The Power of Data Standardization in Marketing with Anne Murlowski

Summary

In this episode of AI Speed, Evan Cholfin interviews Anne Murlowski, VP of Marketing at Clarivine, about the critical role of data standardization and governance in marketing, especially in the context of AI. They explore how clean, consistent data enables better measurement, personalization, and scaling of marketing efforts, and discuss the unique challenges and opportunities in marketing data management.

Takeaways

Data inconsistency in marketing
Clarivine's approach to data standardization
Impact of clean data on AI campaigns
Challenges in marketing data governance
Future trends in marketing data and AI

Soundbites

"Business moves at AI speed"
"Scale campaigns with confidence"
"We're at an AI inflection point"

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to AI Speed and Clarivine
00:57 The Importance of Data in Marketing
03:36 Clarivine's Unique Approach to Data Governance
05:38 Targeting Different Personas in Marketing
06:50 Challenges in Marketing and AI Integration
08:20 Communicating the Importance of Clean Data
09:47 Raising Brand Awareness in a Niche Market
11:21 Expanding Clarivine's Presence Across Industries
12:27 Trends in Marketing Data and AI
14:46 Future Goals for Clarivine

Video

https://youtu.be/LiGrs6taGs8

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Welcome to AI Speed, the show where AI-powered companies talk about what actually works in the market right now. Business doesn't move at internet speed anymore, it moves at AI speed, and the people who figure out how to turn models into money will own the next decade. I'm Evan J. Chaulfin, founder of Luxhammer and growth partner to high-performing brands. Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by Anne Merlasky, VP of Marketing at Clarivine. Anne is leading marketing at a company tackling one of the biggest and most overlooked problems in modern marketing: data and consistency. Her work focuses on helping organizations bring structure, governance, and clarity to their marketing data so that they can actually measure performance, optimize campaigns, and make better decisions. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

So you've spent years in demand generation, digital marketing. What led you to focus on data as such a critical part of the marketing process?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, so you know, when you are doing demand gen, you really have to understand where your dollars are being spent and what the end output is. And so when you start scaling those dollars and you start spending more to either you're targeting enterprise brands or you're launching larger campaigns and you start losing information because you don't have the consistency you need, it really makes it hard to measure the outcomes and hard to measure your ROI. So when I joined Clarivine, it was a problem that was really near and dear to my heart because for me to know what's working, I have to have good clean data. So wanting to be able to understand how other brands are doing that, how are we helping people solve that problem? And ultimately, how are we making a difference for marketers who were spending hours and days and weeks manually cleaning up things to be able to see their ROI? And now they can just pull it straight from systems without being having to, you know, have so many hands-on keyboard to fix data problems before you can get to the reporting stage.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Yeah, absolutely. Um, that's a huge win for so many marketers. So maybe you can get a little bit into what makes Clarivine's approach unique, especially in how you're addressing data standardization and governance at scale.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah, so we are really helping brands as they are scaling their campaigns, both through paid media and in content and creative, so that they can see real-time insights on what's impacting their business. So when you're working, for example, as a brand with multiple regions or you're working with multiple agencies, things can get lost in translation really fast. There might be nomenclature that, you know, perhaps in one country they refer to a product as one item, and then in another country they refer to a product as a different item, but you're actually utilizing the same creative. And so you're missing pieces of the puzzle. So what Clarivine empowers the brands to do is to create this standardized system of record that everyone is using the same language, the same metadata, and the same taxonomy. So that way when they are sending it out through agencies and then receiving data back through all of the channels that that content could be flighted through, they're able to then quickly be able to say, okay, I know what creative is working, I know what content I'm I have in market, I know that I'm serving this to the right audience. And then now I can take it and scale it with AI. Have I have faith in my data, I have faith in my metadata and taxonomy, and I believe I can now take AI and layer it on and say, okay, let's make this bigger, let's amplify this.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Very cool. So, in your role, where are you spending most of your time right now?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yeah, so we're really educating folks about how AI can really be more powerful when you are using clear, consistent data standards and data governance. You know, what happens when you are launching an AI campaign or you're launching an AI initiative against dirty data is you're gonna just amplify the problems at scale. You're not gonna know what's really working and what's not working. And you might actually put things in market that are not effective because you're using the wrong data. So we're really working to help educate people on how to make sure that their AI projects and their AI initiatives are effective and real practical advice for what they can do to make sure that all of their teams are speaking the same language, regardless of where they are in the content supply chain.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Makes sense. So, how do you translate something as technical as data governance into messaging that actually resonates with buyers?

