AI Isn’t the Strategy: How Marketing Leaders Can Turn Technology Into Growth

Analyze your brand messaging for free at ⁠www.jacquard.com⁠In this episode of The Array by Jacquard, Toby and Jasper sit down with Victoria B. Lozano, former Chief Marketing Officer at Crayola, to explore what it really takes to turn marketing from a campaign function into a driver of enterprise-wide growth.
Drawing on extensive leadership experience across Crayola, Cadbury, and The Clorox Company, Victoria explains why marketers should start with business strategy and a clear growth thesis before investing in AI. Rather than treating AI as a standalone strategy, she argues that technology should be used to solve specific business challenges, accelerate growth, and improve the way organizations operate.
Toby, Jasper, and Victoria also examine how AI can shorten the distance between customer signals and strategic action. By synthesizing social listening, customer feedback, and market data, AI can help marketers identify emerging needs and opportunities faster but human judgment remains essential for determining what those signals actually mean and where the business should go next.
This episode offers a practical guide for CMOs and marketing leaders looking to move beyond campaign execution and use AI as an enabler of meaningful commercial growth.
What You’ll Learn:
• How to develop a growth thesis before deciding where and how to deploy AI

• How AI can accelerate the journey from customer signals to actionable strategic insights

• The brand governance framework for balancing global consistency with local market relevance

• How to use AI to make brand knowledge more accessible while protecting essential brand elements

• Why local teams need freedom to customize, test, and respond to market-specific opportunities

• How marketing leaders can build stronger partnerships across sales, finance, operations, and other functions

• Why human judgment and business clarity remain critical as AI takes on more marketing tasks

• How aspiring CMOs can prepare for an AI-driven future by identifying what is preventing their organization from capturing growth

Victoria B. Lozano is a former Chief Marketing Officer and EVP at Crayola, where she led global brand, marketing, education, partnerships, digital content, and experiential businesses while overseeing new growth platforms with full P&L responsibility.
A Forbes 50 Entrepreneurial CMO and Fast Company CMO of the Year, Victoria has built brands and businesses across CPG, experiential, retail, media, and entertainment. Her career includes leadership roles at iconic companies including Crayola, Cadbury, and The Clorox Company, as well as experience building new ventures from the ground up.
At Crayola, Victoria helped reposition the company from a traditional arts-and-crafts brand into a broader platform centered on creativity, learning, and experiences. She drove new go-to-market models and revenue streams while modernizing capabilities, strengthening teams, and aligning cross-functional organizations around long-term growth.
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Episode Highlights and YouTube Chapters:
• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:02:18 What Marketing Data Reveals About Colour And Engagement

• 00:10:07 How Brand Strategy Can Unlock New Growth

• 00:13:19 What Separates AI Transformation From AI Adoption

• 00:16:11 Where Companies Should Start With AI

• 00:18:12 Using AI To Balance Global Consistency And Local Relevance

• 00:22:02 How AI Can Shorten The Distance From Signal To Strategy

Episode Resources:
• Victoria B. Lozano on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/victoria-b-lozano)
• Crayola Website (crayola.com)