B2B Teams Are Chasing AI Trends While Underfunding What Actually Matters

20:02Daniella Sampson:That's cool. So are you listening to your customers when creating tools like that, where you're like, so many people are asking us this or we want it for ourselves? Like, how do you think about coming up with tools, especially in this space we're in now of everyone can vibe code. There's a bunch of lovable apps. They're just flying at me all the time where I'm like, okay, like, how do you know which, you know, what to actually ship and build versus, you know, maybe I don't need a vibe coded tool for this specific thing. So I would say anything customers want, we normally figure out how to build it within the product.

20:32So that's more of that side. From a marketing standpoint, I think we're looking more to our ICPs and struggles they've had. And luckily, like we are the ICP PR and marketing professionals. So I'm always like, man, I would have loved to have this. So we're like, hey, create it. And then there's something as simple as just creating your brand book through AI. So anyone who interacts with it can transform all copy into your tone of voice, into your... Using it to instill everything, put through design work and make sure everything's aligned. That's been super helpful. That's something we use internally or with other vendors to make sure they're on point with our brand.

21:06So it's kind of like all the monotonous stuff that you used to have to do yourself or hire someone to train on. It's like, oh, this is beautiful. And now everyone can work on the more strategic work. Like I don't need my content person sitting editing content for hours to make sure it's in our tone of voice. Like, come on, we're, we're passive. And I guarantee they don't want to be doing that either. So it's nice when you can create those tools, you can create them so fast and they evolve. So you can say, you know, monitor this every X amount of days to see, is it still up to date? Do an audit of my channels and make sure we're still staying on tone of voice, those types of things to just do continuous audits to keep you on brand.

21:43Daniella Sampson:Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Allowing the robots to do the things that they're best at and the humans can do the things they're best at and yeah, be way more efficient, but also have a lot more fun. It's at least how I see it. Definitely. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. Something that I've been hearing a bit about is this concept of this AI org chart and having these agents owning entire orgs. And I'm going to be trying it with one of my companies. But it is interesting thinking about hiring of the future, questioning, like, do I actually need a human in that role? Or could I have a team of agents that then one human is overseeing?

22:21Daniella Sampson:And letting a lot of the more repetitive tasks and the brand monitoring the content, adjusting all of these things happening, and then just surfacing that in, you know, let's say it's social media. You've got a head of social media person, but then they have all these agents who are like giving them the content. Like overnight, they wake up and then there's like 50 pieces of content. There's clips already pulled and it's just ready to be approved. And it's already gone through all the different checks through, you know, brand and themes and the content that's matching to the calendar and all that.

22:49Daniella Sampson:So I am wondering how this future is going to shape up of, yeah, is there a world where it's less people, but very efficient managing these AI agent teams? So I think social media is a great example. So every organization I've worked at, social media tends to be underfunded when it comes to resources. You tend to have one social media manager who has the weight of the world on them. I know for jobs I've been at, they're expected to post organically like three to five times a day and then interact with everything and do five different channels. Oh, and then launch a podcast or launch it. And you're like one human, There's no way they can do all of this, but you can't get an extra headcount.

23:29They're like, guys, we're not gonna have an extra headcount for social media still to this day. So I think this is where the AI agents, my gosh, it would make them feel like they have a team and they could take some of that pressure off their shoulders. It's done really well. You still have one headcount for that social media position and they can slowly rise up, right? Eventually they can be director, senior director, but they'll be able to accomplish so much more and not lose complete work-life balance. Or churn. I feel like social media managers are the thing that tends to churn the most because expectations are so high on them.

24:01And it's almost like they're set up for failure to begin with. So I think AI agents will play a huge role in that realm for sure. The same with analyst work. There's a lot of different components where it can help in the underfunded resourced areas. For sure.

24:16Daniella Sampson:Yeah, that's such a good point of looking at what are the most, I mean, I've been at these different big companies too. And there's always different roles where you're like, why do you have so much work for one person? And why can't you help me right now at the same time? Like, I'd like you to help me. So it'd be an interesting task to go through and be like, who are the most underfunded teams or roles or spaces that could put some agents under them? And then all of a sudden, they're the most blossoming team out there because they have so much support. Yeah, I look at too, even demand generation, right?

