Doug Kessler

Executive Creative Director

Doug is a displaced Yank who started his career at Ogilvy & Mather, New York.

Soap and fabric softener bored him rigid so he jumped ship to specialize in B2B.

Doug is an annoyingly ubiquitous speaker at marketing events and a prolific writer on all things marketing, content, tech, strategy and creativity.

His answer to why he’s spent so many years doing B2B (and loving it) is summarized in a quick slideshare called The Search for Meaning in B2B.

Other stuff he’s proud of include Crap, Insane Honesty, A Stakeholder Through the Heart and, mostly, this amazing place full of these smart, talented, committed and really nice people.

Doug is a copywriter at heart but with a secret jones for analytics.
And Lagavulin.

We’ve got 263 posts from Doug

The hierarchy of benefits in B2B marketing

Your prospects don’t believe your big claims—and they don’t care about your small ones. It’s time to start building some bridges.

Customer experience / Galvanizing stories

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Beyond tone of voice: what’s your stance?

Tone of voice is hugely important in B2B. But there’s something just as important and far less understood: stance. What your brand actually does that’s…

B2B marketing / Messaging

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Let’s steal from the New York Times

The New York Times is a firehose of innovation in craft, content, storytelling and digital strategy. In this, the latest in the ‘Let’s Steal From’ series,…

18. 12. 2018

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Intuition beats best practice: An Interview with Jay Acunzo

Jay Acunzo’s new book is exceptional. We tracked him down and grilled him, about intuition, bravery and the surprising things that guide them.

10. 12. 2018

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Re-naming a B2B company 2: the process, shortlist and winner

In the second part of our Re-Naming a B2B Company two-parter, we drill down into the actual names, a long list… a shortlist… and the winner!

19. 11. 2018

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Renaming a B2B brand 1: The lessons learned

Re-naming a B2B company is packed with interesting challenges, word-nerdy issues and all sorts of implications about what a brand and a name are really…

13. 11. 2018

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An interview with Scott Brinker, Martech Super-graphic Guy

The man, the myth, the legend behind Brinker’s Beast, the single piece of content that’s eating the world.

20. 08. 2018

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Let’s Steal From the Marketing Technology Supergraphic

What can you steal from one of the most successful pieces of B2B content of all time? Quite a lot…

13. 08. 2018

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Managing stakeholders: an interview with Elle Woulfe

Elle Woulfe is one of the best B2B marketers in the business and one of the best we’ve ever seen at managing her stakeholders. So we asked her how she does…

24. 04. 2018

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Are our stakeholders killing our marketing?

This may not be the most important thing you read this week, but it links to it.

19. 04. 2018

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Can we promote products again?

Content marketing dogma says we must suppress our promotional messages. What if that’s wrong?

12. 04. 2018

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10 B2B marketing delusions

Are we B2B marketers drinking too much of our own Kool-Aid? Here are ten delusions we keep running into…

08. 03. 2018

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