Executive Connections LLC

Connecting organizations with the future of marketing

Connections E-Zine

Filed Under: Connections E-Zine, Featured

Hiring Priorities Are Changing

Dear Friends,

Summer has arrived and we are seeing temperatures rising including record heat waves nationwide.

We are also seeing rapid changes in hiring priorities as 50% of today’s workforce tasks are forecasted to become obsolete within the next few years based upon the impacts of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technology innovations.

The impact of these disruptive changes, including proactive strategies for addressing these impacts, are highlighted in this month’s excellent article, “Hiring Priorities Are Changing,” written by Darcy Bevelacqua, Managing Director, Analytics, CX & MarTech.

Pls. schedule a call with EC to review your second half talent acquisition priorities so you can stay ahead of the curve.

Best,
Jeff Gundersen

Hiring Priorities Are Changing

by Darcy Bevelacqua, Managing Director – Analytics, CX, & MarTech

In this new age of disruption driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning, 50% of the tasks performed by today’s full-time workforce will become obsolete within the next few years.

According to McKinsey, the evolution of business will cause massive organization changes in the next few years. This will have an impact on what skills you will need to hire, the rate of change, diversity of the workforce and the importance of a strong culture that enables agile development and emphasis on continuous learning and testing rather than success and failure.

In order to keep up keep up it’s time to start planning for your future now.

Here are some ideas on how to get started to building a better future.

  1. Hiring new skills
  2. Investing in marketing operations and technology
  3. Building a culture of continuous learning & innovation
  4. Thinking holistically and working across internal silos and becoming agile
  5. Building a bigger ecosystem and including “frenemies”

Hiring New Skills

As competition intensifies, there is a need to hire new skills. Most companies are already reconsidering and upgrading their skills in analytics, design and technology. In order to create the future customer experiences you need, these new skills are required investments. There will also be a need to think about integrating these new skills within the marketing team.

We are seeing more emphasis on new roles in media that combine audience targeting with analytics and ROI. Since more than 50% of the media dollars in most organizations are going toward on line, audience targeting is becoming more important and there is more emphasis on using analytics to track the MROI (marketing return on investment).

Companies are putting more emphasis on machine learning, AI and other advanced analytic modeling capabilities. Talent is hard to find and unless there is a clear career path it is hard to keep the advanced analytics talent interested over the long run.

There is a need to new type of talent we call “Whole Mind.” These are folks are comfortable with analytics and process but can also work with the creative and content people. These are the people who are able to integrate different departments and enable them to work together more successfully.

Investing in Marketing Operations and Technology

CMO’s now have a bigger technology budget than the Technology department. Learning how to work with IT has become a critical path to success for both departments.

The CMO is now accountable for growth and this is not possible without a robust technology infrastructure. The technology stack includes online advertising (DSP, DMP etc.), content management (DAM), CMS), campaign planning(CRM), workflow management (MRM),  , identity management,(CDP),  Analytics Testing, Reporting (BI), etc. Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey 2018-2019 found marketing technology (MarTech) accounts for the biggest slice of the marketing spend budget — 29%. Meanwhile, only 24% goes to labor. Maybe it’s time for organizations to invest more resources into “MarTalent” rather than MarTech?

Most CMOs report challenges with integrating these systems, gaining insights from their data because the data is siloed and hard to access, and in data governance (because there are no standards on how the data will be kept up to date). Working hand in hand with operations and tech will help the CMO make the right choices for which tech platforms, what cloud services, etc. should be put in place.

Building the right marketing operations teams will be important to working across the organization to facilitate a holistic customer view, tracking marketing effectiveness, and ensuring a consistent customer experience.

Building a Culture of Continuous Learning

Marketing has been evolving quickly, with more communications channels, higher customer expectations and increasing competition. In order to keep up and gain a competitive advantage it will be important to provide your team with new skills on an ongoing basis.

There are several ways to accomplish this goal. First you can identify the key industry conferences where new learning can take place. If you send your staff be sure they come back and hold sessions with the team on what they learned.

You can provide on-site or on-line training for new skills. Many of the professional organizations offer these types of programs, but don’t be afraid to use tools like Coursera and LinkedIn. If you find classes you think are superior, you can put your own company curriculum in place and recommend these classes to others.

It’s important to included time and money for continuous learning into your career planning. It’s also important to give people recognition for their accomplishments and to have them share their learning with others. The emphasis on continuous learning has to come from management. Practice what you preach and share with your team.

Have your employees provide feedback on the training they receive so you know which course are great and which ones are not worth taking. Also monitor what your employees say on social media about training to be sure they are getting value.

Thinking holistically and working across internal silos and becoming agile

Most marketing organizations are grouped by communications channels and functions, each run by different marketing executives, with different metrics and KPIs. In order for the CMO to build an organization that is customer focused rather than function focused, it is necessary to change the organizational structure, and to change the way the teams get compensated.

This is a different way of operating and it will take some time to make this transition. You can begin by working with ad hoc teams that are cross functional to solve specific business challenges. You can also create some centers of excellence that combine functions together. Either way the culture needs to reinforce the value of teams working together. Put leaders in charge who have the skills to work across the silos, appreciate the creative and the analytical skillsets, and are strong communicators who can provide the vision and reinforcement for the teams as they move forward. It is impossible to create better customer experiences without internal cooperation of many departments.

We want to work in an agile way but learning how to do this is a new skill. Instead of assuming that everyone will adapt to agile -provide training and reinforce the new work methods to help your teams get comfortable with this way of working.

Building a bigger eco system and including “frenemies”

Last, but not least, is to think about how your will be able to grow your organization’s bottom line. Most likely this will be a combination of product extensions, and partnerships.

You probably have a “new product” development team. However, new products can’t be developed in a vacuum. In order for them to be successful, they need  input from sales, customer service and customers to be sure what they develop is what your customer’s actually want. Too many organizations have product innovation that is led by engineers without  a clear understanding of customer needs. Product success requires internal collaboration and a clear understanding of the customer and the competitive landscape to be successful.

In addition to product development, you want to think about which partners in the ecosystem you should work with to build new solutions. This is harder than it seems. You need people with an outside perspective of the marketplace, and knowledge of the  various players to help you find the right partners that you will be able to work with successfully.

Conclusion

We live in exciting times! Preparing your organization to become agile and more customer-centric is critical to your long-term success. You should review and reconsider  your approach to :

  • Organizational Design
  • Compensation and career paths
  • Training and retraining your workforce
  • Creating a culture of collaboration and experimentation
  • Hiring new skills to help you reach your objectives

Please contact Executive Connections LLC (www.executiveconnectionsllc.com) for help. We would love to work with you to help your company grow. With high market demand favoring candidates with skills in Analytics, CX, MarTech, etc. – it is advisable to retain an experienced, well-regarded executive search firm partner to help find the right talent, shorten recruiting timetables, and assist in candidate transition support coaching/consulting.

Filed Under: Connections E-Zine

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 90

In this issue:

  • Announcing Our EC Rebrand! by Jeff Gundersen and Lola White
  • 100 Most Creative People In Business by Jeff Gundersen and Lola White
  • Career Opportunities:
    • Manager, Demand Generation – NEW
    • Market & Segment Manager – NEW
    • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy

Announcing Our EC Rebrand!

