130: NEW ROADSHOW! Plus the reality of Starbucks and Grindr, BP’s greenwashing pressure, Sputnik, Microsoft, and an Oracle contradiction
Some big news to share --
I'm thrilled to announce a road show in March, three chances to attend a live event featuring a discussion on the topic of my forthcoming documentary - the collision of marketing and social movements - PLUS a sneak peek!
Learn more, and register, here for events in Boston, Austin during SXSW, and Chicago in March 2020.
Hope to see you on the road!
In this week's edition of The World's Best Newsletter:
1. A convo with Elle Woulfe
2. Trust, Marketing, and Microsoft
3. Oracle's contradiction: Leave politics at the door? Or not?
4. Starbucks' new ad vs Starbucks' reality
5. Legal pressure forcing BP to stop greenwashing
6. Gay dating apps - the truth about Grindr
7. Quote of the week: Sputnik
Let's do it.
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1. A convo with Elle Woulfe
“It’s fine to be take inspiration from other brands and other marketers, but if all you’re doing is repackaging that thing and not trying to breathe your own story into it, you’re doing a disservice to the discipline of marketing.” - Elle Woulfe
Elle is a supremely talented marketing leader, and WHO KNEW, a fantastic podcast host.
She has a new show, The Further Podcast, featuring the likes of Joe Chernov, Brian Kardon, Doug Kessler... and then she accidentally stumbled into my office for a chat. IT IS AN EPIC CONVERSATION.
I am not kidding, but in this 30 minute conversation, we cover:
What my first major was (hint: it wasn’t marketing)
What happened when I graduated during the height of the recession
What social network Elle hates
What my wife said when I told her I wanted to start a company
What sport I coached
Why I have the nickname “truth-teller”
Why this is a totally remarkable time to be consuming, or creating, marketing
Why pandering to social movements is so risky for brands
What the buzzword “authenticity” really means
Why my golf swing is SO bad
Our opportunity as marketers to create meaningful change
Why marketing is the most voyeuristic place to work
What does content mean anymore?
Why martech vendors are ruining marketing.
Truth, the world of marketing really doesn’t change every 365 days.
Where content marketing came from and where it is now.
The one thing we really suck at in marketing and content.
Why some marketers need to get comfortable more with correlation than causation.
The downfall of the revenue marketer movement.
The timeless role of air cover, trust, loyalty, and brand awareness.
Listen here. Tell me what you think about these topics. (@KatieMartell). And, thanks Elle for having me.
2. Trust, Marketing, and Microsoft
I had the chance to meet Microsoft CMO Valerie Beaulieu-James last year, where I learned of her refreshing perspective at the helm of a massive organization's marketing efforts. At this level of scale, change doesn't come easily, but it does start at the top.
In a new conversation with CMO by Adobe, she chatted about the evolution of the CMO role. And, most importantly, the role trust plays in the CMO's agenda:
“The reason why I put culture at the center of our marketing transformation is that we know what’s most at stake with customers today is trust, and to drive trust you need to be absolutely consistent with who you are as a company.”
Speaking of consistency...
3. Oracle's contradiction: Leave politics at the door? Or not?
Should a company chairman (and co-founder) visibly support a divisive political figure if their company's culture encourages employees to "leave politics at the door?"
Pockets of dissent across the business are going public to media outlets within this 136,000 person organization, and a petition calls the fundraiser a "breach of corporate ethics."
Per the employee quoted in the article:
“[The culture] encourages us to be apolitical,” the petition’s creator, Monica McClure, told Gizmodo. “It’s an old company. It’s not like a start-up where we’re being encouraged to discuss our ideas and have healthy debates about politics. So it struck me as a pretty brazen political move on Larry’s behalf that contrasts with the culture of leaving your politics at the door.”
Kudos to Monica for speaking out. I hope wherever she ends up after Oracle is a team that recognizes the business value in boldness and bravery.
4. Starbucks' new ad vs Starbucks' reality
h/t Tiffany Hsu, article via Buzzfeed.
Starbucks UK released a new ad showing a young trans man using his chosen name while getting a coffee (rather than be "deadnamed.")
But, employees told BuzzFeed News they've encountered deadnaming, misgendering, outing, and trouble getting surgeries covered with their employee insurance. When they brought these issues up internally, it wasn't until they shared it publicly on Twitter that they saw any response from management.
"Starbucks has solid trans-friendly policies at the corporate level, but actually implementing them at a store level seems to be an issue."
Public pressure works. Ads like this are heartwarming, but they first must align to the real lived experience of employees. Actions first, throughout the business (e.g. this all happened at the store level) then words - otherwise, your brand is revealed as a hypocrite, and it's hard to rebuild that trust simply with more woke ads.
5. Legal pressure forcing BP to stop greenwashing
Also via Tiffany Hsu, article via The Guardian
Environmental lawyers from ClientEarth say a campaign from BP, which focused on a low-carbon future, was misleading, forcing the oil and gas company to say it will stop "corporate reputation advertising".
“BP is spending millions on an advertising campaign to give the impression that it’s racing to renewables, that its gas is cleaner, and that it is part of the climate solution,” she said.
“This is a smokescreen. While BP’s advertising focuses on clean energy, in reality, more than 96% of the company’s annual capital expenditure is on oil and gas. According to its own figures, BP is spending less than £4 in every £100 on low-carbon investments each year. The rest is fuelling the climate crisis.”
More on the campaign, from the teams behind it, here.
What is the responsibility of production teams like Picture Farm, agencies like Ogilvy, cinematographers like Joseph Andeerson and photographers like Christopher Churchill/Supervision (who all worked on this campaign) to prevent greenwashing - for the sake of the client and the climate movement? I can see an argument for both sides. They have to keep the lights on at their respective firms. But, what about the very real issue of the climate crisis? Should they have steered BP in a new direction?
Would BP have listened?
6. Gay dating apps - the truth about Grindr
This week I had the chance to moderate a discussion for Out in Tech about the wild world of dating apps within the LGBTQ community. In preparing for the night's talk, I discovered the sale last year of Grindr to a Chinese social gaming company, Kunlun Group.
This 10 min podcast from The Gay Pro detail the questionable move, and reveal shocking truths -- like the company's sharing of users' HIV-status with third parties like app analytics company Localytics, and its president's public stance that its users shouldn't be able to get married.
7. Quote of the week: Sputnik
“What was supposed to be a historic jazz station in a historic jazz community is now broadcasting Alex Jones and Sputnik"
- this wild NY Times piece about Radio Sputnik, a propaganda arm of the Russian government, broadcasting on three Kansas City (which is in Missouri FYI) radio stations.
As always, thank you for reading.
See you on the road,
Katie
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Say hello at:
February 27 @ Boston: Kapost book signing and interview with Boston Content
Pandermonium live discussion and documentary sneak peek
When "Woke" Brands Exploit Movements; How Consumers and Marketers Can Stop the PandermoniumMarch 11 @ Boston
March 17 @ SXSW
March 26 @ Chicago
SXSW
March 15 Splash
March 16 SXSW panel "Closing the Gap Between IRL and URL Experiences"
March 16 TogetherDigital panel + talk: "Digital Disrupted"
March 17 Pandermonium roadshow
March 24 @ Oracle Modern CX Chicago "Marketing in the Age of Brand Activism and Accountability"
Note: Use code JoinKatie2020 and save!May 13-14 @ NYC Experience Matters with Ceros