Welcome, Mark! What challenges or obstacles did you encounter during your marketing journey, and how did you successfully overcome them?

The biggest challenges have always been around developing a deep understanding of buyers and how to build effective programs to target them. Every company, every product, and every opportunity I have had in my career has been based on what I have successfully done as a product marketer. But with each new opportunity comes a new product and a new audience to sell to – so you are basically pressing the reset button every time.

This is a big challenge as it takes time to develop that knowledge, and when working with a new team, it takes time to be able to best support them. I will tell you, though, that for me, sticking to what I know has worked in the past. Even if you don’t know the buyer, you can still apply the frameworks and structure you have used in the past to develop it.

At the leadership level, coming in with templates and examples of success can be very inspiring to your team as it provides them with a roadmap; also, tangible examples of how these templates succeeded can provide a level of energy that the team may have been missing.

How are you leveraging your extensive years of experience to develop a winning strategy for Pipefy?

By implementing the battle-tested frameworks and templates I have developed over the years of my career, I am developing a winning marketing strategy for Pipefy. For me, being a good leader is about being down in the trenches and being part of the team. My extensive years of experience just means that I have more scars and a deeper understanding of where the land mines might be. Sharing this knowledge with the team through these battle-tested frameworks and allowing them to put their own approach to it is a recipe for success.

How do you ensure a unique and distinctive approach with a no/low-code platform, and what factors contribute to achieving error-proof execution?

Understanding your buyer, their needs, pain points, what they care about, how they consume information, how they make buying decisions, the list goes on and on. I started my career in sales and have always lived under the mantra “everyone is a sales rep”, and this comes by deeply understanding and caring about your customer. Every vertical, business size, etc. requires a distinctive approach to how you target them; no two customers are the same. By deeply understanding your customers, you can then tailor your message, tone of voice, content, etc., based on what you know they consume (research, whitepapers, LinkedIn, blogs, video, podcasts, webinars, case studies) on your distribution channels (social, paid, etc.) they are utilizing to learn and make decisions.

With that said, nothing in marketing is ever error-proof; it requires multitudes of testing to get it right. You need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable because things will undoubtedly fail. But if you aren’t failing, you aren’t learning. Learning allows you to optimize your playbook and ultimately get to predictability or, as you say, “error-proof.”

What are the key benefits and advantages of utilizing Pipefy's customizable analytics feature?

Simply put, the fact that you can customize them. When it comes to process management, every single business has a challenge that is unique to their business and will have unique analytics requirements. With Pipefy, we put the power in your hands to customize the analytics based on what you are looking to monitor for process performance gains. Whether it’s ticket SLAs or employee onboarding time, you have complete flexibility to track what makes sense for your business. Sneak peek, Pipefy AI will now make that even easier with the ability to ask it anything regarding your processes with an instant answer.

What upcoming advancements and innovations can we anticipate from Pipefy in the near future?

We are always looking for innovative ways to improve the efficiency of process management, and AI will be game-changing for us. The ability to have best-in-class processes automatically built for you, just based on Pipefy's understanding of a few data points about your business, will be revolutionary in two ways. First, a tremendous amount of time will be saved by having a process already built that can be custom-tailored to your particular business needs and pain points. And second, it will provide the ability to deliver real-time analytics at your fingertips, regardless of what you are looking for. Need to know how long, on average, it takes your procurement team to process a purchase request? Done. Need to know how many of your sales reps have hit their quota over the last four months? Easy. Whether you are a department leader or a citizen developer, AI truly changes the landscape of no-code process management, and we’re really excited about it.

What, in your opinion, are some crucial considerations and potential challenges that arise when implementing AI in marketing practices, and how can these be effectively addressed?

When it comes to marketing, AI does not replace the level of experience required for proper execution. It can provide direction and make some of the marketing challenges a bit easier by providing different perspectives, but there still needs to be a layer of understanding to complement it. Like in process management, AI can be used to help fill your biggest gaps in execution or efficiency. For instance, you need to get sales emails written, but your content team is at capacity; AI can help at least as a starting point. It will definitely change the way we work, but I’m very skeptical it will replace the level of experience required to execute marketing at a really high level.

How do you approach and leverage technological shifts to your advantage in your business strategy?

Being in SaaS my entire career, I embrace technological shifts as the advancement is designed to make our lives better in one way or another. But with that comes a balance of having too many solutions to solve too many things. You can overwhelm yourselves with too big of a tech stack because the layers between what each of them does or does not do become blurred. I relate it to kids on Christmas morning, who love seeing the abundance of presents under the tree, but once they unwrap them, they are overwhelmed with what to play with, and something always gets left behind.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs who are venturing into the marketing industry and aiming for success?

Don’t be afraid to fail, as every failure is an opportunity to learn. Also, have patience; marketing is not built overnight, it’s a lot of tiny steps to get to a place of predictability, and even once you are there, it changes overnight. Being lean and agile with understanding takes time, but it will pay you huge dividends in the end. I have seen too many marketers in a startup trying to build an empire overnight (even done it myself). They hire a huge team, buy a huge tech stack and throw a lot of money at different things because it’s what everyone else is doing. Don’t make that mistake; take the time to understand your target audience, how they make buying decisions and use that as the foundation to build your marketing strategy.

What is your vision for Pipefy for the next five years, and what strategies do you have in place to achieve these goals?

From a marketing standpoint, it’s having a predictable marketing playbook with error-proof execution; from a company standpoint, it’s being the most innovative no-code process management solution on the market. We don’t want to compete in the industry; we want to change the landscape of it as a whole. As for strategies, it's doing what we are doing today, keep testing, keep learning, and keep applying.

Welcome, Arnaud! Please tell us about your professional journey which led you to SoftAtHome.

Greetings, it’s a pleasure to meet you.

