Bill Zengel interviews Marten van Pelt Chief Marketing Officer at Plante Moran

Bill Zengel: Marten, you are leading perhaps one of the boldest sessions at the 2025 ANA Masters of B2B Marketing Conference and it is on perhaps the hottest buzz word in Marketing and Advertising: “AI,” which is a bit of a double misnomer, because “AI” is not actually a word. And “buzz” is wrong because it indicates something passing potentially. And I think we both think AI is here to stay. So why AI? Why this session? Why now?

Marten van Pelt: Everything we do in marketing is affected by AI, from strategic planning to content development to data analytics. So, we have to completely lean in and take advantage of every opportunity we have to try new use cases, learn from them and build on them. This session felt like a “no brainer” when it comes to a use case that we know will be here to stay. We may not get it exactly right the first time, but we’ll definitely learn and know what to do next time. No point in waiting to get that experience and knowledge.

B.Z.: Harry McCann said, “Advertising is truth well told.” And the truth is AI is here to stay, and it is only going to grow. How do you see it affecting -- both positively and negatively -- the advertising and marketing industry you and I grew up in and love so well?

M.V.P.: To me advertising and marketing have always been about creativity and innovation. You should be constantly learning how to tell stories and talk to customers in ways that will get them engaged. That doesn’t ever change in my view. Now we just have incredible new and fast-moving technology to do that. Ideally even better. We have created, tested, and refined messaging for as long as I’ve been doing this. Now we can do it faster and more efficiently and with better accuracy in our data. The one challenge we need to watch out for is making sure we don’t start “mailing it in” because it’s easy to do. Human insight, creativity, and empathy will be even more critical to developing great work. The machine will never do that for us.

B.Z.: What are some of the watch-outs you could foresee about AI as a marketing leader? For example, we’ve heard people mention data privacy, copyright, and energy consumption, among other concerns. So, what, if any, concerns do you foresee potentially arising that could affect its current trajectory?

M.V.P.: I touched on it a bit in the last question but to me the bigger watch-out will be that we don’t let AI become a substitute for great ideation rather than a tool to help us get there. I understand concerns about data privacy, but, ultimately, we’ve had those issues even before widespread use of AI, and they’ll always need to continue being addressed. I do think the concepts of copyright and plagiarism will evolve with AI. But as I’ve been saying, that will put even more emphasis on the need to truly have brand authority and brand voice. So, making sure we have that clearly established and use it consistently will be critical.

B.Z.: ANA Members like you maintain that marketing training and development are important to future growth. What advice would you have for a newly minted graduate this June about marketing, advertising, and the implications of AI for his or her future career?

M.V.P.: I say it to my team all the time: Never stop learning something new every day. In fact, now that they are graduated, let the real education begin. Obviously, today you need to learn everything you can about AI and how it can help you be better in your role, but don’t lose sight of the other elements of marketing and advertising like customer insights, strategic planning, creativity, and analytics. Just use the AI training to make you better at all those things.

B.Z.: Time is often considered the most precious commodity for executives like yourself, yet you are making time for you and your team to participate in this AI exercise and conference in person. It calls to mind, and I paraphrase, Lincoln’s statement that if he had to cut down a tree in an hour, he would spend 50 minutes sharpening his axe. Why is “in-person” learning and networking important to marketers today?

M.V.P.: That answer is always easy to me… we are selling things to people! To humans… whom we need to always understand -- how they interact, how they buy, how they create relationships with brands and products. While we may do a lot of buying behind computer screens, we can’t learn how to sell without interacting in person.

B.Z.: Thank you, Marten. I have the opportunity to meet thousands of marketers every year, and only a very few stand out and stay with me in my mind -- people who love the industry as much as I do, who love the process of discovery as much as the discovery itself, and, of course, the journey. Thinking back on your journey so far, and knowing you must expect the unexpected, if you could go back in time to counsel a young Marten at 30 years of age, what would you tell him was the biggest surprise you encountered and how would you counsel him to prepare for it?

M.V.P.: This might be an unusual answer, but I would tell him the biggest surprise is how much fun what we do really is. When I was 30 and starting my career in digital marketing as the internet had just started showing that it would be a huge part of our lives in the future, I was much more focused on “getting things right” -- convincing people everyday how important it was going to be for them to have a digital strategy and invest in it. And while I understood the fundamental impact on society that the internet would have, I didn't yet fully embrace the fact that learning about that impact, coming up with incredible creative ideas, and watching human behavior change fundamentally could be really fun at the same time. That’s why I can now embrace AI fully for the incredible fun it will bring to our profession.

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

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