The Content Crisis in Personalization and the Content Layer In the season premiere of Hello $Firstname Season 2, I had the privilege of sitting down with my co-author, Frans Riemersma, founder of MartechTribe and a global thought leader in marketing technology. Frans is working closely together with Scott Brinker on the MartechMap.com that most marketers are familiar with (hint: crazy map with an ever increasing list of vendors). Together, we introduced the theme of this season: how to solve the content crisis for personalization. The content crisis has become the key bottleneck for scaling personalization. In this episode, Frans sheds light on: The Content Layer Vision: Much like the Data Layer revolutionized marketing, Frans predicts the emergence of a Content Layer, enabling seamless content flow from master files to personalized messages. Together - Frans and I - have been putting a lot of work into demystifying this layer and how it works. GenAI’s Role: Generative AI isn’t just a tool; it’s a game-changer for creativity, localization, and scalability. Frans introduces the idea of Brand LLMs—custom AI models trained on a company’s unique assets, values, and tone. Personalization as Dialogue: Frans reframes personalization as a human-like conversation between a brand and its customers. Imagine talking directly to the essence of a brand’s founder—deeply personal and deeply effective. Metrics That Matter: Personalization must drive real business value. Frans emphasizes ROI and innovative metrics like return on content to optimize marketing efforts. We also explored how GenAI and the Content Pipeline can fix common pitfalls, like brands overselling (or over-personalizing!) irrelevant products.