Scaling Content Without Losing What Matters - Nicole Rex

0:00Nicole Rex:Hey, welcome to the CMO Whisper Show. I'm your host, Steve Olenski. Part marketing practitioner, part ad agency veteran, part journalist, I was a writer for Forbes for 10 years. I've had so many insightful conversations over the years with business leaders, to athletes, to celebrities, to of course, CMOs. The only difference now is instead of sharing those insights through written form, I'm doing it this way. My guest today is Nicole Rex, Vice President of Global Marketing Campaigns and Core Content at Dell Technologies. A journalist by training and a marketer by trade, Nicole has spent more than 25 years demonstrating that great storytelling isn't just creative, it's a business advantage.

0:44Nicole Rex:During her almost 20 years at Dell, she has led the company's internal creative agency, run experiential marketing, and held roles across social impact, content marketing, brand, and creative development. Today, she sits at the intersection of global campaigns, brand, and creative focused on one very big question. How do you scale world-class content without losing the craft and quality? Ooh, that's a great question. Nicole, welcome to the show. Thank you, Steve. Thank you for having me. It is my pleasure. And I got to start because we've had some really great off-the-air conversations. But I think in your bio, maybe I wrote this myself based on your bio, but journalist by training, marketer by trade.

1:31Nicole Rex:So first question is, what originally pulled you from journalism into marketing? Yeah, I love that description as well because I never want to lose sight from where I came from. And journalism taught me so much. And then going into marketing was really a natural progression. So what really led me to that was a very funny story, actually. I was working for my hometown newspaper. Shout out to the Garland News. And I was finding myself in a situation where I was the lifestyles editor. I was responsible for that arts and entertainment section. I wanted to do a series. And so I wanted to get to know the small businesses around our town.

2:14And so I went around and did profiles on all these businesses. And then we were having a conversation at work and somebody said, you know, you may want to think about going over on the advertising because these profiles were really kind of getting deep and into the stories of these small businesses. And I just kind of went, oh, light bulb moment. Maybe I should think about advertising and marketing. So that's how it started. And then I made the jump.

2:43Nicole Rex:So would you say storytelling was always that common thread or through line? Absolutely. It really is. I think sometimes it may sound odd to go from journalism into marketing, but the through line is the story. Just finding a story, knowing how to tell that story. And then the more and more I experienced different disciplines within marketing, I realized what a competitive advantage it is to be able to tell your story. Was there a point, if you can remember, or like when did you kind of have that, wait a minute, a great story could really be a competitive advantage? It was when we were faced with competition and you start to look around and a lot of people are saying the same thing.

3:28And how are you really going to stand out? So that was kind of the first thing of, you know, when you're kind of facing a sea of sameness, and this necessarily wasn't at Dell. This was very early on in my career, actually within college education. I used to work for a college and we had a ton of different educational institutions within the same area. And everybody was kind of saying the same thing. So how are you really going to differentiate yourself to stand out? And so that's where it started and really kind of unearthing. How do we go do this? How do we tell our story? We're not trying to be another institution.

4:07We are here for a very particular reason. And once we went on that path, you know, it really opened up. Recruitment started to improve. Attendance started to go up. So that was kind of that first moment early on in my career that made me go, hmm, there is something here to using this as a competitive advantage.

4:27Nicole Rex:Yeah. I know one of the things, you've said so many things that really caught my attention. And one of the ones you said, the longer you lead, the more you believe leadership is less about having all the answers and more about creating clarity. Love that. What changed your thinking when it came to leadership about less having all the answers and just creating collaboration? A lot of experience, Steve, in terms of working with people, leading people. I started out being a leader that felt like I needed to do it all, have all the answers. And while it certainly is a responsibility to know context, to know what's happening, to know where to go get answers, Sometimes we don't have all the answers, especially in times of massive change, transformation, when you're really trying to figure out what are the right next steps.

5:16The most important thing in those environments is to first drive clarity. Even if it's about being honest that, hey, it's a little messy right now. There's a lot of ambiguity. But here's why. We're headed towards something better. And here's the steps we're going to take to get there. So for me, it's moved from thinking that you have to know everything, you have to be involved in everything, and really about setting that vision, setting the clarity, even in times when things may seem a little messy.

