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

As every b2b agency will know, the Internet’s innate sharabilility is returning us to a community-focused society that cherishes “we” over “me”. This networked economy affects contemporary marketing hugely. With people more open to building closer connections with brands than ever before, brands must be more human and open to co-creation of the marketing messaging and the product simultaneously with their customers to put the aforementioned honesty into practice. Tapping into the collective experiences, skills and ingenuity of hundreds of millions of people around the world is a complete departure from the inward looking, producer- versus-consumer innovation model so common to corporations around the world. And there are many a b2b agency out there still following in this vein.

Brands need to go beyond loyalty to establish mutually beneficial networks to give customers what they want; otherwise the Internet will allow them to find another route to get what they want. After all, customers are becoming competitors and brands are better off “employing” them by pulling them into their network. Brands are sitting on a bed of emotional human beings eager to be a part of brand creation.

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

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

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

We’re witnessing the explosion of new formats, channels, categories, media, clients, agencies, disciplines, platforms, experiences and it’s accelerating day by day. Combine this with the connected workplace that we call the @work state of mind and you have what is emphatically the most exciting time to work in our business.

But what business is that exactly? To us, it’s one that germinates and directs humanly relevant ideas.

However, here’s the thing: Ideas aren’t linear. And neither is the process of developing or igniting them through a connected experience.

This reality puts demands on account handlers and is causing wide-ranging industry debate about “future-proof suits.” Here in Stockholm we’ve taken this debate to the highest level and have begun lecturing at one of the best communication schools in the world: Berghs. At the school, the intersection of creativity, technology and new thinking converges and feels like a perfect storm.

This new energy is fueling our ideas shop, and it’s exciting.

In an environment where the idea is king, there can be no hierarchies. Digital doesn’t sit in a department. Neither does creativity. Modern account handlers must run an iterative process that is collaborative, inclusive and multidisciplinary so that our clients have the chance to connect in a world that is always on.

So, what is the most important thing in today’s landscape?

It always has been and it always will be the work.

But great work is risky. Great work needs a brave client. And that means that a strong client relationship is more important than ever.

This is where the remastered account handler comes into play. The remastered account handler understands how to make it happen but understands that the nature of it has changed.

I still remember my first day in a large London agency and being told by the CEO that the account handler is like the quarterback. Today this picture is more complex: There is no playbook to develop a great idea.

The modern account handler has to be entrepreneurial, tenacious, creative and digitally native. It’s about creating the conditions that make a difference.

However, the very nature of making a difference has changed too. So many things can kill an idea early.

Ideas often come from the unknown, and this can be scary for clients. Managing expectations through the ideation process is key. We have to help our clients understand that a leap into the unknown can be exhilarating.

Developing a PR idea, branded content for a Web TV show, inventing new types of social interaction, creating ongoing conversations with emotional content—none of these ideas has preprogrammed steps.

It’s incumbent on the remastered account handler to build confidence with clients and inspire them into action. Dare to show your client why it’s called the great unknown. It’s about much, much more than managing the relationship.

When you are base jumping in the dark, it’s about much more than trust too.

Problems are bound to occur, but having problems means you are pushing things. Problems are good. The modern account handler needs to remember that problem solving is our currency. It creates value to your colleagues and to your client. More important, it creates a culture where good ideas can germinate and grow into truly great ones.

Martin Johnson is an account director at gyro, the global ideas shop.

Follow him @mjsverige

He also blogs regularly here

Here is the slideshare presentation on the future-proof suits given to Berghs.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

It’s not just nostalgia or cinematic pastiche that has critics and audiences talking worldwide. “The Artist” is particularly special because, in stripping down the conventional film to its most basic elements, it’s showing that the magic of cinema isn’t lost. If anything, it makes the experience much more captivating than its modern-day counterparts. The very absence of both sound and colour has sparked the imagination of audiences.

It’s a valuable reminder to all of us in marketing that effective, creative communication should always be as simple as possible. The age-old adage “less is more” certainly rings true here.

Of course, people don’t consciously decode advertising into simple audible or factual messages. The imagery, music, sound and writing connected to the creative idea are all designed to draw attention and make an advert memorable. The key is that the techniques used in the piece are relevant – both for the ad and for the audience.
Boiled-down, distilled ideas are the ones that stand out and ignite emotion in audiences – which is our mission at gyro.

Emotion is the key to intimacy between businesses, brands and people. It’s there in every choice humans make, whether they’re buying a conference-calling service like Powwownow, or in the case of George Valentin in “The Artist,” finding out how best to cope with the arrival of “the talkies.”

For marketers, it is really about getting to the essence of things that make businesses and brands matter to people again. “The Artist” reinforced this essence and reminded us: The simpler the concept, the more it can breathe.

Peter Davis is executive creative director at gyro Manchester.
Follow Peter on Twitter @digitaldavis.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

It is pretty clear that the initial appeal to Facebook for advertisers was the sheer volume of “eyeballs” or in other words its reach, scale, and frequency. However, a shift is occurring due to a recent and small, yet important new feature: Users now have the ability to create “lists” and to select what story on their newsfeed is “important”. We can quite literally segment our friends and elevate the prominent stories that captivate our interest. With each click, the algorithm gets smarter, so the net effect is increased relevancy of future content published by your “150”.

The ability to segment your friends was included in the initial launch of Google+ as a point of differentiation, and portrayed in the recent Samsung Circles commercial, which highlights digital intimacy. Digital intimacy is the idea that we desire to share a limited set of information to a select and small group of people online. That theory aligns well with Google+’s positioning and may give it an edge on Facebook.

As Google+ and Facebook battle it out, expect to see this continued tug-of-war between digital openness and digital intimacy. The “lists” feature and “circles” represent a serving up of key advocacy identification – with users defining who and what resonates with them along their personal chain of influence. What this means for advertisers and brands is that Facebook and Google have the opportunity to deliver even more precise data on your target audience because they can measure influence and engagement.

By Donald Ball

Follow Don on Twitter @DonaldJBall

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network