Thanks to those clever folks at Oreo who stole last year’s Superbowl spotlight, real-time marketing was among the hottest topics of 2013. (It even warranted its own abbreviation: RTM!) Agencies and clients scrambled to set up “newsrooms” in the hopes of thrusting brands into “the conversation” at just the right moment. Similarly, marketing swat teams were poised to pounce just…
Category: Interviews
CMO Insights: Turning Marketing into Service
A common phrase in the service industry is “the customer knows best.” While waiters and retail associates will roll their eyes at this, especially when it’s delivered by a manager following an unpleasant customer interaction, there’s definitely some credence to it. American Express is one company that takes “customer knows best” to heart, and has used the adage to help…
CMO Insights: Preserving Customer Loyalty
Following the year of “content marketing” that was 2013, we can only hope that 2014 is destined to be as rewarding a year for consumers on social media. Many brands are figuring out that earning customer loyalty via great content is on par with nurturing a real, face-to-face relationship, in that being a supportive, useful and interesting friend will almost…
CMO Insights: Marketing Innovation
Look around your home, and you’ll find that you own at least one product by 3M. Chances are you own many. And the brand isn’t only an American staple, it’s made its way into marketplaces across the globe. From Post-It Notes and reflective traffic signs to your dentist’s favorite cleaning tools, 3M prides itself on providing useful products to customers around…
CMO Insights: Global Sponsorships
Here is the 2nd part of my extensive and enlightening interview with Aon’s Global CMO Phil Clement. This part covers Aon’s highly effective global sponsorship of Manchester United and the impact that program has customers, partners and employees. I have no doubt that just about any marketer will find what Phil has to say instructive. So read on… Drew: It seems…
CMO Insights: Innovative Marketing
Converse is the creative world’s favorite party guest, which may be why it has so many friends—over 37 million on Facebook, to be exact. Just how did the sneaker brand get so popular? Not by being the life of the party, but by practicing good people skills and good social etiquette, says CMO Geoff Cottrill. Rather than stepping on toes…
Investing in Content Development
Delivering successful content is like having a conversation with a potential employer. If the jobseeker delivers a pitch that isn’t tailored to the needs of the organization, he will almost certainly be passed over for the next candidate. It’s no different for a company that is communicating with its customers. Cultivating a good content marketing strategy means moving beyond standard…
Insights on Crisis Management
Every experienced social media practitioner has “crisis planning” as one of the first steps in the on-boarding process with a new client. So naturally when Nick Johnson of Useful Social Media asked me to moderate a panel called “On the Defensive: Tactics to Spot and Avert Corporate Crises” at last week’s Incite Marketing Summit, I said, “sure, no problem,” thinking…
Making Your Influencer Campaign Effective
In a recent blog post, Dan Hebert makes a compelling case that influencer marketing is hotter than Jennifer Lawrence. Though huge JLaw fans may beg to differ, those of us in the social trenches know Dan may actually be the master of understatement. Consider a couple of the many facts Hebert offers: More than 50% of marketing and PR professionals will be…
Social ROI: Dream or Reality
My favorite part of being a social media professional is that it requires me to be social in the old-fashioned meaning of the word and in the process I get to meet and build relationships with really smart, interesting and talented people. One of these individuals is Lakshmanan (Lux) Narayan the CEO of Unmetric, with whom I had the pleasure of…