Episodes

  • 7-Eleven Slurpees: B2B Marketing Lessons from Bring Your Own Cup Day with Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Marketing at Black Crow AI, JoAnn

    7-Eleven Slurpees: B2B Marketing Lessons from Bring Your Own Cup Day with Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Marketing at Black Crow AI, JoAnn
    Dec 18 2024
    How are you celebrating your hero product? Better yet, how are you activating your audience to celebrate your hero product?7-Eleven has a lot to teach us about that with their Bring Your Own Cup Day. If you’ve never taken part, they encourage customers to bring in a vessel of choice to fill with Slurpee.They’ve seen people bring in cowboy hats, kiddie pools, even a prosthetic leg, and fill them to the brim with that slushy, cold, refreshing fizzy iconic drink.And customers are posting about it. It’s ALL over social media. Having your customers post to their own social media about your product is just about any marketer’s dream.So let’s talk about how to do it! In this episode, we’re talking about marketing lessons from 7-Eleven’s Bring Your Own Cup Day.With the help of our special guest, Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Marketing at Black Crow AI, JoAnn Martin, we talk about activating your community around your hero product, leaving it to the internet, and increasing the value of your engagement with customers.About our guest, JoAnn MartinJoAnn Martin is Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Marketing at Black Crow AI. Prior to joining the company in November 2023, she served as VP of Marketing at Electric. She has also held marketing leadership roles at Searchspring, Hanzo and Provenir. She serves as an advisor to UserGems.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Bring Your Own Cup Day:Activate your community around your hero product. Create opportunities for your audience to celebrate your core product. JoAnn says, “ It's finding the product and the fit with the market and figuring out how you put that in front of the right customer, which is really foundationally strategic marketing.  And that gives you great opportunities to have those celebrations or to create those experiences.” And Ian says, “It’s important to have a day,” like 7-Eleven’s Bring Your Own Cup Day, which celebrates their hero product, the Slurpee, by having customers bring in their own vessel of choice. It’s silly and fun and highlights the Slurpee as an iconic product.Leave it to the internet. Ask your audience online for input on your marketing. For instance, have them name a product, or get ideas for your next campaign. JoAnn says, “ When you leave things to the internet, great things can happen. But also it can go wheels off very fast. But that's part of the beauty of it, right? Is the wheels off-ness, is why it's novel and fun and you feel part of something. So you never know where it's going to go.” So maybe put some limits around what you ask for, but it’s a resource ready to be tapped into.Increase the value of your engagement with customers. Think about diversifying your offerings within the same vertical or to appeal to the same target buyer.  JoAnn says, “A lot of companies struggle with, ‘How do we find something else that increases the value of our engagement with a customer?’ Or ‘How do we build in an upsell strategy with our B2B SaaS company?’ You've launched a core product for your customers. And customers love that core product. But as you grow as a company, you need to be able to develop more value for them. And you need to be able to develop more value to broaden your addressable market. And one of the learnings I take away is that they went and found that value. And for us as B2B marketers, maybe we can be a little more creative about the way that we find that additional value we can bring to our customers all the time.” Like 7-Eleven was already appealing to kids with their penny candy and video games. Add on to that an option for sugar-caffeine-fizz fix and the Slurpee was bound to become a hit too.Quotes*” How do I better partner with my product teammates? What's this Product-Marketing relationship? How do we get away from Product builds a thing and throws it all over the wall and Marketing figures out how to talk about it?’ And it's a challenge. And I think this is a great example that those two disciplines are actually very tightly intertwined. And as marketers and product leaders and startups, we have to figure out how we're coming together to figure out what is that thing that celebrates our core product? What is the core product we put in front of a customer that has great fit for that customer and how do we figure out how to talk about it with them?”*” The concept of really tightly intertwining your product and how your customers experience that product and how you talk about it is really inspiring.”*” Great companies lean into the kind of messy pieces, but you have to be willing to lean into the kind of absurd, messy parts of the business.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet JoAnn Martin, Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Marketing at Black Crow AI[2:49] The Concept and Impact of BYOC Day[5:50] The Backstory Behind Slurpees[11:24] Marketing Strategies and Customer Engagement[15:09] Innovative Marketing and Product Development[28:32] Upcoming Exciting ...
