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ARTICLE

Looking Toward the Future of Marketing Innovation

May 23, 2013 — by MediaMath    

Business leaders are constantly trying to envision the future, preparing their enterprises for the tasks they’ll have to tackle days, weeks, and months from now. But even the most forward thinking company could benefit from some outside perspective. That’s why MediaMath launched the Future Series, an international sequence of interactive events designed to educate the industry on how they can move their brand forward by learning from likeminded brand CEOs.

Unlike past MediaMath events, the Future Series isn’t focused on RTB, but on the future of media, brands and communication. The goal is to help brand leaders understand what they need to do to distinguish themselves in their respective markets. By moving beyond the basics of digital marketing and instead focusing on the big picture of how brands can communicate with and reach their customers, our goal is to put brand leaders in thought provoking conversations and spark ideas that might just change the future.

That was evident last week when the Future Series kicked off with a keynote from recognized social entrepreneur Peter Thum, the founder of Ethos Water, and co-founder and CEO of Fonderie 47.  Before an audience of brand marketers, Thum discussed how he left a stable career at a research company to found Ethos Water with the goal of helping children around the world have access to clean water. Starting a philanthropic business that also earned a profit was challenging enough, but Thum was met with a great deal of skepticism from people outside his organization. It’s something that’s happened for every venture since, and he advised attendees to forge their own path, rather than listen to doubters.

“When I started working on [my businesses], people said to me ‘this is impossible, you will never be able to succeed in doing this,” he said. Still, he wasn’t deterred, and urged other brands to think the same way.

“If you listen to the things people tell you about what you can’t do, they will define the space that your career and your possibilities operate in. If you look to others for all of your answers instead of saying, ‘forget it, I’m going to do something different, I’m going to challenge what’s possible,’ I think you’re going to be stuck.”

Thum pushed through this doubt, eventually selling Ethos to Starbucks. He’s since formed Fonderie 47, which focuses on removing guns from war-torn areas and turning them into jewelry. He also teased the crowd about his latest philanthropic venture, which will launch soon, but details remain under wraps.

The Future Series roles on to Chicago on June 6, with a keynote from Susan Packard, co-founder and former COO of HGTV, who will discuss how storytelling plays an important role in both branding and culture and how she tied nonprofit to her for profit venture.

Packard’s whole career has been in media, including senior roles at HBO and CNBC. Most recently she was co-founder of Scripps Networks Interactive, the parent company to popular cable television brands such as HGTV, Food Network, and many others. Today, HGTV is available in more than 99 million U.S. homes and distributed in 175 countries and territories.

Come learn how Packard helped to build Scripps Networks to a market value of over $7 billion.

For more information and to register, visit MediaMath.com/FutureSeries