Each week, Laura, Caroline, and I get to sit and chat with some of today\u2019s most innovative marketing masters. We\u2019ve run down the rabbit hole with folks from Spotify, Liquid Death, Oatly, New Balance, Zapier, Hootsuite, the Brooklyn Nets, and even the makers of Chicago\u2019s most beloved tirefire-flavored liquor.<\/p>\n
If you could smoosh all of their combined wisdom into your head, it would be like getting your\u2026 well\u2026 master\u2019s in marketing. (Oh, hey. I just got the name.)<\/p>\n
Well, you can\u2019t. Not until brain chips are a thing.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Until then, you can do the next best thing: Check out 12 of the most insightful, provocative, or just downright useful lessons our experts had to share.<\/p>\n Here\u2018s a fun fact: At Liquid Death, they don\u2019t use the word consumer. Ever.<\/p>\n Instead, they have a team called \u201chuman insights.\u201d<\/p>\n Greg Fass, Liquid Death\u2019s VP of marketing, is proud to work against the mindset that people are just \u201cbrainless consumers\u201d whose sole purpose on Earth is to consume products. (Yep \u2013 that’s a direct quote.)<\/p>\n Instead, he says, \u201cAt Liquid Death, I\u2018m proud that we think of our audiences as people. And when you think of them as humans, you understand they\u2019ll get a piece of copy that isn\u2018t straightforward, or jokes other brands are afraid to make. They\u2019re intelligent, and have a sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s a philosophy that has served them well. Just consider the commercial<\/a> where Martha Stewart is a serial killer chopping off hands to make candles \u2014 not exactly something that would go over well in a standard marketing pitch.<\/p>\n\n Liquid Death has done more than reinvent the better-for-you beverage category \u2014 they’ve reinvented marketing, as well.<\/p>\n Embracing their anti-marketing approach can help you discover fresh and novel ways of connecting better with, well, other humans.<\/p>\n Read Martha Stewart, $400K Fighter Jets, and Comedy Writers: How Liquid Death Wins at Anti-Marketing, According to Liquid Death’s VP<\/a><\/p>\n Ron Goldenberg, VP of international marketing & innovation at BSE Global, got plenty of pushback when he pitched a Brooklyn Nets activation \u2014 in Paris, complete with an orchestral tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. and Brooklyn Nets-inspired pizzeria.<\/p>\n One colleague even said to him, \u201cYou really think Parisians are going to show up to a Brooklyn Nets pizzeria?\u201d (I get the hesitation \u2014 don’t they live off of escargot and croissants?)<\/p>\n He knew there could be major ramifications if the event flopped. But he believed in the concept enough to risk it all.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2018m going to get fired for anything, it\u2019s worth [it] for an orchestral tribute to Biggie in Paris,\u201d Goldenberg told me last week. \u201cWhen your ideas are big enough and bold enough, and you believe in them to the degree that you\u2018re willing to take a reputational risk, that\u2019s when you’re onto something.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Playing it safe can be a risk in itself. But marketing thrives on standing out, which demands taking chances.<\/p>\n For Goldenberg, the payoff was massive:<\/p>\n Fans snapped up all 15K tickets to the Nets-Cavaliers game, 3.3K visitors indulged in Brooklyn pizza, and Biggie’s tribute sold out in five days \ud83c\udf55 Source<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Goldenberg got stakeholders on board by being blunt: \u201cYou all need to understand how important this is, not just for the Nets but for our fans and the global sports industry,\u201d he told colleagues. \u201cIt’s never been done before at this scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Sticking to the tried-and-true is tempting. But it was insight matched with instinct that landed Goldenberg his big swings.<\/p>\n Read How An NBA Marketer Brought the Brooklyn Nets to Paris (& What Marketers Can Learn from Him)<\/a><\/p>\n The first Mal\u00f6rt ad I ever saw was in 2022, in season one of the Chicago-set TV show The Bear<\/em>, of all places. Anna Sokratov says it was one of the first ads they ever ran \u2014 for nearly a century prior, Mal\u00f6rt relied on word of mouth and Chicagoans pranking out-of-town guests.<\/p>\n Since marketing Mal\u00f6rt is such a new phenomenon, Sokratov, brand manager for Jeppson\u2019s Mal\u00f6rt, feels a lot of freedom to be funny, to be outlandish, to be experimental. (In fact, one of the people she looks to for inspiration is previous marketing master Greg Fass of Liquid Death<\/a>.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s an old saw at this point that authenticity drives consumer loyalty. But less is said about what authenticity looks<\/em> like. \u201cPeople are really looking for brands that break that fourth wall,\u201d Sokratov says. \u201cThey want to see the people behind the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n Past and present employees appear in a series of ads featuring Mal\u00f6rt faces (Google it), which are underscored by the tagline, \u201cDo not enjoy. Responsibly.\u201d Mal\u00f6rt may be a lot of things, but it\u2019s neither dishonest nor indirect.