I embarked on my professional journey 25 years ago as a management consultant. Over the years, I discovered that my true calling lies in marketing technology. I have a deep passion for tech and, more importantly, the positive impact it can have on end users, enriching their lives significantly. Working as a consultant has been a remarkable experience, allowing me to delve into various topics across different companies relatively quickly. This exposure has given me a broad perspective on the market and organizational dynamics.

After spending a decade as a consultant, I was privileged to lead a team to establish a new company exclusively focused on Connected Home solutions. The company, now known as SoftAtHome, is a software provider catering to Telecom Operators seeking to offer services beyond essential connectivity. Leading the marketing team at SoftAtHome is a daily thrill as we constantly innovate and shape the connected home experience of the future.

What lessons would you like to impart from the 15 years of journey as VP of Marketing in terms of martech?

As the Marketing VP, there are several valuable martech lessons I would like to share. Martech presents an incredible opportunity to leverage technology to improve marketing efforts. However, it is crucial to remember that martech is just a tool and should be treated as such. Its primary purpose is to enhance efficiency, not become an objective in its own right.

Furthermore, it is essential to ensure that martech initiatives align with the broader business objectives. Understanding how technology investments can support and enhance marketing efforts is crucial to the organization’s success.

While SoftAtHome is a technology company that appreciates and uses technology daily, we recognize that end-customer satisfaction remains paramount.

In order to thrive in this dynamic landscape, it is essential to stay informed and adaptable, embracing new tools and adjusting strategies to keep our martech stack relevant and effective.

What are the key challenges and opportunities you see in the telecom and broadcast industry for SoftAtHome?

The telecom and broadcast industry has consistently faced disruptions. These are valuable learning opportunities and drive the need for constant adaptation. Our sector encounters numerous challenges and opportunities, and overlooking the potential impact of the next disruption can jeopardize a company’s survival. To keep pace with the rapidly changing industry, continuous software innovation is essential to meet evolving demands.

Users must be at the core of all endeavors. New services must hold meaning, relevance, and value to them. Additionally, exploring how to harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create personalized experiences while ensuring privacy management in an increasingly interconnected world is a critical consideration.

Open-Source Software (OSS) has continued to permeate our ecosystem since our creation over a decade ago. Initially a challenge, especially from a monetization perspective, OSS has become a fantastic opportunity. Software reuse lowers development costs and carbon footprint while raising quality through peer review and testing. SoftAtHome has always seen itself as a club of operators, and by spearheading open-source initiatives like prpl, we have helped to foster a community around the best home network software for operators.

Effectively navigating all these challenges and opportunities in the telecom and broadcast industry requires a profound understanding of the market, customer needs, and technological trends. By remaining agile, innovative, and customer-centric, we firmly believe that SoftAtHome can establish itself as a leading force in the telecom and broadcast software industry.

Can you provide more insights on the concepts discussed in your article regarding the future implications of AI and the convergence it has with edge computing?

The article discusses the future of AI in the telecom and broadcast industry, emphasizing the growing role of edge computing. AI and Machine Learning traditionally required vast computational resources and data, typically processed in data centers or the cloud. However, with the rise of edge computing, data storage and processing are brought closer to the point of interaction, enabling devices like Connected TVs to employ AI for tasks like improving video and audio quality without heavy reliance on cloud resources.

The edge computing paradigm offers several advantages, including enhanced privacy, reduced latency, and increased user trust. As consumers become more privacy-conscious, processing data locally at the edge ensures more secure ways of handling personal information. Furthermore, low-latency responses have become an expectation in voice-assistant interactions, and edge computing facilitates faster decision-making.

The article emphasizes the need for operators to adopt edge computing solutions, with Broadband Home Gateways playing a central role. Telecom operators can manage these gateways as powerful edge computing systems through federative learning, enabling model training without accessing raw personal data. Overall, edge AI complements cloud computing and offers energy-saving benefits, making it a promising area for operators to explore in the evolving AI landscape.

How does SoftAtHome’s hybrid product approach impact its marketing strategy?

Our company started solely focused on embedded software solutions. Transitioning the relevant software part to the cloud became a game changer considering factors like real-time processing versus massive computing. The hybrid approach is now central to SoftAtHome’s marketing strategy. It involves integrating both cloud computing and edge computing within the context of AI.

This approach has enabled us to meet customer expectations regarding privacy, security, and the ubiquity of our solutions. Additionally, it has increased our agility over time and improved the energy efficiency of our software offerings.

By adopting the hybrid approach, SoftAtHome has positioned itself as an innovative, reliable, and customer-centric partner for telecom operators. We now provide a comprehensive suite of AI-powered solutions tailored to the evolving needs of our customers. We are moving together to a more connected and efficient future in the telecom industry.

How does SoftAtHome measure its marketing campaigns’ success in customer acquisition, engagement, and retention?

We are a B2B2C company, and critical metrics for our operator customers include subscriber acquisition, engagement, and retention. Tracking new subscriptions through sign-ups, demos, or trials is therefore essential for them. Existing customer engagement is measured through website traffic, click-through rates, and social media interactions.

LinkedIn is the primary social platform used between our operator clients and us. We carefully analyze interactions and engagement for a comprehensive view of campaign success.

SoftAtHome uses other marketing automation and CRM systems for streamlined data analysis. This data-driven approach fosters lasting customer relationships.

What advice would you like to give budding marketers struggling to make a mark in the industry?

Building a successful career in marketing takes time and effort. Be customer-focused; focus on your unique selling proposition, stay committed, be patient, and consistently strive for improvement. With dedication, passion, and continuously developing your skills, you can make a mark in the industry and achieve your goals.

How do you anticipate the future of martech unfolding and the impact it will have on the telecom and broadcast industries?

I anticipate the future of martech to be transformative for the telecom and broadcast industries. Rapid technological advancements, particularly in AI and data analytics, will continue to revolutionize how businesses approach marketing.

Martech will play a pivotal role in enhancing customer experiences and personalization. AI-powered solutions enable targeted content delivery, real-time data analysis, and more efficient customer engagement. Data privacy will remain a top priority, and martech will offer innovative solutions to address these concerns, building greater trust with consumers.

