Jaguar has been an easy target for critics after the company re-branded itself with a foppish, silly ad and a strange new logo. However, I am not one of those critics. Today, I’ll explain why I’m the only marketer on earth defending the Jaguar strategy. In fact, they are on the only reasonable path for the brand.

Let me be clear that at this point, I am separating the ad/logo from the strategy. In fact, I hate the ad, which seems like an AI fever dream of what “creative” is supposed to be:

I also abhor the logo re-design because Jaguar had one of the coolest logos on the planet and they ruined it.

Why am I pro-Jaguar? Because I think the strategy is brilliant, even if the execution (so far) seems disastrous.

Why Jaguar needs a new strategy

Beyond the disdain of the brand creative, there are three main criticisms of the Jag re-brand:

1. Ignores a legacy of “Britishness” and performance / luxury
2. The ads didn’t feature a car
3. Targeting a creative customer base seems like nonsense.

Let’s break down each criticism:

1. Ignores a legacy of “Britishness” and performance/luxury

I would probably be considered a potential Jag customer. I have owned a luxury car for decades, primarily Audi or BMW. But I have never considered a Jag. In fact, I’ve never known a person in my life who has owned a Jaguar, which, in hindsight, seems remarkable.

Jaguar is not even in the top 10 of luxury car brands. In terms of market strength, it is a has-been, an unprofitable, forgotten also-ran. When was the last time anyone said, “Man, I can’t wait to get my hands on that new Jag!” Right. Probably somewhere between bell-bottoms and Beta video tapes.

In addition to style, research shows there are two big considerations when deciding among luxury cars: performance and maintenance costs.

How does Jaguar stack up? Automotive engineering is dominated by Germany, Japan, Italy, and America these days. To most, Jaguar means frequent break-downs and high maintenance costs. Am I rolling old tapes? Maybe. But that is the brand’s image and it would cost a lot to change people’s minds about that. Is the classic image of James Bond driving a British car relevant for young buyers today? Is it worth holding on to? Do you really want a mercurial British car as your first choice in a luxury car?

I put Jag in the same category as another recent brand rebel — Nutter Butter. Nutter Butter is Jaguar’s brand chaos soul mate — an also-ran in the cookie business with no strong brand meaning. Creating bizarre, unsettling TikTok videos upends cookie marketing tradition and any brand heritage. But who cares? Nobody was talking about Nutter Butter, and now they are.

Could Oreo go down this road? No. They’re the leading brand and have spent millions to develop “meaning” with its customers. BMW can’t suddenly start acting like a TikTok influencer on a sugar rush. Mercedes can’t go full re-brand gonzo. They’ve got too much to lose.

But Jag isn’t a leading brand. It’s a losing brand. So why not shake it up in a bold and conversational way? The content of the advertisement is a red herring. We’re looking at Jaguar for the first time in decades.

2. The ad didn’t feature cars

One of my favorite ad campaigns in recent years never featured a product. Never even mentions it.

A Chick-fil-A employee sits on a red couch with a customer and talks about how the employee met a special customer need. For example, an employee learned sign language to serve a customer who was deaf. Another bonded with a child who had a heart transplant.

What does this have to do with chicken sandwiches?

Brand marketing is about creating an emotional expectation between you and your customers.

To illustrate this in my speeches, I’ll ask the audience to shout out what they think of when I say “Coca-Cola.” Without exception, they say “polar bears.” There was the one time when a guy in the front row said “sadness,” but that’s a story for another day.

My point is that Coke has spent billions to move your mind away from brown sugar water to playful, happy Christmas bears. Coke is a feeling. 

Chick-fil-A has its critics, but it is more than fast food to its raving customers. It’s a warm and happy feeling reinforced by food-less commercials.

So I don’t dismiss the Jaguar ads just because they are car-free. Will you buy a luxury car for its engine dimensions and gas mileage or because it actually means something to you? Jaguar’s brand meaning before last weak was as thin as Earl Grey Tea.

Finally, let’s address the target market strategy, which is aimed at …

3. Designers and Creatives

Years ago, I worked on an influencer marketing project with a luxury automotive brand. The company was introducing a stylish new car and wanted to host events nationwide for social media titans.

But I found that every car company was going after the same small group of luxury car influencers. It was nearly impossible to get their attention. So I started researching adjacent demographic markets. What other categories of people talk a lot about cars?

I discovered two groups obsessed with cars: technology geeks and creative directors. That makes sense, right? Cars are about tech and style.

Tesla has probably cornered the market for techno geeks. But what car brand has a special and unique appeal to creatives? There isn’t one. I think Jag studied the market data long and hard and saw a seam they could own. Brilliant. Early feedback shows creatives applauding the brand.

And by the way, the “copy nothing” appeal to creatives is a direct line to the Jaguar brand heritage.

The holistic strategy

Jaguar prototype

An ad is not a strategy. A logo is not a strategy. So what else do we know about the re-brand?

• Jag has built a radical new electric car that will sell for roughly double the price of current Jaguar vehicles. The car is expected to debut soon at the Miami Art Show. In an interview with Automotive News, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell said the still-secret Jaguar GT will make people “salivate” when they see its styling.
• They are targeting young, wealthy, design-minded people. After the internet / AI boom, there are a lot of young millionaires out there wanting to make their own statement.
• The new all-EV Jaguar cars will be positioned as “exuberant,” “modernist,” “compelling,” and all about “fearless creative.” The strategy is spearheaded by an experienced and respected auto brand marketer, Gerry McGovern. So this re-brand is not the whimsical idea from some GenZ agency. There is data and insight behind the strategy. By the way, McGovern already turned the Range Rover brand around. So I am willing to give him a pass on the ad fumble.
• The company is overhauling its dealership network which will also feature high-end art and cusine. That is a BOLD reinvention of the auto dealership.

Jag is re-imagining the whole automotive experience through the lens of the creative class. It’s ludicrous to judge the entire strategy based on one ad.

Let’s give it time.

I just finished writing a book about disruptive marketing (“Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World” available in February 2025). I see the underlying logic of what Jaguar is trying to do. Jag might be a competent brand. But competent doesn’t cut it. Competent = commodity. Competent doesn’t create conversations. My book explains how the world’s best creatives are breaking through the noise by disrupting the:

• Narrative
• Medium, where the story is told
• Who is telling the story

From what we know about the brand’s holistic strategy, Jag is completely upending the luxury car narrative. This is exactly what they need to do. 

The risk? There is none. You can’t kill what’s already dead. The only risk is continuing to be forgettable.

They’re in that sweet spot where “nothing to lose” meets “everything to gain.” They’re in the perfect position to pull a Nutter Butter — to be so outrageous, so unexpected, that people can’t help but notice.

The new car is supposed to be introduced in a few weeks. If it’s as sleek and cool as it is rumored to be, if the dealerships become something more than a place where people hate to shop, if Jaguar creates a story that truly connects with a creative class longing to be understood … Jag will be newly relevant.

Perhaps it’s already on the way. After all, when was the last time we spent this much time talking about Jaguar?

Exactly.

Update: Jaguar has now introduced the car. The first look:

Here is the introduction video:

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy Jaguar

The post In defense of Jaguar (I think I’m the only one) appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

On vacation in Italy, I visited a lovely wine shop in Florence. So of course, I wanted to talk to the owner about marketing (can’t help myself). The proprietor had a lovely place filled with antiques and art — such an interesting, visual environment! And yet, she wasn’t on Instagram. In fact, she didn’t use social media at all, a personal decision that certainly goes against the grain.

“Everyone tells me I should be posting,” she said. “But I don’t feel comfortable with it and would rather spend my time talking with customers.”

She spread her arms to indicate this sacred space where she sits in her shop, sipping wine with customers. “This is what I love about my business.”

Obviously, this anti-social media strategy has worked well. Her business has been growing for 18 years, built on her reputation of quality products and personal attention.

Sometimes, you can’t just listen to the gurus. Marketing is often a personal decision.

And I’d like you to consider this alternative thinking as a possible competitive advantage …

Marketing lemmings

The biggest problem with marketing, and especially social media marketing, is that “best practices” are so well known and so easily absorbed. Once a new competitive trick is discovered on a social platform, it spreads like wildfire and becomes part of everyone’s normal practice.

For example, the “shocked look” video thumbnail pioneered by Mr Beast:

Leads to this:

I’m not judging whether this is good or bad. It probably works on some level. But it all looks the SAME.

My point is that by going your own way, following your muse, and ignoring conventional wisdom, you can evolve into your own competitive advantage simply because when it’s YOU, it’s different.

Go your own way

I was an early adopter of social media marketing. In 2006, as part of my corporate marketing duties, I led an early social media team and started my own blog a few years later.

And I was a big rule-follower. I desperately tried to fit in and follow all the best practices of the day. I dutifully created my strategic, SEO-optimized content for my “ideal customer personas.” And two things happened.

First, nothing happened. Nobody was reading or commenting on my content.

Second, I became bored. What was I doing? Creating keyword-infused content for a made-up persona? Blah.

So I stopped.  And I started telling my own story, following my curiosity, expressing opinions (even when they went against the grain), and breaking the shackles of Google-driven content.

And something amazing happened.

When I went my own way, instead of finding my ideal audience, my ideal audience found me. And they were all over the world. When I decided to be a real person, real people responded back, and it changed my career.

There is no way this would have happened if I had stayed in the social media trough of best practices.

It was a powerful lesson, and since then, I’ve broken rules all along the way as I’ve written my books, created The Uprising, and established a speaking career. That personal decision to have your own little rebel yell doesn’t mean you’re reckless or offensive. But it requires courage to show up differently when boring is the path of least resistance.

The personal decision and marketing

Are you in a marketing trough? Are you so focused on what other people are doing that you’re overlooking your unique value and inherent creativity?

More importantly, are you happy and excited about your work, or are you becoming bored with all these rules, as I was?

Stop trying to game the system and start being unapologetically you. Because in the end, people don’t connect with keywords or personas. They connect with stories, passion, and real human beings who have something genuine to say.

