Marketing Upheaval

Mat Mathews, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), is guiding this 160-plus year old organization through a  digital transformation.  BGCA is wonderful organization that impacts children all over the world and technology is playing an ever expanding role in helping kids grown, learn and keeping them safe. As Mat says, "Everyone likes change until it has to happens to them." He talks about is approach and how he gets people onboard and motivates them to embrace the change.  Mat has worked with Creative Outhouse to launch huge initiatives and a big part of the conversation is about behavior change. It's a great episode you don't want to miss if you're facing any organizational change in the future. Support the show

Midtown Atlanta, like all urban areas, took a huge hit during the pandemic. The move for people to work from home has also hurt the businesses and communities who = depend on the influx of daily visitors. Brian Carr, Director of Marketing and Communications for Midtown Alliance, and his team are creating new reasons to get people to come back to work in town and stay longer once they arrive.  He discusses what's working and what isn't and how Midtown is helping people gain the one big thing they're missing— personal connections.Support the show

Midtown Atlanta, like all urban areas, took a huge hit during the pandemic. The move for people to work from home has also hurt the businesses and communities who  depend on the influx of daily visitors. Brian Carr, Director of Marketing and Communications for Midtown Alliance, and his team are creating new reasons to get people to come back to work in town and stay longer once they arrive.  He discusses what's working and what isn't and how Midtown is helping people gain the one big thing they're missing— personal connections.Support the show

On this episode, Dr. Marni Bender, a clinical psychologist, talks about how fear and anxiety are driving the general public's behavior and what marketers can do to affect positive behavior change. Creative Outhouse specializes in behavior change and this episode shows how similar psychology and marketing can be. Well, anxiety has gone through the roof as you can imagine. For people who already had anxiety, it has been exacerbated tremendously— especially anxiety around health issues. With COVID, many people are very afraid of getting infected or losing family members, things like that. But also, I’m seeing people who haven't typically struggled with anxiety in the past. IN addition to health anxiety, we’re seeing issues about financial security. But there's also been a sort of a vague uneasiness overall about what is happening in the world; like it feels as if the world is falling apart for a lot of people and they don't have a lot of security or safety about what's coming in the future. Behavior Change Marketing Starts With WhyRudy FernandezSo how does that manifest itself?Dr. Marni BenderIn terms of basic symptoms, it's a lot of physical symptoms like upset stomach, headaches, general muscle tightness, that makes it hard to just relax. And that comes out a lot of times in anger, fighting, just an irritability with others. It also tends to make people want to control things or avoid things. When people get anxious, they get very avoidant of things that make them anxious because it makes your anxiety go away. Or they get very controlling. Again, that's a way to give them to reduce their anxiety. If they have a sense of control, it's often an illusion of control.Rudy FernandezSo it's a binary either nothing or try to control what are some of the things they try to control that are sort of irrational?Dr. Marni BenderI would say it's actually not binary. It's a matter of degree. But I see what you're saying like people seem to have the opposite response either controller or avoid, but how much they do it is certainly a matter of degree. We all probably do that a little bit. But the more extreme we get, the more problems we tend to have functioning in life. A simple example would be people that are extremely ordered. if something gets out of place,Rudy FernandezLike organizing a spice rack or whatever…Dr. Marni BenderYes, exactlyRudy FernandezAnd what kind of things are they avoiding?Dr. Marni BenderIt can be seeing people. It can be taking care of their health, dealing with their personal finances, people tend to start getting into financial trouble... They don't want to pay attention to it. So they either ignore it and just start incurring lots of debt. Or they will almost go to the other extreme of like, I don't have a problem and spend willy nilly shopping and things like that.We're Missing Clear MessagingRudy FernandezYou brought up something that I've noticed. We are all still trying to feel around for what is the best way or what is a comfortable way to engage with friends, for example. We had some other friends over and we sat outside. When we went inside to get food, they came inside with us. It was awkward because we’re thinking, “there’s a reason we're in the heat.” So it's really trying to figure that out your social interactions, and you're right sometimes It's like, let's just avoid social interactions. And it's a weird balance right now.Full transcript here: https://creativeouthouse.com/anxiety-and-consumer-behavior/ Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

This episode contains mind-blowing insights into the Pharmaceutical industry, targeting HR managers, personalized healthcare marketing vs. privacy and a new term for you, “Monkey Math.” Whether you’re in marketing or not, this episode will be eye opening about the medicines you take and the unnecessary costs. Hey everyone. This is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. This conversation with Kyra Hagan is eye opening. For starters, she talks about how 25 – 30 cents of every dollar a company or organization spends on healthcare goes to pharmaceuticals. And many times, there’s what Kyra calls “monkey math”. So there’s a lot of waste. So how you do you get the message to people that there’s a problem and you can solve it? How has he new world of healthcare changed messaging and tactics? Well, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Kyra Hagan, Vice President of Marketing at RxBenefits. RxBenefits is a technology-based company that helps midsize employers get better pricing on prescriptions for their employees. Kyra has more than 20 years of healthcare IT experience and has a unique perspective on what's going on in the world of prescription drugs, and how mid-sized employers are managing that part of their coverage they offer their employees. We’re talking about that and how she engages her audiences, what's changed with the COVID crisis, and what she sees on the horizon.Rudy: So let's start with RxBenefits. Who exactly is your customer?Kyra: Well, RxBenefits actually has three customers. We partner with Employee Benefits Consultants, often called brokers, to bring an optimized pharmacy benefit to self-insured employers of all sizes. At the end of the day, we end up servicing the broker, the HR manager or the benefit leaders inside of that organization and all of the organizations’ employees and their family members, who we call members.Rudy: So what is the problem that RxBenefits solves for them?Kyra: Pharmacy is a critical benefit. It's highly utilized by employees, but it's also very costly. And I think today, about 25 - 30 cents of every healthcare dollar that an organization is spending on healthcare benefit is going to prescription drugs, with no sign of a slowdown. Unfortunately, not all of that spending is beneficial. A lot of dollars inside the system are wasted due to poorly negotiated pharmacy buying contracts, lack of clinical oversight and really poor customer value or poor customer service and explanation of the benefits. We exist to help employers bridge those gaps so they can balance the economic and the clinical value of the benefit. That tends to lower the overall cost of the pharmacy benefit by an average of about 26%.Rudy: That sounds like an easy sell. What kind of barriers could you possibly have that if you say, we're trying to lower your cost for pharmaceuticals, your cost per employee or however you measure that, right?Kyra: Unfortunately, there's a false perception in the marketplace from HR leaders that lowering cost in the Pharmacy Benefits means lowering coverage. View the rest of the transcript and show notes at: https://creativeouthouse.com/pharmaceutical-savings/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone. This is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. At Creative Outhouse we create brilliant content and integrated marketing campaigns. Just go to Creative Outhouse.com and click on Creative Work if you don’t believe me. This episode with Kathryn Smith of MedShape is really enlightening. MedShape supplies foot and ankle surgeons with advanced devices for surgeries. Most ortho procedures were stopped for a few months. So who would have a better overall picture of how that’s starting to pick up than the people who supply the materials for surgery? And their customers are primarily Doctors. So I wanted to hear what’s changed in terms of how to market to an audience that’s always part of the marketing mix in healthcare. I learned a lot talking to Katherine and you will too. So enjoy. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.My guest today is Kathryn Smith, Director of Marketing for MedShape. Kathryn holds a doctorate in Bioengineering from Georgia Tech. So I have a lot of questions about that career path. She’s been with MedShape for more than nine years. MedShape makes advanced medical devices using foot and ankle surgeries. The COVID-19 crisis brought about 80% of medical procedures to a halt, and foot and ankle surgeries are among those procedures. We’re going to talk about marketing in this environment and what it looks like moving forward. Transcript:From Bio-engineering to MarketingRudy: So, first question is personal. What stands out to me is you have a PhD in Bioengineering. And now you’re a Director of Marketing. So tell me about that journey.Kathryn: I think that’s the number one question I get all the time. I got my PhD in Bioengineering. I started with MedShape after I graduated, working on the R&D side, actually as a Postdoc, which is a typical position. After you get your PhD you go on to do further research and publish. MedShape is a unique company in that we’re very research focused, for our size. We probably have more PhDs on staff than a typical medical device company. And so I started out doing benchtop research around our products, collecting data to publish. So I started working more with our surgeons or surgeon customers on these studies, spending more time out in the field in surgeries. As we started to launch more products and helping train the surgeons on the products and then get feedback for our pipeline. That eventually transitioned into a marketing role. I started out as a marketing associate, and then have been the marketing director for about 6 years now.I didn’t know anything about marketing when I started. I’ve definitely learned a lot along the way. What I have learned is, marketing medical devices is very similar to being a researcher. If you’re a scientist, you’re collecting data and then you’re trying to figure out how best to tell the story around your data. Be it in a presentation or conference presentation or in a paper and marketing medical devices or marketing in general is the same thing. You’re crafting the story around your products. And given my technical background, I think that’s definitely proven to be beneficial for me and the technical nature of our products to be able to understand the data around it and then be able to figure out how to effectively communicate it to our customers.View the full transcript and images at: https://creativeouthouse.com/orthopedic-surgeonsSupport the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. This mini episode will launch our new healthcare series. We all know that the COVID crisis has been devastating to providers. We’re going to talk about that in these episodes, but the crisis has also accelerated some much needed change. We’re going to talk about that, too. Most importantly I’m going to talk about where marketing for providers has been and where it needs to go. Most providers have marketing departments full of expert strategists and brilliant communicators. But for too long they are treated like order takers. Well, marketing folks, this is your time to shine and show what you can do. Because we are entering a new era in healthcare communications and the providers who are going to succeed moving forward will be the ones who embrace the new world in which marketing plays a vital role. It’s time for the marketing departments to demonstrate what they can do. And what that is, in many instances is as important as what the medical folks do. Yup I said that. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Before I begin, here’s a quick plug if healthcare and healthcare marketing is your bag, like mine check out some previous healthcare episodes, like our conversation about Public Health Marketing with Jana Thomas, our talk about the consumerization of healthcare with Miranda Madar and the two great episodes on role of providers in communities with the CMO of Bon Secours Mercy Health, Sandra Mackey (Part 1 and Part 2). You can find those at creativeouthouse.com/podcast. So let’s get started.I’ve been involved healthcare marketing for all of my career. And It is by far the most fascinating category. I love it. No industry goes through more changes, touches more lives, or has the that crazy mix of science and emotion two things you need for great creative, than healthcare.Upheaval has been the norm in healthcare for the last several years. I would say it was in crisis before the crisis, and frankly providers were resistant to change. And then, COVID hit, and the healthcare industry found itself in uncharted waters, in a fog… with sea monsters everywhere…. And a hole in the boat. I think I’ve extended that metaphor a little too far.With providers struggling with how to get their procedures going and trying to figure out how they will proceed operationally, a lot of them think this is not the time to be marketing. But I’d like to challenge that notion. In fact this is exactly the time. First let’s talk about what’s going on.Contact Us - www.creativeouthouse.comI’m ready to see marketing within provider organizations take a bigger role and not only improve the patient volume, but the patient health and well-being as well. If you are, too, reach out to us and let’s talk. Full transcript & images at: https://creativeouthouse.com/future-of-healthcare-marketing/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Health messaging is part of every brand's communication now. So how do we develop campaigns with behavior change messaging to promote public health? How do we speak to people's minds and hearts? To get them to do what's best for them, even when they'd rather not? Learn more here. Hey folks, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. With COVID-19, health messaging is part of every brand's communication now. So how do we develop messaging that encourages healthy behaviors?How do we speak to people's minds and hearts?To get them to do what's best for them, even when they'd rather not?How do we keep COVID-19 from becoming an all-out political war on messaging?In this episode Jana Leigh Thomas from Porter Novelli and I talk about this. At Creative Outhouse we've worked with Porter Novelli on public health campaigns for a long, long time for the CDC, health associations and hospitals. Health is an emotionally charged topic and it's one of our specialties. Because we specialize in creative that's not only powerful, but is based on the science of human behavior and behavior change.This is an important episode, so check it out. And let us know what you think here: Creativeouthouse.com/contact-us.Jana Thomas on Public HealthWelcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Jana Leigh Thomas , Executive Vice President at Porter Novelli , Jana is an expert in public policy, particularly when it comes to public health and behavior change. For most of her 20+ year career, Jana has worked on public health initiatives from a local, national, global scale. We've worked together on many public health projects that influence behavior, and we're going to talk about one of those today. Public Health communications seems like a good topic in the middle of a pandemic. In this episode we cover:Public Health Messaging for Consumer CampaignsInformation is Not MotivationBehavior Change and ValuesThe Story We Tell OurselvesCreative Outhouse Case Study: Autism Awareness Campaign - https://creativeouthouse.com/project/cdc-learn-the-signs-act-early/Messaging for Healthcare ProvidersChanging the Narrative for Behavior ChangeLeadership During COVID-19Public Health MessagingBehavior Change Marketing OmniChannel MarketingThe Branding of Schitt's CreekCheck our website to see images, transcripts and detailed show notes from each episode: www.creativeouthouse.com/podcastRead the full transcript for this episode at: https://creativeouthouse.com/public-health-behavior-changeNeed help with your marketing creative or integrated marketing campaign? Email us at info@creativeouthouse.com.Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey folks, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. So how you been?Yeah, me too. But hey, here’s a positive observation about the last two months. Look how fast the world took action. And not just leaders. But all of us. We united and took action together on a dime. Everyone’s behavior changed because it was the right thing to do. That’s just one of the observations from my guest, John J. Wall. He has some great insights into what we’re all experiencing. He also shared some secrets about how to look at all that data you’re collecting.Before we start, I wrote a piece about improving your SEO and here’s the cool thing about it. I’m not an SEO expert. Okay, that’s not a good sell. Okay, here’s what I did. I wrote a piece using the basic rules of SEO that our advisors gave us. And in the process, the blog instructs you on how to write a piece that will improve your SEO, Get it? It’s meta, Whatever. It’s fun and informational. So check it out at CreativeOuthouse.com/blog. Anyway, you’re gonna love this conversation with the super insightful John J. Wall. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.John J. Wall on Digital MarketingMy guest is John J. Wall. John is a partner at Trust Insights, a marketing analytics and data company that helps marketers collect data and measure their digital marketing. John’s also the co host and producer of Marketing Over Coffee, one of the top marketing podcasts on the planet. John speaks frequently about machine learning and AI. And his podcast has been featured in Forbes API. One day when our podcast goes up, we want it to be just like his. So thanks for joining us, John.Why Words MatterSo I do want to talk about AI. But first I want to talk about a piece you wrote recently, called The Great Shutdown. It’s about the current COVID-19 health crisis. And you brought up this notion that words matter, and pointed out how we need to describe this economic downturn and how we describe it matters. Can you tell me more about that?John:Yeah, sure. And I’m so excited that you brought that up. There were two big things that hit me on that. One is that this downturn that we’re facing right now is really unique. It’s frightening and terrifying because it is an economic hit. And it’s kind of classic recession, and some people talking about depression. But there’s a change in that this is the first one of these that we’re going through that’s not caused by Wall Street shenanigans and greed. The last three or four of these have been the real estate market getting too greedy, the savings and loans not being smart enough to save themselves. It’s all the way back to the depression, which was just, you know, pyramid scheme stocks. This time, we’ve decided that we’re going to try and save lives, and we’re going to shut things down to help people survive and get through this. So that struck me is really unique.Read the rest at: https://creativeouthouse.com/find-the-story-in-data/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey folks, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In this episode we're going to talk about consumerism in healthcare marketing. Here's how fast things have changed. Richard Schwartz, who's a brilliant healthcare strategist, told me that he often types in the beginning of statements into Google to see what people are searching for. Whenever he would type in the phrase "doctors are", he would get words like overpaid, overrated, quacks, lots of negative. Do that now, and the first option that appears is "heroes". That's one thing about healthcare. You don't appreciate it until you really, really need it. So a salute to those folks out there risking their lives for us. Sorry it took this for us to really appreciate you.We recorded this episode with Miranda Madar a few weeks ago. In the top part, we talked about consumerism in healthcare and how healthcare and marketing need to improve the patient experience and go beyond just telling people how great they are. We also talked about women in leadership roles and Miranda has some really good things to say. It's a great conversation. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Chief Marketing Officer at Resurgens OrthopedicsThanks for listening to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Miranda Madar, the Chief Marketing Officer at Resurgens Orthopedics, the largest orthopedic practice in the southeast. Miranda has an impressive consumer marketing background. She has held both agency and client side roles, and has worked on several award winning campaigns across multiple categories. She was previously the global communications manager at the Coca Cola company, and was recently honored as a Hall of Fame woman to watch in medical marketing and media. We're going to talk about consumerism in healthcare, and the changing landscape of women in leadership.Consumerism in Healthcare: Is it a Consumer Product?Rudy: I want to start with healthcare marketing and consumerization. The trend in healthcare has been towards consumerism to treat it more like a consumer product. And it's been going on for a few years with ratings online consumers being more active in the decision. Have you respond to this?Miranda: Some of the main challenges that I see is, you know, we often say we're not selling widgets. So we can't have flash sales or bogos, or even create impulse buying moments. We have to hope that people injured themselves or that their pain becomes unbearable enough for them to seek out treatment. That's really pretty morbid.So there's also that unspoken, but very relatable barrier of confusion around insurance, with so many health plans and referral requirements, rising premiums, all of that, that they have to deal with, and sort through. People are afraid to go to the doctor, particularly if it's something that could be elective. Something that they don't really need but they probably should have, or if it can take them out of work for a long period of time. You know, it's just maybe not worth the effort or they just don't want to go through the trouble of exploring their options. And buying a product or buying a Coke for example, just doesn't seem that hard. Plus, you get that instant satisfaction wheras healthcare is a really long term investment.Full transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/04/22/consumerism-in-healthcare/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey folks, it’s another week of uncertainty and not great news. If ever we needed a holiday like April 20th, it would be this year. It's cannabis day. And even for those of us who don't partake, it may be a good day to just raise a glass or do whatever you do to relax just for a little while. The cannabis industry is truly unique is history, how it is regulated, the stigmas and perceptions. There's just nothing like it. Johnathan McFarlane has been a pioneer navigating these unexplored waters. He shares a lot about this booming multi-billion dollar industry that's just getting started. You're going to get a lot out of this episode. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Johnathan McFarlane, Director of Strategy at Hybrid Marketing, a Colorado based marketing agency that specializes in the cannabis industry. Johnathan has a digital marketing background and also worked client-side as a CMO for a cannabis related manufacturer in Canada. We're going to talk about the cannabis industry. Read the full transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/04/14/cannabis-industry-brand-marketing/Listen for more insights on:The Unique Cannabis IndustryMarketing in the Cannabis IndustryMarketing RestrictionsSocial media and cannabis marketingOptimizing creative marketing tacticsFederal legality of cannabisOperational challengesCannabis industry growthCannabis Target AudiencesTarget Audience: Senior CitizensCannabis vs. opioid useMedicinal use vs. recreationCannabis vs. Alcohol useBehavior change marketing in the cannabis industryCannabis industry stereotypesThe pothead stigmaCreative marketing strategiesChanging minds about cannabisBrand differentiation in the cannabis industryUnique characteristics of cannabis productsCannabis and Inbound MarketingTarget Audiences: Bud TendersTarget Audience: Amateur vs. AficianadoMarketing in a new nicheRestrictions lead to creative thinkingIf you liked this episode, don't hog it, pass it around, share it with friends. That's what it's for. Check out Hybrid Marketing and hybridmarketingco.com or Johnathan McFarlane at his LinkedIn profile. You can find out more at CreativeOuthouse.com/podcast along with our previous episodes. Thanks to Susan Cooper for producing the show. To Gopal Swamy for creating our earcon and to Jason Shablik for always taking my calls when I have an audio question. And to you for listening and having such great taste in podcasts. Well, that's it for this episode of Marketing Upheaval. And remember, if the current state of marketing has you confused, don't worry. It will all change. See ya.Visit: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/04/14/cannabis-industry-brand-marketing/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

