Category: Show Notes

The Prophet Way of Utilizing Brand Storytelling to Engage With Audiences

Posted on by Drew Neisser

David Aaker, known as “Father of Modern Branding,” discusses the idea of B2B brand storytelling and being able to convey engaging messages on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite hosted by Drew Neisser.

As the Vice Chairman of marketing consultant giant Prophet and renowned author, David has decades of experience in reinventing the way a company shares its brand message. He explains to Drew the importance of balancing hard facts with emotions as well as emphasizes the importance of becoming a brand other companies want to be associated with.

David also shares multiple personal stories that validate the importance of being a stellar brand storyteller. You don’t want to miss his explanation of how both T-Mobile and Barclay turned their companies around through brand storytelling.

David’s expertise will revolutionize your company’s way of conveying messages, so be sure to give this episode your full attention. Click here to listen.

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Why are stories so effective in engaging customers and employees?

Brand storytelling is more than just a hot topic in current B2B marketing environments. It is the key to truly connecting with your employees, partners, and customers. B2B customers feel the need to have a relationship with the business they interact with and employees need to feel that their work is important. Stories garner attention, change perceptions and attitudes, and inspire action – and stories are far more effective than fact-sharing alone. This is why your company and team need to be experts in brand storytelling. To hear the full reasoning behind why this idea is a critical issue for companies across the country, be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

The importance of creating a signature story while balancing fact and emotion

When trying to convey a message, a CMO has two options: share facts or tell stories. Even though some may argue that “if it’s not fact-based how do you convince people’s it’s actually true?”, there is a balance that needs to be reached. The key in the B2B storytelling space is to either magnify the problem, offer a solution or accentuate the outcome. This can artfully be done by combining customer testimony with just enough facts to provide a reliable level of reality. Just listing data and facts is a record-keeping entry – not a compelling marketing campaign. David highlights that a signature story can be 200-300% more effective than data alone. To hear more about why brand storytelling is so impactful give this episode a listen.

Actionable items for creating brand storytelling initiatives

Take it from the best leader in storytelling. David lays out a plan to create a storytelling focus in your company on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. As a CMO you must first believe and buy into the power of storytelling marketing. Then you have to build a skilled team and develop an environment that allows storytelling opportunities to flourish. Drew also adds that you have to throw your content calendars away because all they do is allow you to get away with regularly producing mediocre content. Hiring a support crew that can take raw stories and turn them into engaging content can also drastically improve your storytelling ability. For more hands-on hints on brand storytelling, don’t let this episode go unlistened.

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:30] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, David Aaker
  • [2:58] Why is everyone realizing that storytelling is critically important?
  • [4:27] Why is a story so important in engaging employees?
  • [8:54] What will it take for B2B firms to recognize that story is a cultural opportunity?
  • [12:32] David’s personal stories behind effective storytelling
  • [16:39] Why does the story go away once a company reaches marketing evaluation stages?
  • [17:58] How does a brand find their signature stories?
  • [21:06] The balance between hard facts and “fluffy” emotions in storytelling marketing
  • [24:23] Actionable items behind improving your B2B storytelling marketing efforts
  • [29:13] David’s steps for creating a brand storytelling plan
  • [32:42] One of the most common problems when brands attempt storytelling marketing for the first time
  • [33:25] Drew summarizes his conversation with David Aaker

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How Arrow Electronics Reinvented Storytelling Marketing and the Importance of Taking Risks

Posted on by Drew Neisser

In order to achieve storytelling marketing success, CMOs have to be willing to take risks. Even with all of the data and metrics available to evaluate, sometimes the best ideas come directly from human intuition.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews Rich Kylberg, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Arrow Electronics. Arrow is a $24 billion global supplier for a wide array of technology and products, and Rich has helped them break into new ways of communicating internally and externally.

Throughout this podcast, Rich explains how his background in literature allows him to see marketing campaigns in new ways and why casting a vision internally is needed before you can communicate identity externally. Arrow’s groundbreaking SAM vehicle technology is revolutionizing many industries, and you’ll be inspired by Rich’s explanation of this pursuit.

Their conversation is a perfect mix of marketing knowledge and inspiration – you don’t want to miss it. Click here to listen!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch.

