1. As Gen Z and Millennials value multi-sensory engagement, how are you integrating touch, serendipity, and discovery into in-store or experiential strategies for Quad and its clients?

As a brand marketer, there’s no doubt that this research is making me reimagine how Quad shows up in physical spaces as a B2B marketing solutions company. After all, some of the marketers we’re trying to reach are Gen Z and Millennials, too. For my peers aiming to connect with consumers, our research is a reminder that even as we all march endlessly toward innovation, the people we’re trying to reach are human, with a real psychological need to feel more connected to the environments they’re in. The good news is there’s no singular answer here, and that leaves room for play—the very best part of our job.

2. How should marketers be rethinking content creation and delivery to ensure printed materials reinforce brand authenticity and drive real-world engagement?

While physical media might be decidedly analog, it still requires the right data, and more importantly, insights, to make sure it hits the mark—we ourselves continuously revalidate over 3 million data points on households. Print shouldn’t be treated as merely an add-on but rather a well-thought-out part of an audience strategy that’s proven to work.

It’s no secret Quad has always been bullish on print, but this research wasn’t an exercise in proving ourselves right—it’s about helping marketers take advantage of what The Harris Poll is seeing as a true cultural shift from digital domination to a more nuanced omnichannel approach.

3. Should brands capitalize on pop-up formats, event-based activations, or flagship experiences that turn brand presence into cultural moments?

I would offer a slightly different take. Brands aren’t just here to sell into or hijack culture; they’re made of it. The best brands are already in the mix, blending storytelling with real-world interaction. It helps to consider not just where your audience is physically, but when they’re most emotionally open. That requires timing, intention and staying attuned to both consumer behavior and cultural behavior. One tells you what people do, the other tells you what they believe.

But let’s remember: Not every brand moment needs to be a movement. We all know that when brands try too hard to manufacture cultural significance, it comes off as performative. Real resonance happens when you meet the moment, not when you force it.

4. What strategies ensure that offline interactions (e.g., store visits, mailed catalogs) seamlessly connect with follow-up actions online, such as remarketing or personalized outreach?

Offline is no longer off-the-grid. Every piece of print, every in-store moment, is now a data-enabled touchpoint that can kickstart or complement a digital journey. Through things like variable-data printing, Flowcode integrations, and real-time tracking, we can treat print as a signal, not a silo.

For example, a personalized mailer can prompt a landing page visit, which feeds back into your audience model and informs follow-up messaging. It's more than connecting channels—it’s about creating a frictionless conversation across them. Done right, a catalog isn't the campaign's last mile; it’s the opening act.

5. What structural or cultural shifts are necessary for marketers to prioritize long-term “Return on Touch” over short-term digital KPIs?

Structurally, marketers need to ensure their entire ecosystem is working together—that action begets action between any combination of touchpoints—online or offline. At the same time, adjusting complex marketing plans isn’t for the faint of heart. While marketers are prone to outsourcing help in disjointed ways, the complexity of our jobs requires nothing-less-than-seamless integration. A myriad of niche agencies won’t cut it anymore—marketers need true consultative partners that can help maximize every dollar from ideation and strategy through execution and production.  

That said, short-term KPIs aren’t just for digital. Physical tactics can have fast returns, too. For example, pre-market testing solutions can help you determine the effectiveness of print or packaging before you spend a penny on production, This is just one way we can project expected outcomes, showing that physical marketing doesn't have to be a black box—with proper testing and measurement frameworks, we can quantify ROI across every touchpoint.

6. In an age where digital convenience is no longer enough, how are IRL experiences a competitive differentiator?

Convenience used to be the differentiator and now it's the expectation. For our industry, we see real-world experiences and physical media as the new edge because they create what digital doesn’t: true presence. Holding something, walking through a space, noticing the details—these are sensory cues that spark memory and build brand intimacy. That’s not nostalgia. That’s neuroscience. The brands who listen will be the ones who come out on top.

"Why Small Businesses Deserve a Smarter CRM: How Nimble Is Solving the $25,000 Tech Stack Problem"

Jon Ferrara, founder of Nimble and GoldMine, explains why consolidating CRM, email marketing, and sales automation into one intelligent platform is the key to meaningful growth for small businesses.

1. How does the convergence of email marketing into CRM systems enhance customer engagement for small businesses?

For small businesses, siloed tools create fragmented relationships. You capture leads in one app, nurture them in another, and hand them off to sales in yet another—wasting time and money, and often losing the thread of the relationship along the way.

