Scott Brinker: Personalisation Was a Guess - Hello Me - Episode 2

For years, personalisation has been us guessing what the customer wants. Scott Brinker, the "Godfather of Martech" and founder of chiefmartec.com, joins Rasmus Houlind and Frans Riemersma and closes on a different idea: instead of guessing, let the customer tell us what they want, and then deliver it.

Along the way we trace the show's origin back to a phrase Scott and Frans coined together, "agents of customers". We get into the three types of AI agents now reshaping marketing, why buyers already hold more power than most sellers have noticed, why raw software capability stopped being a moat, and what can't be prompted: trust, relationships and culture. Scott also makes the case for why a little friction in buying might be worth keeping, what happens to UI design once voice takes over, and why regional and cultural differences might be a genuine advantage rather than a weakness.

This is an open, ongoing series. We don't know exactly when the next episode drops, or who is in it. If you have a sharp, unusual take on personalisation, AI or the new rules of marketing, especially if you are not already in our usual orbit, we want to hear from you.

Chapters

0:00 - Cold open: Hello Me, AI has flipped personalisation
0:30 - Introducing Scott, and a year on from Hello $Firstname
3:10 - Where Hello Me started: "agents of customers"
4:10 - The three types of agents, explained
6:25 - The power shift: buyers, sellers and the information gap
8:05 - How buyers use AI now: "call us" pricing pages and vendor-selection agents
10:50 - Abundance and the empowered consumer: what do we actually want?
12:30 - Are marketers still marketing to the old consumer?
15:00 - Will customers notice their power? Advertising's value and its dark side
17:25 - Your own agent as a filter: guardrails and filter bubbles
19:10 - Where advertising goes when agents filter it out
21:05 - Sycophantic AI: will your guardrails hold when you are hungry?
22:40 - Is removing all friction from buying actually good?
23:50 - B2B buying committees and the puppet show
26:00 - Could your agent negotiate with mine?
28:00 - Abundance for marketers, and a stack bigger than the landscape
30:50 - The future stack: commercial products plus ambient, homegrown software
31:40 - What can't be prompted: trust, relationships and the real moat
33:25 - Ecosystems and culture: the moats that take time
36:30 - Are organisations fit for abundance? Distinctive versus best practice
38:25 - Can an AI capture culture, or feel anything?
42:40 - Voice as the next interface
43:55 - What happens to UI design?
46:10 - Robotics, teased and parked for another day
46:30 - Regional differences: US, China, EU
49:10 - Closing: personalisation was guessing, so let the customer tell us
50:10 - Sign-off: help us find the next guests

Sign-off and links

This is an open, ongoing series. We don't know exactly when the next episode drops, or who is in it. If you have a sharp, unusual take on personalisation, AI or the new rules of marketing, especially if you are not already in our usual orbit, tell us which of the seven questions is yours, or who we should talk to next.

Rasmus & Frans

Links and resources
Watch the full video playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJGgw-cJasRw
The show, the full concept and all seven questions we are chasing: https://omnichannelinstitute.com/hello-me.html
Scott's article on moats, mentioned in the episode: https://newsletter.chiefmartec.com/p/the-death-of-moats-in-marketing-and-martech-is-greatly-exaggerated
Scott Brinker's chiefmartec.com: https://chiefmartec.com
Hello $Firstname, a free written abstract of the book this show builds on: https://agillic.com/free-ebook-hello-firstname/
Hello $Firstname, the audiobook edition with a full cast of narrators, on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2zIvs5pSRNTO3YAeFUWZBL?si=zpeTEW_1RnWNHSwZZEAnWA
Personalisation Cards, workshop decks for Commerce, Subscription, Banking and Charity/NGO teams: https://omnichannelinstitute.com/cards.html
MartechTribe, Frans Riemersma's research and consultancy on marketing technology: https://www.martechtribe.com
MartechMap.com, Frans Riemersma and Scott Brinker's joint map of the global martech landscape: https://martechmap.com
Omnichannel Institute, Rasmus's home for frameworks, books and courses on personalisation: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com