24:46Those teams tend to be lean and mean. And I have never seen a group of individuals work harder to prove their worth, to build pipeline, to get marketing source revenue. And so it's like, hey, if they had some agents under them just to help with the reporting. My gosh, just reporting can take weeks or manually going through data and making sure things are sourced correctly when it comes to what did marketing influence versus source, all of those components. It's like, work on the components that they need to be there to work on and it can filter through. So yeah, I think marketing really in total needs some agents to help out since they tend to be under-resourced.

25:27Daniella Sampson:Yeah. Yeah. Anything with reporting at this point, like no human needs to ever report again. Like you should just get the report and be like, thank you. We're doing that within mission of, okay, we make these reports for our clients and our sponsors. And it was a lot of manual data pulling of like, what are the downloads preps? So what are the views? And what are people saying on LinkedIn? How are our guests sharing it? All the details. But I'm like, why are we doing any of this? We could have an AI agent going and looking at all these platforms and then pulling the more like anecdotal things as well from the interviews and what they talked about and showing themes that are happening among our network of shows.

26:03Daniella Sampson:Why would like one that would take one human a long time to get what I want? Like all these like detailed pieces. But why not just have the report show up once a week on our desk and can just look at it and be like, yep, approved. OK, ship it. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah, I agree. Okay, so I want to zoom out a bit and ask this question. Do you think AI is net positive for humanity? Oh, that's a tough one.

26:34I think what's hard is sometimes I see things that can do like the agentic AI and helping with the workforce and helping us do our jobs better. And I see so much opportunity and potential and so much light and positivity. And then I look at the misinformation material and all of the deep fakes and the stuff we're seeing. You know, we're in a tough political climate right now. Things are very polarized. and having all of these like AI deep fakes is not helping. And I think it's creating even more of a demand amongst people. That makes me so sad because I'm like a big unity person. So I, hold on, we'll have to, my earbud came out.

27:16We'll redo that part. Okay. So when it comes to AI, I think I've seen the amazing possibilities of it, like with the workforce and efficiency and things that can even do with medicine. it like there are some great components. But then at the same time, you look at the current political environment, right? And it's very polarizing. And I think you see things like deep fakes and misinformation and disinformation that's just causing a lot of hurt, a lot of fear in people. And so I'm still on the fence. I see how amazing it can be. But if it's put in the wrong hands, and it's not right with what is the Superman and that Superman Spider-Man quote with great something comes great with great power comes great responsibility.

28:00That should be, that should be the tagline for AI. Cause it's like, guys, this could transform our world in an amazing way and help people, or it can be used to divide us. So I look at what we're doing, like at Pendulum, and I feel very proud of what's being done with the work with them, with AI, because it truly is advancing things. It's helping people. It's using data for good. whereas others maybe it's not and so we'll see in the next three years if if we rise uh or if we all burn like well we'll find out right it's like we're yeah we're we're moving fast towards it i think there's really cool stuff happening and hopefully that's what triumphs

28:40Daniella Sampson:yeah yeah i i'm gonna bet on humans and humanity to win but yeah it is it's been interesting i I mean, even thinking of like all this stuff happening around like the Epstein files. I don't know what's real. I keep seeing these fake images pop up and I'm like, whoa, that's totally wrong. And then someone's like, that's not real. I'm like, whoa, OK. Like what if there is a company out there, someone should be working on it where anything I'm browsing online, Instagram, anywhere I'm at, it needs to have like a filter where it's like this is only, you know, one percent maybe is true or this is definitely a deep fake.

29:16Daniella Sampson:I think that's needed in the space that we're in right now is just some kind of filtering, monitoring tool so that people don't see all these made up things and then be like, oh, this is true. Let me share it now. Maybe someone's working on it. I bet someone's working on it. I just don't know of it yet. Tried. So I have seen things where you're supposed to report if it's, yeah, right, someone's going to report this is AI generated. Like you yourself, if you upload something AI generated, I'm like, the people that are making these fakes are not going to admit, yep, I did this. Um, I've even, I mean, I've seen tragedies, things where it showed, I thought there was a mass earthquake or I saw something and I texted my husband like, oh my gosh, did you see this?

29:55And he's like, Danielle, this isn't anywhere in the news. And then I was, I was like, I can't, I like, I've been duped. I'm like, okay, I believe way too much. So now anything I see, I almost don't believe it, which also, again, it goes back to social listening and social intelligence and consumers and what you're digesting and how much do you believe of what's out there? So if you're starting to get an audience that is only listening halfway because there's so much out there and you don't know what to believe, how do you even authentically build relationships with them now where they're jaded, right?

30:27We're all kind of becoming jaded. So that's a new thing too in 2026 that we'll have to look at is they're going to build relationships with consumers. How do you do it to where they can trust you? Yep.

30:38Daniella Sampson:Yeah, especially when I think about content now, too, it seems like there's been a shift. If I think about a couple years ago, there was so much conversation around, should I have one handle on Instagram? Should I have five? Founder brand, company brand, like lots of conversations around brand building around one thing. But now when I look at a lot of different platforms, I'm like, consumers seem to just find a video, just one video. And like, you could be having all different diverse types of content, but just find one and that's all they need. And they're good with that. And they're not really looking for like, who's the brand behind this?

31:11Daniella Sampson:And is there a good brand theme behind, let's say mission, like, is this all business and tech content? Oh, no, you like, it doesn't seem like people care as much as at least we were all talking about it a couple of years ago. Like there's only one good strategy and you've got to have separate channels for things. And if you're a founder brand, that's also got to be different than your company brand. It feels like a lot of things are just like, is that a good clip? Awesome. Okay, I'm done with that. Now let me find another one-off clip. And yeah, so what do you think about content like in where we're at now?

31:41Yeah, so I remember and I don't know how many years ago, but remember when your Instagram feed had to be aesthetically on brand and it needed to all look beautiful. And like, you look at these influences and now it's, it looks a mess, but no one cares because no one goes to your feed and says, oh, I like the brand aesthetic of their feed. It's like, that's not a thing anymore. So I think there is still nuance in how much you put out where to tease it, right? So if you have your podcast on YouTube and it's a three hour deep dive, you know, you want to take small clips and tease it out on reels.

32:18So there is still pieces like that, right? where it makes sense to do different content. You're not gonna upload something really long to a channel that doesn't engage in that type of stuff. But it is more about kind of the one hero and how to break it apart instead of completely different strategies on each. I think, again, we don't have the resources for it. We don't have the time for it. And to your point, who's listening? If you invest in like that one strong, strong piece and then you make sure it's being heard in the formats they want and diving deeper into it. So you'll get so much more out of it.

32:53I've been at companies where the amount of content produced, you can't even stay up with it. You can't even read it all. And maybe that part of it was that SEO piece, but now it's more about, yeah, value over quantity.

33:07Daniella Sampson:Yep. Oh, I love that. Yes, yes. Yeah, it is. It's funny where you're talking about the Instagram looking nice. YouTube's the same thing. And it's funny. In the past, we've had sponsors who were like, whoa you got your guys like we want all when we go to your let's say marketing trends i'm making this up your marketing trends channel we want to make sure that every thumbnail looks exactly similar to our brand or you know i'm like that's just no one's going to our channel like that that's not how it works people are finding our shorts and they don't care how they found it and then they end up in our channel that way but they're still probably not just looking through the home page wondering if everything looks like similar branding strategy just like they don't care anymore but it's it's definitely an interesting transition trying to show especially bigger companies are like, no one cares about that anymore.

33:50I know. Yep. And it's hard to rewrite that, right? When you've been taught something for so long, it's hard to adapt and to change. And then there's some things that do need to stay consistent. Like I'd say your tone of voice and your personality as a brand, like if you are edgier or if it, but again, there's degrees. It doesn't always have to be if you're punny on one channel, you don't have to keep the puns running on LinkedIn, like, but you, you can inject some of it. Maybe they should actually you just bring that bring it over linkedin needs help so right now too i keep seeing and it must have shifted my algorithm on linkedin everybody calling out that most people write their posts with ai now like because they want to sound like thought leaders or they want to pull different pieces and they keep comparing the difference but nobody seems to be changing they just keep doing it so it's interesting that we're all saying guys we're all full of baloney on here like we're all using the same, but yet it continues.

