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Case Study: Rebuilding the Marketing Function at Clarion Events – Oil & Gas Division
- Caylee Donaldson
- Jul 6
- 10 min read
Introduction: From Interim Support to Lasting Change
When I joined Clarion Events’ Oil & Gas division — home to globally recognised brands like the Energy Council and World Refining Association — the brief was simple: step in for a few months to provide interim marketing leadership during a period of transition.
What followed was a 13-month transformation project, working closely with Lyle Simpson, CEO of the Oil & Gas portfolio, to reshape how marketing functioned across the business. Under Lyle’s leadership, the division was evolving — becoming more data-driven, commercially focused, and strategically ambitious. The marketing team needed to keep pace.
Over the year, we tackled challenges across every layer of the function: from team structure and campaign strategy, to Salesforce architecture, segmentation models, reporting frameworks, and performance culture.
This post is a practical reflection on the journey — what we changed, why it mattered, and how we built a stronger, insight-led, commercially aligned marketing team that’s set up to scale.
“The work you’ve done has been truly transformative. From introducing new processes and reports that have sharpened our decision-making, to completely rebuilding the marketing team — your legacy is something we’ll feel for a long time.”
— Lyle Simpson, CEO, Oil & Gas Division, Clarion Events
Jump to a section:
Starting Point: A Function in Transition
When I joined Clarion’s Oil & Gas division, the business was in a phase of rapid evolution. The portfolio — including global flagship events like the World Energy Capital Assembly (WECA), ERTC, LARTC, and North America Assembly — was ambitious and commercially driven. But the marketing function hadn’t scaled with it.
There were no formal campaign cycles, inconsistent platform usage, and limited visibility into marketing’s commercial contribution. Campaigns were being launched ad hoc, with little time for strategic planning or segmentation. The team was stretched thin, with no active Head of Marketing and only a patchwork of temporary support across the brands. Everyone was working hard, but there was no unifying structure to tie efforts to business outcomes.
To understand where we needed to start, I conducted:
Stakeholder interviews across Sales, Product, and Marketing Ops
A full audit of Salesforce, Pardot, and Treasure Data usage
A skills and capability review of the existing marketing team
What became clear was that we didn’t just need more hands on deck — we needed to rebuild the function from the ground up.
The issues weren’t tactical — they were structural:
Campaign strategy varied wildly from one product to another
Segmentation was inconsistent or non-existent
Lead attribution in Salesforce was missing or incomplete
Marketers were delivering campaigns but had limited commercial insight
Reporting was fragmented, and retrospectives rarely happened
And critically, marketing was being treated as a support function rather than a strategic partner to the business.
This was the foundation we needed to change — by embedding systems, creating consistency, and building a team that could plan, measure, and deliver with confidence and clarity.
Rebuilding the Clarion Events O&G Team
When I joined, the marketing team was small but dedicated — doing everything they could to keep campaigns moving under challenging conditions. However, there were gaps in structure and support: there wasn’t an established Head of Marketing in place, resource was limited, and professional development was largely informal. Campaigns were often delivered reactively, with team members juggling multiple priorities and little time to step back and plan strategically. It was clear the team had huge potential — they just needed the right environment, leadership, and tools to thrive.
One of my first priorities was to stabilise the team structure and build a foundation for long-term growth.
I hired and onboarded:
Heather Whitman as Head of Marketing — a strategic, commercially minded leader who brought calm, clarity, and cohesion to the team. Heather now leads the function with confidence and direction.
Sam Judd as Marketing Executive — a high-potential marketer who quickly found his rhythm across data operations, campaign delivery, and performance reporting.
At the same time, I focused on developing the existing team:
Vy Luong — promoted to Senior Marketing Executive during my time. Vy stepped into a leadership role across multiple campaigns, often acting as a strategic lead across NYECA, APAC and WECA. She became a key collaborator with Sales and Production, helping to align messaging, reporting, and targeting.
Namrata Patel — grew from a delivery-focused role into a confident campaign lead. She took on end-to-end ownership of marketing across ERTC and LARTC, led on A/B testing, implemented new SEO content planning, and ran post-campaign retrospectives to assess performance and inform future campaigns.
To support everyone’s development, I introduced:
Individual training plans tied to progression goals and event ownership
A formal performance review framework, including personal KPIs, bonus criteria, and commercial milestones
Teamwide training workshops in:
Salesforce reporting and opportunity tracking
GA4 and campaign analytics
Stakeholder influence and internal comms
Copywriting and messaging refinement
Commercial thinking for non-sales roles
This wasn't just about skilling up the team — it was about building a high-performing, commercially accountable marketing function that could operate with greater independence and impact.
