Insights and Epiphanies from a recent B2B Social Communication Event

I attended the B2B Social Communications Case Studies and Roundtable event in New York last week, my first live event since the downturn. Got to admit, I was impressed by the attendance (probably close to 250 folks) and list of companies presenting included; Microsoft, Amex, Intuit, Dupont, IBM, Deliotte, Pitney Bowes, and others. I came away with some great new insights, not only of social media in a B2B world, but also regarding the structure of the event itself.

1. Get In, Then Get Out - In my last post I failed to mention the impact of online trends on offline events which I witnessed at this event. Speakers at this conference presented for 20 minutes, a long way away from the old days of hour-long presentations…and there were no breaks. The conference was over by 1 pm…love it. Rapid fire information that allowed the audience to assess the value in hearing, or not…that’s when you take a bathroom break.


2. What Happens In The Event…Doesn’t Stay In The Event -This was the first event where I watched the impact of Twitter on those presenting. Many speakers were noticeably conscience of the impact of Twitter, not only because the large screen monitor on the stage featured Twitter for the entirety of the event, but also because they knew their comments could immediately be broadcasted around the world. You could see how the realtime capability to broadcast ideas and comments impacted how each speaker responded to questions from the audience.


3. Who’s Googling You? - I watched several folks checking out speakers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, etc., as the speakers presented their information. In the future you could eliminate the speaker bio’s from the event material altogether. This growing trend should make you think about what you’re putting out in the public domain and what it might do to your credibility, reputation, etc. Then again…you should always be thinking about that.  


4. All The Cool Kids Are Doing It… - The audience demographic was interesting. The crowd seemed to be the same folks that used to say; “I don’t get it”, to whatever new Web 2.0 technology came out. Saw lots of bald and grey heads (including yours truly) in the audience taking copious amount of notes.

Aside from my initial observations on the atmosphere of the event and those attending, there were, of course, some great points from the presenters themselves.

1. Play Hard to Get - The best Social Media campaigns I saw were very subtle (as they should be) in their messaging (almost hidden). Why is this important? Instead of overly broadcasting a message, they presented in a way that the viewer/reader “discovered it.” This subtle, but difficult approach I think can make all the difference in the acceptance, retention and comprehension of your message. It also sets itself up nicely for word of mouth marketing. 


2. Ethics (Have Them) - Speaking of word of mouth, I learned that Dupont uses WOMMA ethic guidelines to guide their social media activities, particularly blogging. Good source. 


3. Share With Others - I can’t remember which speaker presented this, but their research found that if customers viewed video on the corporate site they also expected to find it in the public video domain…a la YouTube, etc. Same presentation also showed that corporate websites are the preferred location for video. 


4. Go Viral - All the videos I saw were initially launched through existing blogs with the goal of driving blog traffic. 


5. Start a (Useful) Conversation -The most interesting insight came from a case study on fencing. Companies have been struggling for years to do effective application/solution marketing. In this example the fencing company, Loius E Page Inc., developed their blog (link below) to help fence builders understand what type to buy based on what they want to build…brilliant. Want to build a horse paddock? Visit their blog and they can tell you to use a Farm & Field fence if you want X, Y, Z, and if you want to do A, B, C, to use a Horse fence. The lesson? Instead of the product marketing department wrestling with how to message an application or solution, the company put the product out there and let the engineers blog about how best to use it. 


6. In With The Old, Out With The New? - Many of the presentations were dated. There were very good presentations by IBM and Dupont (see links below), but they presented campaigns, video, etc. from 2006 & 2007. And here is where the concern comes from:Tim Washer from IBM said it; “things have changed in our social media governance and policies. I don’t think I could do this again given the current environment.” When I attended a roundtable later that include marketers from other companies, they express the same concern…”don’t know how he got that video approved…that would never happen in my firm/company…”

This topic will be a future blog post entitled: “Is Social Media in B2B Over Before it Ever Started? “ Look for that soon.



Best practices from the presenters:

• Best Leverage of Existing Assets Award goes to Dupont. They went back into their video files and found product testing videos showing bullets hitting Kelvar, things blowing up and/or on fire…simply brilliant.  New information added 10/28/09


• Best Use of Social Media for a Campaign Award goes to Intuit. They ran a great campaign aimed at SMB - helping them use Social Media to promote their businesses.


• Best Use of Comedy in a Video Award goes to IBM - The Art of the Sale


• Best Use of Blogs to Increase Customer Spending – Louis E Page

I didn’t get a chance to catch all of the presentation… had some problems getting into the city so I missed other “best of’s.” To see all the presentations, check out the event site for the presentation.

How Online Innovation is Changing How We Communicate

I was on a flight last week and picked up the new August edition of USAir’s in-flight magazine. What struck me about this edition was that it listed four bloggers as contributors. Visiting their website I later learned that over a dozen bloggers were listed as regular contributors with various interests, from food to education and medicine…not just travel, as you would expect.



