Here at Unicorny, we’ve had a fantastic year of weekly chats with marketing experts, pioneers, and thought leaders.
We’ve explored everything from ABM to zero-party data, and learned a lot in the process. So, without further ado, here are five of our top insights from 2023’s brilliant guests.
1. Charlotte Lander on the need for social media strategy
Social media as a customer service channel is nothing new, and yet many big businesses still don't have a specific strategy for it — which means when disaster strikes, unprepared social teams can inadvertently make things worse.
Charlotte Lander, director of social media, corporate affairs, and brand and marketing at Standard Chartered Bank, believes that brands need a clear strategy for each platform they use within their wider crisis frameworks.
‘I think you need a specific playbook and framework for social media because of the speed with which that information flows. If you don’t want to be caught on the hop, you need to pre-plan a lot of that. So thinking about how you identify potential issues in social media [is key]. How are you going to do that? How are you going to monitor and then review that as well? What do you have access to and what do you not? That evaluation is hugely valuable.’
‘You need that framework that takes you through from identification, evaluation, and then the continued monitoring of that situation in social media. Even long after that situation has resolved or sort of ebbed away, there’s going to be some particular reputational risks that may rear up again. And how do you make sure that you’re monitoring for that?’
How indeed? Luckily, Charlotte gave us the low-down, including two real killer examples of averting crisis and heightening it respectively, in the full episode.
2. Steven Millman on what AI can and can’t do
Can you articulate the difference between data science and AI? The two are so often entangled these days, but it’s important not to conflate them — not least because it’ll make you look like an amateur in front of people who do know the difference! Thankfully Steven Millman, global head of research and data science at Dynata, was able to set us straight.
‘It's all kind of mixed up together now in certain ways. There are versions of artificial intelligence that are very effective at predicting, and there are those that aren't. Large language models are not good at predicting,’ he said.
‘When Bill Clinton was running for president, he had this big sign in his campaign that said, “It's the economy, stupid.” I printed one out that says “It's a language model, stupid.” Don't expect language models to be great at math. They're not math models. They're language models. Don't expect them to be good at predicting. They're not. The big difference is rules based, business, rule driven models versus models in AI, where the system is figuring out how to answer the question without being told explicitly how to come to answer.’
Steven illustrates the difference perfectly with a very specific example — but you’ll have to listen to the full episode to see for yourself.
3. Andrea Clatworthy on marketing transformation
The B2B world is changing — and Andrea Clatworthy, director and head of marketing transformation at Fujitsu, is someone who knows a thing or two about staying ahead of the game. We asked her what marketers need to be thinking about over the next 12-24 months before they embark on their own transformation journey.
‘I think they need to start with taking a look at what marketing’s purpose is for their organisation. Because it’s different in different organisations. It will be really interesting to see how tools like AI can take us forward, and what that looks like in two years is going to be completely different to how it is now.’
‘And then if you link those two things together, what does your organisation want for marketing, or what is [AI] going to bring us? What skills do you need in your team and what ecosystem do you put in place around you for those? [...] The other thing I think is going to be really interesting is that thinking around the whole customer journey. So, customer satisfaction, customer success, who owns that? Wouldn't it be great if marketing could own [everything about the] customer?’
But there’s one thing that Andrea is particularly excited to see less of an emphasis on…
‘I'm really looking forward to there being less focus on MQLs and those vanity metrics. That's got to be done, right?’
And these weren’t the only predictions Andrea made for the road ahead. Find out more in the full episode.
4. Geoffrey Moore on ABM
ABM has blown up over the last few years, but while it’s undoubtedly popular, people have different views on what it is or how to execute it from agency to agency.
Geoffrey Moore, bestselling author and king of corporate strategy, talked us through the key personas involved in decision making during any ABM campaign — and why your relationships with them are a matter of right place, right time within the technology adoption lifecycle.
‘When I look at account based marketing, I think the reason why you need a discipline here is that those six personas have different amounts of power in the buying decision at different points in the life cycle.’
‘At the very beginning of the buying decision, [you’ve got] the executive sponsor, who we call ‘the visionary’, who’s typically not the CIO. The CIO is normally a pragmatist, but this is a visionary. They’re going to get a bunch of money, or a bunch of investment, and they’re going to create a budget. So they become incredibly important.’
‘Then there’s the technology enthusiast, who is the person who says they really “get” generative AI, or they really get whatever else. Those are the two personas you need to work with when you’re crossing the chasm.’
‘The number one persona is the business process owner who’s got the broken process. That’s the person you connect with. And then their boss, the executive sponsor, has got to give them some extra money. And those are the two key personas in the tornado. It’s like, “Now the budget’s in it.” So you now want the CIO and CFO to be on your side. And then on main street, it’s more about the end user and the systems maintainer.’
‘The point is that it’s important for you to realise there’s six constituencies in ABM. I don’t need to have relationships with all six of them at the same time, but I have to have the right relationships at the right time.’
Discover Geoffrey Moore’s top tips on aligning your campaigns to the technology adoption life cycle in the full episode.
5. Joerg Kluckmann on creative vision for B2B
Joerg Kluckmann, Finastra’s head of marketing, believes that an overreliance on data in the industry has led to a ‘sea of sameness’. But can a grand creative idea ever truly translate into metrics, particularly in drier B2B settings?
‘Yes, I think so,’ says Joerg. ‘If you find a way to cut through the noise to be seen, I believe it will have a positive impact on your top of funnel metrics. Could be metrics to measure in your social media engagement, could be website traffic. Also, if you measure advocacy, metrics in your organisation could have an impact there as well.’
‘I mean, ultimately, it all comes back to the point: do something that creates awareness, where people say “Oh, I want to understand what that is.” But then you need to make sure that the positive impact on top of funnel metrics translates down to middle and bottom of funnel. And this goes back to what we said in the beginning.’
‘Don’t just start coming up with a crazy cool idea and something that looks different, where people say “Oh wow, I want to figure out what it is”, then it breaks. You need to be able to understand, this person comes from a certain segment. [...] What’s the pain point that person might be facing? What’s our solution to that pain point? And move that prospect into the right campaign bucket.’
‘So it's too short to say let’s just do the crazy stuff, let's just go to the playground and do something that marketing likes. The great crazy idea needs to be integrated with sellable products.’
Learn more about how to do exactly that, as well as how to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that integrates umbrella campaigns and more, in the full episode.
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That’s all from Unicorny for 2023 — but stay tuned for even more expert insight, advice and opinions in the new year, including part two of our chat with Geoffrey Moore.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year from the Unicorny team!
