Tag: AI

MRP CMO Explains Why Predictive Analytics in Marketing Will Revolutionize the B2B Industry

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Predictive analytics in marketing is going to revolutionize the way CMOs and marketing teams do business. On this stimulating episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews James Regan, CMO and co-founder of MRP.

James and his company are greeting predictive analytics with excitement and ingenuity. He shares why your company should be doing the same on this episode. This technology, combined with artificial intelligence (AI), is not something to be feared, contrary to what Hollywood may lead us to believe.

For a full explanation of this exciting new technology, why predictive analytics is NOT the death of big brand ideas and company storytelling, and how to start integrating this idea into your company, be sure to listen to this conversation.

Predictive analytics in marketing is something everyone needs to hear. Don’t be left behind, and give this podcast your full attention. Click here to listen.

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Predictive analytics in marketing is fairly new – what is it and why is it important?

Predictive analytics seeks to increase marketers’ ability to achieve the “holy trinity” of digital marketing – getting the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time. James offers listeners of this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite the perfect explanation of this technology. In a B2B sense, every organization has potential clients that are doing research on what they may need to buy that will serve their needs. Predictive analytics can track this digital data trail that tells your organization general geolocations and keyword sets that are spiking. The analytics program then automatically sends out tailored content that puts a problem-solving solution directly in front of the eyes of the potential client. James further explains that this is not being done at an individual level, rather at a group target market level. James’ description is best understood by listening to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, so be sure to make time for the full audio.

Why the invention of predictive analytics is a death sentence for traditional campaigns, but not for big brand storytelling

Predictive analytics is moving marketing teams towards automating and programming their engagement strategies into an AI program, rather than focusing on traditional campaign methods. James claims that traditional campaigns are simply too slow in today’s lighting-fast environment. He argues that if you really want to deliver a relevant message, you have to be doing programmed customer engagement. You need to have an “always-on” approach that directly integrates your response with the appropriate message that is aligned to the content your potential customers are consuming outside of your firewall. Simply put, traditional campaigns create gaps in communicating with your customers that cannot be permitted any longer. This does not mean your brand’s big stories are irrelevant. Predictive analytics simply propels your values and stories at lightning-fast speed – it does not eliminate the story you’re trying to tell. You have to focus on the big brand of your company before you can focus on content delivery optimization. This episode is full of insights that you need to hear, so be sure to listen.

The future of B2B marketing in a predictive analytics world, removal of the human screen, and what is preventing mass adoption of this technology

AI and predictive analytics are going to reshape the world of B2B marketing as we know it. One of the biggest questions Drew asks James on this episode surrounds the perceived danger of removing the human element from the backend of content delivery. What will prevent an AI system from delivering the wrong message at an inappropriate time? James explains that AI will pull from an extensive digital repository of content that a marketing team has crafted. It will not be creating its own messages. Programming algorithms to know what message to pull and when is still a challenge, but one that is quickly being solved by the marketing world’s best and brightest. There is also the issue of what companies have access to massive data-ingestion technology. James predicts an arms race to see what company can get the best real-time input on customers and their behavior and that this will drive the future of predictive analytics. The next few years will see a huge uptick in this technology, and your company should not be left out of the loop. Be in the know by listening to this interview on Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:29] Drew tracks down an expert in the field of predictive analytics for this episode, James Regan, CMO and co-founder at MRP
  • [2:05] The excitement surrounding predictive analytics at MRP
  • [4:20] James’ layman’s explanation of predictive analytics
  • [8:26] Specific actions that sales teams can take to take advantage of this information
  • [11:38] The death of traditional marketing campaigns
  • [13:57] James shares a real-world example to describe how predictive analytics works
  • [14:55] Creating the messages upfront and programming them into the analytics system is still a challenge
  • [16:10] Predictive analytics, the future of B2B marketing, and removing the human element
  • [20:50] What is preventing mass adoption of predictive analytics?
  • [23:48] Predictive analytics is NOT the death of the big-brand idea
  • [26:04] How a CMO’s plan can welcome predictive analytics
  • [28:33] Why an out of control marketing tech stack can be mitigated through predictive analytics tools and outsourcing
  • [32:33] James’ two overall “do’s” and a “don’t” for CMOs

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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!

