129: Marketing Today at the Brand Marketing Summit in Brooklyn

This week finds “Marketing Today” on the road again. This time the destination was Brooklyn and the Incite Group's Brand Marketing Summit, where Alan Hart moderated a track — Customer Understanding and Personalized Experiences — and took the opportunity to talk with some of the marketers there about their brands: what was top of mind for them, key insights they had about the Brand Marketing Summit, and their thoughts on the customer journey and experience. They also talked about sources they turned to for information, the best pieces of advice they've received, and even things they love and hate. The four marketers Alan spoke with are:Michael Blash, chief commercial officer at Ink BenchAlegra O'Hare, VP of global brand communications at adidasCasey Hall, former director of social media at Thompson ReutersAbinav Varma, president and CEO at UNIBEESHighlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include:Michael Blash describes Ink Bench as a company that is “built on active creative collaboration that delivers powerful brain control.” In the process, it helps companies deal with the very real struggle of creating value in the digital supply chain by being better at getting content created, managed, and produced. He also notes, “If you can make a customer a fanatic, you have a customer for life.” Lastly, Blash revealed he has a love/hate relationship with pizza. (1:20)Alegra O'Hare seemed to think in couplets, of sorts. In discussing what is top of mind for her at adidas, she pointed out two challenges: (1) continuing to challenge the status quo, and (2) balancing brand and KPI. Her take on the customer journey/experience found her thinking about (1) ways to be more surgical with the deliverables they create for campaigns and (2) coordinating between lead agencies and highly skilled specialty shops they partner with. She also revealed two pieces of advice she lives by: (1) do something every day that scares you, and (2) take your time in hiring people. (6:41)Casey Hall talked about how Thompson Reuters was a big believer in creating employee advocacy for its brand — they seek to use Thompson Reuters employees to humanize the brand and get their brand story out there in a way that is difficult to do through branded channels. As for advice that Hall lives by, he says “find a way to do something you want to do and don't wait for permission.” (10:30)Abinav Varma discussed UNIBEES' main offering — a mobile app that helps college students find free food(!), special events, and giveaways on campus. In talking about the UNIBEES app, Varma revealed that increasing student engagement is constantly top of mind for his company, something they seem to be succeeding at judging by the stickiness they're seeing as a result of added features they've introduced. He also noted, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.