The aim of the evening wasn’t to look at art whilst consuming champagne and canapés. That was just a nice side benefit. We wanted to take a temperature check amongst senior marketers on what are the key issues “keeping them awake at night.” The debate was very sparky and surfaced four to five key themes, which we will now use to power some more substantive quantitative research amongst the marketing community and publish over the coming months

As a chippy Northerner, I have to concede that I went to the event with some preconceptions about what we would be talking about, and these were loosely based around some enduring themes, like how marketing is subservient to sales, how recessionary pressures have accentuated this preoccupation with short-term, measurable demand generation. However, it was refreshing and genuinely uplifting to hear that quite the opposite is the case. In fact, the vast majority of our participants had a dual role covering both marketing and sales rather than a reporting line into a sales function.

The view was that of course we do demand generation, of course we do sales collateral, of course we do marketing communications. They are all part of the day-to-day operational mechanics of any marketing function; however, our principal remit is to drive business strategy—to ensure that businesses are producing the products and services that match their customers’ needs, not just today but next year, and in the next 10 years. One of the attendees, who is a good friend of mine, said, “Our business has been trading for 137 years, and it’s our responsibility to ensure it’s doing so for another 137 years.”

The rate of change, the rapidly changing influence of technology, the upward spiral of competition and continued recessionary pressure have not eroded the role of marketing but elevated it—and restored it to its rightful place in business. We are seeing now after three years of the new world order, equilibrium being established. Businesses are recognizing that they can’t continue to disinvest their brands (as one attendee said, “You have to, at some stage, sharpen your ax.”), and that with hypercompetition, it’s brands that make businesses relevant, differentiated and sustainable. They are what prevent that famed “race to the bottom.”

As brand custodians, our attendees agreed that their biggest challenge is making sure their businesses deliver their brand promises, which means their remits are driving into areas often owned by human resources.

As a lifelong marketer and someone who was brought up with the concept of marketing’s remit being at the heart of business strategy, it’s encouraging to see that marketing’s role is still at the top of the marketing continuum in forward thinking, successful businesses. And thankfully, it’s not about what one of our guests described as “coloring in and chardonnay.”

Danny Turnbull is Managing Director of gyro Manchester

Follow Danny on Twitter @turnbulldanny

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Communication is no longer about just businesses talking to anyone; it’s about people talking to people. Forget who’s on the end of the conversation. This is about where it all starts. The future of communications is C2C, or consumer2consumer or people2people.

Individuals, whether buying for business or themselves, are talking to and listening to other consumers. They are setting the agenda, leading the conversation, sharing their views, recommending the best products and deciding whether brands are successful or not.

No longer are consumers just taking in information corporations and brands are spewing at them. Now they question and make brands earn their loyalty. Because of social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, consumers are now quick to ask brands: What can you do for me?

Case in point: Take the fatal example of Netflix. When Netflix raised prices last summer, customers became infuriated, took to their blogs and Twitter accounts, and raised hell. Netflix was humiliated and has yet to fully recover from the CRM crisis that has plagued it ever since. Instead of being accountable to its customers, Netflix let Facebook comments go unanswered, and the company’s president responded with an answer about profits rather than speak to its customers directly in a level manner. Millions of customers felt betrayed and gave Netflix quite a scare by cutting service, resulting in its stock prices taking a 60 percent nosedive.

So, our challenge is getting people talking about brands in a positive way, not getting brands to talk to people. With so many touch points, brands must move away from the traditional 1960s formula of one-sided information and start having conversations with consumers. Consumers want brands to be authentic and have a real human voice they can speak with when something goes wrong (or right).

Advertisers are in complete denial if they think they can continue with the same tired, one-sided formula. Brands need to have authentic conversations with consumers if they want to survive. Consumers are talking to each other, so why aren’t brands following?

Fiona Menzies is managing director at gyro Dubai.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Women are almost completely responsible for Pinterest’s success—according to Inside Network’s AppData. In fact, 97 percent of the site’s users are women.

Women trust recommendations from Pinterest more than any other platform, per BlogHer’s annual study on women and social media. Eighty-one trust Pinterest versus Facebook (67 percent) and Twitter (73 percent).

Why? Because women trust other women in their circles more than anyone else. As a result, 47 percent of women bought something based off a recommendation from Pinterest where as only 33 percent bought because of a recommendation on Facebook.

