Category 4: Marketer of the year
These guys are really stamping their mark on the world of B2B marketing: think trailblazing campaigns, brilliant leadership and exceeded expectations at every turn. Not only did we want to see examples of excellent work at all stages of campaign planning, but we were also looking for insight into how they embrace new opportunities and tackle any challenges that present themselves along the way.
Amy’s role
When she joined Polycom in 2015, Amy brought with her 20 years of experience, having worked at tech powerhouses Microsoft and HP. At Polycom, she’s responsible for helping businesses understand how they can plan for and create the workplace of the future, with a remit covering everything from sales enablement, product and services marketing to GTM planning and execution, competitive and market intelligence, and promotions. A regular presenter at industry events, Amy is also author of several blogs and whitepapers.
Big achievements
As VP of global solutions marketing, Amy led the marketing efforts for transformative product announcements in conjunction with Polycom’s 25th anniversary: the launch, in October 2015, generated more than 12,300 webcast registrations and 91 customers at the in-person event in New York. It also achieved 15 million social media impressions – the most social media traction Polycom has ever generated for a launch in the company’s history. Amy’s passion for the new era of corporate etiquette in the digital workplace also led to the genesis of ‘Polly Calm’, the world’s premier expert on ‘vidiquette’. Introduced in September 2016, Polly Calm encourages video adoption with a bit of humour; in just six months, its landing page had clocked up more than 5700 views.
Kate’s role
Although she’s worked at Thomson Reuters since November 2011, Kate’s CV is a rich tapestry covering many impressive roles and sectors. Not only has she worked for the Starbucks public affairs team, but she’s also held positions at Dennis Davidson Associates, a PR and event management company within the film, television and entertainment industry, and Adecco, one of the country’s leading recruitment firms. In her current role at Thomson Reuters, she and her team are responsible for driving the production of collateral across all channels including print, digital and the company’s external website.
Big achievements
A highly credible business leader and active member of the London Women’s Forum, Kate has been pivotal in driving ROI for Thomson Reuters. In 2016 alone, her campaigns delivered over 12% in gross sales and contributed to more than 30% of pipeline. On an individual basis, she’s also delivered the award-winning Solvency II diagnostic tool, which has set a new benchmark for how Thomson Reuters delivers marketing to customers. And Kate’s success is reflected in the fact that she’s been promoted three times in just three years.
Cara’s role
Cara joined VocaLink in 2013 as director of marketing and customer insight at the beginning of a period of rapid growth. With responsibilities including marketing, communications, and research, Cara’s focused on everything that shapes the way the financial community and consumers perceive VocaLink. Prior to working at VocaLink, she held marketing and communications positions at brands including WorldPay, One Savings Bank, Morgan Stanley Card Services, Citi and Barclays.
Big achievements
Not only has Cara recruited and developed a highly skilled, flexible team, but she’s also brought a number of marketing techniques (particularly around content marketing through the firm’s CONNECT platform) in-house, established a clear digital strategy, and built an in-house design capability that has allowed her to create new resources and support tactical campaigns at speed. Her digital and content strategy leverages the richness of topics within the payments sector to create debate and position VocaLink as the expert facilitator. Impressive stuff.
Utkarsh’s role
Having been with HCL since 2007, Utkarsh has a wealth of experience in field marketing, demand generation, digital marketing, sports marketing, analyst relations, ABM and CSR. At the moment he’s on a three-year mission to deliver long-term positioning impact in UKI and the Nordic region, and is leading a team of 14 who are responsible for generating and influencing qualified sales funnel of more than $2.5bn across EMEA.
Big achievements
HCL clearly recognises how great Utkarsh is: he was rated outstanding by the company for three consecutive years, and was member of The HCL O2 League 2008-10. He’s also a ‘LeAP Program’ winner, and was judged to be the best performing candidate in the LeAP marketing programme at HCL. As winner, he secured himself a place on Harvard Business Publishing’s ‘Emerging Leaders Program’ in 2009. Awards have come thick and fast for Utkarsh: he was awarded ‘Marketing person of the year’ in 2014 at the EMEA Infra Sales Meet in Spain, and also won two Marketing Excellence Awards in 2016.
Richard’s role
Richard’s overall objective at Trelleborg is to grow end-to-end partnerships with a variety of stakeholders, and he has full P&L responsibility, overseeing almost 400 people located across 15 global offices and six manufacturing locations. Before joining Trelleborg, he was sales and marketing director at CRP Group.
Big achievements
The proof’s in the metrics with Richard’s digital marketing strategies: 2016 stats include 137,087 web visits, up from 95,280 web visits in the previous year (+70%), 147 MQLs generated (target: 50), up from 18 in the previous year (+820%), 27,244 PDF downloads, up from 25,577 in the previous year (+7%), and 644 form submissions from campaign activity. In the seven years he’s been at Trelleborg, he’s established a new market niche, developed a recent solution portfolio and created an all-new digital marketing stack. Since 2013, the company has won almost 30 awards for marketing strategy, in which Richard has played an integral part. He also spearheaded the development of SmartPort, a collection of data-powered marine tech product applications that can be standalone or integrated to make marine operations smart.
Michelle’s role
As Act-On’s CMO, Michelle’s responsible for scaling and growing a global business, and has introduced a new go-to-market strategy, rebuilt demand gen processes, tailored product messaging and campaign execution, and partnered with tech and products to bring machine learning to marketing automation. Before joining Act-On, she served as VP and GM of Salesforce’s Data.com division portfolio ($100m+, 11,000+ customers in all), led the Data.com marketing organisation, and was a senior director at Oracle.
Big achievements
Since joining Act-On last year, Michelle has transformed the brand’s marketing organisation into an innovative B2B marketing powerhouse. On a practical level, this means all marketing teams are mapped to the specific functions marketing automation serves (brand, demand, expand), are domain experts unto themselves, and ultimately influence product innovation and rethink the use cases for modern marketers like themselves. Michelle’s vision has meant the company shifted its outlook from being products-driven to one centered on current and future customer needs.
Kate’s role
Kate, an experienced marketer and event producer, has more than 13 years’ experience in event-related businesses across Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia. In her current role at NetApp, she delivers more than 30 technology events a year, and is focused on making sure all components are themed around innovative ideas and creative solutions.
Big achievements
Kate’s a massive fan of innovation and technology, and weaves this passion into everything she does at NetApp. Awarded one of the world’s 10 ‘Dream team marketers’ by Event Marketer in 2016, she’s an expert in 3D billboards and the use of AR applications across IT products. In fact, she suggested NetApp use 3D models of conference attendees at a recent exhibition, which has never been done live before. Participants received their 3D ‘selfie’ set on a small plinth with specific messages, and the social media buzz continued for weeks. Another of Kate’s great ideas was using customised virtual reality Oculus Rift games at events, whereby attendees tried different sets of VR solutions built around the customer brand. NetApp’s marketing team has just been shortlisted for the Best Vendor Marketing Team Award by CRN – testament to Kate’s strong leadership and great vision.
