Shiv Singh | CEO Savvy Matters | Why Cannes Can't - Things That Aren't Covered at the Big Soiree

CMO Confidential

A CMO Confidential Interview with Shiv Singh, CEO of Savvy Matters, former CMO of Lending Tree and author of AI For Dummies and The 5 Marketing Truths You Won't See at Cannes. Shiv shares why he believes AI is killing marketing jobs, how the CMO Role is breaking down due to overlap with other functions, and how "Big Tech is running marketing." Key topics include: how walled gardens make the job harder; why the optics of Cannes are terrible; and the reason marketers should work to fully understand technology. Tune in to hear how AI is making us less intelligent and why Cannes should move to San Francisco.

Description

What you won’t hear on the Croisette. Former LendingTree CMO and Marketing with AI for Dummies author Shiv Singh joins host Mike Linton to unpack his viral “5 marketing truths you won’t hear at Cannes”—from AI’s real impact on jobs and creativity to why the CMO role keeps breaking under overlapping scopes, walled gardens, and distorted budgets.

We dig into the zero-click search era, big tech as the new kingmakers, how to rebuild orgs AI-first, and what practical steps CMOs should take this quarter (hint: learn the tech, ship agents, and embed marketers into tech teams).

In this episode

• AI is changing performance, creative, and strategy—faster than the hype cycle

• The CMO job: too wide, too blurry, and overlapped with the rest of the C-suite

• Walled gardens & retail media: measurement theater vs. business impact

• Zero-click search & AI Overviews: when your best customers never hit your site

• “AI-native” org design: agents, code-as-deliverable, and the marketer-as-technologist

• Why Cannes optics can backfire—and what a substance-first festival could look like

• Playbook for CMOs: weekly show-and-tells, code literacy, and cross-functional embeds

About our guest

Shiv Singh is CEO of Savvy Matters, co-founder of AI Trailblazers, former CMO of LendingTree, and a longtime brand leader (Pepsi, Visa). He writes and speaks widely on AI’s impact on marketing, org design, and growth.

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Chapter Markers

00:00 – Welcome & Sponsor: Typeface

01:45 – Introducing Shiv Singh & “5 Truths You Won’t Hear at Cannes”

05:10 – Truth 1: AI is changing jobs, creativity, and strategy

10:20 – The CMO role is broken: scope, overlap, and alignment

15:05 – Walled gardens & retail media: why measurement is broken

19:45 – Truth 2 & 3: Big Tech as the new kingmakers

24:20 – Zero-click search & the rise of AI-driven discovery

28:50 – Truth 4: Cannes optics and why it’s “not for everybody”

32:40 – What CMOs should do: tech fluency, coding, weekly experiments

36:00 – Superintelligence and the AI-native org of the future

39:00 – Practical advice & closing thoughts

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CMO Confidential, Mike Linton, Shiv Singh, Savvy Matters, AI Trailblazers, LendingTree, Pepsi, Visa, Cannes Lions, marketing truths, AI in marketing, agentic AI, AI agents, zero-click search, AI Overviews, walled gardens, retail media networks, big tech kingmakers, Google, Meta, TikTok, YouTube as TV, Performance Max, marketing org design, CMO role, C-suite alignment, measurement, marketing strategy, creative automation, knowledge workers, superintelligence, LLMs, large language models, marketer as technologist, code literacy, AI native organization, marketing experimentation, weekly show and tell, brand building, B2B marketing, B2C marketing, marketing leadership, executive insights, podcast for CMOs, Typeface, Typeface AI, typeface.ai/cmo, ASICS, Microsoft, customer acquisition, CAC, CLV, marketing ROI, retail media, AI transformation, marketing jobs and AI

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