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    35 mins
  • Scott Galloway: B2B Marketing Lessons From Prof G with VP of Marketing & Corporate Strategy at Verbit, Michael Rosman

    Scott Galloway: B2B Marketing Lessons From Prof G with VP of Marketing & Corporate Strategy at Verbit, Michael Rosman
    Dec 10 2024
    The role of the marketer is changing. Scott Galloway, aka Prof G, says that to be successful today, marketers have to act as “coaches, advisors and strategists” to their company.That’s what we’re talking about in today’s episode with the help of our special guest, VP of Marketing & Corporate Strategy at Verbit, Michael Rosman.Together, we talk about finding the right channel, being bold, and avoiding clickbait.About our guest, Michael RosmanMichael Rosman is VP of Marketing & Corporate Strategy at Verbit, having joined the company in April 2022. He has extensive work experience in Corporate strategy and Marketing. Prior to this, he worked at Amdocs, where he held various roles including Customer Business Executive, Director of Corporate Strategy, and Manager of Corporate Strategy from May 2016 to April 2022.Before joining Amdocs, Michael worked at Degania Medical as the Head of Strategy, Business Development & Innovation from May 2015 to May 2016. Michael also has experience at Biometrix, where he served as the Head of Strategic Planning and subsequently as the Interim COO from November 2011 to May 2015.Michael started his career at Tefen Management Consulting in July 2007, where he worked as a Senior Consultant for over four years. During his time at Tefen, he successfully led cross-functional and international teams on various projects in industries such as pharmaceuticals, automotive, chemicals, and healthcare.Michael Rosman completed his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University between the years 2004 and 2008. Later, between 2011 and 2012, he pursued an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Scott Galloway:Find the right channel. Test different channels to see which one your content achieves the best reach and resonance on. People on LinkedIn might engage with your content way more than on your blog. Use that to your advantage by creating more content gauged for your LinkedIn audience. Michael says, “Finding the right channel is a big takeaway for me. So I know everybody has the standard channels of paid ads and events and SEO and whatever is, but find a channel that maximizes your impact. Figure out your puzzle. Figure out who you are and something that might be unique [to you]. Maybe it's a channel that doesn't exist for anybody else.”Be bold. Know what you stand for and express it clearly and without fear of losing your audience. Michael says, “Go all in on something. [Scott Galloway] has so much conviction and so much belief in doing what he does, he can really go all out.” When you express your message authentically and with clarity, your content will resonate with your intended audience.Avoid clickbait. Make sure the meat of your content is valuable to your audience. Don’t just give it all away in the title. Michael says, ”So many times, people have a hot take-y headline to lure you, to get you in, but then there's nothing else. All of the content that you wanted to consume is in the title and everything else is meaningless. [But] Whenever I tune in [to one of Scott Galloway’s podcasts], I always feel like it was worth my time. I came in, I came for value, and it consistently delivers value. It's always interesting. There's always substance behind the title.”Quotes*”I really think about niching down, and about the shorts, shows and moonshots sort of positioning. You want to create stuff that your people can tap into for a minute or two. You want to create stuff that they can subscribe to and get like an hour a week. And then you want stuff that's definitive, could be viral and bingeworthy. If you have 15 different personas that you're selling to, if you could create a single bingeable asset for those 15 personas, that's far more valuable than creating 150 pieces of content for those 15 things.” - Ian Faison*”The world changes every minute. What was published a week ago is now no longer potentially relevant. So it's your job as a brand to reach forward into the future and say, ‘I think that based on what we know, what we're saying on our proprietary information and what our customers are saying, I think that this is where the world is going.” - Ian FaisonTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Michael Rosman, VP of Marketing & Corporate Strategy at Verbit.ai[2:19] Verbit's Marketing and Customer Insights[7:29] Scott Galloway's Marketing Philosophy[10:42] The Journey and Impact of Scott Galloway[19:31] The Power of Serialized Content[24:52] Marketing Takeaways from Prof G[29:42] The Value of Definitive Works in Content[31:07] Challenges in Content Creation for Multiple Personas[32:04] The Importance of Niching Down and Binge-Worthy Content[39:39] Balancing Quality, Speed, and Cost in Video Production[42:16] The Future of AI in Content Creation[45:48] Verbit's Content StrategyLinksConnect with Michael on LinkedinLearn more about Verbit.aiAbout Remarkable!...
