The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

Greg Heinz, Senior Director of Brand and Digital Strategy at Optimizely, led the company's rebrand — and he argues AI should amplify creative work rather than automate it away. Recorded live at Opticon 2026 in New York City.A rebrand is repositioning, not a new logo. Heinz walks through the research behind Optimizely's brand evolution, the market signals that made the case internally, and what the company had to give up to make the new promise credible.The line between amplification and authorship gets drawn on purpose. "AI" covers everything from a tool that speeds up a designer to a system that ships work with nobody in the authoring seat. Heinz on where he insisted a person stay in the seat, and why.A brand is proven by behavior, not messaging. What had to change in product decisions, sales conversations, and the digital experience for the new positioning to be true — and what keeps the brand recognizable as one company as the volume of expression goes up.Greg Heinz and Greg Kihlström also get into what changes when the first thing evaluating your brand is an AI system researching on a buyer's behalf rather than a person.About Greg HeinzGreg is a marketing manager with over fifteen years of professional experience in B2B software solutions and services, Healthcare, Sports and Entertainment. My goal is to help organizations achieve rapid growth through brand development and demand generation. I am a strong believer in creating amazing experiences and lasting impressions through UX design and storytelling.Greg Heinz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjheinz/---------- Resources ----------Optimizely: www.optimizely.comThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fChaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.comThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

When every employee can produce polished, on-brand-looking content in seconds, who actually owns the brand anymore?Agility requires guardrails, not just accelerators. Moving fast is only an advantage if the organization is still moving as one recognizable company.Today we're going to talk about the gap that opens up between how fast AI lets an organization produce and how well its brand actually holds together as that output scales. We'll explore:- What really gets diluted when content creation is democratized — and how quickly that compounds- Treating brand as infrastructure: building systems that guide AI-generated work rather than teams that police it after the fact- Why investment in brand governance has to scale in lockstep with investment in AI toolsTo help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Meghan Gendelman, CMO of B2B at Canva.About Meghan GendelmanMeghan Gendelman is Chief Marketing Officer, B2B at Canva, where she leads global B2B marketing to help organizations turn visual communication into essential infrastructure for modern work.Meghan’s previously led cross-functional teams across Marketing, Enablement, Customer Success, and Sales. Most recently, she served as GVP of Growth Marketing at Docusign, where she worked on category building and positioning the company to win the enterprise. Prior, Meghan spent nearly 13 years at Salesforce, where she held senior roles including CMO of Financial Services, SVP and Head of Marketing for the Americas, and SVP of Global Strategic Marketing.A champion of inclusion, Meghan pioneered the first Women’s Summit at Dreamforce and is passionate about developing diverse, values-driven leaders. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters.Meghan Gendelman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgendelman/---------- Resources ----------Canva: canva.comThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fEnjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.comThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Kevin White, Head of Marketing at Scrunch, argues that referral traffic from ChatGPT is the wrong instrument for measuring AI search — and that the real question is whether a model represents your brand accurately when no one clicks at all. He and Greg Kihlström get into what to build and what to measure instead."AI search" is several different problems wearing one label. A crawler pulling your content, a model synthesizing an answer, and an agent acting on someone's behalf are not the same event — and teams that treat them as one end up optimizing for the wrong thing.A website now serves two readers with different needs. White on what changes structurally when the page has to work for a human and for a machine that will compress it into three sentences.Visibility is probabilistic, so accountability has to change. The same prompt can surface your brand one day and skip it the next. White on what a marketing leader can honestly commit to a CMO or a board in that environment.About Kevin WhiteKevin White is a B2B tech marketing leader who has helped shape go-to-market at Segment, Retool, and Common Room, and now leads marketing at Scrunch AI, an AI-first customer-journey platform. He got his start in SaaS at Gigya — where he was handed Marketo and told to 'figure it out,' the spark for a learn-by-doing growth mindset that merges analytical rigor (attribution, lifecycle infrastructure, reporting) with creative offer- and channel-building. That growth foundation carried him to leading whole marketing orgs, though he's candid that the climb pulled him away from the hands-on craft he loves, and at Common Room he deliberately stepped back into a senior IC role. At Scrunch he focuses on one of the most overlooked shifts in modern marketing: websites are now consumed as much by AI bots as by humans, and brands that make their sites legible to LLMs — through structure, markdown and JSON, schema, and a parallel AI-optimized experience — win the emerging AI retrieval channel.Kevin White on LinkedIn---------- Resources ----------This episode is brought to you by Scrunch. Scrunch gets your site AI-ready so you show up in answers, get cited, and grow revenue. Learn more at Scrunch.comReach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fEnjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.comThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

