Three-quarters of U.S. adults say they ‘tune out’ digital ads due to the increased amount of time they’ve been spending on computers, mobile devices, and TV sets according to findings of a recent Harris Poll. Considering rising advertising costs on Facebook, Google, and Apple (cited by Forbes rising as much as +89% in April 2021 alone), marketers are hard-pressed to find affordable and effective channel alternatives.
Enter Direct Mail. Direct Mail volume in the US has dropped almost in half in the last 15 years, yet according to Forbes, a substantial 42% of recipients read, or scan, the advertising mailers they receive. Compare that to the open rates of your last email campaign, and you can see why Direct Mail can be a logical and effective channel for many B2C and B2B businesses to consider.
Direct mail has often struggled for adoption, typically due to its cumbersome and multi-step/multi-vendor executional properties and lack of targeting, integration into larger marketing efforts, and 1:1 tracking. But recent advancements in data and technology have changed all of this, making Direct Mail a seamless, integrated, and trackable marketing channel.
Enhanced customer data owned and aggregated by third party data providers has made it possible for any business (B2C or B2B) to connect the dots between online prospects and customers and offline data points. For example, “Reverse IP Append” is a service offered by a number of data providers where the IP address of a company’s website visitors can be matched to a home or business address. Data providers can also translate a customer’s email address to their corresponding physical address. Couple these two data strategies with the ability for Direct Mail vendors to integrate with your CRM, Marketing Automation, Meeting software, eCommerce Platforms, and the third party data providers mentioned above, and you are able to seamlessly and immediately trigger a variety of retargeting, integrated marketing, or win-back campaigns through Direct Mail – trackable and transparent.
AI and predictive modeling are also now being applied to Direct Mail. As many companies continue to find success through Look-a-like modeling on platforms like Facebook and Linkedin, they can now more effectively apply this same approach to prospect list development. Data and Direct Mail list providers can develop segmented profiles based on your highest value customers, create look-a-like Direct Mail lists for prospecting, they can even create models to predict attitudes and behavior towards your offering based on past direct mail (or other tracked) interactions.
Direct Mail has long since been a prominent channel for credit card companies sending offers to large lists of credit-worthy prospects, for local businesses offering services to prospects who just moved into town, or for B2B enterprise companies sending swag to their top 1000 client prospects. Direct Mail can also work for a wide range of B2C and B2B businesses. For B2C companies with mass appeal and mass adoption (like our credit card example), or for local businesses unable to compete for eyeballs or execute via digital advertising, Direct Mail can be an effective stand-alone prospecting tool due to its high “open rates.”
However, integrating Direct Mail into your customer journey touchpoint strategy and personalizing it (based on customers’ or prospects’ past interactions with you or information garnered from third-party data providers) is often the most effective way to incorporate Direct Mail into your overall marketing efforts. For example, for B2B businesses, triggering a customized company branded gift or a personalized informational mailer is most effective when sending after prospects have qualified themselves as an interested lead (e.g. attending a webinar, or even talking to a salesperson). For B2C businesses, this might mean triggering a personalized offer to a prospect who abandoned their cart (including the images of those products on the mailer) or triggering a personalized win back mailer after a loyal customer has gone dark.
Identifying and mapping out your use cases for Direct Mail is a great first step to evaluating where and how it can fit into your overall marketing strategy. However, Direct Mail takes time to test. Variables like target segment, use case, timing within the customer journey, type of mailer, creative, and offer, all need to be tested and optimized. It takes time to design and execute these tests, typically executed as A/B tests with different variables or hold out-groups. Responses to mailers also typically happen between 7-14 days but can take up to 30 days, so time is needed to both see the results and analyze them. Because of these complexities, Direct mail is often best tested over a 3 to 6 month period, and large quantities of mailers (e.g. 30,000 or more) can be required to gather a big enough data set to evaluate.
Customized gifts or branded products are often a popular Direct mail tool for B2B businesses when used in conjunction with ABM efforts or other strategic account and prospect strategies. Gifting as Direct mail can also be used for employee holiday mailings, or for engaging or retaining strategic partnerships. Gifting is a specialized function within Direct Mail and includes anything from sending personalized gifts, eGifts, company swag, offering virtual experiences, even the option to donate to charity. The leader in the space is Sendoso because of their full-service offering, as well as their breadth of available products and mailers, their integrations with key CRM and sales technologies, their ability to trigger real-time mailings, and their user-friendly option for gift recipients to donate their gifts or money to charity.
