SPARKsouth is an annual conference designed to connect college students with digital marketing professionals who help highlight different paths to digital marketing careers. 

The conference exposes attendees to multiple marketing career paths and sessions dedicated to mentoring and developing students’ professional skills and mindsets. 

Due to Covid, the conference that typically takes place in venues such as UGA’s Terry College of Business or Truist Park was completely digital. 

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In the midst of the panels and breakout sessions, three keynote speakers were featured throughout the marketing conference:

• Brian Easter, Co-founder at Nebo Agency

• Annelle Barnett, CEO and Founder at Marketing Mob and Briar Dougherty, CEO and Founder at Career Organic

• Steve Denker, Vice President of Marketing and Digital at TCM/WarnerMedia

Key themes throughout the digital conference were:

Invest in relationships 

“It’s who you know…”

Countless speakers emphasized the value of pouring into others and establishing meaningful relationships with people throughout their career. Whether it is focusing on developing relationships with employees, clients/consumers, or peers, speakers attributed career success and growth to being empathetic and open to others. 

Investing in clients/consumers

Brian Easter mentioned that marketing is strongest when more value and care is shown. In his talk, he pointed out that marketers are getting so obsessed with technology and targeting that it dehumanizes the experience for the consumer. Easter emphasized how compassion, empathy, and sympathy can carry a business. 

In Steve Denker’s keynote, he shared his career path and how his observations of improvements for a company as well as his excellent customer service eventually landed him a job at Coca-Cola. From there, he developed unique and solid relationships with clients throughout his career which landed him an opportunity at WarnerMedia’s Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Investing in a team

As a leader of his company, Easter makes a diligent effort to build up and inspire his team. By leading with empathy, he not only serves his customers and community, but pours into his team to encourage them to be the best they can be. During his keynote, he praised team members of Nebo, shouting them out for making the organization the success that it is today. 

Denker mentioned that you’re not going to love everyone you work with, but that it is important to stay connected to those you click with.

Investing in others

Multiple speakers emphasized that it is important to be good and helpful to everyone and to also ask for help. Many panelists mentioned that you never know when you or someone may need something, and you will be surprised how willing people are to help.

“Meaningful relationships are so much more important than numbers,” Denker mentioned when talking about LinkedIn. And, if you do add someone on LinkedIn, make yourself stand out/make it personal, Annelle Barnett and Briar Dougherty emphasized in their talk about career development. 

Be humble + work hard

Panelist Bill Gentner, formerly the Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer at Aaron’s, shared “it’s better to be interested instead of interesting.” As a young professional, Gentner learned that he did not know as much as he thought, and when he took the time to listen instead of talk, he grew. Gentner and Easter emphasized that being humble and learning more about a company and what its team members are trying to achieve will lead to exponential growth.

The pace of marketing is constantly changing, and hiring managers will notice a candidate who is driven to succeed because they can handle the challenges. Simply put, working hard pays off. 

Mike Popowski, the CEO of Dagger, said that the best people are problem solvers. Those who do not come in wondering IF there are problems, but come in wondering WHAT are the problems. “Be indispensable and do something your boss can’t,” he urged the viewers. 

Katie Kirschner, Vice President of Brand, Content, and Digital Marketing at NCR, advised that employees should always have two solutions to a problem. “It shows that you thought about it.” And by asking “what am I missing?” after presenting those solutions, which shows humility. Constantly showing efforts to move the company forward displays hard work and dedication. 

Maggie Tucker, Vice President of Transformation and Capabilities at Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), also emphasized being indispensable. She recommended that attendees read Seth Godin’s “The Linchpin Manifesto” to learn how to be someone that everyone can rely on and approach for help. In order to personally get ahead, she recommended knowing the moves to advance forward in a career, to mix confidence with humility, to build relationships with a low ego, to have a positive mindset, and to be known as someone who can work with all types of people. 

Change is inevitable 

If 2020 has taught students and business leaders anything, nothing is stable and change is inevitable. In the career path panel, Afton Brown, Account Supervisor with DEFINITION 6, shared that her experience on both the brand and agency side can be unstable. What is important is finding people and a job you enjoy. 

Because the marketing world is constantly advancing, tools change every couple of years. Shannon Harlow, Senior Director of Analytics at Cox Automotive, said the most important thing is the “ability to learn and constantly learn, take risks and fail.” Being adaptable and figuring things out based on the consumer’s preferences is vital. 

Amarena Diaz, Director of Digital Marketing and eCommerce at Mizuno USA, noted that the last four months have been full of change, and a true testament to real time marketing. She noted that the variety of challenges and opportunities digital marketers are currently facing are exciting and scary. 

Since change is possible, Steve Denker assured at the beginning of his keynote that students should not waste their time, energy, and health worrying about things they can’t control. “Life is about timing, change is constant, and everything happens for a reason,” he shared. Focusing on maintaining relationships and a positive attitude will eventually lead to opportunities. 

Understand different functions within an organization

It is not enough to just focus on your own career, but how your role plays a larger part in the entire company. Speakers advised attendees to pay attention to the organization as a whole and how everything impacts one another. 

Sergio Perez, Director of Digital Marketing at Huddle House, Inc. & Perkins LLC, said employees need “actionable insights to move the brand in the right direction.” He stated that people “Have to be able to transfer work and KPIs into insights” and they “can't just speak to how digital works but HOW it is driving the business.” In order to do that, he said to “start with research and data, align teams who will help accomplish the goal, and find the observation, the ‘so what’ of this project.” The key is to find out how to “optimize and accelerate the program to work for you.” 

Look inward

Even though a pandemic seems like the wrong time to be picky about a future career, it is important to pick somewhere you can grow and thrive. By being in your element, you will work harder to make a positive impact on your company and coworkers. 

Denker encouraged viewers to “seek out opportunities...don’t wait for the opportunity to appear.” In order to find an opportunity, he motivated students to get creative by going outside and looking up, noticing what’s around you. Once you find a problem, you can find a solution that will bring more value to the organization. 

When searching for or doing a job, it is important to add value to the company, but how are you also adding value to your life? 

Michael Lyons, Product Marketing Manager at KitchenAid, spoke about his major career move and what went through his head while taking next steps. “Instead of looking outward at what the company has, look inward and set expectations,” he said. Ask questions like, “What do I want to get out of this? What environment sets me up to be my best?”

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The conference, which is available to view here, offered attendees an inside-look into the marketing industry and what it takes to get ahead and make it to the top. Regardless of what people “should” and “should not” do, however, Brian Easter made an excellent point in his keynote speech. Be sure to “be the protagonist of your story,” he emphasized.”It is very easy to let things just happen to you, but as the protagonist you can drive your story...Don't let life happen to you, don't let someone give you advice that doesn't fit your world.” 

A special thanks to Nebo and the Setup team for sponsoring this event. And to all of the speakers who provided their insights. If you would like to get involved in SPARKsouth next year, contact them here.