Few companies have mastered the art of channeling creative energy through a focused rebranding effort better than Dropbox. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews CMO of Dropbox Carolyn Feinstein. Their shared love of creative energy and authentic storytelling makes for a podcast episode you don’t want to miss. Carolyn discusses her passion for connecting deeply with consumers through stories as well as why Dropbox chose to “fix something that wasn’t broken” all on this episode. Be sure to listen to discover how Carolyn’s team shifted the market’s perspective about the well-loved company and its offerings. With over half a billion worldwide users, Dropbox is among the best for workflow technology companies. Their ability to roll out massive internal changes while simultaneously conveying the right story to loyal consumers is encouraging. Hear all about the challenges tackled, lessons learned, and joyful successes on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:30] Drew asks the question, “if it’s not broken, should you break it anyway?” [2:00] Carolyn’s go-to story to share with marketers [6:16] The biggest moment for Carolyn when she was with Electronic Arts [11:03] The massive rebranding project Carolyn helped Dropbox navigate [14:27] Shifting the consumers' perspective of Dropbox [16:57] How Dropbox handled the fear of changing a well-loved brand [21:40] The internal rollout of Dropbox’s rebranding project [23:57] Dropbox is becoming an eponym and approaching the level of Google or FedEx [26:00] The art of a living, dynamic workspace product [28:15] Distraction = death in the modern workplace, and how Dropbox is unleashing global creative energy [31:08] The biggest lessons learned throughout this bold rebranding mission and the 3 main measures used to measure a storytelling effort [35:06] Drew summarizes this inspiring episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite How did Dropbox approach such a massive project? By following these three main ideas Carolyn’s team is passionate about storytelling. She explains to Drew on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite that connecting people to one another through quality products and touching stories is the best way to begin a rebranding project. After realizing that Dropbox wanted to reinvent itself, Carolyn followed three main ideas that dictated their path: the art of storytelling, achieving buy-in from internal audiences, and listening to the voice of loyal customers. To hear how she skillfully knit these steps together into one successful mission be sure to listen to this episode. Rebranding should not be incremental - bold actions conquer fear and allow your company to make huge strides forward Dropbox’s biggest success throughout the rebranding process was persuading every member on the team that bold actions were the way to achieve ultimate success. Drew is also a huge proponent of the idea that incremental steps don’t move companies forward. Carolyn knew she needed to snap people to attention and have them understand that Dropbox is more than cloud storage. While there will always be some concerns about restructuring a brand’s identity, moving forward with confidence is the ultimate way to launch your company into the next chapter of success. You’ll surely learn from this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite so be sure to give it your full attention. The crisis of modern work is “death by distraction” - hear how Dropbox is channeling the world’s creative energy and allowing people to work to their full potential The modern workplace is plagued with notifications, emails, and deadlines. Carolyn and her team at Dropbox recognized this issue and wanted to solve it. Their solution? Streamlined services and products geared at freeing teams from monotonous and time-consuming tasks so they can unleash their creative energy. The goal? Global teams working on a united platform to create projects that will change the world. That’s why Dropbox continues to be a leader in workplace technology and creative storytelling. This interview is one you don’t want to miss. Connect With Carolyn: Dropbox’s blog on Carolyn Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn Follow Carolyn on Facebook Resources & People Mentioned Ep. 63: Marketing Trends from The CMO Survey and Reigniting Your Passion for Marketing Ep. 65: The Ups and Downs of Xerox’s Universal Awareness and Shifting Your Brand Perception Dropbox Paper ARTICLE: The world needs your creative energy Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

Predictive analytics in marketing is going to revolutionize the way CMOs and marketing teams do business. On this stimulating episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews James Regan, CMO and co-founder of MRP. James and his company are greeting predictive analytics with excitement and ingenuity. He shares why your company should be doing the same on this episode. This technology, combined with artificial intelligence (AI), is not something to be feared, contrary to what Hollywood may lead us to believe. For a full explanation of this exciting new technology, why predictive analytics is NOT the death of big brand ideas and company storytelling, and how to start integrating this idea into your company, be sure to listen to this conversation. Predictive analytics in marketing is something everyone needs to hear. Don’t be left behind, and give this podcast your full attention. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:29] Drew tracks down an expert in the field of predictive analytics for this episode, James Regan, CMO and co-founder at MRP [2:05] The excitement surrounding predictive analytics at MRP [4:20] James’ layman’s explanation of predictive analytics [8:26] Specific actions that sales teams can take to take advantage of this information [11:38] The death of traditional marketing campaigns [13:57] James shares a real-world example to describe how predictive analytics works [14:55] Creating the messages upfront and programming them into the analytics system is still a challenge [16:10] Predictive analytics, the future of B2B marketing, and removing the human element [20:50] What is preventing mass adoption of predictive analytics? [23:48] Predictive analytics is NOT the death of the big-brand idea [26:04] How a CMO’s plan can welcome predictive analytics [28:33] Why an out of control marketing tech stack can be mitigated through predictive analytics tools and outsourcing [32:33] James’ two overall “do’s” and a “don’t” for CMOs Predictive analytics in marketing is fairly new - what is it and why is it important? Predictive analytics seeks to increase marketers’ ability to achieve the “holy trinity” of digital marketing - getting the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time. James offers listeners of this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite the perfect explanation of this technology. In a B2B sense, every organization has potential clients that are doing research on what they may need to buy that will serve their needs. Predictive analytics can track this digital data trail that tells your organization general geolocations and keyword sets that are spiking. The analytics program then automatically sends out tailored content that puts a problem-solving solution directly in front of the eyes of the potential client. James further explains that this is not being done at an individual level, rather at a group target market level. James’ description is best understood by listening to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, so be sure to make time for the full audio. Why the invention of predictive analytics is a death sentence for traditional campaigns, but not for big brand storytelling Predictive analytics is moving marketing teams towards automating and programming their engagement strategies into an AI program, rather than focusing on traditional campaign methods. James claims that traditional campaigns are simply too slow in today’s environment. He argues that if you really want to deliver a relevant message, you have to be doing programmed customer engagement. You need to have an “always-on” approach that directly integrates your response with the appropriate message that is aligned to the content your potential customers are consuming outside of your firewall. Simply put, traditional campaigns create gaps in communicating with your customers that cannot be permitted any longer. This does not mean your brand’s big stories are irrelevant. Predictive analytics simply propels your values and stories at lightning-fast speed - it does not eliminate the story you’re trying to tell. You have to focus on the big brand of your company before you can focus on content delivery optimization. This episode is full of insights that you need to hear, so be sure to listen. The future of B2B marketing in a predictive analytics world, removal of the human screen, and what is preventing mass adoption of this technology AI and predictive analytics are going to reshape the world of B2B marketing as we know it. One of the biggest questions Drew asks James on this episode surrounds the perceived danger of removing the human element from the backend of content delivery. What will prevent an AI system from delivering the wrong message at an inappropriate time? James explains that AI will pull from an extensive digital repository of content that a marketing team has crafted. It will not be creating its own messages. Programming algorithms to know what message to pull and when is still a challenge, but one that is quickly being solved by the marketing world’s best and brightest. There is also the issue of what companies have access to massive data-ingestion technology. James predicts an arms race to see what company can get the best real-time input on customers and their behavior and that this will drive the future of predictive analytics. The next few years will see a huge uptick in this technology, and your company should not be left out of the loop. Be in the know by listening to this interview on Renegade Thinkers Unite. Connect With James Regan: MRP About Us webpage Connect with James on LinkedIn Follow James on Twitter Resources & People Mentioned DOCUMENTARY: Spielberg MOVIE: Minority Report Ep. 46 - Visionary CEO Alan Trefler on Future of Marketing Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

In this second installation of Drew’s interview with Eric Eden, CMO of Receipt Bank, they discuss additional strategies to improve your marketing technology stack. Be sure to listen to part 1 of this conversation on episode 71 of Renegade Thinkers Unite. After securing a budget and receiving buy-in from company leadership teams, selecting the right pieces to add to your marketing technology stack is the next big step.

When Drew recently asked a crowd of CMOs how much revenue marketing should directly generate, most said 5-15%. However, Eric Eden, expert CMO of Receipt Bank, claimed that marketing should be a company’s main revenue generator, bringing in 80% of all sales. This uncommon point of view is explained and detailed on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Eric and Drew talk through the first two main steps of how to turn your marketing efforts into a revenue machine. They discuss the importance of having a solid foundation marketing technology stack, all of the details behind why evidence-based marketing is the norm, and how to secure a substantial marketing budget for your team. Don’t miss part two of this interview on the next episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. You’ll learn a lot from part one of this conversation, so give it your full attention. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:29] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Eric Eden [3:05] How to lay the foundation for marketing to become a revenue generator [6:00] Why the burden of proof for success lies with the marketer [8:27] What exactly is evidence-based marketing, and how do you define your strategy? [13:57] Eric walks through his process for securing a substantial marketing budget [22:02] The essentials for your company’s tech stack and additional layers to consider [28:22] What’s the next step after creating a solid CRM piece? [33:39] Why isn’t it more common to combine the first two layers of your marketing stack? Why a CRM is a foundational basis needed for any successful marketing or revenue-generating campaign Eric explains on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite that without a functional and clean customer relationship management technology piece, your marketing will never turn into a revenue generator. He continues by saying that, “If you don’t have a good marketing technology stack that enables your demand generation engine, everything falls apart.” A solid CRM piece allows you to track leads, understand what is encouraging or hindering contract success, improves integration between marketing and sales teams, and is necessary when putting together a budget proposal. If a CMO is looking at upgrading a single piece of their marketing strategy, having a bombproof CRM platform needs to be at the top of the list. To hear why CRM technology is so critical, and to understand why Eric is so adamant about this piece of technology, be sure to give this episode a listen. The importance of understanding evidence-based marketing to secure a substantial budget Gone are the days where the phrase, “it’s complicated, just trust me!” can be successful in budget meetings with company executives. In order to secure the funds marketing teams need, CMOs need to understand how to articulate their marketing in in terms of data and evidence of success. The burden of proof lies with the CMO to persuade others why marketing as a revenue generator can work for the company. You have to determine how to frame things in such a way that makes people comfortable with spending dollars on marketing, build a common language that all teams and levels of employees understand, and prevent any misconceptions. Once you have set the stage and brought people over to your side of the budget debate, you can then begin to determine what percentage of the budget should be spent on each potential customer, and the ROI that would come from each prospective contract. This framing turns marketing into an investment, not a cost, and is the key to massive success. To hear Drew and Eric’s conversation surrounding evidence-based marketing and how it can ultimately be used to generate revenue, don’t miss this episode. Transform your ordinary marketing campaigns into a massive revenue generator through automation After a functional CRM piece, the next step to generate revenue is marketing automation - the second most popular piece of a technology stack. Eric urges listeners of this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to understand that automation cannot and does not happen overnight, or even within 90 days. A truly successful marketing automation plan can take upwards of 6 months to design and implement. But the time investment is 100% worth it. By hiring talented sales people and allowing them to actually sell your company, without getting bogged down by monotonous tasks, you are ultimately generating more revenue for the company. Automation allows more integration between the marketing and sales teams and setting the correct timeline expectations upfront will prevent mishaps later on down the line. Drew and Eric have a great conversation about marketing automation and the connections it has to revenue generation on this episode, CMOs in every industry need to hear it. Connect With Eric: Receipt Bank’s blog - when Eric joined the team as CMO Connect with Eric on LinkedIn Follow Eric on Twitter Follow Eric on Facebook Resources & People Mentioned Download Drew’s latest ebook and learn from 11 of the top CMOs SalesForce technology Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

David Aaker, known as “Father of Modern Branding,” discusses the idea of B2B brand storytelling and being able to convey engaging messages on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite hosted by Drew Neisser. As the Vice Chairman of marketing consultant giant Prophet and renowned author, David has decades of experience in reinventing the way a company shares its brand message. He explains to Drew the importance of balancing hard facts with emotions as well as emphasizes the importance of becoming a brand other companies want to be associated with. David also shares multiple personal stories that validate the importance of being a stellar brand storyteller. You don’t want to miss his explanation of how both T-Mobile and Barclay turned their companies around through brand storytelling. David’s expertise will revolutionize your company’s way of conveying messages, so be sure to give this episode your full attention. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:30] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, David Aaker [2:58] Why is everyone realizing that storytelling is critically important? [4:27] Why is a story so important in engaging employees? [8:54] What will it take for B2B firms to recognize that story is a cultural opportunity? [12:32] David’s personal stories behind effective storytelling [16:39] Why does the story go away once a company reaches marketing evaluation stages? [17:58] How does a brand find their signature stories? [21:06] The balance between hard facts and “fluffy” emotions in storytelling marketing [24:23] Actionable items behind improving your B2B storytelling marketing efforts [29:13] David’s steps for creating a brand storytelling plan [32:42] One of the most common problems when brands attempt storytelling marketing for the first time [33:25] Drew summarizes his conversation with David Aaker Why are stories so effective in engaging customers and employees? Brand storytelling is more than just a hot topic in current B2B marketing environments. It is the key to truly connecting with your employees, partners, and customers. B2B customers feel the need to have a relationship with the business they interact with and employees need to feel that their work is important. Stories garner attention, change perceptions and attitudes, and inspire action - and stories are far more effective than fact-sharing alone. This is why your company and team need to be experts in brand storytelling. To hear the full reasoning behind why this idea is a critical issue for companies across the country, be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. The importance of creating a signature story while balancing fact and emotion When trying to convey a message, a CMO has two options: share facts or tell stories. Even though some may argue that "if it's not fact-based how do you convince people's it's actually true?", there is a balance that needs to be reached. The key in the B2B storytelling space is to either magnify the problem, offer a solution or accentuate the outcome. This can artfully be done by combining customer testimony with just enough facts to provide a reliable level of reality. Just listing data and facts is a record-keeping entry - not a compelling marketing campaign. David highlights that a signature story can be 200-300% more effective than data alone. To hear more about why brand storytelling is so impactful give this episode a listen. Actionable items for creating brand storytelling initiatives Take it from the best leader in storytelling. David lays out a plan to create a storytelling focus in your company on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. As a CMO you must first believe and buy into the power of storytelling marketing. Then you have to build a skilled team and develop an environment that allows storytelling opportunities to flourish. Drew also adds that you have to throw your content calendars away because all they do is allow you to get away with regularly producing mediocre content. Hiring a support crew that can take raw stories and turn them into engaging content can also drastically improve your storytelling ability. For more hands-on hints on brand storytelling, don’t let this episode go unlistened. Connect With David: David’s Prophet webpage Connect with David on LinkedIn Follow David on Twitter Follow David on Facebook Email David Resources & People Mentioned BOOK: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln BOOK: Grant BOOK: Creating Signature Stories: Strategic Messaging that Energizes, Persuades and Inspires PODCAST: David Aaker on the power of stories and the fight for the soul of capitalism ARTICLE: How Barclays Defined Brand Purpose and Regained Customer Trust Episode #4 - Content Marketing - Guest, David Beebe, Marriott Audible Course - The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to Professionals Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

