A look back at Effectiveness Week 2024, our week-long series of workshops and events.
The art of effectiveness. That’s been our focus for the past week here at The Marketing Practice. Now, of course, we all like to think we’re incredibly effective in everything we do. But for Effectiveness Week 2024, we brought together marketing leaders from across EMEA, North America, and APAC to explore how we can meet the demands of modern marketing. Our subject matter experts at The Marketing Practice were joined by guests from the likes of Marketo, Magic Numbers, Verizon, Palo Alto and Funnel Fuel for online sessions covering strategy, demand, media, creativity and more.
We’re all under pressure to do more—to show up in more places, analyze more data, impress more stakeholders. But does this drive for constant improvement take away from the result? Essentially, leading to more marketing minutiae and less marketing effectiveness.
With this question ringing in our ears, we set out to examine how shifting focus from doing more of anything to doing more of what matters can drive growth and success for our people and our clients.
In other words, Effectiveness Week 2024 was an opportunity to recalibrate. Here’s what we’ve learned.
Creativity, crowded markets and the evolution of attribution
Day one saw Gary Billings, Global VP of Data and Peter Leighton, Lead Data Analyst, analyze the benefits of shifting from traditional methods of attribution, like first-touch, last-touch, and multi-touch, towards Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM). In keeping with the theme of recalibration, the MMM approach asks us to focus less on what we’ve done and more on what we’re going to do next.
Next up our Associate Strategy Director, Jillian Hart and Executive Creative Director, Dan Schrad dug into the challenges of standing out in a highly crowded online ad market. The answer, at least as far as Dan is concerned, is creativity. Dan served up the proof in the pudding with a heavy-metal-inspired presentation, underlining the power of brave messaging and bold positioning.
Marketers versus the machines
Creativity remained top of the agenda well into day two. Dan Squire, our Content Strategy Director in APAC explored how marketers can make a business case for creativity. The session offered a fresh perspective: creativity isn't a frivolous expense but a powerful tool for maximizing budget efficiency and gaining a competitive edge.
Andrew Shepherd, Senior Director, EMEA & LATAM Marketing at Palo Alto Networks and our SVP Global Accounts, Ashley Robertson joined forces to explore the impact of creativity on demand generation and ABM.
As well as walking us through some of the best examples of AI in action, the pair made a compelling case for aligning creativity with relationship building. The end result? Marketing that means more at every level.
AI was on the mind of Jon Miller, Marketo & Engagio Founder, and our very own VP Strategy, Tracy Henshaw too as they tackled the ‘more for less’ mantra head-on. While AI is undoubtedly an ally to the marketer, this fireside chat laid out how we are now also in competition with this highly intelligent and efficient technology when demonstrating business value.
Examining the elements of effectiveness
On the third and final day of Effectiveness Week 2024, it was time to fully break the concept down. Dr Grace Kite, CEO/Founder of Magic Numbers, and Ali Hussain, SVP of Strategy at The Marketing Practice, worked together to delve into the key elements of B2B marketing effectiveness.
We went out with a bang across the rest of the day, with Chris Smith, our Global Head of Performance and Kevin Flood, Co-Founder and Chairman at Funnel Fuel, on the future of advertising. Next up was Kellie Felsten, our VP of Media and David Hayes, SVP Global Strategic Accounts on the best strategies, tools, and methodologies for optimizing media spend.
Will Clark, Global Strategic ABM Solution Lead & Associate Director of Strategy was joined by Kerry Scotland, Associate Director Marketing APAC at Verizon Business Group. The pair took a fascinating look at how integrating brand, demand, and ABM strategies helps us measure influence throughout the funnel to ensure ABM remains a cohesive part of overall marketing strategy.
Taking effectiveness into every day
And just like that, Effectiveness Week 2024 comes to an end. But there’s no doubt the things we’ve learned will live on long into our work.
We’d like to thank all the speakers, both at The Marketing Practice and our amazing guests. To everyone who attended, thank you for your attention and your input.
If you couldn’t join us during the week, you can still watch all of the sessions on demand here.
Until the next time!
