The 9th Annual Marketing Technology Summit was a smashing success! With speaker sessions from Google, Ziff Davis B2B, HubSpot, and more, summit attendees learned the current best practices in marketing to power their programs and boost ROI.
We were proud to sponsor the event along with Ziff Davis B2B, Japs-Olson Company, Sheppard Envelope MFG CO, Thoughtlight, Cobrandit Video, and DMM. Furthermore, Overdrive Interactive CEO, Harry Gold, presented his session, “Crafting the Customer Journey”, which had the crowd wildly engaged, chanting “And Then What?” for all of Bentley University to hear.
Check out the awesome @ovrdrv booth! Stop by for some free goodies like the #AI Marketing Map, headphones, and more. pic.twitter.com/4DOtalO0k0
— Overdrive Interactive (@ovrdrv) December 3, 2018
We started the day with some of the Overdrive Team posing behind our booth. Attendees eagerly grabbed printouts of our popular Search Marketing Map, Artificial Intelligence Marketing Map, Social Media Map, along with other fun goodies.
Highlights from each speaker session are summarized below.
Speaker Sessions
Keynote speaker Scott Brinker, MarTech guru and HubSpot’s VP Platform Ecosystem, kicked off the event by discussing the new rules of marketing technology and operations:
- Centralize
- Automate
- Decentralize
- Humanize
- Embrace Change
Attendees learned about Martec’s Law, which states that technology changes exponentially and that organizations are hard-pressed to keep up. This conundrum is the greatest management challenge of the 21st century.
The next session was presented by Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive. Attendees discovered how to optimize the full customer journey in three layers: media, technology, and persuasion. The key question to always ask is “And Then What?” to map the user journey and then measure what’s working in your marketing tech stack components.
How can you perfect your sales and marketing relationship? Ziff Davis B2B’s Amanda Joyner, Vice President of Global Marketing, Mike DeMaio, Director of Strategic Accounts, and Carlie Pratt, Marketing Manager, shared their company’s sales and marketing love story. Some key takeaways were to shift sales leaders into marketer roles, always have the common goal of putting customers first, and have meetings with both the sales and marketing teams to align on values.
The future of marketing is all about delivering relevant, useful, and assistive experiences. Tim Reis, Director, Marketing Services Traditional Managed Agencies at Google, presented on the power of technology and how brands can use it to their advantage. Some tips for marketers to keep in mind: Focus on demand generation and leverage automation, and most importantly, recognize the power of the consumer.
Research shows that by 2020, video will be 82% of consumer web traffic. Google’s Laura O’Connell, Agency Development Manager, and Fizz Ahmed, New Business Manager, showed attendees how to inspire action through video. Audience members discovered the power of integrating custom intent audiences, which means delivering engaging videos to people who previously researched your product or services.
Cindy Starr taught audience members how to get the most out of channel marketing! Users can have more than one interaction with your brand before they engage, so it’s important to have these essential performance channels in place:
- SEM
- SEO
- Retargeting
- Display
- Social
Did you know that 95% of purchase decision-making takes place in the subconscious? Nancy Harhut, Creative Chief Officer of Nancy Harhut and Associates, taught attendees the importance of using eye magnet words such as “new”, “now”, and “free” in your marketing communications in order to raise engagement rates and optimize content performance.
Bruce McMeekin, CEO and Founder of BKM Marketing, Dennis Kelly, CEO of Postalytics, Chris Bryant, Product Marketing Manager, Endurance International Group, and Ian Cross, Professor and Director of Center for Marketing Technology, Bentley University, covered the burning question, digital marketing – heaven or hell? One topic the panel discussion covered was the importance of having one common key to connect databases, such as an email address.That way, you are able to map back and piece together things in the CRM.
Last, but certainly not least, Hoverlay CEO and Co-Founder, Nicolas Robbe covered AR advancements in the marketing industry. Attendees witnessed the Hoverlay platform in action, discovering how the technology can be used to tell a story. With AR, a smart phone can create a hologram anytime, anywhere. This technology can provide major opportunities for marketers today.
Thank you to NEDMA for organizing this informative and successful event. We hope to see you at next year’s Marketing Technology Summit!
The #MTechSummit was a huge success! Keep an eye out for our blog post from the day! pic.twitter.com/gyLCCgmd11
— Overdrive Interactive (@ovrdrv) December 4, 2018
Were you at the summit? Keep the conversation going on social by using the hashtag #MTechSummit. We will be posting pictures from the day and more on our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!