Because we connect organizations with the future of marketing, we’ve been on the forefront of partnering with CEOs to build global marketing teams with today’s competencies in digital, mobile, and analytics. Our new mobile-friendly website—launching next week—is built around this positioning. It has clear paths to our innovative blended services for clients and candidates and better features our expertise in connecting you with important happenings in the area of marketing leadership.

Because we are adapting to the content consumption needs of our senior executive audience, we are also changing our e-zine format with our next issue. To keep you abreast of the latest news and career opportunities, we will be sending out short executive summaries twice monthly beginning in July. Look for our new Connections Briefing in your inbox soon, and have a Happy Fourth!

Very truly yours,

Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

100 Most Creative People In Business

Creativity and disruptive innovation are the keys to extraordinary value creation in business. But how does this type of game-changing creativity happen? From where do extraordinary innovators come? What are the critical culture ingredients that foster a creative environment?  

Kudos to Robert Safian, Fast Company Editor, and his staff for curating this year’s list of 100 Most Creative People in Business (June 2016 Issue). Fast Company’s list highlights the most creative and inspiring leaders in technology, design, media, music, entertainment, market, science, and more.

In his Notes from the Editor, Safian highlights “15 Lessons from Creativity,” and we would like to highlight three of these lessons:

1. The Impossible Happens…. Only If You Try.– Lin-Manuel Miranda (#1), creator and star of Hamilton, was selected as the most creative business person for his hip-hop musical which has become a phenomenon for its fresh spin on the historical impacts of Alexander Hamilton. After winning a Tony in 2008 for his first musical, In The Heights, Miranda was invited to perform at The White House, and having just read a biography of Alexander Hamilton, he was inspired to tell this story in a way that would be relevant to a modern audience. The rest is history, as Hamilton has revitalized Broadway, broken Billboard and online music and video records for downloads and views, and catapulted Miranda to the highest creative rank in Broadway since Andrew Lloyd-Webber. All at the age of 36 years old. What amazing things could happen if you tried something impossible?

2. Dream What Doesn’t Exist – Just like Amazon, Google, and more recently Uber, there are huge benefits from creating a product or industry category which did not previously exist. Nike’s Martin Lotti (#28), Global Category Creative Director, created the first ever line of women’s soccer cleats and sleek uniforms worn by the U.S. women’s 2015 World Cup champions. Nike continues to be innovators in “performance athletics,” using new textured yarn to create a more aerodynamic fabric and a FlyKnit precision knitting technology to make soccer boots that fit like a sock…with studs. According to Lotti, the starting point of Nike’s innovations is listening to the voices of the athletes for the problems they are identifying. What performance problems are your customers telling you about?

3. Impossible Problems Are Addressable– Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway (#92) and Kate Roberts (#93) – SVP at Population Services International (PSI), decided the current model for philanthropy was not working to lift girls out of poverty. They created The Maverick Collective and began recruiting private sector donations of $1M+ from women to fund breakthrough pilot programs. To-date, the founding 14 members, including Melinda Gates, have invested $20M+ of their personal funds in projects spanning 13 countries and have been instrumental in attracting $60M+ of additional resources to support young girls in under-developed countries. In addition to their financial commitments, members of Maverick Collective bring their skills— ranging from research, organization, and communications—to assist in the execution of various program initiatives. Building upon lifetime philanthropy commitments of the Buffett, Gates, Zuckerberg families, and others, many of the world’s most serious problems of abuse, drugs, education, healthcare, and poverty are being addressed and financed by private sector funding and leadership. What areas of philanthropy and giving back call to you?

Summary

One other learning from the Fast Company article caught our attention… Every Community Needs a Muse. We want to give a shout-out to Barry Stowe, CEO of Jackson National Life Insurance, who recently hired Emilio Pardo from AARP as the new muse of the annuities sector to change the conversation regarding the role and importance of annuities as a personal pension plan to supplement social security. Stowe is an experienced and successful life insurance CEO with a 20+-year track record of growing life insurance businesses globally. Especially for the Boomer generation now reaching retirement ages, with the majority not having a company pension, there is a vast and growing need to transfer self-funded IRAs into a distribution vehicle with guaranteed investment returns that provide lifetime income and financial security. Executive Connections placed Pardo at Jackson National, and we are confident he will be just the muse this category so desperately needs. Good luck Emilio, and congratulations Barry on making such a smart decision!

With Summer arriving, this is a great time for everyone to take a mid-year review of how things are going. What’s working, what’s not? What course corrections or adjustments make sense for the second half?

As always, we welcome your comments and input.

Very truly yours,

Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

 

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies.

Take a moment to click on these links (below) for the complete position description:

Learn more about our Career Opportunities…

Filed Under: Connections E-Zine

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 89

In this issue:

  • Technology Insurgents Lead 2016 Agency Growth by Jeff Gundersen and Lola White
  • Jackson National Appoints Emilio Pardo as SVP, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
  • Career Opportunities:
    • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy
    • Head of Corporate Branding & Communications – Life Insurance/Annuities – FILLED
    • Global Head – Analytics & CRM – FILLED
    • VP, Marketing – Collections – FILLED

Technology Insurgents Lead 2016 Agency Growth

Led by the surging, double digit growth rates of Accenture Interactive (+57%), Deloitte Digital (+14%), IBM Experience (+12.5%), and PWC (+32%), the advertising agency sector has grown 2016 revenues by 6.5% according to AdAge’s 2016 Agency Report published May 3, 2016.

Digital advertising rose to 41.3% of total U.S. agency revenues, confirming the prior prediction by the CMO Club that digital will exceed 50% market share by 2018 or sooner.  Technology consulting firms appear to be the biggest winners, as the 4 top global digital agency networks are units of technology consulting firms. However, the rising tide of digital advertising and technology insurgents appears to be raising the the entire advertising and marketing services sector, as WPP, Omnicom and Interpublic are trading at record high share price levels.

Big 5 advertising holding companies completed 100 acquisitions in 2015, led by Publicis’ acquisition of Sapient, the largest remaining independent technology consulting firm. And while the ad holding companies continue to acquire technology and digital media assets, the technology consulting firms have begun building and acquiring creative resources, as highlighted by Deloitte Digital’s recent acquisition of Heat, a full-service advertising agency in San Francisco.

Deloitte Digital CEO, Andy Main, commented on this acquisition, “Adding Heat’s extraordinary and award-winning creative capabilities is the perfect complement to our market-leading and long-established digital business. We are the single place for our clients to go to connect business strategy with creative strategy and content, customer experience, core business operations, transformational technology, and campaign execution. We combine creative chops with the powerful Deloitte platform to help our clients find their own disruptive advantage.”

We have long predicted that as technology consultancies build and acquire creative capabilities, they will be positioned to compete head to head with the Big 5 advertising holding companies for global marketing services leadership. We are seeing this happening in 2016!

If your career path is in the marketing services sector, where will your best advancement opportunities be in the next 5-10 years? The incumbent advertising holding companies or the technology insurgents?

As always, we welcome your comments and input.

