After two years of virtual team gatherings, LiveRamp’s Sales Kick-Off was seamlessly held on May 2-5 in breezy Chicago at the beautiful Fairmont Millennium Park. This year’s theme, “Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Brilliant.,” aimed to motivate the LiveRamp sales team to challenge the status quo, take risks, and step confidently into the 2023 fiscal year.
Last week, marketers of all stripes flooded The Fairmont, InterContinental Mark Hopkins and The Masonic in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood to participate in RampUp. This was the 8th year for LiveRamp’s flagship event and as in previous years, the conference presented itself to be bigger and better than ever before.
The spring stretch of RampUp on the Road shows have officially come to a close. We wrapped things up in DC last week at Nationals Park, home to the Washington Nationals, with a full day of engaging speakers, networking opportunities, and even a tour of the ballpark. The day began with attendees mingling over breakfast and registration in the large conference room—which was packed to the brim once we kicked off with content.
Fatemeh Khatibloo, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, opened the day, and provided an insightful look into the world of “Decentralized Digital Identity.” The audience was taken on a journey through behavioral advertising, identity resolution, and future of privacy-respecting marketing. Following Fatemeh’s presentation, one of our own speakers, Lucy Caldwell, Founder and Principal at Mockingbird Lab, moderated a session on “Achieving the Diversity Trifecta.” Speakers Anneka Gupta, President and Head of Product and Platforms at LiveRamp, and Justin Antoinpillai, Founder and CEO at WireWheel.io, joined Lucy onstage to discuss empathy and the role of diversity in leadership and policymaking.
After lunch, both content and audience divided into two tracks: New Wave Technology and Policy, and Building an Omnichannel Strategy. For the Policy track, attendees varied from those involved with data and consumer policy and regulation, as well as members of the advocacy/agency world. Panelists joined us from PwC, Google, Datavant, ANA, Mockingbird Lab and more. The evolving process of doing right by consumers was a constant theme during this track, with each session coming to a close through a dynamic Q & A discussion. During the Building an Omnichannel Strategy track, speakers from Macy’s, Under Armour, T-Mobile, DISH Media, and more took the stage to provide powerful real-life experience from which the audience could assimilate and apply to their own roles. Attendees of both tracks learned best practices to construct a better future by addressing the policy issues of the present.
Missed RampUp on the Road? Here’s a quick look at our 2019 spring roadshows!
RampUp on the Road Columbus: April 9 - Discussed the importance of observing your marketing efforts through a consumer-first lens, as well as how beneficial it is to involve the entire team in the customer journey.
RampUp on the Road Atlanta: April 11 - Jim Nail, keynote speaker in Atlanta and Principal Analyst at Forrester, spoke about using empathy to improve the customer relationship— a theme we saw throughout the entire spring roadshow lineup.
RampUp on the Road Denver: May 14 - According to Jeff Smith, General Manager of Brand and Agencies at LiveRamp, it is the era of personalization. Focusing specifically on consumer-privacy uncertainty, the shift from target marketing to personalization is absolutely imperative.
RampUp on the Road Seattle: May 16 - Keynote speaker Fatemeh Khatibloo, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, shed light on the key to maintaining customer loyalty: shifting from one-to-one marketing to one-to-moments marketing.
RampUp on the Road DC: May 21 - Learned our differences shouldn’t go unnoticed. In order to invent a better future, policymaking groups and omnichannel strategy-focused agents can collaborate to solve the consumer-privacy issues of the present.
Last week, the cred events team pulled out all the stops at RampUp 2019 on Feb. 25-26 at the historic Fairmont Hotel here in San Francisco. LiveRamp’s flagship event kicks off a year of roadshows that will highlight the company’s presence around the country. This year, RampUp boasted 175 speakers reaching 2,500 attendees, making it one of the largest martech events in the country.
After a welcome reception on Feb. 24, the event transitioned into content the following morning with five pre-conference speaking tracks covering brands and agencies, B2B, data, technology, and TV. By the afternoon, RampUp was in full-swing with the main conference underway, featuring three tracks: Next-Generation Brand-Building, The Age of the Customer, Technology and Data Trends in Practice.
Across the two days, cred was thrilled to watch a few of our own speakers grace the stage. Ripple Senior Director of Audience Marketing Shanna Leonard kicked off the main conference content with a panel highlighting the shared practices between B2B and B2C marketers, while Strava Head of Communications Andrew Vontz chatted with Inc. SF Bureau Chief Jeff Bercovici about the challenges and opportunities of techlash and hyper-innovation. LiveRamp CMO Rebecca Stone moderated one of the most popular sessions addressing data integrity and transparency.
