How Marketing Led the Brand and Cultural Transformation of a 30-Year-Old Business – Marketing Art and Science – EP11

Hi, everyone. Welcome to this newest episode of Marketing, art and Science. I'm CMO Advisor and host Lisa Martin.

This is a webcast where we really dive into the artistry, the science that is modern marketing today, how marketing leaders are flexing those levers, leveraging emerging technologies like ai, predictive gen, ai, to really inform and transform the customer journey. My guest on this segment is Karen Doge, my friend, who is a VP of marketing at OSI digital. Karen, it's so great to see you.

Thanks so much for joining us on the program today. Thank you for having me, Lisa. And I wanna share with the audience a little bit about, I'm gonna do a little bit bragging on Karen's behalf.

She was just named Woman of the Year in the entrepreneurial leader category at BC Biz Magazine, and she made the cover of the magazine, saw that on social media. Karen, congratulations. Tell us a little bit about that.

Thank you so much. Um, I guess being selected as Woman of the Year by BC Business, um, was not on my Bingo card, but it was an absolute honor. Um, it was a total surprise.

I was interviewed and, uh, you know, thought I might be possibly selected for my category and had no idea that, you know, they were going to select me for the cover. Um, it's not lost on me that you don't often see, you know, women of South Asian heritage on the cover of mainstream business magazines. It's, it's very rare.

So I felt that, you know, I wasn't just representing myself on this cover. I did feel like I was representing my whole community, and I'm hope, hopefully inspiring, you know, future generations of girls, um, and women to see themself on a cover like that and as a possibility for them too. It was really exciting.

Very exciting, very inspirational. Again, congratulations. You also have had a great career in marketing.

Tell the audience a little bit about your journey to being a marketing executive at OSI digital. What was that path like? I often hear folks say it was very zigzaggy, it wasn't linear, but give us that backstory.

Yeah. So I spent about 25 plus years in marketing, PR and corporate communications, you know, all different functional areas within a, within an organization, but they were late. And there's similar, uh, muscles and talent and skills that you need across those, uh, those, uh, industries and, sorry, those roles.

So, I have worked predominantly in tech and I work for everything from small tech startups to, uh, Canada's largest, one of the largest telcos to one of the world's largest conglomerates with ge. Uh, that's just to name a few. So, you know, I've had some pretty vast experience in different industries and a chance to flex this, these marketing muscles, to elevate some incredible brands, but really small, mid-size large.

And I, that's the, um, advice that I give to people starting out is just to, to get experience in a lot of different spaces and figure out where you, uh, learn some things, right, break some things, but really learn where your, um, talents and skills, you know, align and, and all of that, uh, that work has led me to OSI digital in the current role that I'm in. That's awesome. You still think you have great breadth, and of course, we know not only has marketing evolved so much in the last 10 years, it's so scientific now, which is why we named the Shell Marketing, art and Science.

It's not just the art piece, it's the science piece too. But we also know that the marketing role is different at different types of organizations. So it sounds like what you've seen and what you've experienced as a marketing leader is different based on where the company is in its journey.

And that probably helps really al also inform maybe some of your advice to, to those that wanna follow in your footsteps is get that perspective and, and, and lean into how things are different. If a company is pre IPO, um, if it's post IPO, if it's in an acquisition phase, because all those are really important to creating that breadth that you have. A hundred percent.

We really have to understand, you have to be lock and step with the business priorities of the company and not just understand what the company is today, but where they want to be. And, you know, I, I really see marketing as a change agent to help the organization get there. So, um, it's, it's critical that we have full visibility on the strategy, have inputs into the strategy so that we can go, you know, align our efforts with it.

So it's, it's really important. It's should never be, um, considered as an afterthought. Uh, in fact, marketing is, should be 10 steps ahead and really help be that goal post to where the, we're gonna, where an organization wants to be.

And I definitely saw that when I was working with small startups, right? In building kind of the, the, the, the vision, the hope of this brand. Uh, and then eventually the company, you know, gets there.