There is a place for best practices, but don’t overlook the power of going your own way, especially when most marketing is so dull. There is tremendous pressure to do what everybody else is doing. It might seem scary not to follow the crowd. But that might be your most powerful and meaningful differentiator.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy of Austrian National Library and Unsplash.com

The post Sometimes, marketing comes down to a personal decision appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

About a year ago, singer Ed Sheeran partnered with Heinz on a new hot sauce. This is a great lesson literally pointing to the future of influencer marketing, and I kept forgetting to blog about it. But before I get to the dazzling marketing lesson from Ed Sheeran, let’s talk about the marketing problem with soap …

The new influencer landscape

I recently attended a meeting at a CPG company famous for its iconic soap products. They went through a big competitive analysis with profiles of all their traditional global competitors. At the end of the talk, I sheepishly raised my hand and suggested they had completely missed their biggest competitive threat. It isn’t P&G. It isn’t Unilever. It’s a 24-year-old TikTok star.

Influencer marketing has entered a new phase. The biggest stars’ celebrity power commands more loyal audiences than traditional TV networks. Mr Beast has more subscribers than Netflix.

These aren’t just kids shilling energy drinks. They are savvy entrepreneurs who are building their own mega-brands. Here are a few examples:

• Addison Rae – Item Beauty
• Emma Chamberlain – Chamberlain Coffee
• Charli and Dixie D’Amelio – Social Tourist (clothing line)
• Hyram Yarbro – Selfless by Hyram (skincare line)
• Blair Walnuts – Jewelry line
• Michelle Khare – MKfit (fitness app)

And, of course, there is Kylie Jenner, the world’s youngest self-made billionaire who sells her cosmetics in airport kiosks,

These young creators have something the big companies don’t—a credible, authentic voice and a loyal audience that visits them online daily to see what they’re selling next.

And that brings us to the marketing lesson from Ed Sheeran.

The beautiful ketchup move

Like the other influencers I mentioned, Ed Sheeran could have created his own line of hot sauces and a saucy empire. But why?

Partnering with Heinz made so much more sense. For one thing, Heinz actually makes stuff. They have contracts with suppliers, big factories, and an excellent distribution system built over a hundred years. So, with very little actual effort, Ed made his hot sauce dreams come true just by lending his charming face to the new brand. Win-Win.

And here’s the lesson for the mega-brands. Put your marketing ego aside. Go find yourself some beloved influencers and make them rich. They can out-market you, but you can out-manufacture them. It’s a match made in heaven.

Since the Ed Sheeran announcement, I’ve been waiting for a deluge of influencer-brand product launches, but there have been very few. I don’t get it. Influencers own your market, folks. Partner with them to disrupt your market before you’re the one being disrupted.

if you’d like to hear more about this subject, I discussed these ideas with my friend Amanda Russell. You won’t want to miss it!

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 298

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Personal brand on TikTok?

Too short for a blog post, too interesting to ignore, here are some quick thoughts from the Schaefer-verse:

Is it really a personal brand on TikTok?

I’ve been teaching about personal branding for nearly a decade and probably have studied this subject as much as anyone on earth. But a new development has me flummoxed.

Increasingly, “personal brand” is becoming synonymous with performers on TikTok. I’ve seen this connection creeping in, but it slapped me in the face when I saw sessions on “personal brand strategy” at SXSW run literally by teen TikTok stars.

I’m not against teen TikTok stars—go for it. But is this building a personal brand … or achieving personal fame? There’s a difference.

The term “personal brand” was popularized by a 1997 Fast Company article called “The Brand is You” by Tom Peters. He stressed the importance of curating your own professional brand (just like a corporate brand) to succeed in business.

In my popular Personal Branding Master Class, I make the distinction between fame (like Kim Kardashian) and a personal brand, which means you have the

• presence
• reputation
• authority

… to make your professional dreams a reality. You probably won’t be famous (and don’t need to be), but you will be known in your industry, and that’s a HUGE advantage.

By the way, I think you can create a professional personal brand, instead of personal fame, on TikTok just like any other channel. I’ve seen some great marketing and business content there.

But today, TikTok’s meme-merchants with brand deals seem to be lumped together in the “personal brand” category by the popular media. I think that’s confusing. Am I splitting hairs?

I broke my own rule

In many of my books and speeches, I implore marketers to stop doing what people hate — interrupting, intercepting, and spamming, for example.

Here’s one thing that I know people hate: pop-up ads. The research is overwhelming. In 2014, Ethan Zuckerman, the inventor of the pop-up ad, wrote a lengthy apology for his creation in The Atlantic. He called it “The Internet’s Original Sin” and pleaded with businesses to “ditch them.”

And yet, I now have a pop-up on my site. One attentive reader called this irony to my attention, so I thought I would explain it.

Subscriptions to my blog had been stagnant. Long story short, I am fighting the math of large numbers (the bigger the email list, the more I need to grow to keep up with natural attrition).

I needed to upgrade my email strategy, and one recommendation was to add a pop-up to gently remind people to subscribe. I resisted the idea for years but finally succumbed.

I hope I have done this in a kind way. It only pops up after you have been on the site for a while, so it’s not on your face, and it only happens once. Bottom line, it worked.

So I have a “gentle pop-up!”

No sugar-coating

In my last roundup-style post, I had a number of sobering observations about AI and our future. One reader chastised me for not being more positive.

I do think positivity is important, but the truth is even more so. If I don’t tell you the truth, I am cheating you, deceiving you in the long term to make you feel good in the short term.