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    52 mins
  • Extreme Trail Running: B2B Marketing Lessons on Navigating Rough Terrain with DeepL CMO, Steve Rotter

    Extreme Trail Running: B2B Marketing Lessons on Navigating Rough Terrain with DeepL CMO, Steve Rotter
    Dec 3 2024
    The marketing terrain is rough out there. In many ways, traversing the roots, rocks and mud of extreme trail running is like navigating the shifting marketing landscape.Both demand endurance, adaptability and a strategic mindset. Those are a few of the things we’re talking about today. In this episode, we’re taking marketing inspiration from extreme trail running with the help of our special guest, DeepL CMO Steve Rotter.Together, we talk about being agile, stepping where others have stepped, how to plot your own route, and aiming for progress over perfection.About our guest, Steve RotterSteve Rotter, an entrepreneur, evangelist, and author, brings over two decades of tech marketing leadership experience to his role as CMO at DeepL. With a track record as a two-time founder with two M&A deals and three unicorns under his belt, Steve is deeply passionate about innovative marketing, AI, and brand building. Prior to DeepL, Steve served as CMO of FourKites, where he spearheaded remarkable growth and revenue increases through targeted account-based marketing and PLG strategies, serving industry titans like Coke, Walmart, and Ford. His expertise extends to CMO roles at OutSystems and Acrolinx, where he drove unicorn growth, established category leadership, and facilitated successful acquisitions. He's also held leading tech-industry marketing positions at Adobe, Motorola, and Brightcove.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Extreme Trail Running:Agility is key. Be on the lookout for disruptions, like changes in buying pattern, that mean you may have to change course. Steve says he was out running “and we had a couple of days of rain because of the recent hurricane. And all of a sudden a trail that was normally a certain way had about a 10 foot river running through it, and you had to cross it and not try not to get too wet and fall over. And the course that you thought was one way is different.” This is true with marketing as well. The landscape is always changing. You have to adapt to what’s in front of you to keep going.Step where others have stepped. If you’ve seen others have success with a particular marketing strategy, try it. Use their success to your advantage. Ian says, “If you have somebody's footprints right there in front of you, you can just stay right in their footprints.” Like in extreme trail running, you know stepping in the same place as the person in front of you is a safe bet.When there is no path, slow down just enough to plan your route. But don’t take too long to do it. Ian says, “There's this balance of speed versus slowing down to plan your route. And I think that like a lot of times, in my opinion, B2B marketing teams slow down and plan way too much. And they're way overly concerned with the perfect plan rather than running. At the end of the day, you have to move. You have to keep moving. So many people are just crippled by indecision.”Progress over perfection. Don’t wait for perfect data to make great content. Use what information you have to move forward. Steve says, “In many cases, you have very data-driven businesses and by definition, marketing has become almost a data-driven skill set that has to be present. But in many ways, it's that analysis paralysis that slows them down because they're waiting for perfect data. We can't wait for perfection. We have to show progress.”Quotes*”I think that's actually a really healthy discipline for marketing teams, is not just to be on that hamster wheel all the time, but to take some time out and say, ‘Look, what do we really want to do? What do we want to say? What's our message? What's our story? What's our creative angle?’ And rarely do you achieve that in moments of extreme distraction, right? It's that focus time that kind of drives those light bulb moments.”*”A leadership approach that is acceptable has a tolerance and there's no fear of failure. If you have marketers that are afraid, like if they make a mistake, they're going to get yelled at or fired, then of course they're going to take time because they're going to just wait for perfect. Whereas if you build a culture in your marketing team around speed, velocity, and learning from your mistakes, then you got a good recipe.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Steve Rotter, CMO at DeepL[1:48] The Connection Between Trail Running and Marketing[6:42] Psychology and Support in Extreme Trail Racing[12:54] Preparation and Training for Trail Running[16:56] Marketing Strategies and Team Dynamics[22:15] Balancing Speed and Planning in B2B Marketing[23:55] Overcoming Analysis Paralysis[24:24] The Importance of a Fearless Marketing Culture[25:05] Navigating Unpredictable Terrain[29:12] The Little Things in Marketing[31:46] Educating the Market on AI[34:37] Leveraging Customer Stories[37:54] Advice for CMOs on Content Strategy[40:04] Uncovering Hidden StoriesLinksConnect with Steve on LinkedInLearn more about DeepLAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at...
