Renegade Thinkers Unite: Marketing Tips From Cmos And Expert Marketers

Jon Ferrara grew the social selling platform Nimble from scratch to 100,000 users in just a couple of years without spending a dime on media.  He has also converted 15% of those users to paid subscribers making Nimble a model for bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Having been a CRM pioneer with Goldmine which Jon sold in 2000, he is a wonderful font of insights and inspiration so much so that we recorded two episodes.  This episode will teach you how to develop a clear-cut selling strategy for your brand, and look good doing it. You’ll also learn how to institute an effective CRM strategy that won’t overwhelm your business. No matter the bandwidth of your organization, Jon offers his testimony to describe how sharing content and networking with influencers can reel in dollars. Jon is a pioneer of CRM, and has used outside the box thinking to connect with influencers. After co-founding GoldMine three decades ago, Jon discovered new ways in which businesses can discover and engage with potential customers. His work r

Is the key to immortality for brands simply about finding the right moment for reinvention? When Ron Chemow’s Hamilton became Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation, Global Head of Corporate Marketing Aniko Delaney recognized the opportunity for BNY Mellon to reach new audiences. Affectionately called the Hamilton campaign, “Invest In Our Legacy” managed to not only to honor BNY Mellon’s founder Alexander Hamilton but also to modernize the brand. So far, her team’s modernization efforts have paid off in big ways, with triple-digit increases in engagement and brand awareness on Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. In this podcast, we’ll examine how Delaney and her team capitalized on the Broadway Show, Hamilton, to help BNY Mellon’s marketing cut through. You’ll learn how to identify moments of opportunity for reinventing your brand, the importance of having a message that resonates across all social platforms, and the keys to keeping a seasoned brand relevant.

  Keeping a brand fresh means evolving with trends, but Alma Derricks, former VP of Sales & Marketing of the Retail Sales Division at Cirque du Soleil, knows that not every trend is right for every industry. As someone who runs towards moments of inflection, that’s exactly what Derricks walked into when she joined Cirque during an ownership change in 2015. Believe it or not, Cirque had relied on organic growth for over 30 years but finally found itself in need of an organized and inventive marketing strategy. With a diverse background in media and entertainment, Alma Derricks helped differentiate Cirque’s many shows and make them top-of-mind for show goers. She also launched SPARK, a brand extension of Cirque that serves as a learning laboratory for corporate teams. The new business took off and not only created a new way to access the brand, but also a strong statement about who they are. In this podcast, we’ll take a special peek behind the curtain of one of the world’s top-earning theatrical companies

This episode will help you understand the state-of-the-art for CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and how forward-thinking businesses are capitalizing on CRM to improve customer experiences and drive revenue.    

In this podcast, you’ll learn about where to start your brand transformation, why your brand should be a “sage” instead of a “hero,” the importance of creating a tangible customer experience and the strategy behind CA's new ad campaign, "The Modern Software Factory." Over the last four years, CMO Lauren Flaherty repositioned CA Technologies’ global brand, helped it adapt to the fast-paced blur of digital disruptions and masterfully co-created an app with CNN to cover the 2016 presidential election. This app enabled CNN to experience higher-than-ever levels of engagement and reach while demonstrating the power of CA's technology. Flaherty has since initiated a similar co-creation venture with Eurosport, helping to make the brand more tangible.   Think of this episode as a master class in transformation B2B marketing. 

