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Integrate & Ignite | Marketing Insights to Inspire

The Integrate & Ignite podcast explores the nature of what it means to be at the helm of marketing decisions. Every episode is crafted to make people think, to spark some “aha!” moments, and to illustrate just how important a truly integrated marketing strategy and a solid, inspired brand presence is to success and longevity. Your host, Lori Jones, is the President & CEO of Avocet Communications, and she has over 30 years of integrated marketing experience. Lori has interviewed over 300 top business leaders on the show with backgrounds in B2B and B2C from brands such as General Motors, IBM, McDonald's, and Netsuite. It is the wisest and most successful of leaders that know the value of advice, that can listen, and that can also share their experiences with others. Whether you're a CEO, a CMO, Marketing Director, or an entrepreneur who wears many hats, this podcast is for you. For more information and Show Notes, go to www.avocetcommunications.com
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Now displaying: 2018
Dec 31, 2018

“We are in a knowledge economy and we have got to continue to invest in our talent.”

Janine Davidson, Ph.D., is the president of Metropolitan State University of Denver, the state’s third-largest public university, serving more than 20,000 students in high-quality, career-oriented undergraduate and graduate academic programs. As president, she has listed her top three priorities as 1) students, 2) students, and 3) students, and has become known on campus for her relatable personality. She’s one of few university presidents who is as comfortable in board meetings as she is playing ping pong with undergraduates. Prior to joining the University, Davidson served as the 32nd undersecretary of the United States Navy, where she managed all Department of the Navy affairs including acquisition, finance, personnel, legislative affairs, research and development, and was responsible for the health and well-being of nearly 900,000 sailors, marines, civilians, and their families.

 

Listen And Learn:

• The unique challenges facing leaders in higher education.
• Her commitment to meeting a market need in higher education.
• How she put in place a student-focused infrastructure.
• Her approach to “inclusive leadership.”
• How leadership at a university is a hybrid between “being a mayor and being a CEO.”

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT METROPOLITAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF DENVERCLICK HERE.

TO FIND DR. JANINE DAVIDSON ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Dec 19, 2018

“One percent of your week will determine what happens with the other 99% of your week.”

Rob Shallenberger, CEO of Becoming Your Best Global Leadership, is one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership and execution. He has trained and coached hundreds of companies around the world, including many Fortune 500 organizations. He served as an F-16 fighter pilot in the Air Force for 11 years and was an Advance Agent for Air Force One. He is co-author, along with his father, of The Transformation Challenge, and works with clients to help them discover how to make communication easier and clearer, live in greater peace and balance, manage time effectively, more persuasively lead others with an inspiring vision, and to embrace change—not fear it. 

Listen And Learn:

  • The 12 Principles of Highly Effective Leaders.
  • Insights into how companies can create cultures by design not default.
  • The pre-week planning process that is instrumental in creating productive and engaged teams.
  • His recommendations for creating a powerful company vision, including that it “should not be dictated from the top.”
  • How truly effective leaders help their teams understand and manage the process of executing a plan.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING YOUR BEST GLOBAL LEADERSHIP CLICK HERE.

TO FIND ROB SHALLENBERGER ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Dec 17, 2018

“People should not look up for answers. They should look inside for answers.”

 Rick Miller is an unconventional turnaround specialist, sought-after speaker, servant leader, and an expert in driving sustainable growth. For over 30 years he served as a successful senior executive in roles including president and CEO in Fortune 10, Fortune 30, nonprofit, and startup companies, including AT&T Global Services and Lucent Technologies. Throughout his career, he has been recruited from the outside to turn around poor performance in difficult times. His new book, Be Chief: It's a Choice, Not a Title, helps leaders at all levels achieve their true potential.

Listen And Learn:

  • The five words he uses to define leadership: clarity, influence, energy, confidence, and impact.
  • How bringing decision making to the lowest point in the organization increases the quality of that decision-making.
  • How to build your own power compass consistent with your values and your choices.
  • Why he always starts with “who” first.
  • The courage of vulnerability.

TO FIND RICK MILLER ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

 

Dec 13, 2018

Strategy is a fancy word for making informed choices to meet your business objectives.”

Nag-Bushan Odekar, vice president and head of marketing/individual markets for Great-West Financial, is a marketing executive with superior analytical/problem-solving skills, creativity, strategic agility, and entrepreneurial drive. He began his financial services career at Fidelity Investments in 1999. Nag also has prior experience as the co-founder and CMO at ForeverCar.com, an online retailer that enables consumers to purchase and finance automobile warranties. Prior to ForeverCar, Nag was vice president of consumer marketing at Aviva (now Athene), a leader in indexed life and annuities, where he led the company’s innovation pipeline and brand strategy.

