Posts by Christopher Lochhead
096 Performance Marketing & Podcasting Media w/ Dan Granger, CEO of Oxford Road
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Podcasting has never been hotter! Dan Granger joins us today to have a unique, thoughtful and inspiring conversation about performance marketing & podcasting media. He is the CEO of Oxford Road, the pioneer in digital performance advertising, which he also talks about today.
The Incubation Period
Dan has done an incredible job of being early in new digital areas that produce meaningful results both for a performance and branding perspective for marketers.
He started paying attention to podcasting way back in 2006 but not only until the year 2012 did he start monetizing it, through advertisement placement on podcasts. Officially in 2013, they started working with unheard-of brands like Zip Recruiter, Blue Apron and Hulu.
“I had a 10-year background in radio. What was interesting is we get to ride two simultaneous waves that were really, really influential in the marketplace—both in media and general business.” – Dan Granger
Startups Building Businesses in Podcasting
Dan notes that it was all early adapters—geeks and gamers—who tried out podcasting and they resonated with people. Listeners appreciate the fact that something different happens technologically. In addition to that, the audiences were willing to try something that was entirely different and “disruptive.”
“I’m listening to audio in a way that has never been consumed before.” – Dan Granger on early listeners of podcasts
Podcasting is a big deal. Dan shares how a lot of brands got their growth spurt at the back of the podcast industry. They were efficient in buying these podcasts before it started to become popular with the mainstream.
“It really changes when you go ‘I’m really scared to spend this first 10 Grand’ to ‘I just got sold for a Billion dollars’ is a very different culture and priorities.” – Dan Granger
Is Podcasting Merging With Radio?
Christopher agrees with Dan about companies differentiating themselves quickly via podcasting. However, he noted the indirect proportion of the amount of growth and the actual dollar brought about by advertising.
“Yes this is a technological advancement, that means you can have more commercials. So my prediction, in not too distant future, we’re going to see advertising loads change tremendously. You may have to stick around till after the break.” – Dan Granger
Christopher posed an important question about whether podcasting is merging with radio formats. Dan candidly answered that it has many threats more than opportunities and it will be hard to fight this movement.
“There will be individuals who will stay independent — Joe Rogan, Tim Ferris, probably a lot of people like yourself who are really just purist and committed to the craft and love the fact that it’s not radio. It’s got this pirate radio about vibe to it.” – Dan Granger
To hear more about Performance Marketing & Podcasting Media and more relevant information about Dan, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Dan Granger is the CEO and founder of Oxford Road, a leading ad agency and ad-tech developer.
Since starting Oxford Road in 2013, Dan has teamed with countless “unicorn” companies on TV, radio and podcast advertisements on some of the country’s biggest shows, including Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan.
Links:
Adweek Contributor Dan Granger
The Future of Performance Marketing With Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger
Mickey D’s is the latest company to hop on the branded podcast bandwagon
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
095 #1 Tech Startup In Africa w/ Matt Brown
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Entrepreneur, CEO, and top podcaster Matt Brown joins us today for another no-BS conversation about being a Techpreneur in South Africa. He gives us a glimpse of the South African Tech scene, as well as his successes, as he was voted as #1 Tech startup in Africa in London Tech Week. Matt gives practical insights on business and life design as well.
#1 Tech Startup
Matt Brown, a very down to earth guy, recounts to Christopher his experience at London Tech Week, as organizers named him the #1 Tech Startup in Africa. Although he admits he now has unnecessary pressure due to the title, he claims it was a great opportunity for international development in the technology space.
“It was pretty insane when a government like the UK gets behind an idea. So what they have done is, they mobilized literally billions of pounds just for Africa Tech, 1.2 Billion pounds available for distribution.” – Matt Brown
The Storytelling Technology
Matt runs a firm called Digital Kung Fu and he candidly shares with Christopher his elevator pitch — “we’re the world’s fastest tech story production business.” He further shares that Christopher’s books Play Bigger and Niche Down inspired him in this business.
