Marketing Conferences & Events

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Executive Talent, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search, Personal Branding

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 74

In this issue:

In Our Opinion: CMO-CIO Partnership…Still Early Days
BLOG Roundup:
- What Does It Take To Be A Winning CMO?
- MarketingEDGE Holds Successful 2014 Annual Awards Dinner
- DMA2014 Has A Magic Opening
Special Announcements:
- Helen Nowicka –Managing Director, Business Development – Social & Mobile at MXM
Career Opportunities:
- VP, Individual Digital Experience – Global Financial Services
- VP, Digital Experience – Group Insurance – Global Financial Services

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

CMO-CIO Partnership…Still Early Days

The CMO-CIO partnership is one of the hottest topics today, but is this a marriage made in heaven or a shotgun wedding? It’s clear these two C-suite roles are coming together especially since CMOs are forecasted to have larger future technology budgets than many CIOs. But how is this relatively new partnership working today? What are the opportunities and concerns on both sides? For some of the answers we turned to our client Accenture Digital…who is building marketing technology strategies and bridges between these two important functional areas in many Fortune 100 companies.

Matt Strawn, MD – Alliance Partnerships at Accenture Digital delivered an outstanding presentation at the Strategic Summit at DMA2014…providing results from AD’s 2014 Global CMO-CIO Survey which included over 1,000 senior level marketing and technology executives in 11 countries and 10 industry sectors (automotive, banking, CPG, electronics, insurance, life sciences, media & entertainment, retail, telecommunications, and travel/hospitality). The major takeaways from this 4th annual global CMO-CIO survey included:

CMOs are teaming with CIOs to bring a new digital vision to life in their companies.
Enterprise-wide initiatives are unifying around improving digital customer experience.
Integrating customer-focused skills, and new, real-time data sources, across the enterprise is a major opportunity and challenge.
Realignment of marketing models and budgets with new marketing services is a top priority.

Instead of campaign-based marketing, clients are shifting to real-time, personalized communications with customers and prospects visiting the company’s website or shopping online for specific products and services.

However, the partnership between CMOs and CIOs is relatively new, so these are still early days and there are many challenges still to be solved and overcome including the following:

44% of CMOs cited problems in implementing marketing IT solutions…in other words, marketing in many instances still feels IT is under-delivering;
43% of CIOs feel marketing priorities shift too frequently and 25% of CIOs feel CMOs lack the vision to anticipate new digital channels;
35% said CEOs are driving digital transformation…45% said it is the CTO or CIO…and only 1% said CMOs are driving digital transformation.

Clearly, Accenture Digital’s survey speaks volumes that the majority of legacy CMOs are not leading digital transformation…probably since they come from the earlier era of mass marketing and big brand advertising. Not surprising to see 33% of CIOs control over 75% of marketing IT budgets…until this newest generation of digitally-savvy CMOs, their predecessors lacked the technology and digital skills so essential today.

It is essential for CMOs to raise their game and continue to find ways to collaborate and build bridges with technology partners. Many of the clients we are working with are creating task forces between marketing and technology to develop strategies and plans on improving enterprise and LOB customer experience. 77% of executives surveyed by Accenture Digital ranked this as very important…yet, less than half of CMOs feel they own customer experience…since it it shared between marketing, technology, customer service and operations. Many organizations are creating a Chief Customer Officer position to enable a single C-level executive to lead the enterprise from a product/LOB-centric to a customer-centric approach. This is requiring significant organizational change within large global organizations.

Where does your organization stand in terms the CMO-CIO partnership? Does your CMO have the technology and digital chops to lead omni-channel customer engagement and experience?

We want to know
As always, we invite you to connect with us and welcome your comments and insights.

Lola and Jeff

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?

What Does It Take To Be A Winning CMO?

It has been well-publicized that CMO tenure is one of the shortest life spans among C-level executives. With the rate of change accelerating, and many categories reaching a mature, slower growth stage, how do CMOs transition from “survive to thrive” mode. Here are some key insights to consider.

Listening to CMOs recently during Advertising Week NYC XI, it became clear the issues keeping CMOs up at night include (1) keeping up with the pace of (consumers) changing behaviors; (2) the rapid transition of marketing to digital and mobile channels; (3) required investments in new marketing technologies; (4) delivering exceptional customer experience in an omni-channel world; and (5) finding the new (organization) talent required…the needs are significant and expensive.

MarketingEDGE Holds Successful 2014 Annual Awards Dinner

As a Board Trustee, I was proud to attend the MarketingEDGE (www.marketingEDGE.org) 2014 Annual Awards Dinner held Oct. 25th at the US Grant Hotel in San Diego.

The mission of this non-profit organization is to Educate, Develop, Grow and Employ college students in the field of marketing…and as MarketingEDGE approaches its 50th year anniversary (in 2016)…support could not be higher from its 3 constituents…students, educators, and employers.

This year’s annual dinner raised over $600,000 to support EDGE’s ongoing student programs including scholarships, one-day student forums, one-week data-analytics and digital bootcamps, summer internships, and job placements.

DMA2014 Has A Magic Opening

DMA2014 needed a spark to ignite some passion into attendees at the annual conference held this week (Oct. 27-29th) at the San Diego Convention Center. DMA got that and more from keynote speaker Earvin “Magic” Johnson, 5- time NBA champion, NCAA champion, and successful business entrepreneur.

Magic lit up the crowd, much as he did years earlier playing for the LA Lakers at the Forum, with his big smile and warm, winning personality. And Magic’s message went way beyond his sports career and basketball successes. Many were surprised to learn Magic Johnson Enterprises has partnered with over 20 corporations, including Allstate, Delta, Disney, Sony Theaters, Starbucks, and Toyota…building businesses serving Urban American consumers.

Special Announcements

Helen Nowicka, Managing Director, Business Development – Social & Mobile at MXM

We are excited to announce Helen Nowicka has joined Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (“MXM”) as Managing Director, Business Development – Social & Mobile. Helen will be based in MXM’s Alexandria VA office and focus her efforts on developing new business across MXM’s Social and Mobile practice areas. Helen will report directly to Rich Berenson, SVP & Chief Business Development Officer.

Helen has a great diverse background for this role having worked in PR, Digital and Social marketing, most recently as EVP, Digital at Porter Novelli in DC. Helen began her career in London where she started the first Social Media practice within a PR & Communication agency in the UK.

Executive Connections LLC handled this search assignment on an exclusive basis for MXM.

Career Opportunities

VP, Individual Digital Experience – Global Financial Services

The VP, Individual Digital Experience is a senior level, cross-business leader accountable for collaboratively defining and designing digital experience for Individual constituent types. Constituent types include investors, participants, policyholders, beneficiaries and other individual consumers. The successful candidate will lead diverse, internal, matrix teams, including third-party consultants, to develop competitive web, social and mobile engagement channels across our Client’s portfolio of businesses and corporate functions, including brand, advertising, thought leadership, market research, communications, information technology and digital solutions, ensuring that the Individual’s critical cross channel needs are addressed throughout their customer life cycle.

