The New Nissan U.S. CMO Likes To Be Called the Mother of Dragons

She is responsible for marketing communications and media, data innovation and customer experience, enhancing brand value, customer trust and insights, and brand and product marketing. Doing all of this can prove rather difficult so she took an approach that served her well until now.

Dubbed as the mother of Dragons (heads up, Khaleesi!), Witherspoon let herself be inspired by some magical practices.

In a podcast with Jason Stein, she admits that at one point she had a Game of Thrones (GoT) throne in her office, but by now it has been moved. It probably is a power source that needs to be protected, who knows. She also jokingly says that going to business school isn`t necessary, as the famous TV show provides all the necessary info to tackle everyday challenges.

The new Nissan U.S. CMO points out that watching all the seasons of GoT will teach anyone about company culture and doing business. “Everything`s there!”

Allyson Witherspoon said that she resonated with Khaleesi (played for HBO by Emilia Clarke) and her journey, up until she got a little bit crazy in the last season of the show. According to the Nissan U.S. CMO, the TV character faces challenges heads-on and never quits. The fictional character also empowered those around her – which inspired Witherspoon -, but that happened only until she got near the throne made from swords.

Working for Infiniti in the USA, Witherspoon also told how her former team understood and liked her taste in TV shows. For that they ended up dressing her as Khaleesi and they even made a little throne for her.

As Nissan`s U.S. CMO she underlines that Game of Thrones remains an inspiration, but the fantasy story will be available for internal use only. Apparently, people work better when you merge their off-duty interests with work. This might prove useful for other companies as well!