Welcome back to B2B Needs Don Draper! In this episode, we dive into the golden age of B2B marketing and why it's an exciting time for businesses in this space. Our two distinguished guests, John Watton, VP of Marketing at VMware, and Richard Parsons, co-founder of True, share their invaluable insights and experiences in the world of B2B marketing.

John Watton, with over 25 years of industry expertise, discusses the dynamic blend of data-driven approaches and brand storytelling, with a special emphasis on sustainability. He explains why there has never been a better time to be a B2B marketer and how the landscape is evolving.

Richard Parsons, a veteran with over 30 years of advertising and marketing experience, provides a wealth of knowledge from his work with leading creative and media B2B agencies. He shares his experiences working with top-tier brands like Adobe, Cisco, and Oracle.

We discuss:

• Why there's never been a better time to be a B2B marketer.
• The connection between brand and lead generation in B2B marketing.
• How channels like Programmatic TV have enriched brand storytelling in the B2B space.
• Strategies for scaling a brand while maintaining a human touch in B2B.
• The changing landscape of B2B events and the role of events like "Explore Barcelona" in the marketing mix.
• The shift from CMOs being 'revenue marketers' to coming from a brand and creative background, along with its impacts.

Jose Pepe Gorbea is an inspirational leader guiding HP's pursuit of revolutionizing digital packaging technology across the globe.

Jose is head of Brands, Agencies, and Sustainability Innovation at HP and manages an international team focused on educating and inspiring brands with a human-centric communication framework. 

His team's work revolves around personalization and sustainability storytelling, driving meaningful marketing innovations that lead to increased penetration and growth in ROI.

With a career spanning over two decades, Jose has harnessed his vast experience to successfully navigate both B2B and B2C sectors. 

His primary focus is centered on empowering marketers to co-create distinctive brand assets, fostering strategic global partnerships on sustainability and creativity, and accelerating HP's digital print technology adoption worldwide through personalized, sustainable innovation.

His work has placed HP at the forefront of making other companies better, guided by the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit.

We discuss:

1. Embracing the power of simplicity and significance in achieving business goals.
2. How to not just be creative, but be able to sell and market your ideas and solutions effectively.
3. How to find purpose and meaning in your marketing career.
4. How to take a proactive approach to problem-solving and making positive changes in the world.
5. Prioritizing human-to-human connections in marketing strategies.

Carolyn Henry is VP, CMO of Americas Regional Marketing at Intel and is the driving force behind their captivating marketing activations. Leading a team of over 70 marketers, she oversees strategies for consumer, commercial, gaming, and enterprise segments.

With over 20 years of experience, Carolyn has mastered the art of simplifying complexity, delivering results, and leading high-performing teams. Her passion for shaping the future of technology aligns perfectly with Intel's mission to create a better world through advancements in AI, analytics, and cloud-to-edge technology.

We discuss:

1. The balance between creativity and delivering a clear, compelling message
2. How to develop creative strategies that resonate with different personas
3. How Intel tracks and evaluates the impact of creative elements
4. Creating a culture of innovation and creativity within marketing teams

Kerstin Koder is Head of Marketing EMEA at SAP. SAP was named the most valuable brand in Germany by BrandZ™ and is also recognised as the most valuable brand in Europe.

Kerstin has more than 20 years of experience as a B2C & B2B marketer and leader in the IT, telco, media and retail space.

She is responsible for 120 countries and is currently supporting the transformation in SAP’s own Marketing as well as leading the development of the SAP brand, supporting SAP’s on-premise and cloud revenue in key industries.

We discuss:

1. The role of marketing at SAP and what the brand means to B2B customers
2. The channels SAP are using to talk to the CEO/CFOs of the world
3. Balancing the priorities of maintaining a strong brand vs lead generation
4. Brand loyalty versus increasing market penetration

Mentioned in this episode:

B2B Needs Don Draper Live - 30th May 2023

Click here to register for our first ever live event: https://www.trueagency.com/truth-sessions/b2b-needs-don-draper-live

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Gerard Vicente is VP of marketing at JP Morgan. He works specifically with wepay.com - JPMorgan’s small business, financial tech and payments division - and is currently responsible for partner, product and brand marketing. 

