Marketing Beyond with Alan B. Hart

How do you raise awareness for complex, highly regulated medical therapies when most eligible patients do not even know it exists?
At CES 2026, Alan Hart spoke with Naomi Rodiles, senior director of Global Integrated Communications, Neuromodulation, at Medtronic, about the patient communication required to grow adoption of therapies like deep brain stimulation that can support management of movement disorders like Parkinson's. Naomi explains that the challenge is not clinical efficacy or provider trust, but rather awareness. Even proven therapies can sometimes remain invisible to patients until late in their journey. She outlines how her team is evolving from primarily health care provider-centered messaging to a multichannel, digital-first communications model designed to directly reach patients and caregivers to help them discover, understand and evaluate options earlier.
Naomi emphasizes that effective patient marketing in medtech is less about promotion and more about credible education that empowers better conversations in the clinician's office, while strengthening provider partnerships. She also shares practical leadership lessons from the transformation: design for modern consumer expectations, build integrated channel presence so information is findable when people search, and adopt AI carefully to scale content and storytelling within a regulated environment. 
 
In this episode, you'll learn: 
Why awareness, not efficacy, is often the real growth constraint for complex offerings and strategies to navigate it 
Ways to win trust by prioritizing education over promotion 
Practical lessons for scaling content in regulated, high-stakes categories using AI 
 
Key highlights: 

[00:00] Introduction 

[01:00] Starting out at BET's Rap City 

[02:15] Naomi's path to Medtronic 

[02:50] The scope of Medtronic 

[03:50] Medtronic's neuromodulation therapies 

[05:55] Marketing life-changing solutions 

[07:50] Evolving the messaging 


[10:15] Lessons learned 

[11:45] Symbiotic relationships with health care providers 

[13:10] An experience that defines you: Falling in love with journalism 

[14:40] Advice to your younger self: Be mindful of burnout 

[15:05] A topic marketers need to learn more about: AI 

[16:00] What are you curious about: AI for equity 

[16:50] Largest potential threat to marketers today: Resisting change 

[18:10] CES trends: AI becoming helpful in everyday life 

 
Resources mentioned:   

Medtronic 

CES 

Medtronic Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) therapy  

Medtronic Percept DBS system 

Actualize Impact 

BET's "Rap City: Tha Basement" 

 

 Follow the podcast:   

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Connect with Naomi Rodiles and Medtronic: 

Naomi Rodiles on LinkedIn 

Medtronic on LinkedIn 

Medtronic on YouTube 

 
Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:    

Alan Hart on X 

Alan Hart on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on Instagram  

Deloitte Digital on YouTube  

Deloitte Digital on Threads

How can marketing leaders deliver personalization at scale as content demands surge? How do brands protect discoverability as customers shift their search focus from SEO to answer engines and AI agents?  

At CES 2026, Alan Hart sat down with Rachel Thornton, Enterprise CMO at Adobe, to unpack the ways AI is reshaping customer experience orchestration and the content supply chain. Rachel explains that real personalization drives a major increase in content needs, and that AI can compress production cycles so teams can create, test and optimize large volumes of campaign assets faster than humans alone while staying consistent and on-brand across channels. The conversation then turns to generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) where Rachel notes discoverability is increasingly dependent on how brands show up in AI-driven search results and in the broader ecosystem of content beyond their own websites.  

Throughout the conversation, Rachel reinforces that making AI work requires coordinated change across data foundations, processes and skills, not just new tools. She also offers practical lessons for other CMOs on centering customer needs and building a culture of curiosity and experimentation, so teams keep learning as the marketing playbook evolves. 
 
In this episode, you'll learn: 
Ways AI enables personalization at scale  

Strategies to modernize the content supply chain  

How AI is shifting marketing and the adjustments marketers can make to stay discoverable  
 
Key highlights: 

[00:00] Introduction  

[01:00] A love of reading 

[01:40] Rachel's career path 

[02:50] Life as the Enterprise CMO 

[03:55] How AI is changing the marketing role 


[06:05] Content supply chain at its best 

[07:45] Using AI to its full potential  

[09:20] Discoverability in the AI era 

[11:45] Lessons for CMOs 

[13:20] Examples of companies doing marketing well  

[14:15] An experience that defines you: Customer face time 

[16:05] Advice to your younger self: It's not linear. Try new things! 

