The One to One Consumer Marketing Podcast (Spectrm.io)

Max speaks with Rick Loughery, VP Global Marketing & Communications at GoPro. They discuss how GoPro identifies customer niches and speaks authentically to them, how they support their influencers, and why they're "on the ground" with customers to learn more from them. They also talk about the strategies GoPro uses for retention, the importance of knowing how to show up on platforms, and what the future looks like with “more informed data.”

Topics discussed:

• GoPro's strategy of identifying niches and talking authentically to them, and then evolving that outreach as consumer marketing trends change. 
• Why true engagement means going where your customers are and interacting with them "on the ground."
• The approaches GoPro takes to retention through providing video editing tools, motivational content, and rewards.
• The importance of knowing how to show up on platforms for engagement, not just post content.
• How personalization centers around being able to speak authentically to specific audiences.
• Advice for marketers today, including the importance of staying agile and having fun.
• Why the future of consumer marketing will be built on "more informed data."

At the time of this recording, David was the CMO of Coldwell Banker. He has since transitioned to CMO of Coldwell Banker's parent company, Anywhere Real Estate.

Max speaks with David Marine, Chief Marketing Officer at Anywhere Real Estate, the parent company of Coldwell Banker. They discuss how Coldwell Banker is building on 117 years of ingenuity in their marketing efforts, as well as how and why they executed their recent rebrand. They also talk about how to target two primary audiences, their focus on creating national campaigns that can be customized at the local level, and how they embrace new social media and technological opportunities.

Topics discussed:

• The history of 117-year-old Coldwell Banker and how they were founded on principles of ingenuity and being customer-focused.
• Staying relevant by having a "Go" mindset and willingness to try new things.
• The decision to lean heavily into video to showcase homes in the early days of YouTube.
• How Coldwell Banker balances marketing to two distinct audiences: their agents and their home-buyers.
• Why Coldwell Banker embarked on a major rebrand in 2018, and how they used storytelling to get their agents and customers bought in.
• How they're creating national campaigns that can be customized at the local level to better cater to different markets.
• Why every brand should be experimenting in AI today to see how it can impact their business tomorrow.

Ben speaks with Yoav Banai, Group VP Retention & Engagement at Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming, a premier global media and entertainment company. They discuss the increasing shift to retention marketing in the industry, and the ways in which they’re building long-term relationships with customers by encouraging health consumption, getting to know them and the content they watch, and offering the right messaging at the right junction. They also discuss how Warner Bros. Discovery is taking a true omnichannel approach to lifecycle marketing, how they measure engagement and activity, and how the future of consumer marketing will become one ongoing interaction with a brand.

Topics discussed:

• The path of Yoav's career, from time in the military, to practicing capital markets law, to focusing on strategy in the streaming music industry, to now leading retention and engagement at Warner Bros. Discovery.
• The current state of consumer marketing, which is seeing a large-scale shift to retention, and how Warner Bros. Discovery is creating a holistic, customer-centric experience across the entire organization.
• How Yoav thinks about retention and lifecycle marketing, and how it's focused on what the customer needs, finding the right moment to offer recommendations or support, and being ready with messaging at the different junctions of the journey.
• How to listen to customers, find their triggers, influence behaviors at pivotal moments, and get them to take the right action.
• How Warner Bros. Discovery measures retention by looking at customer activity, what type of content they're watching, and how much of a commitment they're making to certain content.
• Why Yoav doesn't have a plan for "the average customer," and instead looks at how to shift and influence behavior for specific users to build long-term relationships.
• How they're pursuing a true omnichannel approach for the customer, including focusing more on the message rather than the channel, and how they’re keeping messaging consistent, from emails to error messages.
• Advice for marketers that includes starting from the "why" of what you're doing, and the importance of measuring what matters.

Ben speaks with Luisa Fernanda Muñoz, Head of Customer Experience and CRM at Betfair, the world's largest online betting exchange. They discuss the need for human-to-human marketing, and how to build relationships with your customers based on their unique avatar — all while caring for them within the regulations of the gambling industry. They also talk about practices to stay top-of-mind with customers, how Betfair uses AI to suggest next actions, the challenges to CRM, and why you need to be selective with your data.

Topics discussed:

• Luisa's journey in marketing, from an engineering background, to managing service teams and loyalty programs at El Tiempo Casa Editorial and Samsung, to becoming Head of Customer Experience and CRM at Betfair.
• The current state of consumer marketing, and why more companies should be focused on retention and building relationships.
• How Luisa thinks about CRM, including understanding different avatars and building a journey for each one, and why the value offer is everything.
• How Betfair takes care of their customers by pushing content in a responsible way to stay in line with regulations.
• The biggest challenges to succeeding in CRM, like how to stay top-of-mind and to listen to your customers.
• How Betfair uses AI in their "betbots" to make next bet offers based on behavioral history.
• Advice for marketers on delivering what you promise, building relationships, and focusing on retention.
• How, in five years, consumer marketing will use more technology to create better relationships — but tech won't replace those relationships.

Ben speaks with Jordan Womack, CRM Director at Quest Diagnostics, a leading provider of diagnostic information services. They discuss the unique opportunities to engage with customers in the healthcare space, the value of collecting zero- and first-party data, and why there's no such thing as an "average customer." They also talk about the current state of consumer marketing and where companies are lacking in their tech investments, how CDPs will become one of the most useful tools for omnichannel marketers, and how AI will influence consumer marketing into the future.

Topics discussed:

• The evolution of Jordan's career, including what he learned during his time spent managing the loyalty program at Tesco, before moving to Quest Diagnostics as CRM Director.
• What Jordan means when he says there's no "average customer," and how to use data to find the connection between signals and behavior.
• The importance of collecting zero- and first-party data, and how even asking a few questions through a pop-up can help you create more targeted journeys.
• How retention and lifecycle marketing are two disciplines to learn, and the importance of creating great experiences at every touchpoint.
• The challenges to consumer marketing in healthcare, and the opportunities to target customers with relevant research and advice to help better manage their health.
• Which channels are working best for Quest, and which KPIs they're tracking in order to measure success.
• Why the evolution of CDPs is an exciting technology that, when powered by AI, will give marketers the ability to better know and target their customers.
• Where consumer marketing will be in five years, and how AI will influence that change.

Max speaks with Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer; President, Healthcare Business at Mastercard. They discuss how marketers today should rethink traditional approaches like the purchase funnel and loyalty programs and start focusing on "preference management" instead. They also talk about what technology is shaping marketing, how new tech stacks will develop, and why augmented reality is the next game changer.

Topics discussed:

• Why we need to challenge the classical principles of marketing and reimagine them for today's customer behaviors and technology — as outlined in Raja's book Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers.
• Why traditional approaches like the purchase funnel and loyalty programs are no longer working, and what to do instead.
• How to create stickiness by taking a "preference management" approach to tracking and engaging customers.
• Why we'll see a new breed of marketing tech stacks developed by up-in-coming companies — not run by the tech giants.
• Why augmented reality will be the next big tech game changer in marketing in its ability to deliver value to customers.
• How Raja made the shift from being an engineer to marketing when overhearing a cosmetic advertising campaign and stepping in to suggest a better one.

