Goldenhour 2024 34 min

A New Dawn for the Marketing Industry


Anthony Kennada, CEO of AudiencePlus outlines how he sees the future of B2B marketing, the role of content, and how owned media is at the heart of everything.



0:00

(cheering)

0:01

Please welcome to the stage,

0:03

Anthony Canada, the founder and CEO of Audience Plus.

0:08

♪ Now, free ♪

0:11

♪ Everybody ♪

0:13

♪ Now, free ♪

0:15

♪ Jump roughly ♪

0:17

Welcome, welcome to the first ever Golden Hour.

0:20

How's everyone doing?

0:21

All right, good, good.

0:23

Notorious VIG.

0:26

Jay-Z, Nas.

0:29

What do they all have in common?

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Well, they're all from right here in Brooklyn, New York.

0:35

Also, they would have all hated hearing me rap.

0:38

So my apologies to the pioneers.

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Do you think Big Daddy Kane ever wondered

0:42

what rhymes with nurturing leads?

0:45

Probably not.

0:45

I think I am to wrapping what NFTs were to art.

0:49

Seriously, we are thrilled to be here in Brooklyn.

0:54

This is our inaugural event.

0:56

And like the Beastie Boys, we haven't slept much,

0:59

but trust me, it will soon be, as they say, time to get ill.

1:03

Hopefully some of you guys get that reference.

1:05

While everyone else is hosting their conferences

1:07

across the river in Manhattan,

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we couldn't feel any more at home here in Williamsburg.

1:11

Even if we did name the event Golden Hour,

1:14

and it's been cloudy with a chance of rain

1:16

and the forecast this evening ever since we moved in.

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So don't worry, dinner is on a rooftop,

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and we opted for hors d'oeuvres instead of umbrellas.

1:25

So let's just happen in Scottsdale, they said.

1:27

Anyway, we should also just get the elephant out of the room

1:31

before we get started.

1:32

Audience Plus is a startup very early in our journey,

1:35

and putting together something like this

1:36

is not easy on the budget.

1:38

So with this in mind, if you find yourself

1:40

without a ride after the conference,

1:42

keep an eye out for me on Uber.

1:45

I have five stars, all my passengers getting mints.

1:49

Now, I'm sure when you first heard about Golden Hour,

1:52

you all wondered the same thing.

1:55

Does the world really need another tech marketing

1:57

conference where a bunch of people get together

2:00

to talk about their Tesla Cybertrucks,

2:02

and how AI can eventually make cold plunges even colder?

2:06

Again, probably not.

2:08

But if we're using the same status quo definition

2:11

of conference, then the world probably

2:12

doesn't need another one.

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Still, I believe that our community needs something

2:18

right now, something that's different than the status quo,

2:21

and the traditional vendor events that many of us

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have attended year after year.

2:25

We need a space where we can break out

2:27

of our LinkedIn feeds and Slack channels

2:30

to draw inspiration from new ideas,

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not just recycle the same playbooks time and time again.

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We need an onsite environment that is more intimate,

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that enables those attending in person here

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to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones.

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And the open bar won't hurt afterwards as well.

2:47

(audience laughing)

2:49

We need an inclusive digital broadcast

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that goes beyond a basic live stream

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to help educate and inspire a global audience.

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And we need a shared experience that demonstrates

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the power of good marketing, not just by what is shared

3:03

from the stage here, but what is felt by every attendee

3:06

throughout the event.

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No pressure to the audience plus marketing team at all.

3:11

(audience laughing)

3:12

But the truth is that in my 15 years of working in SAS,

3:15

I've never once attended an event like this.

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And so Golden Hour is our attempt to interrupt the pattern

3:21

and introduce an event brand that

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makes marketers feel relevant and inspired and prepared

3:26

for the next chapter of our industry.

3:29

And today is really just the start.

3:30

So we could make Golden Hour happen alone.

3:34

There's a fine line between Coachella and Firefest.

3:36

So I wanna give my sincerest thanks to our partners,

3:40

especially Vimeo for their support.

3:43

Thank you so much for everyone that helped make

3:45

Golden Hour happen this year.

3:47

So thanks for the assist.