As the Fairmont buzzed with attendees, keynote speakers took the stage at the Masonic theater. This year’s keynotes featured brands such as Marketo, HP, Visa, Cars.com, McDonald’s, Quantcast, and Kimberly Clark, and we learned that customer centricity and utilization of the right data is top-of-mind for all of these marketers.
Going out with a bang, Oakland A’s Executive Vice President Billy Beane—and the subject of the best-selling book and Oscar-nominated movie Moneyball—gave the closing keynote and shared how he implemented a data-driven strategy at the Oakland A’s that has revolutionized their program and the entire baseball industry. The night came to a close with Billy signing books and baseballs at the RampUp closing reception and attendees celebrating at RampUp After Dark party at the Tonga Room.
Interested in attending a RampUp event near you? RampUp on the Road is kicking off the spring roadshow season with stops in Columbus, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, and DC this spring. Follow RampUp here for more info.
We hit the road and the skies with RampUp this fall, making our way to Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, New York, and London for cred’s inaugural international event.
The speaker line-up was truly impressive across all cities—including representation from Starbucks, GameStop, Barclay’s, Google, and Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt, co-authors of the best-selling Freakonomics. These amazing speakers drew the crowds with record-breaking attendance at all five events, allowing us to reach more than 1,300 martech leaders across the world. Amazing venues and features like the Dallas Cowboys Stadium and RampPups in NYC made sure everyone left happy.
RampUp’s content is always stellar with a focus on the top current priorities for marketers ranging from the importance of data privacy and integrity to customer-centricity to the artful balance of creativity and data. We were thrilled to be a part of bringing these engaging topics to London for RampUp’s first European event.
In London, more than 300 attendees joined us at the prestigious Savoy Hotel, the sister property to Fairmont San Francisco where RampUp SF is hosted each year. A few key takeaways from London:
Standing room only for the GDPR session proved that it’s still a relevant topic in the UK and across the Europe. Speakers discussed why GDPR should be viewed as an opportunity to better educate consumers worldwide about the value exchange between consumers and marketers.
The rapidly evolving TV landscape is creating more opportunities than ever for digital ads and should not be overlooked as a key piece of the omnichannel puzzle.
As Phil Jones, Head of EMEA Partnerships, Ads & Research at Google discussed in the closing fireside chat, consumer trust is decreasing as consumer expectations are increasing. Innovation and data-driven decision-making are critical to bridging these gaps between users and advertisers.
It’s been an amazing year with RampUp, but in true event planner style, our eyes are set to the future for RampUp 2019 in February 25-26. Less than 100 days to go!
If you’re interested in RampUp updates, or want to learn more about how we can help you with your event, email us: events@credpr.com.
Check out some of our favorite fall moments:
4 cities, 5 days, 35 speakers, and 350+ brand marketers.
The fun doesn’t stop in March for RampUp. This Spring, we traveled across the US with RampUp on the Road, spreading the word of people-based marketing in four beautiful cities: Charlotte, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
RampUp on the Road provides the opportunity to bring the most stellar content and speakers from the March event (you can catch up 2018’s recap here) to regional audiences in a smaller, more intimate setting. And in the spirit of customized targeting, each roadshow’s agenda and sessions are catered to the most relevant local industries and fields from FinServ and Insurance in Charlotte to Entertainment and Auto in Los Angeles.
Common topics covered at all roadshows centered around the importance of data (1st, 2nd and 3rd party), the blending worlds of TV and digital, and the creation, implementation, and measurement of a people-based strategy. We love hearing real accounts of lessons learned and success stories straight from the brand marketers facing these challenges everyday and helping to create an environment where they can all connect on the future of the industry.
Popular sessions focused on customer-centricity and targeted marketing. Standing-room-only presentations in every city featured engaging speakers- including Newcombe Clark, Global Director of Rapid Learning at AIG in Charlotte, Erin Gulden, AVP, Director of Content Marketing at US Bank in Minneapolis, and Andrew Christe, SET Data Manager at Southeast Toyota Distributors in LA. The roadshow in Seattle brought a lively discussion among Amy Ball, Advertising Senior Program Manager at REI, Tesäen Chavis, DMP Owner at Uber, and Kyle Roemer, Practice Leader of Analytics at Slalom Consulting in Seattle.
We also made sure to incorporate some bonus adventures including test-rides in porsches in LA and catching a hometown Mariners victory at Safeco Field in Seattle.
And the US tour continues… Fall is just around the corner. We’re looking forward to hitting four more cities: Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, and New York, see you soon at RampUp on the Road!
