WVU Marketing Communications Today

How to be an Entrepreneurial Marketer

What can marketers learn from entrepreneurs? Plenty. According to Darpan Munjal, serial entrepreneur and successful founder of the naming platform Atom.com, the principles of entrepreneurship—resilience, curiosity, and “roll up your sleeves and try something” — are of immediate use to marketers everywhere. Other principles he shared with us in this episode: Do lots of testing. Choose metrics that have real business value. Find employees who think like entrepreneurs. And our favorite: Hire marketers who “get tech,” and tech people who “get marketing.” Listen through to the end for his answer to where entrepreneurial marketing is headed: It’s AI, of course, but with careful guardrails around maintaining authenticity and delivering a human touch. Brilliant.

Darpan shares these three takeaways:

• Marketing requires a balance of creativity (for new ideas) and discipline (for execution), and so does entrepreneurship.
• Make sure you are clear about the problem your product/company is trying to solve and its distinctive advantage compared to the alternatives.
• The top marketing tactics recommended for entrepreneurial marketing are lots of testing, content marketing distributed via social media and contributed articles, partnerships and community-based engagement.

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About our Guest:

Darpan Munjal is the Founder & CEO of Atom.com, a disruptive naming platform and domain marketplace. With a cutting-edge focus on AI, Crowdsourcing, and Branding, Atom is revolutionizing the startup ecosystem by providing essential building blocks for success.

Formerly known as Squadhelp, Atom is a 3X Inc. 500 company, with over 50,000 customers worldwide, including Nestlé, Dell, Pepsi, Hilton, and Alibaba. A serial entrepreneur, Darpan brings over 25 years of experience in leading internet-focused businesses.

Darpan is also a frequent contributor to Forbes and Inc. Magazine, sharing insights on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

 

 

We Need More Women in Data Science!

Data science affects every aspect of modern life, from setting monetary policy and modeling climate change impacts, to how and where healthcare is administered. Yet, women represent less than 20% of students and less than 10% of decision-makers in data science today. While women have made great strides in STEM and other fields, they seem to be failing to make inroads in this important field. In this episode, we have special guest Tina Tang, co-founder and chair of Women in Big Data, an organization focused on mentoring and leadership development in tech, to break it down for us. She is a mentor, investor, and advisor, supporting women’s leadership in politics and peace. Check out the mentoring and support available at Women in Data Science.

Fun Fact: Not only is her resume truly impressive, but Tina also has some famous miniature donkeys! Listen in for details.

Tina shares these three takeaways:

• The causes of women’s under-representation in data science include a lack of encouragement when they are young, a lack of mentors and roles models, and a general lack of support. But the field is blossoming, and with women representing 50% of the population, data science presents a great opportunity for them.
• Modern marketing is all about AI, analytics, and predictive modeling. Marketers were early adopters in these areas and are now primed to lead the way in the data-driven future.
• For anyone who is interested in this field, Tina recommends that you find a mentor, develop broad experience across a lot of disciplines and shadow someone in sales.

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About our Guest:

Tina Tang advocates for economic justice and opportunity. As global operations executive for Women in Data Science Worldwide, she leads finance and strategy for product and marketing. She is also co-founder and chair of Women in Big Data, focusing on mentoring and leadership development in tech. Tina supports women's leadership in politics and peace on the board of Advancing Women's Political Leadership & Global Peace. With 30 years in the tech industry and degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, she is also a mentor, investor, and advisor. Tina and her husband have three grown sons and live in California with a cat, 100,000 bees, and three miniature donkeys.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

 

 

All Marketing is Multicultural Marketing

In this episode, longtime multicultural healthcare marketer Beatriz Mallory shares with us the challenges and opportunities in her field. Any healthcare marketer — hospital systems, insurance companies or pharmaceuticals — that is not actively serving Hispanic audiences is missing a business opportunity the size of New York State, she says. But it’s a tough marketing challenge, which requires a maniacal focus on data, and a sophisticated mix of communications with goals way beyond awareness and trust, all the way to active engagement. Join us to hear her stories of successful strategies that drove results. Special bonus: The story behind Bea’s new foundation, HEARD Kids, helping low-income “rare families” who have a child suffering from a rare disease to connect with researchers and advocates. Beatriz shares these three takeaways:

• “Multicultural” involves nuances beyond just race, ethnicity and language, to include education level and heritage.
• In areas of the world like California, where minorities are the majority, all marketing is multicultural.
• Advice to students looking to enter the field: Don’t shy away from courses in statistics and analytics.

