Frontier CMO Podcast by Think with Google

Presented by Think with Google
  • 4.8 (9)
  • MARKETING
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

In the AI era, marketing should be unstoppable, and its future is being written in real time. Frontier CMO talks to the leaders shaping it. Join Joshua Spanier, Google's VP of AI and Marketing Strategy, in his deep-dives with the leaders, marketers, technologists who are rewriting the playbook. Welcome to the Frontier. We’re asking the questions other won’t: How do marketing leaders prove ROI to executives? What does a modern marketing strategy look like when AI and analytics are reshaping the rules every day? Each episode of Frontier CMO explores the real-world playbooks leaders are using to navigate the AI-powered landscape. From marketing trends and branding breakthroughs to advancements in digital marketing, social media, content marketing, and B2B marketing, Frontier CMO breaks down what’s working and what’s not to help you navigate this new landscape. Subscribe to Frontier CMO on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to get alerted when the first episode drops in January.

  1. Beyond the Pitch: Inside Arsenal’s Global Fandom Playbook

    3D AGO

    Beyond the Pitch: Inside Arsenal’s Global Fandom Playbook

    Most football clubs are built around matchday but not Arsenal. As it enters its 140th year, the team in a lot of ways, is only just getting started.  In this episode of Frontier CMO, Josh travels to London to meet Juliet Slot, Chief Commercial Officer at Arsenal Football Club, on home turf to go inside the playbook behind one of the most engaged global fanbases in sports.  From the rapid rise of the women’s league to the clubs’ staying power of “cool,” Juliet shares why serving your fanbase is better than trying to sell them.  This conversation lands at a historic moment with the club reaching its first UEFA Champions League Final in 20 years and is within reach from capturing the Premier League title. As FIFA tournaments kick off around the globe, this is your front row ticket to exploring how one of the world’s biggest clubs is making its mark across platforms, geographies, and generations. 00:00 Arsenal’s Global Brand Philosophy 02:00 Serving Fans Beyond Match Day 04:10 Building a Modern Global Football Brand 06:00 Fashion, Culture & the Arsenal Identity 07:30 Personalization, Content & AI Strategy 09:40 Understanding Different Types of Fans 10:45 Measuring Real Fan Engagement 12:30 The Viral Women’s Football Dating Campaign 14:00 Fans as Co-Creators of the Arsenal Brand 16:30 Authentic Marketing vs. Over-Selling 18:40 Growing Arsenal Women Into a Global Business 22:45 Choosing the Right Brand Partnerships 24:20 Purpose-Driven Campaigns & “No More Red” 25:45 Creating One Unified Club Culture 27:00 Winning Beyond Trophies 29:20 The Future of Sports, Tech & Virtual Viewing 32:00 Why Arsenal Resonates Around the World 34:00 Final Lessons on Community & Long-Term Growth

    36 min
  2. Asmita Dubey on AI, Fragmentation, and the Future of Marketing

    APR 23

    Asmita Dubey on AI, Fragmentation, and the Future of Marketing

    Marketing is entering its most complex era yet. AI is accelerating everything—but the real challenge is making sense of a system that is fragmenting faster than ever. In this episode of Frontier CMO, Josh Spanier sits down with Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at L’Oréal Groupe, who leads digital transformation across the world’s largest beauty company. With more than 90,000 employees and dozens of global brands, Asmita is responsible for navigating how AI, data, and creativity reshape marketing at enterprise scale. The conversation explores why fragmentation defines modern marketing—from the consumer journey to the marketing organization itself—and how leaders must respond by building systems that scale learning. Asmita shares how L’Oréal has operationalized transformation through massive upskilling, AI-powered content creation, and a culture built around what she calls the “dual muscle” of math and magic: the balance of technology, creativity, speed, and brand building.  For CMOs and founders navigating a moment where AI is reshaping every layer of marketing—from insight to creation to commerce—this conversation offers a practical blueprint for leading transformation while protecting the creative heart of the brand. 00:00 – The Marketer’s Dilemma: Fragmentation in the AI Era 01:00 – Meet Asmita Dubey & L’Oréal’s “Math + Magic” Philosophy 02:00 – A Global Career & How Background Shapes Leadership 03:30 – Growing Up in a Family of Teachers & Lifelong Learning 04:45 – Leading Through Influence in a Complex Organization 06:00 – Inside L’Oréal’s Massive Marketing Ecosystem 07:30 – Stakeholders Then vs. Now: The Expanding Marketing Universe 09:00 – Marketing Meets Engineering: The Rise of Beauty Tech 10:30 – Staying Ahead: Culture, Curiosity & Continuous Reinvention 11:45 – Building an Entrepreneurial Culture at Scale 13:00 – Upskilling 30,000+ Marketers & Skill-Based Organizations 15:00 – L’Oréal’s Digital Transformation: From 5% to 30% E-Commerce 17:00 – Changing Consumer Behavior & New Operating Models 19:00 – Measurement Matters: Balancing Short-Term ROI & Brand Equity 21:00 – Lessons from China: Speed, Scale & Consumer-First Thinking 23:30 – Agentic Commerce & the Future of Beauty Shopping 26:00 – Why Fragmentation Is the Biggest Marketing Challenge 29:00 – AI’s Role in Rebundling Marketing & Breaking Silos 31:00 – AI-Powered Consumer & Marketer Journeys Explained 33:00 – Inside L’Oréal’s AI Tools: Creaitech & Content at Scale 35:00 – What’s Next: The Future of Marketing in the AI Era 37:00 – Rapid Fire: Signal vs. Noise (AI, Influencers, Innovation) 40:00 – Final Takeaways: Fragmentation, Learning Systems & Dual Muscle