In short, it will be marked by cutting-edge technologies, increased personalization, and a strong focus on data privacy and customer-centricity.

Welcome, Sheila! Could you please share your marketing journey and how it influences your decision-making as the CMO at Coveo?

I started my career in 2000 at Procter & Gamble in the sales department. I worked there for 2 years and then joined L'Oréal for a position as the Assistant Product Manager for Garnier Fructis. I worked at L’Oréal from 2002 to 2014 in Montreal and Paris. I touched on many types of positions in marketing, sales, category management, trade marketing, brand, product creation, and more. I learned everything at L’Oréal. It's an incredible marketing school!

Then I worked for Danone for 3 years before joining Cirque du Soleil, first in brand and strategy, then as CMO (interim). I've been with Coveo since January 2021.

Because I've worked in several types of industries (CPG, Entertainment, Tech) and worked several jobs (marketing, sales, category management, trade marketing, brand, and product creation), I'm more of a generalist CMO. I can touch on anything and adapt to any situation very quickly. I'm used to working in fast-paced environments. I've always been motivated by growth and transformation. The status quo is not for me!

What has been the common uphill battle for CMOs of B2B organizations in the past year?

An important one was Digital Transformation. Before Covid, a lot of B2B business was done in person. During the pandemic, we searched for new ways to find leads to grow our pipeline without live events. Many B2B organizations are still grappling with the need to adapt to the new digital landscape effectively. This includes implementing digital marketing strategies, optimizing online sales funnels, and leveraging technology to better engage with customers.

Data and Analytics: We need to base our decisions on data. What messaging is working? What initiatives should we stop doing? What should we double down on? What is the return on our investment? The data exists. There's no reason to drive blindly anymore. This is something that's very important to me.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Some B2B organizations have adopted ABM strategies to target specific high-value accounts. Effectively implementing ABM requires aligning sales and marketing teams, account lists, personalized messaging, and account-specific campaigns. At Coveo, we started our ABM journey officially last year. We have embarked on a major transformation that will take several years to complete. The idea is to modernize the way we do B2B marketing so we don't get bogged down in forms to fill, MQLs, and leads.

SEO and Content Marketing: Creating compelling and relevant content for B2B audiences remains challenging. CMOs and their content teams have to develop content that addresses the specific pain points and needs of their target audience while showcasing the value of their products or services. This content needs to fit the SEO strategy so we can win from an organic standpoint. There are so many areas we need to cover — we need the right strategy, the right data, and the right prioritization. AI can also be a great help in creating this content.

Adapting to new technology and rapid changes in the market: This year, Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and alternatives have taken the world by storm. We had to react and react fast. Thanks to the fact that Coveo is very quick to adapt and was already very advanced in the field of LLMs — in addition to its 10 years of experience in AI — we were able to announce our generative AI offer very quickly. We like to say that we were the last to hype but the first to have a real product with real tangible results. We successfully changed our entire marketing plan over the course of 1 month.

How does Coveo enable businesses to “personalize everything” through its AI platform?

Large tech-enabled companies have been able to deliver remarkable, effortless, relevant experiences tailored specifically to the individual and designed for maximum consumer satisfaction.

Their tools are massive amounts of data, powerful artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as armies of data scientists and engineers. 

The results? An understanding of who people are on an individual level. These companies know what we want and where we came from and can even predict where we’re going next. They use this rich understanding of us to deliver relevant, personalized digital experiences at scale. These experiences put people first, not products. They’re tailored for persons, not personas.

This is what we do at Coveo.

Because delivering relevance and personalization at scale absolutely requires AI.

Being relevant to one million individuals by manually writing rules is simply not humanly possible. But it is possible with AI. It is possible with Coveo AI.

The Coveo Relevance Cloud is a world-leading AI platform specifically built to make every digital experience delightful, relevant, and profitable. We do that through AI-powered advanced search, relevant recommendations, unrivaled personalization, and now relevant generative answering across Commerce, Service, Workplace, and Websites.

We are the intelligence layer behind many of the biggest global brand experiences.

What are the key elements of a successful marketing strategy, and how can marketers accomplish those with limited budget & resources?

Here are 3 simple steps for creating a successful marketing campaign:

1. Understand Your Target Audience: Conduct thorough research to understand your target audience's preferences, needs, and pain points.
2. Establish a Clear Value Proposition and Messaging: Determine what is unique about your brand, your offer, and your product/solution. Clearly communicate what sets your product or service apart from competitors and why it's valuable to the target audience. Use engaging and concise messaging in your go-to-market materials.
3. Then, you can Build Your Marketing Plan with Multi Tactics and Touch Points:

• • Events and Webinars: Participating in third-party events or creating your own.
  • Media: Paid Search and Paid Social
  • Organic traffic - Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimize your website and content to rank higher in search engine results.
  • Content: In B2B, content is key. You need to have insightful, valuable, and relevant content that educates, entertains, or solves problems for your audience.
  • PR and Social Media: Establish a strong presence on relevant social media platforms to engage with your audience directly. Make sure journalists and media are also engaging and talking about you.
  • Emails: Build an email list and use it to nurture relationships with potential and existing customers.

And more…

Remember, success in B2B marketing doesn't solely depend on the budget. It's about understanding your audience, being resourceful, and focusing on the channels and strategies that provide the most value for your specific business.

In this constantly evolving marketing landscape, what’s your drill to ensure you & your team are on top of trends?

The dynamic landscape of Business, Marketing, and Technology is undergoing rapid and constant change. Staying up to date in such an environment can be challenging at times. It takes a village (my full team) to stay up to date. You need to have curious people in your team, people hungry for new ways of doing things.

The way we do it at Coveo is through different practices:

Continuous Learning: Encourage a culture of curiosity and continuous learning within your team.

Marketing and Industry Publications: Keep a close eye on reputable marketing publications, blogs, and websites. Subscribe to newsletters and follow thought leaders in the industry.

Other industry best practices: We should also look at what other industries are doing. B2B can learn from B2C and vice-versa. Make-up brands can learn from the automotive industry, tech can learn from CPG, etc.

Competitor Analysis: Regularly analyze your competitors' marketing efforts to identify any new strategies they are implementing successfully.

Experimentation and Testing: Encourage a culture of experimentation within your team. For example, this year, the Coveo Marketing team launched its own 1000-tests initiative. We are learning tons.

Could you tell us about an innovative solution that Coveo is currently developing, which has the potential to set a new industry benchmark?

Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and alternatives have taken the world by storm. Despite their current shortcomings for enterprise-level adoption (misinformation, hallucinations, no personalization, expensive training costs, lack of privacy & security, and questionable ethics, among others), we see a huge demand for Generative AI question-answering experiences in customer service, workplace, website, and commerce. We believe that search and generative question-answering need to be integrated, coherent, and based on current sources of truth with compliance for security and privacy — providing relevant answers every time.

At Coveo, we just launched our GenAI solution, Coveo Relevance Generative Answering.

We have seen unprecedented customer interest in this enterprise-grade Generative Answering that brings factually accurate and contextually relevant question-answering combined with enterprise-grade security from multiple sources of enterprise content. Coveo Relevance Generative Answering brings Large Language Model (LLM) technology on top of the secure unified indexing and relevance capabilities of Coveo's market-leading Relevance Cloud AI platform. This makes generative answering using LLMs applicable within enterprise — where security, privacy, factuality, real-time sources of truth, relevance, and access to multiple sources of content are all key imperatives. This is more than a decade in the making, building on Coveo’s powerful Relevance Cloud AI Platform.

Coveo's Relevance Generative Answering capability is designed to solve eight critical GenAI challenges:

1. Vulnerable Environment – The Coveo Relevance Generative Answering solution is built on top of Coveo’s secure indexing at its core. Robust security measures protect valuable assets, ensuring data remains secure throughout the generative answering content generation process.
2. Lack of Confidentiality and Privacy – Coveo Relevance Generative Answering protects confidentiality and privacy, ensuring that valuable data remains secure within organizational boundaries and proprietary content is not shared with public engines or used in a generated answer.
3. Hallucinations or Lack of Accuracy – Leading brands cannot hallucinate. The Coveo Relevance Generative Answering capability maintains factual accuracy at scale without compromising a brand's credibility.
4. Outdated Facts and Answers – Coveo Relevance Generative Answering leverages real-time data sources from the unified index, enabling answers to be generated that are consistent with enterprise content.
5. Non-Compliancy and Validity – Coveo Relevance Generative Answering establishes seamless links with sources of truth, allowing users to verify and validate the accuracy and credibility of generated answers.
6. Content Decentralization – Coveo Relevance Generative Answering is built on the power of the Coveo unified secure indexing and enrichment of enterprise content using Coveo AI. By integrating multiple content sources securely, it enables exponential growth in generative AI capabilities.
7. Siloed Search and Chat Channels – Search and generative answering should not operate as separate silos; the future lies in their coherent integration. Coveo Relevance Generative Answering bridges the gap by delivering a unified and consistent user & veracity experience across all search and chat channels, as they are fed from the same unified index and relevance mechanisms.
8. Generative AI Chat Is Expensive – By leveraging advanced search and relevance algorithms combined with LLMs, Coveo eliminates the need for costly alternatives. With this approach, enterprises can get results for a fraction of the cost typically associated with generative AI, offsetting the fact that chat can be 100x to 1,000x more expensive than query-based search.

In your opinion, what do you think will be the next big trend in marketing that will surpass personalization in terms of industry buzz?

Personalization remains a cornerstone of strategic marketing.

In the B2B world, there is a big movement from traditional lead generation to ABM - Account-based marketing. MQL, leads, and form-fills are old ways of doing business that make our customer journey difficult and even painful. Some people are saying that MQLs are dead; they may not be dead, but when you think about it, they are not so relevant in a customer-centric go-to-market.

To explain ABM vs. Traditional Marketing, I often use the fishing metaphor.

Traditional Marketing can be compared to net fishing, where the goal is to cast a wide net and capture as many fish as possible. Then you can reject the ones you do not want and hope the best ones will stick.

On the other hand, Account-Based Marketing can be likened to spearfishing, which is much more targeted and precise. Instead of casting a wide net, ABM focuses on identifying specific high-value target accounts and decision-makers within those accounts. This approach is akin to a surgical strike, where the marketing and sales teams collaborate closely to tailor personalized experiences for each account.

The core of ABM lies in understanding the unique pain points, needs, and objectives of each target account. By gaining a deep understanding of the challenges faced by a particular company or organization, marketers can develop tailored content, messages, and marketing campaigns.

ABM and Personalization are not new, but the reality is that they will still be a priority for many marketing teams for the next 2-3 years.

What major goals do you aim to accomplish as a marketing leader over the next five years?

Growth. Growth. Growth. At Coveo, the potential ahead of us is truly exhilarating. We are fueled by excitement, and it’s crucial that we maintain our focus and momentum as we move forward.

In order to support and fuel this Growth, my aspiration is to continue to build the best B2B marketing team in the world. To realize this vision, our people will be at the core of our success. I want them to feel happy, motivated, and curious, as these attributes fuel creativity and innovation. Encouraging a culture of constant learning and development will enable us to remain at the forefront of marketing practices and technologies. To achieve greatness, we must be committed to "getting better at getting better." I want our team to embrace a culture of continuous analysis and improvement. Complacency is not an option. We must challenge the status quo and constantly seek ways to enhance our strategies, processes, and outcomes.

Moreover, I value a growth mindset. I want our team to approach challenges with tenacity and a willingness to take risks.

Ultimately, success will come not only from the brilliance of our technology but also from the passion, dedication, and collaboration of our people. Together, we can exceed our potential and make Coveo AI a beacon of innovation and excellence.