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Yeah, so we're really, it depends on who you are. We speak very specifically to different personas. So your data scientists, your hands-on keyboard people who are actually working in the data every day. We're really talking about the time savings, the not having to go and do manual rework. And some of the things that really matter to them is, you know, that communication from their partners and peers, perhaps in other departments, other regions, or in agencies, and really helping them speak a unified language. When we talk about the same thing to people who are a little higher up in the organization, your directors or your VPs of marketing data or digital marketing, when we talk to them, we're really talking about the impact of how they're going to be able to get results faster, how they're going to be able to scale faster, and how they're really going to be able to drive performance in a more effective way. So we try to think about the message at different stages of where you are in the journey. Are you actually putting things into market? Or are you someone who's trying to pull insights out quickly and measure performance? And we message a little bit different to each of those personas.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, absolutely. So who do you serve best? What's the ideal customer profile that gets the most value from Claire Vine?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Often we're working with brands that are global. So they're putting multiple campaigns in market. They could be different, they could be different languages, they could be different regions, and they're working with multiple agencies at one time. So that's where things get really messy because if you have one agency that's based in the US, they might use their own system. And when you have another agency that's based in the UK, they're using a different system. And so what we're trying them do is speak to each other in a really consistent way and help enforce those data governance standards at a brand level. So they can say, hey, here's what we're using. Go ahead and send it all through Clarivine. And that's going to help us be consistent and make sure that we know that all of these agencies are talking well together, but also we're speaking the same language internally.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah, that's really important. What do you think has been your biggest challenge this year in terms of uh marketing your services and uh the company and the brand?

SPEAKER_00 7:01

I'd say we're really at this AI inflection point where everyone is trying to utilize AI more efficiently and more effectively, including us. So our problems, you know, that we are working to solve with AI are, you know, minuscule in comparison to some of the brands that are working to solve the same problems with AI. But it's how do we then take our data? How do we take our content? How do we scale that and create personalization through AI in the same way that our customers are doing? So we see the problems that they're solving or that they're working to solve at a different level, but we're dealing with a lot of the same things. You know, when you have pieces of content that might be legacy pieces of content, how do you refresh that for the current market? How do you refresh it for different personas? How do you refresh it for different verticals? And how can we take all of the information we have that comes out of, you know, conversations that our sales team has, data about who's visiting our website? How do we take that and utilize that as a personalization engine through AI and drive context out of it? Which is ultimately, you know, the challenge with AI is if you put a bunch of messy information into an AI system, you're going to get a lot of data or you're going to get a lot of content, but it might not have the right context. So we are, we are working to solve that for ourselves as much as we are watching our customers solve it with our tools.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah, absolutely. You know, kind of along those lines. What makes it difficult to communicate the importance of clean data before companies feel a pain?

SPEAKER_00 8:31

I think it's one of those things that, you know, until you make the wrong decision because the data was wrong, you don't necessarily know the pain. You could go months, years without knowing that you're using the wrong information correctly. You're using the information you have to the best of your ability, but it's the wrong information is just driving you further down a funnel. It's driving you down into a dark path that you aren't aware of. We've seen some of our customers who have come to us with, they say, Hey, our big problem is that we're we're working with an agency. We really like the agency, but we're not able to get the insights as fast as possible. And so what we're able to do is then when they start sending their information through Clarivine and utilizing us to create that metadata and taxonomy, they're able to very quickly solve this inconsistency and then take it to market and say, hey, I know that in this region this works really well, or I know that we've unintentionally been making decisions off of content that isn't even in market. This creative, we thought it was in market, but it's actually not being served. And now we're able to see it. It's no one's fault. We had the data, we thought it was the right data, but we were just making decisions off of something that wasn't real. Now we're able to quickly turn around and say, this is exactly what it is in market, and this performs, but we do want to test this other thing that we thought was in market. Let's go ahead and flight it in as navy test.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Absolutely. Now I know you're dealing with uh marketing on the brand side. So what challenges do you face raising awareness for the brand?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah, I think what's really interesting about the space that we exist in is we're purpose-built for marketing data. Um, you know, a lot of folks are familiar with master metadata management solutions, and that really kind of fits across your IT, it fits across your customer data, but it doesn't really layer in kind of the challenges that are specific to marketers. And that's where when you get into, you know, the content piece, the advertising piece, how do you connect that back to a customer profile for personalization? How do you handle compliance when you're in a field like finance or or pharma? And so we really solve a very specific use case in that marketing space. And so to an extent, marketers know that it's a problem, but it's not necessarily something that you see a lot of in market as a solve for marketing metadata. You you often we get kind of grouped in with that master metadata management, but we're really purpose-built for marketing. And so we try to kind of emphasize how marketers are utilizing us and why this is a specific solution for that specific need.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, absolutely. The specificity probably is, I mean, it's a good thing, obviously, but I can see how that could be a challenge as well when you're talking, you know, depending on who you're talking to.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

