Future of Consumer Marketing

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira speaks with Matthew Cancino, founder of Candid Collective, a video content agency specializing in hyperlocal content strategy for franchise brands and multi-location businesses. Over two years, Candid Collective has grown to serve 20+ monthly retainer clients by solving a distribution problem most national brands quietly struggle with: how do you make a national brand feel local at scale when your entire creative team is in one city? Topics Discussed: Why hyperlocal content strategy is the missing layer in most franchise marketing stacks Building a distributed creative network instead of a traditional agency model Rebranding from Candid Socials to Candid Collective as a talent attraction strategy Using AI for transcript-based content repurposing and data analysis in video production The tradeoffs of building a business while employed before going all-in

In this episode, host Andres Figueira speaks with Bernd Kruschewski, COO of Mammaly, Europe's #1 dog supplement brand. Built from zero to market leader across DACH in just five years, Mammaly scaled from a pure D2C startup to an omnichannel brand across 1,000+ retail doors — all while staying ruthlessly focused on a single category, a single region, and a lean operational model. Bernd shares the operational and organizational principles that allowed Mammaly to grow fast without breaking, and what's driving their next phase of retail expansion. Topics Discussed: Scaling from D2C to omnichannel without losing focus Building AI-powered operations into a consumer brand's core infrastructure Why Mammaly refuses to expand markets until they've maximized their home turf The "three P's" framework: People, Process, Platform — in that order Doubling retail door count as the next growth lever Managing remote-first teams while building a Berlin hub

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira speaks with Katerina Miras, VP of Marketing at Avive Solutions, a public safety technology company reimagining emergency cardiac response. With survivability rates from sudden cardiac arrest unchanged for decades despite hundreds of thousands of AEDs already in the market, Avive diagnosed the real problem as connectivity - not devices. Katerina walks through how a sub-100-person team is executing a sophisticated B2G/B2B marketing playbook: building community ownership programs, deploying champion-led trust architectures, and using storytelling at scale to move institutions that historically resist change. Topics Discussed: Repositioning from medtech to public safety technology and why the category shift changed everything Building institutional trust in a market that defaults to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" Designing community programs that become the customer's own marketing initiative Using champions and ambassadors to create FOMO-driven adoption across counties and municipalities Why storytelling is strategy - and how to operationalize it Narrowing your ICP to drive faster, deeper adoption

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews David Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Nex. Nex has built Next Playground, an active play system that's transforming how families engage with screen time by turning living rooms into interactive fitness and gaming experiences. Starting as a basketball training app called Home Court that went viral during the pandemic, the company pivoted to create a motion-tracking camera system that has now sold 350,000 units and secured placement in over 5,000 retail locations. Through strategic retail partnerships, mission-driven product development, and a subscription model that funds continuous innovation, Nex is carving out a new category between traditional gaming consoles and fitness equipment. Topics Discussed: Pivoting from a basketball training app to a family-focused hardware platform based on viral pandemic trends Scaling from 5,000 units to forecasted 500,000 units through retail partnerships Building trust for a $249 considered purchase through omnichannel marketing Implementing in-store demos as a primary conversion driver in 4,000+ retail locations Using subscription models (quarterly/annual only) to fund continuous game development and maintain customer relationships Leveraging major IP partnerships (Barbie, Kung Fu Panda, Bluey) to expand content library Operating a distributed team of 110+ people across product, hardware, and game development

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres interviews Jazmyn Williams, Vice President of Brand at The Honey Pot Company — the first brand to span both sides of the feminine care aisle, offering plant-derived period care and vaginal wellness products. With just a 20-person marketing team and roughly 70 employees total, Honey Pot has scaled to over 36,000 retail doors across the US while building one of the most culturally resonant brands in a category that has historically lived in the shadows. Jazmyn unpacks how a category defined by stigma, legacy purchasing habits, and low visibility requires a fundamentally different marketing playbook — and how Honey Pot is rewriting it. Topics Discussed: Marketing a product that lives "in the dark" — under bathroom counters and in purse pockets Breaking generational brand loyalty in a category dominated by habit Using experiential sampling to drive mass awareness at scale Building a digital-first brand in a brick-and-mortar dominated category Leveraging Gen Z to reverse-sell into older demographics Using AI for faster consumer insight synthesis without a large research team Crossing the feminine care aisle as a portfolio expansion strategy