Unlike social media specialists, analytics managers, or SEM experts, in-house marketers who specialize in Direct Mail are tough to find. Plus, even in-house experts require the help of outside vendors for data and execution.
Direct mail “vendors” are somewhat fragmented as there are gifting-focused solutions, legacy providers (like printers) who have recently evolved, new full-service technology platforms, agencies, general direct mail vendors, and third-party data providers who offer services both direct to brands and to other providers. Most solutions have grown to include marketer-friendly design tools or integrated design partnerships to deliver creative, while pricing typically includes a base fee, plus a variable cost per mailing.
Printers: Brands like credit card companies that use Direct mail for mass prospecting are more likely to use printers like IWCO Direct or ICS Corporation.
Agencies: For eCommerce companies looking to be totally hands-off, Share Local is a popular full-service direct mail agency focused exclusively on e-commerce. Founded by direct marketers for direct marketers, they focus on CPA-efficient outcomes for clients.
General Direct Mail Vendors: Postalytic’s recent integration with Hubspot has helped in increasing its popularity as a direct mail vendor. While Postal.io leans more heavily into e-gifting products, virtual events offerings, and corporate swag options, they offer general direct mail as well and have integrations with key CRM technologies.
Full-service Technology Platforms: For B2B and B2C companies alike looking for a one-stop-shop technology platform to execute and track direct mail campaigns, Lob is the leader in direct mail innovation. Their single platform is fully integrated with local printers, gifting-focused direct mailers, third-party data providers, as well as leading marketing automation, CRM, and sales technologies which allow them to provide a single place to easily design, execute and track all of your direct mail efforts.
Our article on determining the best way to source resources and talent to manage new channels can also help you navigate execution. If you are considering Direct Mail, or are looking for more insights on which marketing channels you should be investing in, or how best to execute them, check out our other articles below or contact us at marketingteam@revel-one.com and we will be happy to help.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
This is the fifth article in our six-part series analyzing over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies to better understand the skills, experience, attributes, and backgrounds that separate them from the rest. We dispel myths, share interesting findings, discuss key takeaways, and explore if predictive indicators exist to identify who will be the most successful marketers. (Our methodology can be found at the end of this article.)
Our first four articles can be found here.
It may not be a surprise that when it comes to leadership roles, women index highest in Human Resources making up 55% of Chief Human Resource Officers, and men index highest as general executive leaders, making up 94% of CEOs¹. But what is the gender split when it comes to elite B2C marketing executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies? And, does gender set them apart, imply a unique set of skills, or make little difference at all?
As part of our six-part series analyzing over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies in an effort to uncover what defines the most elite marketing executives, we turn our focus to gender. We dig into the gender makeup of the country’s most elite B2C marketers, trends over time, marketing skillsets differences, and uncover a particularly impactful finding when it comes to titles. We have compiled our most insightful findings and provided them in detail below.
Women account for 56% of the top marketers in our study, which is the same representation of women among US college graduates – 56% as well². It’s encouraging that there is no dropoff from the percent of women as college graduates to a few decades later the percent of women as the top marketer in top tech startups. The data reflects the reality that women are more than capable of leading marketing for top B2C US tech companies and that hiring managers and business leaders recognize this as well.
Interestingly, there are some variations to these findings when looking at where in the US these women are more or less represented. In New York, women make up a significantly higher 67% of the top marketers in that market, and in San Francisco, they roughly keep pace with the overall average at 58% of all top marketers. However, it is the rest of the country where women are underrepresented, making up only 42% of top marketers. New York and San Francisco house the majority of the country’s fast-growing, top B2C, VC-backed companies, and perhaps this is due to a strong tendency towards innovation and change, their companies’ executive-level female diversity is ahead of the rest of the country. Perhaps the trend also simply feeds on itself in these markets, a higher presence of female executives to serve as role models and supporters encourages and supports the development of even more future female executives. Plus, the prevalence of supportive communities in these markets, like Chief in NYC, further encourages women in leadership positions. Regardless of the reason, it is clear women are qualified, have the experience, and are being tapped to lead Marketing at top B2C tech companies.