We're in another week of this paused world waiting to see what the future might bring. Today Jay Acunzo joins our show. Jay runs Marketing Showrunners and creates a lot of great content. It's especially appropriate now becuase none of us knows exactly what the "after" of all this will look like. And when you're in uncharted territory, that's when you need creative thinking. You need to ask the right questions that will inform smart decisions. And you need to remember and stay true to timeless principles rather than tactics and trends. Jay talks about all that. I wrote a short piece on it, here: Kickstart Your Creative Thinkinghttps://creativeouthouse.com/2020/04/07/kickstart-creative-thinking/Also on our website, you can find a free creative brief template to get you started on any project: Creative Brief Templatehttps://creativeouthouse.com/free-creative-brief-template/Creativity solves problems and finds opportunities. And now is the time to get your creative minds going and make things that will make a difference. And this week's guest is a perfect person to talk to you about it. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. I’m really excited to talk to Jay Acunzo. I've learned a lot just from the enormous amount of fantastic content he generates. Jay is the founder of runs Marketing Showrunners that teaches marketers how to make their own branded podcasts and video series. Before that Jay has been a leader at Google, ESPN, HubSpot and NextView, and started with just one podcast called Unthinkable. Now he produces six different series with hundreds of thousands of downloads. He's a sought-after speaker on marketing and has written a book called Breaking the Wheel. I've been looking forward to this conversation. Great Marketing isn’t about who arrives. It’s about who stays.Rudy Fernandez: Thanks for joining us, Jay. You create a lot of content. Do you even sleep?Jay: No, I would say no, but for a different reason. And that I have a one year old.Rudy: Yeah, I can't believe how much great stuff you put out. And it's all it's all varied topics. But you have one consistent mantra, and that is great marketing isn't about who you attract. It's about who stays. Tell me about that philosophy Jay: I think we're living through a really interesting time. I don't know if this is a shift in reality or shifting our thinking or both. But the shift is marketing used to focus entirely on grabbing attention. Read the rest of the transcript at https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/04/08/create-better-content-better-brand/ Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, I hope you're all saying healthy and safe. I'm thinking a lot about the people who are sick, and the people who are on the front lines. I also know a lot of healthcare workers and people who work at grocery stores who are on the front lines, and I'm reaching out to them daily to see if there's any way I can make their lives easier right now. And like you, were all sitting around wondering what the world is going to look like moving forward. So stay tuned for that. And this episode we recorded at the end of February, just when we were all realizing the magnitude of all this. It's a special episode for me, and I think it will be for all of you. Jeff Silverman is a marketing consultant and an ad hoc CMO. And we'll talk more on that later. Jeff is one of those people who always has a laser sharp insight into things happening in the marketing world. He and I talk a lot and every time we do, I've learned something. And I usually think ah, I should be recording this. So I finally did. And in this episode, we talked about the trends of consultancies and agencies. That's something you ought to listen to. Jeff even wrote a fantastic piece on it. You can review it for free on our website. It has data to back up his ideas. Jeff also talked about the changing roles of CMOs and what agencies must do to survive. You're gonna love this episode. I know I did. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval by Creative Outhouse.Read “Consultants vs. Agencies: Who Will Prevail?”Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Jeff Silverman, Principal of Silverman 1 Consulting. Jeff has had a long and successful career as a strategist and brand expert, and his work with every kind of company from Global 2000 to startups. He's also seen the client and agency side. Jeff has worked inside organizations as an ad hoc CMO, and he's someone I turned to, when I need to know what's happening out there. His insights are usually different than most people's I talked to. Also, he's usually right. Today we're going to talk about agencies versus consultancies and the future of CMOs. Thanks for joining me, Jeff. Rudy:So the first thing we've talked a lot about is the changing nature of marketing. And we both grew up in a traditional ad agency culture, and structure. So let's start there. You've worked on both sides, agency and client. So what are the general trends you see on the agency side?Jeff:When you look at the United States, everybody in his brother can be in the agency business. There are 14-15,000 advertising agencies and as many as 40,000 marketing service firms. When you count things like media buying companies, PR firms, digital shops, it's a category where there's only now organic growth, that's kind of the equivalent to CPI. It grows 1-2% a year. Maybe a little bit more when you count in digital, but digital is still now low growth. It's become more commoditized than ever. Because most all these agencies are still chasing, you'd say the same type of client mix with the same service offering and procurement on the client side. They're great at negotiating agencies down in terms of their rates, their compensation, there's no more margin left in the business. And one of the challenges I think, for agencies is, it's very difficult for them to invest in innovation to develop new offerings. Full transcript here. Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. I’ve been trying to figure out what to compare this pandemic to some other event for context and I can’t find one. this new territory for all of us. And like you I don’t know what’s next or what the other side of this looks like. All I know to do is keep moving forward. Keep doing the things I know how to do and look for ways I can use what I do to make other people’s lives better. No, there’s no blueprint on how to move forward in terms of business. But there are some things you can do to make sure your brand weathers this storm and continues to serve your employees and customers. I’ve written a document entitled "Branding in a Time of Disruption" that you can read for free on our site. I think you’ll find it helpful I Ling Matthews Thompson is herself a force of nature. She's the SVP and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at the Trust for Public Land. Her passion for the outdoors and what they mean to communities is evident in our conversation. Here's a clip about getting inner city children access to more parks. See Trust for Public Land's tips for getting outside during this COVID-19 crisis here: https://www.tpl.org/blog/itching-head-outside-read-firstWelcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is I Ling Matthews Thompson, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at the Trust For Public Land. I Ling has also held leadership positions at the Nature Conservancy and The Outdoor Industry Association. A good part of her career has been in getting more people to have access to parks and recreation, and getting our representatives to support that. We're going to talk about how to get more people to go outside and have more places to enjoy the outdoors.Transcript:Rudy: Let's start with the Trust for Public Land. They create parks and protect land for people. So how do they do that?I Ling: Yeah, the Trust for Public Land has been around for about 47 years and one of the mainstays of our mission has been about connecting people to the outdoors by creating parks or open spaces, trails, protecting large scale forests and areas where people can get outside. Fast forward 47 years, we actually go into communities and create parks and open spaces. We are looking at how we can find open spaces and parks, in urban environments where real estate is at a premium and you can't really shoehorn in a park. So we're getting creative and we're looking at school yards that right now are barren asphalt. And we're working with school districts to transform those school yards into green vibrant areas where kids can play and the surrounding community is able to come out and enjoy those spaces. And we also work on creating access in some iconic national parks. ....So we do some pretty cool stuff. Yeah, I have to say, I'm excited to be here and be part of this mission.Read the full transcript: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/03/25/how-to-support-nature-and-boost-healthy-communities/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Jason Marraccini and Nicole Wheeler from Treehorn Cider join us to share their triumphs and setbacks of starting a hard cider business while keeping their marketing jobs. Their journey includes how they learned to pivot and uncover their true brand voice.Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. I want to start by saying thank you to all our listeners. We have listeners in big cities like Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, but also St. Francis, Kansas and Boardman, Oregon. And thank you to our international listeners in Germany, France, Israel, and even a handful of listeners in Tunisia. Thanks for listening, everyone. But now we want to hear from you. We want to know what you think of the show. What else you'd like to hear? Which episodes had the biggest impact? So Email us at info@creativeouthouse.com. So let's start the show. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guests are Jason Marraccini and Nicky Wheeler, founding partners of Treehon Cider in Marietta, Georgia. Both have had successful marketing careers and then a few years ago decided hey, why don't we make a cider? Treehorn is still early on in its growth but it's fanbase is growing. We're here to talk about marketing a new product in a new category, the booze business and what it takes to turn an idea into a company all while keeping your day job. Also, we're going to drink some hard apple cider. So welcome, folks. Thank you.So how did you go from thinking, "hey, this might be a neat idea" to "we're going to do this"?Jason Marraccini: When we tell the story. I like to say that it's my wife's fault. So my wife, Davina who who works for the EPA was at a sustainable small business conference in Asheville. And one of the presenting small businesses was a hard cider operation. When she came back and we were just kind of debriefing after the kids were in bed, she was just really taken with, you know, what a cool, business model. Cider was kind of taking off, small footprint, very, obviously, because she's with the EPA, you know, the eco-friendly end of it is important. But we got to talking about it. And then we went out to dinner and over a few bottles of wine with friends of ours who ended up being our business partners, just really couldn't get the ideas out of our head that ciders taking off. We have apple crop in Georgia. Nobody's doing it yet, but it seems like a hot market segment. And we bounce it off some, some friends of ours in the restaurant industry, and they all seem to agree that like, wow, yeah, if there was a local product, it would do really, really well, just on the basis of being local, even if it wasn't, I hate to say that. But even if it wasn't great, yeah, and obviously, that's very important to us that it is a great product.Rudy: It is a great product, by the way, I'm drinking it.Jason: But yeah, that's kind of where the idea came from. And then it sort of got momentum. From there, we put together a business plan. We went and looked for some outside investment money, which we raised, in the grand scheme of things, pretty quickly. I feel like I mean, probably over the course of like four or five months, and then off we went.Read the full Transcript and see behind the scenes images here: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/03/18/a-craft-cider-pivots-and-finds-its-brand-voice/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Husani Oakley, Chief Technology Officer of Deutsch joins us to discuss how to create 21st century creative teams, the role of a technologist and how a diverse team is required for an agency’s survival.Deutsch’s newly-minted Chief Technology Officer, Husani Oakley joins Marketing Upheaval to talk about how to create truly innovative teams, the role of a technologist on creative teams and has a great internal communications case study for AB Inbev. Husani is a brilliant and engaging guy and we want thank him for letting Marketing Upheaval be the first to talk to him after the announcement of his new position. This was a terrific episode.Hey, thanks for listening. Before we begin the episode, I want to tell you all we have an affiliate partner, Buzzsprout. one of the first things we did when we started this podcast was sign up with Buzzsprout. It makes getting your podcast out into the world easy. Buzzsprout gets your podcasts on every major platform like Apple podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, all the rest. And they also have videos and tips on improving and promoting your podcast. Go follow link on the show notes for this episode or on our website, and if you sign up with Buzzsprout through that link, you get a $20 Amazon gift card. So check out Buzzsprout if you’re starting a podcast and you want the world to hear your voice. Buzzsprout will make that happen.This is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. This episode with Husani Oakley really answered some nagging questions in my mind about how to structure teams. There are skill sets from the past that are still valuable in trying to solve client problems. But also a lot of times they're not enough. Husani has created teams for the 21st century by going outside of our industry to create something that feels absolutely right for our modern world. I learned a lot from talking to him and I think you will too. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Husani Oakley, the newly minted Chief Technology Officer at Deutsch, New York. Husani has founded startups, been Director of Technology at Wieden + Kennedy and others. He has been director of a dance studio, and to the White House to talk about LGBTQ and Tech has a background in music and along the way has helped brands like Nike, ESPN, InBev, Siemens, Delta and Target create innovative Technology. You know, just a regular guy. So as you might expect, we have a lot to cover. So thank you for joining me, Husani.View the full transcript, images and shownotes at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/03/02/husani-oakley-chief-technology-officer-of-deutsche/Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey, everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. If you're in marketing, Sharon Toerek is someone you want on your side. She's an attorney who specializes in legal challenges Marketing Agencies run into. For example, she talks about the kinds of legal documents you should have ready to go anytime you pitch or approach a new client, and where people in marketing make their biggest mistakes. This episode will make you ask questions like, “Hmm, if a freelancer does work for me, who owns that work?” Well, you know, if you don't have your legal agreements in order, you won't like the answer to that question. Sharon is also the host of the Innovative Agency Podcast, where she talks to the heads of agencies about the trends they see coming. As someone who's an expert in our industry without actually being in it, Sharon gives a unique point of view on what she sees happening. We'll check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is , Sharon Toerek, founder of Toerek Law in Cleveland, Ohio, and host of the Innovative Agency Podcast. Sharon is an attorney who specializes in helping marketing and advertising people with legal issues such as intellectual property, social marketing, compliance, vendor relationship contracts and so on. Her podcast helps agency heads answer the question: What's next? And I was a guest on her podcast. So I'm very excited to turn the tables and ask her some questions. So thanks for joining me here.Sharon: It's my pleasure. Yes, nice to be on this side of the microphone.Rudy: So you're an attorney, but why the specialization in marketing?Read the full transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/02/19/sharon-toerek-of-legal-creative-on-intellectual-property/Hey, thanks for listening. Before we begin the episode, I want to tell you all we have an affiliate partner, Buzzsprout. one of the first things we did when we started this podcast was sign up with Buzzsprout. It makes getting your podcast out into the world easy. Buzzsprout gets your podcasts on every major platform like Apple podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, all the rest. And they also have videos and tips on improving and promoting your podcast. So if you’re thinking shoot, if he can do a podcast I can too well, you’re right. Go follow link on the show notes for this episode or on our website, and if you sign up with Buzzsprout through that link, you get a $20 Amazon gift card. So check out Buzzsprout if you’re starting a podcast and you want the world to hear your voice. Buzzsprout will make that happen.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