The convergence of email marketing and CRM into one platform, like we’ve done at Nimble, eliminates that fragmentation. You can now capture leads via web forms, nurture them with automated email campaigns, and seamlessly transition to sales engagement—all within the same tool and contact record.

With Nimble’s unified email marketing and CRM platform, engagement becomes more timely, relevant, and relationship-focused. You see who opened, clicked, replied—and follow up with personalized, tracked outreach that builds trust and accelerates conversion.

2. How can small businesses maintain authentic customer interactions while utilizing automated CRM features?

Small businesses thrive on personal connections. The challenge is keeping those connections authentic at scale, especially when juggling dozens of tools.

At Nimble, automation is designed to enhance human interaction, not replace it. We streamline the busywork—data entry, contact enrichment, follow-up reminders—so small teams can focus on what they do best: building relationships.

With Nimble, every contact is auto-enriched with social and business insights, every email is tracked, and every follow-up can be automated—yet feels personal. Our sequences mimic one-to-one outreach and adapt based on engagement, ensuring relevance and empathy in every touchpoint.

3. What strategies are effective for CRM platforms to stand out and cater specifically to small business needs?

The key is simplicity, affordability, and full-funnel functionality. Most CRMs stop at contact management. Nimble goes further—integrating email marketing, outreach automation, web lead forms, social prospecting, and enrichment—all at a fraction of the typical SMB tech stack cost.

Where competitors stitch together $500–$1,000/month per user worth of tools, Nimble delivers an integrated platform for less than $30/user. This eliminates the need for Salesforce, Outreach.io, Apollo.io, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator—all of which can nickel-and-dime small businesses into unsustainable tech stacks.

Our strategy? Replace the bloated stack with one streamlined platform that helps small teams do more with less.

5. How can CRM platforms deliver value without compromising on essential features?

Most small businesses don’t need more tools—they need better integration. The true value of a CRM comes from how well it ties essential functions together: lead capture, nurturing, enrichment, outreach, deal tracking, and reporting.

Nimble delivers all of that, with zero bloat. Our base plan includes smart prospecting, LinkedIn scraping, pipeline templates, task workflows, and 1:1-style outreach sequences. Add-ons like group email campaigns and embedded web forms are company-wide (not per user), making the total cost of ownership radically lower than piecing together point solutions.

Essential features should be included—not upsold. That’s how we deliver value without compromise.

6. How can small businesses utilize CRM tools to support growth and expansion strategies?

Growth today isn’t about spray-and-pray tactics—it’s about building meaningful connections across the customer journey. Nimble empowers small businesses to do just that by centralizing every touchpoint in a single platform.

Start with Nimble Forms to capture leads. Nurture them with automated email campaigns. Qualify with enriched insights and sales sequences. Close deals via visual pipelines. Then keep the relationship going with targeted outreach—all without leaving Nimble.

Instead of managing disconnected tools and spreadsheets, teams can focus on engaging smarter and scaling faster—with a clear, contextual view of every relationship.

7. As customer expectations evolve, how can CRM systems adapt to meet the changing demands of small business clients?

Today’s customers expect personalization, speed, and continuity across touchpoints—and small businesses need tools that help them deliver on that promise without hiring a full-stack RevOps team.

Nimble adapts to these expectations by offering intelligent simplicity. We bring together CRM, email marketing, social prospecting, and sales automation in one place—with smart signals, enriched profiles, and automated workflows that guide action.

As AI evolves, we’re integrating even deeper intelligence into Nimble to surface the right contact, right message, and right moment—so businesses can act with confidence and humanity.

The platforms that thrive won’t be the most complex—they’ll be the ones that help people connect with more purpose and less friction.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.

1. What factors should be considered when extending collaborations to ensure mutual benefit and continued impact?

The key is to ensure that all parties can see continued value in the partnership. In a sense, it is like a triangle of three questions: 1) what do customers need, want and value? 2) what is your brand partner trying to achieve? 3) what are you [Nectar360] trying to achieve? 

When designing any programme, it's important to address these three questions. By doing so, we can deliver mutual benefit and increase the likelihood of the partnership’s success.

2. Nectar360 recently announced the partnership between the Nectar loyalty scheme and the Woodland Trust has been extended to 2027. What metrics should be used to evaluate the success of conservation-focused loyalty initiatives in particular?

There's no one-size-fits-all metric, all partnerships are unique. In sustainability partnerships, the success metric might be raising awareness of a specific cause or driving meaningful change on an issue. 

For instance, conservation-focused loyalty initiatives aim to change customer behaviour to help drive change for the environment, encouraging actions such as planting trees, donating to food initiatives, or reducing water usage.

With our Woodland Trust partnership, Woodland Trust members who’ve lined their Nectar account can earn additional Nectar points by purchasing their favourites, including apples, eggs, chicken, turkey, reusable bags, and cards from Sainsbury's. Customers can also donate points to support environmental efforts like sowing wildflower meadows, planting trees, and protecting woods.

In our Severn Trent Water partnership, the goal of the trial is to encourage customers to use less water. Success is measured by how well the loyalty scheme's incentives, like extra Nectar points coupled with lower water and energy bills, promote and sustain this behaviour. An increase in Nectar membership numbers would also be a positive metric for evaluating the impact of such collaborations.

3. How can loyalty programmes effectively align with broader sustainability initiatives?

The most important thing is to ensure the value exchange and outcomes are clear to the people that engage with them. Whether they're buying something or redeeming points, they need to know not only what the initiative is supporting but also how it contributes to the sustainability or environmental measures behind it.

4. How can companies ensure transparency in reporting the environmental impact of such programmes?

Companies can ensure transparency in reporting the environmental impact of their programmes by leveraging the scale and marketing reach of partnerships like Nectar. This approach drives engagement and heightens awareness of the outcomes delivered. Additionally, publishing comprehensive CSR reports that outline sustainability goals, priority areas of focus, key commitments, and progress is crucial. Aligning these goals with the UN Sustainable Development Goals ensures that the company is making a significant impact and playing a leading role in building a more sustainable food system.

Sainsbury's Plan for Better exemplifies this approach, with its three interlocking pillars: Better for you, Better for the planet, and Better for everyone. This ensures that stakeholders and customers are informed about the company's efforts and achievements in sustainability, thereby maintaining transparency and accountability.

5. What are the challenges in aligning corporate sustainability goals with customer reward systems?

Traditional programmes focus on straightforward transactions, whereas aligning sustainability and rewards is more complex as it requires us to impact customer behaviour for a specific cause.

Evolving beyond this requires creative thinking and advanced insights. Understanding the impacts of behaviour, whether related to sustainability or commercial goals, can be complex. Without advanced insights capabilities and the ability to engage customers creatively, it becomes challenging for marketers to determine the appropriate level of loyalty for a given behaviour.

6. How can similar models be adapted to address other sustainability challenges?

Just as with the Severn Trent example, which incentivises reduction in water usage, or the donation of accumulated Nectar points to fund the Woodland Trust’s conservation activities, there is scope for adaptation within this model to support other sustainability objectives. That could be switching the type of energy someone uses to a greener option or rewarding for the use of electric car charging e.g., customers are rewarded through Nectar for using Sainsbury’s Smart Charge facilities.  

The principle of getting value back for changing your behaviour is the basis of loyalty programmes. So, as well as - or instead of - giving financial value back to members, these schemes can absolutely be used to drive positive actions that support the planet, with consumers incentivised by a new type of currency: the knowledge they are doing good.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts. 

1. How is your organization adapting its marketing strategies to meet the increasing demand for personalized and interactive video content?

Our research shows that all demographics are expecting the brands they work with to use more video in general, and more next gen video (such as personalized and interactive video) specifically. Customers are 3x more likely to prefer receiving a next gen video over traditional video, and in the case of Gen Z a staggering 93% of them are interested in both interactive and personalized video content from brands.

Brands are listening but still have a long way to go. The “video gap” in this year’s market study — the percentage of consumers who want brands to send them more video content — dropped to 78%, which is still a very large gap.

In addition, some of our financial services clients have specifically targeted Gen Z customers with these next gen video services due to how much it resonates with them and how upset they get when the content sent to them isn’t personalized.

2. How do you balance automation with creative input to maintain authenticity in your video content?

We allow users to find the balance that works for them. Our Next Generation Video Platform can create ready-to-use videos from a simple prompt, but we allow human intervention at every step of the process: from uploading brand kits to editing the script, narration, voiceover, style and any and all media used. Typically, users will let our automation take a first crack at creating the video and then use our easy touch-up editor to add their own creative flair if desired.

3. What key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to assess the effectiveness of personalized video campaigns?

