Future of Consumer Marketing

Pascal Hanle, Chief Operating Officer of Pets Deli, tells one of the more unusual origin stories in German DTC: a pet food company that went bankrupt, was bought out of insolvency, and was handed to its most tenacious early employee to rebuild from scratch — beginning with Pascal literally sawing frozen meat blocks with a bow saw in the office kitchen to test new suppliers. Now in his 10th year at the company, with 135 FTEs, a warehouse that grew from 3,000 to 11,000 square meters, B2B accounts at Rewe and Edeka, and a target of €100M by 2030, Pascal shares what it actually takes to build durable unit economics, why ownership is the only metric that matters beyond revenue, and why the real sign of a healthy company is whether its CEO can spend two weeks in Egypt without opening a laptop. Topics Discussed How Pascal joined Pets Deli 1, survived the insolvency, and became the first real employee of Pets Deli 2 after an asset deal The rebuild of 2017-2018: completely changed product portfolio, took over supply chain and logistics internally The bow saw moment: sourcing new meat suppliers and sawing frozen meat blocks in the office kitchen to test quality Why the original business model (frozen pet food, outsourced supply chain) had structurally terrible unit economics The core lesson: good margins don't come from economies of scale — they come from meticulous, unglamorous supplier renegotiations The Brexit overstock mistake: overpreparing for supply disruption led to €200-300K of dry food running into best-before dates The vacation health test: two weeks in Egypt, laptop never opened — that's when you know the company is working Current company: 135 FTEs across HQ (65-70), 5 physical stores, and a 45-person warehouse in Frankenberg Warehouse expansion: 3,000 sqm → 11,000 sqm, all logistics now fully in-house B2B growth: Rewe, Edeka as major retail partners; ~1,000 Rewe POS locations; targeting 50%+ B2B revenue growth D2C vs. B2B operational challenge: D2C has predictable repeat behavior for forecasting; B2B is erratic and fast-moving Ownership philosophy: real ownership requires letting people make decisions — even the wrong ones — or ownership dies The 4:30am warehouse story: shift lead showed up independently to recount audit items; now manages half the warehouse From startup to company: the first 20 employees are gone; processes replaced personal relationships; culture requires deliberate maintenance 2030 goal: €100M revenue; expanding German footprint and potentially entering new markets

Cass Zawadowski, Executive Creative Director at Lyft, takes us inside the most significant transformation in Lyft's 14-year history — a year-long rebrand that touched everything from color palette and logo to photography, brand strategy, and brand archetype. She walks through what it actually takes to evolve a beloved brand without losing the soul that made it iconic, how Lyft launched its first major brand campaign post-rebrand targeting young working adults in New York and San Francisco, and how an entire marketing org moved from AI skepticism to daily creative practice through a CMO-led "ground zero" approach. From the three pillars of brand longevity to the tension between cultural creativity and boardroom-measurable impact, this is a rare behind-the-scenes view of creative leadership at one of North America's most recognized consumer platforms. Topics Discussed Lyft as a global mobility platform: rideshare, Citi Bike (NYC), Divvy (Chicago), scooters, and the FreeNow acquisition expanding into Europe Cass's career arc: ad school in Toronto, agency work in Toronto, New York, Germany, and Seoul, then the move to brand-side The year-long Lyft rebrand (2024): "evolution not revolution" — new color palette, logo, photography, and brand strategy Brand purpose: "serve and connect"; value proposition: "expect more from every journey" New brand archetype and the shift from "less mustache to more grown up" Design agency partner: Koto (New York) for visual identity First post-rebrand brand campaign: Q4, young working adults (mid-20s to mid-30s), NYC and SF, "you have options — you're not on autopilot" The three pillars of brand longevity: stable purpose, flexible expression, evolving with culture Levi's as the benchmark example of brand longevity done right Hybrid work structure: Mon/Wed/Thu in office; offices in San Francisco (HQ), New York, Toronto, Montreal, Mexico City, and Europe Toronto as a fast-growing hub — new headquarters opening August 2026 Lyft Urban Solutions (LUST) team in Montreal: bikes and scooters division CMO Brian Irving's org-wide AI adoption: "ground zero, start fresh together" Driver AI tool: input available hours and earning goals → AI generates optimized daily route Creative Studio AI sprint (10-12 weeks, October): brainstorming, rapid prototyping, concept pressure-testing, A/B testing AI tool chaining workflow: Weavy → Figma → Google Docs 2026 goals: brand strength tied to business impact; scaling creative excellence across the entire marketing org

