Frontier CMO Podcast by Think with Google

AI won’t fix your marketing. These seven lessons can.

In 2026 Year in Review: 7 Lessons from the Frontier, host Joshua Spanier brings together some of the biggest takeaways from a year of conversations with leading CMOs and industry thinkers at companies like Chime, Gap, Unilever, and L’Oréal to explore what it takes to grow in an AI-driven world.

How do you build a brand that stands out, make better creative, and help your team keep up with AI? These conversations dig into those questions and more.

Subscribe to Think with Google for more conversations on where marketing is headed and how to keep moving forward.

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#ThinkWithGoogle #FrontierCMO #MarketingStrategy #AIMarketing

In a special crossover episode with Semafor's Mixed Signals, Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith turns the tables on Frontier CMO host Joshua Spanier, Google's VP of AI and Marketing Strategy. Together, they discuss why the predicted CMO Armageddon never happened, lessons from 200+ marketing leaders, and why human connection matters more than ever.#ThinkWithGoogle #FrontierCMO #AIMarketing #MarketingStrategy

Could your doctor's office be just a few clicks away?

In this episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with Will Flaherty, SVP of Growth at Ro, the digital healthcare platform rethinking not only how care is delivered but how it's marketed. Will explains how Ro earns trust in one of the hardest categories to market, why the brand rejects fear-based messaging in favor of uplifting human stories, and what it took to put Serena Williams at the center of a Super Bowl campaign. He also shares how Ro erased the line between brand and performance, why clinicians sit inside the creative process, and how a little weekend AI tinkering can spark big ideas for the business. 

Tune in for a master class in marketing when the product you're really selling is trust.

00:00 – Introduction: Will Flaherty, SVP of Growth at Ro

01:00 – Reinventing Healthcare Through Digital Access

03:20 – Building Trust in Healthcare Marketing

05:00 – Ro’s Challenger Brand Marketing Playbook

06:00 – Blurring the Lines Between Brand and Performance Marketing

07:30 – Bringing Medical Experts Into the Creative Process

09:20 – Designing for a Mobile-First Consumer

10:15 – How Ro Uses AI to Drive Marketing Decisions

11:50 – Redefining Growth Beyond Customer Acquisition

12:45 – Using AI to Empower Marketing Teams

15:10 – Serena Williams and the Power of Authentic Storytelling

16:05 – Measuring Super Bowl Campaign Success and Long-Term ROI

17:15 – Career Lessons from SeatGeek, Rent the Runway, and Ro

19:00 – Embracing AI as the Next Major Platform Shift

20:45 – Signal or Noise: The Future of Healthcare

21:45 – CMO Download: Podcasts, Search, and YouTube

23:05 – Three Key Takeaways for Marketers

How do you transform one of the world's most iconic telecom giants into a modern, customer-obsessed growth powerhouse?

In the latest episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier welcomes Kellyn Smith Kenny, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at AT&T, for an inside look at AT&T's multi-year reinvention. Kellyn shares how she bridged creative storytelling with financial accountability, gained unanimous C-suite buy-in to become more customer-centric, and established a sustainable competitive moat in connectivity. 

Tune in for a master class about CMOs as the voice of the customer.

00:00 – Rebuilding AT&T Around the Customer

04:00 – Why Moving Faster Mattered

05:00 – The AT&T Guarantee

06:00 – Differentiating in a Commoditized Category

09:00 – Turning Customer Problems Into Loyalty

12:00 – Building a Brand Beyond Advertising

15:00 – Fixing the Story, Not the Storytelling

17:00 – AT&T’s AI Legacy and Future

18:00 – How AI Is Transforming Marketing

20:00 – The Skills Marketers Need in the AI Era

22:00 – Career Lessons From Accenture, Microsoft, Uber & More

26:00 – Signal or Noise + Three Takeaways

Gap Inc. is having a moment and Damon Berger, an SVP who leads marketing shared services across the company’s portfolio of iconic brands, is focused on turning that moment into momentum. Live from Google’s Rethink Retail event in New York, he joins Josh on stage in front of 350 retail marketers to unpack how Gap Inc. is blending entertainment, cultural relevance and AI to drive sustainable business growth. 

From viral YouTube campaigns with KATSEYE, Young Miko, Mr Beast and more, to pioneering employee-creator programs, discover how one of retail's most loved brands is transforming relevance into revenue.

👇 Key moments in this episode:

00:00 - Introduction & Gap’s growth

02:15 - "Relevance is Revenue" — Differentiating Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, & Athleta

05:10 - Why "Brand vs. Performance" is the wrong question to ask

07:45 - Building best friends with Finance (and why ROAS is a long game)

09:15 - Product at the center: The formula behind Cardi B, Young Miko, and KATSEYE

11:15 - Inside the innovative Employee Creator Program & Creator Affiliate launch

13:15 - Career journeys: From Disney to Barbie's turnaround at Mattel

16:30 - Marketing "Avatar" without showing the blue people 🤫

17:00 - The future of Agentic Commerce & AI Virtual Try-Ons

22:30 - Why AI will never understand the emotional choice of getting dressed

24:30 - Signal or noise 

#FrontierCMO #GapInc #RetailMarketing #BrandStrategy #YoungMiko #CardiB #Katseye #MrBeast #MarketingTransformation #AIinRetail #AgenticCommerce

Jo Malone. MAC. La Mer. Tom Ford. Clinique. The Ordinary. These are just a few of the powerhouse brands behind The Estée Lauder Companies. For more than 80 years, the beauty giant has reinvented itself with every era – from the department store counter to the digital storefront. Now it’s making its biggest leap yet: AI. 