3:48

During my seven years leading marketing

3:51

for a company called GainSight,

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I saw firsthand how an in-person gathering

3:56

can spark a movement.

3:58

Yes, even in enterprise software.

4:01

In 2013, we had 300 early pioneers in customer success

4:05

attend our first industry conference

4:07

in San Francisco called Pulse.

4:09

By the way, this picture was taken right before

4:11

the fire alarm went off during the opening keynote.

4:13

So we're about 10 minutes in and I'm happy to announce

4:15

we're off to a better start so far.

4:17

But years later, Pulse exploded into a full-on media brand

4:22

for the customer success audience

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with 6,000 attendees at Moscone Center,

4:26

annual sister events in Europe and Australia,

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virtual workshops, in-person communities

4:32

in 50 cities across the globe.

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One year, we even had a Ferris wheel.

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Customer success became a movement

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and it all started with a few hundred people

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gathered in a room just like this one around a new idea.

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And I see that same opportunity for us

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or our marketing community gathered here in Brooklyn

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in the thousands that are watching online.

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So each of you today here in person

4:56

received a commemorative golden hour pin

4:58

marking your attendance today.

5:00

I'd encourage you to hang onto it

5:01

and wear it at future events

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and really kind of having that almost like symbol

5:06

of being one of the first,

5:07

being the early pioneer in this movement.

5:10

At GainSight, we had our conference attendees years later

5:13

wearing lanyards covered with our entire pin collection,

5:15

looking like a very cool TGI Friday's waiter.

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It was always so fun and just so rewarding

5:23

to see who the OGs were.

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We've been trying to be very intentional

5:27

about how we designed this agenda

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really around this idea of inspiration, education

5:32

and connection.

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And we believe that shared experiences like Golden Hour

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can really bind us together

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but also play an important role

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in not just the development of an industry

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but our very careers within the industry.

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Frankly, I don't think it could come at a better time

5:48

because as I'm reflecting on just sort of my career journey,

5:51

I don't think there's ever been a time quite like this

5:53

where an entire profession is being reinvented

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and this reinvention is happening

5:58

when most of us are pretty tired.

6:01

Anyone else here feeling tired?

6:04

Not in a coffee, not hitting jet lag from travel kind of tired,

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like a deeper existential tired.

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But look, if we're going to move forward,

6:14

we first have to address some of the very real trauma

6:17

that our industry has experienced over the last five years.

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Is fatigue, exhaustion, increase stress?

6:24

These are all symptoms that could run wild

6:27

if we don't identify and process the root cause.

6:30

So if you'll allow me, let's relive the trauma

6:33

for just a few minutes just to put things in context.

6:36

Remember 2020?

6:39

We dealt with the onset of the COVID pandemic,

6:42

lockdowns, the move to remote work.

6:45

They need to figure out how to make an impact

6:47

through seasons of uncertainty.

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Remember walking one-on-ones, infinite Zoom windows,

6:53

virtual happy hours?

6:55

We had to enforce new boundaries

6:57

between our professional lives and our personal lives.

7:00

We had to somehow find a way to hit our pipeline targets

7:04

while also figuring out an entirely new way of working,

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all while operating under anxious thoughts

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and a very real threat to our health and safety

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and those of our teammates and those that we love.

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We didn't know what was gonna come next

7:17

as the world was opening up.

7:19

It'll be unexpected happened.

7:22

Prosperity, zero interest rate policy,

7:26

crypto millionaires, the post-pandemic boom

7:29

led to an unnatural set of growth for a lot of SaaS companies.

7:33

Marketing budgets were flush with cash.

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Thousands of companies were funded with valuations

7:38

that reflected record multiples

7:40

and the industry went on a hiring and buying spree.

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And in the name of remote work,

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we hired people from across the globe

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for many companies, growth came pretty easily.

7:51

Whew, this could last forever.

7:53

Wrong.

7:56

(audience laughs)

7:58

SaaS market corrected.

8:00

This latest snapshot from Bessemer's Cloud Index

8:02

shows the peak and trough of public SaaS valuations in blue

8:06

relative to NASDAQ, S&P 500 and Dow Jones.

8:09

And what's worse than the data visualization here

8:12

is the very real whiplash that our profession experienced.

8:16

How again, we had to go back to the drawing board.

