WEBVTT
00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:01.122
Hey, what is up?
00:00:01.122 --> 00:00:04.451
Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.
00:00:04.451 --> 00:00:12.544
As always, I'm your host, brian LoFermento, and the new year is here and you cannot afford average marketing.
00:00:12.544 --> 00:00:16.280
Marketing is one of the most important things for all of us to focus on this year.
00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:20.550
That's exactly why we've gone out and found Not your Average Marketer.
00:00:20.550 --> 00:00:22.643
We have got an incredible guest on.
00:00:22.643 --> 00:00:25.411
This is someone who has won global awards.
00:00:25.411 --> 00:00:38.597
This is someone who has seen all different sides of the traditional marketing world, as well as the very creative side of marketing, working for and with some big brands along the way.
00:00:38.597 --> 00:00:43.828
I'm so excited to humble brag about today's guest because he is quite simply amazing at what he does.
00:00:43.828 --> 00:00:45.289
Let me tell you all about him.
00:00:45.430 --> 00:00:47.314
Our guest today is named Daryl McCullough.
00:00:47.314 --> 00:01:05.170
After 25 years of running global PR firm Citizen Relations and remaining chair emeritus of that firm, daryl has formed McGriffin Media, which is a marketing communications firm alongside his husband, george Griffin, blending the best of traditional and digital marketing services.
00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:11.462
They provide clients with classic publicity, social media management and other marketing creative strategies.
00:01:11.462 --> 00:01:15.393
Now you might be thinking to yourself how creative can Daryl possibly be?
00:01:15.393 --> 00:01:35.331
Well, as chair and CEO of Citizen, daryl won global recognition for work on Procter Gamble, brands like Old Spice and Pampers If you've seen their marketing, you know how creative those are as well as major communications campaigns like the launch of XM Satellite Radio, for which he won a top national PR award.
00:01:35.331 --> 00:01:47.222
His work for brands like Taco Bell, sony Blockbuster and Suzuki Motorcycles, to name just a few brands, are part of the reason why Daryl has been named PR Professional of the Year by the PRSA.
00:01:47.563 --> 00:01:53.206
There's so many incredible accomplishments that he has, but, quite honestly, I'm excited for all of us to learn from him today.
00:01:53.206 --> 00:01:54.655
So I'm not going to say anything else.
00:01:54.655 --> 00:01:57.625
Let's dive straight into my interview with Daryl McCullough.
00:01:57.625 --> 00:02:04.403
All right, daryl, I'm so very excited that you're here with us today.
00:02:04.403 --> 00:02:05.325
First things first.
00:02:05.325 --> 00:02:06.168
Welcome to the show.
00:02:07.021 --> 00:02:09.424
Thank you so much, brian, great to be here.
00:02:09.825 --> 00:02:10.206
Heck.
00:02:10.206 --> 00:02:15.872
Yes, I honestly I could toot your horn for days, Daryl, because you have done so many amazing things in your career.
00:02:15.872 --> 00:02:22.848
I'm excited about all the things that you and George are up to with McGriffin Media, but you've got to take us beyond the bio.
00:02:32.139 --> 00:02:32.360
Who's Daryl?
00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:33.764
How'd you start doing all these cool things?
00:02:33.764 --> 00:02:35.028
Well, I have always had a love for communications.
00:02:35.028 --> 00:02:37.737
You know, I studied it as an undergrad at Albright College in Redding, pennsylvania and I was an intern.
00:02:37.737 --> 00:02:45.473
Part of my curriculum included having to have practical internships in communications as I was a student.
00:02:45.473 --> 00:02:59.050
So I worked at a cable advertising agency, I worked at the American Cancer Society and then I worked in the college alumni and public relations office as a student intern.
00:02:59.050 --> 00:03:09.729
So through those kind of three or four years of internships I really got to understand and love communications and it just really kind of inspired me.
00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:23.710
And as I was graduating from undergrad, I was a student employee in the alumni office and the alumni relations director was going on maternity leave and she said hey, you've worked here for a couple of years.
