Author: Julia Waldow

This story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail.

As Puma looks to return to growth, it’s also embracing the latest technology.

The nearly 80-year-old brand is diving headfirst into artificial intelligence, a few years after it launched a Roblox experience and tested out NFTs and Web3 programs. Most recently, on April 13, Puma debuted a new AI-powered “digital human” concierge named “Dylan” in its Las Vegas flagship. “Dylan,” who appears on a seven-foot-tall screen, can speak more than 100 languages, recommend products and answer customers’ questions. Puma is also gearing up to announce the winning design from its AI jersey contest, held two years ago in partnership with football club Manchester City.

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For the better part of a decade, CPG companies hired marketers who could optimize a media plan. Now, they’re hiring ones who can save a brand.

When Smuckers went looking for a new CMO earlier this year, it didn’t reach for a performance marketer. It hired Katie Williams, the former U.S. CMO of Haleon, a consumer health veteran who spent her career building brands like Advil, Sensodyne and Centrum. Hormel, which had never had an enterprise-wide CMO before, created the role in December and filled it with Jason Levine — a Mondelēz lifer who ran marketing for Oreo and Ritz. Burger King’s new CMO Joel Yashinsky, poached from Applebee’s in early 2025, promptly fired the brand’s mascot, launched a brand reset built on customer feedback and described the whole thing as “not a marketing campaign” but a fundamental rethink of what the brand stands for.

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