 

Listen And Learn: 

  • How connecting to a brand means offering a solution.
  • Why statistics might be interesting, but they don’t necessarily mean that they will change buyer behavior.
  • How to know the difference between objectives, strategies, planning, and tactics.
  • How to create your brand’s narrative.
  • The importance of creating emotional connections.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GREAT-WEST FINANCIAL CLICK HERE.

TO FIND NAG ODEKAR ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE. 

Dec 10, 2018

“LinkedIn is by far the easiest network in the world to go viral on.” 

AJ Wilcox is a long-time digital marketer who fell in love with the LinkedIn Ads platform back in 2011. Since then, he's scaled and managed among the world's most sophisticated accounts worldwide. In 2014, he founded B2Linked.com which specializes in LinkedIn Ads training, consulting, and account management. He is globally recognized as one of the top LinkedIn Ads experts, and he speaks with, trains, presents, and manages advertising campaigns for executives and teams around the world. To date, he and his team have managed >200 LinkedIn Ads accounts, spent a cumulative $110M+ on the platform, and have managed four of LinkedIn's top 10 accounts.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • The big difference between organic and paid LinkedIn-only marketing.
  • His Best Practices for LinkedIn advertising.
  • How to bring your AMO to your social marketing.
  • Why he recommends focusing on “matched audiences.”
  • How to become an influencer on the platform.
  • Why the currency of the Internet is a comment.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT B2LINKED.COM, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND AJ WILCOX ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

 

Dec 4, 2018

“Humans are emotional buyers.”

Jeffrey Shaw is the author of LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible. Jeffrey helps his clients understand the "lingo" of their ideal customers they want to reach and the audience they want to impact. Jeffrey believes that to understand the lingo of those you want to attract is to know their essence, their values, and what emotionally triggers them so that you stand out, and that to build a successful business is not about education or even skill set. It's about understanding the culture, mindset, values, and the way of being of those you want to serve.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • The five emotional triggers that form the basis for lingo.
  • How familiarity is the most powerful of emotions when it comes to connecting with your customers.
  • Why it’s vitally important to deeply and empathetically understand whom you want to reach and to build a business from their perspective.
  • His ultimate goal when it comes to customer connection.
  • The importance of understanding your audience’s “secret language.”
  • How personas and avatars only go so far.

 

TO FIND JEFFREY SHAW ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Dec 3, 2018

“Strategy and branding are one.”

Manny Rodriguez is the chief marketing and experience officer for UCHealth, a nationally recognized Colorado health system comprised of leading community hospitals and the region’s top academic medical center. Manny is responsible for overseeing brand, marketing, advertising, sponsorships, public relations, and patient experience. A seasoned marketing executive with proven success, Manny is an expert in brand positioning and building, consumer marketing, community marketing, and sports and entertainment marketing. At UCHealth, he established sponsorships with the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and Colorado Mammoth. He launched a new brand for UCHealth, positioning the health system as patient-centered and innovative.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • Why the corporate strategy and the brand strategy have to be the same.
  • How he has integrated virtual reality into the patient experience.
  • His tips for how to manage strategy to meet goals.
  • The importance of involving your employees in delivering your brand promise.
  • The very purposeful intention behind the brand’s tagline.
  • Why he doesn’t want to talk about “us.”

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT UCHEALTH, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND MANNY RODRIGUEZ ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 29, 2018

“It’s about harnessing the love.”

Gavin Zuchlinski is the founder of Acuity Scheduling, a platform with a mission to be “the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves.” He is a self-professed tech geek and believes wholeheartedly that business should be fun. Acuity Scheduling supports over 50,000 businesses of all sizes, from people working for themselves to major corporations with thousands of employees. The company’s customer support focuses on easy and pain-free scheduling with one-on-one support as they help their client’s businesses grow and thrive.

Listen And Learn:

  • How he uses audience personas to understand and engage with his core customers.
  • About his strategic approach to SEO.
  • How he taps into his customer base of over 70,000 people to help amplify the brand’s message.
  • The importance of sharing leadership’s vision with all departments so that the brand’s message is conveyed at all customer touch points.
  • His approach to hiring a remote team.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ACUITY SCHEDULING, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND GAVIN ZUCHLINSKI ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 27, 2018

“Consumers deserve perfect information everywhere.”

