Highlights:
- Simplifying marketing at scale starts with consolidating data, tools, and processes into a single source of truth so leaders can clearly see what’s working and where to invest.
- The biggest barriers to scalable growth are brand control, fragmented data, disconnected omnichannel execution, and weak measurement, all of which can be reduced through standardized systems and clear guardrails.
- AI becomes a competitive advantage when embedded into marketing workflows with clear governance, reducing complexity instead of adding more tools and experimentation.
“We don’t need more data,” says Lynne Kinglsey flatly. As Ironmark’s CMO and a recent attendee of MAICON (Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference), she’s seen firsthand how marketing teams are choking on their own tech stacks. Data is everywhere, all the time. It’s the insights that are the issue—how to wrangle them—and more importantly—how to implement the findings. The solution? Simplify to Scale.
It’s time to distill the data, processes, and systems, says Kingsley. Come along as she walks through the barriers and the simple strategies that make complex marketing more manageable and best of all, scalable.
Embrace the next marketing competitive advantage. Let’s simplify.
Paradox of Progress
Lynne points out the irony: “Marketers can make things too complex by having too much going on without visibility and without thinking through it strategically.” Data, for instance, is often fragmented—living across CRMs, POS systems, loyalty platforms, and reporting tools. Every platform holds a piece of truth, but no one can see the whole picture.
So how do you start simplifying? “We need to figure out how to make better decisions with our data—and that’s by having it all in one place.” Clean, standardized, consolidated data is the key, she explains. When your team can actually see what’s happening across channels, it’s easier to answer the million-dollar question that keeps every leader up at night: Where should I spend my marketing investment—and what’s actually working?
Simplification begins here, with clearer inputs. But there’s more to the story.
Dig in: Characteristics of Clean Data for Marketing Campaigns
Follow the Friction
As Lynne looks at 2026 and the go-to-market strategy trends shaping the year ahead, she’s following a simple rule that produces results: “Follow the revenue. Where do your biggest opportunities lie? Dive into that and figure out where those friction points are along the customer journey.”
Whether Ironmark is working with CMOs in healthcare, QSR, franchises, or other industries, the mission remains the same: to help smooth those friction points. “If it’s a problem for them, we want to be there and think through these conversations with them,” Lynne says.
That philosophy applies everywhere. “Everyone has a customer journey,” Lynne reminds us. “Amazon reduced the friction point to a matter of seconds. That’s simplification.”
Blockbuster, on the other hand? “They were dedicated to a complex buying journey because that’s the way they always did it,” she says. “They weren’t ready to innovate and look for simplification for the customer.” When Netflix reduced the friction of accessing content by making it easier and more convenient, they won the category.
That’s what marketers need to do—simplify systems, vendors, and strategies—to scale smarter and improve customer journey optimization.
One of her top tips: ask better questions. “What’s the unspoken truth here? What’s the thing no one is saying but everyone is feeling?” Those questions often reveal the real friction hiding beneath the surface. And they often focus on four pillars.
The Four Biggest Barriers to Scale
Across every organization, especially those building a marketing strategy for multi-location businesses, complexity tends to pile up in the same places: brand control, data, omnichannel campaigns, and measurement. Here’s how Lynne breaks them down:
Brand Control: “Multi-location marketers get bogged down with approvals, inconsistent execution, local customizations, and the daily pressure to manage franchise brand consistency” Lynne says. “They need the expertise of corporate marketing to provide approved, impactful, out-of-the-box campaigns that location managers and franchisees can run with.” Tools like a brand asset management system, she notes, enables “scalable control” and supports scalable marketing processes by consolidating assets into one accessible place and allowing customization for locations within guardrails—a perfect example of simplification.
Explore: 5 Ways to Maintain Brand Consistency Across Locations
Data: “Data’s often fragmented across platforms,” Lynne explains. “It’s always my recommendation to franchisors to have one place where we’re seeing customer data, like purchase and behavioral data.” Simplification is about making the data work harder—essentially how to clean marketing data at scale, so insights become usable. Centralizing insights and building a single source of truth lets AI and analytics do their job. Not because they add more data, but because they make the existing data actionable. This is where brands can layer in third-party data to unlock predictive insights and strengthen their first-party data strategy.
