This week, with Jeff back on holiday and emboldened by some good feedback from his last solo outing, our host Ian Truscott goes it alone and peers into the so-called dark funnel where 95% of potential buyers are hanging out with a few ideas we need to implement as B2B marketers to reach them. Ian covers: The dark funnel and changing buyer behavior The decline of traditional influencers The power of useful data and research Content that builds trust The role of real people and internal thought le...
Aug 20, 2025•13 min•Season 1Ep. 285
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, over a refreshing cocktail, Ian and Robert quote Drucker and wonder if AI will solve our zombie process. Key points from their discussion: AI is automating inefficient processes. Understanding the entire marketing process is crucial before implementi...
Aug 16, 2025•23 min•Season 3Ep. 29
This week, our usual co-host, Jeff Clark, is back from vacation, and he and Ian Truscott dive into the latest Gartner CMO quarterly report , which is available to non-clients in exchange for an email address. As is the editorial policy of the show, they pull 5 f’in’ things from the report that caught their eye: Investing in Customer Understanding Budgeting Challenges for CMOs Maximizing ROI through Technology and Process CMOs and Growth Strategy Advanced Budgeting Techniques As always, we welcom...
Aug 13, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 284
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, over a refreshing cocktail, we discover more about Robert’s latest content marketing strategy - The Mullet. They discuss: The debate around what content we should share with the LLMs Robert’s research into answer engine optimization Robert suggests w...
Aug 09, 2025•25 min•Season 3Ep. 28
This week, Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear, makes her monthly visit to the studio, and our host Ian Truscott grabs her after day 1 of CMS Connect 25, a gathering of content management professionals in Montreal, and she shares the latest talking points from the world of content management. Some talking points from this week: CMSs are still valid and necessary for digital experiences, but digital experience platforms (DXPs) are not a thing. The death of the website is bullshit...
Aug 06, 2025•34 min•Season 1Ep. 283
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, over a Michelada, Ian asks Robert’s advice about providing 90-day plans during a recruitment process, and Robert shares the relaunch of his website robertrose.net . They discuss: Making assumptions before you can do proper discovery Whether it’s reas...
Aug 02, 2025•23 min•Season 3Ep. 27
This week, with Jeff still on his long holiday to the Nordics, Ian goes solo and shares a recent experience of being asked to create a 90-day plan as part of a CMO selection process. Using the framework he and Jeff created - The 5 F’in’ Marketing Fundamentals - Ian shares how he then built the plan, the structure of the deck, and some tips on what to include. Enjoy! — The Links The people: Ian Truscott on LinkedIn and Bluesky Mentioned this week: Rockstar CMO Presents: The 5 F'in' Marketing Fund...
Jul 31, 2025•22 min•Season 1Ep. 282
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, the topic is culture jacking, as Robert wrote a very timely piece on the Content Marketing Institute's blog: How B2B Brands Capitalize on Meme-Worthy Moments , as our LinkedIn feeds are filled with images of a kisscam from a Coldplay concert. Key poi...
Jul 26, 2025•21 min•Season 3Ep. 26
This week, Jeff continues his vacation, so our host, Ian Truscott, is joined by Simon Daniels, a marketing and revenue operations expert and former Forrester analyst, as well as a returning guest of the show. In this episode, they dig into a LinkedIn post that Simon shared, referring to him catching up on some reading on campaign modelling over a beer. Dubbed "5 things that Simon learned over a beer that we suspect he already knew", the chaps discuss: The definition of a campaign Comments on the...
Jul 23, 2025•42 min
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. However, this week, we have a slightly different episode as Robert couldn’t make our regular virtual bar recording, so to get our Robert Rose fix, we share something he recorded for the Content Marketing Institute and his Rose-Colored Glasses blog, titled “Old ...
Jul 19, 2025•11 min•Season 3Ep. 25
This week, our host, Ian Truscott, and Principal Analyst at Cleantech Insiders, Jeff Clark, return to the topic of budget benchmarking, sharing six hits from six industry reports. Yes, SIX, completely ignoring the editorial policy of 5 f’in’ things. The six highlights they discuss: Marketing budgets are in decline (or are they?) Comparing apples with apples Expectations management Martech is down, paid media up Data & analytics is marketing’s biggest challenge The mandatory mention of AI As ...
Jul 16, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 280
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, the chaps discuss the complexities of marketing budgets, the importance of setting pragmatic marketing strategies, and the concept of lean marketing teams. They explore various budgeting methods, the challenges of aligning marketing goals with financ...
Jul 13, 2025•18 min•Season 3Ep. 24
This week, Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear, makes her monthly visit to the studio and Ian and Cathy dive into content operations and orchestration. Is it more inside baseball wordy word bullshit, a technology platform or something that organizations really care about? Some talking points from their conversation: Understanding content operations and orchestration The role of technology in content operations Content strategy and audience engagement Overcoming resistance to cha...
Jul 02, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 279
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, on Ian’s mind is whether we should be educating LLMs with our content, and Robert suggests that there might be lessons to be learned from Google’s rise two decades ago. They discuss: How our content gets served, aggregated, and we don’t pick the expe...
Jun 28, 2025•26 min•Season 3Ep. 23
This week, our host, Ian Truscott, and Principal Analyst at Cleantech Insiders, Jeff Clark, dive into budget benchmarks as Ian picks Jeff's brain about his experience doing this for enterprise clients at Forrester. They discuss Jeff’s 5 tips: Why is benchmarking important? Don’t confuse a peer set with your competitive landscape Comparing apples with apples - STARS model Understand what the benchmark considers to be marketing budget Determine the timeframe to align with benchmarks and goals As a...
