OMG! The Best CANNES LIONS Ever!

September 16, 2022Leave a comment

This is a reason to visit France! I was elated to discover that the Cannes Lions Festival added business-to-business marketing to their creative competition this year. I’ve attended several conferences in and remember how empowering and motivating they were. I knew that this event, which recognizes 826 Lions for creative excellence in the global branded communications industry, was one that I might set my eyes on at some point.

Non-Virtual Reality

The event took place from June 220th – 23rd in Cannes, France, and was officially sponsored by Meta. There were far too many notable brands to mention, but top brands like Amazon, Google, Spotify, Disney, Microsoft, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, Yahoo, and the Wall Street Journal spread out along the Mediterranean Sea to host workshops, chats, keynotes, wellness sessions, lunches, brunches, happy hours and more.

Cannes Lions Awards 2022

The awards were comprised of 9 tracks – classic, craft, engagement, entertainment, experience, good, health, strategy, and titanium – with 28 specialist awards. The part that excited me most about this event was that it was the first year that B2B Marketing was recognized as a part of the engagement category. Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings won the Grand Prix Award for a campaign called Speaking in Color. Spotify and Apple were among the Gold Lion Winners, Strahl and Pinatex won Silver Lions, and Meta and Heineken won Bronze Lions. There were many other notables. If you’re into marketing you may have seen Spotify’s A Song for Every CMO campaign or Apple’s Escape from the Office. All I can say is great stuff.

#Hashtag My Retweet

And as if that wasn’t enough the topics covered during the workshops were so inspiring. The topics that really stood out to me were Finding the Fan in Everyone, Reconfiguring Retail, The NFT Revolution, Who Do You Want To Be in the Metaverse, Chipotle’s Transformation Story, The Harmony Theory, and Influence 3.0.

Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, the winner of the Cannes LionsHeat, hosted a session discussing ways to create change with Gen Z.

And here’s a list of some of the celebrities that participated:

Gold-winning Olympian Tianna Bartoletta
Chicago Bulls basketball player Zach LaVine
Writer, producer, and actress Issa Rae
Actress Regina Hall
And Paris Hilton
Grammy Award Winning Recording Artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Megan Thee Stallion
Model, cultural innovator, activist, and businesswoman Naomi Campbell

This event is definitely one that I hope to experience. If you have the time, there’s some great searchable post-Cannes Lions event content on YouTube and LinkedIn that you might enjoy.

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B2B Marketing Exchange #B2BMX

June 22, 2022June 21, 2022Leave a comment

The B2B Marketing Exchange event hosted by Demand Gen Report took place on June 6 – 8, offering informative sessions about current trends and the road ahead for digital transformation. The workshops covered a wide range of topics from ABM 101 to ABM measurement and optimization. My interests were data quality, demand generation, interactive video, and persona development.

Kronologic hosted a session called, “Candy is Dandy, but liquor is quicker. Data is fly, but engagement means ROI.” I had several moments of reflection after the session and thought about the effectiveness of traditional marketing methods in contrast to new-age marketing approaches. My key takeaway was that an effective approach to increasing engagement is possibly finding the right cadence and communicating across multiple touchpoints. Ultimately, improved engagement = higher conversions.

Stanley Black & Decker hosted a session called, “Game – Changing ABE Strategy.” The conversation was mainly about Account-Based Engagement, which prompted me to think about brands that use social media for customer service and customer support. It was exciting to think about how support cases can enable further customer engagement, help to determine the true voice of the customer, allow brands to learn more about customers, and position them to deliver on expectations.

One book that I read in school was Storybranding 2.0 by Jim Signorelli. I had really enjoyed the material and was excited to see the session called, “Storytelling for Specific Target Audience,” hosted by Microsoft. My key takeaways were understanding the importance of collaboration in overcoming human biases, thinking beyond strategy, and creating content that resonates. I also thought about brands I like and their core values.

Overall, the sessions were very engaging and sparked some really deep thinking on the future of marketing. Other topics explored in the marketing exchange included customer experience, video content, email marketing, and community building – and of course, everyone is talking about ABM. Some of the companies that participated were Demandbase, Drift, RollWorks, Integrate, MRP, and Sendoso.

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Best App to Create Your Instagram Content Calendar

January 24, 2022Leave a comment

Creating the perfect feed on Instagram can be quite challenging without the right tools. Thousands of new photos are posted every minute. It’s important to create content that stands out if you want to grow your following and become a social media influencer. Luckily, there are tons of great apps that allow you to plan your content and create a unique feed that will make your followers read your bio, click your links, and press that button to get notifications on your every post, reel, and story.

Apps like Planoly, Plann, and Preview are perfect for making the perfect Instagram feed, but what’s the difference between them?

Planoly

https://www.planoly.com/

Planoly allows you to plan and schedule posts to your Instagram and Pinterest profiles. You can easily upload photos, write captions, and add hashtags. You can also coordinate auto-posts for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The most unique feature is the ability to easily create shoppable posts. Planoly also has excellent capabilities for data analysis.

Plann

https://www.plannthat.com/

Another great all-in-one social media suite is Plann. You can use it for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn. It allows you to upload and edit photos for carousels, reels, and stories. You can also schedule posts and monitor results. The unique features are the ability to create and store a hashtag set and the ability to create strategic placeholders to help you build your feed. And if you need free content, you can search for photos and videos from Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash inside the app.

Preview

https://thepreviewapp.com/

Preview allows you to add media for reels, videos, and stories to your Instagram feed with the click of a button. The app makes it easy to review analytics and insights like profile views, impressions, reach, and follower count. You can also schedule posts, create placeholders, upload free photos, and repost photos. The unique feature is the function that lets you search for top hashtags within the app and create hashtag groups.

All three apps also have websites sites with additional resources and content. You can find post ideas, best practices, and social media trends. Plann That offers free training, content calendars, and marketing tips. Planoly’s site also offers tons of social media marketing guides, case studies, and downloadables.

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Loving this blog? Support us by shopping with One Hope Wine, a Napa Valley-based wine company that raises money for important various causes. The company has donated over $7 million dollars to organizations like the Susan G Komen foundation, Why Hunger, and the Heart Foundation.

You can also shop on Amazon using our link. We do not receive commissions for recommending products but may receive a commission from purchases made using these links.

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