How Rich helped Arrow create a common identity

When Rich joined the Arrow team, they had recently acquired over 130 companies and many hadn’t yet fallen in line with the overarching Arrow brand. Arrow was on the verge of becoming a holding company too comfortable in their own success, but Rich was determined to take some risks and create a guiding theme that would direct every employee and customer interaction. Thus, the phrase “guiding innovation forward” was born. Rich explains that “you have to inspire your employees before you can market your company externally” and this progress was essential for Arrow to continue growing. It created a conversation starter that is still being talked about today. To hear exactly how Rich achieved this lofty goal, be sure to give this episode a listen.

Why risk taking in marketing is so important

Rich and Drew are adamant about risk-taking in marketing – it’s one of the key aspects of being a Renegade Thinker. On this episode, Rich explains that the opportunity to attain exponential rewards are worth taking substantial risks and that the fear of mediocrity is often the driving force behind risk-taking. CMOs in any B2B environment should ask themselves these questions: What risks am I willing to take in my marketing? What will be the source of my courage? How am I going to prepare? After you consider these questions, remember that as a marketer you need to be empowered to try ideas, keep what works, and move past what doesn’t. Without risky marketing decisions, Rich and his team never could have developed the storytelling marketing campaign that moved Arrow into the future of connecting with clients and telling great stories. Be sure to discover the story on this episode.

Arrow’s innovative storytelling marketing campaign and how Rich and his team burst through the barriers they encountered

Arrow Electronics recently unveiled their latest storytelling marketing campaign, and it’s one that resonates with people across the country. When Rich and his team were connected with a former Indy Racing League race car driver who was sadly diagnosed as a quadriplegic after a crash in 2000, they came up with the SAM car technology – a car that would allow drivers with disabilities to regain their independence. When asked about the project, Rich’s team explained that “We hope the SAM car continues to drive technology innovation forward and inspire people to dream big because anything is possible.” Had Rich and his marketing team forgone risk-taking and stuck with what is “normal” and expected in the marketing industry, this amazing project never would have left the idea board. It’s sure to inspire you and your team to take marketing risks and delve into the unknown so be sure to get all of the details by listening to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What You’ll Learn

  • [1:25] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Rich Kylberg of Arrow Electronics
  • [2:48] Rich’s favorite risk-taking story from his childhood
  • [8:00] How Rich’s educational background impacts his current career
  • [13:18] The story behind how Rich joined the Arrow team and how they created a common identity
  • [17:45] Taking the internal identity and transforming it into an external message
  • [21:55] Arrow’s program that brought their innovative ideas to life that enhance humanity
  • [27:30] The barriers Rich’s team encountered while developing the SAM technology
  • [33:00] Rich shares the best lessons he learned through the SAM journey
  • [37:13] Why you should bring in an outside firm to assist your company in storytelling
  • [39:51] The power of a plan on a page
  • [42:07] Drew summarizes his conversation with Rich

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Provenir’s Marketing Risks and Their Path Towards In-House Communication Distribution

Posted on by Drew Neisser

The term “marketing risks” is not often heard in the financial technology industry, but Adi Bachar-Reske, Global Head of Marketing at Provenir, is making it commonplace. She has overturned the company’s communication strategies and is sharing her insights on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

In her conversation with Drew, Adi explains how Provenir went from using a third-party communication distribution company to handling all of their press releases and supporting content themselves. She also fully explains why Provenir seeks to help financial lenders make better, faster decisions.

Taking marketing risks is one way to ensure your company stands out from the competition, even though it takes courage as a CMO. Drew shares his top four qualities for entrepreneurs as well as why you should avoid too many micro-campaigns all on this episode.

You’ll enjoy Drew and Adi’s conversation, and it’ll leave you thinking, so be sure to listen.  Click here to listen!

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Provenir’s main focus within financial technology and why empowering people to make better, faster decisions is so important

Provenir strives to orchestrate a company’s decision making processes for customers. Adi first experienced this decision-making dilemma after wanting to lease her third car from the same company in four years. Even though the company knew her as a customer and was familiar with her positive financial history, the company still made her wait over 48 hours before they would approve another lease agreement. She believes that decision making needs to be faster, more automated, and that you should never make a customer wait while you decide on whether or not to take their business because it gives them time to go to your competitors. That’s what Provenir prevents. They empower lenders to make better decisions faster and enables them to provide their customers with an even better experience. Adi shares some great anecdotes with Drew about why automating decisions is so critical to a company’s success and you don’t want to miss them.

