Join Alan B. Hart as he dives into conversations with the world's leading chief marketing officers and business innovators. Tune in to get inspired by the stories and experiences of marketing visionaries—and stay ahead of the curve.
57: Business lessons from building music fandoms: Insights from Universal Music Group Executive Vice President of Global Marketing and Partnerships Naomi McMahon
How can brands build lasting value and relevance?
As brands increasingly see fandoms not as surface-level add-ons but as part of a long-term strategy, many are building value and cultural relevance through authentic connection, thoughtful investment and meaningful engagement with fan communities.
In today's episode, Naomi McMahon, EVP of global marketing and partnerships at Universal Music Group, explains strategies that can help brands move beyond one-off projects to build authentic, mutually beneficial relationships with fan communities—and use insights to make more informed decisions about where and how to show up.
Drawing on her experience across music, technology, advertising and global organizations, Naomi explains that strong brand-artist collaborations can move beyond transactions to create meaningful, lasting connections. They can do this by:
Understanding an artist's world, fan community and broader creative ecosystem before deciding how the brand should show up
Giving artists enough creative freedom to use their authentic voice and perspective to shape the relationship
Creating authentic experiences across content, live events and other touchpoints that invite participation, not just consumption
Music and fandom are deeply personal, and they can offer marketers a powerful way to understand where culture and communities are heading. Naomi explains how brands can combine cultural signals and audience data with instinct and judgment to identify meaningful opportunities, take calculated risks and show up in ways that feel authentic, instead of chasing every moment.
The episode offers a practical perspective on how brands can move artist collaborations beyond short-term attention to create lasting relationships with audiences and unlock brand value.
In this episode, you'll hear:
Ways to build brand collaborations around shared value, instead of one-off exposure
Why authenticity is important for long-term audience connections
Strategies to use cultural signals and fan insights to make better marketing decisions
Key highlights
[00:00] Introduction
· [00:00] Concert-going as a teen
· [00:00] Naomi's path to Universal Music Group
· [00:00] How UMG helps to shape culture
· [00:00] Matching artists with the right brands
· [00:00] Using music to connect brands with the culture at large
· [00:00] Blending art and science
· [00:00] Past experience that defines you: Living in Ireland and New York
· [00:00] Advice to your younger self: Don't wait for permission
· [00:00] A topic you're trying to learn more about: Longevity
· [00:00] Latest curiosities: International music trends
· [00:00] Largest potential opportunity: Leveraging culture on a smaller, local level
· [00:00] Largest potential threat: Chasing attention instead of lasting relevance
Resources mentioned:
· Universal Music Group
Follow the podcast:
● Listen on Apple Podcasts
● Listen on Amazon Music
● Listen on Audible
● Listen on iHeart Radio
● Listen on Spotify (http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)
Connect with Naomi and UMG:
· Naomi on LinkedIn
· UMG on LinkedIn
Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:
● Connect with Alan Hart on X
● Connect with Alan Hart on LinkedIn
● Connect with Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn
● Connect with Deloitte Digital on Instagram
● Connect with Deloitte Digital on YouTube
Connect with Deloitte Digital on Threads
30 Sept 2026
56: Building a retail media network in reverse: Insights from Dollar General Senior Vice President and CMO Tony Rogers
What happens when a retailer builds its omnichannel marketing and retail media strategy in reverse?
In this episode, Tony Rogers, SVP and CMO at Dollar General, shares how the company took an outside-in path to omnichannel growth—building its retail media network offsite and audience-first, before launching an e-commerce business.
Tony explains how an innovative approach that integrates marketing, digital commerce and retail media can help retailers better connect customer needs, advertiser investment and enterprise priorities around shared business goals. He notes how that thinking can also enable teams to respond more quickly to advertiser feedback and advance technology priorities.
He emphasizes that challenging conventional assumptions about how retail media networks should be built can drive incremental reach, business growth and customer loyalty. For marketing and retail leaders, this episode offers a practical case study in rethinking the usual playbook: starting with audience and purpose, organizing around the customer journey, and harnessing the powerful collaboration of marketing and retail media to enable channel growth and deepen loyalty.