While studies still show a major underrepresentation of women in general executive leadership, Finance, and Technology leadership positions¹, Marketing holds an abundance of talented, qualified, and accomplished women, and would be a smart place for companies to look when wanting to improve their overall executive gender diversity.
Only 34% of the women top marketers in our study have a C-level title (vs VP or Head of), compared to 63% of their male counterparts who have a C-level title. While we just celebrated that women are well represented as top marketing leaders in top B2C tech companies, they often don’t have the C-level title – and presumably status and pay. In our first article, we found the same gender-title difference among both our younger and older marketers, so this is not simply a reflection of years of experience.
For the unicorn companies in our study, women make up a substantial 60% of the top marketers leading those organizations. Clearly illustrating they are not only qualified to be elite marketers but actually over-index when it comes to leading marketing for the most successful B2C companies in the country.
So ‘why’ the difference in title? We noted in our first article, that on average women executives make 89% of what their male counterparts bring home³. An interesting article from HR Dive notes that before the pandemic 82% of men were comfortable asking for a promotion compared to 70% of women, and post-pandemic there’s been a 4.5% decrease for men and an 8.5% decrease for women⁴. While the reasons and solutions for gender disparity among top marketer titles continue to be debated, we encourage hiring managers, founders and CEOs to proactively evaluate the contributions and titles of their leaders. After all, to retain top talent, or to attract it, offering a fair title – upfront – that reflects a marketer’s influence and impact on a business can be what makes the difference.
Of all the women top marketers in our study, 71% have 20 years’ experience or less, leaving only 29% in our cohort with over 20 years’ experience. On the other hand, only 45% of men top marketers have under 20 years of experience, while the majority of them (55%) fall into our cohort with over 20 years experience.
Looking at the data another way, we see that of all of the top marketers with over 20 years experience, women make up 40%, but of all of the top marketers with under 20 years’ experience, they make up a much higher 66%. Could we be seeing a shift in gender representation with the younger generation of elite marketing leaders?
The data also shows women are most representative in the cohort with 11-20 years of experience, where they make up 69% of our top marketers. Among the top marketers with 6-10 years experience, the youngest generation, they make up 55%, a very proportionate representation to the percentage of women in the general US college graduate population. Was there a correction in the market from a highly underrepresented female leadership presence in the over 20 years’ experience cohort, to our highly overrepresented 11-20 cohort? In the newest generation of top marketers, however, the market seems to have leveled out. Time will tell if these trends will continue or further evolve. As marketing specialized executive recruiters, we have seen and support our client’s intentional efforts for diversity, and the data suggests a shift for elite marketing leaders. While hiring managers and business leaders should always choose their next marketing leader based on relevant experience and skill set, it is more likely than ever that their leader will be a woman.
While men make up 44% of all of our elite marketing leaders, they account for 67% of our top marketers who specialize in performance marketing. That is a significant difference. Men also make up only 32% of our marketers who specialize in Brand/Communications and make up 38% of our top marketers who do not have a specialization but instead have focused on more all-encompassing general marketing roles. This means that a high 68% of Brand/Communication specialists are women, and 62% of our generalists are women. (Interestingly, roughly two-thirds of all of our top marketers fall into the generalist category.)
We’ve noted in previous articles a shift towards more top marketers earning quantitative degrees, more coming from banking and consulting backgrounds, and more having specialized backgrounds in performance marketing than ever before. There is a clear shift towards more quantitative marketing leaders.
Interestingly, we find that the same amount of women as men started their careers in banking or consulting. We also see that in our top marketers with under 20 years’ experience, women make up 50% of our top marketers who specialize in performance marketing, men, of course, the other 50%. It is the older generation of marketers with over 20 years of experience where men tilt the scales overall, where 100% of performance marketers are men.
For companies in need of a marketing leader who is a generalist or a brand/comms specialist, they can expect their candidate pipeline to skew female. However, for those looking for a marketing leader with a performance background, they can likely expect predominantly male candidates among the most seasoned marketing leaders, but an equal representation of genders for candidates with under 20 years experience.
Exactly 49% of all of our top marketers earned their degree at one of the top 28 universities in the country – 55% of women and 41% of men. Interestingly, only 38% of our top marketers have earned an MBA – 43% of women and 30% of men.
