"Do business owners value the power of storytelling?" I asked Dan Grech, founder and lead instructor of BizHack Academy, last year.

"I think emotion is underrated in any kind of marketing, particularly with websites," Rick Wilkes, OPIS director of marketing, told us last year at SIPA Annual 2018 during a session titled Transforming Your Website into a New Prospect Magnet. "On the new OPIS site [and still today] you see a refinery at sunset, and that's the best a refinery is ever going to look. You'd be amazed in stock photography how many fuel places are within sunsets. It's very soothing. So it's a big bold image [and the words,] 'Buy & sell oil & gas products with CONFIDENCE'—and the confidence is the emotional hook there."

Last year the Atlanta Falcons started a move called Fan-First Pricing in their brand new Mercedes Benz Stadium, significantly lowering concession prices at their games. These included $2 for a Coca-Cola in a refillable cup; $2 for a hot dog, pretzel or popcorn; $3 for waffle fries, a pizza slice or nachos with cheese; and $5 for a Bud Light or a cheeseburger.

"The top skill is curiosity. You want people who are not just going to stay in one place and [want to] adapt. So people need to be curious about new things, excited about innovation, and ultimately they really need to be open to shifts in the future, and be ready to work together to make a company that can adapt to those shifts."

"We also had a big argument about the price point: Some people in the business thought it should be 50p to get a big sale," said Matt Kelly, editor of the print paper The New European, in an interview this week on the FIPP site.

It has been close to a month, but ideas from the SIPA Annual 2017 Conference still ring in my mind (save the date for SIPA Annual 2018 - June 5-7 in Washington, DC). One concept that particularly resonated was when Brian Cuthbert, group vice president for Diversified Communications, said that he insists his editors speak at industry events.

"[Publishers] know how to create a community and build loyalty," said Krystle Kopacz, CEO of Rev, during her stirring session, Moving from Publisher to Partner, yesterday at the SIPA Annual 2017 Conference in Washington, D.C.

"We went to a client recently and found out their marketing budget was completely tapped," recalled Krystle Kopacz, CEO, Rev, on a SIPA webinar earlier this month titled Lead Generation Strategies for High-Priced Products and Services: A Holistic Approach. "It dissuaded us that we were late—we were pitching a solution for account based marketing, a new product we were offering.