The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

Most leaders see Marketing Ops as the team that keeps the trains running on time, essentially the plumbers of the marketing department. But what if I told you they’re actually positioned to be the architects of your company’s most durable competitive advantage? Agility requires moving beyond the transactional nature of campaigns and technology. It demands building a durable, responsive ecosystem a...

As you race to adopt AI-powered shopping experiences, are you creating a new data black box that will make your customer journey less understood, not more? Agility requires not just the speed to adopt new channels like generative AI, but the foresight to ensure these new touchpoints don't become blind spots in your customer journey. It demands that our data strategy evolves as quickly as our custo...

When you look at your five-year strategic plan, how much of it is dedicated to defending your current market share versus actively making it obsolete? Agility requires more than just reacting quickly to market shifts; it demands the foresight and structure to initiate those shifts yourself. This episode is brought to by CRMC. Drive your customers to new horizons at the premier retail event of the...

What's the bigger blind spot for most brands’ digital experience: knowing that a customer is struggling, or understanding why and being able to help them in that exact moment? Agility requires not just identifying customer friction quickly, but having the tools to resolve it in the moment. It’s about shortening the gap between insight and action to create better experiences, faster. Today, we're g...

In an era dominated by high-definition home entertainment and endless digital distractions, what does it take to convince a fan that a live, in-person experience is not just worth their time and money, but is something they can't afford to miss? Agility requires not just having a plan, but building a system to listen and respond to your audience in real time. It’s about turning feedback from a ret...

In the race for B2B growth, we often prioritize speed over everything else. But what's the real cost when your brand starts to look like a collection of spare parts cobbled together by different teams? Agility requires a strong, foundational framework to enable speed without sacrificing coherence. It's about empowering teams to move quickly and independently, while still ensuring every customer to...

What if your most visible, most exciting product wasn't your real product at all, but was actually a Trojan horse for building a much deeper, stickier customer relationship? Agility requires more than just a willingness to change; it demands a deep understanding of what truly motivates your customer, allowing you to evolve your model in service of their emotional outcomes, not just their transacti...

What if the key to customer loyalty isn't about creating memorable, delightful moments, but about being utterly forgettable in the best possible way? Agility requires more than just rapid campaign execution; it demands a deep-seated ability to re-evaluate and re-engineer core processes in response to shifting customer expectations. Today, we're going to talk about the powerful, and perhaps counter...

What's the real cost of only having the bandwidth to focus on your top-performing products? Agility requires systems and processes that not only respond to change but also proactively manage complexity across an entire portfolio. It’s about creating the capacity to act on every opportunity, not just the most obvious ones. Today, we're going to talk about a critical breaking point for large consume...

In the rush to implement AI across the customer experience, are we at risk of creating more digital barriers than we're breaking down? Agility requires a holistic view of the entire digital experience. It's the ability to see not just how individual channels are performing, but how they work together to serve every potential customer, inclusively and intelligently. Today, we're going to talk about...

What if your brand’s success wasn't dependent on a winning product or favorable market conditions, but on your ability to connect with customers on a human level, one story at a time? Agility requires moving beyond a reliance on market trends or product performance as the primary drivers of success. It demands a deeper, more resilient connection with customers, built on understanding their individ...

Now that AI can generate endless content, what is the true strategic value of a human-led content strategy? Agility requires more than just adopting the latest tools; it demands a foundational strategy that allows you to integrate new capabilities without disrupting the core customer experience. This means being able to distinguish between a promising innovation and a distraction. Today, we're goi...

In an age of AI-powered deepfakes and sophisticated counterfeits, is your brand's core identity becoming more of a liability than an asset online? Agility requires moving beyond just building a brand to actively and continuously protecting its integrity in a digital landscape where threats evolve at the speed of AI. This isn't just a defensive tactic; it's a core component of maintaining customer...

We talk endlessly about the power of AI models, but what happens when the public web data they rely on is incomplete, outdated, or just plain wrong? Agility requires not just reacting to market changes, but anticipating them by having a clear, real-time view of the world. This means having the infrastructure to see the digital landscape as it truly is, not just how it's presented in curated report...

For over two decades now, many marketers have built their careers on mastering Google and paid search. What if the playbook you spent your entire career perfecting is about to become obsolete? Agility requires not just adapting to new technologies, but a willingness to fundamentally question and reimagine the foundational channels you've built your business on. It demands that we look beyond incre...

What if the biggest obstacle to your AI strategy isn't the algorithm, but the 20-year-old software your team is forced to use every day? Agility requires not just a willingness to adopt new strategies like AI, but also the courage to dismantle the legacy systems that hold your people and processes captive. Today, we're going to talk about the hidden costs of outdated technology. While many leaders...

With AI promising to accelerate everything, is the most important role for a leader now to be the one who knows when to hit the brakes? Agility requires a balance between the rapid adoption of new technologies and the strategic wisdom to know which ones will actually deliver customer value. It's less about moving fast and more about moving in the right direction. Today, we're going to talk about h...

We've all been sold the dream of AI transforming the customer experience, but what if the most common approach is actually making it worse? Agility requires more than just implementing new technology; it demands a deep understanding of the human interactions that technology is meant to support. It’s about adapting your tools and processes to enhance human judgment, not just automate it. Today, we'...

Is generative AI on track to become the biggest productivity unlock for marketers since the internet, or will it forever be stuck in endless pilot projects and one-off experiments? Agility requires moving beyond isolated experiments and embracing the systemic redesign of core creative and marketing workflows. It's about building the operational muscle to not just adopt new technology, but to integ...

What if your company’s most valuable source of competitive intelligence and brand insight isn’t a market research report, but your contact center? Agility requires more than just reacting to customer issues; it demands the ability to listen, understand, and act on the collective voice of the customer to proactively shape the business. This means transforming points of friction into opportunities f...

What if your biggest competitor this holiday season isn't another brand, but an army of AI-powered scammers stealing your customers and destroying your brand equity before you even know they exist? Agility requires not only building a brand that can pivot with market trends, but also one that can defend its value and customer trust against threats that evolve just as quickly. Today, we're going to...

Imagine your biggest AI-powered marketing decision is challenged by your CEO or legal team. Could you, right now, defend both the outcome as well as how the AI arrived at that conclusion? Agility requires more than just speed; it demands the confidence to act on insights decisively. That confidence is impossible if the tools making the recommendations operate like an unexplainable black box. Today...

As AI makes it easier than ever to reach a global audience, is it also making it easier to fail on a global scale? Agility requires more than just speed; it requires situational awareness. For global brands, this means having the cultural intelligence to understand the nuances of local markets and adapt your strategy in a way that builds trust, not erodes it. Today, we're going to talk about a cri...

What if the most honest and insightful feedback you could get about your customers didn't come from an actual customer at all? Agility requires not just the ability to pivot quickly, but the foresight to know *which way* to turn. That foresight is built on a foundation of deep, unbiased insights, which are becoming increasingly difficult to get through traditional means. We are in Seattle at the Q...

What if the most expensive moment in your customer acquisition funnel is also your most ignored opportunity? Agility requires seeing a user’s “no” not as a final endpoint, but as a data point that signals a need for a different path. It demands that we pivot in real-time to offer alternative forms of value, rather than simply writing off the investment and the relationship. Today, we're going to t...