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…
Randy Frisch, President & CMO of Uberflip, has ruffled a few feathers in evangelizing his marketing mindset. Why? Well, right off the bat, he’s published a book called F*ck Content Marketing, which is sure to rub a few people the wrong way. But his mindset isn’t as negative as it may sound—in fact, he ends up highlighting the value of…
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…
In this interview, Renegade alum Noah Brier discusses his unlikely start as a copywriter, through his agency days, and eventually to his entrepreneurship. Check it out for insights in career building, branding, and more!…
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…
At a marketing conference in May, I had the opportunity to interview “cyborg anthropologist,” Amber Case (Amber is actually a Fellow at Harvard University and a visiting researcher at MIT). She is also an advocate of a branch of research known as “Calm Technology.” In essence, this concept focuses on eliminating an over-reliance on technology while increasing the “human-factor” in any complex system…
There is probably a point in one’s life when you stop having the dream about showing up late and unprepared for your final exam. I’m still waiting. And it doesn’t help when cognoscenti like Brent Adamson, principal executive advisor at Gartner, challenge the very definition of marketing—let alone the way most business-to-business brands approach the customer acquisition process. Of course,…
When Nathan Rawlins became chief marketing officer at diagram software maker Lucidchart in March 2017, no one said to him—perhaps unsurprisingly—”Hey, go create a viral campaign that will generate over 80 million views.” In fact, his charge was to build a demand generation engine through website optimization, marketing automation and carefully tracked media spending. Having done those things, Rawlins also…
One of the most bizarre yet pervasive quirks of the business world is that everyone thinks they are a qualified marketer. The collective rationale is that because they consume products like other humans, their opinions must be valid. Well folks, I’ve witnessed a rocket launch but that doesn’t make me a NASA scientist. Marketing is an increasingly sophisticated discipline requiring…
“Be strong. Stand tall.” These words of wisdom came from Duke University’s crane. Indeed, this is a construction crane that was set up on campus for renovations. Nowadays, intramural sports teams, dance groups, acapella groups, clubs, Greek organizations, libraries, and yes, even a construction crane are all active users of social media. On campus, it appears as though every possible…