Dustin Raney:

I know.

Melissa Metheny:

So trying to sum up my 27 years of experience is going to be a challenge, but I’m going to do my best. I’ll just give you the highlights. How about that? So I started my career at Acxiom in technical roles, really focused on designing and implementing advanced third party tech, integrating that into our data and identity solutions for major brands. That hands-on Work eventually led me to successfully Architect end-to-end global marketing solutions, which ultimately opened doors to more senior roles where I led Acxiom’s Marketing Technology center of excellence. I led our marketing technology consulting organization and then also our global sales support teams. And really those experiences gave me this really deep understanding of how businesses across different industries and regions leverage data and technology to solve the challenges and meet their goals. I then moved into Acxiom’s sales and account management where I was responsible for several industry verticals.

I primarily focused on retail and direct to consumer sectors across about an eight year period. My responsibilities really centered on growing those client relationships and building these innovative strategies that foster strong partnerships and help to introduce new solutions to our clients. And so my experience in these roles have really helped to shape a holistic view of how business needs vary across all the different industries, which is what led me to this role. And so currently I lead the development and management of Acxiom’s MarTech strategic alliances program where I’m focusing on driving growth and coming up with really just cool new innovations through collaboration and teamwork with key partners like Adobe. I definitely don’t do this alone. Also on the podcast today as you mentioned is Eileen Granada and she manages our Adobe partnership and she’s right there with me and the rest of the team as we work together to really deliver these impactful results through this amazing partnership and collaboration that we have with Adobe. We’re excited to be talking to you today.

Dustin Raney:

Awesome. Thanks Melissa. Eileen, why don’t you share a little bit your background?

Eileen Granata:

Absolutely. Thanks Dustin. I appreciate that. So I spent the majority of my 30 plus years career at the intersection of data strategy, partnership and customer experience. My background spans from everything from retail and C-P-G-C-R-M optimization to large scale identity resolution programs. I was both on the client side as well as on the agency side, and I spent a lot of my time in industries that really demand both compliance and agility. So I’ve been here at Acxiom for nine years where I really focus in on helping clients get real measurable value from their Adobe investment by really connecting the clean data, the data governance, your personalization strategies, and those scalable experiences altogether to bring positive outcomes. So I really help brands stop guessing and start delivering from a smarter, faster and with precision point of view.

Dustin Raney:

Awesome. Thanks Ellen. So yeah, amazing having both of you guys on the podcast today. Such important topics and such a huge partnership that we have recently announced with other big things to come with Adobe. So Melissa set the stage for us. Why is the way brand marketers approach the second half of 2025 so important?

Melissa Metheny:

Well, I think there’s a couple of things. We all know that today’s customers are today’s consumers. They’re all looking for more, right? Whether it’s more relevance, more value, more personalization, and we all want it right now across every channel. And so that expectation doesn’t change just because tariffs are rising or budgets are tightening or their teams are really stretched thin. And in fact it really I think raises the bar on being able to do more, do it faster and do it with the technology that we have on hand. And so I don’t know if you’ve all been watching the news. I’m sure you all have seen the news reports, but the GDP shrank by about a half a percentage in the first quarter of 2025, and the economists are now warning of a possible 12% market correction in the back half of this year. And this is all due to slipping consumer spend and weak corporate investment.

And so brands are really facing more than what I would consider to just be business as usual. We’re also seeing that trust is becoming just as important as performance. So customers want to feel known, they want to feel understood, they want to feel valued, and the brands that are getting this right are the ones who have built these strong customer relationships through real-time engagement and personalization and that’s driving consumer brand loyalty. And so with the market signaling slower growth in the second half, both brands and consumers are being more cautious and calculated in their spending. And so I was recently reading a McKinsey report that 43% of consumers are altering spending due to tariff driven inflation. The stakes are real. Brands can’t rely on what they’ve done in the past. This isn’t just about growth right now. It’s really about resilience. When you’re thinking about be as a brand marketer, we must take all of that into account so that we don’t lose market share.