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira speaks with Ben Hudson, Brand Marketing & Business Development Consultant at Hudson or Hudson, a brand marketing consultancy that has shaped some of the most culturally resonant consumer brands of the past two decades. From building live activations for Panasonic at NASCAR races to architecting Brooklyn Brewery's global expansion, Ben has developed a sharp perspective on what it actually takes to earn consumer trust in an era of AI saturation, screen fatigue, and institutional distrust. The conversation centers on why experiential marketing is becoming the most defensible channel in a brand's arsenal — and how smart brands are doubling down on human connection as their core growth strategy. Topics Discussed: Why experiential marketing is experiencing its most significant renaissance yet The AI trust crisis and its concrete impact on brand perception Building brand worlds versus building brand awareness How to add genuine value in an attention-scarce environment The analog counterculture trend and what it means for consumer behavior Using AI strategically without triggering consumer skepticism

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Andres Figueira speaks with Todd Anthony, founder of Pinwheel Agency, a senior-only creative shop built as a deliberate counterpoint to the bloated big-agency model. After decades inside holding companies and client-side roles at Yahoo and CBS, Todd built Pinwheel around a simple but contrarian thesis: strip out the juniors, kill the bait-and-switch, and let expensive talent run fast without supervision. Eleven years in, clients like Stripe and Experian have stayed for five to ten years — and the agency is deliberately staying small to keep it that way. Topics Discussed: Why the traditional agency staffing model is broken — and how to exploit that gap Building a senior-only creative team and what that actually means operationally How to use custom brand voice GPTs across large organizations Why AI is a pattern-repeating machine, not a pattern-breaking one — and why that matters for marketing Niching down into complexity: marketing SaaS and enterprise products with compliance constraints How to scale a creative agency 20% annually without losing quality control

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews Pierre Miazga, Studio Marketing and Communications Director at Ubisoft Bordeaux. Pierre reveals how AAA game marketing has evolved from traditional campaign-based promotion to embedded development marketing - where marketers function as "enablers" rather than sellers, working directly with creative teams from concept phase through launch. With Assassin's Creed Mirage as a case study, Pierre unpacks how Ubisoft Bordeaux navigated the challenge of marketing a legacy title to hardcore fans in a market releasing 52 games per day, while maintaining creative risk-taking and authentic player relationships. His approach demonstrates how entertainment marketing can balance player expectations with creative surprise in an increasingly fragmented and competitive landscape. Topics Discussed: Embedded marketing in game development vs. traditional go-to-market campaigns Marketing as "enabler" in creative development processes Navigating the saturated gaming market (20,000 Steam releases annually) Competing for player time, not just against other games Building games "from fans to fans" through direct player involvement Balancing player expectations with creative surprise The 3-4 year game development cycle and when marketing enters Cross-functional collaboration between marketing, creative, artistic, and technical teams Positioning vs. advertising in game development Managing tone consistency across multi-year development cycles

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Anders Figueira interviews Abdo Mazloum, Founder & CEO of Webtmize, a Montreal-based performance marketing agency. While Webtimize operates in the B2B space, Abdo shares critical insights about modern digital marketing infrastructure, the emerging shift from Search Engine Optimization to Answer Engine Optimization, and data-driven campaign methodology that consumer marketers can apply to their own brands. From scaling an agency from a spare bedroom to 25 people and 50 clients, Abdo reveals how performance marketers are adapting to AI-powered discovery, building measurement frameworks that prove ROI, and leveraging technology to do more with less in an increasingly complex digital landscape. Topics Discussed: Building performance marketing infrastructure from first principles Transitioning from traditional media to digital with measurable A/B testing frameworks Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) as the evolution of SEO for AI-powered search Developing data-first marketing philosophies for campaign optimization Scaling agency operations while maintaining quality and client selection criteria Leveraging AI and LLMs for campaign management and optimization