The data suggests that a degree at a top university, or an MBA is not required to be an elite marketing leader. After all, over half of our top marketers did not come from a top university and the majority don’t have an MBA. So why in both instances, are women more highly represented?
A study by Georgetown University⁵ shows that when it comes to wages, women become on par with men’s wages when they earn one degree more than those same male counterparts. While types of degrees and fields in the study play a role, perhaps this indicates a still underlying reality or belief by men, women (or both), that to get ahead, women need to try harder or do more. Or, perhaps this trend reflects a difference in the value placed on education in general among the genders.
For fast-growing tech companies looking for their next marketing leader, an elite education should not be the deciding factor. While women may be more likely to come from these educational backgrounds, a marketing leader should have enough real-world marketing experience to evaluate if they are the right match to your company’s needs, have succeeded in the past where you need them to succeed again, and ultimately help you achieve your goals.
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Gender and diversity remain complex and hot topics. In this article, we focused on gender differences and similarities across the top marketing leaders at B2C VC-backed companies, and their implications for hiring your next marketing leader. While this only scratches the surface, we hope our quantitative analysis on gender when evaluating the Top B2C Marketers at Successful VC-backed U.S. Companies proved insightful and thought-provoking.
In our effort to dispel myths and better understand what sets elite marketing leaders apart from the rest, our six-part series analyzing over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies explores various aspects of the most successful marketers including high-level findings, educational insights, the expertise and specializations of top marketers, their early career backgrounds, and their gender. We hope these findings will help fellow marketing executive recruiters and hiring managers alike to better identify and even predict the most successful marketing leaders. For more insights, our full list of articles can be found below.
If you are interested in our final wrap-up article highlighting the most interesting findings of our series, please follow RevelOne on LinkedIn.
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Methodology
We identified the most senior marketing leaders at over 100 of the highest growth tech companies in the US.
How we determined the companies: The fastest-growing tech startups included in our study had to meet several key requirements. Companies had to be funded by a top tier VC (see list below), be a consumer-focused business, have an employee count between 100 and 5000, and have been identified as a “unicorn” ($1 billion or greater valuation) or be a “successful, high growth company” in one of the following publications: CB Insights and Fast Company 50 Future Unicorns, CNBC Disruptor 50 Companies, Forbes 25: Next Billion Dollar Startups, Forbes Midas List, or raised $50 million or more in funding within the last 3 years per Crunchbase.
How we identified the marketing leader: The most senior marketing leader within each company was identified based on title. They had to be in a marketing role, must be located in the US, and must have a CMO, VP, SVP, EVP, Head of, Sr Director, or Director title.
How we conducted the analysis: Crunchbase was utilized for public company status, funding VCs and funding amounts. Company and marketers’ LinkedIn profiles were analyzed to determine company employee count, consumer focus, most senior marketers in an organization, location, titles, education, gender, work experience, years of experience, current role details, and career focus.
List of Top Tier VCs: Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer V Partners, Founders Fund, GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners.
List of Top 28 Universities: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, MIT, Duke, UPenn, Wharton, Brown, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Cornell, Cal Tech, Johns Hopkins, UVA, Dartmouth, NYU, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Wash University, Michigan.
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References.
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
Television has gone digital, with more consumers “cutting the cord” and forgoing expensive cable packages in favor of select streaming services and on-demand viewing. In the marketing world, this means advertising options have expanded beyond traditional TV buys, into more targeted, more attributable, and ultimately more accessible digital options.
But when is it best to explore this channel as a growing B2C or B2B technology company? In a recent article, we recommended Audio as the first alternative channel to test after establishing your online measurable performance marketing channels (SEM, Paid Social and other digital channels) and building a reliable and accountable foundation for new customer/lead acquisition. Now with the more measurable, targeted and accessible TV advertising options we’re about to cover, testing OTT/CTV video advertising is often the next best channel to test.
“Linear TV” is the traditional TV many of us grew up with. Viewers watch scheduled programming at the time it is broadcast over the air, typically through satellite and cable subscriptions—although it can be recorded via DVR or other methods. While the number of paid US TV subscriptions has dropped by 2.7 million in the last few years1, linear TV audiences still make up the largest TV viewing segment. However, this segment will continue to shrink and evolve as more viewing options are becoming available and consumers are moving away from traditional cable and satellite subscriptions—into the new “cord cutters” segment.