We don’t have customers a trite to another brand because of cost or convenience or maybe they’re just plain old frustrated for not feeling valued for the businesses that they have been doing business with. So as brands, we need to be thinking innovatively about how to use data to inform these decisions in real time, how to use the technology that doesn’t inhibit a personalized experience for the consumer. And the second half is going to demand smarter investments, whether it’s in data personalization or agility. I look at it as like it’s a pivot point where the brands that are going to move the fastest and the most intelligently are going to build that momentum into 2026 and there’ll be the brands that win.

Kyle Hollaway:

Thanks on that. And so let’s put some practical teeth to that because there’s a lot of strategic pieces there and a lot that we’re kind talking about the brands needing to do to address the consumer. And so can we peel the onion on that a little bit specifically? Are there particular areas, whether it’s around the data or around the technology that are really seeming to have potential to move the needle?

Eileen Granata:

Yeah, I’ll jump in. There’s a lot of things out there that kind of cause different companies to kind of hit a wall in performance and usually they all hit at the same time, especially when a brand doesn’t have a clear vision or a roadmap. First is around fragmented data. When your customer data lives in different systems used differently by different divisions within the organization, it’s nearly impossible to act in a meaningful way. We’ve seen that play out time and time again with a number of different brands. Second is a weak identity resolution without a consistent view of the customer across multiple touch points, all of the various channels, all of the various publishers, personalization falls flat. You can’t connect all of those different journeys together. And third, and I think one of the most critical that we’re seeing, especially in our partnership with multiple brands leveraging Adobe and other technologies, is that under utilization of technologies, many brands are investing in platforms like the Adobe Experience Cloud, but they’re not activating some of the most powerful features. When you think about all of the innovation happening with a lot of these partners that we’re working with, namely even Adobe with real-time CDP and Journey Optimizer, it’s because the data isn’t integrated or ready to go, causes missed opportunities and wasted spend and really customers walking away before you even know you had a good shot at actually converting them.

Dustin Raney:

Yeah, Eileen, you bring up a good point. We have all this technology and people have probably deployed parts and sections of Adobe, but have they really taken the full benefit of what it actually brings to the table? And I think that’s really where this partnership that we’ve developed with Adobe helps bring that to life. The fact that we can help them understand more about who their customers are, truly across every experience. We talked about the impact of the economy coming into whether it’s tariff or whatever, and market share or wallet share really shrinking, so it’s becoming extremely competitive. Now, what remaining share there is of that wallet would you say? One of the biggest things that brands are trying to really understand and optimize is media. It’s kind of one of the biggest line items in the budget going and understanding who should I spend my media budget on and then when they show up to my site, how do I keep them there longer? What are some of those use cases and things that you feel like brands should really focus maniacally on?

Eileen Granata:

I agree, Dustin with what you’re saying. I mean, media is one of the biggest areas of spend within a organization and again, it all meets at one intersection of driving the unified data and identity on that particular customer, how they want to be communicated to and to ensure you’re reaching them at the right time with the right message. I mean it’s kind of the basics which change though is now these newer technologies that we have and these marketing platforms and the innovation that they’re bringing to market allows for decisioning to be done in real time where we haven’t had that in the past. Some platforms in the past used to take 30, 60, even 90 days for you to see results of what’s happening with your current media spend and then allow you to make adjustments in the next quarter with the innovation of technology, some of the new agile marketing tools that are available, some of the AI agents that sit on top of these platforms really allow a marketer in real time or near real time to make adjustments and changes to the offers that they’re putting out there.

The tone and the positioning allow them to be able to react to outside factors that could cause a change or a shift in how and what they’re marketing. For example, things going on within the weather. They could change a particular brand’s messaging. If you think about it from even a pharmaceutical perspective, high seasonal allergies happening in a certain region within the country, and to be able to automatically switch and change your marketing message to capitalize on those allergy sufferers in real time is a huge deal and can make the difference between that sales for that quarter meeting those objectives or not meeting them.

Melissa Metheny:

And just another example, we’ve had a lot of recent weather related tragedies across the United States, and so ensuring that you’re not spending marketing dollars in those areas that have been affected by some of these weather incidents. Again, it’s not just about effectiveness, but it’s also about making sure that you’re not spending wasted money.

Kyle Hollaway:

So let me ask kind of a loaded question here. We’re talking really about the technology aspect and the use of AI agentic capabilities, ability to ingest and react faster to everything from natural events, weather type stuff to consumer behaviors or sentiment. Our marketers in general prepared to move that fast. In other words, are our strategies in sync with the advancements in the technology? How do you think that sits?