00:03:23.710 --> 00:03:27.550
Would you like to babysit my position while I go out on maternity leave?
00:03:27.550 --> 00:03:27.931
And I'm there.
00:03:27.931 --> 00:03:29.742
Oh, that's a godsend.
00:03:29.742 --> 00:03:49.163
I didn't have another job lined up, so I took that job, which was just going to be a temporary six month acting director position, in a job that it was way above what I should have had as a pay grade and worked for six months, did a really, I guess, good enough job, she decided not to come back to work.
00:03:49.163 --> 00:04:15.947
I applied for the job full time and so immediately out of college I was granted the opportunity to be director of alumni relations at Albright College and it gave me this exposure to college publications, doing a newsletter and a magazine and a quarterly newspaper, running the Student Alumni Association, running the Alumni Association, doing events like homecoming and college reunions and just you name it.
00:04:15.947 --> 00:04:22.321
I was very, very in the midst of just doing a lot of great things.
00:04:22.321 --> 00:04:29.711
So I was just a sponge and learned so much about marketing during that time and the rest kind of flowed.
00:04:29.711 --> 00:04:33.225
About five years into that job I said you know, what else can I do?
00:04:33.225 --> 00:04:35.233
And I decided to go back to graduate school.
00:04:35.875 --> 00:04:41.050
So while I was a student at U of A I became immersed in the agency business.
00:04:41.050 --> 00:04:57.115
So three different agencies, a boutique firm that was an environmental and social issues agency where I got to launch the City of LA recycling program in 16 languages I think While I was studying communications and mass communications.
00:04:57.115 --> 00:04:58.781
It was a really rare opportunity.
00:04:58.781 --> 00:05:10.810
And then I moved on to Rogers and Cowan, which is a big international entertainment firm, where I worked for several years and then I was hired away by the firm that I spent my 25 years with.
00:05:10.810 --> 00:05:24.511
That was then Payne PR and later became Citizen Relations, a brand that I developed and rolled up four different agencies internationally to become a global citizen relations PR and marketing agency.
00:05:24.511 --> 00:05:28.990
So I've just been blessed in my career with so many opportunities.
00:05:28.990 --> 00:05:45.632
I've been a very loyal employee and I've since grown and kind of kept a very value-centered approach to doing business and some of my clients are continuing to be my friends today and some are continuing to be clients today.
00:05:45.632 --> 00:05:47.483
So it's been a real blessing.
00:05:48.084 --> 00:06:06.851
Yeah, daryl, I so appreciate that overview and I want to call one thing out that really stands out to me, because we can look at all the different sides of the marketing world, the PR world, the agency world that you've operated in, but you started with something that is so clearly near and dear to your heart and that is that word communications.
00:06:06.851 --> 00:06:20.648
You went all the way back to your days as an undergraduate student and focus on the fact that you've always loved communications, and what I love about the way you use that term is it feels all encompassing of marketing, of public relations, of social media.
00:06:20.648 --> 00:06:23.406
Why is that so ingrained?
00:06:23.406 --> 00:06:25.987
That verbiage, that terminology, that approach to it?
00:06:25.987 --> 00:06:28.848
What is it about communications that appeals so much to you?
00:06:29.901 --> 00:06:32.786
It really is part art and part science.
00:06:32.786 --> 00:06:35.632
You know, communications starts with messaging.
00:06:35.632 --> 00:06:44.584
So it starts at this kind of bullseye of what do we want to communicate and then it expands out into different kind of channels and different avenues.
00:06:44.584 --> 00:06:48.110
So how is that message going to appear in an advertisement?
00:06:48.110 --> 00:06:50.254
How is that message going to appear in an event?
00:06:50.254 --> 00:06:55.225
How is that message going to come out in social media marketing?
00:06:55.225 --> 00:06:57.593
Or how are we going to ask an influencer to talk about that message?
00:06:57.593 --> 00:07:03.447
So at the heart of it is really that messaging and that's what gets me excited.
00:07:03.447 --> 00:07:14.906
I'm a writer at my core, so I've always been passionate about coming up with the right words to deliver the right message, and that's the true art of the communications world.