It’s no surprise that brands have been jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon in troves and have seen their followers grow over night. Many products are getting more exposure than they ever could on Facebook and Twitter, and it’s relatively easy to see why.

To sum it up, here are four reasons why Pinterest is superior to Facebook when targeting women:

1. It is simple, clean and fuss free. This makes browsing delightful and easy: two main components to marketing success. Because of Pinterest’s visually appealing layout, consumers just see a picture with very little text. Facebook on the other hand is very word heavy and can turn off potential consumers.

2. Marketers have an open window into consumers’ interests. They can easily see a gold mine of information on potential customers. For example, an interior design marketing team can see who is influential in the ‘home decor’ section. They can then start following and see what trends people are repining and liking.

3. It’s relaxing. Pinterest creates a curated experience for its users in a fairly anonymous way. No constant updating of feeds, no overload of people’s lives. On Pinterest it’s about enjoying your hobbies—not having to like someone’s status or wish anyone a Happy Birthday. It lets users share experiences in a negative-free zone, briefly comment and move on without the weight of Facebook etiquette.

4. Brands have found cool ways to use it. Martha Stewart Living and Kate Spade are pinning like crazy with overwhelming response by adding more than 19,000 and 34,000 followers respectively. Kotex even has bragging rights for hosting one of the first Pinterest campaigns. The brand found 50 “inspiring” women in Israel and looked at what they were pinning on Pinterest. Then, Kotex sent the women a virtual gift. If she pinned the gift, she then got a real one in the mail that was based on something she had pinned. The result: success—nearly 100% of the women pinned and commented on their gifts.

All told, Pinterest has brought women together online in a way never seen before and tapped into an extremely influential consumer market without even trying. In many ways, this makes Pinterest genuinely more appealing than Facebook and far more trendy among women consumers who get the picture.

Melissa Pitts is a marketing intern at gyro. She blogs regularly at Newstaco.com, FlamingTortillas.com and Americas Quarterly.
Follow her at @mpittsm

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

After the financial turmoil of the last few years, we learned that Americans yearned to feel in control of their lives again. Lack of trust in institutions and a sense of insecurity about their futures fed this desire. This insight was the seed of our “You’re In Charge” creative platform.

Americans are optimistic by nature, and despite all of the economic turmoil of recent years, 72 percent of Americans are still optimistic about their futures and 68 percent are optimistic about their financial futures, according to our MOOD (Measuring Optimism, Outlook and Direction) of America survey. Whitman Insight Strategies polled 803 adults late last year to uncover these findings, which also revealed that 66 percent of Americans feel in control of their lives.

While others in the category seemed to be drawn to using fear in their advertising, we felt the time was right, given these empowering and inspirational insights, to try a new, more optimistic approach.

On launch day, our new campaign promoted everyone to chief executive officer of his or her own life. Someone we call the “Chief Life Officer.” It recognizes the fact that our lives are in many ways like businesses. We’re in charge of making big decisions, managing finances and keeping employee morale positive. We are chief  401(k) officers, chief turkey-carving officers, chief tuition officers, and chief I really need a vacation officers. Whoever you are, the main message we wanted to get across is that you’re the boss of your life, and Lincoln Financial is here to help you “Take Charge.”

Our Chief Life Officer campaign, created with gyro New York,  is bringing a very different message to consumers because it inspires them by showing them that they are in charge and that they have the tools necessary to build secure financial futures.

Optimists are realists. They take charge of things they can control; they don’t worry about the things they can’t. The Chief Life Officer (You’re In Charge) campaign we created with gyro New York celebrates the richness of life and drives people to take action.

Jamie DePeau, corporate chief marketing officer at Lincoln Financial Group in Radnor, Penn.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

1. It’s all about the packaging. In his unveiling of Katniss and Peeta to the world, Cinna took a negative and turned it into a positive. Given that they were from District 12 (the poor mining district), Katniss wondered if they were to be dressed as miners or stripped naked and covered in coal dust. Instead, he made Katniss “the girl who was on fire,” right down to the synthetic flame of the headdress. Yes, when you’re competing against 11 other products on the global stage, it helps to be the one that’s on fire.

2. Don’t be afraid to flaunt your talents. Within a company, marketing can get lost in the mix if it isn’t communicated properly to everyone (the CEO, the CFO, IT, everyone). That’s why it’s good to remember that if you’ve got the skills and your peers are ignoring you, make them notice. Or shoot right at their heads just like Katniss, who unleashed an arrow straight at the Gamemakers’ table, skewering an apple that sat before them in a pig’s mouth and pinned it to the wall. Your message needs to be communicated loud and clear, just like hers.