Liz Vanzura has spent her career turning around and launching iconic consumer brands — the New Beetle at Volkswagen, the civilian Hummer, Truly Spiked & Sparkling at Boston Beer, and three-plus years at Fanatics. Now she's CMO of Solo Brands, the platform behind Solo Stove, and she came in as a board member first during a company turnaround. In this episode, Liz shares the national loneliness study that became Solo Stove's core brand insight ('we sell togetherness, not fire pits'), how the Snoop Dogg campaign went viral and what it took to build something that actually sustained, and how 'Squash the Beef' at the Super Bowl Players' Tailgate introduced the new steel fire griddle to a massive audience. She also unpacks Solo Stove's AI roadmap — a media mix model, AI-personalized landing pages, and a digital AI assistant named Ember — and shares the Klarna cautionary tale about what happens when you push AI too far, too fast. Topics Discussed Liz's career arc: CMO at Volkswagen (New Beetle relaunch, 'Drivers Wanted'), Hummer (civilian launch), Cadillac, Boston Beer (Truly Spiked & Sparkling launch), and Fanatics Joining Solo Brands as board member during a turnaround — then staying on as CMO Solo Stove's pivot from 'world's #1 smokeless fire pit' to owning the entire backyard experience: griddle, pizza oven, misting cooler, and more The loneliness epidemic study that became Solo Stove's core brand insight: disconnection, parents texting kids to dinner, and the backyard as the perfect low-cost solution Three standout campaigns: Snoop Dogg 'Going Smokeless,' Grand Central Station National Family Day activation (Good Morning America), and Super Bowl 'Squash the Beef' griddle launch Sister brands in the Solo platform: ORU (inflatable kayaks), Isle (paddleboards), Chubbies (men's apparel), Cheekies (women's swimwear) AI roadmap: media mix model (MMM) with AI, personalized landing pages, and Ember — Solo Stove's AI-powered digital customer assistant The Klarna cautionary tale: what happens when a company replaces customer service with AI agents and has to rehire // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

Rob Kligman is the Chief Revenue Officer of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Inc. and the founder of Collectible Lane — a low-fee, AI-powered collectibles marketplace built to give collectors back control. In this episode, Rob draws on 30 years of advertising and sponsorship experience to break down how he built an authoritative brand voice before the app ever launched, why storytelling and FOMO are the only marketing engines that work in collectibles, and why his 6-to-9-month goal isn't to beat eBay — it's to earn the loyalty of 1% of the market. Topics Discussed Rob's 30-year career in advertising and sponsorship at MTV Networks, WWE, and Fortune 500 brand campaigns The founding insight behind Collectible Lane: inflated prices caused by seller fees pushing buyers to overpay Passion-point lane structure — dedicated ecosystems for trading cards, video games, comic books, and more 'Behind the Lane' branded entertainment arm: using storytelling to create FOMO around collectible items Pre-launch content strategy: 6 months of snackable 15–20 second videos on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook AI-powered listing in under 10 seconds: how the platform pivoted to remove the biggest friction for sellers PSA and CGC grading partnerships as an anti-fraud and confidence-building mechanism for buyers Remote-first team of ~5 people across the US and India building toward a US-only Phase 1 launch

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Andres Figueira sits down with Renee Halvorsen, CMO of Marine Layer — the San Francisco-based casual apparel brand built on California cool, signature softness, and a marketing philosophy of radical authenticity. Renee pulls back the curtain on how a brand founded on a founder’s obsession with his favorite worn-out T-shirt has grown to 54 stores while leaning hard into analog marketing at a moment when everyone else went digital. She digs into the physical catalog as Marine Layer’s not-so-secret weapon (eight per year, mailed to homes), the anatomy of the “Pants Science” campaign that turned Flex Terry pants into a multi-channel hit, and why their Holiday 2024 personalization pop-up in San Francisco became the #1 traffic location in their entire retail fleet — complete with a line around the corner and an impromptu visit from the city’s mayor. She also outlines Marine Layer’s measured AI strategy: protect human authenticity on the front end (real models, real copy, no faking it) while embracing speed and efficiency on the back end through CRM analytics, SQL acceleration, and Vizcom for internal product visualization. And she makes the case that 2026 is a new frontier — one where in-store traffic is outpacing online, email is losing its grip, and digital saturation is breeding consumer distrust. Her prescription: rethink every channel touchpoint from scratch. Topics Discussed Physical catalog as Marine Layer’s primary growth channel — 8 per year, mailed to homes, enabling longer-form brand storytelling that digital can’t replicate Brand voice engineering: what it takes to make marketing sound like a trusted friend instead of a pitch, across catalog copy, in-store, and digital The “Pants Science” campaign: comedy creators, a branded scientist character, TV, and email used to drive sell-through on Flex Terry pants Creator partnership strategy: lifestyle alignment as the selection filter, then full editorial freedom as the execution model AI in two lanes: protecting front-end human authenticity (real models, real copy) vs. accelerating back-end CRM analytics, SQL analysis, and product visualization via Vizcom The Holiday 2024 SF personalization pop-up: patches and embroidery on Cloud Nine fleece, #1 fleet traffic, organic creator amplification without formal partnerships, unannounced visit from the San Francisco mayor 2026 channel rethink: in-store traffic growing faster than online, email engagement declining, digital saturation creating consumer distrust, and what Marine Layer is doing about it

