As we approach 2021 with cautious optimism for what the new year brings, the lessons from 2020 likely won’t leave us anytime soon. While some businesses have thrived, others have had to shift entirely or risk becoming obsolete. Regardless, we have all had to change our marketing strategies.
In this free virtual event, we’ll help you understand what trends are here to stay and what shifts are coming in 2021. You’ll gain the actionable insights, digital tools and strategic best practices you need to make an impact in the new year.
Registration is free!
January 26, 2020 (ALL TIMES ARE CST)
Opening Keynote: Making Sense of 2020 to Win Big in 2021
Last year taught us all some hard lessons. Do not let yourself squander the insights. As your organization’s chief communicators, marketers set the tone for what to talk about and how to say it so people will listen. In this hyper-competitive, chaotic new normal, that means your knowledge of trends and insights is more important than ever before. Efficient, effective communication hinges on a marketer’s ability to build great strategies and translate them to strong execution. So, what are the stories worth telling right now, and what tools will you need to tell them well?
As the CEO of both a digital marketing agency and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) firm, here are the most important movements I am seeing across multiple industries that will help you win both personally and professionally: diversity and inclusion, authenticity, social media and data fluency, and continuous, competitive learning.
Let’s make sense of 2020 and learn actionable steps you can take to win big in 2021.
Donald Thompson
Founder, The Diversity Movement | CEO, Walk West
The New Roaring ‘20s: Accelerate Your Digital Transformation to Facilitate Connections and Fuel Growth
The way we connect with one another and our audiences changed forever in 2020, and will continue to evolve in 2021. In the earliest days of the pandemic, many businesses recognized that their only hope for survival, and of maintaining the integrity of their brand, was to adapt. This required that they change the way teams work and collaborate — basically, their entire process. It also meant companies had to accelerate the pace of their digital transformation.
In this session, we’ll share our best tips for what teams need to focus on to continue to grow in 2021, including flexible planning for the future, understanding customer needs, improving internal processes, and creating valuable products and services. We’ll also discuss why using collaborative work management technology, such as Wrike, is essential for teams to connect with each other and ultimately companies with their audiences. You’ll discover the many ways Wrike can help make your teams more efficient and productive to exceed your 2021 goals.
Heidi Cerenzia
VP of Global Demand Generation, Wrike
Rory Schaff
Senior Social Media Manager, Wrike
Mariam Vanyan
Head of Marketing Operations, Wrike
A Matter of Moments: Customer Experience and Digital Transformation in the Year Ahead
2020 brought a seismic shift to an already quickly evolving market and accelerated meaningful shifts in customer behavior. Customers are increasingly interested in engaging with brands that share their principles, that are environmentally and socially responsible, that are honest, helpful, and sincere. There’s never been a better time to evaluate how we communicate, both to our visitors and to internal teams, and to take a hard look at the experiences that help us build trust and relationships with our audience.
From brand values to data privacy to content creation, we’ll explore specific opportunities brands have in the coming year to reshape their customer experiences and redefine digital transformation for their organizations.
Jacqueline Baxter
Senior Digital Strategy Consultant, Sitecore
Brand Templating: The Secret to Creating More Effective Content That Gets Results
The buying process for your customers has changed. Content now fuels every step of the buyer journey. But as more and more content is published everyday it can be hard for brands to keep up with demand. Meanwhile, most content created falls short of expectations for consumers and for the brands creating it.
In this webinar, Garrett Jestice will discuss how brand templating can help you create more effective content at scale that grows your business without overburdening your central creative team.
You’ll learn:
- How the buying process has changed for customers
- The key elements of truly effective content that gets results
- The 10 most common template mistakes brands make and how to fix them
Garrett Jestice
Head of Marketing, Lucidpress
January 27, 2020 (ALL TIMES ARE CST)
Keynote: Cutting Through Clutter with Brand Innovation
The world is getting more and more cluttered. Competition is intensifying. The consumer is bombarded by 5,000 commercial messages every single day. As technology has continually evolved in the last several decades, marketing has to change with it. If you want to cut through the clutter, brand innovation is necessary.
Join Raja as he shares the importance of brand transformation for a brand to remain relevant and be successful.
Raja Rajamannar
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer & President, Healthcare, Mastercard
Demand Generation Planning Session: How to Stand Out in 2021
An ever-changing environment can shift business priorities in an instant, but one thing remains the same — demand generation has significant impact on the bottom line. So, what happens in 2021? And how can we prepare?
Join Hayley Ferrante, Head of Marketo Engage Commercial Demand Generation, Adobe Experience Cloud, for her demand generation planning session.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
- How to achieve growth with limited resources
- Why and how intent data can be a core part of your strategy
- Simple tactics and optimization techniques to move the needle
Hayley Ferrante
Head of Marketo Engage Commercial Demand Generation, Adobe Experience Cloud
The Stock of Stories is Up: Storytelling is Having (Another) Moment, and There’s A Clear Reason Why.
