Shifting Gears, With The CMO Of Genesis Motor America

Summary

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AdExchanger Talks

Episode: Shifting Gears, With The CMO Of Genesis Motor America
Date: September 16, 2025
Host: Allison Schiff
Guest: Amy Marentic, CMO of Genesis Motor America

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Allison Schiff interviews Amy Marentic, the newly appointed CMO of Genesis Motor America. Amy shares her unconventional journey from aspiring astronaut to automotive executive, details her leadership experiences at Ford and Lincoln in China, and outlines how Genesis is tackling low brand awareness, broadening its appeal to women and families, and leveraging marketing technology. The discussion delves into adaptation across cultures, the evolution of automotive marketing, performance and programmatic strategies, AI adoption, and measuring marketing effectiveness.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Amy Marentic’s Background and Career Journey

[01:41–06:49]

• Amy grew up in Muskegon, Michigan, inspired by figures like Sally Ride, dreaming of becoming an astronaut. She pursued aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan.
• A pivotal moment: her astronaut mentor cautioned her to have a solid career to fall back on, which led Amy to Ford, blending her passion for cars and engineering.
• Amy’s narrative demonstrates resilience and adaptability, setting the tone for her approach to career and leadership.
• Memorable Quote:

  “Your career is a marathon, it's not a sprint. And it could take many different paths.”
  — Amy Marentic [04:22]

2. Breaking Barriers and Leadership in China

[06:49–14:45]

• Amy reflects on overcoming gender bias as a student, with support from her father enabling her to pursue advanced math and, ultimately, a technical career.
• At Lincoln China, Amy was the second-ever female president in Ford’s history. She expanded the dealer network and had to deeply adapt to a vastly different market and cultural context.
• Key lessons included letting go of US-centric intuition, relying on team listening, and embracing the need to assimilate rather than impose one’s own norms.
• Notable Quote:

  “When you go to a different country, they don't assimilate to you. You assimilate to that culture.”
  — Amy Marentic [13:19]

3. Transition to Genesis Motor America

[14:51–19:02]

• On joining Genesis, Amy found the main challenge was brand awareness: only 6 out of 10 people know the brand.
• She lauds Genesis’s focus on craftsmanship, consumer-centric design, and quick adaptation to trends, comparing its nimbleness even to tech companies like Google.
• Genesis is a new luxury entrant, and Amy sees its “no legacy” status as a strength—a platform for innovation.

4. Rethinking Automotive Advertising

[16:09–19:02]

• Addressing overused car ad tropes (e.g., “car on a scenic road”), Amy emphasizes the importance of standout elements, such as Genesis’s striking interior features—like tufted diamond-patterned leather and novel EV crystal shifters.
• Genesis’s campaigns focus not just on the vehicle’s utility but on the emotional experience and aesthetic details.
• Memorable Anecdote: Amy recalls videoing the “crystal” shifter and sending it enthusiastically to Detroit friends [17:52].

5. Strategic Marketing to Women and Families

[19:02–21:41]

• Drawing from data, Amy identified an opportunity to appeal to women and families, who play an outsized role in car purchasing decisions.
• The “New Beginnings” campaign for the Genesis GV80 illustrates a fresh creative direction:

  “You can be a family and have nice things.”
  — Amy Marentic [20:23]

• Instead of classic “SUV full of stuff,” their recent ad centers on imagination, with a young girl ‘wrestling a rainbow’ inside the car, tying to Genesis’s “Mood Curator” technology and creating space for creativity.

6. Performance Marketing & Funnel Sophistication

[21:45–24:25]

• Amy describes performance marketing as a seamless continuum with brand marketing: “It’s kind of how do you balance work and life, right?”
• Genesis’s dealer meetings focus on the marketing funnel, showing non-traditional assets and data-driven tactics rather than just TV commercials.
• Amy aspires for Genesis to become the most sophisticated marketer (not just automarketer), leveraging data to guide prospects through a frictionless purchase journey.

7. Building High-Performance Teams & Agency Relationships

[25:30–26:18]

• Amy underscores the unique, familial partnership with Inocean (creative) and Canvas (media), contrasting it with more transactional agency relationships at prior companies.
• “We win together... if we happen to fail… we fail together.”
  — Amy Marentic [25:37]

8. Lessons from Failure & Learning Culture

[26:23–28:16]

• Amy encourages her teams to embrace failure in pursuit of innovation.
• She shares a China example: launching a digital retail tool that hit a regulatory roadblock but was later hailed as a foundational success globally.
• “If we're not failing, we're not trying hard enough.” — Amy Marentic [26:23]

9. Embracing AI in Marketing

[28:16–31:59]

• Genesis partners with Google on AI-driven ad initiatives (AI Max, Performance Max, Dynamic Creative).
• Amy stresses using AI responsibly—enhancing efficiency and ad delivery while maintaining Genesis’s handcrafted, luxury brand feel.
• AI is mostly used for optimizing, resizing, and customizing creative—not for generative, fully AI-made ads.
• Notable Quote:

  “It would be probably inauthentic for us to develop a generative AI ad for Genesis, but... use AI to maybe cut a 30 down to a 15… make our production more efficient.”
  — Amy Marentic [29:40]

10. Adapting to the Changing Purchase Journey & Search

[32:03–34:54]

• Amy observes that AI chat is reshaping car buying journeys; traditional website visits and lead forms are declining, while direct model interactions (e.g., through Performance Max, LLMs) are increasing.
• Genesis now considers both human website visitors and how Large Language Models (LLMs) “see” and interpret their site content.