And it's really exciting. I've been a part of, you know, major, uh, acquisitions, um, one of the largest Canadian tech acquisitions, uh, with the purchase of, of, uh, bits two systems with GE by GE Digital. So marketing had a, a very strategic can in making that happen.

It's, it's a, it's a valued partner in any organization. It is. Speaking of value partners, talk to the audience a little bit about OSI digital.

I, I met you through my work with Boomi. We've had their CMO, Alison Biggin, she was on the show a couple weeks ago. But talk to the audience a little bit about OSI digital.

How are you helping customers optimize performance, accelerate that, all important digital transformation? And then where does partner marketing fit into that strategy? So, OSI celebrates 30 years in business, uh, founded in California and now operating, you know, worldwide.

And our company's really focused on being that digital transformation provider. So helping companies move through and really, uh, capitalize on everything from automation and AI and machine intelligence and all of these incredible technologies. And, you know, we do that through the expertise of our people.

Our people understand business and they understand tech. So, you know, we're not out there selling widgets. You know, our, what we are selling is the expertise of our team.

Um, it is the relationships. It is very much a relationship driven company and a really strong commitment to customer excellence, which is legendary at OSI. And, um, you know, what's been exciting is just see being a part of that growth.

I've been with this company for eight years and you know, this year we expanded, you know, globally and, and I've just been a part of that wave. So, um, in partners, you mentioned partners, we work with some of the world's leading, um, tech platforms, including Boomi, Salesforce, NetSuite, and Oracle. And that's really our sweet spot, is understanding how these major platforms, not just how they work, but how they work together and how the data moves from these, from these platforms.

And we help integrate that data and we help our customers leverage that data so that they're getting the most value from these massive technology investments that they're making. And that's so is high sweet spot. That's what makes us different.

That's fantastic that you're talking about the integration piece, because we have this expectation, I think, in our consumer lives that bleeds over into our business lives, that all the experiences that we have, whatever brand we're interacting with, whether it's an e-commerce purchase or a rideshare uh, transaction, it's gonna be connected, integrated, seamless, omni-channel, relevant, personalized, and all of that is driven by marketing and the data. So kind of interesting parallels there. Speaking of data, I would love to understand how you are bringing in the data, the data science piece into OSI digital marketing and, and what that MarTech stack looks like that is helping to convert those prospects to those vocal loyal advocates.

So, yeah, so our MarTech stack, uh, includes a very well known marketing automation platform called HubSpot. So we use HubSpot for everything from email campaigns to landing pages for our website to social media management. Uh, you know, it's really critical that we have an automation tool.

We're a relatively small team, you know, and we've gotta get a lot of stuff done and we've gotta do it well. So it was really important that we invest in a tool that allows us to manage a very high volume of digital campaigns, both efficiently and effectively. And HubSpot, it does that for us.

So, you know, it's all about automating workflows, optimization, greater impact, and, uh, it's the right tool for a company of our size as well. Talk a little bit about kind of flexing those muscles of the science piece, the art piece. 'cause I, I always think of them as levers, then the data will help inform what's working, what needs to be course correct.

And, but I'd love to kind of get your perspective on the fusion of the artistry and the science at OSI and how it's helping not only OSI to differentiate itself, but its partners in the communities as well. Yeah, I love these questions 'cause I really haven't thought a lot about, you know, the art and the science of marketing, but it truly is, it really is those two things coming together. And when they come together well is that's where the magic happens, right?

Yeah. So to me, like the true art of marketing is about balancing creativity and strategic thinking, both of those things together, understanding your customer behavior effectively, communicating your value prop, and then driving results, right? And that, that creativity really speaks to your brand's presence, your storytelling in terms of the digital content you create.

And that's a really big thing for us. Uh, for us, our storytelling is, you know, through the voice of our customer and customer use cases and really the the proof points, right? Those are the proof points that we can then share with prospects and sell, like, you know, this is what we're able to achieve for, you know, customer A or B.

Um, so really that, that art is the, you know, kind of elegant, modern design is part of the art, you know, uh, modern technology brand building that is part of the art which OSI has developed into in the time that I've, I've been here and, you know, people don't realize this, but you know, I hand select every single image that is used in all of our campaigns on our website. It, it ha it goes through me, uh, because I understand the art of our brand and, uh, and it has to reflect who we are. And it has to convey modern technology, um, and, and, and, and in action.