David Lemley, founder of Retail Voodoo joins us to discuss retail and Better For You Brands. A pioneer in retail with a purpose, talks about the upsurge in healthier products and how to create a brand for long-term success.Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. On this episode I spoke with David Lemley, the Founder and Chief Strategist at Retail Voodoo, the brand building firm that focuses on the Better For You category. It's a category that's just boomed over the last few years as consumers look for healthier ways of eating and living. David's worked with big brands like Starbucks and REI and Kind Bars to name a few. And he really digs in deep to figure out what it takes to build a strong and lasting brand. He outlines his systematic approach in his book, Beloved & Dominant Brands. It's a thoughtful analysis and process. You can find a link to it on our website with this podcast. So you're ready to learn some valuable stuff with David Lemley. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is David Lemley, president of Retail Voodoo, a retail brand building firm that focuses on the Better For You category. David has helped some well known brands become well, well known. He worked with a team to help Starbucks go from 800 stores to infinity.He's worked with REI, Nike Town, Kind Bars and many others. Retail is one of those worlds where sales transactions are King. But David is a pioneer in retail with a purpose. He's an expert in retail brands that have great sales, but also improve lives. His book, beloved dominant brands touches on that and we're going to talk about today. For complete transcripts, images and detailed shownotes for this episode, click:https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/02/05/david-lemley-founder-of-retail-voodoo-on-retail-and-better-for-you-brands/Hey, thanks for listening. Before we begin the episode, I want to tell you all we have an affiliate partner, Buzzsprout. one of the first things we did when we started this podcast was sign up with Buzzsprout. It makes getting your podcast out into the world easy. Buzzsprout gets your podcasts on every major platform like Apple podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, all the rest. And they also have videos and tips on improving and promoting your podcast. So if you're thinking shoot, if he can do a podcast I can too well, you're right. Go follow link on the show notes for this episode or on our website, and if you sign up with Buzzsprout through that link, you get a $20 Amazon gift card. So check out Buzzsprout if you're starting a podcast and you want the world to hear your voice. Buzzsprout will make that happen.Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Katrin Zimmermann, Managing Director of TLGG joins us to discuss the future of our digital world. Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. Katrin Zimmermann is the managing director of TLGG Consulting in New York, a strategic digital consulting agency. But more than that, she's someone who really understands the overall landscape of digitization. Our conversation was about what we can all expect to see in the ever-changing digital world. There are a couple of times in the conversation where I was just blown away, especially when she talked about privacy issues. We also talked about trends and counter trends, and how she started the Innovation Hub at Lufthansa. I really enjoyed the conversation and you will to check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.My guest is Katrin Zimmermann, the managing director of TLGG Consulting in New York, a strategic digital consulting agency. Katrin is an expert at identifying disruptive trends in the digital space and is somewhat of a disrupt herself. She was formerly at Lufthansa, where she co-founded their Innovation Hub. We're going to talk about digital disruption, the future of digitization, and what that means for how companies engage with customers. We’ll talk about AI and whether or not any of us will have jobs after this. Thanks for joining me, Katrin.Since you're in this every day, what do you see as the biggest disruptive trends in the marketplace? And how are they going to change the way you reach potential customers and engage with existing customers?Katrin:I think one of the biggest trends that we're seeing that are being disruptive, is definitely the "what" and the "how" regarding data. And I know that that is a bit of a theme for a while now. But there's very few who have figured it out. If we connect the different data lakes or data buckets that we having within organizations but also across traditional boundaries, to create new types of interaction, new types of personalization, new types of individualization to optimize for convenience and values of different stakeholder groups that we are addressing. But it's also about the how we are doing this. Many organizations, many cities and even governments are struggling, of how this new opportunity comes about how we’re protecting consumers? How we’re allowing them to, you know, experience new opportunities? This trend is one that will define us for a while and will lead to some society discussion on how we want to treat this. Just recently, there was some legal discussion about, facial recognition laws and what is being allowed in the US. We have a rise in some protection discussion, and that we see to see consumers being protected, that is definitely one. And then every trend has a counter trend and whereas a data enables us to have great experiences through technology with companies and between each other, etc, etc. That's also the counter trend of a need and the wish and a hope for more human interaction. And so I see that is something on the rise where the impact and the destructiveness of that trend is yet to be seen.Complete show notes and transcript available at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/01/22/katrin-zimmermann-managing-director-of-tlgg-on-marketing-digitization/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Thanks for joining us for Season 2 of Marketing Upheaval. In this episode our founder and host, Rudy Fernandez shares his point of view on the marketing landscape from the abundance of invisible creative to the over-thinking a brand. If you like what he has to say, drop us a line or contact us on our website - www.creativeouthouse.comHey everyone, it's 2020. That's fun to say. Anyway, I hope you had a chance to listen to our guests from 2019. I can tell you I learned a lot from them. In fact, I can point to at least one piece of business we won. By using the knowledge we gained from our guests. I can also tell you that I steal some of their lines in meetings, and it makes me sound very smart. So let's get going with what we hope to see change in 2020.Well, we're calling this episode "what to look out for in 2020". Yeah, it's not terribly original is it? Which brings me to the first thing to look out for. And this is something that I hope will change. Let me tell you story. I went to a conference last year, and I saw something that exemplified what I don't like about where marketing is going. You know, like you I'm equally fascinated and confused by our changing world. A lot of changes a great. Some, not so much. Anyway, I was at this conference, and one presenter showed to digital ads for a nursing degree. One had a photo with a blue filter and a smiling hospital worker with the headline, "Advance your nursing career.” The other had a different hospital worker with a blue tinted photo, and a headline that said, “Online MSN in nursing.”And he grinned and he asked the audience, “Which of these ads do you think performed better?” People shouted their theories for one or the other. “The one on the right, it's more targeted!” “The one on the left shows more diversity!” Meanwhile, all I could think was, “They're both equally boring.” I just see it too often: invisible, creative. It's not horrible. It's just nothing. It has no point of view, no human connection. It's just a data point of stock shot and an hour of someone who has Adobe suites time. What causes it? I think fear, fear and the wrong idea of how to use data. The fear? That's obvious, it comes from the fact that marketing jobs from the CMO down aren't always the most secure jobs in the world. A lot of times people operate in this state of fear. And when you're in a state of fear, all your decisions are going to be risk averse. If you work for an agency, you know what I'm talking about, how many times have you been trying to get work approved, and your client is making decisions exclusively based on what she thinks her boss might like? And she's scared of her boss. Has that situation ever brought about a groundbreaking piece of communication? Rather than make a judgment call, we try to justify decisions by throwing out numbers. That's in case someone asks why they made a certain decision. They can say it wasn't me it was the numbers. Of course you need data to make a smart decision. I'm not saying that. These days, we don't just use data we hide behind it. Like that guy who thought that because one boring ad did 10% better than the other boring ad that it was a great ad. It wasn't, it was crap. The truth is will never have the actual data you need. What's it going to take for everyone that I want to buy this thing that I'm selling? We're never going to know exactly. Read the rest on our website: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/01/08/rudy-fernandez-host-founder-creative-outhouse-on-2020-outlook/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. What a pleasure it was to speak with Xenia Muntean, the CEO of Planable. It's a content review and marketing collaboration platform. She had some sharp insights into how companies need to rethink how they get their social media content done. Like let's face it, social media can continue to be handled in a loose way. It's officially reached the grownup stage and requires the same type of processes and review is more established media and Xenia had some smart thoughts and solutions to that. I enjoyed her thinking and the conversation you will to check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Rudy Fernandez 0:47 Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Xenia Muntean, co founder of Planable, a social media collaboration and approval platform for agencies and large brands. She was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2019. She frequently speaks about social media content trends, including at Cannes. Xenia, is an expert on creating social media programs and has a lot of insights into content distribution and collaboration and how it could be better. So this is gonna be a great conversation. Thanks for joining me.Xenia Muntean 1:19 Well, thank you so much for inviting me as well. I'm excited to do this.Rudy 1:23 Well, first thing, before we talk about Planable, and social media content, you've had just, I think, an extraordinary meteoric career. I think you started your first social media company when you were still at university, I believe.Xenia 1:39 Yeah, that was an agency. So we're doing a lot of social media content production for our brands, and I started it during my second year of university.Rudy 1:48 So you started in Moldova, where you're from? And then went to Romania. And now it's just, it's just taken off.Xenia 1:58 Yeah, your research is very much on point.Rudy 2:01 Congratulations. So do you find that your age is a benefit when you approach new business? Xenia 2:11 Yeah, that's a good question. I think, you know, in the beginning, I was thinking that people are going to oppose more to talking with me because I'm very young. I don't think it hurts anything. Because I'm building a software company. We are social media marketers, they are young as well. So I think it's even better. I think it helps. Because we're on the same page. You know, we are millenials. We don't like to work in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office. You know, we - they can resonate with me and my mission at Planable.Rudy 2:48 Yeah, that's right. I think the younger generations have a much better handle on it. Xenia 2:52 Yeah, I agree. Yeah.Rudy 2:54 So tell listeners about Planable. Just so they know a little bit more about the company and what it does. Xenia 2:59 So I started Planable, as you mentioned, after I had my own Social Media Marketing Agency, and I started the company together with my co founders, because all of us worked in the industry. And we were, frankly, a bit frustrated with how everyone was working in the industry. For the people that are not very familiar with how social media content planning happens....For the complete transcript and show notes, visit: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/12/18/xenia-muntean-founder-ceo-of-planable/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In this episode we talked about creating a brand framework with Ed Farley. He knows a bit about that since he's lead branding for global brands like Anheuser Busch and Humana, United Way and Edelman Financial, four totally different industries. But the approach to create a strong global brand remains the same and eat, whether it's beer or insurance or financial services. He talks about creating a brand framework and how to balance the art and science when you're building your story. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Ed Farley, the global brand strategist who has been head of branding for huge brands like United Way, Humana and Anheuser Busch and has managed brands that extend across the US and around the world. And we're going to talk about that and what it takes to do that. Well, thanks for joining me, Ed, really excited to have you on the podcast.Ed Farley: Hey, it's great to be here. Thanks.Rudy: So you've seen marketing from a big global point of view. And obviously, you've seen these brands evolve over time. Often we talk about what's changed in marketing. But there are some things that have to stay true in terms of branding. And given your your scope and your understanding of branding. What do you think some things are, some elements that ought not change in order to have a strong brand?Ed: It's an interesting question, because for industries, as you had mentioned, I constantly needed to walk around and in re-educate folks with whom I work on what is brand strategy, right? It's not branding, it's a strategy but doesn't need to change is the idea that you need a strategy to inform great work, great messaging, great consumer experience. And that's really all about a disciplined approach to create a brand strategy. And so what I would encourage everyone to do is think about how that strategy gets created and what kind of rigor and discipline goes into that strategy.Rudy: When you say, you have to maintain that rigor to go into brand strategy, what are the some of the steps to make that happen?Ed: A lot of people are talking about purpose-driven brand strategy. And that's important because reality of that is that in today's global marketplace, we've shifted from business to consumer marketing to consumer to business B to C to B to C to B. And so brands are now engaged in daily conversations with consumers who demand experiences on their own terms, and influence others to buy or not to buy. It has an impact on products and services and sales channel partners. And we've really got to remember that it all begins with a story, a story that has meaning and it resonates with audiences with whom you want to do business. You've got to establish the context of your brand strategy. And that requires some evaluation. The first type of evaluation that I would suggest is to understand your own perspective. Understand your own legacy, your history, get your stakeholder and leadership input into your brand strategy, understand your unified ambition, and your mission and vision and values....To see the rest of the transcript, images and show notes, visit: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/12/11/ed-farley-global-brand-transformation-strategist/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. This is Part Two with Sandra Mackey, the Chief Marketing Officer of Bon Secours Mercy Health, a large nonprofit hospital system that’s in seven states. We’re entering a whole new era of hospital business and hospital marketing. And these two episodes address them. In Episode Two, we talked about how hospitals can become the Center for Community Health, what competition from companies like Walmart will mean and how you can use marketing to improve patient experience. And of course, how you do all this while maintaining patient privacy. Anyway, check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Rudy Fernandez 0:51 What do you think are some major changes in terms of how a brand like let’s say Bon Secours Mercy Health brands itself? What’s changed? In terms of how you engage people with that brand,Sandra Mackey 1:04 So Bon Secours Mercy Health is the parent company of two brands that sit underneath it. One is Bons Secours. The other one is Mercy Health. And so we look at sort of the individual attributes that those two brands bring. And again, we start with research and understanding what drives consumers. What are their current perceptions? And where do we have an opportunity to influence those perceptions of services that are provided by the health system. And so for starting there, and truly unpacking the things that drive consumers, it helps us to market to consumers in a way that is about engagement, rather than what we think they want to hear that will move the needle. And one example of that is I think, in the industry, it’s been a long recognized practice in the industry that there’s promotion of awards, “we’re the best in this”, “we’re the number one in that.” We don’t say one of how many, by the way – it could be one of a thousand.. Rudy Fernandez 2:09 Yes, no, the chest thumpy stuff. Yes.Sandra Mackey 2:12 Yeah, exactly. In the top three…of three. You know, there’s a lot of self promotion around the health system that has occurred over time that I think consumers have gotten used to, based on research that we’ve done, consumers express fatigue around that type of marketing. Because there are so many of those awards recognitions out there. And I think that consumers start to question what does that really mean? Does that translate to a better experience? You know, who’s taking these surveys? Lots of questions that come up in their mind. And at the end of the day, what we have learned from that type of research is that those awards and recognitions are more about the health system than they are about the consumer. We have a shift in that philosophy. And we have really, you know, taken a completely new direction in the way that we engage with consumers. And what a concept we actually talk about the consumer, not about ourselves. Yeah, we want to be able to demonstrate that we understand what their greatest needs are and where they’re coming from and what they have gone through before they get even come through the door. And so our approach to branding has really taken on more of a consumer voice, I’d say than then we’ve ever done within our health system.View the complete transcript, images and show notes at:https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/12/04/sandra-mackey-cmo-of-bon-secours-mercy-health-part-2/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. I love these two episodes with Sandra Mackey, the Chief Marketing Officer of Bon Secours Mercy Health, a large nonprofit hospital system that's in seven states. Now just for perspective, I read about healthcare, marketing and business for fun. So let that sink in for a minute. So for these two episodes, I recommend being late for work late picking up your kids, whatever you need to do to hear them. In this first episode, Sandra and I spoke about hospital consolidation and what that means for all of us and what that means in terms of marketing. We talked about how hospitals need to move more towards providing a continuum of health and what people treating healthcare the way they treat shopping for shoes means for marketing and hospitals. Our conversation was wonderful and actually a little weird for me. Let me explain. A few months ago, I presented to a small group of hospital marketing people my thoughts on the state of hospital business and marketing. I talked about how hospitals need to change dramatically from sick care to more platforms of health and how marketing can help them do that. It wasn't a very flattering talk. And at one point, I compared hospitals to going the way of Blockbuster Video unless they changed. And let's just say I didn't get a standing ovation. Anyway, when I spoke with Sandra, she was saying that her team is exploring many of those same thoughts, the ones I've been preaching to whomever would listen, she even made the Blockbuster Video comparison, which made me feel less crazy, and also gave me hope. The fact that this large hospital system is looking to a more robust future to serve people is exciting to me. Because with new technology, hospitals are in an ideal position to become so much more in the daily lives of the people they serve, and marketing could be core to that. Anyway, enough of all that, check out this episode. And welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Rudy:Hey, welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Sandra Mackey, the Chief Marketing Officer of Bon Secours Mercy Health, which is one of the country's largest healthcare organizations. They have 48 hospitals and serve people in seven states. Healthcare is a category that at Creative Outhouse we're pretty passionate about. And Sandra and I have worked together and known each other for a long, long time. So I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Thanks for joining us, Sandra.Sandra Mackey:Well, thank you, Rudy. It feels great to be back together again. It's been a long time. I'm thrilled to have been invited to join you on the show today.Rudy Fernandez:I think one of the industries that has had even more upheaval than marketing is healthcare, and you're at the center of both. So what are some of the huge changes taking place with regards to healthcare and healthcare marketing as it applies to let's say, hospital marketing? View the rest of the transcript, show notes and images at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/12/03/sandra-mackey-cmo-of-bon-secours-mercy-health-part-1-2/Check out our healthcare creative marketing case studies at: https://creativeouthouse.com/healthcare/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. It's Thanksgiving and we know a lot of our listeners will be enjoying time with their families, or if not enjoying at least you're spending time with your families. Anyway, you can hear our next guest next week. It's Sandra Mackey, Chief Marketing Officer of Bon Secours Mercy Health, a hospital, it's in seven states. And we really get into the future of healthcare and hospital marketing. So whether you're in healthcare, marketing, or ever plan to just use our healthcare system, check it out next week. This week, it's just me with some brief comments about what we've learned. And as a switch to our regular programming. I want to talk about what hasn't changed in terms of marketing. Let's go with the theme of what we're thankful for. It's appropriate for the holiday. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. A lot has changed in terms of marketing, but I'm most thankful for the one thing that hasn't changed. More on that in a few minutes. The first thing I'm grateful for is our guests, we released our 20th episode last week and man, we've talked about how customers have a deeper say in terms of brand, how people have lost faith in traditional institutions and why they're turning to brands to deliver their values. We talked about what's working and what isn't working in traditional PR and ad agencies. We learned about new technology and audience research. We learned about gaming music, higher education, food marketing, crisis, AI and martech, diversity and Inclusion, startups and 125 year old brands, B2B, B2C, and what happens when all these changes leave you looking for a job, and we're just getting started. So huge thanks to our guests, who have been so generous with their time and their brilliant insights. I've learned a lot from them. And if you haven't listened to all our episodes and want a little time away from your family, then go listen to some others. I guarantee you, each episode will give you something to take note of, it will open a new door in your mind. I know I'm better at my job because of our guests. I'm also grateful to our listeners. You know, when we started this, I admit, I had some pretty low expectations. I didn't know who was going listen to a marketing podcast. And what I'm seeing is, it's just amazing. We have listeners from around the world. Every week, we get more people subscribing, and sending us notes. It's just an extraordinary thing to see catch on and know that people are getting as much out of this as we are. You know, from what I've seen, our listeners and our guests have something in common. There are different types of people in the world. There are people who pretend to know things and maybe use jargon to hide the fact that they maybe don't know much. There are people who are afraid to ask questions because they're embarrassed because you know, you don't want to appear ignorant. Then there are other people, my people. People who don't know all the answers and there excited by that. I have a sense that our listeners fall into this group. And I know our guests do. Look at the list. They are CEOs, Presidents, CMOS, Founders - all brilliant and accomplished people. And you know what they have in common? They know a lot, because they're constantly asking questions. They're excited about the things they don't know yet. View the rest of the transcript, images and shownotes from each episode at CreativeOuthouse.com/podcast. Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In this episode, I spoke with Dr. Jonathon Halbesleben about two areas at critical points of change. The first is the university system and how people are accessing it, and the other is a completely new way to view work life balance. Jonathon is the Dean of a very successful college, the College of Continuing Studies at the University of Alabama. Nationally, distance education has grown 14% while traditional admissions have shrunk 3%. And that continuing trend is going to cause a tremendous shift in terms of how we view universities, and Jonathon shared his view of what the future might look like. He's also a PhD in organizational psychology, with much of his studies and publications centered around workplace productivity and contentment. It was an enlightening conversation about work life balance, and why we should stop using that phrase. It's a great episode folks. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. Transcript:Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Dr. Jonathon Halbesleben. He's the Dean of the University of Alabama's very successful College of Continuing Studies, and a PhD in industrial psychology. Jonathon has written and edited 13 books and published numerous articles. His areas of focus have been workplace stress, work, family issues and employee engagement. He's a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and the Society for industrial and organizational psychology. So we have two areas that I'd like to talk about today. One is the growth and continuing education. And the other one is the trends in work life balance. Two topics, one expert guest, thank you for joining me, Jonathon.Jonathon:Thank you. I'm delighted to be with you. Rudy: So let's talk about continuing education we have - overall nationally I think enrollments are down 3% in a traditional University, but in continuing studies are up 15 percent What do you attribute that change to?Jonathon: You know, I think it's a couple of different things. But overall downward trend in enrollments is some of that's just demographics. It's true in Alabama. But it's true nationwide where we're now moving into the period where we're getting to very close to being about 18 years post recession. Yeah. And that was a time when people were maybe a little bit more reflective about having children, bringing children into the world. And so we're actually seeing declines in like, traditional 17-18 year old students that would be going to college. That definitely helps explain the downturns overall in college enrollment. With regard to the more of the distance learning or online education and those increases, I think a big part of it has been that people, they see that that you can get a good education that way. That it can be just as good as that experience you might get on campus, the experience might be different. I mean, you might not be going to football games and visiting the strip or whatever on your campus. But the education itself is just as high quality, but the cost is often lower. Full transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/11/20/jonathon-halbesleben-phd-dean-at-the-university-of-alabama-and-expeSupport the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In this episode I spoke with Rob Kischuk, CEO of Converge. It’s pretty amazing technology that automates your digital marketing reporting. First time I saw it, I thought, whoa, this changes things. Rob gave us some deep insights into which digital channels are working, how they’re working, and how best to make use of the flood of data marketers have access to these days. Rob is also the host of the popular Marketing Agency Leadership podcast, and we talked about podcasts have affected his business. Rob is super smart, which will become evident as you listen to the podcast. And to be honest, editing this episode was tough because of all the useful information. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Transcript:Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Rob Kischuk, CEO of Converge. It’s a brilliant marketing technology company that automates digital marketing reporting. Rob is also the host of the Marketing Agency Leadership podcast, which is listed in the top 15 podcasts for agency owners and executives. Rob was the one who inspired me to create this podcast. So we’re going to talk about both of those worlds digital and audio. Thanks for joining me, Rob. Rob: Thank you so much. It’s great to be able to join you.Rudy: Just for listeners. Can you tell me a little bit about Converge and what it does?Rob: Sure Converge automates the process of generating marketing reports across digital social, offline marketing channels. This is something people in some companies will spend days every week or weeks every month, doing the same thing, just a treadmill of reporting for their clients, we really want to help them focus on locking in the methodology in the data collection and make all that automatic, so they can focus on being smart humans and actually make good solid recommendations to clients using their brains instead of just using their hands to slap spreadsheets into PowerPointRudy: So what platformsRob: Really anything you can imagine. A very small digital agency might use very simple core stuff: Google Analytics, AdWords, Google Search Console for SEO, let’s say Facebook, Instagram paid and organic Twitter, that sort of thing. And then you can get very robust and complex into high end SEO platforms like BrightEdge, you can get all the leads into internal CRM data, or even custom databases depending on the needs of the client.Rudy: And I’ve seen it – it’s all on a dashboard. Yeah, easy to use, actually pretty cool. Actually you had a really nice story about getting funding from Mark Cuban back before you were converge. Yeah, tell listeners about that. It’s pretty cool story.Rob: Sure. So my wife decided one year that I was born in Indiana. She didn’t decide that but she observed that I was born in Indiana and I liked football. And that was the year the Super Bowl was in Indianapolis. So she got all of my family to basically pool in money for my birthday and Christmas that year. And when I go somewhere, I’m not really good at taking a lot of time off. I’m always looking for a way to do something that can move the business forward.Full transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/11/13/rob-kischukSupport the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

