On Scope: The Marketing Podcast

Jean-Pierre LaCroix is the president and founder of Shikatani Lacroix Design and the author of ThinkBlink Manifesto: Creating Deep, Lasting Emotional Brand Connections in the Blink of an Eye. During his long and successful career as an innovator, designer, strategist, and transformer of brands for growth, Jean-Pierre — who goes by JP for short — has pioneered the use of neuroscience and virtual reality to gain insights about branded environments and was one of the first individuals to use in-store digital signage and gesture motion UX to engage with consumers.

On this episode of On Scope, the design legend joins host Mike Berberich in studio to discuss what brands misunderstand about good design and why the craft of design often ends up on an organizational island. During a lively and informative conversation, the duo covers a lot of ground, including:

• The reasons why so many brands and marketers have begun to underestimate the value of good design
• JP’s thoughts on the minimalist design trend and its effects on brand differentiation
• How marketers can be better partners to their design teams

On “This Week in ANA Magazine,” magazine editor Matthew Schwartz joins Mike to discuss a new piece on the growing data skills gap in marketing. Mike and Matthew break down why the gap is growing, what marketers can do to make themselves more data savvy, and how artificial intelligence (AI) fits into the picture.

Brand visual identity and human creativity both still matter. But you still need to make sure you’re leveraging AI to the best of your abilities throughout the marketing campaign lifecycle. For that reason, you need to check out the ANA’s Generative AI Essentials for Marketers Certificate Program. This series of six focused courses gives you exactly what you need to keep up with AI, including real-world practitioner experience that you can apply directly to your own work. Best of all, completing the courses will only take you 90 minutes. To learn more and register, visit us www.ana.net/AICert26.

Have an idea for a guest or topic that you'd like to hear On Scope? Let us know by emailing us at [email protected]

For the last 15 years, Shari Muñoz has helped Fortune 500 organizations transform complex market, customer, competitive, and AI-driven intelligence into executive decisions that accelerate growth, improve marketing effectiveness, and reduce strategic risk. In her role as Head of Research and Measurement at Seedtag, Shari led one of the industry’s first neuroscience-based validations of AI-powered contextual advertising, partnering with a Columbia University neuroscientist to demonstrate how emotional context influences attention, engagement, and attention.

On this episode of On Scope, Shari joins host Mike Berberich to deep dive into the research. Together, the duo breaks down:

• The ways in which marketers and brands can develop deeper relationships with consumers by tapping into specific emotional and cognitive signals
• Real-world examples of brands use neuro-contextual targeting techniques effectively
• How marketers can strike a balance between leveraging hyper-personalized ad targeting and more broad channel ad targeting, using both in tandem to drive better business results

On “News You Might Have Missed,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger react to a new report from The Wall Street Journal on how business professionals are beginning to sound like the AI chatbots they use so often, both in written and verbal communication. Mike and Ryan express their concern and discomfort for this development, invent a new term for how marketers can combat this unfortunate trend, and imagine what all of this might mean for where society is headed in the future.

While you’ll want to avoid sounding like a large language model in your communications, you still need to make sure you’re leveraging AI to the best of your abilities throughout the marketing campaign lifecycle. For that reason, you need to check out the ANA’s Generative AI Essentials for Marketers Certificate Program. This series of six focused courses gives you exactly what you need to keep up with AI, including real-world practitioner experience that you can apply directly to your own work. Best of all, completing the courses will only take you 90 minutes. To learn more and register, visit us www.ana.net/AICert26.

Have an idea for a guest or topic that you'd like to see on the show? Let us know by emailing us at [email protected].

Michele Evans is the artificial intelligence (AI) advisor to the stars. In her role as the founder and CEO of NxtWaves, Michele helps CEOs and leadership teams navigate the era of AI with clarity, confidence, and momentum, helping them discover practical, non-technical methods for adopting AI across their organizations without hype, fear, or unnecessary complexity. This position gives her an unvarnished view of how business leaders really feel about this emerging technology.

On this episode of On Scope, Michele joins host Mike Berberich to share what business leaders are saying about AI behind closed doors. Together, Mike and Michele discuss:

• What CEOs and other business leaders are consistently getting wrong about AI readiness
• The role that frontline managers can play in developing organizational trust in AI
• The one thing no marketer should do when it comes to AI

On a brand new segment called “The Winner’s Circle,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger break down the case study for Sensodyne’s “Sensory Overload” campaign, which was the Best in Show Winner at the 2026 ANA REGGIE Awards. Mike and Ryan discuss the details of the campaign and share the reasons they think it was chosen to win the top award at this year’s REGGIEs. To check out all 60 case studies on the 2026 REGGIE Award winners, you can visit us here.

Whether you’re looking to better implement AI at your organization, craft an award-winning marketing campaign, or solve a different marketing challenge altogether, you can find the know-how you need to get it done at an ANA National Industry Conference. These premier events are where the industry’s sharpest marketers compare notes, set standards, and pressure-test what’s next. Attend the 2026 Masters of Marketing Conference, presented by Havas and taking place October 20-23 in Orlando, Fla., and you’ll hear from leaders at Coca-Cola, LEGO, P&G, Rivian, Harley-Davidson, and Manscaped. To check out the full lineup of upcoming National Industry Conferences, visit us at www.ana.net/events.