In this episode, Ben speaks to Leah Sushelsky, Director Of Communications and Public Relations at GlassesUSA.com. During the episode, they share about the importance of providing a seamless experience for customers, and using technology and data to anticipate customer needs and drive personalization efforts.

Topics discussed:

• Leah’s history in brand management, and what connecting with customers looks like when in-house with a brand.
• What the current state of consumer marketing is, and what customers are looking for in a relationship with a brand.
• How to use user-friendly technology — like AI for virtual try-on and a frame finder quiz — to drive personalization efforts for their customers.
• How GlassesUSA.com is driving customer acquisition through a variety of channels, including social media, influencers, and their newsletter.
• Why using data to drive decisions for improved personalization and increased customer engagement is the most exciting trend in marketing today.
• Advice for consumer marketers on how to anticipate customer needs and integrate personalization techniques to improve engagement.
• What the future of consumer marketing is, and why it requires both adapting to change and listening to the customer. 

Resources Mention: 

• GlassesUSA.com 

On this episode of One-to-One Conversational Marketing, Ben speaks to INDOCHINO’s marketing director, Stephan Lukac about the current state of digital marketing and how to build relationships with customers in 2022. When working in an industry that is dominated by ecommerce, Stephan discusses how the offline experience creates advantages that will never be matched by Amazon. If you want to learn about increasing customer lifetime value by combining digital customer acquisition with relationship building in person, then this episode is for you. 

Topics discussed:

• About Stephan and how he got to his current role at INDOCHINO
• The current state of digital marketing from Stephan’s point of view
• Adapting to a market that is controlled by Amazon by leveraging the offline experience 
• How podcasting channels created success in customer awareness and acquisition 
• The power of owning customer data and activating it for one to one personalization
• New challenges present in email marketing 
• Top pieces of advice for marketers to generate demand 

In this episode, previously recorded as a webinar, Spectrm’s Conversation Designer Esteban Gómez, speaks with Adalia Cuesta Bergstrom, Senior Conversational AI Designer at Arktic Business Consulting. They discuss the fundamentals of how to design conversations for chatbots, including thinking through possible paths, designing for specifics, and the importance of voice and tone. They also talk about the steps for conversational design, how to humanize your chatbot, and how customers won't remember whether it's a bot if they have their questions answered.

Topics discussed:

• The evolution of the role of conversational designer across different companies and industries.
• Why the most important factor in designing a conversation is to make sure the user feels heard, and why you should design for specifics, not generalities.
• The importance of voice and tone in a chatbot conversation, and why it should shift depending on the situation.
• The reason why companies should make users aware they're speaking to a chatbot.
• The best thing you can do to make your chatbot human.
• How customer service chatbots differ from marketing chatbots, and how companies can get the content correct for either use case.
• The process for designing a conversational chatbot and how it's a multi-team effort.

Ben speaks with Molly Holmes, Director, CRM Marketing at Alterra Mountain Company, a family of ski destinations and experiences. They discuss Molly's love of data and the importance of using data to drive creative campaigns, why customer relationships are built on an equal exchange of value, and the danger of drowning in too much data. They also discuss the challenges of privacy regulations, effective CRM channels, advice for new marketers, and how AI tools will free up marketers for more orchestration in the future.

Topics discussed:

• How Molly started her career in economics and studio art, and how she's stayed at the intersection of art and science in her various marketing roles in the ski and hospitality industry, now the Director of CRM Marketing at Alterra Mountain Company.
• Why Molly gets excited about data, how it can be used to create impactful campaigns, and why customers are much more comfortable giving their data today.
• Why retention and lifecycle marketing is like building a relationship where there's equal value exchange on both sides, and how Alterra Mountain Company goes about providing that value to customers.
• Why ways to track via a third party are becoming less reliable and effective, and why many companies are turning to zero- and first-party data instead.
• The challenges of data at scale that can easily overwhelm you, and how to create smart, simple campaigns instead.
• What channels Molly sees as most effective or that have great potential, including email, apps, SMS, and even direct mail.
• Advice to marketers that includes keeping things simple and the importance of measurement.
• What the future of consumer marketing will look like, and how AI-powered tools will allow marketers to orchestrate more. 

Max speaks with Doug Vosik, Senior VP of Marketing & Communications/CMO at the Houston Texans football team. They discuss how to build fan engagement, including the necessity of changing the message depending on whether the team wins or loses, and the complexity involved in satisfying each fan's unique needs. They also talk about how the back office integrated data feeds into real-time dashboards and what the future of channel optimization will look like.

Topics discussed:

• Doug's journey to sports marketing after working at Virgin, and why a sneaker obsession helped him get his foot in the door.
• The variety of verticals that a CMO of a sports team interacts with on a daily basis, from classic marketing functions, to community engagement, to entertainment at the stadium.
• How engaging fans changes depending on whether the team is winning or losing and how lifecycle marketing is driving fans to become season ticket holders.
• How taking a chance on a fun marketing video turned a team's season around.
• The "complexity of satisfaction" and why you need data to learn what each fan wants and how to cater to it.
• How the Texans' SVP of Business Analytics collected their data feeds into one real-time dashboard on Tableau.
• Where the future of marketing channels is going and the importance of moving away from channels that are dying to channels where fans actually spend their time.

In this special episode, Ben speaks with Erin Bonsang, Head of Owned Channels at iRobot, Tobias Lüder, Head of CRM, Europe at Delivery Hero, and Carl-Adam Markborn, Head of CRM at Voi Technology. Together they discuss the findings of Spectrm's recent survey on the "State of B2C Customer Retention," including how the focus on retention has shifted, how to measure retention success, which channels are more effective than others, the challenge of managing customer expectations, the tech tools each marketer uses, and more.

Topics discussed:

• The findings of Spectrm's recent "State of B2C Customer Retention" report.
• How the focus on customer retention has shifted in recent years, and how that's playing out in strategies at three B2C brands.
• How different brands are measuring their retention efforts and how using a global control group helps show the impact on other segments.
• Why onboarding is the "unsung hero" of CRM, and how different brands are ensuring they're getting messaging and tone right so they can build that customer relationship.
• What channels are seeing success, what channels are in decline, and why it's necessary to adopt a multi-channel strategy.
• The challenge of managing customer expectations, and how messaging plays a role in helping customers better understand how to interact with the brand.
• What tech tools CRM marketers are using to facilitate retention and how these tech tools can be used to create a unified view of the customer.
• What the future of customer retention will look like, especially now that stricter data regulations will impact marketing efforts.

Max speaks with Stephanie Horton, Senior Director of Global Consumer Marketing, Commerce at Google. They discuss how marketers should meet customers where they are on various channels, why you should focus on testing and experimenting with your channel mix, and how customer retention comes from solving customer pain points. They also talk about working with your product team to create the customer journey, how to get creative when there are budget constraints, and why marketers should prioritize gaining experience, not job titles.

Topics discussed:

• The path of Stephanie's career, from starting in finance, to becoming CMO of Farfetch, to Google inviting her to become the Senior Director of Global Consumer Marketing.
• How to effectively approach your channel mix, and why it's crucial to try new channels, yet test and learn as you go.
• The importance of retention and solving customer pain points, especially at a maturing brand like Google.
• How the marketing team works with the product team to understand the customer journey and create a better value proposition.
• Why the biggest challenge to marketing today is constrained budgets, and how that can push you to be creative.
• Advice to young marketers on why it's better to chase after experiences than job titles.

