What Makes a Successful CMO?

In my experience as a hospital chief marketing officer (CMO) and in working at AB&C with healthcare CMOs, I’ve found a number of attributes that serve a person well in this role. On Innovation Enterprise, which provides leading-edge ideas and information on a variety of key business channels, Rose Johnstone identifies a number of these attributes from the business world that apply to the healthcare industry.

Read full post...

Why Brand Perception Matters — and How Customer Reviews Can Influence It

We know a few things to be true about popular brands. They exist. They tend to offer a product or service. They have a physical space or online presence. They have identifiable brand attributes. And they are vetted over time through consumer experiences and perception.

Based on these truths, it seems safe to assume that in order for you to establish credibility and trust with your target audience, customers must have some exposure or real-world experience with your brand, right? Well, think again.

Read full post...

February 13, 2018

Key Takeaways for Women in Advertising

By Maria Antonelli, Andrea Ferrino, Elizabeth Gluck, Jennifer Harris, Lauren Bentley, Amanda Kalbrosky and Elizabeth Howarth

Earlier this month, the Philly Ad Club hosted its annual Women in Advertising event, where a panel of women in advertising and communications imparted their knowledge to a room of marketers (men and women). The panelists—each with a different personality and job description—shared how they successfully handled adversity throughout their careers and overcame self-doubt to achieve their goals.

Read full post...

The Art of an Adequate Thank-You

The holidays always elicit a flashback to the one thing that wasn’t so “joyous” for me as a kid: the thank-you notes. Many of us had parents who made us write to everyone who gave us presents—and not just during the holidays either. For us kids, it was a chore. In retrospect, I now see that, for our parents, thank-you notes were a way to build stronger relationships.

Read full post...

October 26, 2017

Key Takeaways from the Pennsylvania Conference for Women

By Megan Egan and Samantha Mueller

There’s something uniquely empowering about sharing a room with 12,000 women (and a few brave men) at the largest annual gathering of women in the country. It was a day where the world’s most influential women—among them former First Lady Michelle Obama and writer, executive producer and creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, Shonda Rhimes—got candid about what it means to lean in, speak up and keep your seat at the table.

Read full post...

The Art of Being a Great Client

Recently, I was reacquainted with The Art of Client Service, a must-read for any aspiring account executive eager to set his or her agency (and the ad world) on fire. Flipping through the pages, I wondered why there was never a companion piece, The Art of Being a Great Client. Looking back on the countless clients I’ve worked with over the years, there were certain traits that uniformly predicted who would be a great client and, in turn, where the agency would do its best work.

Read full post...

How to Prevent the Agency Letdown

So, your business needs a marketing communications agency. Where do you start? Common sense tells you to ask for recommendations, look up agencies that you’ve heard have a good reputation and do lots of internet research.

Even if my intention for this blog was to offer you advice on starting an agency search, I couldn’t—not without knowing specifics of your industry, business model and objectives. But what I can offer any business that’s facing an agency search is insight, to help you avoid what I call the “new-home letdown.”

Read full post...

Lessons Learned from a New CEO

After more than a decade of managing a marketing communications agency as a partner and chief creative director, making the step up to CEO shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right? I believed this as I prepared to step into the shoes of our retiring CEO, John Hawkins, the agency’s founder and my friend of 30-some years. I didn’t envision much changing—or needing to change—at Aloysius Butler & Clark (AB&C), aside from my carving out a role and asserting my own style. I quickly discovered I was off in this thinking. John retired on December 31, 2016, and before we reached mid-January, my point of view had changed.

Read full post...

Do You Know Your Net Promoter Score?

One of the most important drivers of business for any organization — of any size — is referrals from satisfied customers. Meeting or exceeding customers’ expectations creates a long-term relationship and loyalty, which leads to referrals. And loyalty can pay off — loyal customers are worth up to 10 times their initial purchase value.

Read full post...

Mindful Approach to Marketing

What Is Mindfulness?

The word itself is straightforward. Mindfulness suggests that the mind is full with what is happening around us, inside our bodies or with the task at hand. Yet finding that intensely present and aware mind is hardly an easy task. It seems that when we are doing one thing, our mind is already on to the next project.
Read full post...

Read more in
February 22, 2017

Key Takeaways for Women in Advertising

By Megan Egan, Dayna Hawco, Elizabeth Howarth, Paige Miller and Caity Smith

Earlier this month, the Philly Ad Club hosted its annual “Women in Advertising” event at the Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown. A panel composed of six successful women in advertising and communications imparted their knowledge to the female (and male) marketers in the room. The panelists—each with her own unique personality and job description—shared how they successfully handled adversity throughout their careers and overcame self-doubt to achieve their goals.

Read full post...

The Benefits of Selecting an Agency of Record

WHy work w an AOR

What benefits working with a full-service agency can offer over a project shop.

In the end, designating an advertising Agency of Record (AOR) for your organization should be a decision based on the strategic, long-term marketing and communication needs of your stakeholders in your marketplace.

I know what you’re thinking. My conclusion may sound biased, since I am employed by a full-service ad agency, I can also offer this opinion from the perspective of a CMO with more than 25 years of experience from the client side in healthcare, higher education, and professional services institutions.Read full post...

Read more in

4 Marketing Resolutions for 2016

What are your marketing resolutions for 2016?

What are your marketing resolutions for 2016?

The New Year gives us a clean slate and an opportunity to make resolutions to improve our lives. Typical goals and resolutions include losing weight, exercising more, improving finances, getting a new job or procrastinating less. Which, I’m sure we’ll all fully accomplish this year.

Yeah, right.

According to recent research published in the University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology, while nearly 45 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions, only 8 percent actually keep them.Read full post...

Read more in