Gene Paek

Large enterprise CMOs are facing a critical challenge: Drive AI transformation while doing right by the teams that built your organization. The C-suite wants AI transformation yesterday. Their teams—many with decades of institutional knowledge—are skeptical, exhausted, or both. Here's what I keep hearing: "I know we need to move fast. But I can't just blow up my team in the process." These leaders aren't stuck because they don't understand AI. They're stuck because they understand people. They need a plan for that first and foremost when the org gets to a certain size. They know that legacy expertise is still valuable and long-tenured employees deserve honesty about what's coming, not false promises. Transformation that breaks trust isn't really transformation—it's just chaos with better tech. This is the real leadership challenge of AI transformation - navigating the human complexity of change in organizations where relationships, tenure, and culture run deep.

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With AI, GTM teams can do more than ever. More content. More campaigns. More data. But more isn’t always better—it’s often just noise. The real unlock? Leaders who translate strategy into action—and help teams use AI to go deeper, not just faster. Messaging that resonates. Personalization that builds trust. Teams equipped to connect—not just execute. If you're navigating GTM in the age of AI, this blog offers a fresh lens on how to drive real impact. What’s helping your GTM team cut through the noise? Drop your thoughts below. #StrategyMadePersonal #GTMExcellence #SalesLeadership #MarketingStrategy #AIinBusiness #RevenueGrowth #CRO #CMO

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AI can get users to your site, but the real challenge begins after the click. Discover how to optimize your site for success in an AI-driven future in this clip with Merkle's Davis Grietens:

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CMOs Are More Focused On Growing Revenue Than Brand Awareness https://lnkd.in/g8jyVmuY Chief marketing officers are increasingly prioritizing direct revenue outcomes over traditional brand awareness efforts, influenced by economic pressures, performance measurement demands, and AI‑enabled tracking. This shift reflects a need for more measurable impact on business performance, with revenue growth becoming a leading strategic metric for modern marketing leaders. #CMOInsights #RevenueGrowth #MarketingStrategy #BrandVsPerformance #BusinessImpact #DataDrivenMarketing

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CMOs demand guaranteed delivery, lowest CPMs, strategic flexibility, and outcome-based pricing. Physics says you can't have all four simultaneously. Principal media delivers three of them. The question is which three matter most. Forrester's new principal media report from the inimitable Jay Pattisall is very much worth a read, and it's going to trigger the predictable debate. Critics will argue agencies are creating conflicts. Evangelists will tout cost savings. Both will miss the strategic reality: CMOs facing compression don't have the luxury of perfect markets. I've watched boards push CMOs for guaranteed outcomes while slashing budgets. In that environment, academic arguments about strategic flexibility mean nothing. The anti-principal media argument assumes unlimited client patience, perfect information, and rational markets. Reality looks different. Reality is: your board wants cost certainty so they can model P&L without media volatility. Reality is: your CFO wants guaranteed delivery so you're not scrambling for Super Bowl inventory in scatter markets. Reality is: your CEO wants outcome-based pricing that ties media spend to business results. Principal media trades strategic flexibility for the three things boards actually care about: cost certainty, delivery guarantee, and outcome alignment. The Forrester report shows 80% of marketers are interested in principal media advantages. That's not because CMOs are naive about conflicts of interest. It's because they're making rational trade-offs under real constraints. The criticism of principal media comes from people who've never faced the impossible triangle. They can afford to optimize for strategic flexibility because they're not accountable for the P&L impact when media costs spike or inventory disappears. Yes, principal media requires transparency. Yes, it needs contractual controls and performance accountability. Yes, clients should cap how much spend flows through principal arrangements. But the mechanism itself? It's agencies finally building inventory positions that enable the outcome-based pricing we've demanded for years. I'm a big supporter as, for two decades, I've watched CMOs demand that agencies move from billing hours to pricing on outcomes. "Put skin in the game," they said. "Share the risk." Now agencies are doing exactly that with principal media, and the industry is calling it a conflict of interest. We can't have it both ways. Forrester predicts principal media will grow to one-third of billings by 2026. Read their report, then decide which three variables matter most for your business. https://lnkd.in/eKHg5qmk #PrincipalMedia #MediaBuying #CMO #MarketingLeadership #MarketingStrategy