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About our Guest:

Beatriz Mallory founded and leads HEARD kids (Health Equity for Children with Rare Diseases), a nonprofit organization connecting low-income rare families to foundations, researchers, and advocates for their child’s disease – and to each other. HEARD kids secures disease education, social and financial support to Hispanic, Black, Native American, and rural families living with rare diseases, in the language and cultural context they need.

Prior to launching HEARD Kids, Beatriz founded and led HispanAmérica Health, building marketing, advertising, and communications strategy anchored in health equity and cultural competence. She is experienced in engagement strategies for all audiences and communities for hospitals and health systems, health insurers, pharma companies, nonprofits, and disease advocacy organizations.

Her recent roles prior to HispanAmérica Health include leading digital agency Sensis Health, Interim VP of Marketing for Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, Director of Multicultural Strategy for Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems, Inc., and ownership of ad agency HispanAmérica LLC in partnership with DDB Worldwide.

She’s a frequent speaker and published author, and passionate national advocate for low-income and underserved rare kids.

Beatriz is a graduate of Cornell University’s College of Engineering. She is Hispanic and African American in heritage, multilingual, and traveled the globe. She’s proud of her recent service on the boards of Easterseals of Southern CA, Alzheimer’s Los Angeles, Alzheimer’s Assoc. Greater PA, and National Hispanic Health Foundation. Her ultimate vision is an equitable healthcare ecosystem that will empower every person to live their healthiest life.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

 

 

Podcasting: Why it is Everywhere You Need to be

 

Looking for strategies and tips for success in the crowded field of podcast marketing?  Our guest E.B. Moss, an active podcaster and podcast marketing advisor, shares her experience and enthusiasm in this episode.  E.B. advises podcasters to begin with a clear understanding of our target audience, and what we are trying to accomplish.  From there, it’s a straight shot to identify key success metrics and develop strategies and tactics for content, production and promotion.  Listen in to learn why podcasting is such a popular medium, and hear about some of the exciting new tools on the horizon that will take the medium to even greater heights.  E.B. recommends Triton Digital for podcasting research, Sounds Profitable for advertising information, and Descript for voice editing and video dubbing. E.B. Moss shares these three takeaways:

• While an estimated 3 to 5 million podcasts are out there, only about 10 percent are active—a phenomenon amusingly called “podfade.”
• The most effective channel for promoting your podcast is paid social, but don’t neglect building your email subscriber 1st party list, which will be the second most effective.
• The next big iteration for podcasting now is video, as YouTube has recently begun ingesting RSS feeds.  It’s time to start adding video to your audio programs.

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About our Guest:

E.B. Moss is a content strategist, creator and B2B marketer, focused on driving revenue and building awareness through audio, video, conferences and collateral. Her consultancy, Moss Appeal, develops compelling corporate messaging, sponsorships and branded podcasts, including the new Trade Up with Angi. E.B. is known for informative but accessible explanatory journalism and upbeat executive interviews regularly appearing in such trade publications as Media Village, Cynopsis, The Customer, as well as via her highly regarded podcast, Insider Interviews with E.B. Moss.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

 

 

Super Bowl Ads Without a Super-Sized Budget

 

Did you know that small businesses can advertise profitably on the Super Bowl?  At a cost of $7 million for 30 seconds of airtime, the Super Bowl may seem out of reach and a poor investment for most of us marketers without deep pockets. But according to Statista, only the moon is bigger than the Super Bowl. The 2024 edition of the "big game" was watched by more than 123 million people, making it the second most-watched U.S. television broadcast ever, behind the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.