If you believe projections from Accenture, Deloitte, and McKinsey, between 40% and 70% of marketing tasks can be easily automated. My friend Paul Roetzer, who studies this more than anyone, ranted in his podcast this week that job displacement is coming fast, and he’s worried that nobody is prepared for it.

I do not think mass job displacement is inevitable, at least in the short-term. There are many financial, legal, ethical, and political hurdles for AI to overcome. And, as I wrote recently, I believe is always a place for human creativity.

But change is coming. That’s what’s real right now. We can’t see the truth through a sugar-coated lens. Let’s grow together based on truth and lift each other up along the way!

Word-of-mouth marketing is where it’s at

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is probably the most important marketing genre. But it has been relegated to a marketing sideshow because it’s difficult to execute and even more difficult to measure. And frankly, it’s just not as sexy as a celebrity-filled TV ad.

But I’m convinced in this deep fake age of mistrust, WOMM will emerge as an incredibly important strategy. It’s not that hard. Give people something cool to talk about!

It can be this simple. I dined at the wonderful Oasis restaurant on the Caribean island of Saint Martin a few weeks ago. At each place setting, there was a little card to give you a fake smile. Donning the fake smile was irresistible of course. Don’t you think kids would love this?

The simple word-of-mouth marketing idea becomes complete with unique stories on the back of the card. About 10% of the population are “super-sharers” who will take a cool story and share it with family and friends. That ignites WOMM. So, feed them the stories and it will spread.

Don’t overlook visual prompts like the smile card to remind people to talk about you.

What are the stories you’re sharing about your business? How are you getting them out into the world so your business becomes conversational?

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Are you really building a personal brand on TikTok? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Scottsboro, Alabama, (population 15,750) is a sleepy river town known for its First Monday craft fair, Payne’s Soda Fountain, and hot, muggy summers. It would not be considered a hotbed for influencer marketing. Well, not until Sarah Stahl made it into an influence marketing case study.

Sarah is the marketing director for ReTreet, a glamping (“glamorous + camping”) site in the woods outside of town. Faced with a 30% occupancy rate and a tiny marketing budget, she needed to build awareness on the cheap and turned to influencers to spread the word.

In what could be a travel industry first, Sarah created so much positive buzz around the tiny 17-site resort that influencers pay her to stay there. How in the world did she do that? In a word, attention to detail. Sarah delivers such an outstanding experience that influencers can’t wait to get there, even from distant states. Her approach includes:

• Partnerships with local attractions and restaurants that enhance the influencer’s storytelling possibilities and boost local tourism.
• Luxury amenities such as hot tubs, outdoor showers, saunas, and fire pits ensures visually appealing content.
• Founding a ReTreet influencer community so creators can stay in touch with each other and the resort. This community-driven approach has helped spur additional content creation and more bookings from their audience long after the initial stay.

Content is the key

Retreet resort post from influencer @petitemamalife

“I knew we needed quality content in volume,” she said, “and that consumers might not trust us or understand the idea of glamping at first. With a small startup budget, it would be tough to convince them without help, so working with trusted travel influencers was our best choice.

“I also knew that consistency is key. We’ve averaged about one influencer visit per week over 52 weeks. And as they shared their experiences, we’ve received more interest. We now have a three-month waitlist for content creators to stay with us. Since they are always looking for new angles for their audiences, the content about our resort is always fresh and relevant.

Results in Sarah’s first year:

• Revenue and occupancy doubled.
• The advertising budget was cut in half, and the ROI of their marketing spend more than doubled from $13 per dollar spent to $28 on each dollar spent.
• Increased ReTreet’s Instagram account by 650%, making it the top source of leads.
• Had Instagram Reels that reached 1 million views
• Each influencer visit resulted in an average of two more influencer requests for accommodation.
• Expanded the resort to include a glass dome event space.

Perhaps Sarah’s most important success is the rapid momentum she gained from the effective influencer content. “We’ve moved beyond the struggling startup phase,” she said. “We’re at a point where we’re expecting reservations to be made a year ahead of time.”

An influence marketing case study

Sarah Stahl at a Retreet tiny house

I love Sarah’s story because it’s so improbable. A resort in the middle of nowhere propelled by influencers? And yet the success is undeniable.

Most of the time, influence marketing is in the news for something silly, like a creator falling off a wall in search of the perfect selfie. But creators are crucial to our marketing future because they are believed and often adored. Chances are, your business is neither believed nor adored, so partnering with talented and trusted creators might make sense.

I asked Sarah if she’s ever had any problems with divas who were hard to work with. The creators who have come through her resort have been professional and appreciative. If you’re going to make it as an influencer these days, you’ll have to be business-savvy. I think Sarah’s experience reflects a growing professionalism among creators.

The creator economy is massive and growing. Is it time for your business to become an influence marketing case study?

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The ROI of creators: An inspiring influence marketing case study appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

For many years, this blog has emphasized earning an audience through thought leadership (authority) rather than rolling the dice, hoping for SEO for traffic. I never thought “hope” was much of a strategy!

With the profound disruption from AI, the view of earning authority independent of algorithms seems more relevant than ever. Build your audience, build your own mailing list, and control your destiny. The main engine for this is content. You need to show up in the world to have authority, which means consistently publishing helpful, meaningful content.