Welcome, Ruth! Can you tell us about the journey that eventually led you to join LivePerson?

Throughout my career, I’ve always cared deeply about creating meaningful connections between businesses and their customers; in fact, connecting with customers and seeing them use what I’ve marketed to deliver meaningful outcomes is by far the most gratifying part of my job. So it’s meant a lot to work for companies that sell solutions to bring brands closer to their customers.

Before my current role at LivePerson, I was CMO at Ada, where I helped transform the company from a startup into a prominent player in the industry. Prior to that, I led marketing for Blueprint Software Systems.

So this is my third turn as CMO, and LivePerson felt like a perfect fit for someone passionate about shaping the future of customer engagement.

Could you kindly elaborate on your company’s mission and how AI plays a significant role in accomplishing that mission?

LivePerson is the global leader in enterprise conversations. Thousands of the world’s leading brands—including HSBC, Chipotle, and Virgin Media—use our award-winning Conversational Cloud platform and AI to connect with millions of consumers.

AI plays a huge role in our ability to automate conversations at such a massive scale. In fact, we power nearly a billion conversational interactions every month, and that provides a uniquely rich data set for us to build and improve the AI tools that help our customer brands achieve better business outcomes.

Can you provide some insights into how your company’s Generative AI and Large Language Models contribute to driving improved business outcomes?

LivePerson’s AI is fueled by the world’s largest dataset of enterprise customer interactions. If you’re working with AI based on a good foundational dataset—and you have in place controls to protect the experience—the benefits of using Generative AI and LLMs for customer engagement are huge.

For example, the ability of LLMs to craft natural-sounding responses makes it very easy for a consumer to interact with AI in a way that feels simple and comfortable. Plus, LLMs can retain context, so people don’t have to repeat themselves and can continue a thread of dialog that feels very human. This results in consumer experiences that are way beyond the scripted dialog flows we see in traditional bot-building; we’re talking next-level experiences.

Still, they need to be integrated and developed with safeguards in place and hosted on a safe and secure platform to protect both the consumer experience and your brand’s reputation. A thoughtful, controlled approach to creating and improving these experiences can help ensure they perform correctly and deliver amazing customer experiences.

Congratulations on LivePerson’s recognition at the 2023 SIIA CODiEs for winning top AI-powered customer service awards! How has this achievement impacted your company’s approach, and what strategies do you have in place?

Thank you! It’s always an honor to be recognized by our peers in the AI and customer service industries. Since our inception and entry into the AI space nearly 20 years ago, our goal has always been to deliver best-in-class technology solutions that transform the customer experience.

Ever since we invented webchat for brands decades back, we’ve kept to the cutting edge of providing more efficient ways for companies and customers to connect digitally, and we just keep building on that on purpose. Our recently launched generative AI capabilities are no different, aimed at applying the power of the latest AI developments to customer conversations—all in a way that restores a sense of control and safety.

In the rapidly evolving industry, how do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in AI and technology to drive your marketing strategies forward?

I’m fortunate to work with a great team that helps me keep ahead of the curve. LivePerson employees are the best and brightest in AI and CX, with many having made great strides with AI and automation well before the current wave of hype. I also make it a point to keep up with our customers, who represent many of the most innovative and biggest brands in the world. I learn a lot from them about their needs, goals, and what they’re doing to keep at the top of their game.

On top of that, I talk to other CX and AI leaders to stay up-to-date. In fact, LivePerson recently launched a new podcast, Generation AI: Automating Better Business, that’s all about getting the latest news and strategies from innovators in the space. I encourage your readers to check it out and share their feedback!

How do you tailor marketing strategies to effectively target and engage specific verticals while maintaining a consistent brand message?

First, we create our top-level brand messaging and value propositions that apply across the board. Beneath those core concepts, we dig deep into the specifics for particular verticals in an effort to really understand their unique needs and pain points.

Highlighting our work with customers in key verticals is critical—it demonstrates that we “get it” and have successfully partnered with and helped other companies in their field. Our customer success stories create a narrative including stats that show off our work together, as well as quotes from our customers so they can communicate in their own words how our solutions helped meet their particular needs.

In what ways does your company promote diversity and inclusion in AI development and deployment?

As a pioneer in AI, we saw the need early on to fight against bias. In 2018, we founded a nonprofit, EqualAI, to help set standards and certifications for responsible AI. Today, it’s one of the leading voices in the space. They have a ton of resources at equalai.org, from podcasts to checklists to frameworks, on creating responsible AI.

It’s open to everyone—anyone can become EqualAI certified or access its resources. We also make sure we are utilizing their training and best practices in-house, with several of our executives and employees becoming EqualAI certified.

As CMO, how do you plan to position your company to stay ahead in this rapidly changing martech landscape in the next five years?

Staying ahead can be a challenge, especially in a field that moves as fast as ours. Similar to what I said earlier about good data underpinning good AI, it’s also important to use data in our decision-making. This involves keeping a close eye on emerging trends and customer preferences—and how the competition is responding to them. It also means we need to continually use data to optimize our campaigns, allocate resources, and measure how we are driving marketing results.

Another priority is staying customer-centric. We need to be agile and adaptable to quickly respond to their demands and provide tailored solutions that meet their specific needs and pain points. When our customers succeed, we succeed.

And last but certainly not least, it’s a priority of mine to continue to invest in our talent. We have an exceptional team of experts, and it’s crucial to their individual development and our collective success that we keep developing their skills and foster a culture of innovation.

Please share the journey that shaped your career and landed you in the current role of VP of Marketing at Vistar Media.

I started my career in the media industry, working for several years at Vox Media on sales, marketing & development, followed by Forbes on the brand marketing side. However, I was presented with the opportunity to join a booming startup and found myself pivoting to the world of adtech after recognizing the unique career opportunities that came with Vistar Media.

