AI has handed marketing the biggest growth opportunity in a generation.
Yet most are only focused on productivity.
The Mixtape Partners AI Fit Marketing Playbook
A practical guide for marketing leaders navigating the AI era
84% of European consumers are using AI in their daily life.
58% of consumers already use AI for product recommendations.
Brand has never mattered more than it does right now.
The entire marketing operating system needs rethinking.
Based on our research including nearly 1,800 minutes of interviews with 30 CMOs and marketing leaders, and a broad and deep look at best practices and thought leadership, as well as our work with clients, the New Marketing Playbook offers up practical actions marketers can take today.
The New Marketing Playbook is built upon real conversations with today's leading marketing leaders.
30 Qualitative Interviews
CMOs, Senior Marketing Leaders, Senior Advisors, and AI Visionaries
Wide representation of industries, size and maturity of companies
Banking
Consumer Packaged Goods
Enterprise Software
Fashion
Financial Services
Healthcare
Hospitality
Marketing Services
Retail
Social and Community Platform
Spirits
Technology Tools and Solutions (AI)
Secondary Research Review
Broad and deep review of key studies, articles and reports
Wide representation of industries, size and maturity of companies
Management Consultants
Research Firms
Agencies and Marketing Services Firms
Marketing Services Firms
Business, Trade and General Media (Coverage)
Mixtape Partners Expertise
Rooted in client work, history and first-hand experience
We’ve navigated these shifts before – across markets, regulations, and industries. As strategists, marketers, and operators, we’ve helped organizations adapt to new technologies while building the cultural foundation for people to embrace them.
We’ve brought our expertise as individuals and our collective POV into the development of this report and The New Marketing Playbook.
5 Forces Reshaping Marketing And The Growth Opportunity
The productivity trap is obscuring the growth opportunity that’s here and now.
AI productivity gains are real, and boards/ leadership teams expect them. But, most organizations are stuck at this stage, and 46% of marketing leaders still have not shifted their AI strategy from cost reduction to growth.
There’s a new customer you’ve never met before.
AI agents have evolved beyond tools. The customer is now three distinct types: the solo human who decides alone, the augmented human whose choices are shaped by an AI-generated shortlist, and the fully delegated decision where AI acts on the human’s behalf.
Brand has never mattered more, but the job description has changed.
Brand now operates on two integrated iceberg levels: above the waterline, where human consumers seek trust, authenticity, distinctive assets and memory structures; and below the waterline, where synthetic consumers evaluate entity architecture, content corpus, authority signals and freshness.
Adoption is a human opportunity, not a technology roll-out.
The barrier is behavioral and cultural at every level: fear of job loss at the frontline, identity threat in the middle (writers who see AI as “cheating”), and fluency gaps in the C-suite. AI transformation stalls without senior leadership that genuinely understands workflows, not just outcomes.
The marketing operating model needs an overhaul.
AI creates an upheaval in how marketing gets done that is more far-reaching than digital ever was. CMOs need to shift from running the marketing machine to orchestrating and instrumenting it - while creating space for creativity, fresh thinking and experienced judgement – across people, process, partners and platforms.
Inside the New Marketing Playbook
More than just summaries and insights. Practical tools to help marketers think about and drive strategy into action in the AI era.
For a walk through of our full, interactive versions of the new Marketing Playbook’s tools, reach out at hello@mixtapepartners.com.
From our research with 30 CMOs
Putting the Playbook into Action
