Each month in the Green Room we return backstage to pose a question to a group of our Rockstar CMOs. In this issue Ian Truscott catches up with five of them and gets his inspiration from a 77 year old radio show.. wait.. what?
Here in the UK, there is a famous and long-running radio program called “Desert Island Discs” first broadcast in 1942 (who says we are not down with the kids!). The premise of the show is that the guest imagines that they are a castaway on a desert island, they are only allowed 8 recordings (usually music), a luxury item and a book to take with them.
I really should have read the rules of the show we were riffing off, as we were a little harsher in the Green Room as we asked our Rockstars to pack light for our fictitious desert island marketing gig, allowing them just four things: 1 book, 1 blog subscription, 1 podcast, and 1 Twitter feed.
If your next gig was to be the CMO of a desert island and you could take only 1 book, 1 blog subscription, 1 podcast and 1 Twitter feed to follow with you – what would they be?
One thing we learned, we hang out with some pretty cultured folks and the bookshelf at the Rockstar CMO penthouse is looking a little classier…
Ted Rubin
Book: Papillon by Henri Charrière
Blog Subscription: The Daily Beast
Podcast: NPR
Twitter: @StephenAtHome
Ted Rubin is a leading social marketing strategist, keynote speaker, Photofy CMO/advisor, MC/host for Brand Innovators Summits, speaker, author and provocateur. Ted is our resident rock star and tells it straight in his regular column.
Robert Rose
Assuming I had to actually actively market the desert island, choosing one book would be the most difficult of all the choices.
I could list a dozen that are dog-eared and are go-to books for my work. But if I had to choose one, it would probably be Discovery Driven Growth by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan. It’s just been such a huge part of the way I handle planning, and strategy development.
My chosen blog subscription would be Harvard Business Review. It remains, to this day, the only publication that I read both digital and print versions religiously.
My one podcast is going to make be sound like a Harvard fanboy – but it would be HBR’s Ideacast. They do a fabulous job of interviewing thought leaders and getting a lot of value in a short amount of time.
And then the one Twitter feed I would follow assuming I can’t click through to the source material would be the @God account. It’s always good for a laugh. But if I am able to click through to the source material my one Twitter feed would be Seth Godin’s feed @ThisIsSethsBlog
As the Chief Strategy Advisor for the Content Marketing Institute, Robert innovates creative and technical content marketing strategies for his clients. An early internet pioneer, Robert has more than 15 years of experience, and a track record of helping brands and businesses develop successful web and content marketing strategies. Learn more about Robert, as we went backstage with him in our very first issue.
Jeanniey Mullen
Book: Dominic by William Steig
Blog Subscription: Feedspot (Is that cheating?) (Err.. yep!)
Podcast: Renegade’s Marketing
Twitter feed – I have 2: @buzzfeed and @funnyordie
Jeanniey Mullen is clearly a Rockstar Marketer in demand, currently CMO of NBTV Channels (Launching Spirits Network) and CMO, Principal Analyst at The Relevancy Group, is on two CMO governing bodies, is a board member, a strategic advisor, author of three books and the Internet Marketing Association’s Networker of the Year. Sounds exhausting! You can follow Jeanniey on Twitter.
Christine Bailey
Ooh, this is a tough one! It’s so hard to pick but if you’re going to make me……
I’ll take Mark Schaefer’s new book “Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins”. I haven’t read it yet but I love his stuff so I know it’s going to be good.
For that reason, I’ll also pick his podcast “Marketing Companion”.
I’ve always been a fan of Seth Godin since he wrote THE book on permission marketing back in 1999 (and still valid today!), so I’d subscribe to his blog and Tim Hughes’ Twitter feed (@Timothy_Hughes). Tim has written the best selling book on social selling and has amassed nearly 200k followers on Twitter. His tweets are fresh, informative and entertaining in equal measure.
Christine Bailey is CMO of Valitor, an international payment solutions company headquartered in Iceland. Forging a career in the tech sector, she’s led European marketing for Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems, and writes frequently for Forbes Woman. Learn more about Christine in backstage Q&A here.
Wendy Bryant-Beswick
It’s difficult to distill my daily reads into one list but I do have a few favorites, ones I tend to revisit and reference.
“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho – I read this book every two or three years. It’s about going on a personal journey, but learning to appreciate all the treasures you already have instead of travelling the whole world to find new ones.
There isn’t one blog I go to anymore. My daily am read is the NY Times morning newsletter which keeps me up to date on news around the world.
I love Nadine Dietz’s podcast, “Market Moves” which is now partnering with AdWeek. Her recent Challenger series is one to listen to.
I continually go back to Kimberley Whistler’s Twitter feed Check out Kimberly Whitler (@KimWhitler) — she offers so much insight and terrific research for marketers.
Wendy Bryant-Beswick is an award-winning marketer with 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry. She is currently VP of Marketing at Service Credit Union. Go backstage with Wendy.
ME?
Oh go on, I want to play.
I could answer Seth Godin to all of them, I have all his books, religiously listen to his Akimbo podcast, read his blog and follow him on Twitter, but where is the fun in that?
Book: I tend to really like what I have just read recently and currently I recommend The Best Story Wins by Matthew Luhn and Play Bigger blew my B2B marketing mind. However the business book I have referred back to the most in my work, and would be a must in my suitcase if I was marketing a desert island would be Managing Content Marketing that I bought in 2012, I think it’s the first book by Robert Rose & Joe Pullizi and they’ve written great stuff since, but I keep returning to it.
Blog: Rockstar CMO of course! We are building a community here, we may not be huge (yet) but we have engagement metrics that beat similar big brand CMO blogs and that’s because of the fabulous folks that make up this band and it’s a joy to be a part of it.
Podcast: Robert mentioned fanboys, well.. genuinely my weekly, must listen, every Saturday when I am in the kitchen is Robert Rose’s Weekly Wrap – it’s first on my podcast playlist, before Seth’s Akimbo and Mark Schaefer’s Marketing Companion.
Twitter handle: That is super hard to choose, I read and retweet a lot of the great content marketing stuff that Robert shares, but Ted Rubin puts it all out there – so yeah.. @tedrubin
Want to play along?
Why don’t you share with us at @rockstarcmo or in the comments below what you would take if you were marketing on a desert island…
Ready to rock?
Fancy a chat about this? Or maybe we can help with our advisory services or get in touch!
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