2020 taught us a million lessons in resilience and loss, leaving each of us with stories of perseverance and pain. Following an extraordinary year of disconnect, we need stories more than ever to find connection. Storytelling isn’t a buzzword: it’s a neurological process for sense-making. In the year ahead, marketers and teams who leverage the power of story will win, while those who neglect it will fall behind.
Join seasoned storyteller Kevin Doherty in this session to look at why storytelling works, tropes you can be using in your content, and guidance for how to embed storytelling in your 2021 performance campaigns. For inspiration, we’ll take a look at one example where Vyond’s marketing team made a measurable impact with story-driven content.
Takeaways:
- The brain-backed case for visual storytelling
- How marketers can use storytelling tropes like character development, the hero’s journey, and cliffhangers
- Tips and inspiration for creating your own story-driven campaigns
Kevin Doherty
Marketing Communications Manager, Vyond
January 28, 2020 (ALL TIMES ARE CST)
Keynote: The Future of Smart Digital Marketing Amidst Cybersecurity and Privacy Challenges
This opening keynote session will look at emerging and futuristic technologies for smart digital marketing in 2021 and beyond. In a digital world where digital marketing opportunities are boundless, it is important to build in cybersecurity and privacy as well as comply with relevant law while taking advantage of all that smart digital marketing has to offer.
As marketers, rather than getting frustrated about how to implement and comply, it is better to be deliberate about cybersecurity and privacy and how these can impact or even enhance your smart digital marketing strategies. Three key smart digital marketing strategies will be analyzed.
Dr. Raj Sachdev, D.B.A.
Dean & Assistant Professor of Marketing, Robert W. Plaster School of Business, Columbia College
Why A First-Party Data Strategy is Crucial to Providing a Stellar Customer Experience
Third-party data is quickly becoming second class. With so many new privacy regulations and browser changes depreciating the value of third-party data, companies now need to shift to a first-party data strategy to continue their personalization initiatives and reduce the risk of data regulation penalties. Hear why it matters more than ever, how to get it, and how to put it to use safely and effectively.
You’ll leave this session knowing:
- The benefits of a first-party data strategy
- The use cases that are possible with a first-party data strategy
- Tips for building a first-party data strategy
The time to start developing a first-party data strategy is now!
Matt Parisi
Director of Product Marketing, Tealium
Closing Keynote: The Three Building Blocks of Successful Leadership
We’re always emerging as leaders. It can be a challenging quest. That’s because the pursuit of leadership excellence is as elusive as it is never ending – especially these days.
Dr. Jessica McWade’s presentation will examine three of the most essential and difficult aspects of developing leadership excellence – emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication, and persuasiveness. This presentation will help attendees consider their approaches to leading or developing themselves as future leaders while providing strategies for improvement.
What better time than right now to reflect on and build our leadership capabilities?
Jessica McWade
President, McWade Group
Donald Thompson
Founder, The Diversity Movement | CEO, Walk WestWith two decades of experience leading firms, Donald Thompson is a thought leader on goal achievement, influencing company culture and driving exponential growth. He has successfully grown and sold several technology and marketing firms to international corporations. Since becoming CEO, Walk West has been recognized by Inc 5000 as the fastest growing marketing firm in North Carolina in 2018, 2019 and 2020. As a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE), he conducts workshops with C-suite executives who are looking to develop, expand or optimize their diversity, equity and inclusion practice. Donald is a keynote speaker, a weekly contributor for WRAL TechWire and the author of several books.
Raja Rajamannar
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer & President, Healthcare, MastercardRaja Rajamannar is an accomplished global marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience, the last six of which have been in the role of Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Mastercard and President of the company’s healthcare business. Raja is consistently recognized globally as a highly innovative and transformational leader in his field. Some of this recent accolades include: Global Marketer of the Year award by the World Federation of Advertisers, top 5 “World’s Most Influential CMOs” by Forbes, top 10 “World’s Most Innovative CMOs” by Business Insider, and inductee to The CMO Club Hall of Fame. He has also been recognized as one of AdWeek’s most tech-savvy CMOs. He recently assumed the honorary role of President of the World Federation of Advertisers. Raja has also been recognized by ANA Educational Foundation as the Marketer of the Year in 2019.
At Mastercard, Raja is responsible for successfully leading the company’s marketing transformation, including the integration of the Marketing and Communication functions, the development of its Priceless experiential platforms, and the creation and deployment of cutting edge marketing-led business models into the core of the company. Raja has overseen the successful evolution of Mastercard’s identity for the digital age, pioneering Mastercard’s move to become a symbol brand, and launching its breakthrough sonic brand platform. Interbrand has ranked Mastercard as the fastest growing brand across all industries and categories, worldwide in 2019.
Raja regularly delivers keynote speeches at esteemed marketing and business industry events, including the World Economic Forum, Cannes Lions, CES, SXSW, and Advertising Week. The marketing transformation work led by Raja at Mastercard has been developed into case studies at both Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management, and taught in top academic institutions around the world.
Dr. Raj Sachdev, D.B.A.
