B2B Marketing Needs Don Draper – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome back to B2B Needs Draper, where we delve into the art of B2B marketing and chat with industry leaders to gain insights into their strategies. In this episode, we speak with Sumi Shukla, the Vice President of Marketing at Riverbed Technology, to uncover how her team competes in a challenging market against industry giants like Cisco and Dell. Sumi shares her thoughts on the importance of understanding the audience, leveraging new channels like video and employee advocacy, and finding the balance between rational and emotive communications. 

We also discuss:

• Challenges in maintaining creativity in B2B marketing
• Embracing video as a key channel for reaching and engaging the target audience
• Incorporating emotive and opinion-driven content in localized efforts
• Drawn inspiration from B2C campaigns

Welcome back to B2B Needs Don Draper, the show that's as irresistible as Don Draper’s pitch.

Today we are speaking with Emma Roffey, the former VP of marketing for EMEA at Cisco. With a career spanning nearly two decades at Cisco, Emma has witnessed and contributed to the evolution of IP-based networking technologies which have shaped the digital landscape we know today.

Emma's journey at Cisco is a testament to her creativity, energy, and passion for what she does. 

We discuss:

• Factors contributing to the sea of sameness in B2B
• The challenges of executing a humor-based campaign
• The need for questioning and breaking the norm in jargon-filled communication
• Drawing parallels between B2B and B2C marketing
• The need for businesses to adapt, be smarter, and maintain their brand value

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