In this episode, Josh Wilson, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Whitefish Credit Union, demystifies the Super Bowl advertising challenge and shares how to leverage and exploit regional advertising against national players. Josh has made financial services marketing not only effective but fun. Big news: His company won a Regional Emmy Award for their 2023 commercial series. Ever heard of Hooky Bobbin? Take a listen. Josh shares these three takeaways:

• Be authentic with your brand by using real people and real locations in your ads. Your customers and prospects will recognize and appreciate the familiar scenes, versus stock photographs.
• It's helpful to be a regional business. Broadcast can be cost-effective in a hyper-local market where media owners are willing to negotiate fees, and viewership can be as high as 50%.
• Measure incremental awareness in addition to cost/impression. And don't discount Word of Mouth as a key metric.

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About our Guest:

Josh Wilson is an award-winning marketing professional with more than 10 years of experience in financial institutions and government. He is passionate about combining data-driven marketing strategies with authentic content to provide measurable success.

He currently serves as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Whitefish Credit Union, the largest credit union in Montana. Prior to that, he was Director of Advertising & Market Research for a regional financial institution based in Southern California. His positions have concentrated on crafting integrated multi-channel marketing campaigns with a focus on marketing attribution.

Wilson holds a master’s degree in Data Marketing Communications from West Virginia University and completed his undergraduate at Chapman University. Over the course of his career, he has held positions in marketing, finance, and government. His campaigns have received multiple awards, including the highest marketing honors from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions and the Credit Union National Association.

Wilson believes community engagement is essential to success. He has served on various volunteer boards, and he has also been elected to public office.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

 

 

Keeping Up With Rapidly Evolving Marketing Regulations

 

Marketing communications and the rules and regulations that we marketers need to know are changing fast. To find a reliable and knowledgeable source to navigate the FTC, FCC and other sources of regulation can be tough, but we lucked out! Our guest, Melissa Steinman, put advertising and marketing regulation into such an interesting context, that we were fascinated and eager to learn more.

Melissa is an advertising lawyer at Venable LLP and explains that regulation aims to ensure our communications are truthful, and neither deceptive nor misleading.  She also explained the sources of the complexity, including all the media options, the differing regions, and the vertical markets like pharma and supplements. Good thing she also supplied us with a variety of resources, like the very informative FTC website, industry blogs, and her law firm’s blog. ( She says that parts of the FTC website are actually funny!). Take a listen, and we are sure you will conclude that we marketers need to step up and familiarize ourselves with this important subject.

Steinman highlights three key areas of marketing regulations:

• The goal of government regulations is that marketing communications are truthful, clear, and free of deception.
• The two major forces driving the complexity of marketing regulations are the proliferation of media channels, and the large number of regional and industry differences.
• Marketers must get familiar with the regulations relevant to their businesses, and keep ahead of developments in new categories like AI, using available resources including industry blogs and the FTC website.

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About our Guest:

Melissa Steinman focuses on advertising and marketing, promotions, consumer protection, antitrust, trade regulation, and consumer product safety. In addition to counseling and compliance, she also actively represents clients in government investigations and defends clients against class actions. Melissa represents a broad array of clients, including consumer products and hospitality brands, media and tech companies, retailers, gaming and software companies, start-ups, celebrities, producers, charities, and trade associations. She is particularly well known for her deep knowledge of promotions law, including sweepstakes, contests, gift cards, loyalty programs, and charitable promotions, and she speaks and writes frequently on the topic in the United States and internationally.

Melissa works closely with clients to review their advertising and marketing materials, and vet their pricing and sales claims. She advises on product safety issues – devising product warranties and providing guidance on mitigating potential product safety issues. Melissa has managed Lanham Act and complex advertising and marketing litigation, as lead counsel before U.S. federal and state courts.

Melissa has also developed an extensive promotions and online gaming practice. She counsels clients on gift card, rebate, "free" gift, and loyalty programs. She combines her understanding of prize promotions law, digital media regulations, and U.S. regulations in advising on social media promotions and user-generated content.

Melissa assists industry trade groups in creating their own industry-specific rules. She has drafted antitrust policies and standards, certification programs, codes of ethics, and other self-regulatory programs and policies. Her practice encompasses antitrust issues related to minimum advertised price and resale price maintenance, price discrimination, and other issues relevant to product purchases and sales.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

 

 

What is Happening to DEI in Marketing?

