When NetApp CMO Gabie Boko produced an AI-generated Super Bowl campaign in two weeks at roughly a tenth of the usual cost, her team was thrilled. But then, it stalled. Because while the team optimized for speed and savings, they also skipped some basics — like structured testing and a plan for what came after launch.

We spoke with Boko about what went wrong, how that failure changed the way she thinks about AI and why she's now focused on building it into the workflow as an orchestration layer rather than a production engine.

Evvy CMO and Cofounder Laine Bruzek built her company's marketing strategy around a provocation: women's health has been systematically under-researched for decades, and the gap shows up most clearly in areas like vaginal health, which is both common and stigmatized. We spoke with Bruzek about how the brand manages to be science-backed and culturally fluent at the same time, why humor is a trust-building tool in health marketing and where she draws a hard line on AI.

DTC furniture brand Povison opened its first permanent store in Los Angeles in June, and the early results are making the case for physical retail faster than the brand expected. General Director Shirley Han shares the brand’s learnings from a four-day pop-up last November, what the data revealed about its customers and the company's plans to expand to 12 more stores over the next two years.

Lastly, we look at why OxiClean's 13-year partnership with Major League Baseball is the brand's highest-ROI marketing program. Kevin Sherlock, Vice President of Fabric Care Marketing, explains why in-person events are moving the needle for the brand.

Until next week,