Ian sits down with Peeyush Dubey, Chief Marketing Officer of Tech Mahindra, to unpack how he built the company’s first global marketing organization. Peeyush explains his four-pillar marketing strategy (brand, demand, expand, and grand). The conversation goes deep on Tech Mahindra’s Global Chess League, a bold brand experiment that has evolved into a flagship marketing, customer experience, and talent branding platform.

Key Takeaways:

• Marketing’s real job is reducing friction to sales. Everything else is in service of that goal.
• Brand experiments can outperform sponsorships. Building owned IP creates control, longevity, and compounding value.
• Innovation budgets should never be cut. Even in downturns, experimentation is non-negotiable.

Episode Timestamps:

*(03:34) Trust Tree: Reducing friction for sales

*(22:09) The Playbook: Building a global ches league

*(43:13) Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Peeyush on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Tech Mahindra
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Ian sits down with Marco Mueller, CMO of AVEVA, to explore how marketing operates as a strategic growth engine inside one of the world’s leading industrial software companies.

Marco shares how AVEVA balances speed and stability in a risk-averse category, why in-person events remain one of their most powerful channels, and how the team redesigned its campaign model to move faster without sacrificing quality. The conversation dives into AVEVA’s global event strategy, including AVEVA World and 37 localized AVEVA Days.

Key Takeaways:

• In-person events compress trust timelines. Face-to-face experiences move risk-averse buyers faster than any digital channel in complex B2B.
• Speed is a design problem, not a hustle problem. Campaigns ship faster when you cut upfront complexity and build in room to adapt.
• The CMO’s real job is integration. Growth happens when marketing aligns product truth, sales reality, and customer risk.

Episode Timestamps:

* (02:08) The Trust Tree: Why industrial software marketing is built on trust
* (07:24) The Playbook: Events, positioning, and adaptive digital strategy
* (45:24) Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Marco on LinkedIn
• Learn more about AVEVA
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Ian sits down with JP Laqueur, SVP of Marketing & Culture at DataBank, to explore how brand, culture, and CEO-led thought leadership work together to create lasting differentiation in B2B.

JP explains why DataBank prioritizes culture-first marketing, how involving the CEO in media and content unlocks disproportionate impact, and why disciplined PR often outperforms flashier tactics. The conversation also covers how marketing teams should think about video, written content, AI-driven discovery, and why human connection may become even more valuable in an AI-saturated world.

Key Takeaways:

• Culture is a competitive moat competitors can’t copy. Facilities and technology can be replicated, people and behaviors cannot.
• CEO-led storytelling scales trust. Thoughtful PR and executive content outperform most paid tactics when done consistently.
• Brand work compounds over time. Earned media, strong culture, and clear positioning reinforce each other across customers, employees, and investors.
  
  

Episode Timestamps:

*(14:01) The Trust Tree: Culture is the strategy

*(31:06) The Playbook: SEM is still working

*(46:45) Quick Hits:

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with JP on LinkedIn
• Learn more about DataBank
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Ian sits down with Henry Wagner, Chief Marketing Officer at Megaport, to explore how marketing teams can earn attention in increasingly crowded and skeptical B2B markets.

Henry shares why Megaport invests in unconventional campaigns, like building an eight-bit video game to celebrate a major company milestone, and how smaller, calculated bets often outperform large, high-risk sponsorships. He breaks down his philosophy of “doing science, not alchemy” in marketing, emphasizing rigorous testing, learning, and iteration over narrative-driven guesswork.

Key Takeaways:

• Creative risk is easier to justify when bets are small and frequent. Contained experiments often deliver outsized attention with limited downside.
• Great marketing teams run science, not alchemy. Measurement, iteration, and learning beat intuition and narrative.
• LLMs change discovery, but not the need for authority. Clear, structured, problem-focused content still wins—measurement just looks different.

Episode Timestamps:

*(14:16) The Trust Tree:

*(17:56) The Playbook:

*(46:32) Quick Hits:

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Henry on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Megaport
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Ian sits down with Greer Lynch, VP of Marketing at Reprise, the AI-powered demo automation platform helping enterprise teams deliver high-stakes software demos with confidence.