Learn more…

VP, Digital Experience – Group Insurance Division

This VP, Digital Experience – Group Insurance position is located in the NY metro area and we are focusing on identifying qualified candidates with 10+ years of digital experience in the insurance and/or financial services (banking, credit card, brokerage) sectors. B2C and B2B digital strategy and marketing experience are essential and, in addition, this individual will be a digital thought leader able to influence senior leaders and support them to accomplish business goals through development of innovative digital solutions.

As this is a new position within the Group Insurance Division, reporting to the SVP, Strategy & Chief Marketing Officer, this individual will be a team builder and leader of a team focused on designing and executing digital marketing and customer experience strategies and programs. The CMO is a long-term EC client, a terrific marketing and business leader, so this is truly a great career opportunity to partner and work with a high-performing CMO in an exciting business opportunity.

This role will also have considerable matrix interface and coordination with enterprise-wide digital and customer experience initiatives.

Learn more…

Filed Under: Branding Yourself Online, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Marketing Conferences & Events, Spotlight On

DMA2014 Has A Magic Opening

Magic lit up the crowd, much as he did years earlier playing for the LA Lakers at the Forum, with his big smile and warm, winning personality. And Magic’s message went far beyond his sports career and basketball successes. Many were surprised to learn Magic Johnson Enterprises has partnered with over 20 corporations, including Allstate, Delta, Disney, Sony Theaters, Starbucks, and Toyota…building successful businesses serving Urban American consumers.

Magic shared his winning marketing strategies of targeting urban consumers, knowing their needs, tailoring his product/service/message, and then over-delivering every day. “I love to over-deliver” was a strong message Magic shared while taking countless pictures and selfies with the engaged crowd of DMA2014 attendees. Magic also shared the value of persistence…never taking “no” for an answer…and believing in yourself (and your product/service) no matter what others say. After he was turned down five times in his attempts to raise institutional capital to expand his urban-targeted small businesses, Magic finally received his first institutional fund of $50M…and he has subsequently raised funds of $300M, $600M and most recently $1B.

The DMA2014 theme is Don’t Market Alone and Magic emphasized the importance and power of building successful partnerships…by understanding your partner’s vision, mission and core values. One example Magic shared was his unique partnership with Howard Schultz and Starbucks…where he was the first outsider to build, own and operate 175 Starbucks units in urban neighborhoods…which he later sold back to Shultz at a significant profit. In addition to switching scones for sweet potato pies, Magic spoke about treating customers special, knowing their names and favorites drinks…so loyalty remained high during times of economic recession.

Magic spoke about the value of mentors. When he left the LA Lakers he called 20 CEOs who met with him and gave him advice as he started his business pursuits. Magic ended his keynote address by challenging each attendee to perform 2 SWOT (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats) analyses each year…..then working hard to improve yourself and your business based upon these insights. Magic stressed the importance of paying attention to your competition. He spoke about his relationship with Larry Bird…..and how Larry drove Magic to become better. “I knew Larry was in the gym 3 hours every day so I knew I had to work hard to beat him.” Magic still gets up at 4:00am daily, hits the gym for 2 hours, and his mantra is “nobody outworks me.”

Magic Johnson was the spark DMA2014 needed to kick itself off in high gear…and everyone left the opening session buzzing. JoAnne Monfradi Dunn, DMA Chair, even sold Magic a DMA membership backstage just prior to the opening session, so business had begun happening even before the opening bell.

You can learn more about conference highlights by visiting DMA2014.

You can also reach out to me directly (jgunderen@executiveconnectionsllc.com) or check my BLOG postings (@JeffGundersen) for additional highlights from DMA2014.

Filed Under: Announcements, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Marketing Conferences & Events, Personal Branding

Marketing EDGE Holds Successful 2014 Annual Awards Dinner

As a Board Trustee, I was proud to attend the MarketingEDGE (www.marketingEDGE.org) 2014 Annual Awards Dinner held Oct. 25 at the US Grant Hotel in San Diego.

The mission of this non-profit organization is to Educate, Develop, Grow and Employ college students in the field of marketing…and as MarketingEDGE approaches its 50th year anniversary (in 2016)…support could not be higher from its three constituents…students, educators, and employers.

This year’s Corporate honoree was Google, which underscores the transition of marketing to “all things digital.” Google has become a major corporate sponsor of MarketingEDGE and will be hosting both data-analytics and digital bootcamps on their campus headquarters in 2015. Google also utilizes custom data-driven and digital educational programs developed in partnership with U. Chicago, an EDGE participating university and DMA educational partner.

Michael Becker, Founder of mCordis, a mobile training company, was the Individual honoree, underscoring the rapid development of mobile advertising, marketing, and m-commerce as the fastest-growing part of the marketing eco-system.

Accenture Digital, another EDGE sponsor, released their 2014 Global CMO Survey just prior to the dinner which revealed the majority of CMOs believe digital marketing in all forms will exceed 75% of total marketing spend within 5 years…with mobile exceeding 50% as part of this rapid digital media transformation. This underscores research we have seen from several sources confirming mobile devices (especially tablets) are the new “first screen” for consumers who are increasingly shopping and researching online.

As a follow-up to the Annual Awards dinner, MarketingEDGE held a Student Forum on Monday, Oct. 27 at the San Diego Convention Center, in partnership with The Direct Marketing Association (“DMA”). This event included 100+ students who also received free passes to attend the 2014 DMA Annual conference.

One of the themes highlighted for students and corporate attendees is the widening skill gap developing in the rapidly changing marketing environment. According to a recent McKinsey study, by 2018 there will be approximately 140,000-190,000 unfilled positions for data analytics experts in the U.S. alone. This emphasizes the need for more math, economics, and engineering majors to enter the marketing field including receiving new relevant courses in data analytics, digital marketing and media as part of revised college curricula.

MarketingEDGE is partnering with over 175 colleges and universities nationwide (i.e., including U. Chicago, MIT, NYU, Northwestern and Wharton) to develop next-generation curricula in data-driven and digital marketing. Also, as part of the weekend’s events, EDGE hosted a professors’ Research Summit, where attending professors presented recent papers on data-driven and digital marketing.

MarketingEDGE is the connector between students, educators and employers…helping students by providing real-world experiences during junior and senior years, helping educators stay current by providing educational materials and forums to share research and trends, and helping employers find the motivated and highly-qualified (and increasingly technical) entry-level marketing talent.

Are you involved with MarketingEDGE?

There are several ways to engage…please visit www.MarketingEDGE.org to find out how you can participate in one of the 2015 programs and obtain the EDGE your company needs to remain competitive in the rapidly shifting marketing eco-system.

