{"id":10760,"date":"2026-02-03T18:48:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=10760"},"modified":"2026-02-03T18:48:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:48:41","slug":"marketing-leaders-need-peers-not-playbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=10760","title":{"rendered":"Marketing leaders need peers, not playbooks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For those of us happy to cocoon at home with our remote jobs, especially marketers who built digital-first strategies post-pandemic, the return of in-person meetings and relationships that require social skills is as welcome as unasked-for pineapple on a pizza delivery.<\/p>\n

However, like it or not, personal relationships are becoming more valuable precisely because information is no longer a scarce resource. What is in short supply is trust.<\/p>\n

As co-founder of people ops startup Gather, Alex Hilleary found himself repeating the same thing to HR leaders: \u201cYou should really talk to so-and-so.\u201d Someone needed advice on remote work policies, so Alex connected her with someone who\u2019d just solved it. Another was wrestling with equity compensation; Alex knew someone three months ahead of that exact problem.<\/p>\n

Hilleary did this for months before realizing he\u2019d accidentally built a community. What he was doing wasn\u2019t something an algorithm could do. He was using his judgment about who needed to meet based on problems that weren\u2019t easily categorized. That kind of curation \u2014 knowing things no coded program can surface \u2014 is becoming more valuable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judgment and strategy<\/h2>\n

Marketers see the same patterns play out in their own communities. Practitioners need judgment about strategies, not just information about tactics. With AI content abundant and cheap, human judgment is a competitive advantage. Nothing can beat hard-won wisdom from someone who tried the thing you\u2019re considering and can tell you about the consequences no one mentions in public.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper: A marketer\u2019s guide to what strategy is and isn\u2019t<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe single greatest value I get from Pavilion is judgment,\u201d said Kathleen Booth, a member and former SVP of marketing at Pavilion, a community for go-to-market professionals. \u201cNot content in the abstract, and not tactics in isolation, but access to other senior GTM leaders who are wrestling with the same messy, high-stakes decisions I am and are willing to talk honestly about what\u2019s working, what isn\u2019t, and why.\u201d<\/p>\n

For marketing leaders navigating constant change, this peer-to-peer judgment is increasingly essential.<\/p>\n

The death of the generic \u201cmiddle ground\u201d<\/h2>\n

Marsha Maxwell connects scientists with companies that want to recruit them or sell to them. The business development and partnership leader at the American Physical Society knows that physicists with fluid dynamics expertise are needed by chipmakers like NVIDIA for real-time CAD simulations, by Mercedes and BMW for braking systems and by Boeing and Lockheed for aerospace engineering. Her knowledge comes from understanding both the science and the business problems, and from judgment developed over years of making connections.<\/p>\n

Scientists need in-person conferences. That\u2019s where they build the relationships that lead to research partnerships, job offers and major equipment purchases. Browsing vendor booths, asking questions and getting hands-on with new instruments is an essential part of life for grad students and early-career scientists, who \u201cdon\u2019t really network online \u2014 they just don\u2019t,\u201d Maxwell said.<\/p>\n

Marketing leaders face the same challenge: generic advice floods their feeds, but they need specific guidance from peers who have navigated similar decisions.<\/p>\n

Hilleary, now the CEO of the online content marketing community Superpath, noted that \u201cposts in public spaces (read: LinkedIn) have an agenda, are filled with AI slop and aren\u2019t optimized for the right, nuanced answer.\u201d AI can\u2019t tell marketers whether a specific conference is worth attending, or how to handle a messy reorg or whether to pivot strategy mid-quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Generic digital networking and public social media are becoming noise. The only truly useful channels are hyper-curated digital communities where humans filter every interaction, and in-person gatherings where trust can actually compound.<\/p>\n

