In the AI era, marketing should be unstoppable, and its future is being written in real time. Frontier CMO talks to the leaders shaping it. Join Joshua Spanier, Google's VP of AI and Marketing Strategy, in his deep-dives with the leaders, marketers, technologists who are rewriting the playbook. Welcome to the Frontier.
We’re asking the questions other won’t: How do marketing leaders prove ROI to executives? What does a modern marketing strategy look like when AI and analytics are reshaping the rules every day? Each episode of Frontier CMO explores the real-world playbooks leaders are using to navigate the AI-powered landscape. From marketing trends and branding breakthroughs to advancements in digital marketing, social media, content marketing, and B2B marketing, Frontier CMO breaks down what’s working and what’s not to help you navigate this new landscape.
Subscribe to Frontier CMO on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to get alerted when the first episode drops in January.
Building a Brand with Substance: Ro’s Reinvention of Healthcare
Could your doctor's office be just a few clicks away?
In this episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with Will Flaherty, SVP of Growth at Ro, the digital healthcare platform rethinking not only how care is delivered but how it's marketed. Will explains how Ro earns trust in one of the hardest categories to market, why the brand rejects fear-based messaging in favor of uplifting human stories, and what it took to put Serena Williams at the center of a Super Bowl campaign. He also shares how Ro erased the line between brand and performance, why clinicians sit inside the creative process, and how a little weekend AI tinkering can spark big ideas for the business.
Tune in for a master class in marketing when the product you're really selling is trust.
00:00 – Introduction: Will Flaherty, SVP of Growth at Ro
01:00 – Reinventing Healthcare Through Digital Access
03:20 – Building Trust in Healthcare Marketing
05:00 – Ro’s Challenger Brand Marketing Playbook
06:00 – Blurring the Lines Between Brand and Performance Marketing
07:30 – Bringing Medical Experts Into the Creative Process
09:20 – Designing for a Mobile-First Consumer
10:15 – How Ro Uses AI to Drive Marketing Decisions
11:50 – Redefining Growth Beyond Customer Acquisition
12:45 – Using AI to Empower Marketing Teams
15:10 – Serena Williams and the Power of Authentic Storytelling
16:05 – Measuring Super Bowl Campaign Success and Long-Term ROI
17:15 – Career Lessons from SeatGeek, Rent the Runway, and Ro
19:00 – Embracing AI as the Next Major Platform Shift
20:45 – Signal or Noise: The Future of Healthcare
21:45 – CMO Download: Podcasts, Search, and YouTube
23:05 – Three Key Takeaways for Marketers
1 Oct 2026
Rebuilding AT&T: The Secret to Scaling Customer Obsession
How do you transform one of the world's most iconic telecom giants into a modern, customer-obsessed growth powerhouse?
In the latest episode of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier welcomes Kellyn Smith Kenny, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at AT&T, for an inside look at AT&T's multi-year reinvention. Kellyn shares how she bridged creative storytelling with financial accountability, gained unanimous C-suite buy-in to become more customer-centric, and established a sustainable competitive moat in connectivity.
Tune in for a master class about CMOs as the voice of the customer.
00:00 – Rebuilding AT&T Around the Customer
04:00 – Why Moving Faster Mattered
05:00 – The AT&T Guarantee
06:00 – Differentiating in a Commoditized Category
09:00 – Turning Customer Problems Into Loyalty
12:00 – Building a Brand Beyond Advertising
15:00 – Fixing the Story, Not the Storytelling
17:00 – AT&T’s AI Legacy and Future
18:00 – How AI Is Transforming Marketing
20:00 – The Skills Marketers Need in the AI Era
22:00 – Career Lessons From Accenture, Microsoft, Uber & More
26:00 – Signal or Noise + Three Takeaways
17 Sept 2026
Relevance is Revenue: Gap’s Secret to Winning
Gap Inc. is having a moment and Damon Berger, an SVP who leads marketing shared services across the company’s portfolio of iconic brands, is focused on turning that moment into momentum. Live from Google’s Rethink Retail event in New York, he joins Josh on stage in front of 350 retail marketers to unpack how Gap Inc. is blending entertainment, cultural relevance and AI to drive sustainable business growth.
From viral YouTube campaigns with KATSEYE, Young Miko, Mr Beast and more, to pioneering employee-creator programs, discover how one of retail's most loved brands is transforming relevance into revenue.
👇 Key moments in this episode:
00:00 - Introduction & Gap’s growth
02:15 - "Relevance is Revenue" — Differentiating Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, & Athleta
05:10 - Why "Brand vs. Performance" is the wrong question to ask
07:45 - Building best friends with Finance (and why ROAS is a long game)
09:15 - Product at the center: The formula behind Cardi B, Young Miko, and KATSEYE
11:15 - Inside the innovative Employee Creator Program & Creator Affiliate launch
13:15 - Career journeys: From Disney to Barbie's turnaround at Mattel
16:30 - Marketing "Avatar" without showing the blue people 🤫
17:00 - The future of Agentic Commerce & AI Virtual Try-Ons
22:30 - Why AI will never understand the emotional choice of getting dressed
24:30 - Signal or noise
#FrontierCMO #GapInc #RetailMarketing #BrandStrategy #YoungMiko #CardiB #Katseye #MrBeast #MarketingTransformation #AIinRetail #AgenticCommerce
Who has been a guest on Modern Marketers
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Aude Gandon
Anda Gansca
Rishad Tobaccowala
Lorraine Twohill
Colin Rosenblum
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