Renegade Marketers Unite

Millions of data points. A singular vision. Those are at the core of the new NetApp campaign, and the results were pretty significant. Over 70% of folks who saw the campaign saw NetApp as “a new company,” while website traffic tripled. So, yeah, pretty successful. So how’d they pull it off? A blend of tactful digital rollouts, account-based marketing, and more. It also came down to the idea of being a data visionary, and that, as CMO Jean English puts it, “everyone wants to be a visionary.  On this episode, Jean further explores the notion of being a visionary, and the crucial role boldness played in shaping this successful campaign. In forming the campaign, and the marketing mindset, Jean wanted her team to stretch the idea as far as it could go, and then go a little bit further. She wanted to make sure people had far-reaching ideas, and then she wanted to test and experiment. Listen in to hear more about her fail fast and move forward mentality, about aligning her vision across the company, and more.

How do you become a $4-billion company by selling free software? It almost sounds like a trick question, but it’s been done. Just ask Tim Yeaton, CMO of Red Hat, a $4-billion, open-source software company. The marketing’s been a major driver of success, and as Tim Yeaton puts it, has been the glue that permeates across the company and enforces everything—from product, to community, to end user. Though Yeaton starts out by discussing how marketing supports large tech companies, and how it has fostered a community as unique as Red Hat’s, he starts to break down the individual elements that can be applied to any B2B brand looking to get their marketing gears turning: simultaneous brand building and demand gen, developing a collaborative, meritocratic culture, effective agency collaboration, and perhaps most importantly, the benefits of simply telling a great story. Lastly, though it may not be the most critical driver of success, it is probably worth mentioning that Red Hat is likely the first-ever company with an advisory committee built entirely of employees that have had the logo tattooed on them—now that’s dedication.

How can a brand save the world? They could do something flashy, like repel an alien invasion or topple Godzilla, or they could do something real and substantive, like the World Surf League. When the WSL isn’t helping pro surfers shred the next big curl (are we saying that right?) or giving sports fans a great way to soak up some rays, they’re preparing for the future. As a sport deeply intertwined with the environment, that means committing to going carbon neutral. Sophie Goldschmidt, CEO of the WSL, has helped this goal permeate the entirety of the organization, and has noted how crucial it is to have a brand purpose worth rallying behind. On this episode, she discusses her athletics-centered marketing career, from Adidas, to the World Tennis Association, the NBA, and Rugby Football Union, as well as her commitment to brand purpose, engaging with the customers, effective company leadership, and more.

What does a B2B brand’s website have in common with a SuperBall? A significant bounce rate! Okay, maybe not the funniest joke, but it does transition well into discussing a pretty real issue with many B2B brands: they’re boring! There are plenty exceptions, of course, but far too often, B2B brands end up being, as this week’s guest puts it, “B2Boring.”  Ryan Urban is the CEO & Founder of BounceX, a company that helps brands optimize their websites (and ditch the high bounce rates). In examining countless B2B brands, Urban has gotten a great sense of where these companies tend to go wrong, and so much of it ties to these brands being dull, playing it safe, and failing to show any personality. Their websites and content too often lack story, and end up being “coagulated, congealed buzzwords” that’ll just bounce prospects away like a trampoline. So, if you’re interested in hearing about how brands can be a little more exciting, what landing pages need to be successful, and more, tune in to this week’s Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Email is still innovative...right? One might argue that email marketing has become the Facebook of marketing strategies— It was cool at first, it hasn't declined yet, but everyone and their grandmother is now on it. So what are the trendy marketing kids using now? Erik Huberman, CEO & Founder of Hawke Media, gives us the answer: SMS. As it turns out, customers only engage with marketing emails about 3% of the time, while the average click-through rate for SMS marketing tallies up to 30%. That's a number to write home about.  Erik knows that these statistics are too important to ignore and knows that they're indicative of a larger shift in B2B. Acknowledging that shift, and moving with it, has helped Erik's young company grow from 7 to 160 employees in just about 5 years. On this week's episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew chats with Erik about the shift in traditional advertising towards more efficient digital strategies, and how B2B marketers can navigate it artfully. Learn about how this shift isn't for everyone, the importance of product demand, what an outsourced CMO does, and more.

