Xanthe Wells

101 Great Minds on Music Brands and Behavior

Xanthe Wells, Senior Executive Creative Director, Global Brand Marketing, Devices & Services at Google

As Senior Director & Global ECD at Google Devices & Services, Xanthe Wells has, over the past five years, led her team of 100+ creatives and producers to recognition on a global scale by winning a staggering number of industry award shows. Among many others, a Grand Prix at Cannes (2022) for Real Tone on Google Pixel.

In this role, her responsibilities span five categories- smart homes, smartphones, laptops/tablets, gaming, and subscriptions across 8+ global markets.

Outside of her job, Xanthe is co-founder of Whipshots by Cardi B, co-founder of the cleaning brand Breathe, and a partner of OH YES! - a natural foods pizza company. And most importantly, she’s mom to Charlie and Austin.

Her parents discovered her name, "Xanthe," in a baby book, and its meaning is golden or yellow.

. . .

“Long-term sonic branding is outside the comfort zone of many creatives, producers, and marketers, and for that reason, I see it getting deprioritized more than it should. I do think we all need to push ourselves to dig in in this area because it’s critical for brands to get it right, especially in such a fractured media landscape.”

— XANTHE WELLS, SENIOR EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR, GLOBAL BRAND MARKETING, DEVICES & SERVICES AT GOOGLE

Uli Reese: How did you get your start in the industry?

Xanthe Wells: My dad was a Silicon Valley engineer, and I tried to follow in his footsteps, but my parents sat me down one night in high school and said, “You're decent at science and math, but you're not great because you don’t love it. You're great at art. So figure out how to make money in art.” In my senior year of college, I got an internship at Pixar and then returned as a Production Assistant, where I worked on Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo. Michael Eisner and Sarah McArthur would come for meetings, and I got to observe these incredible executives in action. Sarah, in particular, was incredibly kind, and I will never forget her stopping to thank me on her way out of an Eisner meeting for getting the artwork prepped, which in that small moment, taught me a lot about what great management looks like. At Pixar, I realized you could make a good living doing art, but a year into illustration, at the Art Center College of Design, I knew it wasn't for me because it's a solitary pursuit. I transferred to the advertising department and was hired by one of my teachers right out of school. I always tried to do the very best I could on every single project I touched in school. That ethos really started to come to fruition at Chiat/Day. Two years into my first job, Chiat hired me to work on the PlayStation account. I started getting some recognition from CCO Lee Clow and ECD Rob Schwartz as we pitched and won multiple pieces of business during those years. I've never felt like there's anything too small for me to put my whole heart and soul into. It's been my driving force and perhaps also my Achilles heel. I think the devil is in the details of creative output.

Reese: Gary Vaynerchuck talks about us getting lazy because we rely too much on influencers. This goes for sonic too. It’s more of a sugar high. What are your thoughts?

Xanthe: Influencers offer the DTC model that businesses have been seeking for a long time, but sometimes it's a sugar high that can distract us from long-term brand building. Rented credibility is never a good idea because what meaning does it have?It's different, however, when brands show authentic relationships with creators and influencers that feel mutually beneficial. However, I strongly believe the idea is, and always will be, queen. Ideas spread faster than ads, tactics, influencers, or trends. It's proven time and time again. Some of the most famous campaigns of our time relied on powerful insights that sometimes took weeks and months to wrestle down. That's what makes them magic; the core idea behind the work and the execution is the icing on a delicious cake.

Reese: This tremendous fear is why the CEO is still letting his 12-year-old choose the track for the next campaign…

Xanthe: I've worked with many people who dress impeccably and have incredible taste, yet as soon as I show them a script, they tell me they’re not creative. Having taste is half the battle with creativity. You need to give people permission to lean into their emotional reactions because that's what music is. In the same way, when I see an idea, if I feel moved, it’s probably going to be good. We tend to put a premium on how well we think, but I think we should focus more on how things feel. That's my barometer. When people struggle to find the words to describe why they like something, I try to help facilitate that conversation. When it comes to music, you have to listen with your heart. You may be wrong, and that's okay because you picked something that meant something to you.

Reese: Many of your colleagues don't want agency waltzing in; they want measurement. What do you think about measurement data, and what do you want from it?

Xanthe: I recently read an article that the pendulum is swinging back in favor of long-term brand building, which is great news considering the last seven or eight years have been all about performance marketing. Creative testing is really tricky to navigate because some of the methodology can beg more questions than it answers. When we commit to doing only certain things because they're easy to execute, measure, and show on a slide, then we are going to fail. People are looking for meaning. If you look at the stories online that people are reacting to, it's a little kid putting in a hearing aid for the first time and hearing his mother's voice or a kid learning they are the first person in their family to be accepted to college. These are the things that get emotional reactions. People want to see a vision of the world that is good. The best of advertising can illuminate the most touching parts of our existence - whether it makes us laugh or cry. Our deepest hope is to be reminded of our humanity and the beauty of the world around us. And when you look at performance marketing, there's very little soul, simply because of the constraints of the medium itself.

Reese: Consumers also want predictability and safety...

Xanthe: I feel for marketers. They are under such tremendous pressure. With the widely known stat that most CMOs are in their role for only 24 months, I can’t imagine how hard it is to walk into a job feeling like you are going to get fired even before you start. If these folks don't prove immediate results, which is often dependent on performance marketing or lead generation, they risk getting canned. I think it’s unfair to blame marketers or CMOs when the public isn’t receptive to a product offering. A great product often markets itself through word of mouth and great awareness, which great creative and media amplify. I would love to see marketers and creatives become more involved in the product development side of the business, and not just in tech, across many categories. Often the gut instinct that makes a marketer good at their job is a good bellwether for public reception.

Reese: Do you think these parameters set unrealistic expectations, making it almost impossible to work freely?

Xanthe: I think we are definitely at an inflection point where data has taken a front seat to gut instinct, and at the end of the day, there are still many things that can't be measured. It's my goal to do data-informed creative, not data-driven creative. I think there's a balance, and I think the industry as a whole might have swung too far in one direction towards the science, not the art.

Note: The interview took place in Los Altos, California on the 6th of July 2022.

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