This past week I had the opportunity to attend Inbound, a conference unlike any other brought to us by HubSpot, in Boston. From Malcolm Gladwell to Simon Sinek to Martha Stewart – the speakers were truly amazing.

Over 10,000 attendees came together from across the world to collaborate on inbound marketing. The content was spot on and aligned perfectly with our vision as a company to focus on what’s new and next.

One of my favorite sessions was Raja Rajamannar, CMO of Mastercard, who talked about the evolution of marketing and the journey of Mastercard over the past 17 years. Mastercard has stayed fiercely loyal to the Priceless campaign.

His session covered the evolution of marketing through four key phases: Logic, Emotion, Data and Connections. Let’s think through the evolution of marketing with these phases in mind.

In its infancy, marketing is about LOGIC:

• An advertising / marketing strategy that addresses a buyer’s practical or functional reasoning ability.
• Getting product information in front of the consumer so that they can compare and contrast in order to make their logical decision.

The Defying Logic ads from Survivor International draw attention to the government’s refusal to allow the Bushmen access to a water borehole on their lands, forcing them to make up to 300 mile round trip journeys to fetch water from outside the CKGR. At the same time, the government is drilling new boreholes for wildlife and has given the go ahead for a safari lodge complete with swimming pool for tourists in the Reserve, which opened last month.

Then came EMOTION:

• Emotional marketing is all about messaging that builds your ego.
• It makes you feel smarter, more sophisticated or one of any other emotions that is fundamental to your self-esteem.
• By making you feel better about yourself, the brand transcends mere product status and becomes a buddy.
• The brand shares your values and priorities, and creates a special attachment.

Coca-Cola might hold the title for expertise in sharing happiness – one of my all time favorite campaigns.

Following the Emotion was DATA:

• Data-driven marketing is about exploiting insight to drive the real time.
• It’s about building personalized actions that transform customer engagement.

Amazon’s fervor to use universal behaviors and mentalities along with sophisticated digital advertising driven by millions of data points.

We have now moved on to marketing that is related toCONNECTIONS:

• Some of the world’s strongest brands were originally built through low-cost community-based marketing. Nike, Starbucks , Google – the list goes on.
• When companies focus first on meeting the needs of the people they serve, they don’t have to spend big money to attract new customers.
• In a world of social engagement, those connections are made through the power of the social sphere.
• The power of connections comes through referrals, social communities, joint causes, and direct engagement with the brand experience.

Mastercard was genius in making connections through their latest advertising evolving the campaign of priceless.

Harnessing all past marketing tools: Logic Emotion Data Connections = Marketing of Today. Think about your largest marketing goal and how you can create connections more easily with your brand experience. Have an example to share? Post a comment or connect with me @anncoleson.