You can also reach out directly to me (jgundersen@executiveconnectionsllc.com) for additional information.

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 73

In this issue:

In Our Opinion: What’s New In Advertising?
Special Announcements:
- Julie Winskie – Global Head of Branding & Communications at Mercer
- Barney Loehnis – Global Head of Digital Marketing at Mercer
Career Opportunities:
- VP, Individual Digital Experience – Global Financial Services – NEW
- VP, Digital Experience – Group Insurance – Global Financial Services

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

What’s New In Advertising?

We just finished up one of the most exciting weeks in NYC, AWXI, the 11th year of Advertising Week NYC where the “who’s who” in advertising, media, marketing and technology collide and deliver over 250 sessions on “What’s Happening In Advertising” to over 90,000 visitors, presenters, and attendees.

It’s virtually impossible to take in everything, but here are three themes I heard resonating most strongly across the four days I was in town:

What keeps CMOs up at night is keeping up with the pace of consumers. According to a panel including Lisa Cochran, CMO of Allstate, consumers have adopted shopping and purchasing on mobile devices (smart phone, tablets) so rapidly brands are challenged to keep up and deliver the seamless, omni-channel customer experience in a multi-screen, mobile-first world. It’s not surprising the next generation of iPhone and other smart phone are larger.

Social replacing search is the most significant shift in the digital ecosystem. According to Susan Lyne, former Chairman & CEO of Gilt Group, President of Martha Stewart Group, and current Partner at BBG Ventures (an AOL early-stage venture fund), this is the biggest shift she has ever experienced in her career. Ellen Stone, EVP at Bravo described how they are giving a show’s top fans the ability to comment (and show comments on the TV screen) and also on reality shows enabling fans to select which judge to go first and which contestant to be targeted…this is real-time social engagement which is, in some cases, building a fan base and buzz before the new season is launched. Rovio also emphasized how they are mobile video first and have been killing banners slowly. Social is creating consumer-generated content and fan buzz that takes a brand or campaign on a viral journey to heights never imagined through traditional media spending. That’s why brands want to engage their loyal fans to provide content and create brand sizzle through social networks.

Branded content is hot and growing rapidly. Martin Sorrell, Chairman, WPP, kicked off the week saying “Content is the priority for agencies and the key to winning.” Karen Kaplan, CEO of HHCC, followed by saying “Content is choice-based; advertising is incidental.” Consumers believe less than 40% of advertising, but trust 75%+ of comments made by friends and colleagues. Branded content involving a celebrity, athlete, media vehicle, or cause (think ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge”) attached to a brand can lift the brand’s core values or have it stand for a larger social purpose. GE’s Linda Boff partnered with NBCU and The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon during the launch week by sponsoring a series where child inventors and Jimmy Fallon (himself an inventor) compared their ideas. The GE brand stands for reinvention and NBC was reinventing The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, so this was a perfect match. Prudential Corporation Asia partnered with National Geographic on a special campaign related to Disaster Recovery. PCA recruited Manny Pacquiao (Philippine boxing champion) as brand spokesperson and he delivered a knockout punch for the Prudential brand. Maverick Carter, agent and content producer for LeBron James and other athletes, talked about the keys to success in matching brands like Nike with athletes like LeBron and they include – (1) authenticity – the athlete must use (and like) the product; (2) the brand people must be reasonable to work with; and (3) the brand should be interested in helping tell part of the athlete’s personal story.

It’s clear brands are moving advertising into a digital- and mobile-first mindset with an emphasis on engaging their loyal customer bases in a dialogue providing them preferred access, inside information, behind the scenes or advanced knowledge, and other amenities to secure ongoing loyalty. If you have never attended Advertising Week NYC, we invite you to check out www.AdvertisingWeek.com for more information and so you can access some live feeds from this year’s sessions.

We want to know
As always, we invite you to connect with us and welcome your comments and insights on “what’s new in advertising.”

Lola and Jeff

Special Announcements

Julie Winskie, Global Head of Branding & Communications at Mercer

We are pleased to announce Julie Winskie has joined Mercer as Global Head of Branding & Communications reporting to Michelle Bottomley, Global Chief Marketing & Sales Officer. In this newly created role, Julie will provide strategic direction and management to a talented team of professionals around the world, raising and enhancing Mercer’s profile and impact. This includes developing integrated marketing communications aligned to maximize impact (e.g. PR, events, design), leading B2B and B2B2C branding efforts, and creating a platform that all global marketing teams can access to ensure a more consistent and compelling global brand presence. She’ll also work with the team to initiate global brand tracking and other relevant key performance indicators so Mercer can better monitor return on marketing communications investments globally.

Julie brings extensive marketing and strategy experience, including a real passion for making complex integrated communications simple and disruptive. She spent the majority of her career in executive roles at Porter Novelli, one of the world’s leading public relations agencies. As Global President – Clients, Julie provided strategic counsel to the agency’s top global clients, including P&G, Mercedes Benz, McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Timberland, HP and Microsoft. She also served as President for the Americas responsible for managing the P&L for the agency’s largest region.

Executive Connections LLC handled this executive search assignment on an exclusive basis and EC will be providing Julie our unique career transition support to assure her success in this important new role at Mercer.

Barney Loehnis, Global Leader of New Digital Center of Excellence

We are pleased to announce Barney Loehnis has joined Mercer as Global Leader, Digital Center of Excellence (COE) reporting to Michelle Bottomley, Global Chief Marketing & Sales Officer. In this new role, Barney is responsible for driving Mercer’s digital vision, strategy, and implementation around the world. Barney will assume responsibility for all of Mercer’s digital assets and activities, including websites, portals, mobile apps, digital product design, and email. Barney will lead the development and management of an integrated global digital platform that will deliver highly relevant experiences powered by data and enabled by world-class digital analytics.

Barney has spent the past 15+ years immersed in building world-class digital media, e-commerce, e-dialogue, and mobile experiences for the world’s best B2B, B2B2C, and B2C brands with extensive experience in Europe and Asia.

Barney joins Mercer from Ogilvy, where he served as Head of Digital & Mobile for Asia Pacific and Head of Digital Strategy in Greater China. In these roles, he successfully integrated a dedicated digital service offering covering social media, performance marketing, mobile, CRM, and innovation. He also led the digital and social strategy for a number of major clients, including Coca Cola, Rolex, and IBM. Prior to Ogilvy, Barney was with Isobar (Carat) in Asia Pacific — one of the leading digital media agencies with extensive global coverage. Barney started his career with WH Smith building and managing one of the first retail e-commerce sites responsible for profitable revenue generation.

Executive Connections LLC handled this executive search assignment on an exclusive basis for Mercer and EC will be providing Barney our firm’s unique career transition support to assure his success in this important new role at Mercer.

