Jean-Pierre LaCroix is the president and founder of Shikatani Lacroix Design and the author of ThinkBlink Manifesto: Creating Deep, Lasting Emotional Brand Connections in the Blink of an Eye. During his long and successful career as an innovator, designer, strategist, and transformer of brands for growth, Jean-Pierre — who goes by JP for short — has pioneered the use of neuroscience and virtual reality to gain insights about branded environments and was one of the first individuals to use in-store digital signage and gesture motion UX to engage with consumers.

On this episode of On Scope, the design legend joins host Mike Berberich in studio to discuss what brands misunderstand about good design and why the craft of design often ends up on an organizational island. During a lively and informative conversation, the duo covers a lot of ground, including:

• The reasons why so many brands and marketers have begun to underestimate the value of good design
• JP’s thoughts on the minimalist design trend and its effects on brand differentiation
• How marketers can be better partners to their design teams

On “This Week in ANA Magazine,” magazine editor Matthew Schwartz joins Mike to discuss a new piece on the growing data skills gap in marketing. Mike and Matthew break down why the gap is growing, what marketers can do to make themselves more data savvy, and how artificial intelligence (AI) fits into the picture.

Brand visual identity and human creativity both still matter. But you still need to make sure you’re leveraging AI to the best of your abilities throughout the marketing campaign lifecycle. For that reason, you need to check out the ANA’s Generative AI Essentials for Marketers Certificate Program. This series of six focused courses gives you exactly what you need to keep up with AI, including real-world practitioner experience that you can apply directly to your own work. Best of all, completing the courses will only take you 90 minutes. To learn more and register, visit us www.ana.net/AICert26.

Have an idea for a guest or topic that you'd like to hear On Scope? Let us know by emailing us at onscope@ana.net

For the last 15 years, Shari Muñoz has helped Fortune 500 organizations transform complex market, customer, competitive, and AI-driven intelligence into executive decisions that accelerate growth, improve marketing effectiveness, and reduce strategic risk. In her role as Head of Research and Measurement at Seedtag, Shari led one of the industry’s first neuroscience-based validations of AI-powered contextual advertising, partnering with a Columbia University neuroscientist to demonstrate how emotional context influences attention, engagement, and attention.

On this episode of On Scope, Shari joins host Mike Berberich to deep dive into the research. Together, the duo breaks down:

• The ways in which marketers and brands can develop deeper relationships with consumers by tapping into specific emotional and cognitive signals
• Real-world examples of brands use neuro-contextual targeting techniques effectively
• How marketers can strike a balance between leveraging hyper-personalized ad targeting and more broad channel ad targeting, using both in tandem to drive better business results

On “News You Might Have Missed,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger react to a new report from The Wall Street Journal on how business professionals are beginning to sound like the AI chatbots they use so often, both in written and verbal communication. Mike and Ryan express their concern and discomfort for this development, invent a new term for how marketers can combat this unfortunate trend, and imagine what all of this might mean for where society is headed in the future.

While you’ll want to avoid sounding like a large language model in your communications, you still need to make sure you’re leveraging AI to the best of your abilities throughout the marketing campaign lifecycle. For that reason, you need to check out the ANA’s Generative AI Essentials for Marketers Certificate Program. This series of six focused courses gives you exactly what you need to keep up with AI, including real-world practitioner experience that you can apply directly to your own work. Best of all, completing the courses will only take you 90 minutes. To learn more and register, visit us www.ana.net/AICert26.

Have an idea for a guest or topic that you'd like to see on the show? Let us know by emailing us at onscope@ana.net.

Michele Evans is the artificial intelligence (AI) advisor to the stars. In her role as the founder and CEO of NxtWaves, Michele helps CEOs and leadership teams navigate the era of AI with clarity, confidence, and momentum, helping them discover practical, non-technical methods for adopting AI across their organizations without hype, fear, or unnecessary complexity. This position gives her an unvarnished view of how business leaders really feel about this emerging technology.

On this episode of On Scope, Michele joins host Mike Berberich to share what business leaders are saying about AI behind closed doors. Together, Mike and Michele discuss:

• What CEOs and other business leaders are consistently getting wrong about AI readiness
• The role that frontline managers can play in developing organizational trust in AI
• The one thing no marketer should do when it comes to AI

On a brand new segment called “The Winner’s Circle,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger break down the case study for Sensodyne’s “Sensory Overload” campaign, which was the Best in Show Winner at the 2026 ANA REGGIE Awards. Mike and Ryan discuss the details of the campaign and share the reasons they think it was chosen to win the top award at this year’s REGGIEs. To check out all 60 case studies on the 2026 REGGIE Award winners, you can visit us here.

Whether you’re looking to better implement AI at your organization, craft an award-winning marketing campaign, or solve a different marketing challenge altogether, you can find the know-how you need to get it done at an ANA National Industry Conference. These premier events are where the industry’s sharpest marketers compare notes, set standards, and pressure-test what’s next. Attend the 2026 Masters of Marketing Conference, presented by Havas and taking place October 20-23 in Orlando, Fla., and you’ll hear from leaders at Coca-Cola, LEGO, P&G, Rivian, Harley-Davidson, and Manscaped. To check out the full lineup of upcoming National Industry Conferences, visit us at www.ana.net/events.