34:42I have been, I like, I'm an offender. I have done it. Especially, you know, you're nursing a flu and you're like, I can't write this to sound decent. Can you just help me out? Like I have brain fog. But yeah, it's interesting that we

34:56Daniella Sampson:all have identified it, but nobody is moving forward to, to change it. It feels. Yep. I feel like on LinkedIn, because it feels like a platform that's hard to, you know, really do well sometimes. But for me, what I've seen is just having the messy, here's a video of me talking, sometimes more personal things, like the more human content on LinkedIn. It feels like that's what people crave because everyone, like you said, gets on there. They're like, I'm now the thought leader in AI agents, even though I have never actually been in it. I watched a YouTube video and here's my five takeaways for AI agents today.

35:32Daniella Sampson:And I'm like, I don't know if I've learned that much from LinkedIn ever, really. Like, I can't think of one post that really hit home with me where I'm like, whoa, I am changing my actions based on this post. So I don't know, I'm thinking personal posts seem to be doing better. And then it's drums up a lot more interest of like, who is this person? And why is Stephanie one second talking about marketing leaders? And then she's talking about some spiritual things like who is she and why is she a burning man? And I need to No more. It feels like it gets more interest. It's true. I think we need to break down that stigma of the professional network.

36:08So I started doing videos as well. And I was like, I'm not going to script these because you can tell when someone's reading a script, it's awful. And I don't do as many personal. I try to pick out trends or things I'm seeing as a marketing professional. They're like, hey, here's three quick tips if you want to do that. I did one on like GEO wins. If your exec's on your back, like do these three things and it'll just give you a little lift before you get your strategy rolling. And I've noticed a huge shift. Like I'm like, oh, people are engaging. Cause it's like, yeah, cause you're a real person.

36:38And I think they do crave that on LinkedIn. And then they know, oh, they actually have a voice or they have something to say.

36:43Daniella Sampson:Yep. Yep. I love it. Yeah. Actionable, transferable tips like that. Yes. Where it's like, you can quickly try it and be like, oh, it's not too hard. And it's not just very high level vision type stuff. Always of like, here's where we're going over the next five years. It's like, yeah, try these three things. And that's good. I like that. Okay. Anything on, I know we're about to go into this. This is a break, by the way. We're going to dive into the next section is data, but I want to see, is there anything in the first section, which was all about geo, AI, what else did we talk about? AI agents.

37:20Daniella Sampson:Yeah, definitely. So marketers are always under pressure to stay up to date with everything going on. So best example, and we've talked about AI quite a bit, is the AI boom that happened roughly three years ago. All of a sudden, tech companies, I think they were all told, like, AI needs to be on everything. So there was kind of this AI washing moment. And it was kind of a part of brand strategy, right? But it was like, no, our brand is AI driven, like we're technologically there, we're innovative, we're this. But it wasn't taking a step back, like, hold on, Who are we marketing to? Where are we playing?

37:54How are our competitors positioning ourselves? How do we want to position ourselves? And how do we take a different approach and not just quickly slap AI on everything and say, well, that's always been a part of our roadmap. So things are done hastily. And again, it's because there's always a lot of pressure internally and externally to make sure you're showing up in the way you should be if your competitors are all moving as fast as you. But really, I think they're all just trying to catch up and looking at each other's things. and then they all kind of sound the same. So what I've done since, I think I implemented this, I don't know, oh my gosh, maybe eight years ago.

38:31So when I first did brand strategy work, it's very subjective. It was kind of like, hey, audit the website, look at some social channels, get a feel, get a vibe of the competitors of the brand and then figure out who you should be. But when one person is just doing that and it's at such a surface level, it felt like, can we really go off of this? And it did feel more like going on a whim or going on what I just thought rather than putting data behind it. So I can't coin that I built this framework. I saw this framework done for something else. And then I said, I can apply this to brand strategy.

39:07And I think it'll go over a lot better. So what I did is I took our brand, the brand that I was at. And at that time, eight competitors, I would say anywhere from five to 10 over that is a bit overkill. And I was like, I'm going to manually look at 300 unique data points that are external communications for each of these to see what the personality is, what the tone of voice is, maybe what the value proposition is, what they're saying their core benefit is. So I literally manually would go to the website and say, I'm going to pick 50 line items that are like main headlines and main areas, and then the LinkedIn, and then the Instagram, and then press releases, and then ads.

39:44So trying to get a really well-rounded data set of anything they put out there externally that people could freely look at to get an interpretation of who that brand is and who

39:54Daniella Sampson:they're trying to market to. So after doing that manually, and again, this was before the age of ChatGPT and all of those components, then I would put them through spider chart analysis and say, How many times did this come out and map them? And what was really cool to see is right away visually, you would see where everybody's playing, where there's huge holes. And maybe there's huge holes for a reason. It's like, oh, no one's touching this area because this isn't a good area to play in. Or it was like, hey, I think this is where we have the tech or we have the value prop. Why aren't we going here?

40:26And then you also validate it through VOC work or talking to clients and seeing and making sure and validating there's a gap. And from that, it creates a very successful blueprint for what you need to do to achieve a really strong brand strategy initiative. And it was really cool. So the first time I did it, I'm like, is this going to work? And then it did. And then I did it again and again. And I was like, okay, it didn't matter if I was B2C, didn't matter if I was B2B, didn't matter startup, corporation. It helped just bring a level of data and objectivity to it because you're not just being like, oh, this is a cool modern vibe.

41:01And you're like, that's not, that doesn't work. So I've tried to implement that process every time I'm doing something like this, whether it's value proposition work or brand strategy. And again, it just brings that level of data to it. And there's always going to be a level of subjectivity. But what you can do is find, hey, what are the brand archetypes? What are the core personality traits? So then you have kind of a rubric to go off of, and you're not just inventing things in your head. And I mean, ideally, you have three people running it at the same time. Now introduce AI, right? And LLMs.

41:33I thought I was under the impression this was going to speed up my work. I was so excited. And unfortunately, I haven't cracked the code of having it help yet. I noticed in the analysis, it kind of just rephrased words that were already used. Sounds really salesy. And it almost felt like the LLM was just pitching it back to me. I'm like, this isn't what I'm looking for. So I thought, well, maybe I can use it just to do the math and helped me with the spider charts. And I actually did the math wrong. It didn't add the columns correctly. And I noticed it towards the end. I'm like, wait a minute, I had way more data points.

42:07Why is the number? And then I even asked it. It's almost like I got into a real serious conversation with ChatGVT. And I was like, why did you delete this line? And it was just like, oh, I decided to take a different approach and felt like it literally said it just left it out. I was like, okay. So lesson learned. Hopefully those get better. But yeah, it's a highly manual process right now and it takes time. But the outputs are so strong and so much more strategic. And they help align everyone, right? When you display the facts to everyone, no one can say, oh, we should pick green over blue because green's a cooler color.

42:42There's areas you can back it up, which is always important.

42:46Daniella Sampson:Yeah, I love that. So what are maybe some of the data points that you're collecting that most other marketers miss, brand marketers, they wouldn't think to look at that data point when thinking of building the brand strategy? Yeah, that's a good question. I think it's important to go into their ads. So like LinkedIn, you can see what ads are they running. So you forget how they're marketing it out. And it's interesting to see the different types of ads they're running for different things. You can tell they're A-B testing or you can tell the tone of voice shifts a little bit. And there's not tons of those.

43:16I would say also doing a Google and seeing what paid third party sponsorships they've done. So maybe if they did a co-article with PR week, what are they writing it on? Those are the things you don't think of because they're only the owned, but those are other ways they're trying to infiltrate and get their message out of there. So making sure you're accounting for those paid things, not just their website and just their owned channels.

43:39Daniella Sampson:Yeah. Oh, that's smart. Yeah. I didn't think about that because I'm about to be doing partnering with a vendor, but brand strategy work for this other company that I'm working with. And I'm thinking, like, I was going to challenge him with my army of AI agents. And there's, there's like brand strategy skills that you can download. Like there's already one out there. There's one that looks at YouTube. And so I was going to do that and then come up with something and then see what he comes up with. And in a very friendly, loving way, but I just want to see like what's possible now with having all these agents go out there, but I am getting intel from you of, okay, look at their ads, look at how they're showing up on third party places.

44:19Daniella Sampson:That's a good one I didn't think of. Yeah. And I think too, brand strategy, it's not a bad thing to hire an agency to conduct the work and then also do it at the same time internally. I know everyone would be like, what? You're going to waste all that time. But again, it can be highly subjective. And I have seen uncontracted agencies and the work that comes back isn't revolutionary or it feels like it hasn't moved things in the direction you want it to. And it's not a knock on the agencies. It's just, you know, your brand is your baby. There's a lot of different approaches. I would say, give the data-driven approach a try and see what comes out the other side.

44:59Yep.

