SHSMD Session Review: Your Chance to Grill CEOs

 

The SHSMD session, Your Chance to Grill the CEOs, was a smash success judging the by packed room and hard-hitting questions.

I was really looking forward to this session (and the others like it, since I think it’s the first time SHSMD has put on this type of open question forum) and wasn’t at all disappointed. The small room was packed (note for next year: bigger room) and the agency putting it on, Prairie Dog, did an excellent job getting things started and keeping on topic (much better than the moderators for the other two “Grill” sessions for PR and Marketing).

 

These session began with a seeded question, “What are your biggest complaints about marketing?” Answers were similar and came down to a few common themes:

• A concern over whether the marketing effort/campaign/whatever will work and is it measurable?
• That marketing needs to align to the strategic plan.
• That marketing needs to be aware of the organization’s performance in comparison to the promises marketing is making.
• A concern about internal staff’s view of the authenticity marketing’s claims.

Let’s take a look at each of these a bit more indepth.