Our clients use a variety of KPIs to measure success. The primary but most sensitive ones are ROI uplifts, for example, this one that shows a 17x ROI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHvVIiagS-E

Other clients may use engagement metrics such as how many people click on the call to action at the end of the video, while others use NPS scores. Our next gen videos show significant uplifts in all those metrics.

4. What measures are in place to ensure data privacy and compliance when collecting and utilizing consumer data for personalized video content?

We don’t collect any user data. We work with companies who have a relationship with their customers and who use us for generating video content for those customers. We generally don’t receive any PII (all data is anonymized), and all data is handled with our enterprise-grade security that includes ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA compliance. Our platform has cleared the most stringent security audits with the most regulated companies such as banks, hospitals and telcos.

5. What initiatives are in place to ensure your brand's video content remains engaging and relevant to digital-first audiences?

We are always innovating and adding to our platform. The primary focus is on further scaling our AI capabilities in order to remove friction and cost and allow our customers to make ready-to-use videos for any purpose in minutes and to deploy them to millions of customers.

We have recently added an AI Video Ads module to our Lucas AI Video Creator and plan on adding additional dedicated modules to provide tailor-made solutions that are optimized for key use cases.

6. What plans are in place to further innovate your video marketing strategies to stay ahead of emerging trends and consumer behaviors?

We believe in drinking our own champagne, and we are therefore using our own next gen video services to engage our customers. We used to be very limited in our ability to create our own video content as our production studio was busy working on client campaigns, but now with Lucas, we can create videos for our website, mailers, etc., in minutes, leading to huge time savings and uplifts in engagement.

1. How can brands use conversion and engagement data to tailor their messaging for specific customer segments?

There are so many ways. Let’s tackle two examples at different stages of the customer journey. First, let’s address purchasers. Brands can use conversion data to send personalized post-purchase messages to recent customers designed to enhance the purchase experience. These messages might include a “thank you” email, one providing how-to or product care instructions based on their purchased items, and a customer service-oriented message.

This series of messages could be tailored based on products and purchase histories. This way, repeat shoppers are treated to a different experience than first-time customers. Post-purchase emails are under-utilized by brands, maybe because they don’t think they work. However, post-purchase messages convert nearly 15x better than scheduled campaign emails.

Another example would be for new email subscribers. Commonly, brands send the same series of welcome emails to all subscribers. However, brands can use engagement data, specifically email link clicks, to send a tailored message to different recipients.

For example, users who click on the “men’s” link in the welcome email could be sent messages featuring top-rated men’s products while those who click on the “women’s” link could be sent messages featuring top-rated women’s products. More than half the people who click on a welcome email go on to make a purchase. Generating additional clicks by sending relevant emails means additional sales.

These are two examples of ways brands can use just about any piece of data to make experiences more relevant for their customers.

2. What techniques, such as social proof or scarcity tactics, can build trust and encourage quicker purchasing decisions?

As far as building trust with consumers, I tell brands to focus on the value-adds. These include things like fast and free shipping, return policies, customer service availability, and product quality. By promoting these across the website and in emails, especially high-intent ones like cart abandonment, brands can help build consumer confidence in the brand and its products.

For encouraging quicker purchasing decisions, scarcity and social proof are powerful tools. Brands should feature top-rated products in their emails, especially in their welcome series. Featuring top-rated products helps guide users toward high-quality items, and the built-in product reviews provide consumer confidence.

Back-in-stock emails are also great messages — or even subject lines — to use to generate quick sales. These messages are effective because they combine social proof (they sold out once) with a sense of urgency (they’ll sell out again). This combination is what makes them so effective. Back-in-stock emails have a conversion rate (5.3%) nearly double that of the second-best performing email (welcome).

3. What role does automation play in converting first-time buyers into repeat customers?

A major one. In fact, automation plays a major role in converting every type of buyer. In 2024, automated emails accounted for 37% of all email marketing orders and only 2% of sends. Think about this. Nearly two of every five orders come from an automated email.

The reason they are so effective is the majority of them are sent at high-intent stages of the customer journey, whether it’s signing up for an email program, browsing products on a website, or abandoning a shopping cart. Each of these actions indicates an intent to shop.

I spoke before about creating post-purchase emails to improve the customer experience, thereby increasing the chance of retention. Automated messages play a crucial role in improving the customer journey by sending relevant messages at relevant times. Brands looking to maximize their sales should look to automated email and SMS.

That being said, not all automation is created equal. Brands should execute a welcome, product abandonment, and cart abandonment series before anything else. These messages will generate the bulk of sales. From there, I’d then move on to post-purchase and other series of messages that make sense for specific brands.