8:19

We were told by our CFOs to find a path

8:21

to two years of runway, which meant almost universally

8:24

taking a massive haircut on the marketing budget.

8:26

For many of us that required a devastating layoff,

8:31

or two or more, that affected very real people.

8:35

Many of us personally impacted.

8:38

In a recent survey of CMOs that we conducted,

8:41

44% shared that they now have less resources

8:45

to achieve their revenue plans

8:46

than they had in the previous 24 months.

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78% believe that expectations on marketing

8:51

to deliver growth are even higher

8:54

than the previous 24 months.

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And 44% reported lower team morale

8:58

over the last several years.

8:59

So now, as we look to gather our footing,

9:03

to execute on this efficient growth charter

9:05

that we've been given with our leaner teams,

9:07

we're leaning on the marketing tactics and playbooks

9:10

so we've executed well for our entire careers,

9:12

only to find that these playbooks no longer work.

9:16

Welcome to the inspiring keynote, everyone.

9:18

What do we do?

9:21

How do we move forward?

9:22

The silver lining on trauma, pain, and suffering

9:26

is that it builds perseverance.

9:28

And this is just as true at work

9:29

as it is in our personal lives.

9:32

You don't just go from suffering to okay to success

9:36

at the flip of a dime.

9:38

But psychologists say that there's one powerful

9:41

emotional construct that can help accelerate

9:43

the recovery process better than anything else.

9:46

Any guesses what that is?

9:47

Hope.

9:51

Hope can transform even the most acute trauma

9:55

into a beautiful story.

9:57

Hope gives us something to hang on to,

10:00

to look forward to beyond the current struggles

10:02

of our day to day.

10:04

We all need hope in something,

10:06

whether that's in our careers or in our personal lives.

10:09

Otherwise we're just going through the motions.

10:12

And who better than marketers than to create

10:14

a sense of optimism, to inspire not just ourselves

10:18

but our teams, the rest of the company

10:20

and even the audiences that we serve.

10:22

But before we turn to inspire others,

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we have to put our own oxygen mask on first.

10:28

And that's what today's about, finding our hope.

10:32

And together, the co-author,

10:34

the next generation marketing playbook

10:36

that allows us to make an impact on like ever before.

10:38

So with that as our goal, with that as our task for today,

10:42

let's zoom into the tactics just for a little bit.

10:45

There seems to be a consensus that the two decade old

10:48

playbooks that we've all been executing

10:51

are just no longer working in the same way.

10:53

In fact, it's almost become a bit of a meme

10:55

to post this on LinkedIn and to say that,

10:57

call it marketing automation, inbound marketing or whatever.

11:01

And by the way, I am certainly not knocking those strategies.

11:03

They've served us well for many years.

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But a lot's changed over the last five years,

11:09

just as we walked through, almost certainly over the last 20.

11:12

We have a session coming up this morning,

11:14

we're gonna dive deeper into this topic,

11:16

but let me propose the changes that I've observed

11:19

that have made this statement true.

11:21

First, the ability to capture the attention

11:25

of our buyer audience has become more difficult

11:27

than ever before.

11:29

And sure, there are many more companies

11:30

that are now competing for that very limited attention.

11:33

But our very brains have been rewired

11:36

by the proliferation of new content formats on social media

11:39

that literally create an endless rush of dopamine.

11:42

Scientists actually have a name for this phenomenon,

11:45

they call it TikTok brain.

11:47

And it has literally narrowed our collective attention span

11:50

as a society.

11:50

So how can the old playbook around gating ebooks

11:54

and white papers compete with the instant gratification

11:57

in dopamine reward of a short form video asset

12:00

on your LinkedIn feed?

12:01

Who, by the way, just release their own TikTok-like feature?

12:05

All right, so buyer attention is more scarce,

12:07

what else has changed?

12:08

Well, our relationship with social media has changed.

12:12

We know these platforms are important,

12:14

we have to be where our audience is,

12:16

we have to compete on that battlefield for attention.

12:18

But I think what we're waking up to is this idea

12:21

that the intentions of these platforms

12:24

are misaligned with our own.

12:26

X has been unapologetic about their active suppression

12:30

of certain links on their platform,

12:31

most famously sub-stack.

