Key takeaways from the Erevena x Dawn Marketing Summit

 ‘Originally published on the Dawn website’

As part of our work supporting the tech talent ecosystem across Europe, Chloe Dodson, our Portfolio & Talent Lead and Avalon Lee-Bacon, our Director of Talent, were excited to partner with Danielle Le Toullec, Marcus Trebino and the team at Executive Search Firm Erevena for our latest summit.

We were thrilled to host more than 60 marketing leaders at our London offices for the event, which involved several in-depth panel discussions on key topics, an insightful fireside session with Quantexa’s CMO, and plenty of opportunities to connect with peers.

Thanks again to everyone who joined the Dawn Marketing Summit, and a special thanks to our panellists, speakers and moderators; Isabelle Duarte, Chief Marketing Officer at Soldo, Yann Sarfati, Co-Founder and CEO of Userled, Andrew Davies, Chief Marketing Officer at Paddle, Leah Anathan, Chief Marketing Officer at Revizto, Matt Hooper, Chief Marketing Officer at Quantexa, Ashling Kearns, Global Go-To-Market Chief Operating Officer at Celonis, Prelini Udayan-Chiechi, Chief Marketing Officer at Wagestream, Lena Hackelöer, founder and CEO of Brite Payments, and Dan Hyde, Executive Chair at Erevena.

Our contributors’ conversations were wide-ranging, sharing insights on everything from how to- establish an AI Roadmap to the evolution of the CMO role in startups today.

Here are just some of our key learnings from a brilliant summit.

The Modern Marketing Stack – how to form your AI Roadmaps and where to invest as roles and processes evolve at warp speed 

The modern marketing stack is evolving rapidly in the AI era. Our panellists shared advice on how to form your AI Roadmap, which roles look set to defy automation, and where to invest time and capital.

‘We’re all in test and learn phase’ – how to get started on a marketing AI Roadmap 

First, the panellists said that it’s helpful to frame AI as a gradual integration driven by strong internal processes and guided experimentation, rather than as a one-off transformation.

Next, they explored a sometimes-overlooked route to building AI capabilities: work with your existing vendors. They said startups can often see CAPEX-light AI progress through creating a highly accountable program with their most important partner companies, such as Figma or Hubspot.

Then, when it comes to CMOs looking to get teams on board with AI integration into workflows, the panellists said they have found that it’s incredibly helpful to build robust briefs and tight processes. This makes AI seem more manageable, and leads to better outcomes.

Finally, to avoid mirages and mistakes, the panellists emphasised the need to get hands-on in your AI journey. They advised CMOs to encourage teams to use AI, but to set up strong guardrails, and insist on open communication to avoid a “black hole” of experimentation without oversight. The panellists also suggested working closely with your legal and security leads to triple confirm all experimentation is happening safely inside a “walled garden.”

Flagship human-led bespoke content still punches through

The buying journey has changed as consumers are turning to ChatGPT/AI-driven sourcing over traditional Google searches, and CMOs are looking to create novel strategies that will drive the same (or better) results as “old school” SEO.

In a world where the new battleground is getting onto that ChatGPT/AI-snippet shortlist when a consumer searches “best software for XX’, our panellists agreed that direct traffic, brand equity, and public perception are more important than ever. As Leah said: “PR is now a performance channel. Get your award strategy in place, because it may play a much larger role in discoverability.”

They also noted that AI-driven search, while still opaque, seems to reward crafted content and interactive experiences over keyword-stuffed fluff. Content with substance and apps that hold user attention could outperform old-school SEO tactics. This could be good for both the marketer and the consumer. As Yann said: “Search on AI can simply be better. Think about it this way: I just like well-crafted content and not spray-and-pray content.”

For this reason, the panellists said that delivering top-quality core content remains key. One example shared involved a landmark report that cost €40,000 and a lot of very human effort, but paid off in branding and reputational terms. The contributors also noted that, in this context, they are seeing companies move Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) under marketing in order to ensure synchronised, timely content distribution.

In this age of automation, a new ‘triangle-shaped’ sales model is emerging 

Our panellists expect automation to significantly disrupt the traditional role of SDRs, and said the age of high-volume cold calling and generic outreach is effectively over. However, they believe human-led outreach is set to last in mid-market and enterprise sales because the “person to person” sales element remains crucial. They explored how this is leading many companies to pursue a ‘triangle-shaped’ model for both content and sales: automate the wide, low-value, repetitive layers, but preserve the top-tier, high-impact efforts for human craftsmanship.

Follow these tips to deftly use AI to listen to the “now” and work out what customers want

Our panellists also warned that, although AI is a game-changer for personalisation, scoring and segmenting audiences, refining ICPs, and predicting propensity to buy often remain heavily manual. The experts shared tips for CMOs on how to get around this and listen to the “now” to find out what’s next. These included pulling real-time signals from CRM updates and customer calls, so marketers can meet buyers precisely where they are in the journey. It’s all about clean, structured data at key decision points. When that’s achieved, content can properly be used to follow and reinforce buyer intent.

