CMOs Aren’t Stuck on Strategy. They’re Stuck on Decisions.
The Problem CMOs aren’t confused about what marketing should do. They’re stuck on something harder: what to decide right now, with incomplete information and real pressure to move. That’s a different problem — and if you’re an agency showing up with answers to the first question, you’re missing the conversation entirely. The Signal Across my interviews with CMOs, three decisions kept surfacing unprompted. Not as strategic debates, but as live, unresolved friction. Build vs. Partner CMOs with lean teams and PE-backed urgency aren’t asking whether to use agencies. They’re asking what to protect internally versus what to hand off without losing the muscle. The word that came up again and again: speed. Not quality. Not cost. Speed. An agency that can’t articulate how it accelerates results — not just delivers them — is invisible in this conversation. Bets by Market This one is more complex than “localize the creative.” CMOs are trying to figure out how to build an organization that absorbs market-by-market variability without constantly reinventing itself. For a fantasy sports app, variability is compliance-driven — state by state. For a global consumer social platform, it’s safety and culture. The mechanics are different, but the underlying question is the same: do we build one scalable play or multiple? And how do we stay coherent while doing it? AI Meaning Here’s where it gets interesting. CMOs aren’t just choosing tools. They’re deciding what AI is for their company — a productivity layer, a strategic bet, a channel disruptor, or a trust liability. A security company selling deepfake detection sees AI as a category definition problem. A media brand sees it reshaping the traffic economics they’ve relied on for years. When a client says “we want to use AI,” that sentence contains almost no information. The real question underneath it is the one worth asking. Why It Matters These three decisions share a common structure: the CMO knows something has to happen, doesn’t have complete information, and still has to move. That’s not a strategy problem. That’s a decision-under-uncertainty problem. And it changes what an agency should be offering. The Mistake Most Teams Make Walking in with solutions before understanding which decision the client is actually stuck on. Most agencies pitch to the stated problem. But the stated problem is almost never the real one. “We need a new campaign” often means “I’m under pressure to show results and I don’t know which channel to bet on.” “We want to use AI” often means “I need to look ahead without breaking what’s working.” Pitching to the surface locks you into a vendor position. Engaging with the underlying decision is how you get a seat at the table. The Smarter Move Before your next new business or renewal conversation, identify which of these three decisions your client is actually sitting in. Then ask what’s making it hard to decide, not what they need delivered. That question alone will separate you from most agencies in the room. Most are waiting for a brief. You’re showing up as someone who helps them decide. How to Use This The next time a client mentions speed pressure, market complexity, or AI uncertainty, resist the move to solutions. Ask what decision they’re stuck on, and stay there longer than feels comfortable. Signals aren’t permission to pitch. They’re guidance on how to show up with something worth hearing. These patterns come from ongoing CMO and brand leader conversations we share each month with NextBigWin Pro members. If you’d like access to the full briefings, you can learn more here.
Josh Churnick’s Eclectic Path to Practical Marketing Leadership
Executive: Josh Churnick, Chief Marketing OfficerCompany: Vertex Service PartnersIndustry: Residential exterior home services (roofing-led, multi-brand platform)Company Snapshot: A platform of regional brands supported by shared servicesFormat: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Josh Churnick didn’t take a straight line into the CMO seat. His path runs through very different worlds, and it shaped a leadership style that’s both creative and deeply practical. He talks about marketing as a craft you can measure—because the customer always tells you what’s working. And for agencies, his viewpoint is refreshingly direct: he’s clear on what earns trust, what breaks it, and what a real partnership actually requires. Their Path, in Short Josh describes his career as “eclectic” until he found the lane that fit. Early on, he wasn’t trying to become a “home services marketing guy.” He was trying to become a better marketer—period—by learning different categories and different ways customers make decisions. One of his earliest chapters forced him to learn the basics in a hands-on way. After high school, he built a digital platform for independent music artists. The idea was simple: give artists a place to create profiles, share show dates, and grow an audience. He partnered with Billboard magazine and worked around performance venues connected to that ecosystem. It wasn’t a neat corporate role with a neat job description. It was the messy kind of work where you learn what people care about because you have to earn attention. From there, he moved through a mix of industries—entertainment, consumer packaged goods, restaurant groups, and insurance—building a broader sense of what makes marketing click. Over time, he noticed he was drawn to roles where the feedback loop was clear. He liked being able to set up tracking, run a campaign, and see the results plainly—“in black and white”—instead of having performance judged by taste or office politics. That preference eventually led him into home services, where response can be direct and attribution can be tight if it’s set up correctly. For Josh, that environment made marketing feel honest. If something works, you see it. If it doesn’t, you see that too. And that’s where his voice as a leader sharpened: do the creative work, yes—but let reality decide. Big Themes From the Conversation Josh sees marketing as the bridge between what a company offers and what