What’s the state of the enterprise B2B buyer?

For years, buying enterprise tools and tech followed a fairly predictable playbook. Enterprise buyers started their research on Google and consulted peers and colleagues. They downloaded content assets and attended events or webinars. All of that activity put buyers on the radar of the vendors and put into motion their sales and marketing efforts. AI has fundamentally changed the game of B2B buying for the enterprise. Not only is it easier to conduct research with LLMs, but AI’s ability to spawn companies quickly means the market is as crowded and noisy as ever. On this episode of Conversations with MarTech, we’re talking to Mika Yamamoto, chief customer and marketing officer at Freshworks, about the state of enterprise buyers in the AI era. Episode guideWhat’s the state of the enterprise B2B buyer?What’s responsible for the trust gap with B2B buyers?How has the playbook for reaching enterprise buyers changed?Does authenticity still matter in the age of AI?Vendors have far less visibility into enterprise buyingThis podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

Customer data platforms promised clarity, unity, and true personalization — but reality didn’t live up to the hype. In this episode, Hightouch Co-CEO Tejas Manohar joins Marc Sirkin to dismantle the outdated CDP playbook and reveal why modern teams are shifting toward composable data architectures and AI-driven decisioning. Tejas shares the inside story of the CDP market’s evolution, why most organizations still struggle to activate their data, and how AI is finally enabling the kind of individualized marketing the industry has chased for decades. From broken batch-and-blast tactics to the rise of automated insights, this conversation exposes what’s not working — and what B2B teams must embrace next. If you’re rethinking your stack, your strategy, or your role in an AI-powered marketing world, this episode is required listening.Episode Guide00:16 Guest Introduction: Tejas Manohar00:54 The Evolution of CDPs09:26 The Role of AI in Marketing12:23 The Future of Marketing Playbooks20:10 Personalization in Marketing: Myth or Reality?23:53 AI in Marketing: A New Workflow30:40 The Technical Shift in Marketing35:08 The Future of UX and AI Integration38:52 Personal Journey: Pivoting During COVIDThis podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

Are B2B organizations passing up an opportunity to resonate with their prospects and customers because their messages lack creativity? Today, I’m talking to Jacob Sanders, Scott Monty and Ryan Wellman, the creators of ROI: The Musical, to discuss why so many B2B organizations seem to steer away from getting creative in their marketing. Creativity is risky, it’s subjective and it can be terribly difficult to measure. And that’s part of the point behind an endeavor like ROI: The Musical — it would be challenging to measure the ROI of the musical itself. Episode guide1:55: Why make ROI: The Musical in the first place?5:42: Why don’t companies get more creative in their marketing?8:01: Is bureaucracy and personal preference holding back creativity?12:10: What is the future of long-form, creative content?This podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

What if everything you thought you knew about being “data-driven” was wrong?In this episode of Playbook Broken, host Marc Sirkin talks with Philip Armstrong, SVP and Go-to-Market Head of Insights & Analytics at Truth in Data (and formerly of Nike), about why most dashboards fail, how to overcome data paralysis, and why AI might be breaking more playbooks than it’s fixing. Philip unpacks how Fear of Better Options (FOBO) shapes customer behavior, why no one truly “owns” the customer journey, and how generative AI is changing the meaning of intelligence inside organizations. Together, they explore what it takes to rebuild a playbook that actually helps people buy.This conversation dismantles the illusion of perfect data and exposes why “being data-driven” so often means pretending to be. Philip’s pragmatic approach—treating data as an informed opinion rather than a command—offers a smarter, more human path forward for marketing, analytics, and AI adoption.Timestamps00:00 - Introduction – Meet Philip Armstrong: ex-Nike data leader redefining customer intelligence at Truth in Data.02:00 - Fear of Better Options (FOBO) – How decision paralysis sabotages conversions and why incentives must target emotional reassurance.05:00 – What’s Broken – Why throwing money at tech stacks doesn’t create adoption, and why dashboards rarely inspire action.08:00 – Ownership Crisis – Who really owns the customer journey (spoiler: no one), and how silos kill accountability.12:00 – AI’s Double-Edged Sword – Machine learning’s untapped potential vs. generative AI’s hallucinations, blind spots, and the danger of “average” insights.18:00 – Personalization Limits – Why 1-to-1 marketing still fails, even for Netflix and Amazon.24:00 – Metrics That Lie – Open rates, attribution models, and other vanity KPIs that marketers cling to.27:30 – New Rules – Why smaller qualitative insights often beat massive data sets and how to find meaning on the edges.31:00 – When Data Meets Creativity – Inside Nike: how Philip learned to frame data as a “seat at the table,” not the only truth.36:00 – Takeaways – Redefining data-driven decision-making for the AI era and connecting with Philip online.This podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

