Marketing Vanguard

The best journeys have the most unexpected turns. That’s Sam Allen’s story, and he’s sharing it in this episode of Marketing Vanguard. Tune in as host Jenny Rooney welcomes Sam, CEO of Iterable, to explore how AI is reshaping marketing technology, the future of the CMO role, and why strategic focus beats market-wide expansion for high-growth companies navigating unprecedented transformation.

Sam Allen is the Chief Executive Officer of Iterable, a leading customer engagement platform transforming how enterprises leverage AI-driven personalization at scale. With nearly three decades of experience in technology, including prominent roles at Salesforce, where he managed a $100 million marketing technology budget and served as COO of the global marketing organization, Sam brings deep expertise in enterprise operations, marketing technology infrastructure, and strategic growth. His perspective on balancing human expertise with AI capabilities makes him a valuable figure in the marketing space, especially for senior marketers navigating digital transformation.

What You'll Learn:
How to position your company for a billion-dollar exit by identifying the right market conditions
Why CMOs should expand their seat at the table rather than pivot roles
The "Define the Moment" leadership principle and why it’s so important to move decisively
How to interrogate AI recommendations using human context and expertise
The verticalization and focus strategy for scaling
Why the future of knowledge work belongs to practitioners who become experts in AI tools

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Marketing Vanguard continues live from Cannes as Jenny Rooney hosts a special Adweek House conversation with Mainardo de Nardis, Global President and COO of Edelman and Rani Al Hajji, Chief Growth and Transformation Officer, Personal Care at Unilever.

This conversation cuts straight into one of marketing’s biggest modern problems: everyone has infinite opportunities, infinite channels and infinite reasons to do more. But the best marketers are not winning by doing more. They are winning by making sharper bets and doing less for more.

Mainardo de Nardis is Global President and Chief Operating Officer of Edelman, with deep experience across full-service marketing, PR, digital, media, startups, AdTech, MarTech and global agency leadership. His perspective centers on how brands earn relevance and trust in a world where attention cannot simply be bought.

Rani Al Hajji is Chief Growth and Transformation Officer, Personal Care at Unilever. With more than 25 years in marketing and consumer goods, including roles at L’Oréal, Colgate and Unilever across Europe, the U.S. and China, Rani focuses on redefining how brands create connection moments that matter. In this conversation, he brings that lens to Unilever’s personal care portfolio, cultural relevance and the FIFA World Cup.

What You'll Learn:
Why visibility is not the same thing as attention
How brands can move from attention to real engagement
Why saying no is now one of the hardest and most important marketing skills
How clear KPIs make distractions easier to spot
Why cultural relevance starts with knowing what each brand actually stands for
How Unilever is building around FIFA without buying its way into the moment
Why paid should amplify earned relevance, not replace it

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Cannes 2026 and presented in partnership with Edelman

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are marketers making a fatal mistake by treating AI as just a cost-cutting tool?

The Marketing Vanguard Cannes series continues as host Jenny Rooney sits down with Jonathan Adashek, SVP, Marketing and Communications at IBM, to unpack how marketers should be treating AI, today. He breaks down how at IBM, it is becoming a way to rethink processes and drive measurable growth, their “client zero” approach, $4.5 billion in savings over three years and why the company now does half the number of events it did two years ago.

Jonathan Adashek is SVP, Marketing and Communications at IBM, where he leads marketing, communications, and CSR. He joined IBM in January 2020 as Chief Communications Officer and took on the marketing portfolio in January 2022. In his role, Jonathan helps shape IBM’s global narrative as the company sharpens its focus around hybrid cloud, AI and open technology. His background in communications and politics gives him a distinct view of marketing: build a clear story, bring people on the journey and connect brand work more closely to business outcomes. At IBM, he has helped drive AI adoption across processes, event strategy, customer segmentation and internal operations through the company’s “client zero” approach.

What You'll Learn:

Why AI should be measured by effectiveness and growth, not just cost reduction
How IBM uses AI to improve event targeting, personalization and lead generation
Why training, workflow design and tool discipline matter in AI adoption
How to avoid runaway AI agents and fragmented tools inside a large organization
Why unifying marketing and communications can bring brand narrative closer to revenue
How IBM balances 115 years of brand equity with sharper hybrid cloud and AI positioning
Why customer segmentation and team structure can change go-to-market effectiveness

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Cannes 2026 and presented in partnership with Edelman

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marketing Vanguard continues live from Cannes. Host Jenny Rooney sits down with Mark Kirkham, Chief Marketing Officer at PepsiCo Beverages US, to break down why Cannes only works when CMOs show up with clear intention. Mark explains how AI has moved from tech hype to operational reality, why disruption cycles collapsed from five years to five months, and why honest peer debate is the only way marketing leaders stay ahead.

Mark Kirkham is Chief Marketing Officer of PepsiCo Beverages US, where he leads brand, category, and marketing programs across Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Starry, Bubly, and Mug. A 15-year PepsiCo veteran, Mark has held global and regional marketing leadership roles including Chief Marketing Officer, International Beverages, VP of Global Sports, Juice and Energy, and Head of Marketing & Innovation for Western Europe. His work has included Pepsi’s UEFA Champions League partnership, the global Pepsi Taste Challenge, expansion of Gatorade and Mountain Dew across international markets, and award-winning brand and innovation programs. Before PepsiCo, Mark held roles at P&G, Nielsen, and Forrester Research.

What You'll Learn:
Why AI is shifting from hype cycle to everyday marketing work
How CMOs should evaluate AI through growth, efficiency, insight, and discoverability
Why disruption now happens in months, not years
How peer learning and open debate help the entire industry move forward
Why Cannes works best when CMOs prioritize quality over quantity
How teams can learn from challenger brands and organic social-first thinking
Why the industry has a role to play in making Cannes more curated and creatively valuable

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Cannes 2026 and presented in partnership with Edelman
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Marketing Vanguard Cannes series continues as host Jenny Rooney sits down with Lara Balazs, Chief Marketing Officer and EVP of Global Marketing at Adobe. In this episode, Lara breaks down why enterprise AI adoption is shifting toward tangible workflow wins. She highlights how heavyweights like the NFL, Disney and L’Oréal deploy Adobe Firefly to automate manual asset scaling while protecting proprietary IP. Learn why human empathy, brand trust and strategic judgment remain irreplaceable in the age of generative AI.

Lara Balazs is Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President, Global Marketing at Adobe, where she leads global marketing and communications, drives profitable growth and helps build Adobe’s brand in the AI era. Before joining Adobe in 2024, Lara was Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager, Strategic Partner Group at Intuit, where she led marketing and communications across the company’s brands and also served as general manager of Intuit’s ProTax group. She has also held marketing leadership roles at Amazon, Visa and Nike, with experience spanning B2C, B2B and B2B2C models. Lara has been recognized on Forbes’ World’s Most Influential CMOs list, Forbes’ Entrepreneurial CMO 50 and received Adweek’s CMO Vanguard Award.

What You'll Learn:
Why the AI conversation has moved from fear to confidence
How AI can augment human insight, empathy and brand visibility
Why real case studies matter more than speculation
How Firefly helps creative teams reduce repetitive production work
Why being a CMO now requires humility, curiosity and constant learning
How the multi-hyphenate marketer applies fundamentals across different business models
Why taste, trust and judgment still require customer empathy and human decision-making

This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Cannes 2026 and presented in partnership with Edelman

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.