Prior to this role, he was “Funny Manager” at Comedy Central.

We discuss:

1. What being a comedian taught him about brand building and creativity 
2. The dilemma of creating a “branded house” or a “house of brands”
3. Overcoming the challenge of partner acquisition 
4. The right channels to get brand messaging to the right people

Justin Garrett is the Global Head of Brand and Digital Marketing at Broadridge, a global fintech leader with $5 billion in revenues, handling millions of daily trades.

Before leading this operation, Justin held roles at Accenture, JP Morgan Chase and Citi. 

We discuss:

1. How to get great B2B stories
2. Bringing Broadridge’s brand message to life
3. Communicating the depth of brand offerings

Jennifer Garcia spent five years as the head of integrated marketing at Instagram. Before this, she held senior roles at Google and Nokia.

She has fifteen years of experience in both B2B and B2C marketing. During this time, Jennifer has collated knowledge in integrated marketing, brand marketing, product marketing, corporate communications and go-to-market strategy. 

We discuss:

1. How working at Instagram and Google has shaped her as a leader
2. Convincing senior leaders of the power of brand
3. How to find forward thinking marketers that understand brand
4. Types of media needed for brand building versus sales activation

Brian Rowley is the VP of Marketing at Panasonic Connect. He leads all functions of the brand marketing team, including: brand strategy, creative, go-to-market execution, PR, and brand voice. 

As a natural storyteller, Brian also uses creative campaigns to grow brand awareness. This has allowed him to deliver revenue and profitability for five business units valued at $1B in annual revenue.

We discuss:

1. Influencing the minds of future buyers
2. Balancing competing priorities of brand and demand
3. How B2B marketers can harness emotional messaging
4. The power of distinctive assets

Mark Choueke is author of the new book ‘Boring to Brave’. 

Mark has spent over 20 years at the heart of B2B marketing. Over that time, he’s helped grow more than 50 B2B technology companies across the world and was formerly the editor of Marketing Week Magazine.

Mark has also been a speaker at many B2B events, such as “Think with Google”, and “Viva Technology”.

We discuss:

1. How bravery benefits B2B brands
2. How to produce marketing that drives long term growth
3. Utilising emotional storytelling to connect with B2B audiences
4. How taking risks in B2B can differentiate you from competitors

Sara Richter is CMO at Emarsys, the omni-channel customer engagement platform, which empowers marketers to build, launch, and scale personalised cross-channel campaigns that drive business outcomes.

Sara is a creative marketing leader with more than 15 years of experience in high-growth, fast-paced martech organisations. She is passionate about building revenue-oriented marketing teams.

We discuss:

1. The challenge of marketing to marketers
2. What B2B marketers can learn from sales-focused models
3. Advice for B2B brands facing a likely economic downturn
4. How big brand campaigns can drive short-term sales
5. Why now is the ‘Golden Age’ of marketing

Richard Parsons and Cos Mingides are the co-founders of True, which was recently named B2B Creative Agency of the year - and the brains behind the B2B Needs Don Draper podcast. 

The last year of the podcast has welcomed some fantastic guests from a broad spectrum of brands giving their views on how B2B Marketing is changing and how they’re running marketing in their organizations

Richard and Cos respond to key points shared last season and their thoughts on the matter. 

We discuss:

1. Why now is a good time to be in B2B Marketing
2. Emotion and creativity the new paradigm in B2B Marketing
3. The key lessons B2B brands can learn
4. The problem within B2B right now
5. What being a bit more Don Draper mean for B2B brands

Kirsten Stagg is the Marketing Director at Skoda UK. She has delivered record-breaking marketing performance, market share and profit growth whilst delivering a 53% increase in average product sales.

Using creativity and self-deprecating humour, Kirsten has helped transform the brand into an incredible success story and has elevated the ŠKODA brand.

We discuss:

1. How Skoda used marketing to refresh brand perception
2. Utilising the power of creativity to engage a greater audience
3. How Skoda is utilising emotional marketing today
4. Why there is a lack of creativity within the automotive industry

Mariska van Beukering currently works for Equinix: the world’s biggest digital infrastructure company, where businesses can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, and deliver world-class experiences.