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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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Going Beyond Marketing Through Social Media and Listening to Customer Voice

Posted on by Drew Neisser

As the CMO of Hootsuite, Penny Wilson has some fantastic insights into the social media listening industry and why identifying the customer voice of your company is essential. Not only is customer voice important for executing exceptional customer service but it can also be used as a tool to effectively communicate with executive boards and chief financial officers.

Drew Neisser asks Penny about her journey towards Hootsuite and the top questions on why listening to your customers is critical. The idea of going “beyond marketing” is explored and Penny’s understanding of this concept is unparalleled.

You can’t afford to miss their discussion on upcoming social media trends that could help your company grow by leaps and bounds. The top challenges faced by CMOs are also discussed in this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

It’s sure to be an educational and inspirational episode that you don’t want to miss.

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What You’ll Learn

  • [1:07] Drew introduces the guest for this episode, CMO of Hootsuite, Penny Wilson
  • [4:40] How social media is helping companies go “beyond marketing”
  • [5:57] Penny’s part in a new leadership team at Hootsuite
  • [7:53] Unpacking the voice of the customer
  • [13:02] Finding insights for your company through listening to the customer voice
  • [19:43] Hootsuite’s challenge of breaking out of their original market
  • [23:32] Drew asks Penny about the main challenges for CMOs
  • [24:25] How can CMOs provide CFOs with the tools they need to understand the importance of marketing?
  • [27:00] Social media opportunities that are often overlooked by companies
  • [29:33] How AI can revolutionize the social media tools companies are using

Customer voice is a tool that reaches beyond just marketing

By taking the time to understand your company’s customers and the preferences and expectations they have, you can capture their collective voice. While this voice has obvious benefits in product/service development it can also allow you to examine their entire journey with your company. Listening to the voice of your customers allows you to build a culture that encourages the customer to direct the company and lets the customer lead. Devoted listening creates loyal customers which leads to valuable insights. The listening process should be built into every level of your company, with employees being empowered to become representatives of your company. For more information on how identifying your customer voice can be an asset to your company don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

The greatest challenge faced by CMOs and how Hootsuite has conquered it

Penny’s career in marketing has allowed her to understand some of the greatest challenges faced by CMOs today. One of the most prevalent issues is the constant need for CMOs to get approval from top-level company leaders for their social listening and marketing campaigns. This challenge requires CMOs to tie marketing to a tangible outcome – a challenge that can be solved by using hypothesis-driven tools and metrics. Dive into this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to discover how Penny and her team at Hootsuite are enabling companies to create more effective marketing campaigns by offering information on the returns on investment for marketing campaigns.

The most overlooked opportunities that exist through social media listening

Penny explains to Drew that the best marketers should be paying attention to the fact that not every customer or employee is 100% comfortable with social media yet. Educational training components can be built into the company culture or customer interface to allow those with less experience to catch up with the current trends and techniques. She also explains that while artificial intelligence is definitely making an appearance in the social listening spheres, it’s not going to overpower the human element of marketing and customer interaction. No matter how your company goes about social listening to uncover the voice of your customers, keep in mind Penny’s best acronym for marketing – SCALE – social, customer-centered, authentic, listen and learn, and engage. You and your company will benefit from listening to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, so be sure to listen.

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Preparing for the 2018 CES

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If you’ve ever attended Consumer Electronics Show (CES) then you know it is a beast of a show with more than 4,000 exhibiting companies and covering the 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space is next to impossible especially as you are fighting through crowds of 170,000+. It might sound too overwhelming but having attended regularly since 1988 and as a marketer hoping to spot trends, I can assure you it is always worth the trouble. Inevitably, I leave CES with some new ideas, at least one new friend and a dousing of Vegas silliness.