I made the official leap to Vistar in early 2018 as a senior manager of marketing, specifically focusing on the demand side of the business. It’s been a remarkable journey, to say the least, helping Vistar grow from an early-stage startup to the thriving global organization of more than 200+ employees it is today. While I started by leading all demand sales initiatives for the marketing team, my role quickly evolved to encompass driving a holistic marketing strategy for all of North America, covering both demand and supply needs for our two largest markets.

I’ve embraced being a jack of all trades over the course of my Vistar career—from overseeing client education, sales enablement, events, PR, product marketing, content marketing, and more—and it’s been an honor witnessing firsthand the transformation Vistar has had on the wider adtech, marketing, and digital signage ecosystems.

How is Vistar Media’s holistic suite of programmatic ad solutions enabling brands to excel at Digital Out of Home (DOOH) media?

The addition of programmatic technology definitively brought the centuries-old out-of-home (OOH) industry into the modern age of digital advertising. Vistar Media’s programmatic DOOH tech stack has created a marketplace where media owners can readily make their out-of-home inventory available, and advertisers can seamlessly purchase those spots at auction. Today, an ever-growing percentage of DOOH media is bought and sold programmatically—the benefits are endless, including streamlining workflows, vastly expanding audience scale for advertisers, and, likewise, driving proven results for brands while reducing the work media owners have to do to sell their supply.

Vistar allows marketers to seamlessly extend many of their existing digital targeting and measurement strategies into a physical ad medium while more efficiently and effectively reaching their target consumers in the real world. It’s exciting to see how rapidly we’ve been able to help bridge the online and offline advertising worlds and bring meaningful and measurable results to brands and agencies across the globe.

How profound would the impact of cookie deprecation be on ad targeting, and what would be the way-outs of this crisis?

Cookie deprecation has been a huge conversation across the digital advertising industry for a few years now. However, the loss of cookies won’t negatively impact the DOOH channel, giving yet another leg up to marketers when being forced to reevaluate their media mixes.

DOOH doesn’t operate on the same targeting logic as the online world does. Instead, Vistar Media, for instance, uses passive location data to target consumers in aggregate. DOOH, unlike online advertising, is a one-to-many medium, meaning it’s focused on reaching groups of people at a time and does not rely on tracking down individuals—making it an extremely privacy-safe medium for advertisers to lean into. DOOH’s detachment from the traditional infrastructure of digital advertising makes it a strong choice for omnichannel marketers tasked with finding varied yet still effective methods to reach consumers.

Can B2B brands leverage DOOH advertising to the same extent as B2C companies? If not, what can be done to root out the hurdles?

B2B companies can absolutely leverage all that DOOH has to offer, including its unique audience targeting capabilities, advanced measurement solutions, dynamic creative options, and more. In fact, DOOH’s data-driven capabilities make it an excellent vehicle for B2B brands to reach a more niche business-focused audience. Whether that’s activating high-impact digital inventory around contextually relevant locations such as office buildings and airports or utilizing data-driven audiences to seamlessly reach C-level executives and business decision-makers, DOOH presents B2B organizations with a multitude of opportunities to get a relevant message in front of the right people at the right time (and drive their desired results).

Being a marketing professional in an adtech firm, what’s your take on organic vs. paid media?

First and foremost, marketers should always start with what goals they want to achieve to determine what their messaging and media strategy should be, which sometimes calls for organic and sometimes paid, but often both. Organic and paid media both serve as worthwhile levers to pull in the part art, part science of getting a brand’s message in front of target audiences.

Organic media is important, whether in the form of social content, owned blog content, or company-operated newsletters because it helps marketers educate their audience, reinforce their products/services, and connect with prospects or current clients directly, all without a hefty price tag. Organic marketing tactics serve as an extension of a brand’s messaging and market point-of-view, which have the power to influence individuals and organizations at large. Organic media also serves as a method to be consultative, raise awareness and consideration, and garner additional share-of-voice in the market.

Paid media is also an important component of a marketer’s media mix, especially when looking to get in front of new audiences. Paid media can expose a company to new prospects or industry verticals and allows a brand to think outside the box and get more creative with how they are getting their messaging out in the market. Marketers can also use paid media to capture new contacts and then engage individuals who have expressed interest in their work through organic tactics—reducing the amount of overall budget spend.

What are the marketing codes you live by to ensure achieving your objectives in the face of today’s cut-throat competition?

As a marketer in the advertising technology industry specifically, I’m faced with some unique challenges to address: 1) convincing advertisers why digital out-of-home is a smart media buy and just how the channel can deliver results across core client KPIs, 2) while also educating media owners on why programmatic DOOH is a smart investment for their business, and how Vistar can help monetize their networks and drive additional revenue for them. With that, three marketing codes I consistently live by include:

1. Revolve around the customer: In this field (and honestly, in any), to be a good marketer, it’s important to truly master and understand the different customer sets that matter to a business and its objectives. What motivates your key decision-makers and influences their behaviors? What are their pain points, and how can that impact how a marketer should reach them? What messages will they be most receptive to? All of these are essential questions to always keep in mind when determining a marketing strategy for each specific customer. Really take the time to learn about your customers—DON’T make assumptions!
2. Remain data-driven: It’s equally important to focus on results and have a data-driven mindset. Use historical data to make decisions, and take the time to evaluate the performance of each initiative. Use a test-and-learn approach, be analytical, and try to challenge the status quo. It’s through this approach, and often in the small details, that will help you uncover the insights that will best inform future strategies and maximize your results.  
3. Stay curious: As a marketer, it’s critical for me to remain curious, ask questions, and keep up with what the competition is doing. If I’m not constantly learning, I’ll get bored—and that’s one of the reasons I love working in a rapidly evolving industry (there’s always something new to dive into!). I’m constantly educating myself on the new technologies and strategies that are being introduced, and I always push myself to identify and test new tactics. I encourage my team to adopt this approach and always look for these qualities in new hires as well.