“The truth is were evangelizing this idea — which I totally started from your thinking by the way — category design thinking and creating a point of view that is unique and different.” – Matt Brown
He further shares that through his firm, they are connecting that point-of-view at scale to a market a way that it creates value. In his case, it is the storytelling technology.
“It’s about taking proven powers of storytelling and marrying that with technology — data, automation, AI — and delivering stories essentially at a scale that makes very complicated things in ways that are memorable and relatable and understandable.” – Matt Brown
The South African Tech Scene
Matt also talks about the South African tech scene, as other countries do not exactly know what is happening locally. He shares about the different challenges and opportunities they have there and the similarities in terms of trends.
“I think Africa has some unique challenges. We have infrastructure challenges, connectivity challenges, bandwidth challenges, and these things don’t typically exist in developed markets.” – Matt Brown
Amidst these challenges, Matt shares how these forces techpreneurs to innovate, especially in the mobile phones market.
“African tech has got a bad name in many respects. Basically at a type of expansion into emerging markets, it’s less competitive in many respects. But, the economic opportunities are huge because there is no competition.” – Matt Brown
Bio:
Matt is the CEO of Digital Kungfu. It was named as “Best Tech Startup 2019 – Africa Tech Week Awards.” The company is a lead generation and storytelling production company purpose-built for technology businesses.
Links:
The Matt Brown Show in partnership with London Tech Week creates State of X Season One on Prime
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
094 How We Make Stuff Now w/ Jules Pieri
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Today’s episode features a highly informative discussion between our host, Christopher Lochhead and Jules Pieri. She’s the first designer to graduate from Harvard Business School. She shares some amazing lessons on how to create legendary new products and how to make sure those products succeed in the world.
Industrial Designer Turned Legendary Marketer
Fortune named Jules as one of the Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs.” She is the Co-Founder and CEO of the product launch platform The Grommet.
Jules shares that before she formed the company, she observed the huge shifts in technology — specifically the internet, like the development of 3D printing. 3D printing enabled a huge new class of entrepreneurs with physical products.
“Creative people have access to inexpensive tools, they will use that. Physical products are less abstract than software, so they’re gonna inspire more people to participate.” – Jules Pieri
What We Can Learn From Squatty Potty
Jules shares with Christopher the story behind the product Squatty Potty — a stool that raises the leg of the user during elimination. Christopher labeled the product as legendary because it created a new need for consumers.
Jules admitted that it is often quite a challenge whenever they start a new category. She pointed out the importance for companies to be as bold as possible when launching a new product.
“They hired a great agency to get the ads done and they had more vision and courage than most companies tend to have at the early stages. That’s a super insecure stage of a company and they paid large money. Your reputation is aligned with these ads.” – Jules Pieri
Category Creation Is a Must
Jules remarked about the importance of category creation. She believes that it is very hard to cut through in a crowded world. She added that through The Grommet, they can create categories that enable them to study product searches of users.
“Category search, ‘cause names are not usually as memorable as descriptions.” – Jules Pieri
Christopher and Jules discussed more about Legendary Marketing, the differences between creating demand and capturing a demand. They also touch base on to have an invention and bring it to the world in a way that it would be connected, unique and distinct.
Jules also shares some important parts of her great, new book out called How We Make Stuff Now.
Bio:
Jules Pieri is Co-Founder and CEO of the product launch platform The Grommet.
The company’s Citizen Commerce™ movement is reshaping how consumer products get discovered, shared, and bought.
Jules started her career as an industrial designer for technology companies and was subsequently a senior executive for large brands, such as Keds, Stride Rite, and Playskool.
The Grommet is her third startup, following roles as VP at Design Continuum and President of Ziggs.com.
She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and people tell her she is the first designer to graduate from Harvard Business School, where she is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence.
Fortune named Jules as one fo the “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs” in 2013.
In June 2014, White House Maker Faire invited Jules to launch The Grommet Wholesale Platform, connecting Makers with Main Street Retailers.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
009 Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics
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The difference between Marketing Strategy and Tactics, oftentimes, confuses most people. In this episode of Lochhead on Marketing, Christopher Lochhead talks about some of the pressing questions people have on strategy and tactics.