Best,
Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

emilio-pardo

Jackson National Appoints Emilio Pardo as SVP, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer

We are pleased to announce Emilio Pardo has been appointed SVP, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer responsible for the strategy and direction of branding, marketing and communications across the North American Business Unit (NABU) of Prudential plc. In this role, Pardo will be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic framework to strengthen brand identification and guide innovation to deepen customer engagement with Jackson National Life Insurance Company® (Jackson®) and its subsidiaries.

Pardo will be based in Nashville TN, reporting to Barry Stowe, chairman and chief executive officer of Prudential plc’s North American Business Unit, which includes Jackson, its subsidiaries Jackson National Life Distributors LLC (JNLD) and Jackson National Asset Management, LLC® (JNAM) and its U.S. affiliates National Planning Holdings®, Inc. (NPH) and PPM America, Inc. (PPMA). Pardo will serve as a member of the Prudential plc Leadership Team, which consists of key senior managers across various business units of Prudential plc worldwide.

Pardo brings more than 20 years of marketing, communications and business leadership experience across corporations, nonprofits and government organizations. Most recently, he served for more than 10 years as the Chief Brand Officer and a member of the executive team of AARP. In this role, Pardo was responsible for strategy, management and integration of the AARP brand throughout the organization, including more than 50 offices nationwide and 70 direct reports. “Emilio’s strong track record of managing and transforming successful and prominent brands will be immensely valuable to Jackson and our affiliates,” Stowe said. “Emilio is uniquely qualified to champion financial education and investing confidence for consumers, particularly baby boomers, who are so critically under-saved for retirement. We are excited to be at the forefront of the movement to reach across the multi-generational market to empower consumers to make the best financial decisions they can, and believe Emilio will play a very important role as we work toward that goal.”

Before joining AARP in 2005, Pardo served as SVP for Discovery Communications, Inc., where he led strategic business development and partnerships for the health and fitness sectors. Prior to this position, he co-founded and served as CEO and Director of CityNet, a leading broadband network company and pioneer in building fiber optic networks in the U.S. and internationally. Earlier in his career, Pardo worked at Fleishman-Hillard, one of the nation’s largest public relations and marketing firms, where he rose to senior partner, driving the company’s global expansion and establishing its social marketing, branding and technology practices. Pardo also held the role of Press Secretary for U.S. Senator Ernest F. Hollings in Washington, D.C., responsible for all national media functions on issues relating to telecommunications, transportation, trade, space, consumer, foreign commerce, tourism and sports.

Executive Connections LLC handled this exclusive retained search assignment for Jackson National and EC will be providing Emilio Pardo our unique career transition support services to assist in his assimilation into this new career role.

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies.

Take a moment to click on these links (below) for the complete position description:

  • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy
  • Head of Corporate Branding & Communications – Life Insurance/Annuities – FILLED
  • Global Head – Analytics & CRM – FILLED
  • VP, Marketing – Collections- FILLED

Learn more about our Career Opportunities…

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine, Uncategorized

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 88

In this issue:

  • The New Frontier – Analytics, Big Data & Machine Learning by Jeff Gundersen and Lola White
  • Accenture Interactive: ‘We’re Billed Based On Proven Business Outcomes’  by Kelly Liyakasa for AdExchanger
  • Girl Scouts Hires Christine Cea as Chief Communications Executive
  • Career Opportunities:
    • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy
    • Head of Corporate Branding & Communications – Life Insurance/Annuities – FILLED
    • Global Head – Analytics & CRM – FILLED
    • VP, Marketing – Collections – FILLED
  • Upcoming Professional Development Events
    • Premier EDGE Awards: Wednesday June 8th 2016

The New Frontier – Analytics, Big Data & Machine Learning

Happy Spring!

Since this is a season of new beginnings, and new growth, we invite you into a discussion of one of the new frontiers. With Marketing tilting onto a digital- and mobile-first axis, one of the newest, hottest frontiers is Analytics driven by Big Data and Machine Learning.

Boards are pushing CEOs to invest in advanced technologies to better analyze the wealth of customer, employee and business data already residing inside large, legacy databases.

We are placing a greater number of Chief Analytics Officers, and in partnership with CTOs and CFOs, these CAOs are being tasked to develop and apply advanced analytics to improve decision making enterprise wide.

Machine learning, similar in concept to IBM’s Watson, is a branch of artificial intelligence that enabled machines to learn on their own, thereby enabling them to optimize and create new algorithms for predictive analytics, and similar regression analyses, leading to improved sales and marketing results, better hiring decisions, and improved operational efficiencies and safety/security performance.

In “The Rise of Machine Learning,” an article by Dale Buss in Chief Executive magazine (March/April 2016), Mike Tuchen, CEO of Talend, points out “it’s the speed and ability to learn from data that gives Machine Learning the power to provide tremendous insights in ways that humans could never do on their own or with basic business-intelligence tools.” Computers essentially write their own code and optimize algorithms enabling them to uncover previously unseen patterns and trends in large scale databases…..leading to breakthrough business insights and real-time performance optimization.

This next level of analytics and big data innovation is both exciting and yet simultaneously unnerving for CEOs and corporate cultures trying to create the environments necessary to attract and retain this next generation of young technologists who are game changers in the new artificial intelligence age of analytics.

At a recent CEO Roundtable, several CEOs shared it’s easier to find the new talent for Innovation and R&D Centers, but it’s harder to retain them as they look for greener pastures and new frontiers after 1-2 years. According to Gool Sanchurn, CEO of Envipco, “That happens no matter what compensation you give them.”

Nonetheless, now is the time for CEOs to make these investments in Analytics, Big Data & Machine Learning. According to surveys by Accenture, 53% of companies pursuing these investments are following directives from Board Directors. And while cost cuts and improved efficiencies represent 49% of CEO expectations for return on investment, 30% of CEOs (and growing) are expecting new businesses and new revenue growth as the primary outcome.

Where does your company stand in relation to the new frontier? Are you investing, thinking about investing, or hoping the next Amazon does not show up in your sector to begin disintermediation?

As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments.

Best,

Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Accenture Interactive: ‘We’re Billed Based On Proven Business Outcomes’

by Kelly Liyakasa for AdExchanger

Glen Hartman

Accenture Interactive, the $2.9 billion digital and marketing services arm within the massive management consultancy, sees itself as a new breed of agency.

Instead of taking a campaign-based approach, Accenture Interactive instead blends commerce, design and analytics to make marketing more experiential.

“If you looked at the old KPIs for grocery and retail, they wanted to drive more traffic into the store or online,” said Glen Hartman, managing director at Accenture Interactive. “Once you’re there, they wanted you to spend more time at the endcap [the end of the aisle where shoppers often see sale items] so they can send you more promotions. You wanted to increase the shopping cart.”

Now, retail and grocer clients need to engineer around intent. If a loyal shopper frequents a store every Saturday morning but unexpectedly comes in on a Tuesday afternoon, maybe her intent is to get in and out as quickly as possible.

“A lot of people think you need relevant recommendations or right offer/right time, but this goes way beyond personalization,” Hartman said. “This is challenging business assumptions and sometimes means breaking your own rules.”

