On June 16th, 2020, National Instruments launched their new brand identity, and are now known as NI. The global tech company continues to enable engineers around the world with their test-and-measure tools, but now they’ve enhanced the brand with a sleek, modern logo, standout colors, and a tremendous rallying cry: “Engineer Ambitiously.” However, their purpose-packed tagline doesn’t apply only to...
What are the top two challenges that B2B businesses are facing in the wake of the events 2020? According to a Renegade survey of 110 B2B CMOs, 81% were scrambling to find replacements for physical events, and 58% had already faced budget cuts. This unique combination of challenges calls for unique solutions. Lucky for us, we’ve been able to talk...
Have you ever encountered someone who thinks marketing is a waste of time? If so, you may be familiar with this zinger: “You can eat a good sales pitch, but you can’t eat awareness!” Funny, right? They’ll point their fingers and laugh, but marketing-believers everywhere know the truth. If a funnel full of quality leads is the bountiful garden, then...
[Updated for 2021] As the economy tightens, it’s not surprising that Gartner’s 2020 CMO Spend study reported that CMOs are shifting 32% of their budget from agencies to in-house resources. That same study also cautions CMOs that “pursuing in-housing can turn into futile effort … and involves more financial risk than relying on a contracted partner.” So, before you shift...
When workers moved home and systems migrated to the cloud as a result of the COVID pandemic, two challenges emerged: how to keep data safe, and how to redeploy event-focused salespeople. For Holly Rollo, the chief marketing officer at RSA Security, these problems were silver lining opportunities to bring their services to the next level. The first issue, data safety,...
We’ve talked about how bringing your story to life in a unique way can generate demand, and we’ve also covered how sending direct mail is a great way to do it. Next up, we’re going to showcase a company (and one of our clients) who’s done it right. That company is Case Paper, and for 76 years, the paper and...
Should a calamitous event (say, a global pandemic) bring your rebrand plans to a halt? Not necessarily. A rebrand doesn’t happen in a vortex, and any truly successful rebrand is about a renewed brand purpose—one that can guide an organization’s actions in any situation, good or bad. At the American Lung Association, for example, their decision to forge ahead with...
Would you take on two C-Suite roles at once? Mika Yamamoto of F5 Networks would—and she did, taking the lead as both CMO and CXO for the application services company. Why did she do it? To drive simplicity across the organization, of course. Under both titles, Yamamoto boils everything F5 does down to one question: does this activity remove friction...
Which sounds better: a package delivered to the office filled with branded swag or a LinkedIn post announcing your newest product launch? The answer is, hands down, the former. Why? Because there’s something truly special about a personal touch—it’s more genuine, and it gets people excited about your brand in a way that makes you stand out. These days, it...
There are a million and one reasons why cultivating brand purpose should be a priority for any business and, in light of the current COVID pandemic, here's one more (with 4 inspiring examples to back us up)! Because a true purpose is the overarching, guiding force behind everything a company does, it’s the contingency plan you didn’t know you needed...