538. How It's Built: How Usher's New Look Built an Impactful Marketing Playbook - Kimberly Williams
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Overview
Meet Kim. She’s a marketing visionary whose experience has taken her from the newsroom to Usher’s New Look🎤, where she connects Usher's celebrity brand and the nonprofit organization to create opportunities for young people. She’s breaking down their robust marketing playbook that prioritizes authenticity, relationships and marketing fundamentals. Tune in for lessons on disrupting traditional nonprofit marketing and scaling impact through strategic yet creative planning🌟
💡Learn
How Usher’s New Look has impacted the lives of 50,000+ youth
How to develop an impactful brand strategy
Pro-Tips + Lessons Learned
Today’s Guest
Kim Williams, Chief Marketing Officer, Usher's New Look
“Embrace the data, but trust your instincts more.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode Highlights
Kim’s story and journey to where she is today (3:15)
Usher’s New Look + Their Marketing Strategy (8:40)
How It’s Built: Your Marketing Playbook! (13:35)
Usher’s New Look’s Programming (21:25)
Pro-Tips + Lessons Learned (27:00)
A powerful story of philanthropy in Kim’s life (35:30)
Kim’s One Good Thing: Being your true self is the key to success. (39:30)
How to connect with Usher’s New Look + Kim (41:15)
Impactful Quotes
“If we're not adequately telling our story, in a way that's impactful, what differences are we going to be able to make to attract others?” -Kim
“This has to be a brand that resonates with youth because that's who we serve.” -Kim
“Who are we trying to talk to and what is the purpose of that communication?” -Kim
“Embrace the data, but trust your instincts more.” -Kim
“We can plan and plan and plan as much as we want to, however, there are some times where you just have to seize the moment.” -Kim
“We all have the power to do something real. We have the power to take a minute out of our lives to do something to change somebody else’s life.” -Kim
“You can be a part of someone else's life in a way that you might not remember, but they will typically remember that for the rest of their lives.” -Kim
“I always believe in authenticity, being your true self. I think it's one of the keys to success of a long-term career.” -Kim
How it’s Built: Impactful marketing playbook👇
Build the baseline + foundational elements
What is your messaging?
How are you going to visually show the impact of this program?
Build out your brand standards + key messaging + mission statement + elevator pitches
Understand the narrative that you want to speak
Understand the target audience + purpose of different communications
Who is the audience?
What is the goal + clear call to action (support, volunteer, attend events, etc)?
Determine the channels you’ll use
Figure out what channels to show up on
Segment audiences when possible rather than lumping everyone together.
Ensure that you can access analytics + measure the success, too!
Bring everything together with content
Make sure you’re capturing video + photo
Create content that is on brand + on message
Pro Tips:
Balance data with your instincts
Get more granular with what you offer and differentiate the work you do
Get clear on what you do through authentic storytelling
Ask for testimonials
Usher’s New Look has found that program participants sharing their stories is very powerful! They can own their story, we don't have to recreate it in a way that doesn't feel authentic.
Seize magic moments
Follow your media + PR plans, but be on the lookout for opportunities to share content and stories in exciting and relevant ways when appropriate
CONNECT WITH Usher’s New Look
Website / Facebook / Instagram / X / LinkedIn
CONNECT WITH KIm
Connect with Jon
Connect with Becky
CONNECT WITH WE ARE FOR GOOD
Join the We Are For Good Community
You can think of it as the after-party to each podcast episode 🥳
Say hi👇
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
