Executive Connections LLC

Connecting organizations with the future of marketing

Digital Proficiency

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:

  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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

JWinskie HeadshotWe 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

B Loehnis HeadshotWe 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

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: 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.

Read more…

Special Announcements

Headshot-Rob DiGiovanniRob 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
Kevin-White-HeadshotEC 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 PatTaylor Headshotchen – 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.

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: 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Read more…

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

LBM Headshot for E-zine

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: 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:

Read more…

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: Ask Our Coach, Digital Proficiency, Executive Talent, Personal Branding, Spotlight On

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:

  • Yvette Lui is Director, Global Data & Audience Partnerships at Facebook; prior to her current role, Yvette led N.A. mid-market Sales at Facebook, and earlier she spent six years at Google leading agency development and strategic partnerships for social media advertising sales. Yvette continues to mentor students at U. California Berkley where she earned her undergraduate degree.
  • Dimitri Maex is President, OgilvyOne – New York; a forward-thinking innovator, he joined Ogilvy leading the global data & analytics practice. With data being so important, it’s not surprising to see a former head of analytics rise to President – NY; Dimitri’s recent book, Sexy Little Numbers, has received widespread coverage in business and trade publications. Dimitri has a global, Eastern European cultural background, which is important given the growing emphasis of global clients on Growth Markets. Dimitri also leads several of Ogilvy’s mentoring and leadership development programs.
  • Guillermo Novillo is Head of Global Acquisition Marketing for Bing Ads at Microsoft; he has launched successful acquisition programs in over 30 global markets. Previously, Guillermo worked in marketing at Apple and earlier he founded a direct marketing agency and grew it to over 250 people. Guillermo has been a part-time marketing lecturer and teaching assistant at Espiritu Santo U. in Ecuador and U. Washington where he earned his MBA degree.
  • Carrie Parker is VP, Content Innovation at American Express Open Forum, an award-winning social business website dedicated to small business success. Carrie has excelled in several digital marketing roles and was a finalist for Amex’s Chairman’s Award. Previously, Carrie led consulting engagements for Yankelovich (Futures Company) on consumer trends and database insights; there she led “YourBuzz” a social media mentoring tool. Carrie is a frequent guest speaker at Columbia Business School, her alma mater.
  • Emily Riley is COO at Ghostery, driving the company’s marketing and database operations. Previously, she was VP, Product Marketing at Audience Science an industry-leading data management and media buying platform; earlier Emily was the most acclaimed Digital Analyst and VP, Research Director at Forrester. Emily earned her undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins and she has been active in Marketing EDGE since her days at Forrester.
  • Alex Wasserman of CEO & Co-founder of TapFwd, where he is leading the development of the next generation of mobile ad technology. Alex is bringing big data to small phones enabling next generation targeting and real-time campaign optimization for mobile marketers. Previously, Alex was VP, Product & Marketing at Rapleaf (acquired by TowerData). Alex volunteers his time at several non-profits aimed at fostering entrepreneurship. Alex has also been an active mentor at Emory U. and Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern.

This is an exceptionally talented group of “Rising Stars” and you can see the impacts of Facebook and Google, leading data analytics and digital consultancies, technology, and emerging mobile marketing companies as key aspects of the professional backgrounds of next generation leaders.

We offer each of them our congratulations on their well-earned recognition as Rising Stars and can’t wait to see where their next career choices lead them.

Ask yourself, what parts of these profiles have I incorporated into my personal brand and which aspects are learning agendas for me?

 

Filed Under: Ask Our Coach, Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, New Executive Search, Recommended Articles

CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue No. 69

In this issue:

  • In Our Opinion:  The Age of the Customer – Where Are Digital and Data Heading?
  • Blog Roundup:
    • Blog:  Who’s Hot In Digital?
  • Career Opportunities:
    • President, Retail-Outdoor Lifestyle Brands
    •  Head of Global Corporate Communications
    • Global Marketing Technology Strategist
    • Global Head of Digital Marketing
    • Global Head of Branding & Communications
  • Event Highlight:
    • 2014 Rising Star Awards Dinner
  • Article:
    • “AARP’s Life Reimagined and Kaplan Launch LearningAdvisor to Help Millions of Americans Explore Learning Opportunities to Launch Encore Careers”

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

The Age of the Customer – Where Are Digital and Data Heading?

Where are Digital And Data Heading?
On the heels of the MMA conference last week in NYC, and Integrated Marketing Week coming up next week, we felt we should weigh in on this timely topic.

Since these are broad topics…this month we will focus on “Where is Digital Heading?” and next month we will devote a column to “Where is (Big) Data Heading?”