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    48 mins
  • Great British Baking Show: B2B Marketing Lessons from the White Tent with VP of Corporate Marketing at Trellix, Sara Aiello

    Great British Baking Show: B2B Marketing Lessons from the White Tent with VP of Corporate Marketing at Trellix, Sara Aiello
    Nov 26 2024
    A three-tier showstopper cake may have beautiful pipework and neatly done icing, but if it’s overbaked and dry on the inside, it’s not a good cake.The same is true for marketing. If it has no message but it’s beautiful, it’s not good marketing. Focusing on substance over style is one of the many lessons we’re taking from The Great British Baking Show in this episode.Together with the help of our special guest, VP of Corporate Marketing at Trellix, Sara Aiello, we talk about being brand classy, going for substance over style, and trusting your gut.About our guest, Sara AielloSara drives impactful brand and communication initiatives that inspire, inform, and elevate global businesses. At Trellix, she led the brand launch of Trellix from FireEye and McAfee Enterprise. Previously, as Head of Growth & Engagement for Amazon’s large item business, she accelerated business growth and customer engagement. At BlackBerry, as Vice President of Field Marketing, Sara led global marketing and sales enablement teams, enhancing the company’s technology recognition. During her tenure at Cisco, she spearheaded the security customer experience practice, significantly advancing customer adoption. She also led the successful marketing strategy for a billion-dollar service rebrand. As Director of the Executive Briefing Center for Cybersecurity at The Boeing Company, Sara’s expertise in customer experience played a pivotal role in securing critical contracts.Sara holds a Master of International Business from Seattle University and a Bachelor of Science from Clarkson University.What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Great British Baking Show:Be brand classy. Create content that has integrity and stands proudly for your brand. Think about making something that’s evergreen instead of trendy or reactive. Sara says, “You can never go wrong with being brand classy. Something that lives on, endures. Sometimes you'll want to take a quick hit at a competitor or something like that, but that's not going to age well. And so always be kind of brand classy in what you do.”Go for substance over style. Every so often in The Great British Baking Show, a contestant will create a beautiful confection that doesn’t taste as good as it looks. That’s when Paul Hollywood says, “Style over substance.” In content, you want to make something that has meaning while also being visually attractive. So always think about your message first before focusing on the beauty of it. Sara says, “You have to actually know what you want to say first before you start thinking about how beautiful or whimsical you want it to look.”Trust your gut. Tune in to what feels right and rings true to your brand. In The Great British Baking Show, contestants have to navigate the technical challenge often based on their gut alone, having to make a cake based on directions like, “Make a genoise sponge.” You may not always have all the information in marketing either, but Sara says, “Be comfortable with not having all your information.” Trust that your gut will lead you in the right direction.Quotes*”One thing we haven't hit on is the storytelling aspect. You really identify and make memories with the bakers and the way that the show tells their backstory. And so you feel really connected. And I think that marketers should remember the power of storytelling. A lot of times, we want to go into stats and figures, but that's really not going to engage our emotional side of our brain, which is what we need to be persuaded.”*”ROI, marketers love to talk about this. I think it really comes down to setting clear goals. A lot of times, especially when it comes on the brand side as opposed to the demand side of marketing, it isn't super easy to see and have metrics, so it's really important to set clear goals from the start. So then you can see if you're succeeding or not.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Sara Aiello, VP of Corporate Marketing at Trellix[1:00] B2B Marketing Lessons from The Great British Baking Show[5:10] Behind the Scenes of The Great British Baking Show[11:11] Relating The Great British Baking Show to Marketing[17:52] The Importance of Visuals and Positivity in Marketing[23:24] The Human Element in B2B Marketing[25:46] The Power of Storytelling in Marketing[34:25] Building the Trellix Brand[38:04] Engaging Content Strategies[46:35] Final Thoughts and Advice for Marketing LeadersLinksConnect with Sara on LinkedInLearn more about TrellixAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith ...
