Marketing Trends

What if everything you're optimizing for in marketing — attention, clicks, engagement — is a proxy for the one thing that actually drives action? Pranav Yadav is the Founder & Global CEO of Neuro-Insight, the world's largest measure of memory. His company maps brains to determine what advertising actually does to people — second by second — with an 86% correlation to real-world sales. In this conversation, he makes the case that memory is the only metric that matters, explains why hyper-personalization is destroying culture, and breaks down exactly why Budweiser's most iconic Super Bowl ad failed at the brain level while Samsung's Wallhuggers became their most successful campaign ever. Pranav Yadav is a former Goldman Sachs trader turned neuroscientist, Forbes 30 Under 30, and Ad Age 40 Under 40. He created the Neuro Impact Factor — the brain-based metric that all Australian out-of-home media is now traded on.   Key takeaways • 90% of all memory is subconscious — brands have been measuring the wrong 10% • $750 billion in annual marketing spend is wasted because recall ≠ memory • The brain is a pattern-seeking storytelling device — personal relevance opens the door to memory • Hyper-personalization destroys the shared cultural memory that makes marketing work • The #1 rated Super Bowl ad (Budweiser Lost Puppy) placed the brand at the exact moment the brain stopped encoding memory • Samsung's Wallhuggers hid the brand for 45 seconds and became their most successful campaign   Follow Pranav on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pranavyadavpy Learn more: neuro-insight.com   Chapters 0:00 Introduction 1:31 The Urdu Couplet That Opens the Conversation 2:28 Marketing Has Been Leaning on Pseudoscience for Decades 5:09 Why Memory Is the Only Metric That Matters 8:32 The Shirt Test: Recall vs Memory 12:23 How to Get Into the 90% — Story Is the Boat 15:17 What 5,000-Year-Old Vedic Rituals Teach About Memory 19:41 Alexander the Great vs the Naked Wise Man 24:28 MasterCard's Priceless: Finding the Core Truth 27:29 Why Brands Don't Do This (It's Hard) 32:23 Brain Mapping: How Neuro-Insight Actually Measures Memory 39:26 Brand Architecture: The Formula Every Brand Needs 43:48 Why Hyper-Personalization Will Destroy Society 50:54 Why 90% of Super Bowl Ads Fail at the Brain Level 54:17 Budweiser's Lost Puppy: The #1 Ad That Failed 58:04 Samsung Wallhuggers: Genius at the Memory Moment 1:00:25 Why LLMs Are Trained on the Shadow of Thinking 1:07:41 Vows, Not Values: How Neuro-Insight Stays Creative 1:15:51 The Neuro Impact Factor: Changing How Australia Trades Media 1:19:57 What Makes a Great Billboard 1:20:23 Where to Find Pranav   ----Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your blog will never earn an audience. Ever. That's not me — that's Melissa Rosenthal, who ran the SEO content engine at ClickUp, built media at BuzzFeed and Cheddar, and is now co-founder of Outlever building the playbook that replaces it. In this episode, Melissa makes the case that the SEO blog era is collapsing in real time, that one strategic LinkedIn poster will out-perform 150 employees doing employee advocacy, and that while every other B2B operator is betting on AI, she's betting on humans — and using AI to do it. She's also dogfooding the entire thesis with her new publication, The State of Brand, which hit a million unique views in three weeks.   What you'll learn • Why the SEO blog was a 'slot machine' — and what survives the AI search collapse • The two-month consistency rule that separates real owned media from content theater • Why one strategic LinkedIn poster beats 150 employees doing employee advocacy • The one-to-one distribution playbook replacing mass organic traffic • How Melissa's State of Brand publication converts at ~40% to demo on banner ads (yes, banner ads) • Why product parity is now enough to beat 15-year incumbents — if your brand, service, and POV are sharper   Connect Melissa Rosenthal on LinkedIn The State of Brand Outlever Marketing Trends   Chapters • 0:00   The SEO blog era is over • 1:30   What's lighting Melissa up: State of Brand hits 1M views in 3 weeks • 4:30   BuzzFeed → Cheddar → ClickUp: why B2B needs B2C instincts • 7:33   Why Outlever built its own publication (and dogfooded the thesis) • 13:00  How to make B2B content go viral without AI slop • 18:50  Quality vs quantity: the false binary killing content teams • 22:14  Why one strategic poster beats 150 employees • 25:37  The two-month consistency rule • 26:33  'Your blog will never earn an audience' • 30:17  Everyone says video-first. She's going text-first. • 32:24  Melissa is excited about banner ads (yes, really) • 37:00  'Figma should be a little worried' • 40:04  You don't need a better product to beat a 15-year incumbent • 43:14  Betting on humans while everyone else bets on AI • 53:44  $50B incumbents can be beaten in 18 months   ----Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every CMO is being told to replace people with AI agents as fast as possible. Keri McGhee, CMO at Attentive, is doing some of that — and deliberately refusing to do other parts of it. The line she's drawn between the two is the most useful rubric we've heard in months. Attentive runs SMS, email, push, and RCS for thousands of consumer brands — a category where the temptation to automate everything is maximum. But Keri's strongest customer-loyalty moment last year wasn't an AI agent. It was a single text from a real human after a graduation dress arrived without its matching belt. 