In Clear Focus

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Guest Tim Shea of  Latticework Insights explores how brands can maximize ROAS: their Return on Analytics Spend. As marketers struggle to track data across scattered platforms, Tim explains why customer lifetime value is a nuanced story rather than just a single average number. Discover why domain expertise is the new oil, how to avoid drowning in AI-generated slop, and where human...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Our guest, Miya Knights, author of " The Future of Shopping: Using Digital, Data and AI to Win with Customers ," explores the evolving retail landscape. As AI assistants begin making shortlists, Miya explains why product data must be clean and machine-readable for brands to remain selectable. Learn how to optimize retail media networks, when to intentionally add friction to the cus...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Podcast guest David Magrini, CEO of Volute Group, explores the critical role of AI readiness before investing in new marketing technology. While brands rush to buy AI tools, David explains why a fragmented data infrastructure creates accumulating "experience debt" for everyday consumers. Discover why AI alone is not the answer, how to ensure your strategies remain human-led, and wh...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Marking our 350th episode and 25th season, Piers Fawkes of PSFK explores the future of strategic AI research. As generic LLMs homogenize insights into a "race to the middle," Piers explains how tracking weak signals provides a vital competitive edge for modern brand marketers. Discover how his new venture, Fodda , acts as an advanced context layer, using curated knowledge graphs an...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Our guest is Betsy Davis of Sandy Alexander , who explores the lasting power of phygital media and physical brand experiences. Discover how combining targeted direct mail with digital channels significantly boosts consumer response rates. Betsy also shares how to leverage spending data for personalization without crossing into the "creep factor". Learn how embedding conversational...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: This week's guest, Steven Van Belleghem, explores how to build a customer culture competitors can't copy. Discussing this month's Bigeye Book Club selection, " Customer Passion: 101 Ways to Meet Customer Expectations and Stand Out ," Steven explains the 95-5 rule and why AI makes human empathy vital for complex interactions. Discover how to ignite deep loyalty using friction huntin...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Ibrahim and Koral Ibrahim, the co-authors of " Culture Stores: Redefining the Shopping Space Through Connection to Community , " explore the future of physical retail. As transactions shift online, they argue that physical spaces must evolve into media platforms designed for community recruitment and retention. Discover how to turn customers into loyal fans by embracing culture-gra...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Our guest this week is Brett Farmiloe, CEO of Featured , who explores the link between earned media and AI visibility. Discover why Featured acquired Help A Reporter Out (HARO), how to unlock internal subject matter experts, and why human-written pitches perform three times better than AI-generated ones. Brett explains how public relations drives generative search results and share...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Katie King, CEO of AI in Business, discusses the all-new, second edition of her book, " AI Strategy for Sales and Marketing ". Discover how brands can move from AI experimentation to scaled transformation by prioritizing strategy over technology. Katie explains the importance of consent-first, ambient personalization and how ethical AI acts as a trust multiplier rather than a cost...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: World-renowned architect Alexander Josephson, co-founder of PARTISANS , discusses his approach to retail architecture as brand strategy. The physical space a customer enters is the most concentrated expression of a brand. Discover why separating architecture and marketing budgets damages credibility. From Bar Raval to Union Station, learn how treating store environments as brand in...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Daniela Bolzmann, founder of Mindful Goods and the Design Proof Substack, explores how data-driven creative optimization transforms e-commerce conversions. Drawing from over 1,000 consumer polls, Daniela shares how Amazon split testing, A+ Content, and main image tweaks reveal what shoppers actually want. Discover how to bridge the say-do gap, leverage AI for data analysis, and bui...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Park Howell, founder of Business of Story , and author of "Brand Bewitchery," explores the DNA of brand storytelling. Discover why narrative clarity must precede the creative brief and how to use the 10-step Story Cycle System™ to build compelling messaging. Park explains the AND, BUT, THEREFORE (ABT) framework, why brands must make the customer the hero, and how the StoryCycle Gen...