Shiv Singh

Global Head of Digital

PepsiCo Beverages

 Ask people in the industry about Shiv Singh, and you’ll repeatedly hear variations of the word “pioneer.”  His interest lies in helping brands transform through consumer participation in digital and social media.  He is quick to point out that “Brands are not defined anymore by what they do – marketing, public relations, new product launches -- as much as they are being defined by how consumers perceive and talk about them. That’s a huge shift in the fundamentals of marketing.”

 At PepsiCo Beverages, his role as Global Head of Digital spans brand marketing, shopper marketing and food service marketing across paid, owned, earned and shared media.  He also leads the company’s involvement with real-time marketing, transmedia consumer engagement and new methodologies for measurement and consumer insights.

Shiv Singh not only understands the shifts now occurring in marketing and media, he is at the forefront of change by redefining how brands interact with today’s digital ecosystem.  Pepsi’s 2012 initiative with Twitter demonstrates how the brand is an active participant in music and contemporary culture, as well as an actual producer through pop-up concerts, live-streaming, and original content.  Concerts are announced on Twitter and also streamed live via @Pepsi. Twitter participants can also affect song choices at concerts. Plus, Pepsi is able to determine trending topics through the analysis of hundreds of millions of tweets via the Pepsi Pulse platform, now the Pepsi.com homepage.  This effort is at the center of Pepsi’s “Live for Now” global campaign that inextricably links the brand with pop entertainment worldwide. 

 Shiv Singh is always generous in sharing his digital knowledge.  He’s also the author of “Social Media Marketing for Dummies,” released this year in its second edition. Prior to PepsiCo, Shiv worked at Vivaki and Razorfish for twelve years in their New York, London and San Francisco offices.  His agency tenure was preceded by running his own small web development company in Boston.

Nayantara Bali

Vice-President Global Skin Category/ Olay Brand Franchise Leader

The Procter & Gamble Company

 

Nayantara Bali’s career with Procter & Gamble in Asia has been long and varied, yet most people who have interacted with Ms. Bali in any of her roles agree that she is impressive, inspirational and an outstanding leader.  In September 2012, she assumed new responsibilities as Vice President of P&G’s Global Skin Category and Olay Brand Franchise Leader.  This follows the significant move by the company in mid-2012 to transfer its global skin, cosmetics and personal care business unit from its Cincinnati headquarters to Singapore in acknowledgement of the fast growth of the Asian Beauty Market.  The move puts P&G closer to its largest customer base. 

 

Other P&G divisions have already migrated from the company’s central headquarters in the US, including the Fabric Care and Braun business unit to Geneva, and the Baby Care division and Prestige Fragrance Group also to Singapore.  Yet, the relocation of a group as large as skin, cosmetics and personal care to Singapore underscores the company’s commitment to expand its presence in emerging, fast-growth markets.

 

Ms. Bali’s marketing expertise will be put to good use.  The global skin care market is estimated at nearly USD $100 billion.  Asia’s portion of the skincare pie has been rapidly increasing and now accounts for almost half of all category purchases.  Olay is already a multi-billion dollar brand, while SK-II, the P&G skin brand which originated in Asia, has also joined the billion dollar club.

 

Nayantara Bali joined Procter & Gamble India in 1988, moved to Bangkok and later to Singapore, and has a history of breakthroughs.  She is credited with dramatically growing businesses and turning around sluggish brands.  Her roles over the last decade in Singapore have included Vice-President Asia Male Grooming; Vice-President, Hair, Asean, Australasia, India, Korea; Vice-president , Baby & Feminine Care Asean/Australasia/India.  We look forward to following her extraordinary marketing career with this important new move.

 

According to Ms. Jobin, “Branding business-to-consumer or business-to- business products has similar functions, but different priorities. B2C’s first priority is image, while B2B’s is trust.  ABB’s re-branding journey focused on reputation and trust.” And the broader results from these efforts?  There has been 69% uplift on brand metrics associated with ABB’s rebranding.   

Maria Jobin

VP/ Head of Global Branding & Advertising

ABB (Asea Brown Boveri)

 Maria Jobin’s role for the past several years has been to bring the ABB brand to life through a major re-branding effort in 100+ countries and to drive preference across cultures.  While the company’s history dates back to the 19th century, today ABB is the world’s largest builder of electricity grids and is active in many sectors, with a core businesses emphasis in power and automation technologies. Her biggest consideration was how to reposition ABB for the future, while finding common ground among all divisions to communicate to a broader audience.

