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

What happens when your e-commerce platform treats your most valuable professional clients like everyday consumers?
Agility means looking past a platform's out-of-the-box features and building an experience that reflects how your different customer segments actually do business.
This episode is brought to you by The Office of Experience, a design-driven, digital-first, vertically integrated and collaborative agency that believes in the power of ideas and the strength of people. Learn more at www.officeofexperience.com
Today, we're talking about the complexity of building a single e-commerce experience for two very different audiences. Specifically, we'll explore:
- Balancing the distinct needs of B2B and B2C audiences on a single digital storefront.
- Knowing when to lean on an e-commerce platform's native capabilities versus when to invest in custom development to close critical experience gaps.
- Integrating physical retail and showroom data, like real-time local inventory, into a seamless digital experience.
To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Jenna Kennedy, Senior Director, Client Strategy & PMO at Office of Experience and William Webster, General Manager, Guy Gunter Home.

Jenna Kennedy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennabkennedy/

---------- Resources ----------
: https://www.officeofexperience.com

This episode is brought to you by The Office of Experience, a design-driven, digital-first, vertically integrated and collaborative agency that believes in the power of ideas and the strength of people.

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

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/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).

The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1

Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: 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 more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

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://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For about a decade, a customer data platform's job was to be the place your customer data lived. What happens to that job when the most valuable thing a system can do goes beyond remembering and evolves to deciding and acting?

Agility, in a category that's been declared dead more than once, isn't chasing whatever the market renames itself this quarter. It's being able to change what your product does without losing the thing your company is actually good at.

Today we're going to talk about what it takes to evolve a category from the inside. Specifically:
- Why fifteen years of data infrastructure turned out to be an advantage rather than baggage to shed.
- What actually changes — in the product and in the company — when a system stops solely storing customer data and starts acting on it.
- Where the line sits between a marketer steering an agent and a system running on its own.

This conversation also kicks off a four-part series we're running this week with the product team at Treasure AI: four leaders, four vantage points: the vision, the roadmap, the operational reality, and the design.

To help me start it off, I'd like to welcome Rafa Flores, Chief Product and Growth Officer at Treasure AI.

About Rafael Flores
As a proud immigrant from Honduras, Rafael's journey is rooted in three core values passed down from his family: the power of education, treating everyone with dignity—no matter their background—and lifting up the next generation. Once he was an wide-eyed kid with big dreams, and today, he's living them. He's dedicated his career to scaling SaaS companies from startup spark to high-growth success. At Meltwater, he played a key role in driving product innovation and market readiness that led to a successful IPO. At Datanyze, he led strategic initiatives that culminated in an acquisition by ZoomInfo—boosting their data intelligence footprint. At ARM, he spearheaded innovation in Retail SDK and IoT, opening new frontiers in connected experiences. And at 6sense, he led all automation, data, and AI-powered products, building inclusive teams and solutions that empower GTM leaders to sell smarter. At Treasure Data, he helped orchestrate a landmark $600M acquisition by ARM and secured record-breaking funding for the Customer Data Platform. Now, he's back—leading Treasure Data into a new era of intelligence and automation built for scale. It’s more than a comeback; it’s a homecoming. This is a team he deeply believes in—brilliant, driven, and purposeful. Beyond tech, he's a devoted father of three and married to a registered nurse whose compassion and strength inspires him every day. My expertise lies in product strategy, CDPs, data privacy, and scaling GTM solutions—from agile startups to Global 2000 enterprises. He's passionate about solving hard problems with technology, driving sustainable growth, and mentoring rising product leaders. As a member of the Forbes Technology Council, he aims to share insights, spark dialogue, and help shape the future of innovation—one conversation, and one leader, at a time.

Rafael Flores on LinkedIn

---------- Resources ----------
Treasure AI

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit

Check out the Treasure AI Studio sandbox for yourself.

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at 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 more.

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and 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.

