In the AI era, marketing should be unstoppable, and its future is being written in real time. Frontier CMO talks to the leaders shaping it. Join Joshua Spanier, Google's VP of AI and Marketing Strategy, in his deep-dives with the leaders, marketers, technologists who are rewriting the playbook. Welcome to the Frontier.
We’re asking the questions other won’t: How do marketing leaders prove ROI to executives? What does a modern marketing strategy look like when AI and analytics are reshaping the rules every day? Each episode of Frontier CMO explores the real-world playbooks leaders are using to navigate the AI-powered landscape. From marketing trends and branding breakthroughs to advancements in digital marketing, social media, content marketing, and B2B marketing, Frontier CMO breaks down what’s working and what’s not to help you navigate this new landscape.
Subscribe to Frontier CMO on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to get alerted when the first episode drops in January.
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Building a Brand with Substance: Ro’s Reinvention of Healthcare
Thursday, October 15, 2026 • Duration 24:20
Could your doctor's office be just a few clicks away?
In this episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with Will Flaherty, SVP of Growth at Ro, the digital healthcare platform rethinking not only how care is delivered but how it's marketed. Will explains how Ro earns trust in one of the hardest categories to market, why the brand rejects fear-based messaging in favor of uplifting human stories, and what it took to put Serena Williams at the center of a Super Bowl campaign. He also shares how Ro erased the line between brand and performance, why clinicians sit inside the creative process, and how a little weekend AI tinkering can spark big ideas for the business.
Tune in for a master class in marketing when the product you're really selling is trust.
00:00 – Introduction: Will Flaherty, SVP of Growth at Ro
01:00 – Reinventing Healthcare Through Digital Access
03:20 – Building Trust in Healthcare Marketing
05:00 – Ro’s Challenger Brand Marketing Playbook
06:00 – Blurring the Lines Between Brand and Performance Marketing
07:30 – Bringing Medical Experts Into the Creative Process
09:20 – Designing for a Mobile-First Consumer
10:15 – How Ro Uses AI to Drive Marketing Decisions
11:50 – Redefining Growth Beyond Customer Acquisition
12:45 – Using AI to Empower Marketing Teams
15:10 – Serena Williams and the Power of Authentic Storytelling
16:05 – Measuring Super Bowl Campaign Success and Long-Term ROI
17:15 – Career Lessons from SeatGeek, Rent the Runway, and Ro
19:00 – Embracing AI as the Next Major Platform Shift
20:45 – Signal or Noise: The Future of Healthcare
21:45 – CMO Download: Podcasts, Search, and YouTube
23:05 – Three Key Takeaways for Marketers
Rebuilding AT&T: The Secret to Scaling Customer Obsession
Thursday, October 1, 2026 • Duration 29:28
How do you transform one of the world's most iconic telecom giants into a modern, customer-obsessed growth powerhouse?
In the latest episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier welcomes Kellyn Smith Kenny, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at AT&T, for an inside look at AT&T's multi-year reinvention. Kellyn shares how she bridged creative storytelling with financial accountability, gained unanimous C-suite buy-in to become more customer-centric, and established a sustainable competitive moat in connectivity.
Tune in for a master class about CMOs as the voice of the customer.
00:00 – Rebuilding AT&T Around the Customer
04:00 – Why Moving Faster Mattered
05:00 – The AT&T Guarantee
06:00 – Differentiating in a Commoditized Category
09:00 – Turning Customer Problems Into Loyalty
12:00 – Building a Brand Beyond Advertising
15:00 – Fixing the Story, Not the Storytelling
17:00 – AT&T’s AI Legacy and Future
18:00 – How AI Is Transforming Marketing
20:00 – The Skills Marketers Need in the AI Era
22:00 – Career Lessons From Accenture, Microsoft, Uber & More
26:00 – Signal or Noise + Three Takeaways
Relevance is Revenue: Gap’s Secret to Winning
Season 3 · Episode 2
Thursday, September 17, 2026 • Duration 28:42
Gap Inc. is having a moment and Damon Berger, an SVP who leads marketing shared services across the company’s portfolio of iconic brands, is focused on turning that moment into momentum. Live from Google’s Rethink Retail event in New York, he joins Josh on stage in front of 350 retail marketers to unpack how Gap Inc. is blending entertainment, cultural relevance and AI to drive sustainable business growth.