[16:45] A topic marketers need to learn more about: AI  

[17:40] What are you curious about: Robots 

[18:30] Largest opportunity to marketers today: "Everybody is a creator at heart" 

[19:50] CES trends: Embedded AI 

 
Resources mentioned:   

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 

Adobe Creative Cloud 

Adobe Marketo Engage 

Adobe GenStudio for Performance Marketing  

Adobe LLM Optimizer  

Adobe Digital Academy  

Project Fizzion (Coca-Cola x Adobe) 

Adobe x NFL partnership 


CES 

 

Follow the podcast:   

Listen on Apple Podcasts   

Listen on Amazon Music  

Listen on Audible  

Listen on iHeart Radio 

Listen on Spotify   

 
Connect with Rachel Thornton and Adobe: 

Rachel Thornton on LinkedIn 

Adobe on LinkedIn 

Adobe on Instagram 

 
Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:    

Alan Hart on X 

Alan Hart on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on Instagram  

Deloitte Digital on YouTube  

Deloitte Digital on Threads

How might your marketing strategy change if you could prove—with shared baselines and benchmarks—which efforts truly move the needle, and which don't?
Anaplan CMO Jim Freeze explains how AI is evolving marketing workflows, elevating creative focus, and tightening the link to measurable outcomes. He details how his team sets explicit productivity goals and uses AI to support content development, enabling marketers to spend more time on strategy, creativity and smarter channel-mix decisions. He also dives into measurement fundamentals with practical advice leaders can act on now: establish transparent targets, align on baselines and industry benchmarks, and report progress regularly.
The conversation also emphasizes tighter alignment with sales, stronger finance fluency for marketers, and preparing for the AI-driven search that will reshape content and site strategy.
 
In this episode, you'll learn: 
Jim's tips to demonstrate marketing's value with metrics leaders trust  

The importance of baselines, benchmarks and transparent reporting to earn credibility with the C-suite 

The potential benefits of cross‑functional accountability and AI integration to pipeline velocity, win rates and team focus 
 
Key highlights: 

[00:00] Introduction  

[01:40] Our first math major and second lawyer 

[04:20] From programming in C to being a CMO 

[07:55] The scope of Anaplan 

[12:15] How Anaplan is using AI 

[15:45] The evolution of the marketer role 


[18:45] Demonstrating the value of marketing  

[23:25] The importance of transparency 

[26:55] Ways to improve your measurement framework 

[30:00] An experience that defines you: Leaving law 

[32:25] Advice to your younger self: Take more risks   

[33:10] A topic marketers need to learn more about: Finance   

[34:50] Trends and subcultures to watch: AI search 

[35:40] Largest opportunity to marketers today: AI 
 
Resources mentioned:   

Anaplan 

 

Follow the podcast:   

Listen on Apple Podcasts   

Listen on Amazon Music  

Listen on Audible  

Listen on iHeart Radio 

Listen on Spotify   

 
Connect with Jim Freeze and Anaplan: 

Jim Freeze on LinkedIn 

Anaplan on LinkedIn 


Anaplan on YouTube 

 
Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:    

Alan Hart on X 

Alan Hart on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on Instagram  

Deloitte Digital on YouTube  

Deloitte Digital on Threads

What if your next marketing idea could become your company's most valuable product? 
Armen Najarian, former CMO at Sift, discusses the challenges of marketing in the digital fraud prevention industry, the power of incentives, and how a marketing solution became an impactful product innovation.

Armen shares how creative referral programs like "Super Sifters" and a strong focus on third-party reviews have elevated Sift's market position and built lasting customer trust. He also explains how the company's Fraud Industry Benchmarking Resource (FIBR) tool began as a marketing initiative that faced internal pushback over essentially making company data open source. Despite the risks, the idea evolved into a real-time, peer comparison product feature—and ultimately became Sift's top demand generator. Armen's experience highlights the value of bold experimentation and cross-functional, innovative thinking in driving marketing-led growth. 