3. Don’t be afraid to make your own rules. Today it’s Pinterest. Yesterday it was Facebook. Who knows what the next hot marketing channel will be. Marketers have more opportunity than ever to share their brand with the world. This means taking risks, experimenting and making up new rules as they go. (SPOILER ALERT) Like Katniss and Peeta, who threatened the Gamemakers with their poison berries, marketers need to consider drastic measures as the media mix continues to evolve daily.

4. You’ll never survive without your sponsors. Let’s call this one the homage to Rush Limbaugh. It’s one thing to be edgy and a challenger brand, but you still need to be likable enough to have supporters (or, in his case, sponsors). Otherwise, you will end up like Rush or Belvedere vodka—left trying to explain and coping with lost revenue. Katniss and Peeta received several gifts from their sponsors just in the nick of time. None was more important than the medicine Katniss received to save Peeta and herself.

5. Make sure your message is humanly relevant. Katniss deliberated with Haymitch as to how she should handle her debut interview. How would she portray herself to the world? She opted to tell the truth about her family and her sister Prim, whom she loved dearly. Today more than ever, it’s important to be humanly relevant. It’s too easy to be numb with all of the messaging thrown our way. Consumers want to feel emotion. They also want someone or something to root for— make that your brand.

Kenneth Hein is director of North American marketing for gyro, the global ideas shop

Follow him @KennethHein

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

The iPod was introduced in 2001, the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. I love the evolution of the products. And the new iPad 3 delivers phenomenal technological advancements including 2048-by-1536 resolution, 44 percent greater color saturation and 3.1 million pixels all powered by the new A5X chip. However, I can’t help but wonder what the next new product will be. I can’t help but wonder what this iconic company will introduce, and I can’t wait to see how it will impact the world economy from manufacturing to sales and marketing.

More intriguing, I wonder how Apple will keep the legacy of Mr. Jobs alive. The stock price is still there. In fact, with the iPad 3, Apple broke the $600-per-share mark, and sales are stronger than ever (3 million tablets sold as of print), but how long will it stay there? Will Apple deliver on Jobs’ wish to be a company that is continuously inventing, continuously evolving—and will the company that lives on Infinite Loop live up to his wishes and live on into infinity?

Why am I so curious and eager to see what’s next? Maybe Apple has spoiled me. But I bet I’m not the only one anticipating what’s really next. Yes, a lot of us have learned to wait to experience the new product before we comment (and, as it turns out, I wrote this post on my iPad 2 the same day the new iPad was made available to the public). I don’t need to wait and experience the new product. Virtually all of us knew that the 4G product would be amazing. I’m sure I’ll like the next iteration of the iPad once I get my hands on one, but really, what’s next?

Why do we care so much about Apple’s next new technology? Because only once or twice in a generation does a company, a culture, a movement come along that changes the world, improves humanity and impacts the world’s economy. And as a marketer, I am eager to see how it will impact the marketing landscape.

I listened to the announcement and watched the unveiling of the new iPad, and I saw the immediate impact it had on three other company’s stock prices (their suppliers). This started me thinking about the impact that this company has on my world and my profession, but then I realized the impact that it has on the entire world’s economy—suppliers, shippers, app developers, e-commerce, the music and movie industries, and manufacturers (of everything: headsets, phone cases, chip makers, processors, glass, etc.).

Further, I recall the Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson and how a child in a developing country picked up an iPad and inherently knew how to use it, even after having never interacted with such technology before. I can’t wait to see what Apple does for the advancement and education of today’s youth. I know it’s coming as I’ve seen the announcement about Apple, textbooks and universities (Apple and NYU are expected to make a statement this month).

So, Tim Cook, we are waiting. I missed it at the unveiling of the new iPad, I missed Jobs saying, “Oh, and one more thing …” I hope you continue the trajectory of this incredible American company, but most of all I hope you keep the tradition of surprising and delighting us and keep saying “one more thing …”

Keith Turco is president of gyro New York

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Millions of people around the world have been talking about brand Ireland over the course of this Saint Patrick’s Day weekend. This year, for the first time, Tourism Ireland can assess the value of that engagement and compare it to the investment we have made in creating branded messaging.

