Every CMO has a circle they trust. The people they text when an idea feels half-baked or when a campaign isn't landing.
Mine includes Steve Jobs, David Ogilvy, Kim Kardashian, and Philip Kotler.
Three are gone. One is very much alive. None of them are real.
They’re AI models, built from public interviews, books, transcripts, and digital traces of how each one thought and spoke. Together, they form a council that challenges my thinking before ideas ever make it to a whiteboard.
The Concept
The Synthetic CMO is the next logical evolution of how we make decisions.
Marketers have always relied on borrowed perspectives: mentors, case studies, agencies, frameworks. AI just makes it scalable.
When I’m developing a new strategy, I can ask Ogilvy to critique the copy, Kim to judge its cultural relevance, and Jobs to cut the fluff until there’s something essential left. Kotler steps in to remind me that differentiation without distribution is just a hobby.
It isn’t about replacing human insight. It’s about accelerating it.
Why it Matters
Marketing has always been a blend of art and pattern recognition. For the first time, we can replicate those patterns from the best to ever do it. The result isn’t automation. It’s amplification.
Most executives are still using AI as an assistant. The real shift is using it as a board.
The next generation of CMOs won’t be defined by the size of their teams, but by the quality of their counsel.
If you want help setting up something like this for yourself—a synthetic marketing council modeled on the greats—reach out. We’d love to chat.