For the past several years, “data-driven” and “marketing” have gone together like milk and cookies. You might even describe yourself as a “data-driven” marketer in your LinkedIn profile. But have you thought about what comes next?Neej Gore, chief data officer at Zeta Global, says advances in AI and predictive capabilities might soon mean data-driven is looking backwards, which is exactly the opposite of what everyone was hoping to accomplish with being data-driven in the first place. I sat down with Neej at Zeta Live!, the company’s annual event in New York City, to talk about what comes after data-driven marketing, why systems might overtake stacks and the importance of context moving forward.Neej also shares the one word he would use to describe the future of marketing, and it’s going to surprise you. Episode guide0:38: Meet Neej Gore1:51: From data-driven to answers-driven3:10: Why context matters to data and AI5:00: Marketing as a system, not a stack6:14: The urgency around data governance7:45: One word to describe the future of marketingThis podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

This podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

Marketers are collecting more data than ever before in the rush to be data-driven, but the amount of data is overwhelming, especially for small teams that don’t have access to data scientists. In this conversation with Anssi Rusi, CEO of Supermetrics, we dive into the challenges marketing teams face with their data and whether AI is the force equalizer to help marketing teams find the insights and value hidden in their data faster. We also discuss the state of the customer data platform (CDP) market, as earlier this year Supermetrics acquired real-time CDP Relay42.Episode guide0:18: Meet Anssi Rusi1:50: Where are marketing teams struggling with data?3:42: What are marketing teams doing to grow their data IQ?6:02: What are the best use cases for using AI to get value from data?7:53: Why did Supermetrics buy a CDP?10:30: What is the state of the CDP market?This podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

Playbook Broken: Mind Over Machine: Nate St. Pierre's AI UprisingJoin us as we discuss with Nate St. Pierre, founder of Youbots.ai, about democratizing AI, the nuanced role of AI in creativity, and the balance between human ingenuity and automation. Discover insights into marketing strategies in the age of AI, evolving agency playbooks, and enabling small businesses to punch above their weight class using AI tools. Nate shares his inspirational journey from a marketing strategist to an AI builder, emphasizing the power of context in utilizing AI effectively. #AI #MarketingStrategy #Youbots #Creativity00:00 Introduction to Playbook Broken00:31 Meet Nate St. Pierre: AI Builder and Strategist00:58 The Nuances of AI in Creativity01:45 Nate's Journey into AI02:50 Building AI Tools for Writers06:12 From Fiction to Screenwriting07:08 The Role of AI in Creativity and Business09:29 Balancing Automation and Human Creativity11:37 The Future of AI and Human Creativity16:53 Ethical Considerations in AI Development19:37 Exploring the Benefits of Nate Bots20:38 Transitioning to Custom Bots21:18 Challenges and Solutions for Agencies23:35 Empowering Small Businesses and Nonprofits30:35 Personal Journey and Philanthropy38:53 Final Thoughts and Contact InformationThis podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

AI is creating a lot of anxiety among content creators and creatives, but that doesn’t have to be the case.AI can help these teams scale their work, deliver better results and assist in amplification in ways humans alone could only dream.Among the tasks where I can help creatives:Atomizing long-form content.Assisting in draft and ideation.Helping keep content on brand. In this episode of Conversations with MarTech, we’re talking to Drew Brucker, head of brand and content at webinar and video platform provider Goldcast, about how AI can boost your content efforts, the pros and cons of the democratization of creativity, the enduring webinar format, brand marketing’s resurgence and more.Episode guideMeet Drew BruckerThe best examples of AI helping create content?How important is AI to speeding up creative workflowsHow does the democratization of creativity change the role of creatives?Brand guidelines meet democratized creativityHow are webinars evolving for the AI eraIs a new heyday coming for brand marketing?This podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.

In this episode of Playbook Broken, Marc interviews Ryan Nelsen, CMO of StackAdapt. They delve into AI-fueled advertising strategies, enterprise marketing, and the reinvention of high-performance marketing at scale. Ryan shares his experiences from his career, which includes helping companies like Qualtrics and MX achieve significant growth. They discuss topics such as the shift from tools to revolutions in marketing, the importance of blending B2C tactics into B2B strategies, and the challenges of launching innovative products. Ryan also recounts how he overcame a broken femur just weeks into his new role at StackAdapt, emphasizing resilience and the importance of tackling difficult tasks. They explore the balance between brand and performance marketing, the future of paid media, and the company's integrated marketing efforts. For anyone interested in the intersection of AI, advertising, and strategic growth, this episode is packed with insights and stories from the front lines of marketing innovation.Episode Guide00:00 Introduction to Playbook Broken00:27 Meet Ryan Nelson: Marketing Leader01:02 Ryan's Career Journey and Insights03:17 The Wakeboarding Incident05:52 Expanding into the Enterprise Market09:29 Innovative Marketing Strategies12:21 Balancing Brand and Performance Marketing18:13 Leadership and Team Dynamics20:11 AI and Future Innovations26:11 Resilience and Overcoming Challenges27:58 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsThis podcast is produced by MarTech, a Third Door Media property.