And so that's what you see when you see a lot of, um, osis imagery. And it takes me a lot of time. But, um, it, to me, that is sort of the magic of, of the art in marketing.

That's awesome. That's fantastic that you're so involved there. From a decree creative perspective, when you look at a key performance metrics, what are some of the ones that you measure that, that, that, that boil up to, to the c-suite, for example, in terms of marketing's, uh, impact on the business, on revenue, and how is the MarTech stack helping you to deliver some of those results that the business is wowed by?

Yeah, so for us, marketing does drive revenues, and we do that through attracting and training prospects who then convert to customers, right? So that could be building brand awareness. Uh, we do that through education.

So we, you know, I mentioned how, you know, we're not selling widgets are what we are, uh, set, um, bringing to the market is our expertise, our deep business and technical expertise. So we do that by hosting a variety of webinars, which are learning and educational opportunities, but really it's showcasing how we did that thing for a real customer, right? And so we invite prospects to attend.

We see competitors attending, um, mm-Hmm. These webinars really allow us to showcase like our deep, uh, expertise and reach a, a wide global audience. So I had mentioned that we've expanded our footprint and branded to new regions, including, uh, Europe and, uh, uh, Japan, a PJ.

So we're hosting webinars for these markets, and we're combining that with relevant, you know, assets, case studies, uh, white papers. It's really allowed us to, you know, leverage this thought leadership strategy, um, and generate leads in, in brand new spaces, spaces that we've never been before. So it's exciting.

It's, and we're, we're learning. We're getting to know those markets, and we know what is keeping, you know, the, the CTOs up at night and we're building our campaigns around that. It's, it's been really exciting and it's been a huge expansion of my role this year.

And that's exciting. How, How is the, the marketing technology stack helping to, to deliver that in, in terms of the impact or enabling you to understand different customers and new markets? What's, what's the tech stacks influence there?

So, what's exciting is that we can see, you know, when we're working with a prospect, their sort of, their lifecycle with us. You know, they've attended these webinars, they're interested in these topics, or they're going in and they're downloading, you know, these specific, uh, data sheets. Um, so we can see how they're engaging with us.

And the tool does allow us to collect data about our customer, and it acts as sort of a CRM. And, uh, you know, along with being that automation tool, it's both things. So, uh, we're using MarTech in ways that we can track and we can analyze, uh, individual customer behaviors in real time.

You know, we can, we can see what is working and what isn't, and then we can customize our campaigns to specific target audiences, which is really powerful. And honestly, I think that we've only tapped, you know, just tapped into the potential of that. I think there's so much more that, that we can do, um, to really, uh, capitalize on our, on the tools that we have.

But it's, there's so much more potential there. It, it, it is so important to be able to, to, to have, to have the visibility that you talked about. It isn't a nice to have anymore, as we've seen marketing evolve so much the last 10 years alone.

It's, it's table stakes, that visibility, who's engaging with us, what are they engaging with, what messages are resonating, what isn't is just foundational for marketing organizations to be able to take those prospects to, uh, leads to opportunities to booked business no longer. Is that, that's great if we have some tools, it's, it's one of the things probably that you use to differentiate OSI digital. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And, and like I said, with things like AB testing, you know, we're able to, to test different messages, you know, based on the audience. And, uh, there's so much more that we can do.

I think truly we have just, you know, it's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we've been able to capitalize on. And, uh, you know, just seeing how the expansion into new markets this year so seamlessly, you know, through the, the marketing, uh, tools that we already have, uh, has, has helped us significant significantly. We've been able to move quickly.

Um, it's been really exciting to see that. Talk about the use of, you know, gene AI came on the scene about, I guess about 20 months ago, months ago. AI's been around for, for decades, as we all know.

