Each year the Content Marketing Institute honors marketers who push the boundaries of what's possible to accomplish with content. These are creative, results-driven professionals whose bodies of work drive each of us to try harder and reach higher. This year we've chosen six finalists, each one recognized for his or her expertise in a particular aspect of content marketing. Read on for evidence of what made these marketers stand out, and look for the winner of this year's Content Marketer of the Year award to be announced at Content Marketing World in September 2015.

1. #CREATIVE
GET #CREATIVE:PROFILES OF SIX CONTENT MARKETERS OF THE YEAR FINALISTS

2. #CREATIVE
Each year the Content Marketing Institute honors marketers who push the
boundaries of what’s possible to accomplish with content. These are creative,
results-driven professionals whose bodies of work drive each of us to try harder
and reach higher.
This year we’ve chosen six finalists, each one recognized for his or her expertise in
a particular aspect of content marketing. Read on for evidence of what made these
marketers stand out, including this year’s winner, Vishal Khanna, who was
announced at Content Marketing World.

3. #CREATIVE
PAUL CRANDELL
Senior Vice President of Marketing
GoPro
GoPro practically invented user-generated visual content. Its
customers use the strap-on video camera to film themselves
doing everything — from mountain biking and back-country skiing
to racing around a NASCAR track — and all that content means
massive reach for the adrenaline-fueled brand. Paul Crandell
manages this monolithic content program, which includes a
wildly popular YouTube channel — 6,000 or more GoPro-tagged
videos are uploaded to the channel every day, earning the brand
over 3.2 million subscribers.
 ENGAGEMENT
Learn more about
Paul Crandall

4. #CREATIVE
To kick it up a notch, GoPro started
partnering with extreme sports stars
like Olympic snowboarder Shaun White,
professional skateboarder Ryan Sheckler,
and 129 other athletes. Crandell also
recently struck a deal with the National
Hockey League to mount GoPro cameras
on players’ helmets to provide point-of-
view shots that let fans experience what
it’s like to score a goal.

5. #CREATIVE
ALIA KEMET
U.S. Media Manager
IKEA
Since it was founded in 1943, IKEA has always positioned itself
as a “life improvement store,” rather than just another purveyor
of home furnishings. Fortunately, IKEA has U.S. Media Manager
Alia Kemet in its corner. Kemet has been instrumental in teaching
the company how to show (not just tell) consumers the ways its
products can improve their lives. For example, leveraging the
power of video, Kemet has created a multifaceted program that
places its focus on helping customers solve their interior design
challenges.
 B2C VIDEO STORYTELLING
Learn more about
Alia Kemet

6. #CREATIVE
Through its endearing video series
offerings, IKEA has demonstrated that it’s
more than comfortable with making fun
of itself (and its über popular Swedish
meatballs). Two of its biggest productions
are the funny web series, “Easy to
Assemble,” and the educational “Fix this
Kitchen,” which also airs on TV on the A&E
network.

7. #CREATIVE
VISHAL KHANNA
Director of Marketing and Business Development
Wake Forest Innovations
Vishal Khanna joined the Wake Forest Innovations team in 2013
to lead the marketing charge for an entity that never had a formal
marketing program before. His mandate: to build awareness and
introduce new technology licenses that can be purchased by
pharmaceutical and biotech companies, promote those initiatives
to investors in the biotech space, and increase demand for use
of Wake Forest Innovations’ research and laboratory testing
services. But without an academic B2B content model he could
follow, Khanna, instead, studied the success of content models in
other industries and then translated and reverse-engineered the
process to fit an education environment.
 PERFORMANCE
Learn more about
Vishal Khanna
Content
Marketer
of the
Year

8. #CREATIVE
What resulted was a set of five distinct
websites — one for each of Wake Forest’s
key areas of focus: technology that’s
available for licensing; an innovation
district; preclinical medical device and
therapeutic testing; core laboratory
services; and ultrasound education.
Khanna started by developing a
methodical process for gathering
information, which helped streamline
Wake Forest’s process for receiving
technical input from its scientists. Now,
each 90-minute interview it conducts is able to yield at least three content
assets, plus a video and photos. In the last year, this approach delivered $10
million in marketing-qualified leads, a 600-percent increase in web-based
leads, and a 183-percent increase in interactions with prospects, which
resulted in a 100-percent increase in sales revenue.

