Marketing is losing its excuse to stay in the marketing department.
That is the clearest signal from Petzey CMO Ameetess Dira. As AI makes campaigns, content, and targeting easier to automate, the more valuable marketing question is moving upstream: what should the business choose to do, and why should anyone trust it?
The CMO’s job is getting wider
Dira argues that marketing should be present in product, technology, and finance conversations, not brought in after the important decisions have already been made. Her reasoning is practical. The executive team is her primary team, and the health of the business cannot be separated into neat departmental boxes.
That position also changes what purpose means. In Dira’s account, purpose is not a message added after the strategy is complete. It is a filter for deciding which companies, leaders, and opportunities deserve her time in the first place. Her own move into pet health followed the loss of her senior dog and a desire to improve access to care for animals and their owners.
The detail matters because it turns purpose from a campaign theme into an operating choice. It affects hiring, product priorities, partnerships, crisis response, and the arguments a marketing leader is willing to make in the boardroom.
The spreadsheet is not always the brand
The strongest example is also the most revealing. During the Los Angeles fires, Petzey opened its platform for free wellness checks for people affected by the crisis, including first responders, teachers, businesses, and shelters. The immediate financial logic pointed toward monetizing demand. Dira chose the action that demonstrated what Petzey believed it was for.
That does not make every purpose-led decision automatically smart. It does show why marketing cannot be reduced to promotion. When a company decides how to behave under pressure, the brand is being built through product access, pricing, service design, and leadership judgment at the same time.
Adweek’s interview also points to a more useful way to find growth. Dira highlights senior-dog adoption as an underserved area that many brands overlook because it is difficult and expensive. The opportunity is not simply to find a bigger audience. It is to notice where a real problem remains neglected, then build a credible contribution around it.
AI may make storytelling faster, but that makes the underlying choice more important, not less. When execution becomes abundant, judgment becomes the differentiator. The marketers with the most influence will be the ones who can shape the decision before it becomes a campaign.