Contrary to Popular Opinion

We passed on pitching a brand that we didn't feel was a good fit. Then they came back and asked us to help evaluate the pitches of the three agencies still in the running. In this episode, Todd and Kelly share what they learned from the other side of the table. Buying media is the easy part. The hard part shows up in month 10, when results flatten, a competitor arrives with real money, creative we...

AI is changing media buying faster than most marketers can keep up with. Meta, Google, and The Trade Desk are automating campaign setup, shrinking targeting controls, and making decisions in seconds that used to take media buyers hours. So does that mean brands need less expertise, or does it make experienced media buying and strategic guidance more valuable than ever? In this episode of Contrary...

AI search is changing how brands approach SEO, paid search, AEO, GEO, and Google Ads strategies. In the final installment of this three-part Contrary to Popular Opinion series, Todd Juneau and Kelly Maguire sit down with organic search leader Tanner Zoromski and paid search strategist Fernanda Ford to explore how paid search and organic search now operate within one connected search ecosystem. As...

Search isn't a list of links anymore, and brands that don't adapt are going to disappear from the customer journey without ever knowing why. In part two of this three-part SEO/AEO/Paid Search conversation, Todd Juneau and Kelly McGuire sit down with organic marketing expert Tanner Zoromski to break down how AI Overviews, personalized results, voice search, and conversational shopping are changing...

Google is processing more searches than ever, yet most brands are watching organic traffic drop 30 to 80 percent. Todd Juneau and Kelly McGuire sit down with search expert Tanner Zoromski to explain why both things are true, and what AI overviews, Google SGE, ChatGPT, and Gemini mean for SEO, GEO, and AEO in 2026. This episode covers technical SEO fundamentals, search intent, the real impact of AI...

Todd and Kelly address why your attribution model is probably wrong and why media mix modeling works. They explore how you can correlate whether media investment is genuinely driving business outcomes. They address the difference between correlation and causation, explain why platform reporting alone can create a distorted picture of performance, and explore how media mix modeling can help leaders...

In this remix episode, Todd Juneau and Kelly Maguire revisit their sharpest takes on measurement, full-funnel growth, AI, agency accountability, and marketing mix modeling. They dig into why many brands are still relying on incomplete measurement, how lucky streaks and singular tactics can easily stall growth, and why the funnel still matters in a fragmented customer journey. They also explore whe...

In this episode, Todd and Kelly take on the marketing industry's obsession with AI tools, proprietary dashboards, and ever-expanding tech stacks. Fresh off a call with a tech partner showcasing a Bayesian MMM platform fused with an LLM, they dig into why so many agencies and in-house teams treat owning a tool as if it were the same as having an advantage. Their argument is simple and a little unco...

Todd and Kelly dive into a provocative Harvard Business Review article exploring how AI-powered commerce agents in China are already making purchasing decisions on behalf of consumers — and what that means for the entire marketing industry. Todd argues that these agents operate purely on algorithms, structured data, and utility signals, bypassing brand affinity and emotional connection entirely. K...

Todd and Kelly address the real trade-offs between bespoke, tool-agnostic agency work and “proven framework” agencies, and when bringing marketing agency work in-house actually helps or hurts. They debate why productized agency “machines” sell so well (trophies, repeatability, and perceived certainty), why truly custom solutions are operationally harder but often better aligned to business realiti...

Todd and Kelly address a growing tension in marketing: expectations that agency work should cost less because of AI, even as the cost of senior talent and modern tech stacks continues to rise. They argue that AI is powerful at improving the execution layer, including generating options, accelerating testing, and enhancing optimization workflows, but it cannot own judgment or decide what truly matt...

Todd and Kelly debate a widely discussed case study claiming an “agentic media buy” bypassed the DSP to reduce supply-chain costs and shift more budget into working media. They address what DSPs actually contribute, why headlines about “cheaper and faster” can be misleading, and how cost savings often reappear elsewhere in the ecosystem. The conversation moves from the mechanics of media buying to...