 
In this episode, you'll learn: 
The incentive strategies that move the needle for Sift

How a bold marketing idea can turn into a standout product feature

The benefits of finding a personal connection to your work
 
Key highlights: 

[00:00] Introduction  

[01:05] Escaping to eastern Maine 

[03:15] Armen's path to Sift 

[05:20] The scope of Sift 

[06:20] From brand management to product marketing  

[07:55] 10 years in cybersecurity  


[10:10] Incentive strategies and bobble heads 

[13:45] How marketing can become a product 

[15:10] FIBR product demonstration  

[18:25] An experience that defines you: Entrepreneurship  

[22:40] Advice to your younger self: Don't sweat the small stuff  

[24:00] A topic marketers need to learn more about: Experimenting with AI  

[25:25] Trends and subcultures to watch: Philosophy    

[26:00] Largest opportunity to marketers today: AI 

 
Resources mentioned:   

Sift 

FIBR 

G2 

 

Follow the podcast:   

Listen on Apple Podcasts   

Listen on Amazon Music  

Listen on Audible  

Listen on iHeart Radio 

Listen on Spotify   

 
Connect with Armen Najarian and Sift:  


Armen Najarian on LinkedIn 

Sift on LinkedIn 

Sift on YouTube 

 
Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:    

Alan Hart on X 

Alan Hart on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on Instagram  

Deloitte Digital on YouTube  

Deloitte Digital on Threads

How can marketing leaders balance rapid change, emerging technology and brand purpose to drive lasting growth and loyalty across a portfolio of iconic brands?

Anton Vincent, president of Mars Wrigley North America & Global Ice Cream, shares what it looks like to lead with purpose across a suite of powerhouse brands spanning confections, pet care and food. He discusses how Mars balances ambitious growth with a real commitment to responsibility, ensuring that business success and positive societal impact go hand in hand. Anton also underscores the strategic value of developing talent and enabling people to move across different business areas to encourage agility and fresh thinking.

He shares why creativity remains essential for brands—especially as technology and analytics redefine what's possible—and highlights the discipline required to uphold quality and brand integrity in a crowded, fast-moving marketplace. Throughout the conversation, Anton stresses that enduring relevance and brand loyalty come from continuous learning and a clear understanding of both consumers and culture.
 
In this episode, you'll learn: 
Why centering business growth with real purpose can create a lasting impact at scale  

How ideas supported by data and fueled by originality can capture and hold people's attention in today's crowded market  

Ways to build agile teams and nurture authentic brands to stay relevant in a constantly changing world 
 
Key highlights: 

[00:00] Introduction 

[01:30] Basketball talk 

[04:30] Anton's path to Mars 

[08:00] The scope of Mars 

[10:20] Alan's love to Hubba Bubba 

[12:20] Scale versus independence of brands 


[14:05] The Mars talent strategy 

[15:40] Navigating the evolving marketing ecosystem 

[18:20] Marketing that adapts to change 

[20:30] Notable recent work 

[22:05] An experience that defines you: Top Secret Popcorn recall 

[26:00] Advice to your younger self: Slow down 

[28:30] A topic marketers need to learn more about: Connecting creativity with technology 

[33:45] Largest opportunity or threat to marketers today: Constant learning 

 
Resources mentioned:   

Mars Wrigley 

SNICKERS NFL Bedtime with Josh Allen 

 

Follow the podcast:   

Listen on Apple Podcasts   

Listen on Amazon Music  

Listen on Audible  

Listen on iHeart Radio 

Listen on Spotify   

 
Connect with Anton Vincent and Mars Wrigley:

Anton Vincent on LinkedIn 


Mars on LinkedIn 

Mars on Instagram 

Mars on YouTube 

 
Connect with Alan Hart and Deloitte Digital:    

Alan Hart on X 

Alan Hart on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn  

Deloitte Digital on Instagram  

Deloitte Digital on YouTube  

Deloitte Digital on Threads