In order to achieve storytelling marketing success, CMOs have to be willing to take risks. Even with all of the data and metrics available to evaluate, sometimes the best ideas come directly from human intuition. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews Rich Kylberg, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Arrow Electronics. Arrow is a $24 billion global supplier for a wide array of technology and products, and Rich has helped them break into new ways of communicating internally and externally. Throughout this podcast, Rich explains how his background in literature allows him to see marketing campaigns in new ways and why casting a vision internally is needed before you can communicate identity externally. Arrow’s groundbreaking SAM vehicle technology is revolutionizing many industries, and you’ll be inspired by Rich’s explanation of this pursuit. Their conversation is a perfect mix of marketing knowledge and inspiration - you don’t want to miss it. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [1:25] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Rich Kylberg of Arrow Electronics [2:48] Rich’s favorite risk-taking story from his childhood [8:00] How Rich’s educational background impacts his current career [13:18] The story behind how Rich joined the Arrow team and how they created a common identity [17:45] Taking the internal identity and transforming it into an external message [21:55] Arrow’s program that brought their innovative ideas to life that enhance humanity [27:30] The barriers Rich’s team encountered while developing the SAM technology [33:00] Rich shares the best lessons he learned through the SAM journey [37:13] Why you should bring in an outside firm to assist your company in storytelling [39:51] The power of a plan on a page [42:07] Drew summarizes his conversation with Rich How Rich helped Arrow create a common identity When Rich joined the Arrow team, they had recently acquired over 130 companies and many hadn’t yet fallen in line with the overarching Arrow brand. Arrow was on the verge of becoming a holding company too comfortable in their own success, but Rich was determined to take some risks and create a guiding theme that would direct every employee and customer interaction. Thus, the phrase “guiding innovation forward” was born. Rich explains that “you have to inspire your employees before you can market your company externally” and this progress was essential for Arrow to continue growing. It created a conversation starter that is still being talked about today. To hear exactly how Rich achieved this lofty goal, be sure to give this episode a listen. Why risk taking in marketing is so important Rich and Drew are adamant about risk-taking in marketing - it’s one of the key aspects of being a Renegade Thinker. On this episode, Rich explains that the opportunity to attain exponential rewards are worth taking substantial risks and that the fear of mediocrity is often the driving force behind risk-taking. CMOs in any B2B environment should ask themselves these questions: What risks am I willing to take in my marketing? What will be the source of my courage? How am I going to prepare? After you consider these questions, remember that as a marketer you need to be empowered to try ideas, keep what works, and move past what doesn't. Without risky marketing decisions, Rich and his team never could have developed the storytelling marketing campaign that moved Arrow into the future of connecting with clients and telling great stories. Be sure to discover the story on this episode. Arrow’s innovative storytelling marketing campaign and how Rich and his team burst through the barriers they encountered Arrow Electronics recently unveiled their latest storytelling marketing campaign, and it’s one that resonates with people across the country. When Rich and his team were connected with a former Indy Racing League race car driver who was sadly diagnosed as a quadriplegic after a crash in 2000, they came up with the SAM car technology - a car that would allow drivers with disabilities to regain their independence. When asked about the project, Rich's team explained that "We hope the SAM car continues to drive technology innovation forward and inspire people to dream big because anything is possible.” Had Rich and his marketing team forgone risk-taking and stuck with what is “normal” and expected in the marketing industry, this amazing project never would have left the idea board. It’s sure to inspire you and your team to take marketing risks and delve into the unknown so be sure to get all of the details by listening to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Connect With Rich: About Arrow Connect with Rich on LinkedIn Follow Rich on Twitter Follow Rich on Facebook Resources & People Mentioned ARTICLE: SAM Car Technology To Benefit Humanity Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

The term “marketing risks” is not often heard in the financial technology industry, but Adi Bachar-Reske, Global Head of Marketing at Provenir, is making it commonplace. She has overturned the company’s communication strategies and is sharing her insights on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. In her conversation with Drew, Adi explains how Provenir went from using a third-party communication distribution company to handling all of their press releases and supporting content themselves. She also fully explains why Provenir seeks to help financial lenders make better, faster decisions. Taking marketing risks is one way to ensure your company stands out from the competition, even though it takes courage as a CMO. Drew shares his top four qualities for entrepreneurs as well as why you should avoid too many micro-campaigns all on this episode. You’ll enjoy Drew and Adi’s conversation, and it’ll leave you thinking, so be sure to listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [2:07] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Adi Bachar-Reske, Global Head of Marketing at Provenir [3:33] Adi’s approach and philosophy for risk-taking in marketing [10:17] Why Provenir decided to go with in-house communication strategies [14:07] The content that Adi created and the mechanisms they used to direct customers [17:00] Viewing new campaign strategies from an evaluation standpoint [19:23] The full story behind how Adi brought Provenir’s marketing in-house [21:10] Why you should avoid too many micro-campaigns that drive leads but don’t add up to a bigger story [24:01] Provenir’s main goal as viewed through a car lease example [30:00] Adi’s go-to inspirational resources for marketing risks and CMO advice [32:42] Adi looks forward into the rest of 2018 and talks about the challenges she hopes to tackle Provenir’s main focus within financial technology and why empowering people to make better, faster decisions is so important Provenir strives to orchestrate a company’s decision making processes for customers. Adi first experienced this decision-making dilemma after wanting to lease her third car from the same company in four years. Even though the company knew her as a customer and was familiar with her positive financial history, the company still made her wait over 48 hours before they would approve another lease agreement. She believes that decision making needs to be faster, more automated, and that you should never make a customer wait while you decide on whether or not to take their business because it gives them time to go to your competitors. That’s what Provenir prevents. They empower lenders to make better decisions faster and enables them to provide their customers with an even better experience. Adi shares some great anecdotes with Drew about why automating decisions is so critical to a company’s success and you don’t want to miss them. The path towards in-house communication strategies and how Adi artfully crafted this process from start to finish Even though working with public relations organizations has been an industry standard for years. Adi and her team at Provenir recently decided to create and distribute their own in-house press releases. This decision came after a few of their self-published blog posts received large amounts of feedback and engagement. Journalists were attracted to the company and they connected with their audiences even without the third party assistance. While bringing communications in-house, Adi realized that there were a number of needs that now needed to be fulfilled by their team: create a CRM database, produce content to follow up each press release, measure the impact, etc. No one could do all of this work on their own, which is why Adi has teams across the world working on these communication and marketing strategies. She tells Drew that there are always trade-offs for bringing work in-house, but that it was definitely a successful marketing risk that Provenir took. To hear all about Adi’s challenges and successes with this venture, be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Taking strategic marketing risks can provide greater benefits, and your company can learn from Adi’s successes at Provenir There are four main qualities that Drew encourages every CMO to have: courage, artfulness, thoughtfulness, and scientificness. Of these, he believes that courage is the most essential and the one in shortest supply. Taking marketing risks can be difficult but it is necessary even in financial industries. If your team decides to go after a risky marketing venture rather than going with the standard methods and it’s successful, the payoffs will be far greater. You can learn from Provenir’s recent in-house communications successes and adapt their strategies to your company. Taking the initial steps is often the most challenging part, and requires every bit of courage that you have as a CMO. For inspiration, be sure to check out Adi’s story on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Connect With Adi: Provenir’s company team webpage Adi’s Provenir author webpage Connect with Adi on LinkedIn Follow Adi on Twitter Follow Adi on Facebook Follow Adi on Medium Resources & People Mentioned Adi’s article on chocolate-cinnamon cake Provenir blog article: “Is Google Picking on the Payday Lending Industry?” Provenir’s chosen database service - Hubspot PR Newswire website Inbound conferences Stratabeat B2B marketing agency BOOK: “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business” Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

  Developing a marketing vision through company-wide orchestration will allow you create more value while streamlining work. In today’s accelerated world, both customers and businesses want to spend less time on logistics and more time actually making a difference in their markets. DocuSign is one of the top businesses doing just that - allowing work to happen faster for over 200 million users across 188 countries. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews Scott Olrich, the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for DocuSign. They discuss exactly what orchestration means in terms of B2B marketing environments, how to sell a marketing vision, and why courageous decision making should be a part of any CMO job description. Scott is behind some of the biggest changes at DocuSign, rated as the 22nd best place to work in 2018 by Glassdoor. He shares his expertise with Drew in this interview and explains why ultimate orchestration will set you apart from your competitors in an exciting new way. To hear why marketing visions are so important, be sure to catch this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [1:10] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Scott Olrich, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for DocuSign [4:25] DocuSign’s current place in transactional happiness and what it means to be an orchestrated company [11:54] What exactly does orchestration mean within a company? [15:05] The importance of not pushing the envelope too far when it comes to selling a vision [19:25] How Scott views the idea of a company narrative and how it can be used to sell your marketing vision [24:29] Scott shares how he’s incorporating courageous decision-making into his current position at DocuSign [28:59] Where DocuSign is headed in the future [36:25] Drew’s summary of the episode, and why orchestration will set you apart from your competitors Scott explains exactly what orchestration means within a company and why it’s so critical to long-term success When Scott started the orchestration process at DocuSign, the company was focused solely on making digital signatures easier. Now they are moving towards streamlining multiple components of doing business in a digital world. In any company environment, you have to understand where your organization's broader category of business is going to go. Rather than focusing solely on the “now,” teams have to be able to see where the entire market is going in the future and set up systems to accommodate that forward growth. That’s where orchestration comes in. Essentially, orchestration occurs when a company’s marketing visions, products, sales teams, and senior leadership all subscribe to a new macro way of thinking about the company. This drives long-term success because as Scott explains, “People want to buy into the future!” They just have to be given a reason to do so. The importance of not pushing the envelope too far when it comes to selling a marketing vision The first step of orchestration is to develop a new marketing vision for your company. This clear vision and narrative of what you think the company should be will drive your products, marketing strategies, and internal educational components. A vision should teach and challenge people to think differently about the bigger picture issue, but you have to be able to back up this vision with real-world examples that people can understand. Orchestration does so much more than just improve response rates for one marketing campaign, it has the power to rework your entire business if you allow it. The biggest danger with orchestration? You want to avoid a disconnect between your product and the vision you’re trying to sell. If your marketing teams and product teams are not on the same page, customers will recognize this and be wary of your company. To hear Scott explain this challenge in full detail, be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Why courageous decision making should be a large part of any CMO job description As the Chief Strategy Officer and CMO, Scott has been charged with taking an already successful company and making it even better. On this episode, Drew asks Scott how he has the courage to take risky decisions and how he combats the idea of “if it’s not broken, why fix it?” Once you establish a clear marketing vision you have to subscribe to it 100%, go out and win over the rest of the company, and then sell it to your customers. There’s actually a formula for this type of courageous decision-making, and Scott fully explains each step in this interview with Drew. Your company and your career will greatly benefit from hearing his story, so don’t miss this episode. Connect With Scott: DocuSign’s press release on Scott Connect with Scott on LinkedIn Resources & People Mentioned DocuSign website Ep. 42 “Why The Best Talent is Going Client-side w CMO of Boxed.com” Drew’s scheduling tool - Schedule Once Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

It’s always fun to talk with someone who is on the cutting edge of their industry. And when that industry is something as significant to the global economy as banking, it gets even more interesting. On this episode, you’ll hear my conversation with Martin Häring, CMO of a newly formed company Finastra. Finastra is actually the result of a merger between two existing powerhouses in the banking technology industry - Misys and D+H. In our conversation, Martin highlights the particular challenges faced in bringing two well-known and highly-respected companies together with an eye to maintaining the reputation and specialization of each but forging something altogether different and exciting at the same time. As Chief Marketing Officer, for Finastra, Martin is responsible for marketing on a global scale. He first joined the team at Misys in October 2013 and is part of the Executive Team at the newly formed company. He’s excited not only because the company is a big player in the banking industry but more so by its opportunity to determine the future of banking technology over the long haul. You’ll enjoy this conversation so I hope you take the time to listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher What You’ll Learn [0:29] My guest on this episode: Martin Häring of Finastra [1:18] The amazing journey of how Finastra combined 3 companies [4:41] Approaching the business analysis for a merger of this magnitude [7:23] Getting employees excited about the new brand coming from the merger [11:20] The brand naming process, legal hurdles, internal challenges [13:36] An unbelievable 6 month timeframe for making the merger happen [21:01] Martin’s interview with a human-sounding and human-looking android [24:43] A.I. solutions being built into the Finastra platform [28:07] The biggest marketing challenges Martin and Finastra are facing In marketing, we are all storytellers ~ Martin Häring One of the most intriguing things to me about a huge merger like has happened between Misys and D+H is the task of creating a new brand identity without losing the loyalty and enthusiasm of existing customers. It’s not simply a matter of coming up with a catchy name and deciding on a color palette for the new logo and letterhead. The legal issues alone are mind-boggling. Martin shares some of the challenges the Finastra team had to address in its merger and rebrand and highlights how the same foundational principle that supports good marketing - storytelling - was required internally in developing and nurturing a new vision among its team members, and externally in the form of customer outreach and communication. I love how marketing principles prove to be useful in a variety of challenges businesses face. Martin’s insights are gold, so be sure you take the time to listen. A brand starts with a bold vision and requires the underlying tech to fuel it ~ Martin Häring When it comes to bold visions, Martin Häring and the team at Finastra are leading the way in the banking industry. The company is positioned as a leader in banking technology and is intentionally paving the way for the future of what banking will become as a global industry. In our conversation, Martin and I talk about the role A.I. (artificial intelligence) will play in banking tech and how Finastra is leading the way in developing the systems and platforms that financial institutions will use in the future. It’s a long, slow road to introduce new technologies in the banking industry but the Finastra team is not only patient, they know the industry well and are taking steps at the pace the industry can handle. Are you driving the trends in your industry or trying to keep up with them? In Martin Häring’s view, CEOs and CMOs should be asking themselves daily if their company is merely maintaining the status quo or driving their industry forward. It’s the innovation and disruption market leaders create that makes them the go-to people in a given industry. In this conversation, as Martin describes the changes coming to the future of banking technology and the role his company, Finastra is playing in the implementation of those changes, I got a feel for what he meant. It’s about thinking ahead, looking into the future to see what will be needed years from now, and positioning yourself to be the one to meet those challenges and provide the right solutions. This was an enjoyable and challenging conversation you won’t want to miss. Connect With Martin: Finastra Company website Martin’s LinkedIn Profile Resources & People Mentioned www.Force.com (the SalesForce website) Connect with Drew On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

The ultimate dream for marketers is universal awareness - the point in time when your brand becomes synonymous with a noun. Having your brand become a verb is an even better case scenario (think, “I’ll Venmo you the money!” or “I’ll Google it.”) This extremely high level of brand awareness can create issues though when your brand perception becomes “stuck” in this one-way thinking. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, the CMO of Xerox, Toni Clayton-Hine, joins Drew for a conversation about how Xerox is embracing the new connectivity trend and how it is breaking through old brand perceptions to stay relevant in the 21st century. Toni shares with Drew the story behind Xerox’s latest marketing initiative, Set the Page Free, and how Xerox is striving to be at the forefront of the intersection between digital and physical workspaces. They also discuss the pros and cons of such a risky marketing project and Toni's top “do’s and don’ts” for current CMOs. Join Drew and Toni for this engaging conversation - you won’t want to miss a single minute. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:30] Why does brand awareness matter when you’re trying to sell a product or service? [3:15] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Toni Clayton, CMO of Xerox [4:52] The main strategy behind Xerox’s marketing [9:31] The benefit of working with creators who deliver extraordinary content [12:58] Once you’ve created the excellent content, you have to “market the marketing” [15:47] Toni explains how she had the courage to approach her CEO with this big, untestable idea [18:30] What does storytelling meaning to Toni and Xerox? [23:29] How Xerox is currently demonstrating their broader platform and usability [26:48] Combatting the loss of reach associated with using digital marketing tactics [30:19] How Xerox is showing customers new ways to use their products [32:11] The biggest lesson Toni has learned in her career with Xerox [37:03] One “do” and one “don’t” for CMOs as a result of Toni’s experience with Xerox Xerox’s latest Set the Page Free project and how they “marketed the marketing” so effectively When faced with seemingly cemented brand perceptions, Xerox came up with a creative and big-picture marketing campaign: Set the Page Free. With 14 world-famous writers and creative minds in collaboration, Xerox told the story of the modern workplace - and the entire project was produced using Xerox technology. The end result were podcasts, videos, and a final free download book. After creating the piece, Toni and her team had to answer the question, “who is going to consume this content?” Drew asks Toni about how they “marketed the marketing campaign” so effectively and she explains that they really leveraged the celebrity collaborators and their social channels. For the full story behind the project, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. What does brand storytelling mean to Xerox in the 21st century? Shifting Xerox’s brand perceptions became a balance of using the company’s history to their advantage, while still demonstrating to their customers that they are about more than just copying and faxing physical documents. The Set the Page Free project helped Xerox transition from the realm of a 1990s office verb into a frontrunner of 21st-century workplace technology. This engaging act of brand storytelling allowed the company to show the outcome of using their technology, not just the inputs. Since Xerox is a B2B technology company, Toni’s goal is to ensure Xerox is seen as fresh, relevant, and understanding of their different types of customers. To hear more of Toni’s marketing initiatives at Xerox that are continually shaping their brand perspectives, be sure to listen to the full audio. The biggest lessons Toni has learned since joining Xerox and why taking marketing risks can be beneficial While developing Set the Page Free, Toni explained that she often struggled with the desire to control every aspect of the project and subsequent brand awareness surveys. But when Drew asks her about the biggest lessons she learned while working on the project, Toni explains that Xerox had to take a risk in order to shift how people think about the company - and taking that risk also meant dealing with unpredictable variables. She also learned the importance of being more directive in her approach to help customers understand how to bring their Xerox technology tools to life. To hear Toni’s top “do’s and don’ts” for other CMOs, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Connect With Toni Clayton-Hine: Connect with Toni on LinkedIn Follow Toni on Twitter Resources & People Mentioned ARTICLE: “41 Brand Names People Use as Generic Terms” Set the Page Free website and free book download VIDEO: “How does Lee Child Create the Jack Reacher Suspense?” Episode 48: “If Marketing is Storytelling Then Learn from NYT #1 Bestseller Chris Bohjalian” Episode 49: “The Intersection of Marketing & Storytelling (with Chris Bohjalian)” Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

The sheer amount of data any company collects can quickly become overwhelming if it's not managed efficiently. As a CMO you have to have control of the data and understand how it flows throughout your organization. That’s why companies like Looker exist - to help you make sense of the data and use it to your advantage. In this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Looker’s CMO, Jen Grant, talks with Drew about why her unique background allows her to understand the art and science behind connecting everyone to your company’s brand message. She also shares why it’s important to simplify your company’s core message down to just a few phrases. Not only does Jen explain why actual face-to-face interaction is even more critical in today’s B2B marketing environment, she also discusses how Looker is achieving just that. You also don’t want to miss her best advice for CMOs. Jen conveys the heart of marketing in such an intriguing way in this episode - you don’t want to miss it. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [2:20] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Jen Grant, CMO of Looker [2:43] Jen shares her unique background story and how she got started in marketing [4:25] The key lessons Jen learned while working with Google [10:17] Looker’s purpose and story simplified into just a few words [13:17] How Looker’s technology allows data to be seen and enacted upon for their customers [17:16] What Looker’s data processing system looks like [20:00] Where Looker falls within the “stack” of data systems [22:20] Jen shares Looker success story case studies [26:46] The marketing efforts Jen has completed to combat Looker’s awareness challenge, outside of the data industry [34:24] Balancing tailored regional needs to overall company brand messages [37:45] The toughest lesson Jen has learned in the marketing world [39:20] Jen offers her “two do’s and a don’t” for data analytics Why data organization is so important and the art and science of connecting people to your company’s true message Without a user-friendly and complete data analytics system, critical insights that could be derived from your company’s data go undiscovered. Companies such as Looker provide an easily understood way of compiling individual data silos into one platform that can be shared across multiple employee teams. Once your data is organized in an effective manner, you can then use this data to enhance your company’s ability to spread your brand message. Data that is easily accessed and understood becomes a tool for creative storytelling that elicits an emotional response from your target market - ultimately creating more success for your company. How Looker is bringing actual human interaction into B2B marketing, and why your company should be doing the same Jen explains to Drew in this episode that Looker really wants to push face-to-face marketing because of the human connections that come from that process. But she warns that these in-person events cannot just be a drawn-out sales pitch. It has to be about creating genuine connections with people in your industry and regions, which then opens the door for future sales. These events are also an incredible resource for first-person stories that can be shared with your team and customers. In our technology-driven world, actual human interaction events can set your company apart from the rest, and you’d be surprised at just how effective they can be. Be sure to listen to this episode so you don’t miss out on Jen’s engaging story behind Looker’s journey in face-to-face B2B marketing. The top two “do’s” and one critical “don’t” in data analytics Because of Jen’s long history in marketing, and her unique background in theatre and English, she has a unique set of advice for CMOs. She suggests that companies get all of their data centralized so that every team can see the whole picture - not just snippets of information. She also is a huge proponent of as many people as possible looking at your company’s data, because you never know where your next great campaign idea might come from. Finally, she doesn’t want CMOs to forget the innate nature of marketing. While technology, reports, and team meetings are all critical pieces of the data analytics process, she encourages CMOs to remember their gut intuition when it comes to taking a leap of marketing faith. Her insights are sure to be useful to your company in 2018, so be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Connect With Jen: Meet the Looker Team Connect with Jen on LinkedIn Follow Jen on Twitter Follow Jen on Facebook Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

Christine Moorman is the T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Beginning in 2008 she started interviewing marketing leaders to determine their most important marketing questions and The CMO Survey has been an integral part of illuminating marketing trends ever since. Christine shares with Drew her excitement over the future of marketing and explains that “It’s not just about number crunching, the best marketing analytics bridge the divide between human insights and hard data.” They also dive into a conversation about why performing all marketing activities well is critical to organizational success. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew and Christine discuss the importance of teaching holistic marketing to future industry leaders, current trends in marketing, and the importance of measuring marketing effectiveness. Christine and Drew’s conversation is sure to reignite your passion for marketing, so don’t miss this episode. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [1:44] Drew introduces this week’s guest, Professor Christine Moorman, Professor at The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University [3:42] The importance of marketing in the business education curriculum [7:02] Key marketing components that Christine hopes students take away from her classes [9:30] The difference between the tech companies and the CPGs viewed from a teaching mindset [13:00] Christine talks about the macro trends she’s seen since the survey was released [20:20] Christine explains the difference between digital marketing “stuff” and digital marketing organization [24:27] The future of CMOs and key questions to ask your marketing team [26:17] The ability to measure marketing effectiveness as shown by the survey [28:24] Key metrics used to evaluate marketing ROI [33:20] Christine shares her excitement over the future of marketing [35:00] The true reality of marketing done well The importance of passionate marketing curriculum in academia Marketing is the one area in business that companies cannot afford to not master. Exceptional marketing helps acquire and maintain customers which is critical to long-term success and profit. As new generations of future industry leaders are rising through the ranks of higher education, professors like Christine are setting the standards high. Throughout this episode, she explains a few of the top challenges she faces in the classroom, as well as why she enjoys instilling a passion for marketing in her students. You don’t want to miss her description of why watching her students adopt a customer-first mindset is one of the greatest benefits of her position at Duke University, so be sure to listen. Key findings on marketing effectiveness and the top four components for measuring return on investments One of the biggest findings The CMO Survey has uncovered is the fact that marketing efforts need the whole company’s support in order to be most effective. Christine explains that every CMO needs to ask themselves, “What place does marketing have in my company/career? How can I be the voice of the customer?” After these questions have been addressed, companies can move forward in evaluating how marketing is impacting ROI. Drew and Christine also list the top four metrics to be used in ROI evaluation: awareness based on reach, brand/brand lift, usage, and customer retention. They go into full detail on these metrics and why they’re so critical - you should hear what they have to say. Where Christine sees future marketing trends going in the future and why she’s excited Throughout her career in marketing, Christine has found that “It’s such a dynamic field, a full array of different people and different works.” In the digital age, marketing is an integral part of life in even more varied ways. Innovating marketing tactics are only going to become more refined over time, and marketing will continue to show up in new and impressive ways. Drew and Christine both believe that you can truly drive things forward with the deep understanding that stellar marketing can bring. Connect With Christine: Christine Moorman’s biography page at Duke Christine’s Forbes profile Connect with Christine on LinkedIn Follow Christine on Twitter Resources & People Mentioned The CMO Survey Highlights and Insights Report from August 2017 CMO Survey Innovative Marketing and ROI, an interview with Antonio Lucio Master of Quantitative Management at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

The historically challenging industry of telecommunications is changing thanks in part to Jive Communications and their cloud-based phone services. Drew talks with co-founder and current CMO, Matt Peterson, about how he transitioned from his background in software engineering into the marketing realm. Not only do they discuss Jive’s innovative marketing verticalization strategies, but they also focus on the company’s innate ability to tackle big problems and approach large customer opportunities with confidence and ease. Hear the story behind Jive’s unconventional beginning and the heart of the company, as well as discover Matt’s favorite resources for marketing professionals by listening to this engaging episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Matt and Drew’s conversation is sure to inspire and educate - you don’t want to miss it! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:31] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Matt Peterson, co-founder and CMO of Jive Communications [3:44] Matt explains how he became the CMO of Jive [6:34] How Matt’s background in software engineering influences his current work in marketing [10:20] Drew asks Matt about his biggest learning curve when entering the marketing realm of Jive [13:35] What is at the heart of the Jive brand? [16:43] The top examples of Jive’s marketing campaigns that point to the core of Jive [21:25] Drew asks Matt about one of Jive’s most creative marketing projects [23:59] Another example of a Jive program that points to their core values [27:00] Brands and strategies from other companies that Matt admires [29:48] How to keep your marketing mind sharp and Matt’s top resources for CMOs [34:04] Matt explains some of the strategies Jive is implementing for better organizational success [36:00] Challenges Matt is tackling in 2018 The heart behind Jive Communications and how Matt’s background helps him in his position as CMO Drew and Matt discuss at length the heart of Jive Communications, and Matt attributes much of the company’s success to their “scrappy, blue-collar, bootstrap” approach. He understands that while their competitors may be larger and have more resources, Jive is able to tackle the industry and “punch above their weight class” with ease. Matt explains that by using his background in software engineering he is able to approach problems with an analytical mind that quickly links together the human intangibles found in marketing with what the data illuminates. Your company could benefit from hearing the story behind Jive’s foundation and current success, so be sure to listen. Tackling marketing verticalization the Jive way In order to effectively go after specific customers within their chosen target market, Matt needed to help Jive Communications find its optimal verticalization strategy. One of the best examples he explains to Drew involves the K-12 education system - a customer base that was notoriously hard to enter and change. By following Jive’s “scrappy” mindset Matt and his team were able to solve multiple problems for their education customers and ended up with dozens of new sales contracts. You don’t want to miss the full story of how Jive is shaking up the telecom industry, or the other fascinating examples of prime verticalization, so give this episode your full attention. How to keep your marketing mind sharp and Matt’s top two challenges for 2018 Matt explains to Drew that staying current in the marketing industry through continuing education is key to greater success. By attending conferences, reading voraciously, and having an incredible appetite for knowledge your marketing professionals are sure to stay at the top of their game. In this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Matt discusses his top two challenges for 2018: communicating Jive’s differentiation points in better ways and nailing their outbound approaches. Be sure to listen to the full episode to catch the whole conversation. Connect With Matt Peterson: Jive’s website Connect with Matt on LinkedIn Resources & People Mentioned “Will it Jive?” - video marketing campaign Book: Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman Turning Marketing into Math, an interview with Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo Book: How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know by Byron Sharp Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

