Pipeline Visionaries

This episode of Pipeline Visionaries features an interview with Rodrigo Maroni, Head of U.S. at Winnin, the cultural intelligence platform that reveals actionable insights to grow your brand’s cultural relevance exponentially. Rodrigo shares why culture is the invisible hand guiding B2B consumer decisions, why chasing trends won’t make brands relevant, and how predictive cultural data uncovers unexpected audience opportunities.Quotes We don't track things like share of voice. Really I believe that this is an outdated metric. You are only measuring your intent, not your outcome. So we use a metric we develop called share of attention. Share of attention is really a metric that takes into account, the output in there, the effect, the impact that you make in your audience.We are measuring the end game, not the starting game, so you get a real pulse on what's working.Key TakeawaysCulture drives growth. Every purchase decision is culturally influenced, even in B2B. Don’t chase trends. Predict cultural moments and map “cultural categories” to get ahead.Hidden audiences = growth. Insights from behavioral data can reveal unexpected segments like sneakerheads for cleaning products.Measure what matters. Share of attention captures true cultural impact, unlike outdated share of voice metrics.Episode Timestamps(05:49) The Trust Tree: Collecting behavioral data(21:38) The Playbook: Developing cultural intelligence reports (30:19) Dust up: Navigating gaps in metrics (31:05) Quick hits: Rodrigo’s Quick HitsSponsorPipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR.LinksConnect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Rodrigo on LinkedInLearn more about WinninLearn more about Caspian Studios  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with John Gaines, VP Marketing, Zyter|TruCare, a healthcare technology company supporting 45 health plans and more than 44 million covered livesJohn emphasizes the importance of establishing thought leadership to build credibility before focusing on amplification and talks about effective tactics such as leveraging PR agencies and using effective lead generation platforms.Key Takeaways:Lead with thought leadership to cut through the AI clutter. Position your brand as a credible voice first, then layer in activation.Non-negotiable marketing levers: PR, demand gen infrastructure, and product clarity. These are foundations you can’t compromise.Evaluate the ROI of events. In many cases, digital channels and content may outperform costly in-person events.Quote: “  So you have to have, somewhere in the mix, the capability to cut through that density and get to an understanding of what does this stuff do that solves a compelling problem in a unique way that somebody will pay money for versus other alternatives that are out there? And that is a combination of talent and skill that you just have to have in the mix. It doesn't usually come from outside.  It's something you have to have internally.”Episode Timestamps: *(04:51) The Trust Tree: Position your brand as a credible voice first, then layer in activation*(11:10) The Playbook: The value of a PR agency *(30:36) The Dust Up: Operating in a startup up within a large company *(33:19) Quick Hits: John’s quick hits Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with John on LinkedInLearn more about Zyter|TruCareLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Pipeline Visionaries features an interview with Tamir Sigal, the CMO of Trintech, a company that helps finance and accounting teams simplify and automate the entire financial close process, from reconciliations to reporting. Tamir explans his marketing philosophy of focusing on the customer journey, driving alignment across the organization, and evolving tactics around personalization, in-person experiences, and AI. He also reflects on rebranding challenges, innovative campaigns, and why he encourages his team to experiment—even if it means making mistakes along the way.Quote: “We just get so much information into our lives—whether it’s through email, social media, our devices, and how do you differentiate? How do you cut through the noise? So one of our tactics is making sure that we’re personalizing the message to the right audience. One of my pet peeves is saying the right message at the right time at the right channel. That’s so cliché to say, but it’s at the heart of what we want to do—making sure that the message is personalized to the industry, to the persona, and to the topic.”Key Takeaways:Personalization cuts through noise. Tailoring messages by industry, persona, and timing is key to standing out in a crowded digital landscape.CMOs are responsible for creating alignment. Success depends on aligning marketing with sales, finance, partners, and leadership.Encourage experimentation. Tamir fosters innovation by rewarding his team for trying new ideas and learning from mistakes.Episode Timestamps:(04:00) The Trust Tree: Why time is the most valuable currency(10:44) The Playbook: Top uncuttable tactics—personalization, events, and AI(29:06) Dust Up: Rebranding a 100-year-old company against the odds(31:15) Quick Hits: Tamir’s quick hitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit https://www.qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianfaisonConnect with Tamir on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamirsigal/ Learn more about Trintech: https://www.trintech.comLearn more about Caspian Studios: https://www.caspianstudios.