Brand Conference presented by The New York Times

WELCOME
Michael Sippey
Vice President, Artist Development
SAY
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OPENING REMARKS
Bob Liodice
President and Chief Executive Officer
ANA
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HOW TO BALANCE TRANSPARENCY, INFORMATION, AND LIFE IN AN AGE OF TWITTER
Lisa Gavales, Chief Marketing Officer at EXPRESS, aka @ExpressLisaG, made a conscious decision in 2008 to join the Twitter-Sphere as the voice of EXPRESS. Lisa talks directly with her consumers to provide ‘behind the scene' content and access to a real person inside EXPRESS. Lisa shares fun and interesting information to make her followers feel great about the Express brand. "Follow our CMO on Twitter at ExpressLisaG" can be found on most of EXPRESS marketing communication including the bottom of their store receipts! This session will focus on how EXPRESS successfully leveraged their CMO's professional and personal tweets to build their brand through direct and honest dialogue with their consumers. Lisa will also share tips on how she attempts to balance her professional and personal life while representing the EXPRESS brand.

Lisa Gavales
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
EXPRESS
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HEINEKEN'S DOS EQUIS "MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD"
With the highest-fanned Facebook page among import beers, Dos Equis has proved that success in the social media sphere does, in fact, translate to real business success. When Euro RSCG won Heineken's Dos Equis account, almost all beer advertising was a repetition on a few narrow themes: sexy women, frosty glasses, crude humor and 20-somethings. However, market research showed that their consumers were more intelligent and wanted to be spoken to in an honest and authentic way.

Dos Equis' fictional spokesperson, the "Most Interesting Man in the World," was born out of this insight and speaks to consumers with refreshing honesty - "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, it's Dos Equis" - while offering an older, aspirational role model. He connects with his audience without ever making them feel he is talking at them.

Learn about the remarkable success of the Dos Equis campaign, from the conception of the idea to the close and honest relationship the brand currently enjoys with its fans--and how they remain open and responsive to their audience, especially in the digital and social media space.

Colin Westcott-Pitt
Vice President of Marketing
Heineken USA, Inc.

Jeff Brooks
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Euro RSCG New York
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SONIC KEEPS IT REAL THROUGH CAUSE-MARKETING AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
SONIC, the nation's largest chain of drive-in restaurants, has been successful in positioning themselves as an honest and down-to-earth brand to their consumers. SONIC's television advertising campaigns have focused on two customers having very honest conversations with each other in their car. SONIC also "kept it real" last summer with the introduction of their Real Ice Cream which included product quality improvements such as removing or reducing high fructose corn syrup and replacing it with more natural ingredients.

SONIC is also committed to community giving and views their restaurants as more than a great place to have an Extra-Long Cheese Coney. In September 2008, SONIC launched their successful Limeades for Learning program which is a cause-marketing initiative that empowers consumers to direct more than $500,000 in grants to public school teachers nationwide. Limeades for Learning was launched in the middle of a down economy and helped SONIC navigate successfully through corporate mistrust among consumers during that time.

Hear how SONIC is successfully building their brand through positioning themselves to everyday, real people and by giving back to their local communities.

Danielle Vona
Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer
SONIC®, America's Drive-In®

Mike Swenson
President, Barkley Public Relations
Executive Vice President, Barkley
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RELEVANCE IN THE POST-ADVERTISING AGE
For six years, Bob Garfield has been telling us the sky is falling. Some of us laughed. Some of us rolled our eyes. Some of us called him names. Now we are knee-deep in the calamity he foretold, and nobody is eye-rolling anymore. But we forget that even as Bob Garfield peddled gloom and doom, he was also offering a prescription for relevance in the post-advertising age. In this session, discover how Bob surveys the damage, and then blazes a trail he calls Listenomics and what others call The Relationship Era.

Bob Garfield
Editor-at-Large
Advertising Age
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Many brands and the humans who conjure them see social media as one more marketing platform. But the smart players in digital realms have learned that the megaphone goes both ways. There is an expectation of a conversation, of an honest and direct relationship, which may have nothing to do with the product or service you are promoting. Letting people know who you are, what your values are, what you find funny or significant, may be just as important as looping them in on your next big thing.

General session contd.

DELL'S TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SUGGESTION BOX
Dell launched IdeaStorm, a twenty-first century suggestion box, as a way to talk directly to their customers. IdeaStorm was created to give a direct voice to their customers and a way to have online "brainstorm" sessions for consumers to share ideas and collaborate with one another and Dell. In almost three years, IdeaStorm has crossed the 10,000 idea mark and implemented nearly 400 ideas! In addition to the open discussion IdeaStorm site, in December 2009, Dell added "Storm Sessions" where Dell posts a specific topic and asks customers to submit ideas. Discover how Dell listens to customer ideas and uses their honest feedback to improve their products and services.

Adam Brown
Executive Director, Social Media
Dell Inc.
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TRUVIA'S "HONESTLY SWEET" SUCCESS
The Truvia brand, launched in late 2008, is driving growth and innovation within the sugar-substitute category. Truvia was introduced as the first natural zero-calorie sugar substitute made from rebiana, derived from the best tasting part of the stevia leaf. By 2010, Truvia changed the face of the sugar substitute category as it became the first no calorie natural sweetener to surpass an artificial sweetener in market share. Discover how Truvia's "honestly sweet" brand positioning revolutionized the sugar-substitute category in such a short amount of time.

Ann Tucker
Director, Marketing and Communications, Truvia^TM Brand
Cargill Health & Nutrition
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MARKETING AS A (CUSTOMER) SERVICE
Marketing is no longer a spectator sport...it's a contact sport. Think Roller Derby. And amid all this chaos, the opportunities and roles for brands have never been more profound and relevant. Call it customer experience or customer service 2.0. Or flip the words and just call it servicing customers. Either way, we're talking about a return to not just customer centricity but in fact customer authenticity. Over the next decade, companies will be held accountable and judged no longer by "what they say," but in fact "what they do;" no longer by the "promises they make," but by the "promises they keep". And in this scenario, marketing's role will be one of collaboration, partnership and unification. In this session, thought leader and bestselling author Joseph Jaffe, will introduce the true C.O.S.T. of marketing as a service. He'll outline the shift from campaigns to commitments to platforms and how social media can play an indelible role in "flipping the funnel" and in doing so, transforming marketing from an uninvited guest to a welcome and invaluable one.

Joseph Jaffe
Author
"Flip the Funnel: How to use existing customers to gain new ones"

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