Melissa Metheny:

I can maybe take that first Eileen and then have you jump in. I think I would say maybe in kind of

Kyle Hollaway:

That’s a good one,

Melissa Metheny:

But that’s not a great answer. But maybe in kind of, okay, so kind of being that I think from a strategy perspective, we’re seeing a lot of brands that are interested in doing these kinds of things that you mentioned, right? To be able to react in real time and to deliver that personalization. I think we’re seeing a lot of the technology moving in that space as well. And so that’s the kind of on the, maybe it’s the well, if they choose the right technology and if they have their data unified and they’re bringing it in such a way that allows them to react in real time, then that’s where it’s going to go. But there’s a lot of ifs, ands, or buts of things that have to be in place in order to make that happen.

Eileen Granata:

I agree, Melissa. I mean the foundation is still the foundation. Ensuring that you have the right data in the right pieces of technology to enable that agile marketing to be able to change on the dime is a critical piece. A lot of our clients that we’re talking to, they want to get there. They are building out journeys to be able to be more agile, but a lot are also missing that foundation piece. They’re assuming that things are in the right place or in the right order, and I have that right information coming into me in order to be able to act on it when the reality is it might not be just in the right spot in order for your technology to truly take advantage of it.

Dustin Raney:

I’ve read many of articles around AI and all the fears around it taking people’s jobs and really the thing that people are saying that the reality is it’s going to take people’s jobs that don’t use AI, that aren’t understanding and leveraging the tools in the way that just like any other tool that we’ve seen in the past, moving from a shovel to a backhoe or a tractor, it’s just a better tool to do bigger things like we’re talking about here. So what advice would you give to marketers going into Q4 this year on how do they start to leverage things like Adobe tools inside of Adobe to go tactically apply some of these new capabilities? Because obviously consumer expectations have changed and they’re continuing to change. We’ve kind of created that, right? We’ve technology caused them to expect more, so how can marketers meet them where they’re at through this technology?

Melissa Metheny:

Well, so if you were paying attention a couple of months ago during I guess the March timeframe, Adobe actually released a press release talking about the fact that Acxiom is one of its strategic partners in its AI agentic framework. And so what we’ve been doing is we’ve been developing out these capabilities to allow brands to more proactively understand a little bit more about their entire audience ecosystem. So we kind of call it around audience exploration. So that’s one area is truly understanding in real time what your potential target is when you’re trying to think about want to, who do I want to talk to and how do I want to talk to them and what are the things that I want to share with them? I think that Adobe has a lot of ai, different agents and we’re going to be working to develop and integrate along many of them, not just the audience exploration, but I also think that brands right now have things at their fingertips that they’re just not using.

So if you’ve got Firefly generating images and being able to do that, I mean some of these things that you’re able to create with these technology are just impressive. I mean, I don’t know about you all, but I’m not the most creative person. So for me to be able to go in and just type in something and say, I want to create an image or I want to create something and it looks like this and it sounds like this and they create this beautiful image, it’s pretty amazing and it’s something that me as just an individual person would never have been able to do on my own.

Eileen Granata:

I also think that it’s a matter of what is the business problem or challenge that we’re trying to solve, and can AI solve it to free up time for that human interaction to do more strategic things or other projects that are actually going to add to the overall better performance of the business? I don’t think we should do AI just to do ai. There has to be purpose and reason and what can be automated that’s actually going to provide a better outcome from A ROI perspective and allow that human interaction to be more meaningful where it’s most relevant. I think taking that step back to determine, is AI going to replace me someday maybe or maybe not, depends on what that job of that task was at hand, but if it allows you to do something more meaningful with your time because it’s taking something that is routine and constant and taking that off your plate to actually have better impact overall to the business, I think employers are going to see bigger benefits and we’re actually probably going to see some better actual employee satisfaction because now I’m doing something more meaningful. I’m not doing that day in day out routine thing. They kind of caused me to have the brain fog, so to speak.