The path towards in-house communication strategies

Even though working with public relations organizations has been an industry standard for years, Adi and her team at Provenir recently decided to create and distribute their own in-house press releases. This decision came after a few of their self-published blog posts received large amounts of feedback and engagement. Journalists were attracted to the company and they connected with their audiences even without the third party assistance. While bringing communications in-house, Adi realized that there were a number of needs that now needed to be fulfilled by their team: create a CRM database, produce content to follow up each press release, measure the impact, etc. No one could do all of this work on their own, which is why Adi has teams across the world working on these communication and marketing strategies. She tells Drew that there are always trade-offs for bringing work in-house, but that it was definitely a successful marketing risk that Provenir took. To hear all about Adi’s challenges and successes with this venture, be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Taking strategic marketing risks can provide greater benefits, and your company can learn from Adi’s successes at Provenir

There are four main qualities that Drew encourages every CMO to have: courage, artfulness, thoughtfulness, and scientificness. Of these, he believes that courage is the most essential and the one in shortest supply. Taking marketing risks can be difficult but it is necessary even in financial industries. If your team decides to go after a risky marketing venture rather than going with the standard methods and it’s successful, the payoffs will be far greater. You can learn from Provenir’s recent in-house communications successes and adapt their strategies to your company. Taking the initial steps is often the most challenging part, and requires every bit of courage that you have as a CMO. For inspiration, be sure to check out Adi’s story on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What You’ll Learn

  • [2:07] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Adi Bachar-Reske, Global Head of Marketing at Provenir
  • [3:33] Adi’s approach and philosophy for risk-taking in marketing
  • [10:17] Why Provenir decided to go with in-house communication strategies
  • [14:07] The content that Adi created and the mechanisms they used to direct customers
  • [17:00] Viewing new campaign strategies from an evaluation standpoint
  • [19:23] The full story behind how Adi brought Provenir’s marketing in-house
  • [21:10] Why you should avoid too many micro-campaigns that drive leads but don’t add up to a bigger story
  • [24:01] Provenir’s main goal as viewed through a car lease example
  • [30:00] Adi’s go-to inspirational resources for marketing risks and CMO advice
  • [32:42] Adi looks forward into the rest of 2018 and talks about the challenges she hopes to tackle

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How DocuSign’s CMO Developed a Marketing Vision

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Developing a marketing vision through company-wide orchestration will allow you create more value while streamlining work. In today’s accelerated world, both customers and businesses want to spend less time on logistics and more time actually making a difference in their markets. DocuSign is one of the top businesses doing just that – allowing work to happen faster for over 200 million users across 188 countries.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews Scott Olrich, the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for DocuSign. They discuss exactly what orchestration means in terms of B2B marketing environments, how to sell a marketing vision, and why courageous decision making should be a part of any CMO job description.

Scott is behind some of the biggest changes at DocuSign, rated as the 22nd best place to work in 2018 by Glassdoor. He shares his expertise with Drew in this interview and explains why ultimate orchestration will set you apart from your competitors in an exciting new way.

To hear why marketing visions are so important, be sure to catch this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Click here to listen.

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What orchestration means within a company and why it’s critical

When Scott started the orchestration process at DocuSign, the company was focused solely on making digital signatures easier. Now they are moving towards streamlining multiple components of doing business in a digital world. In any company environment, you have to understand where your organization’s broader category of business is going to go. Rather than focusing solely on the “now,” teams have to be able to see where the entire market is going in the future and set up systems to accommodate that forward growth. That’s where orchestration comes in. Essentially, orchestration occurs when a company’s marketing visions, products, sales teams, and senior leadership all subscribe to a new macro way of thinking about the company. This drives long-term success because as Scott explains, “People want to buy into the future! They just have to be given a reason to do so.”

