The Rockstar CMO F'in' Marketing Podcast

This week, Jeff and Ian apply their One Hot Wonder or Wonderwall test to Causal Analytics, and Robert has a trick for sales and marketing alignment.

This week, Cathy is back for her monthly visit, asking if you are managing your martech stack like a museum, and in the bar, Robert gives us a sneak peek of his presentation for next week's Content Marketing World.

This week, Ian goes solo and compares the electrification of the automobile industry and AI for marketing, and over a cocktail, Robert is in the bar talking about our love of jargon.

This week, Mark Demeny, Senior Director, Product Marketing at OpenText, joins our host Ian Truscott in the Rockstar CMO studio to discuss the changes in content technology and where the industry is headed as the term DXP, or Digital eXperience Management, is being dropped, and how our enterprise marketing technology platforms need to work with AI. They then move on to the question many B2B tech marketing organizations ask: should product marketing sit under product or marketing? They discuss: The decline of the DXP category and its implications The importance of composable marketing technology and API-first approaches AI's impact on content creation, management, and governance The evolving roles within marketing teams, including product marketing and CPOs Then, Ian moves to our virtual bar, The Rose and Rockstar, and joins Robert Rose, Chief Trouble Maker at Seventh Bear, to explore some fresh research from Andy Crestodina at Orbit Media, following an annual survey of over a thousand content marketers. The headline number in the post was that, after consistent performance over several years, “The percentage of respondents who report 'strong results’ dropped to an all-time low of 14%” and Ian and Robert discuss what that means for content marketing. Does this mean the death of the corporate blog as traffic is down, or are we measuring the wrong things, and has the purpose of our content now changed? Enjoy! — The Links The people: Ian Truscott on LinkedIn Mark Demeney on LinkedIn Robert Rose on LinkedIn Mentioned this week: Mark’s last appearance - The Metaverse and Marketing Gifts Holiday Special Episode Mark’s website - Mark Demeny Digital Marketing Tips from Andy Crestodina - We asked 1,042 content marketers if their blog works. Just 14% said yes. This Old Marketing - Is Blogging Dead or Mostly Dead? (550) Rockstar CMO: The Beat Newsletter our weekly(ish) newsletter Rockstar CMO on the web and LinkedIn Track List: We’ll be right back by Stienski & Mass Media on YouTube Piano Music is by Johnny Easton, shared under a Creative Commons license You can listen to this on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, and Spotify

This week, Ian and Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear, discuss some research that she’s just published covering the State of Content Operations in 2026. But first, they discuss Optimizely's recent retirement of the Digital Experience Platform (DXP) label, a prominent vendor in this category, but is the switch to an agent platform any better? They then dig into Cathy’s research and discuss five key points: Speed went up. ROI did not AI wins here. Falls flat there Three bottlenecks. None of them AI It was never the AI. Five reasons. None of them intelligence. Then Ian moves to our virtual bar, The Rose and Rockstar, and joins Robert Rose, Chief Trouble Maker at Seventh Bear, to ask about something he heard Dr. Margaret Heffernan on the Uncensored CMO say: “AI is a very expensive way to be stupid.” This leads them to explore the nuances of AI's impact on decision-making, industry knowledge, and marketing strategies. They discuss how AI can both enhance and hinder critical thinking, the importance of industry expertise, and the risks of over-reliance on technology. Enjoy! — The Links The people: Ian Truscott on LinkedIn Cathy McKnight on LinkedIn Robert Rose on LinkedIn Mentioned this week: Brice Dunwoodie’s LinkedIn Post about retiring DXP Optimizely Retires DXP Label, Bets Everything on Agent Platform State of Content Operations in 2026 Valuable Friction - Robert Rose Uncensored CMO - Dr Margaret Heffernan Robert’s article: Why AI Demands That Marketers Have Industry Expertise Robert’s newsletter: Lens, his websites, robertrose.net and seventhbear.com Rockstar CMO: The Beat Newsletter that we send every Monday Rockstar CMO on the web and LinkedIn Previous episodes and all the show notes: Rockstar CMO FM. Track List: We’ll be right back by Stienski & Mass Media on YouTube Piano Music is by Johnny Easton, shared under a Creative Commons license You can listen to this on all good podcast platforms, like Apple, Amazon, and Spotify.