45:00Daniella Sampson:Yep. Same. Can you give an example of when the data showed something totally different from what your team thought? yeah so um i was at a brand and i think they assumed their brand was just awful they were like we're gonna show up in the worst way uh and they're like i can't wait to see this and it was actually a pleasant surprise but it was like hey guys we're actually not as far behind as we think so so many times if you've been at a brand or started a brand and you're in it for a long time you kind of go blind to how great your brand might be or the things that you guys do do well and I see this all the time too even with the brand style right if you have a brand color let's just say it's yellow after you know a few years you're like oh our yellow is the most awful thing in the world um I'm sure Coca-Cola has gotten you know annoyed by their red but they don't change it because it has a lot of brand equity there.

45:57So I think the findings of it was like, hey guys, we're not all the way down here. We're actually up here. Now, it was at a point where it was kind of like, hey, we're not pushing things and being innovative and no one sees us there. We're kind of middle of the road, but that's a great place to be because you don't have to play catch up now. You can go higher, but we could have been so much lower. And I think it was a very pleasant surprise, but people were kind of shocked to notice. we also ran a brand equity report to see, are we a top of mind solution? Are we only an associated solution where if our name is thrown in the ring, then people know who we are.

46:34And that was also eyeopening because we saw, hey, again, we're not as bad as we think we are. So, and some brands might be, but I think it's good to remember when you're sitting in the seat for a long time, you get fatigue of your own brand. That's normal. Same with the message. If you're like, our tagline has been the same for years. Yeah. So was Nike's and it's paid off pretty well. So you don't always have to change things just because you've been there a long time and you're sick of hearing it. Most consumers haven't heard of it.

47:00Daniella Sampson:Yeah, that's such a good reminder, especially if you know yourself like me, where I'm like, I get bored easily. You're like, oh, change it. It's lame. That is so 2025. That's a good reminder that most people are not getting bored of your brand and how you're portraying yourself online. It's good. But that's where there's social, right? You can have fun on social. So that's where change it up, do fun little mini series. And that's where the creative side of you can, can play and dabble and get that fulfillment. I'm always like, the brand is behind bars and can't be touched. But on social, like have a good time, try some new cool things out.

47:36But it's like, guys, we don't need to change the corporate template again.

47:40Daniella Sampson:Yep. Yes. So now we're talking about social. I'd love to hear if you were to build a social team from scratch today, what job roles would you be hiring for? and why? Oh, that's a good one. I think there needs to be a shift towards a higher level, like senior social media person. So I would love to have a social media director, because they are going to be in charge of YouTube, a potential podcast, Reddit now, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, like that is all so many different components. I would also say you You need a social strategist under them that understands social listening and social intelligence.

48:20So that's a core piece that sometimes bobs around in a marketing department. Sometimes they live with an analyst team. Sometimes they're under PR. So making sure you have that strategist that understands the data and can inform strategy. And then, man, I think social media is always in charge of creative. And it's like, guys, social media managers are not graphic designers. and if you're looking to put out really cool content, yes, they can be great in Canva, but having a designated designer for social that also can do video and motion graphics, it's like now you can really rev things up. Now, obviously it depends on if you're in B2B or B2C and what your strategies are and if you're starting small and growing, but if you can have that upper level person to run strategy, you can have an analyst and you can have a designer who can also do video.

49:09It's like now you're forced to be wrecked and rev and you can start growing much faster. I think so many of them have to grow smaller just because they don't have the resources.

49:18Daniella Sampson:Yeah. Yeah. That's also a good reminder. I have been guilty of hiring social people and be like, why are your video clips so terrible? Yeah. Like, oh, wait, yeah, that's not your job. Okay, got it. Self-taught. Self-taught. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's good, good tips. Where do you think that brands are going wrong with how they run social? Like when you look around, especially let's say in the b2b space what do you see happening so one thing i'm not a fan of and i do support the i'll start over because these things keep falling out of my ears okay one thing i definitely appreciate uh the effort that goes in but i think when b2bs try to jump on like the trendy tiktoks they just i think they give the ick i think when see these these people in their business suits and they're dancing and going in between each other's legs like all this stuff you're like oh my gosh it's like my dad trying to like it's it's not good it's not good uh yeah so i i appreciate the effort and the willingness to put themselves out there i don't think that's what's gonna give the next demo request and i think there is other ways you can play into trends without it coming across just, oh gosh, very cringey.

