Search marketing brings us full circle

John Balla
John Balla|March 23, 2012

We recently held a half-day session devoted entirely to search marketing that gave us an opportunity to cast a wide net internally about this very important topic. I learned some new things and also had a few moments where it seemed the obvious was being presented, but sometimes even ”hearing the [...]

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Marketing optimization merges art and science

John Balla
John Balla|October 27, 2011

My friend and colleague Amartya Bhattacharjy led a roundtable discussion today titled, Merging Art and Science in Marketing at #PBLS11, which I’ve tried to distill for you here. He began with the traditional view of marketing in terms of two types of activities that had their own mindsets: Brand marketing (mass [...]

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The customer loyalty odds favor Pinnacle Entertainment

John Balla
John Balla|October 26, 2011

Andy Swenson, VP of Database and Revenue Management at Pinnacle Entertainment outlined their approach to customer loyalty, which included some great takeaways for companies in any industry. The gaming resorts leader partnered with Teradata to provide the database and with SAS to handle the marketing solution that enabled them to differentiate [...]

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Leadership lessons for marketers from Colin Powell

John Balla
John Balla|October 26, 2011

I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing General Colin Powell share his viewpoints about leadership as the keynote speaker for PBLS11.  I have found that so much of what he’s shared is relevant for marketers, because great marketing happens by teams of people, all working for the same purpose.  It’s an environment [...]

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Financial Services: Connecting the Dots with Customer Analytics

John Balla
John Balla|May 20, 2011

This week, SAS hosted the Financial Services Executive Summit at our headquarters in Cary, NC. Part of the content was a fascinating panel discussion moderated by Lori Bieda, the SAS Executive Lead for Customer Intelligence. In the picture below, Lori is on the left and she was joined on the [...]

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Health Insurance Plans: Adopt Customer Centricity to Answer Healthcare Reform

John Balla
John Balla|May 2, 2011

SAS is very pleased to co-host a Webinar with HealthScape Advisors on May 4, 2011 at 1:00pm ET, produced by AHIP. This Webinar will highlight the role that customer intelligence can play in helping health insurance plans manage the challenges of healthcare reform, and is titled: Manage the Challenges of [...]

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Fresh Views on Marketing Relevance from Charlene Li

John Balla
John Balla|February 16, 2011

I recently had the privilege to work with Charlene Li, one of our industry’s thought leaders, on a Webinar that SAS sponsored and the American Marketing Association produced, titled “Drive Marketing Relevance in Today’s Digital World.” The SAS host and architect of the discussion’s content was Jonathan Hornby, one of [...]

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The internal relevance of marketing

John Balla
John Balla|December 7, 2010

I’ll never forget the first time many years ago that I saw the Dilbert cartoon by Scott Adams showing Dilbert getting transferred to marketing, approaching a doorway that says “Welcome to Marketing – Two Drink Minimum.” I found it so funny until I realized that my friends in IT and [...]

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Striving for relevance with empowered customers

John Balla
John Balla|November 2, 2010

There are many reasons I often feel overloaded and overstimulated nowadays, so I think I can relate to my target market when they get my messages. I’d like to take a moment to set aside my usual John-the-marketer hat and explore the issue of relevance from the perspective of my [...]

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Multicultural marketing and the role of relevance

John Balla
John Balla|October 25, 2010

As mentioned in a previous post, SAS was again a sponsor of the Masters of Marketing Conference, the annual executive conference held by the Association of National Advertisers (“ANA”). I had the pleasure to attend the sessions of this extraordinary event, which brings together the marketing leadership teams of the [...]

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