<\/p>\n Read \u201cThis is disgusting, try some\u201d: Marketing Chicago\u2019s vile-tasting liqueur<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cEveryone hates advertising, but they’re okay being sold to,\u201d Hassan S. Ali, creative director of brand at Hootsuite, says.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like using peanut butter to sneak your dog a pill. \u201cIf people are willing to be sold to, pitch the pill in something yummy. People will watch it.\u201d (Let\u2019s ignore for a moment that we are all the hapless dogs in this analogy.)<\/p>\n \u201cI often think that the best ads are ones we can\u2018t measure, because they\u2019re shared in a group chat with friends.\u201d<\/strong> I sincerely hope nobody is working on a pixel that can track my group chats, but it\u2019s true that if somebody shares an ad, it\u2019s because it\u2019s both funny and emotionally resonant.<\/p>\n Maybe you see a funny ad for diapers. Your sister\u2019s just had a baby, and you share the ad in the family group chat. \u201cAll of a sudden, there\u2019s a bond formed through this piece of advertising.<\/strong>\u201d And it goes beyond \u201chere, buy this thing,\u201d Ali says.<\/p>\n Without that (hopefully imaginary) group-chat tracking pixel, traditional marketing metrics won\u2019t necessarily be of much use.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what did you solve for the customer?\u201d Ali asks. \u201cThose are the real results.\u201d The more we can focus on that, \u201cthe better we\u2019ll be as marketers.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Marketing for the Lulz<\/a><\/p>\n A favorite rant of Brendan Lewis (EVP of global communications and public affairs for Oatly) is his belief that growth marketing needs to be \u201cneutered, if not totally destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2018s nothing more than spreadsheet marketing,\u201d he tells me. When marketers are buying clicks and perfecting their emails for click-through rates, Lewis says they\u2019re leaving out an essential ingredient: emotion.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you water down your message to optimize it for clicks, you lose your soul<\/strong>,\u201d he tells me without a trace of grandiosity. \u201cThe emotion and the belief has to be there. It can’t just be somebody looking at email click-rates all day.\u201d<\/p>\n (Got it \u2013 I\u2018ll stop obsessing about this email\u2019s subject lines\u2026)<\/p>\n For Oatly, this means taking the leap without testing it to death first. Like in 2023, when the company bought billboards in Times Square<\/a> to proudly endorse its climate label. (The Oatly team invited the dairy industry to join them. They declined.)<\/p>\n The secret sauce? Oatly is a mission-led company that happens to sell oat milk; it\u2019s not a product-led company in search of a mission. So its leaders are able to act on impulse and hunch as long as they know their messaging caters to their larger goal of promoting sustainability.<\/p>\n\n Read It\u2019s Like Marketing, But Made for Humans: Lessons from Oatly\u2019s EVP<\/a><\/p>\n I’ll admit, this lesson sounds suspiciously like a Friday Night Lights<\/em> quote.<\/p>\n But it’s also a takeaway Jenna Kutcher, host of The Goal Digger podcast, is passionate about sharing.<\/p>\n \u201cAs creators, we need to get back into the creation of our content. We need to go back to what worked a decade ago and share our lives and what we love online,\u201d she tells me.<\/p>\n “Too many business owners have created systems and teams and gotten too far away from the content, and their audiences feel that divide<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n Case in point: How likely are you to respond, \u201cOMG CUTE\u201d to an Instagram reel from Lululemon\u2018s branded handle? I\u2019m guessing not likely.<\/p>\n But what about when a friend posts herself in new Lulu joggers?<\/p>\n In the age of AI, people are desperate to connect with real humans.<\/p>\n Impressively, this means Jenna is the only person who creates IG content for her 1M+ followers. She also responds to all<\/em> her own DMs and comments.<\/p>\n Nobody on her team has access to her login because \u201cthat’s the heartbeat of my connection with my audience.\u201d<\/p>\n Jenna’s advice here is simple, but not easy: \u201cTake some of the strategy out, and put the heart back into it. Be off the cuff, and share things for the sake of sharing versus just looking for ways to monetize.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Read Digital Marketer Jenna Kutcher Thinks You’re Overcomplicating It<\/a><\/p>\n April Sunshine Hawkins, co-host of the Marketing Made Simple podcast, sees too many marketers position their brand as the heroes, and she says it’s one of the biggest mistakes marketers can make.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody wakes up the hero of their own story. Your customers, the people you’re trying to draw in\u2026 The story needs to be about them.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, you\u2019re not Batman \u2014 you\u2019re Alfred.<\/p>\n Take a recent example: Hawkins was working with a jewelry brand that creates products in Malawi and pays their workers 3-5X the minimum wage. Naturally, they wanted to shout that from the rooftops. Who wouldn’t?<\/p>\n But Hawkins stepped in and pointed out that the brand isn’t supposed to be the hero. The customer is.