Digital advertising and media (including mobile) is the fastest growing segment and will surpass broadcast spending by 2018, according to a recent Price Waterhouse Coopers study. It’s clear Digital is heading to the top of the class…and the top of the advertising food chain; and accordingly, 25% of the top 100 global advertisers will have a Chief Digital Officer by 2014, as indicated by Forrester.

Who is hiring CDOs?
According to Forrester, “we have entered the ‘age of the customer’ in which the most successful enterprises will reinvent themselves to systematically understand and serve increasingly powerful customers.” This impacts B2B as well as B2C businesses.  The top three categories hiring CDOs are advertising agencies, publishers, and broadcasters, with the biggest growth seen in non-profits and state/local governments, according to the Chief Digital Officers Club.

Where should CDOs report?
Many of our clients are asking us where CDOs should report? The answer is…it depends. If their company is growing and expanding the brand which is transforming because of digital into new areas…then the CDO typically reports to the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). This is the case in 60% of CDO hires, and is trending this way as digital marketing spending is forecasted to exceed 50% by 2016. If you play this out even further over the long run, the CMO and CDO positions in these firms will be consolidated. In a second scenario, if companies are seeing technology changing their operational structure, then the CDO typically reports to the CIO, COO or another C-level executive. From our experience to-date, healthcare, insurance and CPG tend to have CDOs reporting into the CMO (examples Abbott, Wellpoint, AIG, Travelers, Nestle, Mercer/MMC). In retail, telco, banking, travel/hospitality, CDOs report to a very senior C-level exec…CIO/COO (examples AT&T, Citibank, Ralph Lauren, Time Inc.).

Where to find the Best CDOs?
We also constantly get the question “where are the best CDOs found?” Top CDOs are coming from consulting firms, digital agencies, broadcast, and digital start-ups. For example: JPM Chase (Accenture), Time Inc. (IAB), Starbucks (Corbis/Play Network), Ralph Lauren (Ticketmaster/IAC) and Weather Channel (Search3.com).

The CDO profile is a strategic, big picture thinker; committed, results-driven; entrepreneurial, innovative; and relationship builder (inside & out). Critical skills include the ability to drive culture change across the enterprise; evangelizing, helping people see the big opportunity; effective change leader who is disruptive without destroying the base values.

We recently completed a Global Head of Social Media search for one of our clients and we are about to close a search by placing a CDO at another global client.  Please connect with us if you want to become part of the growing list of top advertisers who are gearing up to modernize marketing where CDOs are a vital component.

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 posts on our blog?

Who’s Hot In Digital?

One of the hottest, fastest-growing areas of Digital Marketing is Social Media…and the top 10 global advertisers are all investing in SM brand-building and business-building initiatives. There is a growing demand for leaders in Social Media which is morphing into a bigger platform…Social Business. Finding stellar talent in this area is challenging since Social Media is only 5-6 years old and there are not many senior-level marketers with experience driving significant change in this new field.

Robert HarlesOne of the hottest, most successful Social Media/Social Business leaders is Robert (“Rob”) Harles, the new Global Head of Social Media at AccentureDigital. Prior to joining Accenture, Rob was Global Head of Social Media at Bloomberg LP, where he influenced Bloomberg’s global viewpoint and strategy related to this new emerging marketing and media channel. For a company as conservative and private as Bloomberg to embrace Social Media/Social Business, and open up to its use and possibilities, speaks volumes for Rob’s vision and leadership abilities.        Read more…

Career Opportunities

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

Learn more…

Event Highlight

Bring a Mentee…They Could be the Next Generation of Rising Stars

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.

Article

Emilio Pardo, Chief Branding Officer, has helped AARP reimagine its brand, so its fitting he was selected as President, Life Reimagined to empower AARP’s members in their career transitions at 50+. Rock on, Emilio!”

 “AARP’s Life Reimagined and Kaplan Launch LearningAdvisor to Help Millions of Americans Explore Learning Opportunities to Launch Encore Careers”

Kaplan named founding learning partner of AARP’s Life Reimagined

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AARP’s Life Reimagined has teamed up with Kaplan to create an important new online resource to help Americans find learning opportunities to enhance their current skills, realize their career aspirations, support life changes such as encore or second careers and build a better, more meaningful life.

Today, as part of the partnership, the two organizations unveiled LearningAdvisor, a suite of online resources and learning opportunities designed to help users address continuous learning issues that many Americans are facing as they explore and discover encore careers. The announcement was made at AARP’s Life@50+ National Event & Expo in Boston.

