The keynote speaker at IEG’s 30th Annual Sponsorship Conference, Frank Cooper, PepsiCo’s global chief marketing officer, took charge of the stage and inspired the entire ballroom with his brilliant presentation. He shared billion dollar worthy insights with national marketing and sponsorship executives; each and every attendee gleaned wisdom from the Fortune 50 company marketing guru. Cooper far exceeded expectations by demonstrating the value of attending a conference and presenting best practices designed by a world-class company like Pepsi.
A highlight of the IEG 2013 Conference, was when he shined a light into the future mindset of each marketing and sponsorship attendee. The Harvard University-trained Cooper shared branding and sponsorship ideas in a way that conveyed the value proposition of intentional marketing. The idea of branding and marketing with “intentions” forged a new model of thinking. “Purpose and profit must work,” Cooper emphasized. This statement brought silence to the room as all listened while he described the programs that were meaningful to Pepsi.
It was the next moment – as though he was composing the entire program to fit into the transformation that he was describing – when he suggested where all executives should aspire to be given the vertex of media distribution, technological software and hardware advances, bridging roles, metadata analysis and dictating consumer and corporate media evolution. He described the four stages of sponsorship. In the last two stages, particularly, Cooper said the most evolved companies were “curators and creators.” The crowd began recording and snapping photos with their phones, likely, hoping to incorporate Cooper’s presentation into their future presentations and their talk paths, and later sharing with friends after leaving the conference.
The case study of the Beyoncé-Pepsi-Cola partnership perfectly illustrated the vital new intersection of co-creation and inspiration between a corporation’s mission and branding. The intersection of Beyoncé’s star and Pepsi’s corporate galaxy creates a universe that shares passion, lights the world’s dreams and increases shareholders’ value.
Frank Cooper demonstrated that highly intelligent and highly efficient E-suite executives are able to communicate admirable best practices and inspire industry leaders. He was IEG sponsorship conference’s best presenter, hands down. –munson steed
