subcom 2017 the subscription commerce summit · the subscription commerce summit. ... conference is...

Presents

#IENSUBCOM

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HEAR DIRECTLY FROM PRACTITIONERS WITH

EXPERIENCE AT BRANDS LIKE:

SALESFORCE, LIFELOCK, SOCKCLUB, VINYL ME, PLEASE, BULUBOX, BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB,

SNACKNATION, ANCESTRY.COM, INSIGHTLY, FUZZY, BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE, POLITICO, BESTOWED, CORA, UNBOUNCE, STITCHFIX, GRAMMARLY, HULU, DOW

JONES, TALKSPACE, GENTLEMAN’S BOX, ASCEND HR CORP, ...and many more!

Optimizing the Customer Lifecycle to Reduce Friction & Maximize Recurring Revenue

November 14-15, 2017 • Marines’ Memorial Club, San Francisco, CA

SUBCOM 2017

The Subscription Commerce Summit

www.insightxnetwork.com 2

Join us in San Francisco this November 14 – 15 for SUBCOM 2017 and gain invaluable insight into how you can optimize the customer lifecycle in order to address persistent pain points head-on, minimize friction and churn, and maximize profit and ROI in your subscription commerce business.

SUBCOM 2017 is the only unbiased event that focuses on common challenges with subscription across all relevant verticals, including SaaS, media, OTT, CPG, retail, consumer & business services, and more! Whether you’re looking to fine tune your organization’s existing subscription model or are considering implementing subscription services or offerings for the first time — this conference is for you!

With our attendees’ needs in mind, we’ve carefully selected a professional faculty full of leading minds in subscription commerce. IEN is committed to providing our attendees with readily-useable takeaways based on the first-hand experiences and unique areas of expertise of our brilliant speakers.

Key topics include:

• Acquisition, retention, and upsell strategies across verticals

• Pricing, packaging, and bundling options

• Comparing trial program performance against industry benchmarks

• Hybrid vs. pure subscription models: what works best for you?

• Overcoming challenges with free-to-paid conversions

• What is your churn rate & type telling you about your customers?

• Sustaining engagement throughout the customer lifecycle

• Creating a frictionless & dynamic billing experience

• Crucial subscription metrics for guiding your business decisions

• Subscription-specific regulatory, compliance, and legal challenges

PLUS Industry-specific breakout discussions at the end of each day! Get together with others in your tribe to carry on the days’ conversations at a more granular level!

We can’t wait to see you in San Francisco for this one-of-a-kind event!

Sincerely,

Meg Freitag Content Director INSIGHT EXCHANGE NETWORK, LLC

· Sit in on our Opening Roundtable: Subscription Commerce State-of-the-Industry, moderated by Subscription Insider’s Senior Staff Writer Dana Neuts, and get a panoramic view of the newest trends, challenges, and opportunities impacting the subscription commerce industry across different verticals and what organizational adjustments are necessary to support a subscription business model.

· Hear from Keynote Speaker Blake Orlandi, COO of Book of the Month Club, as he discusses the recent transformation & formal relaunch this 90-year-old subscription giant underwent in order to better serve the needs of present-day customers.

· Collect insights from the experiences and hard-won wisdom of a number of seasoned practitioners at notable brands. Our special in-depth Use Cases will feature bright minds from companies such as Salesforce, Politico, Unbounce, SnackNation, Ancestry.com, Ascend HR Corp, Dow Jones, Unbounce, Bulubox, and more!

