The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

• #699: Being real about synthetic personas with Narek Vandanyan, Prelaunch

  Marketers spend a fortune trying to understand their audience, conducting surveys, focus groups, and market research—but what if they could just ask their ideal customer directly? With synthetic personas, that’s now possible. But how reliable are they? And how far can we really take this technology? Joining me today is Narek Vardanyan, CEO of Prelaunch.com, a platform focused on helping businesses validate their ideas before launching. Prelaunch.com recently introduced Customer Persona, an innovative tool that allows marketers to chat with AI-generated personas built on real audience data. About Narek Vardanyan I founded my marketing agency, TCF, in 2017, after my first eBook “57 Secrets of Crowdfunding” became the crowdfunding bestseller on Amazon.In the years that followed, I grew TCF to over 100 team members, making it the world’s biggest crowdfunding marketing agency. We’ve managed dozens of million-dollar campaigns, and helped creators launch successful brands. Many of these became the most funded campaigns in their categories.Our team is now focused on building an ecosystem of companies and platforms that help creators from all over the world bring their innovations to life. Resources Prelaunch: https://www.prelaunch.com https://www.prelaunch.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brandsDon't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150" Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

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• #698: Staying customer-centric in the race to adopt agentic AI with Stephanie Liu, Forrester

  We are here at Forrester CX in Nashville, TN and hearing all about the latest insights and ideas for brands to create better experiences for their customers. If your AI roadmap doesn’t include your customer, is it really a roadmap—or just a bridge to nowhere? Agility requires remembering who pays the bills: the customer. When shiny new tech shows up, it’s tempting to sprint after it—often leaving the actual human in our dust. Today we’re talking about staying customer-first in the race to adopt agentic AI. To help me dig in, please welcome Stephanie Liu, Senior Analyst at Forrester. Stephanie—welcome to the show! About Stephanie Liu Steph focuses on the intersection of marketing and privacy. She guides clients on how to strike a delicate balance between privacy, trust, and consumer expectations, all while navigating a rapidly shifting data deprecation landscape that spans consumers’ privacy-protecting behaviors, regulation, tech limitations, and walled gardens. She examines topics like zero-party data, preference centers, data clean rooms, the customer data ecosystem, and how to deliver experiences that are personalized without being creepy. Steph has been quoted in publications such as the New York Times, CNBC, The Markup, Marketplace, and AdWeek; her work has featured in AdExchanger, Forbes, and elsewhere. Resources Forrester: https://www.forrester.com https://www.forrester.com Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brands Don't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150" Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.show Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

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• #697: Building the total experience for customers with AJ Joplin, Forrester

  Does your AI-based interface talk to customers the way a real person would or is it tech for tech’s sake? We are here at Forrester CX in Nashville, TN and hearing all about the latest insights and ideas for brands to create better experiences for their customers. Agility is less about bolting on new features just because the tech is available and more about making tomorrow’s experiences feel intuitive and natural to the end customer using them. Today we’re diving into designing for the future of experiences with AJ Joplin, Senior Analyst at Forrester. About AJ Joplin AJ is the lead analyst for Forrester’s research on experience design (XD), design organizations, and design leadership. Helping XD and customer experience (CX) leaders develop and deliver on research-based strategy is AJ’s professional passion. She has observed that the most effective organizations combine clear purpose with the right people and leverage systems to clarify decision-making, prioritization, and workflows. AJ also has years of workshop facilitation experience in human-centered design and design thinking. Using her professional coaching skills, AJ bring clients through ambiguity and into alignment on what matters and what’s next. Resources Forrester: https://www.forrester.com https://www.forrester.com Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brandsDon't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150" Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.show Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

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• #696: The network effect on CX of AI plus employees with Jay Pattisall, Forrester

  If AI can amplify every employee’s reach ten-fold, how ready is your organization to harness that network effect? We are here at Forrester CX in Nashville, TN and hearing all about the latest insights and ideas for brands to create better experiences for their customers. Agility isn’t about adding more tech; it’s about multiplying human impact. Today we’re exploring the network effect of AI and how it helps employees create powerful experiences with Jay Pattisall, VP & Principal Analyst at Forrester. About Jay Pattisall Jay’s research focuses on marketing services (creative, media, digital, in-house agencies); AI marketing (applications of generative and predictive AI to media and content); and genAI for visual content technologies. Jay helps CMOs and business leaders make sense of the complex and ever-changing marketing services landscape as it embraces AI and automation technologies as part of media management, creative services, and the future of agencies. Resources Forrester: https://www.forrester.com https://www.forrester.com Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brands. Don't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150" Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.show Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

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• #695: Why Trust Is a Strategy, Not a Sentiment with Dana Bodine, Trustpilot

  If nearly half of consumers spend more with brands they trust, why aren’t more companies making trust a core business strategy instead of just a tagline? To help me explore this question, I’m joined by Dana Bodine, U.S. Vice President of Marketing at Trustpilot, the world’s largest independent platform for customer feedback. About Dana BodineDana is an experienced marketing executive and currently serves as Vice President of Marketing for the US at Trustpilot. Prior to this role, Dana held multiple leadership positions including Vice President of Marketing and PR at Pagaya, and Vice President of Global B2B Marketing for Strategic Growth at Mastercard, where responsibilities encompassed inclusive growth initiatives and enterprise partnerships. Additional experience includes Vice President of Global Marketing at Mastercard Labs, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Brand Development at Time Inc., and strategic marketing roles at Apple and NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Dana's early career featured positions at The New York Times and Warner Bros., focusing on advertising and digital marketing. RESOURCES TrustPilot: https://www.trustpilot.com https://www.trustpilot.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brandsDon't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150"Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

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