11. Managing Brand Representation in LLMs & “Share of Model”

[34:54–37:11]

• Amy recognizes the challenge of controlling how Genesis is depicted in AI-generated recommendations—a developing area.
• Key strategies include:
  • Ensuring discoverable, well-structured website content
  • Amplifying media coverage to influence training data
  • Paying close attention to new signals (e.g., Reddit being a top LLM source)

12. Programmatic Advertising & Targeting

[37:11–39:16]

• Programmatic is foundational—enabling first-party data targeting, dynamic bidding, nimble budget shifts, and effective “conquesting” (winning over competitive brand buyers).
• Real-time effectiveness and the ability to optimize on the fly are game-changers for automotive marketing.

13. Modern Measurement and Attribution

[39:16–42:24]

• Amy’s data-driven approaches draw on her experience at Circana, blending MMM, MTA, brand lift, and match-back analysis.
• Genesis aims for a unified, closed-loop view of the customer journey, linking high-value web actions to dealership sales.
• “Better every day. Our goal, better every day. A little bit better every day.” — Amy Marentic [41:18]

14. 360-Degree Campaign Example: “Freaky Friday”

[42:24–44:30]

• Genesis’s campaign for the GV80 included:
  • TV spot (“Pull in Imagination”)
  • Product integration in Disney’s “Freaky Friday” sequel
  • A Disney-produced ad and influencer components
• Measurement across multiple funnel stages: reach, awareness, engagement, consideration, site analytics, influencer metrics, and search spikes.

15. Car Buying Trends & Evolving Commerce Models

[44:30–47:07]

• Discussing Hyundai’s Amazon partnership (not handled by Amy), she sees the growth of e-commerce car buying as inevitable.
• “Things that we thought would never happen in our industry are happening… we're going to see things shift and change so fast in the next three to five years.”
  — Amy Marentic [46:10]

16. Personal Anecdotes: Learning to Drive

[47:07–48:55]

• Amy reminisces about her first car, a 1977 yellow Mustang with white leather—a symbol of her early mechanical curiosity, persistence, and resourcefulness.
• “I carried a stone with me… I'd have to put the stone in the choke in the carburetor… to start the car.” — Amy Marentic [48:11]
• Host Allison shares her contrasting New York City experience—licensed, but no car.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [04:22] Amy: “Your career is a marathon, it's not a sprint. And it could take many different paths.”
• [13:19] Amy: “When you go to a different country, they don't assimilate to you. You assimilate to that culture.”
• [16:42] Amy: “When only 6 out of 10 people know about your brand, you need to do something that's a little bit more impactful and that stands out.”
• [20:23] Amy: “You can be a family and have nice things.”
• [26:23] Amy: “If we’re not failing, we’re not trying hard enough.”
• [29:40] Amy: “It would be probably inauthentic for us to develop a generative AI ad for Genesis, but... use AI to maybe cut a 30 down to a 15… make our production more efficient.”
• [46:10] Amy: “Things that we thought would never happen in our industry are happening… we're going to see things shift and change so fast in the next three to five years.”
• [48:11] Amy: “I carried a stone with me… I'd have to put the stone in the choke in the carburetor… to start the car.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:41 – Amy’s background & astronaut dreams
• 06:49 – Early barriers & resilience in education
• 09:54 – Leadership & adaptation in China
• 14:51 – Brand awareness challenge at Genesis
• 16:09 – Tackling automotive ad clichés
• 19:02 – Targeting women & families in Genesis marketing
• 21:45 – Performance marketing philosophy
• 25:30 – Agency partnerships & internal vs. external work
• 26:23 – Lessons from failure
• 28:16 – AI use in automotive marketing
• 32:03 – Changing customer search/journey
• 34:54 – Brand representation in LLMs
• 37:11 – Programmatic advertising strategies
• 39:16 – Measurement, attribution, and linking actions to sales
• 42:24 – GV80 & “Freaky Friday” campaign
• 44:30 – E-commerce car buying and industry change
• 47:07 – Amy’s first car and driving lessons

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Summary

This episode provides a rich, behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of automotive marketing through the lens of a leader who’s experienced business across hemispheres. Amy Marentic shares candid stories of challenge and adaptation, the nuts and bolts of building brand awareness for a luxury challenger, and how Genesis is innovating at the intersection of brand, data, AI, and customer experience. For marketers, car enthusiasts, and business leaders alike, it’s a compelling exploration of how to thrive amid industry disruption and cultural shifts—always, as Amy puts it, getting “better every day.”

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Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to Ad Exchanger Talks, the podcast.

[A]

Devoted to examining the issues and trends.

[B]

In advertising and marketing technology that matter most to you. I'm Allison Schiff, this is Ad Exchanger Talks, and my guest this week is Amy Morentic, the newly appointed CMO of Genesis Motor America, which is the US Branch of Genesis, a South Korean luxury vehicle manufacturer that's part of the Hyundai Motor Group. Amy joined Genesis in March, and she's already making moves to broaden the brand's appeal with a new demographic, women. We'll talk about that and lots of other things, including Genesis's approach to Programmatic and why Amy became a marketer instead of an astronaut.

[A]

Not.

[B]

But before we get started, we're just a couple of weeks away from our conference, Programmatic IO New York. The whole Ad Exchanger editorial team will be there, and we've put together a bang up agenda for you that's designed to make you smarter, make you think, and give you a sense of where the industry is going. This Q4 and into 2026, there is still time to snag your ticket and you can use the code PODCRUSH POD C for 25% off all caps one word. Thanks for listening and see you there. Hey, Amy. Welcome to the podcast.