Kyle Hollaway:

No, I love that perspective, and actually you both made really great points about the current state of the marketer’s job in life, right? One is Eileen, to your point, really looking at AI as an enabler to allow you to really focus on more high value functions and take the mundane aspects kind of off your plate and being able to execute faster and more strategically. Similarly, as you’re talking Melissa, the point about the partnerships, and this is why these are so important in my opinion nowadays, is because there are a lot of these different parts, bringing identity, bringing data, bringing the mechanisms for the interactions, bringing the agent components if left to the marketer to do on their own, now you’re just again moving them into really focusing on functions that aren’t really the high value functions of actually delivering the right messaging to the right consumer and understanding your strategy and by coming together as partners like Acxiom and Adobe have done it brings those right ingredients together so that the marketer can actually, lack of a better analogy is bake the better cake. They don’t have to go try to find all of those ingredients or hope that those ingredients work together. We’re already integrating that and they’re able to actually execute on really just delivering to the consumer the most effective engagement.

Melissa Metheny:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, what we’re seeing right now is that brands really need smarter and more integrated data strategies in their marketing workflow and to be able to unify that customer view and make every dollar spent on media or messaging work that much harder. So I think that that means that unified data, real-time personalization, agile decision making, whether that’s through the use of AI or other means, and then being able to scale that across all the different channels, all of those things are super critical, I think anyways, in trying to ensure that these brands are going to be here, that they’ll be able to respond faster, that they’re going to be able to adapt better with all these different market changing conditions.

Eileen Granata:

It’s often asked of us, can’t we go to any professional service provider and kind of get the same thing that Acxiom offers? And I want to tell you guys a little story. So several years ago we took our daughter and her friend to Hawaii to celebrate their eighth grade graduation. During that trip, we did an excursion with a few local professors from the university to explore the stars. They had these very sophisticated telescopes where you could see stars forming, look into different galaxies, even look very closely at Saturn’s ring. Really amazing stuff. We were so impressed by this little excursion that we did the one evening that when I got back home, I ran out and I ordered the exact same telescope those professors used. I’m not going to tell you how many zeros were behind this telescope, but it was pretty expensive for the time.

So for the next year, I really try to recreate that experiences, but honestly, I didn’t have the skills to use the telescope to its fullest potential. So today that telescope is sitting in a corner collecting dust. So when it comes to getting the most value out of your MarTech solution, I mean Acxiom truly stands out. Most providers can either offer strategy or they can offer implementation, but Acxiom really is one of the few that brings everything together because we start with what matters most, which is that data and identity, our engagements are built on that privacy by design with real time identity resolution and data governance kind of woven in from the very start. So we just don’t plug into Adobe. We optimize it to deliver faster personalized and compliant experiences, which add that to kind of your cross-functional team strategy and expertise in compliance. That’s really where we can excel and help brands really fuel their journeys to get to impact faster. It’s kind of really where the rubber meets the road.

Kyle Hollaway:

That’s funny, Eileen. I also have a telescope in my basement and I have one in my closet over here.

Eileen Granata:

Yeah, see exactly.

Melissa Metheny:

I’m the only one with nose telescope,

Eileen Granata:

Man. I went out after this one because I couldn’t connect it to all the different GPS things that it connected to. We just went out and got a plain one. That’s what I use now. It’s just because I can’t figure out how to use it

Dustin Raney:

And how much of the, I guess, time marketers are spending inside these tools needs to be focused on the types of data that they’re bringing into these journeys. So not all data is created equal. The fact that they have these tools now, and to Kyle’s point, it is shifting the marketer to building a better cake. The key ingredients, the core ingredients around differentiation might be the data sets that I’m bringing into this intelligence. So we talked about that crazy use case of the weather that requires data about weather and it has to be accurate, relevant with weather, it can’t even be an hour old. It changes so quickly. So how fast you get data into, we’re talking about Adobe and how you synchronize that data with other data assets like your first party data, your customer data. I mean all those things are key pieces. So is the marketer now kind of acting in a role of orchestrating all of this? What roles are kind of helping bring that stuff together?

Melissa Metheny:

Eileen, do you want to answer that one?