With so much hype around agentic AI, it can be difficult for marketers to know where the real value lies or how they need to position their existing technological capabilities to optimize agentic implementation. That’s where Bob Walczak, CEO of MadConnect, comes in. Bob’s opinion on the implementation of agentic AI is a simple one that the marketing industry seems to be resisting: The real bottleneck in modern ad tech isn’t data, it’s plumbing. With agentic AI looming, the connectivity problem that exists across most modern tech stacks is now critical and marketers need to act fast to avert disaster.

On this episode of On Scope, Bob joins host Mike Berberich to have a frank discussion around what’s needed to ensure agentic AI actually works with existing tech stacks and drives real ROI. Together, the pair covered:

• The prevailing misconceptions around infrastructure, integration, and engineering, and why businesses will need to be buttoned up across all three fronts if AI is going to work reliably.
• Where humans still need to be in the loop and the ways in which they can track what an AI is and isn’t doing.
• Bob’s tips for both CMOs and junior marketers on what they need to do right now to prepare for an agentic future.

On the return of our “Research Roundup” segment, ANA VP of Marketing Operations Peter Kenigsberg joins Mike in the studio to highlight key insights from Unlocking the Strategic Value of Marketing Operations, a report on the state of marketing operations within the broader industry. Peter shares the methodology behind this critical research, the common characteristics found among organizations getting the most from their ops departments, and the ways in which your marketing operations team can be deployed to drive better business results.

Whether you’re looking to take your tech stack to the next level, transform your marketing operations department into a profit-driving powerhouse, or have a different marketing problem you need to solve, you can find the answers at an ANA National Industry Conference. These premier events are where the industry’s sharpest marketers compare notes, set standards, and pressure-test what’s next. Attend the 2026 Masters of Marketing Conference, presented by Havas and taking place October 20-23 in Orlando, Fla., and you’ll hear from leaders at Coca-Cola, LEGO, P&G, Rivian, Harley-Davidson, and Manscaped. To check out the full lineup of upcoming National Industry Conferences, visit us at www.ana.net/events.

As VP of Research and Insights at ANA member company Basis, Maggie Nemoy spends her days researching shifting trends in retail and digital commerce and identifying how those trends will affect the marketing practice. Her latest focus was on the holiday season — a time of abundant opportunity for brands that know how to get their messaging and targeting right.

On this episode of On Scope, Maggie joins host Mike Berberich to discuss how economic uncertainty and emerging consumer behaviors are poised to affect not just the 2026 holiday season but every holiday season going forward. Together, the pair covered:

• How the rise of social commerce has led to an accelerated purchase cycle and why many brands are failing to leverage this opportunity.
• The ways in which cultural identity and inclusive marketing are shaping the 2026 holiday season and beyond.
• The emerging behaviors that are forcing marketers to abandon legacy holiday planning models in favor of a more continuous, year-round approach.
• Why it’s not yet too late to capitalize on this year’s holiday season.

On “This Week in ANA Magazine,” ANA magazine editor Matthew Schwartz joins Mike in studio to spotlight a new article on the increasing importance of cultural fluency. Schwartz highlights a few of the brands that are excelling in this space — including Heinz 57, Purina, and e.l.f. — and shares some best practices experts shared for how marketers can effectively approach having their brand play in culture.

Whether you’re looking to develop campaigns that ensure every holiday season is a success, learn to become more culturally fluent, or have a different marketing problem to solve, you can find the answers at an ANA National Industry Conference. These premier events are where the industry’s sharpest marketers compare notes, set standards, and pressure-test what’s next. Attend the 2026 Masters of Marketing Conference, presented by Havas and taking place October 20-23 in Orlando, Fla., and you’ll hear from leaders at Coca-Cola, LEGO, P&G, GEICO, Rivian, Harley-Davidson, and Manscaped. To check out the full lineup of upcoming National Industry Conferences, visit us at www.ana.net/events.

Microgenerational research is a personal passion for Armida Ascano, chief insights officer at Trend Hunter. She first became interested in the field years ago when she noticed she was regularly having to defend millennials, reminding colleagues that her generation was not a monolith and was, in actuality, comprised of an entire spectrum of thoughts and perspectives around technology. Those experiences got Armida thinking about the misconceptions that might exist for every generation and how business professionals might be able to better understand consumers by categorizing generations into subsets or microgenerations. Since then, she’s been doing research at Trend Hunter, the world’s largest and most powerful trend platform and innovation accelerator.

On this episode of On Scope, Armida joins host Mike Berberich to review her organization’s latest research on microgenerations, highlighting the macro opportunities that exist within emerging microgenerational trends. Together, the duo covered:

• The defining misconception of each of the major generations, including baby boomers, gen X, millennials, and gen Z
• How brand marketers can navigate the use of AI without alienating audiences that have expressed a growing anti-AI sentiment
• How marketers can develop campaigns that balance “universal truths” with microgenerational personalization

On “News You Might Have Missed,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger discuss new research that shows that, despite total AI spending projected to grow to $2.59 trillion this year, 57 percent of businesses are not seeing positive ROI on their investments. The pair posit some theories about why AI is not moving the needle on ROI the way many predicted it would and offer their thoughts on how organizations might approach AI implementation more realistically and thoughtfully.