This shift in client demand is reworking the way brands retain Accenture Interactive’s services in the first place. Traditional pricing models included billable hours or monthly retainers, but Accenture Interactive is noticing a move toward billable outcomes tied to ROI and specific performance objectives.

Hartman spoke with AdExchanger about these changes in its digital business.

AdExchanger: What are the new retail/shopper marketing requests?

GLEN HARTMAN: We’re working with companies today who want to create new affinity programs where you can use your loyalty points as currency to buy all new types of products. You start to take your products and turn them into engaging services, new KPIs. We did a lot of research with a retail client’s loyalty base and found one thing they cared about most was the consumer just wanted to be notified about what items were on sale everyday. It’s a way to move away from episodic, campaign and promotional ideas to continuous engagement or utility.

Brands are talking about experiences and outcomes more than campaigns. How is this changing their agency retention strategy?

We’re serious about this idea of reverse engineering around outcomes. So much so that we’re actually crafting deals and commercial structures around outcomes only. This is a big change for a consulting company. It’s not time and materials, not a fixed-bid contract, not a rate card. We’re working with an automotive client now where we have a three- to four-year agreement with them, thousands of people working on it, but we only get paid on net new cars sold.

Is that a one-off or are you seeing more disruption in billing methods?

That’s not every client. Maybe we work with a B2B company and we say, “We will increase your lead generation by X amount,” or something really important to the business. We had a client that had a hard time getting their campaigns out on time. If a car company launches a campaign for a President’s Day sale, there was somewhere around a 15-20% on-time delivery. Can you imagine if an email doesn’t go out or a banner doesn’t render and it’s a holiday-based campaign? In this case, we might guarantee [or be paid on the basis of] their campaigns going out 99% on time.

Who does Accenture Interactive compete with? Are you up against the media agency more or the systems integrators?

Everyone knows where the game is: combining design and creative with the technology and analytics. You see different forms of that. There’s a reason Publicis bought five of the top digital agencies. They’re trying to amass more capabilities. You also have marketing service providers like Epsilon, Merkle and then technology companies – system integrators who want to get into consulting. But it’s hard for one firm to go through the continuum of strategy, design, build and run. We think this is where we’re uniquely differentiated.

What’s your approach to acquisitions as competitors like IBM Interactive Experience acquire creative shops?

We’ve invested a lot in trying to redefine what the role of an agency is. The new breed of agency that’s experience-led and reverse engineered around experiences and outcomes speaks to what the CMO and brand managers need to do now. You can’t live off of brand awareness, brand effectiveness and affinity alone. They have to drive sales, engagement and all sorts of new experiences. Accenture Interactive sits at the epicenter of these things both through organic and inorganic growth through acquisitions.

Accenture’s acquired digital marketing services firms like AD.Dialeto as well as creative agencies like Fjord. Do you acquire for functionality, clients or to tackle new geographies?

Our four big pillars are service/experience design, content, commerce and marketing. That’s all powered by analytics and personalization. We are making acquisitions to continue to grow those capabilities. Second, there’s the geo focus. We have most of the capabilities we need at scale, but we want to have that localization because the local, onshore approach for an agency model – where you stay close to the brand – benefits the client.

How do you prioritize tech partnerships? You have a new deal with Marketo, but also do a lot of Adobe and Salesforce implementations.

If you look at the way the ad and marketing tech stacks are aligning, we have all the technology partnerships to do the build out of a “model,” but it’s really about the “run.” So we set up all the software, but it’s the running of the software and all the analytics, the optimization that’s important. We create services – we call it marketing as a service – and that would include programmatic media buying, ad operations. Are we in programmatic? Absolutely. We have a global team working on that as part of a way to get these outcomes. You need it to have better efficiency.

What happens to the future agency model?

We don’t think it’s so much the offline-to-online thing as it is the merger of the agency world with management consultancies. The moment you decide to shift your experience design, you’re talking operating model changes, new organizational design, change management. This is the world of management, process and business consulting. Agencies don’t do that. But we’re not making a Super Bowl commercial anytime soon.

Christine Cea

Girl Scouts Hires Christine Cea as Chief Communications Executive

Girl Scouts of the USA has hired Christine Cea, former Unilever comms head, as its chief communications executive. Cea stepped into the role on April 4. She is reporting to Girl Scouts chief marketing and communications officer Lynn Godfrey.

 

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies.

Take a moment to click on these links (below) for the complete position description:

Learn more about our Career Opportunities…

Upcoming Professional Development Events

Join, Jeff Gundersen, Board Trustee of MarketingEDGE for the 2016 EDGE Awards on Wednesday, June 8 at Guastavino’s, 409 East 59th Street in New York City.

EDGE Awards

Network among 400+ decision makers from the field coming together to support Marketing EDGE and its 50-year history to ensure future generations of talent in our field.

Click here to register.

 

 

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 87

In this issue:

  • It’s Really The Year of Mobile!
  • Karen Lithgow joins EC as Managing Director
  • TGSLC Hires Donna Fritz as VP, Marketing
  • Career Opportunities:
    • Head of Corporate Branding & Communications – Life Insurance/Annuities
    • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy
    • Global Head – Analytics & CRM – FILLED
    • VP, Marketing – Collections- FILLED

It’s Really The Year of Mobile!

In a recent AdAge article by Maureen Morrison, she highlighted according to EMarketer, 2016 will be the year mobile ad spending eclipses desktop ad spending. EMarketer goes on the project by 2019, mobile advertising will exceed $65B+ and will represent 70% of total digital ad spending and 30% of total media spending.

That’s quite a staggering and rapid growth rate and it underscores why Google (32% share) and Facebook (19% share) , the 2 mobile advertising juggernauts, will continue to grow exponentially and become the largest and most profitable global digital media companies. This also explains why Apple and other mobile phone and device manufacturers are making screens larger; it’s because we are in a new era of mobile-first marketing, meaning consumers are seeking and accepting marketing messages realtime, including geo-targeting which is enabling marketers and brands to reach consumers in real time at (or near) the point of purchase. Mobile-first has enabled new promotion marketing, including instant in-store coupons, and real-time loyalty marketing incentives. And it’s still early days for mobile, with ad tech companies developing new ad formats, and marketers focused on delivering relevant, targeted content messages and ads/offers conducive to the smaller mobile screens (especially mobile phones).

The automotive sector, which has been one of the bright spots in a slow growth US economy, are among the early innovators in mobile marketing. Companies including Ford and GM are utilizing geo-targeting to identify car buyers in proximity to local dealerships (and competitive dealerships), and delivering real-time offers and incentives to encourage dealer visits and test drives. In 2015, the auto sector spent $3.4B+ in mobile ads, representing 47% of total digital ad spending, which shows the auto sector is ahead of the curve in leading mobile ad innovation. One in four car buyers utilize mobile every day to research vehicles, so marketers with adept analytics are using predictive algorithms to send targeted offers to car buyers.

Retail, financial services, travel, and telecom are the other largest sectors in terms of mobile ad share and spending increases. So it’s easy to see mobile advertising is broad-based and growing across most major sectors.

Where does your company and brand fit into this mobile-first transformation? Are you a leader and innovator, or a laggard?

As always, we welcome your input and comments.