From viral YouTube campaigns with KATSEYE, Young Miko, Mr Beast and more, to pioneering employee-creator programs, discover how one of retail's most loved brands is transforming relevance into revenue.
👇 Key moments in this episode:
00:00 - Introduction & Gap’s growth
02:15 - "Relevance is Revenue" — Differentiating Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, & Athleta
05:10 - Why "Brand vs. Performance" is the wrong question to ask
07:45 - Building best friends with Finance (and why ROAS is a long game)
09:15 - Product at the center: The formula behind Cardi B, Young Miko, and KATSEYE
11:15 - Inside the innovative Employee Creator Program & Creator Affiliate launch
13:15 - Career journeys: From Disney to Barbie's turnaround at Mattel
16:30 - Marketing "Avatar" without showing the blue people 🤫
17:00 - The future of Agentic Commerce & AI Virtual Try-Ons
22:30 - Why AI will never understand the emotional choice of getting dressed
24:30 - Signal or noise
#FrontierCMO #GapInc #RetailMarketing #BrandStrategy #YoungMiko #CardiB #Katseye #MrBeast #MarketingTransformation #AIinRetail #AgenticCommerce
Jo Malone. MAC. La Mer. Tom Ford. Clinique. The Ordinary. These are just a few of the powerhouse brands behind The Estée Lauder Companies. For more than 80 years, the beauty giant has reinvented itself with every era – from the department store counter to the digital storefront. Now it’s making its biggest leap yet: AI.
In the season 3 premiere of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with Chief Digital and Marketing Officer Aude Gandon to explore how one of the world’s most iconic beauty companies is using AI to personalize consumer experiences, reimagine creativity, and build brands that endure.
✨ What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Estée Lauder overhauled its marketing operating model and consolidated global media to react at the speed of culture.
Why your CFO is your most crucial ally and how to prove marketing is an investment, not a cost center.
Navigating C-suite influence, knowing when to compromise, and leading with strategic courage.
Why the AI era demands a return to fundamental brand differentiation and emotional connection.
How Jo Malone and Google built a conversational Scent Finder to personalize fragrance discovery online.
What AI revealed about why MAC’s Ruby Woo and NASA-inspired Crème de la Mer both became timeless icons.
Why 90% hard work beats 10% talent
⏱️ Episode Chapters:
00:00 - Teaser: "Show Me the Money" & CFO Alliances
00:34 - Welcome to Frontier CMO Season 3
01:25 - Change Management & "Beauty Reimagined" at Estée Lauder
02:49 - Restructuring the Global Operating Model & Media Strategy
04:58 - Marketing as a Growth Engine: Getting Buy-In from Finance
07:08 - The CMO as Chief Diplomatic Officer
10:14 - Brand Building vs. Lower-Funnel Performance Marketing
11:42 - Conversational AI in Action: Jo Malone’s Scent Finder
13:43 - Luxury on Scaled Platforms: Short-form Video & Creators
16:23 - Breaking Brand Silos: Creating Global Marketing Communities
18:24 - Feeding 80 Years of Brand Data into AI: MAC vs. La Mer
22:28 - Career Advice: "Just 'Cause You Don't Fit Doesn't Mean You Don't Belong"
23:10 - Estée Lauder’s Legacy: The Pink Ribbon Campaign
24:48 - The 90/10 Rule of Career Success
25:53 - The CMO Download
29:57 - Josh Spanier’s 3 Key Takeaways
👤 About the Guest:
Aude Gandon is the Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at The Estée Lauder Companies, leading global digital transformation, consumer intelligence, media, and marketing strategy across the company's prestigious portfolio of skincare, makeup, and fragrance brands.
🎙️ About Frontier CMO:
Hosted by Josh Spanier (VP of Marketing and AI Strategy at Google), Frontier CMO features candid conversations with the world’s most forward-thinking marketing leaders who are navigating platform shifts, AI innovation, and modern brand building.
