Marketing Club of New York–Joanna Seddon’s Remarks at the Silver Apple Awards–Overview

I would like to thank the Marketing Club of New York very much for the Silver Apple award, which I received last night. I was surprised, delighted and honored.  It came totally out of the blue, since I’ve had no prior involvement with the organization.

In my remarks, I sketched out my very varied career : from university professor and management consultant out of London, to turning around a business of a major corporation in San Francisco (despite being wildly unqualified since I knew nothing about trucks and warehouses!), creating a whole number of brand consultancies – FutureBrand, for Kantar and then Ogilvy, and now our startup Presciant, while also being CEO of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board.

Here are 10 things I’ve learned long the way:

1. Follow your instinct—even when it pushes you in unexpected directions
2. Tell it like it is, even if it gets you into trouble.
3. Ask for advice from people you really respect—for me it has been Shelly Lazarus, Martin Sorrell, Brian Collins, and those around me, our consulting teams, my cofounder Nik.
4. Never turn down an invitation—I learned from Shelly that the most unpromising invites can have the most useful consequences.
5. Hire young talent—they bring energy, curiosity, and fresh perspectives (our current group is working on AI).
6. Get your hands dirty; don’t hand off the work to others, that’s what’s rewarding and delivers quality
7. Start from the future and work backwards—the purpose of brand and marketing is to pull the business in the direction in which it wants to go
8. Recognize that marketing and innovation are inseparable—marketing identifies opportunities which should be prioritized for innovation
9. There’s no such thing as a bad idea—listen to them all.
10. Link brand and marketing to money—it is only way to elevate marketing to its rightful place in the boardroom.

It is marketing, not the supply chain that drives revenue growth, the top priority for CEOs. It’s time we claim our seat at the table by speaking the language of CEOs, CFOs and boards. If you provide a strong business case, based on facts and figures, you’ll get the right brand and marketing strategy accepted. And you’ll get respect.

Watch the full video at the link here. My thanks go to the Marketing Club of NY, everyone I’ve worked with and everyone who has given me advice. And, finally, congratulations to the other inductees—Torrence Boone, Melissa Campanelli, Michael Hannay, and Len Schenke.