5:47Nicole Rex:Yeah. To me, one of the synonyms for the word clarity in this context is simple or simplified, right? And just make it uncomplicated. You see where I'm going, right? Yeah. So what does that look like when you're leading inside a huge organization like and complex as Dell? The transparency. So really bringing people in. Yes, as a leader, you have the responsibility to set the tone, to set the vision, to drive context, to go get the answers when you don't have them. And also really checking in with your team constantly. So one of the things that I do is, you know, you've heard of town halls, people getting their organizations together maybe once a quarter.

6:31I do that every six weeks. And it is more of just a check-in, to share, hey, here's the things I'm seeing. Here's what I'm learning. Here's where our vision stands. Has anything changed? No. Let's continue to go down the same direction. Or maybe some things have changed. It's my chance to communicate. Here's some things that maybe we need to do differently. and then we open it up for questions. So that's one of the things I do. I also have pods. So I have smaller groups of people that represent different topics and different projects that we're working on. And it's my chance just to almost have focus groups to check in, to test some things out that maybe we wanna try differently and then to also get feedback.

7:16So really having a pulse on people, also knowing I have great relationships with my stakeholders and what they're seeing in other parts of the organization or the projects or the things that they're seeing that I can always take back to the organization. But there's a great TED Talk titled, Leadership is Not Hierarchy, It's a Network. And I truly believe that. Organizational structure, there's a reason for hierarchy. That makes sense. But when you're in a day-to-day environment, really count on the people across your different network, including those that are within your team. There's a ton of expertise, and I just, I never want to let hierarchy get in the way of that.

8:02Nicole Rex:Yeah, yeah. I know you also believe that people, they're capable of really significant, excuse me, change, but when they have the right context. Correct. Right, It is everything. But talk a little bit about what happens to when people in your role, but they don't fully explain the context, what can happen, what can go wrong. Yeah, you know, I think all of us are in this boat in terms of if you can have some kind of understanding of where you're headed and have some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, it makes it a lot easier to kind of open the capacity for change, curiosity, thinking about ways to do things different.

8:43But if you don't have that information, then as we all know, our minds can wander and we go to places and we start to question things. And that's what I'm always watching out for is, listen, I may not have all the answers, but let's at least talk about it. Let's at least kind of show the path to get there. And what I have found is if you can give people that context, if you can open up and really have the dialogue, people are capable of so much change and so much transformation. And also becoming advocates for that. So a lot of the phrase that I use a lot is, hey, are we going to use this moment as a trap or a trampoline?

9:24So how can we take this and not come from a place of fear? Use it as a momentum of, well, let me find out about this. I may not know and I may not have the answers, but I'm not going to let fear stand in the way. I'm really going to kind of lean in and try to figure this out. So if you're setting the environment for that, then yeah, people are capable of great change and transformation.

9:47Nicole Rex:All right. Before we go anywhere near AI, which, you know, I think we're legally bound to talk about. I think I'm going to be. What's AI? Right? Like, I feel like someone's watching me. Bring up. You have to mention AI on every podcast. Shut up. But we'll get to that in a second. But I love you have three marketing non-negotiables, I believe you called them. Yes. Number one, marketing strategy follows business strategy. Yes. Number two, truly know your audience. And number three, understand what you're trying to say and how it's different. Yes. Which one do marketers struggle with the most? Oh, gosh.

10:23You know, I think truly knowing your audience is sometimes a tough thing to do because there's so many parts of that. You know, there's the demographics part. There's the psychographics. There's the latest trends. there's the real time behaviors versus what they're going to say. And let's say a focus group or on a survey questionnaire. So truly being able to watch the behaviors of the audience that you're trying to talk to, knowing them at a deep, deep level is just, it sets the tone for everything. Because if you don't know your audience, you may have a great story. You may have a good differentiator but if it's not matching up with what they want then it's not gonna go as as well um so i think true that's why i say truly know your audience dig in know them at a pretty deep level not just what they say but what their behavior really is so is the bigger challenge gaining access kind of to the right data for like unearthing an insight that inspires action I think the data's out there.

11:29Like we have all the data in the world. It is about making sure first, yes, make sure you have access to that data, but it's there. It's more about unearthing those very keen insights. It's always that one nugget of insight. there's um a story that has been passed down to be honest i don't know if it's um if it's myth or fact but there was a car manufacturer that was coming out with a brand new sleek car great engine and they were really trying to figure out well what is the one thing that customers really want i mean there's a lot of cars out there and so what's going to make us different and the keen insight was, you know what?