As Chief Revenue Officer, Meredith Kopit Levien is a driving force behind The New York Times’s digital transformation and their stunningly timely “The Truth is Hard” campaign. When the news became the news during the 2016 presidential election cycle, Kopit Levien’s challenge was not only to remind people why real journalism matters, but also to reach a new base of paid subscribers hungry for high-quality journalism, effectively changing the news category. What you’ll take away from this podcast, among other things, is why the story you tell is more important than how often you tell it, and why it’s important to adapt to the times—no pun intended—without losing sight of your brand’s core mission. In addition to sharing why and how the new campaign came to fruition, Kopit Levien provides an inside look at building T-brand, their highly successful content creation studio. Although she admits that The Times was late to the content creation game, they entered it with gusto hiring top talent and holding the bar ext

When Tom Libretto joined Pegasystems as Chief Marketing Officer, he recognized that his new company was on the cusp of huge changes. Applying his experience at major companies like IBM, Nokia and Chase, Libretto dove headfirst into his role, first by assessing star performers, past successes and failures and opportunities for growth. The good news was that one of the company’s star performers was its own platform, PEGA. What you’ll learn in this podcast, among other things, is the importance of being able to “drink your own champagne,” as Libretto and his team have found it to be an invaluable source of authentic marketing, not to mention troubleshooting. Today, Pegasystems is considered a top vendor of software for customer engagement and operational excellence. As a leader in martech (marketing technology), Pegasystems provides a window into the future of automation and artificial intelligence, which Libretto breaks down over the course of the conversation. Without giving too much away, check out the podcas

Described as both a bulldog and a warrior, Intuit’s VP of Marketing Patti Newcomer-Simmons built her reputation by seeking out the difficult challenges most mortals try to avoid. One such challenge was to dramatically improve departmental performance at a company that was already filled with “happy campers.” To do this, she first focused on the getting the metrics right. Rather than dwell on how satisfied employees were they with their jobs, she focused on employee engagement, a metric that corresponds with answers to questions like, “Would you stay with the company even if you received a higher offer from somewhere else?” Ultimately, through a series of actions, including adding new hires, moving team members around and aligning around core goals, Newcomer-Simmons helped drive a 30-point increase in employee engagement. In case you were wondering, that is a very big jump, especially when you consider that Intuit already enjoyed a very high employee retention rate. So, if you’re wondering how you can get your

Dara Royer sat alone at her desk pondering the seemingly impossible--how do you rebrand a global organization with only a $50,000 budget?  She knew in her heart of hearts that rebranding was not just a nice next step for Mercy Corps, but it was a critical requirement for the organization to realize its global ambitions. She also knew there is little glory in being right, what really mattered was getting the rest of Mercy Corps to join her on the journey and embrace the forthcoming change.  Royer's journey as Chief Development and Marketing Officer is chronicled in detail in this epidsoe and it is profoundly instructive for all businesses especially those with modest budgets and massive expectations.  And just in case you were wondering if we're hyperbolizing, the outcome of Mercy Corps rebranding was an increase in awareness, revenue via donations and recognition by the Harris Poll as the 2017 EquiTrend “Brand of the Year” and “Most Loved Brand” in the category of International Aid Nonprofits. Those are resul

Digital rock star and Spotify’s Global Vice President for Growth & Marketing, Mayur Gupta, joins us in this week’s podcast to talk predictive marketing, lack of separation in online and offline worlds, and why quality beats quantity when it comes to consumer acquisition. With over 15 years of experience in leading the digital transformation, Gupta shares insights on how brands and marketers can ease into predictive marketing, and explains how Spotify is using this method to unify online and offline worlds, delivering relevant, contextual experiences for their users that inspires them to keep coming back for their musical needs. While most of us are driving into the future of marketing with limited visibility, Spotify’s Mayur Gupta not just sees what’s ahead, but also shares his vision with helpful precision. In this episode, Gupta talks about how he views marketing and innovation from the eyes of an engineer, and the importance of putting human’s needs at the top of the marketing ecosystem, which consists

There are three salient features of creativity, regardless of the form it takes: It’s new, it’s everywhere, and everyone can do it. This week we switch it up on RTU to talk to the expert on creativity, Larry Robertson. Robertson’s latest book, The Language of Man, tackles the biggest myth about creativity, and that’s this notion that only a few rare people are capable of creative genius. In the podcast, Robertson talks about the two sides to each individual: one side (the left brain) is dedicated to order, pragmatics, survival; the other side (right brain) is dedicated to exploring, creativity, and thinking towards the future. Most often we prioritize the side of our brain that is dedicated to order, but Robertson says it’s important to give our creative brains a chance to play and discover as well. Ultimately, there has to be a balance between the two, but everyone is capable and equipped for creative genius.  