The importance of not pushing the envelope too far 

The first step of orchestration is to develop a new marketing vision for your company. This clear vision and narrative of what you think the company should be will drive your products, marketing strategies, and internal educational components. A vision should teach and challenge people to think differently about the bigger picture issue, but you have to be able to back up this vision with real-world examples that people can understand. Orchestration does so much more than just improve response rates for one marketing campaign, it has the power to rework your entire business if you allow it. The biggest danger with orchestration? You want to avoid a disconnect between your product and the vision you’re trying to sell. If your marketing teams and product teams are not on the same page, customers will recognize this and be wary of your company. To hear Scott explain this challenge in full detail, be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Why courageous decision making should be a large part of any CMO job description

As the Chief Strategy Officer and CMO, Scott has been charged with taking an already successful company and making it even better. On this episode, Drew asks Scott how he has the courage to take risky decisions and how he combats the idea of “if it’s not broken, why fix it?” Once you establish a clear marketing vision you have to subscribe to it 100%, go out and win over the rest of the company, and then sell it to your customers. There’s actually a formula for this type of courageous decision-making, and Scott fully explains each step in this interview with Drew. Your company and your career will greatly benefit from hearing his story, so don’t miss this episode.

What You’ll Learn

  • [1:10] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Scott Olrich, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for DocuSign
  • [4:25] DocuSign’s current place in transactional happiness and what it means to be an orchestrated company
  • [11:54] What exactly does orchestration mean within a company?
  • [15:05] The importance of not pushing the envelope too far when it comes to selling a vision
  • [19:25] How Scott views the idea of a company narrative and how it can be used to sell your marketing vision
  • [24:29] Scott shares how he’s incorporating courageous decision-making into his current position at DocuSign
  • [28:59] Where DocuSign is headed in the future
  • [36:25] Drew’s summary of the episode, and why orchestration will set you apart from your competitors

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Driving the Future of Banking Technology Through a Massive Merger

Posted on by Drew Neisser

It’s always fun to talk with someone who is on the cutting edge of their industry. And when that industry is something as significant to the global economy as banking, it gets even more interesting. On this episode, you’ll hear Drew conversation with Martin Häring, CMO of a newly formed company Finastra. Finastra is actually the result of a merger between two existing powerhouses in the banking technology industry – Misys and D+H.

In our conversation, Martin highlights the particular challenges faced in bringing two well-known and highly-respected companies together with an eye to maintaining the reputation and specialization of each but forging something altogether different and exciting at the same time.

As Chief Marketing Officer, for Finastra, Martin is responsible for marketing on a global scale. He first joined the team at Misys in October 2013 and is part of the Executive Team at the newly formed company. He’s excited by both the company’s significant role in the banking industry, and its influence in the world of financial technology.

You’ll enjoy this conversation, click here to listen!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher

Marketers Are All Storytellers

One of the most intriguing things to me about a huge merger like has happened between Misys and D+H is the task of creating a new brand identity without losing the loyalty and enthusiasm of existing customers. It’s not simply a matter of coming up with a catchy name and deciding on a color palette for the new logo and letterhead. The legal issues alone are mind-boggling.

Martin shares some of the challenges the Finastra team had to address in its merger and rebrand and highlights how the same foundational principle that supports good marketing – storytelling – was required internally in developing and nurturing a new vision among its team members, and externally in the form of customer outreach and communication. I love how marketing principles prove to be useful in a variety of challenges businesses face. Martin’s insights are gold, so be sure you take the time to listen.

Be Courageous In Forming A Vision

When it comes to bold visions, Martin Häring and the team at Finastra are leading the way in the banking industry. The company is positioned as a leader in banking technology and is intentionally paving the way for the future of what banking will become as a global industry.

In our conversation, Martin and I talk about the role A.I. (artificial intelligence) will play in banking tech and how Finastra is leading the way in developing the systems and platforms that financial institutions will use in the future. It’s a long, slow road to introduce new technologies in the banking industry but the Finastra team is not only patient, they know the industry well and are taking steps at the pace the industry can handle.

Are you driving the trends in your industry, or trying to keep up with them?

In Martin Häring’s view, CEOs and CMOs should be asking themselves daily if their company is merely maintaining the status quo or driving their industry forward. It’s the innovation and disruption market leaders create that makes them the go-to people in a given industry.

In this conversation, as Martin describes the changes coming to the future of banking technology and the role his company, Finastra is playing in the implementation of those changes, I got a feel for what he meant. It’s about thinking ahead, looking into the future to see what will be needed years from now, and positioning yourself to be the one to meet those challenges and provide the right solutions. This was an enjoyable and challenging conversation you won’t want to miss.