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Andres Figueira interviews Nadim Kuttab, CEO and Co-Founder of Xevio, a performance-based native advertising agency that's rewriting the rules of agency economics. In just three years, Xevio has grown to nearly $100 million in annual ad spend with a 50-person team across Europe, built on a radical premise: no retainers, no locked contracts, and pure performance-based fees. Operating in the relatively unknown native advertising space, Xevio has carved out a defensible niche by becoming best-in-class at a channel most marketers overlook. Through aggressive selectivity (rejecting 9 out of 10 client requests), transparent performance metrics, and heavy investment in AI infrastructure, they've built a model where both client churn and employee churn are remarkably low in an industry notorious for both. Topics Discussed: Building a performance-only agency model with no retainers or minimum commitments Scaling native advertising campaigns to mid-six figures monthly spend Operating with six co-founders and the dynamics of a large founding team Creating pod-based team structures for specialized client management Investing six figures per semester into proprietary AI tooling for campaign automation Maintaining sub-10% client acceptance rates through rigorous qualification Building company culture in a hybrid-remote European team with 50% office presence Providing premium employee benefits (daily meals, unlimited transit, gym memberships) to minimize churn Navigating the evolution of native advertising beyond traditional below-the-fold inventory Managing geographic market selection based on native inventory availability

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Andres Figueira interviews Jake Kurtz, CEO and Founder of Brick Media Group. Brick Media has evolved from a general digital marketing agency into a specialized social media powerhouse that helps established brands modernize their online presence through comprehensive social media management. Starting as a side hustle in 2018, Jake built Brick Media by recognizing a critical shift in the marketing landscape: the emergence of short-form video and the algorithmic revolution sparked by TikTok. By 2020, he made the bold decision to cut all services except social media, positioning Brick Media as Tampa Bay's go-to social media agency. Today, the company operates with 21 full-time W2 employees, managing everything from strategy to content creation to analytics for established businesses that need to add "gasoline to an existing flame" rather than starting from scratch. Topics Discussed: Pivoting from full-service digital marketing to social media specialization The algorithmic shift caused by TikTok and short-form video dominance Building a 21-person in-house team without outsourcing Analyzing supply and demand dynamics of attention across platforms The evolution from volume-based to clarity-focused content strategies Strategic platform selection based on audience attention patterns Leveraging AI for efficiency without replacing human judgment

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Andres Figueira interviews Peter Malick, Founder and CEO of InboundAV. Peter's journey from professional musician and audio producer to marketing agency founder offers a unique lens on how creative expertise translates into marketing innovation. InboundAV has evolved from a marketing automation shop into a forward-thinking agency that's leveraging AI to build micro-SaaS products and fundamentally reimagine what marketing agencies can deliver. After nine years of working with clients ranging from solopreneurs to companies with 170 locations and 2-million-person databases, Peter is now navigating the seismic shift AI is bringing to marketing services—where the competitive advantage is no longer execution capability but strategic thinking and creative direction. Topics Discussed: Transitioning from music production to marketing automation and agency services Building an agency culture focused on internal teams versus contractor reliance Navigating the AI revolution in marketing and web development Developing micro-SaaS products as a marketing agency Securing unsolicited funding from Amazon Web Services for AI product development Strategic positioning for agencies in an AI-first marketing landscape The collapse of traditional web development timelines (from hours to minutes)