a customer needs. When marketing is great, it doesn’t just “look good.” It communicates value in a way a consumer understands and acts on. That’s why he keeps circling back to the balance of art and science. Creative matters. Messaging matters. But he doesn’t treat creative like a mystery that can’t be tested. He talks about trying things, comparing performance, and learning through outcomes. The goal isn’t to win an internal argument about what’s best. The goal is to find what customers respond to. A mentor’s advice helped lock in that mindset: don’t worry about what you like—worry about what works. Josh repeats that because it’s a trap he’s seen again and again. Teams fall in love with their own ideas. They chase the “cool factor.” And then they confuse their preferences with the customer’s reality. He also talks about personal growth in a way that feels honest. Earlier in his career, he admits he cared too much about how “cool” the brand seemed. Over time, that changed. Now he defines success by impact: if marketing helps the business run better, helps the teams downstream perform, and supports the people doing the work, then marketing is doing its job. Even when he touches on technology like AI, he frames it as exactly what it is: a tool. Useful, powerful, worth exploring—but not a replacement for judgment. In his view, marketing still needs people to guide it because marketing is still aimed at people. Watch CMO Journeys Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked Josh what makes an agency relationship work, he didn’t start with awards or big names. He started with behavior—and he didn’t point the finger only at agencies. His philosophy is that agencies are extensions of a marketing team. That means partnership has to be real, not performative. And the first test of “real” is transparency. If an agency is expected to drive leads, then the client has to share what happens to those leads. Without that, the agency is flying blind. Josh’s clearest example is disposition data—what happens after the lead comes in. Did the lead convert? Did it not convert? What were the common reasons? If the client withholds that information, then optimization becomes guesswork. In his view, that’s a fast way to create frustration on both sides: the agency can’t improve what it can’t see, and the client can’t get better results from a partner it refuses to equip. He also has a sharp definition of credibility: outcomes. In home services, he says, attribution can be very clear when tracking is built correctly. That means performance can’t hide behind pretty reporting. Results show up—or they don’t. So when agencies talk about expertise, Josh listens, but he ultimately checks whether the work drives measurable impact. That’s why he’s cautious about “category claims.” Some agencies say they know home services, but when you look closer, their experience is thin or short-lived. Josh doesn’t say agencies can’t learn. He’s saying the learning curve can be expensive if the client becomes the training ground. At the same time, he doesn’t want partners who only know one world. Josh credits his own mixed background with giving him ideas he can apply in new places. He values a partner with range—someone who can bring in outside lessons without losing respect for the category’s realities. But range alone isn’t enough. He’s wary of agencies that feel “all over the place,” because they may not understand the mechanics that matter in a performance-heavy environment. The best partners, in his telling, combine real proof with real curiosity: they show they understand the category, and they show they’re still
How Sarah Cascone Leads With Clarity Under Pressure
Executive: Sarah Cascone, Chief Marketing OfficerCompany: Appriss RetailIndustry: Retail technology (returns, fraud, profit protection)Company Snapshot: Helps large retailers reduce fraud, manage returns, and protect profit across in-store and online channels.Format: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Sarah Cascone didn’t plan on a marketing career—and that’s why her perspective feels grounded. She learned marketing through live rooms and real conversations, then carried those lessons into SaaS and enterprise retail tech. Now, as the first CMO at Appriss Retail, she’s clear about what earns trust and what wastes time—especially with agencies. Their Path, in Short Sarah grew up in Brooklyn and studied psychology in college. She once thought she’d become a criminal psychologist, but chose a different path because that work felt too depressing day to day. Instead, she poured herself into events and conferences. At Worldwide Business Research, she learned how to plan and execute a conference from the ground up—connecting messaging, experience, and audience. Then she moved into SaaS and joined Bluecore in its early days. Over time, she expanded her scope from events into PR, content, design, demand gen, and product marketing—until she was running the full marketing function. That shift was defining: marketing couldn’t be separate activities. It had to operate as one engine, embedded with sales and customer success, with shared goals and accountability. Now she’s applying those lessons at Appriss Retail in a more complex enterprise context. Big Themes From the Conversation Sarah has a simple belief about speed: “Speed forces clarity.” Under revenue pressure, she said, you don’t have time for confusion or “politeness theater.” Direct communication becomes an efficiency strategy—clear feedback, tough conversations, fast decisions. Her events background still shapes her filter for what works. Events taught her pattern recognition—what lands, what doesn’t, and why. But they also anchored her in something more basic: everyone is selling to a human being. Being memorable, real, and trustworthy isn’t extra. It’s the foundation. And she uses a blunt test: if your message doesn’t work in a live conversation, it won’t work in a campaign. She’s also decisive about “no.” She pushes back on brand-versus-demand debates because she sees them as a false binary. She says no to work that doesn’t move pipeline, accelerate it, or expand