Top reasons to attend:

· Decision-makers such as CFOs, CROs, CCOs, & COOs tasked with leading the transition from transactional- to subscription-based business models

· VPs, directors, and managers heading marketing, sales, operations, or product teams looking to refine or refurbish subscription models already in place, particularly in the areas of:

· Acquisition · Growth · Retention · Experience/Engagement · Lifecycle · Loyalty · Success · Revenue/Finance

· Early startup founders and entrepreneurs intent on becoming competitors in the subscription space

· Subscription management solutions & service providers

Who should attend:


November 14, 2017Day One8:00 – 8:45 Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:45 – 9:00 Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

9:00 – 9:55 OPENING ROUNDTABLE: Subscription Commerce State-of-the-Industry With 35% of Fortune 2000 companies currently pulling in revenue through subscription offerings, it’s no secret that the recurring-revenue business model can be a huge profit-driver for nearly every type of business — across all industries and verticals, both B2B and B2C, from small garage-office startups to Fortune 50 companies, thousands of businesses are attempting to cash in on the booming success of this new trend. While there’s much benefit to be had for those companies that get it right, the model is necessarily complex and not always intuitive. This lively, in-depth discussion will set the stage for the two days of talks that follow. Hear seasoned subscription business professionals from different corners of the industry talk candidly about the current state of subscription commerce, and what we can expect for the future.

Topics to be discussed will include:

· Why subscription, why now?

· What we can learn from the earliest adopters of this model?

· What VCs are looking for in new subscription businesses

· What’s happening in the subscription shift across industries, and how it’s different for different verticals, B2B & B2C, and start-ups vs. enterprise companies

· Limitations of the traditional marketing funnel analogy when it comes to subscription

· Building a business case for “value nurturing”

· What organizational adjustments are necessary to support this broader cultural shift

· Common mistakes in subscription-based business

…and more!

Moderator: Dana Neuts, Senior Staff Writer SUBSCRIPTION INSIDER

Panelists: Mike Popalardo, Principal NEXT STEPS MARKETING

Jennifer Dwork, Head of Content & Partnerships BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB

Denice Sakakeeny, Principal Consultant DENICE SAKAKEENY & ASSOCIATES

Noah Lee, Cofounder SOCK CLUB

9:55 – 10:20 The Secret(s) to Continuous Subscription Business SuccessRecurring revenue and subscription business models are taking hold across every market sector. Initially the building of or transitioning to a recurring revenue model is simple. But as a company scales, enters new markets, diversifies their products, or even acquires other companies, operational issues are exposed that have real business consequences. They are finding that their traditional methods, tools, and approaches are not only a hindrance, but eroding the recurring revenue business. This session will cover the strategic shifts companies must make along the way to ensure long-term growth for their subscription businesses. Key topics to discuss include:

· What are Continuous Customers™ and why are they important

· Why companies are falling short of subscription revenue goals

· The paradigm shifts in thinking and approaches for successful subscription businesses

…and more!

Stephen Terry, Subscription Service Director NAVINT

10:20 – 10:35 Networking break

10:35 – 11:00 Subscription Lifetime Value: Utilizing Analytics to Confirm Trends and Devise Strategies to Maximize Retention This session will explore and confirm recent and current trends through an anonymized, analytical presentation of our customers’ data — and show how they point to solutions whose outcomes, themselves, can be tracked and enhanced through good and necessary reporting.

Paul Larsen, Managing Partner PAUL LARSEN CONSULTING

11:00 – 11:25 USE CASE: In Sickness and in Growth — How Choosing Your Subscription Model Matters in the Long RunAs one of the first subscription boxes on the scene (about #7), Bulu Box quickly grew to $500K in monthly revenue, raised $6,000,000 in capital and had an enviable CAC to LTV ratio. As thousands of subscription businesses launched, Bulu Box’s CAC, LTV, and morale took a beating. That’s when Paul and The Bulu Crew realized that one subscription business model doesn’t fit all. By simplifying their business model and building (and rebuilding) subscription programs for others, Bulu Box has grown into a profitable market leader. In this session, Paul will explore the benefits of different subscription models and how they drive customer acquisition and growth based on true experience.

Paul Jarrett, Co-founder/CEO BULU BOX

11:25 – 12:15 PANEL DISCUSSION: Acquisition Strategies Across Verticals How do you get the attention and gain the trust of potential customers in a world where the signal-to-noise ratio is at an all-time low? Several esteemed practitioners will discuss their strategies and methodologies for customer acquisition.