“Americans are living longer and juggling more competing responsibilities than ever before. That reality is especially true for trailing-edge Baby Boomers and members of Generation X approaching 50 who are often caring for their own parents as well as their own children while trying to manage, plan for and enjoy their careers and lives on their own terms,” said Emilio Pardo, AARP Executive Vice President and President of Life Reimagined. “At the same time, they’re also excited by ‘what’s next’ and see lifelong learning and ongoing education as being incredibly important and powerful as they reimagine their lives.”

Read more…

Filed Under: Connections E-Zine, Digital Proficiency, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Spotlight On

Who’s Hot In Digital?

One of the hottest, fastest-growing areas of Digital Marketing is Social Media…and the top 10 global advertisers are all investing in SM brand-building and business-building initiatives. There is a growing demand for leaders in Social Media which is morphing into a bigger platform…Social Business. Finding stellar talent in this area is challenging since Social Media is only 5-6 years old and there are not many senior-level marketers with experience driving significant change in this new field.

Robert Harles
Robert Harles

One of the hottest, most successful Social Media/Social Business leaders is Robert (“Rob”) Harles, the new Global Head of Social Media at AccentureDigital. Prior to joining Accenture, Rob was Global Head of Social Media at Bloomberg LP, where he influenced Bloomberg’s global viewpoint and strategy related to this new emerging marketing and media channel. For a company as conservative and private as Bloomberg to embrace Social Media/Social Business, and open up to its use and possibilities, speaks volumes for Rob’s vision and leadership abilities.

Prior to Bloomberg, Rob was VP, Social Media at Sears Holdings, where he also evangelized the role of Social Media and developed the first platforms and programs across the entire Sears Holdings enterprise.

We congratulate Rob Harles on his latest career move and encourage top global brands seeking to establish a Social Media/Social Business strategy to connect with Rob Harles. Rob is one of the true revolutionaries in this rapidly emerging, important new marketing and media channel.

Filed Under: Digital Proficiency, Executive Coaching, Executive Talent, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Uncategorized

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.

Consumer adoption of mobile technology is increasing extremely rapidly. Marketers understand that mobile has opened up a new touch point through which they can engage their customers, but while mobile budgets and programs are on the upswing, they don’t yet come close to matching consumer enthusiasm. By the end of 2013, more than two-thirds of US online adults owned smartphones — and 45% of US online adults fall into a category Forrester calls “SuperConnecteds” — people who use the mobile Internet at least daily and who download and use applications and consume news and information on their smartphones. Publicis’ 2013 “Tablets Rising” global study indicated tablets are the fastest scaling technology innovation ever…surpassing the rate consumer adoption of TVs, PCs, mobile phones, etc. The majority of CMOs and agencies now consider mobile devices the “first screen” for development of branding campaigns.

Marketers are behind in developing mobile organizational strategies. Most large marketers are spending less than $5 million on mobile marketing today, and 60% of them expect their budgets to increase significantly in 2014. However, the CMO Council’s study findings point to marketers treating mobile as a standalone channel instead of being incorporated into an overall digital marketing and branding strategy. Additionally, 47% of CMOs said they are not satisfied because of a lack of talent, ad formats, or resources to roll out mobile campaigns. The findings also point to mobile being used for more one-off campaigns versus being integrated into a brand’s overall marketing mix.

“Mobile spend should be an integral part and extension of all marketing and customer relationship investments including customer help, service and support, advertising and custom content delivery, Web site interactions, word of mouth and search optimization, loyalty and rewards program management, feedback and insight gathering, point-of-sale merchandising and shopper marketing as well as campaign performance measurement,” said Donovan Neale-May, Founder & Executive Director of The CMO Council. Unfortunately, this strategic approach is lacking for a majority of marketers.

Mobile strategies are still young. More than one-third of marketers say their company has had a mobile strategy for less than two years, and another one-third have even less experience with the mobile channel. It’s still early days for most companies with this emerging channel. They’re still figuring out what mobile means to their businesses — which tactics to use, how to use them, and how to staff to support the programs.

Companies are using a variety of talent and staffing approaches to support mobile programs. This increased investment in mobile requires an increase in talent and digital/mobile staffing support — but there’s no one way that companies are staffing fast enough to meet the growing talent needs. Internally, only a small percentage of marketers have hired full-time mobile-dedicated employees, others are having full-time digital marketing teams supporting mobile part-time, and others use contract or freelance employees. One-third of marketers plan to hire more full-time mobile employees, and one-quarter plan to hire more contract mobile employees in the next six months…but marketers still rely primarily on agencies and part-timers.