As the CMO of Hootsuite, Penny Wilson has some fantastic insights into the social media listening industry and why identifying the customer voice of your company is essential. Not only is customer voice important for executing exceptional customer service but it can also be used as a tool to effectively communicate with executive boards and chief financial officers. Drew Neisser asks Penny about her journey towards Hootsuite and the top questions on why listening to your customers is critical. The idea of going “beyond marketing” is explored and Penny’s understanding of this concept is unparalleled. You can’t afford to miss their discussion on upcoming social media trends that could help your company grow by leaps and bounds. The top challenges faced by CMOs are also discussed in this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. It’s sure to be an educational and inspirational episode that you don’t want to miss. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [1:07] Drew introduces the guest for this episode, CMO of Hootsuite, Penny Wilson [4:40] How social media is helping companies go “beyond marketing” [5:57] Penny’s part in a new leadership team at Hootsuite [7:53] Unpacking the voice of the customer [13:02] Finding insights for your company through listening to the customer voice [19:43] Hootsuite’s challenge of breaking out of their original market [23:32] Drew asks Penny about the main challenges for CMOs [24:25] How can CMOs provide CFOs with the tools they need to understand the importance of marketing? [27:00] Social media opportunities that are often overlooked by companies [29:33] How AI can revolutionize the social media tools companies are using Customer voice is a tool that reaches beyond just marketing By taking the time to understand your company’s customers and the preferences and expectations they have, you can capture their collective voice. While this voice has obvious benefits in product/service development it can also allow you to examine their entire journey with your company. Listening to the voice of your customers allows you to build a culture that encourages the customer to direct the company and lets the customer lead. Devoted listening creates loyal customers which leads to valuable insights. The listening process should be built into every level of your company, with employees being empowered to become representatives of your company. For more information on how identifying your customer voice can be an asset to your company don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. The greatest challenge faced by CMOs and how Hootsuite has conquered it Penny’s career in marketing has allowed her to understand some of the greatest challenges faced by CMOs today. One of the most prevalent issues is the constant need for CMOs to get approval from top-level company leaders for their social listening and marketing campaigns. This challenge requires CMOs to tie marketing to a tangible outcome - a challenge that can be solved by using hypothesis-driven tools and metrics. Dive into this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to discover how Penny and her team at Hootsuite are enabling companies to create more effective marketing campaigns by offering information on the returns on investment for marketing campaigns. The most overlooked opportunities that exist through social media listening Penny explains to Drew that the best marketers should be paying attention to the fact that not every customer or employee is 100% comfortable with social media yet. Educational training components can be built into the company culture or customer interface to allow those with less experience to catch up with the current trends and techniques. She also explains that while artificial intelligence is definitely making an appearance in the social listening spheres, it’s not going to overpower the human element of marketing and customer interaction. No matter how your company goes about social listening to uncover the voice of your customers, keep in mind Penny’s best acronym for marketing - SCALE - social, customer-centered, authentic, listen and learn, and engage. You and your company will benefit from listening to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, so be sure to listen. Connect With Penny Wilson: Hootsuite Leadership Team webpage featuring Penny Connect with Penny on LinkedIn Follow Penny on Twitter Follow Penny on Facebook Resources & People Mentioned Hootsuite’s LiftMetrix tool Ep. 40 - “Meet McDonald's Maestro of Social Customer Care” Hootsuite Academy Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

For the 60th episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew Neisser interviews Peter Shankman - author, serial entrepreneur, and a world-renowned speaker on social economics. He is a top-tier expert on customer service, social media, public relations, and advertising - all while spreading the idea that incredible things can happen when creativity, determination, and ADHD meet. Drew asks him about best advice for entrepreneurs and how to work in your zone of focus on this engaging and entertaining episode. You’ll discover Peter’s ritual suggestions and what’s on the horizon for marketers in 2018. You don’t want to miss Peter’s insights into the top marketing mistakes to avoid. He also uncovers why social media relates so strongly to marketing and the foundational beliefs behind storytelling and public relations. Drew and Peter’s conversation will leave you wanting more, so be sure to listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:50] Drew introduces the guest for the 60th Renegade Thinkers Unite episode, Peter Shankman [4:00] How Peter was able to write a book in 31 hours after finding his zone of focus [6:24] Ritual suggestions for marketers in 2018 [12:00] New ideas on the horizon for marketers [13:00] The importance of public relations in B2B marketing [15:14] Public relations and marketing mistakes to avoid in the new year [19:00] How do we measure public relations? [22:28] Social media and how it relates to marketing [25:18] Why Twitter is becoming less valuable in a B2B marketing situation [28:35] Best use of social media as a brand within the marketing mix [30:14] Rapid fire questions with Peter Shankman Why finding and working in your zone of focus is critical for ultimate success When Peter had two weeks to finish (and start) a book he had committed to writing, he did what works best for his brain. He booked a roundtrip flight to Tokyo and wrote all ten chapters of the book over 31 hours. While this type of work schedule may not be ideal for everyone, Drew and Peter discuss the importance of finding what works for you and focusing solely on tactics within that zone. As conversations about resolutions become increasingly more abundant, Peter counters that line of thinking by explaining that “resolutions fail, but rituals succeed.” To learn more about Peter’s story and to learn from his successes don’t miss this stellar episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. The top marketing trends to look for in 2018 2018 is sure to be a cornerstone year for individuals and businesses alike. Peter talks with Drew about why listening is of utmost importance in the marketing realm, but why it has to go beyond listening for a break in conversation so you can share your thoughts. They also discuss why conversations across the world are moving away from distrust and into an age of wanting to believe in the truth again. Understanding hot topic ideas such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, and why Twitter’s heyday may be ending are all covered on this episode, so be sure to take the time to listen. Public relations in B2B marketing and why having an audience is a privilege - not a right As B2B marketers it’s key to understand how public relations relates to your company. Public relations helps people to believe the information they’re consuming, which is key for audience engagement. The audience your company targets deserves high-quality content delivered on a timely basis, and Peter explains that companies should never take their audiences for granted. Connecting what you have to what the industry needs, and conveying it in a thoughtful, concise manner, is a key PR strategy in B2B marketing. You can’t afford to miss the rest of Peter’s insights that will help you start off 2018 with a burst of productivity, so don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Connect With Peter Shankman: Peter’s personal website Peter’s ShankMinds: Breakthrough website Connect with Peter on LinkedIn Follow Peter on Twitter Follow Peter on Facebook Resources & People Mentioned Peter’s founding company, Help A Reporter Out Peter’s books on Amazon Drew’s 2013 interview with Peter, “Nice Companies Finish First” Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew Neisser asks CMO of NetBase Solutions, Paige Leidig, the top questions surrounding social listening and analytics. With over 80% of tweets mentioning brands and the social media analytics industry being a $2.7 billion operation, it’s critical to know how listening can increase your customer connections. Drew and Paige dive into social listening to give you and your business the best chance to hone your target market and utilize the best marketing channels possible. You’ll also discover how artificial intelligence in the form of Natural Language Processing can revolutionize your metadata processing. The toughest challenges and biggest surprises encountered in social marketing are covered in this episode. You also don’t want to miss Paige’s top tips for CMOs in 2018. This conversation is sure to provide critical social listening insights, so be sure to listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [1:40] Drew introduces this episode’s guest - Paige Leidig, CMO of NetBase Solutions [3:00] What is social listening and social analytics? [8:15] Paige shares a great example of social listening information used in revolutionary ways [10:12] The main three marketing channels most brands utilize [12:13] What is the state of the art technique for social listening? [15:36] How can you differentiate your competitive advantage via social listening? [16:59] Natural language processing (NLP) - Artificial intelligence to moderate meta social media data [20:52] Top areas marketers miss while listening to customers [23:49] Paige shares additional example stories on why social listening is critical [28:19] How changing your message for your target market can increase sales and customer engagement [33:35] Why customer stories are of utmost importance in B2B marketing [36:33] Paige’s tips for CMOs moving forward into 2018 [38:00] Common surprises encountered when entering into social listening The practical benefits of incorporating listening into your social marketing strategies The premise behind social listening is aggregating all public data that’s published on millions of social media platforms and analyzing it to provide key insights into your industry. There are multitudes of practical benefits to social listening, including having the availability to quickly change marketing techniques if the listening offers new feedback on how the market is reacting to a campaign. It enables your company to create content that adds value to the market and encourages high-level digital connections with your customers. Microsoft and Apple are only two examples of top-tier companies utilizing social listening in their marketing strategies and their successes are demonstrated across the board. To hear their full stories be sure to give this episode a listen. The top three channels used in marketing and how new technology can improve the data analysis process Paige walks Drew through the main three channels that brands utilize on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. The company’s own channel is the most obvious, followed by partnered content channels. But the most valuable channel is through earned content - where people are talking about your brand/content and the signature characteristics that they find interesting and applicable. The best insights come from this channel alone. In order to analyze all of the data that comes through the earned channel, companies should utilize a new form of artificial intelligence called Natural Language Processing or NLP. It automatically sifts through millions of posts, images, and videos to determine the main themes and sentiments of the messages. This data is analyzed across dozens of languages in real time and offers critically important insights into your social marketing strategies. You don’t want to miss this conversation, so be sure to listen to the full audio. Top social listening tips for CMOs and how to avoid the biggest mistake in marketing analysis If social listening is done correctly, your company has the opportunity to see huge progress made in your marketing campaigns. As 2018 approaches, Paige encourages other CMOs to be spending 80% of the marketing budget on digital marketing and to move beyond demographic marketing into psychographic marketing. He shares with Drew the biggest mistake to avoid in social listening, which is using false metrics derived from your own channel to drive marketing campaigns. There’s a whole world of opportunity that exists in your earned channel, you just have to be infinitely curious about your customers. You can’t afford to miss these applicable lessons from Drew and Paige so be sure to listen to this engaging episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Connect With Paige Leidig: NetBase team website featuring Paige Read Paige’s recent posts for NetBase Connect with Paige on LinkedIn Follow Paige on Twitter Resources & People Mentioned NetBase’s Natural Language Processing tool Paige’s “9 Social Media Metrics to Monitor” webinar Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

Drew’s guest on this episode, Juliette Rizkallah, has an MBA from Harvard University and over 20 years of marketing and cybersecurity experience. As the CMO for SailPoint, she has linked the idea of identity management to cybersecurity and built a brand that is synonymous with excellence. In this conversation, she and Drew offer your company the best tactics for brand building, how to differentiate your company from competitors, and why branding is important for employee buy-in and workplace fulfillment. Juliette believes that going beyond “FUD - fear, uncertainty, and doubt factor” marketing leads to customer empowerment and a solid foundation for your company to stand on for many years to come. On this insightful episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew and Juliette tackle some of the biggest challenges for new CMOs and discuss how to handle one of the biggest obstacles in any workplace - ensuring top executives buy into a marketing initiative. Juliette has some exciting ideas to share with you, so be sure to listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher - or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [1:22] Drew introduces the guest for this episode, Juliette Rizkallah, CMO of Sailpoint [2:30] How marketing influenced SailPoint’s recent growth in sales [5:26] The human element of data breaches [6:47] Juliette discusses the mission and strategy of SailPoint [8:05] How do customers emotionally buy into SailPoint? [11:46] What is branding? [13:20] How Juliette is helping SailPoint cut through the competition through branding [18:23] One great effort that Juliette did with SailPoint to differentiate the company [20:54] How to handle a competitor copying your branding efforts, and what that means for your company [27:02] Slow branding is better than fast branding = builds a better foundation [30:00] The biggest challenge as a new CMO who is building a new program [33:00] Advice for fellow marketing professionals [35:33] Drew’s summary of the episode How SailPoint built a brand that ultimately increased sales and moved away from FUD tactics When Juliette joined SailPoint two years ago, their existing branding efforts were not linking the impact of identity management to cybersecurity. She led the efforts that brought SailPoint back to their mission and core values, which “gives enterprises the power to grow, expand and innovate, securely and confidently via innovation, integrity, impact, and individuals.” SailPoint moved away from relying on FUD techniques to incite fear in their customers and demonstrated to them the “power of identity.” Juliette explains that by empowering your IT team and taking away the minutia of cybersecurity work, they are better equipped to focus on company growth - which leads to great fulfillment. These combined efforts led to an exponential growth in sales, increased customer satisfaction, and improved company culture and morale. You can learn how to make these benefits come to fruition at your company if you listen to Juliette’s full story on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. So a competitor copies your branding efforts? What’s next? After the intense branding process, SailPoint was faced with a large competitor copying their efforts - unfortunately, a common problem in B2B environments. Drew and Juliette discuss the emotional discovery and how SailPoint turned a potential conflict into a reflective exercise. She explains that while the competitor copied SailPoint’s tagline, they could not capture what made SailPoint an exceptional and unique company. Simply changing color schemes and logos does not bring about real change, and clinging to that mindset got Juliette’s team and SailPoint through the challenge. She encourages other CMOs to accept the issue, move past it, and know that those who go through the long process of building a brand will ultimately find more success than those who simply copy the work of others. Slow branding is better than fast branding, and why a firm foundation is critical to company success and workplace fulfillment Throughout this episode, a common theme of Drew and Juliette’s conversation is that “slow branding is better than fast branding.” When she began the process of building a brand at SailPoint it was ten months later before real internal and external change was recognized. “We decided to do it well rather than fast,” Juliette explains, and she recognizes that this mindset can be challenging with sales teams, marketing qualified leads, and executive boards looming. This process can excite employees and refresh the ideas behind why the company exists and why employees have dedicated time to its efforts. You can implement her same problem-solving techniques at your company and build a branding platform that you can use for many years to come. Be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to take advantage of Juliette and Drew’s CMO experience and learn why effective branding can differentiate your unique company from the rest. Connect With Juliette Rizkallah: SailPoint’s Executive Team Website Juliette’s Forbes archive Connect with Juliette on LinkedIn Follow Juliette on Twitter Follow Juliette on Facebook Resources & People Mentioned “Marketing Today with Alan Hart” podcast Chanel’s marketing videos SailPoint’s “Identity is Everything” initiative Connect with Drew 917-679-8852 (Text “renegade thinking” so we can talk about how to cut through the noise as a marketer) http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram  