Key topics to be discussed include:

· Paid channel management including strategies for determining when/how to test new channels

· Establishing fast, simple, automated customer acquisition workflows across multiple channels

· Successful tactics for measuring growth

· Gauging the quality of free users in order to drive bolder investment decisions

· Testing/experimentation to improve conversion rates for free and premium

· Account structure and working with account management teams

· Ad development

· Customer segmentation and experience personalization

…and more!

Moderator: To be Announced

Panelists: Puja Patel Rios, Head of Growth & Analytics CORA

Shanik Patel, Head of Acquisition GRAMMARLY

Matt Fiedler, CEO/Co-founder VINYL ME, PLEASE

Joy Billings, Sr. Product Manager HULU

12:15 – 1:15 Networking luncheon


1:15 – 1:40 Subscription Benchmarks: Insights for Optimizing Business PerformanceBenchmark data provides an invaluable gauge for measuring business performance. Recurly has unique visibility into a variety of subscription metrics from a wide range of industries. In this session, Recurly will share their latest subscription benchmark research which analyzed sample data from more than 1,200 subscription commerce sites over an extended period. Discover key insights into subscriber acquisition and churn to help you optimize and accelerate subscription growth.

Emma Clark, Sr. Product Manager, Data & Analytics RECURLY

1:40 – 2:05 USE CASE: Maximizing a User’s Trial Period to Reduce Churn Do you struggle to retain your users past their trial period? Are you losing half or more of your trialers, many of whom could have contributed high lifetime value to your business? In this session, Ancestry.com’s Lauren Austin will discuss how to leverage behavioral data and live customer feedback to expose massive opportunity in keeping those at-risk users engaged and billing through.

Lauren Austin, Senior Manager, Product Marketing ANCESTRY.COM

2:05 – 3:00 PANEL DISCUSSION: Sustaining Customer Engagement Throughout the Entire Customer Lifecycle With a subscription business, your customers are no longer purchasing just a product — they’re purchasing the experience of being your customer. What is your organization doing to engage customers throughout their lifecycle and ensure consistently positive customer experiences? Listen to several thought leaders in this area explain their views on customer relationship management, customer lifecycle management, and lifecycle marketing best practices. There will also be discussion of onboarding techniques, personalization strategies, successful value nurturing, and how to leverage and embrace customer feedback to optimize your customer’s experience with your brand.

Moderator: Michelle Lange, Co-Founder BOXIT STUDIO Co-Founder/Programming SUBTA (SUBSCRIPTION TRADE ASSOCIATION)

Panelists: Teresa Roche, Marketing & Customer Success INSIGHTLY

Brandon Carter, Engagement & Loyalty Writer & Analyst

Jasmine Moadel, Director of Retention TALKSPACE

Greg Goff, VP Product LIFELOCK


3:15 – 3:45 USE CASE: Mapping the Customer Experience in a Subscription BusinessLed by Ali Lichtenstein, Director of Customer Experience Design at Dow Jones, this session will cover the following topics:

· Why Customer Experience Design is important for Consumer and B2B subscription businesses

· Examples of how journey mapping is used to identify points of friction for internal teams and customers

· Ways in which opportunities can be identified and implemented to improve the customer experience and meet KPIs

Alison Lichtenstein, Director, Customer Experience Design DOW JONES

3:45 – 4:10 USE CASE: Lessons Learned from an 11-month Experiment with SaaS Customer MarketingMarketing and customer success usually live at opposite ends of the customer journey. But in this talk, you’ll learn why Unbounce chose to experiment with marketing to paying subscribers and how exactly that played out. You’ll see what worked, what was a waste of time, and how this 11-month customer marketing experiment ultimately impacted the bottom line.

Maggie Crowley, Customer Marketing Strategist UNBOUNCE

4:10 – 5:00 PANEL DISCUSSION: Upselling Strategies, Methodologies, and Emerging Best Practices

In the world of subscription commerce, growth happens two ways: through acquiring new customers, and getting more out of the existing ones. Existing customers have already been through the initial, expensive funnel and are therefore the most profitable of the two groups. How can you leverage this? Offering premium products and additional access at a higher rate can not only drive profit growth, but it can also deepen and strengthen your customer relationship and increase CLV. In this panel, several practitioners will discuss in-depth their most successful methods for upselling and cross-selling. Attendees will learn how they can optimize this crucial part of the customer lifecycle within their own organizations, driving reduced CAC and boosting ROI.