Quoting Dushka Zappata
A good friend of Lochhead, Senior Communication and PR Executive Dushka Zappata helps shine a light on this confusion marketers have about strategy and tactics. She has 20 years experience in the tech industry and she amassed 140 million views in Q&A site Quora with her writing.
Strategy
Dushka Zappata answered the distinction between strategy and tactics. According to her, strategy answers the question “why?” To give an example for this, one may ask, “why are we doing this, why do we think it’s a good idea?”
“For strategy, the answer should be a blend of data, understanding of trends and creativity.” – Dushka Zappata
Tactics
She further continued that tactics, on the other hand, answers the question “how.” This pertains to questions such as, “how will we get this done,” “what are the actions needed” and “what will get executed.”
Working on your marketing strategy and tactics need not be confusing. To be clear, strategy answers, “why,” and tactics answers, “how.”
To hear more about Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics and more relevant information from Christopher Lochhead, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
008 7 Recession Marketing Ideas
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Christopher Lochhead discusses some of his marketing ideas timely for a potential (we hope not, but economists say otherwise) recession. Here are 7 recession marketing ideas for our listeners that you might want to consider for your business.
1. Never Let A Good Recession Go To Waste!
History proved that recessions are the impetus for change. With change comes both threats and opportunities. Ordinary business people usually panic and focus on threats. However, legendary marketers focus on both. Recessions are a great excuse for taking action, especially those that should have been taken anyway.
“Get on your recession planning now! Do not wait for the recession to happen. Get on it, regardless of whether or not we’re going to have a recession. They are great excuse to tighten up shit on your ship!” – Christopher Lochhead
2. Assume you can’t raise any more money
Recession talks are best paired with the assumption that there is no money available for lending — no more VCs, bank loans, operating lines or rich uncles. If you do raise equity or debt, expect that your valuation or market cap is likely coming down, so you will have to give up more equity to raise VC. Likewise your costs to service loans or operating lines is going up.
“Focus on your cash and remember that paying customers are your best VCs, your best bankers.” – Christopher Lochhead
3, Measure twice, cut once
Go through your marketing plans and budget with a magnifying glass. Christopher advises to categorize every single investment — either one time or on-going investments — into three buckets: must do, good to do, nice to do.
“Do not have more than a 3rd of your investments in ‘Must Do.’ Find at least 10% of your investments that you can cut now. If you want to get aggressive, find 25%. Plan to cut or re-deploy at least 5%, no matter what happens – recession or not.” – Christopher Lochhead
4. Brainstorm short-term ways to increase revenue
Come up with some packages or offerings you can promote to your best customers now. Brainstorm around 25 ideas on how to increase revenue immediately. Ideas that aims to provide customers with an incentive to buy more from you right now are the key to this before they start cutting back spending hard.
5. Market & Sell Into The Whitespace
Get a list of all of your existing customers and figure out which customers, own / use which of your products and services. This is to identify the white space or which customers are not users of all of your offerings.
6. Consider a competitor trade-in.
Recessions are a unique opportunity to destroy your completion.
7. Double Down on Your Category
This is an area you should focus on a recession. Chances are, most of your competition is going to panic and they most likely will over-cut marketing. Take advantage of the lower cost of marketing and go hard on content marketing, especially in social media.
“Your prospects and customers will be hearing less noise. Take advantage of this, to evangelize your category point-of-view. Become more visible, while your competition is hiding under a desk, asking for their mommies.” – Christopher Lochhead
Bio:
Christopher Lochhead is a Top 25 podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive — which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2006 for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
Link:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
093 Microsoft’s Transformation and Why Every Company is a Software Company w/ Bob Evans
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Today’s guest is one of Christopher’s favorite people, host of Cloud Wars podcast, Bob Evans. Together, they dig deep into how Microsoft transformed into a “Trillion Dollar Cloud Category King.” They discuss what we can all learn from their remarkable turn-around. Moreover, the compare why they think every company is a software company and a lot more!