Proving Marketing’s Impact Through Salesforce
One of the most transformative pieces of work was the complete overhaul of Salesforce campaign structure and reporting. Before the restructure, the marketing team lacked the visibility and tools needed to confidently demonstrate their commercial impact. This wasn't due to a lack of effort — but rather a lack of system architecture and consistent processes.
Before:
Campaigns were often cloned inconsistently, leading to data integrity issues.
Primary Campaign Source (PCS) was either missing or misattributed, obscuring lead origin.
There was no consistent campaign hierarchy across products or regions.
Reports on lead journey or marketing influence were difficult to build — and even harder to trust.
What we implemented:
Campaign Cloning Best Practice
Developed and rolled out cloning protocols for all campaigns to maintain consistent structure and naming conventions.
Created a best-practice guide to ensure campaign types (e.g., lead gen vs. nurture) were correctly configured.
Primary Campaign Source (PCS) Assignment SOP
Introduced clear SOPs for how and when to assign PCS, based on campaign type, lead source, and form submission flow.
Created a troubleshooting guide for correcting or identifying missing PCS data.
Campaign Member Status Tracking
Standardised member status logic (e.g. Not Yet Contacted, In Progress, Opportunity Created, Not Relevant, Spam) to allow for better reporting on lead quality, progression and ROI.
Salesforce Reporting Suite
Built and handed over dynamic reports including:
Leads stuck at “Needs Analysis” for over 7 days
Opportunities without a Primary Campaign Source
Campaigns with no pipeline contribution
High-performing lead magnets tracked by form completions and conversion
Campaign performance by region or audience persona
Pipeline Attribution Dashboards
Developed a series of dashboards to surface:
Marketing-influenced pipeline vs. target
Drop-off points in lead handover
Sales follow-up gaps for priority leads
Campaign-level contribution to revenue
Campaign Structure Cleanup
Conducted a full audit of existing campaigns in Salesforce, retiring or archiving irrelevant entries and renaming legacy campaigns for searchability.
The Result:
Marketing was no longer a black box — it became a measurable, revenue-linked function.
Stakeholders gained real-time insight into marketing-generated and marketing-influenced pipeline.
Teams could pinpoint not just where leads came from, but how they converted — and where in the journey they stalled.
Commercial conversations became easier, clearer, and grounded in shared data.
Smarter Segmentation and Intent-Based Campaigns
Clarion’s marketing stack — including Treasure Data, Pardot, and Salesforce — offered powerful capabilities, but they weren’t being applied strategically across the board. Audience selection was largely based on broad criteria or static lists, which limited targeting precision and contributed to over-communication in some segments.
Working closely with Hollie Gamble, we developed a segmentation and targeting strategy rooted in intent, which enabled us to reach the right people at the right time — while maintaining data hygiene and platform integrity.
We introduced a structured approach to segmentation:
High intent: known conversions such as form submissions, downloads, or meeting requests
Hybrid intent: multi-touch interactions — e.g. multiple email clicks, session joins, or content engagement
Low intent: passive contacts — including those with only opens, or long-lapsed engagement
We used Treasure Data to operationalise this intent model by:
Creating dynamic audience filters using profile-level attributes and behavioural scoring
Suppressing contacts with recent registrations, current sponsor status, or previous disqualification
Flagging records with invalid domains, job titles, or bounced emails for cleansing
Segmenting for re-engagement based on inactivity windows (30/60/90+ days)
To support compliant, efficient outreach, we also:
Introduced a unified GDPR-safe opt-in structure using public lists for every campaign
Developed standard audience templates for key campaign types (e.g. newsletters, delegate drives, webinars)
Created a central Data Request Form used across teams to ensure requests were standardised and reviewed
Assigned team-level ownership for mailable counts, helping each marketer understand audience size and segment saturation before launch
The result was a significant uplift in email engagement rates, a reduction in over-mailed records, and more confidence in the data being used to drive campaign performance. By moving away from broad, reactive list-building and towards a modular, intent-led segmentation model, we gave the team the tools to make targeting both smarter and more scalable.
Campaign Architecture by Event: Customising Strategy to Fit Each Product
One of the most important shifts we made was moving away from a one-size-fits-all campaign model. Each event in Clarion’s Oil & Gas portfolio had unique market dynamics, commercial goals, and audience behaviours — and the campaign strategy needed to reflect that.
Rather than forcing a rigid framework across all brands, we tailored campaign architecture by event. That meant customising not just messaging and content, but also the channel mix, timelines, lead magnets, and sales alignment.
Some examples:
ERTC (Europe) campaigns focused on technical depth and brand credibility, using SEO-driven content like white papers and a multi-touch delegate journey that prioritised timing around refinery maintenance windows and procurement cycles.
WECA (World Energy Capital Assembly) required a deal-making, investor-focused narrative — so we leaned into exclusive, high-level thought leadership pieces and speaker-driven storytelling to reflect the premium nature of the audience.
