In this episode, Steve talks about how PR agencies are embracing and owning social media by developing in-house solutions and strategies for their clients, how social media enables brands to speak with consumers on a person-to-person basis and why knowing what your brand wants to accomplish with social media is your first task when developing your social strategy.

Steve Rubel is the SVP and Director of Insights for Edelman Digital. He studies global technology, media and online trends and shapes them into actionable insights and marketing communications strategies. In his role, Rubel has served as senior strategic advisor to Edelman clients such as Dannon, HP, PepsiCo, Zagat, Unilever, Microsoft and many others. Rubel supports the account planning processes, intellectual property development and the firm’s innovation and business development efforts. He is a member of the Edelman Digital senior leadership committee. Prior to joining Edelman in 2006, Rubel worked for 15 years in a variety of marketing communications positions in corporate, non-profit and small/mid-sized PR firms. Most recently, he spent five years at CooperKatz & Company where he pioneered the use of blogs as a marketing vehicle for clients such as the Association of National Advertisers, simplehuman, and Vespa. Steve’s writings on emerging technology have been called must-read by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNET, PC Magazine and Forrester Research. In addition, he is actively followed by more than 34,000 on Twitter, writes a bi-weekly column for Advertising Age and is often sought by the press and as a keynote speaker. Rubel has been named to several prestigious lists, including: PR Week’s 40 Under 40, The Forbes.com Web Celeb 25, PC Magazine’s 100 Favorite Blogs, Media Magazine’s Media 100, the AlwaysOn/Technorati Open Media 100 and the CNET News.com Blog 100.

In this episode, Gayle tells us about the challenges of marketing digital and social media and why being agile, rapid and responsive is essential to success. She also shares the philosophy behind Microsoft’s decision-engine, Bing, what differentiates it from its competitors, and how she is achieving consistency across brands in her newly created position.

Gayle Troberman has been driving marketing innovations at Microsoft for more than 13 years. She founded the industry’s first digital branded entertainment team (BEET) at MSN. She purchased some of the first offline advertising for a dot.com brand while heading up marketing for Microsoft’s Sidewalk and internet start-up businesses back in 1997. Gayle’s team is responsible for global advertising, relationship marketing and digital strategy for Microsoft’s consumer, business to business and developer focused products and services including: Windows, Office, Windows Live, SQL Server and more. Prior to Microsoft, Gayle spent ten years in the NYC agency world managing consumer marketing and business development programs at Manning, Selvage & Lee and NW Ayer for a range of clients making everything from software to footwear. She has a Bachelor of Science from Ithaca College and was born and raised in Rhode Island.

In this episode, Lisa offers great insight how she markets a product that you can’t touch, smell, feel or see. Marketing the intangible, insurance in this case, takes intelligence and intuition. Lisa has also smartly shifted AmFam’s traditional marketing investment in new directions to incredible success.