The Marketing Society New York 2023 Conference

Nandini Anitha Nandakumar Global Marketing Director at Smirnoff reviews the recent Marketing Society Global Conference: Changemakers Illuminate in New York

The event kicked off with The Marketing Society CEO Sophie Devonshire’s address, her energy was infectious as always and her commitment to connecting the marketing community is the beacon behind the global presence of The Marketing Society.

We then heard from Marcela Marañon the first disabled person to climb Kilimanjaro - there is no better person to tell a story of courage and purpose, it was really inspiring!

I enjoyed the candid conversation between Nicola Nimmo (MBAstack) and Jon Hussey (Advancement Marketing and Engagement). I particularly loved how humble he was, but you could hear a story of how a legacy brand reinvented itself boldly for the next generation. (read more here)

‘Consumer centricity’ ‘impact’ ‘fear’ ‘relevance’ – the four key words which stood out in the conversation on ‘Changemakers’ from the CMOs in world-leading non profit organizations Michelle Froah (ETS), Shelley Diamond (UNICEF), Martha Boudreau (AARP) and Lynn Richardson – Godfrey (The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). I particularly loved the sum up by Margaret Molloy (Siegel +Gale) that we can learn so much from the passion these four CMOs shared around the mission of the brands.

Next came a #nofilter conversation from Michelle Froah and Matt Scheckner (Advertising Week) and the preview of Advertising week was a lighter conversation. I love the theme of CMOs and their GenZ offsprings as a panel discussion at Adweek, would love to catch up on in Adweek.

Sofia Hernandez (TikTok) was so charismatic and authentic in the Under the Spotlight conversation; for me the most resonating part was how she thrived when she embraced being herself fully! So, so true!!

First 100 Days and Beyond with Lynn Teo (Northwestern Mutual) who was generous to share her story as she took over as the CMO. It was fabulous, and what particularly struck me about her journey was the deliberate and measured approach she took to bring in an organisational transformation.

I loved the simplicity of going behind ‘why’ in the conversation with Catherine Newman (WWE), the shift of perspective for marketers to see what and why the consumer is buying vs what and why we want to sell.

And finally, an off-the-script but straight from heart sum up by Jason Chebib said it all, "#Changemakers is not about being on script and getting right always but it’s an attitude and a story of looking beyond to drive impact". Cheers!!

And lastly thank you to Society board members Suresh Raj and Linda Bethea who were both awesome hosts.

This article is based on an original Linkedin Post by Nandini Anitha Nandakumar, permission has been given to repurpose.