4. How can brands ensure their marketing messages remain relevant and personalized across multiple channels?

Well, automation is a start. I mentioned how these are sent at specific times based on behavior. Launching these messages will help ensure customers are receiving relevant messages. From there, it’s about using data that makes sense for each brand.

I mentioned earlier about using click data to customize welcome messages and purchase data to customize post-purchase messages. But there is virtually no limit to how brands can use data to segment their customers.

For example, brands can send different cart abandonment messages to individuals based on the cart total or their purchase history. They could combine channels for subscribers to both email and SMS programs, and customize messages for those only subscribed to one. They could send new product alerts to customers who purchased similar products in the past. Or they could send winter-related product emails to customers in cold-weather cities and beach-going products to those in warmer climates. There’s really no limits to what brands can easily do.  

If a brand chooses a single piece of data they could find a way to use it. I’d encourage brands to start small, focus on the data that matters to them and their customers, and build from there. Brands don't need data scientists to be successful. They just need a little bit of data.

5. How do customer reviews and back-in-stock alerts influence consumer behavior and decision-making?

They’re both forms of social proof, and, as we discussed, social proof is gold. Product reviews help build consumer confidence in a brand and its products. The last report on reviews I saw said that 99% of all shoppers look at product reviews. For most products, I bet this is 100% — especially for new customers shopping with a brand.

Collecting reviews is important for brands, but using them is where the magic lies. Showcasing top-rated products in email and SMS can be a sales generator, especially for shoppers new to your brand. Sending dedicated emails to shoppers who left four or five-star reviews can be a successful strategy when new products drop. Showcasing reviews in cart abandonment messages may be the nudge customers need to complete their orders, and showcasing testimonials from product reviews in your emails is a great way to promote brand value-adds.    

Use social proof everywhere you can.

6. How can businesses adapt to shifting consumer preferences for first-party communication channels over third-party platforms?

First, focus on list growth. Open rates for emails continue to increase year after year, and performance metrics remain strong — especially during peak seasons like BFCM. Consumers like first-party channels so make it easy for them to sign up. Use a website popup that collects email and mobile numbers. This will ensure all visitors, even those coming from social networks, have an opportunity to join your lists.

A word of note: be sure to make the mobile number field optional. While SMS continues to be adopted by more and more consumers, there’s nothing more frustrating for those who want to sign up for only your emails to be forced into signing up for SMS. Allow those who prefer one channel to be in one channel. 

Another way brands can adapt to this reality is to find an email provider that integrates with third-party platforms like Meta and Google. Using email, SMS, purchase, and web activity data to retarget lost shoppers with dedicated email and SMS campaigns can recapture lost customers and reduce paid retargeting costs.

When brands rely primarily on third-party channels they leave themselves vulnerable to decisions outside of their control, such as platform bans, algorithm changes, and data-sharing agreements that can drastically impact their performance and costs. First-party channels don’t face these same concerns. Brands should lean into this to create a holistic marketing program that provides relevant experiences and fosters brand-consumer relationships.

Thank you for joining us, André.

You have an impressive track record of entrepreneurship and innovation. How did you develop your entrepreneurial mindset, and what led to you becoming the VP of Marketing at Siprocal?

I’ve always been curious, which definitely fueled my passion for business and helped shape my entrepreneurial mindset. Curiosity blended with risk-taking – embracing failures and learning from them – has been part of that development. This mindset led to my early successes with Flowsense, a startup specializing in app engagement. Flowsense was later acquired by DigitalReef, which eventually joined Gamers Club to form Siprocal. Now, as the VP of Marketing at Siprocal, I’ve been able to take my passion for entrepreneurship and disruptive tech and funnel that energy into mapping a strategic marketing plan for Siprocal’s future.

(As you mentioned) You founded Flowsense, a mobile marketing automation startup, and later merged it with DigitalReef. What motivated this merger, and what key challenges and successes you encountered during this process?

The merger of Flowsense and DigitalReef was driven by a shared vision for comprehensive mobile marketing solutions. Some of the challenges we took on included offering a solution encompassing different stages of the marketing funnel while being able to serve the whole of Latin America. Later, with the merger of Column6 and Gamers Club, we also included CTV and gaming as channels and North America as a geography. That opened many doors in terms of platform solutions and user reach across the Americas. Ultimately, the synergy of our shared tech capabilities and our shared visions of full transparency and putting user privacy as goal number one has resulted in a powerhouse partnership that is using intelligent data to bring people together – we need that more than ever, right? Together, we’ve set our sights on being the world’s largest mobile app and gaming distribution platform.