Max speaks with Axel Adida, Chief Digital Officer at Beiersdorf. They discuss how marketers need to be flexible "in mind and skills" with technological and customer behavior changes, especially when initiatives like cookie deprecation are shifting how to grab customer attention. They also talk about how unique content leads to self-select personalization, what tech trends are impacting marketing today, and how learning hard skills improves problem-solving.

Topics discussed:

• The need for flexibility "in mind and skills" with changes in customer behavior and evolving channels.
• Why customers will gravitate towards content tone and angles that resonate with them in self-select personalization.
• How marketers are rethinking data ownership and focusing on which signals are important as cookie tracking changes.
• How to increase loyalty by bringing freshness and constant interest in the brand.
• Why marketers should prioritize having a robust yet simple tech stack and skilled teams.
• Which technology and trends — like generative AI and the rise of influencers — are impacting consumer marketing today.
• Why learning hard skills like data, systems, or programming can help marketers become better problem-solvers.

Ben speaks with Shaurya Tyagi, Head of Digital Marketing & Loyalty at JioMart partner, the online shopping platform of Reliance Retail, India's largest retailer. They discuss how to increase retention by focusing on building rapport for customers and creating "wow" moments, the need for quality customer experiences in both physical and online marketplaces, and the right way to build relationships on WhatsApp. They also discuss the unique challenges to personalization in India, how AI and humans can work together for better customer experiences, and remembering that audiences are more than just numbers. 

Topics discussed:

• Shaurya's journey from building a D2C business for an insurance company, working in gaming, and working for a mobile manufacturing company, to overseeing retention and loyalty at JioMart partner, the online shopping platform of Reliance Retail.
• How to build brand and product awareness in both physical stores and through online websites and marketplaces, and how to create "wow" experiences across channels.
• The importance of building a rapport with your customer in order to build trust, solve problems, and exchange value.
• The challenges to customer retention and personalization in India, especially when so many people speak so many different languages.
• How to engage customers through messaging on WhatsApp, and why the best customer experience is to create relevant content for them that draws them to engage with you.
• How AI and humans can work together to create better customer service experiences.
• Advice for marketers that includes why it's important to remember that your audience is not just numbers, but people.

Views mentioned in the podcast are personal and do not represent the organization Shaurya works in or has worked in the past.

In our third episode, we speak with Brian Smith, a Senior Project Manager focused on Conversational AI and Digital Assistants at Intuit. In this show, Brian takes us through lessons learned from scaling digital assistants globally and offers actionable insights on how to build a model that can be used for a variety of products and services. 

Topics discussed: 

- How to build reusable components that can be used in multiple different product experiences.

- Thread control, and how to make sure that people are able to get seamlessly connected with a human if that is necessary for their query.

- Teaching AI bots to collect data on customers to enrich the ability to serve the customer’s query. 

- Finding the “happy path” for customers and figuring out how to keep customers on that path. 

- Why conversational AI is so essential for organizations to adopt today. 

- What it takes for an organization to be equipped to build a conversational AI model. 

- Exciting things in the future for conversational AI models. 

- What organizations need to know when they are first starting to build a conversational AI model. 

Links

Brian’s Website

Ben speaks with Peter Klein, Vice President of Customer Growth and Retention at Ideal Living. They talk about the evolution of consumer marketing from TV spots to influencers, as well as how to use data to not only segment customers but to answer their questions before they even ask them. They also discuss the rising use of automation to learn more about customers, and how deeper connections with brands will be the future of consumer marketing.

Topics discussed:

• The evolution of consumer marketing, from the days of infomercials and TV spots, to using video sales letters to engage customers, to having influencers do the talking today.
• How Ideal Living retains customers and gets them to make second purchases by ensuring everything works smoothly during the customer journey the very first time.
• How Peter uses data to segment customers so that he can better engage with them according to their behavior, and how data enables Ideal Living to answer customer questions before they even ask them.
• How personalization and AI are shaping how marketers learn about their customers today — and how using AI to personalize too much may not be beneficial.
• How data helps Ideal Living evaluate which customers to save, and how marketers should constantly evaluate if the metrics they're using fit their needs.
• Three pieces of advice for consumer marketers who want to make more of an impact, including the value of testing, how to increase positive engagements, and how to make the most of product launches.
• What the future of consumer marketing will look like, and why deeper connections with smaller brands may supplant large monolith grands.

 Resources: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ptklein/

Max speaks with Chase Young, VP of Marketing - CRM & Database Marketing at Consumer Cellular. They discuss how Consumer Cellular differentiates itself in appealing to their 50+ demographic, why their monthly bill is a successful marketing channel, and how they rely on education at onboarding. They also talk about how channel aggregation tools are the next tech trend, and why sending communication that feels personal is better than "the right offer at the right time."

Topics discussed:

• How Consumer Cellular differentiates itself in how they appeal to their target audience in the 50+ demographic.
• Why one of the successful channels for Consumer Cellular is the physical bill they send out.
• The challenges to retaining customers, including poor cell service and lack of tech knowledge — which can be remedied with education.
• Advice for consumer marketers to try on different roles for more insight into other business units.
• How marketing tools are evolving to include more channel aggregation.
• Why "being personal is better than personalizing" and how we can't always rely on technology to "speak from the heart."

Max speaks with Jeanniey Walden, Senior VP, Chief Marketing Officer at RITE AID. They discuss the early days of marketing and what it was like working on the first personalized email campaign, to how generative AI is supporting marketers with strategy, research, and brand building today. They also talk about what data RITE AID leverages to inform marketing strategies, the importance of working across teams, and why marketers need to speak business language for impact and influence.

Topics discussed:

• The story of how Jeanniey worked on the first personalized email campaign and how email has become our digital identifier.
• Why marketers should continue to improve their personalization efforts and how generative AI can help with research and brand building.
• A day-in-the-life of a CMO and its focus around listening to the community and making changes based on feedback.
• What data RITE AID is tracking to help them better understand the customer journey and how they're leveraging it to improve campaigns.
• The importance of working across teams to create the best customer experiences.
• Why the best thing marketers can do in their career is learn how to translate "marketing speak" to financial language that CEOs, CFOs, and boards will understand.
• What tech trends are influencing marketing today and why strategy should be built around a deep knowledge of your customer.

In this episode, Ben speaks to Tiffany Grinstead, VP of Personal Lines Marketing at Nationwide. Together they discuss how Nationwide uses marketing channels to help customers through their claims or servicing journey, the importance of gathering and using data when providing personalization at scale, and actionable advice for marketers looking to improve their efforts.

Topics discussed:

• How Nationwide meets people in the customer journey at different moments by focusing on segments and using data to drive their efforts.
• What tools Nationwide uses to manage their customer interactions, and why gathering and analyzing customer data is an integral part of the system.
• The challenges to personalization at scale, including data collection, technology integration, and cross-team collaboration.
• What channels are giving them the most success, including social media and social selling, and how they continue to make an impact with email.
• Why user-generated content is one of the most exciting trends happening in consumer marketing today.
• Three pieces of advice for those wanting to increase their consumer marketing impact — and why it's key to have small wins to push you forward.
• What the future of marketing will look like, and how AI will change personalization and add value to the customer journey.