Career Opportunities

VP, Individual Digital Experience – Global Financial Services

Learn more…

VP, Digital Experience – Group Insurance Division

This role will also have considerable matrix interface and coordination with enterprise-wide digital and customer experience initiatives.

Learn more…

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 72

In this issue:

In Our Opinion: “Five Easy Pieces” – Keys to Successful Strategy Implementation
Blog Roundup:
- Blog – Can Business Learn From Sports?
Special Announcements:
- Rob DiGiovanni – Head of Marketing – Asia and IMETA at Mercer
- Kevin White – Account Manager, Digital Services at Epsilon
- Taylor Patchen – Inside Sales & Marketing Executive at Waterfall
Career Opportunities:
- Managing Director, Social & Mobile Business Development
- VP, Digital Experience – Global Financial Services

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

“Five Easy Pieces” – Keys to Successful Strategy Implementation

As we are approaching the time of year when companies turn their attention to business planning and budgeting for 2015 and beyond (i.e., 3-5 year planning), we felt it timely to discuss the keys to successful strategy development and implementation.

We are attaching an article by John McCreight (McCreight & Company) which highlights the essentials to strategy implementation in simple, straightforward terms. John’s firm recently led a CEO Forum of 45 CT technology companies sponsored by the CT Technology Council. John’s article is entitled “Strategy Implementation Insights” (SII_Chapter 19_August 2014) and our column this month is entitled “Five Easy Pieces” as if the individual pieces of strategy implementation were in fact this easy to achieve.

As McCreight lays out, the five essential pieces to successful strategy implementation are:

– Vision – You need a long-term vision which translates to goals, timelines, key milestones, and specific performance measures. SMART goals (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, with timetables) provide a road map for measuring success.

– Talent – Following the guidance of author Jim Collins (“Good to Great”), CEOs need to get the right people on the bus and exit the wrong people off the bus. I spoke with a CEO recently who successfully implemented a turnaround business strategy and it required replacing over one-half (50%) of a 1,600 person organization. Without the talent changeout, nothing significant would have been accomplished according to the CEO.

– Culture – McCreight calls this “how we do things,” and we see it as the CEO establishing common values and a C-team alignment which encourages collaboration, innovation and risk-taking, personal accountability, and results-orientation. It’s ultimately about getting the C-level geese in your company flying in formation so others at the next level down see this and follow suit.

– Customers – It’s about listening to customers, partnering with customers, solving customer problems quickly, and turning customers into advocates. We are definitely in the “Age of the Customer” who expects a consistent, high-quality, personalized, relevant brand experience at whichever touch point or channel they choose at a particular moment.

– Board – In a time where Boards are often criticized for negligence in oversight, companies have a huge opportunity to reconstitute Boards, and lean on outside Directors for their expertise and connections which can lead companies to growth opportunities or risk avoidance. If your Board isn’t materially helping the CEO, you need to make changes.

All of these five “easy pieces” to strategy implementation seem obvious and straightforward…if only it was this easy to put them into action!

As your business approaches planning its long-term (2015-2020) business strategy, where do you stand in terms of these “Five Easy Pieces” to successful strategy implementation?

We want to know
As always, we value and appreciate your feedback! Connect with us — we want to hear your experiences and opinions.

Lola and Jeff

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?

Can Business Learn From Sports?

When the aging San Antonio Spurs basketball team recently defeated LeBron James and the Miami Heat (reigning NBA champions), Greg Popovich (Spurs Coach) and R.C. Buford (Spurs GM) were lauded for their innovative practices in recruiting “role players” and building a “team first”, “non-star” philosophy, which enables them to conserve the energy of their aging veteran players and thoroughly outplay the Miami Heat in a one-sided NBA Finals.

Well, the Spurs have not been resting on their laurels since winning the NBA championship. In another innovative recruiting move, they recently signed Becky Hammon, a soon-to-be retiring WNBA star, as an assistant coach.

What a great example of gender diversity in the selection of Hammon to her new post.

Special Announcements

Rob DiGiovanni – Head of Marketing – Asia and IMETA at Mercer
We are pleased to announce Rob DiGiovanni has recently joined Mercer as Head of Marketing, Asia and IMETA. EC handled this executive search for Mercer on an exclusive basis.

Rob brings to Mercer 20 years’ experience in brand, digital and demand generation marketing. Prior to joining Mercer, Rob spent more than 14 years at Ogilvy & Mather based in the United States. He was hand-picked to come to Asia in 2011 as the Regional Director where he led the strategic development and the regional relationship with key clients such as UPS, IBM and American Express, across Growth Markets.

By driving effective translation of business strategies into well-executed marketing programs through innovation, Rob will partner with Mercer’s Growth Markets Leadership Team and all marketing colleagues to create new ways to deliver positive ROI on marketing investments that contributes to the region’s P&L and develop new levels of brand value for Mercer.

Rob has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on marketing from Franciscan University. Based in Singapore, Rob will have a dual reporting relationship to Michelle Bottomley, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, and Gaurav Garg, President, Growth Markets.

Congratulations Rob and best wishes for continued career success in this new role!

Kevin White – Account Manager, Digital Solutions at Epsilon
EC is giving a “shout out”and a BIG CONGRATS to Kevin White, EC’s 2012 “Rising Star.” Kevin was recently promoted to Account Manager, Digital Solutions at Epsilon, making him one of the youngest Account Managers in Epsilon history. In this role, Kevin will manage the marketing communications for several lines of business of a Fortune 100 company.

Really fabulous, Kevin! You are surely one of our EC Millennial Personal Brands to watch!

Taylor Patchen – Inside Sales & Marketing Executive at Waterfall
We are pleased to announce Taylor Patchen, EC’s 2014 “Rising Star,” began her career recently as an Intern at Waterfall in NYC. Taylor has recently been offered a full-time position as Sales Manager at Waterfall and she is excited to be launching her career in NYC.

GO, Taylor! Your work ethic, follow through, and great attitude will take you great places!

Career Opportunities

Managing Director, Social & Mobile Business Development

We are pleased to announce a career opportunity – MD, Business Development – Social & Mobile – for a Digital/Social/Mobile/CRM/Content/Analytics agency with several offices nationwide.

The position will be based in our client’s Alexandria, VA office and our client prefers not to relocate…so initially we are focusing our efforts intensively in the DC/VA market, but we are always interested in discovering key talent in the NYC area, which is our secondary market location.

We welcome all inquiries, connections and referrals.

VP, Digital Experience – Group Insurance Division

This VP, Digital Experience position is located in the NY metro area and we are focusing on identifying qualified candidates with 10+ years of digital experience in the insurance and/or financial services (banking, credit card, brokerage) sectors. B2C and B2B digital strategy and marketing experience are essential and, in addition, this individual will be a digital thought leader able to influence senior leaders and support them to accomplish business goals through development of innovative digital solutions.

