Hubspot Media
464 episodes listed below
AI-era marketing tactics from operators testing what works next.
Marketing Against the Grain treats modern marketing as a working lab, especially where AI tools reshape content, ads, research, and operations. Episodes move quickly from thesis to screen-share, testing products like Claude Code, Replit, Manus, Perplexity Computer, and Google Stitch against real marketing jobs.
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Marketing Against the Grain covers the edge where marketing strategy, AI tooling, and growth tactics collide. The show is hosted by HubSpot executives Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan, giving it a strong operator perspective rather than a purely theoretical one. Episodes often revolve around a specific tool, platform shift, or market opening, then ask what marketers can actually do with it now. Recent coverage includes AI workflow builders like Manus, Google Stitch, Replit ad creation, ChatGPT ads, and context-driven content systems. The show is especially interested in how marketers move from basic prompting to building repeatable AI-assisted workflows. It also spends time on competitive intelligence, ad strategy, answer-engine visibility, and faster content production. Guests such as Kevin Hudson and Matt Wolfe appear when the topic calls for live tool demos or outside expertise. The tone is educational and opportunistic, with frequent examples from HubSpot, Tumblr, Google, Salesforce, and other software companies. Some episodes make bold claims about early arbitrage windows, but the strongest material is usually practical: what to try, where the limits are, and how to avoid generic AI output. It is best suited to marketers who want to understand new AI tools before they become standard playbooks.
Made for: Growth marketers, founders, content leads, and marketing operators looking for practical AI and go-to-market experiments.
What sets it apart: The show pairs executive-level marketing strategy with hands-on AI tool demos and fast reads on emerging arbitrage opportunities.
Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot’s CMO) and Kieran Flanagan (Hubspot's SVP of Marketing), lead you down the rabbit hole of marketing trends, growth tactics and innovation. On the way you’ll pick up undiscovered strategies to give you that slight edge for success. These are not your typical twitter thread regurgitated marketing tactics that everyone is doing. These are new methods, with unfiltered examination of successful fresh ideas.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Hands-on tool tests connect AI capabilities to the costs, workflows, and commercial judgments marketers face.
Marketing Against the Grain turns AI marketing into a working session, with Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan testing tools, questioning their output, and revising the process in public.
A failed Claude prompt becomes your front-row seat to building a creator tool live.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded case for improving AI marketing by rebuilding the audience context beneath the prompt.
Average AI marketing content gets framed as an input problem, not a prompt problem. The host argues that even useful AI skills for hooks, ads, newsletters, or content can still produce clean, interchangeable work if they are drawing on shallow context.
A practical look at moving from AI prompts to repeatable marketing workflows.
Marketing Against the Grain turns AI fluency into a practical progression: start as a basic question asker, then move toward repeatable workflows that can handle research, asset creation, and lead work with less manual assembly.
A practical Replit 4 ad-making test with a sharp focus on prompt discipline and creative iteration costs.
Ad creation gets framed as a margin problem as much as a creative one. The host tests Replit 4's new ad creation feature by doing the cheap thinking first: refine the prompt in Claude, bring that prompt into Replit, select its ad creation skill, and then use Replit's…
A clear, practical test of Google Stitch as a fast concepting tool for marketers, with honest limits on data grounding and output readiness.
Google Stitch comes across as a useful shortcut for marketers who need design concepts before they can get a designer or developer involved. The episode works because Matt Wolfe does not just praise the tool; he runs it through a real prompt-to-dashboard exercise and lets the…
A practical creator-marketing build that shows AI app work as messy, iterative, and useful.
Kip and Kieran turn a live AI build into a useful business demo: can marketers use Perplexity Computer to shape creator strategy into a lightweight working tool?
A practical map for making AI marketing faster without letting the brand disappear.
AI is turning marketing scale into an operating problem: more output, more channels, more autonomous agents, and not enough ownership of what reaches buyers.
A clear business briefing on OpenClaw, MaltBook, and the early shape of agent-led online work.
Marketing Against the Grain tracks OpenClaw from a weekend project into a fast-growing open-source phenomenon, then lands on the part that matters for business: agents are moving from task helpers into active participants in online work.
A practical marketer's case for why ChatGPT ads may reward fast movers before the market normalizes.
Marketing Against the Grain frames ChatGPT ads as a possible early advertising arbitrage for marketers and founders. The episode's core bet is that AI assistant ads could be more valuable than classic keyword ads because the user has already revealed intent through a…
Simon Owens interviews founders about the revenue mechanics behind their media businesses.