Resources Mention: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanygrinstead/

Ben speaks with Erin Bonsang, Head of Owned Channels, Web, eCommerce & CRM, at iRobot. Erin has over 20 years of experience in consumer marketing and has worked with a variety of brands, such as Hasbro. 

During the episode, they cover a range of topics, including retention and loyalty marketing strategies, onboarding and reengaging customers in the robotics industry, personalizing the customer journey, the power of data and storytelling, and more!

Topics discussed: 

• Why Erin describes the state of digital marketing as frenetic and her advice for marketers to build on their foundation in the fast-paced industry  
• The importance of continually improving channels, messaging, target, and experiences in consumer marketing
• The importance of shifting and pivoting quickly in retention and lifecycle marketing
• Marketing is essentially a feedback process, and the faster you can close that feedback loop, the more you're going to perform as a marketer and as a brand in a very competitive space.
• Delivering value to customers over the long term in the robotic vacuum cleaner category
• Understanding customer personas to drive usage and additional purchases
• The benefits of conversion rate optimization and personalization for improving customer experiences
• Direct-to-consumer shopping and the importance of the customer experience
• The role of experience as a differentiator in the next five years
• Erin's advice to marketers is simple yet powerful. By relying on data, using the information at their fingertips, and being agile, marketers can navigate the rapidly changing marketing landscape and achieve success  

Max speaks with Álvaro Castañeda, Head of CRM and Customer Service at Freepik Company. They discuss how Freepik starts their personalization efforts as soon as the customer registers, how they manage their data, and how they use mission-driven teams to accomplish a common goal. They also talk about the challenges to CRM today, how AI can be a tool to enhance CRM, and what channels will be important in the future.

Topics discussed:

• Why Freepik begins personalization as soon as a customer registers, and the importance of onboarding.
• How Freepik engages with customers to move them from freemium to premium.
• What tech stack Freepik uses and how they manage their data.
• How Freepik uses mission-driven teams to align across departments on common goals.
• The biggest challenges to CRM today, including AI, data privacy, and staying relevant.
• What channels will be most important and effective in the future, like the website and email.
• Advice for young marketers that includes learning how to engage with customers by starting your own mini-business.

Ben speaks with Tobias Lüder, Head of CRM, Europe at Delivery Hero, an online food delivery service. They discuss the place of CRM in gaining and keeping customers, and the challenges data privacy regulations — especially GDPR — pose to customer retention success today. They also talk about the different channels Delivery Hero uses and for which purposes, what it's like to be behind the scenes on multiple app migrations, and why marketers need to keep things simple when talking to their customers.

Topics discussed:

• Tobias's journey in CRM marketing, from starting as a junior and working up to Head of CRM at Delivery Hero, responsible for the European market.
• The current state of consumer marketing, where customers are seeking the best deals, fatigued by ads, and not engaging as much with push notifications.
• The biggest challenges to CRM today, including how GDPR is changing how marketers need to engage with customers to opt in to emails and notifications.
• Why Delivery Hero works with a control group so they can determine how their retention efforts actually impact the company.
• The different channels that Delivery Hero uses to engage with and retain customers, and the different content approaches they take for each.
• What it's like to work on 18 migrations and rebrandings, how changing the backend of an app changes how you engage with customer data, and why CRM is a crucial tool to get customers to the new app.
• Advice for marketers on how to keep their efforts simple, why it's sometimes necessary to not send a message, and the detriment of over-engineering experiments.
• What the future of CRM will look like, including how companies will become more human in their interactions with customers.

On this episode of One-to-One Conversational Marketing, Ben speaks with Hannah Craik, the Marketing Director at Riess, who has 20 years brand and digital experience – both in leading agencies, including Pivotal Consulting, which she co-founded, and at disruptive brands, like ASOS and Heist.

Hannah’s recent work has been predominantly in retail where she is pushing for more responsible practices alongside more transparent communications. Other areas of focus include a broad range of sectors, such as technology, entertainment and government. 

Topics discussed include: 

• Hannah’s perspective on digital marketing today as both volatile and exciting
• How the duopoly of Google and Meta is being challenged for the first time 
• Why a cookie-less world can be good for the digital marketing community 
• What one-to-one personalization means to Hannah
• The challenges Hannah has encountered with one-to-one personalization
• One-to-one service personalization versus product recommendations 
• Why showing up for customers with service personalization will up level their digital experience 
• Hannah’s experience with the chatbot hype cycle of boom, bust, and growth again based on new technology and channels
• Why it is harder to drive repeat sales in the apparel category and her advice for what can be done
• How recommendation algorithm bias plays out in fashion and apparel 
• Hannah’s top 3 pieces of advice for other marketers looking to better meet consumer demands

Daniele Sghedoni is the technology director at R/GA. We will discuss zero-party data and the future of marketing. There is a lot of discussion about capturing an audience's intentions, interests, motivations, and preferences at scale in the marketing world, and in the episode today, you will learn why your brand might value it over any other data you collect from your users. 

Topics discussed:

• Daniele’s background and how he got started at RGA 
• What zero-party data is and how it will bring your marketing plan into the future 
• Distilling and activating data to provide value for users 
• The role of chatbots in collecting zero-party data 
• Expert advice for organizations getting started with zero-party data 
• Avoiding some of the common pitfalls with using zero-party data 
• The future of marketing from Daniele’s perspective

On this episode of One-to-One Conversational Marketing, Ben speaks with Cécile Moser, Head of Marketing & Communication at one of Zurich’s premier premium department stores, Jelmoli. From a background in journalism and PR, like many other creative individuals, Cécile found her way into the marketing space and helped transform a legendary brick-and-mortar store into the e-commerce powerhouse it is today.

She speaks to us about the state of consumer marketing in the digital era, combining strategies between cyberspace and brick-and-mortar stores, and why youth engagement is key to keeping the pioneering spirit alive for a department store approaching the end of its second century in business. Her approach to marketing balances the digital and physical worlds, bringing together the best of each one to create a truly omnichannel approach to personal, strategic consumer marketing.

Topics discussed include: 

• Top choices for today’s marketing channels, and why diversity in your approach is key
• Balancing the online and offline marketing approaches, and how to integrate them where possible
• Planning cycles, the real work of consumer marketing, and how to stay agile while also thinking a year ahead
• Digital marketing channels, knowing your market, and why LinkedIn is a good choice for a premium retail business
• The youth factor and why digital natives are crucial to effective TikTok activation, both to drive e-commerce traffic and footfall in store.
• Personalization at scale and nourishing your existing customer base with loyalty programs, exclusive benefits, and hyper-targeted engagements
• Identity and longevity for a heritage business in a constantly shifting marketplace
• Metaverse activation in a brick and mortar store, why starting small is a great learning experience
• Why keeping close to customers is the perfect supplement for detailed big data analyses

Max speaks with Jelena Zbijowski, Head of CRM and Product Marketing at Blinkist. They discuss how Blinkist engages and retains its customers through its "famous" onboarding screen, education, and selective communication. They also talk about the necessity of collecting zero-party data to inform your personalization efforts, how AI will elevate customer engagement, and advice for marketers around testing, learning, and listening.

