About Greg Kihlström of The Agile Brand

Customer experience, marketing technology, and digital transformation advisor, consultant, and keynote speaker

 

Greg Kihlström - Career Highlights

As a consultant:

  • Worked as part of an R&D team at a Fortune 100 consumer electronics company to develop a 1:1 personalization and journey orchestration strategy

  • Worked with a Fortune 100 logistics company on a next best action strategy for employment marketing

  • Worked as part of a Fortune 100 company on strategy and approach for a customer data transformation initiative

  • Coached a Fortune 500 apparel company’s e-commerce team in their move to an Agile Marketing approach

  • Worked with a Fortune 500 athletic apparel company on content personalization process and workflow

  • Worked with a $7B healthcare system to stand up a marketing operations organization

Other accomplishments:

  • Co-founded 3 companies which all grew both organically and by acquiring 1 company each; sold 2 companies; successfully exited 1 company.

  • Written over 25 books on marketing, marketing technology, and customer experience, including a series for De Gruyter (top 10 academic publisher), as well as a series of self-published books.

  • Created over a dozen courses on AI, marketing technology and other topics for some of the world’s top trade associations and training companies.

  • Host a top 5-ranked (in the US) marketing podcast with over 600 episodes and several million downloads; Executive produces 7 other top-ranked podcasts as part of The Agile Brand.

Greg Kihlström - Biography

Greg Kihlström is a best-selling author, speaker, and entrepreneur, and serves as an advisor and consultant to top companies on marketing technology, marketing operations, and digital transformation initiatives. He has worked with some of the world’s top brands, including Adidas, Coca-Cola, FedEx, HP, Marriott, Nationwide, Victoria’s Secret, and Toyota. 

He is a multiple-time Co-Founder and C-level leader, leading his digital experience agency to be acquired in 2017, successfully exited an HR technology platform provider he co-founded in 2020, and led a SaaS startup to be acquired by a leading edge computing company in 2021. He currently advises and sits on the Board of a marketing technology startup.

In addition to his experience as an entrepreneur and leader, he earned his MBA, is currently a doctoral candidate for a DBA in Business Intelligence, and teaches several courses and workshops as a member of the School of Marketing Faculty at the Association of National Advertisers. He has served on the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business Marketing Mentorship Advisory Board, the University of Richmond’s CX Advisory Board, and was the founding Chair of the American Advertising Federation’s National Innovation Committee.  Greg is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certified, is an Agile Certified Coach (ICP-ACC), and holds a certification in Business Agility (ICP-BAF). 

Greg has written over 25 books on marketing and marketing technology, including his 12-part Agile Brand Guides series on marketing technology platforms and practices. His recent book, the best-selling House of the Customer (2023) discusses the 1:1 personalized customer experience of the future, and how brands can organize the people, processes, and platforms that enable it.

He executive produces eight business and marketing-related podcasts and hosts three, including the award-winning The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström, now top 10 on Apple’s U.S. marketing charts and in its 7th year with over 600 episodes and millions of downloads, which discusses marketing technology and its role in the customer experience with some of the world’s leading experts and leaders.

Greg is a contributing writer to MarTech, CustomerThink, and CMSWire, and has been featured in publications such as Advertising Age, Business Insider, Financial Times, Forbes, and The Washington Post. Greg has been named #1 on its list of the Top Global Marketing Thought Leaders by Thinkers 360, was named one of ICMI’s Top 25 CX Thought Leaders two years in a row, and a DC Inno 50 on Fire as a DC trendsetter in Marketing. He’s also participated as a speaker at global industry events and has guest lectured at prominent universities and colleges.

Awards & Achievements

  • 2019 #2 Agency in DC - Washington Business Journal (Yes&)

  • 2018 50 on Fire Winner - DC Inno

  • 2018 Corporate Philanthropy Award - Washington Business Journal (Yes&)

  • 2018 and 2019 Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies - Inc. (Yes&)

  • 2018 Book of Lists - Top 5 Agency in DC - Washington Business Journal (Yes&)

  • Carousel30 (company Greg Founded and was CEO) was acquired by Yes& Agency in October 2017

  • 2014 50 on Fire Winner - DC Inno

  • iMedia 25 East Coast Agencies to Watch (Carousel30)

  • iMedia Small Agency of the Year Nominee (Carousel30)

  • Smart CEO Corporate Culture Award (2-time Winner) (Carousel30)

  • Corporate Philanthropy Award - Washington Business Journal (Carousel30)

  • American Advertising Awards (ADDYs) - Multiple from AAF DC (Carousel30)

  • Communication Arts Web Pick of the Day - Multiple (Carousel30)

Client Experience

HOSPITALITY

Choice Hotels
Hyatt
Marriott International
Officina
Sodexo

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Brown Advisory
EagleBank
FINRA
GEICO Direct
Marketwatch
Nationwide Insurance
Navy Federal Credit Union
Northwest Federal Credit Union
Regions Bank
United Bank

TECHNOLOGY

Acquia
Algolia
Amperity
AOL
CSG
Dell
Medallia
Mitel
Symantec
VMware

HEALTHCARE, MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY & PHARMA

Abbott
BJC Healthcare
Cochlear
Geisinger
Inova Healthcare
Pan American Health Organization
Presbyterian Senior Living
Sunrise Senior Living

CONSUMER PRODUCTS & RETAIL

Adidas
Ben & Jerry’s
The Coca-Cola Company
FedEx
HP
Porsche Racing
Precision Tune Auto Care
Starbucks
Toyota
Victoria’s Secret
Volkswagen

EDUCATION

Howard University
Strayer University
Vemo Education
Virginia State University
Virginia Tech
Worldstrides

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Keynote Speaker on CX and Digital Transformation

Greg Kihlström of The Agile Brand speaks internationally about CX, Digital Strategy + Marketing, New Technology

Book Greg