CX Chicago Summit | Oct 18, 2018 | Chicago, IL, USA

agenda

↓ Agenda Key

Visionary speaker presents to entire audience on key issues, challenges and business opportunities

Keynote Presentations give attending delegates the opportunity to hear from leading voices in the industry. These presentations feature relevant topics and issues aligned with the speaker's experience and expertise, selected by the speaker in concert with the summit's Content Committee." title="Keynote Presentations give attending delegates the opportunity to hear from leading voices in the industry. These presentations feature relevant topics and issues aligned with the speaker's experience and expertise, selected by the speaker in concert with the summit's Content Committee.

Panel moderated by Master of Ceremonies and headed by four executives discussing critical business topics

Executive Visions sessions are panel discussions that enable in-depth exchanges on critical business topics. Led by a moderator, these sessions encourage attending executives to address industry challenges and gain insight through interaction with expert panel members." title="Executive Visions sessions are panel discussions that enable in-depth exchanges on critical business topics. Led by a moderator, these sessions encourage attending executives to address industry challenges and gain insight through interaction with expert panel members.

Solution provider-led session giving high-level overview of opportunities

Led by an executive from the vendor community, Thought Leadership sessions provide comprehensive overviews of current business concerns, offering strategies and solutions for success. This is a unique opportunity to access the perspective of a leading member of the vendor community." title="Led by an executive from the vendor community, Thought Leadership sessions provide comprehensive overviews of current business concerns, offering strategies and solutions for success. This is a unique opportunity to access the perspective of a leading member of the vendor community.

End user-led session in boardroom style, focusing on best practices

Think Tanks are interactive sessions that place delegates in lively discussion and debate. Sessions admit only 15-20 participants at a time to ensure an intimate environment in which delegates can engage each other and have their voices heard." title="Think Tanks are interactive sessions that place delegates in lively discussion and debate. Sessions admit only 15-20 participants at a time to ensure an intimate environment in which delegates can engage each other and have their voices heard.

Interactive session led by a moderator, focused on industry issue

Led by an industry analyst, expert or a member of the vendor community, Roundtables are open-forum sessions with strategic guidance. Attending delegates gather to collaborate on common issues and challenges within a format that allows them to get things done." title="Led by an industry analyst, expert or a member of the vendor community, Roundtables are open-forum sessions with strategic guidance. Attending delegates gather to collaborate on common issues and challenges within a format that allows them to get things done.

Case Study

Overview of recent project successes and failures

Case Studies allow attending executives to hear compelling stories about implementations and projects, emphasizing best practices and lessons learned. Presentations are immediately followed by Q&A sessions." title="Case Studies allow attending executives to hear compelling stories about implementations and projects, emphasizing best practices and lessons learned. Presentations are immediately followed by Q&A sessions.

Focus Group

Discussion of business drivers within a particular industry area

Focus Groups allow executives to discuss business drivers within particular industry areas. These sessions allow attendees to isolate specific issues and work through them. Presentations last 15-20 minutes and are followed by Q&A sessions." title="Focus Groups allow executives to discuss business drivers within particular industry areas. These sessions allow attendees to isolate specific issues and work through them. Presentations last 15-20 minutes and are followed by Q&A sessions.

Moderator-led coverage of the latest industry research

Q&A sessions cover the latest industry research, allowing attendees to gain insight on topics of interest through questions directed to a leading industry analyst." title="Q&A sessions cover the latest industry research, allowing attendees to gain insight on topics of interest through questions directed to a leading industry analyst.

Vendor Showcase

Several brief, pointed overviews of the newest solutions and services

Taking the form of three 10-minute elevator pitches by attending vendors, these sessions provide a concise and pointed overview of the latest solutions and services aligned with attendee needs and preferences." title="Taking the form of three 10-minute elevator pitches by attending vendors, these sessions provide a concise and pointed overview of the latest solutions and services aligned with attendee needs and preferences.