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    49 mins
  • Olympics: B2B Marketing Lessons on Making Big Content Investments with the VP of Marketing at AppsFlyer, Carolyn Bao

    Olympics: B2B Marketing Lessons on Making Big Content Investments with the VP of Marketing at AppsFlyer, Carolyn Bao
    Nov 19 2024
    Making big marketing investments is a huge deal. But lucky for you, we’re here to help.We’re bringing you five keys to deliver on a big investment.And we’re taking those lessons from the Olympics with the help of our special guest, VP of Marketing at AppsFlyer, Carolyn Bao.Together, we’re talking about capitalizing on a cultural moment, committing to the long haul, ensuring activation is fully prepared, and so much more.About our guest, Carolyn BaoCarolyn Bao serves as the Vice President of Marketing for AppsFlyer, for the North America region, driving multi-channel efforts for the AppsFlyer mobile attribution and marketing analytics platform. She is an accomplished marketing executive with over 20 years of leadership experience at technology companies, specializing in software and SaaS marketing go-to-market strategy, data-driven business innovation and building high-performing marketing teams. She has deep domain knowledge of marketing tech stack and advertising technologies. Beyond her commercial role, she nurtures the entrepreneurial spirit as an MBA@Rice faculty member and a founding board member of Silicon Valley Leadership Community.Recognized with accolades such as LinkedIn’s “Top Voices” and Product Marketing Alliance’s “Top 100 PMMs,” Carolyn is celebrated for bringing products like Facebook Attribution to global markets, building high-performing marketing teams, and thought leadership in ‘women in leadership,’ ‘marketing management’ and ‘mobile growth strategies’ through key speaking engagements for educational and professional events. Carolyn built her career portfolio through leadership roles at technology powerhouses including Moomoo, Facebook, Visa, and Yahoo.What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Olympics:Capitalize on a cultural moment. Pick something in the cultural zeitgeist to inspire your content. If it’s already resonating and getting talked about, your content will too. Carolyn says, “I think leveraging critical cultural moments is one of the key growth drivers for any marketing department.” And she adds, “Really think through for your category, what is that cultural moment that we really want to capitalize on? In B2B marketing, not everybody competes in the Olympics. But we do compete in terms of how many in-person interactions we have with other practitioners. And that's where these in-person conferences immediately became popular again after we came out of COVID. So I think that's maybe something to really think about, is what is your Olympics equivalent.”Commit to the long haul. Big investments in content mean lots of planning for the pre-, during and post periods. How can you maximize the campaign and make the most of the big investment? Carolyn says, “Not a lot of companies have the ability to plan in massive time horizons, like every four years. A lot of marketing teams are probably working one to three quarters out for most of it. But I do think it's interesting to think of like, what are the big, massive bets that you can make that you might not be able to make every year that can show who you are as a brand.”Ensure activation is fully prepared. Don’t sell yourself short by creating content without planning through distribution and activation. Make sure it’s fully considered and you’re making the most of that investment. Carolyn says, “To activate marketing around the Olympics at this scale is massive. This is sort of our Coachella for marketers, because we don't get to have this many dollars to spend for the majority of us. And meanwhile, even if we are with a huge brand, it is not often that we have this kind of massive celebration. So the scale is super important. The second piece that's very interesting is in terms of how to ensure marketing is done right. There is a great deal of discipline in running a smooth marketing operation, which I think everyone can still also relate to because no matter big or small, for our marketing campaigns to be successful, we have to also wear that operational hat. And I think there's a lot to be unpacked from studying how the Olympics have been done.”Commit to the production cost. Big ideas come with a cost. Follow through with the full potential of the project, including the price of it. But the good news is that marketers have become a lot more efficient. Carolyn says, “Savvy marketers are not doing marketing content production the same way as old time marketers. Because they create these stories, they run it on mobile marketing channels, they run with a very small dollar amount, and they already got data to tell them what stories resonate with who. It pulls their feedback loop a lot shorter.”Know your ICP. Ensure your content will land with its intended audience by truly knowing your ICP. This means understanding their values, what motivates them, and the value you can offer them. Carolyn says, “Deeply understand whom it is you're really trying to influence. Knowing ...