In the season 3 premiere of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with Chief Digital and Marketing Officer Aude Gandon to explore how one of the world’s most iconic beauty companies is using AI to personalize consumer experiences, reimagine creativity, and build brands that endure.  

✨ What you’ll learn in this episode:

⏱️ Episode Chapters:

00:00 - Teaser: "Show Me the Money" & CFO Alliances

00:34 - Welcome to Frontier CMO Season 3

01:25 - Change Management & "Beauty Reimagined" at Estée Lauder

02:49 - Restructuring the Global Operating Model & Media Strategy

04:58 - Marketing as a Growth Engine: Getting Buy-In from Finance

07:08 - The CMO as Chief Diplomatic Officer

10:14 - Brand Building vs. Lower-Funnel Performance Marketing

11:42 - Conversational AI in Action: Jo Malone’s Scent Finder

13:43 - Luxury on Scaled Platforms: Short-form Video & Creators

16:23 - Breaking Brand Silos: Creating Global Marketing Communities

18:24 - Feeding 80 Years of Brand Data into AI: MAC vs. La Mer

22:28 - Career Advice: "Just 'Cause You Don't Fit Doesn't Mean You Don't Belong"

23:10 - Estée Lauder’s Legacy: The Pink Ribbon Campaign

24:48 - The 90/10 Rule of Career Success

25:53 - The CMO Download 

29:57 - Josh Spanier’s 3 Key Takeaways

👤 About the Guest:

Aude Gandon is the Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at The Estée Lauder Companies, leading global digital transformation, consumer intelligence, media, and marketing strategy across the company's prestigious portfolio of skincare, makeup, and fragrance brands.

🎙️ About Frontier CMO:

Hosted by Josh Spanier (VP of Marketing and AI Strategy at Google), Frontier CMO features candid conversations with the world’s most forward-thinking marketing leaders who are navigating platform shifts, AI innovation, and modern brand building.

🔗 Explore more marketing insights, research, and tools: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com

#FrontierCMO #EsteeLauder #MarketingStrategy #ArtificialIntelligence #CMO #BrandBuilding #LuxuryMarketing #DigitalTransformation #JoshSpanier #AudeGandon

The future of content and websites isn't about chasing vanity impressions—it’s about driving true digital retention. 

Recorded live at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Knotch CEO and co-founder Anda Gansca joins Frontier CMO host Josh Spanier to unpack how the brand website is evolving in an AI-first world. 

In this episode, we uncover the hidden trap of "corrosive content" driving 80% of web traffic to bounce instantly, and outline a strategic playbook for modern marketing leaders. 

Because the website remains the definitive front door for customer discovery and high-stakes decision-making, mastering the next era of web content is more than just site refresh;it is a critical growth imperative for today’s CMO.

00:00 Why Most Brand Content Fails

02:00 Cutting Through the AI Hype

05:00 How Brands Can Win in the AI Era

08:00 Impressions vs. Real Relevance

10:00 Rethinking the Website Experience

12:00 What CMOs Need to Learn About AI

16:00 Building a Culture of AI Experimentation

19:00 Getting Your Data AI-Ready

21:00 AI Slop vs. Great Marketing

23:00 How AI Is Changing Agencies

25:00 AI, Jobs & the MarTech Stack

26:30 Signal or Noise + Final Takeaways

Marketing is moving fast, but are we moving in the right direction? 

In this episode, legendary strategist Rishad Tobaccowala (former Chief Growth & Strategy Officer of Publicis Group) drops by to deliver some seriously spicy thinking on the state of the marketing industry.

Spoiler alert: He thinks we’ve lost the plot.

Instead of obsessing over technology and optimization, Rishad breaks down why the future actually belongs to talent, human insight, and deep curiosity. We dive into his blueprint for navigating "tectonic times," why you need to stop writing an "AI strategy," and how thinking like an underdog is the ultimate superpower for staying relevant.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

Few marketing leaders have navigated as much change as Google’s Chief Marketing Officer Lorraine Twohill. She’s one of the industry’s longest-tenured CMOs who’s led Google’s marketing through massive product and platform shifts, from Search and Chrome, to mobile, YouTube, and now AI. 

Recorded at Cannes Lions 2026, Frontier CMO host Josh Spanier sits down with Lorraine to unpack how she’s built one of the world’s most influential marketing organizations, why marketers belong in the room with engineers, and why agility is the ultimate competitive advantage. 

00:00 Intro

01:00 Google's Startup Days

03:45 Why Local Marketing Wins

05:45 Becoming Google's CMO

08:00 Marketing in a Product-First Company

09:30 The Chrome Growth Playbook

12:10 Human-Centered Brand Storytelling

13:00 What Creators Teach Marketers

14:20 Defining the Frontier CMO

16:15 Marketing Mistakes & Lessons Learned

18:10 Hiring Great Marketers

20:20 Career Advice for the AI Era

22:30 Google's AI Transformation

25:00 AI Productivity & NotebookLM

26:30 Leadership, Resilience & Cancer

29:20 Health, Sleep & Longevity

30:25 Signal or Noise?

32:20 Three Lessons for Every CMO

In today’s creator economy, the audience is in charge. Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry explain what this means for CMOs trying to build brands people actually chose to spend time with, not just marketing they scroll past.

Back by popular demand, this Frontier CMO conversation unpacks the creator landscape and why attention without connection is a dead end. Whether you’re building a creator strategy for the first time or rethinking how your brand shows up online, this episode offers a practical playbook for building lasting creator partnerships, earning audience trust, and staying ahead of where marketing is going.

🔔 Subscribe for more insights from marketing's frontier: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3qH-T0AZE7DJPq-x2ppu2Jq 

💡 What you'll learn in this episode:

🔗 Resources & Links:

#FrontierCMO #CreatorEconomy #MarketingStrategy #ColinAndSamir #CMO