The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® | What CMOs Need to Know About Marketing Technology, AI & CX

The Agile Brand
The Agile Brand
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  • Marketing
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Marketing technology, AI, and customer experience, explained by the people building it. Three times a week, Greg Kihlström interviews CMOs, product leaders, and martech executives from platform companies like Adobe, Braze, Qualtrics, Salesforce, and Optimizely, and brands like Marriott, Georgia-Pacific, Nestlé, and Zoom about what is actually working inside enterprise marketing organizations. Each episode runs 20–30 minutes: one guest, one specific problem, no filler. Recent conversations cover what changes when AI agents enter the discovery and purchase path, how to move past traditional A/B testing with reinforcement learning, closing the AI capability gap inside marketing teams, and where personalization stops paying off. Who it's for: CMOs, VPs of marketing, martech and marketing operations leaders, and CX practitioners at enterprise brands and the platforms that serve them. Greg Kihlström is an AI transformation advisor to leading brands, a martech futurist, a keynote speaker, and the author of over 25 books on marketing technology, including the Agile Brand Guide series. He has hosted The Agile Brand since 2019 — 900+ episodes, and highly rated across all podcast platforms. New episodes drop at least three times a week. Follow the show so new episodes arrive automatically. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 2d ago

    CommerceIQ CEO Rahul Shah on discoverability as the new shelf

    Rahul Shah, CEO of CommerceIQ, argues that discoverability has replaced shelf position as the battleground in retail, and that keeping retail media and product content in separate teams is now a competitive liability. He and Greg Kihlström get into what replaces the old model. Discoverability is where the sale is decided. Product quality still matters, but an item that an AI-mediated retail environment can't read, verify, and surface never reaches the consideration set at all. Retail media and product content are one system, not two budgets. Paid performance should be changing organic content, and organic performance should be changing paid — the separation between them is an org chart artifact that now costs money. Automation runs at retail speed; humans keep it coherent. Shah on where AI-driven execution takes over from dashboard analysis, what humans have to keep owning as output scales, and how to attribute the resulting lift. About Rahul Shah Rahul Shah is CEO of CommerceIQ, the AI-native retail growth partner for brands. Rahul has spent more than two decades building and scaling technology businesses across product, engineering, and go-to-market. He was most recently Chief Product and Engineering Officer at Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) and held senior leadership positions at PayPal and GE. He also scaled venture-backed companies including Branch Metrics and Applause past $100 million in revenue. He holds an MBA from Berkeley Haas and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Rahul Shah on LinkedIn ---------- Resources ---------- CommerceIQ The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days). Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show. Connect with Greg on LinkedIn Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology. The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    CommerceIQ CEO Rahul Shah on discoverability as the new shelf

  2. 3d ago

    IDT's Kyla Malone on earning trust when customers conduct critical transactions

    Kyla Malone, Director of Marketing at IDT, talks with Greg Kihlström at Braze Forge 2026 about earning trust from customers who rely on one company to stay connected to family abroad and send money home. Moving into money movement raises the bar for the brand. When the customer who buys calling credit also trusts IDT to move their money, the brand has more to prove. Malone explains how that shift changed the way her marketing team works, and how IDT balances name recognition across brands like BOSS Revolution and net2phone with giving customers what they actually need. Personalizing for customers across languages and home countries. How IDT puts Braze to work, and where AI helps the team do what it already did faster versus where it makes something new possible. Measuring personalization and setting the pace of change. How Malone judges whether personalized experiences and content are working, and how she keeps her team moving together while keeping up with customers. Kyla Malone on LinkedIn ---------- Resources ---------- IDT The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703 The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3 We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658 Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bb Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873f Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days). Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    IDT's Kyla Malone on earning trust when customers conduct critical transactions

