How do you drive integrated marketing communications in large matrixed organizations?

In a small organization, communications and marketing might be the same person or team. As a company grows marketing and advertising might reside under one leader, while communications reside under another leader. Communications might prioritize public policy, issue management, earned media and brand reputation. Marketing and advertising might be focused on brand awareness, sales revenue, customer relationship management, and conquest sales. How do you stay integrated when you’re matrixed differently and reside in different locations?

About Nathan's Guest:

Whitney Drake, Senior Manager of GM Brand & Story Bureau at General Motors

Teaches IMC 610 - Introduction to IMC

Whitney Drake has created compelling activations around some of the world’s largest events, including the Super Bowl, American Idol, SXSW and Warriors in Pink.

Whitney Drake currently manages the story bureau and analytics team within communications at General Motors. Prior to this role, Drake oversaw enterprise-wide customer experience strategy and operations for GM’s Global Social Media Center of Expertise.

Before GM, Drake led digital and social media efforts for several agencies and her clients included Pure Michigan, T-Mobile, Children’s Place, and Budweiser among others. She also worked for Procter & Gamble and Ford Motor Company.

Drake has 20 years of experience counseling clients in public relations, social media, and integrated communications, both inside and outside the automotive industry, and has created unique and compelling activations around some of the world’s largest events, including the Super Bowl, American Idol, SXSW and Warriors in Pink.

She has also shared her insights at notable conferences such as Social Media Marketing World 2016, Oracle Open World and the Incite Customer Care summit.

Drake teaches IMC 610 at West Virginia University and is an adjunct instructor of social media in the department of communication at Wayne State University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in communication from Michigan State University and a Master of Science in integrated marketing communications from West Virginia University.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today is hosted by Michael Lynch from West Virginia University which is a program on the Funnel Radio Channel. 

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Integrated Marketing Communications is a field that requires us to succeed in conceptual thinking and
strategy development. How does that lead us into campaign development in IMC615?

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Protecting the brand: The role of brand standards in IMC

It is difficult enough for a brand to build trust among consumers these days. Having a consistent appearance and tone throughout a brand’s integrated marketing communications is critical to that mission, but it can be difficult to maintain. With large marketing departments and multiple sources producing content, it’s essential to have standards and oversight to ensure a brand speaks with one voice. In this podcast, we will learn how a governing set of brand guidelines can help to protect the brand, preserve uniformity, and ultimately build trust.

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Marketing in an Age of Disruption

Our host for this episode of West Virginia University's Marketing Communications Today is Nathan Pieratt. His guest is Joseph Jaffe, CEO and Co-Founder of Evol8tion. Some of the topics they may be covering in this interview include: 

• What is Survival Planning? Why do you believe everyone is in the survival business?
• You mention 4 reasons why companies are “Built to Suck.” Can you list and describe them?
• Why do companies struggle so much with the concept of “failure”?
• A real interesting approach is this idea of embracing your heresy? What does this mean? Can you give some examples of “heresy marketing”?

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