it—and she says no to shiny objects without a clear business case. Watch CMO Journeys Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked Sarah what gets her attention from an agency, she didn’t talk about a portfolio. She talked about a point of view. She wants agencies to lead with perspective and evidence that they understand her business model. She said she gets too many pitches built for SMB or mid-market motions, even though she operates in enterprise. That tells her the agency didn’t do the work—and it signals a lack of respect for her time. That same respect-for-time lens shapes who should be approached first. Sarah’s view: It depends on the size of the problem and how tactical it is. If an agency is pitching something that clearly sits with someone else on her team, going straight to the CMO can feel misaligned. But if the problem is truly significant, then it makes sense to reach higher. Match your ask to the scale of impact. What separates great partners from the ones that struggle? Sarah said great agencies become an extension of her team—comfortable embedding not only with marketing, but with the broader org, and even working across leaders like the CRO and CPO. They understand strategy deeply, and the work reflects it. Most importantly, they reduce her cognitive load. They don’t create more decisions. They remove them. She described her marketing team as two pillars: product marketing, which tells the story in market (including content and thought leadership), and growth marketing, which distributes it (including outbound and events). And then there’s her favorite way to build credibility: executive conversation. Sarah described creating owned community moments for VPs and above—behind-closed-door strategy discussions that include customers and prospects, plus subject matter experts outside her company. The goal is to keep a real conversation going between major industry events, so the next step isn’t always “take a sales meeting.” It’s: add value without obligation, and earn the right to go deeper. She also chooses partners with intent. She works with a content agency, StoryArb, because they’re strong at editorial, subject-matter-expert-driven playbooks and newsletters—“the kind of content people actually want to read.” She also works with a retail-focused PR agency to extend the story through press releases, bylines, commentary, awards, and interviews. Agencies can learn from her community approach. Curated roundtables can build trust in a way cold outreach often can’t. That’s also why Next Big Win runs an Executive Access Program—executive roundtables designed to help agencies and partners build relationships with senior leaders through candid, small-group conversations. Learn more here. What Stood Out Sarah’s mix of intensity and self-awareness is striking. She talked about what it feels like to “shoulder an entire function,” and how that requires a personal operating rhythm that’s sustainable. She also named a hard unlearning: assuming she knows better than the person in front of her. That openness—paired with her speed—is a rare combination, and it says a lot about how she leads. Inside Scoop This article focuses on the journey, the leadership philosophy, and how this CMO works with agency partners. To access the exclusive analysis, including priorities, initiatives, and opportunities, become a NextBigWin Pro member.
Scaling Business Development Beyond the Agency Founder
At most agencies, “scaling BD” looks like this: the founder hires a Head of Business Development, hands them a vague mandate to build pipeline, and hopes the problem goes away. Six months later, the pipeline is thin, close rates are bad, the founder is back in every deal, and the hire is gone. I’ve watched this happen across countless agencies I’ve advised, and I’ve done it myself. The instinct to find one person who can take over BD makes sense on paper. But it almost never works, because the problem isn’t the hire. It’s that you’re trying to outsource something you haven’t even broken apart yet. The Founder Is Wearing Five Hats When a founder says they “do business development,” what they really mean is they’re doing five or six jobs at once under one label. They’re working events. They’re posting on LinkedIn and sending the newsletter. They’re keeping up with referral partners. They’re running discovery calls and writing proposals. They’re upselling existing clients. It works because the founder is scrappy and has good instincts, but it’s held together with scotch tape and none of it is getting more than 20% of the attention it needs. You can’t just hand that to someone. The job as it exists today is five jobs. Nobody you hire is going to seamlessly bounce between brand-building, partnerships, prospecting, sales, and account expansion the way a founder does. So the founder’s real job isn’t to find a replacement. It’s to take the work apart. The Five BD Functions After spending years talking to agency founders, fractional BD consultants, and sales leaders, and going through our own experience at Barrel Holdings, I’ve started thinking about agency BD as five separate functions: Marketing and Awareness is the long game. Content, LinkedIn, newsletters, conferences, webinars. All the stuff that keeps you top of mind so when a prospect has a need, they think of you. Some of this may stay with the founder for a while, especially thought leadership. Partnerships is about cultivating referral relationships with other agencies, consultants, and platform ecosystems. It’s relationship management, not sales. It has its own rhythm that includes check-ins, co-marketing, and mutual referral loops. From my BD observations, this kept coming up as the thing that moves the needle most, especially when your agency’s tight positioning makes it easy for partners to send opportunities your way. Outbound is cold email, LinkedIn outreach, direct mail. A targeting-and-volume discipline that needs its own process, its own lists, and constant iteration on messaging. It requires a special set of skills and it’s bound to struggle when you lump it together with inbound. We’ve experienced this