12:33

The LinkedIn algorithm changes every few weeks,

12:36

impacting our reach.

12:38

TikTok is closer than ever to a national band

12:40

here in the United States.

12:41

And I think what we're learning on these platforms

12:44

that there sits between us and our audience,

12:47

a third party algorithm that we don't control.

12:49

It's throttling our reach and throttling our distribution

12:52

into our very followers.

12:54

And since the underlying business model

12:55

for these platforms is around advertising,

12:58

their incentives are never gonna align

13:00

with our own.

13:01

So what's really interesting is the consumer

13:03

and creator economies got wise to this misalignment

13:07

much earlier than we did in B2B.

13:09

And companies like Substack and Patreon

13:11

have convinced the industry that you need to own

13:14

that relationship with your audience

13:16

in order to be successful in driving outcomes through them.

13:19

And that's an important future for our industry as well.

13:22

Let's look at another change.

13:25

Under the CFO call for efficient growth,

13:28

everyone had to run the analysis to figure out

13:30

which channels were more effective and efficient than others.

13:33

And the data shows that paid media typically

13:36

will represent the largest line item

13:38

in the marketing programs budget

13:40

and also one of the least efficient marketing channels.

13:43

And it's no surprise when the red pen comes out

13:47

to look for some cost savings,

13:48

it's the paid media budget that's targeted first.

13:51

By the way, this is not to say that digital advertising

13:54

is dead.

13:55

I actually think paid as a very important role

13:57

in the future of B2B marketing.

13:58

But the reality is that even for companies

14:00

that are doing this really, really well at scale,

14:03

it's getting harder to find efficiencies on that spend.

14:07

And so it's something that we have to be paying attention to,

14:10

which will rethink how we deploy paid dollars

14:12

as this efficiency focus is here to stay.

14:15

One last change.

14:17

Legislation around consumer data privacy

14:20

has gone into effect this year.

14:22

If you've guys been following along,

14:25

third party cookie restrictions for Google Chrome

14:28

went into effect for 1% of Google Chrome's users

14:31

on January 4th and will now be activated

14:33

to the rest of the customer base in the second half of this year.

14:37

So that's 68% of the internet, I think,

14:39

running through Google Chrome.

14:41

Google's also implemented email security mandates

14:43

that go into effect this in February

14:45

or went into effect, excuse me.

14:47

We have more headwinds than ever before to reach our audience.

14:50

And if you want to peek into the future, by the way,

14:52

on the legislation side, check out the afternoon workshop

14:56

on building an Amia demand engine with Tim from Yo Yaba,

15:00

who runs the largest digital marketing agency

15:02

in the Dach region.

15:03

And Dach is typically one of the most regulated markets

15:07

for digital marketing.

15:08

So that'll be a good session to consider.

15:10

This is a lot of change.

15:12

There's a lot of change to process

15:14

and a lot of challenges to the execution playbooks

15:17

that we've built our entire careers on.

15:19

So how do we respond?

15:21

What do we do?

15:22

And that's, again, the intention of what we're going to be

15:24

working through, because I believe that there's a new dawn

15:28

coming for the marketing industry.

15:30

And I want to share with you the hope that I see

15:32

for where we're headed.

15:34

Hope for how we can lean into these challenges.

15:37

And in doing so, come out the other end

15:39

as a stronger and more impactful marketing practice.

15:43

Let me show you what I see.

15:44

We know that content is the oxygen

15:47

for the marketing flywheel.

15:49

However, we have to evolve our intention

15:52

away from producing content for algorithmic value

15:54

or cheap conversions, the content that's actually produced

15:57

for human value.

15:59

And this means mastering formats beyond the written blog post,

16:03

which is super important, we'll continue,

16:06

embracing editorial writing, video, podcasts,

16:10

and other live streaming and other media formats.

16:14

It means balancing long form and short form production

16:16

to capture attention.

16:18

And I believe that in addition to all of the upskilling

16:20

that's currently happening on internal content teams,

16:23

creative agencies have a huge role to play

16:25

in helping to accelerate the progress into this new kind of era.

16:29

We have to be active in rented spaces like LinkedIn, YouTube,

16:33

and others, but we have to realize

16:34

that we cannot build for those channels alone.

