What will you be preaching about at the Connection Planning Conference?

As cliched as it may sound, I’ll be talking about change in marketing. Hopefully it’s not the same change others have covered ad nauseam.

The Connection Planning concept is fairly new, as is your agency. How does this idea fit in the Zeus Jones “Marketing is a service” mantra?

I think it’s up to the leaders of the connection planning community to figure out what it is that they really want connection planning to be. If, as I hope to argue, connection planning is about inventing the future of the industry, I’d say it fits perfectly with our mantra.

“Actions speak louder than words” is a way of life for your agency. What type of speed bumps do you find in creating branded services for clients?

Are digitally-based services an option for most if not all clients? The main speed bump is that the best services often require internal coordination from different departments and stakeholders within client organizations. Often these groups have not had to work together closely so that can be a learning process.

Digitally based services can fit anyone. They are especially disruptive for products that aren’t inherently digital like personal care products or foods. However, we think of marketing as a service as a way of thinking, not a technology. It’s also possible to develop marketing as a service without doing anything digital at all.

Do you feel clients are already understand this new wave of thinking in marketing and the agencies are the ones that need to do the catching up? Or are we educating the client through conferences, blogs and agency websites?

I think clients are way ahead of agencies in questioning the status quo and are also far more willing to experiment. I think agencies are generally unwilling to change in the really fundamental ways that are required. Instead they’ll just try to take their same practices and transfer them straight to new venues or media. I think that fails miserably for the most part. However, I’m not sure that any marketers or agencies (ourselves included) have really figured the new world out, so I think we’re all learning and teaching each other.

Lastly, what do you plan on doing in New Orleans besides attending the conference? Are you a New Orleans first-timer? What are you looking forward to?

I’ve been to NOLA a few times before, but I want to remember what 70+ degree weather feels like and get inspired by the rebuilding of the city. I’m also looking forward to hanging out with the other speakers and attendees. It’s a cool lineup.