Influencers Vs. Advocates - Building Brand Advocacy
Release Date: 05/07/2025
How to Fix AI Slop: Better Context, Stronger Brands and the Return of Human Judgement with Pacey.ai
The Digital Marketing Podcast
How to Fix AI Slop: Better Context, Stronger Brands and the Return of Human Judgement What happens when AI makes it easier to produce marketing content, but that content all starts to look and sound the same? In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Ciaran Rogers speaks to Evan Greally, founder and CTO of Pacey AI, about avoiding AI slop and getting back to the work that matters: understanding customers, developing ideas and building a distinctive brand. Introduced by Daniel Rowles, the conversation draws on Evan’s experience as Head of Creative Tech and Innovation at Droga5 Dublin,...
info_outline
How to Create AI Skills: Build Reusable AI Workflows That Save Time
The Digital Marketing Podcast
AI tools are evolving fast. One of the biggest shifts is the move from one-off prompts to reusable AI skills. Instead of rewriting the same instructions every time you use ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot, you can package your best workflows into portable skills that deliver consistent, repeatable results. In this special episode, recorded as the Digital Marketing Podcast celebrates its 16th anniversary, Daniel Rowles and Ciaran Rogers explore why AI skills could fundamentally change the way marketers work. They explain how skills fit alongside projects, agents and prompts, why they are becoming an...
info_outline
Design That Sticks: Applying Neuroscience to Predict Attention
The Digital Marketing Podcast
Why do so many beautifully designed websites, ads and digital experiences still fail to convert? In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles is joined by Kramer Reeves, CEO of EyeQuant, alongside neuroscientist Professor Peter König, one of the company’s founders and a leading expert in visual attention and cognitive science. Together, they explore how neuroscience and AI are reshaping the way marketers, designers and brands understand attention. The conversation dives into the hidden mechanics behind how people actually experience digital content. From subconscious...
info_outline
Reddit Marketing Case Study with Dove - Turning Real Reviews into Real Growth
The Digital Marketing Podcast
What happens when a global brand hands over its creative control to unfiltered customer feedback? In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles speaks with Emily Barfoot, Head of Dove Beauty at Unilever, about a bold and unconventional campaign built on Reddit conversations. At a time when trust in polished marketing is eroding and AI is reshaping how content is discovered, Dove leaned into one of the internet’s most unpredictable platforms. By amplifying genuine, unedited user reviews, both positive and negative, the brand not only drove awareness but also delivered...
info_outline
The Changing Customer Journey in an AI-First World - Insights from Adobe Enterprise's CMO
The Digital Marketing Podcast
As AI rapidly reshapes how customers discover, evaluate, and engage with brands, marketers are being forced to rethink the fundamentals of the customer journey. In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles speaks with Rachel Thornton, CMO of Adobe Enterprise, to explore what this shift really means in practice. Recorded just ahead of Adobe Summit, Rachel shares exclusive insights into Adobe’s latest thinking, product direction, and how enterprise marketers should adapt to an increasingly AI-driven landscape. From evolving user expectations to the rise of AI as the primary...
info_outline
Practical Video Marketing - How to Make Video More Human, More Useful and More Effective
The Digital Marketing Podcast
In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles is joined by Kendall Breitman from Riverside for a practical conversation about how marketers can use video without needing a full production team, a huge budget or a complicated workflow. Together, they explore why video has become so central to modern marketing, how brands can use it to strengthen SEO and answer engine optimisation, and why authentic, human-led content is outperforming overly polished corporate production. The discussion also dives into practical ways to build a video strategy from webinars, podcasts,...
info_outline
Eight Psychology Experiments for Marketers
The Digital Marketing Podcast
What happens when you combine practical digital marketing experience with behavioural science? In this episode, Daniel Rowles is joined by Phil Agnew, host of the Nudge podcast and a specialist in behavioural science, to explore eight psychology experiments and principles that can help marketers create more effective campaigns, stronger customer experiences and more persuasive messaging. Phil shares the original studies behind concepts such as social proof, loss aversion, anchoring and the peak-end rule, then shows how they can be applied in real marketing scenarios, from Reddit ads and SaaS...
info_outline
Gamification for Digital Marketing
The Digital Marketing Podcast
What happens when clicks get harder to earn, paid media gets more expensive, and audiences spend less time engaging with static content? In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles explores why gamification is moving from a nice-to-have tactic to a serious strategic opportunity for marketers. This episode is split into two parts. First, Daniel sets out the business case for gamification in today’s digital landscape, where AI overviews, rising cost per click and declining organic reach are all putting pressure on traditional marketing performance. Then he is joined by Luke...
info_outline
How to Drive AI Adoption - A Step-by-Step Case Study
The Digital Marketing Podcast
In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles is joined by Emma Tronson, Deputy Director of Marketing at Aston University, for a practical, honest and refreshingly structured look at how to move beyond AI experimentation and into real organisational adoption. Many teams are stuck in what Daniel calls “pilot purgatory”. Everyone is testing tools. Everyone is experimenting. But very few organisations have truly embedded AI into day-to-day operations. Workloads have not reduced. If anything, they have increased. This episode explores what it actually takes to embed AI into a...
info_outline
The Hubspot CMO Interview - Kipp Bodnar on AI, Answer Engine Optimisation and the Future of Marketing
The Digital Marketing Podcast
In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles sits down with Kipp Bodnar, CMO of HubSpot, to discuss what may be the most disruptive year in marketing history. Kipp believes that 2026 could represent the biggest single wave of change our industry has ever seen. Weeks feel like months. Channels are fragmenting. Discovery is shifting. AI agents are entering workflows. And traditional attribution models are starting to break down. From Answer Engine Optimisation to AI agents, rising ad costs to workflow automation, this conversation explores how marketers can stay ahead when the...
info_outlineIn this episode of the Digital Marketing Podcast, hosts Ciaran Rogers, Louise Crossley, and Daniel Rowles dive headfirst into a topic that’s reshaping the way brands grow online: creating brand advocates vs. hiring influencers.
💬 How do advocates impact GEO and SEO?
🤝 What makes a true brand advocate?
🧠 How do you build authentic loyalty that actually moves the needle?
You’ll learn why genuine, passionate brand fans are now more powerful than ever and how their voices cut through the cynicism surrounding traditional influencer marketing. From the rise of Reddit and forum-based recommendations, to the impact of AI-generated summaries and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), we explore why building trust and community beats buying attention every time.
Expect plenty of insight, some dubious banter, and even a few host mishaps (including a missing Daniel edit!) that prove just how engaged our audience really is.
Also covered:
Micro-influencers, creators, and the blurry lines between fame and influence
Practical strategies to encourage advocacy (without bribing people with mugs… or maybe with them)
Real-life stories from Liz Earle Beauty and other brands who nailed word-of-mouth
Why being a great friend might just be the best marketing strategy of all
👉 Whether you’re growing a startup or managing a global brand, this episode will get you thinking differently about influence, advocacy, and how to win hearts - not just clicks.
🎧 Listen now and discover why your biggest brand win might be sitting quietly in your DMs.
You'll find all links on TargetInternet.com
Show notes: https://targetinternet.com/resources/infuencers-vs-advocates-building-brand-advocacy
Have any feedback on the show? Send us your feedback, tell us what you love and what you think could be better. And, if you are really enjoying the show, please leave us a review.