Using the Super Bowl to Distill a Complex Value Prop with Mike Goldberg

WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:08.710 Hello and welcome in to be to be growth. I'm your host, Benjie 2 00:00:08.710 --> 00:00:13.830 Block. Today I am joined by Mike Goldberg. He's the global director of 3 00:00:14.029 --> 00:00:18.789 content marketing at the CFA institute. Mike, Thank you for joining me here 4 00:00:18.829 --> 00:00:23.339 on B Tob Growth and thanks so much for having me so just recently. 5 00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:27.660 You actually started at your current job and your current position, but we had 6 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:32.780 connected over really an interesting campaign you guys ran at your last company. So 7 00:00:32.859 --> 00:00:35.579 would you just provide maybe some context, Mike, tell me a bit of 8 00:00:36.289 --> 00:00:40.850 your background and what led to to the project were about to discuss. Shuret 9 00:00:40.929 --> 00:00:44.530 thing. So you know, I've traditionally been in the marketing space in the 10 00:00:44.570 --> 00:00:49.289 BDB world for the past twenty years. I hate that ages me a little 11 00:00:49.289 --> 00:00:53.719 bit, but you know, I've always come to marketing with a background in 12 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:59.280 journalism and English and storytelling was always at the heart of everything I've done. 13 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:06.150 So after a couple of years working as a marketing generalists, content started exploding 14 00:01:06.189 --> 00:01:11.109 and it became this big buzz word and there was suddenly this big opportunity for 15 00:01:11.230 --> 00:01:15.109 companies to hire content specific roles. Even though I've been doing content all the 16 00:01:15.230 --> 00:01:19.540 time. Good marketing it's based on content. So you know, I jumped 17 00:01:19.579 --> 00:01:26.140 at that opportunity to leave some of the traditional event PR comes, supporting sales 18 00:01:26.180 --> 00:01:33.049 people behind. Don't miss much of that, but I did all in on 19 00:01:33.370 --> 00:01:38.250 the content part and messaging storytelling, and that's really what I love to do. 20 00:01:38.489 --> 00:01:42.810 So I started focusing on content rolls on the past ten years or so 21 00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:48.560 and it one role. I worked at Dune in Brad Street, which is 22 00:01:48.599 --> 00:01:56.040 a huge global data provider, information intelligence company, and that's where I came 23 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:00.519 across the opportunity to do a lot around content. It was still new to 24 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:05.469 them and that's where this campaign that we're going to talk about kind of came 25 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:12.990 to life. HMM. So you had a problem that was basically a complicated 26 00:02:13.110 --> 00:02:17.900 value proposition, very data driven. So instead of honing in on what the 27 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:23.300 product could do, you had to figure out like, how do we bring 28 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:25.500 this to life, and maybe a different way, a unique way. Right. 29 00:02:25.819 --> 00:02:31.610 Walk me through the complicated value prop that you were working with before we 30 00:02:31.729 --> 00:02:36.889 actually dive into the solution that then came from it. Sure. Oh, 31 00:02:37.370 --> 00:02:40.849 the first thing I do on any content project is really put on my journalism 32 00:02:40.930 --> 00:02:46.360 hat and ask questions. I've really got to understand what this product is why 33 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:52.560 it exists, who the audience is for, what makes it different and what 34 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:55.919 are the outcomes are going to be why anyone want would want to pay money 35 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:01.069 for this product. So the first thing I do on all projects is go 36 00:03:01.270 --> 00:03:07.270 through that list of questions with the right stakeholders, the business leaders, the 37 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:12.590 product development team, the sales leaders. It's really important for me to get 38 00:03:12.789 --> 00:03:16.819 everyone's vision on what it is they're doing. Obviously the product people. They 39 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:21.699 want to talk about features and why it's so great and what they're building on 40 00:03:21.780 --> 00:03:24.500 the back end. Self team. How are they going to position it? 41 00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:30.729 What do they need to tell their customers that will help them close that sale? 42 00:03:30.810 --> 00:03:34.530 So two different lines of thinking. I have to bridge that together to 43 00:03:34.610 --> 00:03:38.210 understand what it is I'm going to be writing about. So you know, 44 00:03:38.330 --> 00:03:44.919 coming into this project specifically it was around master data, which is a really 45 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:51.639 