At one point in our inspiring conversation, Chandar Pattabhiram says "I've always believed that people buy candles not because they need candles, but because they need light." As CMO of Marketo, Chandar brings a floodlight to the world of marketing, leading to an episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite you won't want to miss.  Among his many illuminating ideas, Chandar espouses "engagement marketing" as the only way to overcome the radical shift in power from buyer to seller and proposes that we've entered the "engagement economy." Expecting a conversation about the science of marketing, marketing automation and perhaps the latest applications of artificial intelligence, his focus on engagement, the art of storytelling and advocacy provides a show that is as surprising as it is informative. Listen carefully and you'll discover some of the secrets to not just building customer loyalty but also the kind of brand advocacy that gets your customers shouting your story from the rooftops! 

Every brand strives to build emotional connections with its constituents but few have succeeded in the manner of Pete Krainik, founder and CEO of The CMO Club. Starting from scratch in 2007, Pete has built a remarkably collaborative membership of over 800 senior marketers that meet regularly in 22 US cities and several more around the world. In this episode, we’ll reveal some of the secrets to The CMO Club’s success in recruiting new members and creating unmatched event experiences.

Ryan Linders, VP CRM, Loyalty, and Marketing Analytics at Sally Beauty provides a rare glimpse into the initial phases of building a customer loyalty program from scratch. You'll learn how Linders got the program off the ground and how Sally Beauty provides value to customers and gets it back in terms of membership fees and on-going purchase loyalty. 

In episode 9, we take a break from big brand CMOs to hear from independent musician Will Dailey. Why this deviation? Well first, I’ve been trying to get an interview with Will Dailey ever since I saw him speak at a Content Marketing conference in 2016 because I was certain his story would inspire marketers big and small. Second, Will really is a renegade, having walked away from a major record label just as his career was gaining steam. This was an incredibly gutsy move that helped set the stage for his instructive approach to fan building. And finally, I secretly hoped Will would perform on the show, and amazingly, he did just that, making it easy for you all to understand why I’m such a fan!

Special Episode - A second report from IBM Amplify on Watson Marketing and Cognitive Computing. Drew Neisser talks with Amber Armstrong, IBM Director of Digital Amplification and Demand Generation. Explore the future of marketing and customer experience by delivering just the right content at the right time.  

Special Episode - Drew Neisser reports from IBM Amplify 2017. Live from the conference floor. Get an up-to-date perspective in this special report on influencer marketing with Amy Tennison, Director of IBM's "Futurist" influencer program. Also features interviews Brian Moran and Jason Falls, two IBM Futurists.  

Rich Honiball, is the CMO of the Navy Exchange (NEX), which generates over $2 billion in sales through over 300 retail stores worldwide that range from a 200 square foot “Micro Market”, a 24/7 vending operation, to a 200,000 square foot flagship store “that looks like a department store attached to an electronics store attached to a home store attached to a drug store.” In this episode, you’ll learn how NEX generates extraordinary brand loyalty through user-generated content and a fanatical devotion to customer listening and customer service.

When Elissa Fink joined Tableau she was one of 40 employees that helped orchestrate a user conference for 200. Ten years later Tableau has a staff of over 3,200, a user conference for 13,000 and revenue that exceeds a billion dollars annually. It’s an amazing success story that Elissa has not just witnessed – she’s played a vital role, bringing a combination of enthusiasm, smarts, willingness to try new things and a deep appreciation for using data to make informed decisions. If you aspire to be a leader at a fast growing organization, then this is a must-listen episode.  

Gina McDuffie of VER, one of the largest video/audio equipment providers in the world, shares how she helped evolve what was Video Equipment Rentals into VER, not just from a naming standpoint but also how they marketed and interacted with their global customer base.