How did the DigitalReef and Gamers Club merger create Siprocal, a new leader in the gaming industry? What benefits and synergies has this merger brought to DigitalReef’s business and market objectives?

The merger was a strategic leap. When we combined DigitalReef’s tech prowess with Gamers Club’s user base and expertise in the gaming world, the result was better than anything we had anticipated. It sounds funny, but we exceeded our own highest expectations. And a huge part of that is our vast and engaged audience, which we are so fortunate and grateful to have. With the streamlined operations of DigitalReef seamlessly integrated with Gamers Club’s user-centric approach, we are forming a dynamic entity uniquely positioned to deliver unparalleled gaming experiences and establish a dominant presence in the competitive gaming landscape. (I’m not sure if you and your readers can tell at this point, but we are VERY excited about the future.)

Within the dynamic and ever-evolving martech landscape, how does Siprocal intend to harness DigitalReef’s intelligent audience engagement technology to power its next-gen gaming distribution platform?

Siprocal leverages DigitalReef’s intelligent audience engagement tech by tailoring it to the app and gaming distribution. We use premier audience access and data insights to enhance user experiences, personalize content, and optimize contextual ad targeting. It’s about marrying technology with gaming passion and ensuring we remain ahead in the dynamic gaming landscape.

DigitalReef has a significant presence across the Americas. How do you handle the diverse and complex needs of your partners, such as carriers, manufacturers, publishers, and advertisers across different regions? What key principles and practices guide your partnership management strategies?

Navigating the diverse needs of partners across the Americas demands a nuanced approach. That’s a no-brainer, right? Fortunately for us, Siprocal is deeply rooted in principles of transparency and adaptability, so we can modify strategies to align with regional variances – we are a global tech platform that leverages local partnerships and solutions. 

Because we understand the unique dynamics of carriers, manufacturers, publishers, and advertisers, we can prioritize open communication channels so that we’re all on the same page. Our partnership management strategy thrives on a commitment to mutual growth, where shared goals propel relationships forward. The very name Siprocal comes from building these reciprocal relationships. You grow, we grow. Simple. We actively listen to partner feedback and adapt our approach to meet evolving demands. But in the end, it’s all about nuance.

What main opportunities and challenges do you face as the VP of Marketing at Siprocal? How do you plan and execute effective marketing campaigns that reach and resonate with new audiences?

Being VP of Marketing at Siprocal is like being the conductor of a symphony where opportunities and challenges play different instruments. The thrill for me lies in orchestrating effective campaigns amidst a dynamic landscape. It’s about riding the waves of trends – going with the flow of the music – and mixing data-driven strategies while tapping into those emerging trends. My ultimate goal, my dream, is to craft campaigns that aren’t just seen but felt. I want them to resonate with our diverse audiences and not only capture attention but leave a lasting imprint on the hearts and minds of our audience.

Could you provide insights into Siprocal’s forward-looking vision regarding CTV and advertising within the martech industry? Additionally, please elaborate on how the company intends to remain at the forefront of technological advancements while consistently delivering exceptional value to its clients.

As trailblazers, we anticipate shifts in the CTV and advertising landscape, and when that happens, we want not just to keep pace but to set the standard. Our journey involves continuous research and developing new tech – always with transparency and privacy front and center. Talking about research, we sponsored this year’s CTV Latam Study by Comscore. That’s just one initiative to keep at the forefront. We’re embracing artificial intelligence and forming strategic alliances as well. We see a future where CTV and advertising converge harmoniously to provide users with an immersive, personalized experience. Remaining pioneers means not only adapting to technological advancements - we want to be the ones driving them in this ever-evolving world of martech.

Hello, Jasper! Could you share some key insights you’ve gained throughout your marketing career?

In the 12+ years I’ve spent in B2B SaaS Marketing, I’ve seen time and again that building relationships with your audience over time is the only viable way to long-term success. No one wakes up in the morning and decides to switch a critical component of their MarTech stack on a whim. Growth “hacks” and pure conversion-focused plays only take you so far. Instead, the main role of our marketing function is to create opportunities for our teams to build personal relationships with our audience at scale. In other words, as the leading Customer Engagement Platform, we need to practice what we preach to our customers.

What marketing challenges are specific to the North American market, and how do you address them as the VP Marketing, NA of CleverTap?

