Season 10 in Review: What NFL, PepsiCo & Unilever Taught Us About Modern Marketing Leadership

Marketing and insights teams still read the same data and reach opposite conclusions about when consumers actually enter the room. Nataly Kelly, CMO of Zappi, and Steve Phillips, Zappi's co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, sit on opposite sides of that gap—one building brand strategy, the other building the systems that feed it—which is exactly why they unpacked Zappi's third annual Connected Insights Imperative report together. They dig into why rising "connectedness" hasn't translated into satisfaction, how to separate real AI acceleration from AI that just speeds up old workflows, and where synthetic data earns trust versus where it quietly misleads. The throughline for both audiences: insight has to stop living in reports and start living inside the tools where decisions actually get made.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The traditional shopper funnel is dead, yet most brands still chase it. Nico Laruina, General Manager of Nestlé's Food Business Unit, bridges both worlds daily, running a global food portfolio while proving that consumer truth beats commercial pressure every time. He breaks down why the funnel became circular instead of linear, how elasticity testing reveals what shoppers will actually pay for, and why the right AI prompt only works if you already know your consumer's real need. A must-listen for anyone building strategy and anyone building the research behind it.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marketing and Insights teams still speak past each other, burying consumer truth in translation gaps. James Mackenzie, Head of Growth at PZ Cussons, and Paul Yocum, Chief Growth & Marketing Officer, dismantle that gap firsthand by treating Insights as neutral ground, or what Paul calls "Switzerland", inside a company spanning Indonesia to Nigeria to the UK. They unpack Qualiquant, the fusion of qualitative depth with quantitative scale, AI-led interviews that capture consumers in real moments instead of stiff focus groups, and a path-to-purchase framework that finally separates the shopper from the consumer. The through-line is that getting to the human faster doesn't replace judgment, it sharpens it for marketers and researchers alike.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AI can generate creative fast, but soul gets lost. Matt Harris (Research & Insight Lead) and Oli Bussell (Creative Lead) at Canva sit on opposite sides of the table—data and instinct—and prove the two only work together. They break down how to test storyboards early instead of waiting for the final cut, why bringing a single consumer's voice into the room beats any statistic when defending or reshaping an idea, and how to use insight as a creative challenge to solve rather than a verdict that kills bold ideas. You'll hear why the best partnerships treat research as a steer, not an answer—and where the human touch still beats the algorithm every time.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Performance marketing gets you noticed, but it can't scale you forever. Marcelo Kertész, CMO of MANSCAPED, turned a brand built on awkward jokes into the number three electric grooming brand in the US. All this while outmaneuvering competitors decades older by knowing exactly when to shift gears. He breaks down "The Great Rebalance" from D2C conversion campaigns to full-funnel brand building, why zooming out from seven-day attribution windows to six-month brand performance changes everything, and the difference between consumer insights and human insights. These are the emotional truths data alone can't capture. You'll also learn why listening to consumers with intention beats letting the "popular vote" make your decisions for you.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The biggest brands have the most data and act on it slowest. Patrick O'Toole, CMO of Unleashed Brands, has led billion-dollar brands at PepsiCo and Burger King. Now, he's rebuilding an entire marketing function from scratch with AI at the center, giving him a rare view from both worlds. Pat breaks down the 70-20-10 model for balancing proven tactics with true experimentation, shows how feeding NPS and Google reviews through a behavioral-economics-trained LLM uncovered hidden consumer motivators competitors miss, and explains why every AI insight still gets validated through traditional methods before it ships. You'll hear how to move fast without losing the human expertise (and consumer truth) that makes the work actually land. Pat also hints at Unleashed Brands' newly-launched KidHub, a new family app designed to help parents manage their children's activities while giving them greater visibility into the confidence, resilience and life skills being built along the way.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Most legacy brands fail when they're too scared to be brave. Boris Dolkhani, CMO at Robert Bosch GmbH, transformed a 139-year-old engineering company into a modern storytelling powerhouse with campaigns like "Like a Bosch" and their first-ever Super Bowl appearance. He reveals the "gut feeling" framework that guides creative decisions beyond data, the cultural conversation strategy that generated 10 billion media impressions on a limited budget, and why shifting too much spend toward performance marketing kills the brand storytelling that drives long-term growth.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marketing and insights teams speak different languages when building cultural relevance. Radhika Duggal, CMO of Major League Soccer, and Bettina Garibaldi, Chief Marketing Officer for FIFA World Cup 26™ New York New Jersey, reveal how soccer earned its place in American culture through three decades of patient community building. They share the "attention and spectacle" framework that transformed MLS marketing, the "participation is the new reach" strategy driving World Cup engagement, and how both organizations convert global moments into lasting local fandom through authentic cultural integration. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marketing and insights teams waste millions speaking different languages. Nataly Kelly and Steven Phillips, Zappi's CMO and Chief Innovation Officer, reveal the five breakthrough patterns that emerged from interviewing leaders at NFL, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Visa. They share Unilever's "100-hour consumer passport" rule, the CMO-CFO partnership framework that drives real business growth, and why AI's biggest win isn't productivity. It's freeing up time for human relationships that turn consumer truth into market advantage.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Most brands treat AI like a data processor, but Christian Niederauer uses it to ask deeper human questions. As Vice President of Global Insights at Colgate-Palmolive, Christian leads consumer research across 200+ countries and transforms how AI reveals what people actually need, not just what they buy. He shares his "people-centric AI" framework that moves beyond traditional consumer segmentation to understand humans holistically, his "machine insights" methodology for optimizing content in an agentic commerce world, and practical strategies for democratizing insights while maintaining quality control across global markets.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.