Greer shares how she approaches storytelling as the foundation of effective marketing, why community-building has become a core growth lever for Reprise, and how her team balances long-term brand investments with short-term demand generation. She also breaks down how Reprise thinks about rebranding for enterprise credibility, adapting SEO strategies for an AI-first world, and using AI internally to move faster without losing authenticity.

Key Takeaways

• Storytelling is the foundation of scalable marketing. Clear positioning and narrative make every channel more effective — from demand gen to community.
• Community is a long-term growth strategy. Bringing people together authentically builds trust, insight, and future demand, even beyond your immediate ICP.
• Brand maturity matters in enterprise markets. Positioning and design must reflect who you serve today, not who you served yesterday.
• AI is changing how marketing works — not eliminating fundamentals. The best teams use AI to accelerate insight, experimentation, and execution, not replace judgment.

Episode Timestamps:

*(03:01) The Trust Tree: Focus on what you can uniquely deliver to your audience

*(07:09) The Playbook: Storytelling and understanding your audience

*(32:53) Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Greer on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Reprise
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Ian sits down with Phyllis Fang, Head of Marketing at Transcend, where she leads go-to-market strategy for a data infrastructure platform powering compliant AI-driven experiences.

Phyllis shares how she thinks about go-to-market strategy, building repeatable marketing systems, investing in thought leadership and IRL events, and creating the right culture for AI adoption inside marketing teams.

• Thought leadership compounds over time. First-party research, executive voices, and clear points of view build trust long before buyers are in-market.
  
  
• Operational rigor matters, even in startups. Repeatable playbooks and clear ownership help marketing scale without breaking.
  
  
• AI adoption is as much a cultural challenge as a tooling one. Creating space to experiment is key to long-term impact.
  
  

“Slow down to speed up. Be best friends with sales. You’re there to help the business win.”

00:27 Phyllis’s Path into Marketing
02:03 What Transcend Does and Who It Serves
03:53 Go-to-Market Strategy Overview
05:58 Marketing Team Structure
07:15 Lessons from Uber
12:26 Uncuttable Marketing Investments
14:57 Activating Executive Thought Leadership
16:22 Running Effective IRL Events
21:07 What’s Most Cuttable in the Budget
26:04 Favorite Campaigns
28:08 Building a Culture for AI Adoption
36:27 Navigating Cross-Functional Tension
41:21 Quick Hits

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Connect with Ian on LinkedIn

Connect with Phyllis on LinkedIn

Learn more about Transcend

Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

They explore Emily’s concept of the “gen marketer”, and why traditional silos and specialist-heavy teams struggle in today’s high-velocity environment.

• Marketing teams need more generalists who can connect strategy, creativity, and distribution.
• Speed to execution matters more than perfect alignment across functions.
• Big marketing wins come from coordinated campaigns, not isolated tactics.
• AI increases the value of orchestration and taste, not specialization alone.
• Marketing leaders should think in portfolios of bets, not incremental activities.
  

“Every big initiative needs to have a chance to really win — not just deliver incremental results.”

Episode Timestamps

(03:51) What the “Gen Marketer” role actually means

(10:04) Why speed matters more than perfect alignment

(16:42) Escaping random acts of marketing with big bets

(24:58) How CMOs should think like producers or VCs

(31:37) When founder-led marketing works (and when it doesn’t)

Sponsor

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com — the pipeline generation platform for revenue teams.
Turn your website into a pipeline machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, and intent data.
Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
Connect with Emily Kramer on LinkedIn

Dear Marketers Podcast

MKT1 Unboxing
Learn more about MKT1
Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Hear from Jill Wiltfong, CMO, Korn Ferry, Chris Bontempo, CMO, Johnson Controls, Shannon Sullivan Duffy, CMO, Asana, and Melton Littlepage, CMO, 1Password on their uncuttable budget items.

Timestamps:
(01:19) Jill Wiltfong, CMO, Korn Ferry,
(08:03) Chris Bontempo, CMO, Johnson Controls
(23:12) Shannon Sullivan Duffy, CMO, Asana
(28:10) Melton Littlepage, CMO, 1Password

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.