“Cord cutters” are simply defined as a person who cancels or forgoes a cable television subscription in favor of an alternative internet-based or wireless service. OTT (“over the top”) and CTV (“connected TV”) together make up this growing “cord cutter” segment. While these two terms are often used interchangeably, when it comes to buying advertising, it is helpful to know the difference between them. OTT (“over the top”) refers to the delivery of TV content through the internet, aka streaming content, via services like Hulu, Netflix, Disney+. CTV refers to internet-connected TVs and devices (like a smart TV, hardware plugin, or gaming console). OTT content can in fact be viewed via CTV, for example streaming Hulu (OTT) through Google Chromecast or Xbox (CTV). OTT is definitely mainstream as 52% of all US adults over 18 use at least one OTT service.
Linear TV is typically bought through Upfronts, where media agencies and buyers purchase or reserve network media directly for upcoming TV seasons, often at a lower price. More recently Newfronts have been offered—the digital version of Upfronts—in which media agencies and buyers can purchase or reserve media for upcoming digital programming with OTT providers like Hulu or Disney+, as well as traditional TV networks on their digital or on-demand channels.
Linear TV can also be bought programmatically, but inventory is relatively low. OTT/CTV however has a higher percentage of inventory available through programmatic buying. Right now about 60% of CTV is being sold programmatically according to eMarketer. In fact, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Samsung accounted for over 65% of programmatic CTV impressions in 2019. The rest of CTV is sold through Newfronts (mentioned above), or held by networks or service providers and guaranteed for more traditional direct buys.
While programmatic buying can seem like the most economical, easy to execute, and easiest to directly attribute to sales, one complaint around programmatic TV, in general, is the limited visibility into where your ads are actually being shown. The tracking is very different across programmatic TV buying and cookie-based CTV ads as well. Each CTV service has its own system, and OTT content is viewed across multiple devices, which can make tracking difficult.
When it comes to media assets, OTT advertising typically consists of pre-roll ads and other video advertising that is shown to users while watching content, typically in the form of commercials during shows. But because CTV is tied to a device, it not only includes pre-roll and other video advertising shown while a consumer watches content using that device, but also includes advertising placed alongside other apps and shown on the device itself.
So, while CTV and OTT are often used interchangeably, a smart and experienced TV expert or partner will be able to help you decipher and take advantage of the difference.
One of the key elements to running a successful OTT/CTV and programmatic TV campaign is access to inventory, and actively managing the ads through that inventory across every platform and every type of content. We recommend working with an agency to execute your TV advertising. While most agencies do not develop creative in-house, they all will have a short list of vetted creative producers they work closely with to create winning creative together. There are three agencies that dominate the TV buying space right now, they all buy across CTV/OTT and Linear, and can provide full service support:
For those looking to test into TV advertising on a budget—or who are already running TV campaigns but looking for ways to lower their average CAC—we recommend looking into remnant TV media buying companies with access to both linear TV and CTV/OTT inventory. One such agency we recommend is Last Minute Media Deals. Agencies like this, with access to relatively last-minute TV (linear and CTV/OTT) inventory, can secure deep discounts off standard rates—even up to 80% off.
Launching TV can be both costly and confusing. Understanding your options and working with a knowledgeable partner is typically the most cost-effective and efficient way our clients approach TV advertising. Our article on determining the best way to source resources and talent to manage new channels can also help.
For introductions to any of the agencies we have recommended, or if you are looking for additional resources or insights on which marketing channels you should be adding to your arsenal, and how to do it, check out our other articles below or contact us at marketingteam@revel-one.com.
References
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
The world of audio has evolved quickly since 2004 when podcasts became a category and Pandora’s interactive radio service hit the scene just a year later. As more ways of consuming audio content have become available, we regularly get asked by marketing leaders and growth experts alike, “What is the best way to market through these channels, and how should I start testing them?”
First, when thinking about when to invest in audio vs other channels, we typically recommend fast growing tech companies to test into audio after they have established their measurable performance marketing channels. By spending their first marketing dollars maximizing SEM, Paid Social and other digital channels first, marketers can establish a highly measurable and reliable foundation for new customer/lead acquisition, before moving into audio or other broadcast media. We often recommend Audio as the first alternative channel to test since it is cheaper than TV for example, both in terms of media buying and creative, but can still generate larger scale awareness among new customer segments.
