Frontier CMO Podcast by Think with Google

Jo Malone. MAC. La Mer. Tom Ford. Clinique. The Ordinary. These are just a few of the powerhouse brands behind The Estée Lauder Companies. For more than 80 years, the beauty giant has reinvented itself with every era – from the department store counter to the digital storefront. Now it’s making its biggest leap yet: AI.

In the season 3 premiere of Frontier CMO, host Josh Spanier sits down with Chief Digital and Marketing Officer Aude Gandon to explore how one of the world’s most iconic beauty companies is using AI to personalize consumer experiences, reimagine creativity, and build brands that endure.

✨ What you’ll learn in this episode:

How Estée Lauder overhauled its marketing operating model and consolidated global media to react at the speed of culture.

Why your CFO is your most crucial ally and how to prove marketing is an investment, not a cost center.

Navigating C-suite influence, knowing when to compromise, and leading with strategic courage.

Why the AI era demands a return to fundamental brand differentiation and emotional connection.

How Jo Malone and Google built a conversational Scent Finder to personalize fragrance discovery online.

What AI revealed about why MAC’s Ruby Woo and NASA-inspired Crème de la Mer both became timeless icons.

Why 90% hard work beats 10% talent

⏱️ Episode Chapters:

00:00 - Teaser: "Show Me the Money" & CFO Alliances

00:34 - Welcome to Frontier CMO Season 3

01:25 - Change Management & "Beauty Reimagined" at Estée Lauder

02:49 - Restructuring the Global Operating Model & Media Strategy

04:58 - Marketing as a Growth Engine: Getting Buy-In from Finance

07:08 - The CMO as Chief Diplomatic Officer

10:14 - Brand Building vs. Lower-Funnel Performance Marketing

11:42 - Conversational AI in Action: Jo Malone’s Scent Finder

13:43 - Luxury on Scaled Platforms: Short-form Video & Creators

16:23 - Breaking Brand Silos: Creating Global Marketing Communities

18:24 - Feeding 80 Years of Brand Data into AI: MAC vs. La Mer

22:28 - Career Advice: "Just 'Cause You Don't Fit Doesn't Mean You Don't Belong"

23:10 - Estée Lauder’s Legacy: The Pink Ribbon Campaign

24:48 - The 90/10 Rule of Career Success

25:53 - The CMO Download

29:57 - Josh Spanier’s 3 Key Takeaways

👤 About the Guest:

Aude Gandon is the Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at The Estée Lauder Companies, leading global digital transformation, consumer intelligence, media, and marketing strategy across the company's prestigious portfolio of skincare, makeup, and fragrance brands.

🎙️ About Frontier CMO:

Hosted by Josh Spanier (VP of Marketing and AI Strategy at Google), Frontier CMO features candid conversations with the world’s most forward-thinking marketing leaders who are navigating platform shifts, AI innovation, and modern brand building.

🔗 Explore more marketing insights, research, and tools: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com

#FrontierCMO #EsteeLauder #MarketingStrategy #ArtificialIntelligence #CMO #BrandBuilding #LuxuryMarketing #DigitalTransformation #JoshSpanier #AudeGandon

The future of content and websites isn't about chasing vanity impressions—it’s about driving true digital retention.

Recorded live at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Knotch CEO and co-founder Anda Gansca joins Frontier CMO host Josh Spanier to unpack how the brand website is evolving in an AI-first world.

In this episode, we uncover the hidden trap of "corrosive content" driving 80% of web traffic to bounce instantly, and outline a strategic playbook for modern marketing leaders.

Because the website remains the definitive front door for customer discovery and high-stakes decision-making, mastering the next era of web content is more than just site refresh;it is a critical growth imperative for today’s CMO.

00:00 Why Most Brand Content Fails

02:00 Cutting Through the AI Hype

05:00 How Brands Can Win in the AI Era

08:00 Impressions vs. Real Relevance

10:00 Rethinking the Website Experience

12:00 What CMOs Need to Learn About AI

16:00 Building a Culture of AI Experimentation

19:00 Getting Your Data AI-Ready

21:00 AI Slop vs. Great Marketing

23:00 How AI Is Changing Agencies

25:00 AI, Jobs & the MarTech Stack

26:30 Signal or Noise + Final Takeaways

Marketing is moving fast, but are we moving in the right direction?

In this episode, legendary strategist Rishad Tobaccowala (former Chief Growth & Strategy Officer of Publicis Group) drops by to deliver some seriously spicy thinking on the state of the marketing industry.

Spoiler alert: He thinks we’ve lost the plot.

Instead of obsessing over technology and optimization, Rishad breaks down why the future actually belongs to talent, human insight, and deep curiosity. We dive into his blueprint for navigating "tectonic times," why you need to stop writing an "AI strategy," and how thinking like an underdog is the ultimate superpower for staying relevant.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

6 keys to organizational change

Why true innovation happens when you step outside your category

Rishad's daily routine: How he uses 66 different resources to learn and stay ahead

The "Company of One" framework and how to articulate your unique craft vs. skill

Rapid-fire "Signal or Noise" on remote work, side hustles, and the future of work

Few marketing leaders have navigated as much change as Google’s Chief Marketing Officer Lorraine Twohill. She’s one of the industry’s longest-tenured CMOs who’s led Google’s marketing through massive product and platform shifts, from Search and Chrome, to mobile, YouTube, and now AI.

Recorded at Cannes Lions 2026, Frontier CMO host Josh Spanier sits down with Lorraine to unpack how she’s built one of the world’s most influential marketing organizations, why marketers belong in the room with engineers, and why agility is the ultimate competitive advantage.

00:00 Intro

01:00 Google's Startup Days

03:45 Why Local Marketing Wins

05:45 Becoming Google's CMO

08:00 Marketing in a Product-First Company

09:30 The Chrome Growth Playbook

12:10 Human-Centered Brand Storytelling

13:00 What Creators Teach Marketers

14:20 Defining the Frontier CMO

16:15 Marketing Mistakes & Lessons Learned

18:10 Hiring Great Marketers

20:20 Career Advice for the AI Era

22:30 Google's AI Transformation

25:00 AI Productivity & NotebookLM

26:30 Leadership, Resilience & Cancer

29:20 Health, Sleep & Longevity

30:25 Signal or Noise?

32:20 Three Lessons for Every CMO

In today’s creator economy, the audience is in charge. Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry explain what this means for CMOs trying to build brands people actually chose to spend time with, not just marketing they scroll past.

Back by popular demand, this Frontier CMO conversation unpacks the creator landscape and why attention without connection is a dead end. Whether you’re building a creator strategy for the first time or rethinking how your brand shows up online, this episode offers a practical playbook for building lasting creator partnerships, earning audience trust, and staying ahead of where marketing is going.

🔔 Subscribe for more insights from marketing's frontier: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3qH-T0AZE7DJPq-x2ppu2Jq

💡 What you'll learn in this episode:

Why brands must stop acting like "bad party guests" and start adding real value to creator narratives

How to transition your brand from a background logo to an active "character" in a creator’s universe.

How to look past superficial views and vanity metrics to measure genuine audience trust and brand ROI.

Why modern creator content looks more like high-production television, community-building, and culture than traditional social media.

🔗 Resources & Links:

Connect with Josh Spanier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-spanier-4576b5/

Subscribe to the Frontier CMO newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/frontier-cmo-7414735485358788608/

#FrontierCMO #CreatorEconomy #MarketingStrategy #ColinAndSamir #CMO