How much do artists promote and get paid for their music? How does Elton John write a song? Matt talks about the music industry from a creative’s POV.Visit www.creativeouthouse.com/podcast for complete shownotes and transcripts of every episode.Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. And this episode I spoke with Matt Still, a Grammy Award winning engineer and music producer. Matt has worked with people like Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Santana. He's worked with OutKast, Lady Gaga, and the list goes on and on - from legends to new artists. Matt and I have known each other for a long time, and I always enjoy talking with him. We talked about how he got started. We talked about the changes in music and the rights of artists, because Matt also advocates for the rights of performers and artists, which I admire. So I think people who make music have these magic powers that create this miraculous thing that profoundly affects us emotionally, makes us think and affects our lives. We talked about that too. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.TranscriptRudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Matt Still, Matt is a Grammy Award winning music producer and engineer. He's a national trustee for the Recording Academy and an artist in residence at Kennesaw State University. In his 25 plus years in the music industry, he's seen a lot of things change, and he's managed to change with them. So we're going to talk about that. Thanks for joining me, Matt.Matt: Thanks for having me.Rudy: So, I'm going to just for the listeners, start with shameless name dropping, if that's okay, because you're pretty modest guy, but I don't think you ought to be. You work with Elton John. Yes, you've worked with OutKast, Fallout Boy, Lady Gaga, Rod Stewart, Santana, Allison In Chains, BB King, Arrested Development, TLC. You've worked with Stevie Wonder and Patty LaBelle. Then it goes on and on and on. So how does a kid who grew up in Georgia and loved music grow up and become a guy who works with all these legends.Matt: Well, I've been in music my entire life. I started playing the piano and taking classical piano lessons at the age of four. So music was always a part of everything I did. And I never really thought about doing anything other than music. Yeah, you know, really, and I wanted to be I wanted to be the performer. I wanted to be the next Elton John. My mom bought me an Elton John songbook, but when I was a teenager. I think it's kind of ironic that I'm actually been working with him for over 26 years now. But I wanted to be the performer. And I remember when I was in bands in high school and in college, and we go into recording studios, and the recordings never came out sounding the way I wanted. Check out the complete transcript and shownotes at https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/11/06/matt-still-grammy-winning-audio-engineer-and-producer/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

