Marketing Operations at Work

The upcoming Marketing Operations conference in Hollywood November 12–13 looks to be the best MO event Henry Stewart has ever produced. What’s that, you say? Wasn’t it you, Gary, who wrote just this Spring about the limitations of the event — the small audience, the even smaller number of potential buyers, how the MO side is the ugly stepsister of the DAM (Digital Asset Management) event it is co-hosted with.

All true, and certainly those problems haven’t gone away overnight. The DAM event is still the behemoth. But take a look at the focus of MO conference program, how the conference is now being promoted and the quality of speakers that are presenting. Big improvement!

Marketing Operations now has a dedicated two-day track and, alas, the acronym MOM (Marketing Operations Management) has finally been abandoned in the conference and track titles.

The conference has evolved from a technology showcase and place to learn the fundamentals to an interactive opportunity to share experience with peers and practically apply tested and proven best practice approaches in support of a broader yet clearer vision and framework of effective Marketing Operations.

Henry Stewart Events has also hired a professional public relations firm, CommPros Group, which is instituting a variety of marketing initiatives to help create a more sustained dialogue with the press. Look for a quarterly e-newsletter. More regular news on industry and technology trends and announcements throughout the year. Even a long-overdue press room at the conference itself.

That’s very well-and-good, Gary, but marketing is just marketing. Where’s the beef?

Well, a great example of premium prime rib is the impressive cast of senior marketing executives and big-name companies the conference staff, led by new Henry Stewart Events Managing Partner John Gaylor and Conference Producer Russell Hale, has secured to speak at the LA event. Here’s a few examples:

* Nortel VPs of Marketing, Peter Finter

* Cisco CMO Sue Bostrom’s recent Chief-of-Staff, Rob Redford (not the actor), who now is VP of Relationship Marketing

* IBM’s Marketing Systems Director, Michael Macdonald (not the Doobie Brothers’ performer)

* Wells Fargo’s SVP of Online Customer Management, Shawn Mielke

* JP Morgan Chase Investment Banks’ VP, Technology, Tools & Processes, Carrie Nedrow (a Six Sigma Black Belt who previously led Intuit’s Marketing Effectiveness team)

Some of the other client-side speakers are from respected companies like Amgen, Burger King, Cisco WebEx, eBay, Seagate and Sprint. On the consulting side, Marketing Operations thought leaders such as Marketing Transformation Services’ Beth Weesner, IDC CMO Adisory Practice Dirctor Michael Gerard and Michael Moon of Gistics are also presenting.

Oh, and yes, I’ll be there in multiple roles. I’ll be the Marketing Operations track chair for both days. I’ll also be speaking on Best Practices in Marketing Operations: Benchmarking Results from 80+ companies and co-moderating with Laura Patterson of VisionEdge Marketing “Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Marketing Performance: An Executive Roundtable.” The impressive panel includes:

* Joe Schwartz, Director, WW Marketing Operations and Segment Marketing, Cisco WebEx

* William Coker, Sr Manager, Marketing Operations, Seagate Technology

* Jill Rowley, Director of Key Accounts, Eloqua

* Tony Priore, Chief Marketing Officer, Biz360

* Jerry Levy, Vice President of Global Marketing, Agility Logistics

* Mukund Mohan, VP of Marketing, Inovis

In between my presentation and the executive roundtable, Laura will also be speaking on ”Using Dashboards to Improve Marketing Accountability.”

Here are descriptions for the three sessions:

Best Practices in Marketing Operations: Benchmarking Study Results from 80+ Companies

CMOs are under the gun. Expectations for Marketing are accelerating. The call for accountability and ROI is deafening. Yet average CMO tenure is barely more than two years, less than half that of the average CEO. To address these challenges, increasingly more enterprises are turning to Marketing Operations (MO) to run Marketing like a fully accountable business. This session includes a presentation of findings and insights from a recent benchmarking study conducted by Marketing Operations Partners on how companies are leveraging MO with increasing sophistication and impact. Some of the key insights from the study include:

•  How Marketing Operations as a formalized and focused discipline delivers greater accountability and strategic impact to company performance

•  Why sales and stakeholder alignment, socialization and communication are of equal importance to automation, process, dashboards and scorecards

•  Key drivers in the journey from inception to maturity in Marketing Operations best practices.

•  The role of supportive culture, clear goals and executive sponsorship as key success factors for progress.

Using Marketing Dashboards to Improve Marketing Accountability

Marketers everywhere are being asked to demonstrate their contribution and value to the organization. CMO’s, Marketing VPs and Directors all are seeking a framework for organizational alignment and continuous improvement. Many marketers these days find that measuring and improving marketing requires defining and tracking the right metrics and then developing a meaningful way to present the data.

•  What is a Marketing Dashboard?

•  Why you need one?

•  Key marketing metrics for every dashboard

•  The dashboard development process

•  Examples of dashboards

Best Practices for Managing and Measuring Marketing Performance: An Executive Roundtable

As Marketing leaders become more experienced and sophisticated in how they demonstrate the value and contribution of Marketing to their C-level executive teams, both Marketing and Marketing Operations grow in stature and influence.  Marketing executives from SMBs to large enterprises will share their best practices and key insights from their ongoing journeys into marketing accountability.   Panelists will offer their insights into:

•  Trials and tribulations on the journey to marketing accountability

•  The marketing metrics they chose and why

•  The role and scope of Marketing Operations in their organizations, including what is and isn’t working

•  Their marketing dashboard development process and challenges

•  Practical recommendations for creating a dashboard

•  Guidance for securing executive leadership and buy-in for the Marketing Operations function and key initiatives

•  Lessons learned

Like I said before, big improvement! And it can only get better if we attract the right people in the audience. So what are you waiting for? Book your ticket to LA today and join us in Hollywood for the best Henry Stewart MO production ever.

Gary