This role will also have considerable matrix interface and coordination with enterprise-wide digital and customer experience initiatives.

Learn more…

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search, Recommended Articles

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 71

In this issue:

In Our Opinion: Who Is Really Capitalizing on Big Data?
Blog Roundup:
- Blog – Highlights from MMA CEO/CMO Summit – July 14-15, 2014 – Hilton Head, SC
Special Announcement:
- Harmony Outdoor Brands LLC – CEO, Jim Doyle
Career Opportunities:
- Chief Lending Officer
- VP, Digital Marketing – Global Financial Services
Article:
- Data-Driven Marketing Is The New Imperative – by Lorraine Barber-Miller

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Who Is Really Capitalizing on Big Data?

We had an abundance of replies to June’s article and we were offered a speaking engagement, so we decided to take this month and create a follow-on to the article in last month’s ezine, “Where is Big Data Heading?“

So much is being written about Big Data, the Cloud, and the need for top global advertisers to create a Chief Data Officer position to create new business, services and revenue/profit opportunities, and this is done by making data a key strategic business priority.

Making Data a Key Strategic Priority

If this is not on your agenda presently, it will swiftly become an even hotter C-suite agenda topic given this week’s Apple and IBM news. The announcement to form a joint venture to develop 100 new apps for iPhone and Tablet users leveraging IBM’s enterprise data analytics capabilities…brings big data into more actionable decision making by business leaders.

How many of the top 100 global advertisers/marketers are ready for this move?

Still, how many companies are ready to move forward with an enterprise-wide big data initiative? Where are you in the process?

We think Thomas C. Redman hit it straight on in his HBR Blog when he said, “A company only needs a Chief Data Officer when it’s ready to fully consider how it wishes to compete with data over the long term and start to build the organizational capabilities to do so. You need to charge the CDO with fully exploring what it means to compete with data. To gain some real end-to-end experience – perhaps make a concerted effort to try out advanced analytics in the hiring process, improve content in financial reporting, bring more data to decisions made by the senior team, and improve the quality of data used in marketing.”

Only approx. 25% of Fortune 100 companies have established a CDO role.

Following the recent MIT Chief Data Officer Forum, Randy Bean, CEO of consultancy NewVantage Partners, wrote the summary article entitled “Chief Data Officers Blaze Uncharted Corporate Frontier.” In this article, Professor Yang Lee of Northeastern indicates, “The roles of CDOs are diverse and evolving. Traditional data practices were led by middle managers lacking executive collaboration. The emerging CDO practices are executive-led, accountable, and sustainable.” However, this is only a trend emerging in the past 3-4 years, and only approx. 25% of Fortune 100 companies have established a CDO role at the executive level.

Cutting across the entire business and IT ecosystem

Derek Strauss, CDO at TD Ameritrade, says he “has peer relationships” with the CIO, CTO, Head of Applications Development, as well as various business functions and operating units. This enables him to implement an enterprise data and analytics program that cuts across the entire business and IT ecosystem.

Venkat Varadachary, CDO at American Express, echoed Strauss’ observations. “The CDO at American Express provides leadership and governance across the organization to continually nurture, enhance, and fully leverage our data assets in order to drive value for our customers. This role reports to the Chief Risk Officer and also has accountability to a broader set of senior leaders in the company.”

Data is an Enterprise Asset

As Randy Bean reports, terms used by CDOs to characterize their roles include “ambassador,” “reporter,” “experimenter,” and “coordinator.” The complexity of the CDO role is underscored by the recognition that data is an enterprise asset that crosses all lines of business and corporate functions. These terms underscore CDOs as “evangelists” helping business heads to think and approach data in fundamentally new ways. “I sometimes say CDO stands for Chief Diplomacy Officer,” says Jennifer Ippolitti, CDO for Raymond James Financial. “The CDO functions as a conduit among business, technology, and operations to ensure that the solutions we build are aligned with business strategies.”

The evolution and early stage of the CDO role are underscored by preliminary data gathered by Professor Lee which shows – 65% of CDO positions have only been established within the past 3 years; 64% of CDOs report to a business executive – CEO, COO, CRO or CMO; 36% of CDOs report to a technology executive – CIO or CTO.

“Democratization of Big Data involves ensuring transparency and access to data, but also a cultural transformation for our people to embed data in their daily thinking,” said Venkat Varadachary from American Express. And this is from a leading credit card organization with a rich history of database management, huge credit and purchase information on customers, and a heritage of direct and database marketing as part of their corporate culture.

What about consumer banks and other financial services organizations which are not already as committed to using data as a primary business asset? Who will bear the cost and be the executive sponsor for these initiatives and the corresponding investments?

Key challenges include:

System limitations – Most large companies are still burdened by cumbersome, legacy information systems which are not integrated and do not speak to each other…sorting this out is a major technological challenge for any Chief Data Officer and it takes the ability to operate at the highest levels of the corporate ecosystem to define opportunities and changes.
Organizational Boundaries – For the most part, each division of large companies operate independently, and corralling them to comply with an enterprise-wide Big Data initiative will be very challenging. Most divisional CEOs will resist making the investment unless this is mandated by the corporate CEO. That is why 65% of CDO positions report to a C-suite executive.
Financial/Capital Investment – Who bears the cost of changing technology systems and priorities and building the new technology platforms for leveraging Big Data on a real-time basis? Most operating companies within a large holding company structure will not share in this investment since it adversely impacts the bottom line in the short-term. It is clear the mandate and executive sponsorship has to come from the CEO and financial resources need to be mandated by the CEO/CFO at the corporate level.

The MIT CDO Forum called the CDO a pioneer position. “Charting the uncharted corporate frontier, CDOs are 21st century ‘pathfinders’ forging the information and enterprise data frontier. Westward ho!”

Bottom Line: Clearly, with customers in control, it’s increasingly imperative for Fortune 100 companies to utilize data in increasingly smarter ways to offer exceptional customer engagement and experience at every touch point.

Where is your company on the uncharted corporate frontier? Have you created a CDO position or are you still considering this initiative?

We want to know
As always, we value and appreciate you feedback! Connect with us — we want to hear your experiences and opinions.

Lola and Jeff

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?

Highlights from MMA CEO/CMO Summit – July 14-15, 2014 – Hilton Head, SC

Lola and I attended the 2014 MMA CEO/CMO Summit this week in Hilton Head, SC which included a keynote address by John Costello, President – Marketing & Innovation, Dunkin’ Brands. John is also Global Chairman of MMA and his perspective included “We are seeing what will be the most profound change in marketing and e-commerce through mobile.” This is why approx. 150-200 people attended including senior marketers from American Express, Campbell’s, Chase, Coca-Cola, Cosi, GM, Heineken, Hilton, P&G, Perry Ellis, Reckitt Bensicker, and Sears.

Jeff Hasen was one of 60-70 CMOs in attendance and his conference highlights are below.

Special Announcement

Harmony Outdoor Brands LLC – CEO, Jim Doyle

Executive Connections LLC is now pleased to announce Jim Doyle has joined Harmony Outdoor Brands LLC as CEO effective June 30, 2014.

Prior to accepting this new CEO role, Jim was Chief Marketing Officer & GM, Garden at Central Garden & Pet where he led the transformation of the $800M+ Garden business with P&L responsibility. Central is the second largest Lawn & Garden business and Jim consolidated 10+ acquisitions moving from a siloed Sales & Operations approach to a centralized, integrated, consumer-centric CPG model.

Prior to Central, Jim was SVP, Marketing & GM at Evercare and earlier he was VP/GM of Remington Products which was sold successfully to Spectrum Brands. As part of the sale to Spectrum, Jim relocated the business successfully from Bridgeport, CT to Madison, WI rebuilding the organization in the process.

Jeff Gundersen and Lola White of Executive Connections LLC led this exclusive retained search for Harmony Outdoor Brands LLC. EC will continue to provide support to Jim Doyle in his transition into the Harmony CEO role by providing Jim our unique, Blended Solutions approach for one year of confidential career transition support.

Career Opportunities

Chief Lending Officer
VP, Digital Marketing – Global Financial Services

Learn more…

Guest Author

Data-Driven Marketing Is The New Imperative — by Lorraine Barber-Miller

Marketers have always had the mission for building brands, creating demand, advancing sales and helping their companies earn customers’ loyalty. In the past decade, how marketers engage customers and what they do to drive advocacy has changed almost beyond recognition. Strategies based on intuition and engagement techniques that were once cutting-edge are fast becoming obsolete, with new methods emerging every day.

Read Complete Article… Data-Driven Marketing Is The New Imperative

About the Author: Lorraine Barber-Miller is an accomplished international sales, marketing and communications leader. Passionate about the customer experience, advancing the art and science of marketing, and establishing new businesses in global growth markets, Lorraine spans the globe evangelizing on modern marketing practices. (See Lorraine’s complete bio at end of article.)

Filed Under: Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Marketing Conferences & Events, Recommended Articles

Highlights from MMA CEO/CMO Summit – July 2014

Lola White and I attended the 2014 MMA CEO/CMO Summit this week in Hilton Head, SC which included a keynote address by John Costello, President – Marketing & Innovation, Dunkin’ Brands. John is also Global Chairman of MMA and his perspective included “We are seeing what will be the most profound change in marketing and e-commerce through mobile.” This is why approx. 150-200 people attended including senior marketers from American Express, Campbell’s, Chase, Coca-Cola, Cosi, GM, Heineken, Hilton, P&G, Perry Ellis, Reckitt Bensicker, and Sears.

Jeff Hasen was one of 60-70 CMOs in attendance and his conference highlights are below.

Key Highlights by Jeff Hasen – Mobile Marketing Strategist in Seattle, WA

Predictably, the topics of privacy, personalization and ROI led the discussion at the recent CEO/CMO Summit staged by the Mobile Marketing Association. What was new was talk of the use of technology that gets marketers too close to mobile users.

xAd showed how a toothpaste brand can serve up an ad to someone that it knows is at the dentist’s office. There was significant pushback during the presentation and afterward with several noting that a dentist’s visit is off limits for brands even if the technology is there to reach out to a mobile user before, during, or after a deep clean or root canal.

The MMA opened the conference by teasing the notion that a 16 percent share of the marketing spend for mobile could bring companies such as Coca-Cola an additional $1 billion in market cap. Most brands spend in the single digits and have yet to be convinced that more is justified.

Still, we learned lots from major brand marketers.

For instance, addressing questions about the ROI on mobile, Andrew Flack, Hilton Worldwide’s vice president for product marketing and customer insights, said that just as Hilton knew when it was time to put TVs and air conditioning in rooms, it knows that “now is the time for mobile.”

Mr. Flack’s advice?

“Be prepared to not be perfect,” he said. “In a year, three or four things will work. One will be OK. One will be a learning.”

Filed Under: Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 70

In this issue:

In Our Opinion: Where Is (Big) Data Heading?
Blog Roundup:
- Blog: Meet The 2014 Marketing EDGE Rising Stars
Career Opportunities:
- Chief Lending Officer – NEW
- VP, Digital Marketing – Global Financial Services – NEW
- Global Marketing Technology Strategist
- Global Head of Branding & Communications

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Where Is (Big) Data Heading?

In last month’s issue, we addressed the topic, Where is Digital Heading? and we reported to 25%+ of the top 100 global marketers will hire a Chief Digital Officer by the end of 2014.

This month’s topic is “Where is Big Data Heading?” and we see big data only getting bigger as large, global enterprises are challenged to harness prolific amounts of data in order to create new business opportunities, innovative new products and services, and deliver better customer engagement/experience. According to a recent study by Deloitte Consulting LLP, “in the last 5 years, as companies became aware of the value of data as an enterprise asset, the management of data has become more visible and crucial.”

And this is not just customer data, it’s all kinds of data including employee data…hiring, performance, retention data. Jane Griffin, a Principal at Deloitte, sums it up as follows, “Companies must better define strategic priorities for management and delivery of data, identify new business opportunities through analysis of data, and significantly improve revenue generation through effective use of enterprise data. It’s crucial to have a C-level person responsible for crafting and implementing data strategies, standards, procedures, and accountability policies at an enterprise level.”

Forrester agrees big data offers big business opportunities…”The attention on information comes from all the rich new data that simply did not exist before; sensor data from the internet of all things; social media, process data, resulting from the digitization of everything. Add to this technology the ability to handle big data in reasonable timeframes, user friendly mobile computing in the form of tablets, data virtualization software and data warehouse applications that significantly accelerate analysis, and predictive analytics, and there is plenty of cause for an information renaissance.”

We are seeing signs of this new information age everywhere — first and foremost through the eyes of Google — the #1 market capitalization company in the world…and they are only a teenager in terms of how long they have been in existence. Google is digitizing everything…and created a search (near) monopoly with imbedded digital and mobile advertising, which will assure its growth and success for the next few decades at a minimum.

Amazon is not far behind. They recently beat out legacy technology laggard IBM in winning a $600M+ 10-year contract with the Defense Department…really? Could this be true? Isn’t Amazon the company that ships books and other merchandise to consumers? Amazon is exploiting their “state of the art” cloud technology capabilities to expand into Federal Government and other commercial business sectors…leaving companies like IBM in the dust behind them…and the Federal government paid a premium (+30% higher price compared to IBM’s bid). How’s that for building a premier brand!