 Further complicating her formidable task was ABB’s matrix structure comprised of over 5000 profit centers, each with global responsibilities and significant marketing freedom.  Plus the company had also acquired 800 companies around the world during the last decade, resulting in many different uses of the brand. Plus, the company produces over 250,000 products—ranging in cost from a single dollar to billions of dollars. 

 Fortunately the company’s bold red logo was strong, and most sectors were using it.  It was ABB’s only identifying element, but Ms. Jobin saw it as a great opportunity to make a consistent difference.  It also became clear that ABB needed to build on its heritage and strength, while also emphasizing leading edge technology, its engineering-focus, and superior product quality.   The result was a new tagline: “Power and productivity for a better world.”

 According to Ms. Jobin, “Branding business-to-consumer or business-to- business products has similar functions, but different priorities. B2C’s first priority is image, while B2B’s is trust.  ABB’s re-branding journey focused on reputation and trust.” And the broader results from these efforts?  There has been 69% uplift on brand metrics associated with ABB’s rebranding.   

Carmen D’Ascendis

Director Global Marketing- Jack Daniel’s

 Brown-Forman Corporation

How do you adapt a 145 year old-brand to a digital age so that it is both relevant and contemporary without sacrificing its core brand values?  And how do you make its deep-rooted American heritage resonate in 185 countries?  Not only does Carmen D’Ascendis, Director of Global Marketing for Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, have the answers, but he proves how marketing cannot be separated from brand management.

 

In fact, Carmen D’Ascendis’ extraordinary career with Brown-Forman started 20 years ago when he entered the business as a merchandising representative for the company.  Since that time he has lived in seven cities on four continents while working in 40 countries on behalf of Brown-Forman and Jack Daniel’s, the world’s best-selling whiskey brand.  Forget statistics that measure the tenure of chief marketing officers in intervals of months, Carmen underscores how creativity, innovation and success come with longevity.

 

His roles and geographies demonstrate a process of brand experience and thought leadership that few achieve.  Carmen’s own roots in are in the US, not in Lynchburg, Tennessee—the famous home of Jack Daniels, but in the East Coast state of New Jersey.  However, he is unquestionably a true citizen of the world.  His international Brown-Forman career began in the late ‘90s in London as Area Manager of Duty-Free for Europe and Scandinavia.  He then relocated to Germany to take on his first country-specific Marketing Manager role.  That soon led to a new assignment and a new continent when he became Regional Director of Australia and New Zealand.  His next transfer took him to Japan as the country’s Commercial Director where he delivered the two best financial years in that market’s history.  While based in Tokyo, Carmen took on the additional role of Brand Director for Jack Daniel’s Asia Pacific and uncovered consumer insights that led to the redevelopment of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel as the new “face” of the JD trademark.

 

He then returned to the US-- to the company’s Louisville, Kentucky headquarters-- to use his international experience as Global Brand Director of the Jack Daniel’s Ready-to-Drink business around the world.  He worked closely with country teams in markets as varied as Mexico, Japan and Germany to develop market-specific offerings.  And now as Director of Global Marketing for Jack Daniel’s we’ve already seen the highly successful launch of the Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey line extension, the “Barrel Tree” campaign that bring family and friends together, a new responsive-designed web site that adapts to any device from smartphone to tablet to computer, and a doubling the brand’s volume growth rate.

Gerardo Garcia

Group Director, Global Design
The Coca-Cola Company

Gerardo Garcia is the mastermind behind Coca-Cola’s “Design Machine,” a global web-based application that empowers more than 20,000 Coca-Cola marketers and agencies in 200+ countries in more than 20 languages, to dynamically customize and localize global marketing campaigns and related materials, while preserving brand integrity and myriad compliance requirements.  The concept of “Freedom in a Framework” powers highly relevant Coca-Cola marketing activations across multiple media around the world, driving faster time-to-market with more relevant and engaging marketing initiatives for a concurrent increase in marketing effectiveness and efficiency while strengthening brand stewardship.

 

Coca-Cola’s Design Machine has driven more than $100,000,000 in cost efficiencies, empowering Coca-Cola marketers and agency partners to drive significant increases in marketing volume and value per dollar spent.  Coca-Cola’s Design Machine is more than just a high-impact initiative - it is a harbinger of things to come in an increasingly global, relevant, interactive, multi-channel world.  And, yet, Gerardo is already plotting an inspiring next generation of this razor’s edge innovation!