What do you need to make a big splash? A big ship, one would assume, is a terrific place to start. So that’s exactly what Agari used to launch their new brand, the purpose of which is written loudly and proudly on the walls of their headquarters: “Agari protects digital communications to ensure humanity prevails over evil.” That’s a pretty bold way of explaining that your company is an advanced cybersecurity firm for email. But a bold mission statement is exactly what companies need to grow. At Agari, this statement is deeply woven into the community fabric, from the board members down to rank-and-file employees. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Armen Najarian, CMO, discusses how they made the mission real, and how having that meaningful guidance of saving and protecting the world of digital communications, helped drive brand, product development, company growth, and more.

How do you effectively lead the marketing efforts of a 20,000+ employee tech giant well enough to make it into the American Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame? Sure—the question may sound a bit specific, but that journey is chock full of valuable takeaways for marketers at any sized company, in any line of work. Lucky enough for RTU listeners, this week’s episode features Ann Lewnes. Ann is a recent inductee into the AMA Hall of Fame and is currently the CMO of Adobe, a company that doesn’t really need much of an introduction. In her time at Adobe, she’s established herself as a trail-blazing, “flag planter” who gives great attention to the big picture. Listen in to this episode to hear about how she does that, her own marketing journey, the content strategy for Adobe, building brand trust, inspiring the people around you, and more.

Customers: What are they? Where do they come from, and what do they want? These are some of the great, cosmic questions we humans may never be able to answer. Just kidding, it’s actually (from a high-level, conceptual viewpoint) pretty simple. We’re all doing business with people, and people matter. If you keep your customer happy, great things happen. Going a little further, companies need to spend more time focusing on customer activation. Customers can and should be advocates for your brand, but to achieve that, they have to be treated well. Simple enough concept, but execution will take a little work.  On this episode of RTU, Kevin Spurway, SVP of Marketing at Appian, an enterprise application development platform, talks about the high level of commitment and effort required to really engage with customers, especially existing ones. He discusses what he calls “post-sale marketing,” which is how Appian has been so successful at developing meaningful relationships with its client base. Tune in to hear about post-sale marketing, celebrating customer success, customer-engagement pitfalls to avoid, and more!

When you order a pizza, you want it delivered quickly. It should prepared, placed in one of those fancy heat-retaining delivery bags, and be at your door within the half hour. Boom. Simple. A brand transformation is not a pizza (stop the presses!). Most marketing endeavors, in fact, benefit immensely from first slowing things down. Do your research, let ideas cool off while you consider them, and make sure your efforts are built on a strong, deliberately crafted foundation. Then, order your team a pizza to celebrate a well-executed campaign. That's part of what Dawn Colossi, CMO at FocusVision, a customer insights company, preaches. Research is absolutely key. No matter how tight the deadline, how urgent the project, it'll always be beneficial to start off with the research, even if a light, initial round. Tune in to hear more about effective researching, tactful surveys, and how to be more deliberate in your marketing efforts. 

What’s your brand truth? Actually—let’s pull back a bit: what is a brand truth? You could give it a few different names, but in essence, your brand truth is a concise guiding principle that informs virtually every aspect of the company’s operation and, importantly, can’t be dismissed. In the case of UTAK, a toxicology quality control provider (serving chemistry labs, forensics experts, and more), they nailed it in two words: “Control Freaks.” On this episode of RTU, CMO, and Chief Control Freak, Matt Kopp joins the show to discuss the origins of “Control Freaks,” and how two simple words have influenced every arm of the company, from product development, to customer engagement, to marketing. He also dives into the benefits of bringing in an outside agency (Renegade LLC) to develop the idea, the importance of internal buy-in, how to stand out in a crowded B2B market, and more.