Pre-determined, one-on-one interaction revolving around solutions of interest

Executive Exchanges offer one-on-one interaction between executives and vendors. This is an opportunity for both parties to make key business contacts, ask direct questions and get the answers they need. Session content is prearranged and based on mutual interest." title="Executive Exchanges offer one-on-one interaction between executives and vendors. This is an opportunity for both parties to make key business contacts, ask direct questions and get the answers they need. Session content is prearranged and based on mutual interest.

Open Forum Luncheon

Informal discussions on pre-determined topics

Led by a moderator, Open Forum Luncheons offer attendees informal, yet focused discussions on current industry topics and trends over lunch." title="Led by a moderator, Open Forum Luncheons offer attendees informal, yet focused discussions on current industry topics and trends over lunch.

Unique activities at once relaxing, enjoyable and productive

Networking opportunities take various unique forms, merging enjoyable and relaxing activities with an environment conducive to in-depth conversation. These gatherings allow attendees to wind down between sessions and one-on-one meetings, while still furthering discussions and being productive." title="Networking opportunities take various unique forms, merging enjoyable and relaxing activities with an environment conducive to in-depth conversation. These gatherings allow attendees to wind down between sessions and one-on-one meetings, while still furthering discussions and being productive.

Thursday, October 18, 2018 - CX Chicago Summit

7:00 am - 7:55 am

Registration & Networking Breakfast

8:00 am - 8:10 am

Welcome Address & Opening Remarks

8:10 am - 8:40 am

Keynote Presentation

The New Digital' CMO

One of the most compelling questions that CMOs must answer today is that of how digital marketing is affecting their role and by extension how the CMO now fits into the management team. The fact of the matter is that the importance of marketing is increasing within the enterprise as it moves to become increasingly data driven and the CMO needs to be the catalyst that helps the team make this transition. Marketing leaders need to understand the digital impact and use it to drive new strategies, new decision making, new technologies as well as new roles and responsibilities for not only their team, but for themselves as well.

Takeaways:

The role of the CMO is undergoing significant evolution, evolution that is set to continue well into the future
Technology is becoming increasingly important in the success of the marketing department and both the CMO and the team need to become technology savvy
Data is driving everything and using it to understand channel results allows for marketing leaders to make more efficient and more effective strategic decisions

8:45 am - 9:15 am

Keynote Presentation

Building a Content Marketing Capability

Great marketing is great storytelling that requires relevance to reach and engage audiences wherever they are. While creating the occasional blog post might be easy, there is a relentless need for quality content. This is why there are 5 crucial components to content marketing at scale: an effective workflow, quality content, engaging digital experiences, viral distribution, and powerful analytics. Understanding how to master these challenges to build a scalable and sustainable content marketing capability is something that all marketers need to do.

Takeaways:

Content marketing is quickly becoming a default tool in every marketers toolbox but that doesnt mean everyone does it right
Committing to a content management program is not for the faint hearted; to work, content creation must be a full time mission
Balancing the five components of a content marketing program is essential; the weak link will break the chain

9:20 am - 9:45 pm

Executive Exchange

Thought Leadership

Building the Digital Team

Digital marketing channels are becoming ever more significant and impactful to the success of enterprise marketing campaigns, and by extension to the organization itself. Digital channels are, in many cases, still based upon emerging technologies, and capability with them within the organization may be weak. CMOs need to be investing in not just the right tools, but also the right people with the right skills and capabilities to make digital work, whether those are in social, data, mobile, or other digital areas.

Takeaways:

Digital marketing is still an emerging area and overall capability is low
CMOs need to build teams that have the strength for today and the flexibility for tomorrow
Having the right people with the right experience and ability is key

9:50 am - 10:15 pm

Executive Exchange

Executive Boardroom

Turn Your Channel into a Marketing Machine

Most B2B companies have thought of B2B channels (agents, distributors, resellers, and so on) as distribution channels " or, more limitedly, sales channels " for many years. But B2B marketing professionals are waking up to the fact that they can leverage their channel partners for their marketing reach as well. A few savvy B2B manufacturers/vendors and brand leaders have been doing through-channel marketing for years. Now it's time to up your game. Examine the trends in B2B through-channel marketing and how you can apply supporting through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) technologies most effectively to power-up your through-channel marketing initiative.