[A]

Hi, Alison. Happy to be here.

[B]

All right, so what is one thing that not a lot of other people already know about you and that you couldn't easily find out just by googling you? And there's a lot of interesting stuff to Google about you or by checking out your LinkedIn profile.

[A]

I wanted to be an astronaut. So from the time I was three till I was 18, maybe 22, my passion in life was to go into space.

[B]

That is amazing. And you're, I don't know, you're kind of adjacent, right? I mean, we're talking about a vehicle which is on land, not in space. But you do have to be an engineer in order to work on cars in a lot of respects. And you are actually educated in engineering.

[A]

I do. I am. It's where I started my career. I thought to be an astronaut. Being an aerospace engineer was the way in. So after graduating from high school, I went to University of Michigan and studied aerospace engineering and. And barely made it through. No, no, I. I made it through. Okay.

[B]

I'm sure. No, that. That is clearly false modesty. Well, you grew up in Michigan and you've had a lot of jobs in the auto industry. So it was 28 years or just over 28 years at Ford and a couple of years, interestingly, between 2016 and 2018 as President of the Lincoln brand in China. And you were responsible for all aspects of the Lincoln automotive business in China and South Korea. And I do want to talk about that in a little bit, but I'm going to put a pin in it. You were also director and global client lead for the auto vertical at Google. And now you're the CMO of Genesis Motor America, the U.S. division of Genesis, which is Hyundai's luxury brand. It launched in 2015. It has lines spanning gas cars, hybrids, EVs. And I know I asked you for something about yourself that isn't on your LinkedIn, but of course I looked at your LinkedIn and you've already mentioned this, but I saw that you have degrees, like you said, from the University of Michigan, a BA in aerospace engineering, a master's degree in industrial and manufacturing engineering. So my question is like, was it a two parter, really? Was it a foregone conclusion growing up in Michigan that you would get into the automotive industry? I guess when you think about decided not to become an astronaut. And what was the path from aerospace engineering to marketing?

[A]

Yeah, I lecture at University of Michigan. I'm a guest lecturer. And the first thing I always show the students is my career trajectory. And I do that to kind of take the pressure off them because if somebody would have told me 30 some years ago as an aerospace engineer, I'd be a chief marketing officer, I, I would have told them they were crazy. But what I tell the students is that your career is a marathon, it's not a sprint. And it could take many different paths. And it took me a minute to figure out what I was really passionate about when I was young. I was really inspired by Sally Ride. I was inspired by going into space and I was inspired by doing things that are really challenging and really difficult. And that's why and how I found my way to University of Michigan. I'll never forget my senior year in my senior design class. They would bring in astronauts to be our mentors. And my mentor was the. His name was Colonel Bolden and he was a captain of the Hubble Space Telescope mission. And as I met him, he said, amy, what do you want to do? And I said, well, I want to be an astronaut. And he looked at me and he said, well, being an astronaut is something you do once in your life if you're lucky. You need a career to fall back on. And at that moment I was panicked because my whole life had been focusing on being an astronaut. And he told me that I needed a career. And if I was lucky, maybe someday I could go in space. And that's when I found my way to Ford Motor Company and I found my way to the aerodynamics department. And I'd always loved cars and I had always loved engines, so it seemed like a nice place to end up. So I got to use my aerodynamics degree and I also got to work on cars, which still to this day inspire me.

[B]

That is a fascinating way to think about it, that your entire life would be in service of potentially one space mission. And it might not even happen. One moment, One amazing moment.

[A]

One amazing moment.

[B]

Maybe you can get yourself on one of the billionaires rockets up to space.

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

It would be interesting. Somebody asked me that the other day. They said, do you still want to go into space? And I don't feel. I don't feel the need to. If the opportunity presented itself, I think I would absolutely do it. But it's not one of those things that I wake up and think about every day.

[B]

Well, speaking of taking on challenges, I came across this very interesting article about you when I was reading about you before our conversation. Now, it was in the Detroit Free Press from late 2017, and the headline was, a Small Town Michigan Girl told she wouldn't Succeed Defies odds to Run Lincoln China. And there's an anecdote in there about how you were told to leave a certain algebra class because you were a girl. And the story goes on to talk about how you'd never been to China, but suddenly it was your job to run Lincoln's operations there. And China is a really important market for Lincoln, and you had to learn very quickly about the local luxury consumer culture and adapt to that, including, obviously doing the marketing. But what was that experience like? And I believe you also went over with your dog.

[A]

I did. Okay, let's just take a moment for Tucker the Bulldog. Tucker the Bulldog was very popular in China. He was a local celebrity and could have been a dog model. Would I have let him? Yeah, he had a great time and I had an incredible time. I was raised in a really small town. I was raised in Muskegon, Michigan, and I went to a small high school. We had about 100 people in our class. And. And when I was a junior and I always got straight A's, I was told that I didn't need advanced algebra, that the type of math where I learned to balance a checkbook would be enough for me. And I said, no, no, no. My goal is to go to Michigan and they said, well, even so. And so couldn't make it through Michigan. There's no way that you will make it through Michigan. And this was my guidance counselor that was telling me this. And so I had to have my dad come down to meet with my guidance counselor to put me in the advanced algebra class that then led to calculus. Without interference from my father, I wouldn't have been able to take that class. Now, I will tell you, I ended up being the valedictorian of that high school, so my grades never suffered. But it was. It was a challenge. And I think this is when I really started focusing on doing things that people told me I couldn't do. And it became really a passion of mine to. To prove them wrong, to not only take that algebra class and take that calculus class, but get into the University of Michigan and to succeed once I got there. So I think back to that guidance counselor, and today I thank her because it's definitely helped make me resilient.