Microsoft: A Trillion Cloud Category King
Bob Evans shares his opinion on Microsoft and its trillion-dollar cloud business. This massive growth in sales led both Bob and Christopher awestruck. Bob shares that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has largely driven the company into its current status.
He pointed out that Nadella realized Microsoft was spending too much time achieving internally driven goals. He believed it’s about time to ask what are the goals and dreams of their paying customers, what do they need to happen and how can Microsoft help them.
“I think it should be an inspiration to all sorts of businesses. You are limited not by competitive set and not by how much money you have. You are limited by what your dreams and ambitions are.” – Bob Evans
Massive Restructure of the Sales Team
Microsoft had a massive restructuring of its sales team. They replaced as much as 30-40% of their sales team, infusing with people who formerly Programmers but they have the outlook and personality of salespeople. This led to high engagement with customers and ultimately, high profits for Microsoft.
“I just think its a phenomenon that lots of people can learn from here. You can come back, you can change, you can become something that other people say you’ll never be. Defy history.” – Bob Evans
Importance of Channel Partners
Bob discussed another point to remember from Microsoft — their special attention to the ecosystem or channel partners. The company supported its clients, especially for software development and programming. In the end, these clients later sold their programs to other clients, under the supervision of Microsoft.
“The most valuable company on Earth is willing to say ‘the way you have always done it isn’t the way to the future. I will turn my organization to make your sales team.’ They are doing stuff that defies anybody prediction or scope or the way they look at things. Imagine where they could be, that is the magic Nadella has brought about.” – Bob Evans
To hear more about Microsoft’s transformation and why every company is a software company and more information about Bob Evans, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Bob grew up outside of Pittsburg, with hard-working parents and his 6 siblings.
Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and entered the business world, flowing his passion for information technology and writing.
He rose to become the editor of Information Week, one of the top two publications in technology at the time.
He became the SVP and Content Director for Information Week’s parent company TechWeb/CMP
After thirty years in the media business, he left to join the world of software vendors, after a quick stop at ERP vendor SAP,
Bob was recruited by the world 5th richest person, a legendary category designer and entrepreneur — Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle.
At Oracle Bob served as SVP and Chief Communications Officer for Larry.
Today Bob runs his own strategic communications firm, is a prolific writer, a tech industry commentator, public speaker, and a legendary guy.
He hosts the widely popular Cloud Wars Live Podcast.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
7 Recession Marketing Ideas
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Christopher Lochhead discusses, in his newly launched podcast, Lochhead on Marketing talks about some of his ideas timely for a potential recession.
With this threat coming, Christopher points out the importance of developing and acting on ideas that would make your companies survive this disastrous event. He hopes that through these suggestions, your company will come out even come out stronger from a potential recession.
Without further adieu, here are Christopher’s 7 Recession Marketing Ideas
- Never Let A Good Recession Go To Waste!
- Assume you can’t raise any more money
- Measure twice, cut once
- Brainstorm short-term ways to increase revenue
- Market & Sell Into The Whitespace
- Consider a competitor trade-in
- Double Down on Your Category
You can check out Lochhead Marketing Podcast on Lochead.com or any podcast player that you and listen to episode 008 7 Recession Marketing Ideas.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
092 1000+ Little Things Happy Successful People Do Differently w/ Marc & Angel Chernoff
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Our guests for today, NY Times best-selling author/power couple Marc and Angel Chernoff talks about their new book and other self-help topics. We had an insightful conversation about happiness and unhappiness, as well as overcoming serious set-backs and other tons of practical insights for living.
The Journey is Worth It
Marc and Angel Chernoff got into this line of work when they lost someone — a best friend and a sibling. Just in their late 20s, they found themselves investing a lot in personal development and self-reflection.
“It was those moments where ultimately — we saw therapists, I mean depression sets in. We had no tools for coping and coming out of it. We realize what we want to do on a daily basis was to reflect.” – Marc Chernoff
Fast forward to the present day, Forbes dubbed this duo as “the authors of the most popular personal development blogs on the planet.” They are promulgators of the idea of acknowledging that “our present lives are more important than all of the lofty goals we have set for ourselves.”