Takeaways:

The time is now to jumpstart your strategy for through-channel marketing success
Through-channel marketing success is achieved via automate and activation of your marketing channels
Federalized marketing will alter the marketing automation landscape

Executive Boardroom

Driving Growth by Abandoning Digital Marketing Myths

Digital is the fastest changing marketing arena that the world has ever known; it's capabilities and rules of engagement are constantly changing and expanding and what was true yesterday may no longer be true today. For the marketing leader with competing projects and priorities, it can be challenging to keep up and misconceptions about what is achievable or advisable are increasingly common leading to bad decisions that can limit business growth. To be successful, we need to overcome commonly held marketing myths (such as personalized is not possible, digital creates no demand, and good enough campaigns produce good enough results).

Takeaways:

Understand the true impact of digital marketing; where it works, how it works, and the value it can yield
Uncover the challenges and pitfalls with digital that trip up experienced and inexperienced marketers alike
Overcome the commonly held misconceptions and learn how to busts these myths

Executive Boardroom

Customer Engagement in a Hyper-Connected World

The tables have turned in the consumer-enterprise relationship with the consumer often in an ownership and leadership role. The explosion of connected technologies and information channels they access has created a world of educated, informed, and savvy consumers that often know more about your products and services, and how they compare with those of the competition and enterprises and enterprises are struggling to adjust. Learning how to leverage new tools and technologies that synergize efforts across varied channels to deliver a unified customer experience is quickly becoming a key to marketplace success.

Takeaways:

Discover how leading marketers are aligning and integrating their efforts across varied channels to drive engagement
See which techniques are being used to sift through customer data to discover meaningful insights and tailor marketing efforts accordingly
Be exposed to the measurement tools that allow CX pros to integrate the traditional with the digital, the offline with the on

10:20 am - 10:30 am

Morning Networking Coffee Break

10:35 am - 11:00 am

Executive Exchange

Think Tank

How to Build a Strong B2B Brand Experience

As business buyers gain control over their purchase process with easy access to product specs, peer reviews, and competitive intelligence, business-to-business (B2B) organizations must depend on a strong brand to gain a coveted place in buyers' consideration set. When managed well, a strong B2B brand benefits the health of the entire company and serves as a bridge between the company and its customers. B2B CMOs must create a brand experience that spurs rational and emotional preference, relevance, and consideration throughout the buyer's journey.

Takeaways:

Understand that B2B brand building Is more important than ever
Experience the three trends that are shaping the future for CMOs and B2B brands
Learn how to lead the transformation to create a brand experience

Think Tank

Pitching Digital to the Traditional

While forward-thinking and dynamic organizations have been quick to adopt digital marketing initiatives, even completely eschewing traditional marketing in some cases, these capabilities are still by no means ubiquitous. In a world that is ever more relationship based, traditional marketing models based on the linear Awareness/Interest/Desire/Action model that neither develop nor exploit these relationships are increasingly doomed to failure. Savvy CMOs must help their more traditional executive peers understand the power and value of these new school approaches before a failure in messaging becomes a failure in the company.

Takeaways:

Digital marketing relies on technology, but is based on long-term experiential relationships
Digital carries risk in that brand exposure can too easily become category exposure, opening clients up to competitors
A good digital program must balance both pull and push initiatives

Think Tank

Maintaining Customer Centricity

Customers drive the bottom line and so maintaining strong relationships and meeting expectations is key. However, customers and the preferences are becoming more diverse, their expectations are growing higher, and their loyalties are at all-time lows. In the face of these dynamic market forces, building organizational customer centricity then is essential for long-term success and this is best achieved by creating programs that equally focus on customer acquisition and customer retention.

