The New Era of B2B Marketing

If you were lucky enough to attend our members-only event at Microsoft, you were in for one the most provocative, inspiring and impactful line-up of thought-leaders and topics the BMA has ever had.

A bold statement? Yes. Hyperbolic? Not at all.

Over the course of the morning in Mountain View, the audience was treated to six amazing sessions from global leaders in B2B marketing.

Tom Stein, Chairman and Chief Client Officer at Stein IAS, got the day started with a powerful and forward looking keynote proclaiming that we are now in the era of "Post Modern Marketing."  In Stein’s keynote, “The Rise of the Feeling Machines” He noted that, “by its nature, Modern Marketing emphasizes “thinking machines” over “feeling machines that think.” So today, with Modern Marketing approaches fairly ubiquitous, what will define B2B’s “post-modern” era?” He provocatively stated that “as we enter the 'Post Modern' marketing era, it is not a rejection of Modern Marketing’s empiricism…it is much more a re-balancing. A carrying forward of the best of preceding eras into this new stage.”

Tom was followed by Milan Martin, President of Grey San Francisco, who echoed the Post Modern Marketing theme by showing the unique experiences Grey has created for brands such as Levis’ and Volvo. From jeans that prevent credit card scanners from reaching your wallet, to a reflective paint that is saving cyclists’ lives in London, Milan demonstrated how the brands that create differentiated experiences for their audiences are the ones that break through the noise of "modern marketing."

The momentum kept going with Shawn Ottenbreit, Senior Director of Marketing Performance at HP Enterprise, who is showing how brands and marketers can and should elevate their data and analytics game in the Post Modern Era. Importantly, he discussed the relationship between finance and marketing to drive performance. Shawn, a former finance exec, provided a real personal and prescriptive account of how optimally these relations should function.

Stein, Martin and Ottenbreit were then brought onto the stage for a panel Q&A moderated by the Editorial Director of B2B Marketing USA, Tequia Burt.

The great content didn’t stop there. John Dering, Director of ABM Technology & Strategy for Demandbase took the audience through optimally aligning your marketing and sales organization to drive account based marketing (ABM) performance. John took the audience through a robust ABM framework and used his own company as a case study. Gotta deeply respect a company that uses its own products and platforms. And, more importantly, gets great results.

Capping off the packed day was a joint presentation from Brock Wells, US Social Command Center Lead at Microsoft, Sean Gibbons, Social Media Program Manager and Ryan Hodgson, Vice President of Integrated Marketing from Yesler. The trio showed us how brands should be behaving and engaging on social media. With real-time listening and, more importantly, content, Yesler showed how they are powering Microsoft’s social center for key products. As impressive as their results, was the well-structured workflow they put in place to enable the program to work efficiently while listening to millions of conversations.

Many thanks to the people who made this a fantastic event - our speakers, attendees and sponsors and the team working behind the scenes to make sure the event ran smoothly.