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One insight from Foundry’s 2025 State of the CIO report really resonated: 82% of CIOs prioritize innovation, yet internal silos and misalignment hold many back. Modernization isn’t just about adopting new tools – it starts with people and how they collaborate. Without alignment, even the most visionary strategies can stall.   This disconnect extends beyond IT – impacting how clearly and consistently a brand communicates and how agile the customer experience feels. Alignment isn’t glamorous. But it’s essential. It transforms plans into measurable results.   If you're exploring how leadership, innovation, and execution intersect, this report is worth reading: https://lnkd.in/eqMDiPjg

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This was a fun one :)! Loved spending time with Jill Moser to unpack the results of a Mastercard-commissioned Forrester study on what matters most to media buyers and marketers. As a buyer myself, the importance of transparent measurement cannot be understated. Mastercard Commerce Media is paving the way with authenticated engagement, providing personalized and priceless experiences for consumers. Make sure to tune into all of the Media Minute episodes!

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As a marketing leader, I’ve seen multi-crore campaigns fail for one simple reason: The brand was talking about itself. One book that fundamentally reframed how I look at communication is Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller. At its core, the book introduces the SB7 (StoryBrand 7-Part Framework) — a structure inspired by classic storytelling: 1. A Character (Customer) 2. Has a Problem 3. Meets a Guide (Brand) 4. Who Gives a Plan 5. And Calls Them to Action 6. That Helps Them Avoid Failure 7. And Ends in Success Simple. But powerful. What Makes This Book Strategic — Not Just Creative Miller makes one argument very clear: - Customers don’t buy the best product. - They buy the product they understand the fastest. Clarity reduces cognitive load. Confusion kills conversion. In boardrooms, we often debate brand architecture, feature hierarchy, and campaign tonality. But in reality, most websites fail within the first 5 seconds because they don’t answer: -What do you offer? l How does it help me? l What should I do next? Real Usage Cases (Where This Framework Works) #Website & Landing Page Optimisation When we repositioned the messaging for a consumer-facing brand, the shift was simple: * From: “We are India’s fastest-growing X platform.” * To: “Sell your car in 24 hours. Zero paperwork stress.” The hero section moved from brand achievement to customer outcome. Bounce rates dropped. Conversion rates improved — not because of design changes, but clarity. - #Sales Decks & #Investor Pitches Instead of leading with market size and valuation narrative, we structured the pitch like this: * The customer problem (pain quantified) * Current frustration in the ecosystem * Our role as the guide * A simple 3-step solution * Risk of inaction Result? Conversations became sharper. Decision-making cycles shortened. Internal Brand Alignment One underrated impact of *Building a StoryBrand* is internal clarity. When marketing, product, and sales align around: - Who the customer is - What problem we solve - What success looks like Execution friction reduces dramatically. The Leadership Takeaway The biggest mistake senior marketers make is assuming complexity signals sophistication. It doesn’t. Clarity scales. Confusion costs. In high-growth environments — especially in India where consumers are hyper-exposed to options — brands that win are the ones that communicate simply, repeatedly, and confidently. This book is not about storytelling as art. It’s about storytelling as a conversion system. And in 2026 — where AI can generate content in seconds — clarity will be the ultimate differentiator. If you’re leading marketing, ask yourself: Are you the hero in your messaging? Or is your customer? Because the moment you become the hero, you’ve already lost the story. #MarketingLeadership #Brand #Marketing #BrandStrategy #Storytelling #CMO #CustomerCentricity #thoughtleadership

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AI is forcing media executives to re-evaluate the concept of trust in brands. Consumers no longer trust a media brand. We can thank the Chicago Sun-Times for the most "famous" example of why: https://lnkd.in/eZmQeXEW. Instead, media consumers will trust individual people at media brands. But trust needs to be built and cultivated. What can a media brand do? Elevate the profiles of the hard-working individuals who report and provide expert analysis of the news. Put their names, faces and signatures in newsletters. Record talent-driven podcasts. Be more human and allow personalities to shine. Today it is only the individual reporters, contributors, editors, and analysts at a media brand who can build and retain reader trust.

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