Nadia Nizar, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Blue Prism and former director of influencer relations at Resonance, spoke to Daniel and Claire about the evolving role of analyst relations and why it should be a strategic part of any company's marketing strategy.

Topics:

• What is analyst relations, and why should companies care?
• Choosing the right analyst firms to engage with
• Using analyst insights to strengthen brand positioning and storytelling

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Link: ⁠https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3558-covert-affair ⁠

License: ⁠https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Luke Farrugia, VP of Marketing at leading digital signage company ScreenCloud, spoke to me about the changing role of marketing leaders and why you need to get your data strategy started from day one.

Topics:

• The challenges of marketing a tech brand during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The importance of understanding target audiences and personas.
• The role of behavioural science and neuroscience in communication strategies.
• The evolving role of marketing leaders.
• The importance of a data-driven strategy for marketing.

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Link: ⁠https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3558-covert-affair ⁠

License: ⁠https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

This episode, Dan goes over Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI)'s testimony to a Senate subcommittee about the potential benefits and dangers of AI. Looking at his statements, the effect of the hearing, OpenAI's recent key messaging, and the broader media landscape around AI, we drew out 4 key lessons from this story:

• Nail your key messaging.
• Monitor the media landscape.
• Lead the conversation, altering tactics when necessary.
• Establish thought leadership.

Check out this episode on our website: ⁠www.resonancecrowd.com⁠

Music used under Creative Commons license:

Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Link:  ⁠https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3558-covert-affair⁠

License:  ⁠https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Joe Giddens, `Director of Content & Communications at CybSafe and former Detective at the Metropolitan Police's Cybercrime Unit, spoke to me about why marketers have to resonate on their customers' frequency.

Topics we discussed included:

• Why your target audience has a frequency on which they resonate, so a marketer's mission is to find that frequency and resonate with them.
• The role of behavioural science in brand storytelling, and why assuming the rationality and logic of a customer's decisions may not always be the best approach.
• Why CybSafe's marketing department focuses on providing value to its community without expecting anything in return.
• How Monzo, BrewDog, Slack, MailChimp, and Basecamp are examples of brands that tell their story effectively, by putting people first.
• The importance of 'killing your darlings' and using data to prove which campaigns are effective, iterating on the most successful strategies.
• Why generative AI can't yet replace the creativity, humour, and empathy of a human copywriter.

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Link: ⁠https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3558-covert-affair ⁠

License: ⁠https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Jane Wakefield, former Senior Tech Journalist at the BBC and podcast host for UK Tech News and Boardwave, spoke to me about her experience moving from mainstream to B2B tech news, covering tech in Ukraine during the war, and the need to tell a human story when communicating the work your company does.

Topics we discussed included:

• How moving away from Jane's previous role with the BBC allowed her greater freedom to explore less established tech companies.
• Why companies must tell a human story to attract journalists' attention and resonate with their audience.
• The way that politics and tech have become increasingly linked in recent years, resulting in heightened regulatory attention.
• How the media cycle is often a hyped-up representation of technological reality, making it difficult to explore nuanced implications before the next headline arrives.
• Where comms professionals and journalists can find a balance between simplifying and exploring technical concepts in order to engage a wide range of audiences.
• Speaking to tech innovators in Ukraine during the war effort and being inspired by the development of the scene.
• The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and first-hand experiences of founders through the crisis.

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Link: ⁠https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3558-covert-affair ⁠

License: ⁠https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

This week Chas Kielt, a Global Corporate Communications Executive and former senior marketing professional at companies like Experian, Citrix, Reltio, and Pyramid Analytics, spoke to me about the importance of intellectual curiosity, the role played by brand equity, and how to make your company's story relatable to potential buyers.

Topics we discussed included:

• Why intellectual curiosity is so vital for PR practitioners to tell a brand's story and make it relevant and engaging to its target audience.
• The differences and similarities between corporate communications, PR, analyst relations, and marketing – as well as the product marketing roles Chas has held at several companies.
• The metrics that marketers and PR professionals should be using to prove how they're adding value to a company.
• Why investing in your brand and building brand equity is crucial – even amidst a general downturn in global markets.
• Which lessons he's taken from the hype around generative AI and how it illustrates the workings of the B2B tech media cycle.
• How the data and analytics sector has evolved over the last couple of decades, moving from descriptive to predictive, and even prescriptive, as enterprise adoption accelerates.

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Link: ⁠https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3558-covert-affair ⁠

License: ⁠https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

This week Aurelien Mottier, CEO and co-founder of Operatix, spoke to me about sales cycles, the B2B tech market, and how leaders can put the right People, Processes, and Technology in place.

Founded in 2012 and with 3 offices worldwide, Operatix specializes in accelerating growth and increasing revenue for B2B Software companies across North America and Europe. Operatix has worked with some of the biggest tech players worldwide, as well as many emerging software vendors and scale-ups.

Topics we discussed included:

• Why some leaders are suited for certain stages of a company's growth (pre-seed to Series A, growth stage, etc.)
• The importance of leaders learning from their mistakes and putting the right People, Processes, and Technology in place (in that order).
• Why PR, marketing, and sales are interconnected – and how each department is essential to help companies grow.
• The kinds of clients Operatix works with, why they choose outsourced sales development, and the primary drivers behind their decisions.
• How the economic downturns of 2022 have affected the B2B tech market, and how it can pay to recognise the signs early.
• Why Aurelien co-founded Operatix, and what he's learned as a leader and CEO.

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3558-covert-affair 

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Please welcome Sebastian Moss, Editor-in-Chief at Datacenter Dynamics! Seb came on to talk about heatwaves, how many pitches he gets a day, and why running a datacenter publication doesn't mean you can't be critical of datacenters.

Datacenter Dynamics is a leading source of datacenter analysis, news, and opinion, with over 400,000 monthly readers

Topics we discussed included:

• Datacenter electrical usage preventing new houses being built in West London.
• The link between climate change, heatwaves, and datacenter uptime – and how it all ties in to our most important institutions.
• The role of datacenters in the future of the data economy.
• Will datacenters based in space or underwater become widely used?
• How his role has changed since joining DCD as a reporter in 2017.
• The different challenges involved in managing a news website and publishing a 90-page magazine
• How many pitches he reads a day, and what separates the winners from the losers (or the junk folder),

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3558-covert-affair 

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license