Don McGuire, Qualcomm Incorporated joins Juliana Cobb of 72andSunny in the SPORT BEACH Content Studio for a ...
What Don Mcguire said
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Don McGuire, Senior VP and CMO of Qualcomm, discussed the new 'Snapdragon: that's how' brand platform with Juliana Cobb at Sport Beach. He explained that the campaign simplifies complex technology into relatable human scenarios, addressing the challenge that consumers cannot buy a Snapdragon directly, only products powered by it. McGuire noted Qualcomm has researched and commercialized AI for about 14 years, and as an enterprise CMO, he balances selling AI to the world with integrating AI tools into marketing workflows, emphasizing a 'human-led, AI-powered' approach. He observed a pendulum swing away from AI-driven layoffs toward augmentation. McGuire highlighted a shift from SEO to GEO and the rise of agentic AI, where agents will interact on behalf of users. He praised the collaborative, fast-iterating partnership with 72andSunny, calling it unprecedented in his tenure. Looking ahead, he positioned Snapdragon as 'the processor for the agentic age,' enabling a symbiotic ecosystem of devices.
Key takeaways
Qualcomm has been researching and commercializing AI for about 14 years.
The 'Snapdragon: that's how' campaign is a platform, not just a campaign, simplifying complex tech into relatable scenarios.
Marketing is shifting from SEO to GEO and into an agentic age where agents will do discovery for users.
The agency partnership with 72andSunny has achieved a turnaround cadence unprecedented in McGuire's Qualcomm tenure.
Snapdragon is positioned as 'the processor for the agentic age,' enabling a symbiotic device ecosystem.
Thanks for having me. We are coming at you live from Sports Beach, Sport Beach at Can where we're celebrating the intersection of sport, culture, and fandom, which is why our friend Don is here to talk a little bit. So, let's get into it.
Yeah. Don't feel too bad for us. We've got the Riviera behind us. It's all good. Appreciate you coming by. One of the things that I get to do working with Don is we just launched the Snapdragon that's how brand campaign. We did it together and I'm curious from your point of view what makes this work so unique in the category.
First of all, thank you for your partnership. I think what the work that 72 has done collaboration with the team has been next level. We love the evolution of the Snapdragon brand where we're taking the brand and how we're just leaning in more, learning more, evolving. And the key about this particular campaign, and I would actually view it more as a platform and we're executing a campaign part of the platform, is the fact that we've taken something that's highly technical and complex. We've made it very very simple for people to understand. You know, we have an immediate challenge with everything we do, which is you can't go into a store and buy a Snapdragon. Right? You can go in a store and buy a product that is powered by Snapdragon, but it's a different exercise. So, that in itself is a challenge. But the way that we've taken the insights that we have that you've brought to the table and that we've learned from all of our research and really turned it into something that people can relate to through just normal everyday things that human beings do in their lives and how technology or the power of technology can make that easier, better, faster, more productive, more creative. And then putting it through this lens of clever funny sort of scenarios whether it be by season and everyone can see themselves having an experience that combination of recipe is really what I think takes this campaign execution of the platform to the next level and then the articulation of it which is you plus Snapdragon that's how is such a huge canvas that we can paint together. So I'm looking forward to the next incarnation. So, I'm super excited about what we're going to do for holiday.
I love that. It is true because we've sort of identified those relatable moments where Snapdragon plays an essential role. One of the things that's been on our minds, and I know it's been on your mind, too. The tech world evolves so rapidly, which I'm sure directly impacts your work and the work that Snapdragon does within Qualcomm. What's one aspect of your job that has fundamentally changed in the past few years and how are you evolving to meet that challenge?
Well, we sit at a very important intersection in that we are a company that has been researching and commercializing AI for about 14 years. But I'm also an enterprise CMO that has to think about AI in the context of how is that reimagining marketing and the discipline of marketing and the creative process etc. So on the one hand I have to think about how are we going to sell this concept of AI to the world both from a personal perspective, a physical perspective, etc. But also as a marketer, how do I utilize these tools, integrate these tools into workflows, still be human-led but AI-powered in the delivery of marketing to our audiences, and so it's a little bit of a dichotomy. So how we're handling it from the enterprise CMO side is really I think the pendulum has now swung back from 'hey AI is going to take your job, we're going to go lay off a bunch of people.' You know, you've heard recently people regretting the number of people they've laid off with the excuse of AI. And it swung back to, you know, really it's not one or the other, it's both, right? It's got to be human-led, AI-powered, and it's the integration of the two working together. Humans augmented with artificial intelligence to make the creative process faster, streamlined, more productive, whatever it might be. And so that's what we're learning a lot. What's changing for me and for my team is as we've embraced this, it's how to rethink how we work.
And it could be really beneficial to critical thinking, more strategic thinking, more time. Yeah. Back because task-oriented things can be actually augmented and done a lot easier. And then beyond that how we have to then change the way we think about how audiences are going to engage with us and as the behavioral shift continues to happen away from SEO to geo and in an agentic age really just interacting with an agent who's going to then go do discovery for you or search for you. That's something that we're paying attention to and it's going to be not only has it changed already but it's going to continue to evolve.
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Mcguire, D. (2026, July 16). Don McGuire, Qualcomm Inc interviewed by Juliana Cobb, 72andSunny | SPORT BEACH Content Studio [Interview transcript]. SPORT BEACH. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1092643/
MLA
Don Mcguire. "Don McGuire, Qualcomm Inc interviewed by Juliana Cobb, 72andSunny | SPORT BEACH Content Studio." SPORT BEACH, 16 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1092643/.
BibTeX
@misc{mcguire2026_1092643,
author = {Don Mcguire},
title = {Don McGuire, Qualcomm Inc interviewed by Juliana Cobb, 72andSunny | SPORT BEACH Content Studio},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, SPORT BEACH. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1092643/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
