Stop using AI for everything - Finding the best use cases with UserTesting CMO Johann Wrede

Most people are overusing AI and not making the most of it for the things that really matter. Johann Wrede, CMO at UserTesting, is teaching us to go beyond simple tasks and use Claude Code and Codex - his Shiny New Objects for data driven marketers. Learn why building the right tools, independent of the AI agent used, will improve your marketing. We also discuss the power of moving quickly, testing often, and keeping the human in the process.

It's now easier than ever to copy content until all digital marketing starts to look the same - this is where taste becomes a shiny new object, says Marukh Budhraja, Global Head of Social Media Marketing at Charlotte Tilbury. What really differentiates brands and how can you use today's tools, without your content looking copied? She tells us more on this episode of the Shiny New Object podcast.  

For Tim Sparke, feedback is something marketers should seek relentlessly, but one thing companies and people aren't really set up to receive. And that includes data in... data driven marketing. On the Shiny New Object Podcast latest episode, he explains why relentlessly seeking feedback is key to developing, and how to set up a system for this rather than simply thinking about gathering data as a goal. But most importantly, we talk about his and Congregation Partners' ambitious new project: the Trevi app. A safe sandbox for marketers to test ideas, explore data, and compare different generative models. Find out all about it in this latest episode.

Drowning in content?  Nevra has a solution. With vibe coding and bridging gaps between sources, BT Group's Digital Performance Manager, Nevra Yagmur, shares her "podsome" project. Plus, find out her skills of choice to make it in data driven marketing when depth alone isn't enough and performance stops happening in isolation.

Dan Saunders is the Head of Performance Marketing at Evergreen Finance London and our latest guest on the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast. He swears by "The Way of the Wolf" to teach us why everything we do is ultimately, a sales job. He believes the best thing to do with data is get stuck in, finding your starting point and just using it - not being paralysed by how much of it you've got. And he tells us why the future of marketing sits with Performance AI that quantifies everything we used to look at as subjective. As long as humans are at the helm, that can yield highly effective conversion results. Tune in to learn how. 

Data is never static - just like people and the world as a whole. Vanessa Atanasov, Shopper and Trade Marketing Manager at Jack Link's and BiFi Benelux, tells us how she uses the "before & after" of banana bread during Covid lockdowns to illustrate how things can change, including our understanding of them. We talk about shopper vs consumer marketing and how to use productive curiosity to make your in-store campaigns stand out. Tune in to the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast to get some of the worst, and best, marketing advice ever. #marketingpodcast #datadrivenmarketing  

What if the future of marketing is not just knowing what people will do, but understanding why they feel the way they do? In this episode, Joy Allen-Altimare unpacks predictive emotional modelling, and why the next leap in data driven marketing will come from combining behaviour, context and human emotion.

Testing is simple, but underutilised in data driven marketing. And it has such potential to uncover incremental wins and breakthrough ideas. Jack Chape, Head of Integrated Media EMEA at PMG, joins the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast to discuss the power of curiosity, making it into a cultural staple, and the benefits of a continuous "test and learn" approach. Learn how to ask better questions, get the insights you need, and gain competitive advantages when your competitors are never standing still. #marketingpodcast #datadrivenmarketing #testandlearn

Asking questions and digging deep beyond the first layer of data is what's going to help grow in a climate where there are so many unknowns and changes every day.  Justinas Vaičiulis, Head of Performance Marketing at Jimdo, tells us why it's smart to make small bets, test, validate, and move up from there. On the #ShinyNewObjectPodcast, we also talk about picking the clients no one wants to work with and why he has built a career out of "digging into stuff." Top marketing career tips and advice for growing intelligently.  #marketing #marketingpodcast 

When the people behind tools actually care, work becomes faster, smoother, and more impactful. It's why Anna Soldatova, Performance Marketeer at Swapfiets, believes that investing in people relationships will save marketing from becoming a burnout-inducing quest for solo heroics. On the Shiny New Object Podcast, we discuss: How improv has made her more attuned to others' reactions and more confident in presenting Why you need to be okay with dropping channels, walking away, and experimenting with new things The secret to managing multiple channels by turning vendors into collaborators and looking beyond tools, to betting on people.