105: Taken to marketing CHURCH, envy and schadenfreude, Mr. Rogers, the pay gap, and a great new Apple ad
Question: If this is indeed the World's Best Newsletter (initially named as a joke and ever since / henceforth aspiration), does that in fact make you the World's Best Subscriber?
I think so.
It's been two weeks of, yes, more conferences and that blissful* return to the real world.
*not at all blissful
So, in the words of Dame Maddow, "there's a lot to get to tonight. Let's jump right into it."
In this edition #105 of The World's Best Newsletter Uncontested Champion of the World:
1. Taken to marketing CHURCH
2. April fool me once, shame on marketers
3. Survey finds nearly half of men believe the pay gap is "made up"
4. The dark side of "engagement"
5. Why Mr. Rogers is the Patron Saint of B2B Marketers [Podcast]
6. Apple at Work - You've Gotta Watch this Ad
7. Quote of the week: On envy, schadenfreude and mudita
1. Taken to marketing CHURCH
Read my recap of the keynote from Marketo on day three of the larger Adobe Summit.
You know how these tech keynotes go. Sometimes you're left wondering how you'll implement what was presented on stage. Sometimes you're whelmed - not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed, just... whelmed.
But sometimes, after their company is acquired, a CMO stands up and delivers a SERMON that speaks to your skeptical marketing heart. And, comments reveal later, you weren't the only one sitting in the audience who felt that way.
It's hard to inspire the beleaguered marketer these days. Scott Brinker's latest martech landscape features over 7,000 vendors trying to get at the marketer's share of wallet.
(I just threw up in my mouth a little.)
If you're wondering what's going to happen to Marketo after the acquisition by Adobe 6 months ago, read this. It's a very public commitment by CMO Sarah Kennedy that this company, used by 50,000 marketers as a "career catalyst" tool, would remain focused on the marketer it was built for.
Even if you're not a Marketo fan / user, it was a great, emotional keynote at a pivotal time in the lifecycle of this brand. As I wrote:
Ultimately, what a brand like Marketo must do is inspire its marketing buyers to see themselves in that brand. Customers need to relate to brand leaders who serve as spokespersons for their technology, and shepherds for their flock.
How refreshing to see exactly this, last week, from Kennedy.
Forgive all the church references, Easter is coming soon and my recovering-Catholic self is feeling the optimism of springtime, but for all intents and purposes this was a beautiful example of evangelism on-stage.
We were taken back to marketing church.
And I, for one, was converted.
Note: My travel and ticket were covered by Adobe, but my POV is 100% my own.
2. April fool me once, shame on marketers
Did you fall for any April Fools marketing stunts? I'm quoted in this Marketwatch piece recapping stunts that went down on this year's global-day-of-brands-trying-to-be-funny, and warning marketers about the missteps here.
Read: "Watch out for these April Fools’ pranks from Google, McDonalds, Fatburger — and Tom Brady"
"April Fools’ Day marketing pranks happen as brands try to be agile, current and respond to real-life narratives in real-time. It backfires when the focus is all on the need for short-term attention, ignoring the risk of losing long-term trust.
Buyers don’t do business with companies/brands they do not trust (whether buying shoes or enterprise-grade software). They can easily switch to a competitor if that trust is threatened. Today, 42% of buyers don’t know which companies to trust. Brands need to tread carefully on April Fools’ Day; it’s not enough for us to earn attention via stunts. That short-term lift in eyeballs may backfire if it means buyers lose trust in our brand.”
More thoughts on this that weren't quoted in the article:
If your brand isn’t one that perpetually pokes fun at an industry, maintains a sense of irreverence throughout the year in other marketing, or is ‘trying to be cool’ one day a year, you may want to reconsider doing it on April 1.
For example, MSFT seems to be banning public-facing April Fools' Day stunts, claiming to have data that says “these stunts have limited positive impact and can actually result in unwanted news cycles.” Microsoft knows it's not Google, who has a long history of pranks and can get away with it as a result.
Think twice. Be kind. Rewind.
3. Survey finds nearly half of men believe the pay gap is "made up"
via TIME:
According to an online poll of 8,566 American adults conducted in March, nearly half of men (46%) believe that the pay gap “is made up to serve a political purpose,” rather than being a “legitimate issue.”
Sigh. This is not the Easter Bunny. We do not need your belief in what is a very real, lived experience. We need your allyship and your accountability.
According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, women in America are on average making about 81 cents for every dollar that a man makes. April 2, 2019 is Equal Pay Day, a date chosen to symbolize how far into the year a woman must work in order to make what a man did the year before.