As former and current marketing operators ourselves (and as marketing executive recruiters), we’ve put together this short guide mapping out a marketer’s audio options, high-level channel differences and insights, and how best to execute your marketing through this channel as a whole — including the top agencies and executional options our clients rave about and some of which we have used ourselves.
More than 680 million Podcasts are downloaded every month, and According to Buzzsprout, one in three Americans listens to a show regularly. Podcasts aren’t just popular, though. They are integrated into people’s lives, replacing music in the car or their favorite talk show host at night, and come in a wide variety of subjects and formats.
Advertising: Advertisers can take advantage of this ever growing, and diverse channel targeting their audiences by lifestyle, interest and more. Endorsement ads — 30- and 60-second sponsorships voiced by the podcast hosts — are the gold star of podcast advertising, with 52% of listeners saying they are likely to take recommendations from podcast hosts they like (source: Morning Consult). Programmatic models also exist using pre-recorded ads. While this approach to podcast advertising can be more cost effective for your brand, ads are not tailored to the shows where they are broadcast and inventory is typically low.
Audience: Podcasts audiences started out being younger and the early adopters, but are now essentially mainstream.
Over 34 million people subscribe to SiriusXM Satellite Radio, with over 165 channels available in your car, and over 300 channels online across news, sports, talk, comedy, entertainment, and music.
Advertising: Based on your target market and budget, you choose which channels you want to advertise on, however, Satellite radio can only be nationally targeted. Ad formats also include traditional 30 or 60 second radio spots, sponsorships, targeted brand spots, and programming shorts. Host-read sponsorships are available on Satellite, but they are not as popular because of their big price tags and tremendous lead times. There is also a $20K total, $5K/wk minimum.
Audience: Because users pay to listen, satellite radio listeners tend to be more affluent, and older, but specific demographic targeting can be done by focusing your ad campaign on certain channels. Most are listening on the road, but the SiriusXM mobile app is increasingly used by subscribers when out of their vehicles.
Over 100 million people are regular listeners to Pandora, Spotify, and other Streaming Radio channels. According to the RIAA’s 2020 year-end report, about 83% of all music consumption happened on a streaming service. While much user behavior takes place on ad-free subscription services, there are tons of commercial-supported, and sponsored placements available through these services.
Advertising: Most streaming providers like Pandora and Spotify offer free versions of their product where advertisers can choose between display ads and targeted in-stream spots. Because these services partner with big data companies they are able to provide sophisticated audio targeting options, including age and audience affinity targeting, even at the zip code level. Programmatic advertising for streaming makes it easy to advertise on multiple services from one place, instead of having to manage the nuances of each service’s platform for direct buys.
Audience: Streaming listeners tend to look a lot like the podcast audience, although are slightly older than podcast listeners, 56% are aged 21-44 with a median age of 41.
Traditional AM/FM radio is the original audio advertising channel, and it should still be in your wheelhouse as a marketer. According to Edison Research, 39% of all audio consumption in 2020 was via terrestrial radio. That is a huge chunk of the pie. And, because there are now so many Internet radio services like iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and more, listeners are accessing these “local” stations on a global scale through smartphone apps and browser players.
Advertising: Ads on traditional radio stations take the form of traditional 30- and 60-second spots. However, because the inventory permeates each station’s runtime around the clock, there’s often last-minute unsold inventory and fill-in slots, which are a solid and popular way to test into this channel with minimal budgets. If you work directly with iHeart Radio or the other top radio networks on a premium buy/campaign, you can engage their talent (radio personalities) to do custom spots.
Audience: Because(terrestrial) radio has such a broad reach, audience demographics overall looks like the general population, but targeting can be done by specific radio stations and programs on those stations.
Audio is one of the fastest evolving advertising channels. As audio options mature and expand, so do advertising options, agencies, and tools. For example, while just “yesterday,” audio inventory was only sold direct and fragmented across types and providers, Google now offers audio inventory in their marketplace. Google’s inventory partners include AdsWizz, iHeart, Pandora, SoundCloud (global), Spotify, Triton Digital and TuneIn, among others advertisers have the ability to distinguish between music, radio and podcasts, and audio production tools and brand lift tracking are also included as Google clearly is making a play to become a leader in audio advertising, too.