With more than 15 years of healthcare marketing experience, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Binary Fountain, Aaron Clifford, talks with Drew in this episode about the importance of understanding what your customers are saying about your brand. As you listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, you’ll discover the top strategies you can implement during your first 6 months on the job as a CMO for a new company. Drew not only asks why customer experience should matter to company administrators, he and Aaron talk about the top marketing lessons current CMOs need to know in order to succeed. Critical topics such as reviewing past marketing attempts and accomplishments and the importance of owning a problem are all covered on this episode. You’ll enjoy this conversation and you can’t afford to miss Aaron’s insights, so be sure to listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:32] Drew introduces his guest, Aaron Clifford, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Binary Fountain [1:25] The story behind the name and purpose of Binary Fountain, and how Aaron came to be with the company after 15 years of healthcare marketing experience [7:00] Top tips for the first six months as a CMO at a new company [12:17] Why customer experience should matter to company administrators [13:21] How do you market a service to large companies? [19:00] Suggestions from Aaron to make webinars more impactful [21:51] Secret to making online events work - market the heck out of them [27:17] Trick to using RFPs for internal company success and to increase functionality on digital marketing platforms. [29:58] How did Aaron have the confidence to take on such a large risk at a new company? [32:38] Top marketing lessons from Aaron for other CMOs How Aaron Clifford tackled the issue of listening to conversations to enhance customer experiences The name Binary Fountain evolved from a simple brainstorming session with company developers. Since that initial discussion, Binary Fountain has become synonymous with creating exceptional customer experiences through enhanced marketing and conversational strategies. What began as a felt need - How do you sift through enormous amounts of healthcare-related customer feedback? - has morphed into a world-class operation that seeks to “leverage patient feedback to impact revenue and operations.” During his first six months in his role as CMO Aaron went on a “listening tour” and simply asked why employees were working with Binary Fountain. What he found will surprise you. Be sure to listen to this engaging episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to discover what he found. Why should customer experience matter to company administrators? Customer experience is a huge part of brand management. Aaron explains that “You are not what you say you are - you are what others say you are. That’s your brand!” By ensuring that every interaction with every customer is exceptional, you are not only creating brand loyalty but also enabling your company to do better in its overall operations. If your marketing tactics such as utilizing social media platforms and having creative website interfaces create an atmosphere of support and engagement, your customers’ satisfaction will improve dramatically. For more insights on why customer experiences should matter at a company’s highest levels don’t miss this episode. Tired of lackluster online events? Check out these industry secrets for stellar webinar sessions Drew and Aaron discuss how you can make webinars more impactful on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Here is an example: Live webinars allow you to connect with your customers in a tremendous way but they are of no use to your company if they aren’t marketed correctly. Enhancing the marketing strategies for your webinars will allow you to increase your registrants for the event and increased registrants will combat the level of attrition that comes with the territory of webinars. And if you partner with industry leaders for the webinar, your company now has a bullet-proof way to disperse information and connect with customers. Don’t miss this helpful, webinar-focused part of the conversation on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite with Drew Neisser. Connect With Aaron Clifford: Binary Fountain’s spotlight on Aaron Clifford Connect with Aaron Clifford on LinkedIn Resources & People Mentioned Text “content audit” to (917) 679-8852 for world-class content National Donut Day Ep. 42: Why The Best Talent is Going Client-side w CMO of Boxed.com Connect with Drew 917-679-8852 (Text “renegade thinking” so we can talk about how to cut through the noise as a marketer) http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

For some time now the social marketing campaigns of most brands have consisted of scheduling out loads of content through Buffer or another social management tool and letting it run. Kevan Lee, Director of Marketing at Buffer says your promotions, blog posts, and podcast episodes are undoubtedly filled with valuable insights, but a shift is taking place in the social media world that demands you modify your strategy. Users of social media - the very ones you’re trying to reach - are valuing the “social” part of social media more than the “media” part. In short: Engagement matters more than publication. What does that mean for a brand? It means a new approach to social media is in order. To help us get our heads around what exactly that means, Drew recorded this conversation with Kevan and discussed the shifting social media landscape, how social marketing campaigns of the past must give way to genuine transparency and engagement, and how small to medium-sized businesses can do social right. Sounds intriguing, don’t you think? Be sure you listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher- or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:30] Why hell hath no fury like a social detractor and why businesses need to use it effectively to listen, learn and engage. [1:50] Kevan and the team at Buffer work in a fully remote team environment [3:00] The reason Kevan believes writing is vital for marketers to learn [4:26] The changes that have happened in the social media world: engagement matters more than publishing [6:19] How the Buffer team markets Buffer through engagement: No ROI for social [10:26] What does it mean to be “on brand” - the Buffer approach [14:59] Brands that have been using social media effectively these days [20:24] The biggest mistakes Kevan sees brands making on social [24:33] Buffer’s transparency ethic and how it impacts their planning and engagement [32:13] Kevan’s advice for medium-small businesses when it comes to social Most social media activity is crap simply because brands feel they HAVE to schedule something to publish. Try on a new social marketing approach: Be active, be on brand, be engaged As Drew and his guest, Kevan Lee, of Buffer spoke about current social media trends, Drew pointed out how much of what’s out there is the epitome of irrelevance. Most brands are guilty of adding to the noise instead of adding to the conversations already happening on social. Kevan responded by saying that a good social campaign these days involves being active (and he’s got an interesting definition of what that means), being “on brand,” and being engaged. In this conversation, he shares clear explanations of how a small to medium sized company can pull off each of those 3 elements of effective social, so don’t miss this conversation. If you don’t have something meaningful to say in a week’s time, your brand has bigger problems The biggest part of being a brand that adds true value on social media is to only post things that are truly relevant and valuable. But because the “old way” of doing social marketing insisted that companies fill up their channels with content (relevant or not), many in the marketing department are scratching their heads about what it means to be truly meaningful. Kevan Lee, Director of Marketing at Buffer says if you don’t have something meaningful to say in a week’s time, your company has a bigger problem than you realize. Find out what he means by that statement and how he proposes companies adjust their social media strategy on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Be among the 20% of brands who actually respond to mentions on social media Engagement matters on social media, especially for companies. But Kevan Lee points out that only 20% of companies these days even respond when they are tagged or mentioned on social. It’s unthinkable when you realize that the person who tagged your company is likely a customer or prospect - the very people you’re looking to reach. So naturally, the most obvious thing you can do to increase the effectiveness of your social marketing is to be among the 20% of brands that monitor your social accounts and respond when you’re mentioned. Start a conversation, engage, solve problems. That’s the “social” part of social media, and it works. Connect With Kevan Kevan’s profile on the Buffer page Connect with Kevan on LinkedIn Follow Kevan on Twitter Follow Kevan on Facebook Resources & People Mentioned Dogs in Politics Day National Blueberry Popsicle Month Mailchimp Red Bull GoPro Product Hunt On Twitter On Facebook The Seattle Times On Facebook On Twitter HARO - Help A Reporter Out Google Analytics Facebook Insights Ted Rubin - “There’s no ROI on ignoring” Connect with Drew 917-679-8852 (Text “renegade thinking” so we can talk about how to cut through the noise as a marketer) http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

The role of the Chief Marketing Officer in any company is tough simply because it requires a seemingly contradictory set of skills - the foresight and courage of a brand marketer, and the detail and systems approach of a performance marketer. How can anyone be expected to fill THAT kind of job description as a CMO? That’s the question being explored on this episode. Drew’s guest is Kristi Maynor, Head of the U.S. CMO and Digital Transformation Practice at Egon Zehnder, one of the top recruitment and talent search companies in the world. The resumes of some of the top CMO candidates in business have passed through her hands, so if anyone can describe the kind of skills it takes to be or become a truly effective CMO, Kristi can. Join us for this wide-ranging and provoking conversation as we dig into why courage and curiosity are some of the most important characteristics for any potential CMO and how you can take steps in your current position that position you for advancement to the prestigious yet challenging role of CMO. You’ll enjoy this conversation so I hope you take the time to listen. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - Stitcher - or Podsearch What You’ll Learn [0:30] Courage: Easy to say but hard to demonstrate [1:23] Kristi Maynor’s role with Egon Zehnder, one of the premier talent search agencies in the world. [4:01] Marketers at Procter and Gamble Kristi worked with who she believes was courageous [8:11] The top characteristic of successful CMOs: Curiosity [12:03] The expanding role of today’s marketer and what should a CMO be responsible for? [15:35] Who does better? A brand marketer or performance marketer? [21:55] The role of the CMO as bridge builder and instigator of more effective integrations within the company [27:43] Advice Kristi gives to those looking to become a CMO in the future [29:54] Why very few CMOs become CEOs In order to transform a company you have to exhibit courage from the moment you walk in It’s probably fair to say that most newly-hired CMOs are walking into a situation where their new employer is struggling, at least on some level. They’ve been hired to assess the current state of things, diagnose the problems, and set a new direction that brings the company out of the down season and into a new era of success. Stepping into a situation like that requires courage - both because it’s a step into the unknown and because it will require the development of plans that take the company in an entirely new direction. Find out how Kristi Maynor suggests you cultivate and develop that kind of courage, on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. The problematic need for a CMO who is brand driven AND performance driven As Kristi and Drew discussed the common traits Kristi has seen in some of the most effective and sought-after CMOs in the business world, it quickly became apparent that a person with a very unusual gift-mix is needed to fill this vital and company-changing role. The CMO job description demands a person who is visionary and able to communicate where the brand is headed - but at the same time able to spearhead efforts to build systems and procedures that drive the process efficiently. There aren’t many people like that, and Kristi explains what it takes to become that person and succeed, in this episode. When working toward a CMO role, don’t focus on the title, focus on the impact you’ll be able to have It’s undoubtedly an ego boost to anyone to be offered the role of CMO in a prestigious company. But the allure of such a high profile position pales in comparison to the potential the role provides. Kristi Maynor has seen many new CMOs step into their role with courage and lead their company to new heights. Her advice? Don’t focus on the title or position you’ve been given, focus on the impact you’ll be able to have. Keeping your eyes on the prize enables you to avoid reading your own press and accomplish the things you were hired to do - and everyone from team members to customers to board members will benefit as a result. This episode shares key insights from a woman who’s seen the impact of effective CMOs first-hand. Don’t miss it. Connect With Kristi: Kristi’s profile on the Egon Zehnder site Connect with Kristi on LinkedIn Follow Kristi on Twitter Resources & People Mentioned Procter and Gamble Kevin Hochman of KFC Beth Comstock Salesforce Best Buy Domino's Pizza Box.com Aflac Connect with Drew http://renegade.com/ On LinkedIn On Twitter On Facebook On Instagram

B2B storytelling isn’t easy especially on a modest budget. Creating campaigns that both peak the interest of prospective customers and rally the morale of employees requires careful orchestration and a big idea. On this episode, Tungsten Network's CMO Connie O’Brien breaks down how her internal and external team built a story-driven content marketing program that filled the company's pipeline with high-quality leads. Working with multiple agency partners including Renegade LLC, Speed Communications, and Dragon Search, O'Brien also provides valuable insights on how to maximize teamwork by getting everyone pointed at the same goals and metrics. Meet the Guest Connie O’Brien is the CMO of UK-based Tungsten Network. As CMO, Connie is responsible for the Tungsten brand and ensuring the firm is at the forefront of the digital transformation of the purchase-to-pay process, with a focus on how we delight our customers through automated, scalable, dynamic and personalized experiences. Connie joined Tungsten from Affinion Group, an international membership, and loyalty company where she was Chief Digital Officer. She has over twenty years’ experience driving digital marketing strategies for businesses and has delivered campaigns for brands including GlaxoSmithKline, P&G, Kraft Foods, AXA, John Hancock, AT&T, Vonage, and Verizon. Connie is an innovative executive with an exceptional record of building award-winning integrated experiences across channels. She has expert multi-dimensional skills in strategy development, product launches, and cross-functional team building. Connie has also demonstrated a proven ability to align operations, establish a shared vision, recruit and retain top talent, build collaborative teams and instill the focus on shareholder value creation. What You’ll Learn The ingredients of a successful story-driven content marketing strategy. How to empower your employees to get behind a new campaign. How to develop a sound A/B testing strategy. Advice for navigating agency partnerships.

Think of this episode as a happy holiday greeting with just a bit of meat on the bones as Michele Fino, CMO of DoSomething.org, offers family-friendly advice on how to give back during the holiday season. Michele’s suggestions are short and sweet offering a poignant reminder that giving is a habit that can be taught and shared at an early age.