Takeaways:

Customer-centricity means a focus on all three phases of customer lifecycle: acquisition, growth, and retention
To be customer-centric, marketers must embrace not only geographic differences, but also generational differences
Cost must be managed carefully so that program value is realized

11:05 am - 11:30 am

Executive Exchange

Case Study

Managing the Digital Presence

It is an unfortunately well known aspect of human nature that we are more likely to pay attention to negative commentary than we are to positive. In a pre-social world the opportunity to share those negative opinions was limited, but when those opinions are shared via social media they can impact millions. Marketing departments then need to help their organizations manage this messaging and a Social Media Monitoring Platform (SMMP) can be key to saving face and preserving online dignity.

Takeaways:

No matter how good a job you do or how consistently you do it, someone is going to be unhappy
Social media makes the potential impact global
An actively managed SMMP is essential to ensure brand integrity

11:35 am - 12:00 pm

Executive Exchange

Executive Boardroom

Closing the Gap between Content and Revenue

This could be the year that the phrase Content is King becomes truer than ever as today's social media and technology driven societies demand material that will actively captivate audiences and, more importantly, engage customers. This is no easy task given the increasingly short attention span of consumers yet proving the value of content is a necessity since accountability for business growth now falls squarely on the shoulders of marketers. Traditional measures such as engagement, page views, and social shares are no longer sufficient for demonstrating ROI and so responsive websites really are the way forward.

Takeaways:

Explore whether content tracking will really bridge the gap between content and revenue
Learn how to make more informed choices when it comes to sharing content that helps achieve your business goals
Determine how to close the loop between content creation and results

Executive Boardroom

Measure and Manage Brand Health

Managing brand health has become more complicated as the expansion of offline and online channels creates a vast array of consumer data that can be used for analysis in the post-digital age. The four V's brought on by this data deluge " volume, velocity, visibility, and volatility " make it increasingly difficult to effectively manage and act on data sources without rethinking the approach. Learning how to manage this growing data flow to enable continuous improvement, gain competitive advantage, and optimize brand experience strategies is essential for long term success. CMOs must measure brand health from three dimensions: point-in-time, real-time, and forecast data. Armed with this 3D perspective, they can then turn measuring brand health into managing brand health.

Takeaways:

Learn how to measure brand health in the post-digital age
To be successful with brand health, you must first measure brand health across three dimensions
Measurement is not enough; turn measuring brand health into managing brand health

Executive Boardroom

Delighting Customers to Build Loyalty

To be successful in today's digital world, customer experience leaders need to understand how to sift through the reams of available data, find the most interesting and relevant pieces, and translate those into actionable insights. These insights need to be leveraged to predict consumer wants and needs, and to build out customer experiences that surprise and delight. Care needs to be taken though to ensure balance between the demand for personalized experience and the desire to maintain personal privacy lest experiences instead lead to alarm and dismay.

Takeaways:

Data is the driver of customer experience; only through deep granular analysis can relevant models be developed
Localization of focus and effort is key to success " what delights one audience can easily offend another
Maintaining and respecting privacy is essential throughout and CX professionals will have to walk the tight-rope through between too much and not enough

12:05 pm - 12:30 pm

Executive Exchange

Think Tank

Reducing the Speed to Lead

Studies ubiquitously indicate that engaging with leads as soon as they identify themselves is essential to positive and successful relationship, yet on average the time to engage is shockingly slow. As digital marketing becomes increasingly common, second chances to engage may no longer occur because another option is too easily and quickly presented. CMOs must help their organizations find ways to increase the speed with which leads are recognized, classified, and engaged with in order to ensure long-term organizational viability.

Takeaways:

The sooner engagement occurs with a lead, the higher the potential for conversion of that lead
As the marketplace becomes noisier, the need is only increased
Marketing must reduce the amount of time before Sales can engage

Think Tank

Driving Results through Digital Marketing

The time has come to fully usher enterprise marketing strategy into the digital age, but that means having a granular understanding of not only digital opportunities, but also digital challenges. Primary among these is data driven marketing; the benefits is a deeper understanding of clients and their needs, while the challenge is the risk of analysis paralysis. The opportunity to deliver enhanced customer experiences that lead to long-lasting intimate relationships though outstrips the risk because the benefit in brand loyalty are immeasurable and so CMOs need to embrace data driven digital marketing and all that it entails.