    41 min
  3. Emma Grede on Operationalizing Culture, Speed, and AI

    APR 9

    Emma Grede on Operationalizing Culture, Speed, and AI

    Marketing is no longer downstream from product. It is the operating system. In this episode of Frontier CMO, Josh Spanier sits down with Emma Grede, founding partner and Chief Product Officer at SKIMS, Co Founder & CEO of Good American, and Co Founder of Off Season, to unpack what it really takes to build durable brands in a culture obsessed with moments. Emma shares why product discipline matters more than hype, how to operationalize cultural relevance, and why speed is the ultimate competitive advantage. The conversation explores AI adoption inside fast-scaling companies, where automation should power the business, and where it should never touch creative. Emma also reflects on talent partnerships, decision velocity, resilience, and why the best leaders aren’t the ones who make perfect decisions, but the ones who make more of them. For founders and CMOs navigating growth where culture, commerce, and AI collide, this is a blueprint for building brands that last.

    46 min
  4. Carla Hassan on Trust, AI, and Leading Under Pressure

    MAR 26

    Carla Hassan on Trust, AI, and Leading Under Pressure

    Marketing leadership today is defined by pressure: AI disruption, declining trust in institutions, cultural fragmentation, and relentless growth expectations. In this episode of Frontier CMO, Josh Spanier sits down with Carla Hassan, Chief Marketing Officer of JPMorganChase, who leads more than 3,000 marketers across one of the world’s most recognized financial brands. From her early life shaped by displacement to stewarding a 200+ year-old institution, Carla shares how resilience and clarity shape her leadership. The conversation explores why “you don’t build trust with a tagline,” how trust is earned locally at scale, and what it really takes to modernize a marketing organization. Carla unpacks how AI is transforming roles from writers to editors, why layering AI onto broken processes fails, and how CMOs must rethink org design, workflows, and decision rights. For leaders navigating complexity inside large systems, this episode is a candid look at transformation, operational discipline, and building durable brands in uncertain times. 00:00 – Training Teams in the AI Era 01:00 – The Pressure of Being a Modern CMO 02:00 – Carla Hassan’s Journey & Resilience 04:30 – Global vs Local Marketing: Getting It Right 06:30 – Why Brand Consistency is Non-Negotiable 08:30 – Cultural Differences in Money & Messaging 10:30 – Building a Purpose-Driven Global Brand 11:30 – Trust, Transparency & Big Institutions 13:30 – What Modern Marketing Looks Like Today 17:00 – How AI is Reshaping Marketing Teams 20:30 – Speed, Testing & Real-Time Content Feedback 40:30 – Final Takeaways: Trust, AI & Local Relevance

    42 min
  5. Sir Martin Sorrell on AI and Agency Reinvention

    MAR 12

    Sir Martin Sorrell on AI and Agency Reinvention

    Marketing is being reshaped by forces far bigger than any single campaign: AI, geopolitical fragmentation, economic pressure, and collapsing agency business models. In this episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with a legend of the advertising world: Sir Martin Sorrell. As an architect of the industry over the last 50 years, Sir Martin shares his unvarnished perspective on where marketing power is shifting now and what CMOs must do to stay relevant. The conversation breaks down why traditional agency holding companies are struggling, why AI adoption is being driven more by CFOs than CMOs, and where true transformation is already happening at scale. 00:00 – The Power of Branding in a Changing World 01:19 – “Two Drunks and a Lamppost”: On Agency Consolidation 03:34 – What CMOs Can Learn from Ogilvy & the Saatchis 07:42 – Who’s Building the New Marketing Paradigm? 10:13 – Why Agencies Are Falling Behind in the AI Era 13:41 – Why the CFO Is Driving AI Adoption 16:53 – Creativity’s AI Golden Age? 18:45 – The GM Model: AI at Scale in Action 22:43 – The Skills the Next CMO Must Master 28:53 – Is the Long-Term Brand Era Over? 35:00 – Rapid Fire: AI, Agencies & Overcapacity 37:44 – The Most Exciting Market in the World Right Now

    41 min
  6. Vineet Mehra on Marketing in the Agentic Era and How to speak the Love Language of the CFO

    FEB 26

    Vineet Mehra on Marketing in the Agentic Era and How to speak the Love Language of the CFO