Tourism Ireland is currently ranked the third largest national tourist board on Facebook, with approximately 700,000 fans across 20 markets in eight languages. In the absence of an accepted industry standard to assess the value of this beyond simply counting fan numbers, we developed the concept of Social Equivalent Advertising Value (SEAV).

Just as the PR sector has traditionally measured its impact by the cost of buying advertising to cover the equivalent column inches, so a similar approach can be applied to social media. The more a brand message is shared, the more “column inches” are gained and the value of this can be compared to the cost of equivalent online advertising.

We identified four levels of consumer engagement with brands in social media:

*Post Impressions: viewing a brand post.
*Page Impressions: viewing a brand owner’s social platform.
*Personal Actions: consuming brand content such as photos, videos or links.
*Public Actions: sharing brand content with their network.

We then categorized the actions that consumers can take across the major social platforms into each of these groupings, and attributed a financial value to the cost of delivering a comparable consumer engagement online. This allowed us to quantify the value of our social engagement in Facebook at the end of last year at an annualized level of €1.7 million.

We have adopted SEAV as a corporate KPI and set organization-wide growth targets. These objectives drive our local marketing teams to continue to not We all know that it’s no longer the size of your social media audience that matters but rather how those people engage with you. Finally, we can place a value on the return.

Read more about how the SEAV model works and how you can apply it in your organization at http://www.scribd.com/TourismIreland

Mark Henry is the Central Marketing Director of Tourism Ireland, the agency responsible for promoting tourism to the island of Ireland from across the globe.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Well, he’s back. This time, he’s formed something of a supergroup with the co-founder of Fuze, Lance Collins (who also built a solid brand and subsequently sold out to Coca-Cola). Together they launched BodyArmor SuperDrink in January.

Repole is also chairman and largest individual shareholder of Pirate’s Booty, all-natural snacks, and Energy Kitchen, a healthy fast-food eatery. Since his acquisitions of both companies in 2008, Pirate’s Booty has grown 300 percent, and Energy Kitchen is poised to open 40 new restaurants throughout the East Coast of the United States in the next two years.

Repole took a few minutes from his schedule of incessant brand building to talk about how he chooses brands to back, how the beverage industry has radically changed, and how handicapping horse races as a teenager influences everything he does. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: What’s the biggest branding lesson you learned from Vitaminwater?

A: You can’t be everything to everybody or you wind up being nothing to nobody. Brands try to be so many things to so many people that they lose their identity. It causes consumer confusion.

It’s been almost four years since we acquired Pirate’s Booty. Eighty percent of the consumers are ages 2 to 12, and the moms feel good about giving it to their kids. We’re not trying to force the 40-plus couch potato to eat it. We’re staying in our sweet spot.

Q: What brought you back to the beverage category?

A: Lack of innovation. If coconut water is the only thing [the category can] come up with over the last 10 years, it’s an embarrassment.

[There’s a reason, though.] The nice beverage story of three Snapple guys and Tom and Tom of Nantucket Nectars doesn’t happen anymore. It’s kind of sad. You didn’t need $10 million to $15 million to get started. You could start with a small company doing a little up-and-down-the-street business in Boston and New York. Now there are less mom-and-pops. It’s more chain driven. [Among the barriers] retailers want you to pay slotting immediately now… It would be hard for me to talk to a beverage entrepreneur and say this is great business to get into right now. You’ll lose money the first five or six years. You have to be ready for that. We did that at Vitaminwater, although the amount of money we lost was a lot less than the demands now.

That’s why consumers have seen the same things at the same places for the past five years. They’re excited to see a new product like BodyArmor. They’re like ‘wow, something different.’ Retailers and distributors are excited. After three months in the Northeast, it’s selling; it’s moving.

Q: What is the story behind Energy Kitchen?

A: The one thing I focus on is brands that are ahead of the consumer. Where will the consumer be three to five years from now? Obesity rates are getting higher and higher every single year. One industry that can make the biggest change in helping fight obesity in the United States is fast food. But, they [fast-food franchises] are still trying to supersize you.

At Energy Kitchen, everything is steamed, grilled or baked and under 500 calories. It delivers on taste in a time that fits with people’s hectic lifestyles. Where else can you get baked fries or a wheat bun? Five Guys puts 700 calories of fries in a bag. They are soaked in oil and it drips to the bottom of the bag. You end up having 1,800 calories for lunch and are asleep at your desk by 4 p.m. How is this good for America?