Large companies are paying attention. Wells Fargo, the best-run US bank, recently hired A. Charles Thomas from USAA as its first-ever Chief Data Officer at an enterprise-wide level. On this hire, Kevin Rhein (CIO and Thomas’ boss) commented, “Wells Fargo considers data management one of its technology priorities and with the emergence of new technologies and the exponential growth of data, we believe it represents a tremendous opportunity to use data in ways we’ve never been able to before.”

That sums it up very well. The leading companies of the future in each business sector will be Google-like and Amazon-like…digitizing and analyzing data in real-time to deliver relevant and timely communications, products and services to their existing customers and best prospects.

Where do you stand on big data? Where is your big data heading? Are you an Amazon or an IBM?

We want to know
As always, we value and appreciate you input. Connect with us — we want to hear your experiences and opinions.

Lola and Jeff

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?

Meet The 2014 Marketing EDGE Rising Stars

As an executive search and consulting firm positioned at the cutting-edge of marketing transformation and development, we continuously stay connected to the “next generation” marketing leaders who are changing the landscape of “best practices” in customer acquisition, engagement, retention, and loyalty/advocacy. One of our favorite events to find this talent is at the annual Marketing EDGE “Rising Stars Awards Dinner” which happened Tuesday night June 3rd in NYC.

Not surprisingly, this year’s best and brightest under 40YO come from backgrounds focused on new technologies, international/global markets, content strategies, social networks/business, and data analytics. We are pleased to offer a summary of the 2014 award recipients:

Career Opportunities

Chief Lending Officer – NEW
VP, Digital Marketing – Global Financial Services – NEW
Global Marketing Technology Strategist
Global Head of Branding & Communications

Learn more…

Filed Under: Connections E-Zine, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search, Personal Branding

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 68

In this issue:

In Our Opinion: CMOs Shifting to Revenue Centers and Sales Generators
NEW Executive Search:
- President, Retail-Outdoor Lifestyle Brands
Event Highlight: 2014 Rising Star Awards Dinner
Career Opportunities:
- President, Retail-Outdoor Lifestyle Brands – NEW
- Head of Global Corporate Communications – NEW
- Global Marketing Technology Strategist
- Global Head of Digital Marketing
- Global Head of Branding & Communications

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

CMOs Shifting to Revenue Centers and Sales Generators

Fueled by the rapid shift to all things digital, the role of CMOs is rapidly shifting from a cost center mentality (i.e., spending corporate marketing budgets to build the corporate brand image through brand advertising and sponsorships) to a revenue center mindset focused on lead generation and closing sales in each of the company’s lines of business and distribution channels (online and offline).

In a recent study produced by Salesforce Exact Target Marketing Cloud and Deloitte Research, Lynn Vojvodich (Salesforce CMO) reported half of CMOs today feel responsible for revenue growth. “When a customer comes through a device or store, they want one consistent brand experience with you. As marketers, we need to be the stewards of customer journey and the new CMO is about owning customer experience,” commented Vojvodich.

Ms. Vojvodich spoke at the recent AdAge Digital conference and noted that 25% of CMOs surveyed had an increasing role in customer service within their organizations. This report also noted the top 3 internal marketing priorities of CMOs included data acquisition, testing and optimization, and flexible and agile marketing processes. Overall, the top 5 expanding expectations of CMOs include top line growth, owning customer experience, data analytics/insights, operating in real-time, and metrics to prove marketing ROI.

This Deloitte-Salesforce study clearly underscores the modern age CMO needs to be well-grounded in multi-channel customer acquisition, customer engagement and experience, retention/loyalty, and other aspects of CRM. With the majority of marketing and commerce moving toward mobile and digital channels, the modern age CMO must be digitally savvy, have strong direct marketing skills, and be comfortable leading technology and data analytics teams, in addition to traditional branding and communications functions.

Michelle Bottomley, Sr. Partner & Global Chief Marketing & Sales Officer at Mercer, is the embodiment of this new trend toward revenue building CMOs. Historically, B2B “sales cultures” in professional services firms like Mercer used Marketing only for tactical sales support. Michelle is transforming Marketing at Mercer and within the first 30 days onboard she was given the additional responsibility for Sales. Clearly, Mercer’s CEO Julio Portalatin sees her as a revenue driver.

The end-to-end responsibility for customer experience is indeed broadening the role and span of influence of CMOs. Are you prepared to handle this broader scope including being a revenue generator in your role as CMO? You need to become this if you are not there today…this is the way of the future of modern age marketing.

As always, we invite your views and comments.

Lola and Jeff

New Executive Search

President, Retail-Outdoor Lifestyle Brands

Executive Connections, LLC is happy to announce we have been awarded the exclusive assignment to recruit a President for a new start-up in Sarasota, Florida.

The new Retail – Outdoor Lifestyle Brands company is the brain child of a well-established and highly successful private (family-owned) company who is the nationwide leader and supplier of sod and turf grass products (including partnerships with Home Depot and Lowe’s).

We would appreciate if you could refer potential candidates or sources for this exciting start-up career opportunity. Here is the link for the President, Retail-Outdoor Lifestyle Brands job specification.

This ideal leader will be an entrepreneurial President or General Manager who has successfully built an Outdoor Lifestyle business supplying major retailers (i.e., similar to Home Depot and Lowe’s) and expanded the business by adding new product lines and brand extensions.

Please e-mail Jeff Gundersen with your availability for a call in the next week to discuss this exciting career opportunity and provide us your input.

Event Highlight

Please join us at this year’s 2014 Rising Stars Awards Dinner sponsored by MarketingEDGE to be held on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at 583 Park Avenue, New York City. As a Board Trustee member of MarketingEDGE, Jeff Gundersen will be attending this event.

Career Opportunities

President, Retail-Outdoor Lifestyle Brands – NEW
Head of Global Corporate Communications – NEW
Global Marketing Technology Strategist
Global Head of Digital Marketing
Global Head of Branding & Communications

Learn more.

Filed Under: Connections E-Zine, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search, Personal Branding

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 67

In this issue:

In Our Opinion: MMA Needs to Create a Mobile Talent Task Force
Career Opportunities:
- Head of Marketing – AMEA
- Global Marketing Technology Strategist
- Global Head of Digital Marketing
- Global Head of Branding & Communications
- Managing Director, Social Media

Blog Roundup:
- Blog – Mobile Marketing Talent Gap is Growing

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

MMA Needs to Create a Mobile Talent Task Force

Introduction
Executive Connections LLC became a member of The Mobile Marketing Association (“MMA) in 2013 since we are concerned about a widening “talent gap” in marketers hiring and developing the full-time marketing and m-commerce resources to keep up with consumers rapid adoption of mobile technologies. We are utilizing this month’s column to publish our views on the need for MMA to launch a Mobile Talent Task Force. As interested members of MMA, EC has offered to play a leadership role in organizing and developing this important MMA task force.