I also recommend reading "Why April 2 Isn't Really Equal Pay Day for Everyone" via Fortune.
After the April dates, there’s a four-month wait until the next Equal Pay Days roll around—a sign of how severe the pay gap is for black women, Native American women, and Latina women. Black Women’s Equal Pay Day will fall on Aug. 22, followed by Native American Women’s Equal Pay Day on Sept. 23, and Latinas’ Equal Pay Day on Nov. 20. That order means that Latinas face the largest wage gap, of around 53 cents on the dollar. Black women earn about 61 cents on the dollar and Native American women earn about 57 cents on the dollar.
4. The dark side of "engagement"
We use this word a lot in the world of business. Salesforce found engagement to be the #1 priority and challenge for marketers today.
But, our dedication to it comes at a cost.
The headline via Bloomberg: "YouTube Executives Ignored Warnings, Letting Toxic Videos Run Rampant" tells part of the story. The subheader tells more: "proposals to change recommendations and curb conspiracies were sacrificed for engagement, staff say."
Wojcicki’s media behemoth, bent on overtaking television, is estimated to rake in sales of more than $16 billion a year. But on that day [at SXSW], Wojcicki compared her video site to a different kind of institution. “We’re really more like a library,” she said, staking out a familiar position as a defender of free speech. “There have always been controversies, if you look back at libraries.”
Since Wojcicki took the stage, prominent conspiracy theories on the platform—including one on child vaccinations; another tying Hillary Clinton to a Satanic cult—have drawn the ire of lawmakers eager to regulate technology companies. And YouTube is, a year later, even more associated with the darker parts of the web.
The conundrum isn’t just that videos questioning the moon landing or the efficacy of vaccines are on YouTube. The massive “library,” generated by users with little editorial oversight, is bound to have untrue nonsense. Instead, YouTube’s problem is that it allows the nonsense to flourish. And, in some cases, through its powerful artificial intelligence system, it even provides the fuel that lets it spread.
Sacrifices made for engagement.
5. Why Mr. Rogers is the Patron Saint of B2B Marketers [Podcast]
On the latest episode of the Explicit Content podcast with Enterprise Marketer, I sat down with Cliff Lewis & Scott Trobaugh from the Godfrey agency. We talked about cultivating a deep sense of awe and wonder in your industry, a deep and abiding respect for customers, and simplifying the complex.
"If Mr. Rogers can explain death to a four-year-old, we can explain our industry to adults."
Listen to the full podcast here (24 minute run-time.)
6. Apple at Work - You've Gotta Watch this Ad
How cliche, I know, for a marketer to say "have you seen this Apple ad!?" but for real guys, have you seen this one?
Take a minute and watch it. Per the AdWeek headline "Apple’s Ad About a Scrappy Group of Coworkers Is Honestly Better Than Most Sitcoms."
Couldn't agree more. Let's see more of this in B2B tech!
7. Quote of the week: On envy, schadenfreude and mudita
I've been ruminating about jealousy, ego, and envy lately.
What a waste of time, emotion, and potential.
Envy prevents us from collaboration. It hinders our ability to celebrate, or often achieve, even our own goals and achievements. It threatens relationships that could be mutually beneficial, and is entirely unnecessary.
I wish our industry would talk more openly about this epidemic, become less reliant on ego and empty accolades that feed our insecurity, and instead recognized the incredible potential we each have to help each other and the communities we serve, lead, and represent in our work.
Quote of the week comes from a Harvard Business Review article from 2010:
Although the German word schadenfreude—delighting in others’ misery—rapidly entered the English lexicon, the term mudita (from Pali, an ancient language of India), used by Buddhists to mean “rejoicing in the good fortune of others,” has not.
Have a mudita-filled weekend, and thanks as always for reading. You're a winner, baby.
Best,
Katie Martell
Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
>> Share The World's Best Newsletter on Twitter, or LinkedIn (and thank you!) <<
Event calendar:
The 2019 Pharmacy Marketing and Sales Summit from RxInsider is April 10-12 in Providence, RI.
I'll be speaking at the Society for Marketing Professional Services Boston bootcamp April 23rd.
PLAY 2019 from Brightcove is May 14th-16th, 2019. Let's talk video and how it moves buyers from apathy to action. Join us in Boston?
San Diego, here we come, for ConquerLocal 2019 - an event all about driving digial success for local businesses from Vendasta, June 10-12.
Save the date, I'm speaking at Content Marketing World, September 3-6 in Cleveland.
>> Book me to speak <<