Whose job is it to ensure the brand promise you market is the same one your customers and employees actually experience?
Real agility isn't just rapid execution — it's a whole organization responding as one to what customers, employees, and the market actually need.
Today, we're talking about "Total Experience" and what it takes to make brand, customer, and employee experience add up to one company, not three. Specifically:
- How to orchestrate brand, customer, and employee experience so they reinforce each other instead of competing.
- The operational shifts that turn siloed functions into a single, trustworthy experience.
- Why the CMO is uniquely positioned to champion this, and where that means owning parts of the business marketing hasn't traditionally touched.
To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Mack McGee, CMO at CareFirst, which was recently recognized at Forrester’s CX Forum West as the top insurer in Total Experience.

About Mack McGee
With more than 20 years of experience in marketing and storytelling, Mack excels at connecting people and communicating impact in creative and meaningful ways. He also brings extensive fundraising experience, evidenced by his success in helping the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation raise nearly $5 million as chair of their annual Passion for Food and Wine event.
Mack McGee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mackmcgee/

---------- Resources ----------

: https://www.carefirst.com

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

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/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).

The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1

Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: 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 more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

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://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the AI tools you bought to make your team faster are quietly making that team harder to coordinate?

Agility depends less on how quickly you adopt new technology and more on how well you understand the work that technology is supposed to improve.

Today, we're going to talk about:

- The operational costs buried inside customer-facing work — and why they're so hard to see, let alone measure.
- Why layering more automation onto a coordination problem often makes the problem worse.
- What it takes to build AI into core workflows so that efficiency and customer experience improve together instead of trading off against each other.

To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Kevin Yang, Director of AI at Front.

About Kevin Yang
Kevin Yang is the Director of AI at Front, the only customer operations platform built for B2B complexity, where he leads the company’s AI strategy across automation, analytics, and customer insight. His work is grounded in the belief that the most valuable business intelligence lives inside customer conversations. At Front, Kevin is building AI systems that operate within real workflows—helping over 9,000 businesses better understand what their customers are saying and translate those insights into action with full visibility

Kevin joined Front through the acquisition of Idiomatic, the AI-powered voice-of-the-customer platform he founded and led as CEO. Earlier in his career, Kevin worked in frontline support while building his first company, EAT Club, a leading virtual cafeteria serving over 1,000 companies, including Google, Netflix, and Tesla.

Kevin Yang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yangkevin/

---------- Resources ----------

Front: https://www.front.com

Front is a customer operations platform that helps organizations manage customer communication across email, chat, voice, SMS, and other channels in one place. The platform is designed for teams handling complex customer relationships, where resolving an issue often requires coordination across multiple people, systems, and departments.

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

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/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).

The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1

Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: 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 more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

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://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens to a brand when the story it tells about its AI adoption moves faster than the results it can actually show?

Agility isn't about telling that story faster. It's about being able to change what you say — repeatedly, as the technology changes — without losing the thread of what your company is actually for.

Today, we're going to talk about the widening gap between AI ambition and business reality, and what that means for enterprise marketing leaders. Specifically, we'll cover:

- The shift from selling an AI vision to proving tangible value.
- How AI is pushing marketing into closer alignment with product and revenue.
- What it takes to build trust — inside the company and out — when the outputs of AI systems are hard to explain.

To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Mark Abramowitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Dataiku.

About Mark Abramowitz
Mark Abramowitz is Chief Marketing Officer at Dataiku, The Platform for AI Success. In his role, he oversees global brand and demand strategy, and is responsible for building awareness of Dataiku as the platform that unifies people, governance, and AI systems to deliver real results at scale.

Mark brings extensive experience scaling enterprise platform businesses. Prior to Dataiku, he served as SVP of Product and Solutions Marketing at ServiceNow, leading product marketing as the company scaled from $6 billion to nearly $11 billion in revenue and spearheading the launch of Now Assist—the fastest-selling product in ServiceNow history. Before ServiceNow, Mark spent 15 years at Salesforce and 5 years as SVP of Product Marketing for Service Cloud.

Mark Abramowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markabramowitz/

---------- Resources ----------

Dataiku: https://www.dataiku.com

The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703

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

Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/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).

The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1

Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20

Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: 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 more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba

Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com

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://www.missinglink.company
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.