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    45 mins
  • Modern Family: B2B Marketing Lessons from the Emmy Award-Winning Show with CMO of Altimetrik, Jeff Fleischman

    Modern Family: B2B Marketing Lessons from the Emmy Award-Winning Show with CMO of Altimetrik, Jeff Fleischman
    Nov 12 2024
    “A rare thing.” That’s what co-creator Steve Levitan called “the incredible alchemy of elements coming together” that was Modern Family.He and Christopher Lloyd, who he’d worked with on Frasier, wanted to create a show that felt real. A show with heart. And it took the right writers, characters, and actors to play them to make it happen. And it happened for 11 years, winning 22 Emmys.And in this episode, we’re taking B2B marketing lessons from it with the help of our special guest, CMO at Altimetrik, Jeff Fleischman.Together, we talk about being passionate about your brand, showing persistence and grit, and the art of making “a rare thing.” About our guest, Jeff FleischmanJeffrey Fleischman is a seasoned senior executive with over 35 years of experience spanning the financial services, banking, insurance, and technology. As CMO of Altimetrik he manages the company’s brand, marketing, lead generation, public relations, and communications functions. Jeff brings a wealth of expertise to the role. Previously, he served as Chief Marketing & Digital Officer at Penn Mutual, driving omni-channel campaigns and advancing digital initiatives. His leadership journey includes key roles at renowned companies such as Citi, American Express, TIAA-CREF, and Chase.Jeff’s passion lies in creating innovative, customer-focused strategies and experiences that integrate data, technology, and design. His extensive expertise covers areas like omni-channel marketing, data analytics, product management, and business transformation. He holds a B.S. in finance from Syracuse University and an MBA in finance, investments, and banking from Hofstra University. He has or held board positions with Artemis, Zenmonics Inc., Hornor, Townsend & Kent, Telera, and IEP Youth Services.Jeff is an author, advisor, investor, and speaker. His book, "Advice To My Younger Self," reflects his commitment to empowering others to achieve their aspirations.Beyond his professional achievements, he expresses creativity through painting and crafting unique art pieces, breathing new life into old furniture, and has a passion for music.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Modern Family:Be passionate about your brand. Jeff says, “On the passionate and competitive side, Jay Pritchett’s archenemy was Earl, his former partner of Closets, Closet, Closets. And they were at odds with each other, trying to outdo each other, trying to out-innovate each other. It’s that competitiveness and that passion that you need as a marketer. That passion really does have to come through.”Show persistence and grit. A lot of marketing is about trial and error. You find out what works with your audience by keeping things fresh and building your momentum. So don’t let the things that don’t work slow you down; just keep going. Jeff says, “Both Jay and Phil shared that kind of grit to be the best of what they can be, to beat everyone else out, whether it be another realtor, whether it be Earl from Closets, Closets, Closets. And as marketers, it's a very noisy world out there. Everyone's pushing content out. Everyone's trying to be everything to all customers. So how do you stand out? Not everything's going to be a home run. Not every piece of content, every blog, every white paper is going to resonate. But you need to just stick to your focus on how you take your brand and elevate it. And you don't stop trying. And if it works, great. If not, move on to the next one.”Focus on the heart of your content. Work on the emotion you want your audience to feel when they experience your content. That’s how you know your message will hit home and stick. And then you can start to chop it up for use across channels. Ian says, “So often in B2B marketing, we get so caught up in trying to create the asset and then chop it up and do all these things that you’re trying to do all the motions of the thing rather than the actual sentiment that is in the clip.”Quotes*”You need to create opportunities for your community and your audience to talk about you to other people. They're not just sitting around all day thinking of your software. The number of people who are just thrilled with [your product] are not just going to sing it from the rooftops every second of every day. You need to cultivate those things and allow them to share it as much as you can.”*”For marketers, tie what you're doing back to the company strategy. And if you do that, you don't have to push people. They're going to be pushing you to do more, and want more from you. If you don't know numbers, you don't know how to measure, you don't know ROI, it's a serious blind spot. Bring back what you're doing to numbers, bring back to ROI, talk like a CFO.”*”Take a bite-sized approach. We never start off with a big bang. Our approach is tiny. Let's do a proof of concept. Let's get a quick win. We won't disrupt your customers. We won't disrupt your business. It's within your environment. And I ...