Topics discussed:

• How Blinkist increases retention by understanding the user, educating them, and being selective with their communication.
• The unique benefits and challenges for CRM and retention with subscription-based businesses.
• Why the CRM team should start engaging at onboarding so they can create personalized experiences sooner.
• How the "famous Blinkist subscription screen" works to drive retention.
• Why the foundation of personalization should be the zero-party data you collect from your customers.
• How AI may challenge the balance between personalization and privacy, but how it will ultimately be a tool to elevate customer engagement.
• Advice for marketers that includes why you should test, learn, and listen, as well as why you should be more data-informed.

Max speaks with Jacob Fenton, VP Customer Experience at StockX. They discuss how StockX prioritizes listening to customers and engaging with them organically on community platforms, using their feedback to guide new initiatives. They also talk about why customer service issues are also brand issues, how they use technology to improve the seller experience, and what customer sentiments will drive brand messaging in the future.

Topics discussed:

• How StockX builds organic engagement through influencers and community platforms, where they can educate on or reframe brand messaging.
• The importance of having a robust customer listening program that can guide new initiatives.
• How StockX uses technology and account managers to improve the experience and relationships with sellers.
• Why a customer service issue is really a brand issue and how they work to understand and solve customer concerns.
• How they’re solving their biggest challenges of shipping speed and quality.
• Why customer interest in what brands stand for will drive brand messaging in the future.
• Advice for early career marketers around prioritizing and choosing the people you want to work with.

On this episode of One-to-One Conversational Marketing, Ben speaks with Joe Anhalt, VP of Marketing at Koio. Joe has nearly a decade of marketing experience working with startups and more established organizations in the B2C space. 

Topics discussed include: 

• How Joe’s foundation in startups and massive growth helped shape his perspective on one-to-one marketing 
• The importance of autonomy to execute on a vision 
• First party data and the value of understanding who your best customers are 
• Joe’s process of segmentation and cohort analysis to better discern the most important customers 
• How being a media company first helps build affinity for your brand
• The channels Joe is seeing perform best and the data differences he’s seeing between them 
• The trade offs between keeping your brand buttoned up versus letting it develop culture in the wild 
• Marketing in an economic downturn and how to focus on the fundamentals of customer acquisition and lifetime value to grow a sustainable business  
• Joe’s actionable advice on how to add more value to consumers by simplifying decisions, rather than adding to an abundance of choice

Max speaks with Gabrielle Valdez Dow, VP, Marketing & Fan Engagement at the Green Bay Packers football team. They discuss how the Packers create personalized experiences for their fans across digital channels and in the stadium, how they adjust their messaging based on wins or losses, and how they're tracking the "driveway-to-driveway" fan journey to increase engagement. They also talk about what channels are most successful, advice for marketers, and what the future of fan engagement will look like.

Topics discussed:

• The necessity of retaining and engaging sports fans year round, not just during the season.
• The ways in which the Packers adjust their messaging after wins or losses in order to continue to engage fans.
• The success of different mediums for the Packers and how to measure successful fan engagement across platforms.
• How to create personalization across various channels like email and app, and the potential for personalization in more passive channels like TikTok and YouTube.
• How the Packers are tracking the fan journey, creating opportunities for touchpoints and connection, and rewarding fan engagement.
• Advice for marketers that are just getting started or who want to go into the sports industry.
• What the future of fan marketing will look like across digital channels and in the stadium.

Max speaks with Jay Picconatto, Global Commerce Lead at General Mills. They discuss the ways marketers can collect and use data to deliver better results to customers, and how data from various sources scales personalization efforts. They also talk about how GM is leveraging AI and automation in content creation, what channels and "disposable content" are working for them, and the technology shaping the future of marketing.

Topics discussed:

• Four ways that marketers use data — target, personalize, gain insights, and measure — to deliver better results and experiences to their customers.
• How GM is leveraging AI and automation in their content creation process to deliver more personalization.
• Why marketers should focus on a "cocktail recipe" of first-, second-, and third-party data to better understand their customers.
• How Jay used SCANERS — search, content, availability, navigation, ratings, and subscriptions — to drive GM's e-commerce business.
• What channels are working for GM, and how they're focusing more on "disposable content."
• The technology trends that will shape the future of marketing, including generative AI, clean room data collaborations, and VR.

Ben speaks with David Hixon, Executive Director, Consumer Business and Lending Marketing Strategy and Execution at Ally, a leading digital financial services company. They discuss the ways in which Ally engages with their customers, from the first introductory communication, to why they build relationships before selling on products, to the hyper-personalized experiences they provide on their website and app. They also talk about the challenges to consumer marketing today, especially in the financial services space, how Ally collects and utilizes zero-party data, the importance of retaining your loyal customers, and why success is building relationships with the people around you.

Topics discussed:

• How Ally centers their marketing efforts on building relationships and trust through conversational communication, and why it's important to them to wait two months before trying to sell on a new product.
• The challenges to consumer marketing, especially in the financial services industry, when customer behavior and sentiments are changing daily.
• How the marketing team is structured, and how it sits traditional marketers alongside analysts and statisticians to have the "trifecta of what you would want for a good marketing strategy."
• Why Ally has retention rates in the high 90%, and why customers of multiple business lines have lower attrition, higher balance growth, and more engagement.
• The challenges to consumer marketing, including finding the right product for the right people, and the “conversational choreography” needed to make sure the right customer is getting the right message at the right time.
• A behind-the-scenes look at how Ally leverages the data they have about customers to drive its hundreds of trigger campaigns and to create 6,000 unique variations of Ally.com to highly personalize their customers' experiences.
• The excitement around using zero-party data to drive better customer experiences through hyper-personalization, and how Ally gathers that data through, for example, their online savings account buckets.
• Advice for young marketers, including understanding how important data is to marketing efforts, and how success is about building relationships with the people you work with.

In this special episode, Ben speaks with Max Koziolek, Co-founder and CEO of Spectrm, who will be taking over hosting duties as Ben departs. They discuss how far the podcast has come and where it's going, and how it's created a space to spotlight retention marketers and the work they do. They also talk about lessons learned from the guests, how messaging is the way in which we build relationships today, and what the future of retention marketing will be with the integration of AI and LMMs.

Topics discussed:

• How far the One to One Consumer Marketing podcast has come over the past 40 episodes, and where the podcast is headed into the future.
• Why Spectrm created a podcast and how it provided an opportunity to put retention marketers in the spotlight.
• Lessons learned from the various podcast guests around orchestration, customer journeys, and career development.
• The importance of retention marketing, and how podcast guests are using orchestration, data collection, and experimentation to build relationships with customers.
• Why messaging is the modern channel through which to build relationships with brands and with each other.
• The vision for the future of brand messaging, and how it will grow with the integration of AI and LLMs.

Ben speaks with Pamela Shadrick, Senior Director of Retention & Engagement Marketing at Equifax, a credit reporting agency. They discuss the biggest shifts in digital marketing, including more customer centricity, and how despite market changes and challenges, foundational marketing principles will keep you continuing to grow. They also discuss the areas to focus on for increased customer retention, how to scale your personalization efforts, the danger of chasing trends and channels, and why you shouldn't be afraid to challenge the status quo.