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Bruno Bertini, the CMO of 8x8, a CX platform that brings together business communications and interaction data in one place.Bruno discusses 8x8’s innovative marketing campaigns, particularly 'The Power of You,' which creatively leverages AI to feature customers in engaging ways. Bruno shares insights into their marketing strategy, the role of AI in scaling their efforts, and the challenges and rewards of pushing creative boundaries in B2B marketing. Guest Quote:"In B2B, the only way to cut through the noise is by doing something creative. Imagine you're a buyer. You wake up like, oh my God, I'm gonna read a white paper this morning. I'm so excited. Anyways, jokes aside for us as we are repositioning the company, the idea was I don't have the biggest budget. You know, I'm one of the smallest players in a very big market, that's moving at quantum speed. So instead of burning all the money we had just in paid, trying to push more of the usual, the idea was can we do something really different leveraging our internal AI culture."Episode Timestamps: *(06:42) The Trust Tree: Economies of scale from AI content*(10:05) The Playbook: The Power of You Campaign*(44:48) Quick Hits: Bruno’s quick hitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Bruno on LinkedInLearn more about 8x8Learn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Jill Wiltfong, Chief Marketing Officer at global consulting firm Korn Ferry.Jill shares her unique path from TV news anchor to marketing, emphasizing the crucial skills of storytelling, communication, and adaptability. She discusses why their thought leadership team is all journalists and discusses their transformative sponsorship of the PGA Korn Ferry Tour. Key Takeaways:Empower employees to promote your brand by giving them clear guardrails instead of slowing them down with heavy approval processes.Wait for the big brand opportunities that authentically tell your company story, like Korn Ferry’s PGA development tour sponsorship, rather than chasing generic opportunities.If you’re not the biggest player in your market, the only way to get a seat at the table is to do something different, at scale. Quote: "The other thing that was really transformative for us was deciding we were not going to be a boring B2B company. We needed to act and think and behave like a B2C firm. So we came up with this brand mantra: Be more than. Nike had just do it. Apple had think different. We are all about Be More Than. And this is our rallying cry. It tells people exactly who we are. It tells you what we're gonna do for you, for employees. It gives you a sense that Korn Ferry is rough, man, it's pretty relentless because we are always gonna push you to be more than you were yesterday."Episode Timestamps: *(19:09) The Trust Tree: Marketing is best suited to lead and drive innovation*(22:23) The Playbook: Get the right people, the rest falls into place*(44:40) Quick Hits: Jill’s quick hitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Jill on LinkedInLearn more about Korn FerryLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Thea Hayden, CMO at Cognizant, a  leading professional services company that brings deep technology and industry expertise together to help our clients transform and stay ahead. Thea discusses the importance of a strong partnership with IT, and the significance of multi-channel tactics. She also shares insights into experiential marketing tactics and her commitment to fostering a culture of experimentation and fun within her marketing team. Key Takeaways:We often discuss building strong relationships with the CFO, but investing in your relationship with your CIO is essential too, since the martech stack is so crucial to success. Overindexing on any strength will make it your weakness; nothing works in isolation and a multichannel approach is necessary. AI may be the death of spray and pray tactics and broad reach marketing, since personalization will be so much easier and more successful. Quote:  ”The tactic that may finally die because of AI is spray and pray, right? Because everything's going to be so personalized and so easy to personalize, and so much more effective because of that. And so I think even the days of just super broad reach maybe are dead altogether.”Episode Timestamps: *(03:00) The Trust Tree: Start with the end in mind*(16:48) The Playbook: Overindexing on strengths, makes them weaknesses*(33:30) The Dust Up: Build a strong relationship with IT*(34:26) Quick Hits: Thea’s quick hits Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Thea on LinkedInLearn more about CognizantLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Gaurav Misra, CEO, Captions, an AI video-generation company that allows you to create and edit talking videos with AI.  Gaurav dives into the practical applications and future implications of AI in video, and how these tools can enhance marketing efforts for businesses of all sizes.Key Takeaways:Video capabilities are improving rapidly, and are now at the point where spinning up an AI-generated version of you speaking, is likely better quality than anything you could deliver to camera. These capabilities allow marketers to spin-up and test content very quickly with far less expense than in the past. How people will react to content moving forward, when it will become less and less clear what is real, remains to be seen. Quote: “ Spun up a video and it's like me wearing like a suit… I'm delivering this emotional message, but I'm delivering it so fluently with all these words that I would probably never use actually… and I'm looking at this like, shit, I couldn't be like this on camera. This is such a good delivery, such a good presentation..  