Q: How does your love of horse racing fit into your decisions as a marketer?

A: I used to go to the track during my high school years around [ages] 13 to 17. I fell in love with handicapping. In horse racing, there are so many variables: the jockey, trainer, wet track, dry track, has the horse raced in a while? It’s a great thinking exercise. You’re looking at every single edge about why this horse can or can’t win.

I don’t recommend it [going to the horse track] for a high school curriculum, but it helped me in business to ask the extra question to make sure every base is covered. Whether I’m meeting my VP of operations or sales, by the time they are finished, I have six extra questions. It’s about thinking about every variable, what’s working, what’s not working or what needs to be done better. It’s a thinking exercise that helped me succeed as an entrepreneur.

Horse racing is also a cure for overconfidence. No matter how much you plan, you can still lose. It teaches you how to take a loss.

Kenneth Hein is director of North American marketing for gyro, the global ideas shop

Follow him @KennethHein

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Pinterest relies on pinboards, or themes for the content. Other Pinners (Pinterest users – stay with me here) can subscribe to one or more of your pinboards.

Pinterest has a passionate user base, which is exploding by the day. It is the third fastest-growing site on the Web per Comscore.

However, many seasoned Pinners — mostly designers, photographers and foodies — resent the influx of newcomers, seeing their contribution to be mostly unoriginal or uninspiring. In order not to breed ill will among these innovators and early adopters, limit your pins to the insightful, original and thought provoking.

Here are some ways Pinterest can fit into your content marketing plan:

1. Thought leadership. Got an interesting chart or infographic in your latest white paper? Pin it! But don’t forget to include a call to action in your pin’s description.

2. Traffic generation. Drive people to your blog by including a strong visual and pinning that.

3. Maximizing existing creative. Got a nice visual campaign going on? Pin those bad boys!

4. Pictures of people. Show off your company’s culture by involving the staff. Include snapshots in and around the office.

5. Pictures of products. If you sell a thing that can be seen with eyeballs, be it books, heavy machinery or label makers, putting it on Pinterest is an option. The travel industry has already firmly embraced it with jealousy-inducing shots.

6. The Pin-it button. You don’t have to do all the pinning yourself. Place the Pin-it button on your site to enable users to share your content on their pinboards.

7. Other people’s stuff. If you share only your own content, you’ll quickly become boring. Pinterest has a lot to do with sharing what you find interesting and insightful from other sources.

Is Pinterest for everyone or every company? No. And only time will tell if Pinterest has the influence of Twitter or the ubiquity of YouTube. But if there’s one thing social media has taught us, it’s this: It’s better to experiment early on. In the case of Pinterest, odds are, you’ll at least see some cute kitty pictures.

Barrett Condy is a senior copywriter at gyro, the global ideas shop.
Follow him @barrettcondy

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

At the dawn of e-commerce, many claimed the days of the brick-and-mortar retailers were numbered. Yet, just the opposite has happened. Some of the biggest brands on the Web are opening shops offline. Here’s the difference: Selling is just part of the experience.

Instead, online brands are building offline “enticement outlets.” They want—and need—to say: “I exist. Come on in.” The sales outlet has become a meeting place and an enticing place. While Apple was a pioneer in this space, many others like the Nespresso brand have followed suit.

Why? Because this experience enables us to set aside our computer screens, TVs and smartphones, and enter into the reality of the brand. The brand welcomes us, and we need to feel that our host is happy to see us every time we drop in.

This nexus between the real and virtual worlds signals the individual’s rise to preeminence. Individuals become guests who feel comfortable and express themselves through their choice of brand. The product’s price becomes the membership fee for joining a club.

It is no longer necessary for retailers to depend upon multiplying their physical sales outlets. They can distribute online and entice offline.

The intelligence of this “enticement outlet” needs to be cleverly showcased. Our former salespersons-turned-hosts play a key role. As the face of the brand, they provide genuine support for customers when they visit.

Of course, like most good things, this trend is beginning to become a bit overdone. For example, the easy option of installing food-and-drink counters is a big mistake. Unfortunately, this trend is spreading.

A customer who decides to go out and make contact with the brand isn’t looking for coffee. “Enticement outlets” must be careful about what they offer. Customers want an experience—to make discoveries, communicate, be wooed or reassured. They already know where to get a cup of coffee.

Didier Stora is president of gyro Paris.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network