50:40Daniella Sampson:Yeah. I don't, I don't think it's needed. I don't think it's needed. Nope. I do agree with that. Yes. I have seen those too. So if I'm thinking, you know, many of these B2B brands, some of them, they're kind of starting from scratch. So if you were starting from scratch today, what social platforms would you be investing in? If I'm B2B, it's going to be LinkedIn. I think that's LinkedIn and TikTok, actually. I would not invest right away in Instagram. And that's kind of controversial. I think a lot of people are like, you need to be on Instagram. I think young working professionals are actually leaning on TikTok for some professional advice and quick hacks and pieces.

51:18So that's where you can give really good tidbits of learning how to do something. Hey, here's how to break down this, this, and this at your job, stuff like that. It can be easily surfaced and you can get a very big reach for... And even if you want to boost it, it's not a lot of money to do so. So I would say TikTok is great for that. And then LinkedIn, you have to build your credibility as a brand. And you don't have to do it the stairway. You don't have to have the boring posts that are like, I'm thrilled to announce that no one needs to see that. But LinkedIn can still be extremely valuable if it's done in the right way.

51:51And it's mixing up the type of content. I know LinkedIn been introduced to what, like six months ago, their real format, much like Instagram reels. So dabbling with those things and not being afraid to make some mistakes. I think it's consistency is key and having a voice. So I would start with those two. I wish I could say start with YouTube because YouTube is huge. Just the resources. It is the production of it and remaining consistent. If you're trying to post one video a week, I've seen so many start and it just trickles out and then it's one a month and then it's once a quarter and then it's like oh here quick here's three videos and then there's none it just you have to have consistency yep yeah i totally agree

52:33Daniella Sampson:yeah on linkedin i haven't seen too many brands doing it well yet i mean i will say there's a cyber security company that i had on the show twerk and we had their cmo don jeter on and their content is hilarious they sponsor like grave digger and they've got this media intern that they create content with and it's just ridiculous but it's also been driving pipeline in a big way for them. So that's one company that I'm like, I don't care about cybersecurity, but I will follow your content on LinkedIn because it's so funny and ridiculous. And I can see why it's shaking up the cyber industry in the way that it is.

53:05Daniella Sampson:So, but I haven't seen that many brands that I'm like, okay, this is, this is pretty good. So if you have any, send in to me. I want to follow them and see what their marketing team is up to. Yeah. And I think too, don't be afraid to go outside the box. So I have an example. This is B2C, but they changed the way they were doing things. So there was a local car dealership actually where I am and car dealerships on social media, not great, especially local ones, not great. And this young social media manager decided to create kind of like the office, but it was called the dealership. And they made everybody super awkward.

53:42And they did the interview style just like it. And it took off. So it got millions and millions of views. It blew up everywhere. People were going just to buy cars there to meet the cast of the show. And I believe they're signed and they're going to get a show on Netflix now, which is amazing. But they took something and they were like, we're going to do this. They came out with an episode. I don't know if it was every week, maybe first it was every month. and they stuck to it. And it was such a different idea, but it was consistent. They marketed it effectively. So it's like, if you have an idea, even on LinkedIn and it's like, put it together, do it well and invest in it for at least three months.

54:21So I think everybody also tries something and if right away they don't get engagement, they shy away. So it's like, no, like really put the effort in to do it for three full months and see how it's grown and then make a decision because one week, two weeks, even a month, It's not enough because as we said, there's so much noise out there, right? The odds of the right people seeing it and seeing it more than once. So yeah, it's consistency and yeah, take a chance, do something cool.

54:48Daniella Sampson:Yep. I love that. Okay. Last question I like to round out the interview with. What's your one piece of advice for marketing leaders in 2026? I think marketing today has, I think I would argue sometimes even more pressure than sales to prove their worth, prove their numbers. It's a good thing that now we can measure things and show how we're tracking. But I think what marketing leaders need to do is open the doors and let people in on the journey of what it takes to get there. I think so many times it's just the end report or just the end product. And so nobody understands everything that goes on in between.