Topics discussed:

• The evolution of Pamela's career, from starting at a time when marketing was just starting to evolve into digital, to her new role at Equifax.
• How the biggest shifts in digital marketing included moving from product- or brand-centered marketing to centering on the customer and their journey.
• Why, despite what's changing in the market, you should keep the basic principles of marketing — strategy, data, technology, and content — as your foundation for continued engagement, retention, and growth.
• How lifecycle marketing is a discipline, and why customer retention needs to focus on drawing customers into a shared purpose and intent, not pushing content at them.
• The elements of scaling your personalization efforts, like having the right data, design, channels, and understanding of your customer.
• The future of consumer marketing, including the importance of relationships and how human-like AI and robot-like humans will impact that connection.
• Three pieces of advice for marketers include having a foundation of marketing principles, not chasing trends, and not being afraid to challenge the status quo.

**Pamela Shadrick appears on this podcast as an individual contributor.  Statements made by Pamela are solely her own and are not intended to represent Equifax or speak on behalf of the company in any way.

In our first episode, we speak with Guilherme Cohen, Global Conversational Commerce Advisor for Dell Technologies. Guilherme was responsible for the relaunch of Dell’s Conversational fronts in Brazil, further assisting expansion to 7 more regions across the globe and their development, eventually joining a new organization inside the company as the Global Marketing C-Commerce Advisor.

Topics discussed:

• The current state of conversational marketing today  
• Why conversational marketing is so important today 
• What excites Guilherme the most about conversational marketing 
• Top three pieces of advice Guilherme has for marketers getting started with conversational marketing 
• Predictions for what the future of conversational marketing will look like

On this episode of One-to-One Conversational Marketing, Ben speaks with Karan Gupta, Global Head of CRM at Marley Spoon. Together they talk about how to effectively move customers along their journey and retain them using relevant and timely channels, as well as how to build a CRM approach thoughtfully and holistically that will scale.

Topics discussed include: 

• How CRM is a natural extension of growth, and how marketers can build an engine that retains customers at scale.
• Why CRM revolves around understanding the most suitable channels for their audience, and having the most relevant timing, personalization, and content all in one.
• The three pillars around which Marley Spoon develops the customer journey, what approaches and platforms they use to stitch that customer journey together, and how they structure their team to focus on different parts of the customer journey.
• Why email is still a relevant and viable channel for them, but why marketers also need a mix of channels through which to engage with and retain customers.
• The challenges to CRM, including managing its complexities around multiple automations, sending too much information, and ensuring channels are talking to one another.
• Advice for marketers around how to approach their career, and why being a generalist can help you adapt to changing marketing landscapes.
• What technology is helping manage and enhance the customer journey today, and where the future of consumer marketing is headed.

Resources: 

•  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/karangupta1

Max speaks with Kevin Kinghorn, Chief Marketing Officer & Executive Vice President for the Portland Trail Blazers. They discuss how to build a marketing strategy that drives fandom and emotional connection, the importance of authenticity and storytelling, and why focusing on fewer audience segments allows for more consistent brand-building. They also talk about the importance of stadium experiences beyond the game and how to leverage data to identify areas of underperformance.

Topics discussed:

• Understanding the drivers of fandom and the "jobs to be done" so you can build your marketing strategy.
• Why having fewer audience segments results in more consistent brand-building across channels.
• Why marketers should focus on the "double funnel" of both acquisition and retention.
• Why the age of season tickets and just watching a game are dead, and why sports brands need to focus on a more holistic stadium experience.
• How to create consistency across channels through aligned storytelling.
• How regional sports networks are changing how sports brands reach their fans.
• Why data insights can help you identify where you're underperforming in the market.

Max speaks with Nadine Fuller, Sr. Director, CRM & Customer Activation at hear.com. They discuss hear.com's strategy for communication that includes choosing the right content, channel, and timing, as well as how to keep customers engaged when there may be years between purchases. They also talk about the importance of testing, the challenges and opportunities of today's many channels, and what tools hear.com uses for effective CRM.

Topics discussed:

• The marketing strategies required to sell a product that people need but don't necessarily want.
• How hear.com approaches their customer communication, including choosing the right segment, content, channel, and timing.
• Why you still need to stick with basic marketing principles, whichever CRM tool you're using.
• How constantly-changing channels and partners are hard to navigate, but also present more opportunities as well.
• How hear.com uses SMS to interact with and deliver value to their customers.
• Strategies for long-term customer retention and the unique challenges marketers have when sales might be seven years apart.
• Advice for marketers, including how you can accelerate your marketing program through testing.

On this episode of One-to-One Conversational Marketing, Ben speaks with Alanna Marder, Senior Director of Communications and Influencer Marketing at ColourPop, which is a line of products from Seed Beauty. Starting out in luxury fashion but feeling drawn to the less well-known brands because of their more agile and responsive market development strategies, Alanna now spends her time dominated by social media, figuring out innovative ways to optimize this ultra-interactive commercial space.

She speaks to us about what most people get wrong about influencer-led marketing strategies, why a traditional google spreadsheet remains her best option for keeping track of a growing client base, and why treating all your users like human beings is the best way to build authenticity for products and content alike. With community content at the heart of her approach, and a thoroughly engaged online presence, you can be sure to see ColourPop rising higher and faster than ever before in the next few years.

Topics discussed include: 

• Why working for big name brands might not always be as rewarding as seeking out your own c-d brand partners to  build something special together
• Why being close to customers and maintaining communications is absolutely critical for contemporary marketing
• Being a social media native brand, and the advantage that gives ColourPop in initial customer outreach
• How to manage a whole roster of influence with individual schedules and specific concerns, the power of a simple google spreadsheet
• How GRIN and Tribe Dynamics became the perfect tech stack for calculating the value of influencers to ColourPop’s brand
• Treating influencers with respect, and giving them some autonomy in the product promotion choices
• Giving influencers space to market their authenticity, but doing your homework and investigate who to trust
• Leveraging community content as the peak of authentic customer promotion
• Different engagement strategies for Facebook vs. TikTok, investing in conversations
• Why impressions score highest for ColourPop's social media sales performance

In this episode of The One to One Consumer Marketing Podcast, Ben Gibert, VP of Marketing at Spectrm, speaks with Kyle Webber, Director of Performance Marketing at Parachute Home. They discuss the changing environment of performance marketing, how Parachute uses incrementality testing to compare the effectiveness of different channels, the importance of collaboration between the brand, lifecycle, and performance marketing teams to increase customer LTV, and more! 

Topics discussed:

• Kyle’s shift from SEO to performance to widen his horizons and understand more than just SEO to be a successful growth marketer
• How Kyle keeps up with the latest trends and tools to succeed in an always changing landscape
• Leveraging incrementality to measure the effectiveness of a marketing activity, how it can be used to compare across channels and identify which channels are driving incremental sales
• How Parachute Home uses geo holdouts to run lift tests and determine the incrementality of different channels
• The value of post-checkout surveys as a gut check to ensure their results align with their findings
• What Kyle sees for the future of consumer marketing and why there will be more blurred lines between influencer marketing, brand ambassadors, and creative development
• Why it’s critical that marketing teams work closely with the brand and lifecycle teams to increase customer lifetime value and make the business more efficient
• The most important things that have helped Kyle advance as a marketer 

Ben speaks with Natalie Miles, Head of Marketing Technology & Personalization at Chime, a financial technology company that offers banking services. They discuss how personalization at scale begins with well-managed data, what benefits focusing on retention can bring to lifecycle marketing, and how to better collaborate with cross-functional teams. They also discuss common challenges to consumer marketing, including how to stand out among commoditization, how to better measure channels, and how to prepare for the future of consumer marketing.