How does a 125-year-old brand stay cutting edge? Kathy talks about UL’s purpose and structure to keep up in dozens of vertical B2B markets.Check out all our all episodes: www.creativeouthouse.com/podcastHey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. I had a great conversation with Kathy Seegebrecht, the Chief Marketing Officer of UL or what used to be known as Underwriters Laboratories. It's the largest independent testing laboratory in the world. They test for safety, security and sustainability. And the thing that amazes me is that every day you, me, everyone, we all use products and services they test. Yet it's not as if they're top of mind. So I wanted to hear from Kathy about that. I also wanted to know how you market a 125 year old company in new areas without sounding outdated. What's the secret to staying on top for 125 years? Spoiler alert, it's all about living the company's purpose. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Transcript:Rudy Fernandez 0:56 Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Kathy Seegebrecht, Chief Marketing Officer of UL, which used to be known as Underwriters Laboratories. UL is the largest independent testing laboratory in the world. And chances are, you use products and services they test for safety, security and sustainability. In her four years at UL, Kathy has expanded and evolved the role of marketing there, and we're going to talk about that. So thank you for joining me, Kathy.Kathy Seegebrecht 1:21 Great. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. I'm excited to talk about UL, one of my favorite topics.Rudy Fernandez 1:26 UL the certification approval - it's ubiquitous, and we all use products and services that you've touched somehow, just really top level: automotive, lighting, mobility, technology, building materials, healthcare, energy, utilities, financial transactions, it's everywhere, all sorts of consumer products. But here's my first question is: Given all that, as a CMO, who is your customer?Kathy Seegebrecht 1:51 We certainly have a very broad customer base. We service clients who buy products and wants to know if it's safe, secure or sustainably sourced. We have clients that sell products, who want to know if it meets regulations, where they want to sell it. And then we have clients who make products, who want to know all of those things. So our customers include brand owners, retailers, manufacturers and banking institutions. And that really just names some of the bigger client categories. We're firmly a B2B company. However, consumers are also really interested in what we do, and they benefit from our work, so thus you can see I've got the challenge as marketing all of those services, all of those various customer bases.Rudy Fernandez 2:26 That's really what I wanted to get into. That seems overwhelming. How do you reach your customers or engage with them?Kathy Seegebrecht 2:35 It's interesting because our customer base actually gets even more complex when you get down to the persona level. So we work with a variety, wide variety of customers whose titles range from quality assurance, regulatory compliance, workplace health and safety. The rest of the transcript is available at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/10/30/kathy-seegebrecht-cmo-of-ul-underwriters-laboratories-oSupport the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Visit www.creativeouthouse.com/podcast for complete show notes, transcripts and images from all of our episodes.Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In part two of my conversation with Brett Bruen, we talked about - what else - politics and the upcoming 2020 elections. Brett worked for President Barack Obama as the head of Global Engagement and frequently speaks about politics and crises. Hearing his ideas and how candidates need to communicate was awesome. He gets into what President Trump does well, that has led to his success in politics. impeachment proceedings, notwithstanding that part for me coalesced so many different ideas about the president and his brand. Anyway, check this out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Transcript:Rudy Fernandez 0:47 Brett, I wanted to take advantage of having you on the podcast to ask you about the upcoming political contest. This is going to be an enormous campaign season. So what are some basics every candidate ought to know in regards to crisis because you know, they're going to be encountering something.Brett Bruen 1:05 Oh, absolutely, I think you should, first and foremost, have a pretty intrusive investigation into not only things that you may have said or did, but what could, as we've seen so many examples recently of videos or audio that has been sliced and diced to suggest that you said something or did something, even if in actual fact you didn't. Same goes for your cyber security. And we saw this play out in the French Presidential campaign where the Russians engaged in this kind of tactics. They hacked into the McCrone presidential campaign emails and you know, you will often see companies and we've got clients that have very high tech secure communication systems, but their employees are still sharing information on personal email and personal social media accounts on apps that is very insecure. And so understanding those vulnerabilities and not just building better security protocols and the like, but preparing for those eventualities where you might have to be in a situation where you're battling against truly fabricated information. And how you do that how you ensure that you're not on the defensive as I think the McCrone campaign was. It's a case study that U.S. candidates should really look closely at to glean some of the ways in which they anticipated and they prepared for that. I'd also say the challenge these days of the media environment being so intense and so occupied with whatever is the newest new news, and it's tough to get in there and it's tough to try a breakthrough. We've seen presidential candidates struggle with this. The old tactics, the old tradecraft of campaigning really does need to be rethought. And I think Elizabeth Warren is one example of, her sort of selfie political campaign strategy of, just getting as many selfies as you can. So you're spreading throughout this social network of all of the people who've attended your events. I think you got to get more creative.Read the full transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/10/23/brett-bruen-of-global-situation-room-on-crisis-management-in-politics-part-2/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. Thanks for listening. I got a lot out of my conversation with Brett Bruen, President of the Global Situation Room. In fact, we had so much great stuff, we made this two episodes. Brett was the Director of Global Engagement under President Barack Obama. And he's worked as a diplomat in Africa, the Middle East. And he's advised on various topics, including national security. So he knows about crises and had some really brilliant ideas to share. In this first part, we talked about the ever changing world of crisis, or as Brett said, "risk has gone regular". His ideas about how companies can build up a "reservoir of goodwill" and forgiveability are for me, a whole new angle on crisis and risk management. And his idea that you can actually use a crisis as a chance to communicate or even strengthen your brand, man that's just great stuff. Anyway, check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Brett Bruen, President of the Global Situation Room. An international consulting firm in Washington DC and Los Angeles. Brett served as the Director of Global Engagement under President Barack Obama, and also spent 12 years as an American diplomat in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. He teaches at Georgetown and trains senior officials on crisis management. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Brad, I really appreciate your time. Thanks for joining me. So here's the first thing I want to get your thoughts on. As a society, we seem to be in constant state of crisis these days. Obviously, we have access to more information than ever before. But how do you think that affects people in their day to day?Brett: Well, I like to say risk has gone regular for private citizens, for organizations and for companies. I think we've seen numerous examples in the last few years of how brands have been challenged by upheaval and uncertainty, have been dragged into political, social, economic debates. And you know, my message to those who manage these brands is you know, the reactive days are over you have to prepare more proactively, you have to identify your vulnerabilities, track them, understand that when those indicators start to take up the appropriate responses not wait and see. Because wait and you will see. Instead it is about focusing on putting in place the kind of infrastructure that your company needs around those vulnerabilities. We call it "reservoirs of goodwill". What are those reservoirs you need to fill in order to have the right relationships, the right partnerships, the right tools, so that when that vulnerability is exploited...And let me just give you you know, an example, if I'm Chipotle it shouldn't be a surprise that this is an area that I have to be ready to respond to. And what was interesting was that it took Chipotle months to get to a point where as a consumer, I finally got in the certificate for a free burrito. Well, that's something we call a countermeasure. And you could have prepared that campaign ahead of time, you could have put in place all of the pieces, all of the research, the fact sheets, the elements that were required to roll something like that out, even if you don't know where, when or how that vulnerability would be exploited. Rudy: I love the term reservoirs of goodwill. I think it lets leaders know that you have to constantly work to build your reputation.Complete transcript: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/10/23/brett-bruen-of-global-situation-room-on-crisis-communications-part-1/All episodes at www.creativeouthouse.com/podcastSupport the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone. On this episode, I spoke with Jeff Perkins, the Chief Marketing Officer of ParkMobile. It's one of the fastest growing companies in the country. It's an app that if it hasn't already, it'll change the way you park your car. Just a really smart guy. And I learned a lot from our conversation, he introduced me to a concept called velocity marketing, which is already changing the way I approach a client in new business. He talked about how CMOs can gain more support in the C-suite. And of course, what it's like being the CMO, at a hugely successful startup, check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Transcript:Rudy Fernandez 0:42 Welcome to Marketing Upheaval, my guest is Jeff Perkins, Chief Marketing Officer of ParkMobile, one of the fastest growing companies in the US. It's a revolutionary app that allows you to find a parking space and pay for it. They have more than 15 million users. Jeff has worked on the agency and client side. He's had tremendous success with growing startups and building a personal brand. And we're going to talk about all of that. Thanks for joining me, Jeff.Jeff Perkins 1:05 Happy to be here, Rudy. Thanks for having me on. Rudy Fernandez 1:07 So just for listeners, can you give us a quick overview of what Park and mobile the company does and what the app does? Jeff Perkins 1:13 Sure. So Park mobile is the leading mobile app for parking in the United States and North America, we help millions of people around the country find and pay for parking and do it right from their mobile apps. If you think about the old way you would pay for parking. Oftentimes, there was that one of these meters that required change and coins, and who carries around coins anymore, right. So we took that process of paying for parking, we brought your mobile device, making it easy reducing friction in the process, and also letting you pay for parking or extend your parking time when you're away from your car. So it makes it just a lot easier than the old process paying for parking. Now we also offer parking reservations. So for sporting events, major events, concerts, you're able to book parking ahead of time. So before you drive to the stadium for a game or a concert, you will know exactly where you're going to park. So that's a really nice feature. It helps people hopefully get to the events on time reducing some of that frustration in the process.Rudy Fernandez 2:16 So I know the company started in 2008. But that's something that wouldn't, couldn't possibly have existed not too long ago.Jeff Perkins 2:23 Yeah, not in 2008. The reservations part of our business is relatively new, it's been around for just a couple of years. And that's something that we're working towards expanding, not a lot of venues, not a lot of parking garages actually offer reservations today, so but in the coming years, if you live in the suburbs, and you're going to drive into a city for meetings or an event, you're probably going to be reserving parking, rather than just driving in and aimlessly circling the block looking for a place to park, we think it's going to be a great way to help people just get from point A to point B and reduce friction in that process.Rudy Fernandez 2:58 This is obviously brand new category, what kind of challenges and present being a brand new category.Visit https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/10/16/jeff-perkins-cmo-of-parkmobile-on-growing-a-company-and-category/ for complete transcripts, show notes and images from every episode.Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

In this episode, I spoke with Loren O'Brien. She's a comedian and owns a video production company. So we talked about humor, what makes something funny and when does funny become offensive? How does humor help brands connect with an audience? What brands are doing funny well and who falls short? Spoiler alert. She liked our humor reel, or at least she said she did. Check it out.Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Loren O'Brien, CEO of MO Video Production. Loren has spent a large part of her career writing and performing comedy in London, and loves to talk about comedy and marketing, which are two of my favorite subjects. So I'm excited about this episode, and thanks for joining me, Loren.Loren: No worries. Thanks for having me.Rudy: I want to break down comedy, since you've done that for a long, long time, and there's a quote by E.B. White. He basically said that comedy, you can dissect it like you can dissect the frog, but in both cases the thing dies. So I want to start with the most basic topic. What makes something funny?Loren: I think it's a feeling. It's like music. Something can be technically funny, but something that can also completely break the rules. Memes are a great example of how that's breaking all the rules at the moment because you'll read something and go, "This doesn't make any sense," but then it's just the way it makes you feel. I'm trying to break it down in my head every single day, what I find funny, and why I find it funny, and I think it just has to do with like a feeling. Whether it's in that moment, whether it's something relatable, or whether it's just plain old silly. I think it's just the way the music works.Rudy: It's creating some kind of connection. However you do that, and you're not going to create a connection with everyone.Loren: No.Rudy: But speaking of memes, a lot of times when I see memes, often it's things you wish you could say.Loren: Yes. Something about online comedy is the voice in your head that you wish you could say to everybody else. I'm trying to do a lot more with my standup as well, and it doesn't work out very well in real life. People don't like that as much. You're supposed to keep quiet when you're talking to people.Rudy: It is a strange time because our societal norms have changed.Complete show notes at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/10/09/loren-obrien-comedian-and-ceo-of-m-o-makes-on-humor-in-marketing/View our humor reel and creative samples at: https://creativeouthouse.com/creative-work/https://creativeouthouse.com/project/atl-transit/https://creativeouthouse.com/project/metro-water-district/https://creativeouthouse.com/project/gymrats/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

The founder of Dialogue Marketing talks about the explosive developments in AI in marketing—what it will mean for customer service, client relationships and marketing agencies. Hey everyone. This is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. I had a great time speaking with Nora DePalma from Dialogue Marketing. She and I connect on several levels. We both own businesses, we're both very curious at a sort of nerd like level. So our talk about artificial intelligence and marketing was fun. We talked about how AI is changing the way we do our jobs and which of us will still have jobs in the future. AI is here, and it's being used more and more in marketing. So I think you're going to get a lot out of this episode. My guest is Nora DePalma, president and CEO of Dialogue Marketing. Dialogue helps clients create two way communications with their audience, whether it's a small audience or a big audience. One tool that's becoming fundamental to engaging with customers is artificial intelligence, so we're going to talk about that and her company. Thank you for joining me Nora.Nora DePalma: Thank you.Rudy Fernandez: One of the biggest changes overall in marketing has to be this idea that brands can no longer be pushed out to audiences. And I love that whole aspect of your company. It's a dialogue.Nora DePalma: It's a dialogue. Yes.Rudy Fernandez: Yeah. And there has to be a back and forth for customers because now customers have allowed a republic voice. So how have you seen your clients adjust to this?Nora DePalma: The clients we see that are really doing it well think about branding throughout their organization. So the branding is not just the purview of the advertising team, it's your customer service, it's how you answer the phone, it's every experience and touch point that your customers have with you. And thinking through what that experience is. Companies that have that mindset and communicate that mindset to employees are the ones that are doing really well.Rudy Fernandez: So how do you create that? And it's funny because I agree with you, I've always felt like the most important audience is your internal audience, because it doesn't matter what you tell the outside world if your people aren't supporting it. How do you create that sort of brand that's internal, external, everybody is on board?Nora DePalma: First of all, you have to be true to it. I think all of us have probably had an experience if we've been in the industry or been in our careers more than 20, 25 years, we've probably come across a situation where a company didn't walk the walk that they were talking. And everyone knows that. And that just starts to develop distrust between leadership and employees. And that is a very outdated and going away kind of top down view of leadership. The first job of any leader is to build trust in their organization, to be able to get their attention and their interest. View images, show notes and complete transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/10/02/nora-depalma-of-dialogue-marketing-on-ai-in-marketing/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