Bryce Winkelman joined Typeform as CRO 14 months ago — a profitable, 150,000-customer form and survey platform with a footprint in 98% of Fortune 500 companies. Before Typeform, he was the 10th employee at Qualtrics, which he helped grow through $700M+ in revenue, an SAP acquisition, and an IPO. In this episode, Bryce unpacks how Typeform is repositioning from world-class form builder into a full flow activation platform, why they’re pivoting marketing investment from paid toward AI-visible organic, and the specific frameworks they use to test and scale new channels — including a LTV-first take on marketing efficiency that flips the conventional CAC optimization model. Topics Discussed Career arc: 10th employee at Qualtrics through $700M+ revenue, SAP acquisition, and IPO — then Quantum Metrics and SeekOut before Typeform Typeform’s two growth engines: PLG self-serve (1-50 employee organizations and solopreneurs) and sales-led enterprise (98% Fortune 500 footprint) Product repositioning: from form builder to “flow activation” — lead routing, nurturing, payment processing, and AI-moderated research via Insight Flow Marketing channel strategy: paid as the primary and most predictable engine, now shifting investment toward SEO, AIO/AEO, UGC, influencer content, and owned community Reddit and third-party communities as non-negotiable infrastructure for AI search visibility The Get Real campaign: surveying 2,000 marketers on AI usage using Typeform itself, publishing a report that generated millions of impressions while demonstrating the product’s video/audio response capabilities AI inside Typeform: Glean deployed across all systems and every employee, full AI chat experience in the product, AI-first brand messaging on the website New channel testing: Uber ads (validated), TikTok (doubling year-over-year), sports sponsorships, ABM, Typeform-hosted events Channel testing framework: define success criteria and hypothesis upfront with FP&A, ring-fence incremental budget, deploy, measure, then scale or shut down The LTV-over-CAC reframe: willing to increase CAC significantly as long as LTV is rising — optimize for revenue and ICP quality, not cost efficiency

Reese Pozgay spent 10 years at Marc Jacobs building ecommerce from zero to over $100 million and inventing campaigns that used social media as literal entry currency — before Instagram existed. After launching his own 360 marketing agency (with Google as his first client, secured before he even had an LLC) and serving as Head of Digital Transformation at Revlon where he led the first beauty TikTok campaign to hit 2 billion views, he joined Moose Knuckles Canada as VP of Brand and Creative Marketing. In this episode, Reese traces the full arc of his career through one recurring conviction: respect the platform, push the idea until it makes someone uncomfortable, and never mistake audience size for actual community. Topics Discussed Career trajectory: From answering phones at Marc Jacobs under Robert Duffy to VP of Brand and Creative Marketing at Moose Knuckles Canada The Daisy Tweet Shop: the first pop-up ever to use social media as literal entry currency, pre-Instagram, repeated across New York, London, and Asia Street Mark: guerrilla wild postings across 5 US cities that invited the public to remix and deface the brand’s own ads Why every social platform demands its own content strategy — and why the waterfall model destroys brand relevance At Revlon: building the first beauty brand TikTok campaign to hit 2 billion views in two days Building influencer from scratch at Marc Jacobs — and why micro-influencers with real engagement beat macro celebrities every time Moose Knuckles’ brand position: not Montclair, not Canada Goose — “cultural nomads” and metropolitan city explorers The internal creative standard: “If the first idea doesn’t offend me a little bit, we haven’t pushed hard enough” Why your social strategy needs to change every 6 months or you’re dead Where social media is heading next: off-feed, private networks, DMs, and Snapchat broadcast channels

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira sits down with Phil Pirkovic, former Director of Brand and Partnerships at Shinola. Phil built the brand's storytelling infrastructure from scratch — shifting Shinola from a product-and-factory narrative into a full lifestyle brand rooted in emotional memory. He shares how he engineered experiential touchpoints across 21 stores, a Detroit hotel, and a small but disciplined marketing team to compete in a $6 billion watch industry without a massive budget. Topics Discussed: Why "experience by few, witnessed by many" is the north star for physical brand activation Turning a hotel into a 127-room-per-night sales and brand discovery channel Shifting Shinola's narrative from "made in America" to emotional memory and milestone moments Managing brand consistency across retail, e-commerce, a factory, and a hotel with a team of 15 The difference between marketing a utility brand (Google) vs. a premium product brand (Shinola) Why analog craft brands should be skeptical of AI adoption — and when it might eventually make sense