[B]

I mean, that is, I think, a good way to think about it. It's a little revisionist, but it's still a good way to think about it. Um, but talk to me a little bit about China and trying to understand how you had to adapt your own thinking to a local consumer culture. That is pretty different. Yeah, some similarities, I'm sure, but pretty different.

[A]

So let's start with the fact that I was terrified, number one. But I really try to push myself out of my comfort zone. And because it would be very easy for me to stay in the same role, not do better, to be satisfied. But I never want to be satisfied. I always want to try to do more, to do better, and to constantly learn. And that's the opportunity I had in China. I had spent. I had transitioned from engineering. I was an engineer for about eight years, and. And what I learned as an engineer is I thought that you could develop things people didn't even know they wanted yet as an engineer. But where you do that at a company like Ford is at a strategist or a marketer. And so I had an opportunity to make a move from engineering into strategy, then into marketing. And that's where I really found my passion is. Is developing and putting things into vehicles that people don't even know they want yet. And what that takes is it takes really great listening skills to really understand what the challenges are for consumers and really try to help make their lives easier by creating great content in vehicles. So fast forward to an opportunity to go to China. And to go to China in A pretty significant leadership role. I think I was the second ever woman president of anything at Ford. And I was doing it in China and I was scared, I was nervous, all the things. And then I got to China and I had a gut in the US because I had worked in the auto industry for so many years. My gut knew what was right. And I always complimented that with data because of my engineering background. But when you go to a different culture and you're in a different country, you no longer have that gut. And you really have to listen more and you really have to trust your team. And I had the most incredible team. I had a great leadership team. I had a great full team. I had about 100 people, all Chinese national. And I put several dealers into business. When I got to Shanghai, there were 40 Lincoln dealers. When I left, there were 106. What an incredible opportunity it was for me to learn to listen to, but also to add value and to build that brand. It was incredible. And I also had the opportunity to work a bit in South Korea, which helped me understand even more the company that I work for today, which is Genesis.

[B]

So I do of course want to segue into talking about Genesis. But before that, I'd love an example of something that you were able to learn while you were working in China. Something that was either unexpected or that aligned with your expectation, but you took away with you.

[A]

Oh boy, there are so many things. I had a mental model when I went to China that, that I never wanted to localize production. Because one thing that happens when you are an American company in China, if you were to manufacture, you must share 50% of your profits and all of your IP. And that was something that I was not prepared to do. But once I got to China and understood business and understood how to move nimbly and understood how to make money in China, it became very important to get even closer with our partner. And we made the decision to localize. And that was a big, big decision. And it's something that I never thought I would do. But once you get there, you understand more. You meet the people. It was something that very. That was very important to the future of Lincoln. So I learned that deep rooted ideas can change. I also learned when you go to a different country, they don't assimilate to you. You assimilate to that culture. And making sure that you are sensitive to the culture, incredibly respectful of the culture is so important. What a great opportunity it was. I felt incredibly lucky. The people I work with, I just adore. And even though I Did not speak the same language with the dealers when I left. It was really hard for me and for them.

[B]

Have you been back, by the way?

[A]

I have not been back because of COVID And it's not that easy to just fly into China without a visa.

[B]

Fair enough.

[A]

So I have not been back. I always thought I would, but it's worked out where. Where I haven't.

[B]

Well, now you've been with Genesis for around seven months. So what would you say is the main marketing challenge that you've been facing? Is it a brand awareness issue? What. What's top of mind for you right now?

[A]

So it's definitely awareness. You know, when I had the opportunity, when I got the call from Ted, who's my boss, who I worked with in a previous life, and I flew out. I got to drive the vehicles. And my number one rule is the best vehicle wins. You cannot fool the customer. You cannot reduce your way to profitability. You have to provide a compelling product to the consumer. And that's what Genesis has. We are a luxury brand that nobody asked for, but we are a luxury brand that has been created because of the vision of our executive chairman. And the product is exceptional. The way that we think about the consumer, the way that we choose our leathers, the way that we choose the wood inside the vehicle, the way that we determine the powertrain and how quickly and nimbly we can change based on consumer behavior is something that I've never experienced even working at Google, which moves so quickly.

[B]

There are so many car advertising tropes out there, like showing a car driving up a scenic mountain or coming around a winding road, or like real people, quote, unquote, reacting. And it just feels so unrealistic or overly staged. And you see that over and over again. How do you keep it, like, fresh and avoid the cliches? Because I do think the cliches are pretty tempting. You could make a car ad or, you know, tell a very brief story that everyone understands. Here's a car on a road. It's sexy. We're done.

[A]

Sometimes that's all you have to do, is show a car on the road and it's sexy and you're done. But when you're a Challenger brand, when you're a new brand, when only 6 out of 10 people know about your brand, you need to do something that's a little bit more impactful and that stands out. So many vehicles look so similar. I remember I was at a doctor appointment one day during COVID and they asked the woman in front of me what type of vehicle she drove, because everybody was waiting in their car and she literally looked at them and said, I don't know. And I had seen her get out of the vehicle, and of course, I'm a car person. And I said, she drives a Buick, but she didn't even know the car she drove. So how do we make sure that we're doing things that are impactful and that are noticeable? And one of the things that makes Genesis so unique is the quality of our interiors. And so when you typically see a Genesis ad or a Genesis social ad or something with an influencer, we're always showing how beautifully crafted our interior is. And oftentimes you'll also see some of our innovative content. And when people see the tufted leather and the diamond pattern leather, they always give us a second wow moment. And we have a feature in our GV60 electric vehicle that's a crystal. It's right on the prindle, and it flips over when you turn the vehicle on and it's just so beautiful. Remember when I first started at Genesis, I was taking video of it, sending it to all of my friends back in Detroit.