100%. Because your your master metadata management platforms are often bought by your IT teams. Um, and they're kind of, you know, they're blanketed into another area of the business, and it may not solve a marketer's problem.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

That's really interesting. So, how are you thinking about expanding Clarivine's presence across industries or use cases?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Yeah, so I think, you know, you'll see some really exciting things that we're putting out over the course of the next several months. Really, how do you up-level from solving for specific campaigns to solving for a global architecture problem? That's something that we're really excited about that's coming out in the next, in the next quarter or so. Um, we're, you know, releasing pieces of it to our customers today. And we're seeing that people are able to expand outside of, you know, looking specifically at various campaigns or looking specifically at content, but seeing the big picture at a whole, that's really where you get more power. When you can look at everything in one view and see that orchestration across all of the channels and see how your taxonomy is being applied in all the different areas is really, really powerful. And we're excited to have customers that are on board and helping us, helping us like really see this come to life. You know, it's it's super easy to fix a small problem, but what's really exciting is to fix a big problem. And we've been fixing big problems for a lot of customers, but we don't market it that way often. So that's what I'm really excited about is to see us market how we're fixing those big problems and really bring that to life in a more in a more intentional way.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, absolutely. So, what trends are you seeing in marketing data or AI that feel real versus hype?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Well, I really do think that the the concept of personalization is um it's it's just lit on fire because of AI. So, how do you create, you know, take one piece of creative and create 700 pieces of creative that are specific to all of the instances in which you could be utilizing it and really making your marketing messaging resonate with the personas that you're trying to reach? That's something that AI really can empower. And I do think it is a very real thing that is going to come to life in the next year or so, but you have to feed in the right information to create that and create that context correctly.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, absolutely. So, where do you see the biggest opportunity for companies to get that right?

SPEAKER_00 13:29

I really think it's it's at the the human level that, you know, trying to really emphasize that this is personalized for you. Like this is if you're reaching me, if you were reaching me as a consumer, it's personalized for me. I'm a I'm a mom, I have two kids. You know, what does that mean for me? Creating that content, but having it feel authentic, I think that's really where brands are gonna win. People know that AI generated content is a real thing. So there's a balance between creating so much content with AI that it becomes disingenuous, and then creating content with AI that's going to really reflect who I am and make me engage with it. And I think that that's what's gonna be really interesting to see the evolution of is how do they create these personalized pieces of content and flight them into more one-to-one channels for consumers, which we haven't seen a lot of historically. You know, how do you reach someone on a one-to-one level? Is it through a mobile device? Is it through in-home screen, you know, streaming? How are we really getting those messages into market to the right audiences? Is something that hasn't been solved, but I do think we're gonna see more of it. And that's what the impact of AI is gonna do to advertising and marketing as it kind of starts trickling down into that B2C space. We do a lot of that in B2B today, but we're personalizing often at an account level. We're not necessarily personalizing at a person-to-person level, but I think we'll see that we'll be able to create that content so much faster, which will empower personalization at a person-to-person level for B2C campaigns.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Absolutely. So if we were to have this conversation again in 12 months, what would need to happen for you to feel like it was a big win for clarifying?

SPEAKER_00 15:05

I mean, really seeing seeing that like the data standards flight across more creative campaigns is something that I'm really excited about. We have a lot of customers that are doing it today, but I'd love to see more of it. And I'd love to see more of the impact of that on their actual consumers. Um, you know, the the creative and content is where often brands spend the most money. You know, you can spend a lot of money on advertising things, but the creating, how are you creating video content? How are you creating display ads? How are you creating print ads? All of that needs to be really unified in a way that you're able to say, okay, pull up all of the campaigns about this car and see them all in one unified view. But until you kind of have that, you know, dynamic taxonomy, it might be really challenging to pull that out of a dam. You might get something that's not necessarily what you're looking for, or you might be missing pockets of it. And so I'm really excited to see as more people are bringing taxonomy consistency to their dams to be able to see how though those pieces of content come to life in real context.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Absolutely. Well, that's it for today's episode of AI Speed. A huge thank you to Anne for sharing her invaluable insights into how Claire Vine is helping organizations turn marketing data into true strategic advantage. If you're building or leading an AI native company or a service business that uses AI under the hood and you care about revenue, adoption, or market share, make sure to subscribe to AI Speed and learn how the best AI operators ship faster, sell smarter, and stay ahead. Thanks for listening. Until next time, keep building, keep selling, and keep moving at AI speed.