What if the moment where the buying decision actually gets made is still the part of the journey we understand the least?Agility depends on seeing what customers actually do — not just what they clicked — and being able to act on it while the promotion is still running.Today we're talking about the gap between where brands are putting their media money and where they can actually see it working. Retail media budgets are climbing, stores are getting reinvested in, and yet the shelf itself remains one of the least instrumented parts of the customer journey. We'll be covering:- Why the surge in retail media spend hasn't automatically produced better measurement.- What it takes to connect a digital impression to what a shopper actually does in the aisle.- How marketing, merchandising, and store operations have to work differently to act on any of it.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Angie Westbrock, CEO at Standard AI.About Angie WestbrockAngie Westbrock brings 20+ years of experience in retail, CPG and tech to her role as the CEO at Standard AI, the retail analytics startup valued at $1B that’s helping retailers and brands understand shopper behavior so they can improve the customer experience and their bottom lines. Angie specializes in scaling teams, culture, and business operations to support massive growth. She’s bucked the mold of what’s expected of women since the start of her career; she was one of the first brewing managers at Anheuser-Busch, one of the youngest women to run a plant at CPG giant Sara-Lee, and helped lead Lyft’s global Covid-task force with a young family at home.Angie Westbrock on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angie-westbrock-a2581111/---------- Resources ---------- Standard AI: standard.aiThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fChaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/93531742a7625a20Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.comThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

With trillions spent on digital ads to capture consumer attention, is the most powerful and effective channel for product discovery the one your brand is overlooking?Agility requires brands to move beyond a digital-only mindset and recognize that the modern customer journey fluidly moves between online and offline moments. It means building the capabilities to engage and measure impact in the physical world with the same precision we've come to expect from digital.Today, we're going to talk about the next evolution of retail media and why the physical store, far from being obsolete, is becoming the next great frontier for data-rich, high-impact customer engagement. We'll explore how brands can bridge the gap between their digital strategies and in-store realities to not only drive discovery but create measurable, full-funnel marketing moments.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Matt Eichorn, CEO and Co-Founder and Dilini Fernando, CMO at Freeosk.About Matt EichornVisionary entrepreneur Matt Eichorn has been at the forefront of evolving brand and shopper marketing experiences for the better part of 20 years. As the current CEO, President, and Co-Founder of Freeosk, Eichorn has built a one-of-a-kind technology platform to deliver multi-sensory experiences at scale. His foresight to digitize millions of real-world intent signals in-store, as they happen, is unlocking new insights and shaping the landscape of retail media 3.0 for brands, category managers, and retailers alike.Dilini Fernando is the Vice President, Marketing at Chicago-based Freeosk – the only omnichannel discovery platform with in-store automated sampling. Dilini joined Freeosk in October of 2020 to lead integrated marketing programs, including brand, product and partner initiatives. Prior to Freeosk, Dilini spent ten years at MolsonCoors in brand marketing, digital innovation, new product development, and portfolio strategy. Dilini received her BA from Brown University and her MBA from the University of Chicago. She is a previous recipient of Brand Innovators “40 Under 40”.LinkedIn: Matt EichornAbout Dilini FernandoDilini Fernando is the Vice President, Marketing at Chicago-based Freeosk – the only omnichannel discovery platform with in-store automated sampling. Dilini joined Freeosk in October of 2020 to lead integrated marketing programs, including brand, product and partner initiatives. Prior to Freeosk, Dilini spent ten years at MolsonCoors in brand marketing, digital innovation, new product development, and portfolio strategy. Dilini received her BA from Brown University and her MBA from the University of Chicago. She is a previous recipient of Brand Innovators “40 Under 40”.LinkedIn: Dilini Fernando---------- Resources ----------FreeoskThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save!Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose.Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show.Connect with Greg on LinkedInDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more.Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia—the wiki for marketing technology.Produced by Missing Link.

How much of your marketing technology budget is quietly underperforming, not because the software is flawed, but because your teams can't, or won't, fully adopt it?Because real agility was never about buying faster tools. It's about having an operating model that can actually turn a tool's potential into results, and keep doing it as the tools keep changing.Today we're digging into the phase that quietly decides whether any martech investment pays off: what happens after the contract is signed with things like implementation and adoption. We'll get into:- Why rollouts stall — and why the real cause is usually the operating model, not the tool.- What it takes to move a team from "trained" to genuinely changed.- How to measure real value without fooling yourself with usage metrics.- And what shifts once the platform starts doing some of the work itself.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Kate Dalbey, Chief Client Officer at Qualified Digital.About Kate DalbeyAs CCO, Kate leads client management and growth initiatives at Qualified Digital, bringing over 20 years of digital marketing experience from both client-side and agency-side roles. She's responsible for driving organic and net new growth by leading multi-disciplinary teams who turn light-bulb ideas into fantastic outcomes for the brands QD works with. Kate is guided by the client philosophy that "we grow because they grow." Kate has consistently delivered year-over-year growth in her portfolio within fast-paced, high-growth start-up environments. She passionately believes that digital experiences can change people's lives for the better and works diligently to see these outcomes arrive in real time. In her daily life at QD, Kate enjoys what she calls "the relentless pursuit of better business results" and takes pride in building the teams that can create them, from idea to strategy to plan to execution and measurement. Because what's next isn't enough, it's what's north that really gets her excited. Kate's career experience is deeply rooted in healthcare, across provider, payer, and life sciences. The client roster she's managed includes category powerhouses CVS Health, CommonSpirit Health, Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, Aetna, Sunrise Senior Living, Gelesis, UNCH, Jefferson Health, Cedars-Sinai, Spaulding Rehabilitation, UHS, and Wedgewood Pharmacy. She's also led digital transformation for AmeriGas, Hitachi Vantara, Thomson Reuters, ScanSource, U of Pennsylvania, and the Am. Board of Internal Medicine. When Kate isn't delivering her unique brand of magic at QD, she's with her husband and 2 sons. She loves cheering on Philly sports teams, coaching youth soccer with her husband, and traveling with her family.Kate Dalbey on LinkedIn---------- Resources ---------- Qualified DigitalThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save!Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show.Connect with Greg on LinkedInDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more.Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology.The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link.

