Editor’s Note:
This spring, Terakeet employees attended Reuters’ s Strategic Marketing conference in San Diego, CA as the keynote speaker and platinum sponsor. We recently caught up with Sr. Marketing Strategist Caroline Withers who helped organize Terakeet’s participation in the event.
Caroline shares her perspective below on how working closely with Terakeet’s executive team, supporting the launch of a new marketing category, and learning more about the future of the industry has shaped her work today.
Tell us about yourself! How did you come to your current role?
I’m a Sr. Marketing Strategist at Terakeet and have been with the company for over five years! I came in directly out of college with a journalism degree and started my career here as a digital outreach specialist. That’s where I learned how to lean on my creative storytelling strengths to be a more effective marketer.
With the help of some incredible mentors (shout-out to Jordan Arnold and Jennie Kim) and the Terakeet Mentorship Program, I was able to grow within that department and learn more about my professional interests in marketing. Eventually, I made the transition to the Terakeet marketing team where I’ve been for the last three years.
My role on this team has been an amazing opportunity to grow my skills, learn from incredibly smart people, and work on high-impact projects like this conference!
Can you give us an overview of the event?
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to join Terakeet’s cohort at the Reuters Strategic Marketing 2023 conference as we worked to introduce a new marketing category to the industry: owned asset optimization (OAO). Marketing leaders across various industries came together to talk shop — what’s been working or not, recent learnings, and expectations for how to succeed in the future.
Terakeet had a booth on the sales floor where we discussed and distributed educational materials about OAO. We also walked around and connected with other marketing leaders to learn more about other industry innovations. Each day featured expert panels and roundtables about the future of marketing and evolving consumer behavior. On day two, Our Chief Revenue Officer Shannon Reedy hosted the event’s keynote presentation, The Next Consumer Connection Paradigm: Reception Marketing, a 20-minute educational walkthrough of what reception marketing is and how to use an OAO approach.
What was your goal at the event? Do you feel you achieved it?
Our goal was two-fold: to introduce OAO to other marketers, and to hear what their challenges are so we can better understand how we can help them achieve their goals.
I think it was really successful in both regards! Shannon’s incredible keynote presentation introduced OAO to the audience and opened up several conversations with key leaders. We also attended several presentations from Fortune 500 leaders and had some great discussions with marketers across industries about their expectations of success and how we can help them better connect with their consumers.
What made this opportunity so exciting for you?
It’s not every day you get to be a part of a massive category launch, work closely with your C-Suite to develop high-visibility content, or travel across the country for work! I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn from this group of people and get valuable first-hand experience of the ways industry experts interact with our work.
I was also able to widen my professional network, making valuable connections with like-minded marketers to learn about their experiences and improve my own skills to help market Terakeet to similar audiences.
What did you learn at the event?
It’s hard to narrow down information from two days of incredible discussion, but two things stand out to me as significant personal learnings:
1. I worked closely with Shannon to prepare for her keynote presentation on owned asset optimization. Shannon is an incredible speaker and has a real skill for simplifying topics in an understandable, approachable way. Her feedback on the presentation and watching her delivery were invaluable in helping me understand how to market and communicate new ideas more effectively.
2. Listening to other marketing leaders’ difficulties helped me understand ways to connect with them better as consumers. Since we’ve returned, I’ve been able to more closely focus my marketing work around how Terakeet can help them with their specific problems.
Can you share a memorable event from the trip?
On our last night at the conference, our team had an amazing fresh seafood dinner together at the Hotel Del Coronado. The restaurant was right next to a beach where the Navy Seals were running drills, so we were able to watch them while we ate.
After so much work prepping for the conference and working to get the most out of it there, it was such a fun way to come together as a team and close out a long few days of hard (but exciting) work!