[B]

Well, I read another pretty interesting article. This one's more recent from just a few weeks ago. It was in Automotive News. And it's about how you and your team are working on this strategy to broaden the appeal of Genesis vehicles with families and with women. It's a big part of your growth effort. Now, I'm thinking of that lady with her Buick. But it does really make sense to focus on this demographic because women drive, pun intended, like a lot of family buying decisions. So what led you, though, to that insight that that's what you should do, that women are the right audience to focus on? And then how are you activating that strategy, like bringing it to life and getting that message across?

[A]

Yeah, I, you know, I think of, because I am a woman, I always look at the data and I say, who's buying our cars? The GV80 is a three row SUV. It's a family vehicle. It's a vehicle that a man can enjoy as much as a woman can enjoy, but a family can enjoy. And when I looked at the data, I noticed that we had an opportunity with women and specifically with families. So we looked at the campaign and we said, how can we stay true to the brand campaign of new beginnings? And how can we do something that is unique and that will stand out and that maybe women might notice when they're watching something on TV or when they're scrolling through their Instagram and could it potentially break through with them? So it started with the data. It started with the percentage of families that buy our vehicle versus the percentage of the segment that buys the vehicle. And we went from there and we tried to develop a creative alternative to an SUV campaign. And our brand idea for Genesis, it's called New Beginnings. And we aren't a hundred year old company, we're a very new company and we do not have a legacy. But instead of that bringing a weakness, we're looking to that as being very much a strength. And so when we looked at a campaign for the GV80, we said, what would legacy say? Or what do most people do when they show an suv? And we looked at all the ads and most people were showing just vehicles full of people and things and stuff and dogs. And although I do love a good dog ad, we decided to go in a different direction and say, what if instead of putting a bunch of things in the vehicle, what if we focus on how people feel inside that vehicle? We talked about the concept of, you know, you can be a family and have nice things. And that's where the idea of pull in imagination came. And the campaign is actually this incredibly strong little girl wrestling with a rainbow. And the idea is if she has a moment to really pull in her imagination to the inside of of the vehicle and then we attach it to our mood curator, which is an opportunity to change the color inside the vehicle. But the whole idea was really making room for more space, more time to think, and more time to create. And that's how we wanted to stand out.

[B]

Oh, speaking of dogs, that's Oliver.

[A]

Hi, Oliver.

[B]

He heard someone existing in the hallway, so you went to go check it out. This is a. It's a dog friendly episode. 1. One more question before we take a quick break. What about performance marketing? Like, what kind of performance marketing can you do for such a considered purchase as a car? And also for a brand that's still trying to drive awareness. And people take months, maybe longer to decide on a car, but you have to balance that with your brand marketing. And it's the eternal question, really.

[A]

I feel like it's kind of how do you balance work and life? Right? It's the same thing. How do you balance brand marketing and performance marketing? And you know, it really is a seamless integration. You have to do the hard brand work where you can get the awareness. But then most importantly, when a consumer is in the right mindset, when they're in the space and they're getting ready to purchase the vehicle. How do we ensure that we're showing up? So we had our dealers in for a dealer advisory board meeting a couple weeks ago. And and instead of showing them an ad, I showed them everything but an ad. So I showed them the funnel on the left hand side, starting with awareness, going all the way down to conversion, and then on the right hand side the purpose and then all of the tactics. And I highlighted an ad which was at the very top. It just said tvc, TV commercial. And I said, I'm not going to show you that, but I'm going to show you everything else. And if we're doing our job right, you will never see it. Only the right person at the right time that's ready to buy a vehicle or is thinking about the vehicle will see it. So I showed them our social campaigns, I showed them the work we're doing with Google, with Metta, with TikTok. I showed them our influencer work, I showed them how we're managing search, I showed them some of the new AI work that we're doing. But it was really interesting because the thing that we would typically show as a marketer is something that we didn't show and we didn't talk about, but performance marketing is really the ability to grab them mid funnel and gently guide them all the way to the conversion. And that's an area where I want to be the most sophisticated marketer out there. Not automarketer, but really the goal is to be the most sophisticated marketer where as soon as somebody starts thinking about a vehicle, sees an ad, we grab them and we gently guide them through the funnel and make it very, very easy. A seamless journey that bring them all the way home to a dealership where they can convert.

[B]

So sophistication from a data perspective as opposed to a sizzle reel or not only a sizzle reel.

[A]

Yes. Although the girl does like a good sizzle reel.

[B]

Yes, fair enough. Okay, well, we're going to take a quick break, but when we're back, we're going to talk a little bit about what it takes to build a high performance in house marketing team. How you decide what to in house and what to give to an agency. And also AI you brought up AI. I definitely want to talk about that a little bit, so stick with us. All right, welcome back. And I want to talk a little bit now, as I mentioned before we went to the break about how much marketing you do in house, like what do your agencies work on and then how do you decide what goes where like, what's strategic for you to own and then what feels okay to. I don't want to say farm out, because that sounds so dismissive, but to have your agency handle for you.