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:29] My guest on this episode: Martin Häring of Finastra
  • [1:18] The amazing journey of how Finastra combined 3 companies
  • [4:41] Approaching the business analysis for a merger of this magnitude
  • [7:23] Getting employees excited about the new brand coming from the merger
  • [11:20] The brand naming process, legal hurdles, internal challenges
  • [13:36] An unbelievable 6 month timeframe for making the merger happen
  • [21:01] Martin’s interview with a human-sounding and human-looking android
  • [24:43] A.I. solutions being built into the Finastra platform
  • [28:07] The biggest marketing challenges Martin and Finastra are facing

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The Ups and Downs of Xerox’s Universal Awareness and Shifting Your Brand Perception

Posted on by Drew Neisser

The ultimate dream for marketers is universal awareness – the point in time when your brand becomes synonymous with a noun. Having your brand become a verb is an even better case scenario (think, “I’ll Venmo you the money!” or “I’ll Google it.”) This extremely high level of brand awareness can create issues though when your brand perception becomes “stuck” in this one-way thinking.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, the CMO of Xerox, Toni Clayton-Hine, joins Drew for a conversation about how Xerox is embracing the new connectivity trend and how it is breaking through old brand perceptions to stay relevant in the 21st century.

Toni shares with Drew the story behind Xerox’s latest marketing initiative, Set the Page Free, and how Xerox is striving to be at the forefront of the intersection between digital and physical workspaces. They also discuss the pros and cons of such a risky marketing project and Toni’s top “do’s and don’ts” for current CMOs.

Join Drew and Toni for this engaging conversation – you won’t want to miss a single minute. Click here to listen now.

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Xerox’s latest Set the Page Free project and how they “marketed the marketing” so effectively

When faced with seemingly cemented brand perceptions, Xerox came up with a creative and big-picture marketing campaign: Set the Page Free. With 14 world-famous writers and creative minds in collaboration, Xerox told the story of the modern workplace – and the entire project was produced using Xerox technology. The end result were podcasts, videos, and a final free download book. After creating the piece, Toni and her team had to answer the question, “who is going to consume this content?” Drew asks Toni about how they “marketed the marketing campaign” so effectively and she explains that they really leveraged the celebrity collaborators and their social channels. For the full story behind the project, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What does brand storytelling mean to Xerox in the 21st century?

Shifting Xerox’s brand perceptions became a balance of using the company’s history to their advantage, while still demonstrating to their customers that they are about more than just copying and faxing physical documents. The Set the Page Free project helped Xerox transition from the realm of a 1990s office verb into a frontrunner of 21st-century workplace technology. This engaging act of brand storytelling allowed the company to show the outcome of using their technology, not just the inputs. Since Xerox is a B2B technology company, Toni’s goal is to ensure Xerox is seen as fresh, relevant, and understanding of their different types of customers. To hear more of Toni’s marketing initiatives at Xerox that are continually shaping their brand perspectives, be sure to listen to the full audio.

The biggest lessons Toni has learned since joining Xerox and why taking marketing risks can be beneficial

While developing Set the Page Free, Toni explained that she often struggled with the desire to control every aspect of the project and subsequent brand awareness surveys. But when Drew asks her about the biggest lessons she learned while working on the project, Toni explains that Xerox had to take a risk in order to shift how people think about the company – and taking that risk also meant dealing with unpredictable variables. She also learned the importance of being more directive in her approach to help customers understand how to bring their Xerox technology tools to life. To hear Toni’s top “do’s and don’ts” for other CMOs, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:30] Why does brand awareness matter when you’re trying to sell a product or service?
  • [3:15] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Toni Clayton, CMO of Xerox
  • [4:52] The main strategy behind Xerox’s marketing
  • [9:31] The benefit of working with creators who deliver extraordinary content
  • [12:58] Once you’ve created the excellent content, you have to “market the marketing”
  • [15:47] Toni explains how she had the courage to approach her CEO with this big, untestable idea
  • [18:30] What does storytelling meaning to Toni and Xerox?
  • [23:29] How Xerox is currently demonstrating their broader platform and usability
  • [26:48] Combatting the loss of reach associated with using digital marketing tactics
  • [30:19] How Xerox is showing customers new ways to use their products
  • [32:11] The biggest lesson Toni has learned in her career with Xerox
  • [37:03] One “do” and one “don’t” for CMOs as a result of Toni’s experience with Xerox

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