At the height of the dot-com boom, David Meerman Scott was vice president of marketing at NewsEdge Corporation, a NASDAQ-traded online news distributor with $70 million in revenue. His multi-million dollar marketing budget included tens of thousands of dollars a month for a public relations agency, hundreds of thousands a year for print advertising and glossy collateral materials, and expensive participation at a dozen trade shows a year. His team put these things on their marketing to-do list, worked hard to execute, and paid the big bucks because, well, that’s what one did as marketing and PR people. These efforts made them feel good because they were doing something but the programs were not producing significant, measurable results. At the same time, drawing on publishing experience he had gained in my prior position as Asia marketing director for the online division of Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the largest newspaper companies in the world, he quietly created content-rich marketing and PR programs on the Web. Against the advice of the PR agency professionals they had on retainer (who insisted that news releases were only for journalists), they wrote and sent dozens of releases themselves. Each time they sent a release, it appeared on dozens of online services such as Yahoo!, resulting in hundreds of sales leads. Even though their advertising agency told them not to put the valuable information “somewhere where competitors could steal it,” they created a monthly online newsletter called TheEdge, with articles about the exploding world of digital news. They made it freely available on the home page of their Web site because it generated interest from qualified buyers. Way back in the 1990s when Web marketing and PR was in its infancy, he ignored the old rules, drawing instead on his experience working at publishing companies, and created thought leadership strategies to reach buyers directly on the Web. The homegrown, do-it-yourself programs they created at virtually no cost consistently generated more interest from qualified buyers than the big bucks programs that the “professionals” were running for them—and resulted in millions of dollars in sales. People they never heard of were finding them through search engines. Wow. he had stumbled on a better way to reach buyers! In 2002, after NewsEdge was sold to The Thomson Corporation, David was fired. His ideas were a little too radical for his new bosses. So he started his own business to refine his ideas, work with select clients, and teach others through writing, speaking at conferences, and conducting seminars for corporate groups. The subject of all this work: "Reaching your buyers directly and driving more revenue." Since then, many new forms of social media have burst onto the scene, including blogs, podcasts, video, virtual communities. and Twitter. But what’s the same about all the new Web tools and techniques is that together they are the best way to communicate directly with your marketplace. He's written hundreds of magazine articles and seven books. Titles New Rules of Marketing & PR Grow Your Business Now Business Lessons from the Grateful Dead Real-Time Marketing & PR Topics Social Media/Networking, Marketing, Advertising/PR, Business, Leadership, Entrepreneur, Technology, Branding, Communication, E-commerce, Sales, Global Business Click topic above to see more speakers on that topic Speaker's Asking Fee Range $15,000 or more Click on fee range to see more speakers. This is the starting keynote fee range - other programs may be higher. State MA Click on state above to see more speakers from that state. Fees The fee range quoted means the speaker's fee starts somewhere within that range. Note that speaker's fees are subject to change and some speakers may have special fee quotes.

TESTIMONIALS: "Ranked number 3 in overall satisfaction among 224 presenters at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010. Very impressive. Thank you for delivering a session that our partners felt was very valuable. I look forward to working with you next year." - Microsoft "The highest rated presenter at our Fortune Small Business magazine “Sales and Marketing Summit” – in front of hundreds of our nation’s top mid-market CEOs and executives - David cut through the jargon and provided a practical and example-filled presentation on how executives can actually utilize the Web 2.0 revolution to drive business to their companies." - Gazelles Inc.,Fortune Conference Group "PwC recently hosted a series of events for Australian Non-Executive Directors with David Meerman Scott. The feedback we received from the Directors was outstanding. Through the use of case studies, stories and research findings, David managed to cut through the hyperbole and present a compelling picture of real time communication and the implications for business. Directors learnt about the role they can and should play as a catalyst for shifting mindsets to get companies engaged in social media. Thank you for an amazing session that is already inspiring change." - PwC Australia "David had our audience of 600 marketers enthralled! Marketers love to be entertained, educated, and laughed at. And David did all three at our annual conference, Eloqua Experience. He brings a keen eye, wry humor, and passion to his presentation that had everyone at the conference buzzing and tweeting. Thank you, David!" - Eloqua