16:37

Think about your brand as a network,

16:40

the official home for conversations, thought leadership,

16:42

and community around your point of view.

16:45

And a lot of that content will be produced by you and your team.

16:48

A lot will be produced by incredible creators, influencers,

16:52

subject matter experts who add both credibility and distribution

16:56

to your network.

16:58

We need to evolve this legacy idea of digital conversions

17:02

into building an owned audience of subscribers,

17:05

adding value and creating resource for the 95% of our audience

17:09

who's already paying attention, but may not

17:11

be in a position to buy today.

17:13

And by the way, let's not abandon the demand capture

17:16

kind of motions to get the 5% who are in market

17:18

through the funnel.

17:20

For too long, we've over indexed on the 5%

17:23

at the expense of the 95.

17:26

And that direct first-party relationship

17:28

means no third-party algorithm that's

17:30

sitting between us and our audience throttling our reach

17:33

in the cost of distribution begins to approach zero.

17:37

We need to move past pushing all digital conversions

17:39

into an automated and robotic nurture sequence.

17:43

And instead, start curating exclusive value

17:46

and intentional experiences just for our subscribers.

17:50

By doing this, we're giving our unknown audience--

17:52

folks that haven't yet subscribed-- a compelling reason

17:55

to do so.

17:56

But more importantly, we're delivering real value

17:58

to our subscriber base who are coming to us to not just

18:01

buy products, but to learn, to connect, to belong.

18:07

And by embracing all these new changes,

18:09

we're going to be afforded the opportunity

18:10

to look beyond the limitation of web analytics data,

18:14

anonymous aggregates of views and listens and impressions,

18:18

and to a world where we can understand and defend

18:21

the actual impact of our content on revenue,

18:24

using real first-party data.

18:27

And the impact of our efforts can now become known,

18:29

not just inferred.

18:31

And we can reinforce our seat at the table

18:33

and enrich our conversations with sales, customer success,

18:36

product, and our other partners across the company.

18:39

And as we capture more and more of this data

18:42

around our audience, across both our own services and rented,

18:46

we'll be in a position where we can run machine learning

18:48

models against our own proprietary data

18:51

to help inform production decisions.

18:53

What topics should we be creating content around?

18:56

What formats?

18:57

How do we distribute it in one channel?

18:58

What creators should we be partnering with?

19:01

What if we had access to the same engagement data

19:03

that YouTube and Netflix had on us?

19:06

We'll move beyond random acts of content

19:09

and leverage actual data on our audience

19:12

to tune production and distribution decisions outcomes.

19:15

So this is the hope that I see for marketing.

19:19

By the way, this may sound radical or unproven to some,

19:22

but realize that this is already happening

19:24

in the consumer, e-com, and creator economies.

19:27

We're just late to the party.

19:29

And I think that the SaaS businesses in the room

19:32

who are the first movers in this strategy

19:34

are going to be both on the right side of history

19:37

and also have a head start on the competition.

19:39

And this is a strategy, personally,

19:42

that I find to be pretty inspiring.

19:44

And it really has the potential to unlock

19:45

a new level of creativity in B2B marketing

19:48

that many of us have been desperate for in years past.

19:52

We've referred to this collection of strategies

19:54

as owned media, nothing new in that terminology,

19:57

but one that's taken on new meaning and importance

20:00

given the realities of our go-to market today.

20:03

Just over two years ago, I saw these trade wins

20:06

of our industry starting to shift

20:08

and realizing that there wasn't a company in the marketplace

20:10

that was championing owned media,

20:12

building the technology to help marketers

20:14

operationalize the practice,

20:16

but also championing the movement with content,

20:19

community, and this exchange of ideas.

20:22

So I stepped down from my CMO career

20:23

and launched a company called Audience Plus.

20:25

And we've been transparent from day one

20:27

on how we view our role in the marketing industry.

20:30

First, we're building a pioneering software platform

20:33

for owned media.

20:35

We're also convening a community of marketers,

20:37

you, through Golden Hour,

20:38

to co-author the new execution playbook for our practice.

20:43

And also, we're creating a content and media network

20:45

of our own full of best practices

20:47

to inspire, educate, and equip the market.

