Petzey CMO: Marketing Has No Business Staying in Marketing

Petzey, an on-demand pet telehealth app with more than 1,000 pet professionals across the U.S., put its platform to work for free during the LA fires — a decision its CMO says the spreadsheet flatly rejected.

Ameetess Dira, speaking live from the Marketing Vanguard stage at Brandweek 2026 with Jenny Rooney, opened Petzey's service for free wellness checks for people affected by the crisis, including first responders, teachers, businesses, and shelters. The short-term financial logic pointed toward monetizing demand. She chose the opposite.

Her argument: doing the right thing can matter more than hitting the immediate number, especially when the decision proves what the brand actually stands for. Long-term brand trust, on her view, can outweigh short-term revenue.

Why does purpose come first for this CMO?

For Dira, belief in the company and its leadership is a non-negotiable requirement before taking a job. She wants to work with people she trusts enough to do difficult things with, because the work serves something bigger than the individuals involved.

She draws a sharp line: purpose is not a layer applied to marketing after the strategy is done. It is the filter that determines whether she wants to do the work in the first place.

The stance has a personal root. After losing her senior dog, Dira deliberately sought out work that could improve access to care for animals and the people who love them. That purpose now shapes how she thinks about partnerships, crisis response, and marketing's role inside the wider business.

Her path to the pet-health CMO seat crossed broadcasting, radio, print, agency leadership, technology, and international market expansion across Asia and the United States.

Where should marketers look for opportunity?

Senior dog adoption is difficult, expensive, and easy for brands to ignore — which is exactly why Dira pays attention to it. Her method: watch how culture is changing, find where people remain underserved, and ask where a brand can contribute something useful instead of competing for the same obvious audience as everyone else.

The same logic applies to partnerships. Some of her strongest brand collaborations looked strange on paper, she said. Unexpected partnerships can work when the underlying values make sense.

What changes for CMOs as AI spreads?

The conversation at Brandweek 2026 centered on decisions that become more important as marketing gets easier to automate. In the age of AI, marketers still have to answer one question, Dira suggested: "Why should anyone choose you?"

Her counterintuitive bet is that AI may make storytelling more valuable, not less. If execution automates, differentiation shifts to the story and the trust behind it.

That is also why she deliberately pushes marketing into product, technology, and finance conversations. Her reasoning is simple: the executive team is her primary team, and everyone around that table is responsible for the overall health of the business. The CMO who stays inside campaigns and communications gives up influence before the real decisions are even made.

What does CEO trust buy a CMO?

CEO trust gives CMOs more room to take meaningful risks, Dira argued — a point tied directly to her crisis-response decision during the LA fires. Leadership style, she added, has to change depending on the people and the market involved; there is no fixed template.

The episode is part of a special vidcast series recorded live during Brandweek 2026 and presented in partnership with Tatari.

For marketing leaders watching AI compress execution cycles, Dira's message is that the durable advantage sits elsewhere: in purpose, cross-functional presence, and decisions that a quarterly model will never recommend.