With the 2018 CES right around the corner (Jan 8-11, 2018), I thought it would be helpful and interesting to record a special episode with the legendary tech guru Shelly Palmer.  I first met Shelly back in 2010 (when I wrote about him as the prototypical personal brand on FastCompany.com) and have spotted his ubiquitous signs at CES ever since. [Blatant unpaid plug — if you are new to CES, have a limited time frame or just want to make sure you don’t miss the big trends while you’re in Vegas, then you’d be wise to sign up for a tour of the show by Shelly and his team at The Palmer Group.]  As for my earlier point about Shelly being interesting to talk to, he didn’t disappoint!

In the podcast, we discuss why he’s excited about this year’s show and why expects to see more evolutionary products than revolutionary ones. We dive into hot topics like drones, cars, VR and AI among others. You’ll also hear Shelly school me on why I’m wrong to call Alexa (Amazon voice activation system) dumb just because she can’t infer the request Dear Evan Hansen from Evan Hansen when a Google search does that handily!  The tech challenge aside, I still think she has some cognitive development work ahead of her!  You can listen to the special episode here.

Here are a few other highlights from the interview:

Drew: What should marketers be paying attention to at this year’s CES?

Shelly: This year at CES, we’re going to have a really good look at integrations between the natural language understanding tools and the physical world. I’m pretty sure you’re going to see a lot of augmented reality because that is the toolset that is most flexible. You need great programming skills but it also yields amazing benefits – everything from a doctor looking into an incubator and seeing a heads-up display of all of the vital signs of the patient to gameplay and 100% of everything in the middle. You’ll see a lot of augmented reality. Drones and machine learning. Drones are now self-flying for the most part and there’s a bunch of companies who have taken to creating machines that not only fly themselves but with either high definition or 4k cameras in them and in some cases 8k cameras in them. And in some cases infrared cameras in them. They’re doing materials processing in the air. They can look at an insurance company like Travelers, who are the number one user of drones in the United States, and put a drone up in the air to look at the exterior damage. They can understand what happened to your roof in the air and file and process your claim without having someone go out to your house. When you think about a hurricane like we’ve had and the ability to quickly process and quickly get people the help they need who are insured, you’ll see a lot of that at CES. A lot of drone companies showing off their ability to have not only self-flying drones, but drones that can carry bigger payloads, can take better cameras with them, and fly in inclement weather or in adverse conditions that you wouldn’t have seen before. The drone story is going to be pretty big.

Drew: What else is going to be big?

Shelly: The cars are going to be out in force – driver assistance of every kind. Autonomy is coming. There’s never a lack of cool cars at CES. It’s more fun than the auto show because for us who are all semi-geeks about the technology, they come and they put their tech foot forward as opposed to their design foot forward or this guy with 500 horsepower or whatever. You’re going to see great TVs, but we haven’t had a year with a bad TV in 20 years. Let me tell you about the TVs. I can tell you I haven’t seen them yet. Let me tell exactly what I’m going to say when I get to stand in front of any TV; it’s bigger. It’s thinner. It’s got a brighter picture, higher dynamic range, wider color gamut, bigger screen, thinner. That’s sort of the joke at CES. It used to be a TV show. Now the TVs just get better.

Drew: Is there anything new that’s coming to CES?  

Shelly: What you will see this year that you haven’t seen so much before is how well integrated the home is becoming. Honestly, it is Alexa’s voice services and all of NLP systems that have caused this. Because if you think about it, when you walk in the house you have to open an app, tap a couple of buttons, open another app, and press a couple more buttons. It’s like, “Oh come on, stop it! I’ll just turn the light switch on.” But now you walk in and you say, “Alexa, lights on. Alexa, daytime scene.” Whatever you want. And boom, the house is set. The value proposition for consumers is so great. Everybody’s jumping on that. Look for integrations in ways you’ve never seen them.