Eileen Granata:

Yeah, so I mean the reality is the marketer can’t do it alone. There’s so many demands and changes. If you think about a marketer’s role and the expectations today versus five years ago, 10 years ago, dramatically different. These marketers have a lot of resources that help them out. You have system integrators, you have ad agency holding companies out there. You have management consulting companies all giving them their advice on what to do. And really when you think about those demands and making those decisions, I mean it’s very difficult to prioritize, especially given an agile use case such as a weather related incident that’s going to cause a change in your marketing and the positioning of your message at that time. That’s really where somebody like Acxiom steps in and can really make the difference in how a brand goes to market. Because we have been a system integrator for years.

We know how to take data and put it in a place that’s going to be an asset to your agile marketing needs, especially within the Adobe ecosystem. We understand from a product perspective all of the elements that each one of these various platforms deliver and how they work better together. And we also understand that not every person is 100% on one given platform. So understanding how the Adobe ecosystem also connects into your custom built solution that you have, or maybe another’s partners solutions that are out there because a lot of these are, I hate to say it, but kind of hodgepodge together, but it works for them. Our job really from the expertise that we bring to the table in being rooted in that data and identity foundation allows us to really help a marketer be smarter about where those data sets are, how to activate them appropriately and really get the most out of the technology that’s currently in place.

Kyle Hollaway:

Yeah. Melissa, do you want to talk just briefly about the different ways like Acxiom has integrated with Adobe and including outside of just even Adobe and Acxiom relationship, but leveraging others like Snowflake and other partners to help really enable?

Melissa Metheny:

Yeah, absolutely. So here’s the unique thing about the Acxiom and the Adobe partnership. So Acxiom is both a platinum solution partner as well as a technology partner with Adobe, which is very unique across our ecosystem. We don’t just integrate data into Adobe, we don’t just implement the technology. We bridge the gap from data and put it into action, and then we activate that to really drive measurable impact where we’re delivering relevance and agility to the brands through the use of this technology and what they need right now. Since we launched our partnership in Q1 of 2024, we have built out a comprehensive professional services practice as well as we have developed out several integrated product solutions. And really what we’ve been focusing on is designing solutions and capabilities and integrations that are going to help brands to personalize at scale. So it’s unlocking Adobe’s full value and making every interaction count while also leveraging Acxiom’s data and technology alongside that.

So thinking about all the different things that we’ve done, Acxiom is really known for being able to ensure that a customer’s data is clean and it’s unified and that it is resolved to the consumer’s identity or personalization recognition. We’re known of bringing that data layer together. And then Adobe really has been providing the orchestration. So whether it’s real-time CDP or Journey Optimizer or Target. So together we’re enabling the personalization that’s not just accurate, but it’s scalable and it’s fast across every channel. So what we’ve been focusing on is the ability to bring Acxiom’s data core integrations into the Adobe experience platform. And we’re doing that with both our data as well as our consumer recognition products. And this is really enabling us to further enhance our ability to help brands to realize faster ROI and to achieve more results with less resources in Adobe. So if you think about it, it’s everything from being able to recognize unauthenticated web traffic in real time and deliver a personalized message and do that at scale.

So that’s just one use case. Then there’s another where we have the ability to bring two disparate sources of data through the realtime CDP collaboration, bring that together using Acxiom’s identity, capability and solution as a base identifier within the platform. So it’s not going to be something that you’re going to have to go outside of the platform and do. It’s right there and it’s available for clients to be able to use. And oh, if you want to also know more about your client as you’re trying to compare these two data sets, we can also do that in real time. And to your point, we’re enabling that with the combination of Acxiom data and identity along with the Adobe application using Snowflake as the interface by which we can transfer data and deliver insights in a real time way. So just a couple of examples, but there’s some really cool stuff coming up.

Dustin Raney:

That’s awesome, Melissa. Yeah, I kind of want to hone in on that one use case. You talked about anonymous site visitor personalization, and we talked earlier about wallet spend going down, the consumers tightening the budget a little bit, so every dollar counts. These brands could be spending millions and millions of dollars driving traffic to websites and they say you only have seven seconds to capture someone’s attention. So that’s huge. The amount of people that you can help understand at least something not in a creepy way, but just understand some things that interest them so that you can show the right or show a product that is relevant to them that you have in inventory. These are the things marketers are desperate to get done, but we’re in July. So I guess my question, Eileen, maybe I’ll point this to you. So if you’re a brand, you’re wanting to enact one of these use cases, is there time going into Q4 for them to stand something like this up in Adobe and test this technology?