00:07:14.906 --> 00:07:21.632
And then the science really is how do you get that message in the right hands and in the right places where you can intersect with the right people?
00:07:22.579 --> 00:07:33.447
Yeah, I love that answer, Daryl, and I'm going to call this out really early on in our conversation today, because you are one of the masterminds who helped craft one of the most famous PR stunts of all time.
00:07:33.447 --> 00:07:37.805
We've got to talk about this super early on the Taco Liberty Bell.
00:07:37.805 --> 00:07:53.487
Talk to us about that campaign, the inspiration behind it, because then there's some ways that I want to go from there, but things first, I want you to paint that picture for us well, I'm going to take one step back because Taco Bell is central to my career choices.
00:07:53.988 --> 00:08:16.504
I was working at Rogers and Count, as I mentioned, as an account executive on the Taco Bell account and we did a massive event for them to launch a movie promotion that they were doing and the movie was the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie and it was a really interesting kind of way to kind of get that publicity.
00:08:16.504 --> 00:08:24.408
So we decided to take Rocky and Bullwinkle to Clinton, arkansas and have a special event for the entire town of Clinton.
00:08:24.408 --> 00:08:32.520
Mind you, this is back in the 90s when President Clinton was famous for going into McDonald's and eating McDonald's on his runs.
00:08:32.520 --> 00:08:34.524
So we said you know what?
00:08:34.524 --> 00:08:37.110
We're going to get Clinton to try Taco Bell.
00:08:37.110 --> 00:08:49.549
So we went to Clinton, arkansas, the president's home state, and invited the whole town of 1,700 people, including their mayor Beavers, to come out and give a big endorsement for tacos.
00:08:49.549 --> 00:08:57.240
We fed them for the day, gave them a concert and they voted tacos over burgers and that was kind of the theme of the advertising for Taco Bell.
00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:07.025
Well, that stunt put me on the radar for Taco Bell corporate and they went to one of their other agencies and said you know what this Daryl guy did a really great event.
00:09:07.025 --> 00:09:08.009
Maybe you want to look at him.
00:09:08.009 --> 00:09:15.293
So my most recent firm that I spent 25 years with hired me because of that connection.
00:09:15.293 --> 00:09:17.900
So back to the Taco Liberty Bell.
00:09:17.900 --> 00:09:29.394
I was so lucky to be working on this business with a global brand like Taco Bell that spend lots of money in advertising and marketing, and I was so fortunate to have a seat at the creative table.
00:09:36.620 --> 00:09:44.509
And I can remember the day when our leadership team was in the office of the CEO and chief marketing officer at Taco Bell talking about how to bring this campaign to life and their campaign was called Nothing Ordinary About it.
00:09:44.509 --> 00:09:47.164
And they said we're going to set the bar very high.
00:09:47.164 --> 00:09:52.787
We need to have a PR and marketing and advertising campaign where there's nothing ordinary about it.
00:09:52.787 --> 00:09:57.323
And we had brainstormed weeks and weeks and just couldn't come up with the right idea.
00:09:57.323 --> 00:10:20.434
So the chief marketing officer called us into the office and said we're going to just put all the minds together here and in that meeting the idea of Taco Bell purchasing the Liberty Bell and moving it from Philadelphia to its headquarters in Irvine, california, would be an interesting April Fool's Day stunt.
00:10:20.779 --> 00:10:24.791
Now, this was before there were lots and lots of brands doing the April Fool's Day stunts.
00:10:24.791 --> 00:10:26.504
But we said you know what?
00:10:26.504 --> 00:10:41.153
We're going to pull this off and if we can do it with the right tone and the right messaging, we think we'll get all of America, maybe all the world, laughing along with us, because who else could rent or buy the Liberty Bell and move it to their headquarters?
00:10:41.153 --> 00:10:45.620
No one but Taco Bell, the two most famous bells in the world, right?
00:10:45.620 --> 00:10:51.690
So we put together a campaign that included full page ads in USA Today.