Moderator: John W. Rockwell, Director of Subscription Sales and Retention SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Panelists: Matt Fiedler, CEO/Co-founder VINYL ME, PLEASE

Christopher George, Co-Founder/Partnerships BOXIT STUDIO Co-Founder/CEO GENTLEMAN’S BOX

Maggie Crowley, Customer Marketing Strategist UNBOUNCE

Danica Stanciu, Managing Director of Account Management POLITICO

5:00 – 5:30 Industry-Specific Breakout SessionsBreakout sessions with industry leaders from media, SaaS, OTT, retail, CPG, retail, human & business services, and more! Join the conversation in a small group setting to discuss pain points and best practices, share successes, and get answers to your most pressing challenges. Designed to follow the day’s lively discussions on acquisition, retention, customer success, and upselling/cross-selling, these intimate group sessions will allow attendees to address issues in these areas particular to their industries. Facilitators will be circulating with suggested talking points, but be sure to come to the table armed with your own ideas and questions!

5:30 Cocktail Reception

Sponsored by: M&C SAATCHI MOBILE


November 15, 2017Day Two8:30 – 9:00 Breakfast

9:00 – 9:10 Chairperson’s Recap of Day One

Chairperson TBA

9:10 – 9:50 OPENING KEYNOTE: 90 Years Young — Reinventing America’s First Subscription Commerce Company

Founded in 1926, Book of the Month was America’s first direct-to-consumer subscription company. By selecting new and noteworthy books to share with the reading public, they were also a pioneer of today’s focus on “curated consumption.” Fast forward to 2015, Amazon had dominated the book industry, book stores big and small had closed up shop, and Book of the Month needed a new strategy. In this session you will hear about how BOTM was reinvented as a modern subscription e-commerce company and set out on a mission to become the most influential company in the book industry.

Blake Orlandi, COO BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB

9:50 – 10:20 Churn Down for What? Maximizing Customer & Employee Retention through Culture

Do you want to improve your customer retention while minimizing customer churn and building a better culture? Do you like hip-hop and/or Lil Jon? If your answer is “yes” to at least one of these questions, this session is for you. In this talk you’ll learn about:

· How your culture impacts customer retention, not just employee retention

· How to build a company culture that will lead to decreased customer churn and increased employee engagement

· How to transform your company by creating an atmosphere of deep connection, authenticity and growth

· The top tips to creating a best place to work

...and a couple of other secrets (and hip-hop inclusions)!

Sean Kelly, CEO & Co-founder SNACKNATION

10:20 – 10:50 USE CASE: Building a Successful Subscription Business Despite Many Mistakes

It’s easy to talk about success. Hiring the right talent, making the smart investments, understanding the needs of customers. What isn’t as easy is confronting our mistakes, even though all great and successful companies are full of them. During this session, POLITICO Pro’s Bobby Moran will share how Politico has transformed itself into a business where more than half of its revenue now comes from subscriptions. Most importantly, Bobby will dive into some of the biggest mistakes Politico has made across the past seven years and the lessons learned as they’ve built a successful subscription business with 90+% renewal rates.

Bobby Moran, Vice President & General Manager POLITICO


11:05 – 11:50 PANEL DISCUSSION: The Pricing, Packaging, and Bundling Journey — Every Subscription Business’ Most Powerful Weapon

Effectively monetizing products in your subscription business is no simple feat. Whether you’re implementing a new subscription-based offering, undergoing the transition from perpetual to subscription, or considering reevaluating your existing pricing structure in order to optimize monetization, pricing strategy is necessarily very complex. Key topics to be discussed in this session include:

· How should cost be measured for your customers?

· How should your pricing level change over time?

· Aligning price metrics with customer value

· Utilizing price testing and customer research to make data-driven decisions

· Turning insights derived from customer data into impactful business decisions

…and more!