Eileen Granata:

Absolutely. I mean there’s still time that windows growing shorter, but there’s definitely time to still have impact. My advice really to people don’t try to boil the ocean, pick one high impact use case and align that data and the journeys and use that kind of as your springboard going into the back half of the year. That’s kind of how momentum starts. And when you start small and you pick that high impact use case, it’s going to give you a great foundation for really the changes that you need to put in place going into 2026. So definitely is still time, but that window is definitely shortening. So we definitely want to make sure that you’re reaching out and asking for that help now so that we can help align to that high impact use

Kyle Hollaway:

Case. Yeah, I love that aspect of picking that high impact use case and because a lot of components have been pre-integrated part of our partnership that Melissa was just going through, that’s what makes that possible to fit within the window of time. If this was just up to the marketer to say, figure this out, yeah, there wouldn’t be time. This is complicated stuff, but it’s there. We have a great partnership and therefore it is easier to turn on, especially if you’ve got a focused use case and start to drive that value and then have a roadmap leading you into 26 that you can continue to build off of and capitalize on. So really love that perspective.

Melissa Metheny:

I mean, just to add on to what I can give an example with the digital recognition capability that we have integrated into Adobe, we could get that up and running our personalization working with the client to do that in a couple of weeks. So I wouldn’t say wait until the very end and give us only a couple of weeks. I mean, there’s definitely some things that you want to do in regards to strategic planning around how you want to increase your personalization, but you could get up and running very quickly.

Dustin Raney:

Great. Yeah, it is a real-time API, right? Exactly.

Exactly. It’s kind of crazy to think about, and I think we talked about loss of trust sometimes, but the technology really has gotten exponentially better, and that’s kind of a key difference. I think going from 2024, how advanced things are moving so quickly now in 2025, there’s real applications that marketers can really put to work fast, test and learn ad test, right? Have run 50% of your audience through your same traditional legacy method and run another 50% through a more personalized offering that’s accessing some of these services that we’re bringing to the table. Alright, so unfortunately, I mean we could talk all day long. We are running low on time. Kyle and I always loved, we have a standard question every year we bring to the table. This year’s kind of relates more about leveraging AI made a little bit. If you fed all the data about yourself into ai, what are the three words it would produce to describe you and Eileen, let’s start with you.

Eileen Granata:

The three words that I believe my AI agent would use to describe me would be strategic, powerhouse and collaborative.

Dustin Raney:

And for those that you don’t, we know hockey mom. I think you do some rowing, right as well.

Eileen Granata:

I am. That’s the powerhouse. I’m a hockey mom and I am a competitive dragon boat paddler, so do that globally. So yeah, very excited about those. I’m a two time cancer survivor and I also am very much involved in helping young adults who struggle with addiction. So I have a nonprofit I run as well. So

Dustin Raney:

Powerhouse,

Eileen Granata:

Very passionate person. Eileen is the epitome of a powerhouse.

Dustin Raney:

Absolutely,

Melissa Metheny:

Absolutely.

Dustin Raney:

Melissa, what are your three words?

Melissa Metheny:

I think mine would be driven, caring, and then also collaborative. I think that collaboration is the key to anything that we do both within the organization as well as with partnerships. I feel like there has to be an aspect of caring and everything that you do. It’s not enough just to come to work every day and just show up and be like, I completed task 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You need to think about the people that you work with, the people that you work around, and just bring some heart and soul to everything that you do. And when you do that, more people want to work with you. They want to work around you, and they want to be a part of the team.

Dustin Raney:

Man, there’s one thing that AI can’t do is what you just said, and I think that’s so important, and I certainly feel that every time I get to work with both of you is just a true care for making sure that whatever we’re doing we’re promising actually comes to fruition. And it’s an honor one that have you both as a guest on today’s podcasts. I mean true powerhouses at Acxiom and in the industry in general. So thank you both for your time today and I know our listeners, I know they learned a lot as well.

Narrator:

Thanks for listening to Real Talk about marketing and Acxiom podcast. Find all of our podcasts at Acxiom.com/real talk or your favorite podcast platform. Until next time.