00:10:51.690 --> 00:11:03.129
We had people lined up in advance to call top market radio stations and say that they read the ad in the morning and can't believe that this has happened.
00:11:03.129 --> 00:11:13.307
We had some people calling in saying that they were thrilled about the idea it was going to reduce the national debt and it was going to be a great way to get that historical landmark exposure.
00:11:13.307 --> 00:11:14.792
Then we had some people that were irate.
00:11:15.500 --> 00:11:21.842
We staged all this kind of in a viral, before viral marketing or guerrilla marketing was even a thing.
00:11:21.842 --> 00:11:34.870
We had all this planned out and part of the magic of that was that midday on April Fool's Day, when those ads were all over the country, we were going to let the news media in on the joke.
00:11:34.870 --> 00:11:39.222
So we didn't want to pull the wool over everyone's eyes immediately.
00:11:39.222 --> 00:11:42.692
We wanted the joke to unfold in a very kind of reasonable way.
00:11:42.692 --> 00:11:46.461
So we let the news media in on by satellite news release.
00:11:46.461 --> 00:11:47.844
We said, you know, this was a joke.
00:11:47.844 --> 00:11:57.456
We gave them some B roll of someone dressed up as William Penn moving a papier mache bell into the Taco Bell headquarters.
00:11:57.456 --> 00:12:00.182
So we gave them the assets to help tell that story.
00:12:00.182 --> 00:12:01.743
They played along.
00:12:01.842 --> 00:12:14.100
It was on every nightly news and then we were booked on the three morning shows, good Morning America, the Today Show and CBS this Morning basically a roadblock of news media.
00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:22.479
And you can imagine just every newspaper, every conceivable media outlet covered this stunt because it was just so funny.
00:12:22.479 --> 00:12:29.499
And it was funny before brands were doing kind of outrageously funny things like this and there's been some that have beaten it.
00:12:29.499 --> 00:12:34.998
But I have to say to this day it's still on the top of the list of PR stunts of all time.
00:12:34.998 --> 00:12:36.971
We were a Jeopardy answer.
00:12:36.971 --> 00:12:40.115
We were a Wheel of Fortune answer.
00:12:40.115 --> 00:12:42.231
We're in Trivial Pursuit cards.
00:12:42.231 --> 00:12:47.336
We're in class books and textbooks for marketing and advertising.
00:12:47.336 --> 00:12:51.755
It's just been so fun to be associated with that and to be part of that.
00:12:53.105 --> 00:13:01.134
Yeah, daryl gosh, hearing that backstory, I am so appreciative of you sharing that stuff with us, and it just goes to show the way that your mind thinks.
00:13:01.134 --> 00:13:06.437
Even something as subtle as when you said the two most famous bells in the world the Liberty Bell and Taco Bell.
00:13:06.437 --> 00:13:27.205
It shows how creative your mind is, because we may not, as consumers, we may not think of taco bell, the bell part of it, but you really you created that bridge in consumers minds and the media's minds and and obviously that resulted in so much free, so to speak, obviously the benefits of pr, so much free, organic exposure for the brand.
00:13:27.306 --> 00:13:43.974
and so it's an incredible way, which leads me straight into this question I have to interject though, brian, that day the white house had a, had their daily press briefing and they said a reporter asked them about this and they said well, we haven't heard about it, but we endorse the idea.
00:13:43.974 --> 00:13:49.332
In fact, we would like to talk to ford about buying the lincoln memorial, that's amazing.
00:13:49.653 --> 00:13:53.414
I love that, honestly, and that goes to show what good marketing can do.
00:13:53.414 --> 00:13:56.092
I mean, we're talking about reaching to the White House now, daryl.
00:13:56.092 --> 00:14:17.625
It's amazing, no-transcript.
00:14:17.625 --> 00:14:24.163
Do we have to have that level of creativity, of humor, of outside the box thinking?
00:14:24.163 --> 00:14:34.226
We're talking about marketing in all of its different forms PR, social media, obviously, all forms digital.
00:14:34.226 --> 00:14:36.373
What's your take on that, especially within?
00:14:36.413 --> 00:14:37.537
the realm of what you're doing with McGriffin Media.