A key to audio is testing into it. Typically, brands work with an audio agency of record that does all aspects of their advertising. However, the biggest agencies sometimes require a minimum investment in the hundreds of thousands. For most startups this is far out of their budget. Engaging an audio freelance expert can be a great alternative. In this model you will own the relationships with the publishers, you are only charged for time spent (for scalable programs this means their percentage of media becomes much lower over time vs. the 15% standard), and you will often get more senior talent managing your relationship end to end.
Our Top Agency recommendations:
Our Top Freelance recommendation:
No matter how you choose to invest and execute audio for your brand, for most B2C companies and many B2B companies, it has become a critical channel to at least test. Our article on determining the best way to source resources and talent to manage new channels can also help you navigate execution. If you are looking for more resources on which marketing channels you should be adding to your arsenal, and how to do it, check out our other articles below or contact us at marketingteam@revel-one.com and we will be happy to help.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
This is the fourth article in our six-part series analyzing over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies to better understand the skills, experience, attributes, and backgrounds that separate them from the rest. We dispel myths, share interesting findings, discuss key takeaways, and explore if predictive indicators exist to identify who will be the most successful marketers. (Our methodology can be found at the end of this article.)
Our first three articles sharing high-level findings can be found here.
Ever wonder how the country’s most elite marketing executives made it to where they are today, and what experiences propelled them along their career path?
When analyzing the careers of over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies, we unpack this question and examine what early career experiences may have had an impact on these marketers’ success. We share key findings and surprising insights into which elements are critical in an elite marketers background, and which are not. We even dig deeper to discover if certain experiences can predict success. Our key takeaways and detailed findings can be found below:
Only 46% of the top 100+ B2C marketing executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies actually started their careers in Marketing. This indicates more than half, 54%, started out in something altogether different. Of those who did not start off in Marketing, 32% started off in Banking, 20% in Strategy Consulting, and 45% started off in a variety of different fields including engineering, business development, and even law. Marketers do not need to start out in Marketing to eventually become an elite marketing leader.
In our last article, we noted that over a third (38%) of our elite marketing executives spent more than 25% of their careers in non-marketing roles. So marketing leaders at the top B2C companies in the country can achieve that level of success not only when starting their career outside of marketing, but also if they spent a significant time outside of marketing anytime during their career as well.
We often get mixed opinions from our clients as to whether they value a marketer that has focused on marketing from the start or one that also has experience in other functions as well. The data shows there are multiple paths to becoming an elite marketing executive, and less specific patterns emerged than we hypothesized. We believe the key is to understand the goals and objectives you have for your marketing leader, and evaluate each candidate’s experiences (marketing or not) against what it will take to achieve those desired outcomes. For marketers still early in their careers with more experience outside of marketing than within it, we urge hiring managers not to discount them as future elite marketing leaders, even if they have taken some significant detours along the way.
Of the top marketers in our study that specialize in Brand and Communications, 47% started their careers at a marketing agency or a CPG brand. Surprisingly, none of the marketers in our study that specialize in Performance Marketing started their careers at a CPG brand, and only one began their career at a marketing agency.
For those specializing in performance marketing, 45% started their careers in banking or consulting. Yet only 16% of marketers that started their careers in banking or consulting ended up becoming specialists in Brand and Communications.
So what makes these two backgrounds produce such different marketers? While there are performance marketing agencies, many are focused predominantly on branding. And, if you consider most CPG brands are sold through wholesalers and retailers and require marketing efforts more heavily focused on brand awareness rather than direct marketing to drive online sales, it’s not surprising so many of our brand and comms marketers (and so few of our performance marketers) come from these backgrounds.
Since quantitative skills are paramount for both banking and consulting jobs, it’s not surprising that those that found their way to becoming marketing leaders tend to do so with a performance marketing specialty.
For fast-growing B2C tech companies looking for a leader with one of these two types of specialized skills sets, candidate search strategies could start out with a more focused search by correlating their particular need with either a marketing agency/CPG or banking/consulting background.
3. Fewer top marketers are coming from CPG and Agency backgrounds than ever before, and more are coming from banking and consulting.