55:30And I'm a big believer at taking people along for the journey, whether it's brand strategy, whether it's, you know, opening a new channel or, or just a new strategy or launching a certain type of campaign. If everyone doesn't understand in your organization, why it's happening, it's hard for them to get on board and have a reason to believe. And if you as a marketing department can get sales behind you and everyone else behind you, your efforts will be so much better received and it'll be more successful. Whereas if you're operating in this silo and it's like, oh, marketing is doing another one of those campaigns and you're not really talking to people and you're always at odds.

56:07It's like you're never going to have that support. So it's like, if the whole company can be behind it and believe in it, you can do so much more. So I think your question was probably intended for what can you do externally, right? As a marketing leader. but I think a lot of it has to do with the internals of how your organization works. And if you want to have a respected seat at the table and have everyone on board and achieve your goals, it's like you have to let them in. They need to understand it and you need to explain why they should have a reason to believe in what you're doing.

56:37Daniella Sampson:I love that. Great answer. Okay. I want to, yeah, it was so good. I want to shift to the lightning round. So this is where I ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Okay, let's do it. I'm ready. Okay. I'm ready. Good, good. Okay, deep breath, deep breath. Where do you get your inspiration from? A lot of it is actually from my 12-year-old daughter. The thing she comes out with, I'm like, what is that? Is that new? And I'm like, huh, I could apply that. So yeah, my 12-year-old. Oh my gosh, that's so good. I was just hanging around a bunch of teenagers with my friends over the weekend and they kept saying all these words.

57:15Daniella Sampson:And I'm like, I'm learning so much. Like, they're like, oh, that's so chopped. I'm like, chopped. What's that? That show? That show on the Food Network? No, I know. I was like, what is that? And they're like, it means ugly, hideous. I'm like, oh, got it. Okay. So, so helpful being around the younger generation to be like, is this something I want to learn or unlearn? But yeah, exactly. So good. What's one skill that you think will be vitally important for the next generation to develop? people skills. I think with remote environments, and how things have shifted to how we work, like I work remote, I, it's getting harder and harder for people to present in person, make authentic connections in person.

57:58And I'm actually like scared for the generations under us that haven't had to be in an environment where they need to socially interact, even especially in a business environment. I mean, I literally am like a hermit in my home office. And I sometimes you're like, oh, the days where you were in an office and interacting, you know, different things transpired and cool ideas came about. So I think they're going to need to know how to act, interact with people professionally in a social environment. Yep.

58:28Daniella Sampson:Yeah, I totally agree. If you weren't in marketing, what would you be doing? Something with health and wellness. So I'm a big wellness nut. um I'm also like a little low-key woo-woo like I love like all that like homeopathic stuff oh I love it okay I was like this isn't gonna be well received I'm not a little bit woo-woo I'm like out there I'm far gone okay good so yeah we'll we'll talk after um but yeah I think as a career mom I've dealt with struggles in mental health and I've seen a lot of other women do the same and I think there's so many things out there that are not easily accessible so it's kind of like one of my side passions.

59:06But if I could, you know, have all the free time in the world, I would love to explore just how to help women thrive more in the working environment.

59:13Daniella Sampson:I love that. Yes, you and I definitely should chat and I can tell you more about how I'm thinking about that space too. I love it. Okay. All right. Last one. Who is a marketing leader or great business thinker that we should have on this podcast? Yes. So there's one woman who I think is incredible. I don't think she's a CMO and I don't know if she's a CEO. So her name is Emma Grady. So she helped found Skims and Good American and a number of other huge brands. And she has like the brains. She is like a multimillionaire and she is so smart. I would love to pick her brain. We actually, she was a candidate to be at a summit that we were hosting at another organization.

59:58And just, she is jam-packed of knowledge. I would love to get just 20 minutes with her to pick her brain on how she's done what she's done. Yeah. Incredible.

1:00:08Daniella Sampson:All right. So we got to get her, Brannon, put in the notes. And then when she, if we book her, I'll be like, Daniela, what questions do you have? Let's get them in the interview. Yes. Love it. I will fly wherever you are located. I will be there as the mic pressing. Yes. Okay. Doing a camera will be like, it's upside down, Daniela, but just fine. She's interning. Oh, Daniela, this is amazing. Thank you for coming on Marketing Trends. Where can our listeners, our viewers find out more about you and what you're up to? Yeah, definitely. You can follow me on LinkedIn. My handle is just Daniela Sampson.

1:00:42And yeah, reach out, DM, interact. I love it. Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun. Yeah, it was. Thank you.