When should we expect Vistar Media to introduce 3D DOOH solutions in its product suite?

At Vistar, we’re always eyeing the next trend to ensure we’re meeting the unique needs of advertisers and brands today—and staying ahead of the curve. Vistar is already actively working with creative agencies to bring 3D-like anamorphic creatives to life. Instead of just focusing on one-off single-unit 3D executions, we’re prioritizing our focus on how we can bring similar impactful creative experiences to all DOOH formats that accept animated and video assets. We believe in the power of programmatic technology and the scale it helps advertisers achieve.

What transformative innovations do you foresee happening in the adtech space over the next decade?

I think advertisers will continue to prioritize one-to-many channels like DOOH more than ever over the next decade as they are forced to reevaluate privacy-safe channels that effectively get the right message in front of the right consumers. We will also see greater adoption of omnichannel marketing and diversity in the media mix as the gap between the online and offline worlds continues to lessen. Incorporating DOOH into a larger multi-channel strategy allows brands to reach their target audience at multiple touchpoints while creating a cohesive brand message and strategy across all mediums.

Additionally, I believe we will continue to see an emphasis on creative capabilities, including dynamic creative, across the entire adtech ecosystem. Each year, advertising becomes more cluttered than the last, making it even more important to reprioritize and refresh creative messaging to truly stand out. Over the next few years, I’m confident we’ll continue to see bigger, bolder, and splashier advertising campaigns that push the bounds of creative executions.

Finally, I anticipate the adtech space, and especially DOOH, seeing a continued focus on industry standards and benchmarks across inventory, measurement, and campaign success. For example, Vistar recently introduced Vistar Verify—a first-of-its-kind program that aims to ensure the programmatic OOH marketplace maintains the highest standards of inventory quality. This move will hopefully drive even more advertisers to the programmatic channel, and as the space continues to grow, I think DOOH will have to consistently reevaluate its best practices, standards, and benchmarks to ensure a level-playing field and maximized success for both advertisers and media owners.

Which groundbreaking solution is Powell Software working on right now, and when can we expect it to go live?

Powell Software is currently working on augmenting our solutions Powell Intranet and Powell Teams, involving the new Generative AI capabilities, which is a significant accelerator in our roadmap: delivering our vision from a five-year timeline to an estimated 12-24 months. As always, our focus will remain on simplicity for employees and prioritizing security and privacy for organizations in all our solutions development.

Another area we're focusing on is further strengthening our mobile capabilities. Recognizing the growing trend of remote and flexible work, we're investing in making our solutions even more accessible and efficient on mobile devices, enabling seamless collaboration regardless of location.

If you could have a chance to start your career afresh, what would you do differently?

For sure, I would create my own company faster. Nothing is more exciting than creating and developing an innovative company and working with ambitious and talented people like we do at Powell Software. Additionally, if I could go back to the beginning of my career, I would go international directly. The international experience provides you with a better outlook and strong agility.

Welcome, Steve; the tech marketplace is ever-evolving. What three key learnings did you pick up while leading Mapp as the CEO?

I’ve learned it’s essential to stay focused on the long-term vision and prioritize features with strong use cases and measurable improvements for marketers. At the technology level, this means enhancing customer experiences, decreasing friction in brand-consumer interactions, or reducing cost/effort to reach desired outcomes. Next, businesses should prioritize client KPIs above everything else—because when your efforts align with your customers’ goals, success follows. And finally, constant employee communication is critical, as it emphasizes the “why” behind what we do. This is highly valuable in our hybrid work environments and globally distributed teams.

Can you highlight how today’s CEOs need to be more adept at leveraging technology?

For all CEOs, embracing technology can improve operations, customer experiences, and decision-making. In addition, technology for CEOs is vital to quickly analyzing data and making strong decisions. Mapp uses a number of tools, including excellent analytics and dashboards, to measure company performance, customer behavior, and even anomalies that need to be addressed internally.

For CEOs to be successful, fostering a culture of digital transformation is crucial. This means being surrounded by the right talent and leveraging tech partnerships, particularly MACH-certified technology, to make informed decisions and drive innovation. With this approach, it empowers you to stay ahead, adapt to market changes, and achieve sustainable growth in the digital era.

We’d love to hear your observations on how CX is evolving by the day; how does Mapp ascertain to adapt to this constant change?

It will come as no surprise to hear that customer experience (CX) is constantly evolving, driven by data and innovation. At Mapp, we’re reflecting this by exploring new options available to customers. For instance, we have incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our solutions, allowing marketers to make complex decisions more efficiently. By automating certain processes with AI, we free up time for our team to focus on other areas. The most important thing, however, is that we ensure that any improvements made for CX have measurable outcomes attached, as that is what truly matters to the end customer.

Please walk us through Mapp Cloud, the all-in-one marketing solution, and what makes it the go-to platform for modern marketing challenges.

Mapp Cloud is the largest independent Marketing Cloud and the go-to platform for modern marketing challenges. Mapp enables cross-channel marketing campaigns at scale. Our Customer Data Platform, combined with our Marketing Insights engine, provides marketers with valuable information to maximize their campaigns. And while my opinion is biased, I believe no one can touch Mapp’s ability to leverage first-party customer data for marketing, which explains why Mapp has been recognized by Forrester for our Marketing Intelligence and Analytics, showcasing our ability to leverage first-party customer data effectively.

Can you talk about the distinctive characteristics that set Mapp Cloud apart from other vendors in terms of its CDP capabilities?

Mapp’s Marketing Cloud is powered by our comprehensive Customer Data Platform (CDP). Unlike other vendors, Mapp Cloud excels at collecting, leveraging, and exporting data within our platform without additional charges. These capabilities eliminate the need for a costly standalone CDP. It’s also important to note that our focus is not solely on delivering cross-channel customer experiences but also providing insights for future improvement opportunities. With Mapp Cloud, marketers can drive strategic campaigns, maximize conversions, and generate revenue while gaining valuable insights for enhancing customer experiences.