While top marketers with a CPG or agency background make up 24% of our entire top marketer list, they only account for 13% of our younger marketers (under 15 years experience), but over-index at 36% of our older generation (with 20 years or more of experience). As companies grow beyond a certain level of maturity and scale becomes less about turning the paid marketing dials (and more about market share or brand affinity), the deep brand expertise and customer insights gained through a CPG and agency background may become more desirable. Perhaps we are simply seeing a mismatch of skills to growth stage, as our top marketers list in this study comes from fast-growing, VC-backed B2C companies, often still largely reliant on growth through paid channels.
Interestingly, top marketers with a banking or consulting background (both highly quantitative functions) reflect the opposite trend, and over-index in the younger cohort at 33%. Since we found in our third and second article that more marketers are coming from performance marketing backgrounds and graduating with quantitative degrees, we see yet another data point towards a shifting trend towards top marketers with deep quantitative backgrounds.
Note that roughly half of the elite marketing leaders in our study come from a non-specialized, general marketing background, and these marketers make up roughly half of our younger generation of elite marketers with under 15 years of experience as well. They are also becoming increasingly focused on performance and quantitative approaches.
A surprising 85% of top marketers who started out in banking or consulting went to one of the top 25 universities in the United States (72% of those starting in banking, and 91% of top marketers who started in Consulting). Compare this to only 49% of our entire list of elite marketing leaders, and an elite education for this unique subset of marketers emerges as an important element to starting on this uber-successful career path.
We’ve noted that marketers who started in consulting or business follow the trend of being more quantitative, are becoming more prominent in our younger generation of leaders, and are even more likely to end up at a unicorn. As young aspiring leaders begin the first leg of their journey by determining where to get an education, if they want to someday be part of this elite group of top marketers, an education at a top 25 school statistically helps considerably and perhaps is where they should start.
While we always encourage B2C business leaders, hiring managers, and recruiters to assess the core objectives you want your marketing leader to achieve, and map them to the unique experience and skill set that will result in the highest likelihood of success, we can’t ignore the changing overall trends we continue to uncover in our top B2C marketing leader study. Marketing as part of their skillset will always remain critical, but early experiences outside of marketing, and a tendency towards performance and quantitative approaches are becoming ever more prominent (and thus likely effective) in our most elite marketing leaders.
As hiring managers assess the experience and needs of their next marketing leader, they should be giving equal or more consideration to those that fit this “new” profile. While in our last article we note that each company is different and therefore may have different priority needs, for companies who need branding or product marketing most to uplevel their efforts, their new hire should reflect those same skill sets. But in these situations consider the supporting senior-level talent on your team, and ensure you also have your performance, quantitative and business-focused bases covered.
We continue to hope the insights and trends uncovered in our analysis will help hiring managers to understand the skills, experience, attributes, and backgrounds of the top marketing leaders in tech – and how to find their next great marketing leader. We will continue to deep dive into the subject next reviewing women vs men top marketers. You can view our previous articles below:
If you are interested in our next articles in this series, please follow RevelOne on LinkedIn.
Methodology
We identified the most senior marketing leaders at over 100 of the highest growth tech companies in the US.
How we determined the companies: The fastest growing tech startups included in our study had to meet several key requirements. Companies had to be funded by a top tier VC (see list below), be a consumer focused business, have an employee count between 100 and 5000, and have been identified as a “unicorn” ($1 billion or greater valuation) or be a “successful, high growth company” in one of the following publications: CB Insights and Fast Company 50 Future Unicorns, CNBC Disruptor 50 Companies, Forbes 25: Next Billion Dollar Startups, Forbes Midas List, or raised $50 million or more in funding within the last 3 years per Crunchbase.
How we identified the marketing leader: The most senior marketing leader within each company was identified based on title. They had to be in a marketing role, must be located in the US, and must have a CMO, VP, SVP, EVP, Head of, Sr Director, or Director title.
How we conducted the analysis: Crunchbase was utilized for public company status, funding VCs and funding amounts. Company and marketers’ linkedin profiles were analyzed to determine company employee count, consumer focus, most senior marketers in an organization, location, titles, education, gender, work experience, years of experience, current role details, and career focus.
List of Top Tier VCs: Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer V Partners, Founders Fund, GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture partners
List of Top 28 Universities: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, MIT, Duke, UPenn, Wharton, Brown, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Cornell, Cal Tech, Johns Hopkins, UVA, Dartmouth, NYU, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Wash University, Michigan.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