North America tends to be a focus area for many companies, so the competition for share of mind is quite high. Audiences are inundated with messages and have learned to become skeptical, sophisticated buyers. More often than not, they look for the best, not the cheapest, solution. But once a decision has been made, they can move quite quickly – and expect much more agility than, for example, buyers in Europe. Ultimately, it comes down to breaking through the clutter, building trust, and then providing exceptional service. Marketing plays a central role in all these three functions.

What sets CleverTap apart as the preferred customer engagement platform for companies aiming to optimize their customer lifetime value?

At CleverTap, we believe that disparate point solutions create disparate customer journeys. That’s why we built an all-in-one platform that combines the intelligence a business needs with powerful tools to put this insight into action. By providing an integrated solution for analytics, product experiences, and lifecycle marketing, we create an environment that encourages synergies between marketing and product teams. The results are not only improvements in operational and cost efficiency but also in the resulting customer experience.

The second major competitive advantage we have comes down to the granularity and volume of customer data we can store and process. Our proprietary data layer powered by TesseractDB™ lets CleverTap customers build truly personalized customer engagement strategies and user journeys that span their entire life cycle.

In your three months with CleverTap, what notable changes have you introduced to the marketing strategies?

A lot of our effort has been focused on building better relationships with our customers and potential customers. Face-to-face interactions are a key component of this strategy. To execute this well with a globally distributed team, we have introduced new processes and concepts – we want to be known as the experts in building better experiences. We are also working on our approach to providing meaningful content. Our audience is sophisticated buyers, and it’s important to show that we value their attention by providing interesting, relevant insights.

Can you share instances of how you’ve applied your strong analytical skills to resolve complex marketing challenges?

An analytical mindset is critical to many aspects of marketing decision-making, from determining the right metrics to define and track success consistently to effectively running digital campaigns to making informed choices on positioning and messaging. But the most interesting cases are those where analytical thinking only gets you half the way, and you have to mix it with intuition. Marketing is full of gray areas and unknowns – you rarely have clear “wrong” or “right” approaches to solve a given challenge. For example, the usual B2B SaaS customer journey includes multiple touch points that may include a mix of events, content, paid media, and other channels. Each can be independently measured to a certain degree, but it is often hard to prove the aggregate impact of integrated campaigns that combine all channels. Making decisions in the face of this uncertainty means that you have to look at data where it is available while ensuring that it doesn’t obscure the big picture.

How do you plan to navigate your role at CleverTap going forward?

“We are the largest Customer Engagement Platform globally and have a distinct technological advantage, thanks to innovations like TesseractDB™, RenderMax, and most recently, Scribe. Within North America, our market position as challengers aligns us with digital thought leaders who need to outsmart and not outspend their established competition. We need to stay hungry, flexible, and smart when it comes to positioning our products, reaching our audiences, and building relationships with them. To succeed, we need to rally our global team and provide focus, set a high bar for our marketing output, especially content and experiences, and embrace new technologies like AI. In this context, I see myself as a contributor who provides guidance, facilitates conversations between different internal and external stakeholders, and helps create alignment between them.

Can you describe your journey so far, and what key takeaways would you like to share?

While I work in Marketing now, I did not start my career there. For my first job after graduating college, I worked as a strategy consultant in the entertainment industry, advising companies on the best ways to navigate a constantly evolving technological landscape. This role helped me realize I wanted to get my hands dirty and work with emerging and innovative products! That insight pushed me to transition to marketing, and I haven't looked back since.

Since joining Customer.io, I have focused on getting to know our ideal customer profile, assessing the competitive landscape, and understanding current market trends. These insights have allowed me to revamp marketing's objectives and set clear goals for the year. I'm looking forward to leveraging what I've learned in past roles to mature the marketing function at Customer.io, better support our customers, and help the team deliver tangible business impact.

It's been just four months since you were onboarded as the CMO at Customer.io. What are you most looking forward to in your new role here?

While it has been a sprint these first few months, I've enjoyed diving into some critical business initiatives. For example, we launched our second product, Customer Data Pipelines (CDP), in April. It's been fun to be a part of a company leading the charge in customer engagement and communication. I've been impressed by the dedication and passion of the team, and I'm excited to continue working with them to develop innovative strategies that will drive accelerated growth and increased customer satisfaction with our expanding suite of solutions.