Jeff Rohrs is a creative, strategic, and experienced marketing leader with a passion for collaboration, innovation, and building dynamic brands in today's fragmented media landscape. He is the chief marketing officer for Yext and the author of Audience: Marketing In The Age Of Subscribers, Fans & Followers, in which he establishes "proprietary audience development," explores the flip-side of content marketing, and sets forth a modern marketing imperative. The Social Content Marketing Blog named Audience the number one social media marketing book for Academia. Jeff loves nothing more than helping companies navigate the evolving landscape of consumer needs, preferences, expectations across locations, channels, and devices.

  

Listen And Learn:

  • How brands can control the factual information available about their service.
  • Ways companies can take control over the digital knowledge about their locations, their people, and their services.
  • About the strategy behind branded and discovery search terms.
  • Ways brands can prepare themselves for the voice-driven and AI-driven future.
  • How Conversational and Text AI is revolutionizing customer service and make it far more human.
  • Why it’s important to think about content marketing in its most narrow, most factual way.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YEXT, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND JEFF ROHRS ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 27, 2018

“Consumers deserve perfect information everywhere.”

Jeff Rohrs is a creative, strategic, and experienced marketing leader with a passion for collaboration, innovation, and building dynamic brands in today's fragmented media landscape. He is the chief marketing officer for Yext and the author of Audience: Marketing In The Age Of Subscribers, Fans & Followers, in which he establishes "proprietary audience development," explores the flip-side of content marketing, and sets forth a modern marketing imperative. The Social Content Marketing Blog named Audience the number one social media marketing book for Academia. Jeff loves nothing more than helping companies navigate the evolving landscape of consumer needs, preferences, expectations across locations, channels, and devices.

  

Listen And Learn:

  • How brands can control the factual information available about their service.
  • Ways companies can take control over the digital knowledge about their locations, their people, and their services.
  • About the strategy behind branded and discovery search terms.
  • Ways brands can prepare themselves for the voice-driven and AI-driven future.
  • How Conversational and Text AI is revolutionizing customer service and make it far more human.
  • Why it’s important to think about content marketing in its most narrow, most factual way.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YEXT, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND JEFF ROHRS ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 26, 2018

“There are no paved roads where we’re going.” 

Prior to becoming the vice president of Industry Insights for Yext, Duane Forrester accumulated over 20 years’ experience in the search and social fields. He is the author of How To Make Money With Your Blog and Turn Clicks Into Customers. Duane has worked in marketing and PR with Caesar’s Palace, run his own websites, communities, and consultancy, and worked for small and enterprise publishers online. Past work includes almost nine years with Microsoft and Bing where he helped run their Webmaster Tools program, as well as the SEO program at MSN. In between the bookends of Yext and Bing, Duane ran operations for Bruce Clay, Inc., one of the oldest names in digital marketing. For several years, Duane’s focus included writing for SearchEngineLand.com, moderating in the original SearchEngineForums.com, and being a board member with SEMPO, where he founded the InHouse Committee and SEMPO’s annual Industry Salary Survey. 

Listen And Learn:

  • His strategies for optimizing voice search and discovery.
  • How to make your brand the best answer in search.
  • His definition of what he calls “the truest sense of selling.”
  • How to position your brand all along the various points of the customer journey.
  • How to become “the featured snippet” on Google search.
  • His bold predictions about the paradigm shifts he sees on the MarTech horizon.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YEXT, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND DUANE FORRESTER ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 15, 2018

“Cybercrime is real, they are coming to get you, your beliefs about it are getting in the way, but the answer is really, really simple.”

Adam Anderson is CSO of Element Security Group. His 15 years of entrepreneurial startup experience and his knowledge Enterprise Cyber Defense gives him a window into what’s wrong with communication between large and small companies. He combined this knowledge and the good works from the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cyber Security Framework to co-author the book Small Business Cyber Security: Your Customers Can Trust You…Right? This book was later turned into an online class by Clemson University, where he is a scholar in residence. Adam is also the author of The Monster Within and co-founded a peer advisory board for chief security officers of Fortune 500 companies. This mix of small and large businesses has positioned Adam as one of the few people in the world to understand the complete supply chain of cyber security.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • Why you never want to plot our your cybersecurity strategy in a highly emotional state.
  • Adam’s recommendations for what to look for when getting a cybersecurity insurance policy.
  • About the danger of buying into “the illusion of security.”
  • How it only takes just 15 minutes to ensure that cybersecurity is included in your strategic plan.
  • About the importance to having a business continuity plan in place that includes strategies for cybersecurity.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ELEMENT SECURITY GROUP, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND ADAM ANDERSON ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

 

Nov 13, 2018

“Why are you managing 21st century tools with a 20th century technology?”

