Shiny New Object

Roey Franco has spent 20 years building advertising products across platforms, agencies and emerging media. In this episode, he explains why marketers should stop making assumptions about their customers, how data can create a charmless Frankenstein ad, and why frictionless customer experiences turn purchases into advocacy.

It's easy to be blinded by data. But most of it is just noise. Every data point is rooted in human behaviour and that's what matters - asking why, staying context based, and remembering that most people don't care about your marketing. On the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast, Fiverr VP of Global Brand Communications Shiri Hellmann tells us why and how she uses AI for social listening, how she's screwed up the worst, and how to handle data in a way that makes sense. Subscribe to the channel to continue getting #marketing insights for data driven leaders.

AI can make you faster. But can it make you memorable? Mark Cibort, Global Head of Marketing Operations at Kenvue, joins the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast to discuss agentic employees, data overload, the AI bubble, and why the real competitive advantage is becoming the most human person in the room. Tune in to learn how to make more space for what matters, while still making the most of the tech revolution. 

Data gives us answers, but not the whole truth. Des Bateman, SVP Growth at Havas Media Network, draws an interesting parallel between using AI and the process that went into the book "Breath" by James Nestor. In this latest episode of the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast, we look at what the outcome looks like when you research and back up your hunches... instead of just saying "just breathe through your nose." Tune in to discover: • Why digital data is not the same as objective truth  • How AI can make audience research more scalable • Why friction can sometimes improve conversion • What happens when every marketer uses the same AI tools • Why skilled creatives remain the real competitive advantage Subscribe to keep hearing conversations about creativity, technology and the future of data-driven marketing.

Marketers need strong logic, clear reasoning, and an identity of their own before turning to AI to enhance or speed up their work. That's why Corina Bordeianu, Social Media Insights Principal at Booking.com, urges them to Read. Listen. Filter. For Corina, education is paramount to her career progression. And her view of the future of marketing: going beyond social listening to understand video intelligence and what consumers say about your brand. Tune in to hear her #ShinyNewObject and get some great #marketinginsights #shinynewobjectpodcast

Most people are overusing AI and not making the most of it for the things that really matter. Johann Wrede, CMO at UserTesting, is teaching us to go beyond simple tasks and use Claude Code and Codex - his Shiny New Objects for data driven marketers. Learn why building the right tools, independent of the AI agent used, will improve your marketing. We also discuss the power of moving quickly, testing often, and keeping the human in the process.

It's now easier than ever to copy content until all digital marketing starts to look the same - this is where taste becomes a shiny new object, says Marukh Budhraja, Global Head of Social Media Marketing at Charlotte Tilbury. What really differentiates brands and how can you use today's tools, without your content looking copied? She tells us more on this episode of the Shiny New Object podcast.  

For Tim Sparke, feedback is something marketers should seek relentlessly, but one thing companies and people aren't really set up to receive. And that includes data in... data driven marketing. On the Shiny New Object Podcast latest episode, he explains why relentlessly seeking feedback is key to developing, and how to set up a system for this rather than simply thinking about gathering data as a goal. But most importantly, we talk about his and Congregation Partners' ambitious new project: the Trevi app. A safe sandbox for marketers to test ideas, explore data, and compare different generative models. Find out all about it in this latest episode.

Drowning in content?  Nevra has a solution. With vibe coding and bridging gaps between sources, BT Group's Digital Performance Manager, Nevra Yagmur, shares her "podsome" project. Plus, find out her skills of choice to make it in data driven marketing when depth alone isn't enough and performance stops happening in isolation.

Dan Saunders is the Head of Performance Marketing at Evergreen Finance London and our latest guest on the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast. He swears by "The Way of the Wolf" to teach us why everything we do is ultimately, a sales job. He believes the best thing to do with data is get stuck in, finding your starting point and just using it - not being paralysed by how much of it you've got. And he tells us why the future of marketing sits with Performance AI that quantifies everything we used to look at as subjective. As long as humans are at the helm, that can yield highly effective conversion results. Tune in to learn how. 

