Marketing Futures Podcast host Mike Berberich is back with another edition of the special series from the 2024 Brand Masters Conference in Carlsbad, California. In the marketing game, it’s all about relationships, particularly the one between consumer and company. And, whether you’re a brand or awkward high schooler, there’s no worse place to find yourself than in the friend zone. Our guest today is here to help you out. In fact, he literally wrote the book on it! Marketing expert and author of Moving Your Brand Out of the Friend Zone, Dough Zarkin joined the pod to lay out the different relationship zones that exist between customers and brands, and how to utilize “human thinking” to take your relationships to the next level.

Marketing Futures Podcast host Mike Berberich returns to Carlsbad, California for the next edition of the 2024 ANA Brand Masters Conference miniseries. Today’s guest is on a mission to help curb tobacco use in children and young adults, and in 2024, that means one thing: Stop the vape. Elizabeth Kenny is the CMO of the TRUTH Initiative, and on today’s episode, we discuss the insights and discoveries behind the nonprofit’s latest campaign, aimed at the elusive Gen Z generation. Find out how TRUTH connected with an audience that shuns traditional marketing and has historically low faith in institutions by meeting them where they’re at.

For those looking to quit...

TRUTH's free and anonymous text message program – This is Quitting – is helping more than 700,000 young people on their journey to quit. Any young person looking for help can text DITCHVAPE to 88709.

They also have free resources for adult quitters and parents of young tobacco users through EX Program. Those resources can be found directly at: BecomeAnEX.org.

Young people can get involved with the truth campaign efforts by visiting thetruth.com.

Learn more about the organization at TruthInitiative.org.

ANA’s Marketing Futures Podcast returns with another episode recorded on the ground at the 2024 ANA Brand Masters Conference in Carlsbad, California. Host Mike Berberich’s guest is none other than the host of this year’s Brand Masters Conference, CPG Marketing Expert Fernando Herrera. Berberich and Herrera discussed the evolution of omnichannel marketing over the years, and the challenge marketers face syncing the digital and physical worlds. They also shared their thoughts on AI’s role in the marketing function and talked about how to leverage the new hybrid/remote workforce to your advantage.

For the second year in a row, Marketing Futures Podcast host traveled to ANA’s Brand Masters Conference, this year emanating from Carlsbad, California, to interview some of the brightest minds in our industry. We’re kicking off this very special series with a very special guest: Newell Brand’s Melanie Huet, the president of brand management and innovation. Melanie joined the pod to discuss how her dynamic background makes her a favorite among the C-suite, and how marketers that have relied on creativity and media savvy in the past can level up. Finally, we chatted about how AI is shaping the CMO role in the modern marketing landscape.

With all of the new developments in marketing technology over the past decade, I’m pleased to announce that creativity is making a roaring comeback to claim center stage in the marketing function. At least that’s the mission of my two guests today. Co-CEOs of Havas New York, Sarah Collinson and Dan Lucey are looking to make creative excellence the north star of everything the agency does. On the ground at the 2023 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference, they talked with host Mike Berberich about Havas’ “village model,” approach to client solutions, what the new dynamic duo has planned in the short- and long-term, and, of course, how AI factors into it all.

The Marketing Futures Podcast played host to the dynamic duo of Jamie Medeiros, Chief Brand Officer at Planet Fitness and Katy Hornaday, Chief Creative Officer at Barkley. Jamie and Katy joined the pod to talk about the advantages of being a “purpose native” brand like Planet Fitness, as well as the ingredients behind a supercharged brand/agency relationship. They also discussed overcoming the enormous disruption caused by the pandemic in 2020.

Over the years, we here at the pod have talked a lot about how marketers need to brush up on their technical literacy as more and more of the marketing function becomes digitized. But what about the other way around? Are there ways engineers could benefit from thinking like a marketer? The answer, according to our guest this week, is a resounding yes. Chris Stauffer founded his own agency in 2000 after playing a key role in helping some major brands take their first leap into the digital world for years. Chris and I discussed the art of balancing an engineer mindset with a branding one and what your brand needs to consider before you even think of integrating AI into your organization.

Today, we’re bringing you a very special episode, recorded on the ground at the 2023 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando, Florida. My guest? Alan Schulman, Co-founder and Chief Experience Officer at UpperRight. At Masters, Alan laid out the impacts and future of generative AI to the marketers in attendance, and today, he’s going to unpack that presentation with us. As we stand at the crossroads of creativity and technology, Alan and host Mike Berberich discussed the plumbing and the poetry behind truly great creative advertising.

The Marketing Futures Podcast airs Tuesdays at 3PM EST. For more information about the ANA Podcast Network, visit www.ana.net/podcasts.