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira sits down with Yulia Popyk, Head of Brand at Petcube — a smart pet tech company that has spent 13 years building connected devices for pet parents. What started as a single camera to monitor pets at home has grown into a full ecosystem of hardware and software: GPS trackers, smart fountains, and a new AI-powered app bringing health monitoring, vet access, and device data into one place. Yulia unpacks how Petcube markets emotionally charged technology to deeply invested consumers, where brand and performance marketing collide, and how a ceramics studio in New York became one of their most memorable product launches. Topics Discussed: Navigating the tension between brand integrity and performance marketing at scale Segmenting emotional vs. technical messaging by product type Turning a physical product launch into a community-building moment Using AI-generated imagery to replace traditional pet photo shoots Building a unified pet health ecosystem through software and AI

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira speaks with Matthew Cancino, founder of Candid Collective, a video content agency specializing in hyperlocal content strategy for franchise brands and multi-location businesses. Over two years, Candid Collective has grown to serve 20+ monthly retainer clients by solving a distribution problem most national brands quietly struggle with: how do you make a national brand feel local at scale when your entire creative team is in one city? Topics Discussed: Why hyperlocal content strategy is the missing layer in most franchise marketing stacks Building a distributed creative network instead of a traditional agency model Rebranding from Candid Socials to Candid Collective as a talent attraction strategy Using AI for transcript-based content repurposing and data analysis in video production The tradeoffs of building a business while employed before going all-in

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews David Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Nex. Nex has built Next Playground, an active play system that's transforming how families engage with screen time by turning living rooms into interactive fitness and gaming experiences. Starting as a basketball training app called Home Court that went viral during the pandemic, the company pivoted to create a motion-tracking camera system that has now sold 350,000 units and secured placement in over 5,000 retail locations. Through strategic retail partnerships, mission-driven product development, and a subscription model that funds continuous innovation, Nex is carving out a new category between traditional gaming consoles and fitness equipment. Topics Discussed: Pivoting from a basketball training app to a family-focused hardware platform based on viral pandemic trends Scaling from 5,000 units to forecasted 500,000 units through retail partnerships Building trust for a $249 considered purchase through omnichannel marketing Implementing in-store demos as a primary conversion driver in 4,000+ retail locations Using subscription models (quarterly/annual only) to fund continuous game development and maintain customer relationships Leveraging major IP partnerships (Barbie, Kung Fu Panda, Bluey) to expand content library Operating a distributed team of 110+ people across product, hardware, and game development

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira speaks with Ben Hudson, Brand Marketing & Business Development Consultant at Hudson or Hudson, a brand marketing consultancy that has shaped some of the most culturally resonant consumer brands of the past two decades. From building live activations for Panasonic at NASCAR races to architecting Brooklyn Brewery's global expansion, Ben has developed a sharp perspective on what it actually takes to earn consumer trust in an era of AI saturation, screen fatigue, and institutional distrust. The conversation centers on why experiential marketing is becoming the most defensible channel in a brand's arsenal — and how smart brands are doubling down on human connection as their core growth strategy. Topics Discussed: Why experiential marketing is experiencing its most significant renaissance yet The AI trust crisis and its concrete impact on brand perception Building brand worlds versus building brand awareness How to add genuine value in an attention-scarce environment The analog counterculture trend and what it means for consumer behavior Using AI strategically without triggering consumer skepticism

In this episode of The Future of Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews Pierre Miazga, Studio Marketing and Communications Director at Ubisoft Bordeaux. Pierre reveals how AAA game marketing has evolved from traditional campaign-based promotion to embedded development marketing - where marketers function as "enablers" rather than sellers, working directly with creative teams from concept phase through launch. With Assassin's Creed Mirage as a case study, Pierre unpacks how Ubisoft Bordeaux navigated the challenge of marketing a legacy title to hardcore fans in a market releasing 52 games per day, while maintaining creative risk-taking and authentic player relationships. His approach demonstrates how entertainment marketing can balance player expectations with creative surprise in an increasingly fragmented and competitive landscape. Topics Discussed: Embedded marketing in game development vs. traditional go-to-market campaigns Marketing as "enabler" in creative development processes Navigating the saturated gaming market (20,000 Steam releases annually) Competing for player time, not just against other games Building games "from fans to fans" through direct player involvement Balancing player expectations with creative surprise The 3-4 year game development cycle and when marketing enters Cross-functional collaboration between marketing, creative, artistic, and technical teams Positioning vs. advertising in game development Managing tone consistency across multi-year development cycles