In this episode of Brave New Digital World, Sharon Romang — VP of Creative at Front Row and former Smartly.io lead — joins Andy Carvell to explore how today’s most effective marketers blend storytelling, performance, and tech. From building agency-owned tools to navigating AI rollouts (and Duolingo’s recent misstep), Sharon shares battle-tested insights on where creative work is headed — and why the future belongs to the data-fluent.
Find and connect with Sharon on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonromang/
Resources Sharon recommends:
Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:51) Introducing Sharon Romang: Creative Strategist with a Performance Edge
(01:53) The Future Is Already Here—Just Not Evenly Distributed
(05:09) Scalable Creative: From Smartly’s Image Templates to Figma Buzz
(09:19) Should Agencies Be Building Their Own Tech?
(13:03) Sharon’s Shift to Data-Driven Design
(17:27) Why Creatives Must Learn to Speak Performance
(19:44) AI Integration: How to Do It Without Losing the Human Touch
(22:59) The Duolingo Case: When “AI-First” Backfires
(24:05) Figma’s AI Rollout: A Masterclass in User-Centric Innovation
(26:22) Why Agencies Must Stay Ahead of Their Clients in AI
(27:22) What’s Expired: One-Channel Thinking and Creative Overproduction
(30:55) What’s Wired: Commerce, Creators & the Future of Shopping
(32:44) Behavioral Convergence Across Generations and Markets
(35:28) Sharon’s Dream: A Unified Creative Intelligence Stack
(38:33) Sharon’s Recommendations for Resources