By Jane Dornemann

Let’s face it: Keeping your sales team aligned is crucial as your organization grows. That’s because there’s a lot going on. Your product is gaining new capabilities, the company is launching new tools, strategies pivot, and in the meantime, your sales folks are gathering valuable customer insights that should be shared with everyone. 

After a product launches and you share all the standard sales enablement tools (product pitch deck, battlecard, datasheet, conversation guide, etc.), you need to keep momentum going and keep your product top of mind. Sales teams are typically juggling multiple offerings and priorities, so maintaining visibility for your solution requires ongoing efforts beyond the initial rollout. 

If your team isn’t up to date on product changes and aligned on messaging, you’ll likely see decreased sales and confusing communication with customers. 

We love these three ways for keeping everyone on the same page: newsletters, webinars, and demos. Each has its own perks and required effort. 

When sharing info with your sales team, focus on: 

• What they need to know to sell effectively (benefits, differentiators)
• New resources they can use (pitch decks, email templates, scripts)
• New selling opportunities (market fit, industries, target personas) 

Newsletters keep your sellers in the know 

Newsletters can help you meet a variety of objectives such as finding new leads, sharing successful sales strategies through customer wins, and updating sellers on the latest product enhancements, features, and sales tools. 

Win wires are great for sharing internal deal info and building momentum. They help your team discover new use cases and include details about co-selling and upselling strategies. 

For quarterly or monthly newsletters, stick to a template. Consistency matters! At 2A, we build templates for our clients that make structuring and producing content easier. 

Include metrics on who’s buying what, product updates, and selling tips. Our internal newsletter at 2A (called Cloud cover) includes new leads shared through our Teams channel. For the external version, we remove the leads section before sharing our research with customers. 

Pro tip: Ask your sales team to contribute before publishing—they usually have gold nuggets to share. 

Webinars offer a deep dive with experts 

Want something more interactive? Webinars with Q&A sessions are perfect for discussing product changes. They’re essential for new sellers and ideal before big launches or when addressing company issues affecting sales. 

One of our clients runs webinars with partners to explain program changes and answer questions. You can pre-record, edit, and then “air” it with a Q&A. (We like using Riverside for editing.) These recordings can be chopped into bite-sized clips to share in Slack or Teams, or at sales meetings as mini refreshers. 

If you go with live webinars, record them for on-demand viewing later. To boost attendance, schedule two to three sessions so people can join when it fits their schedule. 

Pro tip: Ask for questions beforehand to tailor your content to what people actually want to know. 

Demos make product features make sense 

Nothing helps sellers understand value props faster than seeing a product in action. Demos are perfect for visualizing new features and provide deeper understanding than newsletters or webinars. 

Keep demos pre-recorded and brief—under a minute is ideal. Avoid silent demos (recordings without any explanation). Instead, include context with voiceovers or on-screen text. 

Pro tip: For a budget-friendly approach, use AI voice software (we use Murph AI), which can even be translated into different languages. 

Looking to create internal resources for your sales team? We produce these three assets, as well as playbooks, pitch decks, and more. Contact us for a consultation. 

By Kimberly Mass

Image by Emily Zheng

There it is—the sigh of relief that comes when the last commemorative keychain is handed out, the signage comes down, and the final post-conference survey is sent. Another successful event in the books—and a chance to reflect on what went well and what you’d do differently next time. 

While you’re reflecting, what if you were also laying the groundwork to make the next event easier? Or finding ways to hand off that event to a colleague while you work on something else? Or seamlessly expanding that event across regions or audiences? A turnkey event-in-a-box, if you will. 

2A is here to help! Our event playbooks capture everything an event organizer needs to know to plan your next great event, conference, or meeting. From planning timelines to pre-event activities, and from day-of logistics to post-event follow-up, we document it all in a playbook that’s easy to use and update—taking the stress out of consistently producing great events. 

That’s exactly what we did for a recent client that wanted an event playbook to help kickstart a standardized, easy-to-replicate global event program. Based on findings from the client’s first local event, we developed a playbook that included the following. 

• Detailed event timelines and communication cadences
• Guidelines for choosing planning committee members and event speakers 
• Email templates for invitations, follow-ups, agendas, and post-event surveys
• Guidelines for creating and ordering swag
• Tips for day-of-event logistics like A/V setup and food ordering
• Links to helpful resources
• And much more—all in a user-friendly PowerPoint format 

The result? An intuitive guide that makes it easier for any team member, in any region, to plan and pull off a standout event without starting from scratch. 

Want to make your event planning more efficient, consistent, and scalable? Get in touch! 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Suzanne Calkins

Eighty percent of tradeshow attendees are decision makers, and 85% of them have buying authority in their company. In short: it’s important that you capture attendees’ limited time. 

You want your booth to stand out at the big event, so you’ve got cool swag and great graphics—and you’re demo-ready. But how do you pull in passersby? A screen showcasing your digital logo or static CTA simply won’t do it—but a strategically produced animation can. 

Why are animations great for event booths? 

Anyone can loop stock video, but that won’t bring your brand to life. You only have seconds to get (and keep) people’s attention, which means your animation needs to be several things at once: eye-catching, informative, and on brand. Because making this happen involves different types of talent, we sourced the best advice from our storytellers, designers, animators, and marketing consultants to help you start thinking about your next booth animation. 

The words 

Chunk it up. Events are loud, so ditch the soundtrack and focus on text. Each frame with text should make sense on its own to people who see it and walk by, but animations should also tell a cohesive story for those who stay and watch. One more challenge: It must make sense in a loop. Think in terms of five-second frames and be realistic about what most people read and absorb in that time. 

Less is more. Focus on a main point with no more than three supporting benefits or proof points. Trying to shove every fact and every single differentiator into a 30-second or one-minute animation will throw off the text-to-visuals ratio and overwhelm your visitor. Go for short, tagline-style phrases that are simple to digest but still pack a punch. 

The visuals 

Be big, bold, and slow. Using simple, big, and bold graphics keeps your animation easy to perceive from farther away. As for motion, booth animations should be slower paced but also eye-catching. Make sure the graphics stay on screen long enough for people to digest it as they walk by. 

Think distinct. Visuals should be attention grabbing—bright colors and visual contrasts that will entice someone to stop and look. Think chunky neon green text on black. Find a way to surprise people (within your brand guidelines, of course). 

Stay silent. Unlike other marketing animations, this one shouldn’t have audio since the booth area is too loud. This creates more flexibility: With no voiceover and a simpler script, there’s more opportunity to design the copy into visuals. 

The strategy 

Know where you stand. To inform the direction of your animation, look at what market research says about people’s familiarity with your brand. A startup that’s introducing itself to the world will want different animation content than a household brand that’s launching a new product. 

Feel the pain. Speak to your target customers’ biggest pain points. Don’t get into the weeds about technical details or all the different ways someone can use your product or service. Stay focused on the high-level benefits that your customers care about most—and back it up with data, if you can. Everyone loves a good data point! 

Plan ahead. Sometimes quick turns are unavoidable, and we can handle that. But, ideally, you want to allow four to eight weeks to produce a stellar animation. 

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Don’t forget, showing off your new animation doesn’t have to end when the event does. If you followed our storytellers’ advice, it will be easy to divide the animation into chunks that you can use in social media campaigns, turn into gifs, and include in your lead-generation follow-up emails. 

Looking to create an animation that will keep the show going? Contact us for a consultation. 

By Olivia Witt, Katy Nally

Okay, okay, we get it: You don’t want to add to your already growing list of to-dos before your big event. But, this will really make you look like a marketing rock star—and it just requires a little coordination up front for a big payoff in the end.  

Let’s say you’re knee-deep in planning mode for your marquee event and you’ve got a few customers lined up to speak during different sessions. Or, you’ve invited a few big-name customers who are psyched about attending. Great! Since they’re already making the trip out there to participate, you should also shoot a quick on-site customer testimonial where they say amazing things about your product. But wait—there’s more! That video is a goldmine for social posts and you can use the transcripts to create written case studies. 

We’ve done it before and can confidently say this approach offers 100% satisfaction guaranteed. If you’re ready to pull this off, here are some tips from our video experts to keep in mind.  

Book a conference room or carve out space in the main venue. There are usually rooms available at large conference centers that you can reserve ahead of time for your production studio. Our video team travels light and can set up wherever and whenever you need us. And if a room isn’t available, shooting on the event floor provides an engaging backdrop, even if it does pose a few audio challenges. Just be sure to coordinate with the conference center to find a space that works.  

Prep the customer(s) so they can schedule time and review talking points. Once your customers are confirmed for the event, ask them if they can carve out 90 minutes to do a quick testimonial shoot. Chances are your large event attracts multiple big-name customers, so plan on doing a few interviews to maximize your time with the film crew. After you schedule folks, be sure to send over talking points that outline what you’d like to capture.  

Bring in a host for a lively conversation. One way to change up the testimonial format is to have a host or moderator share the spotlight with your customer. This can provide a conversational flow to the video and it takes the pressure off your customer to do a solo show. 

Line up a content vendor (us 😉) to make derivative assets. Hooray! That’s a wrap on your videos—now it’s time to turn them into nurture assets following the event. We’ll help you transform the full-length interview into social cut-downs to keep the event buzz going. And we’ll also develop written case studies using the transcripts so you have an evergreen story for partner and/or customer sites.  

Now you just have to ask yourself, what’s your next event and whose testimonial can you capture? Contact us to start planning today. 

By Liz Mangini

Earning a new AWS Competency is a major milestone. It validates your technical expertise, demonstrates customer success, and helps you stand out in a competitive marketplace. While the initial announcement brings well-deserved recognition, sustaining that momentum is key to driving lasting impact. 

That’s where 2A’s competency launch bundle comes in.  

Maximize the impact of your competency with a comprehensive, structured, nine-month-long, always-on campaign designed to keep your message—and the value of your services—front and center. An always-on campaign helps fill any post-launch gaps many partners face by providing a clear, proactive plan to maintain visibility and engagement over time. 
 
Make a splash when you announce your new competency with some of these foundational launch assets: 

• Animated or UI demo video highlights key features and functionality 
• Implementation guide helps streamline customer adoption 
• Internal adoption kit equips internal teams with clear messaging 
• Roadmap deck communicates upcoming features and milestones 
• Press release formally announces your new competency and business value 

But don’t stop after the initial announcement! Keep your achievement top of mind by publishing fresh content aligned with key stages in your customers’ buying journey. 

Month 1: Initial awareness and announcement 

• Announcement blog and emails 
• Landing page content 
• Social card kit 

Month 3: Deeper engagement and education 

• Solution brief 
• Infographic 
• Invite and follow-up email 
• Call script 

Month 6: Continued engagement and lead nurturing 

• Ebook 
• Email series 
• Video 

Month 9: Long-term value and thought leadership 

• Whitepaper 
• Podcast episode 

Your AWS Competency is more that just a milestone—it’s a launchpad 

This always-on strategy ensures your AWS Competency—and the differentiated offerings it represents—continues to deliver value beyond the launch. With a steady stream of strategic content, you’ll educate your audience, nurture leads, and position your brand as a trusted AWS expert. 

Your AWS Competency is just the beginning—let’s make sure the world knows about it. With our competency launch bundle fueling visibility, credibility, and long-term success, you’ll keep your solutions in the spotlight. Ready to get started? Contact us. 

By Jane Dornemann

Image credit: Chris Feige

Gossip (for nerds) 

• AWS fell short on cloud revenue for the third straight quarter despite a 17% increase in revenue (less than the increase from the quarter before). 
• Quarterly earnings for Microsoft came with good news—earnings rose 13% and profits rose 18%, which Nadella attributed to cloud growth. This news led stock to rise by 6%, which does nothing for me when I buy a can of peaches for $5. Microsoft reduced its spending on AI by $1B this past quarter. (Probably to buy canned peaches.) But keep in mind, the tariffs haven’t hit Microsoft where it hurts—yet. That’s coming. 
• That’s why AWS is prepping sales and technical teams to answer customer concerns about how the tariffs will affect prices, data privacy, and foreign business relations. Read a summary here, though it is dangerously optimistic and fluffy. The tech leaders quoted at the end aren’t buying the “everything will be fine” sentiment. 
• A year after hiring AI bigshot Mustafa Suleyman to lead Microsoft’s AI department, Copilot adoption is lagging behind ChatGPT. 
• CIOs are in the mood to negotiate contracts with cloud providers following AWS price revisions and Google Cloud discounts. Cloud companies are willing to do this if it means becoming an organization’s vendor of choice for AI integration, which locks in a long-term commitment. 
• The article is paywalled, but word is that AWS customers are dissatisfied with the AWS service for accessing models like Anthropic and Bedrock, and they’ve started looking for alternatives. Maybe AWS pulled an Amazon Prime, where you pay for one-day shipping and free movies and then get neither? 
• Half of Microsoft customers would move to AWS if the former’s licensing costs weren’t so restrictive, says AWS to the UK government. 
• The “frontier firm,” according to Microsoft, is the new…regular firm. It’s structured around on-demand intelligence and powered by “hybrid” teams of humans paired with agents. We shall become “agent bosses” that manage AI agents, not people. And the people who were once managed, well, good luck to them! 

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• AWS and academic publisher Wiley have partnered to create an open-source AI agent that allows researchers to perform full-text searches across life sciences literature, reducing research tasks from days to minutes by integrating Wiley’s authoritative content with technology from Amazon Bedrock Agents. 
• Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are backing a mining startup in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As you may recall, the mining industry is known for its reliance on child labor and dangerous, exploitative worker practices. Apparently, the startup will use AI to identify untapped minerals—like the “massive lithium deposit [it’s] eyeing.” The startup hails from the NIMBY paradise of Berkeley, CA. 
• But why settle for a hill of corporate evil when you can have a mountain of it? Microsoft is preparing to host Elon Musk’s Grok AI model in the company’s Azure AI Foundry, and will potentially infuse it across Microsoft apps and services. 
• Industrial IoT company Litmus is partnering with Microsoft to deliver edge-to-cloud solutions that take real-time data from connected industrial devices. 
• Nasdaq and AWS are creating a blueprint for moving stock exchanges to cloud infrastructure, starting with three international stock exchanges. 
• ClearScale will work with AWS as part of the Small Business Acceleration Initiative program to help small and medium businesses access cloud tools, new technologies, and AI guidance for digital transformations. 
• Clario and AWS are collaborating on the partner’s generative AI platform for processing clinical trial documents and data, hoping to accelerate drug development timelines. 

World domination 

• Microsoft is making a big commitment to its European presence, with an expansion plan for 16 datacenters, doubling the current capacity. There are obvious political undertones in Microsoft’s formal statement. 
• Activists blockaded an AWS datacenter in Quebec, protesting Amazon’s layoffs of over 4,000 workers and demanding the company return public funds. 

New stuff 

• GitLab Duo with Amazon Q is now generally available. GitLab’s integration with Amazon Q Developer connects AI agents for application developers with GitLab’s generative AI tools to support the entire software development cycle. 
• Microsoft has brought People Skills to Copilot for HR departments. It acts as a skills-inference and management agent that lets companies identify and monitor the skills of their employees. 
• IBM has launched a specialized Microsoft Practice within its consulting arm. It will help businesses with personalized transformations involving Copilot, Azure OpenAI, Azure Cloud, Fabric, and Sentinel. 
• Anthropic has formed a new team to recruit AWS customers that want to use its AI products. The team will help customers accelerate adoption through scalable programs. 
• Deloitte has launched AI Advantage for CFOs, a comprehensive AI-powered finance platform built in collaboration with AWS and Anthropic, which combines Finance Automation Agents and AI finance analysis capabilities to transform finance operations across industries. 
• Meta’s Llama 4 models—Scout 17B and Maverick 17B—are now available on AWS via Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker JumpStart. They offer advanced multimodal capabilities, including image and text processing, and efficient performance through a mixture-of-experts architecture. 
• AWS has launched Mistral AI’s Pixtral Large as a fully managed serverless model in Amazon Bedrock, offering advanced visual and linguistic capabilities across multiple regions. 
• Amazon Nova Sonic is a new foundation model in Amazon Bedrock that unifies speech understanding and generation to help developers create natural, human-like voice conversations in AI applications with better performance and lower costs. 
• AWS released its Well-Architected Generative AI Lens, providing architectural best practices and a framework for evaluating generative AI workloads built on AWS, covering model selection, prompt engineering, customization, and integration. 
• The ‘Move to AI’ Modernization Pathway is a new program from AWS that will help organizations systematically identify and implement AI opportunities within their existing application portfolios. 

Ma’am, I’m going to have to call security 

Hackers stole thousands of Amazon S3 keys as part of a (honestly brilliant) ransomware campaign. Some users are STILL unaware that their keys have been compromised, but it doesn’t matter because it’s “virtually impossible” to undo the damage. The tactics represent a “‘significant escalation in cloud ransomware tactics.’” Read the article to learn how they did it. 

By Sarah Silva, Andrea Swangard

Events take an incredible amount of energy, planning, and coordination. At 2A, we know that firsthand. Our team often helps bring those events to life, from building landing pages and emails to crafting talking points and presentations. But one of the smartest assets we’ve helped create came after the big day: a pair of post-event ebooks that captured the energy and insights of a major AWS Financial Services Symposium, turning them into lasting, reusable content. 

The AWS Financial Services Symposium featured two parallel tracks: one for AWS customers and one for partners. Each session was filled with powerful examples of innovation, transformation, and success. But with so many sessions running concurrently, even attendees couldn’t take in everything. And for those who couldn’t make it? The content would have been lost. 

That’s where our team came in! 

Turning real-time content into long-term value 

Working closely with both the partner and customer marketing teams at AWS, we produced two summary ebooks—one for each track. These ebooks distilled hours of speaker sessions into clear, digestible insights tailored to the intended audiences. Our approach was especially effective: we pre-designed the ebook layout before the event, so when transcripts arrived, we were ready to go. We published quickly—while the event was still fresh in everyone’s minds. 

Gaining big benefits from an event-based ebook 

• Maximized event ROI: The ebooks gave AWS a tangible, lasting asset that extended the value of its one-day event far beyond the closing remarks. 
• Recognition for speakers and sponsors: Partners were featured based on sponsorship tier, giving extra visibility to key contributors. 
• Evergreen content for future use: Customers and partners alike could use their inclusion in these ebooks for their own marketing, which also increases the reach of AWS. 
• Accessible to all: The ebooks were shared via follow-up emails and landing pages, ensuring that attendees and non-attendees could engage with the content. 

Giving your event a second (and third) act 

If you’re hosting an event—big or small—think about how you can capture and repurpose that content. 

• Create a post-event ebook to summarize key sessions 
• Turn standout quotes into infographics or social posts 
• Write a blog that highlights themes or insights from the event 
• Use session transcripts to feed future content planning 

Your event doesn’t have to be a one-and-done scenario. With the right follow-up asset, you can expand its influence, give your attendees something shareable, and show your broader audience what they missed. 

Want help making your next event last longer than a day? We’d love to collaborate. 

By Abby Breckenridge

Image by Nicole Todd

What trends am I seeing for spring? Butter yellow, oversized blazers, and asking marketing agency owners how they’re using AI. 

It’s a good question—and certainly one that no self-respecting agency leader is ignoring. It’s just that the hype levels have gotten a bit, how shall we say it, inauthentic. 

So here’s my answer: we’re embracing AI as a tool to help us do the work our clients need better and faster! And we’re doing it in a way that aligns with our values. 

Here’s what I mean: 

We’re helpful. We’re using AI tools in ways that are helpful to us and our clients. When it gets work done faster and better? Then it’s an AI yes. We’re using AI to help us parse resources more thoroughly, brainstorm 25 header options instead of 10, and check for the right voice and tone throughout content. 

We’re serious about our work. Our clients choose us for our high-quality deliverables and smooth client experience, and we’re serious about continuing to stand out in those ways. When AI helps us deeply engage with our work, we’re all in. Today, that means taking a client’s messaging framework and using gen AI to quickly create derivative assets like one-pagers, ebooks, and banner ads. The result? More content for better value. Tomorrow, it could mean something else. 

We work to build trust. Human relationships mean a lot in our business. We’re seeing many faceless offerings pop up, such as “become an AI expert in 10 days” and “accomplish your tasks at warp speed.” We maintain the trust of our clients, and in turn, their audiences’ trust in them, by using our expertise to refine work. We’re experts in our clients’ brands, their differentiators, and their customers’ pain points—so when AI spits out something off, we spot it. 

We tack toward improvement. Lucky for us and our clients, we’re a curious bunch. Our team gets excited about testing new approaches and refining based on what we learn. Gen AI tools are no different. Nothing drains a creative team faster than doing the same thing repeatedly for days on end. And the possibilities of today’s (and tomorrow’s) tools have us pumped. 

Seeking marketing assets that work, and an energizing client experience? Give us a ping. And, if you see me around town in my oversized butter-yellow blazer, please say hello. 

By Nora Bright, Jack Foraker

Image by Nicole Todd

Finding great talent is tough and getting tougher. Job postings are flooded with unqualified candidates, hiring team resources are stretched thin, and managers have to juggle hiring on top of their day-to-day responsibilities. On the other side of the screen, job seekers are faring no better: They’re often one of thousands of applicants for an open position, which can lead to a hiring process that feels cold and impersonal. 

As a consulting agency that also provides recruiting and staffing services, we see the hiring process from both sides at 2A. We know hiring is always an investment—of time, resources, and money. So it’s no wonder that companies turn to recruiting agencies to help surface stronger candidates faster and make sure they invest in the right people from the start.  

Here’s why working with one is the smartest (and ultimately most cost-effective) move to make: 

Access top talent and industry knowledge  

Recruiting agencies often specialize in a particular industry or function, and if you choose the right firm, they’ll understand the roles you’re hiring for and the skills that matter. Because we specialize in marketing and creative roles in tech, we have a strong pulse on the roles as well as the job market: who’s hiring, who’s moving, and what it takes to compete as an employer. We also have deep networks packed with top marketers, designers, program managers, and more. That includes the kind of passive candidates who aren’t scrolling job boards but are open to the right offer.  

Save serious time 

Hiring is a full-time job in and of itself. (Ask us how we know.) Reviewing resumes, managing outreach, and scheduling and conducting candidate screens adds up fast. A recruiter takes the first and most time-consuming stages of hiring off your plate, which means your team can focus on growing your business instead of chasing candidates. 

Get expert guidance 

The best recruiters stay closely involved throughout the process. We’ll make sure your communication is clear, your candidates stay warm, and your offers are competitive.  

Sell your opportunity 

Top candidates (the candidates you want) have options. A strong recruiter knows how to tell your company’s story in a compelling way, so candidates will be more excited to explore your team—and be more likely to say yes to an offer. 

In the end, that’s what 2A Recruiting & Staffing is about: making it easier to find standout people. We connect you with vetted marketing and creative talent, so you have more time to focus on your goals—not sorting through resumes. 

Ready to find your next great hire? We should chat. 

By Carolyn Lange

Image by Suzanne Calkins

You packed the booth. You nailed the session. You charmed every badge-wearing human in the conference room. What now? 

If you don’t have a plan to keep the post-event energy alive, all that effort just becomes a memory instead of a real pipeline.  

Don’t let it fizzle—here’s how to keep the excitement going even after the lanyards come off. 

Follow up like a human, not a robot 

“Thanks for stopping by our booth!” just doesn’t have the warmth and personalization that makes folks want to open an email. Personalize your post-event follow up outreach. If you had the chance to meet, reference a conversation you had or the swag they picked up. And reach out as soon as possible so they don’t feel like an afterthought. 

Give them something worth remembering 

Help your audience relive their favorite moments with recap content. Write a highlights blog to summarize the key takeaways, what you learned, and what surprised you. Or create an infographic. People love a snackable “5 things we learned” moment. Whatever you create, make it easy to skim and easy to share with their work pals. 

Stay on their radar 

Nobody leaves an event thinking, “Wow, I wish I had less info about that cool technology I saw.” Leave them with content to keep them curious and move them to that next funnel stage. Try: 

• A solution brief 
• A product datasheet 
• An exclusive offer 

Pro tip: Plant these takeaways before the event wraps. Add a QR code to your deck or your booth. You could even tack a QR code onto some sweet swag. 

Momentum isn’t magic. It’s a mix of smart follow-ups, well-placed takeaways, shareable content, and yes, a little bit of swag. Keep showing up in ways that are useful, fun, and genuine, and you’ll stay top of mind long after the plane ride home.