Panelists: Rollis Fontenot III, President ASCEND HR CORP

Joshua Berkowitz, Product & Strategy Manager BENCH ACCOUNTING

Oriana Wen, Product Manager of Online Guest Experience BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE

11:50 – 12:15 USE CASE: Technology Challenges in the B2B Digital Economy

Achieving synergy between Sales, Customer Service and Finance is a key component of success in the subscription economy, which can be easily disrupted by unexpected gaps in technology. Common challenges include providing Sales Teams visibility to traditional back office data, the importance of bringing Customer Service into the subscription lifecycle, and how to transform your traditionally ‘siloed’ Finance Division into a dynamic partner in subscription operations. Sound familiar? Join this session to learn how the shift to subscriptions created these gaps, how to recognize them in your organization, and tips for bringing the front and back office together.

Sean Joyce, Director, Product Marketing SALESFORCE

12:15 – 1:15 Networking luncheon

ABOUT IEN

IEN is focused on producing practical, actionable, and content-driven events. We personally interview literally hundreds of people in each

conference’s topic area, discovering their on-the-job problems, issues and concerns. We then find the very best speakers to offer solution-

driven content, as well as facilitating peer-to-peer networking at each event. Our events are not trade shows or expos, although we do

offer partnership opportunities to select vendors. We’re focused on the attendee’s needs entirely.


3:05 – 3:30 Regulatory, Compliance, and Legal Challenges for Subscription Businesses: What You Should Know to Reduce the Risk of Legal Exposure

During this session, Ronie M. Schmelz, litigation attorney with Tucker Ellis LLP, will discuss the ins and outs of the laws currently governing subscription services/automatic renewal programs, including several examples of lawsuits brought against recurring revenue-based companies. Attendees will come away with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the often unforeseen and potentially devastating regulatory and legal issues that subscription businesses can come up against, as well as best practices for keeping in compliance with these laws.

Ronie M. Schmelz, Counsel TUCKER ELLIS LLP

3:30 – 4:00 Industry-Specific Breakout Sessions & Final Thoughts

Join another small discussion group to delve deeper into the topics from day two — internal culture, pricing, billing, compliance, etc. — as well as your key takeaways from the whole conference, your SUBCOM-inspired “ah ha!” moments, and to delve into any lingering questions or unresolved challenges.

4:00 Conference concludes

1:15 – 1:40 USE CASE: Going Where No Man’s Gone Before — Building a Subscription Model for Services Without an Industry Template

Making the move from a transactional to a relationship/subscription model is scary for anyone. But for Ascend HR Corp — as the first health contingency company to move to subscription, and in an industry where recruiters are traditionally motivated by earning large commissions & employers are used to paying after a hire — it was an especially challenging move. With no successful industry-specific models to go off of, it was up to them to put the pieces together themselves. Listen to Rollis Fontenot III, President of Ascend HR, discuss the many challenges, mistakes, and successes they faced along the way to transitioning to a full subscription model.

Audience takeaways include:

· How to transition customers from transactional clients to subscription members

· How to transition existing staff and recruit additional staff for subscription

· Determining a workable philosophy on monthly/quarterly/ annual subscriptions

· The pros and cons of a full vs. partial transition to subscription

Rollis Fontenot III, President ASCEND HR CORP

1:40 – 2:05 TOPIC TBD

Speaker TBA M&C SAATCHI MOBILE

2:05 – 2:20 Networking & coffee break

2:20 – 3:05 PANEL DISCUSSION: How to Make Your Recurring Billing as Dynamic & Intuitive as Possible

Predictable monthly revenue is an incredible boon to most companies. But collecting recurring payments is not without its stumbling blocks. Listen to practitioners across several verticals talk about their experiences with different billing strategies, methodologies, and platforms, and the strengths and limitations of each.

Key topics to be discussed:

· Billing new customers at scale: how to effectively manage many data points

· Identifying your most appropriate collection paths

· Dealing with prorated accounts, different billing dates, usage bills, etc.