Whether you’re looking to use microgenerational research to improve your messaging with a specific audience or leverage AI effectively and efficiently at your organization, you can find the answers at an ANA National Industry Conference. These premier events are where the industry’s sharpest marketers compare notes, set standards, and pressure-test what’s next. Attend the 2026 Masters of Marketing Conference, presented by Havas and taking place October 20-23 in Orlando, Fla., and you’ll hear from leaders at Coca-Cola, LEGO, P&G, GEICO, Rivian, Harley-Davidson, and Manscaped. To check out the full lineup of upcoming National Industry Conferences, visit us at www.ana.net/events.

Have a topic idea or guest suggestion for On Scope? Let us know by emailing us [email protected].

How do brands reconcile their sustainability pledges with the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that comes with a set of valid ecological concerns? That was the core question the On Scope team set out to answer when it sat down with Manoj Saxena, founder of the Responsible AI Institute, for a frank and insightful conversation on LinkedIn Live.

On this bonus episode of On Scope, host Mike Berberich and Saxena covered a wealth of valuable topics, including:

• Why so many businesses seemed to get caught up in the AI hype cycle without considering all the effects of the technology
• How brands with sustainability pledges should think about scaling AI and the safeguards they might put in place to ensure they uphold their commitments
• What Saxena means when he refers to AI as “alien intelligence”

Listeners will come away with key advice and action steps to implement AI responsibly, while also ensuring they don’t let the benefits of this emergent technology pass them by.

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup ready to kick off, brands are gearing up for one of the most anticipated marketing opportunities of the year. But with activations ranging from out-of-home display to IRL activations, measuring the success of these branded efforts will be a challenge. That’s where Greg Joseph, VP of inventory development at StackAdapt, comes in.

On this bonus episode of On Scope, Greg joins host Mike Berberich to discuss how marketers are fully leveraging the unprecedented scale, energy, and geographic distribution of the tournament. Together, the duo cover:

-      Best practices for brand marketers to determine which markets they should target and which might not be worth the investment.

-      How to maximize brand impact when there are so many different markets and competing cultural norms converging for the World Cup.

-      Broad approaches brand marketers should consider to layer over top their more localized activations.

Listeners will learn how brands can move beyond traditional broadcast thinking and instead embrace omnichannel, programmatic approaches that connect with consumers throughout their real, physical, and digital journeys, whether the target audience is from commuting and attending a match, watching on TV, or both.

Have a topic or guest suggestion for On Scope? Let us know by emailing us at [email protected].

On a special bonus episode of On Scope, Alex Josephson, VP of BrandWorks at LinkedIn, went live on LinkedIn with host Mike Berberich for a deep dive on how marketing and business professionals can turn personal branding into a powerful growth driver. Along with questions from the audience, Mike and Alex discussed best practices for growing the personal brand of executives and frontline employees, how companies can systematize professional brand development, and what you can do to build your own personal brand without coming off as — well — cringe.

Dr. Marcus Collins, an author and clinical professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, is an expert on culture and how it influences human behavior. As both an academic and a practitioner, his strategies and creative contributions have led to hugely successful activations for clients like McDonald’s, Google, and even pop superstar Beyoncé.

On this episode of On Scope, Marcus joins host Mike Berberich to unpack why brands so often misinterpret culture and how marketers can move from chasing popularity to facilitating meaningful connection with consumers. Together, Mike and Marcus explore why understanding brand purpose — or brand conviction, as Marcus prefers to call it — is so crucial to successfully engaging in culture, why treating culture as a monolith flattens nuance and strips marketing of authenticity, the biggest lessons Marcus learned while spearheading Beyoncé’s digital strategy, and how employees lower down on the corporate ladder can positively affect their own company’s internal culture.

On “News You Might Have Missed,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger discuss a report from ADWEEK that Spotify is debuting carousel ads and branded playlist takeovers on its app. This news from Spotify, plus pricing trends on platforms like Netflix, has Mike and Ryan wondering if we’re witnessing the death of premium content, with consumers seemingly being nudged toward ad-supported experiences. The pair highlight some potential concerns for advertisers in this new reality — including how audiences entering ad tiers may be resentful, more sensitive to interruption, and less tolerant of lazy or repetitive creative — and offer some thoughts on how brands might engage these spaces without incurring consumer ire.

As you’ll learn during this episode, culture moves quickly, and the cost of getting it wrong is real. The best marketers build stronger cultural instincts by learning from people who are doing the work at the highest level. ANA National Industry Conferences put marketers in the room with CMOs and senior leaders shaping what’s next, with practical takeaways and connections that carry beyond the event. Check out the full lineup of upcoming conferences by visiting www.ana.net/conferences.

Have a topic idea or guest suggestion for On Scope? Let us know by emailing [email protected].