Podcast Summary: The Marketing Millennials

Episode 405: What Hasn't Changed in Marketing with Matt Kerbel

Air Date: April 1, 2026
Host: Daniel Murray
Guest: Matt Kerbel (Global Brand Strategy Lead, Turo)

Overview

In this episode, Daniel Murray sits down with Matt Kerbel, Head of Global Brand Strategy at Turo, to dig into the timeless fundamentals of marketing—especially what hasn’t changed amidst the hype cycles of AI and new tech. Matt emphasizes the enduring power of soft skills, vulnerability, and brand fundamentals, and walks listeners through the research-driven strategy behind Turo’s latest “Skip the Rental Counter” campaign. The conversation is loaded with actionable insights, memorable stories, and concrete frameworks for becoming a sharper, more human marketer—even as the tech landscape shifts.

Key Topics & Insights

1. The Enduring Value of Soft Skills in the Age of AI

[02:30 – 09:19]

• AI will amplify technical skills, but soft skills matter more than ever:
  “As AI becomes more and more part of our lives and jobs, the soft skills, the human element becomes more important.” – Matt Kerbel [02:30]

• Communication, motivation, and storytelling are what will truly differentiate marketers going forward.

• Vulnerability is a superpower:
  “If you look at any literature on vulnerable leadership, you get more out of your team, you get better retention, you know, you get higher productivity.” – Matt Kerbel [03:30]

• Soft skills are muscle, you must work them:
  Marketers often forget these skills aren’t innate: “You think you inherently have these skills, but they actually are muscles that you need to work on.” – Daniel Murray [09:19]

• Mentorship is most effective from those just a step ahead:
  “The best mentors are actually people who are in your role that you want to get next, not like 5, 10, 15 years ahead.” – Daniel Murray [09:48]

2. How to Actually Develop Soft Skills

[05:37 – 14:19]

• Practical strategies:

  • Start or join cohort-based programs or coaching circles focused on these areas (Matt co-founded “Everything Else”).
  • Seek out and reach out to inspiring people on LinkedIn for informal mentoring.
  • Get real feedback via anonymous 360° evaluations: Ask for “the good, bad, and the ugly” and be open to it. “It can be scary and sometimes sucky. But on the other hand, it can be incredibly informative and freeing and motivating to figure out how you can become more of sort of who you are.” – Matt Kerbel [07:08]
  • Practice “extrospection”: learn about yourself through the eyes of others, not just self-introspection.

• Overcoming fear and building confidence is an underappreciated skill:
  “There’s a lot of literature that actually connects confidence to the perception of competence.” – Matt Kerbel [11:09]

• Teams who coach each other perform better:
  Intelligence agency studies and even “oldest sibling effect” research suggest that ongoing coaching and teaching within peer groups helps confidence and performance.

3. What Never Changes in Marketing: The Fundamentals

[14:19 – 24:51]

• Understand your customer deeply—it’s always the starting point:
  “The tenets of marketing don’t change. No matter where we are in time, the most important thing is to start with the fundamentals, which is like understanding the prospective customer…” – Matt Kerbel [14:43]

• Connect human truths with what your brand uniquely offers:
  “Think about the truths, the amazing things that the company does uniquely that are very hard, if not impossible for rivals to replicate and then connect the dots.” [15:41]

• “People forget to understand their audience, they chase the tech instead. But unless you really know your audience, the tools won’t matter.” – Matt Kerbel [16:55]

• Empathy and research always beat chasing the next algorithm.

4. Matt Kerbel’s Framework for Audience Understanding

[18:29 – 24:51]

• His modern approach includes:

  • Talk to customer support to find pain points
  • Crawl deep into internet forums (Reddit, reviews, social listening tools)
  • Talk directly and frequently with customers, in person or virtually
  • Body language and tone are big clues—qualitative research is critical
  • Use AI to speed up and scale gathering and synthesizing insights: “You can take those 30 conversations, download all those threads…and then put it into AI and help it analyze the data…” – Daniel Murray [22:42]

• Don’t over-rely on outdated focus group models prone to groupthink

• AI should supercharge human research, not replace it. “We’re like in the Facebook wall days of AI. …At this point, the best way to use it is as a complementary tool as opposed to being fearful and really embrace it, but not be replaced by it.” – Matt Kerbel [24:01]

5. Turo’s “Skip The Rental Counter” Campaign: A Masterclass in Fundamentals

[26:08 – 34:54]

• Started from customer research—a universal, emotional pain point:
  “The thing that kept coming up over and over again was the sheer anger that comes with the traditional car rental experience at the rental car counter, specifically at the airport…” – Matt Kerbel [26:25]

• Did a single-market test in Philadelphia to prove ROI to skeptical executives:

  • Used classic experimental design, comparing “real” Philadelphia to a “counterfactual” Philly baseline
  • The campaign blended out-of-home, events, creator partnerships (like DJ Jazzy Jeff), and PR stunts
  • Metrics: initially upper-funnel (awareness, consideration, intent), then bookings pulled through 3–6 months later—Philly is now Turo’s fastest-growing US market [29:55]

• Balanced digital (feeds) and real-world (events) presence — “unignorable” effect.

