Tag: Drew Neisser

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

Connect With Martin:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

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.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

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

Connect With Toni Clayton-Hine:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

How Looker is Enhancing Marketing Data Analytics Through Organization and Face-to-Face Communication

Posted on by Drew Neisser

The sheer amount of data any company collects can quickly become overwhelming if it’s not managed efficiently. As a CMO you have to have control of the data and understand how it flows throughout your organization. That’s why companies like Looker exist – to help you make sense of the data and use it to your advantage.

In this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Looker’s CMO, Jen Grant, talks with Drew about why her unique background allows her to understand the art and science behind connecting everyone to your company’s brand message. She also shares why it’s important to simplify your company’s core message down to just a few phrases.

Not only does Jen explain why actual face-to-face interaction is even more critical in today’s B2B marketing environment, she also discusses how Looker is achieving just that. You also don’t want to miss her best advice for CMOs.

Jen conveys the heart of marketing in such an intriguing way in this episode – you don’t want to miss it. (Click here to listen now).

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

Why data organization is so important and the art and science of connecting people to your company’s true message

Without a user-friendly and complete data analytics system, critical insights that could be derived from your company’s data go undiscovered. Companies such as Looker provide an easily understood way of compiling individual data silos into one platform that can be shared across multiple employee teams. Once your data is organized in an effective manner, you can then use this data to enhance your company’s ability to spread your brand message. Data that is easily accessed and understood becomes a tool for creative storytelling that elicits an emotional response from your target market – ultimately creating more success for your company.

How Looker is bringing actual human interaction into B2B marketing, and why your company should be doing the same

Jen explains to Drew in this episode that Looker really wants to push face-to-face marketing because of the human connections that come from that process. But she warns that these in-person events cannot just be a drawn-out sales pitch. It has to be about creating genuine connections with people in your industry and regions, which then opens the door for future sales. These events are also an incredible resource for first-person stories that can be shared with your team and customers. In our technology-driven world, actual human interaction events can set your company apart from the rest, and you’d be surprised at just how effective they can be. Be sure to listen to this episode so you don’t miss out on Jen’s engaging story behind Looker’s journey in face-to-face B2B marketing.

The top two “do’s” and one critical “don’t” in data analytics

Because of Jen’s long history in marketing, and her unique background in theatre and English, she has a unique set of advice for CMOs. She suggests that companies get all of their data centralized so that every team can see the whole picture – not just snippets of information. She also is a huge proponent of as many people as possible looking at your company’s data, because you never know where your next great campaign idea might come from. Finally, she doesn’t want CMOs to forget the innate nature of marketing. While technology, reports, and team meetings are all critical pieces of the data analytics process, she encourages CMOs to remember their gut intuition when it comes to taking a leap of marketing faith. Her insights are sure to be useful to your company in 2018, so be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What You’ll Learn

  • [2:20] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Jen Grant, CMO of Looker
  • [2:43] Jen shares her unique background story and how she got started in marketing
  • [4:25] The key lessons Jen learned while working with Google
  • [10:17] Looker’s purpose and story simplified into just a few words
  • [13:17] How Looker’s technology allows data to be seen and enacted upon for their customers
  • [17:16] What Looker’s data processing system looks like
  • [20:00] Where Looker falls within the “stack” of data systems
  • [22:21] Jen shares Looker success story case studies
  • [26:56] The marketing efforts Jen has completed to combat Looker’s awareness challenge, outside of the data industry
  • [34:31] Balancing tailored regional needs to overall company brand messages
  • [37:54] The toughest lesson Jen has learned in the marketing world
  • [39:30] Jen offers her “two do’s and a don’t” for data analytics

Connect With Jen:

Connect with Drew

Marketing Trends from The CMO Survey and Reigniting Your Passion for Marketing

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Christine Moorman is the T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Beginning in 2008 she started interviewing marketing leaders to determine their most important marketing questions and The CMO Survey has been an integral part of illuminating marketing trends ever since.

Christine shares with Drew her excitement over the future of marketing and explains that “It’s not just about number crunching, the best marketing analytics bridge the divide between human insights and hard data.” They also dive into a conversation about why performing all marketing activities well is critical to organizational success.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew and Christine discuss the importance of teaching holistic marketing to future industry leaders, current trends in marketing, and the importance of measuring marketing effectiveness.

Christine and Drew’s conversation is sure to reignite your passion for marketing, so don’t miss this episode. (Click here to listen now).

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

The importance of passionate marketing curriculum in academia

Marketing is the one area in business that companies cannot afford to not master. Exceptional marketing helps acquire and maintain customers which is critical to long-term success and profit. As new generations of future industry leaders are rising through the ranks of higher education, professors like Christine are setting the standards high. Throughout this episode, she explains a few of the top challenges she faces in the classroom, as well as why she enjoys instilling a passion for marketing in her students. You don’t want to miss her description of why watching her students adopt a customer-first mindset is one of the greatest benefits of her position at Duke University, so be sure to listen.