· How to recover from billing errors and delays

· Assessing and implementing payment gateways for overseas billing


Panelists: Sean Joyce, Director, Product Marketing SALESFORCE

Additional speakers TBA

ABOUT THE MARINES’ MEMORIAL CLUB & HOTEL

Dedicated as a living memorial to the U.S. Marines who served in the Pacific during World War II, Marines’ Memorial Club & Hotel is a leader in San Francisco Union Square hotels. A landmark since 1946, the hotel is located close to a bustling theater district in the heart of the city. Blending traditional décor and modern comforts, our classic 1920’s California Spanish Revival hotel offers an inviting atmosphere that is rich with history, honor and pride.Please mention Insight Exchange Network when making your reservation to receive the discounted room rate.

Call Marines’ Memorial for availability at (415) 673-6672.

Marines’ Memorial Club & Hotel 609 Sutter Street San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 673-6672 www.marineclub.com

Reserve before October 23 to receive a special discounted rate. Please be aware that these rooms are first come, first served and may fill up quickly.

VENUE


Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Bronze Sponsor

Media Partners

Insight Exchange Network, LLC (“IEN”) has a limited number of sponsorship opportunities in a variety of packages to help you get your message out to attendees. Sponsorship pricing is based on packages and start at low out-of-pocket. We can customize a variety of solutions to provide you with the best possible network opportunity.

For more information, contact Corinne Smart at 704-649-3860 or email [email protected].

Sponsorship and Exhibit Opportunities

TEAM DISCOUNTS

· Three Delegates will receive a 10% DISCOUNT

· Four Delegates will receive a 15% DISCOUNT

· Five Delegates or More will receive a 20% DISCOUNT

Please call Will Adams to make your group reservation at 870-543-2295 or email [email protected] and Cancellations: For information on refunds and cancellations please visit our website: www.insightxnetwork.com.

PricingStandard Nonprofit/startup

$1599 $1399** Requires IEN approval. Startups include companies that are three years old or younger,

with less than $500,000 in revenue.

Navint is one of the few firms that has a fully-dedicated Subscription Services practice with deep domain experience and a proprietary methodology to help organizations navigate the journey to success with Continuous Customers™ and recurring revenue. As a leader in business and technology consulting, we enable organizations to monetize more effectively and operate more efficiently to create competitive advantage. We provide domain expertise, proprietary toolkits, and insights from experience to ensure clients successfully cross-the-chasm from past practices to capture the opportunity of the digitization era.

Recurly, Inc. delivers an enterprise-grade subscription management platform to thousands of businesses worldwide. Leading subscription businesses such as Sling Media, JibJab Media, Asana, HubSpot and Twitch.tv depend on Recurly’s ability to cut through the complexity of subscription management to drive recurring revenue growth. Since its launch in 2010, Recurly has deployed subscription billing for thousands of companies in 32 countries, making it the most trusted pure-play provider of subscription management services. Recurly, Inc. is PCI-DSS Level 1, SAS 70 / SSAE 16 Compliant. For more information, visit https://recurly.com.

Fluent, LLC, a cogint company (Nasdaq: COGT), is an industry leader in people-based digital marketing and customer acquisition, serving over 500 leading consumer brands and direct marketers. Leveraging a massive reservoir of proprietary audience data, as well as millions of real-time survey interactions with consumers every day, Fluent enables advertisers to more effectively target and acquire their most valuable customers, with precision, at a massive scale. The company is headquartered in New York City. For more information visit www.fluentco.com.

Ignite OPM is The Affiliate Management Agency for Subscription Services. With 23 years of experience, we strategically create & execute the most innovative, relevant and profitable affiliate and content influencer programs to drive incremental sales, quality traffic & engagement. We successfully manage brands including Blue Apron, Kiwi Co, Texture and Winc.

Working as an extension of your marketing, we take on all the heavy lifting of managing your affiliate & influencer programs including: data-driven strategy development, customized publisher recruitment & on-boarding, program maintenance, channel & ROI optimizations, media negotiations and compliance.

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