It just isn't actually physically possible. And I think we are at that point where I can look at that and be like, wow, I just couldn't do this. It's better than what I could do.”Episode Timestamps: *(03:13) Challenges and Opportunities in Video Content*(08:01) The Future of AI Tools in Creative Work*(24:11) Innovations in Video Generation*(28:28) Real-World Applications and Feedback*(35:27) The Future of Deep Fakes and Content AuthenticitySponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Gaurav on LinkedInLearn more about CaptionsLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Casey Hill, CMO at DoWhatWorks, a company that removes the guesswork from website optimization, tracking millions of websites daily to find winning A/B tests from major brands.Casey provides actionable advice on effective thought leadership, influencer marketing, and various ways to optimize your website. Key Takeaways:Promoting customer’s posts about your company can be a great way to spread an outside vantage point, and customers are typically happy to have you pay to promote their pages. Test all your assumptions and learn what makes sense for your business. Try to test components of your website that you may not have initially thought to look into. Be cautious when it comes to social proof and unintended signalling with third party reviews. A lot of marketers do this poorly. Quote:   Most people do social proof really poorly. The way now, and this is across the board, so we talked about logos, but it also applies to G2 reviews or third party reviews. I think people don't pay attention enough to unintended signaling. Like someone puts 4.4 stars with 300 plus reviews and someone sees that, and that might actually might be a negative signal, right? And so like they look at that, they're like, 'oh, I thought you were much bigger. You only have 300 reviews.' Or in our world today is 4.4 good or bad, right? Like some people might see 4.4, like if I see it on a restaurant or I'm like, eh it's okay. Like it's kind of a neutral one to me, right? So I think you wanna be really careful about unintended signaling.Episode Timestamps: *(07:32) The Trust Tree: Create content that will be shared by other outlets*(20:30) The Playbook: Convert faster, talk about your capabilities instead of benefits*(49:53) Quick Hits: Casey’s quick hitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Casey on LinkedIn Learn more about DoWhatWorksLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Brenton Williamson, VP of Marketing at Bamboo HR, a company that empowers HR pros, employees, and organizations everywhere to simplify complicated processes and streamline time-consuming tasks.Brenton discusses how he thinks about creating distinction in the market, the diversification of marketing channels, and the value of digital engagement. Key Takeaways:Distinction is different from differentiation. Differentiation is product focused, while distinction has more to do with brand identity and feel. You need both. As organic search continues to take a hit, in-person events become an increasingly important tactic to get in front of customers. We’re coming out of the inbound era and sales may need to get used to interacting with people who aren’t actively in a buying motion, and building relationships over time. Episode Timestamps: *(04:29) The Trust Tree: Distinction, differentiation, diversification *(09:04) The Playbook: The end of the inbound era*(36:24) Quick Hits: Brenton’s quick hitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Brenton on LinkedInLearn more about BambooHRLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Andrew Thomas, VP of Marketing at Archer Meat Snacks, a company that makes jerky, sticks and sausages, from real ingredients. Andrew has over 15 years of experience in the CPG food and beverage industry, with brands like Chicken of the Sea, Wilde Chips, and PepsiCo. He discusses Archer’s recent rebrand, their go-to-market strategies, and the importance of social and influencer marketing. Key Takeaways:Awareness and creating memory structures for customers helps build a moat around your brand. Don’t underestimate the power of a strong PR flywheel. Once it gets going, it has an outsized impact. Long-term partnerships are the way to go with influencers. Fewer, bigger, better is a more strategic and authentic approach. Quote:   We're the fourth largest meat snack brand in the nation. Our awareness is not the fourth largest. It's lagging quite a bit behind. And so what I'm trying to do is really build that mental availability, build a big ownable, distinctive brand that creates those memory structures in our consumer's mind so that when they go to the store, when they go to Costco, they go to Sam's, they go to Target, they go to Walmart, they recognize and see us because we have a pretty successful business today, but people are buying the grass fed beef mini sticks. They haven't necessarily been buying the Country Archer or the Archer grass fed beef mini sticks. And we want to create a moat around our brand. We want to generate a lot of that stickiness. Episode Timestamps: *(05:46) The Trust Tree: Being scrappy with social and influencer*(23:09) The Playbook: Leading a strategic rebrand*(45:43) Quick Hits: Andrew’s quick hits Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Andrew on LinkedInLearn more about Archer Meat SnacksLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.