Soizic Sycamore, Co-Founder of Plan.Net Group, on the leadership conversation marketing keeps losing, the rebalancing act between brand and performance now AI is reshaping discovery, the bowtie demand model, and what it takes to scale a fully remote agency through a pregnancy and a young family.
"Customers don’t think in channels. They have an intention."
Twenty-seven years on the client partner side of data-driven marketing, eleven agencies, and a client list that runs from United Airlines and Hilton loyalty programmes in 1999 to L’Oréal, Samsung, Sony, Marktplaats and Mars Petcare today. Soizic Sycamore on putting the customer first and the technology last, on the next customer being a concierge agent rather than a person, on why marketers are still missing from most boards, and on what sustainable agency-client partnerships really look like.
Soizic Sycamore’s career began at Brierley & Partners in 1999 on United Airlines’ Mileage Plus and Hilton’s HHonors loyalty programmes, where launching the first online booking engine was, in her words, revolutionary. Twenty-seven years on, she has led client partnerships across TEQUILA\, Wunderman HTW, Ogilvy One, Euro RSCG 4D, Tullo Marshall Warren, Audience+ / Qwamplify, Wunderman Thompson (Samsung Europe) and Merkle (LNER, Marktplaats / eBay, Groupe Seb, Clarins, BlueTriton Brands, Mars Petcare). In January 2026 she became Managing Director of Plan.Net UK and joined the board of House of Communication UK.
In this conversation with host John Horsley, Soizic argues that transformation succeeds when the customer journey is designed first and the tools are bought last, that the middle to lower funnel is the growth engine, that the next customer is going to be a concierge agent rather than a person, and that marketers are still being excluded from boardrooms because they report in volumes rather than ratios and frame themselves as cost rather than revenue. The advice that opens and closes the conversation, drawn from her sixteen-year-old daughter and from her own career: stay curious, be adaptable, the world ahead is fundamentally different from the world we started in.
"I fell into marketing as a child collecting clips from magazines. Then a degree in international business, languages, and a first job that brought data and technology together."
Soizic’s route into marketing began with binders of clipped perfume and fashion adverts, an international business degree, languages, and a first job at Brierley Europe on United Airlines loyalty. Launching the first online booking engine in 1999 was, in her telling, revolutionary at the time. The world she started in had no email and no internet. She has stayed curious ever since.
"Steve Jobs put it the most beautifully: start with customer experience and walk back to the technology."
The successful brands put the customer at the heart of what they do, understand the intention and motivation, then design the journeys and the tools around that. The common failure mode is buying the tool first. Clients see MarTech as a collection of tools to fix the problem; the tool is an enabler, not the answer. Without a clear North Star journey, the wonderful technology disappoints.
"It is no longer why should the customer buy. It is how do I make sure I am the top brand the agent recommends?"
Concierge agents will know individual customers well enough to recommend products, suppliers and journeys. The brand surface area shifts from the customer interface to the agent interface. Brands that win will start small with case studies and MVPs, build the governance and ethical-data framework, get control of their content and knowledge so agents train on clean inputs, and optimise for LLM discoverability. Brands that lose will tweak what they have today.
"A third of enterprise boards. Three per cent of all companies globally. Marketing is still seen as cost, not revenue."
Marketers sit on roughly a third of enterprise company boards and 3 per cent of all companies globally. The reasons are partly language (marketing reports volumes; boards make decisions in ratios) and partly framing (cost centre versus revenue driver). The shift required is for marketing leaders to play every commercial lever, understand cost of operations, and turn up with business cases rather than pretty pictures.
"Sustainable growth for both parties. Trusted advisor. Open communication when something is not working, on both sides."
All clients are looking for a trusted advisor. The best partnerships are built on the agency knowing the client’s business well enough to identify challenges the client did not know they had, and on open communication when something is not working (which is usually on both sides). Embedded agency teams in client organisations work well when both sides are clear on the value the agency brings that the in-house team cannot.
"How do I make sure I am the top brand the agent recommends?"
Host Your journey.
Sycamore I fell into marketing as a child collecting advertising clips from magazines. Started on the creative side, with a strong background in languages and an international business degree. First job at Brierley Europe in 1999 brought data and technology together on United Airlines loyalty. We launched the first online booking engine, which felt revolutionary then.
Host Lessons across consultancies, startups, agencies, complex transformation work.
Sycamore Stay curious and be adaptable. The world I started in had no email, no internet. Linear, diligent, attention to detail. The world ahead changes at pace.
Host What the best brands understand about customers.
Sycamore Steve Jobs said it best. Start with customer experience and walk back to the technology. Successful brands put the customer at the heart of what they do, understand needs and motivation, then design journeys and technology around that.
Host Data overload at the expense of customer centricity.
Sycamore You need data and insight to create the experience. Then process and people to act on it in real time. Without process the data sits there and the personalisation does not happen.
Host Short-term acquisition versus long-term value.
Sycamore Acquisition still focuses on big numbers and brand awareness. The middle to lower funnel is the growth engine. Use the data you have to drive the next best action. Seventy-three per cent of customers see experience as a key purchase decision.
Host Lifetime value and the silo problem.