The COO of Media Frenzy Global offers some frank observations on the real and superficial changes in the marketing world’s push for more diverse and inclusive workplaces. Complete show notes and transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/09/25/katie-kern-of-media-frenzy-global-on-diversity-and-inclusion/Hey everyone. I really enjoyed this conversation with Katie Kern who's a partner and COO of Media Frenzy Global. We talked about entrepreneurship and creating a personal brand, but it was the diversity and inclusion conversation that really resonated with me. Now, frankly, whenever I've discussed it with people in marketing, I usually get a vanilla sort of kumbaya response. Katie's narrative was very different and felt a lot more real and powerful. I'm really excited to share this episode with you. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Katie Kern, partner and COO of Media Frenzy Global, a PR and content marketing firm that's strong in the technology space. Before joining Media Frenzy, Katie owned her own lifestyle PR agency. She was selected to be part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program to help train and support entrepreneurs. And she writes and speaks about diversity and inclusion, has won many awards. So really excited to talk to her today. Katie, thanks for joining us.Katie Kern: Thanks for having me.Rudy: The fact that you switched from fashion to technology, I thought, "Wow, those are real different." So do you see any overlaps, anything in fashion that helped you with technology?Katie Kern: You know what's interesting? I think technology companies want to be in the fashion industry because we're the cool kids to a certain extent, from a creativity standpoint, everyone who wants ... Everyone loves the glitz and the glamor of fashion, and they see how fashion brands actually kind of go to market once a season. It's not once a year. Most technology companies, if you think about how companies market themselves, they put together a big marketing campaign for the entire year and then go from there and kind of deploy it. Fashion, we have to be a lot more kind of on the ball thinking. Constantly all the time thinking about, okay, there’s a new collection coming out. We have to market it differently. Maybe a different demographic. You never know.Rudy: It’s a complete emotional sell, fashion. I’m sure there’s logic in the decisions, but it’s an art.Katie Kern: Well, I think the creation of fashion is an art. The selling is that there’s definitely has to be some logic there. Have to know your customer for sure. So I think they both go hand in hand. You think about Apple with a smartwatch. It’s a fashion piece. Think about Amazon, it’s the fashion platform where you actually purchase merchandise. Google, same thing. Google actually partnered with Levi’s to do a collaboration. So there’s always that crossover. And I think both industries are very much interested in one another for sure.Complete transcript: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/09/25/katie-kern-of-media-frenzy-global-on-diversity-and-inclusion/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Tim Smith of Chemistry on AOR vs project work, the Atlanta United campaign launchThe President of Chemistry, Atlanta talks about being named Ad Age’s small agency of the year - twice, the challenges with client agreements and the most successful campaign launch in professional sports history. Full shownotes and transcripts at www.creativeouthouse.com/podcastTranscript:Rudy Fernandez: Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In this episode of Marketing Upheaval, I spoke with Tim Smith, President of Chemistry in Atlanta. Chemistry was named Ad Age's best small agency two out of the last four years, and we talked about that.Rudy: We also talked about what's not working with a lot of client agency relationships and new business, and we talked about the most successful launch in professional sports history and what we all can learn from that.Rudy: Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Earcon: You're listening to Marketing Upheaval from Creative Outhouse.Rudy: Hey, thanks for listening to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Tim Smith, President of Chemistry in Atlanta. Chemistry won Ad Age's Small Agency of the Year in 2016 and 2018. They do great work and have some powerful case studies, including the most successful sports franchise launch in history, according to ESPN and Sports Illustrated. We're going to talk about that. Thanks for joining me, Tim.Tim Smith: Thanks for having me.Rudy: So I know you worked at a lot of big shops and big brands and stuff, and then you worked on Super Bowl spots and everything, and now small shops.Rudy: Well, first of all, why did you do that? Why did you go from the big agency, big budget to small shops?Tim: Yeah. So I started really right out of school, jumped right into the deep end and went to BBDO New York. Now, that was all big stuff, big budgets. I thought, "Wow, this advertising gig's amazing. We have huge budgets, and flying around, fancy hotels." It was fantastic.Rudy: I only get to hear about that kind of stuff.Tim: Right. Sadly, I got to experience it just long enough to miss it. So it was great. Well, I always wanted to live in the South, so I kind of would go to a big ad market, come back South. Got to a big ad market, come back South.Tim: Then an opportunity came up to be a creative director in a small shop, so I had the ego to believe that, wow, this small shop, they've got a few clients and I've done all this big stuff, I can certainly make them big, that's not going to be a problem. Found how difficult the struggle was. So we did some good stuff. We won a lot of business and stuff, but it was on a totally different level from all the ones I was used to. But I really liked it.More at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/09/18/tim-smith-of-chemistry-on-aor-vs-project-work-the-atlanta-united-campaign-launch/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey everyone. This is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse, and this is a really neat episode with Warren Kurtzman, the president of Coleman insights. And we first learned about Coleman when we were doing some research on media trends. They have lots of terrific research on radio, podcasting, and music on their website. So I wanted to learn more about that. Now, even though Warren and I just met on this call, I can tell you he is a super nice man and a patient one because we had some online technical problems and it took three attempts at this conversation before we ever got one that worked. So he's a prince. Now, the first two minutes of our conversation, the audio isn't great, but after that it's fine. So stick with it because Warren shared a lot of fantastic knowledge about the audio space. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.My guest is Warren Kurtzman, the president of Coleman insights. Coleman does extensive media research and they are experts particularly in the audio space. So today we're going to talk about radio, which is one of my favorite subjects and podcasting and music testing. Warren, thanks for joining me today.Warren Kurtzman: Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.Rudy: So I know Coleman helps radio stations build their brands and, and develop content. How do you help radio stations, especially as rapidly as things are changing? How do you help them develop content and develop their brands?Warren: Well, we do that primarily through market research and I've experience working with audio brands. So we do a lot of consumer research where we find out what consumers like, what they don't like and what they perceive radio stations and other forms of media, including other forms of audio media providing them.Rudy: So radio has been around for a long time, but what are some of the changes you see in this space in the last, let's say five years or so?Warren: Well, that might take up the rest of your podcast. Quite a few changes in the audio landscape. The radio industry has changed dramatically. It used to be a highly fragmented industry and nowadays consolidated with, in most markets, three, four, maybe five operators running most of the radio stations. And the landscape in which a radio stations compete is completely different. Used to be that they had almost a near monopoly on the way people could consume audio, particularly as they were consuming it on the go. And of course today with the rise of streaming, with the rise of podcasting and other ways that people can access audio based entertainment digitally on the environment in which radio competing, nothing like it was just a couple of years ago.Complete transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/09/12/warren-kurtzman-of-coleman-insights-on-radio-podcasting-and-their-audiences/Learn How to write an effective radio spot at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2020/03/03/how-to-write-a-radio-commercial/Visit is at: https://creativeouthouse.comSupport the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Full show notes and transcript available at: www.creativeouthouse.com/podcastTranscript:Rudy Fernandez: Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez, and my guest this episode is Michael Halicki, the Executive Director of Park Pride. It's a small nonprofit that's gaining national attention for its outreach efforts. Of course, we've talked about the importance of parks, but we also talked about how marketing professionals are playing a bigger role in nonprofits, not just as communicators, but as leaders and directors. We talked about how to bring diverse groups together for one mission, and what for-profits can learn from nonprofits. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Earcon: You're listening to Marketing Upheaval, from Creative Outhouse.Rudy: Hey, thanks for listening to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Michael Halicki, the executive director of Park Pride, a park advocacy nonprofit organization based in Atlanta. It's gaining national attention. Michael's had a long career as a leader in nonprofit organizations. Then we're going to talk about that and Park Pride. Thanks for coming on the podcast.Michael Halicki: Glad to be here.Rudy: Michael, I follow you a lot on social media, and you visit a lot of parks and you tell people a lot about parks and I've learned a lot. What can you say about parks, especially local parks that are important, that we don't know?Michael: I think probably the most important thing is that parks are good for you. There's a lot of research that talks about how parks are good for your health. There's a lot of growing body of research that talks about a daily dose of nature and the idea that people need to get out into nature on a regular basis, and that when you don't get that access to nature, it has negative impacts on your physical wellbeing, social wellbeing, and psychological wellbeing. Parks are a place to do that.Rudy: Yeah. Do you advocate for all parks, big parks, local parks?Michael: We do advocate for all parks, but we really think that local parks, where you live, are something that everyone needs. So we keep track of things like the people that, in our service area, live within a 10 minute walk of a park, and we certainly like those signature parks, the destination parks that people will go to. But we think you shouldn't have to get in a car to drive somewhere to go have a great experience in a park.Read the show notes and full transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/09/04/michael-halicki-on-communications-professionals-leading-nonprofits-and-marketing-parks/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez. My guest this episode is Alan Wilson, co-founder and co-owner of Tripwire Interactive. It's a gaming company that's grown to millions of users in a really short amount of time. Tripwire gamers are fiercely loyal to the games and to the brand itself. We talked about how Tripwire does that. We also talked about how gaming companies give fans a voice in designing mods for their product. Also, we talked about shooting stuff. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Complete show notes and transcript available at www.creativeouthouse.com/podcast.Thanks for listening to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Alan Wilson, vice president, co-owner and one of the founders of Tripwire Interactive. Tripwire has released ground-breaking games like Red Orchestra, the Killing Floor series, Vietnam, Chivalry, and Maneater. They have more than 10 million users and growing and we're going to talk about how they do that. Thanks for joining me, Alan.Getting StartedAlan Wilson: My pleasure.Rudy: So, you actually started with a game before you had a company, right?Alan: It'd be polite to call it a game. It was what we call a mod, which is where you take somebody else's game, hack it around and make it actually good.Rudy: But you won the Make Something Unreal contest in 2004.Alan: Yeah. It was originally intended to be a contest for amateurs. And as we discovered on the way through, we were the only amateur team in the top 10 competing. The rest were all pros trying to catch some extra cash.Rudy: Wow. That's when you decided, "Well, we should do this for a living."Alan: Yeah, well, I mean when we won the contest, we got a lot of press acclaim, we had, I don't know, half a million people playing the mod and we kind of all sat around and went, "What do we do now? We kind of better do a company or something because Epic's kind of expecting something." So we did.Rudy: The perception of a gamer is always the nerd in the room by himself in his mom’s basement, but it’s actually moving more and more female now. It’s 56-44 male-female.Alan: Yeah.PC Digital Marketing PlatformRudy: And there’s more and more females coming in and the majority of the American public plays games, so past 60%. So, what’s changed in terms of how you release a game? How you market the game? How you get users interested in a game?Alan: We founded the company in 2005. Back in those days, you’re still at the point where games were released in boxes. They went on store shelves. The first step in all those changes was really, well when selling games went digital, particularly, initially on the PC. And our title, Red Orchestra, was one of the first three non-Valve titles released on Steam, which became the predominant PC digital marketing platform.Rudy: When you released Red Orchestra I guess it got a lot of buzz from winning?Click here for the complete transcript: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/08/28/alan-wilson-on-gaming-creating-and-fierce-customer-loyalty/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. On this episode I talked with Leigh George, the founder of Freedom marketing, a strategic branding firm in Washington DC. Leigh and I talked about what's not working with existing agency models and we talked about design thinking and evolving a brand and how brands need to fulfill a customer's mission and not the other way around. It's a great conversation about branding and really knowing your customers. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Thanks for listening to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Leigh George, the founder of Freedom marketing, the un-agency. I first heard Leigh speak at a digital summit and couldn't take notes fast enough. She has some keen insight on branding and content, so thanks for joining me, Leigh. I really am excited about this podcast.Leigh: Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.Rudy: You've had leadership roles in strategy at Ogilvy and other agencies and now you head up Freedom, which you brand as an un-agency. So why? Why The un agency positioning?Leigh: I wanted to signal that I was different. And using the term un agency instantly gets people's attention. It's a, it's this big flag and it really invites conversations and questions, you know, why do you call yourself an agency? What's an un-agency? So it was a great, I felt it was a great way to get attention and get conversation going with people. Also wanted to signal that the way I do things in the experience clients have with me are different than what they would have at a traditional agency.Rudy: So they ask you just kinda like, I just did. So what do you think is different? What, what do you think isn't working about traditional agency models?Leigh: When I founded my company, you know, the reason I did it was because I sort of asked myself if I could work anywhere I could walk in any place and have the job of my dreams, where would I go? And I, I couldn't name any place. And so I realized that that there are a lot of things I didn't like and that in my own agency I wanted to try a different approach. So one is the billable hour, which I think is just, it doesn't serve clients and it doesn't help creatives be more creative. It really just drains staff of time and it irritates clients cause they feel like they're being nickeled and dimed. So I just take a flat fee approach and it's great. It has opened up a ton of time for me to work on my client challenges and it just makes it easier to build the relationship with the client instantly.Leigh: And then another thing I think that I feel like it's not working at agencies is there's a lack of flexibility and I think that's tied to the billable hour, right? Anything you want to do that's slightly outside of what you talked about is going to cost you more. And I just thought, you know, that's ridiculous because there's no project I've ever worked on anywhere that's gone according to plan. And if you look at your own personal life, right? Nothing, nothing you do ever goes according to plan. Full transcript: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/08/20/leigh-george-on-creating-an-un-agency-and-new-ways-to-look-at-a-branding/Visit www.creativeouthouse.com/podcast for more.Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

