What happens when a marketing leader blends behavioral science, go-to-market strategy, and AI-native thinking? You get Rick Ton - a former Senior Director of Business Growth Marketing at Meta, with a career spanning Walmart, Clutter, and Under Armour.
Rick’s story is anything but linear. From launching McDonald's Snack Wraps to building AI agents in his spare time, his marketing philosophy is rooted in first principles thinking, radical clarity, and human empathy. In a recent conversation, Rick unpacks how he’s grown high-performing teams and driven business impact across B2B, B2C, and membership-based models.
Forget Funnels. Think Mission.
When Rick took over a behavioral science team at Walmart, most people saw them as a silo doing research “on the side.” He embedded them directly into the marketing org, but not just to optimize click-through rates.
Instead, he reframed the entire team’s role: they weren’t there to push ads, they were there to help customers save time, money, and energy. The result? A mission-aligned marketing engine where behavioral science directly influenced product trials, membership renewals, and store design.
“We stopped thinking about funnel metrics. We started thinking about purpose.”
Take, for instance, Sam’s Club’s self-checkout via the mobile app. To increase adoption, the team applied behavioral nudges and friction-reduction techniques to help customers try it once - knowing that the experience would speak for itself. That trial-first, empathy-driven mindset became the bedrock of their behavioral marketing approach.
Why I Ask My Team to Fail at Full Speed
One of Rick’s most powerful frameworks is his internal system of L0 to L2 goals.
L0: Company-wide outcomes (like revenue)
L1: Performance outcomes (like retention or cost per acquisition)
L2: Long-term behavioral changes (like adoption or frequency)
Every initiative, even experiments — must be tagged to one of these levels. But that’s not all. Rick pushes teams to define the success and failure criteria upfront.
“You shouldn’t just do something to do something. What does success look like? What does failure look like?”
By forcing clarity, he unlocks creativity. Because when your team knows the stakes, they can focus on ideas that actually move the needle, instead of chasing shiny objects.
And failure? That’s not just tolerated, it’s expected. But it has to be fast, measurable, and educational.
The Jobs of the Future Are AI Native
While most teams are still duct-taping AI tools into old workflows, Rick has already moved on. He builds custom AI agents to track refinance rates and experiments with workflow automation. Not just to boost productivity - but to think differently.
“If you duct-tape tools, you’re AI-enabled. If AI shapes your workflow, you’re AI-native.”
He urges marketing leaders to stop waiting for permission. Try tools. Break them. Deploy small, low-risk proof of concepts. Focus on fit before scale.
In his words, the pace of AI change is “unlike anything we’ve seen in our careers.” And in that environment, rigidity is your enemy.
Don’t Chase Bad Money
One of Rick’s most insightful moments comes from a story about snowblowers.
At Walmart, a merchant once asked for marketing support to push snowblowers — during a low-snow season.
Rick’s response? That’s bad money.
“You can spend energy moving undesirable inventory… or you can focus on long-term customer value. One pays off. One doesn’t.”
He applies the same thinking to digital ads: if return on ad spend drops as you scale, you might just be chasing diminishing returns. His north star? Sustainable, scalable value
From building purpose-driven teams to navigating mergers, launching AI pilots, and mentoring talent at Meta - Rick Ton shares lessons that marketing leaders can’t afford to miss.
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