On September 17, 2013, six internationally renowned bestselling authors and thought leaders will be in Vancouver speaking at The Art of Marketing, sharing an exciting blend of cutting edge thinking and real world experience on today’s most critical marketing issues.
Last week, we looked at three of the six speakers (Arianna Huffington, Scooter Braun and Jonah Berger). Today, we look at the remaining three speakers.
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Eric Ryan
Co-Founder & Chief Brand Architect, Method & Author of The Method Method
Image: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Eric Ryan, the architect of the method brand, brings experience and enthusiasm for building consumer and retail concepts. Eric spent over seven years in advertising, trend-spotting and brand positioning for high-end consumer brands including Gap, Old Navy and Saturn. By fusing his knowledge of fashion and design, he has invented a modern and stylish line of cleaning products that are quickly finding their way to becoming permanent fixtures in homes around the world. Currently, method products are sold in over 25,000 retail locations in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
When Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan founded method, the environmentally-friendly brand of cleaning products, they used packaging stylish enough to showcase on the countertop and pleasant aromas such as green tea and cucumber to transform household products into must-have lifestyle accessories. And when they coined the phrase ‘People Against Dirty,’ they weren’t just talking about the stuff you track in on your shoes, they also meant the toxic chemicals that make up many house-hold detergents.
Their first book, Squeaky Green, is an informative and completely entertaining room-by-room guide to giving dirty the boot. Packed with helpful tips and surprising facts, Squeaky Green is rehab for chemically dependant homes.
Ryan earned his B.A. at the University of Rhode Island. He currently resides in San Francisco with his wife Ingrid and two children, Anya and Mattius.
Topic: Branding & Innovation
What you’ll learn from Eric:
- Kick Ass Fast: Use your small size to your advantage. By bringing innovations to market faster than your large bureaucratic rivals, you can always stay one step ahead.
- Inspire Advocates: Rather than fighting costly battles for market share by trying to appeal to everyone, foster deeper relationships with fewer (but more loyal) customers.
- Win on Product Experience: Beyond satisfying your customers’ rational needs, try to design experiences that touch them on an emotional level.
John Gerzema
New York Times Bestselling Author, Social Strategist
Former Chief Insights Officer at Young & Rubicam
Image: John Gerzema
John Gerzema is a pioneer in the use of data to identify social change and help companies anticipate and adapt to new trends and demands. An author, speaker and consultant, his books have appeared on the best seller lists of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fast Company, The Washington Post, Bloomberg Business Week and The Week Magazine. His management articles were chosen among Strategy & Business “Best of the decade.” A sought-after analyst on leadership, marketing and consumer insights, Gerzema’s ‘Trend Watcher’ column for Inc. Magazine is widely read.
A frequent analyst on television and radio, he has been praised by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, Forbes, FT, HBR, USA Today and CBS Sunday Morning News. Gerzema’s TED talks have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. As Executive Chairman overseeing insights for Young & Rubicam Group and WPP’s BAV Consulting, his latest book, The Athena Doctrine: How Women (And The Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future – explores the rise of feminine competencies and values and their impact on leadership, policy and innovation. Tom Peters says of Gerzema’s book, “The Athena Doctrine is a powerful book. Extraordinary research. Great storytelling. A message both timely and of monumental importance.”
Topic: Social, Local, Mobile, Global: The Technology Revolution Remaking Consumerism, Commerce & Competitive Advantage
What you’ll learn from John:
- How managers can apply the latest techniques mobile and social marketing to their brands and businesses.
- How and why we as a society are moving to mindful consumption and the opportunities to differentiate your brand, product or service through values-led business practices.
- Understand how technology and consumer values have resulted in five core ‘spend shifts’ and how to apply them for competitive advantage.
- Easy to apply learning through inspiring and tangible case studies and in-depth interviews with start-up founders that John has conducted in over 25 cities in 18 countries over the past year.
- Why trust and brand integrity have become pivotal Millennial values and how marketers can align with this emerging and powerful consumer market.
Tom Fishburne
Founder & CEO, Marketoon Studios
Image: The Art Of
Tom Fishburne started drawing cartoons on the backs of Harvard Business School cases. His cartoons have grown by word of mouth to reach 100,000 business readers each week and have been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Forbes and the New York Times.
Fishburne is the Founder and CEO of Marketoon Studios, a content marketing studio that helps businesses such as Unilever, O2, Kronos, Baynote, Rocketfuel and the Wall Street Journal reach their audiences with cartoons.
Fishburne is a frequent keynote speaker on innovation, marketing and creativity, using cartoons, case studies and marketing career to tell the story visually. The Huffington Post ranked his South-By-Southwest (SXSW) talk the third best of the conference out of 500.
Fishburne draws from 16 years in the marketing and innovation trenches. He was a VP at Method Products, named “the 16th most innovative company in the world” by Fast Company. Over five years with Method, Fishburne launched new products, led marketing and started the European business from scratch. He has led brands at Nestle and General Mills, developed web sites for interactive agency iXL, and helped launch the first English-language magazine in Prague.
Fishburne lives and draws near San Francisco with his wife and two daughters.
Topic: Marketing Worth Sharing
What you’ll learn from Tom:
- Technology is a means to an end for marketers. It is an enabler to big ideas. It’s not the big idea itself. Technology can’t save a boring idea. But technology can amplify a remarkable idea.
- It’s not about the brand. Marketers are so trained to repeat their features, benefits, and single-minded proposition, they can forget to articulate the why of what they do.
- Preach to the choir. Mass-marketers try to talk to everyone. By being broadly appealing to the great majority, it ends up being not that meaningful to anyone in particular. One size fits none
- Don’t be a one-hit wonder. Marketers often put all of their hopes on the magic of going viral. Not everyone can be the next Double Rainbow or Ultimate Dog Tease. Continuity trumps virality.
- Advertising is a tax for unremarkable thinking. Marketers often use their budgets as a crutch. The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.
For more information on The Art of Marketing, visit www.theartof.com.
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