[A]

You know, I think one of the gifts that I have at Genesis is our agency really is our family. So our agency is Inocean. And then we also have a media buying agency, Canvas, and they are owned by the family that owns Hyundai. So we are very much partners and family with them. So we share all things and we win together. And, you know, if we happen to fail, which I do love a good failure because that means you're trying hard and learning, we fail together as well. So we are very, very much partners. It's a very different relationship than anything that I've experienced in my previous life, but one that I'm really enjoying the benefits of.

[B]

What's a failure that you've learned from that actually became something positive?

[A]

Oh, you know, I always. I always tell my teams, if we're not failing, we're not trying hard enough. You know, I've had the opportunity to work on big brands, but I've also had the opportunity to work on smaller brands. And when I look at Genesis and our purpose here, we should be doing the tip of the spear marketing. We can invest, we can scale, we can pilot. If things are working well, we can scale quickly. And. And if we fail, nobody really notices. Let's see. One of my big failures. When I worked in China, the culture was very much, we cannot fail. But I told the team, if we're not failing, we're not trying hard enough. And so we set up a complete digital retailing tool in China. And at the very, very end, the team came to me and they said, we have failed. And I said, what do you mean we have failed? And they said, we can't take all of the money via WeChat because the government has put a limit to 5,000 RMB at the time. And they were just devastated by the fact that they had failed. And I said, no, no, no, you have not failed. You have succeeded. Because when our global president heard what we were doing, they were so excited to scale it to the rest of the world. So. So it's something the team did. We did it quietly. We did it in one province. We got it completely done with the exception of being able to take all of the money via WeChat. But what the team saw as a failure was very, very much a success. And we continue to learn from that and scaled it around the rest of the world.

[B]

There's also a lesson in that achievements are multi phase processes, right? I mean, you don't necessarily just get to tick your box and move on. So it's not necessarily a failure, it's just tripping a bit along the way and then you reach your goal.

[A]

You know, our goal, we were, we're working with Google right now on AI Max. We wanted to be the first in industry to launch AI ads and we ended up, it took a minute to get it through our legal, so we ended up not being first, but then we ended up being the first automotive. And then Google had some issues where we had some delays, but always trying to do something that's new and that's fresh and that will make the customer's journey easier. So we'll see, we'll see how the AI chat ads go. But it's something that we're definitely leaning into. We're leaning heavy into AI in a way that we make sure that we're using it to be more efficient. We're using it to guide the customer journey, but we're also using in a way that's very safe and transparent.

[B]

I mean, my question is how, how do you make sure that you do that? How do you have the right guardrails in place? Because just like it's a balance between work and life and brand and performance, it's a balance between opportunity and risk. Especially for something like this, I think.

[A]

You have to be very careful and very selective. You know, I had an opportunity to work several years at Google and let me tell you, you are constantly using AI. You are just immersed in it. And it continues to this day where I'm consistently reading about it, learning about it, listening to podcasts on it, and we're putting our toe in the water in a way that starts with efficiency. You know, we have to be careful. We are a luxury brand. Everything we do is handcrafted. It would be probably inauthentic for us to develop a generative AI ad for Genesis, but what would be authentic is to take a beautiful ad that has been curated by a human and a team of humans and use AI to maybe cut a 30 down to a 15 or take a 15 and make a 6, or potentially use some running footage and use AI to make it even more, to scale it, to offer different backgrounds to make our production more efficient. And we start and we try and we make sure our legal team is part of it and we see what works and what does we continue to do in scale and what doesn't work. We say thank you and we move on.

[B]

I'm thinking now of what you were talking about before the tvc and it doesn't really matter which one it is up there. We don't have to click on it because it'll be the one that makes sense for you. And to achieve that goal, you would surely need to use some kind of AI, I would imagine, or have an army of people making a lot of different ads, ones that would appeal to all of the different segments that you've identified. I mean, that of course is possible, but AI would make it a lot easier.

[A]

You know, you just look at something like Dynamic Creative. How amazing is it to be able to serve a different ad to a different human depending on their past behavior, where they were in the funnel and what was interesting to them. Dynamic Creative allows you to do that. And we're definitely using Dynamic Creative today. And AI is something that powers Dynamic Creative. Do you get to a point where then you start to use generative AI to even make more and more of those dynamic assets? So we'd like to be on the forefront, but we're being very careful to make sure we're doing it in a way that's authentic to the brand and, and still treats everything that we do very, very much like the luxury brand that we are.

[B]

And how is PMAX working for you? Performance Max.

[A]

I remember when I was at Google and I started to sell PMAX and I was selling vehicle listing ads for the first time. We launched automotive ads. And, and I remember some of our clients would say to us, we don't care how it works. It's just working so incredibly well. It's almost like this black box. And that was in early days of where we were talking about AI and what we actually call AI. So it's working incredibly well. The customer journey is changing. Instead of a customer typing in to a search any search engine, GB70, now they're typing into an AI chat saying, I am a 50 year old woman and I'm interested in an SUV. I love luxury and I'm looking for a payment around X. That's what people are asking for now. And instead of clicking on the search result from GV70, sometimes people don't even click because they're getting the answer. So the customer journey is changing. As a marketer and an advertiser, we must ensure that we're changing with that. We're fully expecting to see clicks to our genesis.com website start to decline. We're already seeing leads start to decline. And that is an industry phenomenon. People are submitting less and less forms, less and less personal information, but yet still buying the vehicle. So understanding the customer journey is very important. Ensuring that our website is feeding the large language model is also very important.