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Our guest this week, Melissa Swift, author of " Effective: How to Do Great Work in a Fast-Changing World, " explores the modern reality of work intensification. Discover why today's workplace mirrors the early Industrial Revolution and how the "curse of competence" impacts top performers. Melissa shares actionable strategies to navigate complex interdependence, manage AI anxiety, a...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Columbia Business School professor Paul Ingram explains why shared values are the most powerful force in authentic brand-consumer relationships. Drawing from his book, " What Do You Really Stand For? ", Paul reveals how to uncover core values, apply value homophily for consumer segmentation, and the benefits of aligning internal culture with external messaging. Learn practical fram...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Visha Kudhail is the author of our featured book for August: " Authentic Marketing ." In this episode, Visha explains why authenticity should be an always-on operating model, not a social media trend. As AI content floods feeds, consumers crave genuine connection. Discover how to move past vanity metrics, turn data into real human insight, and embrace brand flaws. Hear how authenti...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Most new products fail by solving technical problems over consumer needs. Sally Kemkers of consultancy Untapped Innovation reveals how to bridge R&D and marketing. Discussing her new book, "Untapping Innovation," we discover how to drive human-led innovation using The Hero's Journey, uncover hidden habits, and write product stories that align cross-functional teams. Sally also expl...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Bigeye's strategy intern Hannah Rugar shares insights on the American Mom in 2026 from our report, The Trusted Voice Economy. Discover who holds household purchasing authority, why 71% of consumers trust peer creators over brand ads, and how nano-creators drive real engagement. We also hear how moms use AI to reduce mental load, and explore how zero-transaction partnerships and aut...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Stephan Reschke, Head of Branding at Dart Design in the Netherlands, explains why traditional archetype models fail in an era of agentic AI. He introduces the PRISM model to help marketers adapt their brand personality for machine-driven discovery. Discover why brands must now be legible to AI assistants while remaining lovable to humans and learn how to translate your identity int...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Guest Anne Huntington Sharma, CEO of Huntington Learning Center , explores brand stewardship in an age of AI-led disruption. Discover how a nearly 50-year-old heritage brand is reinventing its identity to connect with millennial parents while preserving accumulated trust. Learn about balancing franchise collaboration with compliance, integrating artificial intelligence tools like a...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Mike Hower, author of " Sustainability Storytelling: Communicate Trust, Brand Value, and Better Business ," explains why silence costs brands. He reveals how companies can overcome "greenhushing" and navigate the risks of greenwashing. Discover Mike's Four C's framework—context, compelling, credible, and compliant—to align legal and marketing teams, and learn how radical transparen...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Chelsea Clark, CEO of Momfluence , explains what brands get wrong about influencer marketing. Moms control 85 percent of purchases, but influencers from this group remain underleveraged. Learn why smaller creators often outperform mega-influencers, the value of "brief-less" campaigns, and how to spot fake followers. Discover why treating creators as salespeople instead of creatives...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Lindsay Pinchuk, host of the Dear FoundHer podcast and consultant, shares how to leverage community strategy for sustainable growth. Drawing from her success building Bump Club and Beyond, Lindsay explains why audiences crave connection, not just product pitches. Discover her actionable SWEEP framework to amplify your message across multiple channels and hear how to forge authentic...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Behavioral branding strategist and author of " The Divided Brain: Understanding Human Behaviour in Branding and Business ," Paul Larche explains why logical marketing often fails. He reveals how the subconscious "old brain" makes decisions that the "new brain" simply rationalizes. Learn to navigate resistance to change, leverage loss aversion, and use his Brand Value Canvas. Discov...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: Tiffany Rose Goodyear, founder of Scentex , explores scent in brand strategy. Because olfaction bypasses rational thought and links directly to emotion and memory, it offers an unmatched opportunity for connection. Learn why Western culture historically ignored smell, how color theory informs fragrance design, and how to execute immersive scentscapes at live events. Discover how to...

IN CLEAR FOCUS: June's Bigeye Book Club selection is " Neuromarketing: Practical Insights for Improving Customer Engagement ." Author Katie Hart explains why, when 95 percent of purchase decisions are non-conscious, traditional research often asks the wrong questions. Learn how neuromarketing reveals real consumer behavior, why the brain processes images faster than text, and the physiological imp...