00:14:37.537 --> 00:14:47.198
I think creativity and strategy today mean how are we going to connect with somebody in a really relevant and personal manner?
00:14:47.198 --> 00:14:52.346
Really relevant and personal manner.
00:14:52.346 --> 00:14:52.928
You know it's interesting.
00:14:52.948 --> 00:15:22.043
In the era of social and digital media people have so many choices to get their information, to get their news and to share information or share news and you know it's oftentimes one-to-one communication or, if they're lucky to have a platform with lots of fans and followers, they may be speaking to a larger group of people but at the core, people share what they think is interesting, newsworthy or relevant to their people that follow them or to people that are listening to them.
00:15:23.166 --> 00:15:30.395
People like to share things like their takes on things, so reviews are really very popular, obviously.
00:15:30.395 --> 00:15:39.014
So the people that saw Wicked were very quick to say I was one of the first to see Wicked and that became some social capital for those folks who got an early screening.
00:15:39.014 --> 00:15:59.241
But at the end of the day, it really does still come down to messaging and if you use creativity and strategy to find out what that shareable message is that can go to someone else, whether it's going to People magazine or whether it's going to the influencer on Instagram who has 10,000 followers.
00:15:59.241 --> 00:16:15.162
They still need a message and you want that piece of luggage to look nice, to be practical, but also have a handle that someone can grab and pass along to someone else so that they can take it, open it up and share what's inside it.
00:16:15.162 --> 00:16:36.309
And that kind of message what we had with the Taco Liberty bill get people talking about a brand that really they wouldn't otherwise be talking about that's when we've hit gold.
00:16:37.091 --> 00:16:38.073
Yeah, for sure.
00:16:38.073 --> 00:16:55.985
And here's the thing that I really appreciate about your work and the way that you think, daryl, and especially the way that you articulate things is that whenever I ask you a question and trust me, I've gone deep into your work and I see that you show up this way across all platforms is that whenever I ask you a question and trust me, I've gone deep into your work and I see that you show up this way across all platforms is that whenever these big topics come up, everybody wants to talk about the flashy things.
00:16:55.985 --> 00:17:02.774
It's fun to hear about the Taco Liberty Bell, but what I really appreciate is you bring it back to the messaging, the branding.
00:17:02.774 --> 00:17:04.166
What is it that we want to convey?
00:17:04.166 --> 00:17:14.208
What's going to land with the people that we're really looking to resonate with, and that's why I, with the people that we're really looking to resonate with, and that's why I'm really excited and we're going to talk about.
00:17:14.248 --> 00:17:16.032
You don't just have your business background, you don't just have your career.
00:17:16.032 --> 00:17:29.382
You obviously are doing this actively with really cool brands and businesses under McGriffin Media, but you're also doing this as a published author as well, and so, with that in mind, you have such an extensive suite of services.
00:17:29.382 --> 00:17:37.067
How do you even begin to build that roadmap for businesses who want to resonate with their audiences in this deep and effective of a way?
00:17:38.573 --> 00:17:39.335
I think it's really.
00:17:39.335 --> 00:17:47.415
It's about treating your own business as a brand and believing in something that differentiates yourself and then sharing that.
00:17:47.415 --> 00:17:52.244
And the best way to share that is in doing good work and getting results for clients.
00:17:52.244 --> 00:18:03.076
At the end of the day, clients in marketing have thousands of choices of agencies, from big global agencies to small freelancers and smaller shops.
00:18:03.076 --> 00:18:09.499
So what's going to get them the money they need, the money they have to spend?
00:18:09.499 --> 00:18:33.334
So that becomes a very kind of you know, changing equation and the kind of the algorithm that a client uses in choosing the size of agency or size of agency resource that they need really does come down to amount of budget they have, but also how much firepower they get for that budget and how many potential results they can get for that budget.
00:18:33.334 --> 00:18:47.827
So I think you know putting yourself out there with good brands, with brands that have good products behind them, that you're not just kind of doing smoke and mirrors for something that doesn't really do what it says it does.
