The CEO: Every Successful CMO’s Best Friend

If you ask virtually every CMO about the keys to their success in having their marketing efforts cut through, you’ll likely find a few trends in their answers. For one, most of those CMOs will credit having their CEO completely on board. This isn’t a successful person demonstrating how humble they are, nor is it an attempt to curry favor…

Effective Communications and the Burden of Knowing Too Much

Though this used to mainly fall within HR’s purview, marketing departments are increasingly involved in shaping communications. There are a few reasons behind this change, among them the need to improve employee retention rates as unemployment increases, and the recognition that a healthy company culture can go a long way in shaping a good customer experience and creating persuasive, employee…

The Value of Personal Flair

The Value of a Personal Flair When it comes to ‘thank yous,’ it’s not often someone takes the time to put pen to paper. It’s usually an email, a quick text, or a phonecall, if anything. But Gabi Zijderveld, CMO of Affectiva, shared her experience in drafting 44 handwritten thank you notes in one night to the speakers at a…

How to Nail a B2B Rebrand

Adopting a new brand is never easy. It takes time, money, and effort. Settling on a name is hard enough, let alone securing trademarks and a domain name. Then, of course, there’s updating office signage and signs, company gear, online imagery, press releases…the list goes on, but for major, global brands, such an undertaking can cost millions. These difficulties don’t…

How Deloitte is Building a True Global Brand

In the not-so-great old days of business, large consulting firms behaved much like fiefdoms, with each office and the specialty practices within those offices controlled by specific, more local partners. These partners dictated the customer experience and the vibe of each local branch—the workplace culture—with little regard for the central brand. Customer loyalty was to “their” local partner, rather than…

Don’t Trust Your Gut

A tip of the hat goes to Deloitte this week for reminding us not to trust our gut… Probably as a result of a re-targeting campaign, I came across an ad from Deloitte introducing a character called “Gut Instinct.” He is the personification of that oft-unreliable feeling we’ve all used at one time or another. “Gut Instinct” Through a series…

Co-ordinating Your Message and Content

At Renegade, our radar is always tuned to Enterprise B2B organizations that demonstrate their brand stories effectively. I thought I’d share a snapshot of Accenture’s approach as an example of how message and content are co-ordinated to offer extreme value to their customers and prospects. Accenture’s home page starts with a bold assertion: “New isn’t on its way. We’re applying it right now.” And its Story Hub…