But the, the, the catalyst that Gen AI has been for every company to use that powered by AI everywhere, i, I go to so many technology conferences cover so many different companies and, and, and interview executives across the board, and it's everywhere. But what I love to understand is how are organizations, particularly marketing leaders using emerging technologies like ai, gen, AI automation, predictive analytics, to really fine tune that value prop so that the differentiation is there. How, what are some of the practical applications of automation, ai, gen, AI in OSI digital that are really moving the levers?

So I truly believe as a marketer, that if you're not learning or strategizing on how to leverage AI in your job today, that there is a danger that your role become, will become obsolete. Um, you will get asked, you will get tapped on, on the shoulder saying, Hey, you know, how, how are you working with this new technology? So, you know, in marketing, producing digital content is, um, the biggest challenge for us, right?

We're constantly trying to churn out, you know, really strong content, um, in a timely manner. Uh, and we're really good at that. And, you know, I've personally and my team has already started leveraging, you know, tools like chat, GPT, and really what it is, is a starting point to drive research on certain topics and, and look at how, you know, these, uh, you know, certain technologies being positioned in the industry, but it's not, you don't just stop there, right?

So you then have to take that content and you have to, um, edit it, turn it into the OSI voice, you have to insert your value prop. You have to know how to do that. But by just, you know, getting there to that point saves us a lot of time, you know, to, you know, have to go out and do research.

We can get that instantaneously. So we are actually able to produce content even more quickly than we have in the past. And to be honest, like, yeah, you still need the human, you still need the human to do that, right?

And, and I feel that's where you showcase your value to mm-Hmm. Um, to your organization that say, yes, I'm leveraging ai, but I'm the one that is turning it into marketing goals, right? At the end of the day, and I really have learned over my decades in tech, is that we have to be flexible and we have to be adaptable, and we have to move with it, right?

And if we don't do that, you know, you will get left behind. So, you know, study emerging technologies and figure out how to work with them so that you don't just survive in your, uh, industry. You al also thrive.

Definitely. I, I, you know, I, I talk with, um, CMOs every week and, and, and that's, that's a wording theme in terms of leveraging tools like Gen ai, chat, GPT, uh, other, um, gen AI platforms to do things like even overhauling parts of websites where they're seeing faster conversions. I was just on Schwab network the other day talking about the AI revolution and said, you know, the, there's so much visibility on gen ai, uh, and, and, and the big companies that are helping to power it, and the investments are billions, hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

So now we're seeing investors kind of really put the spotlight on some of those big companies. What are the results? What, how do you justify the spend on emerging technologies and infrastructure, uh, and what are some of the results it's generating?

Where as the, kind of, the, the conundrum is a lot of organizations are still in the early phases of pilot projects or really going, we're gonna start using this technology to drive efficiencies. Like you talked about being able to create and customized content faster, being able to probably ultimately convert a prospect to a lead, to an opportunity to a customer faster, to impact revenue. I think it's all there.

Do you feel any sort of pressure using emerging technologies to be able to demonstrate that? Is that something that's kind of on your radar? Not yet, but I do think that it's coming and that, yeah.

To be able to, you know, future cast, like where, where are we going? What are the future trends? What are our customer behaviors?

I think AI and predictive analytics has a huge, uh, potential for that for us. And we, again, we have just tapped into that, right? And our customers are asking for two, by the way, they're, they're coming to side and saying, you know, how do, how do we leverage AI within our businesses?

And, you know, we're, we're working with them to, to figure out the best, you know, best way forward. And truly, it is about future pu proofing your, not just your jobs, but it's about future proofing your business as well. So I think that we're just, you know, we're in a brave new world right now.

Yeah. Well, it's so dynamic. I mean, things are changing constantly, um, across the board in every industry.

No company is, is, um, safe from it, if you will. So being able to adjust those levers using emerging technologies is really foundational for organizations these days. What's your advice to other marketing leaders who maybe aren't dipping their toes in the water yet when it comes to predictive analytics, automation, gen, ai?

I mean, I can't imagine they're pretty far behind if they're not dipping their toes on the water, or at least defining some business use cases where those tools should be applied. So I think it's one of the, the biggest benefits of AI right now is, is understanding your customer and really then personalizing, um, your marketing, right? So we know that AI can leverage, you know, large amounts of customer data so you can understand your customer's behaviors, their insights, their preferences, purchasing decisions, all of those things, right?

