THE FUTURE OF MARKETING NEEDS YOU!

Marketing Unfiltered 41 - £25 Amazon Voucher For Your Thoughts

Author

Danny Denhard
August 08, 2025

📝 AUGUST 8th | EDITORS NOTE 📝

Welcome Back, Marketing Leaders ☀️!

This week, we have a special edition of MU. We’d love for you to complete a quick survey on how Marketing will look in 2030 for a £25 Amazon voucher.

While Harry is on a holiday and I’ve been heads down recording and editing an upcoming MU podcast with Rory Woodbridge on the PMM role and the future of Product Marketing. I have also been getting ready to launch my new AI for leaders podcast called AI Moment. I’ll tease a little more next week. I wanted to share something a little different today. Today’s MU includes a few questions I’ve been asked on WhatsApp & iMessage from ex-colleagues, clients and friends, while I offer a few ponderings that I’m working through. 

Thanks again for reading and completing the survey this week. Enjoy your weekend!
Danny Denhard - ( 👋 wanna connect - email or LinkedIn)

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HOW THE INDUSTRY IS SHIFTING & CALLING OUT SOME GREAT MARKETING

THE FUTURE OF MARKETING NEEDS YOU!

The Future Of Marketing & Growth Roles 🚀

As I referenced in last week’s newsletter, there will be a need for full funnel roles (I summarise in 6 bullets below), and I called out Product Marketing as one of them. 

Here are the full funnel roles I called out last week, including PMM and Growth

It raises the question:
Will we need to rethink how we hire and assign new roles to? I predict we have to embrace a new 3-tier system: the specialist, the generalist and the expert role.  

I explain the differences between the roles below (a little teaser from the upcoming pod with Rory) 

Smart AI Marketing Features 🤖

Google took shots at Apple’s AI misfires - does this tactic work for a giant brand like Google? Yes, Gemini has been a success, but I’d suggest Google should be doing better than cheap shots… 

Dream Combo 🍗

This week, we saw the smart collaboration between Greggs and KFC. I expect to see many more of this level of collaboration from the high street institutions.

Big AI Companies Desperately Need Good Marketing 🆘 

Another big week for product launches. ChatGPT5 and Claude 4.1 have released big updates, but there’s still confusion around which model is best… 

Why use X or # model over Y or # model etc.? I can’t help but think a great Brand Marketer and, importantly, a top-level PMM could do wonders alongside developer relations here and help consumers really understand the product updates and get the most out of the latest releases. 

Google’s Traffic PR Spin 👀

Google released a questionable statement regarding sending traffic since AI overviews feature went live. Google failed to share any data or insights into how they are still driving traffic to sites, and they suggest they are now sending higher-quality traffic since AI overviews went live. When you are shareholder-driven, you have to put out these sorts of statements, but the issue here is that Google is misdirecting advertisers again.

This has had me thinking back to the old Traffic vs Audience debate. Google’s deal was sending traffic in exchange for using your content to rank sites; the value exchanged seemed almost fair until they started capping traffic. Our job was always to convert traffic into our audience. When there’s no traffic coming through, how do you convert to audience (away from their ads, of course)?

Is YouTube The New Home For Sports Star Brands 🎾

Women’s world number one tennis player and star Aryna Sabalenka has started her journey on YouTube. Aryna is known for her quirky TikTok dances and social media personality. Are we seeing a new way for sponsor integration with tennis viewership down? I suspect so. This video has 67k views at the time of editing.
Sponsors like Nike and Wilson feature heavily (indirectly). 
Fellow Nike athlete and Men’s number 1 Jannik Sinner has also started “vlogging” and was produced by the same production company.

Adidas’ Third Shirt Launches Genius ⚽️

I’ve received five separate WhatsApp messages on the Arsenal and adidas kit launch. 
Adidas have delivered brilliant Marketing alongside several brilliant kits. Arsenal and German champions Bayern Munich have had most of the plaudits.
The idea of introducing a cropped shirt is incredibly smart & has become a hit already.
Adidas’ cheat code has always been that:
they release beautifully designed + nostalgic kits + lifestyle collections that reference culture = huge buzz and fan happiness  

Fans on Instagram have loved the cropped shirts - link

Pro:Direct showing Arsenal lifestyle collection a lot of love as have the fans - Link

Christmas In August? 🎅 Causing Consumer Fatigue

Is Christmas in August too early? Have the incredibly popular Beauty Advent Calendars gone too early? Liberty’s hugely popular calendar went out in July…July!

Tesco are already setting up its Christmas aisle, and B&M’s now showing off their Xmas collection in early August

@nostalgia.2000s1

In my humble oppinion it’s never too early to start Christmas #christmas #christmas2025

My New Interview Question 🙋‍♀️:

If you were stranded on a desert island and had one marketing tool to get off the island. Which tool would you use and why?  

How would you answer? Hit reply and let me know.

Thanks for reading, and if you’d like to discuss this or need some help crafting your future, drop me a DM on LinkedIn or just hit reply to this email.

Danny Denhard 
» If you need help: I coach leaders, consult with startups and challenger brands and advise companies looking to grow, so get in touch

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6 Takeaways From Last Week’s MU Article

Here are the top 6 takeaways from my article on the future of Marketing roles and Marketing Org Design

  1. Marketing teams are evolving, with new roles, structures, and cross-functional approaches emerging.

  2. Present-day Marketing teams are often siloed, with limited collaboration and bundled disciplines, but marketing operations roles are growing; be wary of where you are exposed.

  3. The near (AI) future may see team expansion, new specialist roles (especially in content and AI), and a return of strategic planners, not a reduction like many narratives are pushing.

  4. Organisations currently group teams by goals, skills, and high performers; however, future org designs will need to adapt to tech shifts and changing channels.

  5. Cross-functional thinking is key: teams will increasingly work across the full marketing funnel, blending brand, performance, and community roles - so design accordingly.

  6. I predict there will be many new future roles in Marketing departments, this will include AI Marketing Managers, Voice Marketers, and new device specialists, requiring both generalist, specialist and expert skills.

Thanks For Reading This Week ✅

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