One persistent question is, how do you know if it’s working? How do you measure thought leadership? I teach this topic in my personal branding master class, so I thought bringing it to you today would be useful.

There are four major buckets of success:

1. Awareness

If you are building a personal brand, you want to be known and that means people have to be aware of us. Luckily for us living in this digital age, we have plenty of easily available metrics to show progress

• Website Traffic—If we’re creating authoritative content well, we should see a lift in website traffic as people discover and share our work.
• Subscriptions — I recently wrote that this was really my only metric at this point in my career. There are lot of issues that can affect web traffic, but when people subscribe to my blog, podcast, or videos, it is a reflection of the quality of what I’m doing. These subscribers are “opting in” to me. They are my future customers.
• Engagement — I’m not a fan of engagement as a corporate success metric but it can be a sign that you’re interesting. And “interesting” is a leading indicator of new subscribers.

2. Qualitative measures

Sometimes success is hard to “count.” It can be a sign from the world that people see your authority building. Things like:

• Questions — Are people asking you questions after seeing your content? That’s a sign of a high level of interest in what you’re publishing
• Emails — Most of the interaction with my blog and podcast comes in the form of emails these days. Don’t ignore email messages as a powerful sign that people care.
• Interviews—Are you being asked to appear on a podcast, contribute to a blog post, or participate in research? One of the highest signs of progress for me was being asked to participate in a Pew Research Study on media trends. I was seen as an authority!
• Reviews and testimonies — This could come through LinkedIn, a Google review, or an industry site.

3. Paydays

The dream is to be so well respected as a thought leader that people will pay us for what we do. It shows you are hitting the big time when people want to pay you for:

• Public speaking
• Coaching and consulting
• Advocating a business or product as an influencer
• Hosting a paid event, workshop, or seminar

4. Intrinsic personal reward

Do you have a sense of personal satisfaction about your progress?

• In the past year, every speaking event has provided personal limousine service for my ground transportation. Sitting in the back of a big Cadillac SUV, I thought, “Well, this wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago!” I felt proud.
• Another symbol of progress is receiving a note from someone who said I helped them, or even changed their life, through the Uprising retreat or a class. You can’t put that on a spreadsheet or a Pareto diagram. It doesn’t pay the bills. But how lucky am I to have an impact on lives?
• There’s nothing nicer than seeing a social media post from somebody claiming that I’m “their favorite.” It’s important for a thought leader to be “top of mind.” But it’s even more important to be “top of heart.” What a wonderful personal reward. Better than money.

There’s no stopping

One of the things I teach in my classes is that building a personal brand and thought leadership is not a program or campaign. It becomes part of your lifestyle. If you want to go for it, you have to commit to it, just as an athlete grinds to make the pros, or a musician pays their dues to have a career.

But I can also tell you that it’s worth it.

A few years ago, I was invited to Oxford, England to give a speech to MBA classes. On the train back to London that night, I marveled at this experience. I grew up in such modest circumstances and now I was speaking in Oxford. I wanted to bottle up that feeling and hold onto to it forever.

What an amazing time we live in. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or who you are. Influence has been democratized. You can make a dent in this world.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post How do you measure thought leadership? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Pilot Ernie Meeks is one of the new influencers building trust for brands

By Aaron Hassen, {grow} community member

The most difficult job in marketing today is determining how to effectively connect with our customers in a fractured media landscape. Fortunately, we have informative research and experts like Ed Keller to guide us on where to turn next … and that might include a surprising crop of new influencers.

Here’s a little story to set up the findings of Ed’s research.

I was reading the news, and an article from The Dallas Morning News jumped out at me. The article, The new social media influencer? Pilots and flight attendants, tells the story of Southwest Airlines pilot Ernie Meeks. Ernie was disappointed when his daughter, who had dreamed of following in his footsteps, considered dropping out of pilot school. Meeks was determined to change her mind, so he created videos for YouTube and Instagram highlighting his daily routines as a pilot.

After a year, his subscribers had grown to 57,300 on YouTube and 130,000 on Instagram … and his daughter decided to remain in pilot training school. But rather than quit, Meeks expanded into podcasting, and his show is now fully backed and sponsored by his employer, Southwest Airlines.

Why would an airline invest in an employee’s social media presence? How does this connect to modern marketing realities?  The answers are found in Ed Keller’s latest research, Unveiling Influence: A Suzy Report on The Impact of Creators on American Consumers’ Lives.

Known for his groundbreaking studies on Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Ed Keller is the CEO of the Keller Advisory Group and Executive Director of Market Research Institute International. Recently, Ed turned his attention to the new influencers and their impact on consumer behavior. If you’re like me, the findings will excite you.

27 million creators … and counting

The Keller Advisory Group worked with research firm Suzy to conduct a nationally representative study of over 1,100 consumers ages 16-54. The study focused on the impact creators and influencers have on consumer attention and purchasing behaviors. Keller had previously surveyed thousands of creators to get their points of view. This time, he decided to take a look at the other side of the equation, which of course is most interesting to brands and marketing and advertising professionals like me.

Keller defines a creator as someone who self-identifies as one and makes money creating. An influencer is someone who posts content on social media regularly and has a significant following. Often, these individuals are one and the same, so I’ll be using the terms interchangeably in this article.

