The CMO Transforming Visa From the Inside Out

Welcome back to The Friday Fortune! Welcome back to The Friday Fortune! 

We’re deep in Q4, which means marketers everywhere are balancing campaign launches, budget wrap-ups, and the existential dread of “Did I ever actually use that HubSpot seat we paid for?” So, take a pause, pour yourself something festive (coffee counts), and settle in because this week’s guest brings an energy that’ll make you say hell yeah to great IRL marketing and even better leadership.

Here’s what’s on deck this week:

• A sit-down with Visa CMO, Frank Cooper III

• Purple x OpenFortune

• ChatGPT lets shoppers buy products within the platform

📈 Marketer of the Week

If there’s anyone who embodies culture, creativity, and commerce, it’s Frank Cooper III, Chief Marketing Officer of Visa. With a career spanning entertainment, tech, and financial services, Frank’s path reflects a rare mix of curiosity, reinvention, and cultural fluency.

Frank credits his upbringing with shaping that mindset. On his mother’s side, a family of preachers and teachers instilled in him a love of knowledge and storytelling. His father, an inventor with patents, encouraged experimentation and problem-solving. And an uncle, who promoted concerts in San Francisco, exposed him to the energy of live entertainment and the business of culture. Taken together, these influences formed the backbone of Frank’s career.

That entrepreneurial thread has been present throughout his journey, from running small ventures in music and media to leadership roles at BuzzFeed and BlackRock. Even at Visa, Frank sees himself as operating like a founder inside a global institution, constantly probing industries in flux where new value can be created. For him, Visa’s sweet spot is the mix of financial services, technology, and culture, all undergoing massive shifts at once.

For Frank, Visa is more than a payments company, it’s a cultural connector. He points back to the brand’s origin, noting that it was never just about a physical card, but about the idea of digital money as an access device to anything of value. Whether that’s fiat currency, cryptocurrency, or even digital assets in gaming, he sees Visa at the center of that exchange.

And this shapes how Visa approaches partnerships. Frank pushes back against the old model of brand adjacency, where logos sat next to culture and hoped for a halo effect. In his words, “The value happens when you’re curating or creating within that connection in that partnership… when you’re  giving to the culture as opposed to purely extracting from it.” That mindset drove projects like Visa Live at the Louvre, where Post Malone performed in a setting no one thought possible. Instead of chasing impressions, Visa created a cultural moment that was unforgettable for both artist and audience.

Frank is also looking ahead to how AI will change the game. He’s coined the term B2AI to describe a future where brands won’t just communicate with people, but with digital agents acting on their behalf. For marketers, that shift means rethinking data, search, and commerce so that brands remain relevant in an AI-driven economy. Importantly, he stresses that AI should amplify (not replace) human creativity, and serve as a thought partner that expands ideas rather than limiting them.

Frank’s Takeaway

“You deserve to become the person you want to be.” For Frank, that means tuning out distractions and chasing the work that truly energizes you.

To hear more about how Frank Cooper is reinventing Visa’s role in culture and preparing for the next era of AI-driven marketing, listen to the full episode of CMO Weekly.

🥠 The Cookie Jar

Crack open a handful of the week’s best marketing links—because good fortune favors the curious.

• How Purple Got Into People's Heads (and Beds) with OpenFortune. Purple prove they’re a brand that thinks outside the mattress box.

• The top 5 celebrity brand collabs you need to know about right now. When A-listers meet A+ marketing.

• Why Huggies is promoting the FIFA World Cup exactly nine months out. Nothing says "score" like perfectly timed parental leave and a 90-minute baby-making playlist.

• The New York Times Launches TikTok-Inspired ‘Watch’ Tab. All the news that's fit to scroll.

That’s a wrap for this week’s Friday fortune.

If you enjoyed the read, pass it along to your favorite marketer who could use a little extra inspo in their inbox.

Until next time, may your marketing be memorable and your cookies always be fortunate!

— The OpenFortune team