🔗 Explore more marketing insights, research, and tools: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com
#FrontierCMO #EsteeLauder #MarketingStrategy #ArtificialIntelligence #CMO #BrandBuilding #LuxuryMarketing #DigitalTransformation #JoshSpanier #AudeGandon
Your Content Is Corrosive: Anda Gansca on the Future of Websites in the AI Era
Thursday, August 20, 2026 • Duration 28:41
The future of content and websites isn't about chasing vanity impressions—it’s about driving true digital retention.
Recorded live at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Knotch CEO and co-founder Anda Gansca joins Frontier CMO host Josh Spanier to unpack how the brand website is evolving in an AI-first world.
In this episode, we uncover the hidden trap of "corrosive content" driving 80% of web traffic to bounce instantly, and outline a strategic playbook for modern marketing leaders.
Because the website remains the definitive front door for customer discovery and high-stakes decision-making, mastering the next era of web content is more than just site refresh;it is a critical growth imperative for today’s CMO.
00:00 Why Most Brand Content Fails
02:00 Cutting Through the AI Hype
05:00 How Brands Can Win in the AI Era
08:00 Impressions vs. Real Relevance
10:00 Rethinking the Website Experience
12:00 What CMOs Need to Learn About AI
16:00 Building a Culture of AI Experimentation
19:00 Getting Your Data AI-Ready
21:00 AI Slop vs. Great Marketing
23:00 How AI Is Changing Agencies
25:00 AI, Jobs & the MarTech Stack
26:30 Signal or Noise + Final Takeaways
Rishad Tobaccowala on Relevance and Reinvention in the Age of AI
Thursday, August 6, 2026 • Duration 26:59
Marketing is moving fast, but are we moving in the right direction?
In this episode, legendary strategist Rishad Tobaccowala (former Chief Growth & Strategy Officer of Publicis Group) drops by to deliver some seriously spicy thinking on the state of the marketing industry.
Spoiler alert: He thinks we’ve lost the plot.
Instead of obsessing over technology and optimization, Rishad breaks down why the future actually belongs to talent, human insight, and deep curiosity. We dive into his blueprint for navigating "tectonic times," why you need to stop writing an "AI strategy," and how thinking like an underdog is the ultimate superpower for staying relevant.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
6 keys to organizational change
Why true innovation happens when you step outside your category
Rishad's daily routine: How he uses 66 different resources to learn and stay ahead
The "Company of One" framework and how to articulate your unique craft vs. skill
Rapid-fire "Signal or Noise" on remote work, side hustles, and the future of work
Google’s CMO Lorraine Twohill on Leading the Frontier
Thursday, July 30, 2026 • Duration 33:47
Few marketing leaders have navigated as much change as Google’s Chief Marketing Officer Lorraine Twohill. She’s one of the industry’s longest-tenured CMOs who’s led Google’s marketing through massive product and platform shifts, from Search and Chrome, to mobile, YouTube, and now AI.
Recorded at Cannes Lions 2026, Frontier CMO host Josh Spanier sits down with Lorraine to unpack how she’s built one of the world’s most influential marketing organizations, why marketers belong in the room with engineers, and why agility is the ultimate competitive advantage.
00:00 Intro
01:00 Google's Startup Days
03:45 Why Local Marketing Wins
05:45 Becoming Google's CMO
08:00 Marketing in a Product-First Company
09:30 The Chrome Growth Playbook
12:10 Human-Centered Brand Storytelling
13:00 What Creators Teach Marketers
14:20 Defining the Frontier CMO
16:15 Marketing Mistakes & Lessons Learned
18:10 Hiring Great Marketers
20:20 Career Advice for the AI Era
22:30 Google's AI Transformation
25:00 AI Productivity & NotebookLM
26:30 Leadership, Resilience & Cancer
29:20 Health, Sleep & Longevity
30:25 Signal or Noise?
32:20 Three Lessons for Every CMO
Best of Frontier CMO: Colin and Samir on the CMO’s Guide to the New Creator Economy
Thursday, July 23, 2026 • Duration 40:25
In today’s creator economy, the audience is in charge. Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry explain what this means for CMOs trying to build brands people actually chose to spend time with, not just marketing they scroll past.
Back by popular demand, this Frontier CMO conversation unpacks the creator landscape and why attention without connection is a dead end. Whether you’re building a creator strategy for the first time or rethinking how your brand shows up online, this episode offers a practical playbook for building lasting creator partnerships, earning audience trust, and staying ahead of where marketing is going.
