The CMO Show

The times they are a changing but when it comes to social media, change is constant and inevitable. So how do you harness the force of a platform that is shifting and disrupting itself? And what will 2016 look like for social media marketing?

In our final episode for 2015, Richard Spencer, head of agency at Isentia TwoSocial, drops by to chat with Mark and JV about who nailed and failed it in social media marketing this year. Richard also shares his thoughts on long-form content, the rise of the vertical video and wearable technology.

"I think the one defining constant is change effectively, and I think we as organisations are still learning how to use direct contact with consumers and stakeholders to great effect - we're still getting our head around how that fits as users," Richard said. "I think that's blurring the lines between how we're using the channel from an organisational perspective, from an HR point of view, from a customer service perspective, from a marketing and a communications perspective, from a direct sales perspective and all of those are, in effect blending into one."

This week Dr David Cooke, managing director at Konica Minolta, drops by to share his insights when it comes to corporate social investment and giving back to get more.

What I say though is that my research in speaking to the biggest and most successful companies in Australia suggests that this is one very, very important lever towards greater profitability and greater success. So please, amidst your mix of marketing of a traditional nature, opening more branches, being more accessible, whatever it might be, please don't ignore the very, very powerful returns that can be gained if you can enhance your brand through your involvement with the community.

As consumers, there are certain products that we develop deep and enduring relationships with over the course of our lives. So how do you market to an audience of cereal monogamists?

Consumption can be a fickle beast, making marketing for everyday products like cereal, particularly challenging. So how do you effectively market your brand to an audience that is increasingly complex, in a market that is increasingly saturated?

This week on The CMO Show, Mark and JV break bread with Karl Miller, director of digital strategy at The Kellogg Company. With revenue in excess of 14 billion US dollars in 2014, and a mile-long list of products that retail for under five dollars, Karl faces an incredible marketing challenge from a digital perspective.

"Cereal has about a 98% household penetration in the US," he said. "But that's really the challenge; getting our brands off the classic features and benefits that they've been communicating through TV ads for the last fifty to seventy five years at this point. I'm beginning to focus in on what can often be viewed as softer play. We've got the opportunity to talk about the brand and what the brand does, and what the consumers are really looking for from an emotive perspective."

Humour is an enduring and powerful tool, and one that marketers all-too-often overlook in their hurry to build human connections. But believe it or not, laughter and comedy are likely to resonate long beyond all other emotions.

This week on The CMO Show, Mark and JV attempt to uncover what it is that makes humour such a powerful and useful tool in the content marketing game. International comedian Tim Washer also drops in to chat to Mark about the role of humour in the workplace and in marketing by sharing some of his insights from his time at Cisco and IBM.

The not-so-secret to content marketing success is simple to say, but difficult to execute: Think like a brand, act like a publisher.

This week on The CMO Show, Mark Jones and JV Douglas are joined by Tim Moran, Editor in Chief at Adobe's CMO.com and accidental content marketer. With more than 20 years' experience in publishing, Moran shares his thoughts on the rise of content marketing, the transformation of publishing models over the past two decades, and the ongoing success of CMO.com.

Moran explains why an intimate knowledge of audience, and a strong editorial voice are powerful enablers in this emerging space.

This special episode of The CMO Show features a line-up of international guests, including co-founder and creative director at Velocity Partners, Doug Kessler; VP content solutions at St. Joseph Media, Jacqueline Loch; B2B content and inbound marketing creative at Lexmark, Jannay Oiknine; CEO and founder of Altura Interactive, Zeph Snapp; and marketing communications manager at Medical Mutual, Betsy O'Connell.

The largest in-person content marketing event of its kind, Content Marketing World is estimated to have made an almost $3.6 million impact on the local economy, as more than 3,500 attendees descended on Cleveland for the week.

And the take-home message? It appears that storytelling is front and centre when it comes to successful content marketing strategies. Speaker Michael Brenner told the audience that content marketers should approach marketing as if it's their job to tell stories that focus on the customer, not the brand. Quoting Ann Handley, Brenner reinforced the advice: "Take your brand out of the story—make your customers the hero."

The move from CMO to CEO is one that's becoming increasingly common, as customer experience continues to drive brand growth and awareness.

This week, in a CMO Show exclusive, Nick Baker sheds light on his recent transition from CMO at Tourism Australia to CEO at Australia's leading gift experience retailer, RedBalloon. Crediting his strong creative background as having prepared him for the move, Baker talks about the knowledge it takes to succeed at the leadership table, as well as why brands have more success when they listen to their customers. It's imperative to take note of what a customer thinks of your brand, rather than what you want them to think, he said.

The challenge of being a modern marketer is staying connected with more people, staying on top of a million emails, making time for face-to-face networking that is effective and efficient, and getting productivity out of the whole of your life – not only your work.

In this week's episode of The CMO Show, hosts Mark and JV are joined by world productivity and time management expert, Cyril Peupion, who teaches them all about the zone of peak performance and what it means to think quarterly, plan weekly and act daily. He also shares thoughts from his book, Work Smarter, Live Better.

When it comes to content marketing there are a few words on everyone's minds: Creation, curation, aggregation and dissemination.

On this week's episode of The CMO Show, co-hosts Mark Jones and JV Douglas talk about the impacts of the curation economy and whether or not that age-old adage actually holds any truth: Is sharing really caring?

Susannah George, the founder and managing director of The Urban List, also drops by to share her thoughts on how to utilise your content marketing strategy to engage your audience, especially given the projected growth from this sector in the coming year.

The marketing marathon: how to avoid the burnout.

Marketers today face so many distractions that it's increasingly difficult to strike a balance between work and life, setting and achieving goals and maintaining focus and motivation.

This week, Glenn Dobson, managing director of the KONA Group and Iron Man triathlete, chats to co-hosts Mark Jones and JV Douglas about staying motivated, why empowerment is a redundant concept in HR and how to set new goals and challenges.