Many firms are turning to their agencies to help them navigate this opportunity. Currently, marketers work with an average of three external agencies for mobile marketing. One-quarter of them use anywhere from four to 15 or more. And these agencies are only working on execution — the majority of companies are working with their traditional brand agency to help them incorporate mobile into their overall plans.

Some marketers are making acquisitions to quickly scale the mobile talent gaps. One of the most important strategic staffing decisions CMOs and CTOs will make this year is deciding how to meet their mobile development needs. Most companies have leaned on specialist firms and don’t have first-rate mobile development skills in-house. Now they must decide if that approach will cut it as smartphone and tablet platforms become as indispensable as the Web in engaging customers. The Financial Times decided that relying on a contractor wasn’t good enough and they acquired Web app developer Assanka. In its report on the acquisition, FT CEO John Ridding said:

“This is a unique opportunity to bring talented and very creative software engineers with proven skills in emerging web technologies into our team. It will further boost our momentum in digital journalism, help us improve our development processes and allow us to maintain our edge in this strategically important area.”

Walmart also acquired the 13-person mobile development firm Smart Society, as well as other mobile and social acquisitions including Kosmix and Grabble. These strategic mobile acquisitions by large marketers underscores the challenge large companies face in scaling mobile talent acquisition once the ROI case for mobile has been proven.

Summary
Mobile advertising is driving the growth of digital media spending at such a rapid rate that digital media (including mobile) is forecasted to exceed broadcast spending before 2018 (within the next 5 years). In order to support this, marketers and agencies need to hire, train/develop, and retain the mobile marketing talent required at both the strategic and tactical/technical development levels in order to maximize the effectiveness of increased mobile marketing investments. The winners and losers in closing this “talent gap” will define the next generation of “best in class” marketers.

Filed Under: 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. 65

In this issue:

  • In Our Opinion:  How Can 2014 Top Last Year?
  • Career Opportunities:
    • CMO – Growth Markets
    • CMO – Start-up Mobile Advertising/M-Commerce
    • Managing Director, Social Media
  • Articles:
    • Mobile Goes Mainstream: Consumers Lead the Way– Gridley & Company LLC

In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White

How Can 2014 Top Last Year?

I attended the 13th annual Gridley & Company conference in NYC last week to hear 60-75 CEOs across the Media, Ad Tech, Payments & Financial Technologies, and Marketing Services sectors talk about their company’s 2013 performance and future expectations in 2014 and beyond.

Incredible Performance of Equity Markets in 2013
Linda Gridley opened the conference by highlighting the incredible performance of equity markets in 2013…”the S&P 500 rose 29.6%, the largest annual jump in 16 years…and the Dow rose 26.5%, its largest gain in 18 years…despite macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds.”  As stocks rose steadily higher, P/E ratios grew from 14x to17x, fueled by $349B which poured into stock-based mutual funds and exchange funds, the highest annual inflow ever recorded. It’s clear investors have moved off the sidelines and back into equity investments. Not surprisingly, Gridley indicated “internet giants eBay, Amazon, Google and Facebook were up an average of 57.6% in 2013, outperforming the equity market as a whole.”

We see CEOs doing the same thing…moving off the sidelines into action to grow their businesses by investing in marketing, new product development, and opening new markets. I had lunch with Claude Gallello, a senior global business development leader at Willis (global insurance brokerage firm) and he indicated Willis has recently completed an expansion from 115 to 130 countries globally. We are seeing other companies including Abbott, AIG, Accenture, Apple, Lenovo, Mercer, MetLife, and Prudential plc investing in acquisitions and strategic hires in Growth Markets (Brazil, China, India, Middle East) to expand their businesses in these countries and other emerging economies.

2014 Expected To Be Even Bigger in Terms of Digital and Mobile Media
Many of the keynote panelists at the Gridley conference confirmed they expect 2014 to be even bigger and more transformative in terms of digital and mobile media, marketing, and e-commerce. Tony Uzan (Advisory Director at PwC) indicated “digital advertising (including mobile) is on pace to surpass broadcast advertising by 2018” (www.pwc.com/outlook). Martin Nisenholtz (Senior Advisor – NY times) predicted Google will become the #1 market capitalization company and voice recognition technology will enable us to “liberate ourselves from the screens.” Jim Moran (General Partner at North Bridge) predicted “2014 will be the year mobile commerce hits main street…and mobile payment companies will be big winners in the equity markets in 2015-16.” Moran also indicated he “sees a day when Google will be serving us ads in our dreams.”

