Marketing Eye
What does Khloe Kardashian, fur and nudity all have in common?

They are the elements of a multi-leveled marketing campaign by PETA that went viral.  

From sports stars to Reality TV personalities, celebrities can’t say no to a PETA campaign.  Why is this?  Because PETA embody the modern marketer: they use technology to drive hard-hitting and provocative (sometimes downright raunchy) campaigns.  PETA’s campaigns are half artistic and half scientific; they are two-faced marketers.  A celeb knows that taking off their clothes for PETA is effective marketing.  

The marketing landscape is forever evolving.  Not too long ago, we relied exclusively on glitz and aesthetic allure to market our brands – think Mad Men.  Now, the industry has changed remarkably.  We rely on technology-driven data to steer our campaigns.  

Successful marketers, like PETA, marry the two approaches: they sell sex (artistic) to promote their message (scientific).  

To be effective, modern marketers need the ability to shift effortlessly through two mindsets – that of an artist and one of a scientist.  It’s a dual skill set; creative to build campaigns and the other pragmatic - to execute them;

The Artist:

Content creation.  Marketers around the world are advocating quality written work.  Inbound marketing has become the go-to strategy for modern marketers focused on optimizing their search engine results and shareability on social media platforms.

Visual assets.  Visual content is a spilt-second attention grabber, making it a valuable marketing resource.  Like content, an original visual asset can create high impact.  

Social media.  Cultivating digital relationships has emerged as an important skill. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, in particular, are platforms that have changed the way we interact with customers and market on a whole. Social media also requires individuals to be create in the way they relate to one another.  

Email marketing.  Although touted by some as an archaic approach, email remains the workhorse of most modern marketing departments.  A beautifully designed EDM combined with a comprehensive email database is still a surefire route to results.

The Scientist:

Performance tracking.  The modern marketer should track all marketing activities and campaigns on a customized CRM system.  Integrate all of your marketing channels into one central hub to paint a genuine picture of your marketing efforts.

Operations.  The science side of the modern marketer’s brain is pragmatic and puts systems in place that enable the marketing company to function operationally.  This includes scheduling and budgeting within the marketing plan.

Reporting and analytics.  Marketers need to be able to not only collate, but comprehend data, identifying major trends and important takeaways at a glance.
Campaign performance.  Map understand exactly the campaign performance with advanced analytics is an essential skill for the modern marketer.

By developing both the artistic and scientific side, marketers are able to adapt to the rapidly changing marketing landscape.  For the successful modern marketer, one mindset simply cannot exist without the other.