Mariska comes to us with deep experience in IT and has skills in brand management, marketing planning, lead generation, and strategic marketing.

We Discuss:

1. Effective B2C strategies that can be applied to B2B
2. The power of hyper-targeting specific audiences
3. Balancing long-term brand building with short-term sales activation
4. The best ways to drive growth for B2B brands
5. How to build strong brand awareness with new audiences

Danielle Regan is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Mace, a construction company at the heart of the built environment.  

Mace connects expertise across the entire property lifecycle for the benefit of their clients, communities and society more widely. 

Danielle has 18 years’ of experience working in marketing communications teams within the property and construction industry. 

We discuss:

1. How B2B marketing influences policy 
2. How the build environment affects people’s lives 
3. When Mace use emotional messaging vs rational messaging 
4. What the future holds for B2B Marketing

Nikki Stenson is a senior global marketing leader who has led marketing functions at Oracle, Macafee, and TIBCO. 

For Nikki, it’s all about relationships - whether working with sales teams, suppliers, partners or colleagues, success for her has come through continuous and highly effective collaboration.

Nikki Believes B2B marketing is not human enough and is passionate about changing that. 

We discuss:

1. Imposter syndrome. Is it common in the marketing industry?
2. The power of marketing in sales-focused businesses
3. How to build a strong personal brand in B2B Marketing
4. What the future holds for B2B Marketing

Cos Mingides is the Co-founder and Head of Effectiveness at True, which was named B2B Creative Agency of the year in 2022 by the Association of National Advertisers. 

True is in the business of making a difference. They harness data-driven and cultural insights to unearth powerful human truths that are creatively transformed into memorable brand communications – and delivered with pinpoint media accuracy.

We discuss:

1. The key takeaways for B2B marketers from EffWorks Global
2. The difference between efficiency and effectiveness
3. How the best B2B marketers approach investment for growth
4. Balancing brand building vs short-term sales activation
5. The importance of ‘reach’ when it comes to effectiveness

Nick Copson is the B2B Marketing Director at Reach plc, the UK's largest news media company with an audience of over 48 million people.

Nick has launched new publications and apps across the UK and managed teams with large budgets across online and offline channels. Now, most of his time goes towards developing B2B lead generation.

We discuss:

1. The state of UK media and advertising
2. How Reach PLC support programmatic ad buying
3. The digital transformation of Reach PLC
4. How traditional local media publishers can remain relevant

Martin Harrison is the Strategy Director at True. Before joining True, Martin was Strategy Partner at Wunderman Thompson. He’s also held senior positions at Huge and TMW.

Martin has been helping brands of all sizes grapple with the challenges and opportunities of the digital revolution. He was the winner of an IPA Effectiveness Award and is a regular speaker on digital strategy, including at SXSW.

We discuss:

1. The opportunity for creativity in B2B 
2. How B2B marketing can become more ambitious 
3. Fame and customer consideration
4. The importance of category reach and consideration

Michael Bouteneff is the Director of Integrated Marketing Strategy at SVB, (which was formerly known as Silicon Valley Bank). SVB helps founders of high-growth tech businesses achieve their often ambitious goals.

Michael has a background in growth marketing and brand-building, spanning both B2C and B2B industries, having worked at both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to SVB, he held senior roles at Mastercard and IBM, to name just a few. 

We discuss:

1. How SVB grows brand awareness with their target audience
2. What brand marketers are doing wrong
3. The importance of retention vs winning new customers
4. How B2B marketers can use advertising to better achieve goals

Isobel Sita-Lumsden is the Head of B2B Marketing Europe at TikTok. Prior to this, she held senior roles at Time inc, AOL and Verizon Media. 

Isobel is a creative and strategic marketer, passionate about big media brands and driving business growth.

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video, whose mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy.

We discuss:

1. How TikTok helps B2B businesses achieve their marketing goals 
2. What B2B brands should know about TikTok audiences
3. Why B2B marketers undervalue the importance of creativity
4. The role of humour in TikTok’s B2B Marketing