Salesforce and LinkedIn global brand chiefs doubleheader: Culling content by 30 per cent, ‘preparing a funeral for last click’, holding brand spend amid turmoil, raiding B2C talent – and why it’s better to be like Disney than Adobe or Microsoft

Salesforce has culled its content output by circa 30 per cent – and is seeing major results. It’s waging war on vanity metrics – and “preparing a funeral” for last click and last touch attribution, per EVP Global Brand Marketing Colin Fleming. The firm has just wrapped up Dreamforce, the annual global pilgrimage where users flock to be evangelised by the high priests of B2B. Circa 40,000 people flooded San Francisco last week, paying US$2,000 a pop to attend what is morphing into the Disneyland of business branding and product. Fleming makes no apologies for lifting B2C’s playbook, stating he’d rather borrow from Disney than rivals like Adobe, Microsoft and SAP. He and LinkedIn global VP, Marketing Solutions, Jim Habig say they plan further B2C talent raids in a bid to lift B2B beyond spreadsheets and rational arguments – and say brand investment is helping to win the creative talent war. Meanwhile Habig is also set to overhaul account-based marketing – or ABM – by linking up with one of the world’s most successful restaurateurs, Will Guidara. Both are adamant that they will not slash brand investment amid market turmoil.

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