00:18:47.827 --> 00:18:56.192
You know we are very, very picky about the brands that we work with and we like them to be the best in their class or one of the best.
00:18:56.874 --> 00:18:58.098
I love a challenger brand.
00:18:58.098 --> 00:19:00.527
I love a brand that people may not know about.
00:19:00.527 --> 00:19:05.056
In fact, we work with Canopy, which is part of Overdrive.
00:19:05.056 --> 00:19:10.522
Overdrive is the digital ebook company behind the the brand name libby.
00:19:10.522 --> 00:19:17.106
If you have a library card, you may be renting digital books or getting digital books through the library with your libby card.
00:19:17.106 --> 00:19:27.317
Well, your canopy card is also through libraries and gets you films and tv programs all through streaming at canopycom.
00:19:28.099 --> 00:19:32.393
And that's a challenger brand because it's relatively newer than some of the other streaming players.
00:19:32.393 --> 00:19:35.991
It's certainly no Netflix and it's certainly no Hulu.
00:19:35.991 --> 00:19:39.544
So we have a big opportunity to get them brand awareness.
00:19:39.544 --> 00:19:49.079
But imagine having a brand like Kanopy that's got 30,000 films available for free with no ads available for free with no ads, all with your library card.
00:19:49.079 --> 00:19:53.886
Now, what a fun brand to market.
00:19:53.886 --> 00:20:05.153
So we're just having a delightful time finding influencers who like to share their love of Kanopy, but also finding news media who love Kanopy, to finding filmmakers who love Kanopy.
00:20:05.153 --> 00:20:17.453
There was a Kanopy podcast that included some of the top filmmakers in the world saying that they're lovers of the brand because it's the place where they can get some of the deep dive content that they might not otherwise have access to.
00:20:17.453 --> 00:20:24.806
So it's just, it's about attaching your business with the brands that you can be a champion of and a fan of yourself.
00:20:24.806 --> 00:20:30.186
It's really easy for me to sell something if I'm a customer and I love it yeah.
00:20:30.448 --> 00:20:39.851
Darrell I'm glad that you called that out, because if you didn't, then I was going to, but I do still want to echo it for listeners is that we can talk about the different platforms and the different marketing channels.
00:20:39.851 --> 00:20:48.651
You called out influencer marketing and podcasting, and there's a million different marketing channels that we can all talk about and that we can build into our strategy.
00:20:48.651 --> 00:20:54.148
But it's that one ingredient that I think is off too often overlooked, which is you love this stuff.
00:20:54.148 --> 00:21:11.590
Even here on the air, talking about one of your real life clients, you actually love their product and you love the solution that they bring to their marketplace, and I think that that's so important, and so it actually it makes me want to ask you this publicly, which is how do you begin to put together that marketing mix?
00:21:11.590 --> 00:21:17.277
Because you're so passionate and also, in your case, because you have so many different tools in your marketing toolkit?
00:21:17.277 --> 00:21:19.384
How do you even begin to choose?
00:21:19.384 --> 00:21:22.944
Because, let's face it, there's only so many things that we can do simultaneously.
00:21:23.586 --> 00:21:24.490
You're great at PR.
00:21:24.490 --> 00:21:28.355
You have a really deep understanding of social media and digital communications.
00:21:28.355 --> 00:21:29.719
Where do you start, daryl?
00:21:29.719 --> 00:21:30.099
What's step one?
00:21:30.099 --> 00:21:32.025
Great at PR, you have a really deep understanding of social media and digital communications.
00:21:32.025 --> 00:21:35.445
Where do you start, daryl?
00:21:35.445 --> 00:21:35.787
What's step one?
00:21:35.787 --> 00:21:36.809
Is it the question that you ask of your clients?
00:21:36.809 --> 00:21:39.055
Is it a strategy that you use when you put together a marketing blueprint?
00:21:39.055 --> 00:21:41.327
I want to get inside that strategic mind of yours.
00:21:42.269 --> 00:21:47.611
First I want to talk about the team that's around me, because it's not just me and it's not just my husband, george.