Diego Scotti

Global Chief Marketing Officer
J. Crew

Last year—2012—was a watershed year for J. Crew and for Diego Scotti.  Diego joined the specialty retailer as Global Chief Marketing Officer to oversee all aspects of marketing in retail and direct mail for the company. Long known for its classic clothing, J. Crew has morphed in a fashion-forward brand while also becoming a popularized favorite of US First Lady, Michelle Obama.  In 2012, the specialty retailer doubled its advertising budget and went against the industry grain by using real customers in their campaign--brand enthusiasts who were accomplished individuals, rather than models or celebrities. Diego Scotti saw such “jcrewacholics” as having “an impact on our customers and culture in general.”

Plus, through its new “Hello World” website marketing campaign, J. Crew launched in 78 new markets in 2012 through a new global e-commerce platform.  The retailer can now market and ship to 107 countries with local language, currency and payment options.

Diego Scotti joined J.Crew as Global Chief Marketing Officer in November of 2011. Diego oversees all aspects of marketing in retail and direct mail for J.Crew and Madewell. Before joining J.Crew, Diego was Executive Director of Marketing at Vogue, where he was responsible for the overall vision and marketplace positioning of the magazine. Prior to Vogue, he was with American Express for fifteen years, where he held several domestic and international positions, departing as the Head of Global Advertising and Brand Management.

 

Maria Ziv

Marketing Director
Visit Sweden/ Curators of @Sweden

Maria Ziv is the bold initiator of Sweden’s now famous and highly-awarded Twitter campaign that embraced extraordinary transparency to showcase the country’s core values, particularly freedom of speech, through the voices of its citizens.  Research conducted by the Tourist Board found that travelers prefer to immerse themselves in a culture by getting to know local people, instead of having a “tour bus experience.”  As a result, a Swedish citizen became a weekly, rotating spokesperson for the official Twitter account of Sweden.  Their unedited tweets served to highlight the diversity and progressiveness of Sweden through the lives and views of its people.

 

Weekly “Curators of Sweden” must be Swedish citizens, nominated by fellow Swedes.  They must follow only three rules: They cannot promote products or services; they cannot write anything that threatens national security; they cannot break the law.

 

Maria’s goal was to make the initiative part of a long-term communications strategy to raise awareness and curiosity about her native country. Despite occasional controversy, 68,000 followers across the globe have paid attention to Sweden, and Maria Ziv’s breakthrough thinking has transformed Visit Sweden from a National Tourist Office to a communications company that is watched by the world.

 

Although @Sweden has numerous imitators—@PeopleofLeeds, @WeAreAustralia, @CuratorsMexico, among others—Sweden’s initiative remains the only program officially sanctioned by a government.

Frederique (Freddie) Covington Corbett

Central Marketing Organization Lead, Asia Pacific

Microsoft

 Ms. Freddie Covington is not only a true internationalist who was born in France, raised in the UK, Belgium and Holland, and has spent her working life in the US and Asia, but she believes in “ideas that transform.” She leads Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific marketing strategies for all of the company’s offerings across both commercial and consumer audiences. Freddie regularly applies Darwin’s famous quote to brands: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”  Her definition of a brand champion is someone who is always spotting, interpreting, and managing change to build stronger brands.

 Her own “glocal” marketing models for Asia Pacific are breaking new ground while providing benefits for both Microsoft’s world headquarters in terms of efficiency and scale and for the company’s local markets in terms of cultural relevance and true localization.  She has also proven that “cultural clustering” is a more effective way of creating good work and developing campaigns that resonate with local customers.

 Her role as Central Marketing Organization (CMO) Lead exists to build and deliver a holistic marketing communications discipline for use across all Asia-Pacific markets in order to provide a new level of marketing innovation, planning, end-to-end execution, as well as digital and operational excellence. Freddie heads up the Asia-Pacific community of CMOs in the region providing region-wide marketing governance, metrics for marketing discipline excellence, marcom orchestration and the majority of marcom execution. Freddie, though, summarizes this vast job as “driving marketing innovation and inspiring consumer passion for our technology and brands.” And, in doing so, Ms. Frederique Covington always over-delivers.