Dean & Assistant Professor of Marketing, Robert W. Plaster School of Business, Columbia CollegeDr. Raj Sachdev is a Professor, Dean, International Speaker, Researcher, and International Lawyer and holds several degrees and certifications spanning marketing, technology, and law. A graduate of Oxford University, he is a former visiting researcher at UC Berkeley and Stanford Instructor. A Tedx speaker, he has also spoken globally at such places as Oxford, Cambridge, and Stanford Universities and at major Industry Conferences/Events. He has taught over 50 different courses at various institutions over the past 17+ years and has visited over 25 countries.
Jessica McWade
President, McWade GroupJessica McWade is President of McWade Group and previously served as EVP, Maguire Associates. She specializes in leader, team, strategy, and brand development. She was also Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Communications, Raytheon; Director, Corporate Communications, Textron; and Director, Corporate Affairs, BankBoston.
Jessica is past president of the World Affairs Council of Boston and trustee of SEA Education Association. She earned an Ed.D. from George Washington University and also holds degrees from Harvard, NYU, and Boston University.
She’s author of the 2017 book This Moment: Reflections on Leading, Learning, Laughing, and Living and delivered a TEDTalk on leadership in 2018.
Heidi Cerenzia
VP of Global Demand Generation, WrikeHeidi Cerenzia is the VP of Global Demand Generation at Wrike. She oversees the entire demand generation function, including integrated campaigns, field and virtual events, customer and partner marketing. Among her accomplishments at Wrike is a recently built Marketing Development Representative (MDR) team. With more than 20 years of marketing and demand generation experience, Cerenzia has developed a data-driven approach to developing outbound demand generation strategies.
Before joining Wrike, she was the VP of Demand Generation at Vera Security. Previously, Cerenzia held positions at Bromium, AlienVault, and HP Enterprise Security, among other organizations. She lives in the Bay Area with her Schnoodle, Rocky, and is an avid San Francisco Giants fan!
Rory Schaff
Senior Social Media Manager, WrikeRory Schaff is a Senior Social Media Manager at Wrike. She oversees the company’s global social media program, providing strategic counsel and managing tactical implementation in order to maximize Wrike’s story. Prior to Wrike, Schaff was a Digital Media Manager at McGrath/Power Public Relations & Communications in San Jose, Calif.
She spent 10 years collaborating with a diverse array of brands to craft and convey stories that illustrate brand history, mission, and differentiation across digital and traditional communications channels. Outside of work, she is passionate about exploring the great Pacific Northwest, playing tennis, running, and reading.
Mariam Vanyan
Head of Marketing Operations, WrikeMariam Vanyan is Head of Marketing Operations at Wrike. She oversees email marketing, localization, and marketing automation. In addition to these, she works closely with the Wrike website development team to allow for scalability and agility. In Mariam’s over seven years of marketing experience, she’s managed various initiatives, including a full brand refresh for Wrike and GDPR implementation within both marketing and cross-functional teams. She sees her team role not only as a backbone for other marketing teams, but also as a valuable strategic partner for the whole marketing organization.
Outside of Wrike, you can always find Mariam with a book in hand. She loves to read both fiction and non-fiction books at the same time. Her favorite fiction author is John Fowles, and her favorite non-fiction author is Jarod Mason Diamond.
Jacqueline Baxter
Senior Digital Strategy Consultant, SitecoreJacqueline Baxter believes in building collaborative relationships and leveraging technology to positively transform people and businesses. With a range of experience implementing content and social media strategy, marketing automation plans, and conversion optimization tactics, she is a fan of social engagement and employee advocacy driven by high-quality, relevant content.
Garrett Jestice
Head of Marketing, LucidpressGarrett has over a decade of experience marketing brands both large and small. In 2015 he joined to help launch Lucidpress and loves knowing his work helps improve the workloads (and lives) of marketers and creatives around the world.
Garrett is also the host of Brand Land, a weekly podcast interviewing leading marketers and creatives on topics related to brand building. Prior to Lucidpress, Garrett worked at Target in Minneapolis where he led various marketing, strategy, and brand management initiatives.
Hayley Ferrante
Head of Marketo Engage Commercial Demand Generation, Adobe Experience CloudHayley is the Head of Marketo Engage Commercial Demand Generation, Adobe Experience Cloud. She oversees DG activities across the funnel while partnering with other cross-functional marketing teams and sales teams. She relocated from California to Colorado and when she’s not working, she enjoys yoga, cooking, and spending time with friends and family.
Kevin Doherty
Marketing Communications Manager, VyondKevin Doherty is a marketer and storyteller for Vyond: a cloud-based animation studio that allows anybody to make media that moves. An alumnus of UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film, & Television, Kevin specializes in using principles from the entertainment industry to create powerful brand engagement for organizations like AT&T, Bank of America, Banza, and more. As an agile team leader, Kevin enjoys empowering teams to spark meaningful value through impactful storytelling.
Matt Parisi
Director of Product Marketing, TealiumMatt Parisi is the Director of Product Marketing at Tealium. He has over 15 years of strategic marketing experience across both traditional and digital marketing channels. His experience spans industries working both at consultancies and client-side.