[B]

It's interesting to think of you, a brand, as a publisher in that way, because you do need to be very considerate of what information you're putting out there, because you want to be represented by the models appropriately and you're thinking more of how the information you disseminate will feed a model eventually. I'm sure the website is still very important than you are about how someone experiences the website when they visit it.

[A]

We're looking at it twofold now. We're very much looking at it as what happens when somebody visits the website, number one over here. But then we're also looking at it as how does a large language model look at it? And how do we ensure that it is optimized for that process as well? A year ago, we weren't thinking about that. We were at AI Day with one of our partners and everything they showed us at AI Day they said had been developed in the last 10 weeks. You just look at how quickly things are moving. It's a great time to be an engineer in marketing. Let me tell you. Some of that back data training that I had is actually working out quite well right now.

[B]

And of course, it's still early and I think pretty much everyone is still trying to figure out the answer to this question. But how are you able to exert any form of control over what a model recommends about your brand? Do you know anything about share of model? That's a term that the Brandtech Group has used. But a lot of people are talking about that, right? Like the need to represent yourself, or have yourself represented in the way you want to be represented by a model, but not necessarily knowing how to effectuate that.

[A]

Yeah, I compare it. I don't know if this is a good comparison, but it's one that just came to mind the TV industry and how much that's changed. And you look at the winners and losers, right? As we moved to streaming and we were just at the upfronts a few months ago, and the real winner was live sports. So live sports is having a significant minute, Right. Because people can't avoid the ads. Streaming's having a minute. Cable, not so much. It's the same thing. In where we're heading with AI, things are changing quickly. Who will be the winners and losers? One could argue public relations, public affairs, making sure that we're doing More media drives with more of our publisher friends to make sure that they understand the vehicle, they're writing about the vehicle and that those articles are sourced as information for the consumer. I was reading an article the other day that said the number one contributor to the large language models is Reddit.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Right. Incredible. But then also controlling the things that we can control, which is when a large language model looks at our website, can it get through quickly? Is it getting the information it needs? Are we being represented correctly? And let me tell you, we are all learning. We are all learning. And every time I have an opportunity to meet with somebody that knows this space, boy, am I asking a lot of questions. I met with the Chief Revenue officer of Trade Desk last Friday. We were having a conversation around this.

[B]

Well, we're moving to Geo as opposed to SEO. It's one letter difference, but it's very, very different.

[A]

Yes, yes.

[B]

So I, I wanted to ask, we were talking about pmax, so I wanted to ask about just straight up programmatic. Do you guys buy programmatically? Is it valuable to you if you do? How important is it to your media strategy?

[A]

Yeah, it's incredibly important. It's, it's really the foundation of our marketing. It, it allows, of course it has to work with our brand advertising, but it allows so many, so many different things that allow us to be more efficient and more targeted. First of all, it allows us to use our first party data. It allows us to not only target the right person, but understand when we should be targeting that right person. It allows us to be competitive, understand when people are on competitive websites, maybe get them at a moment where they're ready and they're open to a different brand. We actually conquest really, really well at Genesis. It's one of our strengths and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we do buy programmatically. We show up at a time that's right for the consumer and they look at it and they're interested, they don't know. And then they go in and they find out more and more and more about the brand. It allows us to be agile and it allows us to optimize. You know, as a, as a somebody who started in the marketing space 25 years ago, I think having the ability to know if something's working real time is an incredible gift. So we now know programmatically when something's working, when something's working better than something else. So we can compare tactics, but we can also move very, very quickly and very nimbly and shift and Then last but not least, when times get tough and something like a tariff hits and, and we need to potentially reduce some budgets, we can change our budget strategy structure very, very quickly. We can pull back, we can lean in, you know, we'll get through a month and we'll be running a little bit short, maybe we'll need a few more sales and we just go right in programmatically and we know what works, what doesn't work and we can move very, very quickly.

[B]

This might be a good time to talk about measurement a little bit and how you approach measuring your marketing. Like, are you team mta? Team? Mmm. Where does incrementality come into it? All the buzzwords.

[A]

I'm all the things. I had an opportunity to work for a company called Circana and after I left Google, I went to Circana. The gentleman I worked for at Google ended up being the CEO of Circana and he brought me with him. And Circana was all about measurement. I ran their media business, their growth consulting business and their analytics business and it was all about measurement. MMMs, MTAs, brand lifts, attribution. It allowed me the opportunity to see what closed loop measurement looked like. And in automotive, because you don't own the consumer interaction or the consumer sale, it can be very difficult to close a loop. The one thing that's nice about working at Genesis is we have an incredible relationship with the dealers where we can close the loop on our marketing. So we're looking at all of the things, mmm, mta, brand lift. We do a lot with influencers, so we look at engagement and then we also have the traditional KPIs like awareness, opinion consideration and then we look at KPIs on our websites. Tier 1 visits, Tier 3 visits, high value actions and how those actually quantify, correlate to a sale. We have some matchback analysis that, that allows us to understand what those high value actions are and which ones, which ones convert to a sale more often than others. And where we're heading is into a unification space and, and that's where we're moving now. It's very, very exciting where we can understand what the consumer's doing through the whole journey, guide them through gently and see if they convert and then do more of what makes that consumer convert. We're not there yet, but we're getting close.

[B]

How close are you?

[A]

Very close. Very close. I tell the team, better every day. Our goal, better every day. A little bit better every day.