20:51

So a quick word on each.

20:52

Now we believe that the new marketing playbook

20:55

requires a new type of platform to operationalize it.

20:59

And our vision for Audience Plus

21:01

is to become the operating system for owned media.

21:04

Starting with two use cases that today are currently in beta.

21:07

First is a new type of CMS that's purpose built for media.

21:13

With Audience Plus, you can easily launch a media property

21:15

on your domain that enables your audience

21:17

to subscribe directly to your videos,

21:19

your articles, your podcasts, and more.

21:21

And since it's all no code,

21:23

you can run your entire operation within the marketing team

21:26

without borrowing resources from engineering

21:27

to publish changes to the platform.

21:30

Today over 30 customers are in beta

21:33

and are the earliest pioneers in this movement.

21:35

The second use case that's launching this quarter

21:38

is our Audience Analytics,

21:40

a first party intent data platform

21:41

that allows you to both manage subscribers,

21:44

but also understand their engagement across your content.

21:47

We'll finally be able to break our dependence

21:49

on just web analytics tools alone

21:51

to really see the impact of our content

21:55

across the lifecycle.

21:57

And best of all, all of this data

21:58

is being captured in our proprietary audience graph database,

22:00

which over time will enable a rich understanding

22:03

of topics, formats, and creator collabs of interest.

22:07

By the way, you won't hear anything else

22:09

about the Audience Plus product from the stage today.

22:11

So if you have any interest in learning more,

22:13

we see Amanda, there she is.

22:15

Out in the foyer.

22:16

Honestly, I'm so excited about work building.

22:21

We'd love to share it with you

22:22

and have a chance to see a window to the future that we see.

22:26

All right, on the community front,

22:28

we believe that Golden Hour will continue

22:29

to play an important role in our movement,

22:31

starting here in Brooklyn today,

22:33

but a ton of ambition for where we can take this

22:35

kind of going forward.

22:36

So in addition to the annual conference,

22:38

which we hope to bring back every spring,

22:41

we host an executive forum every fall

22:43

that operates more like a facilitated,

22:45

peer-driven workshop for chief marketers.

22:48

Last year, we had 50 CMOs and over $100 billion

22:51

of market cap in the room.

22:52

And we're excited to bring what we're now calling

22:54

Golden Hour exec back this fall.

22:57

And I'm excited to announce one more community initiative.

23:01

Coming this fall, we're going to be launching

23:03

our first pilot chapter as of what we're calling

23:05

Golden Hour Local, a new initiative

23:07

of local community groups in your home city.

23:11

So think of this as a quarterly gathering

23:13

of content and demand marketers in your town

23:16

to compare notes on owned media strategy

23:18

and to work through some facilitated content.

23:21

Each local community will be chaired by a chapter president

23:24

and supported by the audience plus team

23:25

of content and logistics for these meetups.

23:28

So if you're interested in becoming a chapter president

23:30

and bringing Golden Hour Local to your city,

23:32

again, please stop by the booth with Amanda

23:35

and she'll share some more details on it.

23:37

All right, and so to talk about our content network,

23:40

I'm excited to bring up Todd Clouser to the stage,

23:43

audience plus his head of audience marketing.

23:45

Welcome Todd.

23:46

(audience cheering)

23:48

♪ Now, free, jump roughly ♪

23:53

♪ Now, free, jump roughly ♪

23:55

♪ Now, free, jump roughly ♪

23:57

My name is Todd Clouser.

23:59

Some of you may know me as the worst marker in the world.

24:03

But me standing on this stage right now is proof

24:09

that B2B content is changing because my background

24:13

is not in SAS.

24:15

In fact, my claim to fame is that I started

24:19

a two-person media company in the welding industry.

24:24

So how does that translate to B2B SAS?

24:29

Well, I'm here to tell you that.

24:33

And I'm also here to tell you about audience plus

24:36

his new content program and how that's going to affect

24:40

all of you in this room.

24:41

But before I do that, (laughs)

24:44

I wanna give a shout to both Anthony and JK.

24:47

They've done an amazing job at building V1

24:52

of our content program.

24:53

It's actually what drew me over to audience plus

24:57

in the first place because I believe in this mission so much.

