B2B Marketing Needs Don Draper

Sara Richter is CMO at Emarsys, the omni-channel customer engagement platform, which empowers marketers to build, launch, and scale personalised cross-channel campaigns that drive business outcomes.

Sara is a creative marketing leader with more than 15 years of experience in high-growth, fast-paced martech organisations. She is passionate about building revenue-oriented marketing teams.

We discuss:

1. The challenge of marketing to marketers
2. What B2B marketers can learn from sales-focused models
3. Advice for B2B brands facing a likely economic downturn
4. How big brand campaigns can drive short-term sales
5. Why now is the ‘Golden Age’ of marketing

Richard Parsons and Cos Mingides are the co-founders of True, which was recently named B2B Creative Agency of the year - and the brains behind the B2B Needs Don Draper podcast. 

The last year of the podcast has welcomed some fantastic guests from a broad spectrum of brands giving their views on how B2B Marketing is changing and how they’re running marketing in their organizations

Richard and Cos respond to key points shared last season and their thoughts on the matter. 

We discuss:

1. Why now is a good time to be in B2B Marketing
2. Emotion and creativity the new paradigm in B2B Marketing
3. The key lessons B2B brands can learn
4. The problem within B2B right now
5. What being a bit more Don Draper mean for B2B brands

Kirsten Stagg is the Marketing Director at Skoda UK. She has delivered record-breaking marketing performance, market share and profit growth whilst delivering a 53% increase in average product sales.

Using creativity and self-deprecating humour, Kirsten has helped transform the brand into an incredible success story and has elevated the ŠKODA brand.

We discuss:

1. How Skoda used marketing to refresh brand perception
2. Utilising the power of creativity to engage a greater audience
3. How Skoda is utilising emotional marketing today
4. Why there is a lack of creativity within the automotive industry

Mariska van Beukering currently works for Equinix: the world’s biggest digital infrastructure company, where businesses can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, and deliver world-class experiences.

Mariska comes to us with deep experience in IT and has skills in brand management, marketing planning, lead generation, and strategic marketing.

We Discuss:

1. Effective B2C strategies that can be applied to B2B
2. The power of hyper-targeting specific audiences
3. Balancing long-term brand building with short-term sales activation
4. The best ways to drive growth for B2B brands
5. How to build strong brand awareness with new audiences

Danielle Regan is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Mace, a construction company at the heart of the built environment.  

Mace connects expertise across the entire property lifecycle for the benefit of their clients, communities and society more widely. 

Danielle has 18 years’ of experience working in marketing communications teams within the property and construction industry. 

We discuss:

1. How B2B marketing influences policy 
2. How the build environment affects people’s lives 
3. When Mace use emotional messaging vs rational messaging 
4. What the future holds for B2B Marketing

Nikki Stenson is a senior global marketing leader who has led marketing functions at Oracle, Macafee, and TIBCO. 

For Nikki, it’s all about relationships - whether working with sales teams, suppliers, partners or colleagues, success for her has come through continuous and highly effective collaboration.

Nikki Believes B2B marketing is not human enough and is passionate about changing that. 

We discuss:

1. Imposter syndrome. Is it common in the marketing industry?
2. The power of marketing in sales-focused businesses
3. How to build a strong personal brand in B2B Marketing
4. What the future holds for B2B Marketing

Cos Mingides is the Co-founder and Head of Effectiveness at True, which was named B2B Creative Agency of the year in 2022 by the Association of National Advertisers. 

True is in the business of making a difference. They harness data-driven and cultural insights to unearth powerful human truths that are creatively transformed into memorable brand communications – and delivered with pinpoint media accuracy.

We discuss:

1. The key takeaways for B2B marketers from EffWorks Global
2. The difference between efficiency and effectiveness
3. How the best B2B marketers approach investment for growth
4. Balancing brand building vs short-term sales activation
5. The importance of ‘reach’ when it comes to effectiveness

Nick Copson is the B2B Marketing Director at Reach plc, the UK's largest news media company with an audience of over 48 million people.

Nick has launched new publications and apps across the UK and managed teams with large budgets across online and offline channels. Now, most of his time goes towards developing B2B lead generation.

We discuss:

1. The state of UK media and advertising
2. How Reach PLC support programmatic ad buying
3. The digital transformation of Reach PLC
4. How traditional local media publishers can remain relevant

Martin Harrison is the Strategy Director at True. Before joining True, Martin was Strategy Partner at Wunderman Thompson. He’s also held senior positions at Huge and TMW.

Martin has been helping brands of all sizes grapple with the challenges and opportunities of the digital revolution. He was the winner of an IPA Effectiveness Award and is a regular speaker on digital strategy, including at SXSW.

We discuss:

1. The opportunity for creativity in B2B 
2. How B2B marketing can become more ambitious 
3. Fame and customer consideration
4. The importance of category reach and consideration

Michael Bouteneff is the Director of Integrated Marketing Strategy at SVB, (which was formerly known as Silicon Valley Bank). SVB helps founders of high-growth tech businesses achieve their often ambitious goals.

Michael has a background in growth marketing and brand-building, spanning both B2C and B2B industries, having worked at both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to SVB, he held senior roles at Mastercard and IBM, to name just a few. 

We discuss:

1. How SVB grows brand awareness with their target audience
2. What brand marketers are doing wrong
3. The importance of retention vs winning new customers
4. How B2B marketers can use advertising to better achieve goals