Best,

Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Karen Lithgow joins EC as Managing Director

Karen Lithgow

KAREN V. LITHGOW – MANAGING DIRECTOR, GLOBAL MARKETING

Karen Lithgow is a senior-level marketing executive and consultant with a distinguished track record of building world-class brands and global marketing organizations. Her most recent role was Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing for ADT, a leading provider of security and automation solutions for homes and businesses, where she led all of ADT’s integrated multi-channel marketing, including both digital and traditional marketing.

Prior to ADT, Karen led her own independent marketing consulting practice serving Fortune 100 clients and non-profit organizations. She also held various leadership roles for Western Union International, including Vice President/General Manager of Western Union’s International Remittance business, leading the U.S. business to Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Asia Pacific, and the Caribbean.

Karen’s roots in Global Marketing trace back to Disney Consumer Products and Procter & Gamble, where she managed Character Brand and Film & TV properties for Disney, and received her initial marketing training in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble.

Ms. Lithgow holds a Masters of Science degree in International Business from Georgetown University, and a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and conversant in Portuguese and Italian. Karen holds several leadership roles in civic and community organizations and serves as a Board member for several non-profit organizations. She resides in Miami, Florida with her family.

EC is pleased to welcome Karen to our executive search consulting and marketing strategy consulting team.

Screen Shot 2016-03-18 at 4.41.02 PMTGSLC Hires Donna Fritz as VP, Marketing

Texas Government Student Loan Corporation (“TG”) recently hired Donna Fritz as VP, Marketing. The company is a well-established non-profit organization with expertise in collection of student college loans. With regulations changing the future outlook for this sector, TG is shifting their focus to build “for profit” businesses in closely-related areas to leverage their core competencies of customer service and accounts receivable and debt collection.

Donna was previously VP, Marketing & Product Management at Take Supply Chain, a SaaS software and services division of a global B2B company and at TG she is leading a marketing transformation including new product and services offerings and B2B demand generation in collaboration with a new VP, Sales and VP, Alliances.

EC handled this exclusive retained search assignment for TG and is providing Donna our unique career transition support service to assist in her successful transition.

Congratulations Donna and continued success!

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies.

Take a moment to click on these links (below) for the complete position description:

Learn more about our Career Opportunities…

 

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 86

In this issue:

  • Where’s Your Growth Coming From?
  • Nancy Fessatidis Joins Mercer
  • Career Opportunities:
    • Head of Corporate Branding & Communications – Life Insurance/Annuities – NEW
    • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy
    • Director, Advanced Analytics – FILLED
    • VP, Marketing – Collections- FILLED

Where’s Your Growth Coming From?

The U.S. economy finished 2015 strongly, with low energy prices and cheap interest rates fueling record years in the airline and automotive sectors. Corporations are flush with cash, M&A deals set a record in 2015, and corporate stock buybacks reached the highest level in recent years as CEOs boosted EPS by using excess cash to buyback company shares.

While increases are expected in interest rates, the overall cost of money will remain inexpensive throughout 2016, and combined with strong cash balances on most balance sheets, strategic acquisitions will be once again the #1 growth driver. U.S.-based multi-nationals will continue to acquire Asian, EMEA, India, and Latin American businesses at record paces.

Also, given this is a U.S. election year, we are already seeing political campaigns and special interest PACs spending significant amounts on advertising. And look for Washington politicians (Congress & Senate) to avoid any government shutdowns or budget showdowns. It will be another year of kicking the can down the road which will assure plenty of government (subsidies) money continuing to flow into the U.S. economy.

While most global economists are forecasting world economic growth of 3-4% and modest growth for the U.S. economy (2%), we are more bullish and expect U.S. economic growth of 3-4%. The early signals are executive hiring remains strong. EC’s Q4 hiring was strong and early hires (plus new searches) in January confirm CEOs are hiring C-level leaders who can drive growth.

Where is your (company’s) growth coming from in 2016? Is your company pursuing acquisitions or perhaps your company is an acquisition target by a larger, strategic buyer that can accelerate your growth rate? What are your “Blue Ocean” strategies? Accenture Digital, one of our clients, has successfully pursued and closed several “bolt-on” acquisitions to accelerate their growth into the creative side of digital marketing and media. This has been a complementary and successful strategy to accelerating their growth and positioning Accenture Digital as a formidable competitor to the marketing services holding companies (i.e., Havas, IPG, Publicis, WPP).

In addition to strategic acquisitions, several of our clients are hiring GMs and CMOs to build new businesses through new products and new distribution channels. The majority of our placements in Q4 and early in 2016 are positions responsible for finding new adjacencies and developing new products/positioning in new sectors and/or new distribution channels.

Another area of growth being pursued is long-term infrastructure investments to transform antiquated, legacy processes and systems into modern-age, omni-channel, digital-first customer engagement, experience, and acquisition processes. In this new “Customer Age” we have entered, the consumer is at the controls, and mobile and digital shopping increasingly are the new “first screens.” This rapid change in consumer behavior is causing companies in every sector to redesign legacy systems to enable seamless online and omni-channel customer engagement and marketing in a new real-time, geo-targeting world. Just look at Amazon Prime, Uber, Priceline.com, Jet.com, and other innovative digital-first services to see the future of marketing and e-commerce. The Millennial generation has overtaken the Boomer generation as the largest segment of the workforce and this is a “tech savvy” generation that has already demonstrated they have no fear about buying things online.

So in many ways, 2016 will be a year of Innovation, with smart companies answering the Growth question in pro-active fashion.

If you haven’t already addressed this issue, start asking where’s your growth coming from?

As always, we welcome you comments and input. Pls. write to us and tell us about your 2016 strategies.

Best,

Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Nancy Fessatidis Joins Mercer

NancyFessatidisWe are pleased to announce Nancy Fessatidis has joined our client Mercer, a division of Marsh McLennan, as Global Leader of Analytics and CRM “Center of Excellence” based in NYC.

Sustainable competitive advantage starts with data analytics, and with the power of big data available to large global clients like Mercer, Nancy is the type of “Analytics Genius” to help build these capabilities to the next level.

In her new global role, Nancy will oversee simplifying sales & marketing analysis/reporting, developing predictive tools and processes to improve sales, client management and marketing effectiveness, overseeing lead qualification and nurturing, cultivating client insights and satisfaction, and fully leveraging available marketing technologies.

Nancy was formerly Global VP, Big Analytics at SAP prior to joining Mercer. EC will be providing Nancy our unique career transition support services as she begins this important new career opportunity. EC is delighted to have initiated this transaction and recruited Nancy Fessatidis to Mercer.

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies.

Take a moment to click on these links (below) for the complete position description:

Learn more about our Career Opportunities…

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 85

In this issue:

  • What’s On Your Christmas List?
  • Career Management
  • Career Opportunities:
    • Director, Advanced Analytics – Influent 50, an AARP company
    • VP, Marketing – B2B Financial Services / Collections
    • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy
    • Marketing Leader – Northeast Region – FILLED
    • Director, Analytics & Insights Strategy – FILLED

What’s On Your Christmas List?

What’s on your Christmas talent list? This is a question we have been asking all of our clients as the Christmas season approaches. Without exception, digital strategy, data analytics, and mobile/social media talent are at the top of our client’s Christmas lists.