Anita is the founder and CEO of CabinetM, a marketing technology management company. CabinetM’s platform makes it easy to find and manage marketing technology. She has spent most of her career as a high tech marketer working for companies from inception to M&A and IPO, and has had extensive experience addressing the marketing challenges that come with fast-growing businesses. In addition to her marketing roles, Anita ran FashionPlaytes, a B2C commerce and gaming company, and co-led Boston Golden Seeds an angel investment group that invests in women-led businesses. She continues to be an active member of the Boston start-up ecosystem as a MassVentures board member, MassChallenge judge, and start-up investor and mentor.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • The unique strategic, operational, and marketing challenges facing high-growth, early-stage businesses.
  • Strategies for full-market penetration.
  • How to make sense of the enormous database of MarTech products available.
  • How the “landscape has exploded.”
  • How to choose the right MarTech tool for you.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CABINETM, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND ANITA BREARTON ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

 

Nov 12, 2018

“Video is changing everything.”

 

Jason Hsaio is the chief video officer and co-Founder of Animoto (animoto.com), an award-winning online video maker that makes it easy for anyone to create a professional-quality video. Used by millions of consumers, businesses, photographers, and educators, Animoto is deeply rooted in the belief that making videos should be simple, cost-effective, and accessible to everyone. Prior to Animoto, Jason served as a television producer for MTV Networks.

 

Listen And Learn: 

  • Video is probably one of the most effective forms of communication and can do just about everything.
  • Why video is the best way to convey the most authentic version of you and your brand.
  • The strategy behind saving the best for first, not last.
  • The most important element of any video.
  • How video can help garner qualified leads to grow your business.
  • Ways to promote a service through a video marketing strategy.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ANIMOTO, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND JASON HSAIO ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 8, 2018

“Social media has by far the best ROI for any advertising that’s out there.”

Michael Koral, a sales and marketing expert, is the co-founder and COO at Needls.com, a social media advertising platform that allows businesses to automatically create, target, and optimize digital ads. Michael leads customer acquisition and operations at Needls. He and his team automate the creation, curation, and optimization of digital ads across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram through the deployment of the Needls purchase intent engine that monitors social media conversations.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • How click through rates double when a video is more natural.
  • How authenticity creates an entrance to a brand.
  • About the importance of always – and instantly – responding to customer comments and questions.
  • The differences in engagement between a static image ad and a video ad.
  • Video advertising has three times the ROI of a static image ad.
  • The nuances of pixel code strategies behind social advertising.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT NEEDLS.COM, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND MICHAEL KORAL ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 6, 2018

“Thinking about leadership is a vastly different thing than doing leadership.” 

Tricia Halsey is co-founder and executive director of The Big Idea Project, a company in Denver that is “solving the leadership crisis” in our nation by “raising up a generation of generous leaders who are unafraid to creatively solve challenging social problems.” Tricia builds leaders, teams, and organizations. Wherever she looks, she sees untapped potential and a vision for what could be. She brings the right people to the table and facilitates synergistic connections where all people feel valued, heard, and inspired to do good. Her specialties include building ideas from concept to implementation, developing creative strategies, selling a common cause, enlisting the support and involvement of others, team leadership, building trusting relationships, communicating effectively across differences, and program/project management.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • About the “three lenses” that define the Generous Leadership paradigm.
  • How to work from a place of abundance and empathy.
  • Finding the sacred in what you do.
  • Why good leadership comes from a place of being, not from a place of doing.
  • Why leadership is not about making better workers, but rather about making better people.
  • A leader has to be the person they want others to be.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BIG IDEA PROJECT, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND TRICIA HALSEY ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 5, 2018

“It’s so noisy out there, but we still need to be everywhere.”

Ryan Coté is the director of digital services and partner at Ballantine, a third generation family-owned direct mail and digital marketing company based out of Fairfield, NJ. The business was started in 1966 by Ryan’s grandfather and great-uncle, and its mission is to make their clients’ marketing initiatives more successful through expert guidance, flawless execution, and remarkable service. He currently manages the growing digital marketing division, primarily responsible for sales and strategy.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • His five effective paid online advertising strategies.
  • The many ways he gets his message out across multiple mediums.
  • The nuances of retargeting.
  • The digital marketing strategies for lead generation.
  • Why your website’s load speed and mobile speed are so important.
  • How to boost your content with keyword optimization.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BALLANTINE, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND RYAN COTÉ ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Nov 1, 2018

“When a woman takes on a business, it becomes part of her skin.” 

