Director of Brand Strategy at Little Dot Studios: ‘Marketing is about human connection’

Little Dot Studios are a global production agency and Director of Brand Strategy, Jade Raad, is under the spotlight in the latest of Press Gazette’s Marketing Maestro interviews. This series is produced in association with Lead Monitor, New Statesman Media Group’s content marketing arm.

What has been your proudest achievement in your current role?

Very simply – putting together a passionate, ambitious team of incredible people and then getting to work with them every day.

Which media channels do you see as most important and best value when it comes to marketing spend and activity?

The ones (yes, plural) where your audiences are. I don’t think it’s a case of whether TV is dead or digital is losing its shine. We have a very simple way of looking at things here at Little Dot Studios. We start with the audiences you have, want and need. We look at where they are and what platforms work. We also review what content they are consuming to understand why they are there and the purpose for consuming that content. This in turn tells you very clearly where you might want to be to reach those audiences and what content you might want to consider making to satisfy their needs. It’s that simple. The hard part really is the execution and creating long lasting meaningful value between brand X and audience Y. HARD!

Sign up to Marketing Matters, our fortnightly newsletter with leading articles about marketing, advertising and publishing

What are the key differences between B2C and B2B marketing?

Irritating solicitation on LinkedIn? Am I allowed to say that? Lots of textbook variables. At the end of the day all marketing is about influence. B2B in essence is done in closer proximity to your end customer vs B2C that’s done often from afar. The reality is whatever the mechanics, it’s all about influence and importantly human connection.

What for you is the key to any successful marketing campaign – what actually makes a ‘good lead’?

Success is knowing what you clearly want to achieve, honestly you would be surprised how wayward campaigns go when clear s.m.a.r.t. objectives are not set up, up front. Marketing execution can be very complex. There are so many layers to it and even more levers that can be pulled to hit success metrics. Measuring success is the really hard part especially around the softer measures. The crux of it is, it’s really easy to manipulate data and skew the numbers to ’show’ success. Our entire industry thrives on hockey stick graphs. The bravery really comes in having the guts to be able to show what didn’t work and how you are going to make it better.

As for a good lead – for me it starts with the 3Q’s: Qualification, qualification, qualification.

How important is technology in modern marketing?

Like modern life, technology and innovation is in many cases there to help us do things quicker, more efficiently, cheaper, better. But in many instances, technology can also hinder and become a distraction limiting thinking and often restricting creative. We have to remember that marketing at its core is about influence through human connection. Technology needs to compliment it and not blindside us.

What are the biggest pain points in a marketing campaign?

TIME. There is never enough time in this rapid world. I really want to thank my team that make all our wildest marketing fantasies come to life. You know who you are.

And finally, if you could ask your peers for one piece of advice or help, what would it be?

I was recently alerted to a seminal piece of work by Barry Schwartz at TED on the paradox of choice. He takes aim at a central tenet of Western societies: Freedom of choice. In Schwartz’s estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralysed, not happier but more dissatisfied.

My question is: In this age of choice, how do you navigate the levers you can pull? How much of that choice is governed by art and how much science?