Takeaways:

Understand the nuanced differences between abundant digital channels to build a program that best embraces them
Learn the tools and techniques behind a successful analytics program that gets to necessary insights without bogging down in analysis
Hear key case studies of successful marketers that have embraced digital and driven their enterprise to new levels of success

Think Tank

The Journey to Cross-Channel Optimization

As our marketing sophistication evolves, brands strive to move from simply executing in each individual channel to optimizing each customer's experience across all channels. By utilizing a proven path to help you advance your customer experience program to the next level, achieving cross-channel optimization can be a reality for any brand, regardless of its current state of sophistication. To make it all come together though you need to be able to assess your current CX program and take the most effective steps to continually move your organization's cross-channel experience efforts forward.

Takeaways:

Assess your organizational capabilities to understand organizational maturity
Learn about the journey brands must take in order to achieve cross-channel optimization
Understand key levers to help you improve enterprise CX sophistication

12:35 pm - 1:20 pm

Networking Luncheon

1:25 pm - 1:50 pm

Executive Exchange

Think Tank

How to Use Technology to Be a Forward-looking, Agile Marketer

While automation and data have enabled marketers to execute more quickly, most brands still use technology to only make tactical decisions like optimizing a digital campaign, or purchasing an online ad. This focus on execution is needed to stay competitive and it provides a way for working teams to quantify their contributions but it doesn't really move the dial in ways that the C-suite notices, especially when the competition is getting better at more or less the same rate. To really make a difference in brand impact CMOs need to take a technology leap and invest in programs that have long-term strategic impact.

Takeaways:

Understand what is driving the need for data-driven agile marketing
See why a holistic approach to analysis, planning and forecasting drives the best results
Learn how an agile marketing solution improves strategic planning, annual budgeting, mid-course corrections and ad hoc decision-making

Think Tank

Growth Hacking " The New Marketing

Over the past decade many organizations have been blown out of the water by the innovations of Silicon Valley Start-ups. These companies have collectively identified two key things; growth does not happen by simply having a good product, and traditional marketing techniques are often ineffective in driving growth online. It has become evident that there is no one-size-fits all approach that works; the challenge is in the details and figuring out where to focus for your own company. Enter growth hacking, a term coined by Sean Ellis one of the first marketeers at DropBox. Digital has transformed the marketing landscape; in a connected world where digital experiences can rapidly become an epidemic, the best growth hacks will take advantage of these unique opportunities. Growth hacking was born out of startups, but it is something that every smart marketer should embrace.

Takeaways:

In an if you're not growing, you're failing world, marketing must be ever vigilant to the need to create brand interest
Old-school techniques are proving less effective in today's start-up fueled economy and their tactics must be emulated
Growth hacking can be hit or miss so it is best to run multiple campaigns to find the ones that work quickly, and build upon their success

Think Tank

Driving Customer Experiences through Global & Local Interactions

Today's global-local marketplace offers tremendous opportunity, but is rife with potential pitfalls as smaller local providers are threatened by the size of global behemoths, while those global behemoths are challenged by the nimbleness of local providers. To be efficient and effective companies need to blend the best of both worlds, global economies of scale with local knowledge and flexibility, to deliver an engaging and rewarding customer experience. CX leaders need to build the capability to understand, categorize, and capitalize on small-scale local demand and address it with large-scale global capacity.

Takeaways:

Understand the expectations of the modern customer by seeing the impact of both local and global pressures
See how competitive brands go about maintaining a global brand while maintaining localized experience and feel
Data is the driver of the global local experience so building a capacity to capture the necessary client differentiators becomes key

1:55 pm - 2:20 pm

Executive Exchange

Fireside Chat

Building & Maintaining an Exceptional Brand in the Digital Age

Brand and brand recognition are everything; when a brand is built right it defines a segment, but for every Apple, Coke, or Porsche there are dozens of companies that failed to either build or sustain a strong brand. As challenging as the brand issue has been in the past however, today's digital marketplace compounds the problem as each individual channel has the capacity to add to or detract from brand awareness and opinion in a way that old school single channel marketing never experienced. CX professionals must work diligently to ensure they are using all available channels to promote a consistent set of experiences, a consistent voice, and a consistent brand.

