By Jenny Rooney --> Attribution’s a tricky thing. It can help marketers make better decisions while simultaneously making their strategy worse.
Live from the Marketing Vanguard stage at Brandweek 2026, Jenny Rooney sits down with Amanda Teder, CMO of Generac, to unpack what happens when marketing gets too focused on what is easiest to measure.
Amanda breaks down the full-funnel operating model she has built at Generac, and why demand generation is only the opening move in a high-consideration category.
She also discusses why some purchase journeys need nurturing for months or even years.
This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Brandweek 2026 and presented in partnership with Tatari.
Amanda Teder is Chief Marketing Officer at Generac, an energy solutions company serving both residential and industrial customers.
Before joining Generac, Amanda spent roughly 20 years at Procter & Gamble, where she worked across brands including Oral-B and Febreze, before moving to Michelin.
Across those very different categories, one theme has stayed consistent: understand what actually drives the business, then build the systems that can turn customer insight into repeatable growth. And, at Generac, that has meant connecting demand generation, nurture, sales enablement and post-purchase support into a more complete customer journey.
[07:41] Lead Generation Isn’t Your Finish Line — Amanda argues that demand generation is not enough for a considered purchase. Generac’s model follows the customer through awareness, nurture, sales support and post-purchase experience. The aim is to build a system that can turn that interest into revenue across the entire journey.
[10:05] Great CMOs Know What Kind of Marketer They Are — Amanda describes herself as a builder. She likes entering a business, identifying the critical growth levers and putting the systems in place to make those levers work repeatedly. That self-awareness matters more to her than chasing a brand because it happens to look exciting from the outside; the opportunity is in what you can build.
[13:10] The AI Debate Is Starting With the Wrong Question — At Brandweek 2026, Amanda pushes past the familiar “AI versus humans” framing. Before deciding what AI should do and what people should keep, marketers need to ask why the work exists in the first place. Strategy, prioritization, judgment and taste have to come first, otherwise, automation simply helps you do the wrong thing faster.
[14:08] Attribution Can Make Marketing Worse — Amanda’s unpopular marketing opinion is one worth sitting with: too much focus on attribution can drag investment toward the bottom of the funnel because that is where outcomes are easiest to measure. The risk is that marketers sacrifice the brand and demand-building work that creates future opportunity. Measurement should sharpen strategy, not shrink it.
Jenny Rooney is Chief Brand and Community Officer, leading strategy for the overall ADWEEK brand as well as the ways in which we serve and support our audiences with high-value content, products, partnerships and experiences, notably through our community programs such as Marketing Vanguard.
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