nuance thing of how data is collected and cleaned and scrubbed in technology systems, 46 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:57.750 and the first thing I noticed is internally everyone was confused of what it is 47 00:03:57.990 --> 00:04:02.110 we're actually building or selling. It's not if you're confused. No, yes, 48 00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:08.310 bad, start right. So it took a lot of brainstorming meetings just 49 00:04:08.509 --> 00:04:13.939 to get everyone a line to okay, what is this product? What's the 50 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:17.899 goal? So I love to create content, briefs that summarize all these main 51 00:04:17.980 --> 00:04:25.730 points and too distilled piece of documentation that I can then share with everyone. 52 00:04:26.329 --> 00:04:30.250 So combining everyone's thoughts and then I put together this document that we kind of 53 00:04:30.370 --> 00:04:36.009 build off from there. So, after many meetings over a couple weeks, 54 00:04:36.050 --> 00:04:41.240 we came to the realization and what this product does, and it turned out 55 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:46.000 it was not so much about the technology or the product itself, which is 56 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:51.120 obviously important, but it was really about our engineer team that we're working within 57 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:58.110 this product that really made it valuable. It was their experience. They were 58 00:04:58.189 --> 00:05:02.350 the ones behind the scenes making things happen. So we've decided, you know, 59 00:05:02.550 --> 00:05:06.220 maybe we should not be talking about this in the traditional product sense. 60 00:05:06.579 --> 00:05:12.100 Let's really focus on our expertise and our people. And I know in the 61 00:05:12.180 --> 00:05:15.300 BB world, especially the the tech world, it's a little bit weird to 62 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:18.220 think, well, we're not going to talk about our technology, we're going 63 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:21.490 to talk about the people. But really the people, in this case, 64 00:05:21.769 --> 00:05:27.170 we're really the most important part of this. So that's where we said, 65 00:05:27.410 --> 00:05:30.850 hey, let's start with people first. HMM. Okay. Take me back 66 00:05:30.930 --> 00:05:36.160 to content briefs Real quick, and it's around questions you're asking, right, 67 00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:41.800 so you're trying to determine what is the product do? What makes it valuable 68 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:44.600 in Unique and then you stumble on, okay, it's the engineers, it's 69 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:48.160 the people. What are maybe some of the more strategic questions you're asking to 70 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:53.550 create that kind of content brief? Yeah, you know, for me it's 71 00:05:53.629 --> 00:05:58.069 ultimately all those things are important, but ultimately, what will the end user 72 00:05:58.269 --> 00:06:00.269 get out of this? How is it going to make out their lives better, 73 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:04.379 easier? How is it going to help them succeed in their job? 74 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:11.620 And I feel like that's almost kind of reverse engineering the question, because it's 75 00:06:11.660 --> 00:06:15.139 always about now, here's the new features, here's what it does. I 76 00:06:16.019 --> 00:06:20.089 don't really care. I know a product person spends all their time building this, 77 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:25.250 so they care, but what I care about is why would somebody say 78 00:06:25.449 --> 00:06:29.170 this has made my life easier? So that's kind of the things that I 79 00:06:29.290 --> 00:06:32.959 want to get out of whenever I talk to anyone on any project brief, 80 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:38.560 is what's the real story that we can tell that someone's going to care about, 81 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:42.120 right. Yeah, so you're hearing from product, how how great the 82 00:06:42.199 --> 00:06:45.439 product is. From sales, they're thinking, you know, how do we 83 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:48.589 get our numbers up? And then you're taking all that information and seeing the 84 00:06:48.629 --> 00:06:53.550 common thread of this is actually how it intersects with people, how it will 85 00:06:53.589 --> 00:06:59.110 actually be used and help in their life. Right, exactly, awesome. 