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    56 mins
  • Days of Thunder: B2B Marketing Lessons from the 1990 Tom Cruise Movie with Director of Content Marketing at Fictiv, Ricky Frohnerath

    Days of Thunder: B2B Marketing Lessons from the 1990 Tom Cruise Movie with Director of Content Marketing at Fictiv, Ricky Frohnerath
    Nov 5 2024
    What do a marketer and a racecar driver have in common? You’re about to find out. One thing we can say is that going as fast as you can leads to burnout. That’s one of the things we’re talking about in this episode.We’re taking marketing lessons from the 1990 Tom Cruise flick Days of Thunder with the help of our special guest, Director of Content Marketing at Fictiv, Ricky Frohnerath.Together, we talk about being strategic instead of fast, speaking the same language as your team, and building contingency plans in case your campaigns don’t go as expected.About our guest, Ricky FrohnerathRicky Frohnerath is Director of Content Marketing for San Francisco-based Fictiv, leading comprehensive content strategy and execution for all marketing campaigns, across all funnel stages and audiences. He specializes in building and managing cross-functional marketing teams for manufacturing and technology organizations. He's the A proponent of agile marketing methodology, servant leadership, self-management principles, and empowerment, his focus is on people first, then process, and then technology. A longtime resident of the Tampa Bay area, his education includes the Pinellas County Center for the Arts, St. Petersburg College, and the University of South Florida. Ricky is an amateur racing driver and avid enthusiast of electric vehicles, who believes in the power of uniting personal and professional values to drive positive change. Thus, he's passionate about accelerating sustainability by sparking and sharing conversations with leaders in electrification, motorsport, and industry.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Days of Thunder:Be strategic, not fast. If you try to go as fast as you can, you burn out or make mistakes. Slowing down just a bit to make sure your work is high quality and highly effective actually means you’ll work faster in the end. In Days of Thunder, Ricky says that Cole Trickle’s “quest is to find ultimate speed. He's actually over driving the tires and he's driving faster than [his competitors] can. And what happens when you're over driving the tires is that they get greasy and they start to degrade faster. So this is a problem because if you destroy your tires, then you have to come into the pits and that takes time.” So instead Cole learns to drive more efficiently by speeding up or slowing down strategically based on his coach’s advice. So slow down to work more efficiently and effectively.Speak the same language as your team. Communication becomes so much more efficient and effective when you share shorthand and jargon. Ricky says, “When you're on a team, you need to be speaking the same language. You need to have a shared lexicon so that there is this transmission of understanding. You need to know what's working, you need to know what's not working, and you need to know what you're talking about.”Build in wiggle room in case things don’t go right. If you hit a bump in the road, giving yourself a little extra time in the planning process for your campaign takes the pressure off. Ricky says, “Things are not going to go according to plan. You need to build in some agility and the ability to kind of compensate when it comes time to actually execute.” So give yourself room to breathe with your next campaign timeline. That way, you can correct any issues without stressing over deadlines. In Days of Thunder, it’s like when they plan, design and build Cole Trickle’s car and then it gets destroyed in an early race and they have to figure out how to pivot.Quotes*”I think it's fairly common for there to be conflict, especially between marketing and sales. One of the ways that you can overcome this is by having a shared language. Understand and adopt the KPIs that the sales team are going after. So, for example, one area where marketing and sales become misaligned is marketing likes to talk about big metrics, like impressions, eyeballs, even things like conversions. But these are KPIs that really don't translate well into the sales world. Like they are interested in leads and they're keeping an eye on sales and revenue and things like that. So make those metrics, your metrics and understand how the marketing activities roll into those KPIs. It's not to say that you don't keep track of impressions and a lot of other things that kind of get labeled as vanity metrics, but understand how you go from an impression down into revenue.”*”If you're overdriving the tires, you're effectively leading to burnout. I think the same is true when we think about high performance teams. The best that somebody can perform is at the limit of their abilities. There is no 110%. You can only do the best that you can at the peak of your ability. You can't give that extra 10%. So forcing you to do that is actually going to have a detrimental effect. So I think that's super important to keep in mind for marketing teams.”*”Marketers in general just need to have a very good understanding ...