firsthand and it’s something I heard over and over from experienced BD folks: split inbound and outbound, even if one is just a part-time role. The Sales Process covers everything that happens once a real opportunity shows up — discovery calls, framing the problem, scoping the engagement, building the proposal, negotiating, and getting to a signed contract. For most founders, this is where their credibility and trust matter most, which is why they’re so reluctant to let go. But the sales process isn’t one monolithic job. Qualification alone could be its own role — someone managing inbound referrals, running the initial discovery, researching the prospect, and determining fit before the broader team gets activated. Scoping might pull in a solutions consultant or subject matter experts from across the agency. The proposal itself can be a team effort. The founder doesn’t need to own every step; they just need to show up at the moments where their presence tips the deal. Account Growth is upsells, cross-sells, and expanding existing client relationships. This is probably the best ROI BD activity and the one most agencies often overlook. You already have the trust. The question is whether you’ve actually designed what comes next after the initial project. Get the Sequencing Right Most founders get the order wrong. They want to hand off outbound first because it feels like the grind. But outbound without positioning, proof points, and case studies just doesn’t land. Here’s the order that’s worked for us and for the agencies I’ve talked to: Start with Account Growth. You already have people in client relationships such as account managers and project managers. Make account expansion part of their job description. Design the path after the core project. Give them ownership and variable comp for growing accounts. You’re monetizing relationships you’ve already earned. Then Partnerships. Investing in a dedicated partnerships lead who knows the ecosystems your agency plays in can really pay off. While you may not get opportunities right away, monitor the inputs (co-marketing, sending opportunities to other partners) and let the relationships take root. Then Marketing Execution. Hire someone to own the content calendar, post consistently, manage the newsletter, keep the website updated. The founder still brings the ideas and the point of view, but the week-to-week execution is off their plate. This is what builds the top-of-funnel engine that feeds everything else. Encourage other qualified members of the team to contribute and develop an authoritative voice as well. Then Outbound. Only once you have the positioning, the case studies, and the proof points that give cold outreach some teeth. You might invest in a GTM engineer or work with an outbound specialist agency. The sales process comes off the founder’s plate last. It’s what they’re best at and what’s hardest to transfer. But remember, you don’t have to hand off the whole thing at once. Start by peeling off qualification and scoping to people on your team. Let an account exec handle the early stages while the founder weighs in with insights and key appearances to help close. Over time, maybe 80% of opportunities can be run end-to-end by a BD manager, and the founder only steps in for the high-stakes deals where their presence really matters. One thing worth calling out: you’ll be tempted to bundle a few of these functions into one hire.
Winning in AI Search: What Marketers Need to Know Now
AI-driven search is no longer a future trend—it’s already reshaping how brands are discovered, evaluated, and ultimately chosen. In this session, Winning in AI Search, NextBigWin partnered with Crossfill and Tap In Digital, alongside Michele Hsu (VP of Marketing at Cerebro Capital), to break down what’s changing—and what marketers need to do about it. View the full presentation deck The Shift: From Rankings to Recommendations One of the biggest takeaways is simple but important: AI doesn’t rank. It selects. Traditional SEO focused on rankings, clicks, and traffic. But AI-generated answers skip that entire process. Instead of showing a list of links, platforms like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews recommend a small set of brands directly. In many cases, 60–80% of recommendations are concentrated among just three brands. If you’re not included, you’re not just lower—you’re invisible. The New Problem: Invisible Demand AI is creating a layer of demand that most companies can’t see. No impression No click No attribution As highlighted in the session, a user can discover your brand through AI, then visit directly, while your analytics show “Direct” traffic and give AI zero credit. This creates what Tap In Digital calls a “dark demand layer” —influence that exists but isn’t measured. What to Measure Instead The session introduced a new set of metrics that matter in AI-driven discovery: Brand share of voice in AI answers Citation frequency Prompt coverage (where you show up vs. don’t) Competitive inclusion gaps These signals determine whether your brand is even part of the consideration set. From Visibility to Revenue This is where the partnership between Crossfill and Tap In Digital becomes powerful: Crossfill helps companies measure and improve AI visibility by tracking how often brands appear in AI-generated answers and recommendations. Tap In Digital helps connect that visibility to revenue, bringing AI signals into attribution models and media mix frameworks to quantify real business impact. Together, they close the gap between: “Are we showing up?” and “Is this driving growth?” Partner Offers To help teams get started: Crossfill is offering a Free AI Visibility Audit For agencies: 1–2 client accounts For brands: benchmarked vs. top 3 competitors Contact: sales@crossfill.com Tap In Digital is offering an AI Revenue Mapping Sprint Connect AI visibility signals to downstream revenue First 10 attendees receive 50% off Contact: kirk@tapindigital.com The Bottom Line You are already losing share in AI-driven discovery. You just can’t see it yet. The brands that start measuring—and acting—now will be the ones that win.