“Technology rewires our brains and our culture — the marketing leaders of the future have to be in that conversation” – Andrew Davies, CMO at Paddle

From Startup to Double Unicorn: Learnings – from Quantexa’s CMO, Matt Hooper

Matt Hooper joined Quantexa when it was a Series B company with a very limited marketing function. There was a bit of Comms, a bit of PR, and a whole lot of opportunity. Today, Quantexa is a double Unicorn with an 800+ team and 16 offices around the globe, and Matt helms a slick and effective marketing team.

In conversation with Henry Mason, Partner at Dawn, Matt shared some top tips, including:

Get the core pillars right, then there’s no need to sweat the small stuff
Matt said that marketing doesn’t have to be that complicated, it just needs a solid foundation, so make sure to get your positioning on point. He advised CMOs to ask themselves: What makes our company/product useful? What makes us special? What is the story we’re telling? Get that right, and it will underpin all your other efforts. It may seem like a daunting task, but you have to commit to positioning, then pivot if needed.

Think 6-24 months ahead and get comfortable with constant change
Matt advised CMOs to think of themselves as the company’s advance scout – and to get comfortable with the idea of “perpetual transformation”. He said that CMOs succeed when they can spot new technology trends, market shifts and competitive moves early on, and then deftly pivot messaging and go-to-market strategy. He said: “You’ve always got to be thinking a little bit ahead from a market perspective, more than anybody else in the business. That’s your job.”

Invest in PR, as it’s your most cost-efficient brand engine
Matt advised investing early on in earned media, because it’s a CMOs most cost-efficient brand engine. He said: “I think Bill Gates said that if you’re down to your last dollar, spend it on PR – and I’ve always insisted you must invest well in PR because you can elevate and accelerate your brand when you don’t have big paid-media budgets.”  Matt has found that a funding round is the best time to do this. Quantexa have leveraged each of the company’s major funding rounds into global media coverage that “reached tens of millions of people”.

The traditional MQL is obsolete, so adjust accordingly
Matt said that the traditional MQL – a prospect that your marketing team has flagged as more likely to buy than an ordinary lead because that person has engaged with your content or campaigns in meaningful, pre-defined ways – is now obsolete, especially when targeting larger enterprises. Instead, he shared how success in enterprise sales now hinges on how well CMOs measure influence across the full funnel, from awareness to close, and every signal in between. Given this, Matt said it is 100% worth investing the time into recruiting product marketers as they form a key link in any successful marketing operation. He said: “Building a team that truly works together to deliver integrated motions and moments for the market, that’s really special stuff.”

Invest in building a strong relationship with your CEO – and use data to help
CMO is often one of the shortest tenure roles in the C-Suite, because marketing leads can come in with a high level of expectation. This is why building a strong relationship with the CEO is absolutely crucial. The CEO needs to trust you and understand the importance of brand and marketing, which can involve an education piece.

To achieve this, Matt recommended immersing yourself in data, taking shared responsibility for building pipelines, and working in lock-step with the CRO.  Given that marketing can be one of the biggest spending categories in a business, building visibility and confidence in the function is vital. Matt said that creating a monthly data-driven scorecard showing trajectory can be really helpful here, as do regular scheduled check-ins with your CEO.He said: “Within six months I established the discipline of having a monthly scorecard for global marketing, which was data-driven… showing trajectory on every aspect of marketing in the business.”

More than a function: How marketers can influence product, revenue & culture

Our panellists explored how the CMO and marketing teams’ scope now stretches far beyond their “traditional” role of enhancing sales. In 2025, top marketing leaders drive outcomes and “solve for the business”.

They advised marketing leads to:

Own pipelines and ‘pull levers’ across the company
The panellists said that grasping chunky pipeline targets and responsibilities is a key way to drive value from the marketing function. Doing this comes down to data, strong communication, and providing the right tools to the right people. Prelini Udayan-Chiechi, CMO at Wagestream, said: “When I started doing this, I thought about how to pull levers across the business, even though I owned the OKR, whether it was partner marketing, sales enablement, pre-sales, field, to meet the company revenue goal. It was about providing the right tools at every level… and we would have regular meetings to understand where the gaps were.”

Become the glue between sales, GTM and product
The panellists discussed how marketing often has a bigger impact on the wider business when a company is extending into new markets. Lena shared how this creates “stacked unknowns”, and what had worked well in one market was not working in another. She said: “That opened up an opportunity for the marketing team to step in and become the glue between the sales and go-to-market specialists and, at the same time, the product people back at headquarters. We tried to become, essentially, an expert on the customer and an expert on the market.

“Tackle the firm’s biggest challenge, even if it sits outside traditional marketing, and you’ll earn influence fast.”

Build and influence culture as CMO
Marketing leads are highly visible, drive narrative and content, and have contact points across a business. This combination means CMOs are uniquely positioned to drive culture and “be a catalyst for internal pride”, as Lena put it, especially in fast-growing companies. As one panelist said, “the CMO is like the conductor of an orchestra”. As conductor, the panellists said that CMOs can succeed in helping build culture through tying every internal program back to a value the workforce can feel, and own internal comms. Here, the panellists suggested treating employees as an audience: highlight their success stories, run internal launch videos, and try kicking off win-round briefings. These are small steps, but they can have a big impact.

Thanks again to all of our fantastic contributors and to the Erevena team. We look forward to seeing you again soon.