Morning Focus with Anette Veidung, CMO at Interwell
“It’s only when marketing is strategic and not just tactical, it becomes a source and an amplifier of sales and growth. That’s why it belongs in the C-suite.”
This was the topic Anette Veidung, CMO at Interwell, had everyone chewing over at our first Morning Focus event of 2026.
Speaking candidly about her impressive, international career spanning beauty, biotech, green tech and oil and gas, Anette shared how marketing only creates real value when it’s treated as an essential commercial function – not a support act. And whilst industries, distribution channels and customers have changed over the years, the red thread guiding her work has always been deeply rooted in strategy.
“Strategic marketing decides who gets remembered, trusted and earns the dollars.”
B2B marketing strategy
At its core, marketing strategy answers the big questions: How do we differentiate? How do we position ourselves in the customer’s mind? How do we build brand equity? And how do we create alignment?
“Without alignment, you end up with scattered arrows — some might hit the target, but most will fall to the ground.”
One of Anette’s most compelling examples to illustrate this came from a major rebrand in the oil and gas sector – a move shaped around three key principles: be relevant, be attractive and stop hiding. This wasn’t just about modernising visuals, but about uniting multiple business units, clarifying positioning and future-proofing the company for a changing energy landscape. The result? Stronger perceived quality, clearer differentiation and a brand that employees and customers could recognise and rally behind.
Set up for success
But influence doesn’t come from branding alone. Anette explained how marketers build credibility internally by understanding sales, being commercially fluent and tying marketing activity directly to business outcomes.
“If you don’t understand how the money is made – or lost – you can’t expect marketing to influence strategy.”
The conversation resonated because it was honest. About ambition. About burnout. About the tension between purpose and profession. And about the reality that stepping into strategic influence often means educating on marketing at leadership level, pushing for clear value propositions and challenging the status quo.
As the discussion drew to a close, one thing was clear: marketing doesn’t become strategic by title alone. It earns that position through speaking up, asking for influence and claiming strategic space deliberately, rather than waiting to be invited to the table. And judging by the conversations that ensued, hopefully more marketers now feel encouraged to pull up a chair.
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