Are you hyped for the 2018 International Consumer Electronics Show? Today’s guest, Shelly Palmer (CEO of the Palmer Group), covers some of the biggest tech trends that will be shown off at the event. Palmer talks about the future of AI, illustrating how consumer interaction with products like Google Home and Amazon Alexa is expected to evolve in the near future. Meet the Guest  Named one of LinkedIn’s Top 10 Voices in Technology, Shelly Palmer is CEO of The Palmer Group, a strategic advisory, technology solutions and business development practice focused at the nexus of media and marketing with a special emphasis on machine learning and data-driven decision-making. He is a trusted strategic advisor to the C-Suite of leading digital media, content, broadcasting and technology firms and a key driver of market, technology and strategic direction, as well as acquisition strategies, for his clients. Palmer is well known as Fox 5 New York’s on-air tech expert and for his work on the Emmy-nominated television show, Shelly Palmer Digital Living. He is also a regular technology commentator for CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox Business News. An award-winning composer, producer, writer and director, Palmer has worked with hundreds of brands, agencies, broadcasters, publishers and tech platforms on advertising and marketing campaigns such as Meow Mix, Burger King and The City of Las Vegas. Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (Focal Press 2006; 2nd Edition, York House Press, 2008) the seminal book about the technological, economic, and sociological forces that are changing everything, Overcoming The Digital Divide: How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career (York House Press, 2011), Digital Wisdom: Thought Leadership for a Connected World (York House Press, 2013) and Data-Driven Thinking: A collection of essays on data-driven decision making (Digital Living Press, 2016). You can book your official CES tour with a ShellyPalmer strategic advisor here. What You’ll Learn What to expect at the 2018 International Consumer Electronics Show. How collaborating with people outside your field can lead to big ideas. Insights into recent AI trends. Topics to think about in preparation for the CES show. Quotes from Shelly Palmer This year at CES, we're going to have a really good look at integrations between the natural language understanding tools and the physical world. Just physically being at CES puts you in an environment where you can meet people who are scholarly, learned, and experienced in other disciplines. Consumers are going to always find the most frictionless path to fulfill their desires. If you're going to spend a few days out of your life [at CES] without having to be in the office and you're going to go learn new things, well then have a plan about what you want to learn.

Retail is not exactly rich with turnaround stories these days but that's exactly what's happened at Pearle Vision. CMO Doug Zarkin provides a step-by-step review of how the brand has gone from stagnant to revitalized, indicated by same-store sales growth, new store openings and a jump in ranking from >100 to #24 among the best franchises to own. Through a number of small but ultimately significant changes like renaming customers to patients, employees to eye care professionals and stores to eye care centers, Pearle Vision has been able to shift the conversation from deals on glasses to professional eye care. Most significantly, Zarkin and company figured out that people who come in for eye exams are far more likely to buy glasses and become repeat customers than those that are just shopping for new glasses.   Meet the Guest Doug Zarkin is a senior-level, global strategic marketing executive with an impressive array of honors and recognition for his marketing and brand building successes in the retail arena at companies such as Avon, Limited Brands and Kellwood. In 2012, Doug joined Luxottica where he is currently responsible for the global strategic marketing, visual merchandising, product promotion and store design for Luxottica's global optical franchise business Pearle Vision. Among other industry accolades, in 2015 and again in 2016 Doug and his team were recognized with a Silver Effie for marketing excellence in HealthCare Services Marketing for leading the brand revitalization work for Pearle Vision. When not at the office, Doug can be found on the tennis court or in the pool with his two kids. What You’ll Learn How a willingness to learn and listen can allow your team to win. Why marketers should practice humility when facing their audience. Insightful perspectives on social media’s role in the brand-customer relationship. How your brand’s language can influence consumer perceptions.  Quotes from Doug Zarkin Any marketer worth his salt knows that a positioning that doesn't make for great execution is just words on paper. To win, you must always be thinking about consumer perception because as smart as you are…you're never going to be as smart as your consumer. There is a positioning idea where you want to be aspirational. I don't think that's it. I think it's about a positioning ideal where you want to be inspirational. Trust is really built in a series of small moments.    

Renegade Thinkers Unite may be 50 episodes in, but we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of the many innovative marketing ideas out there. This special episode takes a unique twist; instead of asking the questions, Drew will be answering them! Marketing Today podcast host Alan Hart asks the RTU host about some of the biggest insights he’s discovered after interviewing over 200 CMOs. So buckle in and get ready to learn about Drew’s favorite renegade-inspired strategies discussed on the show.

A little tenderness goes a long way when trying to reach an audience. If you want to develop a brand message that has meaning, emotional storytelling could be the key to your next marketing campaign. As bestselling author Chris Bohjalian illustrated in Part I of this Renegade Thinkers Unite episode, storytelling is all about touching the audience on a personal level. In Part II of this episode, Bohjalian talks about the mechanics behind some of the deeply emotional themes he has communicated to his readers over the years. The author’s eloquent words are sure to inspire your marketing team, as he provides narrative advice that can help your brand convey a powerful story. Meet the Guest Chris Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 20 books. His work has been translated into over 30 languages and three times become movies. His new book, The Flight Attendant, lands March 13, 2018. Bohjalian's books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Hartford Courant, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Bookpage, and Salon. His awards include the ANCA Freedom Award for his work educating Americans about the Armenian Genocide; the ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal; the New England Society Book Award for The Night Strangers; the New England Book Award; Russia’s Soglasie (Concord) Award for The Sandcastle Girls; a Boston Public Library Literary Light; a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Trans-Sister Radio; a Best Lifestyle Column for Idyll Banter from the Vermont Press Association; and the Anahid Literary Award. Bohjalian is a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest, and The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. He was a weekly columnist in Vermont for The Burlington Free Press from 1992 through 2015.  

Marketing is all about telling stories. Who could share better storytelling insights than #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian who also started his career in account service at J. Walter Thomson? A character-driven novelist who imports his own emotional experiences into many of his deeply descriptive works, Bohjalian has mastered the ability to connect with his readers. The wordsmith shares his strategy for hooking in audiences and discusses his genuine approach to engaging with fans on social media. Chris Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 20 books including Midwives, Sleepwalker and The Guest Room. His work has been translated into over 30 languages and three times become movies. Bohjalian's new book, The Flight Attendant, lands March 13, 2018. His books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Hartford Courant, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Bookpage, and Salon. Bohjalian's awards include the ANCA Freedom Award for his work educating Americans about the Armenian Genocide; the ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal; the New England Society Book Award for The Night Strangers; the New England Book Award; Russia’s Soglasie (Concord) Award for The Sandcastle Girls; a Boston Public Library Literary Light; a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Trans-Sister Radio; a Best Lifestyle Column for Idyll Banter from the Vermont Press Association; and the Anahid Literary Award. He is a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bohjalian has written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest, and The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. He was a weekly columnist in Vermont for The Burlington Free Press from 1992 through 2015. After graduating from Amherst College, Bohjalian started his career in advertising as an account executive at J. Walter Thompson where he met the host Drew Neisser. In this episode, you'll learn among other things the dramatic story that pushed Bohjalian out of New York City and into the verdant hills of Vermont. 

Is your marketing department diverse? Does it reflect the target audience you are hoping to engage?  If not, there's a good chance your communications will fall flat and the chance of recruiting a diverse workforce in the future will be that much tougher. How then do you hire and then manage a diverse workforce and what are the key benefits of doing so? To answer these questions and more, Jennifer Brown is this week's guest on Renegade Thinkers Unite.    Jennifer Brown is an award-winning entrepreneur, dynamic speaker and diversity and inclusion expert. She is the founder, president, and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting (JBC), a strategic leadership and diversity consulting firm that coaches business leaders worldwide on critical issues of talent and workplace strategy. Brown is a passionate advocate for social equality who delves into the “business case for diversity” as she helps businesses foster healthier, more productive workplace cultures. With over a decade of experience consulting to Fortune 500 companies including Toyota, Starbucks, and Capital One, Brown is a highly sought-after expert source on changing demographics, specific communities of identity including women, people of color, LGBT individuals, generations like Millennials, and the role of male leaders in change efforts. Brown’s book Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change (2016) will inspire leadership to embrace the opportunity that diversity represents and empower advocates at all levels to find their voice and be a driving force in creating more enlightened organizations that resonate in a fast-changing world. You can learn more about Brown’s mission on The Will to Change podcast.

If your own CEO is skeptical about your marketing strategy, chances are you’ll run into problems internally and externally. To operate more effectively and with the board’s full support, you need to fully understand the data and communicate it honestly. Few professionals understand the importance of the CEO-CMO relationship as well as Alan Trefler—founder, CEO, and chairman of Pegasystems. Listen now for Alan’s take on building a stronger rapport with your superiors, maintaining customer satisfaction, and working as a student of business. Alan Trefler is a visionary change-agent, innovative philanthropist, and trusted advisor to business leaders around the world.  Alan founded Pegasystems three decades ago to change how the world builds software.  In that time, Alan’s unique vision and relentless focus on client success has positively evolved the way many of the world’s leading enterprises engage with their customers. Alan’s best-seller, Build for Change, describes a new generation of customers with the unprecedented power to make or break brands and the changes businesses must embrace to succeed in today’s digital world. Alan is the holder of multiple software patents, and the recipient of industry awards recognizing him as an innovative CEO and successful entrepreneur.  In 2017, Alan was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s IT Steering Committee. A staunch education advocate, Alan and wife Pam established the Trefler Foundation in 1996 to improve educational outcomes.   The Foundation recently sponsored Union & Fifth, an innovative non-profit that turns clothing donations into money for charities.

Whether you're considering entrepreneurship or eager to rise another rung on the marketing ladder, now is the time to be thinking about your personal brand and enter the world of content creators. To understand how to navigate this potentially perilous world, you'll need a guide and I can think of no one more qualified than entrepreneur Dorie Clark. The New York Times describes Dorie as "an expert in personal reinvention," and with the release of her new book Entrepreneurial You, she has outlined all the ways to "monetize your expertise, create multiple income streams and thrive!"  Listen now for Dorie's recommendations on content creation, blogging, podcasting, speaking and so much more.     

WNYC’s transformation from a traditional regional broadcaster to a multi-platform media powerhouse offers lessons for just about any marketer, especially those seeking to become world-class content providers. Setting the stage for our extensive conversation, Peter Weingard, CMO of WNYC, explains, “It's like being in a new business all of the time because what the business looks like today is not what it looked like a year ago.” This enlightened perspective is just the beginning of the CMO-worthy insights Weingard offers. New York Public Radio may be a 93-year-old radio station, but it still manages to look brand new. Weingard helps ensure the media outlet remains agile in its offerings to listeners. As Weingard puts it, New York Public Radio is in the curiosity business. In this episode, you’ll learn how to cater to the here and now audience, understanding how to maintain a flexible content approach.

A company without values is like a tree without roots. As soon it faces adversity, it will tumble over. When Denise Broady arrived at WorkForce Software, she was alarmed to find out that the company did not have any written values in place. To make matters worse, WorkForce had an international team with employees spread out across the globe. Broady had her work cut out for her when she decided to rethink the brand’s vision and communicate that message to the whole company. In this episode, you’ll learn how her marketing team convinced fellow WorkForce employees to embrace new core values and amplify the brand message.

Boxed.com is in the business of delivering joy. Whether you work for the e-commerce startup or order from them, there’s a good chance they’ll make you smile. On this episode, Boxed.com’s CMO Jackson Jeyanayagam discusses his role in helping the brand maintain its sparkling reputation. You’ll learn tips for reaching customers emotionally, as well as how to create a specific vision for your company.

Although the Equifax hack put cybersecurity on the priority list for 140 million Americans and scared the heck out of many others, it is hardly a new issue for consumers. Major hacks at Yahoo and Target a few years back put many on high alert. So what is new here and why should cybersecurity be a priority issue for senior marketers?  Well, as it turns out, all that marketing technology you've recently brought into your company has created even more exposure for your company's data and that of the consumers with whom you do business. Sure enough, your pursuit of big data to optimize your sales, marketing and customer experience efforts, have put your companies at risk, in a remarkably big way. And of course, a data breach will inevitably become a brand breach as the folks at Equifax can attest. So batten down the hatches and have a listen as Norman Guadagno, Senior Vice President of Marketing shares his thoughts on why this is such a big problem and some of the steps that marketers can take to prevent or at least mitigate the impact of a security breach.   

If you’re not focusing on customer experience, you may be missing out on a huge opportunity to build brand love. Dan Gingiss—Senior Director of Global Social Media for McDonald’s—believes in the power of service. He identifies social media as a key medium to address customer questions and concerns. As a published author and podcast host, Gingiss offers professional advice for connecting with audiences and getting involved in consumer conversations. Technical note: Drew apologizes for the sound crackles - he was too close to the mic and hopes it won't distract you from his guest's sparkling insights! He'll try not to make that mistake again. 

Many fuel companies struggle to build loyalty among customers. With so many potential gas options out there, most consumers won’t go out of their way to choose a specific brand. At Shell, it is the job of Dan Little (Head of North American Marketing) to get drivers to go that extra mile. Little and his team launched a rewards program called Instant Gold Status earlier this year that encourages consumers to fill up at Shell on a regular basis. In this episode, you’ll learn how the campaign aims to create brand love and what you can do to improve customer retention.

Is virtual reality putting us on the brink of a new marketing revolution? Google’s creative think tank, Zoo, has initiated a study on VR in hopes of recognizing its full potential. Abigail Posner, who is the Head of Strategic Planning at Zoo, boldly believes that this new technology will show immense promise for marketers in just a few years. In this episode, you’ll learn how some brands are already taking advantage of VR to go from storytelling to story living. Here is a sample Q&A from the interview: Drew: VR has been talked about for years and years and years as the next thing. Are we finally at the point where this is going to become at least semi-mass? Abigail: I think it's a combination of a number of things. One is that we have enough experiences under our belt to recognize the value of it, whether it's gamers playing it, whether it's porn, whether it's the fact that doctors are using it. All of a sudden, there's a range of different worlds that are recognizing its value and it's hitting mainstream. That's number one. Number two, as we brought up before, the actual physical headsets themselves are becoming more accessible, whether it's accessible that we can wear them or accessible price wise. That helps. And then finally the technology itself is evolving. So it's becoming finer tuned. It's becoming more accessible so that we can use it on a number of different platforms integrated into our phones and so forth. It's a combination of a number of different factors. And then I just think generally we are becoming just more comfortable and agile with what it means to create a story in this space.