So I think organizations really need to tap into the potential of that. And, and then, you know, maybe shift change, uh, could be their supply chain, right? In terms of the things that they have on inventory.

So, you know, we saw that through covid, especially, you know, there was a huge break in the supply chain. Yes. And, you know, a lot of our customers were really struggling at that time to fulfill customer needs and expectations.

So I think that now the brave world of the future is to really understand, um, your, the whole, you know, supply chain and your operations and resources and all of that, all of that. And AI can help with that. So this is one of the biggest opportunities that is out there.

And, and for sure, from an OSI perspective, we feel that we can help. We've done a few, um, webinars, by the way, on just su supply chain disruption and how mm-Hmm. Technology can help avoid that.

So there's a huge opportunity, uh, in this, in this space. The visibility that you talked about is also absolutely critical these days. Organizations need to, to, to be able to see into everything.

Like, it's absolutely seen through transparent, but I liked how you talked about really leveraging emerging technologies, ai, gen, ai, predictive analytics to understand the customer. 'cause at the end of the day, customers have this expectation that in our consumer lives comes into our business lives, that any brand we interact with, uh, is going to know us, service relevant content, personalize the experience, and make it omnichannel so that I can en engage one on whatever channel I want. And you're gonna be able to follow me in a non-creepy way, um, to, to make that experience really tailored to me so that, so that I, as the customer feel valued.

Um, there's transparency, there's trust within the organization. Uh, and then it's really, I think, foundational for marketing marketers these days to infuse that into their organization because it does really boil up to the top. It does affect companies bottom line.

And I think the more stories like that, that can be told, I think the more value folks will see in AI and gen ai, um, as a good thing, rather than something to be afraid of. Yeah, absolutely. I a hundred percent agree.

So Karen, we really, you did a great job of explaining a lot of the artistry and, and the impact that it makes that you've already made. Where does the science piece of marketing come into you, and how do you kind of pull those levers to deliver what the end user customers expecting? So, to me, the science is always the integration and the automation of various marketing tools into one system of use, right?

So for, for us currently, I mentioned, you know, we use HubSpot, so, you know, we're able to hit multiple channels and audiences with just one click. It's, it's very seamless. And the goal of a very well designed MarTech stack is to take those tools, integrate them seamlessly, optimize your marketing efforts, and as a result, drive leads, drive revenue, right?

That's, to me, the really, the science. And then being able to look back and track all the results of, of your campaigns in real time, have real time insights, be able to test things, make changes. And to me, that is the real science of marketing is that there is a whole lot of data underlying that we now have access to that we we may not have had in the past.

And your value is really being able to leverage that data. Yeah. That visibility, you mentioned realtime, that's key as well.

I think that we have this expectation that we're gonna have realtime experiences with whatever brand we're interacting with, but to your point, marketing has evolved so much of the last 10 years. It's why we, we have the title of the show, the way that it's, it's not just the artistry and the sizzle, the creativity, that science piece is so beneficial because it probably empowers you much more than it ever has to really empower the rest of the organization. We talked a lot about AI care and generative ai and your use cases.

Some of the things that you're doing now, and I'm sure some great things coming up in the future. When people think of ai, there's a lot of fear factor out there in, in the mass media. And I think as, as marketers and technology, I think we have a responsibility to be able to share some of the positive use cases that are already cutting.

But we can't talk about AI without talking about ethics. What are some of the ethical considerations with respect to AI that you bring into what you're doing? Yeah.

You know, you think about it, we're consumers as well, right? So, you know, we can definitely tell when we've been marketed to. So we have to be really careful and cautious about that.

And, and, you know, in terms of my role, we're, we're very cautious about the frequency and the, the amount of touch points that we have when we're reaching out to, you know, to new prospects and current customers. We're very respectful of just inundating people with information and data. So I think that's, that you, you have to have that sense of, uh, sort of responsibility, um, with, with your campaigns.