One of the things I'm most looking forward to is optimizing the messaging and position of our customer engagement platform. Customer.io has a unique offering that can transform how brands segment their customer base and customize their communications. With the right approach, we can reach new audiences and better educate them about the power of our solutions. I'm excited to be part of a company that is driving real change in the industry, and I'm looking forward to helping contribute to its continued success.

What's your approach to driving growth, profits, and resilience in the current economic downturn?

To succeed in challenging times, I try to drive the team toward customer-centricity, data-driven decision-making, and agility.

Customer-centricity is foundational for success because it helps us focus on what matters most with our core audience. By really understanding our customers' needs and challenges, we can develop innovative solutions that help them address their "hair on fire" issues and exceed their expectations around what our product can do for them. In an ever-evolving economic environment, it can be difficult to discern how the market is changing. By taking a data-driven approach to decision-making, you can identify trends and build conviction for your decisions more quickly, maximizing the impact of any marketing investments. Finally, marketers need to be able to adapt rapidly to stay ahead of the competition. The ability to pivot strategies and tactics in response to new trends and market conditions is crucial for success.

Last year, Customer.io launched its Essentials plan enabling startups and small teams to engage customers on mobile and web apps. What are the plans for this fiscal year?

The response from the market to our Essentials plan has been very positive, and we have seen strong growth since it launched. As we look to the future, we are exploring new ways to drive more awareness of this offering and reach a wider audience of teams who could benefit from a robust set of tools at an affordable cost. Also, we want to continue building this plan's value proposition and have a rich set of new features that will be available in Essentials in the second half of the year. At Customer.io, we believe every team should have access to a customer engagement platform to support their business, so we will continue investing in our Essentials plan to support this belief.

How do you stay up-to-date on the developments in marketing automation, and how do you integrate them into your platform?

Staying up-to-date on the latest developments in marketing automation requires a proactive approach. First, I constantly monitor the latest news and trends by following popular thought leaders on social media and reading industry-specific publications/blogs. Additionally, I participate in a few professional associations and community groups to connect with other peers in the field, participate in discussions, and learn what they are seeing & hearing. Finally, I try to speak with our customers on a regular basis. This first-hand feedback is very insightful and helps me understand what is signal vs. what is noise.

At Customer.io, we take a very customer-centric approach to product development. Therefore, a strong, collaborative relationship already exists between myself and the product team. When I develop key insights, I communicate with the appropriate product leaders to integrate those takeaways into product development efforts. Given my role and understanding of our ideal customer profile, I want to ensure that the company stays competitive and meets the evolving needs of its customers.

You introduced Customer.io Data Pipelines (CDP) very recently. Can you shed some light on how it helps companies connect customer data to their tech stack?

Although data management can be a headache, we believe having access to good data is essential for modern marketers to deliver personalization, multi-channel targeting, and product integration. Therefore, we launched Customer.io Data Pipelines (CDP) to help companies connect their customer data to every product in their tech stack. With CDP, teams can easily unify their customer data without writing a line of code. Additionally, our solution keeps your data up-to-date with "out of the box" support for the most common destinations (i.e., Mixpanel, Amplitude, Google Analytics, Salesforce, and HubSpot), so you have consistent data across the tools you rely on most. Finally, by seamlessly integrating with our current messaging product, Customer.io Journeys, our CDP allows companies to build a unified view of each customer and create memorable interactions across mobile and web using push, email, in-app, and SMS channels.

How do you measure the ROI of your marketing strategies?

Our focus is always on delivering value to our customers. To ensure that we align our resources on the most important initiatives, the marketing team at Customer.io uses the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework. This process helps clarify how we will measure success and who will own the delivery of the results. When we define the measurements for those Key Results, we use a mix of qualitative and quantitative metrics to determine the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. Finally, we set up dashboards based on our OKR metrics to monitor real-time performance across our various team meetings/syncs and complete a formal review of performance at the end of each quarter. By tracking key performance indicators in this way, we can identify areas of improvement more quickly and optimize our marketing strategies to serve our customers better. 

What do you think about the future of customer-engaging marketing automation platforms?

The future vision for customer-engaging marketing automation platforms is inspiring! As a marketer, you are always looking for ways to customize the customer experience because you know that this will drive more engagement. With the proliferation of customer data, the advancement of existing tooling, and the rapid evolution of new AI technology, marketing teams will be able to deliver more personalized and relevant interactions to our customers than ever before! Therefore, companies should focus on investing in platforms that share this future vision and streamline their ability to deliver increased personalization across the entire customer journey via powerful automation.