In this special solo episode, host Jani Hovila takes the mic alone to wrap up the first full year of the Mavenfirst podcast. It has been a journey of 15 recorded episodes, 12 published conversations, and lots of learning.

Why did we decide to launch a podcast in the first place? What was the business case and the goals? Jani shares more about the strategic reasoning and filling a "white space" in the market for Northern European B2B leadership content and building brand familiarity in key Nordic markets.

You also get to hear behind-the-scenes details about the operation. Jani shares data on subscriber counts and listening hours. Is 1 000 listens enough when your total addressable market is only 600 companies? And why do we think the results are good?

In this episode, you’ll hear more about:

• Why we committed to a podcast in the first place.

• A transparent look at our subscribers and total listening times, and key numbers.

• The reality of production time and other learnings.

• How to measure success when attribution software shows zero leads, but anecdotal feedback is strong.

Whether you are thinking of starting your own B2B podcast or are just curious about what it takes to run one, take a look at what happens behind the scenes.

Thank you to all our guests and listeners for a fantastic year! We’ll get back next year.

Stop being the flyer factory: How do you transform a decades-old industrial B2B marketing team into a strategic, data-driven revenue engine? In this episode, you will hear more about leading marketing at traditional maritime technology company Danelec as it has shifted from hardware to software and data.

Our guest is Asbjørn Severin, SVP of Marketing and Communications at Danelec. Asbjørn joined Danelec in 2023 to help the company realize the full potential of its marketing and support ambitious growth goals. Asbjørn has significant experience in management consulting, branding, and communications. He has worked as a consultant and advisor, helping clients navigate organizational transformations, complex M&As, and develop strategic brands.

In this episode, he highlights that getting stakeholder buy-in is super important to change the perception of marketing from a "PowerPoint bureau" to a modern marketing engine. The fastest way is to align marketing KPIs with the rest of the commercial organization to ensure the marketing function serves the commercial targets. He emphasizes that sales and marketing should operate as a single team with the same revenue goals.

Listen now more about:

• What does it take to build a modern marketing team from the ground up in a decades-old industrial business?

• How to successfully rebrand your marketing department internally by moving from a support role to a strategic commercial engine?

• What is the marketing executive's perspective during an M&A process? And how do you execute a rapid, strategic rebranding to unite three companies under a single, customer-focused story, transforming the company's perception in the market?

• Why is cultural change harder and slower in-house than what you experience as an external advisor?

Get in touch with Asbjørn on LinkedIn.

How do you navigate the shift when your lean marketing team of nine integrates with a corporation that has a global marketing headcount of 85 professionals? What can you learn when getting buy-in from top management that you should produce up to 343 videos in-house? And how do you communicate marketing's business value when direct attribution is "delusional”?

From using videos and humor to leadership philosophies and business impact, these topics were covered in a discussion with Delfin Vassallo, Global Head of Marketing Communications for the Infrastructure Division at George Fisher. Delfin has had a career in marketing for over 25 years, so he definitely has valuable experience to share!

In this episode, you’ll hear more about the challenges Delfin faced in acquiring buy-in from top management, the importance of using humor in marketing campaigns, and the need to adopt an experimental mindset that supports ongoing improvement.

Listen to more about:

• The philosophy that "marketing is responsible for tomorrow's sale”

• Why direct attribution is viewed as "delusional" and how the focus is shifted to generating a massive sales pipeline (e.g., $71M+) as the core metric of success

• The agile methodology for a heavy B2B environment

• The strategy of creating hundreds of in-house videos featuring "solution experts" leading to direct inbound calls from new clients

• Scaling a small, agile team of 9 into a global marketing organization of 85+ following a major corporate acquisition

Connect with Delfin on LinkedIn.

A couple of videos discussed in the episode:

Stormwise - Solutions for rainwater management - Singing in the drain https://youtu.be/Eky0ptFyn9A?si=h60e4JHG7M4JmviZ

And the follow up, a bit toned down, using a 'Mad Scientist' https://youtu.be/bgbfz9Kot14?si=64lRFzYctgc7qFu8

FastGuard cable protection pipes with installer https://youtu.be/yPCYsjKPnNA?si=r-nVupAgKurIA563

Cleanwise - wastewater treatment solutions - Poo emojis https://youtu.be/ZVd0b1XdL70?si=oOR3SvWAlFA9MZXY