Data is never static - just like people and the world as a whole. Vanessa Atanasov, Shopper and Trade Marketing Manager at Jack Link's and BiFi Benelux, tells us how she uses the "before & after" of banana bread during Covid lockdowns to illustrate how things can change, including our understanding of them. We talk about shopper vs consumer marketing and how to use productive curiosity to make your in-store campaigns stand out. Tune in to the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast to get some of the worst, and best, marketing advice ever. #marketingpodcast #datadrivenmarketing  

What if the future of marketing is not just knowing what people will do, but understanding why they feel the way they do? In this episode, Joy Allen-Altimare unpacks predictive emotional modelling, and why the next leap in data driven marketing will come from combining behaviour, context and human emotion.

Testing is simple, but underutilised in data driven marketing. And it has such potential to uncover incremental wins and breakthrough ideas. Jack Chape, Head of Integrated Media EMEA at PMG, joins the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast to discuss the power of curiosity, making it into a cultural staple, and the benefits of a continuous "test and learn" approach. Learn how to ask better questions, get the insights you need, and gain competitive advantages when your competitors are never standing still. #marketingpodcast #datadrivenmarketing #testandlearn

Asking questions and digging deep beyond the first layer of data is what's going to help grow in a climate where there are so many unknowns and changes every day.  Justinas Vaičiulis, Head of Performance Marketing at Jimdo, tells us why it's smart to make small bets, test, validate, and move up from there. On the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast, we also talk about picking the clients no one wants to work with and why he has built a career out of "digging into stuff." Top marketing career tips and advice for growing intelligently.  #marketing #marketingpodcast 

When the people behind tools actually care, work becomes faster, smoother, and more impactful. It's why Anna Soldatova, Performance Marketeer at Swapfiets, believes that investing in people relationships will save marketing from becoming a burnout-inducing quest for solo heroics. On the Shiny New Object Podcast, we discuss: How improv has made her more attuned to others' reactions and more confident in presenting Why you need to be okay with dropping channels, walking away, and experimenting with new things The secret to managing multiple channels by turning vendors into collaborators and looking beyond tools, to betting on people.

A great ROAS can be a watermelon: green on the outside, bleeding on the inside. Antoine Deventer, Senior Integrated Performance Marketing Specialist at Bissell, joins the Shiny New Object Podcast to talk about what happens when you stop optimising to vanity metrics and start focusing on real growth. We cover Amazon's evolution into a full-funnel media powerhouse, why "tool stack navigation" is a modern marketer's superpower, and the daily discipline that turns impressions into intelligence (breakfast: budgets + KPIs; lunch: root-cause analysis with the agency; dinner:  we'll see...)   #marketingpodcast #modernmarketing #toolstackactivation #roas  

Every signal matters. Even the ones you'd rather ignore. In data driven marketing, Jason Zollan (Head of Retail Media at Constructor) argues that bounces, exits and dead-ends tell us just as much as ROAS, clicks and conversions. On the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast, we talk about how to stop chasing vanity metrics and treat the full shopper journey as one system. And we discuss how retail media and e-commerce should share an AI brain. Intrigued? Tune in now.

AI search is on every marketer's lips, but is it that fundamentally different from basic SEO? Tom Telford, Chief Digital Officer at Clarity, argues that if you have the basics right, you'll also show up in LLM results. But best practice is one of the toughest things to succeed at, if we've learnt anything on the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast.  Tune in to hear Tom's advice on nailing the confluence between comms, PR and SEO to get your brand found by ChatGPT. #chatgpt #LLMsearch #GEO #marketingpodcast #datadrivenmarketing

An insight isn't a fact. It's a hidden truth. You're not done once you get that data. Keep digging. Ask why. And get that human connection with your audience. Fara Howard, former CMO of GoDaddy and experienced marketing leader, joins us on the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast to dig into what makes actionable insights, how to retain humanity in storytelling, and why no one can call themselves an expert in data driven marketing right now. Find out why iteration is the key to success and failing is just part of the process.

AI won't make your content smarter. It'll make it faster. In this episode of the Shiny New Object Podcast, Sneha Mittal, Senior Communications Manager, Image Guided Therapy at Philips, shares how to make AI work for content creation without becoming soulless. Tune in to learn: Why AI is great for accelerating outcomes when you're clear on what you're looking for The storytelling framework that makes data useful at any point in your career Why your best "tool" is learning agility If you've ever had the "I've got the job, now how do I do it?" feeling... this one's for you.