FEBRUARY MARKETINGMASTERS LUNCHEON SEMINAR

For Motorola, the Answer Is Online

SPEAKER
Kenneth C. “Casey” Keller Jr.
Executive Vice President, CMO
Motorola, Inc.

INTRODUCING THE SPEAKER
John Osborn
President and CEO
BBDO New York

As technology buyers in business-to-business companies change their online research habits, vendors need to adapt as well—or else.

Join Motorola CMO Casey Keller when he keynotes BMA’s MarketingMasters luncheon seminar on Thursday, Feb. 21, at the Mid-America Club. The H.J. Heinz and Procter & Gamble marketing veteran will explain how an online thought leadership strategy is building brand awareness and driving preference among enterprises, telecom service providers, and government and public safety agencies.

Introducing Keller will be John Osborn, president and chief executive officer of BBDO New York, the agency with which Motorola has consolidated its business marketing efforts.

Motorola has never been a company that lacked for brains. In fact, for most of its history, the company has had a strong engineering focus. Keller will talk about how Motorola harnesses its know-how and makes the company the source that technology buyers turn to when they’re doing their research.

It’s no secret that a lot of that research is done on the Web. But Motorola is finding that these buyers are now spending more of their online time watching videos and reading blogs, interactive white papers and e-zines. Keller is developing thought leadership campaigns to reach these buyers through the use of search, videos and other interactive marketing tactics.

While Motorola is well known as one of the world’s largest makers of cell phone handsets, this represents only about half of its revenue. The company is also one of the world’s leading vendors of wireless communication solutions for enterprises, telecom service providers, and government and public safety agencies.

A Harvard M.B.A., Keller came to Motorola in October 2006 from H.J. Heinz Co., where he most recently was chairman and CEO of Heinz Italy. In 2001, he won Brandweek's Grand Marketer of the Year award for making a green version of Heinz ketchup in a squeeze bottle for kids.

Making the leap from condiments to communications might seem like an abrupt one, but for Keller, it's the brand that matters. “The mobile-wireless environment is going to create a whole new set of brands—brands around devices, brands around the experiences and also brands around the way people are connecting and researching on the Internet,” he told Advertising Age last year.

And helping people connect is what Motorola is all about. Through its Home and Networks Mobility segment (where sales increased 9% in 2007), Motorola provides digital video system and interactive set-top devices; voice and data modems for digital subscriber line and cable networks; and broadband access systems (including cellular infrastructure systems) to cable and satellite television operators, wireline carriers and wireless service providers.

Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Solutions segment (which had a whopping 43% sales increase in 2007) provides mission-critical communications to the government and public safety sectors. It also delivers analog and digital voice and data communications products and systems, mobile computing, advanced data capture, wireless infrastructure and RFID solutions to retail, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, healthcare, travel and transportation customers worldwide.

To register for the luncheon, go here or email Marla Schrager.