Not all heroes wear capes. Trip Hunter, CEO of Silicon Valley ComicCon, just happens to work with people who do. When he was tasked with creating buzz for the con from scratch in its inaugural year, Trip had just two weapons at his disposal: a renegade mind and Steve Wozniak. Two cons and a couple star-studded celebrity squads later, the event is looking to build on the massive success Trip helped generate. In this episode, you’ll learn the secrets that make Trip one of the bravest marketers in the world today. He has led groundbreaking campaigns for an array of companies like Renegade, Fusion-io, and Primary Data—always looking to boldly go where no marketer has gone before.

Virtual Reality (VR) as a marketing tool is in the very early stages of development which is why we recorded this special episode live from the launch of “The Hard Way – a KFC Virtual Training Escape Room.” In this episode, you’ll learn why KFC spent six months developing this unique training experience and how it fits into to their overall marketing strategy of “re-kernelizing” the brand. By that they mean putting the founder Colonel Sanders back into the heart of the brand and in this case, bringing to the forefront his fanatical attention to the details of the chicken cooking process. Jonathan Minori, the design director at W&K Lodge, the developers behind the app, will help you understand the laborious process of putting together a unique experience like this. And while KFC’s Chef Bob did not reveal the secret recipe, he did explain how they keep secret even from him. 

The goal of Renegade Thinkers Unite is to present you with fresh approaches to age old problems — and this episode does that in spades with guest Jerome Nadel, CMO of Rambus. Nadel will introduce you to the idea of design-led marketing and how rather than just accepting the products as given, CMOs can help drive product development such that the marketing is baked into the outcome. And as Nadel notes, better products are a whole lot easier to sell!  Here's a sample from Jerome's interview with RTU host Drew Neisser: Drew: When did user experience and design thinking really take off? Jerome: As we came into the 2000, the notion of differentiation through user experience became sort of the mantra for product success. So, as we go deeper in the conversation, what I'll suggest is the difference between user experience and marketing or design-led marketing are really minimal. What user experience professionals focus on is the upstream concepting of, what's the narrative that makes product great? Not just in terms of its features but how should it work and how does it support use cases? Often what marketers are focused on is telling stories about why products are great. If you connect the stories that made the product great with the stories that reinforce and articulate their greatness, you have beginning to end of full marketing. Ironically Drew, I don't think that such a radical construct but I think it's not embraced to the extent that it should be in the profession that we share.

It’s not easy to get a breakthrough marketing strategy off the ground; it’s even more difficult to kick start a new idea in a highly regulated industry. This roadblock didn’t stop Manny Rodriguez, CMO of UCHealth, from developing an eye-opening campaign. Through patient-centric storytelling, he managed to help the university hospital network invigorate its message. This tender approach isn’t just business for Rodriguez. He is a leukemia survivor who underwent many of the types of treatments his team now promotes. Rodruguez’s healthcare marketing philosophy goes against the grain. Hospitals and clinics often showcase their technologies and services in advertisements, much to Rodriguez’s chagrin. “I just believe healthcare marketers in general have lost sight of what matters,” he says. “We’ve gotten away from the fact that what we do is about the patient.” Instead of explaining how great UCHealth’s treatments are, Rodriguez set out to reach patients on a more personal level. Rodriguez wanted his UCHealth’s advertisements to focus on clients and their experiences. Being a leukemia survivor, he understands the pain patients have to deal with. Rodriguez says, “Most health care brands look at themselves as the hero. We believe that our patients are the heroes.” UCHealth decided to let its heroes tell their stories from their own perspectives. The result was a series of heartfelt video testimonies given by actual UCHealth patients. You can’t help but cry during these 90-second flashes of affection. As Rodriguez notes, “You really feel, hear, and sense the heartache and the emotion and the feeling in the story.” Although the scripts are written internally, the patients themselves deliver the lines. Who else could? One of the biggest challenges Rodriguez has faced is advertising services that have such a negative connotation. “Nobody wants what I have,” Rodriguez says. “Nobody is sitting there going, ‘I can’t wait to have my liver removed or my heart surgery!’” The UCHealth marketing team remedies this problem by delivering what Rodriguez calls a “lifestyle brand.” The CMO continues, “I want to provide you [with] content and resources, and talk to you in a way that prevents you from being broken more than selling you a service when you’re broken.” Warmth is at the heart of the strategy, giving patients hope and comfort in UCHealth’s message. Enhancing patient experience plays a big part in the brand’s marketing strategy. When someone goes to a hospital, obviously the biggest goal is to leave healthy. For Rodriguez, the peripherals of a hospital visit also matter greatly. Elements like staff friendliness, parking accessibility, and cafeteria food quality make a difference in the patient’s experience. “It’s the softer side of healthcare that I think we’re looking at as an organization—How do you build the softer side?” Rodriguez wonders. UCHealth answers this question by staffing itself with sympathetic employees. While health remains the top priority, patient experience is still important. It’s been a bumpy ride for Rodriguez, as his own encounter with terminal illness has driven him to help other patients in need. He says, “Being a survivor of ultimately a disease that takes many lives is a motivator for everything I do.” Rodriguez recalls the personal experiences he’s had with medical professionals—some great, and some not so great. Ultimately, those instances have given him the drive to connect with patients through heartfelt passion and understanding. (These show notes were prepared by Jay Tellini.)  

Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is not exactly a CMO’s dream situation. In fact, if handled poorly it could be a career-ending nightmare not to mention the potential reputational damage to the company. Fortunately for Avaya, which filed for Chapter 11 in January of 2017, CMO Morag Lucey provided the kind of courageous leadership that leaves one both awed and inspired. Lest you think we are exaggerating, have a listen to this episode and you’ll want to join the Morag Lucey fan club with us. On the podcast, Lucey explains how she helped Avaya weather the storm and come out all the stronger. Here's what you'll learn: How to present a strong business narrative. How to keep your message simple—even in turbulent times. How to draw up a real vision of the future. How to communicate with your employees. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with Avaya when it filed for bankruptcy; Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) were high, and the brand maintained a healthy reputation. The culprit for Avaya’s Chapter 11 filing was its $6 billion debt. When the deficit grew too large to handle, the company needed to restructure itself financially. Lucey, who was in charge of managing internal communications in regards to the bankruptcy filing, aspired to preserve Avaya’s image and address any worries about the brand’s stability. She managed the process by explaining the situation to Avaya’s customers, affiliates, and employees on a regular basis. “We met [with our constituents] daily and talked about the narrative of what was happening to us and why it was happening,” says Lucey. “And on the other side, we also balanced that with all of the positive that was happening.” Lucey made it perfectly clear that Avaya had no intention of going belly up. On the day Avaya filed Chapter 11, the company was already working on a campaign to show that nothing was wrong with the service it offered. “The key is the stories that we tell,” says Lucey, “and the customers that continue to rely on us to provide that experience that is outstanding…this was just a debt issue. We [could] still execute in terms of serving the market.” Openness was the key to Lucey’s communication strategy. From holding regular meetings to promoting CEO video communications to distributing employee newsletters, Avaya used a variety of mediums to keep its workers in the loop in regards to the impending changes.  The brand used storytelling to send the message they sought to get across. Avaya wanted to let its employees and customers know that bankruptcy wasn’t the end; it was a new beginning. Lucey explains, “It was very much a story about the future. We had to bring the past to the future, and so we really did write the narrative of where we’ve been and where [we are] going.” For Lucey, storytelling is more than a means of keeping customers and employees at peace; it’s a mechanism to reach clients emotionally. “[What we do is] not just communications for companies to make big profits,” she says. “It's really about the connection between people and it's creating a world in which we can have more time to spend doing the things we want to do, while we seamlessly interact and communicate with all the things that we have to do because it's mandatory in our life.” Business can be a welcomed, integrated part of life. Even though Lucey was able to safeguard Avaya’s image in the face of bankruptcy and keep it going strong, she understands that her brand has to keep evolving to remain vigorous. She believes change is always imminent in marketing, and every CMO needs to be a “catalyst for change” to stay ahead of the curve. Lucey says, “Today, if you don't look at transforming your marketing organization and really focusing on how the technology delivers to the customers in a way so they want to consume it, you're going to be left behind.” Success today doesn’t necessarily equate to success tomorrow. Be ready when the call for innovation beckons. (These show notes were prepared by Jay Tellini.)

With great power comes great responsibility. When Lexmark acquired Kofax—an automation software company—in 2015, the now-global business was burdened with the task of streamlining its marketing functions. Kofax CMO Grant Johnson was tabbed for the job. It was Johnson’s duty to institute a centralized marketing plan that the company’s worldwide sectors could follow. Grant Johnson talks about his formula for creating a unified, global marketing strategy in part two of his interview. Host Drew Neisser, accompanied by Inc. magazine author Bill Carmody, ask Johnson about his trials and triumphs. If you missed part one of this interview, please refer to episode 31. Here's what you'll learn: How to unify all employees within your organization. How to harness the power of teamwork. How to integrate positive habits into your marketing strategy, while unlearning ineffective ones. Why simplifying your marketing goals is critical. Here is a sample of the content discussed in this episode: Drew: It’s hard to get our marketing messages to stand out…what is one thing you do to make sure your marketing cuts through? Grant: We take great pains to avoid the one-size-fits-all approach or what I call random acts of marketing. Instead, we work toward truly integrated marketing campaigns that encompass print, digital, social, etc. Part of cutting through effectively is a relentless focus on delivering consistent messaging across every touch point and element of a given campaign. Like many companies, our customer base cuts across a range of verticals – from Banking and Financial Services and Insurance to Healthcare, Government and BPOs. For some of these verticals, like banking, we frame the message around their primary concerns, e.g. how we can help enhance the customer experience (faster account openings and easier loan applications through mobile apps, etc.). We call that “customer speak,” instead of techno speak, and it really helps us stand out from the cacophony of competitors touting their offerings.

This episode is the first of a two-part series with Grant Johnson, CMO of Kofax, a huge company you made not have heard of unless you're in need of automation software. Grant is a veteran marketer who managed to pull together three separate organizations into one cohesive marketing machine and in the process, discover many keys to successful B2B marketing. My co-host in this in-depth exploration of B2B marketing is entrepreneur and Inc magazine author, Bill Carmody.   Kofax CMO Proves that in Marketing, United We Stand. If “every village has its idiot” had an antithesis, it would be “every community has its organizer.” In any group setting, he or she is that person who naturally brings together disparate individuals with a common bond and, most importantly, mobilizes them for action. At Kofax, that person is Grant Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer. The automation software company was acquired in 2015 by Lexmark, which had recently subsumed two additional software brands. As the new CMO, Johnson set out to unify the various marketing functions of the now-global brand. “I think we are in a unique position now at Kofax to look at the market with a fresh set of eyes,” he says, “and we have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves. Although we have this broad portfolio of great software and solutions, we know that in the customer-driven era, it’s about them, not us.” The Cause: Customers Several years ago, Johnson realized that the only way for Kofax to thrive was to attain best-in-class marketing practices. How to do this required time, but it mostly involved attaining the maximum threshold of relevance with its customer. Because marketing technology is a vast, specialized landscape, Johnson also understood that Kofax could be hyper-targeted and intentional in its marketing and still generate a high volume of business. To reach that stream of business took building, refining, building, refining the customer journey via experimentation and retargeting, with some failures and what Johnson terms “sacrifices” along the way. “I have a motto, which is ‘do great work that works.’ If it doesn’t work, stop doing it. If it works great, whether engaging customers and prospects, generating leads or nurturing opportunities, do more of it.” His department eventually netted out with five detailed customer personas and predetermined content roadmaps. “We take great pains to avoid the one-size-fits-all approach or what I call random acts of marketing,” says Johnson. “Part of cutting through effectively is a relentless focus on delivering consistent messaging across every touch point and element of a given campaign.” These journeys are continually tested and refreshed via community engagement, influencer campaigns, and social listening. The approach is what Johnson calls “aim, ready, fire,” and it helped Kofax’s revenue climb from $300 million to $600 million in just three years. The Activists: Employees Getting three marketing departments on the same page after the merger, however, was no easy task for Johnson. The first step was a marketing audit among the brands, a new work stream Johnson called “marketing best practices.” The groups gathered and came to discover who did what best. “The work stream became both a catalyst for change and way to galvanize the organization around a consistent set of best practices,” says Johnson. “The teams could envision how they could do better marketing by making the changes.” Part of helping teams “unlearn” their less effective habits involved a physical blueprint of 2017 plans that outlined their marketing roles and was created with assistance from outside firms. “That fact that every group could see how they were contributing to and impacting the integrated plan helped literally get them on the same page they could refer to, communicate and understand.” The Goal: Change Johnson says the 2017 plan is off to a strong start, but he explains that one hard lesson for marketers to learn is that lasting change always takes more time than anticipated. “People can nod their head, agree to the new directive and then just go back to doing things the way they have,” he says, “Especially when the leadership is thousands of miles away.” One way to expedite the process, however, is spurring employee cohesion by blending teams and creating new ones. “I didn’t just put managers based in Irvine [headquarters] in charge of larger groups. I gave some increased responsibility to leaders based in Lenexa, KS and Europe,” says Johnson. His department also merged content, digital and social teams for the first time, driving higher productivity. Spoken like a true organizer: “I knew that I had to find a way to bridge different cultures and operational styles if I had any chance of success.”  

