Technology & Humanity
The Hidden Cost of Global Marketing
The Big Idea Is Only as Strong as the System That Delivers It. Global brands have never invested more in creating big ideas. Brand platforms are centralized. Creative systems are increasingly sophisticated. Campaigns are built to travel across markets, formats, platforms, and channels. Strategy is aligned. Guidelines are documented. Master assets are approved. And yet, […]
Trusted Enough to Become the Answer
TRENDSETTERS | Martyn Etherington, CMO of BMC Software. There was something refreshingly grounded about speaking with Martyn Etherington recently. At a moment when much of the marketing conversation around AI feels dominated by acceleration, automation, and speculation, Martyn’s perspective was strikingly simple: the future may belong less to louder brands — and more to trusted […]
When AI Becomes a Cost, Not a Capability
Most organizations don’t struggle with a lack of ideas.They struggle with the discipline to turn those ideas into decisions. AI has amplified that gap. What begins as exploration too often becomes a permanent state—an ongoing series of pilots, tests, and initiatives that never quite reach production. Investment continues. Progress is reported. But meaningful outcomes remain […]
When Great Ideas Don’t Survive Scale
The most dangerous moment for a great marketing idea is not when it is created. It is when it is scaled. A global idea is approved. The strategy is clear. The creative platform is strong. The brand team is aligned. Then the idea enters execution. It is adapted, resized, translated, rebuilt, localized, versioned, reviewed, approved, […]
Scaling Authenticity in an AI World
Why what feels real is becoming more valuable—and more selective. Marketing has never been more capable. Ideas can be generated instantly.Content can be produced at scale.Experiences can be designed, extended, and optimized across platforms. And yet, something is shifting. Not in what marketing can do— But in what people choose to believe. In a world […]
Where Experience Lives Now
Barbie at Coachella. Playmobil on Roblox. Kellogg’s back in the box. Different executions. Same shift. Marketing is moving from exposure to experience—and ultimately, to memory. Marketing has spent the last decade expanding outward—into platforms, ecosystems, and endless points of connection. But something is shifting. Not backward, exactly. But inward—toward experience itself. Three very different ideas—Barbie […]
Where “Better” Becomes Real
It’s one thing to talk about how AI is reshaping marketing. It’s another to see it in action. Across a range of recent work, the most compelling examples don’t just demonstrate what AI can do—they show what happens when it’s applied with intention. Not just to move faster. But to connect more meaningfully. These examples […]
From Precision to Purpose: How AI Is Reshaping Marketing
Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging force in marketing.It’s reshaping how marketing works—right now. Not just how campaigns are executed—but how decisions are made, how audiences are understood, and how brands respond in real time. What’s emerging is not simply a more efficient version of marketing. It’s a different model altogether—one that blends precision […]
When AI Has All the Answers, What Happens to Us?
AI is becoming a guide—not just a tool. But guidance without experience may come at a cost. We are getting used to AI as a companion. Not just for work—where it is already reshaping strategy, analysis, and creativity—but for something far more personal: Guidance. People are beginning to ask AI questions they once reserved for […]
What If Marketers Could Test Strategy Before Launch?
Synthetic personas offer a new way to model how different audiences interpret meaning — before investing in production and media. Marketing insight has traditionally been retrospective. Campaigns launch. Audiences respond. Researchers analyze what worked and what did not. But a new generation of AI tools may begin to change that sequence. Synthetic personas — computational […]