86 00:06:59.189 --> 00:07:04.100 Okay. So, with that in mind, you establish engineers are a key 87 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:10.740 factor in our in what makes us unique, what makes us valuable? What 88 00:07:11.019 --> 00:07:15.420 is the decisionmaking process that leads you to this idea of what we would call 89 00:07:15.459 --> 00:07:20.410 an Mvee, most valuable engineer? Yeah, so when I brought up the 90 00:07:20.810 --> 00:07:27.089 that we should start with our engineers, everyone was a little bit not on 91 00:07:27.209 --> 00:07:30.240 board right away. I had to make the case and explain, you know, 92 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:35.879 why the market would see that as a valuable marketing technique and messaging, 93 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:42.519 obviously, and why it's so important. So basically, at once I got 94 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:45.589 everyone on line to like, you know what, you're right, our engineers 95 00:07:45.709 --> 00:07:47.550 are the heart of this story. It was like, okay, well, 96 00:07:47.829 --> 00:07:53.389 what does that mean? How are we going to prop our engineers in front 97 00:07:53.389 --> 00:07:58.509 of the story? And you know, engineers by nature tend to be very 98 00:07:58.550 --> 00:08:03.300 quiet and they don't want to be the face of a product brilliant and in 99 00:08:03.339 --> 00:08:07.019 the background and right exactly. So we had to think, all right, 100 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:09.540 well, what can we do? So, you know, understanding who our 101 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:16.769 audience was and when we were releasing this particular product. You know, I 102 00:08:16.930 --> 00:08:20.689 thought, well, they're all they skew, very male. Or releasing this 103 00:08:20.889 --> 00:08:26.199 product right around Super Bowl. You know, how can we news Jack Super 104 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:31.639 Bowl? And I would always trying to news jack anything seasonality and hop on 105 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:37.519 those bandwagons. So what can we do to jump on that and just generate 106 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:41.990 some buzz and intrist so, being a huge football fan, I said, 107 00:08:43.029 --> 00:08:48.710 Hey, what if we treat our engineers like the NFL treats football players and 108 00:08:48.509 --> 00:08:54.789 the draft and teams wanting that player to be on their team because that player 109 00:08:54.870 --> 00:08:58.220 is going to come bared and help them win a super bowl? To me, 110 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:03.100 these engineers, they would be working on our clients accounts and helping them 111 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:07.340 succeed in their goals. So I said, let's let's put together an idea 112 00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:13.090 around this MV. I said MVP, but I like mv now that you 113 00:09:13.210 --> 00:09:16.730 said. Let's package that around this story. So I brought that to the 114 00:09:16.809 --> 00:09:22.129 table without really scoping it out. I just that was the idea and it 115 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:28.440 took a lot of conversations and email follow ups before everyone agree. Okay, 116 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:33.720 we like the idea. Let's begin. Hmm, what is that creative process 117 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:37.840 light like? So in your head, I'm assuming, and this is just 118 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:43.509 a marketer assuming a marketers brain, we often think like this grand thing in 119 00:09:43.629 --> 00:09:48.830 our minds of how, in this case, right like, everything's football themed, 120 00:09:48.070 --> 00:09:54.940 everything's like it's just hyper visual and beautiful and leans heavily in a football. 121 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:58.580 Clearly, when you bring that into a more business minded, data driven 122 00:09:58.620 --> 00:10:01.779 context, there's probably some compromise that had to happen in order for this idea 123 00:10:01.860 --> 00:10:07.330 to actually work. So talk about the A. Guess where you started to 124 00:10:07.450 --> 00:10:09.970 then where you had to kind of end up and maybe some of the compromises 125 00:10:11.009 --> 00:10:13.330 that were made so that everyone was on board. Absolutely. Yeah, the 126 00:10:13.649 --> 00:10:20.450 first big thing that knocked me down off my excitement high hat was that I 127 00:10:20.730 --> 00:10:24.440 know I couldn't use the term super bowl. Obviously that trademarked and you know, 128 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.799 these are the things I don't think about when I'm coming up in the 129 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:31.080 idea. I'm just excited. So I'm like, all right, can't refer 130 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:35.990 to Super Bowl, we have to say big game. In earn messaging, 131 00:10:35.710 --> 00:10:41.870 but really before that even started, it was understanding. Okay, we're going 132 00:10:41.950 --> 00:10:45.710 to have to sit down with our engineers and if we want to prop them 133 00:10:46.070 --> 00:10:48.669 and make them the centerpiece, I've got to talk to them. We've got 134 00:10:48.789 --> 00:10:52.860 to understand what their strengths are. What did they bring the table? How 135 00:10:52.940 --> 00:10:58.980 do we create unique per saunas for each of our engineers? And there's only 136 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:03.580 a handful, obviously, that we could focus on a given time. And 137 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:07.049 the first response I got from our product lea to his engineers are not going 138 00:11:07.090 --> 00:11:11.929 to want to talk to you. I said don't don't worry, I'm will 139 00:11:13.009 --> 00:11:16.929 have casual conversations and I'm going to sell this to them internally to help makes 140 00:11:18.049 --> 00:11:22.720 them feel like they're actually there. The mvps themselves and everyone likes a little 141 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:28.159 ego boosts. So I decided let's talk to each of our engineers. I 142 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:31.600 created a standard set of questions. What are your big as accomplishments? Would 143 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:35.750 have been your achievements? Where did you go to school? Again, I'm 144 00:11:35.750 --> 00:11:41.389 thinking in terms of how does the NFL put together a perfect draft person where 145 00:11:41.470 --> 00:11:45.549 you know exactly? My mind, I'm seeing them presented in a video with 146 00:11:45.870 --> 00:11:52.860 cool icons and ESPN style sports music. But that's the first route we went 147 00:11:52.940 --> 00:11:56.019 to. Is like, let's talk to engineers and get some of this information. 148 00:11:56.659 --> 00:12:00.299 HM, okay, so I like that as a starting place. Right 149 00:12:00.659 --> 00:12:03.970 then you have to determine, as you're having these conversations with the engineers, 150 00:12:03.490 --> 00:12:09.049 start think through medium, how long of like content are we going to try 151 00:12:09.129 --> 00:12:15.210 to create? Tell me about what was actually formulated. So what you're actually 152 00:12:15.250 --> 00:12:16.399 putting this thing together? At this point, you got to buy in. 153 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:22.080 What is this actually start to formulate into and look like once you have the 154 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:26.519 engineers on board? Right? So that was the first thing that we want. 155 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:30.909 That the first hurdle to achieve is making sure we have the engineers on 156 00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:35.389 board and that we got some good stories from them. And then it was 157 00:12:35.509 --> 00:12:39.669 okay, we have this information. How are you going to package it present 158 00:12:39.830 --> 00:12:43.429 it? And you know, there's a lot of ways you can do video 159 00:12:43.909 --> 00:12:48.220 around these stories. You can interview them and do talking head videos. For 160 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:50.899 me, I said, look, these engineers, they don't want to be 161 00:12:50.899 --> 00:12:54.820 the face, they don't want to be on camera. Let's use everything they 162 00:12:54.980 --> 00:13:01.929 shared with us and create a little thirty second MVP snapshots of engineer with your 163 00:13:01.970 --> 00:13:07.169 name, where you went to school and make it more visual with the kind 164 00:13:07.169 --> 00:13:13.480 of super bowl football styled theming, and then we create five or six based 165 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:18.279 on the individual engineers we have and push that out on social using the right 166 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:22.960 hashtags or round football super bowl MVP, and then say hey, meet some 167 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:28.470 of our engineers, draft your engineer for your winning team, and it would 168 00:13:28.470 --> 00:13:31.830 become a it would start as a social media campaign, very trying to be 169 00:13:31.950 --> 00:13:35.669 very viral in nature. So that was the initial plan for how to use 170 00:13:35.750 --> 00:13:39.909 that information. 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Again, that's 184 00:14:43.539 --> 00:14:50.379 shield APP DOT AI and the Promo Code is be the number two be growth. 185 00:14:50.820 --> 00:14:56.009 All One word for a twenty five percent discount. All right, let's 186 00:14:56.009 --> 00:15:00.009 get back into the show. I love a particular piece of this because you 187 00:15:00.490 --> 00:15:03.929 have to get them on board, but then also, even if they're on 188 00:15:03.970 --> 00:15:07.919 board, you realize there is a potential like I don't want to say deficiency, 189 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.360 but there their engineers are strong in other things, maybe not being on 190 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:16.279 camera and maybe not being like long form interviewed and and you don't even know 191 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:20.080 if you could hold someone's attention that long with that idea. But if you 192 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:24.990 can bring in the creative aspect and also bring in just enough the uniqueness in 193 00:15:26.029 --> 00:15:31.309 in the engineer presented in like a thirty second type clip, I love the 194 00:15:31.389 --> 00:15:35.299 the way that you came to that conclusion and really started to drill down there. 195 00:15:37.299 --> 00:15:39.860 What is, I guess, the back end strategy, Mike, for 196 00:15:41.220 --> 00:15:43.500 these videos? So, yes, you everyone wants their video to go viral. 197 00:15:43.820 --> 00:15:46.700 We never know how it's actually going to play out or how it people 198 00:15:46.740 --> 00:15:50.730 will latch onto that. But what's the back end strategy? Someone really likes 199 00:15:50.809 --> 00:15:56.529 that video and then one right now. Ultimately, our goal was to have 200 00:15:56.370 --> 00:16:03.289 demo scheduled with the sales team. So originally it was going to be check 201 00:16:03.370 --> 00:16:06.960 out our new product feature, here's everything it does, and it would have 202 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.840 been your standard white paper and you could US use of master data with a 203 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:15.240 lot of charts and stuff that I'm sure our end users care about, but 204 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:22.710 they see so much. So this idea is really like I'm always thinking, 205 00:16:22.750 --> 00:16:26.070 how do we break through the noise and stop trying to be the same old, 206 00:16:26.230 --> 00:16:30.149 boring be to be company that everyone is? But again, ultimately it 207 00:16:30.509 --> 00:16:36.779 was like we need to hit a certain number of demos for ourselves team. 208 00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:41.259 So the videos. Really yes, we wanted these videos to go viral, 209 00:16:41.740 --> 00:16:45.500 but there was obviously a call to action, and that call to action was 210 00:16:45.059 --> 00:16:51.250 draft your winning engineer to help with your master data problems. That then directed 211 00:16:51.289 --> 00:16:56.769 them to a landing page where we had our featured content, and without content 212 00:16:56.889 --> 00:17:00.129 I think you don't have a story. So that's where this whole the original 213 00:17:00.169 --> 00:17:04.680 idea for the white paper of master data that was still stayed true to what 214 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:08.880 it was. That something the product team wrote. What I did is kind 215 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:14.079 of repackage it and make it a little bit more of a playbook and I 216 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:18.150 say, Hey, let's make some visuals make it feel like the coaches playbook 217 00:17:18.549 --> 00:17:22.710 we tied it into. there. We include all the engineer videos we've done 218 00:17:22.710 --> 00:17:26.390 and put on social. We put some snapshots in their up front and then 219 00:17:26.470 --> 00:17:33.299 you get your traditional product story, but onto the wrapper of this whole Super 220 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:37.539 Bowl type campaign that's free to download. You know, that was not gated. 221 00:17:37.740 --> 00:17:41.660 We wanted people to read that to understand that what is gated. What 222 00:17:41.859 --> 00:17:47.690 was part of the real campaign Legien was hey, you read this, get 223 00:17:47.769 --> 00:17:52.890 ready to get your engineer, MVP, engineer ready to help you win. 224 00:17:52.410 --> 00:17:56.450 Sign up for a demo. That's how we started deciding how we would track 225 00:17:56.650 --> 00:18:00.599 success. Okay, so let me recap that. So I'm scrolling social, 226 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:07.400 I see MVP, mv add I guess, or is it is this organic 227 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:11.990 social, paid social. What was the process? YEA, so it was 228 00:18:12.269 --> 00:18:17.750 organic to start with. Yep, there was a paid media campaign that was 229 00:18:17.869 --> 00:18:22.269 happening separately through an agency, and this is a great learning that I've taken 230 00:18:22.390 --> 00:18:26.140 and I think everyone should know, is that you need to be a hundred 231 00:18:26.140 --> 00:18:32.259 percent in step with what your agency is doing, because the agency was gearing 232 00:18:32.339 --> 00:18:37.220 up for a paid media campaign for this white paper without knowing any of this 233 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:44.009 super bowl theme planning, where is a lot of silos. Cont tent marketing 234 00:18:44.529 --> 00:18:48.490 is sometimes left out of the loop with the paid digital media team. I 235 00:18:48.609 --> 00:18:53.849 make. I think it's complicated. Yeah, so then they're running non football 236 00:18:53.930 --> 00:19:00.079 themed ads that are leading to landing pages that have all football themed playbooks and 237 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:04.079 stuff exactly. Yep, that is a great learning. I I can't tell 238 00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:07.960 you enough how much silos end up playing a part in it, and you 239 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:14.710 have to be so strategic when you're outsourcing marketing, paid marketing, to really 240 00:19:14.829 --> 00:19:17.509 not like they need to know what you're doing. And this is such a 241 00:19:17.589 --> 00:19:21.430 great idea. They could have leaned heavy into it and over probably driven some 242 00:19:21.630 --> 00:19:25.940 fantastic results, but everyone's got their head down doing their job right, like 243 00:19:26.099 --> 00:19:30.460 the Yes, silos just happen by nature of it. And overcommunication, I 244 00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:34.339 can't stress that enough. Like overcommunication is huge in marketing campaigns like this. 245 00:19:34.460 --> 00:19:38.650 Okay, so, but from your vantage point that learning something we can all 246 00:19:38.690 --> 00:19:44.250 take something from. But from your vantage point, I'm scrolling social I click 247 00:19:44.329 --> 00:19:48.970 on an Mvee type post, then it's taking me to a landing page white 248 00:19:49.009 --> 00:19:56.799 paper and from and white papers free, then togated content and demo sign up. 249 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:02.920 Correct. Okay, I like that. Additionally, just a nurture email 250 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:07.470 campaign built in, so anyone who downloaded the white paper you know we're able 251 00:20:07.509 --> 00:20:11.869 to capture that basic information and then not ready for dem will yet. will 252 00:20:11.869 --> 00:20:15.990 put them in a nurtous stream. The first email I've kind of had to 253 00:20:17.109 --> 00:20:21.859 make sure kept with the theme in mind, and then after that it went 254 00:20:21.940 --> 00:20:26.660 into our traditional nurtureus dream. That was already in built out for this campaign. 255 00:20:27.259 --> 00:20:32.579 So you presented one of the main takeaways from this. We've spent quite 256 00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:34.730 a bit on this episode going through the story aspect of it because I want 257 00:20:34.730 --> 00:20:37.650 people to understand the full campaign and really get into the weeds a little bit. 258 00:20:37.650 --> 00:20:40.930 But now I want to like come up for air in a sense. 259 00:20:41.170 --> 00:20:45.009 And want to go real practical. How one of the main takeaways make sure 260 00:20:45.049 --> 00:20:48.569 that you're not siloed as you do a marketing campaign like this. But as 261 00:20:48.609 --> 00:20:55.000 far as the actual learnings from a football themed campaign, hard value prop what 262 00:20:55.119 --> 00:21:00.000 are things that you learned, Mike, that have informed your marketing since then? 263 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.039 And maybe for our listeners, like what would you tell them? Are 264 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:07.630 Some strategies that you take away? Sure? Well, I'll have to tell 265 00:21:07.910 --> 00:21:11.309 the the end result of this whole campaign is that it did not go to 266 00:21:11.509 --> 00:21:19.700 market as perfectly scripted as I had hoped, and that is because with the 267 00:21:19.779 --> 00:21:27.619 videos we went very heavy in that sports center style and even though we have 268 00:21:27.700 --> 00:21:32.380 a creative team that I've kept in the loop, letting them know, you 269 00:21:32.460 --> 00:21:34.009 know, we're doing this, we're going to go out film these videos, 270 00:21:34.849 --> 00:21:40.450 and they were kind of on email just acknowledging it. That's it, and 271 00:21:40.609 --> 00:21:44.049 we go to market, it goes out and then I get an email from 272 00:21:44.049 --> 00:21:47.640 the creative team saying wait, what is this, and I said, Oh, 273 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:52.119 remember, on that email I sent a couple months ago we're doing this, 274 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:56.000 and it turned out they're like, well, this is way off brand 275 00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:02.869 and for video, how we go to social? We can't use this font 276 00:22:02.990 --> 00:22:07.390 or this style. The music is not our theme. So of course they 277 00:22:07.470 --> 00:22:11.549 were just like scrab it and I'm like no, let's think what can we 278 00:22:11.630 --> 00:22:15.740 do to save this still make it more spent a lot of money on it. 279 00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:21.900 So we had to re engineer some of the videos, take away a 280 00:22:22.140 --> 00:22:27.019 little bit more of the overthe top sports metaphors, keep it a little more 281 00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:32.410 basic, but the landing page, the playbook, that stayed the same. 282 00:22:32.930 --> 00:22:37.890 So my takeaway is, no matter how much you think everyone knows what's happening, 283 00:22:37.250 --> 00:22:41.890 they probably don't. So to have that stay colder by and put meetings 284 00:22:41.970 --> 00:22:45.920 on the table. As much as I hate meetings, you have to make 285 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:49.200 sure everyone's aware of what's happening and what's planned. HMM. I think that's 286 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:53.759 a huge learning and one that we can easily. I think like you can 287 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:59.309 drift into seasons of time where you're very aware of that and then, like, 288 00:22:59.630 --> 00:23:02.750 it just gets busy again in marketing and you have your head down and 289 00:23:02.910 --> 00:23:04.990 content creation and then you have to come back to that lesson. So, 290 00:23:06.829 --> 00:23:11.910 no matter where you're at today, when you're hearing mike explain this story overcommunication 291 00:23:11.390 --> 00:23:15.980 is well worth it, especially if you want to see the success of a 292 00:23:15.059 --> 00:23:19.460 campaign long term, and so to make sure your ideas are solidified, make 293 00:23:19.460 --> 00:23:23.619 sure everyone's on board and you really know what you're driving at, is crucial. 294 00:23:25.339 --> 00:23:27.809 I still I love the heart of this campaign because I think there's a 295 00:23:27.849 --> 00:23:32.130 lot of listeners who are would say, man, our value prop is complicated 296 00:23:32.210 --> 00:23:36.329 or we talked so much about our features and we talk so much about all 297 00:23:36.329 --> 00:23:40.490 the little things that our product can do. There's this movement towards story that 298 00:23:40.569 --> 00:23:44.200 needs to happen. There's this movement towards narrative that needs to happen. Have 299 00:23:44.359 --> 00:23:48.480 you held onto that since that project? Mike and sort of shrets, try 300 00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:52.079 to be strategic with story, and that seems like it's a part of who 301 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:55.910 you are. Oh, definitely, definitely. I you know, I just 302 00:23:56.029 --> 00:24:02.630 put myself into our customers shoes, no matter what company on me, and 303 00:24:02.789 --> 00:24:07.950 I'm thinking, what does that person want to get out of product or service 304 00:24:08.630 --> 00:24:12.980 and how are they going to find out about it from me? There's so 305 00:24:14.059 --> 00:24:18.339 much noise and your heads down and I'm working so much about what I need 306 00:24:18.420 --> 00:24:22.900 to do it's really hard to hear all of the sales pitches and I've sales 307 00:24:22.940 --> 00:24:26.890 people reach out to me all the time and I see so much on social 308 00:24:26.930 --> 00:24:33.089 around products that could be helpful for me. But, yeah, I just 309 00:24:33.130 --> 00:24:36.250 don't have time to listen to it because it all sounds the same sometimes. 310 00:24:36.730 --> 00:24:41.000 But when someone really tells me something interesting that like how it's going to help 311 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:47.000 me personally do my job or connects with something emotional to me, then I'm 312 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:51.440 like, oh my ears perke up. I'm ready to listen and I try 313 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:53.710 and do that everywhere I go. It's just like, what is that story 314 00:24:53.950 --> 00:24:57.029 that we want to tell and how do we just be human with each other? 315 00:24:57.910 --> 00:25:00.509 You know, I think people get too hung up on them. Well, 316 00:25:00.549 --> 00:25:03.829 where be to be? We can't be an apple or, you know, 317 00:25:04.269 --> 00:25:07.660 coke or Nike. But why not? Of course we can. We're 318 00:25:07.700 --> 00:25:12.220 all human. It's human to human, be to be. I try and 319 00:25:12.259 --> 00:25:17.339 get away from that notion as much as possible. If you were replicating a 320 00:25:17.619 --> 00:25:22.170 similar project now at your current place to work, what would you outside of 321 00:25:22.210 --> 00:25:26.769 communication? What would you change in the process? What would you want to 322 00:25:26.849 --> 00:25:32.250 try? Well, you know, I don't know if I change much, 323 00:25:32.650 --> 00:25:37.880 other than you know that what we just discussed is that overcommunication, having everyone 324 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:42.599 way in have all stay closures involved, even if they're not part of that 325 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:47.960 project. I want to make sure everyone is on board with what's being planned 326 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:55.150 before it goes to market. But really that idea of a content brief and 327 00:25:56.069 --> 00:26:03.349 how I interview different groups and different teams is really been the most successful thing 328 00:26:03.430 --> 00:26:07.460 I've brought to all the companies I've been at. Yeah, because you know, 329 00:26:07.579 --> 00:26:11.099 in the past, I've seen you know and I see it with other 330 00:26:11.180 --> 00:26:14.859 teams. It's a project and people just dive in and start going to work 331 00:26:15.140 --> 00:26:18.490 based on what one person says. But I think it's that listening and that 332 00:26:19.210 --> 00:26:22.529 wearing, you know, that journalism had, being able to talk to people 333 00:26:22.730 --> 00:26:27.130 and really hear what it is we're trying to accomplish. That's been critical. 334 00:26:27.849 --> 00:26:33.279 Good answer, active listening big one in marketing, and you said it several 335 00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:36.599 times here, but I'm going to highlight it again and said earlier when you 336 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:38.440 were doing, when you were setting out to do content briefs, you brought 337 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:41.400 up this idea of how it's going to help customers, right, and you 338 00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:45.400 have to solidify that and break that down and put it into the content brief 339 00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:48.549 and then we bringing it up again here at the end. That ultimately, 340 00:26:48.670 --> 00:26:52.670 content marketing is saying, how is this help our customers? Why? Why 341 00:26:52.710 --> 00:26:56.990 would they be interested? Why? Why is it entertaining to them right in 342 00:26:56.150 --> 00:26:59.950 some sense, or why would they keep coming back for more? And I 343 00:27:00.109 --> 00:27:03.299 think that's a good place to start to draw the conclusion here on this conversation. 344 00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:07.859 Mike, Thank you for being here on BB growth for sharing this, 345 00:27:07.900 --> 00:27:11.619 this campaign with us. For those that are interested in staying connected with you 346 00:27:12.180 --> 00:27:15.730 and the company you're now at, talk a little bit about what you do 347 00:27:15.450 --> 00:27:22.690 and where people can find you online. Yeah, so, as content leader 348 00:27:22.769 --> 00:27:27.730 at Cefa Institute, I am helping tell the CEFA institute story. So obviously 349 00:27:29.130 --> 00:27:37.519 it's a nonprofit organization really dedicated to building out future professionals within the investment management 350 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:40.759 industry. You know, they have the CFA exam, which is what they've 351 00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:44.750 known for, but they're trying to branch out and create a lot of different 352 00:27:45.069 --> 00:27:49.950 products, certificates to really help proper investment management as a whole and get more 353 00:27:51.069 --> 00:27:56.309 people involved into the industry. You know, finance some times of dirty word 354 00:27:56.549 --> 00:28:00.140 people, but through storytelling, you know where my goal is to help share 355 00:28:00.299 --> 00:28:04.299 why finance is going to be important and why I can really help society. 356 00:28:04.819 --> 00:28:10.539 So I'm trying to tell those stories and tell them in a way that our 357 00:28:10.700 --> 00:28:14.170 audience, who happens to skew very young, because we we want to target 358 00:28:14.210 --> 00:28:17.529 people starting their career. How do you do that and get their attention? 359 00:28:18.170 --> 00:28:22.049 Everyone is using the tick tock these days to tell, to talk, and 360 00:28:22.170 --> 00:28:26.609 so how do we take our story and put it on a platform where our 361 00:28:26.730 --> 00:28:30.960 audience is going to find it? And Yeah, so again it comes back 362 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:33.079 to storytelling, right. That's that's what I love to do and no matter 363 00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:41.160 what I'm trying to help sell or promote, storytelling can always be used very 364 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:45.029 well. M Mike, where can people connect with you online? Is Linkedin, 365 00:28:45.190 --> 00:28:48.430 or what's a way people could reach out? Yeah, Linkedin, and 366 00:28:48.789 --> 00:28:55.630 I always share some tidbits on content marketing when I can, and my portfolio 367 00:28:55.819 --> 00:29:00.500 is Mike Goldberg Be Tobcom, where I put up everything I've ever written. 368 00:29:02.740 --> 00:29:06.579 Fantastic. Well, thank you for spending time with us here on B Tob 369 00:29:06.740 --> 00:29:11.490 Growth. This is a really insightful conversation and great to kind of get a 370 00:29:11.490 --> 00:29:14.210 peek behind the curtain of of a campaign. So thanks for joining us, 371 00:29:14.210 --> 00:29:17.849 Mike. If thanks for letting me share the story I hope, but it's 372 00:29:17.890 --> 00:29:21.809 hope. It's helpful for some other people and content absolutely so. We're always 373 00:29:21.849 --> 00:29:25.640 having these types of conversations here on B tob growth. This was a unique 374 00:29:25.640 --> 00:29:29.079 one, going deep into a campaign. I loved it. If you have 375 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:32.160 yet to subscribe, make sure that you do that. Wherever you're listening to 376 00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:34.319 this podcast, we would appreciate it and and you'll never miss an episode. 377 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:38.269 And if you want to connect with me, always open to conversation over on 378 00:29:38.390 --> 00:29:44.190 linkedin talking about business and life and marketing. So reach out over there to 379 00:29:44.269 --> 00:29:47.430 search Benjie Block. Keep doing work that matters. Will be back real soon 380 00:29:47.789 --> 00:29:55.380 with another episode of B Tob Growth. Is Your buyer a BTB marketer? 381 00:29:55.859 --> 00:29:59.460 If so, you should think about sponsoring this podcast. F TOB growth gets 382 00:29:59.500 --> 00:30:03.700 downloaded over a hundred and thirty thousand times each month and our listeners are marketing 383 00:30:03.779 --> 00:30:07.329 decision makers. If it sounds interesting, Sind Logan and email logan at sweetfish 384 00:30:07.369 --> Mediacom