“The only thing that is constant is change.” I was reminded of this quote while attending the GroPro 20/20 conference last month with dozens of CMOs and managing directors at leading law firms and professional services organizations. It’s an easy idea to agree with but a hard truth to fully embrace. Executives across the legal, accounting and consulting industries are responding and innovating (some better than others) in response to changes in client demand, the talent pool, disruptive technologies and marketing trends. It was incredibly refreshing to hear, through open conversations with an impressive audience of senior marketing executives, how different leaders are managing through this period of volatility and uncertainty. The conference occurred just weeks before the release of Greentarget’s first survey documenting the content consumption preferences and behaviors among C-suite officers, who make up the core client and prospect base for the industries listed above. So we listened with an ear toward the ways professional services marketers are striving to cater to those preferences and behaviors. We heard a lot of great ideas and sharp perspectives. Here, in no particular order, are a few highlights: Cultivating Marketing Allies. Getting buy-in and support from influential members of the partnership and executive leaders was a common theme. The panel comprised of CMOs from Bain Consulting, Navigant and Wiley Rein illustrated different strategies to identify and cultivate these “promoters.” One CMO’s strategy hinged on gamification – creating a series of marketing challenges designed to advance new business objectives with prizes for the most meetings secured, articles published, revenue generated, etc. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish through a little healthy competition – especially among a partnership.” Start-Up Mentality. As we’ve documented, legal operations continues to grow as a force in the legal industry, and the findings in an annual survey presented by HBR Consulting feed that perception, depicting a shrinking investment in outside counsel and an increased investment in in-house resources. The panel discussed the notion that growing a legal operations team at a law firm requires a “start-up mentality” as new hires with new skill sets need to be free to challenge processes and bring fresh thinking. As one panelist put it, “How do you materially differentiate yourself based on the client experience?” Data, Data Everywhere. At one point during the event, the room was pretty fired up over data visualization tools, talent and needs. Many of the firms attending deal with mountains of data in Excel and other database tools. One in-house counsel said, “Whenever we see a ton of data in a spreadsheet, we think, ‘How can we make this a map, a graphic or an interactive image?’” In some firms, data visualization has become a billable service that clients will invest in to “learn something about themselves they don’t already know.” Another consulting firm CMO added, “Co-innovation through efforts like data visualization is the shortest path to client connectivity.” Blockchain in Professional Services. A presentation from Microsoft sparked a compelling conversation around the applications of blockchain, a connection that may not be obvious at first glance. However, at its most basic level, the presenter emphasized that blockchain technology produces data that is completely immutable, is verifiable and removes the need for trust. This could have many applications in accounting, asset management, legal and management consulting, especially in billing and auditing. One panelist predicted we’re likely to see blockchain-based invoicing in professional services within the next 24 months. Building a Professional Services Brand. “In professional services, we too often disguise brand as something else – using words like reputation, or client experience. But brands are exciting and unique and should be embraced.” This observation from One North kicked off one of two sessions on branding that focused on how professional services firms too often play it safe using the all-too-common pillars of reliability and trust. “If an organization wouldn’t claim the opposite, it’s not a brand pillar.” In a separate panel led by branding agency Clarity, a panelist discussed an ingenious approach to measuring effectiveness in this area – she creates a word cloud of client feedback to see how many of the brand pillars appear in the language clients deliver back to the firm. According to one marketing chief: “Our goal was to build a truly durable brand — our approach to sharing our expertise was about developing signature thought leadership. It wasn’t about the quantity of content we created, but the quality.” Music to our ears. Disrupt or Be Disrupted. A former Fortune 50 CMO discussed how disruption has never been happening faster, so it’s important for companies to think big. “As the saying goes, we tend to overestimate what we can get done in one year, but underestimate what we can accomplish in five years,” she said. Above all else, GroPro reminded me how important it is to create the time and space to get out of the day-to-day routine and listen to diverse perspectives. The frantic pace of business today creates a challenging paradox – it’s harder than ever to make the time to expose yourself to new points of view but also critical to find the energy to embrace change and expand.

We spend a lot of time talking about how to adapt sophisticated thought leadership to new media since questions like “How do you elevate the conversation on Twitter” weren’t being asked 15 years ago. And we treat that pace of change as remarkable – a sign we’re living in an age of exceptional ingenuity. But communicators have been adapting to shifting media landscapes for centuries, trying to meet audiences where they are and take full advantage of the available platforms. If you want to see what I mean, you should visit an art museum. For Employee Appreciation Day this year, Greentarget threw it back to our school days and took us on a field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago (our colleagues in New York took a similar trip to Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum). Once we arrived, our friend Howell Malham Jr. introduced us to Gloria Groom, a curator at the Art Institute; together they led us around the European Painting and Sculpture wing, stopping to give us historical perspectives on four particular pieces. Each piece was not only a work of lasting importance in the art world, but also an example of the artists, and subjects, directing the conversations of their time. The last piece we saw, Model for a Statue of Louis XV (1746-8), struck me the most. Gloria noted that the statue was essentially a solution to a communications problem. King Louis XV of France was perceived as weak and incompetent by the French citizenry. So he did what any resourceful king would have done: commissioned a sculptor to create a massive statue that would portray Louis XV the way he wanted to be seen – as a stirring, dynamic leader who did heroic things with swords. To depict Louis as a strong leader, capable of leading with wisdom and conviction, the artist Jean Baptiste Lemoyne put a scroll in the king’s outstretched right hand. The sword in his left hand suggests the king was a strong warrior, ready to lead his people to victory. Louis’s relaxed pose conveys a sense of confidence, inviting the French people to trust him, to believe in his prowess as a ruler. The piece at the Art Institute is not the statue itself, but the model that was to serve as a reference for the monument. The model is a little over two feet tall and made from terracotta, a pliable material that, nearly 300 years later, still bears the artist’s imprint on its surface. The material makes the piece look like it’s still in progress, as if Louis XV could still be imploring the artist to make him a bigger sword. It’s a far cry from today’s image-making, which leans heavily on social media and made-for-mobile video. But while commissioning statues is no longer the norm, we haven’t entirely abandoned the idea that image can be shaped through art. Gazing at the miniature statue of Louis XV, I kept thinking about Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of former President Barack Obama, unveiled a few weeks before our field trip. In the painting, Obama leans toward the viewer, hands folded over each other, as if listening intently to whatever we’re saying. It clearly reflects the demeanor Obama projected throughout his presidency: a calm, collected thinker invested in his people – a listener. Unlike Louis XV’s statue, the Obama portrait is part of a tradition going back to George Washington. But presidential portraits have shifted over the years. Early American presidents were depicted in dark colors, appearing stoic and unwavering. Later POTUS painters have taken a more casual approach, with more colorful surroundings and relaxed poses. While the medium and images change with the times and technology, some things are timeless. Whether it’s terracotta or Twitter, it’s the message that matters.