25:00

That being said, over the past couple months,

25:02

we have spent a lot of time building out our strategic

25:06

narrative, aligning our content to goals,

25:11

and building the future of our own own media platform.

25:15

But I had to come up with something that kind of

25:18

summed up the goals of our content in a very simple

25:23

easy to understand way.

25:26

And because we're B2B marketers, this is what we came up with.

25:29

The goal of our content is to inspire the modern marketer

25:35

by curating owned media best practices with authentic

25:39

and editorial storytelling, advancing the adoption

25:43

of the strategy and sharing its impact on our profession.

25:48

Eh?

25:49

Eh?

25:50

(audience laughs)

25:51

I feel like a lot of you nodding right now.

25:54

I was nodding too.

25:56

(audience laughs)

25:56

But if you're anything like me,

25:58

there's a reason that you're nodding.

26:01

The reason is 'cause you looked over

26:02

and you saw Dave Gerhart doing it.

26:05

(audience laughs)

26:07

But the truth of the matter is,

26:09

you have no idea what I just said.

26:13

It's okay, Dave didn't either.

26:15

So here's what we're gonna do.

26:16

We're gonna break this down.

26:18

(laughs)

26:21

We're gonna break this down.

26:23

So, Anthony just went over what owned media was, right?

26:29

And if you're in this room,

26:32

you probably believe that owned media

26:35

is the future of B2B marketing.

26:37

The problem with that though,

26:41

is not many people know how to do that, right?

26:45

There's no roadmap.

26:47

That is the goal of our content on Audience Plus.

26:51

We are going to go into excruciating detail

26:56

on how you can get started,

26:58

how you can measure and report on success,

27:01

and showcase other companies both inside

27:04

and outside of B2B,

27:06

so you can see where they are finding success.

27:10

So, it is my distinct pleasure

27:13

to be able to share with you

27:15

what we've been working on over the past couple months.

27:19

So, about two years ago,

27:22

Obed Durrani and I created Easy Mode.

27:25

Now, what Easy Mode is,

27:27

is it's an eight-part framework

27:30

that teaches content marketers and marketing teams

27:35

how to create a content engine using creators.

27:39

We've implemented this at dozens of companies now,

27:44

but today, you can go on Audience Plus

27:47

and get the full thing for free.

27:49

This is where I pause for the applause.

27:53

(audience applauds)

27:56

All right, so, quick question.

27:59

Has anybody noticed the obscene amount

28:03

of camera operators in the room today?

28:05

There is one camera operator for every 20 of you,

28:11

and there's a reason for that.

28:13

At Audience Plus, we believe that events

28:16

are a huge part of owned media,

28:19

and we wouldn't be doing our jobs

28:22

if we didn't chronicle this entire thing

28:26

and deliver it to you in an educational documentary

28:29

so you can do this exact same thing.

28:32

The series is called No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn,

28:34

and it is literally the blueprint

28:37

of how we put this event together.

28:39

And then finally, we have a new series coming soon

28:44

that is a guided playbook on how to build

28:48

an owned media strategy.

28:50

And because this is a very new approach

28:53

to be to be marketing,

28:55

I'm gonna walk you through a little bit

28:57

of what you will get.

28:58

You will get tutorials on how to integrate

29:01

owned media practices into whatever it is

29:05

that you're currently doing today.

29:07

You'll get exercises on how to test and measure

29:12

those different ideas.

29:14

You will get a companion guide with prompting questions

29:18

to complete with your team.

29:20

The goal is no more silos.

29:22

You can do this entire thing together,

29:26

and you will get additional resources

29:28

so you can go as deep down

29:30

that owned media rabbit hole as you want.

29:33

Now, this is the type of content

29:35

that you typically pay a consultant,

29:38

tens of thousands of dollars to do for you.

29:42

We are breaking this down so that you can do it

29:44

with your team on your own.

29:46

But in addition to these highly produced pieces of content,

29:53

we're also going to deliver daily content

29:57

through several show series using both internal

30:01

and external influencers.

30:03

You'll get a monthly broadcast

30:06

that we go into the best practices

30:08

that we're finding ourselves here at Audience Plus.

30:12

You'll get written how-to guides,

30:14

and you'll get access to our job board

30:17

where our goal is to help marketers find their next role

30:21

in companies that are actually running the new playbook.