With digital advertising (including mobile) forecasted (by PWC) to surpass broadcast media by 2018, VPs of Digital Strategy & Customer Experience are the top position on most client’s list. Over 25% of Fortune 100 firms have added a Chief Digital Officer (“CDO”) position, and CDOs and CMOs are building out global teams including multiple new VPs and Directors of Digital Strategy & Customer Experience to engage with LOB leaders to transform digital and omni-channel customer (and prospect) engagement.

Chief Analytics Officers are next on our client’s talent wish lists. With marketing moving to real-time, geo-targeting campaigns, marketers need to tailor customer engagement to deliver relevant and timely offers based upon predictive analytics and real-time behavioral targeting. Top CAOs are one of the keys to substantially increasing marketing ROI, as well as improving enterprise-wide business decision making, and accordingly, CEOs and CMOs are hiring “Analytics Geniuses” at a record pace. We recently delivered 2 CAOs in our clients Christmas stockings and we recently received 2 Santa letters requesting Directors of Analytics & Insights.

VPs of Social Media & Mobile Marketing complete the top 3 on our client’s talent wish list. As digital/mobile advertising/media moves to the majority of total marketing spending within the next 2 years, and a majority of consumers are shopping on smart phones as the new “first screen” (smart phone mobile commerce exceeded 65%+ this Black Friday), it is critical for all clients to be taking maximum advantage of social media and mobile commerce channels. Especially for smaller and mid-sized marketers, without the mega-marketing budgets of a Coke or AT&T,   social media channels can be leveraged for brand building, prospect/lead generation, and m-commerce at a fraction of other marketing and media channel costs.

What’s on your company’s Christmas list? Have you requested digital, analytics, and social/mobile talent from Santa in your Christmas stocking? If not, what are you waiting for?

We wish all of our clients and friends our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Safe, and Prosperous New Year!

Happy holidays!

Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Career Management – by Lola White

In last month’s November Executive Connections e-Zine, we highlighted the importance of Career Management and emphasized how building your personal brand, managing your career path and proactively preparing yourself for career transitions are critical to controlling your career future.

Repeat after me – “I Will Be In Control of my Career.”

We Know…
It’s the holiday season, you have a lot on your calendars, you have end-of-year client deliverables and we know you don’t need one more thing to do. However, we also know your career is equally important and needs to take center stage.
As Talent and Career experts, we understand the importance of on-going Career Management. Moving forward, our objective is to support you by sharing our proven formula for how to build and manage a successful career. We will be your guide as you progress through creating and maintaining your own career plan.

We Will Show You How
Below is the first of our Career Management Best Practices. Our monthly E-Zine column will continue to provide you with regular updates and career management insights so you can manage your next career move.

Proactive Career Management is Essential to Your Success
As you wrap up this year and move into 2016, stop and reflect on where your career presently is at and where you want it to be. Take the time to make career reflection an on-going priority and ask yourself, “If I had a process as outlined below and was guided through this process, would I be better prepared to take control of any and all career wins, disappointments and emergencies?”

  • Understand and own what is unique about ME and discover my most important personal brand assets, skills and competencies
  • Build a comprehensive Career Plan that is a match for my brand
  • Communicate my Career Plan strategically across all digital, business and personal channels
  • Connect powerfully with people who can help me bring my Career Plan to life

There is no “One-size Fits All” Career Path
It’s well known that today’s career challenges are more complex than ever before. There is no clear path for everyone to follow. You must powerfully create your ideal.
The “lifetime tenure” model is a thing of the past. The norm is more a winding, unpredictable progression of positions, often in distinct fields and industries. To be successful, you not only need a compass but a detailed road map to help you navigate your desired course.

What’s Next for You?
Leverage our “Best-in-Class” Career Management advice we have given thousands of successful CEO’s and C-Level leaders around the globe. Our January 2016 Career Management column will start to provide a few foundational tools, ideas, support and guidance we believe you will need to jump start your Career Management plan no matter what stage your career is in.  Throughout 2016, we’ll continue to help you shape your career future.

Need Your Own Personal Career Manager or have a Career Transition or Personal Branding challenge? You can always e-mail me at lwhite@executiveconnectionsllc.com.

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies including a Global Data/Direct Marketing Services Company, a Global HR Professional Services firm, one of the largest Global Digital Agencies, a Privately-Owned Direct/Digital Agency, Travel/Hospitality and a Non-Profit Student Loan Collection.

Take a moment to click on these links (below) for the complete position description:

Learn more about our Career Opportunities…

Filed Under: Announcements, Connections E-Zine, Executive Coaching, New Executive Search

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 84

In this issue:

  • In Our Opinion: Entangled Marketing
  • Career Management
  • Career Opportunities:
    • Director, Advanced Analytics – Influent 50, an AARP company – NEW
    • VP, Marketing – B2B Financial Services / Collections
    • Dir., Web Product Management – Travel/Hospitality
    • Marketing Leader – Northeast Region
    • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

Entangled Marketing

With marketing changing at a faster pace than ever before, we all look to seers and visionaries for predictions about the future.

One of the marketing visionaries we have long admired is Stan Rapp, one of the founding fathers of direct marketing, the founder of Rapp Collins (now Rapp Worldwide) – one of the top 2-3 global direct marketing agencies. After selling Rapp Collins to Omnicom, Stan went on to build McCann Relationship Marketing (“MRM Worldwide”) from scratch as a global direct/CRM network for Interpublic Group. After leaving IPG, at a time when many of his contemporaries were retiring, Stan partnered with Halyard Capital, a private equity firm, and over a 5 year period he built Engauge, a new integrated “agency of the future,” including general advertising, analytics, and digital marketing integrated into a single operating unit under a single P&L. Engauge grew successfully and was acquired by Publicis 2-3 years ago which represented the third holding company for whom Stan had built new age marketing services  models and profitable agency businesses.

When engagement is not enough and something more is needed. Stan’s most recent futuristic innovation is Entangled Marketing in collaboration with Sebastian Jespersen, CEO of Vertic, a global digital agency. At a time where digital- and mobile-first marketing has agencies and advertisers focused on reinventing customer engagement and experience, Stan as usual is a step ahead of the rest of us, stating in the October 12, 2015 Advertising Age that “engagement is not enough, something more is needed.” Metaphorically, Stan says what’s needed is what Louisa Guilder writes about in “The Age of Entanglement,” a quantum physics theory about particles, once entangled remain inextricably connected. According to Stan, people worldwide want to be entangled with what Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google can do for them….so the imperative for marketers is to figure out how to create brands that entice customers to become entangled.

Entangling – Brand and Consumer. Stan and Jespersen, together with Laura McLellan of Gartner, have written a book soon to be published titled, Entangling – Brand and Consumer. Their thesis is the march from mass marketing to one-to-one marketing and digital marketing is moving to the new era of entangled marketing. This new business model is as much about the consumer wanting to be entangled with the brand as the other way around.

We have seen a number of newer brands like Amazon Prime and Uber become industry transforming brands which consumers love and want to be part of for reasons of the unique values they provide to customers. It is certainly giving all of us things to think about as we evaluate whether our customers are entangled or what it would take for our customers to want to be more entangled with our brands.