Brace yourself for the most inspiring episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite thus far. In fact, our guest Coss Marte, had us choking back tears. His story begins a little over a decade ago, when he kick started his own enterprise as a teenager in front of a New York City bodega. By age 19, Marte’s business was raking in over $2 million dollars a year. He ran into trouble shortly thereafter, and in less than ten years he was scrubbing toilets at a reconstructed hotel to pay his rent. The reason for Marte’s struggles is simple: his business was the business of selling drugs. He was incarcerated at 23 on charges related to peddling drugs, and spent seven years in prison.  Marte, now 31, is a free man and an up-and-coming marketing phenom. Upon his release from prison, he founded ConBody—a prison style fitness program where students work out with minimal equipment. Thanks to Marte’s marketing guts, ConBody is now one of the fastest growing fitness programs in NYC. To be frank, the young entrepreneur probably knows more about advertising than most CMOs. You can learn more about ConBody here: https://conbody.com/ As you might expect, the seedlings of ConBody—which is short for “convict body”—came while Marte was incarcerated. “I got my first medical examination and was told that I could die in prison because of my health issues,” he says. “As soon as they told me this, I went back to my cell and I started doing lunges, and any type of exercise I probably knew.” Marte lost 70 pounds in six months after customizing his own exercise routine. Not long afterwards, he helped over 20 inmates lose over a thousand pounds combined. Having inspired others to make positive lifestyle changes, Marte started thinking about his past—and his future. “I started realizing that I was creating a web of destruction,” he says, “and for the first time I started praying and asking God, ‘How can I give back?’ And that’s when ConBody was born.” Marte mapped out a plan for an exercise center while he was in solitary confinement, and then turned those blueprints into action when he was released a year later. Marte’s bold marketing tactics helped put ConBody on the exercise studio map. He began marketing his business by speaking to women who were doing yoga in public spaces. Simply talking to them about ConBody, Marte managed to steadily build a customer base. “There [have] been times,” he states, “where I stood on the train and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, pay attention.’… I tell my story and I’ll tell about ConBody.” Marte says he continues to share his story about 20 times a day, never underestimating word-of-mouth.  ConBody has boomed since its inception. Upon speaking at a conference, Marte was approached by a woman who offered him the opportunity to open a ConBody location in one of New York City’s most famous luxury department stores, Saks Fifth Avenue. This change in fortune still gives Marte goose bumps. He says, “Every time I go up to the second floor [of Saks], I start smiling because the first thing [I] see on the floor is a mannequin with a ConBody t-shirt on.”  ConBody’s studio atmosphere is no doubt responsible for part of its success. With the intention of motivating participants, Marte designed the studio like a prison. Brick walls and prison bars line the fitness center. Signs that read “five minute showers” and “do the time” line the interior. At ConBody, you’ll find all the same body weight equipment as you would in a prison. This gritty appearance is one of the business’s most popular features, giving members a hardcore workout experience. Following Marte’s lead, marketers should strive to provide consumers with a similarly exceptional experience. This is the driving force behind ConBody. “If I keep going and I keep delivering a great product,” Marte says, “no matter what I’m going to wake up, I’m going to be okay, and I’m going to live life.” (These show notes were prepared by Jay Tellini.)   What You’ll Learn Ideas for starting up killer guerilla marketing campaigns. How incorporating your passion into your business can lead to prosperity. How to tackle unexpected marketing challenges. Advice for establishing a clear and effective brand vision.   Quotes from Coss Marte As an entrepreneur, you just don't know what's going to happen, what you have to deal with. You don't know what you're going to sign up with. You've just got to roll with the punches. I share my story about 20 times a day, and I stop random people and I go up to everyone who I think works out. I try to find somebody and train them and duplicate myself, which is impossible. But you do what you can, and you manage and you just set priorities and expectations. I was affecting so many people in my life and so many people that I sold drugs to, when I started realizing that I was creating a web of destruction and for the first time I started praying and asking God, "How can I give back?" And there's when ConBody was born.

Gone are the days of “just throw it out there” and “let’s see what happens” when it comes to marketing campaigns. The hard truth is that in 2017, we have too much information at our disposal to lean on our instincts and creative prowess to connect with consumers, and today’s leading marketers know this better than anyone. How Take Rob Rakowitz, Global Director of Media at Mars, who was recognized by The CMO Club for his cut-through Content Marketing performance with brands like Uncle Ben’s, Snickers, Pedigree and Whiskas. Rakowitz understands that to drive growth, marketing teams must use a targeted, well-researched approach backed by fail-safe insights—and the simpler the goal, the better. Here are just a few of things you'll learn from this episode:    How to make your marketing campaign stick. The significance of identifying brand purpose and engaging with consumer culture. How to diversify your marketing strategy. Why service is the new selling. Driven by data It could be said that a good marketing theory works well outside of marketing, so a good marketing leader practices his theories outside of work. For his part, Rakowitz enjoys mining data as a member of a cycling team. Thanks to the Internet of things, even riding a bicycle generates a mind-boggling amount of data. Armed with insights before a race, for example, his team can determine distinct roles and peak performance points “much in the way that you would for launching a really great campaign.” The implication for brands here is that data offers not only meaningful positioning but can also inform when to act on topical content. In Rakowitz’s opinion, it’s the CMO’s duty to show his or her teams how to make these same discoveries. “The only thing that you can do in this role,” says Rakowitz, “is equip teams with the right navigation tools so that they can wade into this unknown and increasingly complex territory and actually drive growth from it.”  And to drive growth, he says, these teams must make simplicity a goal, as the team with the discipline to focus in an ever-distracting environment will eventually outpace its competitors. “I find that the more you can simplify down what it is that we’re trying to do from a vision perspective,” he says, “the better an idea travels.” Content that cuts to the point At Mars, Rakowitz says he was able to influence and coach teams in the execution of “fantastic content programs” for the labels that sought to understand how to best bring the brand, consumer and customer together. “It’s what I like to call the idea of 4C conversion that bring consumer, customer, communications and commerce closer together,” says Rakowitz, and it centers around a simple purpose. With Uncle Ben’s, the Mars Food team discovered that the brand’s purpose is helping consumers make great food choices. “We find out that consumers who start meals with rice are more likely to choose a lean protein or a vegetable to go along with it,” he says, leading to healthier eating outcomes. But when Mars released Uncle Ben’s ready-to-heat pouches in the UK, the Uncle Ben’s UK team discovered that consumers either weren’t aware of the product or saw it as irrelevant. Working with BBDO and MediaCom, the team started to look to content to address the reach and relevance shortfall. They developed a series of short online videos that featured a celebrity chef demonstrating the product in a public park, which engaged healthy consumers. The best-performing clip was trimmed and disseminated to TV and social media. “It was a very content-driven idea backed up by behavioral data,” says Rakowitz. “We were able to use social media to make sure the content was as personal as possible. And it actually yielded some really nice business results for us.” Another data-supported campaign Rakowitz championed was “Kitten Kollege” for Whiskas, following an insight that new cat owners often lack the knowledge to properly care for them at first. Mars’ Petcare marketing team and agency partners in BBDO and Mediacom created tongue-in-cheek videos about a kitten’s life stages using insights from Mars’ Pet Institute research center in the UK. Partnering with Google and YouTube also helped raise the brand’s profile, “simultaneously educating and entertaining and then closing the gap with commerce.” While Mars marketing measure success with methods sometimes as sophisticated as biometric tracking, many are available to any CMO. “What we did for Uncle Ben’s was 100 percent behavioral, digital metrics that are available to a lot of marketers,” he says. In fact, Rakowitz recommends taking advantage of as many sources of data as possible to see the best results from a campaign and glean the best insights for the future. “I think that's very much an agenda I had, with a lot of my colleagues out there—taking more and more advantage of things to drive better planning, strategy, and activation.”

Without communication, businesses crumble. Sending a clear message is the only surefire way to get people to care about your brand. This need for coherence isn’t limited to the marketer-consumer relationship, however—all business branches should work in harmony in order to present a sharp brand image. Ann Davids, Senior Vice President and CMO of Direct General Insurance Company, specializes in coordinating her company’s identity on all fronts. In this week’s episode of the Renegade Thinkers Unite podcast, Davids explains how a brand identity can become too abstract if it’s not managed well internally. It’s Davids’s duty to weave product language, internal language and consumer language together to create campaigns that customers and Direct employees can embrace.  Marketers should stay in close contact with their fellow departments, believes Davids. When the marketing department at Direct works in unison with the entire office, it can accomplish brand goals from all angles. Davids says, “I’ve often heard it said that marketing should make the rest of the organization uncomfortable. I couldn’t agree more. I’ll really advocate for anything the business needs, even beyond marketing if it helps move the needle.” This strategy is mutually beneficial, Davids finds. In addition to orienting the marketing team’s attention to the overall business plan, she seeks to involve other business disciplines in Direct’s advertising campaigns. In previous years, Davids has laid out the blueprints of her team’s marketing strategy for all to see—literally—by distributing architectural blueprints in frames around the office. “We basically run our own internal campaign, and it tends to get people excited and raise intellectual curiosity,” Davids says. “We have people hand-raising to opt in to work on these things instead of having to recruit.” The blueprints clearly illustrated the marketing strategies, but they also generated interest in the projects from the entire company. Let’s face it; if an organization can’t get its own team members excited about a campaign, how can it expect to make a lasting impact on consumers? Speaking of impacting consumers, Davids notes how Direct aims to be, well, more direct. “We try to just always speak the customer’s language,” she says. “Whatever that happens to be for your particular customer, I think you have to really understand them and how they talk and process, and what they’re looking for.” Offering exactly what the consumer needs is only half the battle, however. Without clear, direct marketing, any campaign can fall flat. Given the nature of Direct Insurance’s industry, it’s inherently tough to make consumers eager to engage with the brand, which is why Davids’s team goes the extra mile to make their experience enjoyable. Davids says, “A lot of people don’t want to pay for insurance, either, so we make it fun, we make it pleasant and we try to have added little surprises along the way that make it easier to do business with Direct Auto and Life Insurance.” These “little surprises” have resonated well with customers, she says. Another challenge for Direct has been the transition to new marketing platforms. When the company knew it wanted to establish a strong digital presence, Davids was careful not to jump the gun with new channels. Her team decided that gradual changes would better suit the brand’s customers. “Our customer is still telling us that they enjoy other mediums, as well as digital,” says Davids. “They’re still heavy consumers of television and radio, so we’ve been careful in how we transition to digital.” This kind of adaptability is an important piece of Direct’s marketing puzzle. Davids talks about the art of identifying the next big thing: “Really, what I consider state of the art is knowing when to jump on a trend versus waiting. Or how you might migrate within your own media mix.” Although her team is always looking for the next big thing, the marketing department acts slowly and steadily when integrating it into a campaign. If Davids could offer just one piece of advice to her fellow marketing leaders, it would be to maintain a robust network of professionals. “I think you’ve got to find people that you connect with,” she says. “If you make investments in these relationships, they will be valuable. There’s nothing more valuable to me than my network and the mentors I’ve had over the years.” (These show notes were prepared by Jay Tellini.) What You’ll Learn Ways to engage your company’s entire business staff with your marketing strategy. How to speak your customers’ language. Advice for building a successful network with likeminded business professionals. When to put the pedal to the metal on your marketing strategy, and when to hit the brakes. Quotes from Ann Davids Really, what I consider state-of-the-art is knowing when to jump on a trend versus You have to listen to your customer. Think about how to present yourself, your personal brand, through words and actions and engagements. Strive for what you want, and don’t be shy about letting people around you know your goals. You have to be open to different challenges that come along, in work as well as in your personal space, and be willing to share what you learned from those experiences.

One of the most difficult but important things marketers can do is find a way to make their brand stand out from the competition. This is an especially weighty challenge in the financial industry, as Suzanne Copeland, the former CMO of Sterling National Bank, will tell you. Faced with regulatory restrictions and fierce competition, Copeland applied renegade thinking to separate Sterling from the pack. In this episode of the Renegade Thinkers Unite podcast, Copeland explains how the bank’s brand positioning allows it to provide one-of-a-kind customer experiences.  (These show notes were prepared by Jay Tellini.) Creating a unique brand experience is crucial not only to marketing, but also to business success as a whole. At Sterling, this was no easy feat. As Copeland points out, “Everybody tells you that their customer relationship is better. It’s kind of hard to really tease that out to some specifics that explain exactly how you’re better.” Abstract problems like these require creative solutions. For example, Copeland’s content marketing strategy at Sterling went against the grain to reach to its audience, and you may be surprised to learn that digital marketing had little to do with it. The company wanted to bring its message to the consumer’s doorstep—literally. The finished product for Sterling was Connect Magazine, a print publication featuring the success stories of some of its clients. Copeland says, “We have been publishing Connect Magazine for over seven years now, and a key feature is that we do client profiles. We have a cover story with a client talking about their business.”  Connect Magazine continues to spread brand awareness for both client businesses and Sterling National Bank. Copeland continues, “[Featured clients] sprinkle in where Sterling has helped them with their business.” By mentioning how the bank has assisted clients, the publication also gets people talking about Sterling. As Copeland notes, “There is some relationship building with regard to the prospects and, quite frankly, most of Connect is mailed to prospects and that helps build our brand. But at the same time, it is going to our clients…It is also creating brand ambassadors that will praise our services.” Like Copeland, many marketers face the challenge of presenting a uniform brand image. The team at Sterling is constantly maneuvering to keep all employees on the same page. “We have a lot of different sales people with a very specific approach,” Copeland says. “It’s really hard to be efficient with that. So, for us, the challenge is how do you have a really lean organization? How do you create some level of consistency and some configurability so that you can address vertical markets?” Copeland urges marketers everywhere to hone in on their core business to find a unifying message. She says, “The other thing now I think that we can do ourselves is just be maniacal about focusing on our business strategy, really understanding what is it this company is doing.”  Perhaps the biggest blunder a marketing team could make is to seclude itself from the company’s other operations. “The biggest ‘don't’ for me is getting cornered in the marketing world,” says Copeland. “You've got to be able to have relationships beyond that in the organization, and really understand what other parts of the organization are doing, and not just say this is the marketing domain and that's the only place that I stay.” Meet the Guest Suzanne Copeland is the former CMO of Sterling National Bank, an institution that offers banking services and solutions to business owners and consumers. She holds an Executive MBA from the University of Memphis. After starting her career as an art director, Copeland moved into a corporate leadership role at First Tennessee Bank in her hometown of Memphis. Copeland started at Sterling in 2009 and has since launched Copeland Collaborative, an initiative that provides consultation for women at Sterling and executes strategies to improve employee engagement.  What You’ll Learn How to distinguish your brand from the pack. Tips for building relationships with clients and prospects. How to maintain a consistent brand message. Advice for understanding both your brand and your industry. Quotes from Suzanne Copeland Wherever you are, you really need to know: how does this business run, how does this business make money and what [are] the activities that you are driving in marketing? I still think if you can get in front of the absolute right person at the right time and say the wrong thing, it won’t work. I do think having a personal brand is really important. The more and better data you have, the more discreet your activities can be toward changing particular behaviour.