Sycamore It is a holistic experience. Silos with different objectives and KPIs get in the way. Customers do not think in channels or products. They have an intention. They want to get from A to B. The brands that win make that frictionless.
Host The buying committee has expanded.
Sycamore Design the journey first. Put the customer at the heart. Then design how the organisation operates to enable that journey. Then the tools. All of it underpinned by data. Reality is data is not always integrated, so there are still real challenges.
Host Loyalty programmes are changing.
Sycamore Points-based tiers are being questioned by brands and customers. Customers expect experiences: events, VIP, early access. Loyalty is shifting from transactional to emotional. It is no longer just about points.
Host Acquire versus retain.
Sycamore It costs more to acquire than retain. Existing customers already like you, are your best advocates, are likely to buy again. Account expansion sits on top. Many big groups are now building cross-portfolio loyalty schemes under one umbrella.
Host Why brands still struggle to turn data into experiences.
Sycamore Adaptive organisation and design. Still working in silos and channels and disciplines. Conflicting objectives where individuals have their own channel goals.
Host Is data sometimes misused?
Sycamore A successful initiative defines the objective up front, defines the sweet spot, has clear KPIs at the start. Data should inform decision-making, not justify decisions retrospectively.
Host What good MarTech looks like.
Sycamore Seamless and frictionless. MarTech is an enabler, not the answer. It should ingest data, surface insights, support action, drive business decisions. Clients often buy great tools expecting them to solve everything. Tools disappoint when the journey was never designed and the data was never integrated.
Host Transformation success and failure.
Sycamore Clear vision of where we are going. People and culture. Where it fails: poor change management and unaligned leadership at the top.
Host What excites you about AI.
Sycamore Search is going to change. We will have concierge agents who know us well enough to recommend the right holidays, hotels, destinations, products. The brand question shifts: it is no longer why should the customer buy, it is how do I make sure I am the top brand the agent recommends. Fundamental shift, happening fast.
Host How brands prepare for the agent customer.
Sycamore Right now there is noise and a focus on efficiencies, doing things better, faster, cheaper. Real value is strategic. We are lacking governance for ethical data use, frameworks for how bots connect and communicate. The brands that win will start small with case studies and MVPs and think strategically about what they are building.
Host Content and knowledge as agent training inputs.
Sycamore Get control of your data, content and internal knowledge to train the agents properly. Otherwise it is the garbage-in-garbage-out problem. And the placements have to be optimised for the LLMs today and for the new customer journey tomorrow.
Host B2B and B2C are blurring.
Sycamore Fully. Trust matters in both. I renovated my house and spent ninety per cent of my time in ChatGPT finding suppliers, materials, mock-up drawings to show my wife. Consumer behaviour now shapes B2B journeys.
Host Building strong agency partnerships.
Sycamore All clients want a trusted advisor. Like all relationships. The agency knows the client's business well enough to identify challenges they did not know they had. We bring breadth across brands and sectors. Sustainable growth for both parties. Open communication when something is not working on either side. Same goal underneath.
Host Embedded teams.
Sycamore Useful when both sides are clear about the value the agency adds versus the in-house team. In-house knows the brand better. Agencies bring strategic advisory, best practice and breadth. Both have a role.
Host Marketing leaders and the commercial side.
Sycamore Marketing is increasingly in charge of where the money comes from. Leaders today have to be clear on when and how growth will land, understand cost of operations, and play all the commercial levers. Especially with AI and efficiencies on the table.
Host Why marketers are not on the board.
Sycamore CFOs lead organisations. Marketers are on only about a third of enterprise boards, and three per cent of all companies globally. Marketing is seen as cost, not revenue. The CTO sits on the board because they speak business cases and long-term ROI. Marketing has to shift the conversation the same way. Not nice-to-have ideas. ROI-driven proposals.
Host Customer service and CRM.
Sycamore Should be one. One database, one central customer view, channel between them, reward and act quickly. Reality is two departments with two data sets that do not communicate, and customer service has become a chatbot that exacerbates the experience.
Host CEO as chief storyteller.
Sycamore Important. Agencies often have to dig under the bonnet, integrate data sources, bring divisions together into a unified story. The knowledge sits in pockets. CEOs hearing that directly helps them make impact decisions.
Host Brand personality and AI.
Sycamore Brand personality matters more in the age of AI. Otherwise you are just any brand. People buy into sustainability, into values, into criteria that matter to them personally.
Host Sustainability stories not being told.
Sycamore Lifetime value again. Brands acquire and then stop the conversation. They could unpack much more around what they do, drive ongoing engagement on a relevant topic. Patagonia does this brilliantly. Clarins has wonderful sustainable products that the world does not know enough about.
Host Overused marketing buzzword.
Sycamore AI.
Host A capability every marketing team needs.
Sycamore AI. Tomorrow we will be architects and engineers and the bots will be operators. We need to get on with it.
Host A brand with exceptional customer experience.
Sycamore John Lewis. Functional excellence, pick-up and collect, employee engagement, the Christmas ad. A bit of all the ingredients.
Host Advice to a younger marketer.
Sycamore Be curious. Be adaptable. Be ready for change. The world I started in and the world ahead are fundamentally different.
New guests and insights. No noise.