12:15A lot of people are driving around holding their coffee mug while they're driving. What if we put a cup holder? So it's that cup holder effect. And you can imagine what those car engineers went through. Are you kidding me? We spent all this time on an incredible engine on a beautiful car. And you're going to tell me it's the cup holder that you're going to focus on? What? It's a good lesson. What's your cup holder? What's the cup Yeah. And that came from a very, very particular insight.

12:44Nicole Rex:Great example. It's a great, I want to, I, before we move, I want to talk about the other two non-negotiables. You talked about truly know your audience is the one that marketers struggle with the most, but I want to give you the chance to expand on the other two. And I want to start with marketing strategy needs to follow business strategy. And first question I have there is, what's the business asking marketing to deliver today that may be different than what it needed just a few years ago? Yeah. So we're being asked to go faster to reduce costs. And I'll add in kind of the third one, which is while not losing quality.

13:19And there's a real incredible business reason to go do that. It is kind of, you don't want to get left behind. And so when the business is asking marketing to do that, that's something where we have to be looking at ourselves and saying, how do we change? How do we evolve? And so you're talking about folks that have spent their entire career learning a particular craft, a particular area of expertise. Now that is, that is, that is changing, but the business is asking us to do that. And it's not just with massive change and transformation at a company. It's also for particular projects that, that we're working on, especially in the world that I live in with campaigns and creative.

14:06And I think I have the best job in the world. I love what I do. But it's not just for that reason. It is answering a very specific business reason. And marketing is an incredible lever that drives the right outcomes in business. And so just always making sure that marketing's not off on an island doing their own thing. It has to connect back to what the business is asking you to do.

14:33Nicole Rex:I want to ask you a question. I'm going to give you five options and you can pick one or say something else. Where do you think you're feeling the greatest pressure today? And the options are speed, scale, differentiation, relevance, or performance. Scale in the right way. Scale is rather like, I don't want to say it's easy, but you can scale, but you got to start with the right thing. And you got to start with quality first. Then once you scale, how do you maintain that? So for me right now, that is the thing that I am really focused on is we need to scale content, for example. We need to scale that.

15:15But first, you got to start with the right content that's going to work, that's differentiated, that's speaking to the right audience, that's based on the business strategy that we have. Start with that. Then you scale it. But how do you maintain all of that? So there are a lot of tools out there to help you scale. But maintaining the quality without sacrificing speed, without it costing more, maybe even reducing costs, that is one of the big opportunities, actually. So yeah, it's not easy, but it's a huge opportunity.

15:49Nicole Rex:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The last of your three marketing non-negotiables was truly understanding what you're trying to say and how it's different. So how do you make sure Dell's story remains distinctive, right? When so many tech companies are often talking about so many of the same trends kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's easy when you work at a place that truly has some built-in differentiation. So I'll start with that. Our purpose is all about driving human progress. us. So always keeping in mind, what are we trying to drive? Whether you're a huge enterprise, a medium, small business, an individual, a consumer, we all have aspirations.

16:29We all have goals of where we're headed. So always keeping that at the center is one of our advantages. Also just being known as a trusted partner. So we're starting already with something that's truly, truly differentiated. And then I go back to, all right, we know what we want to say about who we are, about our portfolio of products, but now let's do the research. Let's dig into the audience. What is that one thing? And even if there's an insight that other people have too, that's great, but what are we bringing to the table? What are we particularly solving for in our products, in our solutions, our services, that is truly going to be different.

17:18Nicole Rex:I mentioned earlier that you're very focused on one really big question right now, which is how do you scale world-class content without losing the craft and quality? And my first question is, why is that so difficult? As we know with AI, you see, yes, a lot of work out there, whether it's videos, images, creative words even business strategies plans but without human oversight taste originality discernment judgment there can be a lot of slop so we're hearing that term more and more all the time ai slop and so you have to have that human judgment and discernment that's why it's hard is because sometimes we treat it like an easy button and while it's incredible it's it's i'm blown away every day, huge fan of where we're headed with technology and with AI.

18:13It is just a game changer. And at the same time, you have to have the judgment. You have to have the discernment about what you're putting out in the world. So it is all about truly the AI human partnership to do that.

