Brand building

12 Quotes That Defined the 2019 ANA B2B Masters of Marketing Conference

There were a number of remarkable moments that occurred on stage at the 2019 ANA B2B Masters of Marketing Conference that took place last week in Chicago. There was Caterpillar’s Victoria Morrissey, screening the company’s branding spot in Chinese. There was LinkedIn’s Penry Price making that case that marketing (and thus, marketers) make companies grow, which makes economies thrive, and which ultimately leads to healthier and happier populations. And there was VaynerMedia’s Gary Vaynerchuk on the stage being his usual profane and perceptive self.

But the most remarkable moment of the event happened when Boeing VP-Global Brand Management Jerry Verghese took the stage to discuss his company’s marketing strategy. But while the audience was not uninterested in that topic, the attendees were far more interested in how Verghese would address what was on everybody’s mind: the grounding of the Boeing’s 737 Max. Verghese showed the audience how he would address this situation in his first slide, which was a simple listing of two dates — October 29, 2018, and March 10, 2019, the days of the two 737 Max crashes that killed 346 number of people.

“We fell short,” Vergehese said. “It’s felt deeply across everyone who works at Boeing, especially among the people who build these planes. We’ve let people down, we’ve let our customers down, let flying public down, let our teammates down.” It was a remarkable demonstration of taking on a difficult issue head-on with forthright transparency.

Most of the conference, of course, didn’t deliver such drama. But many other presenters did provide insight. Here are 12 quotes from the event filled with useful perspective for B2B marketers:

Eight-eight percent of U.S. B2B businesses say they use some form of digital content marketing. I’m surprised it’s not higher. — Geoff Ramsey, Co-Founder, eMarketer  
Emotional connection and attraction to a brand is still the No. 1 driver of preference. — Andrea Brimmer, Chief Marketing and PR Officer, Ally Financial
If you aren’t making diversity a priority today, you’re putting your business at risk tomorrow. — Michael Lacorazza, EVP-Head of Integrated Marketing, Wells Fargo
Numbers lend credibility and validate a story, but they don’t drive feelings. — Victoria Morrissey, Global Marketing and Brand Director, Caterpillar
Brands win or lose based on the value and quality of the experiences they offer. — Alicia Tillman, CMO, SAP
The more nodes added to a network, the stronger and exponentially more valuable that network that becomes.” — David Rabkin, EVP-General Manager, U.S. Small & Mid-Sized Enterprises, American Express
LinkedIn is the best bet for content marketing. — Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO, VaynerMedia
Digital transformation is like sex. A lot of people talk about it, but not many people are doing it. — eMarketer's Ramsey
When we talk about breakthrough campaigns, we’re talking about not only standing out but standing for something. — Chris Duffey, Head, AI Innovation and Strategy, Creative Cloud Enterprise, Adobe
Economies grow when businesses grow. It’s that simple. How do companies grow? Marketing. — Penry Price, VP-Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn
Stop trying to be creative. Start having ideas with value. — Reuben Webb, Chief Creative Officer, SteinIAS
No human wants to click a banner ad on earth … no one watches television commercials except for the Super Bowl. — VaynerMedia's Vaynerchuk

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