Ethan Chernofsky and the Value of Staying Uncomfortable
Executive: Ethan Chernofsky, Chief Marketing Officer Company: Placer.ai Industry: Location analytics Company Snapshot: Placer.ai helps brands, retailers, real estate players, and investors understand what is happening in the physical world through location analytics. Format: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Ethan Chernofsky did not build his career in a straight line. His path moved through agency work, public relations, strategy, and then into in-house leadership, where the stakes got bigger and the learning got sharper. That makes his story worth studying because it shows how a marketer can grow by chasing discomfort instead of avoiding it. It also makes his perspective useful for agencies. He has been on both sides of the table. He has pitched. He has been pitched. He knows what feels thoughtful, what feels forgettable, and what makes someone worth calling when the timing changes. Their Path, in Short Chernofsky describes himself as a regular kid from Pennsylvania. He played baseball, did well in school, and grew up with parents who made sure he stayed on track. But what stayed with him most was a fascination with people dynamics. He became interested in how people make decisions and what shapes behavior, which later became a core part of how he thought about marketing. He left home young, spent time in different places, and eventually built his career in Tel Aviv’s tech ecosystem. Once he got into that world, he says, one opportunity kept leading to another. He started on the agency side in public relations, working with companies including Wix, Lightrix, and Lemonade. That work gave him a rare vantage point. He got close to many companies at once and learned by watching how different leaders thought. He could see what strong storytelling looked like, what smart positioning sounded like, and how different businesses approached growth. But over time, he wanted something more. He did not just want to advise from the outside. He wanted to own the work more fully. The move in-house felt intimidating. He says that plainly. It was not just a new title. It was a new way of operating. Agency life had taught him pace and range. In-house life demanded depth, patience, and a willingness to listen. At Similarweb, he says, he had to learn from people who were already doing the work at a high level. Sometimes that meant talking less and absorbing more. That mindset stayed with him. Across each step, he seems to have been drawn less by comfort and more by the chance to stretch. He does not frame growth as a smooth climb. He frames it as entering rooms before you feel fully ready, then learning fast once you are inside. Big Themes From the Conversation One of the clearest themes in the conversation was his relationship with discomfort. Chernofsky says the fear never really goes away, and he does not think it should. To him, that tension is part of growth. If you feel completely settled all the time, you may not be pushing yourself enough. He had a striking take on imposter syndrome. He said he does not see it as a syndrome at all. He sees it as real. Every new challenge asks you to do something before you feel fully qualified to do it. In his mind, that is not a warning sign. It is the cost of getting better. Another theme was curiosity without ego. He says you can learn from everybody, both the people you admire and the people you do not naturally connect with. Some people teach by example. Others teach by showing you what not to do. Either way, he believes there is value in paying attention. He is also wary of simple labels. His view of the “full stack marketer” idea is direct: most people are not great at everything. They are strong in some areas, weaker in others, and always still learning. The important part is being honest about that. Know your strengths. Know your gaps. Keep moving anyway. Running through all of it is a sense of fascination. He talks about being energized by things he does not fully know yet. That may be one of the best clues to how he operates. He does not lead with certainty for the sake of appearances. He leads with curiosity, enthusiasm, and a willingness to test ideas in public. Watch CMO Journeys Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked how he thinks about outside partners, his answer was balanced. His natural instinct leans internal. He likes having people close to the brand, living it every day. But he also sees the value of agencies when the match is right. The way he explains it is simple. Internal people bring depth. Agencies bring range. One person may know the business inside and out. An agency can bring multiple perspectives, more category exposure, and lessons from other companies and markets. So the question is not whether one model is better than the other. It is where the value shows up for the work that needs to be done. He used PR as a strong example. Placer.ai has worked with an external agency for years, and he pointed to the benefits clearly. The agency brings a broader market view and experience across multiple interests. But he also pushed back on the idea that bigger always means better. In that case, they did not want the largest shop. They wanted the right one. That idea shaped how he evaluates agencies more broadly. He thinks too many companies ask who did great work for someone else and treat that as enough. He believes the better question is whose model fits what you actually need. Sometimes that is a boutique agency. Sometimes it is a much bigger team. Size does not prove fit. Alignment does. He was just as clear about what gets his attention. Multi-channel outreach can work, he said, but only if the message is strong. Generic outreach does not land. Volume
How Adriana Gil Miner Leads Through Discomfort and Change
Executive: Adriana Gil Miner, Chief Marketing OfficerCompany: PindropIndustry: Digital communications security (fraud, deepfakes, authentication)Company Snapshot: Enterprise platform helping detect deepfakes, prevent fraud, and restore trust across contact centers and virtual meetingsFormat: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Adriana Gil Miner is the kind of marketer who runs toward uncertainty. She’s Chief Marketing Officer at Pindrop, working on a trust problem: when voice and video can be faked, how do people know what’s real? Her story is worth studying because she blends the discipline of data-driven marketing with the power of storytelling. For agencies, she offers a practical view from both sides of the table. Their Path, in Short Gil Miner breaks her career into chapters. The first was early digital marketing, when e-commerce was maturing and measurement was still catching up. At Digitas, she worked with American Express and took over an affiliate program that became the company’s number one acquisition channel. That work also pulled her into product problems — moving communications from old systems into digital. The second chapter was a pivot into brand and storytelling. As user-generated content began to reshape how information spread, she moved to Weber Shandwick and learned what she calls the “incredible power of storytelling.” One client she supported during that period was Tableau. Later, she joined the company and focused on brand building and community — work that also tied into Tableau’s data storytelling and data journalism efforts. Her current chapter merges those worlds: the science of technology and the human craft of narrative, applied in high-growth environments where change is constant. Watch CMO Journeys Interview Big Themes From the Conversation She treats discomfort as proof of growth. Every leap, she says, makes her uncomfortable, and if she isn’t uncomfortable, she isn’t growing. So she builds a career (and a team) around learning fast. She also lives by advice from former Tableau CMO Elisa Fink: “people are the plan.” To Adriana Gil Miner, marketing isn’t a set of tactics. It’s what capable people can build together, especially when the tools and the market keep moving. Pindrop’s Story Pindrop’s work starts with a hard truth: it’s getting harder to trust what you hear and see. Gil Miner says deepfakes aren’t just celebrity headlines. It can take seconds of someone’s voice to generate a convincing fake, and video is getting harder to verify, too. When voice and video can be copied, the usual identity checks stop working. Fraudsters impersonate customers and call retailers to push through refunds — “$20, $30 at a time” — then scale it with bots. It’s not a niche problem: Pindrop’s 2025 Voice Intelligence and Security Report notes retail fraud surged +107% from 2023 to 2024 (reaching 0.79% of calls as confirmed fraud), and the team forecasts it could climb to 1 in every 56 calls. Or they impersonate a family member and drain bank accounts — another channel where phone-based attacks keep rising, with fraud at U.S. banks occurring in 1 out of every 650 calls and up +61% cumulatively since 2020. That pattern is why Pindrop’s work has started showing up in public-facing moments, not just behind-the-scenes security stacks. In this Al Jazeera segment, CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan breaks down how quickly deepfakes are getting cheaper and more convincing — and why humans are already bad at spotting them. It’s a useful lens on the same trust problem Gil Miner is focused on: when a fake voice can trigger real-world outcomes (from stolen refunds to election misdirection), the “verify first” mindset stops being a nice-to-have and becomes table stakes. How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When she stepped into the CMO role, she says the priority was to “get the message out about the problem.” This is white space — there aren’t “deepfake budgets,” and buyers don’t always have language for what they’re facing. So her job is to “sell the problem” first, because the public needs to understand that “you and I are at risk.” Of course, awareness isn’t the only scoreboard. Leaders still want pipeline, and they still ask for predictability. Her answer is a three-part go-to-market “stool.” One leg is awareness. She talks about showing up inside communities and social channels, plus channels like podcasts and out-of-home that build word of mouth. The second leg is direct pipeline: a strong ABM program that blends outbound SDR work with LinkedIn and digital performance. She adds a line that feels like her whole philosophy: digital is “more like a cat.” When someone is interested, you can catch it. To create momentum, she leans into events because events put “people in front of people.” The third leg is partners. Pindrop is “very partner-heavy,” she says, embedded in platforms like Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft Teams. For her, partners aren’t a checkbox. They expand distribution and selling routes, and she describes increased investment in marketing and selling with them. That operating model shapes how she works with agencies. Internally, her team is lean — about 20 people — organized into brand and community (plus customer marketing), product marketing, and a demand-gen engine that includes integrated campaigns, martech, and events. She’s also restructuring for an AI world, with an initiative to “democratize creative,” where everyone in marketing is expected to be their own writer and designer, supported by tools and training. Externally, she uses agencies, consultants, and fractional talent. She says an outside view helps organizations move faster. But she’s clear about where agency value is going. AI can replace a lot of production, she says. Execution isn’t the differentiator. The differentiator is strategy, clear goals, and the ability to guide transformation — helping teams adapt when old habits break, and when messy realities like legacy data get in the way. So what makes an agency stand out? Understanding. She says her inbox is packed with outreach, and most of it sounds the same. The agencies that win “deeply understand you.” They do real research, bring intelligence, and teach her something. What falls
The Best Agency Opportunities Don’t Start With an RFP
Stop Waiting for RFPs. You’re Already Too Late. Problem / Context Most agencies treat RFPs as a golden opportunity. They’re not. They’re a lagging indicator. By the time an RFP is released, the real work—the thinking, the conversations, the shortlisting—has already happened. The data backs this up. The 6sense B2B Buyer Experience Report found that buyers are nearly 70% through their purchasing process before engaging with sellers. So if your strategy is to wait for the RFP, you’re stepping in after the decisions are already set. The Signal Mergers and acquisitions. Not all of them, but the right ones. When two companies merge, expand into a new market, or combine under one brand, something breaks. The story no longer fits. That’s when marketing becomes urgent. This is especially relevant for: Brand and creative agencies PR and communications firms Digital and web agencies Demand generation and media teams Strategy and positioning consultancies You’ll see the signal show up in: Press releases about “strategic combinations” Leadership interviews explaining the future vision Early messaging changes on the website New marketing or brand roles opening up Across executive conversations, this is often where the real work starts—long before any formal search begins. Why It Matters M&A creates moments where companies are forced to rethink how they show up. A bank merger leads to a rebrand.A SaaS acquisition creates a new product story.A private equity roll-up demands faster growth. These aren’t small tweaks. They’re identity changes. And identity changes create work across brand, messaging, digital experience, and demand generation. But that work doesn’t start with an RFP. It starts with internal alignment and early external conversations with people who understand what they’re going through. The Mistake Most Teams Make They ignore this signal entirely. They wait for the RFP. Or they treat all M&A the same, without understanding which ones actually create marketing need. A small acqui-hire? Probably nothing.A distressed acquisition? Likely cost-cutting, not spending.An internal restructuring? No urgency. But a rebrand-driven merger, a market expansion, or a private equity roll-up? That’s where real opportunity exists. Most teams don’t make that distinction. So they either miss the moment—or show up too late, when the direction is already set. The Smarter Move Use M&A as a filter, not a trigger. Focus on the types of deals that change: The brand The market The growth expectations Then step back and ask: What just became unclear for this company?What are they now trying to explain to the market?Where will they struggle to align internally? That’s where you can add value. AI can help you spot these moments faster. But it can’t tell you which ones actually matter. That’s judgment. How to Use This When you see the right type of M&A, don’t treat it like a lead. Treat it like context. This is a company entering a period of change. Your role isn’t to jump into a process. It’s to show up early with perspective. That might look like: Sharing a point of view on how similar companies handled a rebrand Offering insight into common messaging mistakes post-acquisition Engaging with how leadership is talking about the transition The goal isn’t to win an RFP. It’s to be one of the few firms they already trust when that RFP gets written (or impress them so much they bypass the RFP process altogether).