Key findings on marketing effectiveness and the top four components for measuring return on investments

One of the biggest findings The CMO Survey has uncovered is the fact that marketing efforts need the whole company’s support in order to be most effective. Christine explains that every CMO needs to ask themselves, “What place does marketing have in my company/career? How can I be the voice of the customer?” After these questions have been addressed, companies can move forward in evaluating how marketing is impacting ROI. Drew and Christine also list the top four metrics to be used in ROI evaluation: awareness based on reach, brand/brand lift, usage, and customer retention. They go into full detail on these metrics and why they’re so critical – you should hear what they have to say.

Where Christine sees future marketing trends going in the future and why she’s excited

Throughout her career in marketing, Christine has found that “It’s such a dynamic field, a full array of different people and different works.” In the digital age, marketing is an integral part of life in even more varied ways. Innovating marketing tactics are only going to become more refined over time, and marketing will continue to show up in new and impressive ways. Drew and Christine both believe that you can truly drive things forward with the deep understanding that stellar marketing can bring.

What You’ll Learn

  • [1:44] Drew introduces this week’s guest, Professor Christine Moorman, Professor at The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
  • [3:42] The importance of marketing in the business education curriculum  
  • [7:02] Key marketing components that Christine hopes students take away from her classes
  • [9:30] The difference between the tech companies and the CPGs viewed from a teaching mindset
  • [13:00] Christine talks about the macro trends she’s seen since the survey was released
  • [20:20] Christine explains the difference between digital marketing “stuff” and digital marketing organization
  • [24:27] The future of CMOs and key questions to ask your marketing team
  • [26:17] The ability to measure marketing effectiveness as shown by the survey
  • [28:24] Key metrics used to evaluate marketing ROI
  • [33:20] Christine shares her excitement over the future of marketing
  • [35:00] The true reality of marketing done well

Connect With Christine:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

 

Effective Verticalization Through the ‘Jive’ Way, and Why Engineers Make Great CMOs

Posted on by Drew Neisser

The historically challenging industry of telecommunications is changing thanks in part to Jive Communications and their cloud-based phone services. Drew talks with co-founder and current CMO, Matt Peterson, about how he transitioned from his background in software engineering into the marketing realm.

Not only do they discuss Jive’s innovative marketing verticalization strategies, but they also focus on the company’s innate ability to tackle big problems and approach large customer opportunities with confidence and ease.

Hear the story behind Jive’s unconventional beginning and the heart of the company, as well as discover Matt’s favorite resources for marketing professionals by listening to this engaging episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Matt and Drew’s conversation is sure to inspire and educate – you don’t want to miss it!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:31] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Matt Peterson, co-founder and CMO of Jive Communications
  • [3:44] Matt explains how he became the CMO of Jive
  • [6:34] How Matt’s background in software engineering influences his current work in marketing
  • [10:20] Drew asks Matt about his biggest learning curve when entering the marketing realm of Jive
  • [13:35] What is at the heart of the Jive brand?
  • [16:43] The top examples of Jive’s marketing campaigns that point to the core of Jive
  • [21:25] Drew asks Matt about one of Jive’s most creative marketing projects
  • [23:59] Another example of a Jive program that points to their core values
  • [27:00] Brands and strategies from other companies that Matt admires
  • [29:48] How to keep your  marketing mind sharp and Matt’s top resources for CMOs
  • [34:04] Matt explains some of the strategies Jive is implementing for better organizational success
  • [36:00] Challenges Matt is tackling in 2018

The heart behind Jive Communications and how Matt’s background helps him in his position as CMO

Drew and Matt discuss at length the heart of Jive Communications, and Matt attributes much of the company’s success to their “scrappy, blue-collar, bootstrap” approach. He understands that while their competitors may be larger and have more resources, Jive is able to tackle the industry and “punch above their weight class” with ease. Matt explains that by using his background in software engineering he is able to approach problems with an analytical mind that quickly links together the human intangibles found in marketing with what the data illuminates. Your company could benefit from hearing the story behind Jive’s foundation and current success, so be sure to listen.

Tackling marketing verticalization the Jive way

In order to effectively go after specific customers within their chosen target market, Matt needed to help Jive Communications find its optimal verticalization strategy. One of the best examples he explains to Drew involves the K-12 education system – a customer base that was notoriously hard to enter and change. By following Jive’s “scrappy” mindset Matt and his team were able to solve multiple problems for their education customers and ended up with dozens of new sales contracts. You don’t want to miss the full story of how Jive is shaking up the telecom industry, or the other fascinating examples of prime verticalization, so give this episode your full attention.