The study estimates there are 27 million paid creators in the U.S. or 14% of all consumers ages 16-54. But all creators are not alike, and the breakdowns are important: 

• 12.22% (3.3m) are macro-influencers with 250k+ followers 
• 25.18% (6.8m) are mid-tier influencers with 50k – 250k followers
• 39.5% (10.4m) are micro-influencers with less than 10k followers. (This segment is reported to be the most influential)

Let’s move on to some of the key takeaways from the study.

Creators are far more influential than ads

According to the survey, 7 in 10 consumers follow creators, and 80% of those followers take some sort of action due to the influence of creator content. These actions are significant and include:

• visiting the brand’s website (55%),
• following the brand on social media (46%),
• recommending the brand to someone else (42%), and
• resharing the creator’s content (29%).

The best part? An eye-popping 43% of consumers report making a purchase! This meant that compared to advertising, creator content was 2.6 times more influential in purchasing decisions for those polled.

So, what exactly is driving these results? In a word, trust.

New influencers mean trust

The study finds that creator content outperforms traditional advertising across several key attributes.

Creator content is trusted 2.9 times more than advertising and is considered more exciting, unique, relevant, and shareable. Creator content also creates a stronger emotional connection, as 83% of consumers report that they like or love the creator’s content. These qualities appear to contribute to the higher effectiveness of creator content when influencing consumer perceptions and actions compared to ads. 

Brands follow the money

As Mark Schaefer highlighted in his recent article, How big is the creator economy? Three times larger than we thought, brand spending on influencers is surging.

Keller found that nearly 6 in 10 have an ongoing relationship with brands. In his latest survey, between 73% and 76% of consumers said that creator content influences their perceptions of both large, well-known brands and lesser-known emerging brands. So, it’s no coincidence that trusted brands like Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, and Apple invest in creators.

Money is shifting away from advertisers and toward the new influencers. This year, brands will reportedly spend around $8.14 billion on sponsored social media content. According to Reuters, legacy advertising outlets like “Google and YouTube have faced competition for ad budgets from other online platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Amazon.com.”

The Washington Post notes that even “Well-known news outlets have seen a decline in the amount of traffic flowing to them from social media sites, and some of the money that advertisers previously might have spent with them is now flowing to creators.” The shift in investment from digital advertising to creators highlights the increased importance and effectiveness of creator partnerships for brands.

Ultimately, it’s clear that creators are funded because of their ability to create customers, which is why Southwest Airlines would eagerly support their pilot/creator. Creators are now the arbiters of consumer attention and trust, and brands are leveraging that trust to drive purchases. 

So, the next time you have your finger on the button ready to launch yet another ad campaign, consider the data from Ed Keller and invest in a social media word-of-mouth campaign with a micro-influencer instead. That’s certainly what I’ll be doing.

Aaron Hassen is a well-respected marketing leader, strategist, and hands-on practitioner. In 2004, Aaron began his career by launching an online and print advertising service, acquired by a competitor four years later. For the next 18 years, Aaron led marketing for emerging B2B technology companies helping them multiply their annual revenues. Today, Aaron runs AH Marketing, a full-service fractional marketing team focused on Go-To-Market strategy, demand generation, and brand development for B2B revenue leaders with little time or sufficient help to address their marketing challenges.

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This week marks the fifteenth anniversary of my blog. Crazy, right? I realize that nobody cares about an anniversary like this … I don’t even care, honestly … but I thought I would use the milestone as a teachable moment because blogging changed my life. And here is the main lesson of the milestone:

To stand out in this world, you have to be known. To be known, you have to show up consistently. Consistency is more important than genius.

Unfortunately, this is where most people fail. They stop and start, or perhaps they never start at all.

In my Personal Branding Master Class, I show a slide depicting my personal income attributed to “being known.” My income grew steadily over time (except 2020!) because the more I am known, the bigger my audience, the greater the opportunities, the higher the book sales, and the more valuable the speaking and consulting engagements. This progress can only come through consistently showing up with helpful content.

Creating meaningful content is hard work, and at low times, I wonder if it’s worth it. While I’m working on a blog post, my friends might be reading, hiking, or cooking a great meal. Blogging is a sacrifice.

But when I emerge from this introspection, I return to the same conclusion: Everything started from the blog, and every business benefit comes from the thought leadership I’ve built from this space. In fact, without a doubt, blogging changed my life forever, in these five ways:

1. Deep emotional connection

A few years ago, I received an email from a blog reader: “I’ve been reading your blog for three years. It led me to buy your latest book, and it is the best business book I’ve read in the last ten years.”

It was signed by the CMO of a Fortune 100 company. Two years later, he hired me for a consulting project to transform his content marketing department.

Let’s dissect what happened:

• A stranger built an affinity for me through my blog.
• Over time, the affinity became trust … a strong enough bond for him to hire me, even though I had never met him.
• To earn his business, I didn’t have to apply for the job or bid against competitors. I was simply awarded the work, and I named my price.

If I didn’t have a blog, how much would I have had to spend on advertising to have a success story like that?

Brand marketing is about building an emotional connection that differentiates you from the competition. What a wonderful world we live in where a guy like me has the opportunity to build relationships — and a business — through my content. You can do it, too.