00:21:47.611 --> 00:21:57.155
We have assembled a team of seasoned strategists and creatives that have worked in this business with me or around me for the last 20 years.
00:21:57.155 --> 00:22:09.152
So we have this really great team, a band of experts that can approach almost any assignment with a really open mind and creative thinking and strategic kind of solution approach.
00:22:09.152 --> 00:22:52.128
So that's where we start to bring a client the solution and then we push the client to give us a very, very specific brief, one that talks about their challenges and their opportunities, one that talks about their strengths and their weaknesses, one that shows us their target audience and what they know about their target audience and then, where we can fill some gaps, maybe we can understand a little bit more about that target audience than stuff that they don't know or we can find places where we can intercept that target audience that they haven't used yet, so looking at digital spaces or physical spaces like events or conferences or depending on what the product or service is.
00:22:52.128 --> 00:22:54.354
So we start with that brief.
00:22:54.354 --> 00:23:05.874
They brief us on what they know, and then we look at that from a 360 perspective, completely holistically to see where are the gaps, what do they need answered, what questions can we answer for them?
00:23:06.194 --> 00:23:13.693
And then, more importantly, where's the best if they only have $10, where's the best place to put that $10 in the marketing mix?
00:23:13.693 --> 00:23:16.433
And you know you can't always spread $10 too thinly.
00:23:16.433 --> 00:23:21.773
So you might need to make three choices out of the 10 opportunities that you have uncovered.
00:23:21.773 --> 00:23:26.381
But if those three choices hit, your client wins money.
00:23:26.381 --> 00:23:32.541
Hopefully they'll reinvest so that next, the next quarter or the next year, you'll double your budget.
00:23:32.541 --> 00:23:36.108
You'll have 20 or 200 or 10,000 to spend.
00:23:36.108 --> 00:23:38.559
So we like to think of it that way.
00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:45.425
It's, like you know, kind of a hum, sing and shout approach Start small, reasonable, get results and then build on that.
00:23:45.989 --> 00:23:48.317
Yeah, I really love that, again, step-by-step.
00:23:48.317 --> 00:23:54.845
I've always loved that Martin Luther King Jr quote where he said you don't have to see the whole staircase, just take that first step.
00:23:54.845 --> 00:24:00.368
And I think that it's so prevalent in the way that you talk about these things is a really grounded approach.
00:24:00.368 --> 00:24:04.392
Yet again, daryl, you kind of hijacked the question and went straight to well, hold on a second.
00:24:04.392 --> 00:24:11.877
Let's think about the customer, let's think about the profile of who it is that we want to reach, and then we can begin putting that strategy together.
00:24:11.877 --> 00:24:13.105
So I want to squeeze this in.
00:24:13.105 --> 00:24:15.648
It wasn't on my list of topics for today, but I do want to squeeze in.
00:24:15.648 --> 00:24:19.480
What do you look at when you think about an ideal customer profile?
00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:23.508
Because there's a lot of mixed advice out there about obsessing about.
00:24:23.508 --> 00:24:30.369
You know what kind of car they drive, how long their commute is, but what are those pertinent and relevant and important things that your mind goes to?
00:24:30.390 --> 00:24:34.180
is but what are those pertinent and relevant and important things that your mind goes to?
00:24:34.180 --> 00:24:41.662
I think ideally they are in the market.
00:24:41.662 --> 00:24:44.748
So you want to find that person that is primed, or just on the fence of being primed, to make that purchase.
00:24:44.748 --> 00:24:50.442
So you know, today it's very easy with all the digital information that's out there.
00:24:50.442 --> 00:24:59.826
People like to think their smartphones are always listening and to some degree, everything you click on on your phone or on your computer is getting captured.
00:24:59.826 --> 00:25:05.829
So, yes, all those websites that you're visiting are listening and that data is being captured and shared.
00:25:05.829 --> 00:25:09.892
So there is a digital record of the things that you're interested in.