  3. 4d ago

    From MAICON: Robin Ross on making the shortlist when AI agents do the shopping

    Robin Ross, Digital, Analytics and Loyalty Executive at Activate Insight, on how brands compete when a consumer's AI agent controls the consideration set. Recorded live at MAICON 2026 with Greg Kihlström. - Brand preference is now decided before the customer sees the options. - When an agent builds the shortlist, the direct-to-customer relationship enterprises have invested in for decades runs through an intermediary the brand doesn't control. - Loyalty and first-party data have a second audience. Ross and Kihlström look at what a loyalty program is worth when an agent weighs price and features on every purchase, and how a data strategy has to change to inform agent-based decisions. Attribution breaks when the agent is the filter. If a brand is considered and rejected without an impression or a click, the traditional funnel has nothing to measure. The conversation covers what marketing leaders should track instead. About Robin Ross I’m a marketing and strategy executive with 20+ years of experience driving growth through data, loyalty, and digital transformation. I’ve led initiatives that expand membership, strengthen customer engagement, and scale innovation across functions. My expertise includes marketing analytics, loyalty programs, digital transformation, and applying AI and data to accelerate decision-making. I focus on simplifying complexity, aligning teams, and building systems that deliver measurable results. I thrive at the intersection of strategy and execution—partnering with leaders to clarify goals, design customer-centric programs, and turn them into business impact. Robin Ross on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-ross-activateinsight/ ---------- Resources ---------- Activate Insight The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703 The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3 Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bb Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873f Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days). Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    From MAICON: Robin Ross on making the shortlist when AI agents do the shopping

  4. 5d ago

    Aampe CEO Paul Meinshausen on the control marketers never had

    Paul Meinshausen, CEO at Aampe by MoEngage, argues marketers never had individual-level control over customer experience — only rules applied at scale. He and Greg Kihlström get into what replaces it. Personalization was always rules in disguise. What marketers experienced as control was segment logic applied broadly. Meinshausen on what individual-level decisioning does that no rules engine reaches, however many people you put behind it. Guardrails are where the real design work happens. When an agent's read on a single user collides with a margin floor or a global frequency cap, something has to resolve it — explicitly, and with data behind the trade-off. A headline lift number is not proof. Meinshausen on how performance metrics mislead when leaders evaluate AI, what makes a holdout experiment credible, and how to measure value that doesn't show up as a conversion. About Paul Meinshausen Paul Meinshausen is Co-founder and CEO of Aampe, an agentic AI decisioning company acquired by MoEngage in 2026, where he now leads Agentic Decisioning. Aampe's approach deploys a dedicated agent for each individual user, built on reinforcement learning infrastructure with causal inference at the user level, and runs in production across consumer brands including Grab, Swiggy, ZenBusiness, and Taxfix. Previously he co-founded PaySense, a consumer fintech acquired by PayU in 2019, and served as its Chief Data Officer. His background spans data science, computational behavioral science, and building engineering and data teams. He has been an active angel investor since 2018. Paul Meinshausen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmeinshausen/ ---------- Resources ---------- Aampe by MoEngage: https://www.moengage.com MoEngage is an Agentic Customer Engagement Platform trusted by over 1,350 global consumer brands and combines deep customer analytics, agentic marketing workflows through its Merlin AI Agents, and omnichannel orchestration across messaging and surfaces, helping marketing and product teams deliver experiences that feel personal at any scale. Learn more at moengage.com The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3 Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bb Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873f Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days). Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Aampe CEO Paul Meinshausen on the control marketers never had

  5. 6d ago

    Contentsquare's Jean-Christophe Pitié on measuring CX when the visitor is an AI agent

    Jean-Christophe Pitié, Chief Marketing and Partnerships Officer at Contentsquare, says the rules of customer experience are being rewritten as LLMs and AI agents join the customer journey. He and Greg Kihlström get into what that means for how enterprise teams measure, test, and fund digital experience. The conversation is timed with CX Circle NYC, Contentsquare's digital experience event on October 13, 2026, and Pitié shares what he is most looking forward to there. **The customer journey now includes LLMs and AI agents.** Pitié on why signals from human and agent interactions need to be read together, and what analytics has to capture beyond clicks and pageviews. **Analytics moves from reporting what happened to deciding what matters.** How Contentsquare's AI, Sense, prioritizes issues for marketing and product teams, and what agentic experimentation (AI that forms a hypothesis, designs a test, and validates the impact) leaves for human optimization teams to own. **Attribution and benchmarks are being rebuilt for AI-referred traffic.** Multi-touch attribution that includes LLM and AI-referred traffic, and Benchmarks that compare specific features and user flows against industry peers, as inputs to channel and experience investment decisions. About Jean-Christope Pitié With 20+ years of experience in international marketing and partner engagement, Jean-Christophe Pitié is committed to supporting companies of all sizes in their digital transformation. Passionate about technology and retail, he spent two decades at Microsoft, where he had the opportunity to contribute to the cloud transformation and launched Microsoft 365 as well as leading Microsoft Stores. Today, as Chief Marketing and Partnerships Officer at Contentsquare, his main mission is to drive customer demand in markets around the world, continue to grow the company's rich partner ecosystem, and bring holistic customer experience insights to more teams worldwide. ---------- Resources ---------- Contentsquare The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days). Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show:. Connect with Greg on LinkedIn Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology. The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Contentsquare's Jean-Christophe Pitié on measuring CX when the visitor is an AI agent