2. The introvert’s revenge

I hate networking. I am the worst networker in the world. I’m an introvert who loves a quiet dinner with friends, but put me in a room with a lot of people, and I want to crawl into a hole.

I know that sounds weird coming from a person who delivers keynote speeches in front of thousands of people, but it is different. I come alive on a stage because I can teach and entertain, and I’m really good at it. But shaking hands all night at a cocktail reception is my idea of torture.  I am a mingler misfit.

But through a blog, I can build business friendships with people every day without actually meeting them!

3. The fuel for a legacy

When my blog hit its tenth anniversary, I wrote that my biggest accomplishment was that over all those hundreds of posts, I never humiliated myself. My record still stands!

I have not made a major stumble because blogging forces me to clarify my ideas. Before I put something into the world, I think it through deeply. Is it thorough? Have I considered all sides? Am I being kind and showing up in a way I can be proud of?

These clarified blog concepts are later used in my speeches and books. The seeds of my legacy are planted here.

4. Personal reward

When I was in the corporate world, I would get an annual performance review (if I was lucky!).

Although I generally had an idea of how I was doing, there always seemed to be a zinger in there. Nobody gets a perfect performance review, right?

The cool thing about blogging is that I get a performance every week. Here is a comment posted on LinkedIn recently by Jim Hunt.

Isn’t that awesome? It makes my heart soar. I just can’t believe how lucky I am to have an audience of people who appreciate my work.

That’s the fuel that keeps me going. When I create a blog post, a podcast episode, or a book, I have only one mantra in my head: “I will never let you down.”

5. Personal healing

In the first chapter of my book KNOWN, I wrote about the darkest time of my life. This was so difficult for me to reveal, but I did it to show the reader that when I started my personal branding journey, I was a mess. I was below zero. I wanted to encourage people — If I can do it, you can too.

In those dark days, the stress of my life was killing me. When I went to see a doctor, my blood pressure was so high she would not let me leave her office. She was afraid I was about to have a stroke or worse.

The doctor demanded that I monitor my blood pressure every hour of the day. And this is when I witnessed something miraculous. There was one hour every day when my blood pressure was normal. It was when I was blogging.

There is a zen about blogging that sends you to a different place of focus and peace, even when the world is terrible.

Even more importantly, when I started posting my ideas online, I received feedback from people who didn’t know what I was going through. It was so nice to connect with people who didn’t know of my suffering. I was so tired of being sad.

Perhaps it is too dramatic to say that blogging saved my life, but mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially, I am transformed from creating these words on a screen.

Thank you, friend

I will never forget the moment 15 years ago when I received the very first comment on this blog. It was a moment of awe. Somebody read my work and spent their precious time commenting on it.

I have never forgotten that feeling. I re-live that sense of awe every day when I get feedback on my work.

Whether you have followed me for 15 years or this is our first meeting, thank you for being here. I’m just getting started, and I will never let you down.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post 15 Years On, Five Ways Blogging Changed My Life Forever appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I was recently talking with a young influencer and I offered to send her one of my books.

“I don’t read books,” she said.

“OK, how about an audiobook?”

“I don’t listen to books either. The only content I consume is YouTube. I have the ad-free version and that is all I watch all day long.”

This story is not unusual. Younger people are moving away from traditional media, burrowing themselves in private communities, and moving out of reach of marketers.

So if you’re a brand … how do you reach her? How do you market to young people who seem unreachable?

I posed this question to the smart marketers of the RISE community and thought I would share their insightful and creative answers!

1. Short form and influencers

Brian Piper, Content Consultant, Author, Speaker

To market to young people, you have to learn how to deliver your message on the channels where they are. Repurpose your content into short-form videos for social and get your expertise into places being scraped to build AI data models (sites like Reddit and Quora, featured snippets in Google, and guest blog/vlog appearances).

Engage and collaborate with influencers and participate in online communities where your audience finds trusted answers. By participating and getting involved, you can establish yourself as a go-to resource.

Research shows that 37% of consumers trust influencers over brands, with Gen Z and Millennials being twice as likely to do this compared with their Boomer counterparts. Further, 32% of Gen Z rely on social media influencers to help them discover brands and products.

2. Stickers rule

Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, Bilingual Marketing Consultant

I recently spent time with several 12-year-old Girl Scouts; they are still too young to be joining social media platforms.

I asked them this question — if they needed to market a hypothetical friendship bracelet business for an entrepreneurship merit badge, what would they do? They said this:

• Billboards/posters (in the hallway in school, bathroom stalls, and in theaters)
• Ads/ sponsorships on Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Pandora,
• Stickers on desktops, phones, and their Stanley mugs

I guess you’ve really made it if your sticker is on their precious Stanley cup!

3. Solve their problems

Emiliano Reisfeld, MBA, L’Oreal

These generations will not seek brands with AI or search — they are seeking solutions to problems. Therefore, for the case of ChatGPT, a consumer from this group might ask, for example, “What perfume would you recommend to dazzle at a party?” To which the AI will search for information across millions of pages. Consequently, presence in recommendations, brand mentions, press releases, etc., will lead people from these groups to find your brand.