    In this episode of Frontier CMO, Vineet Mehra, Chief Growth Officer at Chime, joins Josh Spanier to unpack what it takes to lead marketing through the next platform shift. Drawing on a career that spans Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Silicon Valley, Vineet shares how CMOs must evolve from brand managers into capital allocators who drive growth by effectively managing where dollars are deployed. To do this successfully, they must become "balance sheet literate" and learn to speak the "love language" of the CFO—specifically focusing on unit economics, payback periods, and the marginal return on every incremental dollar spent.  Vineet breaks down how Chime has restructured marketing around AI-enabled teams, in-housed creative and production, and redesigned customer support - turning automation into speed, savings into reinvestment, and execution into a competitive advantage. His thesis: perfect execution is table stakes; growth comes from strategy, taste, and how you design the system. Whether you’re navigating the pressure of AI adoption, balancing brand with direct response, or trying to stay relevant as automation accelerates, this episode offers a practical framework for building durable growth in a world where leadership, not technology, is the real differentiator. 00:00:00 — CFO + marketing: CAC, payback, unit economics 00:01:00 — Intro: the CMO role is changing 00:02:00 — What marketers must change for the next era 00:04:00 — What stays the same: brand story + taste00:05:30 — In-housing creative with top talent 00:08:00 — AI makes creative faster (from boards to near-finished) 00:10:30 — Biggest benefits: speed, savings, bigger ideas00:12:00 — “Chief Growth Officer” and owning the full funnel 00:15:00 — Full-stack marketer + systems architect 00:19:00 — Using AI agents at Chime (customer support example)00:25:00 — How to build an AI-ready culture 00:29:00 — Advice to traditional companies 00:30:00 — Fun: AI + pizza00:33:00 — Brand vs performance = one system 00:35:00 — Handling end-of-quarter CFO pressure00:38:00 — Signal vs noise + wrap-up takeaways

    41 min
  7. Vidhya Srinivasan on Agentic Commerce and the AI Rewiring of Marketing

    FEB 13

    Vidhya Srinivasan on Agentic Commerce and the AI Rewiring of Marketing

    Marketing is being rebuilt from the infrastructure up. Search is changing. Commerce is becoming agent-driven. Measurement is being redefined in real time. And the line between engineering and marketing is disappearing. In this episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with Vidhya Srinivasan, Head of Ads and Commerce at Google. As the leader responsible for Google Ads, YouTube Ads, Shopping, Merchant Center, Gemini integrations, and payments, Vidhya is helping architect how the modern marketplace actually works. The conversation explores what “agentic commerce” really means, why the Universal Commerce Protocol could reshape how brands interface with AI systems, and how Gemini is already rewiring performance, creative, and intent matching across the ad stack. Vidhya explains why CMOs don’t need to code — but must become technologically fluent — and outlines a five-part leadership blueprint for navigating AI transformation with optimism, speed, and accountability. 00:00 – The Vision: Reducing the “Commute Cost” from Desire to Purchase 00:28 – Engineering Meets Marketing: Why the Worlds Are Merging 01:31 – Inside Google Ads & Commerce: The Scale of the Role 03:13 – Agentic Commerce & the Universal Commerce Protocol Explained 04:29 – AI Search, Longer Queries & Reimagining Ads 05:05 – YouTube Creators, Culture & the Creator Partnership Hub 06:18 – How Gemini Powers Google’s Ad Systems 07:06 – Why Trust Is the Foundation of AI Advertising 07:51 – What CMOs Must Understand in the AI Era 14:19 – Measurement, First-Party Data & Cracking Attribution 21:38 – Leading AI Transformation: A 5-Point Playbook 25:32 – The Holy Grail: The Right Ad, Right Person, Right Moment

    29 min
  8. Colin & Samir on the CMO’s Guide to the New Creator Economy

    FEB 12

    Colin & Samir on the CMO’s Guide to the New Creator Economy

    Marketing is colliding with a creator economy that looks more like television, community, and culture, rather than what we used to think of when we think of social media. In this episode of Frontier CMO, Josh Spanier, VP of AI & Marketing Strategy at Google, sits down with Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry, creators and hosts of Colin & Samir, to unpack how the creator landscape has fundamentally changed, and what CMOs can do to get creator partnerships right. They explore why attention without connection is a dead end, how creators have become the arbiters of taste, and why brands must stop treating creator partnerships like performance ads and start building long-term, value-aligned relationships. A practical, forward-looking discussion on creators, community, and the shift from attention to connection.

    40 min
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In the AI era, marketing should be unstoppable, and its future is being written in real time. Frontier CMO talks to the leaders shaping it. Join Joshua Spanier, Google's VP of AI and Marketing Strategy, in his deep-dives with the leaders, marketers, technologists who are rewriting the playbook. Welcome to the Frontier. We’re asking the questions other won’t: How do marketing leaders prove ROI to executives? What does a modern marketing strategy look like when AI and analytics are reshaping the rules every day? Each episode of Frontier CMO explores the real-world playbooks leaders are using to navigate the AI-powered landscape. From marketing trends and branding breakthroughs to advancements in digital marketing, social media, content marketing, and B2B marketing, Frontier CMO breaks down what’s working and what’s not to help you navigate this new landscape. Subscribe to Frontier CMO on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to get alerted when the first episode drops in January.

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