Marketing specialists Russell Bedford from around the world met at the last Internet conference of the season, Monday 30 November 2020.
Since the pandemic forced companies to adjust their working methods to remote, practically overnight, marketing departments had to accelerate and gain confidence. There is no time for long, slow meetings in comfortable conference rooms. Year 2020 was a year of short, lively zoom meetings, quick thinking and creative problem solving.
Marketing specialists have taken a particularly good place in organizations. They supported communication, both internal and external, and provided a coherent and, most importantly, timely distribution of key messages.
They had to play a leading role in companies around the world – often becoming a binder that keeps departments together and focuses on larger business goals.
Assembly almost 100 The delegates of the meeting opened CEO Russell Bedford, Stephen Hamlet, who welcomed the participants and praised marketing professionals across the network for their invaluable contribution to the group's development in 2020
Assembly almost 100 The delegates of the meeting opened CEO Russell Bedford, Stephen Hamlet, who welcomed the participants and praised marketing professionals across the network for their invaluable contribution to the group's development in 2020.
Paying particular attention to the area of communication, he praised their perseverance in providing teams and customers with a sense of support and information flow during the pandemic.
Russell Bedford's central office team led the first session, presenting an update on "Effective use of the Russell Bedford brand and Marketing Center of Excellence".
Discussing branding, marketing and communication director Russell Bedford, Susan Barron, reminded the delegates of the main assumptions of the brand and how "this is the total sum of relationships, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, actions and insights related to our network, our companies and our services." The concept of brand revival was also discussed, through the uniform adoption of brending and maintenance of Russell Bedford brand values in all member companies.
During the meeting we listened to news from various regions. Alfonso Milla, marketing representative Russell Bedford Mexico, Bruno Celidonio, Russell Bedford Brasil, Alison Simons and Elianna Makej of the marketing team LGA in Boston, USA, and Heather Kunz of WBL, Atlanta, spoke.
Mahmoud Saghira of Bureau Saghir & Associates in Beirut spoke of marketing in the Middle East. Anabel Salinas (GNL, Barcelona) talked about Russell Bedford's marketing activities from Spain, while Claire Williams from Lubbock Fine in London presented news from the UK.
The final part of the meeting allowed for a general discussion during the Question Time session, giving the group the opportunity to share insights on marketing evolution in 2020 and reflections on future strategies.
"It was very interesting to hear about marketing strategies of our companies around the world," comments CEO RBI, Stephen Hamlet. – Priorities will vary depending on the company, but similarities are consistent with Russell Bedford's wider strategy, with a great appetite for development among marketing teams around the world. We have heard a lot about how teams had to adapt quickly to changing priorities over the year and rely on their communication skills to inform teams and customers well. They did an amazing job, developing solid communication strategies, practically overnight.”