Jeff Cato’s Practical Blueprint for Leading a Modern Brand
Executive: Jeff CatoCompany: JascoIndustry: Consumer electronics and connected homeCompany Snapshot: Jasco sells lighting, automation, and home technology products through retail and e-commerce channels.Format: CMO Journeys Interview Why It Matters Jeff Cato’s path to CMO was not straight. He moved through sales, operations, e-commerce, and digital, picking up a wider view of how a business actually works. That is what makes his story worth studying. He does not talk about marketing like a department. He talks about it like a living part of the company. That is also why agencies should pay attention. Cato’s view of partnership is practical, clear-eyed, and rooted in how people solve problems together. He is not looking for noise. He is looking for understanding. Their Path, in Short Cato started in sales, and that foundation still shows. He learned early that business moves through people. You have to understand what matters to them, what problem they are trying to solve, and how to meet them where they are. The tools have changed, but that basic truth has not. As his career grew, so did the scope of his work. He moved from sales into roles that mixed sales, marketing, and operations. At Jasco, his work expanded further into e-commerce and digital marketing. That broader exposure helped him see the full customer journey more clearly. It also helped him understand himself. Over time, he became more aware of where he was strongest and what kind of work energized him most. One major turning point came when he stepped into a COO role at a telecom company. It stretched him hard. He was dealing with IT, finance, operations, and large partner agreements that could affect the business in major ways. He described feeling like a fish out of water. But that discomfort became useful. It forced him to learn faster, rely on experts around him, and accept that leadership is not about having every answer yourself. Another important chapter came when he helped build a new cloud backup division. It had the feel of a startup inside a larger business. That meant building from scratch, moving quickly, testing ideas, and staying flexible when things did not go as planned. It taught him to be hands-on. It also taught him patience. Growth may sound exciting from the outside, but on the inside it usually looks like trial, error, and steady adjustment. Through all of it, his path seems to have sharpened rather than narrowed him. Each stop added another layer. Sales taught him connection. Operations taught him discipline. Digital taught him speed. Leadership taught him that the best work is never done alone. Big Themes From the Conversation One big theme is curiosity. Cato’s career was not built by staying inside one lane. He kept stepping into new territory, learning new parts of the business, and getting more comfortable with complexity. That kind of curiosity does not just build experience. It builds range. Another theme is humility. He speaks openly about moments when he felt stretched or unsure. That matters, because it shows how he leads. He does not pretend expertise where he does not have it. He leans on smart people. He listens. He learns. That is not weakness. That is maturity. There is also a strong bias toward action in the way he talks. Especially in the more entrepreneurial chapter of his career, the rhythm was clear: try, learn, adjust, repeat. No drama. No over-polishing. Just motion. You can hear how much that shaped his mindset. And then there is structure. He values clarity. He values alignment. He wants teams speaking the same language and working from the same goals. Even in the way he talks about his own routine, you get the sense that discipline helps him stay grounded and lead with a clearer head. Watch CMO Journeys Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked him how he chooses agency partners, he answered like someone who has seen both the good version and the bad one. He is very clear that agencies can play an important role. At Jasco, he pointed to areas like paid social and PR as places where outside expertise can be especially useful. That is partly about specialization, and partly about bandwidth. Internal teams can only carry so much. A strong partner can add skills, speed, and flexibility. But he is not interested in agencies that just execute and disappear. What he values most is proactiveness. He wants a partner who works within the goals they agreed on, watches what is happening, and brings ideas forward without being asked. If something is off, he wants them to say it. If something can be better, he wants them to come with a recommendation. To him, that is what makes a partner feel like a partner. He also pays close attention to how agencies show up in the first place. A first meeting matters. If an agency jumps straight into a pitch without spending real time trying to understand the business, that is a problem. He wants questions. He wants curiosity. He wants transparency about strengths and limitations. In other words, he wants the beginning of a relationship, not the start of a performance. One story made this especially clear. While exploring a CTV partner, he compared different agency approaches. One asked thoughtful questions and worked to understand the business. Another led with the deck. The difference was easy to spot. So was the signal. For Cato, real credibility starts with listening. He also does not think every agency decision works the same way. In PR, category knowledge stood out to him. Knowing the smart home space mattered. In paid media, a broader full-service capability could make sense. His point was simple: fit depends on the problem. He sees AI through that same practical lens. Big claims do not impress him on their own. What matters is whether a partner can connect the technology to the actual business challenge. If they can explain
How Agencies Should Use Conferences for Business Development