I feel that since AI relies very heavily on data and collecting personal information so that you can tra train the algorithms, you know, we have to prioritize data privacy and be fully transparent about how we're using that data, right? Um, so for example, we need consent for data collection, and we have to ensure that we're using tools that have security so that we're not having data breaches. We've seen this happen.

We've seen it in the news, you know, where mm-hmm. You know, big, large organizations, data is, is being breached. So, you know, that's the worst case scenario.

So, you know, like I said, so as consumers ourselves, we just want to, um, know the things that we're concerned about are the same things that our customers are concerned about too, right? So AI definitely needs to build in some form of accountability and, and ethical compliance. But, you know, I still think that we're in the early stages as much like, you know, the, the admin of the internet, right?

There's, there is no governance. And I think that that will come, it's needed. And, um, you know, it's, once we, we get to something a little bit more, um, accountability and compliance around AIS is where we create a, you know, a safe new world, Great points, accountability factor is key.

And also that transparency, because that equals trust, easily converts to trust, which is, you talked about the relationship building that OSI does with its, with its folks internally, with its, with its, uh, customers. And that is absolutely critical these days and, and really helps set organizations apart. Yeah, we, you know, we don't wanna see unsubscribes, right?

Like that, that means no. When a customer gets that point, they're frustrated. And, you know, we've been yes.

Hitting them with the wrong things, right? So I think we're really cautious about making sure that, you know, the information that we're sending out or anytime we're outreaching to a customer prospect, that we're not just exhausting them, you know, with, with information that's not relevant to their business. It has to mean something has to be meaningful.

And, you know, then we know that they're gonna wanna continue to, to, to engage with us from a marketing perspective. Yeah. And I think it's something that, you know, uh, a lot of, uh, organizations don't, uh, take to heart and, you know, that that is why we'll lose, you know, you, you, you kind of get, you will get blocked for sure.

So then we'll kind of Wrap up here. I, I always say failure is not a bad F word. It's, we learn so much from our failures.

Well, we should. Um, and that's in business life. That's in personal life as well.

Share a story of a business initiative, a marketing initiative that wasn't going according to plan or, um, a a shift change in the organization that you came in and really helped convert it to a very favorable, fantastic victory for the business. So yeah, I can share a story of what really started out as a failure, but turned into something pretty fab. Um, and I learned myself as, as a marketer through the journey is when I started with OSI in 2018, we were, uh, going to change the name.

I proposed that we changed the name from OSI consulting to OSI digital and really positioned the, the company from this traditional consulting company to more of a digital transformation provider. It was, you know, really where we needed to, to go. Um, there was a lot of resistance to this change, this name change globally, because of course, the name, it touches so many things, it touches the brand, but it, it touches all aspects of the business as well, from, you know, letterhead to the website to invoices, to building signage, just so, so much.

And there was a resistance as to, you know, we've been called this company this name for 25 years. Why do we need to change it? We've had some success.

So I, I came to realize that that resistance was not due to, you know, people just digging their heels in or not wanting to do the work, because it also meant a lot of work for a lot of people. Mm-Hmm. It was just about not really understanding the need for the change.

So in that moment, I realized that marketing has an incredible power to serve as that change agent, right? Through engagement communications, and then helping, you know, masses and broad groups understand the need for the change. And each, each group cared about different things.

So I spent a lot of time listening, you know, what are their concerns? Okay. You know, international has these concerns.

Concerns are different for people who are working in, in admin, different functions, had different concerns. So, uh, because it would have different impacts for them. So I really listened, um, treated it like an overall sort of global project.

And then mm-hmm. Help them also, I listened, but I also explained, and I helped them understand the mission of why we need to, needed to move to a digital transformation, um, company. And they bought in.

And I feel like once people understand the mission, and you've explained it, and you've built that trust, they will go with you. Yeah. Yeah.

And, and that's, that is essentially what happened. It took time. It was, you know, I would, I would say a six month project, which is relatively fast, but it was what if now if I had come in as a new person and just said, this is, this is a change.