Judgment in practice<\/h2>\n

Booth said Pavilion conversations \u201cget into second-order effects, tradeoffs, and the human side of leadership. That peer calibration has saved me from costly mistakes and given me confidence to make bolder calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marketers navigating first-party data strategies, AI integration, or attribution model changes need that kind of structured peer support most: judgment that requires experience, context and being honest about what actually happened.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper: AI is paying off for B2B marketing. For B2B marketers? Not so much.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maxwell\u2019s pitch to companies isn\u2019t, \u201cHere\u2019s a list of scientists with relevant credentials.\u201d They can get that from LinkedIn. She knows the talent pipeline they\u2019ll need in two to three years and how to build relationships with those people now. That forward-looking, strategic matching requires understanding that takes years to develop.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to figure out what their goal is and get them in front of the right audience,\u201d Maxwell said. It sounds simple. It also requires knowing things you can\u2019t find in any database.<\/p>\n

The power of saying no<\/h2>\n

When Alex Hilleary took over Superpath, he inherited 300 paying members in a space that had once been a free community of 20,000. Most people would immediately try to scale back up. Alex isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunities get too large,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you are successful, they grow, and then it stops working,\u201d like subreddits that deteriorate as they gain subscribers. The culture dilutes and eventually, no one trusts the space.<\/p>\n

Maxwell follows the same discipline. The American Physical Society is a 125-year-old organization with 50,000 members, but she doesn\u2019t try to get every company to sponsor every event. She focuses on strategic relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 800 organizations that have been with us for 30 years,\u201d Maxwell said. Some meetings have grown rapidly, like plasma physics and optics, depending on government funding priorities and hot technologies. But the core value proposition hasn\u2019t changed: companies need access to scientists, and scientists need to see what\u2019s available for their work. That requires physical presence.<\/p>\n

In a world where AI can scale content infinitely, community builders are getting more selective. Value comes from curation, not volume. For marketing leaders choosing communities to invest in, this curation signals quality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trust compounds in person<\/h2>\n

\u201cIn-person is where trust compounds,\u201d Booth said. \u201cOnline spaces are great for information exchange. In-person is where nuance, empathy, and authentic relationships form.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe side conversations, the unscripted moments, the \u2018Can I run something by you?\u2019 chats over coffee \u2014 those create a level of candor that\u2019s very hard to replicate digitally,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Alex is adding more in-person meetups to Superpath specifically because members told him they need it, beginning with events in metro areas with the largest concentrations of community members. Marsha evaluates which companies to pursue based on intuition about whose goals align with available opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Booth put it plainly: \u201cHuman connection is no longer a nice-to-have. It\u2019s a leadership advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leadership advantage of intentional communities<\/h2>\n

Booth described what she\u2019d like to see more of from Pavilion: \u201cStructured support for leaders navigating inflection points, not just roles. Things like stepping into a first CMO seat, leading through an AI-driven org redesign, or managing a team through rapid change. Those moments are where judgment matters most, and where shared experience is invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dig deeper: The rise of vibe marketing and what it means for marketers<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alex talks about helping Superpath members \u201cmake sense of and stay ahead of the changing content marketing landscape.\u201d The value isn\u2019t the information, since everyone has access to the same articles and tools, but in having people who\u2019ve already tested those tools tell you which ones are worth your time and which problems they actually solve.<\/p>\n

The job-to-be-done is no longer information distribution. It\u2019s judgment calibration.<\/p>\n

This shift matters, especially for marketing leaders. As AI tools proliferate and digital channels fragment, the marketers who will thrive are those building strategic judgment through curated communities \u2014 both online and in person.<\/p>\n

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The post Marketing leaders need peers, not playbooks<\/a> appeared first on MarTech<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of us happy to cocoon at home with our remote jobs, especially marketers who built digital-first strategies post-pandemic, the return of in-person meetings and relationships that require social skills is as welcome as unasked-for pineapple on a pizza delivery. However, like it or not, personal relationships are becoming more valuable precisely because information … <\/p>\n

Read more “Marketing leaders need peers, not playbooks”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"medium":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"large":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-featured-image":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-loop":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-loop@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-masonry":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-masonry@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_cinema":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_square":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/people-talking-over-coffee-800x443.png",0,0,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}