Bottom Line: What changes are you making to enable your brand to become more entangled with customer and new prospects?

Career Management – by Lola White

NOW more than ever, managing your career is critically important!

To respond to this marketplace dynamic, Executive Connections is adding a Career Management column to our monthly e-zine. It is designed to support and guide YOU as you build your personal brand, manage your career path and prepare for career transitions.

Wikipedia describes Career Management as a combination of structured planning and the active management choice of one’s own professional career. Successful outcome includes personal fulfillment, work/life balance (we like to think of it as work/life blending), goal achievement and financial security.

Bottom line: Effective Career Management positively impacts your long-term career success!

Why is MANAGING your Career so important?

It’s simple, if YOU do not manage it, someone or something else will manage it for you!

Career Management needs to be a structured and active process. It takes time and effort to strategically think through what is really important in the short and long term in order to be proactive, not reactive, to career shifts.

With so many companies and executives impacted by a record-setting number of mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations, and increasing competition from other high achievers vying for the same positions, your personal brand may not be setting you up for success in today’s increasingly competitive job market. Nor is it helping you achieve your short- and long-term personal and professional goals.

Or… how about this? You might be the best-kept secret because you are not taking the time and effort to build your own brand with the same focus you would your company’s brand.

Ask yourself, which of the following career managers am I? As it relates to my current career management, is there something I’m not doing?

  • I have the know-how and skills to take my career to the next level but not a plan to get me there.
  • I’m comfortable where I am right now, I’ll figure it out when I need to
  • What’s the rush, I am so busy I’ll actually wait until there is a need
  • I was an emergency career manager and I paid the price…. now what?
  • My career is on track and I have a plan to get me where I want to go
  • I have the connections and resources to raise my career game but could use a little extra support

Knowing the answer to these questions will guide you in taking the critical next steps to map out where, when and how you can successfully achieve your career goals. Be in charge of MANAGING YOUR CAREER PLAN so YOU are focused and always prepared!

Does this make sense to you?

Confidently know where you are going!

You wouldn’t go on a long road trip without your GPS, why would you navigate your career without mapping out a strategic game plan?

Look for more about Managing Your Career next month. 

Over the last 15 years, Lola White, Managing Partner at Executive Connections LLC, has worked closely with hundreds of EC’s clients to support and guide them as they proactively manage their careers and build strong, credible personal brands that result in short and long-term career success.

Please let us know what areas of career management you want to focus on so we can support you and help you achieve your career goals. Contact Lola at lwhite@executiveconnectionsllc.com.

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies including a Global Data/Direct Marketing Services Company, a Global HR Professional Services firm, one of the largest Global Digital Agencies, a Privately-Owned Direct/Digital Agency, Travel/Hospitality and a Non-Profit Student Loan Collection.

Take a moment to click on these links (below) for the complete position description:

Learn more about our Career Opportunities…

Wishing all our clients and friends a Happy Thanksgiving!
– Jeff & Lola

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

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 83

In this issue:

  • Invest Without Exit – A New VC Investment Model
  • Peter Bingaman Joins Mercer – Congratulations!
  • Career Opportunities:
    • VP, Marketing – B2B Financial Services / Collections
    • Dir., Web Product Management – Travel/Hospitality
    • Marketing Leader – Northeast Region
    • Sr. Mgr., Digital Strategy

Invest Without Exit –  A New VC Investment Model

Kudos to Jessica Herrin, CEO & Founder of Stella & Dot, one of a growing number of entrepreneurs who are changing the rules of engagement with VC firms……..and we like it! 

VC firms forced to eliminate the pressure of providing too much capital and then pushing fast and hard for an exit event within 5-7 years of the initial investment.

Jessica (and Stella & Dot) partnered successfully with Dave Whorton (Founder, Tugboat Ventures) in a new investment model without a planned exit strategy. Rather, VCs were required to invest in an early stage business the founders wanted to hold onto and continue to build and operate. This almost sounds like a Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway business model….except the founders get to keep controlling interest in this model whereas Buffett buys an 80% stake and leaves management as minority partners.

“My Exit Strategy You Ask?”

Interestingly, when Whorton asked Herrin her exit strategy in an early meeting she replied, “My exit strategy is to be rolled out the door on a gurney.”

This new VC investment model (without an exit) enables/requires investors to earn a return through profit distributions, not from selling their shares. Tugboat Ventures invested in Stella & Dot and over the first 5 year period (’05-’10) revenues soared to $100M+ making the company #67 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies. Within 2 more years, sales doubled again at which point Sequoia Capital agreed to invest $37M for a 10% equity stake (on similar “buy and hold” terms) thereby valuing the company at close to $400M.

What are the characteristics of successful “evergreen companies?”

Whorton and Herrin (in Inc. magazine’s October 2015 issue) defined the “7Ps” including:

  1. Purpose – Passionately driven by a compelling vision/mission.
  2. Perseverance – Having ambition and resilience to overcome obstacles
  3. People First – Build a talented team and positive culture; take care of people first
  4. Private – Take advantage of ability to operate with a longer-term view
  5. Profit – Measure success by the most accurate gauge of customer value delivered
  6. Paced Growth – Focus on long-term strategy and steady 10-15% growth
  7. Pragmatic Innovation – Embrace continuous improvement

What do we really like about this model?

This model provides founders and management teams the opportunity (and necessity) to create a highly profitable, sustainable, “built to last” business which continues to grow (and prosper) and reward all stakeholders (founders, employees, customers, and investors) without an arbitrary exit point created solely to allow investors to liquidate their interests in a private company.

In this process, Dave Whorton became such a believer he (and Herrin) launched Tugboat Summit, an event bringing together Founders and CEOs of similarly aspiring evergreen businesses. To date, Tugboat has held two very successful summits so hopefully we can expect more of these “evergreen” business start-ups in the future.

Why should you care about this?

Too many start-ups and early stage businesses focus on the wrong things. They focus on revenue growth and building infrastructure without necessarily having defined a profitable, ongoing business model from the outset. Ultimately, this contributes to the vast majority of start-ups shutting the doors after 2-3 rounds of venture capital are consumed without a profitable, sustainable business being created. We need more entrepreneurs like Jessica Herrin to continue changing the mindset and approach of entrepreneurs and VCs.

Here’s to entrepreneurs and VCs building more profitable, sustainable businesses!

We look forward to connecting,

Jeff & Lola

Peter Bingaman Joins Mercer – Congratulations!

Peter-BingamanWe are pleased to announce that Peter Bingaman has joined Mercer as Mercer Marketplace Marketing Leader.

Peter Bingaman joins Mercer to lead the marketing strategies and programs to drive topline growth for Mercer Marketplace, one of the fastest-growing and market-leading digital platforms. As a member of the Mercer Marketplace Leadership Team and the Global Marketing and Sales Leadership Team, Peter will build the brand and business through targeted marketing that delivers Marketing Qualified Leads for active pursuit by our sales and consulting leaders, among other contributions to marketing communications, the digital experience and alternative distribution channels. Peter will work closely with the Mercer Marketplace and the EH&B Marketing team in the US as the go-to resource for any Mercer Marketplace-related marketing and communications activities.

