All-Star CMOs: Marketers Must Hit a Moving Target from a Runaway Train
Markets, buyers and the channel are all in flux. How can companies maintain a consistent presence among all this chaos?
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“We’re a year and a half down the road now [from their infusion of growth equity],” said Telarus’ Amy Bailey. “Our message is really, ‘Business as usual.’ This allows us to propel faster, to help you grow; to give you more tools and more resources — more support team people and more salespeople in the field. We have more CISSPs than any other TSB.
“We have all this because of Columbia’s backing. They’re bringing those resources to us. It’s extra fuel for our growth and to keep us going faster.
“What we’re communicating to partners is that it’s all about scale and speed. Everybody’s trying to race to the finish line, wherever that is.”
The integration of Comcast Business and Masergy created a $10 billion company with a $1 billion channel program. That’s a lot of moving parts to bring together. Comcast Business’ Dalyn Wertz explained how they did it.
“Bringing two award-winning programs together has been kind of an adventure,” she said. “You have two teams coming together for the first time.
“We immediately brought together partners and principals from all the combined major partners to get their input on what needed to be done. What did we need to make sure that we didn’t lose from Masergy? They have an incredible reputation and that needs to stay with them.”
Comcast Business published a list of the agreed-upon actions that came out of that meeting and has regular updates with the team showing their progress against those actions.
“Rebranding a private equity-backed company is very hard,” said GoTo’s Jamie Domenici. “And I had only been there a month.”
To win buy-in from the company’s board, Domenici and her team built out a five-year business case.
“It was a full end-to-end business plan down to the net present value, like an ROI on rebranding,” she said. “Very challenging.”
The rebranding was further complicated by the pandemic.
“A traditional launch of this size and scale would have a very physical footprint,” said Domenici. “Before the pandemic we would have bought out-of-home. We would have taken over airports and been all over the place.
“But this was a digital-first rebrand, which required us to think differently. We bought ads on Hulu. And this new digital mix was really effective, so we’ll probably keep doing it.”
“The goal is to keep everyone together and to make sure that our leaders have bought into the strategy as well,” said Pax8’s Amanda Lee. “It’s multifaceted. I own the AR (analyst relations) and PR (public relations) side of the house. We collaborate with marketing and the social media teams to get our message out.
“But it’s really about getting everyone on the leadership team in agreement with the strategy. Then keep everybody in line with regular brainstorming sessions and making sure everyone’s aligned with the message.”
Bailey, Wertz and Lee agreed that communication is the cornerstone of maintaining brand identity and a consistent presence in the channel.
“It’s all about messaging to the people on the ground about what we’re doing, what we’re telling partners and what we’re communicating to the public,” said Bailey.
“If you don’t have the energy and enthusiasm from the team to support it, it’s going to fail,” Wertz said. “Make sure that the teams are part of the conversation in making decisions. We also overcommunicate to make sure there are no surprises. We work to keep it fluid and exciting.”
“We make sure our people are constantly being educated, trained and enabled to do their best when they’re in front of the right audience,” said Lee.
The LogMeIn-to-GoTo rebrand was more than just a name. It involved a number of changes including a new product, a new partner program and even a new company color.
To determine what the new company color should be, Domenici worked with an outside agency and says “there was a lot of science behind it.” The agent plotted out company colors currently in GoTo’s markets and determined that yellow would differentiate the company. “It stands out,” she said.
And how is brand awareness around the new brand? For that, Domenici also turned to a specialist.
“We use a third party that’s taking a snapshot via monthly interviews. Every 30 days we’re getting another snapshot. We’re looking at awareness and purchase consideration, monitoring both of those.”
The LogMeIn-to-GoTo rebrand was more than just a name. It involved a number of changes including a new product, a new partner program and even a new company color.
To determine what the new company color should be, Domenici worked with an outside agency and says “there was a lot of science behind it.” The agent plotted out company colors currently in GoTo’s markets and determined that yellow would differentiate the company. “It stands out,” she said.
And how is brand awareness around the new brand? For that, Domenici also turned to a specialist.
“We use a third party that’s taking a snapshot via monthly interviews. Every 30 days we’re getting another snapshot. We’re looking at awareness and purchase consideration, monitoring both of those.”
A group of 11 all-star CMOs gathered for a CMO Roundtable at last month’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
Marketing in the channel could qualify as an extreme sport these days. The pandemic, mergers and acquisitions, the changing face of decision-makers, increased security needs, personnel changes and more have created numerous challenges.
The panel discussed those challenges.
Led by marketing guru Allison Bergamo, principal of Bergamo Marketing Group, the roundtable participants included Amy Bailey, senior vice president of marketing for Telarus; Nick Bandy, CMO at LiveVox; Theresa Caragol, CEO of AchieveUnite; Jamie Domenici, CMO of GoTo; Brian Gilman, CMO at IntelePeer; Khali Henderson, senior partner at BuzzTheory; Amanda Lee, senior vice president of global communications at Pax8; Michelle Ragusa-McBain, leader for the global partner organization at Cisco; Brittany Watts, marketing director for Informa Tech; and Dalyn Wertz, executive director, indirect channel program and marketing for Comcast Business.
Bergamo Marketing Group’s Allison Bergamo
Telarus’ Amy Bailey
LiveVox’s Nick Bandy
AchieveUnite’s Theresa Caragol
GoTo’s Jamie Domenici
IntelePeer’s Brian Gilman
Buzz Theory’s Khali Henderson
Pax8’s Amanda Lee
Cisco’s Michelle McBain
Informa Tech’s Brittany Watts
Comcast Business’ Dalyn Wertz
In the first of this three-part series, we look at how, in a whirlwind of personnel changes, mergers and acquisitions, rebrandings and private equity-funded expansion, organizations work to maintain a consistent brand strategy with their partners and customers.
Equity, Acquisition and Rebranding Challenges
In December 2020, technology solutions brokerage Telarus received a growth equity investment led by Columbia Capital. It was the first time Telarus had taken investment money. The company said it would use the money to bring partners more tools and more support.
Last October, Comcast Business completed the acquisition of SDN pioneer Masergy. Earlier this year, it was announced that Comcast’s Craig Schlagbaum would be taking the reins of the channel programs for Comcast Business and Masergy.
After being hired as LogMeIn’s CMO in January 2021, Domenici immediately set to work directing the company’s rebrand to GoTo. An onerous task at any time, this project came with a one-year timeline for rebranding a private equity-backed company during a pandemic.
At the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Pax8 announced that it has raised $185 million in new equity capital from SoftBank Vision Fund, Catalyst Investors, Sageview Capital, Blue Cloud Ventures and Liberty Global Ventures. The new investment will provide capital to accelerate innovation and continued expansion into new global markets. The next day, it was announced that Pax8 will be making some AWS platforms available to partners.
Citing these three developments, Bergamo asked Telarus’ Bailey, Comcast Business’ Wertz, GoTo’s Domenici and Pax8’s Lee to share some of their challenges and opportunities that they and their teams faced.
Scroll through the gallery above to find out how world-class marketers maintain a steady course through a sea of change.
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