9. #CREATIVE
DAVID BEEBE
VP Global Creative and Content Marketing
Marriott
Creating rabid brand fans by providing them with engaging, informative,
and entertaining content in all formats and across all channels is
David Beebe’s mission at Marriott International and its portfolio of 19
brands. Beebe transformed Marriott’s in-house creative agency into the
industry’s first organization that develops consumer-facing creative for
brands but also invests in original content. The content group partners
with the creative community to produce and distribute story-driven
content, including webisodes, TV shows, short films, and books; plus,
Beebe partners with social media influencers to produce travel videos,
vlogs, and short films. “All the content we’re creating — whether it’s
about destinations, travel hacks, or entertainment — is produced in
partnership with the creative community,” he says.
 INFLUENCER MARKETING
Learn more about
David Beebe

10. #CREATIVE
Some of those video projects include
JacksGap, a travel vlog produced by
Jack Harries, who shares it with his
4 million subscribers. There is also a
series of interactive stories shared on
Snapchat; Year of Surprises, a 12-episode
series for Marriott Rewards members;
Travel Brilliantly, a crowdsourced travel
innovation program; and The Navigator
Live, which takes visitors behind-the-
scenes with musicians performing at
Marriott properties. One of Beebe’s
most ambitious projects to date is Two
Bellmen, a short film available in Marriott
hotel rooms, online, and through a brief
theatrical run.

11. #CREATIVE
KATHY BUTTON BELL
Chief Marketing Officer
Emerson
#ILoveSTEM is one facet of Kathy Button Bell’s efforts to
reposition the Emerson brand, capitalize on the company’s 125th
anniversary, and attract its target market: hip science geeks. The
#ILoveSTEM campaign was designed in partnership with Hank
Green, an internet and science celebrity. The goal is to inspire
the next generation to become engineers and scientists by
highlighting what’s cool about science. It’s a program with a long-
term focus, as Emerson works to position itself as a leader in the
sciences while targeting students who could be its future hires, as
well as customers.
 INDUSTRY STORYTELLING
Learn more about
Kathy Button Bell

12. #CREATIVE
The key to the success of #ILoveSTEM lies
in the transition from traditional marketing
tactics to brand storytelling. By sharing the
science-is-cool message across numerous
platforms, the company can also show
how Emerson is progressive and authentic,
explains Button Bell. #ILoveSTEM also has
a website, social media posts, network TV
commercials, YouTube videos, and print
ads in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard
Business Review, and Fortune.

13. #CREATIVE
PATRICIA BROWN
Director of The Content Hub
CSC
When Gary Stockman came on board as chief marketing officer at
CSC a year ago, he recognized the value of content marketing and
storytelling. He asked Patty Brown to lead what would become
known as The Content Hub for CSC. The Hub’s overall mandate was to
create engaging content, with consistent messaging, throughout the
company and develop processes to repurpose that content in many
languages across the numerous countries where CSC does business.
A veteran journalist for trade publications and a content consultant
with her own firm before joining CSC, Brown had just the right mix of
editorial and technical know-how to pull it off.
 SCALING CONTENT MARKETING
Learn more about
Patrica Brown

14. #CREATIVE
Brown’s team has 75-80 content
assets in production in any given
week — yet she manages it all
with a team of just 13 people. In
addition to overseeing content
published through CSC.com and
12 distinct email newsletters, the
group manages a print magazine,
a speakers’ bureau, a town hall
series, an annual CIO survey, and
Ingenious Minds, a microsite that
highlights SMEs inside the company. Brown says reuse and repurposing is a major
theme; CSC gets extra mileage out of high-quality, evergreen content by customizing
aspects of existing assets for different regions and industries.

15. #CREATIVE
To learn more about each of this year’s finalists, check out their stories at Content
Marketing Institute.
Special thanks to Ardath Albee, lead judge for the Content Marketer of the Year award.
ABOUT CONTENT MARKETING INSTITUTE
Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training
organization, teaching enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling,
multi-channel storytelling. CMI’s Content Marketing World event, the largest content marketing-
focused event, is held every September in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and the Intelligent Content
Conference event is held every spring. CMI publishes the bi-monthly magazine Chief Content
Officer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the
best-known brands in the world. CMI is a 2012, 2013 and 2014 Inc. 500 company.