2013 The Art of Marketing Takeaways | Part 2

Part 2 | This week: Scooter Braun, and Tom Fishburne

In my last post, I shared my impressions of the recent “The Art of Marketing” event on Sept 17th in Vancouver. Eric Ryan’s excellent presentation was recapped in my first post, along with Jonah Berger’s and if you missed it, feel free to bounce back HERE.

This post, I wanted to cover Scooter Braun’s talk and Tom Fishburne. So grab a mug of pumpkin spice and pull up a chair.

Scooter Braun, Talent Manager: Justin Bieber, PSY & Carly Rae Jepsen;Recently Named 2013 TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World

Scooter’s talk was in the form of a casual interview with host, Ron Tite, and was, at times, funny and deeply personal. Apparently, his family was in the audience which made some of the more revealing answers, like “what was the worst advice your mother ever gave you?” even more poignant.

Scooter began by sharing some of his history, telling us how he dropped out of college and began organizing parties as a way to make some cash. “Everything that was great in life wasn’t expected”, and that being realistic means nothing great will come. Be unrealistic. Be unexpected. This means trusting your instincts — despite the strategy, whiteboards, data, charts and numbers. Not to completely avoid those, but to be aware that marketing is essentially between two people.

Through his experiences with people in those early days he learned that “every connection is intimate”. Some of what marketers do, and have done in the past, just doesn’t make sense.  For example regular folks, if they want to pickup a girl in a bar, speak to the girl. Marketers shout as loud as we can to the whole bar and hope the girl goes “hey, that’s cool, I want to talk to that shouty guy”.

He believes that developing one-one relationships is what propelled him and Justin Beiber, and why “Beibers” are so loyal — they take time to answer all social media personally. This ties into being authentic and having a small team around you who know exactly what the values are and can communicate out using an authentic voice.

A great truth about human nature is that people are attracted to those who help other people; who people perceive as giving value to the world. Companies are no different. He firmly believes that every organization should be charitable, helpful, and a positive force in the community. He asked us to consider what we are doing that is charitable and helpful and to find ways to bring this into our mission. If we do, we’ll be far more successful.

So what was the worst advise his mother ever gave him? She told him to go back to school and finish his degree. Now, how’s that for unexpected? It’s a good thing he didn’t listen to his mother!

Tom Fishburne, Founder & CEO of Marketoon Studios

Tom is the force behind the hilarious and dead accurate marketing cartoons on this website Marketoon Studios. His presentation focused on how marketing gets shared and talked about.

Leading off with a guffaw-inducing story about how the State of Kentucky spent a half-million dollar fortune on a rebrand called “Unbridled Spirit”, only to be upstaged by two Kentucky Kick Asses who hated the new campaign so much they launched their own rebranding campaign — to more acclaim than the government sponsored one.https://www.youtube.com/embed/VK2xh43NLKM?feature=player_embedded

These guys are marketers and designers who live and work in Kentucky; you could argue that they know “Kentuckians” better than the guys the state hired. The good folks of Kentucky fought back when the state tried to cease and desist the intrepid duo, and the lesson here is marketing worth sharing doesn’t feel like marketing, it just feels like truth. Also, be careful, tech won’t save a bad idea, but it will help a remarkable one.

He told the story of Innocent Smoothies who suddenly found that they had to share market space with Fruitopia, and rather than throw money into a black hole, decided to leverage a charitable project they were running into a major marketing initiative – and won a huge battle for market share in the process. Grannies knitting a tiny hat for every bottle were a supply-chain nightmare – can you imagine sitting in THAT meeting? Yet somehow, this company defined themselves by not thinking about themselves but thinking about others.

“This was an incredibly social marketing idea, even before today’s tools of what we think of as social media. This was 2001. You couldn’t get more low-tech. Knitting and an old-fashioned email newsletter. But it was marketing worth sharing and people shared it.”

He reminded us that too often we talk like this:

and this:

He then spoke about Sailor Jerry and being a brand that folks want to be tattooed with! That means asking our customers, clients, and consumers, “how can we help YOU be more awesome”. Then they go away thinking that your company is helping them be more awesome. It’s all about them. They’ll share that and you along with it.

For more of Tom’s insights, check out his website.

Next up Part 3 | John Gerzema – NYT Bestselling Author and Arianna Huffington – KEYNOTE –  Founder, The Huffington Post

Stay tuned!

Carol Sykes | fp. Marketing & Communications Manager

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