Start of a recovery born of innovation
As we climb inch by inch out of the recession, shards of light and positivity continue to filter through. But only for those brands that have placed innovation and consistent brand management at the heart of their recession strategies.
Here at Marketing Week we haven’t stopped innovating as we continue to try and bring you the kind of content that really makes a difference. This week is no different. Whether it be Stuart Smith’s typically expert take on Paul Polman’s management strategy at Unilever on page 10, or our cover story that investigates whether your brand might benefit from the invention of a character to tell the brand’s story (page 16), I hope you’ll find something to focus on in this issue.
In terms of innovation, though, it is not all about the magazine. Indeed, behind the scenes we have a lot going on in the live events arena. For example, our roundtable in association with Vertex on page 22 that deals with the blurring roles of marketing and customer services, is one of many such events you’re going to see reported within our pages in the near future.
In fact, the roundtable event we are co-hosting with Google this Thursday (25 March) will not only end up being covered in the magazine but, in a Marketing Week first, will be streamed live on the internet to anyone who clicks into the event through MarketingWeek.co.uk. There are more details of that event on page 6, and you’ll see information all over the homepage of the website in the run-up to Thursday.
“The roundtable event this Thursday is an MW first in that it will be streamed live on the internet to anyone who clicks in”
What else is new here? Well, in case you’ve missed it, Monday saw the launch of Pitch, a social-networking service for marketers and agencies. Though Pitch will feature a host of updated news content and comment from experts across the marketing services industry, at its core is the Agency Reputation Survey, based on research conducted by YouGov. The responses of more than 300 marketers have formed the basis of the agency rankings, which make for interesting reading. That research will be repeated in time for the autumn so do take a look if you’re interested in getting involved or just learning more. There is a link to the Pitch site in the toolbar menu of the Marketing Week homepage.
As well as all this, we have several more product launches planned for the year across print, online and live to add to the masses of premium content we’ve already added in recent months such as Knowledge Bank (see the website for more details) and our now monthly webinars.
Something we’re very excited about, as we hope you will be, is the addition of Mark Ritson as a weekly columnist as of 15 April. Mark is an associate professor of marketing at MIT Sloan and one of the world’s foremost experts on branding. He’s going to be a superb addition to our team both at the magazine and within our live events calendar as well.
