Direct marketing —an approach that uses all types of advertising media to motivate a response, which is tracked and stored in a database—is fast becoming indistinguishable from modern marketing today. Join us as Ron Jacobs, one of the preeminent authorities on this topic, explains the evolution of direct marketing thinking and where it’s headed over the horizon. Hint: Some marketing challenges are not likely to be solved anytime soon, but Ron says new tools and technologies are on the way.

About our Guest:

During the last 35 years, J&C founder, Ron Jacobs, has been blazing the trail and establishing the best ways to interact with consumers. Through honed tactics and techniques, Ron has defined the best ways to start, manifest and sustain relationships with customers. He shares his insights and strategies as the author of many articles and books, through works with clients and organizations in the U.S. and around the world, and across the globe as world-renowned public speaker. Ron Jacobs literally wrote the book on direct marketing, which is now the basis for modern relationship and response marketing.

WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.

Learn about the exciting job role of product management in tech markets from our guest, Laura Marino, Chief Product Officer at TrueAccord. While tech product managers have little direct authority, they hold great responsibility to represent the needs of the customer and influence others in the firm—engineering, marketing, finance—to deliver products to market at a profit. The future is bright for these professionals, as Product-Led Growth becomes a strategic imperative. Tune in especially as Laura names four characteristics of a successful product.

About our Guest:

Laura Marino is the Chief Product Officer at TrueAccord, a fintech company reinventing debt resolution. She is passionate about scaling companies and product organizations. Prior to joining TrueAccord, Laura built and led product teams in small and large organizations including SAP Labs, Nuance, Tellme Networks/Microsoft, Intapp, and Lever.

Laura holds two Master of Science degrees from Stanford. She is a guest speaker at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and a member of the extended teaching team in the Stanford Management Science and Engineering Department, lecturing on entrepreneurship and product management.

A supporter of women and diversity, Laura serves on the Board of Leading Women in Technology a non-profit dedicated to promoting women leadership.

WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.

Technology continues to disrupt, enable and challenge the world of marketing. Join Scott Brinker, founder of the influential blog Chief Martech, as we discuss the future of marketing technology. When—if ever—will its growth plateau? How can companies prepare for the changes to come? Do you have to be a technologist to be a successful marketer today? Scott’s answers will surprise you.

About our Guest:

Scott Brinker is VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, helping to grow and nurture the company's community of technology partners. He writes the chiefmartec.com blog and serves as the program chair of the MarTech Conference. He is the author of the best-selling book Hacking Marketing, published by Wiley. Previously, he was the co-founder and CTO of ion interactive. He holds degrees in computer science from Columbia University and Harvard University and an MBA from MIT. Connect with him on Twitter @chiefmartec.

WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.

Leaner staffs, fewer journalists in the newsrooms, and a growing suspicion regarding the integrity of earned media have placed the PR profession in potential peril. But today’s guest, Bridgette Borst Ombres, remains optimistic about media relations. Some things have not changed in the profession, she says, including the ongoing challenge of attribution and measurement. But join us, as we explore what has changed in media relations including AI, the rise of live audio, niche publications, and paywall journalism.

About our Guest:

Bridgette Borst Ombres is a former TV news reporter turned PR and marketing professional with nearly 15 years’ experience working in communications across agency, corporate and nonprofit. Bridgette has media trained more than 350 spokespeople for organizations around the country and has consulted for brands such as Google, LG, Angry Birds, Vestas, Boy Scouts of America and Earth Day Network.

Bridgette heads up The Commsultant, a boutique PR agency specializing in communications planning, thought leadership and media strategy.

Through the years, Bridgette has worked to place hundreds of students and young professionals in internships and jobs. She is passionate about mentoring and professional development.

Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bridgette lives with her husband, David and four-year-old daughter, Brielle.

WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.

Heads up to agencies: Your business model needs an update. The needs of the workforce have changed—resulting in hundreds of vacant positions. The “pyramid” staffing structure itself is passe. Our guest Scott Gillum founded a new type of agency, for B2B markets, where employees are empowered to schedule their own workdays and trusted to produce their work “on demand.” He sees an agency like a professional sports team, where free agents sign up to deliver on specific client expectations. The result? Faster, lower-cost marketing results, enviable 86% client retention rates, and 100% employee satisfaction ratings on Glassdoor. Join us to learn the philosophy behind this new model, which could be a blueprint for the agency of the future.

About our Guest:

R. Scott Gillum is the founder of Carbon Design, a marketing services firm that specializes in personality-based marketing. Prior to founding Carbon in 2017, he founded and lead the Washington, DC office of gyro. The largest B2B agency in the world and Ad Age’s B-to-B Agency of the Year.

WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.

Phone reps are no longer the front line of customer service. Customers now reach out to their suppliers first through digital channels. In turn, companies worldwide view their call centers not only as a cost center but also as a revenue opportunity. AI across the customer lifecycle is driving innovation in prediction, conversation and analytics, backed by a combination of cognitive engines and human assistance.

Listen to our conversation with one of the leaders in what is being called AI-driven conversational engagement. Seb Reeve, EMEA Director of Strategy & Business Development at Nuance, is responsible for defining and evangelizing the Nuance customer care proposition worldwide – sharing how companies can create extraordinary automated experiences.

If you are skeptical about the importance of this trend, consider that Microsoft is about to acquired Nuance for an estimated $19 billion, the 2nd largest acquisition in Microsoft history. Join us to learn about what’s new in customer engagement, and where it’s headed.

About our Guest:

In his current role at Nuance as EMEA Director of Product Management and Marketing, Sebastian Reeve is responsible for defining and evangelizing the Nuance customer care proposition across Europe, the Middle-East and Africa – sharing how companies can create extraordinary automated experiences which their customers actively choose to use rather than simply tolerate and complain about.

WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications.