How To Succeed In Marketing

0:00Budget isn't the variable of success. Being consumer centric is. Our industry is getting really far away from that. The Barbie execution won on different relevance points. We're not trading on relevance enough. Please give a warm welcome as he makes his way to the stage. It's Gary Vee! Gary,

0:25I would welcome you to Australia, but you know this territory very well, don't you? Yeah, first of all, thank you so much. It's really, really, really nice to be with everybody. Yeah, I grew up in the wine business. I launched an e-commerce wine site for my father's liquor store business in 1997. And so I was a very early advocate of the expansion of Australian and New Zealand wines in the late 90s and early 2000s. So I've been here many, many, many times and have spent tons of time in Hunter Valley and Margaret River and Barossa and other places. And so it's really one of my favourite places in the world.

1:07And it's really nice to be here. So we have a room here of, there's just over a billion dollars worth of budget in this room. It's actually insane. I'm interested. So this is going to be a discussion if you guys want it to be. So stick your hand up. There's people with mics around. They'll give you a mic and then I'll throw to you when I'm ready. But you are the best in the world, I think, by a long way at being able to see around corners in the marketing space. So to the billion dollars in the room, what is around the corner? You know, it's interesting. I don't think that I actually see around corners.

1:45I think our... You agree? I think that I grew up marketing in a manner that was very focused on driving sales because I don't know if any of you have a Soviet immigrant father that owns a business but my father wasn't super interested in awards he was interested in what was happening at the cash register I also knew that my dad was only 22 years older than me and this whole concept he told me which is like when I die you get the business I also know he has pretty good genetics. I was like, dad, you're gonna be 90. I'm gonna be 70. I'm gonna have to do something for myself one day. So, you know, the first 15, 20 years of my marketing career, I was trying to drive day-to-day sales, but I was trying to build a brand because I knew there'd be a day I would leave and I wanted to leave it in the best place that it could be.

2:40And so when I got into the Fortune 500 marketing world 14 years ago, So one of the more interesting observations I had pretty quickly, and definitely the answer to this question, is I don't think I really see around corners. I think our industry is incredibly good at putting yesterday on a pedestal and putting tomorrow on a pedestal and struggling to maximize today. and for me you know things like making real commitment to social media creative and media isn't around the corner when I get credit for being right about TikTok it had hundreds of millions of users that's not seeing around the corner that's understanding that this was hitting scale but the big companies in the world weren't doing it because it wasn't measured yet and if it's not measured, it's not being done, even if the consumer's attention is there.

3:40And in that delta is where I tend to play. That being said, I spend enormous time paying attention to things like AI or the metaverse and things of that nature. I just don't like spending actual execution dollars on it because I don't think the consumer attention's there versus the value. So, you know, I appreciate that I do feel like I've done well in first mover advantage and things that nature but one of the things I'm most proud of is I don't have too many things that I've been horribly wrong about and it's not because I'm smart it's because I only talk about things that already happened so I think you're telling half the truth because you fucking stay around corners I can name a number of examples but can we get some hands please who's got a question so we can get a mic to you okay we'll go there but i i'm gonna ask you one question before we get that one you have vayna media is such an incredible agency i don't even call it an agency but it's all over the world and you work with the most incredible brands doing the most incredible things so you have exposure to cmos all over the world what is different or what do you notice that's different about australian cmos to the rest of the world you know nothing that i think is so profound i think I think CMOs continue to be challenged by the same things.

5:01My biggest hope and dream for all the CMOs, Australia and every other part of the world, starting to have the real conversation of putting them in a position to succeed where if we can get the CMOs around the world to start pressuring agencies to bring back media and creative under one roof, well then we can actually hold the agencies accountable to actually driving our business, which then will make us much more popular with our CEOs and board members. You know, my career, because of all the things I did before and in parallel to what I'm doing with the advertising agency, I tend to spend a lot of time with the CEOs and the board members of the Fortune 500 companies and their frustration is the reporting that is happening within their own companies.

5:44And I keep yelling at them. I'm like, you're the CEO, it's your fault. But, you know, I do think Australia, more than other parts of the world, skews a little bit more academic when it comes to marketing. I think there's more conversation of the academia of it that stands out. But I mean, this is a very dynamic market. We wanted to enter this market because for us, we like underpriced media. And there's a lot of arbitrages in this country because I do think that there's still too big of an allocation to traditional media. And so there's a lot of opportunity within influencer or biddable social.

6:22I think when you think about what's going on with streaming and 7 Plus and things of that nature, I think TV's gonna change very rapidly here in everybody's faces over the next five to 10 years. And so I think the opportunity's high. I think the creativity's very strong. But I think the creativity is only interesting if it's actually consumed. What do you mean? I mean that our industry globally, not just here, is very infatuated with GRPs and CPMs that aren't actually being seen by human beings. Okay, there we go. Question. Hi, Gary. My name is Jack. For context, we've just had Advertising Week in Australia, which obviously brings all the great marketing minds together.

7:15A lot of the conversation was around AI data. Yes. But what I found really interesting was AI, and please correct me and tell me if this is true or not, that it currently responds to white male in terms of the results and how it speaks. how do we as a society and also ai uh grow and adapt to make sure that we're aligning with the humanity and also the social conversation and progress that we see rather than ai just speaking to a white male i don't think it's i don't think it's speaking to a white male the the conversation that is fascinating about this is people are talking about the inputs and how the data's being structured.

8:06You know, I keep trying to remind people like everything has prejudice. There's nothing in the world that doesn't. I think the cool thing is that the blockchain and AI are open opportunities for people to create the data sets. And so it's not catering to white males, it's that a lot of white males have been working on the technology, right? So I think this stems to much bigger infrastructural things. This talks about education. This talks about a million different variables that society has been struggling with since the dawn of society. To me, people are like, oh, we need to make sure this AI is not spitting out things that aren't balanced.

8:50I'm like, all of the content that the world is consuming is not balanced. there's nothing that's balanced it's the nature of the flaw of the human i think what's more interesting is when are human beings going to finally start falling in love with accountability instead of us spending all of our time being mad at media and social media influencers and algorithms maybe it's time to start having conversations about humanity's capacity to take in multiple data sets and actually make decisions for themselves. Maybe the bigger issue is that we like blaming things that are exposing our truth.

9:36So I'm going to... We've got a question there. Gus, we've got a question there. Before we get to that, I'm going to keep picking on AI. Okay. If I'm a marketer right now... Yes. What the fuck do I do with AI? probably not much like you should be educated you shouldn't say no there's not a person in this room given what they do for a living and where they are in their careers that shouldn't be playing with AI probably on a weekly basis given how massive of a technology it's going to be that's just going to affect your life forget about your professional career not playing with AI today would be like the people you made fun of 25 years ago not going on the internet You know, like, it's really funny watching people deal with AI or the blockchain.

10:27They, like, people are so in love with no, they hate change so much that most people don't realize they've become their parents. Right? The thing you made fun of your parents for, of, like, not knowing how to use email or not wanting to go away from the Blackberry to the iPhone or all the things that you've spent the last 30 years making fun of, you've now become. You know, and so I would encourage people to play with it because your personal subjective opinion of technology has no impact on technology and what it's going to do. And so I think that people should be playing with it. But there's a lot to go with AI.

11:06For example, all of us, if you're paying a little bit of attention, are aware that generative creative is going to be a very big deal. The reason for a lot of people in this room we can't go there yet is we all know that the copyright and trademark issues are looming. and big companies can't be posting that creative yet because there's liability. But that doesn't mean you can't start doing it maybe for some internal use to build decks and play with. So I would just say this is a training wheels phase. And really, you should be doing this for yourself because there is no outcome where this technology is not profoundly important.

11:39And I think that is the bigger issue and opportunity. Hi, sir. Hello, I loved your comment. Cam. Cam. Cam from where? Introduce yourself properly. I'm from Optus. I run consumer marketing office. I used to work with Mel. She left me. It's very sad. Everybody that Mel's ever left has been pretty sad. Yeah, yeah. It's rough. I loved your comment about bringing media and creative back together. How do you think about finding creative talent that wants to work in that type of environment? And how do you foster a creative culture that needs to be responsive to results and not the cigarette smoking, I'm an artist creative from yesterday?

12:25That is a very smart question. No question the biggest challenge. So VaynerMedia started 14 years ago. I owned, I ran a wine retail business for my father and then I started the agency. I knew nothing. I've never heard of anything that I now know of in this industry. I didn't even know that media and creative was separate. and in 14 years we've built a company that has 2 ,000 employees and is a very large agency globally and by far the biggest challenge in those 14 years is to give creatives more self-esteem. It is stunning how insecure the creative directors of ad agencies are around the world and the lack of humility and curiosity is devastating.

13:17and the retraining of all the creatives that we hire from the most iconic shops is extremely challenging. They'd much rather believe that their subjective opinion in a boardroom is right than black and white quant and qual data. And so, you know, we do it with empathy, with a lot of training, with a lot of, you know, for us, what's working is three years ago, we made a pretty substantial decision, which was every single creative globally would make creative every day. So our entire creative department, globally, actually makes creative every day. And as we all know, because we're in the industry, most creative shops are not in the business of making actual creative.

13:58They're in the business of making decks and pitching ideas, and then you then get a company to make the production. As we've been able to get these creatives to start making, it's been really fascinating. That has been the breakthrough for us, to answer your question. Because they are now living in a more merit-based world, they're starting to get more excited about it. Some, I mean, many quit. You know, people really want to, so we've done more Super Bowl spots in America in the last four years than any creative agency, which is like a brain twist for everybody because we're so positioned as social.

14:32But as it's happening, now people, and we have a very good culture, like actually, no bullshit, so we're rolling now. We get the inbound from Wyden and Crispin and Droga, senior creative people, and they all talk that shit to me when I interview them. They're like, I'm fucking ready. I'm done with this fucking industry. It's all bullshit. I'm coming. And when they come, in their first creative meeting, when somebody who's 23 years old has a different opinion and they talk up, they're stunned. They're like, what the fuck are you doing talking? And I remind them, like, no, no, you just told me you were ready for this.

15:07They're not ready for this. It's much more fun when they just get to pontificate. Great ideas can come from anywhere. they like to say. But they don't live that life. And so it's a real challenge. It's one of the biggest investments we make. It's enormous amounts of training. Predominantly it is therapy. And we actually make that. We really actually train that way. We put in a ton of time in the upfront hiring. We really try to tell people, we're like, listen, you're not gonna like this. Your opinion does not matter more. You make, and then six people, and you have no idea how to make social media creative.

15:47So we're going to train you. But like, are you really ready for this level of merit? And the answer is almost none of them are. So tell me the difference then between creating good creative on outdoor and TV and bad creative on outdoor and TV versus good creative on social or bad creative on social. So what is the difference when you execute either way on either side? You can't hide in social. you post and real stuff happens and when you post something bad on socials it goes nowhere right if you post something put something bad on a billboard we make pretend it did well because you know 6 ,000 cars drove by it and 3.7 people are in every fucking car

16:43so then okay it's it's a what you're what you're talking about is this new world where you're accountable for your creative that is very terrifying for every cmo because it's like how do i hire for that how do i build for that that is a lot of fucking work i actually think this is what cmos subconsciously want to lean into i think it's way more scary with the tenureship of CMOs around the world. I actually think leaning into accountability and measurement would actually free us up. Like we as an agency beg and plead for our clients to give us media and creative and hold us accountable to the business results at the end of the year.

17:24That's how I built my whole company. Anytime we don't, we're vulnerable. We're always vulnerable, you know? We've got a question in the corner. Yes, sir. Twitter. Twitter rebrand. Yes. Comments. I think the Twitter rebrand's interesting. I think for all of us, like intuitively, it's like, fuck, that's giving up a lot of brand, right? But I understand the logic of why doing it because a lot of people in here have had the experience of trying to rebrand or create new products and features under a brand. And for a lot of consumers, they already know you as something and it's really hard to convince them you're going to do these six other things.

18:06So I think, look, Look, I think there's some, you know, I think he has a lot of emotion for X.com that he bought a long time ago and was probably looking for a use for it. I think that comes along with being that kind of entrepreneur. But the logic is that they're going to try to build a full stack, multi-dimensional new app. And I think the strategy there is if we start with a fresh slate, there's more acceptance of it being able to do that. And look, at the end of the day, that story is going to be written based on the execution. Right? Naming is funny because at the end of the day, names are executed.

18:40If Google was a shitty company and didn't do well, that name sucks. But because it wasn't, it doesn't suck. McDonald's is a local pub in Ireland. Or a global QSR giant. The execution made the name there. So I think, to me, I think what happens in the next five years on execution will then tell the story about the rebrand. but that's a lot of brand equity to give up. We heard from Nick at Twilio at the start talk about a cookie-less world. What is life going to be like and what do we need to be thinking about post iOS 14, iOS 15? Well, first of all, most big brands in the world don't live in that world anyway.

19:24There's no cookies on TV. There's no cookies on outdoor. There's no cookies on direct mail or print or event marketing. So, you know, I think in a digital landscape, it forces brands to realize that the creative variable right now is a very big conversation. A post-iOS 14.5 world also collided at the same time with the TikTokification of every social network. So for the first time in the history of marketing, the creative variable creates reach. Think about how fascinating that is for all of us. for the first time ever, the actual quality of the creative working on consumers creates the reach.

20:11That is a profoundly important conversation. It also leads to how the best companies right now currently are attacking the iOS 14.5 issue. The best DTC brands and performance brands are winning on a very aggressive organic social strategy that extracts when creative over-indexes or goes viral, and then they convert that creative into performance ads because the intent and interest in that creative has been affirmed by the reality of it doing well with the actual consumer. The fact that we could use modern social creatively to mitigate our risk on both performance and campaign work is a golden goose, but the disrespect for social media creative by the overall global marketing industry is not letting us take advantage of it.

21:10Hey. Hey, you're back? Yeah, I'm back. Sorry, I hope that's okay. You're just not passing the mic. Yeah, no. I get it. They get it if they want it, yeah. So right now, all the big management consultancy firms, management consultancy firms, or BCG, McKinsey, all rolling around with their AI. Yes. Here's how you change the structure of your marketing team. Yes. Here's what you do, and it's going to save you all this money. Yes. You can fire a bunch of people, and isn't that amazing? Yes. What, and, you know, here's how you optimize all your social creative. Yes. And it feels like the advertising industry, marketing industry, is, like, a step behind on this.

21:50What is your response to the CEO that says, why shouldn't I do this? Like, why shouldn't I take those 15 people and turn that into one person who knows how to prompt this and let machines run all this? Like, the see around the corner thing, like, what's going to slow the roll? Or where's this thing going with management? It's frustrating because most of the companies here are run by their CFOs against a stock price every 90 days. That's the least creative thing on earth. you know and so we've that's the reality of what big business looks like in today's world and a lot of those ceos used to work at mckinsey and so it's all in the family and so you know what's my answer to that it's going to be something in between i think people that don't bring value always get put out of business by technology and so it'll be an in-between i mean i think for a long time you're still going to need the creative but if you were in the business of just executing somebody else's idea in Adobe, you're gonna be hurt.

22:59If you're the person coming up with the idea, you're gonna be able to stick around a little bit longer. So I think there's gonna be validity to it. I think a lot of people are always looking for excuses to cut costs, aka people, and some of them will run with it, and other people will realize that that's not the place to cut costs. So I think you're gonna see a mix in between. Got a question here?

23:28I'm going to be controversial and Suzanne, I think we all can agree that the Barbie campaign has been extremely successful but Gary, if you were to execute the Barbie campaign as it was today what is one more thing that you would have done to make it even more successful? I mean, you know you're literally talking about a campaign that I called Richard you know the former CEO, he's obviously going to Gap now to be the CEO and said, this was just so well done. I mean, I haven't looked at it enough. There's nothing in the world of marketing that didn't have an opportunity to do something else. But the 360 nature of that campaign was so well done in the mix of the digital world of the digital stuff they did.

24:19I think the thing that I took away from it was we've been pretty bullish back home on experiential as a platform to produce more creative. So when we think about event marketing, we think event marketing, if you really are filming all of it, is an incredible studio for production. And if you do it very efficiently, there's an opportunity to basically have one of the two things basically be free. Either the event has a cost and the creative out of it became the added value or you could even look at it the other way. Creative is way too overpriced in advertising. So, you know, in a world where there's so many campaigns that frustrate me to no end and I think there's so much opportunity, it's really hard to get my juices going at a campaign that is so clearly, so well thought out and executed.

25:12And, you know, to me, what probably, if I really had to do it and I had five hours to look at it, it would probably come in the science around the creative structure of the social creative. The thing that we are really deep on is the thumbnails, the time you post, the science around the art and social is a humongous variable and something that I don't think the industry's doing enough of yet. And I think there's always opportunity to maximize that, including most of the things we put out into the world. Thank you. Mel. Hey, I'm Mel. Hey, Mel. I used to work with Cam. Were you sad when you left him?

25:55I don't know I'll be completely honest This is completely off piece You're not sure who he is? Yeah, I don't know I want to ask you a question That's less about marketing And more about leadership So as an entrepreneur You're actually incredibly rare In the fact that you really believe in karma And paying it forward and the time you give to individuals and the belief that it will pay off. Why? Because it always pays off because you don't need anything on the other side. Doing nice things is the payoff. It's just how I see humanity. You know, I don't do nice things with like, and then I'm going to get the deal.

26:42I think that's manipulation. I think doing nice things because it's the right thing to do is the win. And so, you know, because I, why? Because I have a remarkable all-time world-class Hall of Fame mother. That's why, actually. And so, I just am incredibly fortunate. Like, I really, really won the mom game.

27:10That's the actual answer. And she's here right now. Gary, this whole Threads launching when kind of Twitter was, you know, fumbling the football a little bit, was all, oh, is Twitter dead? You know, should I do threads? Should I do this? Should I do that? Where should I go? Your answer on Twitter was pretty profound, or X was pretty profound. You had the most important word in marketing, and I want you to share that with us. And? And? And is the most important word in marketing. We are infatuated with or in this business. as if we don't have enough money to do everything. Right? I just don't understand why we would say which one of these two should you, they both have attention.

27:57One of my wildest things that I'm fascinated by is when a CPG business tries to portfolio manage. They're like, all right, we have these seven brands and this beer is gonna be for women, 18, and this one, and I'm like, why wouldn't you wanna sell all of them to everyone? So we do all these things in the boardroom that has nothing to do with the consumer. You know, to me, I just think that we should be doing a lot more. I know why. We really do have an issue. Creative is too expensive in our industry. If you have any, you know, time spent outside of our world in Silicon Valley and small businesses and influencers and direct, like, just it's crazy how little we put out creatively for the costs we put into it.

28:47but once you get over that hump everything is and why wouldn't you there's a small group of high profile people in the music industry here how do you think about marketing an artist when you're just trying to get the streams up and cost per click is going to be way too much for the stream that you would get how do you market a brand how would you break a brand new artist if they were under your agency by only signing artists who prove they know how to market. That's what I would do. You have to understand every artist that's coming up the game now What's that? We're going to get you to repeat that.

29:29Oh, I'm sorry. To me, we now live in a world if you think about artists I think we can all not every artist there's plenty of artists in their 30s, 40s, 50s breaking but I think we can all agree that in the music industry quite a few of the artists that are being signed are coming up and they're in a certain age group where most of these artists now are equally creators, right? And you know this, the A &R business has changed quite a bit. Like, you don't need to go to the bars at two in the morning and find them. You just go to the social platforms and see it. To me, it's very clear to me, and I spend a lot of time looking at emerging artists, it's very clear which artists understand how to be creatives.