Background
Marketers know that consumers’ attention is increasingly being drawn to their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), but most marketers are still in the early stages of mobile marketing strategy development — and as a result, they are falling behind in evolving beyond basic mobile marketing campaigns to building the dedicated mobile marketing organizations and recruiting/developing the mobile talent required for sustained future mobile marketing and m-commerce growth and success.

The Mobile Marketing Association (“MMA”) needs to create a Mobile Talent Task Force to further the conversation (including all constituencies – marketers, media companies, agencies, mobile technology providers, non-profits, educators) regarding the current and future mobile talent needs (and gaps) and to develop future industry standards and “best practices” related to education, hiring, training and development, and recognition of the mobile marketing and m-commerce talent needed for enterprises to sustain success in this new, connected mobile marketing age.

Current Industry Landscape – Mobile Talent Needs Gap Is Widening

Consumer mobile adoption is outpacing mobile marketing talent investments.
Consumers are rapidly flocking to sophisticated mobile devices and behaviors.
Marketers are slowly evolving to support wider mobile programs, however, the vast majority (80%+) do not yet have a mobile marketing strategy so efforts are predominantly standalone.
Companies are using a variety of talent resourcing approaches (contractors, freelance, agencies) as most are in the first 1-2 years of developing mobile marketing strategies and programs.
Demonstrating the ROI of mobile marketing is the biggest challenge facing companies who want to hire, acquire, and build full-time in-house mobile resources.
The majority of companies are working with their traditional brand and digital agencies to help them integrate mobile into their overall marketing campaigns/plans.
There are no clear organizational models or set of responsibilities yet established for mobile marketing employees further compounding the mobile talent acquisition and development processes.

Proposed Mission Statement – MMA Talent Task Force
The MMA North America Mobile Talent Task Force mission will be to support all MMA constituencies in proving the ROI of mobile marketing to enable acceleration of the hiring/building of permanent mobile marketing and m-commerce infrastructures and the talent pipeline needed to assure sustained member growth and success. MMA will also share mobile talent acquisition, development, compensation, and organizational “best practices,” across all industry sectors and categories of constituents, enabling mobile marketers, agencies, media partners, and technology providers to identify, hire or acquire, and develop the talent pipeline needed to support both immediate and long-term mobile marketing needs.

MMA Talent Task Force – Goals and Objectives

Assist in surveying and defining current and future mobile marketing and m-commerce organizational models, position/role descriptions, educational/training requirements, undergraduate/graduate curriculums, and other mobile talent-related requirements, and share these findings in MMA publications, white papers, and conferences.
Assist all MMA constituencies in building the ROI case for creating a mobile marketing strategy and hiring the full-time in-house mobile resources (in both the Marketing and IT areas) required to support the immediate and long-term mobile marketing and m-commerce needs.
Promote mobile marketing hiring and training/development “best practices” among marketers, media companies, agencies, technology enablers, and other MMA constituencies. Develop job board and resource center on MMA website for temporary and permanent mobile marketing positions.
Assess mobile marketing education, training and certification standards and guidelines.
Collaborate with universities, other educational providers, and non-profit organizations (i.e., Marketing EDGE), to develop, distribute, and promote the mobile marketing educational curriculum and certifications required to educate the next generation of mobile marketing talent needed for sustained growth.
Promote mobile talent acquisition, and education/training as a powerful new mobile marketing resource strategy across all constituencies.
Assist in surveying and reporting “best practices” in compensation and benefits policies and practices across various constituencies.
Promote and recognize “Rising Stars” in the mobile marketing and m-commerce sector in conjunction with MMA awards, conferences, and events.

Participants
MMA Talent Task Force to recruit leading companies in every sector including:

Marketers:
Media Companies:
Agencies:
Technology Enablers:
Executive Search/Talent Acquisition: Executive Connections LLC
Colleges, Universities, Non-profits, Education Providers: Marketing EDGE

Next Steps

EC has a call scheduled with Greg Stuart, CEO of MMA to discuss the need for this task force
Recruit Initial Task Force Participants – March – June 2014
Hold MMA Talent Task Force session at upcoming MMA conference – May 2014

As always, we invite your views and comments. Please let us know how your company is doing in scaling mobile resources and your view/interest in joining this proposed MMA Mobile Talent Task Force.

Lola and Jeff

Event Highlight

Please join us at this year’s 2014 Rising Stars Awards Dinner sponsored by MarketingEDGE to be held on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at 583 Park Avenue, New York City. As a Board Trustee member of MarketingEDGE, Jeff Gundersen will be attending this event.

Career Opportunities

Head of Marketing – AMEA
Global Marketing Technology Strategist
Global Head of Digital Marketing
Global Head of Branding & Communications
Managing Director, Social Media

Learn more.

Blog Roundup: Did you catch our recent posts on our blog?

BLOG: Mobile Marketing Talent Gap is Growing

Overview
Organizations (marketers, media companies, agencies, and marketing technology providers) know that consumers’ attention is increasingly being drawn to their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), but most companies are still in the early stages of mobile marketing strategy development — and they face an uphill climb to evolve beyond basic mobile marketing campaigns to building the dedicated mobile marketing organizations and recruiting/developing the talent required for sustained future mobile marketing growth and success.

Central Issues – Mobile Adoption Outpacing Talent Acquisition

Consumer mobile adoption is outpacing mobile marketing talent investment. The central issue facing marketers is the rapid pace of consumer mobile adoption which is outpacing mobile marketing talent investment, as marketers are still at an early stage in proving ROI of mobile marketing investments. Only 16% of marketers out of 250 global marketers surveyed have developed a mobile strategy, according to a 2013 report from the CMO Council. 46% of marketers surveyed in the CMO Council study said they are either evaluating or reviewing the role of mobile in their organizations.

Marketing Conferences & Events

In this issue:

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

CMO-CIO Partnership…Still Early Days

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?

What Does It Take To Be A Winning CMO?

MarketingEDGE Holds Successful 2014 Annual Awards Dinner

DMA2014 Has A Magic Opening

Special Announcements

Helen Nowicka, Managing Director, Business Development – Social & Mobile at MXM

Career Opportunities

In this issue:

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

What’s New In Advertising?

Special Announcements

Julie Winskie, Global Head of Branding & Communications at Mercer

Barney Loehnis, Global Leader of New Digital Center of Excellence

Career Opportunities

In this issue:

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?

Special Announcements

Career Opportunities

In this issue:

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?

Special Announcement

Career Opportunities

Guest Author

In this issue:

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?

Career Opportunities

In this issue:

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

New Executive Search

Event Highlight

Career Opportunities

In this issue:

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Event Highlight

Career Opportunities

Blog Roundup: Did you catch our recent posts on our blog?

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