LARTC (Latin America) campaigns factored in regional buying patterns and longer conversion windows, using earlier lead generation activities, Spanish-language assets, and a broader top-of-funnel content mix to educate the market ahead of commercial outreach.
North America Assembly was positioned around energy transition innovation, so we introduced dynamic segmentation to separate upstream operators from low-carbon investors and targeted them with parallel message tracks.
Creating a Culture of Retrospective and Continuous Improvement
A high-performing marketing function doesn’t just deliver — it learns. One of the core changes we implemented was embedding a culture of campaign retrospectives and continuous improvement.
Before, campaign review was sporadic — if it happened at all. Success was often measured in isolation: open rates, clicks, or general sentiment. But we needed to go deeper — to understand not just what worked, but why.
So we introduced a formal post-campaign retrospective framework. Every flagship campaign was reviewed through a structured template that covered:
Campaign goals and performance vs. target
Email and channel metrics (opens, clicks, form conversions)
GA4 journey mapping to identify drop-offs and points of friction
Pipeline attribution and PCS tracking to connect effort to revenue
Audience engagement by intent tier (high, hybrid, low)
Key learnings and actions to carry into the next cycle
We also built shared dashboards to align channel metrics with Salesforce opportunity data — giving the team a full-funnel view of performance and a clear sense of which campaigns actually drove revenue.
Retros became more than a reporting tool — they were an opportunity to pause, reflect, and evolve.
We used them to:
Refine segmentation models
Adjust channel allocation based on ROI
Test new content formats or CTA structures
Improve data sourcing and Salesforce hygiene
Importantly, we made retrospectives a team conversation — not a solo task. Everyone involved in the campaign had a voice, and learnings were shared across brands, enabling smarter decision-making and faster iteration across the board.
Leaving Behind a Function That Runs Itself
One of my core principles as a consultant is sustainability — ensuring that the work lives on well beyond my time in the role. That’s why, on my final day, I delivered an 80+ page Marketing Handover Document — not because it was expected, but because it was needed to support the team’s continued success.
This wasn’t just a list of tasks or files — it was a living blueprint for how to operate a high-performing, insight-led marketing function.
The handover included:
Event-by-event marketing commentary, highlighting campaign objectives, performance, and next steps
A clear campaign planning framework with timelines, segmentation logic, and performance benchmarks
Detailed Salesforce and Treasure Data workflows, showing how to manage attribution, cloning, and suppression
A fully mapped suppression list and GDPR logic, ensuring compliant, intentional outreach
A centralised reporting dashboard library, including templates, links, and instructions
Commercial alignment models connecting campaign strategy to sales targets and lead-stage velocity
Individual and group training plans, including progress notes, upskilling recommendations, and bonus-linked KPIs
End-of-year performance reviews with recommendations for continued growth and support
It was designed to make sure the team didn’t just keep going — but kept growing.
With Heather Whitman now leading the team, supported by Vy, Namrata, and Sam, the structure is in place to evolve the function even further — with shared language, clear goals, and the confidence to lead from within.
The Outcome
In just over a year, we achieved a transformation that spanned people, process, platforms, and performance. Together, we:
Rebuilt the marketing team from the ground up, hiring new leadership and junior talent while upskilling existing team members
Introduced structure, strategy, and accountability, ensuring campaign planning aligned with commercial goals
Improved campaign delivery across 10+ global flagship events
Overhauled Salesforce usage, enabling accurate attribution, cleaner reporting, and visibility into marketing’s commercial influence
Redesigned segmentation and platform workflows, using Treasure Data, Pardot, and Salesforce to support intent-based targeting
Launched a performance coaching framework, tied to bonus structures and career progression
Delivered campaigns that exceeded lead targets by up to 1200%, while reducing over-mailing and boosting engagement
Positioned marketing as a strategic partner, not just a delivery function — with the tools, language, and confidence to influence business outcomes
Final Thoughts
Not every project begins with a clean slate — and some of the most meaningful progress comes from rolling up your sleeves and rebuilding what’s already there.
This engagement wasn’t about flashy campaigns or vanity metrics. It was about building a function that could scale with the business, empowering people to grow, and embedding a culture where marketing is measured by the value it creates.
It’s also been one of the most rewarding chapters of my career. Working with the wider Clarion Oil & Gas team — and watching the marketing function evolve from a reactive support arm to a confident, commercially aligned engine — has been an absolute privilege. I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved together and genuinely grateful for the relationships, trust, and collaboration that made it possible.
If your team is in a period of transition — growing quickly, restructuring, or simply trying to do too much with too little — I can help. I specialise in bringing clarity to the chaos, and building marketing functions that operate like strategic partners, not production units.