Due to his extensive experience in the business to business to consumer (B-B-C) space, Peter will also contribute to global B-B-C initiatives across Health and Wealth.

Peter has extensive strategic, data-driven B2B and B2C marketing skills from having led major marketing initiatives on behalf of IBM and over the past two decades working in-house with and as a consultant to brands including HP, MSC, Nortel, LexisNexis, P&G, and J&J. A technology enthusiast experienced at leveraging analytical, digital, social media and marketing automation to increase marketing ROI, Peter has successfully identified emerging trends positioning brands ahead of the curve.

Peter has an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a BA from Bucknell University.

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies including a Global Data/Direct Marketing Services Company, a Global HR Professional Services firm, one of the largest Global Digital Agencies, a Privately-Owned Direct/Digital Agency, Travel/Hospitality and a Non-Profit Student Loan Collection.

Take a moment to click on these links (below) for the complete position description:

Learn more about our Career Opportunities…

 

Filed Under: Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Marketing Conferences & Events, New Executive Search, Personal Branding, Recommended Books

CONNECTIONS Ezine No. 82

In this issue:

  • In Our Opinion: “Modern Marketing” Trends
  • Article and Book Recommendation:  
    • Mastering The Art of Mobile Persuasion by Jeff Hasen
  • Career Opportunities:
    • VP, Marketing – Financial Services/Collections – NEW
    • Global Marketing Manager – Travel/Hospitality – NEW
    • Marketing Leader – Northeast Region – NEW
    • Managing Director, Digital Marketing as a Service (MaaS)
    • Chief Creative Officer
    • Digital Strategist – Senior Manager
    • Marketplace Marketing Leader
  • Upcoming Professional Development Events

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

“Modern Marketing” Trends

For quite sometime now, we have been writing about the rapid pace with which Marketing is tilting onto a digital- and mobile-first axis. The underpinnings of this shift are undoubtedly the rapid scaling of tablets and other mobile devices (smart phones and more recently smart watches – even though Apple’s Smart Watch has been less than a resounding success to-date).

Since the launch of the iPad on April 3, 2010, tablets have become the fastest technology adoption in all of history…reaching 50%+ of U.S. households in less than 5 years…more than doubling the adoption rate of all previous technology innovations including the PC, Internet, TV, Cable Radio, VCR, and other technology devices.

As tablets were quickly adopted by consumers, what followed was the rapid scaling of mobile advertising. “Tablets Rising” a global mobile advertising study conducted by Vivaki/Publicis Group confirmed some interesting findings…consumers are spending an average of 90 minutes daily on tablets/mobile devices…and tablets have become the new “first screen” even if consumers are also watching television. Also, the Vivaki study showed over two-thirds of consumers are active in Social Media networks which has become a new source of consumer influence (positive and negative) regarding brands.

But the most profound finding in the Vivaki study was…tablet ads work…and they are even more effective for highly engaged tablet users. Finally, after years of waiting, 2015 has become truly the year of exceptional growth for mobile advertising….as underscored by Facebook’s Q2 2015 revenues exceeding $4B+ (with $2.9B+ or 75% coming from mobile advertising).

As a help to our clients and readers, we are including an article and book recommendation from our friend and CMO, Jeff Hasen, who has recently authored his second book titled, “The Art Of Mobile Persuasion.” With mobile advertising rapidly growing, this is an art and mastery every marketer needs to develop.

What do these “Modern Marketing” trends mean in terms of the shift in talent needs for both advertisers and agencies?

From our perspective, the highest demand positions currently include Chief Data Officers, Heads of Marketing Analytics, Chief Digital Officers, Digital Strategy & Marketing Leaders, and Customer Engagement/Experience Leaders.  With consumers shopping through tablets, smart phones, and other mobile devices as a first option, marketers are transforming their businesses to offer relevant omni-channel customer engagement. And the “new relevant” means the right communication, to the right consumer/prospect, at the right time, in the right place.

Successful campaigns are now happening “real-time,” as geo-targeting is enabling brands to identify their best customers and prospects in relation to their proximity to the brand or a competitor’s outlet…and in that moment deliver a compelling offer and incentive to shop/purchase.

While brand advertising still has its place, the growing demand (and higher compensation premium) is for marketers with analytics and data skills, knowledge of newer marketing technology platforms, and digital strategy and marketing skills. Its an exciting time…the next generation of marketing leaders include many with M.S. and PhD. degrees in Mathematics & Statistics, as well as many B.S. Engineering professionals with M.B.A. degrees.

It wasn’t that long ago there was a time when senior marketing officers said we know half (50%) of advertising works…we just don’t know which half. Those days, and those marketers, are in the rear view mirror as new “Modern Marketing” is about KPIs and metrics…to deliver reports back to the CEO and CFO on Marketing ROI.

As always, we welcome your input, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Jeff and Lola

Article and Book Recommendation

by Jeff Hasen

Jeff Hasen photoWelcome to the 21st century love affair.

Long-time adman Hank Wasiak, the former vice chairman of McCann Erickson, says that people don’t have a relationship with a television set or their computer, but they do with a mobile phone.

It is part of them.

The central question for today’s businesses…Can they enhance the relationship or is three a crowd?

In truth, mobile users are like teenagers. They want to be understood. But they will fight to maintain their privacy.

What is a brand to do?

Be of value and non-intrusive.

And don’t be creepy.

coverFor my new book, The Art of Mobile Persuasion, I spent a year talking to some of the most courageous mobile marketers working today. Insights from Expedia, Lowe’s, REI, Google, ESPN, and others are applicable to anyone seeking to create a better kind of consumer engagement on the devices that are never out of reach.

Out of the discussion came a number of relationship turnoffs.

Here are words to describe those businesses that are flailing:

  1. Selfish. In outreach to mobile users, there needs to be a specific need that benefits the customer. Jonathan Stephen, who drove innovative mobile programs at JetBlue, points to the greed of some who seek to needlessly uncover such inconsequential details as how many sugars
    wireless owners put in their coffee, and, if they used Splenda or Truvia.
  2. Illogical. If only more mobile marketers would practice common sense. For example, why in the world would a business create an iPhone app if their customers are mostly or completely Android owners? That’s just dumb.
  1. Timid. Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most recognizable, beloved, and successful brands, isn’t being passive. Instead, it is fulfilling its long-established mission of enabling desire in an increasingly-large part through the use of wireless devices.
  1. Impulsive. Sean Lyons, Global Chief Digital Officer at communications agency Havas, chides those who go to such conferences as South By Southwest and unilaterally seek to determine which products and services will matter. Why? The consumer is going to decide.
  1. Inattentive. Google’s Jason Spero refers to consumer actions on mobile devices as signals, rich with information that tells marketers a great deal if they are on the lookout for them. But many regrettably aren’t.

Career Opportunities

We have career opportunities at a variety of companies including a Global Data/Direct Marketing Services Company, a Global HR Professional Services firm, one of the largest Global Digital Agencies, a Privately-Owned Direct/Digital Agency, Travel/Hospitality and a Non-Profit Student Loan Collection. Please take a moment to click on a link and see the complete position description: