The Digital Transformation of AVIS What started as a web site redesign for Avis led to the development of an entirely new and innovative way to bring its reservation process to the customer. Growing competitive pressures required a new online strategy to support AVIS’ overall business strategy and goals and replace the technical infrastructure which had become dated. John Peebles, VP of Online Marketing at Avis Budget Group and Roundarch developed a marketing platform that provided AVIS’ customers a rich and consistent experience across Avis. com, Mobile, and Social Widgets. In this session, John Peebles and Aman Datta, VP of Roundarch, will demonstrate and discuss the results of this revolutionary marketing platform, lessons learned and the increased conversions realized with measurable cost savings.

Session Topics:

• Aligning online marketing and web site strategies
• Building web presence from a single website to a multi-channeled marketing platform
• Using a strategic approach to discover new opportunities and channels
• Implementing detailed SEO strategy to directly affect acquisition and conversion

A gaggle of angry moms rips a marketing campaign for the pain reliever Motrin, decimating it amidst a flurry of tweets, blog posts and YouTube videos. Motrin’s vice president of marketing pulls the campaign and publicly apologizes. All this in a matter of two days. What’s going on here? Positive and negative word of mouth is spreading at warp speed through online communities, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, so what’s a senior marketer at an established company to do? How do you avoid falling into the crosshairs of shoot-em-up customers and become their friend or even, possibly, their hero? How do you listen to and react to customers who talk about you to their thousands, or tens of thousands of friends and followers? Can social media create a measurable and significant difference in brand perceptions, customer affinity, retention and loyalty scores?

Best-selling author Jackie Huba will explain the fast-moving world of word of mouth and social media in her keynote presentation. Based on research from her book, “Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message,” Jackie will discuss the rise of social media and its effects on culture and business. You’ll learn about citizen marketers — the people who create media and influence opinion and purchase decisions about products, brands and companies. You’ll also learn how to connect with citizen marketers in the social media universe and have them become your evangelists.

Turbulence in our economy has long offered opportunities and setbacks for those who brave the markets and those subject to its whims. The past few months have posed both unfamiliar and challenging times for marketers, their agencies and the consumers they serve. How are brands surviving? Are they changing direction in an effort to capitalize on new opportunities and radically shifting their marketing strategy or staying the course? Burt Helm, Marketing Editor for BusinessWeek, will moderate this powerful group of Chicago marketing executives from the retail, consumer packaged goods and finance as they share how their brands are managing the growth, retraction or drastic restructuring to remain competitive.