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Andres Figueira interviews Scott Leff, Founder of Leff Communications, a content marketing agency that has scaled from a solo freelancer operation to a 30-person team serving global B2B clients. While Leff Communications primarily operates in the B2B space, Scott shares universal lessons about building authority through content, cutting through algorithmic noise on platforms like LinkedIn, and adapting to the AI-driven content landscape that applies across both consumer and enterprise marketing contexts. Topics Discussed: Building a content marketing agency from freelancer to 30-person team Navigating market positioning when you don't fit traditional agency categories Scaling rapidly during COVID and adjusting post-pandemic LinkedIn's evolution and the challenge of breaking through algorithmic noise Conducting systematic experiments with generative AI tools across departments The tension between AI-generated content and authentic human connection Video content as a differentiation strategy on social platforms

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Andres Figueira interviews Dimitra Papastathi, Head of Creative Design at Typeform. Typeform has transformed the mundane task of data collection into an engaging experience for over 150,000 businesses worldwide. Leading a lean team of four designers plus an extended creative agency, Dimitra shares how she's evolved Typeform's visual identity while maintaining brand consistency, navigated the rapidly changing AI landscape in creative work, and balanced the tension between systematic design and creative experimentation. From her background in fashion and culture to shaping tech brand narratives, Dimitra reveals the strategic thinking behind building trust through design while keeping audiences surprised. Topics Discussed: Bringing fashion and culture design principles into tech branding Evolving from generic startup aesthetics to humanized brand experiences Building and managing a hybrid creative team structure Strategic use of AI in creative workflows and content production Measuring creative impact through qualitative and quantitative metrics Balancing brand consistency with creative experimentation The "AI Kitchen" approach to collective tool evaluation Designing for international audiences while maintaining brand coherence

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Andres Figueira interviews Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce, a performance marketing agency specializing in YouTube advertising and omnichannel growth for consumer brands. Since 2010, OMG Commerce has evolved from a general search marketing agency into a specialized growth partner for seven, eight, and nine-figure retail brands. Brett shares how his team creates measurable, incremental growth across YouTube, Meta, Amazon, and Google by combining rigorous testing frameworks, creative strategy, and multi-touch attribution. Through detailed case studies and tactical insights, Brett reveals how brands can unlock YouTube as a performance channel and build sustainable, profitable growth in the post-COVID e-commerce landscape. Topics Discussed: Building YouTube campaigns that drive measurable in-store retail sales Using geo-testing and incrementality studies to prove channel effectiveness Scaling D2C brands by unlocking YouTube as a performance channel alongside Meta Leveraging AI for client sentiment tracking and creative development Navigating agency growth through the COVID boom and post-COVID correction Structuring omnichannel measurement across D2C, Amazon, and retail Developing creative frameworks for high-performing YouTube ads Building data science capabilities within a mid-size agency

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing: Masterclass Edition, host Andres Figueira interviews Markus Hetzenegger, Founder & CEO of NYBA Media. NYBA is transforming how the live entertainment industry approaches ticket sales by bringing performance marketing precision to an industry that traditionally relies on unmeasurable old-school advertising. Starting from promoting small university events in Germany, Markus has scaled NYBA to sell over 75 million tickets for artists ranging from Coldplay and The Weeknd to Cirque du Soleil and BBC Earth Experience. By leveraging proprietary AI trained on years of campaign data, NYBA delivers measurable ROI in a market where promoters often invest millions without knowing which marketing efforts actually drove ticket sales. Topics Discussed: Building a performance marketing model for live entertainment ticket sales Leveraging AI trained on 75+ million ticket sales to optimize campaign strategy Scaling a B2B marketing agency from Germany to UK, US, and Middle East markets Creating automated infrastructure to enable lean team operations at scale Discovering unexpected audience behaviors on TikTok for family entertainment and niche genres Structuring long B2B sales cycles through education and case study marketing Adapting campaign strategies based on artist relevance, venue size, and budget allocation