Takeaways:

Brand, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder so enterprises must use segmentation to better understand customer and prospect expectations
As channels are added to consumer experience, marketers must ensure cross channel experience has the consistency and diversity to create appeal
Customer Experience cannot be solely responsible for brand propagation and all aspects of the company need to communicate the brand message at all times

2:25 pm - 2:50 pm

Executive Exchange

Executive Boardroom

Closing the Gap between Content and Revenue

Takeaways:

Explore whether content tracking will really bridge the gap between content and revenue
Learn how to make more informed choices when it comes to sharing content that helps achieve your business goals
Determine how to close the loop between content creation and results

Executive Boardroom

B2B Marketers Must Step Up to Message Management

Savvy business-to-business (B2B) marketing leaders know that contextual, relevant content helps their company connect with customers through all the stages of the customer life cycle. But communication can become muddled as different stakeholders (marketers, sales reps, or executives) engage with customers without the connective tissue of a strong messaging architecture. Success in this arena comes through a framework for strategic message management that will accelerate the development, simplify the management, and foster effective delivery of content " from thought leadership blogs to sales conversations.

Takeaways:

Marketing leaders must address message management now; it's time to step-up to the strategic messaging challenge
For success with message management it is essential to adopt a strategic messaging architecture
Bottom line: you have to make message management sticky to make it stick

Executive Boardroom

Investing in Clients: Returns Through Engagement and Analytics

Earning clients is hard work, but retaining them can be even harder and keeping them is critical to long term success but if you don't engage correctly at every touch point they may become disenchanted and move to the competition. As a result, client engagement has become a critical requirement; companies must become easier to approach and easier to do business with, and they must be accessible across a variety of communications channels. Since budgets aren't infinite however, enterprises need to make smart decisions about where to invest " which channels, which lines of business, which clients. This requires a comprehensive analytics program to drive the business to make smarter decisions.

Takeaways:

Understand how to define and develop an appealing niche brand
Learn how to identify and then collect and analyze the data and metrics to lead to smarter business decisions
Enable resources internally to effectively engage clients

2:55 pm - 3:20 pm

Executive Exchange

Think Tank

Integrating Marketing Tools to Improve Performance

In this new technology driven, digital marketing directed world, Marketing departments are embracing tools at an unprecedented rate. While these technologies offer the promise of newfound capabilities the sheer volume and variety can create more problems than solutions when neither they nor their data are integrated. IT departments, with their longer history of dealing with technology solutions, have deep experience in addressing platform integration and smart CMOs will leverage the relationship they share with the CIO to benefit from that experience.

Takeaways:

While the technology solutions available offer value, lack of integration rapidly erodes it
The problem grows and grows exponentially as more tools are added
If the relationship hasn't yet been built, CMOs must now embrace IT and the CIO

Think Tank

Engaging Consumers in the Palm of Their Hand

Mobile is likely to be attributed as the biggest game changer for consumer behavior this decade. 2014 saw smartphone penetration hit 75% of the population, whilst tablets hit 50% and each year since those numbers have just gone higher. Mobile is clearly taking over as the consumer's main route to shopping experiences and product knowledge. As a marketer, how then can you use mobile to impact the metrics that matter most? Mobile advertising used correctly can be your most intimate link to your customer. Combined with data analysis of consumer behaviors, brands now have the potential to deliver the right ad, to the right person, at the right time, in the right location. The challenge for marketers; how do you do this without being too intrusive and alienating your customer?