  6. Oct 16

    Treasure AI's Brenno Valerio on finding the right time to make martech changes

    Brenno Valerio, Head of Sales, Americas at Treasure AI, joins Greg Kihlström at Agentic World in Miami on consolidating the martech stack and proving AI's value before renewal. Consolidation is a political decision before it's a technical one. Who on the buying committee resists replacing best-of-breed point solutions, and what kind of proof moves them. "Agentic" claims need a live pressure test. How skeptical enterprise buyers separate real capability from relabeled automation, and how marketers can plan for an attribution gap where downstream tools like an ESP often get the revenue credit, so the proof of concept produces evidence a CFO will accept. Engagement-based pricing changes more than the invoice. What it means for procurement teams used to predictable costs, for brands locked into fixed, multi-year contracts, and for how marketing teams decide when to reach out to a customer at all. About Brenno Valerio Brenno Drummond Valerio is Head of Sales at Treasure AI, where he helps enterprise brands use customer data and AI to drive measurable business results. He brings more than a decade of experience in enterprise software sales and business development across the Americas. Before Treasure AI, Brenno spent nearly ten years at Acquia, the digital experience platform, leading sales and business development and working with Acquia's key partners across the region. Brenno Valerio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennovalerio/ ---------- Resources ---------- Treasure AI: https://www.treasure.ai The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703 The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. https://aglbrnd.co/r/c70c250b8d52dff3 We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658 Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. See more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f76be3a33cc491bb Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/491818c79fb1873f Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days). Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: https://aglbrnd.co/r/f1782ab12211f765 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Treasure AI's Brenno Valerio on finding the right time to make martech changes

  7. Oct 14

    Treasure AI COO & CFO Dan Weirich on what the CFO sees in your AI spend

    Dan Weirich, COO & CFO of Treasure AI, explains why the company moved to engagement-based pricing that ties its revenue to customer clicks, and what CMOs should expect as CFOs take a harder look at AI spend. Recorded live at Agentic World 2026 in Miami. **Finance is pumping the brakes on AI spend.** Weirich on how the push to maximize token usage gave way to cost scrutiny, why some high-profile companies didn't see it coming, and what capital discipline looks like for a well-funded vendor in the middle of a hype cycle. **Outcome-based pricing puts the vendor's money where its mouth is.** Why Treasure AI shifted from its 'No Compute' model to engagement-based pricing, what it means for new and existing customers, and whether the rest of the market is headed the same way. **CMOs and CFOs need a closer working relationship.** A CFO's view of how finance and marketing have worked together over the last five years, where the two can partner as marketing's staffing and work change, and how to structure vendor contracts to stay adaptable as the CDP category consolidates. About Dan Weirich Dan Weirich is Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Treasure AI (formerly Treasure Data), where he leads the company's business and financial operations and sits on its board. He brings more than 25 years of finance and operations leadership at technology companies. Dan first joined Treasure Data as CFO in 2014. After Arm acquired the company in 2018, he became Vice President of Operations for Arm's data business. He returned as COO and CFO in 2021, when Treasure Data separated from Arm and joined SoftBank Vision Fund 2's portfolio. Before Treasure Data, Dan spent more than a decade at 8x8, Inc., as CFO and later President, and helped build its software-as-a-service business. Earlier, as Vice President of Business Development at iAsiaWorks, he expanded the company into 13 Asian countries and helped take it public on NASDAQ in 2000. He has also held roles at Qwest and Phoenix Network. Dan is a General Partner at Carbide Ventures and holds a BS in International Business from the University of Colorado Boulder. Dan Weirich on LinkedIn ---------- Resources ---------- Treasure AI The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days). Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more. Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show. Connect with Greg on LinkedIn Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology. The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Treasure AI COO & CFO Dan Weirich on what the CFO sees in your AI spend