[B]

Just recently, it was at the beginning of August, you guys launched a national campaign. It was to promote the 2026 Genesis GV80 SUV. And it was in the Freaky Freak Friday sequel, Freak Year Friday. So the cars are like integrated into the story. And there's also a focus on family, which I think ties into the new brand focus and also introducing Genesis to new audiences. And that's obviously a very important goal. We've talked about it. So to bring this back to measurement, how do you measure the success of a campaign and an integration like that? I mean there's a kind of product placement. It speaks to brand awareness. It's pretty top of the funnel. So I would imagine it's maybe hard to measure, but I'm sure you're also looking at some sort of KPIs and drawing a connection between those kinds of efforts and something downstream. Although obviously not like going to buy a ticket to Freaky Friday and then heading to the dealership right after.

[A]

Yeah, I think so. When we did the GV80 campaign, it really was a 360 campaign. So we had the TVC pull in imagination that we talked about. We also had the Freaky or Friday integration where we had product integration in the movie itself with GV80 and GV60. But we also had Disney do an ad for us. So we had custom content. So we ran the Disney ad as well. And then we had an influencer campaign where we invited four of our influencers to bring either their mother or their daughter to the red carpet and they created content around that. So we had this 360 campaign where we had two ads, we had all of our in market data. Our genesis.com was updated to reflect pull in imagination and Free Cure Friday. And we had our influencers where they were gaining, where they were posting user generated content and we had engagement metrics. So top of the funnel is really we're looking at awareness, opinion and consideration and how that moves. We look at reach, we look at impressions, we look at brand lift. Studies are people recalling the brand. We look at sentiment and we look at innovation. We look at attributes like innovation, attributes that are very important to us. And then mid to lower funnel, we start looking more at engagement and conversions. So for example, did somebody go to the Freakier Friday movie? Did they see the Genesis? Did they then go to genesis.com maybe interact with one of our influencers, then go to a dealer website and then convert? We can kind of start to see that journey and how that's working for us. And then we also look at search and we use EDO quite a bit to look at when we're doing something like an integration with Freaky or Friday or, for example, we have a big partnership with NBCU for Big ten and Notre Dame football. When they see a genesis, are we seeing a spike in search interest?

[B]

So we're nearly out of time. So, penultimate question. We are living in a world where the customer journey, yes, it's fragmented, but in weird ways, it's also getting a lot closer together, A to B to C. I wanted to just ask your opinion about the Hyundai partnership with Amazon Autos. So it's like a buy a car online service launched last year for our listeners if they don't know. And so people across the US it's like 48 or some odd different cities by this point. You can browse, you can order, you can finance, and you can schedule to pick up a new Hyundai vehicle directly through the Amazon platform. And I remember in the mid, like, 2010s, there were some companies, particularly David's Bridal, they started selling wedding dresses online. And their reaction was like, people will never buy wedding dresses on the Internet. And then it became kind of a thing. And I looked it up. David's Bridal has a $167 million projected online sales revenue goal for this year. So it's a thing. But do you think that it's the same thing with cars or, like, whatever the product is that people are used to buying in person? Like, the initial reaction is no one will ever do this, and then people start it, like, not everyone, but like, enough people. And then it just becomes a thing.

[A]

I think that anything we can do to make buying a vehicle more convenient or easier for a consumer is a good thing. While I'm not responsible for Hyundai, I can tell you I am responsible for Genesis. And we are always looking at ways to make the consumer journey easier. And our goal is to be on the forefront as technology changes, as AI makes inroads in marketing and advertising. We always want to be on our front foot. We want to be in a leadership position, but also make sure we're doing it in a safe way. And I've also been raised with dealers and have the utmost respect for the dealer, what the dealer does, and how they interact with the consumer. So I'm always about trying new things. And I have so much respect for what the Hyundai team does and the Amazon partnership. But you would have to talk with my counterpart, Sean Gilpin, to get more info on that. But I do think things that we thought would never happen in our industry are happening. And how amazing is that? And I think we're going to see things shift and change so fast in the next three to five years.

[B]

Well, as my last question, and to go back in time, when did you get your driver license and what was your first ever car?

[A]

So I was so excited to get my driver's license. I took driver's training with our high school football coach, because that's how we did it back in the day. It didn't cost my parents a dime. And even though we were very, very middle class, my father had just hired a woman from California to come work for him. And she was panicked because she had an older Mustang. And she said, I cannot drive this in the snow. And he's like, well, my daughter needs a car. Maybe I could buy it off you. And so my father bought a 1977 baby yellow Mustang. Someone can argue maybe 77 wasn't Mustang's best year. I loved it very much, and it had white leather interior, and it was incredible. But it had a problem. It was carbureted, and it stalled all the time. So I'd have to get out of my car in the middle of the road. And I carried a stone with me, and I'd open the hood, and I'd put the hood up, and I'd have to put the stone in the. In the choke in the carburetor. And I have to go start the car. And it would start, and then I take the stone out and I put the hood down, and then I would be off and on my way. And I think this was one of the reasons why I got so excited about how a car works. But, yes, it was a 77 baby yellow Mustang. It was from California. I loved it, but it broke down a lot.

[B]

Yeah, but it was a great lesson in how to be resourceful. You MacGyvered that car.

[A]

I dip my guy for the car.

[B]

Well, my first car never existed. I never had a car. I did have a driver license, but I haven't driven in over 20 years because I live in New York City and it's pathetic. And I need to relearn in a parking lot because I am useless on road trips.

[A]

It.