00:25:09.991 --> 00:25:43.434
So if you come back from the doctor and have a cold and you're searching online for new vitamins or what foods could I eat that would help cure my cold in addition to the medicine, you might be getting ads for tissues, ads for vitamins, ads for medicine in your feeds and say, how did they know I had a cold and you wouldn't necessarily remember that you are actually searching on that or had some kind of digital footprint left behind.
00:25:43.539 --> 00:25:55.512
So you want to know those people that are kind of inclined to be interested in what you're buying or what you're selling, and those are the most people that are going of, inclined to be interested in what you're buying yourself, what you're selling, and those are the most people that are going to to purchase.
00:25:55.532 --> 00:26:09.384
And again, you find that through research you can do what we call demographic profiling, where you understand who your customer is really really well and then you can do kind of an archetypal profile of that person and understand.
00:26:09.384 --> 00:26:13.968
And then you can do kind of an archetypal profile of that person and understand what types of things they're doing, what magazines they're reading.
00:26:13.968 --> 00:26:24.376
We have a great skincare brand and it's all about reaching women who are interested in making themselves look and feel younger and keeping their skin healthy.
00:26:24.376 --> 00:26:38.632
And skincare is such a huge trend now with people of all ages Even young girls are very obsessed now with skincare and they're rating their mother's medicine cabinets for the skincare products.
00:26:38.632 --> 00:26:40.847
It's been a fascinating explosion.
00:26:40.847 --> 00:26:55.952
So we are kind of in this market now trying to figure out how we can message appropriately for all the people that are looking for skincare and looking for the most results oriented skincare like our brand that we represent, which happens to be revision skincare.
00:26:56.740 --> 00:27:07.881
Yeah, daryl gosh, dropping nuggets of knowledge left and right, probably things that you don't even realize, that our listeners are going to pick up because listeners Daryl just revealed one key ingredient that he clearly cares about, and that is purchase intent.
00:27:07.881 --> 00:27:09.192
It's not enough to just understand and be able to find your customers or potential customers.
00:27:09.192 --> 00:27:10.566
You want ones that are ingredient that he clearly cares about, and that is purchase intent.
00:27:10.566 --> 00:27:13.690
It's not enough to just understand and be able to find your customers or potential customers.
00:27:13.690 --> 00:27:16.763
You want ones that are in the market and ready to buy.
00:27:16.824 --> 00:27:27.872
So, daryl, I love those real life insights and I will tell you here, in these conversations, I always love switching gears towards the end to talk to you not only as the subject matter expert that you are, but also you're one of us.
00:27:27.872 --> 00:27:34.651
You are a fellow entrepreneur and you've obviously been in the business world for a while, but now you're running your own agency as well.
00:27:34.651 --> 00:27:40.222
And, on top of that, fun fact about you that I'm excited for you to share with listeners is that you're also a working actor.
00:27:40.222 --> 00:27:41.567
You're also an author.
00:27:41.567 --> 00:27:43.053
You've got two published books.
00:27:43.053 --> 00:27:50.271
So, daryl, what the heck are you doing outside of work that you're finding all this time to do these other cool and exciting things as well.
00:27:55.759 --> 00:28:03.483
Well, that was a prerogative for my new chapter in my life, you know, when I, during the pandemic, I decided to move just kind of step aside and let some of the leaders of citizen relations kind of continue to lead and grow.
00:28:03.483 --> 00:28:11.471
You know there's very little turnover as citizen, so I had leaders that have been with me for 15, 20, 25 years that needed opportunities.
00:28:11.471 --> 00:28:13.565
So it was really my time to move on.
00:28:13.565 --> 00:28:23.281
I'm still very much attached to them and to the agency as the chair emeritus but and I, you know, would help send them business and name drop and refer all the time.
00:28:23.281 --> 00:28:42.884
But one of the priorities for me was to be able to do some of the things that were always on my wishlist, like writing, be a screenplay, whether it be a poem, whether it be a book or children's illustrated book, like I have two now and then also to do some acting.
00:28:42.884 --> 00:28:51.892
You know, back when I was in undergrad doing that communications internship, I also was a theater fanatic and was acting all the time and acted for years after that and I wanted to kind of get back to some of those roots too.