Jun 25, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 278
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, on Ian’s mind is is the importance of individual credibility vs brands in content marketing and what this means for B2B. Should we worry about creating thought leaders, and they leave? They discuss: AI is influencing how we perceive content authentic...
Jun 21, 2025•26 min•Season 3Ep. 22
This week, our host, Ian Truscott, and our resident marketing strategist and former Forrester Research Director, Jeff Clark, are joined by a previous guest, friend of the show and former Forrester Analyst, Simon Daniels, now sharing his revenue and marketing operations expertise as an independent consultant with Percassity Associates. Recently, Simon has attended the 6Sense Inspire event in London and in keeping with the editorial policy of the show, Simon shares 5 F’in’ key takeaways from the e...
Jun 18, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 277
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, Mary Meeker, who some describe as the queen of the internet, has published a 340-page report called Trends – Artificial Intelligence, that Robert has some thoughts on, so that’s this week’s topic, discussed over a cocktail blended especially for Fath...
Jun 14, 2025•24 min•Season 3Ep. 21
This week, our host, Ian Truscott, and our resident marketing strategist and former Forrester Research Director, Jeff Clark, discuss event planning. Inspired by a recently published report from Forester that shared that, for the second consecutive year, budgets are flat or down for two-thirds of event teams. In this episode, they discuss: Make each event part of an existing campaign Defining the event goals Determine who can deliver your audience Considering the audience spread across events Pla...
Jun 11, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 276
As it’s Saturday, you may be expecting our host Ian Truscott to be sipping a cocktail and picking the brains of Robert Rose in the Rose & Rockstar, our virtual bar. However, an overrunning appointment means Robert didn’t make it to the bar, so Ian goes solo. For this last-minute solo, Ian picks a topic he recently shared in a webinar for Marketing Profs - “The ART of Content Marketing” - where he shares the role content marketing plays in creating Awareness, Revenue, and Trust. The main poin...
Jun 07, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 275
This week, Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear, makes her monthly visit to the studio. Inspired by Salesforce's acquisition of Informatica, they discuss their experiences with acquisitions. Some talking points from this week: Salesforce's acquisition of Informatica aims to enhance Salesforce's data management and AI capabilities, but the company has a mixed track record. The need to understand the different motivations for an acquisition and what has driven the transactions. Som...
Jun 04, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 274
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, over a fancy cocktail with a fancy name, Ian and Robert discuss the importance of being distinct yet remaining relevant, the challenges of standing out in a crowded market, and the concept of 'uncommon value' as a competitive advantage. The critical ...
Jun 01, 2025•21 min
This week, our host Ian Truscott and our resident marketing strategist and former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark discuss a new role for the CMO, being the voice of the market, not just of marketing. In this episode, they discuss: CMOs should shift from being just marketers to market analysts. Understanding internal stakeholders' needs Build credibility by creating relevant internal content Leveraging external networks enhances the CMO's credibility. How this all helps the CMO to be a str...
May 28, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 273
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, Ian laments a missed opportunity for the podcast's name as Robert shares tips on using AI for research and introduces him to the term epistemology as they discuss Robert’s recent post for The Content Marketing Institute - Gen AI Isn't Marketing's Bes...
May 24, 2025•27 min•Season 3Ep. 19
This week, our host Ian Truscott and our resident marketing strategist and former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark discuss the role of the CMO and marketing post-sale, in reducing churn, increasing customer lifetime value, and loyalty in a B2B SaaS environment where there is reduced friction to switch. In this episode, they discuss: Customer loyalty in the experience economy Five CMO considerations for customer loyalty Managing the brand gap Nurturing customer relationships Formalizing cus...
May 21, 2025•34 min•Season 1Ep. 272
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, following a discussion about alcohol measures in Scotland, Ian asks Robert about lessons from his successful podcast and if he’d start This Old Marketing today. Some of the things they discussed: Building an audience before launching a podcast Video ...
May 17, 2025•24 min•Season 3Ep. 18
This week, our host Ian Truscott and our resident marketing strategist and former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark revisit a topic they discussed 3 years ago in episode 118 - the hard stuff of getting the soft stuff right when implementing marketing technology. They cover five things to consider: #1 Identify business needs #2 Develop new processes. #3 Develop new skills #4 Manage change #5 Measure success. As always, we welcome your feedback. If you have a suggestion for a topic that's hot...
May 14, 2025•39 min
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, over a classic tipple, Ian and Robert step into the minefield of controversial content. How edgy and different should we be? Based on a recent article Robert published on the Content Marketing Institute’s blog - Surprise! Your Most Controversial Cont...
May 10, 2025•22 min•Season 3Ep. 17
This week, Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear, makes her monthly visit to the studio, and our host Ian Truscott gets her take on a marketing leader's first 90 days. Some talking points from this week: Cathy is a fan of the first 30/60/90 day plans - but also day 1 and week 1 The first 30 days are about listening and building trust The importance of a comms plan Where measurement, data, and analysis fit in Employee engagement as part of marketing amplification Focus on leveragin...
May 07, 2025•41 min•Season 1Ep. 270
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week Ian and Robert discuss a prediction from Gartner that we will need to put 70% of our marketing budget into offline to reach an audience who will be digital detoxing. The main points from the bar this week: Digita...
May 03, 2025•22 min•Season 3Ep. 16