“Because obviously it’s a cliche, but the journey is worth it. The journey is more important. Are we spending our days the way we want to spend our lives? Our days are our lives.” – March Chernoff
Live a Life Worth Living
Marc and Angel further share some wise words about living a life worth living. Marc pointed out how lucky most people are, as there are a lot of people living in dire situations and facing immense challenges. He further discussed the importance of a positive mindset and the ability to focus on the present.
Christopher also shares his own views on living life, especially about dealing with failures. He quoted Marc when he discussed “the belief that failure is the opposite of success.” He shares candidly that he has failed himself into a life that he loves and shares a quote that says “failure feels fun.”
“I don’t necessarily think that time wasted is wasted time. It’s time for self care, it’s time to relax. We don’t always have to be go-go-go.” – Angel Chernoff
Other practical insights
Both Marc and Angel share tips on how to cope with heartbreaks — from love interests to a divorce or a broken friendship to a loss of life. Marc shares how we can use these experiences to empower us in moving forward with our lives.
Marc, Ange-and Christopher discuss a lot more about things that happy and unhappy people do, as well as dealing with expectations of others.
To hear more about the 1000+ little things happy successful people do differently, and more information about Marc and Angel Chernoff, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Marc and Angel Chernoff are New York Times bestselling authors, professional coaches, full-time students of life and admirers of the human spirit. Forbes recognized the couple as having “one of the most popular personal development blogs.”
Through their blog, books, course and coaching, they’ve spent the past decade writing and teaching proven strategies for finding lasting happiness, success, love, and peace.
Marc and Angel’s New York Times bestselling book, Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs, is a guide to spark sustainable action—and to return to whenever needed.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
SPECIAL OFFER!
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This is Christopher and I sure hope you are enjoying some of the first episodes of Lochhead on Marketing. I want to tell you about a special offer we’re making and why.
Radical Generosity
I am not a fan of self-promotion (which may sound crazy, coming from a three-time marketing guy), so I have thought about how I’m going to market and promote the podcast.
On one hand, I wanted to do some marketing that would feel comfortable without the overly self-promotional crap. This brings us to my buddy and co-conspirator on category creation and design and legendary marketing, Eddie Yoon.
He has this powerful idea: that legendary category designers practice “radical generosity.”
If you think about the word ‘creation’, in a lot of ways, you could argue creation is about bringing something to the world and Eddie says if you wanted to create a design category — having a radical generosity mindset matters.
We’re Gonna Spend A Bunch Of Money
Legendary category designers and creators come from a place of generosity. So, to promote this podcast, I am going to spend a bunch of money. Rather than buying a ton of ads, I thought I might include you. I’m doing it in a way that is radically generous.
Here’s the offer: I’d love it if you will rate and review Lochhead on Marketing, take a screenshot of that review, email it to bl*******@******ad.com. For the next 7 days, I am going to make a $20 donation to four of my chosen charities.
We will publish on our website with full transparency, how much money we raise and how much money we gave away as a result of you participating in helping us market the new marketing podcast.
The Beneficiaries
What I’m asking you to do is rate and review the podcast, share it on social media and email us at bl*******@******ad.com.
Once you do that, we will drop $20 in one of the following charities:
1. As we all know, I love animals. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is one of my chosen beneficiaries.
2. Frontrow Foundation is a charity that works with people, often kids, who are facing life-threatening conditions to give them one legendary experience.
3. If you’re a regular listener, I’m sure you know how much I love 1LifefullyLived.org. Founded by my buddy, Tim Rhode, this nonprofit has tried to put together programs and content around life planning and design, financial planning and design, and entrepreneurship. They try to do this as close to free as possible.
4. The fourth one is a non-profit called DonorsChoose. This is an extraordinary organization that allows school teachers around the country, to tell people what they need and people can go ahead and fund those things for their students and their classrooms.
So thank you so much!