<\/p>\n \u201cWe rewrote the campaign to ask, ‘How can these pieces help people celebrate a milestone \u2014 like a promotion, an anniversary, a birthday?\u201d<\/p>\n Suddenly, the jewelry wasn\u2019t just jewelry; it became a badge of a customer’s big (and small) life moments.<\/p>\n Have you ever landed on a website and read the first few sentences and thought, Wow, is this person in my head? <\/em>That’s the end-game: For your customers to feel like you get them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we can position our products to align with what our customers are feeling, it creates that ‘ding, ding, ding’ moment \u2014 ‘That’s me! This is for me!’\u201d Hawkins says. \u201cThat’s what we’re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n Read You’re Not The Hero \u2014 Your Customer Is<\/a><\/p>\n While you\u2019re busy figuring out how to connect with your audience, don\u2019t forget to actually connect with your audience.<\/p>\n \u201cThe number one thing you can do to maximize any budget you’re spending is to simply engage with the people who are engaging with you,\u201d says Chandler Quintin, co-founder and CEO of Video Brothers.<\/p>\n And he\u2019s not just talking about reactive engagement, like answering social messages or responding to emails. That stuff\u2019s a given. He\u2019s talking about proactive outreach to the people who interact with your business presence. Quintin himself sends a message to anyone who views his LinkedIn profile or watches a video he posts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have booked almost 80% of our calls through simply engaging with people that engage with us versus them going to our website and filling out a form.\u201d<\/p>\n And I\u2019m a living testimonial to this tactic. Thursday morning, I\u2019m sipping tea and cruising LinkedIn in search of marketing masters. (I do it for you! Well\u2026 not the tea. That\u2019s for me.) Minutes later, Quintin messaged me <\/em>asking for help because he was upside down. (See the hero image above.) Friday morning, we\u2019re scheduling an interview.<\/p>\n Quintin acknowledges that this takes effort.<\/p>\n \u201cIt does take a lot of time. There might be some ways to automate it. But at the end of the day, I think people can kind of see through automations a little bit. Especially when you’re trying to make an authentic connection. The bar for that is: Just be authentic. Be a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n But the return is worth the effort.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you only have $1,000, you’re going to be able to turn that $1,000 into the power of five or 10,000 if you just go that extra mile and engage.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Read How an Entertainment Strategy Helps You Cut Through the White Noise<\/a><\/p>\n Dawn Keller, CMO for California Pizza Kitchen, recounts a story:<\/p>\n Recently, a customer ordered mac and cheese from CPK \u2014 and just got cheese.<\/p>\n After she posted the vid on TikTok, CPK responded with a video<\/a> in which Chef Paul jokingly walks through the steps of properly making a mac and cheese (emphasis on: Add the mac<\/em>) and then announces 50% off mac and cheese for all CPK customers. (Since the customer only got 50% of her meal \u2014 get it?)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n CPK’s TikTok response got 13.5 million views. Keller was shocked\u2026 and thrilled.<\/p>\n “It was mind-blowing to everybody [how well it did], but we believe what really made the difference was <\/strong>how<\/em><\/strong> we showed up \u2014 in a super authentic, humble, self-deprecating way. It wasn’t corporate-y or stuffy<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n CPK could\u2018ve chosen to ignore the customer\u2019s complaint altogether, or they could\u2018ve commented on the video with a generic “I\u2019m sorry!” customer service response. Instead, they decided to use the opportunity to reframe the narrative into something fun and lighthearted.<\/p>\n And as Keller points out, \u201cWe still got to reinforce what matters to us \u2014 which is that we have quality food, and we care about our guests. Authenticity and entertainment is what gets people’s attention\u2026 Not just that you’re using socials as an advertising channel.\u201d<\/p>\n We’ve heard it across the board this year from Greg Fass<\/a>, Jenna Kutcher<\/a>, and plenty of other Masters in Marketing, and the point holds true: Being authentic and showcasing the human<\/em> behind your brand is a much better strategy than a polished ad these days.<\/p>\n Read How California Pizza Kitchen Embraces Change, Goes Viral on TikTok, and Gives Consumers FOMO<\/a><\/p>\n Emily Kramer, founder of MKT1, has been the “first-ish\u201d marketer four times at companies ranging from 10 to 300 employees, so my first question was an easy one: If you’re the first marketer at a company, where the heck should you start?<\/p>\n Kramer told me whether you’re a team of one or leading a 200-person marketing department, the answer is the same: Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, you need to figure out where you can win. Where can you stand out? Where do you have the biggest advantage over competitors? What channels make the most sense for your business?\u201d<\/p>\n\n This translates to: Stop doomscrolling through TikTok for \u201cinspiration\u201d or convincing yourself a snazzy newsletter giveaway will save the day. Start with what matters most.<\/p>\n “You\u2018ve got to have a framework for how you\u2019re prioritizing \u2014 you have to put a stake in the ground about what you think is important, and why<\/strong>. If you don\u2018t, you\u2019ll just get barraged with requests.”<\/p>\n One of Kramer’s go-to moves when joining a new company is to create a \u201cstart, stop, continue\u201d plan. That way, execs can quickly see, \u201cOh, we already tried that,\u201d or \u201cWe\u2019re stopping this, and here\u2019s why.\u201d<\/p>\n Otherwise, your founder might <\/em>just get a little too obsessed with the idea of you publishing ebooks on Amazon as the \u201cnext best marketing move.\u201d<\/p>\n (Not speaking from experience or anything.)<\/p>\n Read How An Obsession With Quality Led Emily Kramer to 48k Newsletter Subscribers and Counting<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI always seem to have a side hustle these days,\u201d says Maryam Banikarim, managing director of Fortune Media. (One gets the sense that Banikarim has always<\/em> had to have a side hustle.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s just that Banikarim\u2019s side hustles would make most primary hustles envious. Last weekend, she celebrated the third year of The Longest Table<\/a>, a community-building event born out of a need for human connection back when everyone was masking up and sharing tips on finding Lysol wipes.<\/p>\n She saw a neighbor put a folding table outside so they could eat dinner with a few friends. She introduced herself and thought, \u201cWhat if I did that?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n One also gets the sense that Banikarim doesn\u2019t do rhetorical questions. She started with a few posts on Next Door and an eight-person outdoor potluck on her street in Chelsea. On October 6, 2024, over a thousand people showed up for dinner.<\/p>\n Together they cobbled together a Squarespace website, and \u201cwe use HubSpot to email people.\u201d (We did not bribe, pay, or threaten her to say that.\u2014ed.<\/em>) Banikarim doesn\u2019t complain about DIY marketing tech; on the contrary, she refuses to be outpaced by evolving technology.<\/p>\n \u201cMarketing has always been for people who are curious,\u201d Banikarim says. And \u201cin order to constantly be learning, it\u2019s really helpful to be touching the tools yourself and not just directing from up high.\u201d<\/p>\n Read One Question That Will Reinvigorate Your Approach to Marketing<\/a><\/p>\n Fashion is a notoriously confidence-crushing industry. Plenty of major fashion and beauty brands thrive off making their consumers feel less-than. They want you to know you’re not cool yet<\/em>, but you will be when you wear those jeans or that jacket.<\/p>\n But Matt Zaremba, director of marketing for Bodega, calls that kind of marketing \u201cempty calories and empty suits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSure, you\u2018ll find a cohort of people who you\u2019ll grow with because you\u2018re showing them what they\u2019re not. But eventually they\u2018ll find a brand that makes them feel like they are enough, and they\u2019ll switch to that brand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n His MO? Being as humble and relatable as possible: “Fashion brands should offer tweaks<\/em> to your journey of style and culture. I don\u2018t want to talk down to people and say, \u2019Oh, you don\u2018t know this musician?\u2019 I\u2018d rather be like, \u2019You gotta check this out.’ There should be no ego in it.”<\/p>\n Whether you’re a B2C or B2B marketer, the sentiment stands \u2014 personifying your brand as the \u201ccool kid\u201d works for some brands, but what works better for most is simply being helpful, curious, and encouraging.<\/p>\n Read Bodega’s Matt Zaremba on How to Avoid Empty Calorie Marketing<\/a><\/p>\n Feel that? That squeezy feeling is your brain getting bigger. Got room for a little bit more? Subscribe to Masters in Marketing<\/a> and get fresh lessons in your own inbox each week.<\/p>\nLesson 1: People aren’t brainless consumers.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 2: \u201cIf you’re not risking your career on a bold marketing move, you’re not thinking big enough.\u201d<\/h2>\n
\n 450K unique visitors to Brooklynets.com\/paris
\n 64K emails captured (90% net-new to their database)
\n 195% YoY surge in ticket sales to French consumers and over seven figures in total revenue \ud83d\udcb5 <\/p>\nLesson 3: Break the fourth wall.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 4: Use the peanut butter method.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 5: Don’t let growth marketing dominate your strategy<\/h2>\n
Lesson 6: Less strategy, more heart.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 7: Your customer is the hero. Not you.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 8: Engage with the people who engage with you.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 9: Turn negative moments into a chance to show up.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 10: Be ready to tell leaders what you’ll stop, start, and continue.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 11: DIY \u2014 with curiosity.<\/h2>\n
Lesson 12: Marketing should make your buyer feel confident \u2014 not insecure.<\/h2>\n
Mastery in the Making<\/h2>\n