THEO HILDYARD

Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo, wrote “Your mission: influence buyers you can't identify to feel emotions you can't measure about problems they don't know they have.” Fantastic observation with with implications beyond marketing and especially for CEO, CRO and CFO. This blog explores some of those implications

Invisible Shopper & Agentic Commerce is coming. Key issue is trust. Can consumers trust Agents are not bein influenced by brands? Can merchants trust you are who you say you are?

AI led proliferation of start-ups has had a profound the impact on Venture Capital. Venture capitalists are now wading through a flood of "good enough" startups. Identifying true value creation can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. As a result VCs are focusing less on product and even more on the people behind it - with consequences for median investment, desired outcomes and more.

As AI takes over many operational aspect of marketing, what should hands-on operational (get stuff done) marketing leaders focus on?

AI can drive the car. AI can decide the best route to take. But don't let AI decide the destination. Successful marketers understand that AI transforms how marketing gets done, but does not decide what marketing should do. Preserving human creativity and strategic thinking is essential to deciding our destination.

The Challenge with 3rd Party Intent Data I'm not sure that 3rd party intent data and the various AI/ML driven ABM platforms and data sources that currently make a decent living from it are worth the effort and investment. It all looks great on paper, but my experience thus far has been: Sales don't trust it. It is eye-wateringly expensive. It adds very little incremental value over the 1st party intent data we have at our fingertips nowadays. To put it another way, actual eng

Towards the end of 2024 I made a decision to take on a new challenge: Fractional GTM & Marketing Advisory.