In this episode of Tame the Mobile Beast, Tom Butta discusses customer confidence and present-mindedness with Shama Hyder, CEO of Zen Media. Their conversation touches on a multitude of topics including how customer expectations continually rise due to leading brands, how organizations need to balance future planning with current opportunities, and the importance of strong leadership between agencies and internal teams.

Shama Hyder kicks off the conversation by sharing the exciting news of Zen Media's acquisition of Sevans PR, marking a significant expansion on the West Coast. As a seasoned agency leader, Shama highlights the importance of strong leadership and cohesive teamwork between agencies and internal teams. She advocates for creating unique, co-created experiences that resonate with clients seeking innovative solutions.

With current customer expectations skyrocketing, Tom & Shama emphasize that all brands need to step it up, regardless of the industry they’re operating in. It doesn’t matter if your direct competitors are behind you because leading brands such as Apple, Amazon, and Uber are the ones setting the standards.

Shama views herself as a “now-ist” and explains that organizations are too often focused on innovations years away when they should be implementing today’s technology to beat their competitors. She shares her insights on harnessing AI to streamline workflows, but only after laying a solid foundation.

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Guest Quote

"Customer confidence is something that in the past was given, and then you had to lose it. And now it starts almost at zero or negative, and you have to prove that you have confidence and you are trustworthy." – Shama Hyder

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Time Stamps

00:46 Meet Shama Hyder and Zen Media

01:19 Zen Media's recent acquisition

02:30 Beast of the Week: Customer Confidence

04:06 The importance of perception and experience

07:37 Trust and transparency in branding

13:28 The role of technology and data

16:54 Balancing now and next in strategy

20:06 Insights on leadership and agency collaboration

25:54 The mobile consumer and future trends

29:07 Rapid Fire Questions

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Links