I have always been a big believer in sending my people and personally attending conferences.

The MRIA was no exception.  Conferences create provocative thinking. If the speaker content is good, it provides an opportunity to take nuggets and apply them to your business without phones ringing and meeting interruptions.

To connect and grow in any business segment today, you need provocative thinking.

Take Hewlett Packard as an example.  Satjiv S. Chahil is Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for HP’s Personal Systems Group.  He provoked his team to get outside of technology and built fashion into his business. The result…..changed the course of their business and sales.

Eileen Campbell who demonstrated that creative must do more than win awards. It must support the client’s business. Her example rang home with the $1.6MM beer commercial in Australia that did not move the business one share point.

And then there was the Cadbury Gorilla Commercial that broke all the normal rules.  It demonstrated through music and close ups of the impact that the five senses were having as “joy” led to such passionate energy.  And not one product shot until the last 5 seconds.  And it pre-tested well and is driving sales in market.

Or getting a conversation around “love” to be comfortable in the boardroom.  As my panel members Tim Keiningham and Jannie Hofeymer shared after our session…..love is right tool.  The people that love your brand have the right insights for sales growth.

We just need to provoke comfort around “love” in the boardroom.

MRIA Fun

And of course there is always time for fun.  Here are some of the shots from the 1950’s gala that was set up for us.

Here are a couple of shots from my Panel presentation with Jannie Hofmeyr and Tim Keiningham.

~ Margo