Cheryl Leitschuh has spent 25 years focusing on leadership development for individuals, teams, and organizations. She has a doctorate in psychology and brings astute insights to complicated situations that provide targeted leadership results. As a Leadership Energy Guru and founder of The Leadership Energy Model, Cheryl is a nationally known speaker on cutting-edge leadership tools and resources. Her recent book, Straight Talk for Smart Businesswomen, became an Amazon best seller in five days in the leadership energy category.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • The CALM model of success.
  • Her five key takeaways that are the foundation of any entrepreneurial small business.
  • How women small business owners approach business differently.
  • The ways some women business leaders fail to be profitable because of “the emotional factor.”
  • Insights into having intentional and focused sales conversations.

 

TO FIND CHERYL LEITSCHUH ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

 

Oct 30, 2018

“Saying ‘I’m busy’ should not be a badge of honor.”

Bob Tipton, founder and CEO of Team Tipton and organizational transformation architect, has been working as an entrepreneur in professional services since 1986. He is a high-energy, innovative, and insightful transformational change architect, leadership facilitator, keynote speaker, and author. For over 30 years he has been refining Team Tipton’s innovative approach for guiding businesses through future-forward, results-focused transformational change initiatives. With a game-changing approach toward driving strategic growth and positive culture shifts, the Team Tipton model has been successful in sectors including government agencies, public works, utilities, nonprofits, healthcare, and education.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • The importance of recognizing the energy we all bring into situations.
  • The deep value of kindness.
  • How we have to be brave enough to challenge our own beliefs.
  • How to see the humanity in others.
  • The psychology behind the need some people have to “always be right.”
  • The power of the message in his book, What’s Right, Not Who’s Right.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ARC THRIFT STORES, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND BOB TIPTON ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Oct 29, 2018

“The good thing about being strange is that it’s also memorable.” 

Patrick Scott rarely does anything halfway. As a sophomore at Harvard, he took a job as a deliveryman for a student-run laundry service; a year later I was elected president of the Harvard Student Agencies, the largest student-run business in the world with over 600 employees and $5 million in annual revenue. After graduating from college, he entered a training program at Kraft Heinz; a year later he had redesigned and managed the forecasting process for sales to their largest client, Walmart. Patrick now works at the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, an organization that his younger sister, Alex, founded, and that is now one of the largest pediatric cancer foundations in the country. In his role, he leverages data to drive the organization forward – managing the Foundation’s Search Engine Marketing, implementing new Customer Relationship Management software, and developing Key Performance Indicators to use for visual management. He is passionate about confronting new challenges, reconceptualizing systems, and applying data creatively.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • About the story behind the brand.
  • How he balances – and benefits from – multiple generational business perspectives in the nonprofit world.
  • How he has built the experiential components of the brand.
  • Ways to leverages NetSuite.
  • Orchestrating nationwide events to build brand awareness.
  • How he ties the brand’s value proposition to an experience.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALEX'S LEMONADE STAND, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND PATRICK SCOTT ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

 

Oct 25, 2018

“Our value proposition really has nothing to do with a specific delivery, but rather on the WHY and the HOW we deliver the service to (our customers).” 

Paul Duncan co-founded Pie Consulting & Engineering in 1999. As president and CEO, he is the managing partner and leads all aspects of the business including oversight of the corporate office in Colorado and regional offices in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, and California. He has consulted on projects nationwide with services on large commercial property, apartment complexes, specialized building performance testing, as well as large residential developments. Under his leadership, Pie has experienced an average annual growth of greater than 15 percent since 2010 including record performance in each of these years. He attributes the company’s strong performance to building a strong company culture based on values, and having an excellent technical staff and outstanding employees who share the same vision of making a difference for others.

 

Listen And Learn:

  • His insights into working across multiple generations in the marketplace.
  • The company’s four core values.
  • The four topics his team addresses in every daily huddle.
  • How he has integrated a business development staff across all boundaries within the company.
  • How he deploys Emotional Intelligence and Competitive Intercept™ to build brand loyalty.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PIE CONSULTING & ENGINEERING, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND PAUL DUNCAN  ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

 

Oct 23, 2018

“I.T. needs to look at things horizontally; we cannot operate in a vertical because I.T. touches all the departments.”