• Creative was directly inspired by customer complaints:
  TV/streaming ad portrayed the DMV-like misery of rental counters in dreary black & white, then contrasted with the ease and vibrance of the Turo experience.

• Extensive creative testing beforehand (using platforms like Zappy for message and storyboard feedback).

• Measured brand impact using tools (like Tracksuit) and first-party data—brand is measurable!
  “There’s a myth out there that brand can not be measured. …You have to speak to the language of the people you’re trying to influence.” – Matt Kerbel [34:54]

• Key takeaway:
  Start small and prove impact before scaling. Small markets/tests beat broad, unfocused campaigns for learning and credibility.

6. Bonus: If Matt Ran Peloton’s Brand

[37:51 – 42:34]

• Missed opportunity: add dietary/food programming to create a holistic health platform (“like a food network for Peloton”).
• Highlight the real-world, unpolished community stories—move beyond glossy ads to authentic member stories. “There’s got to be so many characters and stories… I would literally watch a series of the best of the best in these various apps, like Peloton, where people are just dominating.” – Matt Kerbel [39:23]

7. The “Marketing Hill You’d Die On”

[42:34 – 44:27]

• Brand is the way, and it’s owned by everyone. Branding = reputation.
  “Brand is owned by everybody at the company. It is essentially a synonym for reputation. To the extent you can rally an entire company around a brand… you give yourself a monumentally higher prospect of success.” – Matt Kerbel [42:40]

• Brand is measurable—‘if you don’t think that, try harder.’

• If you aren’t measuring brand impact, you’ll eventually lose relevance and influence internally.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Soft Skills and AI:
  “Our technical skills become more…supercharged by AI… The more we can supercharge [soft skills], the further you’re actually going to go in your career and the happier I think you’re actually going to be in your life.” – Matt Kerbel [02:41]

• On Feedback:
  “This exercise of extrospection…can be actually, on one hand scary… But on the other hand, it can be incredibly informative and freeing and motivating.” – Matt Kerbel [07:34]

• On Market Research:
  “Go and talk to them [customers]. Get on the phone, write them…There’s so much that can be learned by just asking questions and listening.” – Matt Kerbel [19:46]

• On Brand Measurement:
  “Brand is measurable. If you don’t think that Brand is measurable, then try harder.” – Matt Kerbel [42:57]

Important Timestamps by Segment

• [01:06] Matt Kerbel's background & intro
• [02:30] Why soft skills are more important than ever in AI era
• [05:37] How to develop soft skills as a marketer (cohorts, mentors, 360 evals)
• [10:14] The value of peer/near-peer mentorship
• [14:39] Fundamentals—why they never go out of style
• [18:56] Matt’s approach to audience understanding ("ninja mode")
• [22:42] AI as research amplifier, not a replacement
• [26:08] The Turo “Skip the Rental Counter” campaign deep dive
• [34:54] Measuring brand impact, selling brand internally
• [37:51] Bonus: Peloton brand “if I were in charge”
• [42:40] “Marketing hill I’d die on”—Brand is the way!
• [45:43] Matt’s advice: Don’t overthink, remember people want to be happy, entertained, informed, and have value.

Summary Takeaways for Marketers

• Soft skills (communication, vulnerability, confidence) matter more in a tech-driven world; they’re career and leadership force-multipliers.
• Pressure-test your own (and your team’s) thinking with real feedback, peer coaching, and constant learning.
• Start every great marketing campaign from deep audience research and insight, not from tactics or platforms.
• Use AI and new tools to supercharge (not replace) your human curiosity.
• Brand is measurable; treat brand as everyone’s job, and use data to earn buy-in from stakeholders.
• Test small, measure rigorously, learn fast, and build support before going national.

Find More from Matt Kerbel

LinkedIn: Matt Kerbel

Don’t overthink it. Like, what do we know? We know that people want to be happy, people want to be entertained, people want to be informed. – Matt Kerbel [45:43]