Todd and Kelly break down the practical difference between zero-party data (what people willingly tell you) and first-party data (what you observe from owned interactions), and why the industry’s privacy shift has not eliminated tracking so much as it has made measurement more fragmented and harder to interpret. They debate whether cookies will ever truly go away, why consumer behavior tends to de...

Todd and Kelly discuss the often confusing world of influencer and creator marketing, revealing why most brands still get it wrong. They break down the critical difference between creators (who produce content for your marketing engine) and influencers (who use their audience to drive direct sales), and explain how understanding this distinction can save you thousands of dollars in wasted marketin...

In this episode, Todd and Kelly talk about advertising and media budgets and why mid-market brands often struggle to get real attention from large agencies. Smaller accounts are frequently handed to junior teams, while senior talent focuses on nine-figure budgets that can afford mistakes. With $100 million, errors can be absorbed. With $15 million, every dollar matters. They also address the hype...

Todd and Kelly address the evolution of brand authenticity and marketing. They debate whether traditional brand building—where companies like Volvo owned "safety" and BMW owned "performance"—is dying in favor of personality-driven influencer marketing. The conversation explores how legacy brands built equity through mass media versus how modern startups leverage influencers and social commerce to...

Todd and Kelly sit down with Sami Akkawi, founder of Petra Labs, to explore the seismic shift from traditional SEO to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Sami, who made the leap from Morgan Stanley investment banking to AI-driven marketing, reveals why brands must fundamentally rethink their digital strategy as AI models like ChatGPT become the new gatekeepers of consumer trust. The conversation div...

Todd and Kelly kick off 2026 with bold predictions about the state of AI in marketing and advertising. They discuss why many brands will discover they're nowhere near ready to utilize AI effectively, predicting that the year will expose the gap between AI hype and reality. The duo explore how AI-driven media buying could lead to wasted budgets and poor targeting, why creative fatigue will replace...

Todd and Kelly sit down with Jill and Jeff from Fuse.is to explore the evolution of marketing analytics in the age of AI. The conversation challenges conventional wisdom about dashboards, data warehouses, and the future of business intelligence. Jeff and Jill reveal why "good enough" data accuracy is no longer acceptable and how their platform eliminates the fragile ETL pipelines that plague tradi...

Todd and Kelly tackle the realities of marketing and performance measurement with marketing analyst and expert Jeff Sutelman, from Funnel.io. They discuss why the dream of perfect user journey tracking is dead, how platforms like Meta grade their own homework, and why ROAS isn't the holy grail most marketers think it is. Jeff shares why small brands stay small when they optimize only for last-clic...

Is AI democratizing creative work or just making everything look the same? Rebecca Rothstein, founder of The Shorts and Madison Avenue veteran, joins Kelly and Todd for a no-holds-barred conversation about AI's impact on creativity. Rebecca argues that while AI can be a useful tool, it can't replace human taste, emotion, and cultural intuition. From Stanley Cup's brand transformation to the loomin...

In this thought-provoking episode, Todd and Kelly dig into the complex world of virtual influencers and AI-generated content creators. They debate whether virtual influencers represent the future of advertising or an existential threat to human creativity and authenticity. The conversation explores the efficiency and cost benefits of virtual creators versus the irreplaceable value of real human en...

Matt, Todd, and Kelly address the realities of AI adoption in advertising and marketing agencies. Sparked by Deloitte's recent lawsuit related to delivering AI-generated work with hallucinations, the trio explores what clients should actually expect when agencies use AI tools. Contrary to popular belief, AI isn't making their work faster or cheaper - it's requiring massive investments in time, lea...

In this episode, Todd and Kelly address some of the controversial debates shaping marketing today. They tackle the age-old question: Does brand actually sell, or is it just a signal? As they explore the friction between brand-building and performance marketing, they challenge assumptions around consumer behavior, full-funnel marketing, and the relentless pursuit of ROAS. The conversation takes an...

Holiday shopping in September isn't consumer demand - it's retailer conditioning. In this episode, hosts Todd Juneay and Kelly McGuire are joined by e-commerce strategist Matt Crincoli to examine: how "holiday creep" trained shoppers to wait for discounts why the Big Five shopping days are losing power how mobile commerce collapsed the purchase journey into impulse-driven seconds. They explore the...