Content Marketing

Welcome & Introductions (11:00AM – 11:15AM EST)
Tori Carr, Sr. Manager, ANA

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION (11:15AM – 11:30AM)

I. Square Peg, Square Hole: How Square built a content strategy that's a perfect fit (11:30AM – 12:00PM)
Mallory Russell (Global Content Marketing Lead, Square) has led her team at Square on a meticulous path to maturity. She will share how, in order to scale growth, she focused on business outcomes, successful pilots (which turned into ongoing programs), distinct themes to build the Square brand, building resources internally and externally, and leveraging Knotch's technology and partnership. Co-Presented with David Brown, ANA Content Marketing Committee Co-Chair and SVP, Head of Strategy, Knotch.

Speakers:
Mallory Russell, Head Global Content Marketing Lead, Square
David Brown, SVP, Head of Strategy at Knotch

II. Using Innovative Creative to Inspire Tourists to Visit Alabama (12:00PM – 12:30PM)
How does a state with few nationally famous tourist attractions become a juggernaut of tourism growth? You don’t do it by simply listing the tourist attractions you have available. Alabama Tourism, along with Intermark Group, will share how leveraging unique psychological insights along with wildly innovative creative helped the State of Alabama achieve record-shattering growth in tourism over the last decade. From setting up a beach in Manhattan to trolling New Orleans over Mardi Gras, the creative approaches are both award-winning and wildly entertaining.

Speakers:
Jake McKenzie, CEO, Intermark Group
Lee Sentell, Director, Alabama Tourism Department

III. A Look into Target's "Welcome To" Series (12:30PM – 1:00PM)
Our "Welcome To” series celebrates our guests’ holiday traditions, this season & all year round. No matter what you celebrate, or when you celebrate, we celebrate you. Join this session to learn how to maximized this activation while celebrating people from all walks of life.. 

Speaker: Mehreen Hussain,Target 

Wrap-up

Speaker Bios

Mallory Russell, Head Global Content Marketing Lead, Square

David Brown, SVP, Head of Strategy at Knotch
David Brown is the SVP and head of strategy for Knotch, where he connects content investments to business outcomes and works with content leaders to establish successful content strategies and operational frameworks. He’s also co-chair of the ANA's Content Marketing Committee.

Mr. Brown has worked for nearly three decades in CRM, digital, and content assignments across industries and disciplines. Previously, he was the chief strategy officer of OneSpot and led Meredith Xcelerated Marketing.

Jake McKenzie, CEO of Intermark Group
Jake McKenzie is the Chief Executive Officer of Intermark Group. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science from Vanderbilt University, as well as a MPPM in Private Sector Management from Birmingham-Southern College. Under his tenure, Intermark has grown into the largest agency in the state, and one of the largest in the Southeast. Jake McKenzie shapes brands by using persuasive psychology to determine how people really think, feel and act.  This approach gives our work an extraordinary advantage that challenges the traditional definition of “insights,” which are often mere observations. When he is not working with clients, Jake is an avid reader and outdoor enthusiast, in addition to being the father of four.

Lee Sentell, Director of the Alabama Tourism Department
Lee Sentell, reappointed by Gov. Kay Ivey in 2019 as director of the Alabama Tourism Department, has overseen tourism revenue growth in the state from $6 billion in 2003 to almost $ 20 billion in 2021. This is his fifth term in the Alabama Governor’s Cabinet.

 Under his leadership, the department has pioneered yearly campaigns spotlighting such diverse themes as small towns, the arts, barbecue, natural wonders and the Alabama Bicentennial celebration, winning the national industry’s coveted Mercury award six times in 12 years. Most recently, their U.S. Civil Rights Trail campaign received the International Travel and Tourism Award for best regional promotion at the World Travel Market in London, becoming the first U.S. state tourism agency to be honored.

 Previously, he was the first director of marketing at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville and recruited the first 100,000 students to Space Camp. The journalism graduate from Auburn University was city editor at The Decatur Daily before becoming founding director of the Decatur Tourism Bureau.

 In related projects, Sentell assisted Monroeville novelist Harper Lee in the launch of her second novel, reopened the closed Alabama Music Hall of Fame, and sponsored the London premiere of the motion picture “Selma.” The Alabama tourism office is working with the National Park Service to nominate a number of civil rights landmarks as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

 Sentell has served as a board member at the Alabama Historical Commission, Alabama Humanities Foundation, Alabama State Council on the Arts, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Rosa Parks Museum and the space museum in Huntsville.

 A native of Ashland, he launched his book The Official U.S. Civil Rights Trail: What Happened Here Changed the World on June 23, 2021 at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta.