Kevin lee interviews Julie Roehm, who has served in high-level marketing posts at some of the most recognized brands on the planet, including DaimlerChrysler. Today, she consults on a contract basis for Gorilla Commerce, an e-commerce product development platform dedicated to launching and growing powerful brands. She's also on the advisory boards of several large organizations, including T-Mobile and the National Kidney Foundation.

Julie is a big advocate of putting customer experience at the center of every marketing decision made by a brand. She maintains that marketing efforts should always be aligned with company KPIs, such as conversion and margin, in order to demonstrate value and credibility. By focusing on these KPIs, marketers can change the way they are perceived by operations and finance teams, leading to more productive collaboration and innovation.

Julie and Kevin agree that marketers should identify low-hanging fruit in any transformation or change initiative, even if it's not part of one's direct responsibility. She highlights the value of pressure testing and journey mapping to identify areas for improvement, a process involving members from various departments for a comprehensive understanding of the customer experience.

They trade notes on the new crop of tools for content creation, including AI-generated animation software capable of creating high-quality moving images. Julie agrees that these tools are game-changers, but warns that because they make content creation so easy, thus allowing an almost infinite set of variations to be produced for every creative concept, there's a risk that marketers will be overwhelmed and lose focus. Finally, they chat about the growing role of influencers in marketing and how their status might evolve in an era quite likely to see more regulation by governmental entities such as the FTC.

Julie is excited about the coming year and sees AI as a major continuing driver of transformative change within marketing and in society at large.

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