Inside Insights

Hosted by Zappi

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100

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Marketing and insights teams speak different languages. Their disconnect wastes budgets, delays campaigns, and leaves consumer truth buried in data. The cost? Missed opportunities and marketing that doesn't connect. Inside Insights tears down these silos with bold, human conversations that transform how brands win with consumers. We reveal where data-driven marketing strategy meets consumer intelligence – turning research investments into measurable market advantage for both strategic leaders and insights practitioners. No fluff. Just value you can apply today. Co-hosted by Nataly Kelly and Steve Phillips . Nataly is CMO of Zappi , writes for Harvard Business Review, and has authored four books while running marketing, growth, and revenue teams at the C-suite level. Steve founded Zappi and serves as Chief Innovation Officer—an industry visionary who challenges conventional wisdom to better understand and serve their consumers. Inside Insights is for marketing leaders who want better consumer connections and insights professionals seeking greater business impact. Join us as we explore what works, what doesn't, and why it matters. New episodes biweekly – subscribe to stay ahead in the connected insights revolution ]]>

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60 recent

August 31, 202646 min

Keeping Consumers Central to Making Business Decisions

The traditional shopper funnel is dead, yet most brands still chase it. Nico Laruina, General Manager of Nestlé's Food Business Unit, bridges both worlds daily, running a global food portfolio while proving that consumer truth beats commercial pressure every time. He breaks down why the funnel became circular instead of linear, how elasticity testing reveals what shoppers will actually pay for, and why the right AI prompt only works if you already know your consumer's real need. A must-listen for anyone building strategy and anyone building the research behind it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

August 17, 202639 min

The Intersection of Data, Insights, AI & the Future of Marketing

Marketing and Insights teams still speak past each other, burying consumer truth in translation gaps. James Mackenzie, Head of Growth at PZ Cussons, and Paul Yocum, Chief Growth & Marketing Officer, dismantle that gap firsthand by treating Insights as neutral ground, or what Paul calls "Switzerland", inside a company spanning Indonesia to Nigeria to the UK. They unpack Qualiquant, the fusion of qualitative depth with quantitative scale, AI-led interviews that capture consumers in real moments instead of stiff focus groups, and a path-to-purchase framework that finally separates the shopper from the consumer. The through-line is that getting to the human faster doesn't replace judgment, it sharpens it for marketers and researchers alike. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

August 3, 202632 min

How Consumer Insights Shape Creativity Across Markets

AI can generate creative fast, but soul gets lost. Matt Harris (Research & Insight Lead) and Oli Bussell (Creative Lead) at Canva sit on opposite sides of the table—data and instinct—and prove the two only work together. They break down how to test storyboards early instead of waiting for the final cut, why bringing a single consumer's voice into the room beats any statistic when defending or reshaping an idea, and how to use insight as a creative challenge to solve rather than a verdict that kills bold ideas. You'll hear why the best partnerships treat research as a steer, not an answer—and where the human touch still beats the algorithm every time. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

July 20, 202642 min

Why High-Growth Brands Must Rebalance Marketing Mix

Performance marketing gets you noticed, but it can't scale you forever. Marcelo Kertész, CMO of MANSCAPED, turned a brand built on awkward jokes into the number three electric grooming brand in the US. All this while outmaneuvering competitors decades older by knowing exactly when to shift gears. He breaks down "The Great Rebalance" from D2C conversion campaigns to full-funnel brand building, why zooming out from seven-day attribution windows to six-month brand performance changes everything, and the difference between consumer insights and human insights. These are the emotional truths data alone can't capture. You'll also learn why listening to consumers with intention beats letting the "popular vote" make your decisions for you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

July 6, 202644 min

Building the AI-Native Insights Function of the Future

The biggest brands have the most data and act on it slowest. Patrick O'Toole, CMO of Unleashed Brands, has led billion-dollar brands at PepsiCo and Burger King. Now, he's rebuilding an entire marketing function from scratch with AI at the center, giving him a rare view from both worlds. Pat breaks down the 70-20-10 model for balancing proven tactics with true experimentation, shows how feeding NPS and Google reviews through a behavioral-economics-trained LLM uncovered hidden consumer motivators competitors miss, and explains why every AI insight still gets validated through traditional methods before it ships. You'll hear how to move fast without losing the human expertise (and consumer truth) that makes the work actually land. Pat also hints at Unleashed Brands' newly-launched KidHub, a new family app designed to help parents manage their children's activities while giving them greater visibility into the confidence, resilience and life skills being built along the way. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

June 22, 202624 min

Translating 139 Years of Innovation into Modern Storytelling

Most legacy brands fail when they're too scared to be brave. Boris Dolkhani, CMO at Robert Bosch GmbH, transformed a 139-year-old engineering company into a modern storytelling powerhouse with campaigns like "Like a Bosch" and their first-ever Super Bowl appearance. He reveals the "gut feeling" framework that guides creative decisions beyond data, the cultural conversation strategy that generated 10 billion media impressions on a limited budget, and why shifting too much spend toward performance marketing kills the brand storytelling that drives long-term growth. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

June 8, 202638 min

How Soccer Built Culture Before America Fully Embraced It

Marketing and insights teams speak different languages when building cultural relevance. Radhika Duggal, CMO of Major League Soccer, and Bettina Garibaldi, Chief Marketing Officer for FIFA World Cup 26™ New York New Jersey, reveal how soccer earned its place in American culture through three decades of patient community building. They share the "attention and spectacle" framework that transformed MLS marketing, the "participation is the new reach" strategy driving World Cup engagement, and how both organizations convert global moments into lasting local fandom through authentic cultural integration. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

May 25, 202629 min

Season 10 in Review: What NFL, PepsiCo & Unilever Taught Us About Modern Marketing Leadership

Marketing and insights teams waste millions speaking different languages. Nataly Kelly and Steven Phillips, Zappi's CMO and Chief Innovation Officer, reveal the five breakthrough patterns that emerged from interviewing leaders at NFL, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Visa. They share Unilever's "100-hour consumer passport" rule, the CMO-CFO partnership framework that drives real business growth, and why AI's biggest win isn't productivity. It's freeing up time for human relationships that turn consumer truth into market advantage. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

May 11, 202635 min

Using AI to ask deeper, more human questions

Most brands treat AI like a data processor, but Christian Niederauer uses it to ask deeper human questions. As Vice President of Global Insights at Colgate-Palmolive, Christian leads consumer research across 200+ countries and transforms how AI reveals what people actually need, not just what they buy. He shares his "people-centric AI" framework that moves beyond traditional consumer segmentation to understand humans holistically, his "machine insights" methodology for optimizing content in an agentic commerce world, and practical strategies for democratizing insights while maintaining quality control across global markets. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

April 27, 202638 min

How to build brand elasticity to reshape perception

Most brands lose relevance one price-led campaign at a time. Carolyn Pollock, former CMO of Tailored Brands and advisor to CEOs, transformed iconic menswear brands by reconnecting with consumer truth rather than chasing discounts. She reveals her "Love the way you look" strategy that rebuilt emotional brand equity, her framework for turning finance leaders into marketing allies through shared assumptions and documented models, and why the future belongs to AI-augmented generalists who provide strategic context across the entire marketing mix. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .