Come Wednesday, I'm either totally in the zone, crushing items from my to-do list... or counting down the minutes until noon, ready to celebrate that I've survived precisely half the work week. Hope you're the former today. (I am not.)
Let's get into it:
Do your instincts suck? A Microsoft marketer will leave you wondering
Why Heinz's recent ad campaign honoring everyday heroes is chef's kiss
UPS' 8M+ viewed campaign with two tall peeps
MEET THE MASTER
Name: Brenna Robinson, general manager at Microsoft
Job: Leads a new team focused on the small- and medium-business strategies for Microsoft Modern Workplace
Lesson 1: Don't sell to yourself.
Microsoft is pretty much the face of “large enterprise tech corp.” And as a top Microsoft leader, Robinson is too far removed from her target buyer to rely on her instincts.
You might be the same.
Say you’re a marketer who eats, breathes, and sleeps TikTok (guilty). And you're trying to market to a small biz bakery owner.
Are you positive that baker is eagerly refreshing her TikTok feed waiting for your brand's next hilarious vid? Or is she a little busy frosting the 100th cupcake of the morning?
As Robinson succinctly puts it: "At some point, you're just selling things to yourself."
While it's healthy to listen to some intuition (I've shame-scrolled upward of four hours a day on the 'Tok, so I do know something), you want to keep biases in check.
Lesson 2: Learn to surf.
An undisclosed number of years ago, I worked at a startup as an $11-an-hour intern in charge of SEO, content creation, and social media. With exactly zero real-world experience.
Ya know what I could've used back then (besides a higher salary and a mentor)? AI.
Robinson shares the sentiment: "The value I would've gotten from AI when I was the only content creator at a startup? It would've been game-changing.”
She tells me it's still helpful at Microsoft — but it could have a lot more value to a small business marketer with so many hungry needs.
🌊 She adds, "AI is a wave, and you need to learn how to surf. If you don't, it's going to crash on your head. There's no ignoring it."
The first AI experts will have an advantage in just a few years. So it's time to hop in the water.
Lesson 3: Don't let templates destroy you.
To the people whose handwritten to-do lists have sub-tasks (me âś‹), this one's a toughy.
Robinson says marketers need to dream bigger than checklists, templates, and formulas.
Reducing marketing to checklists and formulas is a surefire way to stifle innovation. "Core marketing is: 'There's a problem. We have a solution.' That's the truth of it."
Be wary of easy-peasy five-step solutions. Trying to fit marketing into neat little boxes can be catnip to type-A marketers like me, but it removes the creativity and fast-paced thinking needed to thrive in the space.
The worst thing that could happen? All your spreadsheets and templates will slow you down.
Says Robinson, "That's how your strategy stays static while the world around you changes."
When it comes to saving time with AI, it’s less about asking the right questions, and more about asking the questions right.
Here’s our library on getting to the point — 20 AI prompts for strategy, storytelling, advertising, and more, by the legendary brains behind our Marketing Against the Grain podcast.
Stop struggling with prompts:
Branding — “Create a brand story for a product the user submits following Seth Godin’s approach to brand storytelling with… ”
Campaigns — “You’re an incredible creative designer. You specialize in creative ad campaigns for brands. We’re going to create… ”
Landing pages — “<Task> Create a landing page for a product the user submits, following core tactics of simplicity, clear calls to action… ”
While I love an aspiring sports ad and have been moved to tears by numerous Nike commercials, there's something clever about the way Heinz Ketchup chooses to celebrate everyday wins around 2024's Summer Olympics
The ad taps into true consumer behaviors: Everyone knows what it's like to shake a little more ketchup out of the bottle (saving the day!) or to make a work of art on their burgers
Plus, it's culturally relevant and topical by connecting back to the Olympic Games – the cherry (or pickle!) on top
OPEN TABS
🥤 Rugged mountain dew-d: Mountain Dew introduces a new long-haired, jacked "mountain dude" in its newest campaign, which is supposed to "push the brand in a new, more provocative direction"
📦 A tall order: UPS partnered with two tall creators, Tyler Bergantino (6'9") and Gabby Gonzales (6'1"), to help Bergantino ship a care package to his long-distance gf – a campaign with 8M+ views, which Jack Appleby deems "influencer hall of fame-worthy"
đź“ą Snap vids with your iPhone: Kipp chats with Wistia's CEO on why marketing will become less measurable and more personal, plus all things video marketing, in last week's Marketing Against the Grain
This week's email was brought to you by Caroline Forsey. Editing by Curtis del Principe and Laura M. Browning.
