Episode 99: Tying Revenue back to Traffic, with Steffen Hedenbrandt

Disclaimer: When I bring technology vendors on the show, you should know that they are not sponsors or affiliates. They’re simply here to give you a broader perspective.

If you have been to the eye doctor for near or far sightedness, the equipment that’s likely been used to assess you is a phoropter. The part that’s put in front of your eyes looks somewhat like a pair of glasses, but it branches out from that with an imposing array of lenses, dials and machinery. You are shown an eye chart and the doctor flicks through alternate lenses, asking you to say whether the image is clearer with lens 1 or lens 2. When tests on the phoropter & other equipment is done, you end up with lens prescriptions that are right for you. 

This process isn’t unlike what’s behind marketing’s use of attribution models. They serve to show what impact advertising channels have on a company’s revenue, with pre-set models, each one weighing the impact of digital touchpoints differently. By attributing revenue back to the channels and campaigns that helped acquire it, you get a clearer view of what you are getting for your marketing dollar. 

Of course, marketers don’t use phoropters, but doing attribution analysis does take specific tools, and that’s what this episode takes us through. 

My guest is Steffen Hedenbrandt, who’s growth-oriented, data-driven and loves all parts of scaling a business.  He worked at places like Upwork and Airtame before cofounding DreamData, where he serves as the Chief Marketing Officer.He has a bachelor’s degree from Aalborg University and a Masters from Copenhagen Business School. 

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Episode 98: Built to Change: How to Future-proof your Marketing Team, with Amanda Farley

Change is the constant in today’s Marketing. The firms that adapt to that reality will survive. Those marketing employers that hold to conventional practices like daily office commutes and spliffs like Starbucks gift cards won’t survive this environment for long. 

My guest Amanda Farley knows this very well. She has been a marketer, performance strategist, and business success leader for over a dozen years. She is VP of Growth at Aimclear, a marketing agency dominant in customer acquisition and winner of 17 US Search Awards including 5X most recent Best Integrated Agency.

Amanda speaks at conferences such as SMX, HeroConf, PRSA Detroit, FoundCon, and TogetherDigital. She has appeared in publications including SearchEngineLand and MarketingLand. Amanda judges the annual Global Content Awards and UK App Awards. She has also been a finalist for Landy’s Search Female Marketer of the Year.

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Episode 97: Reacting to a Reengineered Sales team, with Rick Endrulat

No corporate function in B2B was impacted by the events of 2020 as much as sales. Salesforces had to reengineer themselves just to survive. We in marketing had better understand how these new sales dynamics are affecting us. My guest will help us do just that. 

Rick Endrulat’s passion for revenue generation began at Watcom, a spinoff from the University of Waterloo. He was there as it grew and was acquired by the sixth-largest software company in the world. He then co-founded Virtual Causeway, a consultancy that helps enterprises scale up their demand generation.

Rick is a Quantum Shift Fellow with the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. A past recipient of Waterloo Region’s “40 Under 40,” Rick has also received Wilfrid Laurier’s MBA Alumni Award in 2008 and 2013, and Communitech’s Tech Impact Award for outstanding leadership and involvement in the local technology community. He is a member of Laurier’s President’s Council of Advisors, and a two-time winner of the Laziridis School of Business — Entrepreneurship & Innovation award. He has an Honours Degree in Arts and a Masters of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Not one to stand still, Rick co-founded School of Rock Kitchener-Waterloo, which rapidly grew to become the largest music school in the community. He is also Co-Founder and Director of 100 Guitars for 100 kids, as well as a Founding Board Member for Sustainable Waterloo Region.

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Episode 96: Is the Marketing Services Model Broken? with Leona Hobbs

Is the Marketing Services Model Broken?

My guest is calling BS on the state of agency-brand relations. Considering her qualifications in this space, it’s worth hearing her out. Leona Hobbs joined global public relations agency Fleishman-Hillard right out of school. She worked on strategy across several sectors and rose to become a vice president there. 

The 1990s and early 2000s had her working with internet clients like Yahoo and Tucows as director of communications. Working in agencies and through her own Reset Digital brand, she consulted with leading automotive, industrial, financial services, cruise line, and consumer brands. She also had an extended account leadership role with a Fortune 50 semiconductor firm.

People, Companies and Concepts mentioned in this episode:

Episode 95: New database technology paradigm, with Chris McLellan

Big Data has a problem. It’s not just its bigness; it’s the rigidity of the databases that hold and that force us to make data copies. Resulting problems, from privacy to fidelity loss, are so severe, we should revisit the first principles of how databases are built. Let’s be honest, if we could build our whole data infrastructure over again, would we do it differently? 

Today’s guest says we would have built data like a network. Thankfully, next-generation technology will allow us to store data in this new way while still making use of old-style databases.   

My guest is Chris McLellan. He splits his time between the nonprofit Data Collaboration Alliance, and Cinchy, the leader in enterprise data fabric technology. Coming out of Bishops University with a degree in Political Science, his career has included stints at VarageSale, and Lyft, as well as startups like Flexday and ChangeJar. He also created the go-to-market strategy for Hailo, the taxi network of 35,000 licensed drivers. 

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