Topics discussed:

• Why good data management, data hygiene, and less fragmentation across records are the foundation for building personalization at scale.
• Why lifecycle marketing "shines" when companies focus on retention, and how you can better leverage your channels with a focus on retention.
• The common challenges to consumer marketing today and how brands can stand out among a commoditized landscape.
• Why marketers shouldn't get hung up on superficial channel metrics and why you need the right channels to deliver the right message so that customers take further action.
• What new technology will impact marketing, like using automation to make testing and experimentation faster and more scalable.
• Advice for consumer marketers, including the need to be able to speak the language of other teams since marketing is so cross-functional.
• The future of consumer marketing, which will include more consolidation of tools, more cross-functionality, and the rise of marketing generalists.

Ben speaks with William Ferrell, Senior Manager at Ekimetrics, a leader in data science and AI-powered solutions. They discuss why brands are losing millions by not getting to know their audience and serving up ads that aren’t relevant, the three things a brand needs for personalization at scale, and why brands should turn to data and connected tech stacks to improve their efforts. They also talk about Colgate's successful Facebook Messenger campaign, the different challenges to customer retention between low engagement and luxury brands, and why the future of marketing will be data-driven.

Topics discussed:

• The current state of consumer marketing, and why companies are wasting millions of dollars serving up ads that aren't relevant to their customers because they're not getting to know them deeply — despite having the tools to do so.
• The challenges to customer retention and loyalty, especially with a low engagement product like toothpaste, and why they made the shift to focusing on building relationships through value exchange.
• How Colgate launched a “whitening at home” campaign through Facebook Messenger, which engaged customers through chat and gamified their experiences, resulting in 70-80% engagement rates.
• The different approaches to customer engagement between toothpaste and luxury brands, and how despite the in-person focus with luxury, there's opportunity to use data to drive a better experience.
• The three pillars of personalization — audience, technology, creative — and why you need these three things to be able to scale.
• Three pieces of advice for marketers, including why you should walk in your customers' shoes, why you should focus on getting the audience right first, and why you need to create utility to stand out.
• How the future of marketing will continue the digital transformations that happened during COVID, and why data-driven will become business as usual.

On this episode of One-to-One Conversational Marketing, Ben speaks to Michael Brandt, CEO and Co-Founder of H.V.M.N., Health Via Modern Nutrition. 

Michael has quickly scaled the business to multi-million dollars in revenue including a $6M contract with the US Department of Defense. Prior to starting H.V.M.N. he was a professor of brand strategy at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Michael and his cofounder were awarded Forbes 30 Under 30.

Topics discussed include: 

• How the company transitioned from a $6m defense contract toward a broader, more consumer-friendly market 
• The importance of having a broad market vision, but why it’s critical to start with a tight circle of authenticity
• Why it’s important to simplify your messaging the broader your market becomes 
• How one day of IRL marketing can tackle months of online A/B testing 
• How allowing HVMN’s brand narrative to evolve naturally was critical in their personalization at scale strategy 
• What the future of consumer marketing looks like

Samir El Kamouny is the founder and CEO at Fetch and Funnel, a company that specializes in scaling ecommerce brands that are mission and purpose driven. Along with leading Fetch and Funnel, he’s also the host of a podcast called Ecom Growth Leaders, which helps marketers learn how to scale their ecommerce efforts. He has been in the marketing industry for over 10 years and brings his knowledge into the episode this week.

Topics discussed:

• Samir’s career journey and why he decided to focus on mission-driven brands 
• Why even a purpose that seems small could make a huge impact in the world 
• How to outline your brand story and talk to the right audience 
• Marketing and branding pitfalls to avoid 
• Why every business should be surveying their customers 
• Why Facebook Messenger is a good advertising tool for your brand 
• Your marketing strategy can be as simple or as complex as you want as long as you have a strategy 
• Avoiding the adopt and drop cycle of online marketing 
• Why you should be thinking omni-channel with your marketing

In our second episode of One to One: the Conversational Marketing Podcast, we speak with Mackensie Liberman, Founder and CEO of Orca Marketology, a chatbot marketing agency focused on getting businesses leads, sales, and raving fans through Facebook Ads and Messenger Bots. ‍

Key Findings

- The backstory behind Orca Marketology and how Mackensie went from a Cytogeneticist to a chatbot marketer. 

- What initially made Mackensie so excited about chatbots when she first discovered them in 2017 and why she’s so excited about where the industry is headed.

- The current state of chatbot marketing and how it has evolved over the past few years. 

- Lessons Mackensie has learned from working with businesses of all sizes to leverage the power of chatbot marketing. 

- Understanding the critical role chatbots play in re-engaging customers who have already expressed interest but have since dropped off. 

- How to use quizzes delivered via chatbots to better understand target customers. 

- 3 tactical tips for marketing teams getting started with chatbot marketing. 

- What’s in store for the future of chatbot marketing.

In this episode, Ben speaks to Aaron Zagha, Chief Marketing Officer at Newton Baby. In this episode, Aaron shares why marketing teams are perhaps overly pessimistic today, but can increase their optimism if they focus on driving decisions through data and relying on "gold standards" to continue to engage customers.

Topics discussed:

• The current state of marketing today, and how it's overly pessimistic — and why it shouldn't be.
• What gold standards in marketing you should focus on to weather industry changes — like asking your customers directly why they purchased — and why consistently turning to data will help you make more informed tactical changes.
• Why Newton Baby doubled down on influencer marketing, and how they use influencers to engage customers and drive sales.
• Which channels are no longer working, and the pivots Newton Baby had to make to ensure they were spending their marketing budget wisely.
• How to tackle personalization at scale, and the effort it takes to do it effectively.
• Advice for marketers who want to improve their efforts, including the importance of learning statistics.
• What current trends, like generative AI, are creating the future of marketing, and why the future of marketing could go anywhere.

Resources Mention: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronzagha
• Website: www.newtonbaby.com

On this episode of One-to-One Conversational Marketing, Ben speaks with Arte Merritt who leads Conversational AI Partnerships at AWS. Arte is formerly the CEO and Co-founder of Dashbot, an analytics platform for chatbots and voice assistants, which he led to 20,000 customers, 90 billion messages processed, and multiple acquisition offers. 

Previously, Arte founded the mobile analytics platform, Motally, which he led to a successful exit via sale to Nokia. Arte has more than 25 years experience in the analytics space, working with companies like Yahoo Mobile, Turner Broadcasting, and a wide variety of startups. Arte is an MIT alum.

Topics discussed include: 

• The importance of analytics to see how people are interacting in conversational channels
• The power of unstructured data gathered from chatbots 
• What excites Arte the most about conversational analytics to help brands fill the gap and learn from how people are interacting 
• Examples of what a true multimodal experience looks like and tips for how brands can leverage those interactions 
• The power of NLP for document processing, image recognition, and more 
• The framework Arte uses to manage multimodal interaction complexity when dealing with different partners 
• Multi-bot orchestration based on persona use cases and context 
• What channels Arte is seeing work best and which ones he's most excited about 
• Tips for how global brands can benefit from a multichannel approach 
• Why brands should focus on training algorithms over time to better identify customer intent 

Max speaks with Abby Katz, Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Eight Sleep, a pioneering tech company transforming how we sleep. Abby shares her unique career journey from influencer marketing to leading lifecycle marketing at Eight Sleep. Tune in to hear her insights on building emotional loyalty, the power of personalization, and the future of wearable technology in health and wellness.

Topics discussed:

• Transitioning from influencer marketing loyalty marketing.
• How marketers are developing and implementing global loyalty and CRM programs.
• The importance of crafting personalized lifecycle campaigns for customer engagement based on customer pain points.
• Data-driven personalization and the impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior and expectations.
• Moving beyond transactional loyalty to create deeper, emotional connections with customers.
• The role of wearables, AI and machine learning in health diagnostics  and preventative wellness.

Ben speaks with Georgia Price, Director, Digital and CRM at Pressed, a leading cold-pressed juice and plant-based snacks brand. They discuss the ways consumer marketing should “treat customers like you want to be treated,” and how Pressed is leveraging data and their various channels, including email and the app, to provide content to both acquire, retain, and reactivate their customers. They also discuss how personalization can be accomplished through more dynamic means, the ways in which Pressed is investing in their data infrastructure, and how there's value in customers being able to choose the channels through which they want to be engaged.

Topics discussed:

• The common themes Georgia has found in customers across industries, from gaming to ed tech to ecommerce, and why it’s always rooted in wanting to be treated like a human.
• How Pressed uses email as a primary retention channel, and has increased CTRs by over 100%, open rates by over 50%, and attributed revenue by 15%.
• How Pressed is iterating on its loyalty program to engage more customers beyond initial sign-up, and how they're looking at ways to maximize their app for more targeted engagement as well.
• How Pressed is investing in their data infrastructure to unlock customer information they haven't had before, and how they're using that information to create new customer journeys.
• The challenges to personalization at scale, and how Pressed is using more dynamic content based on data to better engage customers.
• Why there's opportunity in different channels beyond just email, and why the value will come in customers being able to choose through which channel they want to hear from a brand the most.
• Advice for young marketers, including advocating for channels you know are working, becoming more data savvy, and embracing the opportunity to work cross-functionally.

Ben interviews Carl-Adam Markborn, the head of CRM at Voi Technology, a micro mobility startup based in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Ben and Carl discuss the challenges of engaging users through multiple channels and the declining effectiveness of email marketing, the importance of customer retention and lifecycle marketing in the digital age, the need to tailor content and segment users, and the technology stack for personalized user journeys at scale.

Topics discussed include: 

• The challenges of engaging users through multiple channels and the declining effectiveness of email marketing
• The importance of customer retention and lifecycle marketing in the digital age
• Effective communication strategies for Voi's CRM team and the role of CRM in micro-mobility startups
• Segmenting users and tailoring content for onboarding and CRM
• The technology stack for personalized user journeys at scale
• KPIs and data analysis tools Carl finds most useful 
• The future of CRM marketing and exciting trends and technologies in the field
• User engagement strategies and the importance of understanding control groups and incremental lift to improve performance and customer journey
• Carl’s advice for consumer marketers, including the importance of experimentation, statistics, and research 

In this episode, Ben speaks to Erik Huberman, CEO & Founder of Hawke Media. Together they discuss the current state of marketing today, how trends are pointing upwards and not towards a recession, the benefits of doing marketing with both an agency and in-house, and why basic marketing techniques still provide the best returns.

Topics discussed:

• How brands can evaluate whether to do their marketing in-house or outsource to an agency — and why the best solution is a combination of both, not either/or.
• The impact — or lack thereof — that iOS 14 had on the ability to measure marketing efforts, and why useful data is still available to track.
• The current state of consumer marketing, and how trends show that businesses are continuing to grow despite the rumors of recession.
• Why Hawke Media collects data from the companies they work with, what metrics they track, and how they use benchmarking to inform their strategies.
• Which channels are currently providing great returns for brands, which are up-and-coming, and which are lagging in their returns.
• Why personalization is overvalued and how it can be improved to offer hyperspecific assistance to customers through practical means.
• Where the future of marketing is going, and how AI — and specifically ChatGPT — will help shape it. 

Resources Mention: 

• Hawke Media: https://hawkemedia.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhuberman/

Ben speaks with Gaz Alushi, President, Measurement and Analytics at Whalar, a creator commerce company. They discuss the current state of consumer marketing, and why so many marketers are getting caught up in tracking, rather than what they should be doing to see more impact: measuring. They talk about the ways in which measuring can help you better understand and target your customers, better strategies for aligning marketing efforts with business outcomes, how to bring value to consumers through creator content, and why creativity will play a big role in the future of consumer marketing.

Topics discussed:

• Gaz's career evolution as a self-proclaimed nerd, from traditional research in a number of firms, to working at Facebook and Snap, before becoming the President of Measurement and Analytics at Whalar.
• The current state of marketing, including the "analysis paralysis" that marketers face today, and why they need to shift their strategy from tracking to measuring.
• How today's conversation around privacy is shifting, and how Apple has become a major player in moving how data is tracked into the hands of the consumer.
• What good measurement is, and how meaningfully measuring the signals you have can help maximize your impact with individual customers and segments.
• How to prioritize your marketing strategy, including tying it to business outcomes, the necessity of knowing what you're measuring, and why solving for one thing can provide better awareness of your marketing efforts than a "boil the ocean" strategy.
• How to meet consumers where they are, how to bring value to them, and why consumers are responding more favorably to creator content instead of brand content. 
• Gaz's advice to marketers, including why it's crucial to make consumers care, how to better respect consumers, and why ruthless prioritization is necessary in your strategy.
• Why the future of marketing will be in the hands of consumers, and why creativity is making a comeback.

Ben speaks with Amanda Long, Director of Retail Marketing at francesca’s, a fashion boutique retailer. They discuss the current state of consumer marketing, including how to use your channels more efficiently, how data and privacy regulations can be an opportunity to learn more about the customer, why predictive modeling is an exciting new trend, and the importance of having retention and lifecycle marketing strategies in place. They also discuss how Amanda first got into marketing by tagging along with her grandmother to wholesale events, advice for marketers just starting out in the business, and the importance of having fun. 

Topics discussed:

• The evolution of Amanda's career, from tagging along with her grandmother to wholesale events and watching her bring in new customers, to becoming a rep in high school and driving her own business, to her agency work where she discovered a love for CRM, to her current role as Director of Retail Marketing at francesca’s.
• The state of consumer marketing today, and why increasing privacy and data laws are simply an opportunity to navigate in order to get to know the customer better.
• The importance of retention and lifecycle marketing, and how businesses are leaving money on the table if they don't prioritize those strategies.
• The challenge to effective CRM, including using available channels like paid and email as efficiently as you can, and not duplicating efforts.
• How Amanda has focused on increasing personalization at francesca’s, including revamping the loyalty program and increasing recognition on the website.
• Why predictive modeling is a trend that CRM marketers should be excited about and that can help with personalization efforts.
• Advice for marketers that includes knowing what your goals are, not letting perfection get in the way of shipping a good product, listening to your customers, and having fun!