Takeaways:

Master how to integrate your customer message seamlessly into the palm of their hand and create memorable moments for your brand through mobile
Discover how to understand consumer behaviors to deliver a perfect ad one person at a time
Identify ways of streamlining big data analytics to deliver phenomenal consumer experience and increase engagement

Think Tank

Analyzing Customer Voice

In an age of transparency, fueled by digital technologies, social media gives everyone the ability to share their point of view and have it witnessed by thousands, even millions, of people within minutes. In this social age, the customer has found their voice and they are using it; they relate their pain points with products, why they chose a specific product, and what they perceive various products to be. With companies these days having a global footprint, it is apparent that customer's needs, expectations and viewpoints differ across geographies, cultures and markets. To be able to make sense of this data, Customer Experience leaders need to be armed with a new breed of analytics, one that can unite precision with agility and flexibility.

Takeaways:

Identify best practices to use the customers voice to your advantage
Learn how to analyze social data in ways that are actionable by your teams across the globe
Discover how to use social media analysis to develop successful CX strategies

3:25 pm - 3:35 pm

Afternoon Networking Coffee Break

3:40 pm - 4:05 pm

Executive Exchange

Innovation Showcase

An exclusive opportunity to be exposed to the hottest new solutions providers in a quick-hit format designed to whet the appetite and spark immediate interest.

4:10 pm - 4:35 pm

Executive Exchange

Think Tank

Going Glocal

With the combination of mobile computing opening new channels to more people, and social media allowing them to connect, our world has never been smaller and our access to global markets never been greater. To find optimal success in these global markets we need to tailor our efforts to respect local cultures while also drawing enough of the global culture into local market offerings. Building a glocalization program that creates a seamless fusion of these disparate cultural elements is essential to enhanced success both abroad and at home.

Takeaways:

Think globally, act locally is a mantra that has never been more relevant or accurate than it is today
To be successful globally companies must respect local culture
The reverse can be true in that global culture can yield local benefit

Think Tank

Solid Content " Not Choice of Tactics " Creates a Successful B2B Marketing Mix

B2B marketers use an unprecedented number of tactics and channels to execute a marketing mix that encompasses both the digital and physical worlds. Yet surveys consistently find that no single approach works superbly for all marketers as they try to build programs that boost brand and generate demand. Understand why what you have to say to buyers is more important than which tactics you use to say it " and how content marketing that focuses on customer needs and outcomes provides the essential foundation for achieving a successful B2B marketing mix.

Takeaways:

Tactics are nothing; modern marketing is ineffective without strong content
Make your content connect with buyers' desired outcomes otherwise you undermine your content's value
Finding the right mix of marketing strategies will take time and reveal some surprising insights

Think Tank

Leveraging Loyalty

Loyalty programs offer great theoretical benefits to organizations by providing the opportunity to enter into long-term relationships that measurably increase profit. They can only be successful however if they do two things: capture and exploit the right client information, and provide the right loyalty rewards that generate sufficient emotional connection without costing too much money. Getting the balance right between the emotional (client) and rational (company) components of the program is the key to success.

Takeaways:

The basis of the program must be the right members; you need to know how to emotionally appeal to them to attract and retain them
Rewards must motivate members to action they wouldn't already do
Program success is always defined by revenue increase, but you have to know where and how that revenue increase will be derived

4:40 pm - 5:20 pm

Executive Visions

Moving Marketing up the Corporate Food Chain

Marketplaces today are becoming increasingly more diverse, while at the same time prospective clients (whether B2B or B2C) are becoming increasingly discerning. In this landscape organizations that continue to view their marketing department in a purely tactical find me leads light will suffer and see market share decline. Marketing budget and influence in leading companies is growing because the marketing department is the entry point to prospect relationship and they therefore see Marketing as the key strategic enabler in defining new markets, introducing new solutions, and engaging new customers.

Takeaways:

Marketing can no longer be considered the organizational red-headed step-children
Marketing's role in not just providing leads; it is defining market place requirements and guiding the company in fulfilling them
Strong inter-departmental relationships key to facilitating this change

5:20 pm - 5:30 pm

Thank You Address and Closing Remarks

5:30 pm - 7:00 pm