Omnichannel Campaigns: The future is phygital. So reaching customers along their journey through physical and digital channels is key. “Customers don’t think in org charts,” Lynne laughs. “They don’t care which department handles email versus direct mail. They just want a cohesive experience.” Simplification means aligning the look and feel of physical and digital channels. With an integrated omnichannel marketing platform, you’ll keep it simple—and seamless.
Measurement: “Marketers love launching campaigns,” Lynne admits, “but a strong marketing measurement strategy is often an afterthought.” Instead, she advises starting with exact KPIs and working backward. “If you approach campaigns with the end in mind—and build that closed-loop attribution—you’re simplifying the entire feedback process.” One-to-one attribution is the holy grail. A dashboard platform that matches each touchpoint with a corresponding action helps identify which marketing tactics drive metrics—so you can apply that strategy towards future campaigns. And speaking of the future….
More here: Give Credit Where It’s Due in Customer Journey Attribution
The Next Wave: AI-Native Marketing
The next frontier of marketing will be defined by how we use AI. “The world is in such a strange and wonderful place right now,” says Kingsley. “People are experimenting with AI…for one-off tasks. But soon, we’re going to be using it fundamentally in how we work.” AI will remain a tool, but it will become thoroughly integrated. Welcome to AI-native marketing.
Now we’ve entered an era of infinite possibility—and infinite complexity. The more tools, data streams, and vendors we add, the harder it becomes to see the whole picture. “CMOs need to think about how to structure AI within a marketing org that doesn’t take people down rabbit holes, but actually helps them work smarter,” Lynne explains. “Simplification again is about reducing friction—and AI can help with that.”
But simplifying isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing what matters, better. Last year AI helped marketers move faster, she contends. Now, it’s helping them move smarter “CMOs need to shift from adopting tools and experimenting with use cases to designing AI-first workflows,” Lynne says. “That’s how we’re going to win—by embedding AI into the content supply chain, like targeting models, and decision-making.” But she adds an important caveat: “Always use a human-first lens. These tools should make the work better, not just faster.”
Lynne warns new regulations—like state-level privacy laws in Maryland and Oregon—will demand that marketers take a more responsible approach to the widespread use of AI and data. She urges CMOs to proactively define AI guidelines and usage policies now, rather than playing catch-up later. “Whether or not you’ve invested in enterprise licenses, employees are experimenting,” she notes. Executives consistently underestimate how much their teams use AI tools; in fact, studies show leaders believe only a small fraction of employees rely on AI in daily work, when actual usage is nearly three times higher. That gap makes governance critical, and leaders need to make sure the way AI is used aligns with company standards. It’s time to take control of the process.
Related: 7 AI Tools to Boost Productivity Without Breaking a Sweat
Success, Simplified
Simplifying will get us there. But the truth is, simplifying takes courage. It’s not about shortcuts—it’s about stripping away the noise until what remains is focused, intentional, and scalable.
As Lynne puts it, “Sometimes getting to Success, Simplified means weeding through the complex under the surface. That’s something CMOs grapple with.” And it can be time-consuming, frustrating, and frankly exhausting.
“So what I think we need to do is look for how we can all simplify our customer’s journey. And that might mean your customers’ journey, but it might also be their lives. How can you adjust your offering to make it simple even if it even if isn’t (remember Blockbuster). It means doing things we didn’t do before and figuring out there’s technology that’s going to help. We’ve got to look for it,” she maintains.
Making the complex simple is where the real growth happens, and Ironmark remains dedicated to simplification. “If we can simplify,” Lynne concludes, “that becomes a competitive advantage.” That becomes the secret to success.
And that’s the heart of Ironmark’s “Success, Simplified” promise.