I think the same will happen for social search in terms of search behavior. Consumers inquire about solutions to problems. In the case of TikTok and Instagram, I understand that the algorithm sorts content based on the impact of the generated content. Therefore, to market to young people, it will be highly relevant for a brand that content generation focuses much more on the solutions or needs that your product satisfies: content about usage rather than product functionalities.

4. Get with the memes

Aaron Hassen, Chief Marketer at AH Marketing

Instead of talking about commercials around the water cooler like past generations, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are more likely to share short videos, GIFs, and image-based memes that reflect their perspectives and values with friends. Brands have an opportunity to create entertaining and thought-provoking assets that include subtle product placements and have those assets distributed by trusted influencers.

5. Explore the world of gaming

Anna Bravington, Marketing Strategist

I recently received an email from a UK brand called Clarks, a shoe shop not known for its forward-thinking nature. The email shared pictures of their latest kids’ shoes and mentioned that they had a Roblox game with characters from the shoes.

Gaming and kids’ shoes might seem like an odd combination, but let me share some figures with you.

• There are 3.32 billion active video gamers worldwide, that’s about 42% of the world’s population. In places like the US and the UK, over half the population plays games.
• Around 60% of those gamers are under 35, mainly encompassing Gen Z/Gen Alpha. That sure is a lot of people! Now, when we say gaming, remember this doesn’t just include playing on the PC or console; mobile gaming is huge, too.

Yet many brands don’t see gaming as a marketing channel, even if they’re aiming at the Gen Z/Gen Alpha audience. But there is so much opportunity to engage with this audience on a channel they love and spend a lot of their time on.

There are so many ways for brands to interact through gaming:

• Branded games, such as Clarks Playprints and Walmart Discovered on Roblox
• Custom DLC (digital content) such as clothing, accessories, and items.
• In-game events. DJ Marshmello’s event in Fortnite had 10.7 million attendees.
• If you want something that’s a bit more like traditional advertising, then sponsorship, product placements, and ads. London-based startup Bidstack allows brands to have dynamic ads in video games, such as the banners around the pitch in FIFA, the popular football game (think of it a bit like a digital version of out-of-home advertising).

Instead of brands expecting the audience to come to them, it’s time for them to go to the audience and interact with them in a way that feels comfortable, builds trust, and brings value to their lives.

6. Immersive experiences

Joeri Billast, The Web3 CMO

Diving into the world of AR and VR to create experiences that blend the real with the digital is like inviting Gen Z and Gen Alpha into a story where they’re not just observers but active participants. For example, letting them try on clothes virtually before buying or taking them on a virtual adventure that starts in their living room but feels like they’re exploring another world.

This approach builds engagement, and moreover, it builds a bond between them and you, making each interaction more memorable and personal.

7. Win AI search

Joanne Taylor, Professional Editor

To earn awareness and be discovered by AI search, you need to be an excellent communicator who understands your audience. Double down on meaning because semantics are coming to the fore.

AI is increasingly good at interpreting user intent due to its ever-growing understanding of the semantics of natural language. So, word-specific search terms are becoming less important than the meaning and context behind those words. This is particularly relevant to AI voice search as queries become longer and more conversational.

Expertise, authority, and trustworthiness still matter for AI search, but don’t get sidetracked attempting to jump through hoops. Earn awareness by answering the questions of your specific audience – and do it better than anyone else. Meaningfully address their genuine needs. Get your message across clearly by being a great communicator, whether written or otherwise. Excellent writing, for example, often lies in clarity of expression, depth of human insight, and ability to engage and move the reader.

Keep in mind that the people you want to serve come first. You can win AI semantic search by clearly conveying meaningful value to your specific audience, and AI will tell relevant users about you!

8. Meet them where they are

Zack Seipert, Marketing & Communications Specialist

How do you market to young people? Let’s look at where these individuals hanging out. Where do they spend their time? Who are they with? What interests them?

Now, this undoubtedly means digital spaces such as TikTok, Instagram, etc. But it also means meeting them where they are in real life.

Recently my coworkers and I were contemplating this exact same question. How can we get our important messages seen and heard by this young segment of our audience? One potential solution rose to the top of our list — host a trivia night!

We called up local pubs and asked if we could host a trivia night. We would provide the necessary equipment, run the trivia show, and supply awards for the winners.

We prepared trivia questions in advance on a variety of topics, but they all revolved around water and conservation (our message!). So we created questions about water in cinema, water in music, water in pop culture, and we even threw in some questions about our organization (who we are, what we do, etc).

QR codes made it easy to follow us on social media and our website.

9. Re-mix, re-create, reimagine

I’ll conclude this post with an idea of my own.

Nearly all social media and content strategy up until this point has been about broadcasting a message.

But if you look at the culture of TikTok (the culture of youth), the space is about appropriating ideas, messages, memes, and music to create something new. There are entire genres of content re-mixing commercials for car companies, movies, and other products.

There is probably nothing your marketing and legal department will fear more than customers re-mixing your commercial, and yet, that’s how the messages are being spread today. This suggests two ways to connect with youth culture: create content that is very re-mixable and re-mix memes yourself to include your brand. This is already happening in small ways, but I think it will emerge as a larger trend.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Nine ideas to market to young people who avoid marketing appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.