.”

Follow Noel Mack

What she talks about: One of the most fun parts of following Nguyen is getting a behind the scenes look at how she develops her voice and personal brand. She makes use of all of LinkedIn’s tools - regularly posting polls, posts, Lives, stories and videos on topics ranging from how to develop your voice and building confidence to how to take advantage of LinkedIn. 

A prediction for 2021: “I see many waves of B2B professionals becoming creators to build their influence online. The next evolution for these professionals is to expand their influence by developing their own communities surrounding their products and services. These micro-communities foster a shared value, goal, and interest. Collectively, the individuals that join these communities are the professionals’ superfans.”

Follow String Nguyen

What she talks about: Adiju shares tips for B2B marketers on a range of topics from improving your search engine optimization to the value of a great sales funnel. You can find her talking about the value of different communication channels, how to listen to your customers better, and tips for marketers looking to stand out this holiday season. Alongside her marketing thinking, Adiju posts about leadership and running your own business.

Her biggest learning from the past year amid Covid-19: “COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the vulnerabilities and negative impact of not having a global mindset in marketing. I have seen many small and many mid-sized businesses scramble to embark on digital transformation to enhance their interaction with customers and employees. And even the larger organizations that claimed to have embarked on digital transformation realized amid COVID-19 that they aren't ‘really’ digital.”

Follow Apolline Adiju

You’ve read about this year’s Top Voices in Marketing & Advertising. Now, check out the #LinkedInTopVoices in Sales, Design, Health Care and more.

How we compiled the Top Voices list

To compile the list, we use a combination of quantitative and qualitative signals. This includes engagement (including reactions, comments and shares across each member’s content); posting cadence; and follower growth. But engagement is just a start. Our next filter is qualitative. LinkedIn News editors refine and curate the list by looking at an eligible member’s body of work: Are the contributions insightful, conversational and timely? Do they seek to give and get help vs. being self-promotional? Finally, does this list reflect the world we work and live in today? 

All sharing activity measured took place over a 12-month period, from October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020. As with all LinkedIn Lists, we excluded current LinkedIn and Microsoft employees from consideration, as well as any members who are being or have been paid by LinkedIn to participate in brand campaigns or courses.