What Brands Want?

Ariadne Oliveira, CMO at Revlon Professional, joins hosts Danilo Tauro and Jay Friedman on What Brands Want. With a career spanning global transformations across Reckitt Benckiser, Nestlé, and Danone, Ariadne breaks down why a transformation that takes three years has already failed, why showing impact within six months matters far more than waiting for a "perfect" solution, and how to protect long-term growth priorities when short-term profit pressures hit. Plus, she shares how beauty brands can spot real innovation across adjacent categories like fragrance and skincare, why the industry is currently five times too slow from trend identification to shelf, and what tech vendors and agencies must understand about pricing, speed, and real differentiation if they want to survive in a post-AI landscape.

Daniele Calderoni, CMO at Zurich Insurance, joins hosts Danilo Tauro and Jay Friedman on What Brands Want. He breaks down why classic brand-building fundamentals still hold up in the age of AI search, how the 95/5 rule shapes long-cycle marketing budgets, and why AI is transforming search and machine discoverability far more than the core human psychology of buying. Plus, he shares how Zurich uses creators to build trust in low-involvement categories, his strategic-versus-volume framework for in-housing agency work, and what tech vendors and agencies must do to actually earn a marketing leader's attention.

Oz Etzioni, CEO and co-founder of Clinch, and Matt Simmonds, Managing Partner at Publicis Media, joined hosts Danilo Tauro and Jay Friedman on What Brands Want. Oz and Matt break down how connecting creative and media operations delivers scalable advertising results, why shiny tech fails without a strong unglamorous foundation like taxonomy, and how agencies and tech vendors can partner to transform intelligent supply chains. Plus, they discuss the pitfalls of jumping between industry trends, managing complexity across global enterprise brands, and why true agency-vendor collaboration is key to long-term ROI.

Jourdan Hathaway, CMO and CBO at General Assembly, joined our premiere episode of What Brands Want, hosted by Danilo Tauro and Jay Friedman. Jourdan breaks down her evolution from CMO to CBO, how she fixed a 39% revenue leak without spending extra ad dollars, and why the "safe" enterprise vendor choice simply doesn't exist anymore. Plus, she shares real-world lessons from deploying AI, managing "Yo Mama" prank calls in contact centers, and what sales teams must do to earn a buyer's trust today.

Every day, brands and adtech partners sit across the same table and talk right past each other. In this official trailer, hosts Jay Friedman and Danilo Tauro introduce What Brands Want, a new show dedicated to bringing the honest conversations that usually happen behind closed doors right out into the open. Navigating an ecosystem of over 15,000 adtech and martech partners isn't easy. Every two weeks, we unpack what it actually takes to earn brand and agency trust, without the fluff.