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    45 mins
  • Pro Women Athlete Sponsorships: B2B Marketing Lessons on Leveraging Athlete Ambassadors with CEO of PARITY, Leela Srinivasan

    Pro Women Athlete Sponsorships: B2B Marketing Lessons on Leveraging Athlete Ambassadors with CEO of PARITY, Leela Srinivasan
    Oct 29 2024
    There’s an athlete right now that uses, knows and loves your product. So why aren’t you partnering with them to promote your brand? The global sports sponsorship market is expected to grow to almost $108 billion by 2030.And there’s around $1.3B in projected revenue this year from pro women athlete sponsorships. Feel like you’re missing out yet? The message is clear: sponsor a pro woman athlete (or two). In this episode, we’re talking about B2B marketing lessons from professional women athlete sponsorships with the help of our special guest, PARITY CEO Leela Srinivasan.Together, we talk about experimenting with new channels, finding your match, and much more.About our guest, Leela SrinivasanLeela Srinivasan took the reins as CEO in May 2023, when Parity had amassed a network of over 800 women athletes and paid out over $2 million in sponsorships. Under her leadership, the company is poised to increase both numbers exponentially – and become a household name – as it enters its next phase in the fight against gender pay disparity in sports.Prior to joining Parity, Leela served as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for three-high-growth companies: digital payments provider Checkout.com; Momentive, the maker of SurveyMonkey; and recruiting software company Lever. She developed her initial passion for community, customer centricity and data-driven marketing earlier in her marketing career at LinkedIn and OpenTable. She serves on the board of Upwork and on the board of advisors for the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where she earned her MBA.Leela lives in North Carolina with her husband Joel and three middle-school girls. There are no dull moments.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Pro Women Athlete Sponsorships:Experiment with new channels. Keep a budget to try new things. Whether it’s simply posting to a different social channel or sponsoring a pro athlete, the Leela says, ”As a marketer, your livelihood depends on being able to find new channels to replace channels that were once working really well that suddenly stopped working, to find ways to stand out from your competitors. Because what happens is if you're doing one thing, then six months later, everyone else is probably trying to do it too. So you have to keep things fresh. It doesn't mean you have to devote your entire budget to experimentation, of course. You need to certainly put money where you know things are working, but over time that mix is going to change as a marketer. And so I think it's smart. It's actually self preservation in some ways, to keep trying to just find ways to experiment on the edges and tap into something that can really give you a fresh perspective in the market.”Find your match. There’s an athlete out there right now who would align strongly with your brand values. Use them as the face of your brand to humanize the name. Leela says, “Find something that really feels right for the brand and allows them to kind of carve out their own space. There are so many directions that you can now run in; New leagues springing up, new sports coming to the fore, new athletes with incredibly interesting stories.Quotes*”When you get those people, those athletes, those influencers talking very naturally about something that they find joy in or that they believe in, it's just another level of awesomeness when it comes to ambassadorship or testimonial.”*”There are so many stories waiting to be told. If you're willing to be creative about the types of athlete that you work with, there are always athletes that can be within budget that can do some incredible storytelling for you.”*”I always had some money in what I called my rainy day fund or my slush fund. That budget was mine to make discretionary investments where I wanted to try things, where maybe the ROI was less proven or the path was a little less trodden but it was worth the opportunity, worth that risk to try something different because, God forbid you just become this terrible vanilla marketer that is doing the same as everybody else. You have to find ways to break through. I mean, that's the fun part of marketing. Why wouldn't you? So I always had some experimentation budget just tucked away for when these types of opportunities came up.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Leela Srinivasan, CEO at PARITY[2:03] Leela's Journey to PARITY[5:17] Understanding Pro Women Athlete Sponsorships[9:55] History of Pro Women Athlete Sponsorships[14:27] Current Landscape and Opportunities[24:07] The Gender Disparity in Sports[24:51] The Influence of Women Athletes on Marketing[27:00] Creative Campaigns and Athlete Partnerships[28:16] The Importance of Originality in Marketing[29:56] Investing in Women's Sports[32:38] Engaging with Brands and Athletes[35:37] The Power of Authentic Athlete EndorsementsLinksConnect with Leela on LinkedInLearn more about PARITYAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service ...
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    49 mins