While the overall outlook is positive, there are some storm clouds on the horizon. Many VC experts including Alan Patricof (Managing Director, Greycroft Partners) indicated there are too many start-up companies without profitable business plans and many will not be funded in 2014 and will perish. Brian O’Kelley (CEO, AppNexus) and a leader in the AdTech space predicted 2014 would see a lot of action in the AdTech space. “Companies need to exit, be bought, or raise capital…and it will be a busy year for the investment bankers.” O’Kelley also indicated he “sees a bubble and a lot of AdTech companies will hit a wall in ’14…especially those without revenue and/or profitability.”

Also, while digital advertising in all forms is expected to grow dramatically faster than all other media, most CEOs expect to see Google and Facebook (which transitioned itself quickly to a mobile company) dominating 80+% of this media category leaving all other competitors fighting over the scraps.

New Digital Economy vs. Old Line Media and Marketing Services
While attending 10-15 of the individual CEO/company presentations at Gridley, I was struck by the contrast between new digital economy CEOs/companies and old line media and marketing services CEOs/companies. Change is happening so quickly, and the pace of change is accelerating through mobile advertising and commerce, you can almost see the writing on the wall for many old world companies and industries that are vulnerable to game-changing innovations by an Amazon, Google or Facebook.

While the equity markets are unlikely to achieve last year’s growth rates in 2014, many companies (especially leaders like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook) are expected to ride the wave of mobile/digital explosion to continue aggressive growth. In light of these prognostications, it should be an interesting year and we expect continued action in all areas related to digital and mobile marketing, media and commerce.

As always, we welcome your comments and input, so please write in and let us know your viewpoints.

Happy New Year!
Jeff and Lola

Career Opportunities

CMO – Growth Markets
CMO – Mobile Advertising/M-Commerce Start-up
Managing Director, Social Media

Learn more.

ARTICLES:

Mobile Goes Mainstream: Consumers Lead the Way — January 2014 – Gridley & Company LLC
Comprehensive Industry Overview – – – Key Trends and Investment Opportunities
Mobile Industry Overview_1.10.14

 

Filed Under: Digital Proficiency, Getting Hired in Digital Marketing, Recommended Articles

Social Media Has Gone Mainstream

I can remember attending a B2B magazine CMO Awards luncheon late in 2012 when the moderator asked the panel of 15 CMOs for their 2013 business outlook and top marketing priorities. Almost every CMO listed their top 2013 marketing priority as investing in Social Media, however, none of them knew what this would look like for their companies. So in effect, this was a “leap of faith” CMOs knew they had to take to catch up with consumers who were connecting through social media channels including Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube to share their brand likes, dislikes, and reviews.

Fast forward to yearend 2013 and Chief Marketer magazine (www.ChiefMarketer.com) announces “Social Marketing has gone mainstream.” According to Chief Marketer’s 2013 Annual Social Media Survey, 77% of marketers are integrating Social Media into their annual marketing strategies, plans and campaigns. In addition to coupons and discounts, marketers are offering unique content as a reward for engaging with the brand socially, and over half of marketers are including Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest links in all marketing messages.

B2B marketers are embracing Social Media to enhance brand awareness and grow their businesses. Robert (“Rob”) Harles, Global Head of Social Media at Bloomberg LP, is one of our picks at “best in class” Social Media/Social Business leaders. Rob has totally transformed Bloomberg’s Social Media policies and practices over the past 3-4 years, and now their partnership with LinkedIn is being used by Bloomberg’s sales force as a top lead generation tool. Check out the recent article on Harles and Bloomberg…the transformation success has been phenomenal – Social Media Today.

On the B2C side, Brion Roberto – Global Head Digital Marketing & Social Media at Diageo is a marketer we nominated in 2013 for Marketing EDGE’s “Rising Star” award recognition. Brion is one of the best and brightest marketers under 40YO and Diageo has utilized Social Media and other digital marketing strategies to engage consumers in building brand awareness, purchase/preference, and loyalty.

Another marketer we would like to recognize is John Bell who recently joined Travelers as VP, Enterprise Digital Marketing. John is former Managing Director – Social@Ogilvy which he built into the largest Social Business/Social Media practice in the agency sector with annual revenue exceeding $100M+. John was a former Creative Director at Ogilvy Public Relations and he was one of the early pioneers in Social Media well ahead of the rest of the marketing sector.

While 75%+ of marketers are moving aggressively into Social Media/Social Business, less than 25% have a Social Media specialist on staff. This means marketers are relying on agencies (like Social@Ogilvy) and consulting firms (like Accenture Interactive) to develop and manage Social Media technology software and campaign management platforms. Clearly, increased hiring and technology investments to support Social Media growth are priority areas for marketers in 2014.

By Jeff Gundersen

Twitter (@Jeff Gundersen)