What if the real risk with AI isn't moving too slowly, but instead moving fast on a foundation that hasn't quite earned its trust?Because agility was never really about speed. It's about being able to change again and again without the whole thing coming apart — and that depends on groundwork most organizations are tempted to skip.Today we're going to dig into that groundwork — the unglamorous part that decides whether AI actually pays off. Specifically:- Why the same AI investment can compound trust in one company and quietly erode it in another — and what makes the difference.- The tension between personalizing an interface for every individual user and keeping one coherent, recognizable product.- Why building a real data culture is the step nearly everyone skips, and no one can skip for long.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Chris Willis, Chief Design Officer & Futurist at Domo.About Chris WillisChris Willis is Chief Design Officer at Domo, where he brings more than 25 years of design and product leadership to the company’s data, analytics, and AI platform. Since joining Domo early in its history, he has played a key role in shaping the platform’s design strategy, helping make complex data more accessible and useful for customers across industries. Before Domo, Chris co-founded HOUR Detroit magazine and Footnote.com (now Fold3.com), which was acquired by Ancestry.com, and worked as an award-winning illustrator, journalist, and author. His experience blends design thinking, technology, and emerging trends to drive innovation and build tools that solve real business problems.,Yes,This will be completed shortlyChris Willis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cwillis---------- Resources ---------- : https://www.domo.comThe Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fEnjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716baCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.comThe Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

What if the biggest barrier to scaling your retail media investment isn't technology, but a fundamental disagreement on what success even looks like?Agility requires not just adopting new tools, but also being willing to challenge the measurement frameworks we've grown accustomed to.Today, we're going to talk about the nuanced world of in-store retail media measurement and why the old rules no longer apply. Specifically, we'll cover:- Why the standard approach to measuring in-store media, often borrowed from digital, is creating friction and stalling budget growth.- How to create a unified measurement language that aligns brands, retailers, and agencies around a common definition of success.- Practical steps to move in-store media from experimental budgets to scalable, repeatable investments grounded in actual product movement.To help me discuss this topic and ISM and IAB's recent report, I'd like to welcome Paul Brenner, SVP, Global Retail Media and Partnerships at In-Store Marketplace (ISM) and Collin Colburn, Vice President, Commerce & Retail Media at IAB) and Collin Colburn, Vice President, Commerce & Retail Media at IAB.About Paul BrennerPaul Brenner is Senior Vice President of Retail Media and Partnerships with 25+ years of leadership in media, entertainment, and ad tech. He has led innovation in audio and broadcast, driving advancements in audience measurement, in-car experiences, and data attribution, and later scaling in-store audio advertising through strategic growth and partnerships. Known for identifying high-impact technology and revenue opportunities, Paul now focuses on evolving the in-store retail media landscape.Paul Brenner on LinkedInAbout Collin ColburnCollin Colburn serves as Vice President, Commerce & Retail Media at IAB where he leads the Commerce Center of Excellence. In this role, he drives innovation, education, and standards across the commerce ecosystem to help brands, retailers, and technology partners deliver better media opportunities, customer experiences, and business outcomes. Prior to IAB, Collin led Growth and Go-To-Market Strategy at Horizon Commerce and spent over a decade at Forrester, where he pioneered the firm’s performance marketing and retail media practice. He partnered with B2B and B2C CMOs to advance their marketing strategies, while also expanding Forrester’s Fortune 500 client portfolio. Collin’s insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Digiday, and MediaPost. A popular industry speaker, Collin has keynoted global industry events in addition to being a quarterly guest on Bloomberg TV.Collin Colburn on LinkedIn---------- Resources ----------In-Store Marketplace (ISM)The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Read the report mentioned in the show.We’re proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save!Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose.Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show.Connect with Greg on LinkedInDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more.Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology.The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link.