'I will buy a million more things from them.' This episode is the rubric: where AI is unlocking near-100% revenue lifts, where iOS 26 just quietly killed 80% of your text marketing, and the customer moment no agent count can replace. What you'll learn • Why brands using AI hands-off-the-wheel are seeing near 100% revenue lift — and the two customers proving it • How iOS 26 broke text marketing for 80%+ of devices, and the 2Tap opt-in fix most brands don't know about • The personalization rubric that gets 91% of consumers to say yes • The metric CFOs are asking marketing leaders about right now instead of CAC • The one customer moment that no AI agent can replicate — and why it's the only outcome that matters Connect Keri McGhee on LinkedIn Attentive Chapters 0:00 Stop Selling AI, Start Proving Outcomes 1:16 What Changed in AI Marketing This Year 2:03 Why 90% of CMOs Experiment, But Few Scale 5:29 Why Attentive Doesn’t Lead With “AI” Anymore 6:32 Channel Affinity: Fewer Messages, Better Revenue 8:06 100% Revenue Lift 10:55 Identity AI and the Send-Time Unlock 12:34 The Best Practice Killing Your Deliverability 14:16 iOS 26 and the New Rules for Text Marketing 15:26 Why 2Tap Matters for SMS Consent 17:41 LLM Discovery, GEO, and the New Search Funnel 21:23 Why Consumers Distrust AI But Use It to Shop 24:22 The Tuckernuck Story: When AI Still Feels Personal 28:27 Why CMOs Have to Get Their Hands Dirty 32:14 The KPI Replacing CAC 34:21 Why Martech Is Consolidating Again 36:31 How to Spot Real AI vs. Rebranded AI 38:00 Stop Counting Agents. Measure the Experience. 43:10 The Skill AI Can Quietly Take From You 44:24 How Brands Should Prep for BFCM 46:38 Lightning Round: Trends, Skills, and Frameworks ----Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Most CMOs think personalization requires complex AI and endless customer segments. Elizabeth Maxson proves otherwise. She breaks down actionable personalization strategies — from geo-tagging that drove a 51% lift in event attendance to playful homepage tricks that captured marketers' attention and boosted engagement. The takeaway: Stop overcomplicating personalization. Start with big buckets and simple, contextual changes. Chapters 00:00 - Why Personalization Should Be Simple 00:32 - First-Time vs Returning vs Current Customers 01:07 - Marketer vs Developer Homepages 03:01 - Geo-Tagging: +51% Attendance 04:28 - The Big Buckets Approach 05:28 - The Lorem Ipsum Attention Hack 06:22 - Ruggable Cat vs Dog Personalization ----Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are few arenas as competitive and complex as professional sports marketing. In this episode, Melissa Proctor, CMO of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena, shares how she continues to achieve by showing up for herself and her teams. With more than 15 years of proven brand strategy expertise, Melissa has found myriad ways to engage and delight the Hawks’ devoted fanbase, while reinforcing the organization’s deep connection to the city it calls home. Tune in to learn how she continues to build unforgettable experiences for fans, the city’s communities, and her employees.     Tune in to learn:The skills and attitudes aspiring marketers need for success (9:49)About building a larger community for the Atlanta Hawks (21:05)How the Hawks are honoring MLK’s legacy (29:47)Why personalizing the customer experience is vital (36:51)Mentions:Steve Koonin, CEO of Atlanta Hawks “From Ball Girl to CMO” – Melissa Proctor’s book Deloitte’s  “A winning strategy for the future of sports streaming” by Pete Giorgio, Jana Arbanas, David Jarvis, and Brooke AuxierTrae Young, Atlanta Hawks GuardProject Future Fan Study“Pro Sports Leagues Are Chasing Gen Z Where It Plays” by Joe Drape and Ken BelsonKim Rometo, CIO of Atlanta Hawks “Creativity Meets Strategy: The Atlanta Hawks’ CMO Reveals Her Executive Superpowers” by Alysse Soll – Melissa’s interview with WIST   ----Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

They say two is better than one, so it stands to reason that three is better than two, right? Well, you can ask Jason Clark that question because he has not one, not two, but three roles at Netskope. Officially, Jason is the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, and what that means is that he is responsible for the marketing, security and strategy teams. Luckily, Jason has incredible people working with him to lighten the load, but that doesn’t make the work he does simple. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Jason takes us behind the scenes of life at Netskope and what it means to market and provide security transformations to companies around the world.  Main Takeaways:   I Was You: When what you’re trying to sell is security, it’s hard to not fall into the trap of being alarmist. You don’t want to scare potential customers, instead you want to empathize with them. One way to do that is by bringing in former CIOs to sell to CIOs, because someone who is sitting in that leadership position is much more likely to listen to someone who was once in his or her shoes than a typical salesperson. Howdy, Partner: In terms of security, for the most part everyone is fighting the same enemy. That makes it prudent to find and work with best-in-class partners to provide even more protection to the customers you are working with. And when you work with good partners, everyone in the partnership — including the customer — wins in the end. The Link Between CSOs and CMOs: While the head of security and head of marketing might not seem like two people who have a lot in common, the truth is that both of those roles boil down to one idea: trust. CSOs need to build trust in the security and the team they have built and CMOs need to build trust among customers. As such, the two roles should be much more connected and rely on each other more. --- Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.  To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.   ----Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.