Wavelength

Nadia Nizar, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Blue Prism and former director of influencer relations at Resonance, spoke to Daniel and Claire about the evolving role of analyst relations and why it should be a strategic part of any company's marketing strategy.

Topics:

• What is analyst relations, and why should companies care?
• Choosing the right analyst firms to engage with
• Using analyst insights to strengthen brand positioning and storytelling

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Luke Farrugia, VP of Marketing at leading digital signage company ScreenCloud, spoke to me about the changing role of marketing leaders and why you need to get your data strategy started from day one.

Topics:

• The challenges of marketing a tech brand during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The importance of understanding target audiences and personas.
• The role of behavioural science and neuroscience in communication strategies.
• The evolving role of marketing leaders.
• The importance of a data-driven strategy for marketing.

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

This episode, Dan goes over Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI)'s testimony to a Senate subcommittee about the potential benefits and dangers of AI. Looking at his statements, the effect of the hearing, OpenAI's recent key messaging, and the broader media landscape around AI, we drew out 4 key lessons from this story:

• Nail your key messaging.
• Monitor the media landscape.
• Lead the conversation, altering tactics when necessary.
• Establish thought leadership.

Joe Giddens, `Director of Content & Communications at CybSafe and former Detective at the Metropolitan Police's Cybercrime Unit, spoke to me about why marketers have to resonate on their customers' frequency.

Topics we discussed included:

• Why your target audience has a frequency on which they resonate, so a marketer's mission is to find that frequency and resonate with them.
• The role of behavioural science in brand storytelling, and why assuming the rationality and logic of a customer's decisions may not always be the best approach.
• Why CybSafe's marketing department focuses on providing value to its community without expecting anything in return.
• How Monzo, BrewDog, Slack, MailChimp, and Basecamp are examples of brands that tell their story effectively, by putting people first.
• The importance of 'killing your darlings' and using data to prove which campaigns are effective, iterating on the most successful strategies.
• Why generative AI can't yet replace the creativity, humour, and empathy of a human copywriter.

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod

Jane Wakefield, former Senior Tech Journalist at the BBC and podcast host for UK Tech News and Boardwave, spoke to me about her experience moving from mainstream to B2B tech news, covering tech in Ukraine during the war, and the need to tell a human story when communicating the work your company does.

Topics we discussed included:

• How moving away from Jane's previous role with the BBC allowed her greater freedom to explore less established tech companies.
• Why companies must tell a human story to attract journalists' attention and resonate with their audience.
• The way that politics and tech have become increasingly linked in recent years, resulting in heightened regulatory attention.
• How the media cycle is often a hyped-up representation of technological reality, making it difficult to explore nuanced implications before the next headline arrives.
• Where comms professionals and journalists can find a balance between simplifying and exploring technical concepts in order to engage a wide range of audiences.
• Speaking to tech innovators in Ukraine during the war effort and being inspired by the development of the scene.
• The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and first-hand experiences of founders through the crisis.

Attribution:

Music used under Creative Commons license: Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod