Spotlight

Most teams use AI to do the same old work faster. Dan Temby calls that building faster horses when what you need is a motorcar.In this episode, Derek and Marc speak with Dan Temby, SVP of Technology and Analytics at DAC. They cover what separates AI experimenters from leaders. Dan has spent 19 years at DAC, a media agency that started in the yellow pages 55 years ago. He shares what the company has learned from adopting AI early.What we cover:- How DAC pivoted from yellow pages ads to full-stack media, and why it still matters- Building AI reporting tools, from ChatGPT's code interpreter to agentic workflows- Why "faster horses" thinking is the biggest barrier to AI adoption- "Slop cannons" and "meat proxies": why dense AI output often fails with human audiences- Keeping humans in the loop with accountability, governance and limited agent permissions- Why DAC built AI out of its tools instead of into them- Agentic harnesses and how teams share knowledge across AI users- Why the experimentation phase is over

Candidly AI co-founders Jackson and Noah McDonough share how they turned a voice AI platform into a hands-on service that helps organizations gather better feedback. They discuss finding product-market fit, reaching hard-to-hear communities, and building trust with enterprise and municipal customers.

AI can generate 50 ad variations in an hour. But is it producing better work, or just more of it?On this episode of CMA Spotlight, Derek Hovinga and Marc Binkley sit down with Pradeep Balasubramanian, who works in Gen AI and performance automation at ATB Financial. Pradeep works where creative judgment, AI-enabled workflows, and full-funnel measurement meet, and he makes the case for slowing down so AI builds quality instead of volume.We get into why "accuracy before speed" should be every team's first gate, what platforms like Meta Andromeda can and can't see about your business outcomes, and why the creative brief may matter more now than ever. Pradeep also shares how he gets AI to "interview him like a reporter" before generating anything, why compliance is a feature rather than the final boss, and why the same creative should never run on every platform.Follow Pradeep's newsletter: No Easy Answers https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/no-easy-answers-7463297449139331072/

Is video actually worth the investment... or is it just another line item that's hard to justify? In this episode of Spotlight, we sit down with Adam Mercier from Studio Spero to break down what real, measurable ROI on video looks like.We dig into:- How brands should actually be measuring video performance- Common mistakes companies make when budgeting for video- What separates video that converts from video that just looks nice- Practical advice for marketers trying to make the case for video internally

Here's a podcast description for the episode:Fractional vs. Full-Time: Rethinking How You Hire Marketing Talent, with Rosalind ToewsHiring for marketing is rarely as simple as "post the job and wait." Do you bring on a full-time employee? Sign an agency retainer? Hire a freelancer? Or go fractional? In this episode, Derek Hovinga and Marc Binkley speak with Rosalind Toews from Outspoke about how to actually make that call and why the fractional model is reshaping how growing businesses think about marketing leadership.They dig into where full-time hires can leave companies stretched too thin, why agency retainers sometimes miss the mark on strategy, the limits of hiring freelancers for one-off tasks, and what it really looks like to have a fractional expert embedded in your business week to week. Rosalind shares a grounded, practical take on the signals that tell you which model is right for where your business is right now.Whether you're a founder facing a hiring decision or a marketer curious about the fractional path, this conversation offers a clear-eyed framework for making that choice.