On the return flight, I found a copy of the latest edition of GQ in the back of the seat. Flipping through it I noticed a section that featured an IM string among 5 individuals, riffing on subjects ranging from the latest movie release to music on their iPods. It read like a stream of consciousness written by someone with ADD, but I will say it did convey a tremendous amont of information in a pretty interesting format...in less than 500 words.



That same week, I posted a badge on my site that links to a new blog aggregator focused on the B2B Marketing space. I’ve been invited to be a feature contributor to B2B Marketing Zone. Although I’m not crazy about the moniker of being an official “Rock Star Blogger” I really like the layout of the site and its goal of aggregating the “best information on the web about B2B Marketing.”



How do all these things hang together? In an article in the in-flight magazine (written by a contributing blogger) entitled The Internet Has Made Us Lazy the author/blogger makes the comment that "There is a ton of content flowing online, but most of it is not worth consuming (and certainly not worth paying for)." It got me thinking about the future of how content is created, aggregated, distributed and communicated.



If we are influenced and/or shaped by the latest technologies (which I strongly believe), we will all soon be writing in very short, informative statements of less than 140 words. The popularity of Twitter and similar applications is accelerating an already shrinking attention span and producing a tremendous amount of noise in the system. The challenge we’re now facing is how to create more (that is also better) with less…more relevant/timing/insightful information using less words (for example, an average reader of a blog post stays roughly 96 seconds).



Magazine articles that used to be 2-3 or more pages are now being written like blog posts. As I mentioned, GQ is experimenting with using an IM string as a more rapid fire dump of information. As this trend continues, I believe you will soon see (or see more of) the following:

• Shorter magazine articles and newspaper columns (think USA Today, and not NY Times) with more features/columns on the front page.


• Shorter, more informative (more fact, less opinion) blog posts that feed more offline publications.


• Increased use of blogs aggregators and more “smart” search capabilities…lots of information connecting in multiple ways that can be searched quickly. Bing is only the beginning.


• Integration of platforms that augment a communication stream….email, IM, photo sharing, etc. e.g. Google Wave.


• And if a picture is worth a thousand words...then look for more video and images (and new tools like Cooliris)...and less words on websites.

Now, if I could only find a way to say more with less...

Sneak Peak - CMO Report Highlights

The Define & Align the CMO report is avaliable to today after 2 years in the making. The report actually turned out to be more interesting than we orignal thought based on our working hypothesis.

The year-long research by the CMO Council and MarketBridge encompassed qualitative and quantitative interviews with CMOs, CEOs, board members, senior marketers and executive recruiters throughout North America. The 80-page report, priced at $295, along with a complimentary executive abstract, is available for download at http://www.cmocouncil.org/.

Here's a teaser of some the insights coming out of the research:

• Confusion over the role - the casualty rate of Chief Marketing Officers can be reduced if CEOs and boards better understood the role, requirements and value of a CMO and empowered the right individuals to architect all aspects of a company’s operations around the customer experience.
• "A Fixer Upper" - the report points out that title inflation, unrealistic expectations, flawed hiring practices, talent deficiencies, and lack of requisite business and strategic leadership skills are big contributors to the limited shelf life of CMOs. The research also points to the fact that 50 percent of executive searches are to replace incumbent CMOs who are primarily hired to fix broken marketing organizations, not drive business value.
• R-E-S-P-E-C-T - the study uncovers startling contradictions in upper management: most executives consider the CMO a valued member of the executive team, yet they also believe many CMOs lack the background and skills needed to be a top management player - a challenge numerous senior marketers share with their CIO counterparts at many companies. Additionally, in a sharp commentary on the connection between strategic value and performance, most CMOs involved in top-level decision-making get high marks from their CEOs for their overall performance, while those CMOs who remain in tactical mode get significantly lower grades.
• Show me the Money! - nearly three-quarters of the C-suite executives surveyed consider the marketing organization “highly influential and strategic in the enterprise.” At the same time, nearly two-thirds also say their top marketers don’t provide adequate evidence of ROI with which to gauge marketing’s true performance.
• Getting a Grade - In a clear sign of the strategic role played by marketing executives, nearly 70% of the CMO respondents to this study report directly to their CEO. However, only 40% of that number get an A grade for their performance from the CEO...most likely the ones who could demonstrate their value! For the most part, CMOs get more respect from the boardroom than from the CEO. Most of the board members surveyed, over 80%, believe that within the next two years, the CMO position will gain greater credibility with the rest of the management team. But in another reality check, less than 20 percent also say that an increasing number of CMOs will rise to the CEO position
• Longer Tenure - A majority of the recruiters surveyed believe that CMOs have a shorter shelf life than other C-level executives. The average tenure of CMO respondents to this study was 38 months. (In a past report, the search firm Stuart Spencer pegged the number at 23 months). We had a professor from a top business school involved in our research...he's a data/analytics guru. He was also familiar with the Stuart Spencer report, here's a dirty little secret...CMO's your tenure is longer than what SS reports. Don't believe the hype...they are an executive placement firm.

