Marketing Executive Wins 2025 Gold Stevie Award for Transforming Revenue Through Strategic Leadership

The traditional role of the Chief Marketing Officer has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, shifting from brand stewardship to revenue generation. This evolution is exemplified by Molly McClure, who recently received the 2025 Gold Stevie® Award for Marketing Executive of the Year.

“An inspiring case study of how strategic thinking leads to real results,” noted one judge in recognizing McClure’s achievements.

The award acknowledges a career trajectory that has redefined what modern marketing leadership looks like across fintech, SaaS, and Fortune 100 environments. Rather than focusing solely on creative campaigns and brand perception, McClure has consistently demonstrated that marketing executives can and should drive measurable business growth.

At intelliflo, the fintech division of Invesco, McClure was brought in to build the U.S. marketing function from the ground up. With no existing infrastructure, she architected the go-to-market strategy, recruited and developed a high-performing team, and implemented scalable systems across demand gen, content, and brand. Her strategic focus was clear: align tightly with sales, spotlight intelliflo’s advisor-first value proposition, and shift marketing from a support function to a revenue engine. The results were transformative. McClure’s marketing engine was responsible for 67% of all closed-won revenue in the U.S., while her award-winning omnichannel campaign reintroduced and elevated the brand in a crowded market. This success was achieved during a pivotal time—according to Citywire, Invesco is now exploring a potential sale of intelliflo’s global business, which further underscores the value created through strategic marketing leadership and commercial impact.

A key reason for this success? Deep audience insight. Great marketing isn’t just about visibility—it’s about resonance. To build true connection, marketers must understand what makes their audience tick. At intelliflo, that meant getting inside the mindset of financial advisors: their pain points, their workflows, and the trust they place in technology. McClure led research-driven segmentation work to uncover actionable insights into how advisors adopt technology, how they define value, and where they encounter friction. This informed messaging, channel strategy, and product positioning—ensuring marketing spoke the language of its audience. McClure also prioritized direct, ongoing engagement with advisors to inform campaign strategy in real time. She regularly attended—and strategically sponsored—industry events that aligned with intelliflo’s brand ethos, such as the Future Proof Festival: a bold reimagining of wealth management conferences held entirely outdoors in Huntington Beach, CA. Featuring key influencers and some of the most prominent voices in wealthtech, Future Proof offered a unique venue to listen, connect, and validate messaging. These firsthand conversations gave McClure and her team boots-on-the-ground insight, helping further optimize creative, refine messaging, and strengthen advisor alignment across all campaign touchpoints.

Recent studies, such as Cerulli’s U.S. Advisor Metrics report, and insights from McKinsey’s research on financial advisor value creation, affirm the importance of understanding advisor expectations in a post-pandemic, tech-driven world. McClure’s ability to translate those insights into measurable growth outcomes set a new standard for B2B fintech marketing. A simple yet revealing insight emerged during campaign analysis: many recent wins were directly tied to intelliflo’s continuous stream of product enhancements. Prospects responded strongly to the perception that the platform was constantly evolving—that it never stood still. Rather than treating this as a footnote, McClure’s team quickly pivoted, reshaping messaging to emphasize innovation as a core brand pillar. This agile, insight-driven approach helped optimize campaign performance and reinforced intelliflo’s market position as a forward-moving, advisor-first platform.

This performance shift was rooted in redefining how success was measured. Instead of relying on vanity metrics that looked good on paper but lacked business relevance, McClure championed a data-driven strategy grounded in pipeline generation and revenue attribution. Her team tracked the full marketing and sales funnel—from website engagement and live demo submissions to sales-qualified leads, opportunities, and ultimately closed-won revenue. They closely monitored conversion rates at each stage, benchmarking performance against SaaS industry standards. This rigorous measurement framework ensured every marketing dollar was tied to real business outcomes and reinforced marketing’s role as a growth engine. The transformation of marketing from a cost center to a revenue engine requires a specific leadership style. McClure’s approach combines high expectations with employee empowerment, creating an environment where team members are encouraged to think strategically while maintaining accountability for results. This balance between strategic vision and practical execution has become increasingly critical as marketing departments are expected to demonstrate clear return on investment.

The recognition from the Stevie Awards, known for honoring excellence in business, underscores a broader industry trend. Marketing executives are no longer measured solely by brand awareness or creative output but by their ability to drive growth and contribute directly to the bottom line. This shift requires leaders who can navigate both the creative and analytical aspects of modern marketing while maintaining a clear focus on business objectives. For organizations looking to transform their marketing functions, the model demonstrates that success comes from treating marketing as an integral part of the revenue generation process rather than a separate creative function. This means building robust measurement systems, aligning marketing goals with sales objectives, and creating accountability frameworks that tie marketing activities directly to business outcomes. The evolution from creative lead to growth driver represents more than just a change in job description. It reflects a fundamental rethinking of marketing’s role within the organization and its potential to drive business transformation. As companies across industries face increasing pressure to demonstrate marketing ROI, leaders who can successfully navigate this transition become invaluable assets to their organizations.

Follow Molly McClure on LinkedIn for more insights on transforming marketing into a true growth engine—and leading with purpose in the modern CMO era.

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