  8. Oct 13

    Spotlight's John Rockhold on influence orchestration: why earned authority now outweighs owned content

    John Rockhold, VP Market Engagement at Spotlight, says AI answer engines treat a company's own content as a ceiling — the citations that move buyers come from sources it doesn't control. He and Greg Kihlström get into what replaces the old B2B influence playbook. Self-citation is a ceiling, not a strategy. Publishing more owned content doesn't raise AI visibility past a point; third-party validation does the lifting. Analysts shape the vocabulary, peer platforms get the citation. The two do different jobs, and budget allocated as if they were the same tends to underperform. Influence is owned by everybody and therefore nobody. Rockhold on what has to change week to week across analyst relations, comms, and customer marketing — not just who it reports to. By the time a buyer contacts you, the influencing already happened. What that does to a marketing organization still structured around lead generation and MQLs. About John Rockhold B2B buying has become AI-mediated and trust-driven, long before buyers engage a vendor. I spend my time observing how influence is formed, synthesizing signals from analysts, buyer research, and market behavior, and helping organizations make sense of what actually shapes modern buying decisions. As VP of Market Engagement at Spotlight, I draw on a background that includes journalism, analyst relations, and years of close collaboration with industry analysts. I’m trusted by analysts because I respect their role, understand how their work evolves, and prioritize accuracy, context, and long-term relationships over short-term outcomes. Much of my work focuses on how influence, visibility, and trust are earned in the modern B2B buyer journey. I help B2B brands understand how experts, customers, vendors, partners, and employees all shape visibility and credibility. At Spotlight, we refer to this coordinated approach to earning and sustaining trust across analysts, customers, and AI systems as Influence Orchestration. https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrockhold/ ---------- Resources ---------- This episode is brought to you by Spotlight. Spotlight is pioneering the future of influence orchestration in the B2B buyer journey. Trusted by over 165 teams globally, Spotlight is the world’s leading analyst relations consultancy and industry platform. The hardest part of martech right now is telling which tools are actually earning their keep. That's the question running through the MarTech Summit Boston agenda on October 27. We're attending MarTech Summit Boston on October 27 as a media partner. If you want to join, the code AGILE15 saves you 15%. Need to evaluate martech, AI, or CX platforms and don't know where to start? The Agile Brand Guide List is now in beta. We're building the most useful, free-to-use, and up-to-date way to assess what truly matters when evaluating platforms. Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days). Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Enjoyed the show? Tell us more and give us a rating so others can find the show. Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter, and check out Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology. The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Spotlight's John Rockhold on influence orchestration: why earned authority now outweighs owned content
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Marketing technology, AI, and customer experience, explained by the people building it. Three times a week, Greg Kihlström interviews CMOs, product leaders, and martech executives from platform companies like Adobe, Braze, Qualtrics, Salesforce, and Optimizely, and brands like Marriott, Georgia-Pacific, Nestlé, and Zoom about what is actually working inside enterprise marketing organizations. Each episode runs 20–30 minutes: one guest, one specific problem, no filler. Recent conversations cover what changes when AI agents enter the discovery and purchase path, how to move past traditional A/B testing with reinforcement learning, closing the AI capability gap inside marketing teams, and where personalization stops paying off. Who it's for: CMOs, VPs of marketing, martech and marketing operations leaders, and CX practitioners at enterprise brands and the platforms that serve them. Greg Kihlström is an AI transformation advisor to leading brands, a martech futurist, a keynote speaker, and the author of over 25 books on marketing technology, including the Agile Brand Guide series. He has hosted The Agile Brand since 2019 — 900+ episodes, and highly rated across all podcast platforms. New episodes drop at least three times a week. Follow the show so new episodes arrive automatically. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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