Verma Media’s CMO On How Marketers Should Approach New Industries
In the last decade, the world has seen the introduction of new industries at exponential rates. From the eSports market increasing 500% over the course of five years to the original cryptocurrency white paper of 2008 igniting a quarter-billion-dollar industry; innovation is around us and growing faster than ever.
While an exciting time for consumers and entrepreneurs, marketing professionals are forced to keep up with the evolving markets and adapt to their surroundings as quickly as the industries evolving around them.
Verma Media, San Francisco’s fastest-growing marketing agency for emerging tech, has helped over 70 companies in sports, blockchain, cannabis, AI, VR and IoT jumpstart their visions into reality through social media, PR, SEO and brand identity efforts. With clients in every industry from cybersecurity and big data to green energy and real estate, CMO and Head of Strategy Zachary Dash sees many of the same struggles and growing pains from companies in expanding markets.
I had a chance to sit down with Dash to talk about how he as a CMO has led Verma Media headfirst into these industries and been so successful, as well as advice he has for other CMOs in charge of marketing emerging tech.
Steve Olenski: How do you define emerging marketing and what challenges have your clients faced when they enter new industries?
Zachary Dash: In its simplest form, we believe marketing is storytelling. The challenge most of our clients face in emerging industries is understanding how to communicate this message to their audiences in native and organic ways. In mature markets, there are best practices and case studies to help guide your marketing efforts. In new markets, it is more important than ever to challenge your assumptions, find your voice early, and develop a culture of consistent exploration.
Olenski: You recently received a lot of press for your investment into the cannabis space, do you have example of a company that’s marketing strategy has worked in the marijuana space?
Dash: I’d say one of our clients and investment partner’s that has done an amazing job establishing a bran in the cannabis space is Orthogonal Collective. In a nutshell, it’s a socially conscious holding company that invests in future-forward industries such as cannabis, hemp, tech, blockchain, cryptocurrency, healthy foods and wellness brands.
A major reason for their marketing success has been our focus on A/B testing a lot of different strategies with them and doubling down on what has been working. While this may seem like obvious advice, you’d be surprised at how many CMOs lose sight of the analytical lens they need to have when marketing a new industry. There’s no playbook, so you have to act like a scientist: Test, Measure, Repeat.
Olenski: While new markets make it challenging for CMOs to have as much historical data as “legacy industries,” progress in big data has made it easier than ever for brands to minimize risk regardless of market. How has Verma and your clients been utilizing this?
Dash: We’re definitely becoming more and more involved in big data reporting as well as partnering with Big Data companies. We’ve seen some amazing products coming out of data market, so we know first-hand the potential. One thing CMOs really need to be thinking about is the power big data is going to have when its paired up with other game changing technologies like blockchain.
One of our clients approaching big data using blockchain technology is DACONOMY, which has a vision of creating the world’s first universal decentralized data ecosystem for all types of data and participants. When we first took them on as a client and we asked why utilization of blockchain is so important.
Bianca Winkler, marketing manager for DACONOMY, told me, “In an emerging industry, especially Blockchain, no rules are set. There is no basic framework, no market logic, not even a fixed wording convention how to name components or functions. It is an ever-changing environment for all market participants; you must constantly monitor the industry to stay on track.”
Olenski: You run your marketing team at Verma in a very interesting way. A decentralized workforce with incubators set up across the country. With a team of over 30 people, what is your advice for CMOs leading remote teams and what technologies are you seeing emerging in this realm?
Dash: For CMOs who are scared of decentralization, my biggest piece of advice is to write out why. Typically, the issues circle around lack of trust, poor communication, or type of business. The latter I can’t offer advice for, but the other two I can. We’ve found with Verma that as long as we trust one another and are overly communicative, we’re much more effective being decentralized.
That doesn’t mean we don’t meet in person. In fact, we’ve invested a lot in building incubators in Maui, San Francisco, New York, and Austin so we can gather as a team every month or so to meet in person. As long as CMOs place extra focus on operational processes like daily standups, weekly reporting, and hiring go-getters, decentralizing your work force can be done.
The plain hard truth is, as Josh Zemel, who is Communications Director of DAOStack, another company we work with, put it to me the other day is that the blockchain movement, and relatedly the decentralization movement, are really growing at an incredible clip. He is of course 100% right. Far too many marketing leaders either refuse to believe or simply don’t want to believe that this ‘movement’ as Josh puts it, is happening right in front of them.
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After speaking with Dash I was reminded of something from the Supermensch, a.k.a. Shep Gordon. Just about a year ago I ran a piece on himin which he shared his thoughts on changes; changes to the world at large that brands need to be aware of. Here’s an excerpt from that pice that ties in perfectly with the overarching message from Dash.
After being through numerous social and cultural shifts, Shep doesn’t think brands should focus on the idea of trying to be disruptive. It’s more of a buzzword than actually what is going on within various industries.
“Work hard, but not toward that as your focus. It’s really about creating a disruption. What’s really going on is the common distance that exists within generations — between parents and their children. What happens is that the up-and-coming generation wants something different than what their parents had in clothing, music, etc. In response, parents usually let their kids know they hate this change when what they really should be saying is that they love it. That’s how real change takes hold — when older generations adapt and accept what the younger generation introduces as a change. And, that’s what brands have to understand.”