From Marketer to Influencer to Global Brand Shaper

Panel Overview and Strategy Definitions

• The panel "From Marketer to Influencer to Global Brand Shaper" featured executives from Principal Financial Group, Twitter, State Street, and BlackBerry, moderated by Cecilia Arradaza of the Milken Institute.
• Beth Brady (Principal Financial Group):
  • Defined Principal's product as a full spectrum of financial services (insurance, asset management, mutual funds).
  • Identified the core marketing challenge as making an "unwelcoming" financial industry more consumer-friendly and interesting.
  • Prioritized personalization as the leading strategy, leveraging rich data to tailor messages to specific consumer segments (e.g., millennials vs. boomers) and optimal engagement channels (TV vs. digital).
• Matt Durella (Twitter):
  • Defined Twitter's core mission as instantly connecting people with what matters to them in their world.
  • Highlighted the organization's pride in crisis response, specifically citing the 2015 Nepal earthquake where Twitter facilitated instant information dissemination for news, NGOs, and relief agencies.
  • Emphasized the need to simplify and curate hundreds of millions of daily users and vast content streams.
• Hannah Groove (State Street):
  • Defined State Street as a B2B provider of investment servicing, trading, research, and data analytics to a finite global client base of approximately 3,000 institutions.
  • Identified "clutter" and the need to differentiate in a B2B space as a primary challenge.
  • Cited the company's TED Talk sponsorship (7 million+ views) as a key engagement tactic to foster dialogue rather than self-promotion.
  • Initiated an NPS (Net Promoter Score) pilot to drive client advocacy and loyalty, a metric less common in B2B than retail.
• Mark Wilson (BlackBerry):
  • Clarified BlackBerry's business is no longer just consumer devices but includes enterprise software and the Internet of Things (IoT).
  • Revealed BlackBerry technology powers 60 million cars (including Audi) and 20% of medical devices.
  • Executed a strategic pivot over the last 18 months from consumer entertainment to mobile professionals and enterprise security.
  • Positioned security as a critical business imperative, citing high-profile hacks (Anthem, Home Depot, President Obama's email) and the high market value of medical records ($500) versus financial records ($5).

Organizational Transformation and Team Structure

• Shift from Cost Center to Revenue Center:
  • The panel agreed marketing is transitioning from a perceived cost center to a strategic revenue driver powered by data and technology.
  • Beth Brady noted that within four years, over 50% of technology investments in any company will be marketing-related.
• Cross-Functional Integration:
  • Principal Financial Group is co-owning its digital roadmap with the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO), breaking the historical "arm wrestling" dynamic between marketing and tech.
  • State Street has "blurred the lines" between traditional marketing disciplines (media, creative) to create specialist teams facing specific client segments, ensuring a seamless client experience.
  • The "digital roadmap" at Principal is categorized into three buckets: transactions, communications, and analytics.
• Human Capital and Hiring Trends:
  • Marketing Technologists: Identified as the fastest-growing role in marketing, requiring a blend of software, agency, and client-side experience.
  • Creative Destruction: Beth Brady noted the industry requires constant iteration; failing programs must be abandoned, and successful ones must be reinvented to avoid market saturation.
  • Writing Skills: Beth Brady identified skilled writers and journalists as the most difficult skill set to find, emphasizing the need to simplify complex financial jargon.
  • Industry Experts: Twitter is shifting hiring away from pure sales roles toward industry experts (financial services, tech) who can empathize with and simplify CMO challenges.
  • Critical Thinking: The panel prioritized hiring for critical thinking skills over rote execution to leverage automation for routine tasks.

Data, Analytics, and Measurement

• Digitization of Human Culture:
  • Matt Durella described digitization as the "digitization of human culture," where every aspect of human preference is revealed digitally, enabling unprecedented data mining.
  • A Stanford study cited indicates Facebook can predict a user's personality more accurately than colleagues, family, or even a spouse based on interaction data.
• Advanced Attribution Modeling:
  • Beth Brady highlighted the shift from multi-month test cycles to instantaneous measurement via social listening.
  • The panel discussed "multi-touch attribution modeling," which uses regression models to weigh every consumer touchpoint to determine which combinations drive transactions.
• Specific ROI Case Studies:
  • Anheuser-Busch: Utilized Twitter and third-party data (Datalogix) for a "Friends Are Waiting" campaign, achieving a $6 return on ad spend for every dollar invested on Twitter.
  • State Street: Measures success based on the sales team's ability to activate marketing-generated "surround sound" content.
  • MIT Study: Presented a matrix showing companies in the "Open Ecosystem" quadrant (high consumer engagement + strong digital business design) have the best margins; Principal aims to move from the "Supplier" quadrant toward this ideal.
• Data Privacy and Security:
  • Mark Wilson stated that at BlackBerry, access to personal message data is strictly prohibited ("you're going to get fired") to protect user privacy.
  • Twitter partners with third parties like Nielsen and DataLogix to validate campaign impact on sales without compromising user trust.

Audience Engagement and Forward-Looking Statements

• Trust as a Core Metric:
  • The panel concluded that trust is the foundational element for all marketing strategies, starting internally with employee culture and ambassadors.
  • State Street views its 30,000 employees as the primary ambassadors of trust, while Principal embeds communicators across the company to simplify complex regulatory messages.
• Communication Strategy:
  • The panel advocated for a global ban on "jargon" and "powerpoint," favoring storytelling and "experience-near language" over technical metrics.
  • Beth Brady challenged employees to explain strategies as if speaking to their grandmother to ensure clarity and relevance.
• Future Outlook:
  • The role of the CMO is evolving to require deep integration with business strategy, with marketing decisions directly linked to revenue goals and execution.
  • The "creative destroyer" mindset will be essential for future marketing teams to constantly iterate and avoid stagnation.