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Grow Your Brain · July 28 · 47 min

Umar Ghumman: Digital Experiences Have a Brand Problem

Umar Ghumman is an experience strategist and founder of NewBrains, a website strategy studio built around the intersection of new technologies and enduring human behaviour. Over his career, Umar has worked across digital agencies, startups, Publicis, and VML, where he served as Chief Experience Strategy Officer. This conversation explores how brands should think about websites, customer experience, AI, positioning, and distinctiveness in digital environments. Umar Ghumman explains why websites should be treated as complete buying systems that build both physical and mental availability, and why generic digital experiences are becoming less effective as AI increasingly compares, summarizes, and filters brands. The episode also looks at the shift from social media to AI, the trade-offs between privacy and convenience, and how brand positioning should show up online. Pedro and Umar discuss how brands become habits, why consistency needs variation, and how developing taste and judgment in an AI-shaped world comes from experience, exposure, and feedback rather than aesthetics alone. Resources talked about in this episode: A New Operating System for Brand Building in the Age of AI by Umar Ghumman The Social Dilemma The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff Follow Umar Ghumman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/umarghumman/ Follow Pedro Porto Alegre: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/ Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at http://apgcanada.ca/join-us. Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at http://thegatheringfestival.com. Timestamps: 01:15 Umar’s Background and the NewBrains Perspective 02:58 From the Social Media Shift to AI 05:07 Privacy, Trust, and the Pull of Convenience 08:23 Websites as Complete Buying Systems 10:08 Websites, Physical Availability, and Mental Availability 13:49 Bringing Brand Positioning to Life Online 15:54 Balancing Immersive Experiences with Utility 18:38 How to Define Brand Positioning 23:14 How Positioning Drives Website Conversion 24:58 Measuring Website Success 27:46 Customer Journeys and Brand-Rooted Experiences 28:34 AI’s Role in Modern Brand Building 30:10 Consistency, Variation, and Distinctiveness 32:13 How Brands Become Habits 35:15 Customer Centricity Without Sameness 38:22 Developing Taste and Judgment

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Umar Ghumman is an experience strategist and founder of NewBrains, a website strategy studio built around the intersection of new technologies and enduring human behaviour. Over his career, Umar has worked across digital agencies, startups, Publicis, and VML, where he served as Chief Experience Strategy Officer.

This conversation explores how brands should think about websites, customer experience, AI, positioning, and distinctiveness in digital environments. Umar Ghumman explains why websites should be treated as complete buying systems that build both physical and mental availability, and why generic digital experiences are becoming less effective as AI increasingly compares, summarizes, and filters brands.

The episode also looks at the shift from social media to AI, the trade-offs between privacy and convenience, and how brand positioning should show up online. Pedro and Umar discuss how brands become habits, why consistency needs variation, and how developing taste and judgment in an AI-shaped world comes from experience, exposure, and feedback rather than aesthetics alone.

Resources talked about in this episode:

  • A New Operating System for Brand Building in the Age of AI by Umar Ghumman
  • The Social Dilemma
  • The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff

Follow Umar Ghumman:

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at http://apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at http://thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

01:15 Umar’s Background and the NewBrains Perspective

02:58 From the Social Media Shift to AI

05:07 Privacy, Trust, and the Pull of Convenience

08:23 Websites as Complete Buying Systems

10:08 Websites, Physical Availability, and Mental Availability

13:49 Bringing Brand Positioning to Life Online

15:54 Balancing Immersive Experiences with Utility

18:38 How to Define Brand Positioning

23:14 How Positioning Drives Website Conversion

24:58 Measuring Website Success

27:46 Customer Journeys and Brand-Rooted Experiences

28:34 AI’s Role in Modern Brand Building

30:10 Consistency, Variation, and Distinctiveness

32:13 How Brands Become Habits

35:15 Customer Centricity Without Sameness

38:22 Developing Taste and Judgment

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