[Editor’s Note: We regularly ask PR and marketing leaders to tell us about people who’ve influenced them, advice they’ve received and trends they’re seeing. This week editor Seth Arenstein speaks with Richard Loomis, CMO, The Nature Conservancy, who’s just arrived from Disney Channels Worldwide.]
My influences come from two places.First, my parents; I’m very fortunate to have both still with us. My father is 90 and my mother is 86. They’ve always been great champions and supporters of everything my sisters and I have done. Aside from maybe my first job out of college (they were thrilled I had a job right out of college, I was an assistant media planner at a small agency in Chicago) this is the job they have been most enthusiastic and excited about. They’ve been followers and friends of The Nature Conservancy since my childhood, so it’s a little bit of full circle for me. I’ve also been fortunate to have great bosses: one who got me into the world of cable TV marketing, and another one who taught me to be thoughtful, focused and strategic when it comes to that intersection of creativity and marketing strategy.
In this day and age of more, more, more…more data, more analytics, more insights and more dashboards, a friend and former colleague who’s very accomplished in the world of data analytics said, “You can’t lose sight of your head and your heart in decision-making.” That’s a good reminder we have more information than ever, which makes us smarter in some respects, but not absolutely everything can be measured. And sometimes intuition and gut are key components of great decision-making.
Another bit of wisdom: As things get more complicated and fragmented, you have to remember you can’t know everything, so you certainly need to trust your people.
And a saying that goes back many years ago to when I started in the Disney organization: “It’s time to love it.” We can talk about things as much as we want, but at a certain point it’s time to love what you’ve done, trust what you’ve done and trust your gut. Put it out there and see what works.
I’m intrigued with the demonstration of the merger of marketing, creative content and communications. I think a lot about shareable moments. We’re living in a world at the intersection of technology, community and content. We can’t forget that people still like and want to be together and have a physical moment.
One example of this is the Fearless Girl statue, the Women’s March and a Wall Street-based organization that had a point to make…and the symbolism that through the power of emotion, the power of community, the power of social media and the power of communications became something really big.
Another example is Airbnb and its partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago. Together they took a piece of art—Van Gogh’s The Bedroom—andreproduced it in a physical form and let people in to experience it and share it, tying that back to a somewhat newer, more disruptive brand in the world of travel and hospitality.
A third example is Burger King, the Whopper and their OK Google moment. It’s a great example of how you create discussion using, and basically totally hijacking, new Artificial Intelligence in home technology. People are debating the limits on hardware and software that are increasingly part of our lives and where and how brands and products intersect with that…you may disagree with it, but it put Burger King back at the top of the overall discussion.
A fourth example is that increasingly we’re seeing the trend of the near-integration of marketing teams, creative content teams, PR and communications teams. These teams are structured in a streamlined way, so you can react incredibly responsively and in real time to hopefully keep pace with the discussion going on out there.
I’m not sure this is a trend, but I’m seeing a new open-mindedness from creatives toward information and analytics. There seems to be more of an appetite to know and understand what’s working. It’s probably not a trend anymore; it’s just the world we live in and that we collect so much data.
Right now I’m listening, learning and exploring as I transition from Disney, a creatively driven organization, into this great organization that is much more science-based. What [Disney and The Nature Conservancy] have in common is in their need for strategy, to connect with audiences, branding, drive engagement and create superior content and foster great storytelling.
At The Nature Conservance we have the biggest shareable experience of all, which is Mother Earth. The great opportunity for all of us is to create more of those moments when people are engaged with our world, with our land, with our water, with our air, with our cities and are aware of and responsible for our actions.
CONTACT: [email protected]