In this episode, you'll hear:
How uniting marketing, digital, and retail media can accelerate decisions and align teams around the customer
The value of an offsite-first marketing approach to capture incremental reach and strengthen customer loyalty
Strategies for integrating app, website and delivery experiences that can turn retail media into a growth engine
Key highlights:
[00:38] Introduction
[01:55] A recent golfing snafu
[03:05] Tony's path to Dollar General
[07:50] Dollar General's delivery launch
[10:55] Scaling e-commerce operations
[13:25] A different kind of retail media network
[16:45] Past experience that defines you: An impactful family funeral
[19:10] Advice to your younger self: Do less people-pleasing
[21:00] A topic you're trying to learn more about: AI-driven personalization
[24:11] Latest curiosities: Overcoming divisiveness
[26:33] Largest potential threat: Only focusing on marketing in the short-term
[28:30] What AI cannot do: Human empathy
Resources mentioned:
Dollar General (https://www.dollargeneral.com/)
Follow the podcast:
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen on Audible
Listen on iHeart Radio
Listen on Spotify (http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)
Connect with Tony and Dollar General:
Tony on LinkedIn
Dollar General on LinkedIn
Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:
Connect with Alan Hart on X (https://x.com/abhart)
Connect with Alan Hart on LinkedIn
Connect with Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn
Connect with Deloitte Digital on Instagram
Connect with Deloitte Digital on YouTube
Connect with Deloitte Digital on Threads
23 Sept 2026
55: Curiosity as a creative advantage: Insights from Amazon Chief Creative Officer Jo Shoesmith
What separates a good idea from good creative work?
For Jo Shoesmith, chief creative officer at Amazon, it's curiosity—the willingness to look again, to find the idea within the idea and recognize potential hiding in plain sight.
In this episode, Jo draws on her agency experience and her current role leading Amazon's creative organization to explain how leaders can operate as both builders and curators—building systems that can help a global brand move with speed and continuity, then applying judgment and taste to determine which ideas best represent the brand and which stories are worth telling. This balance can give teams room to experiment while preserving brand continuity.
Jo's instinct to look past the obvious and find what resonates comes through in her work on Amazon's iconic 2023 "Joy Ride" advertisement. Her team recognized genuine chemistry among its three stars and trusted their unscripted joy to carry a story with no spoken dialogue. The result was a simple, emotionally resonant portrayal of friendship and aging that connected with people far beyond its intended audience.
To help bring other great ideas to life, AI can help curious creatives remove friction, but acting on every idea isn't the goal. Human judgment and taste still determine which ideas to pursue, and which will resonate.
For creative and marketing leaders, Jo's lesson is clear: Curiosity is key to identifying an idea's potential, building systems that help it grow and knowing when it is right for the brand. As AI makes it possible to explore and execute more possibilities, those human capabilities become even more important.
In this episode, you'll hear:
How curiosity can help creative leaders recognize potential and build on areas others might overlook
Ways marketing teams can use AI to expand creative possibilities without replacing human judgment and taste
Strategies to build and curate brands that move fast, feel human and make a lasting emotional impact
Key highlights:
[00:20] Introduction
[01:50] Growing up in rural Australia
[03:00] Jo's path to Amazon
[06:30] The scope of the CCO role at Amazon
[07:35] Being both a builder and a curator
[09:25] Embracing AI as a creative
[12:50] Making Amazon's iconic 2023 "Joy Ride" ad
[15:35] Past experience that defines you: Growing up with a strong single mother
[16:50] Advice to your younger self: Become a builder
[18:05] A topic you're trying to learn more about: Role expansion to media and production
[18:40] Latest curiosities: Identifying small, simple ideas for new creations
[19:35] Largest potential opportunity: Everyone is a business owner
[20:50] What AI cannot replicate: Strong internal company culture
Resources mentioned:
Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/)
Follow the podcast:
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen on Audible
Listen on iHeart Radio
Listen on Spotify (http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)
Connect with Jo and Amazon:
Jo on LinkedIn
Amazon on LinkedIn
Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:
Connect with Alan Hart on X (https://x.com/abhart)
Connect with Alan Hart on LinkedIn
Connect with Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn
Connect with Deloitte Digital on Instagram
Connect with Deloitte Digital on YouTube
Connect with Deloitte Digital on Threads
Who has been a guest on Marketing Beyond with Alan B. Hart
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Eric Liedtke
Richard Sanderson
Kevin Evers
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YouTube
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