This newly reformulated C-Suite track at Search Engine Strategies San Jose takes the conference to a new level by providing a truly strategic view into the mind of the CMO.
With the exception of the last session, the track is agency free. Only actual senior marketers from large and small brands are speaking. Not that agencies don’t have anything to offer in this track, we wanted to hear from the marketer themselves what is happening and why is it just so damn hard to close that digital divide and make search a larger part of the overall marketing mix.
I have been knocking a the C-Suite for over 10 years trying to get them to understand search and have been the most successful when I put it into terms they can understand.
The C-Suite and the average Search Marketer are in two different worlds and until we in the search community can learn how they think and speak a language they understand we will never gain the mind and budget share search marketing rightfully deserves. As humbling as it is, Search Marketing is just not that important to take up much time in the mind of the CMO. It is not until we can understand and then integrate with those key concerns that we will get deeper into the organization.
We have created a special hash tag for the track to start getting questions and comments in advance post them on Twitter using #sescmo. If you have something you want to make sure gets covered, a question for the speakers post it at that hash tag and we will integrate it into the event.
The following is my interpretation of the sessions and the link to the actual description.
The Adaptive CMO: A New Paradigm for Digital Marketing
The first session will be a solo session from my previous boss, Brian Fetherstonhaugh, the Chairman & CEO, OgilvyOne Worldwide.
I suggested Brian for this session since he has a perspective that is unlike most at a large ad agency and the CMO’s he works with that needs to be shared with the SES audience.
Brian’s session will set the stage for this C-Suite track and will provide a strategic view of how marketing is constantly evolving and will define the critical role that search must play. He will describe the Mind of the CMO and what we as Search Marketers must to get time in that crowded space.
I look to Brian to motivate the audience and speakers to understand the CMO’s agenda and how we can collaborate with other marketing disciplines and tear down the silos. To understand we need to stop running individual races but join forces and work on passing the baton between activities to increase the performance and return on precious marketing dollars rather than competing for time and budget.
The View From the CMO’s Office
The second session of the morning tries to help us understand that illusive mind of the CMO and how they view search to get a better understanding of how we can work to push the right buttons to achieve greater awareness and a larger share of the pie.
I will moderate this presentation free session in the form of a Q&A with these senior marketers to really try to understand why there is a disconnect and how we can move forward in a more collaborative manner. The goal of this session is to explore what we can learn from each other. What do we as search marketers have to do to make the CMO’s more aware of the value of search and social marketing activities.
The panelists of this session will represent the challenges of the CMO from two viewpoints: the traditional CMO and the CMO who has made the move to digital. The speakers for this session will provide interesting and candid insights into their world that we can all benefit from. I will do my best Larry King to try and pull from them the things that keep them awake at night and what keeps them from spending larger shares of their marketing budgets on digital techniques.
The panelists for this session are:
- Gina Poole, Vice President, IBM Software Group Marketing 2.0, IBM
- Liz Miller, Vice President, Programs & Operations, CMO Council
- Kevin M. Ryan, CMO, WebVisible, Inc.
Integration: The New CMO Imperative
Fionn Downhill, CEO & President, Elixir Interactive will moderate this session which was one of the most popular at SES New York. Fionn will get to the heart of the issue that Brian will discuss – the CMO Imperative of integrating digital into the overall marketing mix.
The session will discuss the popularity of sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook and how brands increasingly need to engage with their customers outside their website. The speakers promise to offer proven strategies for increasing brand awareness and protecting brand equity in today’s socially connected web as well as tactics that can be implemented in today’s resource and budget constrained environment.
Panelists for this session include:
- Jessica Kornacki, Vice President of Marketing, Endless Vacation Rentals® by Wyndham Worldwide
- Sam Decker, Chief Marketing Officer, Bazaarvoice, Inc.
- Gary Spangler, Corporate E-Marketing, DuPont
Budget Migration: Going Digital Without Impacting Your Brand
Fionn is up again moderating this next session on how to effectively shift money into search and social media. As I have always said there is “no new money” and we have to demonstrate how we will spend it as well and preferably better as the tactic we took the money from.
The speakers for this panel have been chosen since they have successfully redeployed significant resources from TV, radio and print and into digital tactics and they lessons they have learned around developing a business case, metrics and collaborating with other tactics to get maximum value from their budgets.
Panelists for this session include:
- Crispin Sheridan, Senior Director of Search Marketing Strategy, SAP Marketing
- Eli Goodman, Search Evangelist, comScore, Inc.
Performance Pricing Models: What Every CMO Must Know!
With many marketing organizations feeling the pain of financial pressures, pay for performance-pricing models are gaining popularity in search today. And why not, if search and social are the greatest and most effective marketing tactics why don’t we reward performance?
In realty it is nearly impossible to do. Brands don’t have or won’t deploy the metrics and infrastructure necessary to truly measure success that would reward the agency. Even if they do have the metrics to demonstrate success many marketers are shocked at how much they actually have to pay in a performance program.
While it sounds daunting there is hope. The panelists in this session will cover the keys to developing a successful pay for performance pricing model including a thorough overview of the concept, how it can be applicable to both PPC and SEO, the chief benefits it offers. Moderated by Andrew Goodman from Page Zero Media will ensure attendees will receive actionable advice on the critical success factors needed to make a pay for performance model work, including the role of goals, benchmarking, performance metrics, historical data, scenario analysis, and tracking.
Panelists for this session include:
- Paul Wilson, Chief Revenue Officer, iProspect
- Andrew Beckman, President, Location3 Media
- Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate 2
I am looking forward to this track to help both senior marketers as well as search marketers understand the role and value of the other and forge new ground, ideas and approaches to better integrating search into the marketing mix for exponential success.
Register now to be part of this ground-breaking event!