The marketing year in quotes is here. See who was included, and what that indicates for trends and direction in the year ahead.

1. Chris John Beckett
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjohnbeckett/770819519/
Work in Progress
compiled byValeria Maltoni,
Conversation Agent
www.conversationagent.com
@ConversationAge

2. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/3282822136/
“In times of stress, humans resort to their fundamental ways of thinking and doing to get
things done. The entrepreneurial credo of ‘done is better than perfect’ fits the example
perfectly; entrepreneurs and startups exist too close to the edge to even strive for perfection,
a suboptimal ideal in its own way. That’s also why conditioning trumps control. Control not
only is it dehumanizing, but it’s less effective, because it imposes an extra ‘decision
overhead’ and strips away the power of purpose that’s embedded in great workers.”
— Taylor Davidson

3. Michele Catania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cataniamichele/2618160905/
“Ultimately, if you really want to live a remarkable life in a conventional world, you’ll want
to do something worth remembering. Live your life out loud. Follow a big dream and find a
way to contribute something at the same time. If more people lived their lives in pursuit of
a legacy, I think the world would be a better place.” — Chris Guillebeau, The Art of Non Conformity

4. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/1507953295/
“The screen rewards, and nurtures, thinking in real time. We review a movie while we watch
it, we come up with an obscure fact in the middle of an argument, we read the owner’s
manual of a gadget we spy in a store before we purchase it rather than after we get home and
discover that it can’t do what we need it to do.”
— Kevin Kelly, What Technology Wants

5. Michele Catania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cataniamichele/2871668961/
“Agile says ‘just start and iterate along the way’, and welcomes changing requirements.
Digital models are all about experimentation, rapid prototyping, optimisation, beta. The
idea of lighting lots of fires, gaining feedback, and using it to adapt the allocation of
resources, of chunking down big ideas and long timescales to smaller pieces which might
adapt and change in response to a changing environment.” — Neil Perkin, Only Dead Fish

6. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/4016814498/
“Both ClueTrainers and Ad 2.0 social media practitioners will likely stick with their messy
listening platforms. They will sift through all of the noise in order to find the signals. Because
the most interesting part of social media is how the adoption of technology is shaping our
culture, shifting our patterns of consumption, and changing our mindsets. We can only get
to move the needle ideas if we’re quiet enough to hear what’s really going on.”
— Jen van der Meer, Powered, Inc.

7. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/3496750292/
“Eigen Value is a concept from the field of cybernetics that describes a thing that is self-
defining. Its outputs are replications of itself. Eigen Values are what we, as businesspeople,
do when we’re doing our best work. We produce work that is synonymous with our brand
values, our mission and our strategy. Always. In everything we do.” — Stephen Denny, Denny Marketing

8. Anne Helmond
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silvertje/4605711945/
“... although so much of this advice and comment is truly fantastic, the flip-side is that within
all the rush and deluge we are sometimes accepting and sharing – at speed and at face-value
– assertions that maybe should bear closer examination and qualification. Perhaps all these
assertions we read in the latest expert tweet or in the headline of that skimmed article are all
broadly right – but maybe not in all circumstances, not right for all brands, not right in every
dimension. Perhaps there’s a slightly more precise story to tell.” — Emma Cookson, Chairman BBH, NY

9. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/97562353/
“Relentless focus on the customer experience is not easy, particularly for public companies.
Truly customer-centric organizations constantly have their faith tested by both external and
internal forces who are looking for short-term sales or profits, even if those sales and profits
might come at the expense of the customer experience. Customer-centric organizations
focus on the value of a customer engagement cycle that relies on great customer experience
as an engine that drives retention and positive word of mouth.”
— Kevin Ertell, Retail Shaken Not Stirred

10. Klearchos Kapoutsis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klearchos/620325671/
“The web is still in its infancy, there’s a lot broken with it. There is a lot that can, and
should, be done in the context of curation, of indexing, of search tools, of filters and
visualisation tools, of the semantic underpinnings.”
— JP Rangaswami, Confused of Calcutta

11. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/97529912/
“... there are strategic moments in everyone’s conversation and communications where
you’ve got to cut loose and take a few communication risks. Because you owe it to your
audience, conversation partners, and clients to highlight your ‘take away’ with nothing less
than your communication best. ‘Oomph’ is about connecting, vitality and punch.”
— Mike Wagner, Own Your Brand

12. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/409752216/
“What is the most important part of the marketing mix that is essential to ensure a better
chance of success in the marketplace?... it is ownership of a point of view.”
— Siddarth Banjeree, Unilever Asia

13. “Social networks are not channels for advertisers or for the adverts/memes you, your clients
or any of your so-called ‘influentials’ create, social networks are for all of the people who
participate in the network... Social networks are not best understood as channels down
which folk send things; social networks are webs from which members pull down learning
(from each other).” — Mark Earls, Herd
Limone, by my Mother

14. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/205604673/
“When we focus on the experiences people have, rather than how we will ‘push’ our messages
to the masses, we focus less on blasting people with selfishly-driven messages (which creates
discomfort) to meeting people in a more natural, organic way.” — Leigh Durst, Livepath

15. Roby Ferrari
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roberto_ferrari/148365114/
“The question marketers need to ask is what they are going to do with all these new fans
and followers. How will having someone as a fan or follower fundamentally improve the
relationships between the brand and the customer?” — Paul Adams, Social Circles

16. Chris John Beckett
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjohnbeckett/310521494/
“Digital is not about the tools. Rather than chasing the latest digital gimmick, it's always
good to think about digital as a network of relationships that are made both of behaviors and
technology. Then it's possible to explore how make some relationships visible, how to create
new relationship between people, how to create a new relationship between people and
products or between people and the brand, how to amplify/improve existing relationships or
how to simplify them.” — Ana Andjelic, I [love] marketing

17. Citta’ di Modena
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cittadimodena/5053967249/
“When a message is relevant enough, and the delivery is passionate enough, that
relevance leads to resonance, which can actually create mass influence... Influence may
be able to create short-term buzz, but a relevant message can spark a movement.”
— Shannon Paul, Very Official Blog

18. Citta’ di Modena
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cittadimodena/5081618996/
“Awesome is always scary. The vast chasm between really good and extraordinary is
filled with fear. If you push yourself to the extent that you’re deeply uncomfortable,
you’ll be fine; if you’re comfortable, you’re not pushing hard enough.”
— Ben Malbon, Google Creative Lab

19. Claudio Cesarano
http://www.flickr.com/photos/claudio_cesarano/4064277144/
“Rather than focus on what brands can sell using social media, companies must focus on
how they can serve their community by investing in what Millennials care about. Do that
and brands will not only be relevant to their lives but their community will work with them
to achieve common goals.” — Simon Mainwaring, Mainwaring Creative

20. Citta’ di Modena
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cittadimodena/5082888003/
“Communities will engage along a common interest. If they do that, you better have some
valuable content about that interest before they first show up. If you don’t they will never
come back. And even if you have thousands of potential contributors, you will need to
develop content for them. It is very hard to develop communities that can sustain
themselves on user-generated content – in fact those communities are extremely rare.”
— Francois Gossieaux, The Hyper-Social Organization

21. Thank you
compiled byValeria Maltoni,
Conversation Agent
www.conversationagent.com
@ConversationAge