Communicator Spotlight: Amy Hufft, vice president of brand and communications at Klaviyo

What she's saying: "When you are a B2B company that is servicing a B2C business, you sit in this interesting space where you need to think beyond your core buyer," says Hufft. "And when you do that, you need to act a little more brand forward than a traditional B2B company."

• "We are just starting to step forward into more of those traditional brand channels like advertising, streaming at home, podcasts and things like that. We are starting to act a bit more like a brand-first company, and when it comes to earned media, I don't think it matters whether you're B2B or B2C because it's about building up your brand by appealing to a wide audience, and that's important no matter what space you sit in."

How she got here: Hufft started her career in the agency world, where she spent a decade working for big consumer brands.

• She pivoted to the tech space by taking an in-house role at Shopify, where she oversaw global brand marketing and communications. She also led brand communications at Zoom before joining Klaviyo in 2024.

How it's structured: Hufft reports to Klaviyo CMO Jamie Domenici and oversees the team responsible for internal and external communications, brand marketing, integrated marketing, social media, community and customer advocacy.

Every CEO should know the power of a strongly articulated mission, she says.

• "Everything comes from that year over year. Your annual strategy may change, your pillars may change, your growth target may change and what you're going after from a product perspective might change. But having that mission there that the CEO believes in and aligns to and repeats... that's the secret weapon."

Trend spot: The rise of customer advocacy within comms.

• "I'm finding that it is becoming an expected part of comms, and I'm interested to see where that goes as communication is looked at as more of a customer engagement lever versus just an external, earned media lever."

Content plate: She recently read "Doppelganger" by Naomi Klein. However, she often tunes into Bravo's "Real Housewives" as a palate cleanser.

• The Beverly Hills franchise is her favorite, but Hufft also watches New York — and fun fact, Jessel is her former colleague.

Best advice comes from Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke: "When you let everybody pick their favorite color, you end up with brown."

• "It's something I think about when working on messaging, because it's a good reminder that when you have a messaging document and you let everybody edit it, at some point, it dilutes the messaging down. Collaboration is good, but losing your point of view is bad."

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