Final Scenes From The DMA’s &Then Conference

I have a notebook full of, well, notes from a number of great sessions I attended that are worth sharing.

When last we met, I noted that I would be attending a few more conferences this fall and, subsequently, reporting on some of the more interesting goings on. We’ve already posted this and this from the DMA’s annual &Then event, in Los Angeles, and this from the ANA’s “Masters of Marketing,” in Orlando, Fla.

But I still have a notebook full of, well, notes from a number of other great sessions I attended that are worth sharing. For instance, at the DMA’s Monday “Strategic Summit,” Trish Shortell of RSR Partners moderated a panel discussion featuring Alma Derricks, from Cirque du Soleil; Luci Rainy, from Comcast; Ivan Wicksteed, recently of Old Navy; Thoryn Stephens, from American Apparel; and Evan Greene, from The Grammy’s. This solid group had much to say about “The Changing Face of the M-Suite.” Some of the discussion:

Q: Are organizations ready for “disruptor marketers”?

Greene: Disruption done well means success. The C-suite generally likes the idea and the results, but you often have to go through a lot to get there. Not everybody in the organization is always ready for it, but everybody wants to be part of the result.

Rainy: People who lead need to disrupt within the confines of the organization—you just can’t leave bodies everywhere.

Q: Is the convergence of functions working? And which nonmarketing functions are critical to marketing and which can be roadblocks?

Derricks: Lots of learning can happen around the table when the different functions come together. It can be a little confusing at first, but in the end it’s beneficial.

Wicksteed: The CFO is both critical and can be a roadblock. You can’t get anything done with buy in from him or her.

Stephens: The CTO and the CFO—you have to get buy-in from them and across the company, but, if you can’t, you have to be entrepreneurial.

Q: What are the essential CMO skills today?

Stephens: You have to have a deep understanding of tech and analytics.

Derricks: But you also have to be able to hold it all together through team management.

Q: What do CEOs need to understand?

Derricks: The main one is that old-school mass marketing doesn’t work anymore. Today it’s thousands of conversations rather than one large one.

Greene: They have to make clear what their definition of marketing is and what constitutes success.

Rainy: They have to understand that you need to find the right mix for the right audience. Sometimes it’s not just the sexy stuff that works, but all the work that’s done daily by the marketing infrastructure.

Finally, at the DMA, a few quotes from the afternoon keynote panel, “Marketing Next,” moderated by Quantifind’s Josh Reynolds:

• Cassidy Blackwell, Walker & Company Brands: Pull out your phone, and you have immediate access to some amazing stuff. You don’t have to settle for OK anymore—and consumers now expect amazing from brands.

• Shante Bacon, 135thth Street Agency: Marketers get sidetracked by information overload and can start to compromise the message. You have to focus on giving consumers moments to remember and then getting the testimonial.

• Jamie Gutfreund, Wunderman: Forget the tech piece for a minute—but why are we doing this? What does the customer think of what we, as marketers, are doing? The problem is, siloed data makes it hard to deliver the right message to the right customer.

Next up: What are some of the major brands saying and doing? A look at what went down at the Association of National Advertisers event. Stay tuned.