As change has to happen, it, it would've been a complete failure. And I think, um, understanding all of those nuances, also even cultural differences right across, yeah, definitely cultural differences, global, um, understanding all of that, um, and, and treat treating everybody's, uh, voice with giving them the dignity of expressing their concerns and listening and, and addressing them. I understood the power of engagement.

Um, and, and we were then successful, but to be very honest with you could have completely gone the other way. And, you know, people from all aspects did what was expected of them, you know, so that the day of announcement and the press release goes out, everything was changed over seamlessly to OSI digital because we had the whole company behind this mission. And it has been, you know, we have, I have personally seen the, uh, the charts of, you know, the revenue going up since 2018.

Um, because it definitely opened doors for us to customers to be able to explain, you know, we're not just a, a, you know, the stodgy traditional consulting company. We are going to help you, you know, realize your digital transformation goals. That's what we do.

That's who we are. So it was really exciting to be a part of that with, with an, with os I, and, and I'm still, um, you know, it's, it's a, it's an ever evolving brand even today. Sure.

Yes. Uh, so we continue to adapt it based on what the market is doing. So it's very exciting.

It's a great example of Marketing as a change agent. Probably one of, of the, the best examples I've heard in a very long time, because to your point, it could have gone the other way. And, and you brought up the cultural, uh, piece that's huge, you know, when even from a a, a brand perspective, what OSI digital helps customers do, digitally transform even that isn't successful without the culture coming along with it.

And you talked about OSI being 30 years old with a, I think Amazon just celebrated its 30th birthday, which I can't even believe. But when your history and you have that, that, uh, you know, all, all this information behind you, it's, it's harder to pivot. But it sounds like you did this in a six month timeframe.

What was the customer reaction? Because when they come to you going help, we have to, we have to digitize, especially Covid was a catalyst for that. What was the customer reaction to Oh, I get it now.

Because it sounds to me like that's a differentiation piece for OSI. It is, and you know, a lot of the feedback came to me informally through sales reps, through, through our executives saying, Hey, this is, um, this shift change that we've had with our brand is making us, uh, the doors open more quickly for us. You know, we're getting in more quickly.

'cause of course, customers come on your website and they, they wanna get to, you know, who is this company? Who are we dealing with? And, you know, if they see something that, you know, doesn't look like an innovative modern technology company, why are they gonna wanna do business with you?

Right. Right. Another thing that I did that was different was really, you know, I mentioned, you know, our people and our expertise is our business is, is the brand, right.

Is bringing more of the OSI people to the forefront and featuring them Yeah. And featuring their, their expertise so that customers see that and they want to do business with us, right? Because they like us and they trust us.

Yeah. And that was missing in the OSI consulting brand. So, um, you know, the bringing the human aspect to a technology company is really important.

And I did that through profiling employees and continue to do that. So, um, it's, and then also it shows the breadth of our team, right? The, the depth of our, so, um, the feedback from our customers was incredibly, uh, positive.

And, uh, you know, like I said, our revenues align with the, with the name change and, and a lot of the efforts that we've done with marketing, there's, it's no coincidence that that bar chart has gone up, uh, since 2018. And also just, you know, I put it back and I, I give that credit to, again, the power and the depth of the team and the people that we hire is, uh, you know, we, uh, we build long-term relationships with our partners, and we build long-term relationships with our customers. It's, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's incredible.

It's absolutely incredible. And it is essential for organizations to differentiate themselves and do well. And I, and just, I think the whole theme of the show is really how marketing is a change agent.

Leveraging people, leveraging technologies, emerging technologies processes, and ultimately ensuring that the employee experience and the customer experience, which are like this, are really healthy and solid. And I think that it sounds like you've done a great job at OSI digital. Karen, thank you so much for being on the program, sharing the OSI story, how marketing is really pivotal to the success of the organization, its customers, and how it really empowers change across even history to organizations.

We really appreciate your insights and your time. Thank you so much for having me. It's my pleasure.

All right. Mine too. We wanna thank you for watching this latest episode of Marketing, art and Science, reminding you that the next one is coming out in two weeks.

So we'll see you then. For Karen Dohan, I'm Lisa Marlina. Thanks for watching everyone.