18:27Nicole Rex:So you're scaling world-class content while maintaining the craft and quality, right? Right? Yep. Where, where in that, is there, where in that process would you say is the most pressure? Is it speed to market? Is it quality, quantity? I think it is quality. It really is. You know, you can churn out a lot of things pretty quickly. You can get to scale and it's not even in the world of just marketing or creative, whatever you're doing in your business or as a consumer, it's easy to generate a lot of things, but is it good? So that is why first it's got to be good. Then you got to scale it and you got to maintain the quality while you scale.

19:10And that's the part that is, is hard and does take human oversight and discernment.

19:17Nicole Rex:Yeah. I know this is one that a lot of my, my audience and people I work consult and coach with. This one's a big one. how do campaigns and brand and creative content, product, sales, regional, how do they all come together? So one of the things that I point out a lot and ask myself is let's not market like we're organized. Let's market as one cohesive story to the audience that we're trying to, to connect with. So if groups can come together, we all have our zones of genius. We all bring different things to the table. But once we have those go-to-market motions, how are we making sure that it is one voice?

20:00It's one story across everything we do from all of those disciplines that you just mentioned. So yeah, my biggest piece of advice is please don't market like you're organized.

20:11Nicole Rex:Interesting. So next question that I get a lot is, how do you know when content is generating more than just engagement versus helping the business generate? Oh yes, because what are we all here for? Exactly, right? It's the Holy Grail. I know. If we're not, if we're not doing that, I think the great thing is that technology is allowing us to have tremendous access to tools to tell us just that at any point of the journey that a customer is having. Yeah, we measure all of it. We measure the awareness and the engagement and the conversion and the retention and everything in between. And it is not linear.

20:52And sometimes customers are ready to buy, but then they're not. And how are you measuring all of those moments? You're getting the right signals and ultimately making sure that it is driving the bottom line. So it is the tools. It is the models. It is having the right KPIs to make sure that we're moving the needle, making those cash registers ring for the business. So I think it is kind of, it's not one or the other. Also, I would say in order to drive the right business outcomes when it comes to revenue is making sure that you're following the entire pipeline because it's not just there at the finish line.

21:33You've really got to make sure that you're nurturing and you're taking care of your customers all along the journey before we get there.

21:41Nicole Rex:Are there parts of storytelling, Nicole, that where the value of storytelling is still hard to measure? Sure. Very much. Very, very much so. In terms of how are you thinking about a story when somebody doesn't even know they have a problem? So I mentioned KPIs. I think it's important to constantly be kind of asking, are these the right KPIs in this moment? because what a customer is going to need before they buy, especially when you're dealing with maybe a long lead cycle, it's not as easy as they see something, buy it, and you're done. Truly kind of always touching base with are you measuring the right thing?

22:25And in our world where we are making a lot of content to go tell that story, making sure that it's built for that, that it's intentional. Because if you try to take something that was built for somebody that doesn't even need to, you know, they don't even know they have a problem and you're trying to sell to them, that's not going to work. Vice versa. If you're just trying to sell, sell, sell, and you're talking to somebody who's like, wait a minute, I don't even know if I need this. It's not going to work. And then having those right kind of KPIs to tell you what's working and what's not. But a story is a big piece of that.

23:00So understanding, just good old, you know, A-B testing. What was it? Was it the media? Was it the story, the creative? Was it the audience that we were targeting? Did we get that right? So it's just so important to drill into each of those areas. But I think one of the things that I particularly pay attention to a lot is you can't just take something that was created for a behavior down funnel and expect that that's going to work sooner in the journey and vice versa.

23:33Nicole Rex:Yeah. Okay, let's identify, let's address the outfit in the room, the AI, and especially the human plus AI partnership. I know you believe the goal wasn't to remove humans from the process, quote unquote. It's to put humans where they create the most value. So where do humans create the most value? Yeah, so I mean, here's what's amazing. Just with any kind of, you know, innovation, AI, you know, as we all know, is huge and it's incredible and so amazing what this is opening up and also the things that we need to be responsible about. And so then the question comes up about the human factor and where is that most needed?

24:14And we're finding that it really is about where we can create our most potent work. So I go to those soft skills that are critical skills, originality, taste, discernment, judgment, communication, influence. So those are interesting because you can generate a business plan. You can generate product information. You can generate creative and videos and all sorts of different things. But if you're not able to take that and be able to articulate why it matters and be able to influence in the right way, then where's that information going to go? Where's all that information that you created going to live?