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Brett Stapper interviews Roxy Young, Former Chief Marketing & Consumer Experience Officer at Reddit. Roxy brings a unique perspective to consumer marketing - she's a self-described "pragmatic brand marketer" who started her career in finance and built her expertise through the most quantitative side of marketing before evolving into brand leadership. Over eight years at Reddit, she helped transform the platform from a niche community for gamers and programmers into a mainstream product used by hundreds of millions globally. Her career spans iconic consumer brands including Netflix, Gap, and Sephora, where she learned that great brands aren't built on creative instinct alone—they're built on deep consumer understanding, conviction, and the discipline to evolve thoughtfully. Topics Discussed: Building mainstream appeal while maintaining community authenticity The evolution vs. rebrand framework for brand transformation Quantitative approaches to brand marketing Navigating consumer backlash during brand evolution Understanding consumer needs as the timeless marketing skill Managing "the Internet" as a key stakeholder Direct response marketing as a foundation for brand thinking

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews Jana Kleemeier, Senior Director of Creative & Brand Marketing at True Botanicals. True Botanicals is challenging the false dichotomy between clean beauty and high-performance skincare in a market where premium brands typically sacrifice ingredient transparency for efficacy. Operating in a space where consumer skepticism around "clean" claims runs high due to rampant greenwashing, Jana shares how True Botanicals leverages clinical science, sensorial product design, and authentic creative execution to build a luxury brand that refuses to compromise on either performance or sustainability—all while navigating the cultural shift away from digital-first marketing toward experiential, analog brand building. Topics Discussed: Bridging the clean beauty performance gap in premium skincare Leveraging clinical studies and science-backed messaging to overcome consumer skepticism Building brand credibility through word-of-mouth in a crowded beauty market Capturing the new and expecting mother demographic through ingredient transparency Navigating the tension between AI efficiency and authentic brand storytelling Adapting marketing strategy to the cultural countermovement away from screen time Scaling a luxury beauty brand through strategic retail partnerships versus owned stores Maintaining creative authenticity in an increasingly AI-generated content landscape

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews Erika White, Chief Marketing Officer at Navan, the leading all-in-one business travel and expense management platform. Navan is disrupting the antiquated corporate travel industry by bringing consumer-grade personalization to business travel—enabling employees to book trips as seamlessly as their personal travel while maintaining compliance and giving finance teams real-time visibility. After going public in October, Navan is scaling its marketing organization globally while maintaining an in-person culture that mirrors the in-person connections their product facilitates. Erika shares how she's building a unified global marketing function, leveraging AI for brand consistency at scale, and creating demand in a $185 billion addressable market dominated by legacy solutions. Topics Discussed: Globalizing a disparate marketing organization across US and EMEA markets Orchestrating a high-impact IPO marketing campaign as a demand generation event Building an in-person marketing culture that reflects the product's value proposition Training custom LLMs on brand voice for scalable content creation Allocating marketing budget toward upmarket demand generation and sales enablement Leveraging out-of-home advertising contextually for business travelers Expanding from travel into expense management and payments during COVID

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews Sarah Qualters, VP of Marketing at Rack & Riddle Custom Wine Services. As the #1 custom sparkling wine producer in the U.S. with 3.5 million cases of capacity, Rack & Riddle operates behind the scenes, producing sparkling wine for over 400 clients who sell it under their own labels. Sarah shares how she's building a marketing function from scratch in a B2B2C business model where most consumers have never heard of the brand—yet have likely enjoyed their wines at retailers like Trader Joe's, Kroger, and Albertsons. With just a two-person marketing team, she's establishing innovation processes, navigating complex multi-stakeholder decision chains, and identifying white space opportunities in a market dominated by European imports. Topics Discussed: Building marketing infrastructure in a company that operated without a marketing team for 18+ years Navigating B2B2C marketing across winemakers, distributors, retailers, and consumers Establishing innovation processes to capture emerging trends (premixed cocktails, alcohol-removed wines) Managing stakeholder marketing across the three-tier alcohol distribution system Leveraging AI for efficiency with a lean marketing team Identifying market gaps in domestic vs. imported sparkling wine