About The Presenters:
Jon Sherrington & David Matthews have a combined 70 years experience in B2B marketing and sales across global, national, small and medium businesses, in diverse segments of industry.
Jon Sherrington
Jon started B2B marketing and sales in the UK in the mid-’80’s, working for 6 years on the client side in the technology sector, before relocating to Canada. Looking for a more creative landscape, he took a position for 5 years as a marketing consultant within a hot, creative Toronto studio. Jon integrated marketing strategy with execution to deliver holistic marketing solutions for Cadillac Fairview Malls, IBM Canada, Jamieson Vitamins, Regional Cable TV networks, to name a few.
In 1996 Jon built his own studio, Hydrogen Creative, on a customer-centric marketing model. As a start-up it quickly became an upstart, dislodging larger agencies from significant opportunities inside Compaq, Scotiabank, Health Canada, Hewlett-Packard, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Epson, Herman Miller, Interac Association, Sun Microsystems, Woodbine Entertainment and Dell.
Jon’s customer-centric business strategies are well-documented through his whitepapers and blog. This earned him recognition at York University where he was recruited to the position of part-time lecturer in the Atkinson Faculty of Business Administration Studies in 2011.
David Matthews
David is a marketing and sales professional who has, during his extensive career with IBM, held senior positions in sales, channels and management, with Canadian, European and global mandates. One of his key positions was redesigning and implementing the IBM Business Partner Program globally, now called PartnerWorld.
Another was the training of 600 Account Representatives how to sell the IBM product line. IBM selected only from its top performers to teach the salesforce. In a few years David came to manage the program for IBM Canada’s headquarters.
Additionally, David rolled out successful B2B marketing initiatives in EMEA working with channel partners in 17 countries across Europe. He received 2 awards for his B2B marketing programs in EMEA and Russia for the most successful marketing campaign ever launched into Europe by a North American team. It was in the creation of this initiative that David first worked with Jon Sherrington to develop the deliverables. He attributes his success in EMEA to the customer–centric approach he took with each country he worked with.
About Hydrogen Creative
For 17 years our studio has focused on customer-centric marketing communications, quietly, without making too much noise. We have been successful in both B2C and B2B and we understand that business buyers have completely different motives from consumers.
There are not so many agencies that excel in B2B marketing. It demands business acumen across a broad segment of industries, in some very sophisticated applications, to understand what lies behind the corporate purchase motive; and the ability to translate that information into a compelling creative format.
Hydrogen Creative’s relationship with the CMA
In 2011, Hydrogen Creative elected to become an active member of the Canadian Marketing Association. The timing was right, as we observed more marketing practitioners shifting from brand-centric to customer-centric relationship models.
Hydrogen Creative was a sponsor of the CMA Direct Marketing Conference 2012 and the B2B Conference 2013 as well as a member of the planning committee to review themes, speakers and logistics for the event.
In support of the Canadian Marketing Association and its members, we believe the benefit of our experience is the best value we can offer, to build relationships and offer better solutions for Canadian Marketing and Sales professionals.