As we’re progressing on the technology side, it’s about being able to create those more optimized experiences based on the data collection that we can get.
Russell Meyerowitz is COO at Brand Knew, a creative collective and strategic advisory that partners with media companies, causes, and consumer brands towards meaningful growth. He is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the MEYROW Foundation, a nonprofit brand development agency that runs the Parkinson’s Wellness Fund.
In this episode of Velocitize Talks, Russell Meyerowitz shares his thoughts on the role of influencers, nonprofits, personalization through data, and investing in beer pong.
Name your influencer (2:42)
Through our experience we’ve seen that somebody with many millions of followers doesn’t mean that they’re going to strike the engagement that the brand needs.
As Meyerowitz notes, influencers are just another channel for getting your message out. The ideal influencer can be different for every brand depending on their needs. Do you need a mega-influencer or a micro-influencer (which has a much smaller yet loyal following)? A brand influencer or a brand ambassador? Should you even budget influencers into your marketing strategy?
Companies typically use influencers for everything from increasing brand awareness to generating sales. According to a comprehensive guide from HubSpot, 80% of marketers say influencer marketing is effective and 89% say it works just as well as other marketing channels.
On Purpose (3:52)
What’s a huge part of our DNA is purpose-driven initiatives…there’s a true desire to have impact in the work that we’re doing.
Purpose-driven marketing has become increasingly important as consumers demand authenticity from a brand. In fact, according to research from Cone/Porter Novelli, 77% of consumers report feeling a stronger emotional connection to a purpose-driven brand as opposed to traditional companies. Roughly half of Brand Knew’s partners are in the nonprofit space.
In 2018, Brand Knew partnered with Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) to expand its digital reach and drive audience engagement in order to increase funding for research. Brand New also executed SU2C’s entire website rebuild featuring a Cancer Research and Clinical Trial Finder.
The old college try (6:23)
As a marketing student at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo, Meyerowitz created a company specializing in portable and custom beer pong tables. In 2008, OnFIREbeerpong was acquired by College Tonight, Inc. and subsequently re-branded as Quad Pong, which eventually went nationwide.
OnFIREbeerpong relied heavily on grassroots (not to mention cost-effective) marketing, customer loyalty, and word-of-mouth to help boost brand recognition. In other words, Meyerowitz was able to successfully grow his brand organically.
Future proof (7:55)
What do the customers actually need? Those needs have always led us down to what should we build.
In a world of rapidly evolving technologies, from developments in voice to face recognition, is it possible to design a marketing strategy that minimizes potential risk of becoming obsolete? Investing in omnichannel marketing, headless architecture, and consumer-responsive content are a few ways to do just that.
Knowing your consumer is critical when it comes to messaging, especially when it comes to Gen Z. It’s a generation that’s grown up in a world connected through social apps, websites, smartphones, tablets and smart devices. As with any audience, you need to meet Gen Zers where they are, which is typically on YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram.
Voice search is especially important given that Gartner predicted over 30% of all searches will be done without screens by next year.
Conversations from the great beyond? (9:46)
The idea is that you can have a conversation with somebody in the palm of your hand.
Meyerowitz cites one of Brand New’s partners that is developing a product allowing people to “speak” with loved ones after they have died. Not exactly, of course. But the idea is for family members and friends to record themselves asking and answering questions about their life to be viewed posthumously.
To learn more about Brand Knew, check out their website and follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @BrandNewNew. To keep up with Russell Meyerowitz, follow him on LinkedIn.
This interview was originally recorded in LA in 2019.