 

Mark Robinson, author of "Black on Madison Avenue," opened our eyes to the problems and opportunities for minority professionals in the ad agency world.  Far from being change drivers for clients, agencies instead serve as mirrors on the world, he says.  Most agencies simply do not see value in hiring minority staffers.  Once inside, minority staffers are often invisible.  DEI initiatives are more talk than drivers of real change.

At the same time, Mark says he gained enormous emotional and intellectual satisfaction from being in advertising, and he’s very proud of his work.  He advises professionals of color to enter the field, and do their best to fit in, while never losing sight of their authentic selves.  Tune in for a lively—and candid—conversation with Mark Robinson.

About our Guest:

Mark Robinson has spent the past 40+ years in advertising at some of the industry’s most prestigious agencies. Mark has been featured in Fortune magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Advertising Age.

Mark is a past member of the American Advertising Federation’s Multicultural Marketing Leadership Council, a national touring lecturer for the Advertising Educational Foundation, and an ongoing mentor for MAIP (Minority Advertising Internship Program) for the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Mark was chosen by filmmaker Spike Lee to co-found and manage his new agency, Spike/DDB. In 1998, Mark launched Heritage Apparel, an internet-based clothing company that celebrated African American history and heroes. In 2001, he was recognized as the Entrepreneur of the Year for the successful launch of his next company, S/R Communications Alliance; the first 100% minority-owned network of 10 multicultural advertising companies, with combined business of $225 million.

Mark’s 2nd book, “Black On Madison Avenue,” is part deeply personal memoir and part explosive history of what he calls “America’s most un-diverse white collar profession.” Mark is a past member of the Multicultural Marketing Leadership Council, a national touring lecturer and an ongoing mentor for the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Mark’s 1st book, “Place of Privilege,” tells the story of the first young Black men to integrate the gilded halls of New York’s ultra-exclusive and most prestigious private school, The Dalton School.

Mark Robinson is the recipient of the 2023 Paragon Award from the 4a"s Society of Excellence, and the 1970's Diamond of the Decade Award from the 4A's Foundation.

Mark lives in Connecticut and is a highly sought-after strategist and advisor to various clients, including political campaigns and community organizations. He also serves on the board of directors of The Connecticut Mirror newspaper.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.

 

 

Is CGI+AI a Match Made in Heaven?

 

We chatted with Faruk Heplevent in Hamburg, Germany, a creative leader in the exciting world of automotive marketing. Faruk joined us to discuss CGI-driven strategies in advertising and marketing.  Computer-Generated Imagery is often viewed as the “old school” (pre-AI) way of generating graphics and photorealism in industries such as fashion and automotive. These industries have taken the lead in this field, thanks to sizable budgets and a large amount of creativity.  But Faruk believes that now even marketers in SMB can try it out.

CGI tools have become more approachable and less expensive thanks to software providers such as Adobe Substance 3D or Turbo Squid (owned by Getty Images). He suggests we use CGI to create digital twins and to rapidly prototype in product development. You may also be surprised to hear why Faruk encourages us to rediscover our 5-year-old selves.

About our Guest:

Faruk Heplevent is a creative force in the automotive marketing industry.

In 1990, he began assisting professional photographers, first with still life and then advancing to advertising and car photography. By 1999, Faruk was working for major car brands, creating stunning visuals to capture the public’s imagination.

In 2007, he founded The Scope—an innovative company that uses cutting-edge CGI technology to create incredible images for vehicle launches and advertisements. Not only did he coin the term CG photography (using computer software to take pictures), but his team recently published Scope City in 2022: a fully computer-generated city-building tool intended to deliver top-notch work on time.

Working for brands like Audi, BMW, Tesla, Li Auto, Nio, Chrysler, Lincoln, Hyundai Genesis VW Renault & Toyota—and earning awards like Cannes Lions along the way—Faruk is an undisputed leader in this field.

When he’s not busy bringing his incredible visions into reality, Faruk loves spending time with his wife and four sons in Hamburg, Germany while making beautiful memories together.

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WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master's degree programs in Marketing Communications.