How does Mapp plan to leverage generative AI to reinforce its solutions for better marketing outputs?

Well, AI is, of course, not new. We’ve used it throughout our platform for several years now, and our AI capabilities were highly regarded by Forrester way back in 2021. Having said that, the latest advancements in natural language processing models and ChatGPT are opening up so many more opportunities. Soon, our clients will be able to engage in conversational interactions with our AI engine, improving personalized content, campaign direction, timing, channel optimization, and actionable data sets for future campaigns. I’m excited to see what will come next!

What fundamental shifts should we expect following Eric Lubow joining Mapp as the new CTO & CPO?

Eric has done a fantastic job in his short time here at Mapp. Coming from our technology teams in Berlin and Munich, Eric has brought about tremendous change and excitement within our organization. He has played a crucial role in improving our solution delivery to customers and unifying our teams under a common mission. We can’t wait to see what our Technology Teams, led by Eric, will deliver in the future.

What business ploys do you live by to keep your competitors at bay?

I’m not sure I would say “ploys”, but we work hard to understand where we fit against the competition in our sector. At Mapp, we focus on how we communicate about our marketing platform, emphasizing a “data-first” approach with our CDP and Marketing Intelligence solutions. This enables marketers to make informed decisions and avoid wasted investments. Mapp additionally differentiates itself by owning and managing its campaign infrastructure, unlike many competitors who rely on third-party providers. This end-to-end control ensures reliability and brings exceptional value to our customers.

Looking at the massive acceleration of digital transformation, how do you see customer intelligence evolving in the next five years?

Marketing technology remains at the forefront of this transformation, and the integration of AI will empower marketers to automate complex decisions regarding content, channels, and more. At Mapp, we envision “living-breathing campaigns” as the future of marketing. This entails real-time adjustments in messaging, content, timing, or channels based on customer responses. As this technology evolves, we aim to bring these innovative solutions to all companies, not just those with large marketing budgets, for years to come.

Welcome, Rony! What has your journey in marketing been like, and what learnings guide you in your current role as the VP of Marketing at Optimove?

I started my journey in marketing as a kid. My mom was a marketeer and when shopping in supermarkets would always stop to look at the marketing displays and promotions.

Professionally I started as an intern in a big tech firm in the CX space called NICE. The years there taught me how to build large-scale marketing programs that cater to specific audiences and products.

For the past 5 years I’ve been at Optimove using those same principles to guide the marketing team. Who is our customer, what do they need to do their jobs better, and how can we communicate our value proposition to them in a way that meets those needs.

What common mistakes do you see contemporary marketers repeating continuously, and what advice would you give them to break the cycle?

Marketers today grew up in a world where technology was limited. Even the younger generation of leaders had only old-school marketing automation tools.

Today, they still approach customer marketing as a rigid practice where they plot a journey in an automation tool and force all their customers through it. The result is a customer journey that caters to the average or minimum common denominator of their customers instead of a personalized journey that caters to each one individually.

My advice would be to flip the process on its head. Don’t start with a journey or a campaign. Start by looking at your customers, segmenting them, understanding what makes them unique. And only then, create a campaign for them. In today’s world, where AI can make decisions based on data and with the right guardrails, there is no reason to continue with old-school automation.

In terms of CDP capabilities, how does Optimove surpass its contemporary competitors by a fair margin?

The CDP category is so broad right? We have CDPs that focus on analytics and serve a BI team. And we have CDPs that focus on orchestration and serve marketing teams. We also have pseudo CDPs further confusing the market and buyers in it.

For Optimove, it is about being the CDP of choice for those wanting to scale their customer marketing efforts.

This comes in the way of empowering marketers to discover valuable customer insights by giving them non-technical access to unified historical, real-time, and predictive customer data, as well as using AI to surface such insights.

While most CDPs selling into the marketing department stop at that, we don’t. We aren’t happy with just sending a segment to an execution channel. We believe the data value erodes when working that way. You should be able to use all your customer data when making decisions on what is the next best action or message for your customers, be that by leveraging AI or business rules. And that is exactly what we give our clients.

How can marketers ensure that they don't go over the line while delivering personalized experiences to their audience?

Customers want to receive personalized messages, but they don’t want to be creeped out by you. That line is very fine, but the solution is pretty simple.

There are two ways of personalization: “show me you know me” and “show me you can help me.” The first runs the risk of going over the line. No one wants to feel like big brother is looking above their shoulder. The second though, gives customers the feeling you are there for them. That you genuinely care about them and aren’t just trying to get that next purchase.

This means being willing to stop sending promotional messages when applicable, it means combine CX into marketing flows, and being able to anticipate their needs. 

For example, if you are a clothing retailer selling to all ages and one customer begins buying baby clothes. After a few purchases, you might assume they have a newborn child. Based on their purchases you can determine their newborn’s age and tailor messages that combine tips for parents with recommendations for clothes for the next age group.

What groundbreaking product is Optimove currently brainstorming on, and when can we expect it to go live?

Although I’m not allowed to share our roadmap publicly, I can say we will continue to innovate in the use of AI to create customer-led marketing strategies that build long-term loyalty for brands worldwide.

What professional goals do you hope to achieve within the next five years?

I’m completely focused on Optimove and how we can continue to grow into the #1 platform for companies looking to go from campaign-led marketing to customer-led marketing. Achieving this will require myself and the team to continue to rise to the occasion and our product to continue to develop to stay ahead of our clients’ needs.

What do you think B2B marketing would look like ten years from today?

Oh! It is easy to say it will be dominated by Generative AI, but I actually believe it will not be that different than what it is today. The best marketers will still be those who are able to understand their customers and communicate their unique value propositions effectively.

I do think technology today is much better than before. We spoke at the beginning about that old-school automation and how that has changed. So, I can foresee more changes coming in that respect. The tools available to us all will be better, but that only means that talent, customer understanding, and grit will be the core difference between poor and great B2B marketing.