AI Won’t Fix a Bad Strategy. It Will Make It Worse.
with Rick Brown, Co-Founder and CEO of MarketStorm
Audio Only
Episode Description
AI can make your marketing faster and more sophisticated, but it cannot fix a weak strategy. Rick Brown joins Lori Jones to explain how marketers can separate valuable AI investments from expensive experimentation, strengthen the fundamentals first, and reach buyers earlier in the decision-making journey.
Rick shares lessons from building MarketStorm and working at the intersection of AI, data, advertising, and growth. They explore why randomly adopting AI tools can waste time and money, what happens when technology is layered over weak positioning or brand equity, and why marketers may be focusing too much attention on the final click.
Listen & Learn
You’ll hear:
• Why experimenting with AI tools is different from building AI into your marketing strategy
• What marketers should fix before investing more money in AI
• How weak brand equity, bad data, and broken processes can undermine sophisticated technology
• Why the buyer journey often begins much earlier than marketers assume
• How the “messy middle” influences which brand ultimately wins the customer
• Why last-click attribution can hide the marketing that actually influenced the sale
• How better targeting can reduce wasted ad spend without replacing strong marketing fundamentals
• What marketers should rethink as they plan campaigns for 2027
Guest Bio
Rick Brown is the CEO & Co-Founder of MarketStorm, an AI-driven advertising and demand strategy company that helps brands influence buyers before they actively begin searching, using predictive data, advanced audience targeting, and programmatic media. Since co-founding the company in 2018, Rick has helped scale MarketStorm nationwide, working with everyone from small businesses to multibillion-dollar operations, all without Silicon Valley or Wall Street backing.
Before MarketStorm, Rick spent roughly 15 years in sports and entertainment, building brand partnerships for companies like Citibank, Intel, Acura, and Sierra Nevada, and holding roles with organizations including the Oakland Raiders and Maloof Sports & Entertainment. He now also serves as a Guest Lecturer at Harvard University Extension School, where he speaks on entrepreneurial leadership and the realities of building and scaling early-stage companies.
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