Old School: Mastering Channels
In the old school of marketing, the job was clear:
Buy reach on TV, print, and out-of-home.
Shift budgets to digital once the web scaled.
Optimize performance through search, display, and social ads.
Capture clicks, track attribution, and scale funnels.
It was hard work, but it was predictable. Marketers spoke the language of impressions, CTRs, and CPMs.
That’s old school.
New School: Mastering Conversations
AI doesn’t play by those rules. In the new school:
Users don’t “browse.” They chat.
Distribution isn’t controlled by publishers. It’s controlled by AI assistants.
Funnels don’t live on websites. They collapse into conversational moments.
Clicks don’t matter. Attention, engagement, and dialogue do.
In this new reality, an ad isn’t just seen. It’s answered. It’s explored. It’s purchased against in real time.
This requires CMOs to unlearn the old metrics and frameworks — and adopt new ones.
What CMOs Must Learn in the New School
AI Media Buying – understanding how to place brands natively inside conversations rather than just feeds.
Conversational Creative – designing ads that feel like dialogue, not monologue.
Attention Metrics – measuring depth of engagement and conversion readiness instead of clicks.
AI Fluency – not just delegating to tech teams, but personally grasping how AI is reshaping discovery, intent, and purchase behavior.
Why Back to School Matters
The risk isn’t just falling behind. The risk is irrelevance.
Just as the first wave of CMOs who ignored digital were eclipsed by those who mastered it, today’s CMOs who cling to old-school thinking will be left out of the next era of growth.
The opportunity, however, is enormous: those who go back to school and re-learn marketing in the AI age will have a once-in-a-generation advantage.