“If CMOs do face an identity crisis, it’s not for lack of marketing competence or creativity – the CMO leadership capabilities and talent levels in the surveyed companies are higher than ever,” said Tim Furey, CEO of MarketBridge. “Rather, the identity crisis stems from a perceived lack of measurable results. The most successful CMOs are aggressively instituting rigorous performance measurement and analytics in every aspect of their organizations, and tying those metrics to revenue and profit growth.”

I couldn't agree more with Tim's comments...it's all about the numbers now!

The CMO Club New York Meeting

If you're interested (and in the area) I'll be speaking at an upcoming CMO Club meeting in New York on April 24th.

I'll be presenting insights from our 2007 Sales Effectiveness survey that will be published in Sales & Marketing Managment magazine next month.

Here's a preview of the presentation;

• If we all believe the 80/20 rule...80% of our revenues come from 20% of products and customers...


• and it cost 7X to acquire a customer account rather than keep a customer...


• ...then why did an overwhelming majority of survey respondents answer that the keys to future growth were acquiring new customers and selling new products?

Attend the meeting and find out why. If you're interested in attending or joining the club talk to Pete Krainik.

The Role of the CMO

MarketBridge and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council have partnered for perhaps the most comprehensive look yet at the top rung of the marketing ladder. “Define & Align the CMO” encompasses interviews and surveys of CEOs, CMOs, other high-level marketers, search firm executives and board members—nearly 1,500 study participants in all.

The results of the research are in, and are highlighted in this front-page story in the April 16 issue of Adweek.

Given our marketing and sales engagements with a number of Fortune 500 companies, we are well aware of the difficulties faced by CMOs, and believe the importance of the top marketing executive as a driver of company revenue and growth cannot be overstated. The “Define & Align” research sheds new important light on the expectations, challenges, successes and failures of Corporate America in properly assimilating the CMO position into company hierarchy.

Please contact us if you would like to receive a copy of the report or if you would like to have one our team members present the findings.

In addition, stay tuned for information on an upcoming “Define & Align” Webcast, featuring top executives who will weigh in on the state of the CMO.

2007 Sales Effectiveness Study

After four straight years of economic expansion, companies are now developing and implementing plans to capitalize on changes in their competitive markets. The “Sales Effectiveness” study, fielded in Q4 2006 by MarketBridge in partnership with Sales & Marketing Management magazine, identifies the most effective sales strategies for maximum growth, while revealing major sales challenges going forward.

The insights of nearly 200 sales and marketing executives and managers generated some provocative findings, among them:

• More than half of respondents said their sales forces spend 50 percent or less of its time actually selling. Furthermore nearly three-fourths said their sales forces spent 50 percent or less of its time in direct contact with customers.
  
• Top three strategies for growth: Introducing new products or product extensions (45 percent); reorganizing the sales organization (39 percent); changing the focus on customer or market segments (35 percent). That said, exactly one-third said they had “high confidence” in their companies reaching their growth goals in 2007.
  
• Greatest customer demands: Companies are strained to offer “new products at reduced prices,” and to follow up on those offerings with “better service.” Further, more than a third (34.7 percent) said they were just “somewhat prepared” to deliver on those customer demands.

The findings of the study will be highlighted in the May edition of Sales & Marketing Management magazine. For more informatin on the survey results please contact Mark Donnolo at MarketBridge mdonnolo@market-bridge.com.

Telecom Sales Effectiveness Study

Here's an upcoming Webinar you may be interested in joining

Telecom Marketing & Sales Outlook

Join industry experts for 30-minutes of informative discussion and audience interaction on marketing and sales challenges, strategies, trends and best practices in the telecommunications space.

What: Complimentary “Driving Telecom Marketing And Sales Effectiveness,” Webinar, presented by MarketBridge, Telephony Magazine and the Kellogg School of Management.

When: Tuesday, April 19, 2007, 1:00-1:30 p.m. (EST)

Who: Mark Donnolo, Senior Vice President of MarketBridge head of our Telecommunications Practice, Estelle Conover, VP Alliance Channels, AT&T Southeast, and moderator Dan O’Shea, editor-in-chief of Telephony Magazine

Why: This event is based on the first annual “Driving Telecom Marketing & Sales Effectiveness Survey,” which gathered insights from 350 marketing and sales executives and managers from 160 leading Telecom Carriers, Wireless Providers, Cable Companies and Equipment Manufacturers.

Topics to be discussed:

• Focus on Enterprise, SMB, Consumer


• Growth Strategies


• Focus on Customers and Prospects


• Key Challenges

How: To register (complimentary) click here

The “Driving Telecom Marketing & Sales Effectiveness” final report will be available for download on the day of the webinar. For a brief overview and interpretation of the key findings, listen to the podcast with MarketBridge’s Mark Donnolo and Telephony’s Dan O’Shea. We hope you will join us for what promises to be an informative event!