 

Rick Gemereth is the chief information officer and senior vice president for Lionel, the iconic American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads, based in Concord, NC. Rick provides corporate technology leadership and oversees many of the company’s business processes, including ERP and financial systems integration, as well as many other technologies used to streamline the business. Rick’s core focus at Lionel is aligning information technologies with the culture of the workforce in pursuit of the business vision. He is a proven manager who orchestrates solutions that improve the productivity and quality of life for the employees and the customers, and ultimately have a direct impact on the financial success of the organization.

 

Listen And Learn: 

  • How he continues to market the I.T. department inside the organization so he can extend its reach.
  • Ways he has kept a multi-generational, nearly 120-year-old brand relevant and vibrant.
  • The importance of focusing on the memories the brand creates.
  • How technology has reinvigorated the Lionel brand.
  • Why it’s important to “simplify and standardize.”

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT LIONEL LLC, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND RICK GEMERETH ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Oct 22, 2018

“Visual search has become table stakes.”

Ted Mann is the CEO of Slyce, the market leader in image recognition and visual search. Slyce has created the first computer vision system for visual product search and has led to customers like Macy's, Home Depot, JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, Best Buy, and Urban Outfitters to deploy image recognition in their apps. Before Slyce, Ted founded SnipSnap, the first mobile app to let consumers save printed coupons to their smartphone and redeem in store. At the time SnipSnap was acquired, it was profitable and the app had five million users, who redeemed more than 250 million coupons. Prior to starting SnipSnap, Ted was digital development director at Gannett, where he led the development of the company's first hyper-local network, daily deal websites, and blog operations, in addition to managing the core news websites.

Listen And Learn:

  • How he has differentiated Slyce’s technology in a noisy and very competitive marketplace.
  • Visual search and its impact on human behavior.
  • How even small retailers can adapt and incorporate a visual and voice search strategy that works for them.
  • It’s more than the technology; it’s about solving customers’ problems.
  • How product recognition technology is transforming the whole self-checkout, scan-and-go experience in grocery stores.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SLYCE, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND  TED MANN  ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Oct 18, 2018

“Brands should have character. Brands should stand up and take a stand and be human.”

 

Erik Reynolds, vice president of product marketing and communications for Loot Crate, is an 18-year veteran of the video game, tech and entertainment industries. Erik has worked with some of the most impactful brands and talent to help them craft the public story of their IP, and deliver those narratives in an engaging and audience-friendly manner. From executive producing an hour-long special about 50 Cent and hip-hop’s influence on video games for Spike TV to scripting and shooting BTS materials for dozens of games, Erik has leveraged every channel for storytelling to get the job done. Previous collaborators and represented brands include 50 Cent, Katy Perry, Mr. Miyamoto, Wizarding World of Harry Potter, The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, and more than 100 other games/IP launches supported in his career generating billions in revenue for the companies he’s represented. 

  

Listen And Learn:

  • The one question that should guide all business decisions.
  • How brands can “put currency back in the trust bank” and create loyalty and affinity with customers.
  • The importance of defining the character of your brand.
  • The elements of impactful crisis communications.
  • How the company has grown to have over 500,000 subscribers around the world since 2012.
  • How to take a holistic approach to e-Commerce.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT LOOT CRATE, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND ERIK REYNOLDS ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

Oct 16, 2018

 “Give your teams time to be thoughtful.”

 

Erika Eklund is director of communications at HGA Architects and Engineers, a national multi-disciplinary design firm rooted in architecture and engineering. The company has more than 850 people in 10 offices from coast to coast and works to make a positive, lasting impact for clients in healthcare, arts and culture, community, corporate, education, government, and energy markets. In her role Erika oversees firm-wide internal and external communications, including brand strategy and media relations. She has an extensive communications and external relations background with creative organizations, and previously served as business developer for HGA’s Arts, Community and Higher Education Practice Group.

  

Listen And Learn:

  • The unique challenges of creating a communications strategy for a professional services company.
  • The “rings of influence” that help build a brand.
  • Tips for aligning sales and marketing to grow your brand’s top of mind awareness.
  • Why it’s important to deliver the unexpected along the way.
  • Her strategies for selling expertise and thought leadership” rather than on selling a product.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HGA ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS, CLICK HERE.

TO FIND ERIKA EKLUND ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.

 

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