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.”

— Kim Williams, Chief Marketing Officer, Usher's New Look

Episode Transcript

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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.