Colin and Samir break down creator-economy news, from OpenAI's TBPN deal to AI podcasts.
Mark DeGrasse interviews agency and marketing operators on the frameworks behind their case studies.
Cory Cotten-Potter interviews B2B sales and marketing founders on AI's reshaping of pipeline generation.
Kristina Halvorson interviews content strategists about how the work actually gets done.
Sarah Longwell unpacks swing-voter focus groups to explain Trump-era political shifts.
Average AI content is not just a prompt problem.
Kevin Hudson lays out the AI skill ladder.
Replit 4 gets a practical ad-making trial.
AI tool reviewer Matt Wolfe joins Marketing Against the Grain to demo Google Stitch, a free 'vibe design' tool that generates professional website designs from text or voice prompts.
No prep, live build.
Marketing Against the Grain frames AI as a cause of worse marketing output, not better results, because inconsistent prompts and autonomous agents leave nobody owning the final output.
Barbara demonstrates how to build an AI-powered content engine in Cloud Code that transforms webinar transcripts into blog posts, LinkedIn content, and email sequences for a complete marketing strategy.
This episode explores how to build an 11-skill AI content team using Claude Code to research audiences, analyze content performance, draft various materials, and continuously improve content creation processes.
The hosts discuss building AI skill files to bridge the gap between AI potential and actual usage, offering a template for listeners.
The episode reveals why using the best AI models isn't enough for business success and provides a winning formula for leveraging AI in marketing and growth.
The hosts explore new AI agents like Perplexity Computer and discuss their use cases for marketing and growth.
Hosts discuss using cloud code to build inbound marketing campaigns quickly, featuring a guest who demonstrates the process.
This episode explores how autonomous AI agents can run entire ad campaigns for under $50 a month, featuring an interview with Superscale founder Patrick Hady.
This episode introduces Mail Manus, a feature that allows users to deploy AI assistants directly in their email inbox for tasks like competitive research and content strategy.
This episode discusses Meta's newly launched AI agent from Manus, comparing it favorably to the popular OpenClaw by highlighting its ease of use and similar capabilities without complex setup.
Marketing Against the Grain frames OpenClaw and Maltbook as a “weekend project” that became the fastest growing open source project in GitHub’s history and a social network with 770,000 users.
This episode features an interview with Mike Futia, who demonstrates an AI-powered app that automates marketing tasks like ad research and trend spotting to save time and improve efficiency.
The hosts discuss the concept of 'vibe working' where AI becomes a team member, and how this shift impacts knowledge workers and marketers.
This episode explores how AI-powered slide workflows from Gamma can transform sales calls and business presentations by automating custom deck creation.
This episode features an interview with Lor, CEO of Weevee, discussing how AI can transform creative workflows for marketers and founders by moving beyond basic prompting to build more efficient design applications.
ChatGPT ads get the gold rush treatment.
Four use cases carry the sell.
The hosts discuss the potential negative impact of AI agents on the internet and marketing, using a controversial marketing agent launch as a case study.
Kipp and Kieran interview PJ Ace about creating AI-generated video ads for business marketing.
Kieran Flanagan shares a four-step process for creating professional-looking AI videos in hours, based on his experience making a two-minute ad.
The episode discusses the relevance of SEO in 2026 and how to optimize for both traditional search and AI-driven answer engines like ChatGPT and Google AI mode.
Hosts interview Greg Eisenberg about three ways to build a million-dollar business using AI, with practical tools and prompts.
Kipp Bodner interviews Neil Patel about the latest marketing tactics, focusing on AI engine optimization (AEO) and its impact on traffic and conversions.
The hosts discuss major market changes including Google's AI updates, the rise of AO over SEO, the return of PR, and AI transformation as a training opportunity.
Kipp and Kieran break down the four marketing steps that AI startup Gamma used to achieve rapid growth, offering actionable tactics for listeners.
Kipp Bodnar and Asia discuss loop marketing strategies and insights from their year and a half of testing at HubSpot.
HubSpot's CMO and SVP discuss the state of AI tools for marketers with guest Nicholas Holland, highlighting how AI has become necessary and is limited only by creativity.
HubSpot's CMO and SVP introduce a new marketing playbook for the AI era, discussing how AI has disrupted marketing and offering tactical frameworks.
Hosts interview Anton Osika about Lovable's rapid growth to $100M ARR and how AI enables non-coders to build apps.
Kieran Flanagan shares how he uses three AI use cases to supercharge his morning and become a more strategic, focused leader.