Marketing Innovation @ SAS Institute, Inc.

DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING: HOW DATA AND TECHNOLOGY CAN KEEP MARKETERS RELEVANT

In today’s multifaceted marketing ecosystem, it’s easy for marketers to feel overwhelmed. Not only are we responsible for brand awareness and lead generation efforts, but we must constantly upskill and reskill to stay relevant within our organizations. How can we fight back? During this session, we’ll explain how marketing teams can and should use data and technology to make us more efficient while still maintaining authentic human connection. We’ll describe how to use the explosion of data to our advantage, fueling more algorithmic and real-time approaches to addressing different business issues – and customer experience (CX) in particular. And we’ll outline how we’re innovating here at SAS, using our own technology and modernizations to inform our marketing teams and priorities.

Wilson Raj

Global Director, Customer Intelligence SAS

THE FABRIC OF OUR LIVES™: A NEW ERA OF BRAND ENGAGEMENT

Cotton Inc. has been researching, promoting, and improving the demand and profitability of cotton for nearly five decades. With the diversification of media, plethora of brands, and increasing influence of online retailing - how does a brand break through to consumers? The marketplace today offers so many options that affinity for a brand and traditional advertising is not always enough to gain a competitive advantage. Brands and retailers must find ways to engage differently and come to the realization that consumers desire experiences, and that brands are simply part of that journey. In this session, learn how Cotton Inc. is using a diversified portfolio to reach millennials and gen Z to change awareness and influence sales.

Kim Kitchings

Senior Vice President, Consumer Marketing Cotton Inc.

CONNECTING TECHNOLOGY WITH CREATIVE

The tools to deliver your technical and creative ideas have never been more varied and powerful, and the ways in which they can come together could generate many millions of different 'looks'. Finding creative applications for technologies is both rewarding and challenging. In this session we'll cover lessons learned working in research and development, sharing the fruits of 'experiments' with others, in three different industries. No matter what client you serve, or what audience you're trying to reach, the applied principles remain the same.

Andy Hunt

Manager, Digital Innovation Lab The Hershey Company

ALLY FINANCIAL’S TEST AND LEARN APPROACH TO INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Location-based marketing is a direct marketing strategy that uses a mobile device's location to alert the device's owner about an offering from a business. Typically, location-based alerts are delivered to smartphones through SMS text messages. In this session, hear how the Ally Marketing Innovation team used a test and learn approach with this technology and some early lessons learned.

Kelly Branch

Director, Marketing Innovation & Strategy Ally Financial

DRIVING INNOVATION INTO YOUR BRAND (AND YOUR COMPANY)

Building a Brand is challenging on a good day. Doing it in a complex, matrixed, global, decentralized, engineering-driven, product-centric environment is virtually impossible. Yet today, Lenovo is poised to launch the largest brand-building effort in the history of the company. Spanning 12 global markets and the full range of paid, owned, and earned channels, this initiative has set out to not only change the way the world sees Lenovo but also the way Lenovo sees itself. From R&D to Sales and Service, Marketing is helping to drive a complete change in the way the Lenovo brand is experienced in the world. In this session, go behind the scenes to understand how this effort came to life and the five factors that were absolutely critical to driving this change.

Quinn O’Brien

Vice President, Global Marketing Lenovo

BRIGHTHOUSE FINANCIAL: DISCOVERING YOUR BRAND'S OPPORTUNITY TO INSPIRE

Brighthouse Financial is a leading provider of annuities and life insurance that specializes in products that help people protect what they’ve earned and ensure it lasts. In this session, Liz Ferguson, Social Media Manager, Brand Marketing will share how a compelling audience insight was transformed into a holistic brand campaign that engages a generation who is defying conventional images of retirement. Liz will show how the brand is using a strategic storytelling approach to celebrate their target audience that is enhanced through their use of social media platforms – and the resulting business building impact of authentically representing their consumer audience.

Liz Ferguson

Manager, Social Media Brighthouse Financial