In the second episode of the Beyond B2B Marketing Podcast, host Lee Odden interviews Christiana Marouchos, Vice President of Marketing at StackAdapt. Christiana describes expanding her marketing organization from ten to fifty professionals while maintaining a strong emphasis on bold creativity. She details how StackAdapt’s AI-native platform unifies adtech and martech to maximize return on programmatic investments. The discussion covers the importance of re-engineering SEO for Google’s emerging AI Overviews and explains why original, human-centered content is essential for those algorithms. Christiana concludes with a call for leaders to focus on “impact efficiency,” pairing rigorous data practices with imaginative thinking to achieve sustainable growth.
In episode 2 of the Beyond B2B Marketing podcast: Human + AI = B2B ROI, you’ll learn:
00:00 Introduction to StackAdapt and Christiana Marouchos
02:49 The Importance of Creativity in B2B Marketing
06:11 Content Marketing in an AI-Driven World
09:00 Navigating SEO Changes with AI
11:57 The Role of Video and Storytelling in Marketing
15:06 Leveraging Partnerships for Co-Creation
18:00 Maximizing Marketing Efficiency in Challenging Times
21:01 The Impact of AI on AdTech
24:10 The Evolution of AI in Marketing
27:09 Finding Inspiration in B2B Marketing
30:09 Conclusion and Future Directions
Listen to the full podcast episode here:
Watch the conversation between Lee and Christiana here:
If you prefer to read the full podcast transcript, we have you covered:
Lee: Hello and Welcome to the Beyond B2B Marketing podcast.
I’m your host Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing and today we’re talking with an award-winning, multi-talented B2B marketing leader. With a decade of experience in adtech, she has grown her global marketing team from 10-50 people as VP of Marketing at StackAdapt. Of course I’m talking about Christiana Marouchos.
Welcome Christiana!
I should also mention that my team at TopRank Marketing has had the privilege of working with your team for the past 2 years or so.
Let’s start by having you share a bit about StackAdapt and your role there as VP of Marketing
Christiana: Absolutely. StackAdapt is an AI-powered marketing platform that connects brand and performance efforts across programmatic channels-display, video, CTV, audio-and even owned channels such as email. My remit is global brand, PR, and communications, which means I’m accountable for every public touchpoint from our visual identity to our SEO footprint. I work closely with cross-functional teams-demand gen, events, product marketing-to make sure StackAdapt shows up with one clear voice at the intersection of adtech and martech.
Lee: The pressure for performance in marketing is greater than ever. You’ve grown your global marketing team to 50 people in about 3 years. With that rate of growth, how did you ensure quality and creativity levels stayed high?
Christiana: We built on three guardrails. First, strong brand guidelines that define tone, visuals, and storytelling standards, so every new hire knows the boundaries and the freedom inside them. Second, a culture of “bold creativity”-we reward experimentation and calculated risk, not just perfect execution. And third, ruthless internal alignment. Weekly stand-ups and shared dashboards keep strategy, performance goals, and creative vision synchronized so growth never dilutes what makes the brand special.
Lee: Speaking of creativity, what changes are you seeing with creativity in B2B marketing these days?
Christiana: Because tech is crowded and the martech landscape has exploded from a couple dozen vendors to thousands. If you don’t tell a fresh, human story, you melt into the noise. Creative thinking is how you translate complex solutions into memorable ideas, grab attention in the scroll, and build emotional stickiness that performance media alone can’t deliver.
Lee: StackAdapt markets itself as an AI-native platform that fuses adtech and martech. What kinds of companies should be using a self serve programmatic advertising platform?
Christiana: We see everything from mid-market independent agencies to enterprise holding-company shops. What unites them is a desire to collapse tool sprawl. They don’t want ten platforms; they want one workspace that automates bidding, creative variation, and customer-journey orchestration. They’re looking for “impact efficiency”-stretching budgets further without cutting spend by leveraging real-time learning.
Lee: You have over 10 years experience in adtech, what has been the biggest impact of AI on the industry so far?
Christiana: Optimization speed. A marketer can feed our system a handful of brand-safe assets and get back dozens of headline-image-copy permutations in minutes, not weeks. AI then tests, learns, and reallocates budget in real time. Campaigns that once required months of A/B tests now hit performance goals in a week because the model is iteratively improving every hour.
Lee: And the longer a client uses the platform, the smarter it gets?
Christiana: Exactly. The first campaign might feel 50 percent “right.” By the tenth, the model has learned the brand’s tone, audience nuances, and placement patterns. It starts predicting which creative and which bid will win before the marketer even thinks to ask, reducing manual tweaks and freeing teams to focus on strategy and storytelling.
Lee: You posted a brand video on LinkedIn that visualizes StackAdapt’s adtech-martech convergence. What’s the back-story on that?
Christiana: It started as a napkin sketch on my desk. We wanted something boldly simple-just a few geometric shapes-to show that sophisticated technology can still feel human. No AI generated that animation; a designer and I iterated frame by frame. The finished piece embodies our belief that tech should empower marketers, not overwhelm them.
Lee: Your sponsorship with LinkedIn Marketing Solutions caught a lot of attention. Why did it work?
Christiana: Because we didn’t just “sponsor” content-we co-created it. Both brands live and breathe B2B marketing, so we sat at the same table, designed discussion prompts together, and spoke from shared experience. That authenticity resonated with LinkedIn’s audience and ours, turning a media buy into a genuine industry conversation.
Lee: The current economic and business environment has created challenges, especially pressure on marketers to do more with less. What advice can you share with other marketing leaders deciding on their marketing investments in times like these?
Christiana: Shift the conversation from budget efficiency to impact efficiency. Instead of slashing spend, unify brand and performance, break down silos, and let AI optimize the heavy lifting. When creative investment fuels performance metrics in one system, every dollar works harder and you often unlock growth without additional budget.
Lee: SEO has always been in a state of change but with AI Overviews and AI search this year – including all that was announced at Google I/O this week, it’s more important to adapt than ever. Do you have advice for other B2B brands – should they wait or start making proactive changes now?
Christiana: Don’t wait. AI-generated summaries are live, and if your perspective isn’t in that snapshot, you’re invisible. Optimize today for how buyers phrase questions in AI search, and create authoritative, human-authored content that algorithms love and users trust. Being the “best answer” everywhere buyers look is the new SEO mandate.
Lee: I was happy to see your AI Advertising podcast. What’s your take on podcasts for B2B?
Christiana: There wasn’t a show dedicated to AI’s impact on advertising, and AI has been in our DNA since day one. A podcast lets us unpack nuanced topics-transparency, creative automation, measurement-in long-form, invite industry voices, and keep pushing the conversation forward in a space where change is constant.
Lee: What keeps you personally inspired?
Christiana: Two things: visionary leadership and reflective practice. Our founders are always mapping the next frontier, which pulls the whole team forward. And I set aside time to look back-What worked? What felt off? Whose viewpoint am I missing? That balance of future focus and honest reflection keeps me motivated and sharp.
Lee: Where can people find out more about you and your work at StackAdapt?
Christiana: Check the resources hub on StackAdapt’s website for my articles, research, and webinars, and connect with me on LinkedIn. I regularly share what we’re building, creative experiments, and insights from the AI Advertising podcast.
Lee: Christiana, thanks for an energizing conversation.
Christiana: Thank you, Lee. It was a pleasure to dive into these topics with you.