In Part 1 of our interview with Pete Heid, Creative Director of Edelman in Atlanta, he talks about making the jump from a long career in advertising to a PR agency, how to spot a great idea and how to build a modern-day creative department. Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse, and on this episode of Marketing Upheaval, I talked with Pete Heid, the Creative Director of Edelman in Atlanta, and actually we made this two episodes. He had a lot of insights and I love talking about creative. In his first episode, he talked about making the jump from his long career at ad agencies to now working at a PR firm. He also talked about what he looks for when he's trying to build a modern creative department in this crazy changing world. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest this episode is Pete Heid, Creative Director at Edelman. He's had a great career in advertising in traditional ad agencies and three years ago decided to go the PR route. Thanks for being on show, Pete.Rudy: So first I got to ask you what made you decide to go from Ad Agency to PR Agency?Pete: I actually get that question a lot from my advertising buddies. This is basically my answer. Advertising agencies were starting to act like PR agencies and I found that PR agencies were starting to act like advertising agencies. And when Edelman reached out to me, I felt like they were somewhere in the sweet spot in the middle. And it was from this space that I was seeing a lot of creative energy that was happening. It was producing all kinds of really cool work that really got me excited. Advertising didn't feel like advertising at Edelman. They had done some really good work. They had won a recently a Cannes award. So I saw that and I was like, God, if they're winning Cannes awards, I want to be part of that.Rudy: Which one did you see?Pete: So that was for a work that a San Francisco office did for Adobe. Okay, got it. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was pretty, it was pretty smart. And I'd never seen anything like that before. Yeah. But I didn't know I don't to was doing that kind of work. I was like, damn, I've been wanting to do that kind of work since I started, but we never really quite had the right opportunity. So that's kind of what brought me here.Rudy: So we, we both grew up in advertising. So what is the difference, do you think right away when you came here, was there a difference between a creative department at a PR agency and let's take the creative department in an ad agency?Pete: Oh yeah, most definitely. I think what I was seeing is that creative I'm in a PR agency was more of a support function. What do you mean? Well, uh, when I first got here and what I was told how things used to be was that, uh, the PR function, the PR practice would require, they would have ideas that were, requires some level of creative production and they would reach out to, they're almost like an in house agency at a company and a brand. And uh, of course they, that didn't interest me because that's not what I wanted to do here. Make this. Yeah, yeah. No, it's exactly, they would tell you how to think and you are just basically either hands. Yeah. And I remember when I first got here, uh, someone who told me just get used to not making things. I was like, what do you mean?Pete: And they're like, you make a lot of decks, PR decks. And I was like, no, I, I'm not here for that. I'm here to make things. See the full transcript here: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/08/14/pete-heid-on-building-a-Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

In Part 2 of our conversation with Pete Heid, we discuss a positive creative atmosphere and collaboration with younger team members.Transcript:Rudy Fernandez: In part two of my conversation with Pete Heid, he talks about a really cool internal process called collaborative journalism. We talk about stuff like fried chicken, pool floats and how to collaborate with younger team members and to prove it, he brings in a couple of younger team members to help him answer some questions. Welcome to Marketing UpheavalEarcon: You're listening to Marketing Upheaval from Creative Outhouse.Rudy: So we both acknowledged, you know, production type of first you need to be creative and wait groups or work together. The role of PR agencies, he's ad agencies. When was the point when you sort of dawned on you, oh, Shit's changing.Pete Heid: Yeah, it's funny you asked that question. But I was at another agency and we were coming up with ideas and I remember the creative director said, I want ideas that um, don't feel like advertising. So we came up with those ideas and then when the client saw them, they just were ready to accept those ideas from a traditional advertising agency. And even though the ideas were sounding, you know, they definitely worked. They just weren't ready to do that. And I don't even know if we really knew how to sell the work. Cause it's like one thing to come up with the idea. It's another thing to tell. Well how do you sell it? How do you get people to talk about it? That's a whole nother thing. And how do you find the right, you know, it's not just finding the right idea, it's, it's almost like telling the right story at the right time and the right channels and the right channels.Pete: So all those things when they come together, it's really cool. In fact, we do something here we call collaborative journalism and it acts just like a, almost like a traditional newsroom, but we have it for different brands. So like one of our clients, they want this kind of work will form this um, sort of group where it's account people and strategy people and creatives and we all get in the room and we just talk about different topics that are related to that field. So if it's in the food industry, there is a topic about food or there's a trend, we'll bring it up. Or if there's something in say, pop culture that's relevant, we'll bring that up and then we'll create things to talk about or stories to tell. We find these stories within the brand and we do that once a week and then we pitch them to the client.Pete: And that's where that proactive thinking comes about. And you'd be surprised how much really good content comes out of these meetings. Billable. Well, I think there's a certain level and the investment that has to happen, but at the other end of it, you do have to get the client to pay for some of that. Sure. So if they're buying into this like collaborative journalism model, they, they, uh, have to offer some level of, uh, of investment themselves. See the rest of the transcript and show notes here: www.creativeouthouse.com/part-2-pete-heid-on-a-creative-atmosphere-and-collaboration-with-younger-team-membersSupport the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

In Part 2, Alicia Thompson discusses how to prepare for and bounce back from losing a job and why PR has such bad PR..Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In part two of my conversation with Alicia Thompson we talk about the biggest professional upheaval any of us can experience, losing your job. How do you bounce back from that and how do you prepare for it? Alicia also shares her thoughts on why PR has such bad PR. And lastly, we talked about the qualities of people who are in marketing and why we like them. Check this out.Rudy: I want to talk to you about sensitive subject. I know we've talked about this before in terms of upheaval and you've experienced an enormous upheaval by the worst upheaval that we all have nightmares about in that you lost your job.I travel around a lot, I've worked in a lot of different companies, and that is the single most unwritten fear everyone has. And of course it always is there. If you have a job, you're always worried about keeping the job. But the difference, and this is my opinion, the difference was always if I work hard, if I do my job, if I, unless we lose business, if I do what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to keep my job but ...Alicia: Not true anymore.Rudy: Now it's like, "Well guess what we just changed." Instead of, "We've had the strategic plan working for two years." Like, "No, we're going somewhere else." That's what I'm seeing and it sounds like you've experienced that very thing.Alicia: Yeah.Rudy: So, you want to talk a little bit about that?Alicia: Yeah. I mean it's become so commonplace and I can't tell you how many of my friends and colleagues were all in the same boat but yeah my job was eliminated in April and I think it's one of those situations where in the back of your head you always know it's a possibility but when you get called to the office in HR and say, "Your job's been eliminated." You have this moment of like, "Oh wait, wait, you're joking right? I wasn't expecting this." And then, you go to this moment of panic where like, "Okay." So then you start thinking about your, all these things go through your head within a ten second span and then you have one of two reactions and you either go, "Okay, I'm going to embrace this for what it is and let's talk about the financial part." Or, you have a meltdown.Rudy: Or you do both.Alicia: Or you do both, one first and then the other. And that's why one of the things I always tell young women, especially, when I speak is having your financial house in order. You can't predict the future. And I know kids graduate, kids, sound old, young people graduate from college and now they finally have income and they want to buy this. I'm like, "That old adage your parents tell you pay yourself first. It's really important." Because these days you don't know if you're going to have a job. You can be great at what do to your point and the next day you don't have a gig.Alicia: Part of the other thing that was important to me is over the course of my career making sure I had built good relationships. Full Transcript at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/08/07/part-2-alicia-thompson-on-job-loss-reinvention-and-bad-pr/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Part 1 of our interview with Alicia Thompson, President of Signature Leadership and experienced PR and Ad leader discusses how brands like Wendy’s are reinventing themselves, crisis management and great women leaders. Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. Coming up on this episode of Marketing Upheaval is a great discussion with Alicia Thompson. Alicia has such brilliant insights, and maybe it's because she's worked in PR and advertising. She's been on client and agency sides, and she's worked for big companies, she's worked for small companies. In fact, she had so much fantastic insight, we had to make this two episodes. In this first episode, we talk about how some old brands are reinventing themselves. We talk about the new world for crisis managers, and women leadership in the industry, and what it takes to be a great leader. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.This is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse, and my guest this episode on Marketing Upheaval is Alicia Thompson. She's been in leadership roles at Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen, the Coca-Cola company, Edible Arrangements, and also for Edelman, Porter Novelli. If anyone has a complete view of marketing spectrum, it's Alicia. So thank you for being on the podcast.Alicia: Thanks for having me.Rudy: So what do you think are the biggest changes going on here in the last five or 10 years from your point of view?Alicia: There are a couple I think. First of all, I think it's the blurring of discipline lines. Like when I started in this so many years ago, PR was PR, and advertising was advertising, and digital was a blip in somebody's dream world. Then there was the creative side. What we found in the last few years is the lines between all of those disciplines has even blurred more than they had started to maybe 15 years ago. It's just marketing communications now, and there are no specific lanes to swim in. Everybody that works in this area has to be somewhat knowledgeable about all things, and it's interesting.Rudy: We work with ad agencies who are PR agencies, but I've seen where there are ad agencies doing PR activations, there are PR firms doing videos.Alicia: They have to to stay competitive.Rudy: So where does that go? At what point does it become just one marketing agency?Alicia: It has already started to do that. When I was at Edelman we had a very robust and were investing a lot of money in our creative shop, and hiring talent, and going after creative led business, and then buttoning on PR and other communications functions. We had a digital team, we have full robust digital team, we have social team. That was all completely separate from PR which is where Edelman has its roots.Alicia: I think agencies and in house teams actually, the lines are becoming more blurred. I think other things that are changing or have changed in the space is innovation because we have to constantly innovate in listening tools and how we measure. Clients want to make sure that their investments have an ROI, and I think technology, the technology and the resources and the tools that this industry can use to prove its value has just grown exponentially.Full transcript: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/08/07/part-1-alicia-thompson-on-food-brands-crisis-and-women-leaders/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

On our first episode of Marketing Upheaval, CEO of Porter Novelli, Brad MacAfee joins us to talk about the role of a global purpose consultancy, new technologies in marketing and how millennials are changing corporate culture.Marketing Upheaval is created and produced by Creative Outhouse in Atlanta, Georgia.Hey, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse, and my guest this episode of Marketing Upheaval is Brad MacAfee, who was the CEO of Porter Novelli. Brad and I talked about the role of a CEO, and Porter Novelli's positioning as a purpose consultancy. We also spent some time talking about how to staff in this era when clients' needs are constantly evolving. How do you prepare for that? Well, listen in. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.With me is Brad MacAfee, the CEO of Porter Novelli. Now, Brad and I have known each other for a long time, and I've seen lead a practice, lead an office, be the head of PN North America, and now as a CEO of a global communications firm. If anyone has all the answers, it's him.Brad: I'm not sure about that, but it's great to be here with you, Rudy.Rudy: Thanks, Brad. I know you've had a lot of roles within PN, and you've been head of practice, you've been an MD, you've been a head of North America, and now the CEO. What is the primary role of a CEO? What does a CEO of a global communications company do? What's your biggest responsibility, you think?Brad: Yeah. Well, it's interesting because I don't think it's too complicated, really. I think it's about setting vision and inspiring, motivating those around you to embrace the vision, what you're trying to do as an organization, set that tone where we're going. I also believe that CEO has to be about building out the culture, and making sure that everyone lives the culture. I mean, lives it. If you have a set of values, how do you show up as an organization? In my role, I feel like I need to be the one who is an illustration of what it looks like to live those values each and every day.Brad: If Porter Novelli is a global purpose consultancy, as, how do I show up and demonstrate that as well, but truly, when you have such a great team, I think it's about setting vision and creating the culture, and then trying to inspire and motivate everyone to be as enthusiastic about that where we're going as I am.Rudy: Tell me about that, the global purpose consultancy. Porter Novelli I know has a history of, before it was called purpose, it was called social marketing, I guess. It was about helping clients that sought to improve the lives of the people they served. Tell me a little bit about Porter Novelli's evolution to that, calling yourself a purpose consultancy.Brad: Well, first off, thank you for that, because I will say that when you look at at the evolution, yeah, it was about social marketing or behavior change, and a lot of it was really focused in on that behavior change around a lot of public health or health issues, and how do you change somebody's eating behaviors? Full transcript: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/07/26/brad-macafee-on-purpose-and-evolving-client-needs/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)

Join Rudy Fernandez, founder of Creative Outhouse, and hear marketing leaders talk about what’s changing, what’s working and why we shouldn’t panic. Each episode is an enlightening 30 minute conversation with experts from different industries and their personal stories.Looking for a guest with marketing expertise? Our host, Rudy, is available as a podcast guest. Press Kit: https://creativeouthouse.com/contact-usShow notes, images and episode transcripts at: www.creativeouthouse.com/podcastABOUT US - www.creativeouthouse.comWe are an Atlanta-based creative marketing agency specializing in launching brands. Since 2001, Creative Outhouse has helped companies and organizations bring new brands to market and re-launch brands that needed a change.When things change, and you need a new way of looking at a problem, that’s when we’re brought in. We help uncover your brand and audience insights then we develop powerful creative marketing campaigns that turn your “target audience” into superfans.OUR CLIENTSLaunching or re-launching a brand is a discovery process. We are often developing creative messages from scratch and on that journey, we work as unified team with our clients. Our clients work with us for our thinking and execution. But also because they know when we start a creative marketing project, we’re all in. This attitude is reflected in our work and successful case studies.CREATIVE MARKETING SERVICESWe create branded content, advertising, sales materials, digital content, branding materials and we plan and place paid media. Check out our work at:https://creativeouthouse.com/creative-work/Support the show (http://www.creativeouthouse.com/our-work)