How to keep your marketing mind sharp and Matt’s top two challenges for 2018

Matt explains to Drew that staying current in the marketing industry through continuing education is key to greater success. By attending conferences, reading voraciously, and having an incredible appetite for knowledge your marketing professionals are sure to stay at the top of their game. In this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Matt discusses his top two challenges for 2018: communicating Jive’s differentiation points in better ways and nailing their outbound approaches. Be sure to listen to the full episode to catch the whole conversation.

Connect With Matt Peterson:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Special 50th Episode: Lessons from 200+ CMOs

Posted on by

If all CMOs thought alike, Renegade Thinkers Unite wouldn’t stand a chance at reaching 50 episodes. The vast diversity of marketing approaches is part of what makes the field so interesting. After interviewing 200+ CMOs over the years, Drew Neisser has learned a thing or two about perspective.

This special RTU episode takes bit of a twist, as Drew sits down for the first time as the interviewee. Marketing Today podcast host Alan Hart asks Drew about his experiences speaking with a wide array of marketing professionals. You’ll learn about some of the common themes many of Drew’s guests have discussed, as well as several marketing strategies that have stood out to him.  Click here to listen to the episode. [Show notes by Jay Tellini.]

Here are some of our favorite moments from Drew’s interview with Alan:

Alan: The role of CMO is challenging. What do you think about the role? Why is it challenging?

Drew: Well it’s challenging for several reasons. One is that they don’t really speak the language of the CEO. The CEO rarely comes from the Marketing Suite. They come from finance, they might come from law, they come from operations, COO or something. And the marketing person has often dealt with ethereal as well as measurable things but they don’t have control over everything. And so the CEO says, “I want revenue and I want profit.” The marketer says, ‘Well I want awareness and I want engagement. You can have your revenue and your profit but we’re going to need proxy measures.’ They’re disconnected. So that’s one.

Alan: What else?

Drew: And then there’s this other whole frickin’ issue which is, there’s nothing like a great marketing campaign to kill a bad product or service. And we had several times where we had clients who we were killing it on the front end and then their customer service was so bad that they would lose them on the back end. So churn was really high. Is it the CMO’S job is to fix that? It could be. One of the guys that I interviewed that I loved was Manny Rodriguez who totally understands storytelling. This was after I interviewed him but he told me that he started to notice that customer experience was a problem in UC Health. And they said, “Great Manny, you fix it.” So he’s doing customer experience too. He was already doing brand story, was already doing positioning and marketing and now he’s a responsible customer experience.

Alan: What do you think it’s important for a CMO to be doing or focusing on?

Drew: Let’s talk about strategy for a second. I think for a CMO, this is the unfortunate part of their job. When you hear the words, “I’m building the plane while I’m flying it,” I get worried about it because a really brilliant marketing campaign can live for 20, 30 or 40 years. We were talking about this earlier that Geico’s “15 minutes will save you 15%.” How long have they been using that? Forever! And guess what? They’re not going to stop and you know why? Because it really works. We don’t have the capacity to remember 20 things and we don’t need to. We like them and we remember them and we know their value proposition. If you’re going to invest 20-years worth, you better spend enough time on the strategic foundation.

Alan: We talked a lot about story. Tell me your perspective on brand story.

Drew: I think that it is the most overused word in our business. Everything is a story. Every brand has a narrative. Every CMO is using the term and I’m guilty of this, so I apologize to you and all of the listeners that we’re even using that term. We’re using that term because we can’t come up with a better one. Unfortunately at our shop we talk about Big S and Little S. Big S storytelling is when you really boil down your brand to an essential conflict like Georgia-Pacific did with Angel Soft.  For Angel Soft the essential conflict boils down to how something can be both strong and soft. That’s a conflict. We now have conflict and we can build stories around that may or may not have anything to do with the product but you get the idea of strong and soft and that’s the benefit of the product. That’s Big S storytelling. And then you have to take that essential conflict and then you have to execute it everywhere. But the good news about it is if you do, it’s consistent. But it’s not necessarily the same 30-second video as a social media post. If you get it right and you have an idea that will hold it all together, then it really works effectively. So far, it is the only way that we have seen to hold content marketing and social media together is by having an overall story idea.

Alan: What’s Little S?

Drew: Lowercase S is, “hey did I tell you about the time that we hung out together at the bar?” It has nothing to do with anything. It’s just a story. And that’s to me what is confused between the two. It’s very tricky. And I know many brands don’t like “conflict,” so they can’t even use that term. It’s a very complicated issue and I can’t wait until we have a new word for it.

Alan: I want to talk a little bit more about you, Drew. What drives you?

Drew: The notion of courage drives me. I feel like I can help CMOs think a little bit differently about their jobs. To me, that’s the most exciting part of what we’re doing right now. We’ve gotten to know all these CMOs. And this is the thing – the CMO is in the position, they have all the levers. If you can get them to pull all those levers as not just a force to cut through the crap, but as a force for good, I feel like that’s a good day or a good week or a good year or a good life.