In this edition of iTech Series Unplugged, Mason Mobley, Enterprise Regional Marketing Manager, Central at Pure Storage, shares his journey from electrical engineer to marketing leader. With an engineering mindset, a passion for data-driven decisions, and expertise spanning hardware and software, Mason reveals how he drives innovation, builds high-impact campaigns, and aligns sales and marketing to deliver measurable results and revenue growth.
Welcome to the interview series, Mason. Tell us about your journey to becoming a marketing leader.
I was born an engineer. From the time I was 5 years old, I always wanted to “fix” things and make things better. I was obsessed with how things work. After graduating from Florida A&M as an Electrical Engineer, I worked in the Data Center with Procter and Gamble, followed by a few years with Kimberly-Clark as a Controls Engineer. I was good at these roles, but I wasn’t passionate. I met one of my most important mentors while on a house-hunting trip. He worked for Motorola, and I was able to join the Business Leadership Development Program (BLDP) as a product marketer in Motorola MotoPro Division, of mobile devices. This was the spark that lit my passion for marketing. I have moved through marketing roles with Hardware vendors: Motorola, CDW, and Zebra Technologies. Gaining success for my attention to detail and “engineering mindset” of constant improvement. As I moved from Hardware to Software-focused organizations, I was drawn to the ability to implement GTM strategies faster, due to the pace of the software-based product development cycle. Moving through organizations like Lexmark Enterprise Software, Centrify granted me access to become a thought-leader and a blended marketing leader with the technical “chops” to drive cross-functional strategies that included sales and engineering. In my most recent role with Pure Storage, I loved the daily challenges of leading alliance-based marketing strategies. Partnering with industry leaders like Microsoft and Cisco to drive collaborative data management solutions was this “Nerd’s” dream. The key to my leadership opportunities has been data-driven decisions, followed by sales-impacting marketing campaigns. At Pure Storage in Q3 2025, I was responsible for driving $546.2M in Marketing Influenced Pipeline. My target was $440M. I achieved 126% Attainment to Target for my Central Enterprise Region.
How do you cultivate a culture that encourages creativity and risk-taking while still delivering measurable results?
Cultivation of creativity can only happen through calculated risks. Calculated risks are possible through data-driven decisions. The way this perfect combination happens is by truly understanding your target audience and identifying the needs of your customer. When you understand the likes, needs, and wants of your target personas, you can craft unique marketing experiences that have a higher probability of success. In addition, fostering an environment where team members feel safe to experiment and share unconventional ideas further strengthens innovation while ensuring each initiative aligns with measurable business outcomes.
How do you ensure your ABM and integrated campaigns resonate with diverse enterprise accounts?
I feel there is a deeper level than ABM when it involves marketing. I feel that Persona-Based Marketing is the key to ensuring integrated marketing campaigns resonate with diverse enterprise accounts. When you understand the personas and key decision-makers inside key accounts, a marketing thought leader is able to drive integrated campaigns based on the unique needs of the target audience. This approach not only enhances relevance and engagement but also helps align messaging across channels, fostering stronger relationships and long-term impact with each strategic account.
In an integrated revenue organization, how has the role of marketing evolved over time?
In an integrated revenue organization, marketing is no longer seen as an expense; it’s seen as an investment. Forward-thinking marketing organizations are more closely aligned to sales than ever before. This alignment has enabled marketing to lead engagement with Net New Logo accounts and create higher quality “at-bats,” or leads, for the Enterprise Sales Team to convert into closed-won revenue. Over time, marketing’s role has expanded to include strategic influence across the buyer journey, leveraging data, insights, and personalized engagement to drive measurable impact, optimize pipeline efficiency, and directly contribute to predictable revenue growth.
“When you understand the likes, needs, and wants of your target personas, you can craft unique marketing experiences that have a higher probability of success.”
How do you determine which media channels are most effective for your regional marketing initiatives?
As marketing thought leaders, you must search and request data that will allow you to calculate the probability of future success. Online media opportunities must be evaluated based on reach and impressions. SEO and SEM can be evaluated on the resulting web traffic via specific UTM. The exciting and challenging aspect of Media is that no two markets are ever the same. The process engineer in me relishes the opportunity to make black and white out of gray, providing a clear path to media spend supported by current and predicted results.
In a crowded market, how do you identify the unique signals that make a product stand out, and how do you communicate that internally and externally?
Become obsessed with your industry and consume every bit of information available to you. Understanding the key industry trends of AI/ML or Hybrid Cloud Optimization allows you to identify what your key enterprise accounts need. You can then evaluate your product offering against the market and your chief competition. Using tools like 6Sense then allow you to evaluate where your target audience is in their buying cycle. You are then able to have data-driven discussions with your internal sales team. And crafting blog posts, for example, externally highlighting key industry challenges and how your product addresses key needs.
What has been your most challenging yet memorable experience as a marketer?
Developing a 1:1 account-based marketing experience for a Net New Logo target account. This was the first time my company allowed a marketer to truly lead a brand-new integrated cyber resilience campaign. The company viewed it as a risk. I saw an opportunity. I engaged with our systems engineer to identify the key challenges the account was facing. I then focused on the personas that we needed to engage with as our target account. For this region and customer, sports were their passion. The “Stadium Series” was born. A cyber resilience executive roundtable that took place at a Major League Baseball Stadium’s executive boardroom, followed by a day-game of Baseball. Securing executive representation who spoke the cyber resilience language of the prospect was the key to the event’s success. Our account executive was top-notch and leveraged a cyber partner to extend invitations to key leadership up through the C-Suite of our prospect. We secured a total of 20 attendees from our key prospect. Their key concerns were addressed by an industry-recognized thought leader. Our initial marketing investment of $10,400 returned a $1.98M opportunity two hours after the close of the event.
What would be your advice for up-and-coming marketers looking to grow in this field?
Passion is the most important tool you have. Qualifications and wins are important to begin internal and external conversations. But do you inspire, motivate, and make an impact on those with whom you engage? Passion has the ability to drive every other skillset you need: persistence, follow-through, and delivery of results. The most important question to ask yourself after every conversation is, “Will they remember me?” If the answer is yes, you have every opportunity to be a marketer who can and will make a difference.
About Mason Mobley
Mason Mobley is a marketing leader with an engineering mindset, known for his passion, optimism, and ability to translate data into impactful omnichannel messaging. He excels in product positioning, global brand development, and scalable revenue generation, connecting product capabilities to customer needs creatively. With expertise in leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and ROI-driven campaigns, Mason inspires teams while driving measurable results across marketing, sales, and strategic partnerships worldwide.