Marketing conferences have long competed on scale: bigger expo halls, bigger stages, and bigger attendance numbers. But according to Christian Muche, founder of POSSIBLE and co-founder of DMEXCO, that model is changing quickly. In a conversation with NextBigWin, Muche shared how he believes agencies should approach conferences as a business development channel, and why the most valuable resource events compete for today isn’t budget, but time. “The most valuable thing is asking for people’s time, not their budget,” Muche says. As companies become more selective about how they spend both time and money, conferences are increasingly expected to deliver something far more tangible than exposure or networking — they must help drive real business outcomes. From Trade Shows to Curated Experiences Marketing conferences didn’t always look the way they do today. In the early days of the digital marketing industry, events were largely large-scale trade shows built around exhibitor floors and massive attendance. Companies built booths, scanned badges, and hoped to capture leads from thousands of attendees walking the expo floor. Muche experienced that model firsthand while building DMEXCO. “When we launched DMEXCO, it was designed as a trade show… a mass event, 60,000 people at the peak time,” he says. But attendees’ expectations have changed significantly. Executives today expect events to deliver more curated experiences, targeted conversations, and a better return on the time they invest in attending them. “Today the expectations are far higher,” Muche says. Instead of simply gathering thousands of people in a convention center, modern events increasingly focus on smaller sessions, curated meetings, and more structured opportunities for interaction. The Three Jobs Conferences Serve Today For agencies and brands, conferences now serve three distinct purposes. First, they provide content and inspiration through speakers, panels, and industry insights. Second, they create opportunities for networking and relationship building. And third, increasingly, they generate business opportunities. “Content and inspiration… networking… and the third part is business opportunities,” Muche says. That third category is becoming more important as companies scrutinize the return on their event investments. As companies become more selective about where they spend their time and budgets, events are increasingly expected to generate tangible outcomes, from partnerships and collaborations to new business opportunities. Designing Conferences Around Business Opportunities That shift toward business outcomes influenced how Muche designed POSSIBLE. Launched in Miami in 2023, the conference was designed to combine inspiration, networking, and structured business interactions in one environment. Rather than simply hosting keynote sessions, Muche wanted POSSIBLE to actively facilitate business connections between brands, agencies, and technology partners. One of the ways the event does that is through curated meeting programs designed to connect agencies, vendors, and brand marketers. “We organize up to 3,000 meetings in this space on the beach over three days,” Muche says. These types of structured meetings are becoming increasingly common across the events industry as organizers try to deliver measurable value to attendees rather than simply providing networking opportunities. For agencies, that shift turns conferences from marketing moments into potential business development engines. Why Showing Up Isn’t Enough Despite the growing focus on outcomes, many companies still approach conferences the wrong way. One of the most common mistakes Muche sees is companies showing up without a clear strategy for how they’ll use the event. “You cannot just show up and say I’m looking forward to letting people stop by,” he says. Instead, the companies that generate the most value from conferences treat them like structured business development opportunities. “As soon as the door opens, you have to set up your meetings,” Muche says. That preparation often begins weeks or months before the event. Successful companies schedule meetings in advance, plan client gatherings, and coordinate internal teams so they can capture insights from sessions while others focus on networking or meetings. For agencies, that preparation can be the difference between leaving an event with a few new business conversations or leaving with nothing more than a stack of business cards. Why Agencies Need to Be Where Their Clients Are For agencies specifically, conferences often serve to strengthen relationships with existing clients while also meeting potential new clients. Muche points out that events like POSSIBLE attract a significant number of brand-side marketing leaders. “Agencies have to follow where the clients are,” he says. With roughly a third of attendees representing brand marketers, conferences can offer agencies direct access to the people responsible for major marketing decisions. That proximity can make events one of the most efficient ways for agencies to stay connected to their clients while also building new relationships. What Smaller Agencies Should Do Not every agency has the budget to sponsor an event or create large activations. But that doesn’t mean smaller firms can’t benefit from attending conferences. “At least show up and bring your team,” Muche says. However, simply attending is often not sufficient. “It’s not enough to come with five people and wait to run into people in the hallway,” he says. Instead, smaller agencies should focus on scheduling meetings in advance, attending targeted sessions aligned with their expertise, and taking advantage of structured networking opportunities offered by event organizers. Even without large sponsorship budgets, conferences can still provide opportunities to build meaningful relationships. The Future of Conferences: Quality Over Scale Looking ahead, Muche believes conferences will continue evolving toward more curated, higher-value experiences. The era of massive industry gatherings built purely around scale may be fading. “I don’t believe in pure mass events anymore,” he says. Instead, he believes the future of conferences lies in delivering higher-quality interactions between the right people. “It’s all about quality,” Muche says. That focus on quality over quantity could shape the next generation of industry events. POSSIBLE returns April 27–29, 2026, in Miami Beach and is expected to bring together thousands of senior marketers, agencies, media leaders, and technology companies from across the industry. More information about the event, including registration details, is available at possibleevent.com. A Fast-Changing Landscape If there’s one