30:25

But we also had to figure out how we get people to want

30:31

to subscribe to our content,

30:33

because the point of own media

30:35

is to build that deeper relationship with our audience.

30:39

So if you become a subscriber of Audience Plus,

30:42

you will get our newly reinvented newsletter

30:46

where we go into tactical how-tos

30:50

on how you can both implement the content strategy

30:53

and execute on it.

30:55

You'll get a monthly Q&A session,

30:58

it's kind of a town hall style

31:01

where you can come on and ask

31:04

and present the things that you're actually having problems with

31:08

so that we can help you fix those things and get unstuck.

31:12

You'll get access to the playbook,

31:13

which I just went over, including our first course

31:16

coming out later this year on to own media.

31:20

We will do quarterly research guides

31:22

that not only utilizes survey data,

31:26

but it utilizes actual data

31:28

that's coming out of the Audience Plus.

31:30

So if you're a network,

31:32

you'll get discounted access to all golden hour events

31:36

that Anthony just went over,

31:38

and you will get invitations to our new golden hour

31:43

community meetups that are coming soon

31:46

to a city near you.

31:48

So if any of this sounded interesting to you,

31:53

here's the QR code for you

31:57

to become a subscriber right now.

32:00

I'm literally measured on this number,

32:03

so I need to see more phones going up right now.

32:09

And I'm just going to sit here and chill for a little bit

32:11

until I sit here.

32:13

All right, all right, I'm leaving.

32:15

I promise I'm leaving. - Thank you, Todd.

32:16

I appreciate it.

32:17

Real quick, though, real quick.

32:18

Before I leave-- - Oh, Todd.

32:20

Before I leave, I just want to tempt you with something.

32:22

Just like real quick.

32:25

I've got a video for you, so...

32:28

Create to one.

32:30

Hey, guys. Welcome to Easy Mark.

32:32

Mark and hers are thinking about creating content

32:34

that's very different.

32:36

So we've built it up.

32:37

We wanted to create an on-site experience

32:39

that curated relationship building

32:41

for both Introvert and Introvert alike.

32:44

Trust-- Trust in the Oregon Easy.

32:47

Yes.

32:49

Because of hyper-compile mind or with bad friends,

32:52

we still keep on and specifically constantly.

32:55

[MUSIC PLAYING]

32:58

We break both of those things down and then three parts.

33:03

More grace.

33:04

All right.

33:09

So if that doesn't exist, it's time for you to scan that part.

33:15

I don't know if I'm making it into the future in marketing

33:17

after all, so thank you all.

33:20

Thank you.

33:21

Thank you.

33:22

[CHEERING]

33:25

With your Todd's future in marketing is very bright.

33:30

So thank you, Todd.

33:31

We're so excited for-- to have you be a part of this.

33:34

Look, we're just so excited, again,

33:36

to get started, to formally kick things off here.

33:39

Many of you are staying with us at the William Vale.

33:42

And chances are, if you have--

33:44

and if you've taken the elevator down to the conference

33:47

floor, you might have seen this written on the wall,

33:51

alone, together, wish we planned it.

33:54

It was there when we arrived.

33:55

But I couldn't help but think just how appropriate

33:58

that framing is, considering, again, all that we've

34:00

been through over the last five years,

34:03

and what we're doing in response to that today.

34:05

Many of us have built our careers on a digital marketing

34:08

playbook that has served us very well,

34:11

but is anywhere from 18 to 25 years old

34:13

and is losing its impact.

34:16

We then experienced a whiplash sparked

34:18

by the pandemic in 2020 that left us exhausted

34:21

and looking for new ways to impact pipeline.

34:23

Today, nearly 25 years later, we're

34:26

gathering here to find our inspiration

34:29

for the new playbook for the marketing practice,

34:31

right here at Golden Hour.

34:33

So whatever you've been through, and whatever

34:36

you're going through now, you're not alone.

34:38

Events like this are little helpful reminders

34:41

that you are not alone in the challenges

34:43

that you may be facing at work.

34:46

At worst, we can be alone together.

34:49

So let's get started.

34:51

What do you think?

34:52

[APPLAUSE]

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