Episode 13
Katrina Campbell on why you can’t just switch AI on, the data foundation that has to come first, and what actually changes once the groundwork is right.
Episode
Overview
96% of CMOs say they’re transforming with AI. Just 32% have actually rebuilt how marketing operates. Katrina Campbell sits firmly in the second group.
Drawing on years leading AI and data transformation across some of the most complex recruitment funnels in the market, inside a highly regulated healthcare environment, she started where most teams don’t. Not with the AI. With the foundation underneath it.
You can’t switch AI on. The foundation comes first, and the foundation is the base that everything else is built on.
In this episode, Katrina joins Aleisha McCall for a precise, unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to rebuild a high-stakes commercial funnel from the data layer up.
Roughly three months unifying fragmented systems into a single customer view through Salesforce Data Cloud, before a single agent went live.
From building the data foundation, to deploying AI agents where they create real commercial value, to managing the cost reality of running AI at scale before you’ve planned for it.
Once the groundwork held, contact centre time on qualification dropped by up to 50% and conversion lifted by up to 20%. Same team. A system that finally worked.
This is the account of how it happened, and what marketing’s role becomes once it stops being treated as an expense and starts driving growth.
Listen & subscribe. Tune in on your favourite platform to listen or watch Episode 13 of The Black Box of Media Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
listen & subscribe
Tune in on your favourite platform to listen or watch Episode 13 of The Black Box of Media Podcast.
Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Watch EPISODE 13
CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Introduction: agentic marketing and the AI transformation gap
02:55 – Why most AI adoption stalls at implementation
04:25 – Building the data foundation before anything else
10:12 – Inside the most complex funnels in healthcare marketing
12:22 – Where AI agents fit in the sales and marketing funnel
17:23 – The success metrics that actually moved
21:56 – From expense to growth driver
25:46 – Why marketers need to understand the financials
26:49 – Reverse engineering success in clinical trial recruitment
29:17 – AI and the real shape of job transformation
30:45 – Rethinking marketing roles in the age of AI
33:49 – Personalisation as the new frontier
38:27 – Navigating the fragmentation of media advertising
47:00 – The shift from SEO to GEO in customer discovery
50:19 – What tomorrow’s marketing leaders will need
Key
Takeaways
Why the Foundation Comes First
- Why you can’t just switch AI on, and what has to be built before it
- What rebuilding from the data layer up actually requires, and why it is so important
- Why marketers must lead technology decisions rather than inherit them
AI in a Real Commercial Funnel
- How a unified data layer gave the funnel full pipeline visibility for the first time
- How owned conversion data replaced CRM-based retargeting after healthcare advertising restrictions
- Why last-click attribution is almost meaningless inside a funnel this complex and what lead scoring replaces it with
Data Infrastructure and Media Performance
- How a unified data layer gave the funnel full pipeline visibility for the first time
- How owned conversion data replaced CRM-based retargeting after healthcare advertising restrictions
- Why last-click attribution is almost meaningless inside a funnel this complex and what lead scoring replaces it with
From Expense to Growth Driver
- How marketing earns a seat alongside the CFO and CEO by speaking in revenue rather than activity
- Why treating AI as a tool of convenience rather than transformation is the real costly decision hiding in plain sight
- How to make the commercial case for technology investment: not what it costs to implement, but what it costs if you don’t
Guest Profile-
KATRINA CAMPBELL
Katrina Campbell has spent her career leading marketing and communications inside highly regulated, high-complexity environments, with a focus on AI and data transformation in healthcare.
She sits at the intersection of marketing, technology, and commercial strategy, approaching all three from a customer and commercial seat rather than an IT roadmap.
Her career spans pharmaceuticals, international business, and healthcare marketing across more than two decades, leading transformation programs across some of the most complex recruitment funnels in the market.
Katrina is active on LinkedIn and open to conversation from anyone the episode raises questions for.
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