🔔 Subscribe for more insights from marketing's frontier: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3qH-T0AZE7DJPq-x2ppu2Jq
💡 What you'll learn in this episode:
Why brands must stop acting like "bad party guests" and start adding real value to creator narratives
How to transition your brand from a background logo to an active "character" in a creator’s universe.
How to look past superficial views and vanity metrics to measure genuine audience trust and brand ROI.
Why modern creator content looks more like high-production television, community-building, and culture than traditional social media.
🔗 Resources & Links:
Connect with Josh Spanier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-spanier-4576b5/
Subscribe to the Frontier CMO newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/frontier-cmo-7414735485358788608/
#FrontierCMO #CreatorEconomy #MarketingStrategy #ColinAndSamir #CMO
Lightning in a Can: Liquid Death’s Killer Creative
Thursday, July 9, 2026 • Duration 39:30
What does it take to “win the internet for a day”?
What happens when a billion-dollar beverage company throws out the traditional marketing playbook and rises to the top without a brand book, ad agencies or creative briefs?
Recorded live at Cannes Lions 2026, Frontier CMO host Josh Spanier joins Liquid Death’s Chief Media & Digital Commerce Officer Benoit Vatere for a refreshing conversation on the ‘method behind the madness’ of one of the most talked-about brands in marketing.
From its outrageous creativity of “doing the unexpected” to its masterclass ability of turning awareness into sales, Benoit cracks open the can on how Liquid Death built a category-defining brand and why the company – less than a decade in, is only just getting started.
00:00 Liquid Death's Marketing Playbook
02:30 Why the Best Ideas Start Dumb
05:00 No Briefs. No Agencies. Just Comedy.
08:00 How Viral Campaigns Are Created
11:10 Winning the Internet vs. Driving Sales
15:10 Building a Billion-Dollar Challenger Brand
19:00 Why Liquid Death Has No Brand Guidelines
22:15 The Metrics That Actually Matter
27:00 Marketing Lessons Any Brand Can Use
28:15 Why AI Can't Replace Great Creativity
34:00 The Future of Digital Commerce
37:35 Three Takeaways for Every CMO
In the Driver’s Seat: McLaren’s Race to the Top
Thursday, June 25, 2026 • Duration 25:32
What do CMOs and Formula One champions have in common?
They're expected to perform under pressure, make split-second decisions, and keep showing up when the odds aren't in their favor.
Recorded live at Cannes Lions 2026, Frontier CMO host Josh Spanier sits down with McLaren Chief Marketing Officer Louise McEwen and Formula One World Champion Lando Norris to explore how they're winning on and off the racetrack.
In a world where most Formula One fans will never attend a race, they reveal how McLaren creates connections beyond race day and builds a brand that performs 365 days a year.
Buckle up. This is McLaren's race to the top.
00:00:00 — Introduction & The Elite World Champion Group
00:01:00 — F1 Meets Cannes: Why McLaren Focuses on Creativity
00:02:20 — The Quest to the Front: How Putting Fans First Saved McLaren
00:04:30 — Taking Creative Risks: The Story of the Gulf Livery
00:05:15 — The "Drive to Survive" Effect & Media Value
00:06:45 — Engaging the 99%: Live Fan Events from London to Miami
00:08:35 — Brand vs. Athlete: Balancing Team Identity with Star Drivers
00:09:35 — Marketing the Narrative When the Team Isn't Winning
00:11:45 — The Rise of Female Fandom & High-Fashion Collabs
00:13:00 — Choosing the Right Global Partners & Activating Tech
00:14:05 — Making History: Lou McEwen’s Podium Moment
00:15:35 — Lando Norris Joins the Show: Life as the Face of McLaren
00:16:35 — Sinking In: "I'm Freaking World Champion"
00:19:30 — Developing the Mental Resilience to Handle Tough Moments
00:21:10 — Naps & Twitch: Lando's Unconventional Pre-Race Routine
00:22:00 — Rapid Fire Game: Signal or Noise?
00:23:10 — Summary & Field Notes: 3 Takeaways for Frontier CMOs
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