Tag: Advertising

Discover How Lucidchart is Mastering the Art of Viral Marketing Campaigns

Posted on by Drew Neisser

When you think of Lucidchart, you probably think of the massively popular “doggo meme videos.” These viral marketing campaigns are the result of Lucidchart taking risks and creating a culture of experimentation within their company. What started out as a simple idea from a team engineer has morphed into a global campaign that introduced Lucidchart to hundreds of thousands of new viewers.

On this entertaining and educational episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew and Lucidchart’s CMO, Nathan Rawlings, discuss the 3 major ideas behind a viral marketing campaign. Throughout the conversation, they discuss how the “doggo meme videos” became a staple in Lucidchart’s marketing portfolio.

Don’t miss the conversation behind why your website must be rock solid before launching into a campaign strategy and how to effectively track the impacts of a digital marketing campaign.

This podcast episode will leave you laughing and inspired – it’s one you don’t want to miss. Click here to listen now.

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Before you can begin thinking like a Renegade, your company’s digital infrastructure must be built and optimized correctly

Even the best viral marketing ideas will fall flat if your company does not have a stellar website. Combining best practices for SEM and SEO optimization, refining your blocking and tackling techniques, and understanding what your target market is looking for are crucial. This is where data and metrics trump creativity. If your website doesn’t flow well and give people the answers they’re looking for even the best demand generation strategies won’t succeed. Nathan experienced this firsthand when he joined the Lucidchart team. He walks listeners through the process of tweaking your website on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Brand awareness can be created through viral marketing campaigns, like Lucidchart’s wildly successful doggo meme videos

Creativity can be found anywhere when brainstorming for ad campaigns. Lucidchart’s team desired to reach out to potential customers and go beyond the low hanging industry fruit of people already creating diagrams.  Thus the “doggo meme” diagram videos that describe the “internet love language for dogs” were born. Each video has millions of views and as a result, the company’s global brand awareness has skyrocketed. A combination of endless internet memes, pop cultural awareness, and a willingness to produce great content simply for the sake of brand awareness allowed this viral marketing campaign to flourish. This campaign is shaping the way Lucidchart looks at customer engagement and you don’t want to miss hearing Nathan talk about the videos with passion and excitement. Be sure to give your full attention to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Finding the intersection between culture, product, and storytelling comes after your team has built a culture of experimentation

Nathan explains to Drew that “drawings are the most natural form of communication.” Even before Lucidchart developed the meme diagram videos they had developed a culture of experimentation within their team. No idea was ever too simple or too outlandish to be considered. Nathan urges other CMOs to be human in their storytelling and to always seek out ways to communicate authentically with audiences. Drew also states that you can test a lot of things on the internet, and to not be afraid of the potential (minor) fallout if a digital campaign falls flat. When creative teams who are willing to take risks and try unconventional strategies are united with powerful technology strategies, brilliant ideas are able to flourish.

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:30] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Nathan Rawlins, CMO of Lucidchart
  • [1:03] How are marketing and torturing marshmallow peeps connected?
  • [4:11] The marketing strategies going on behind the scenes at Lucidchart
  • [5:30] Successful demand generation method examples
  • [6:16] Search engines are ground zero for marketing and why you have to master the basics
  • [10:16] Why practical effectiveness sometimes trumps creativity
  • [11:49] The genius idea behind the “doggo meme” campaign
  • [17:13] Memes are great, but some of Lucidchart’s ideas weren’t as successful as the “doggo speak” campaigns
  • [18:21] How Lucidchart measured the impact of the meme videos
  • [22:03] How viral videos can increase morale and allow people to have fun communicating
  • [25:26] The future of Lucidchart’s meme videos
  • [27:58] Had Lucidchart not taken a risk with the meme videos, they would have never discovered the rich vein of viral marketing
  • [29:53] Drew summarizes his conversation with Nathan and outlines 3 major points for successful viral marketing campaigns
  • [32:06] Have a strategy to try many different marketing tactics

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The Ups and Downs of Xerox’s Universal Awareness and Shifting Your Brand Perception

Posted on by Drew Neisser

The ultimate dream for marketers is universal awareness – the point in time when your brand becomes synonymous with a noun. Having your brand become a verb is an even better case scenario (think, “I’ll Venmo you the money!” or “I’ll Google it.”) This extremely high level of brand awareness can create issues though when your brand perception becomes “stuck” in this one-way thinking.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, the CMO of Xerox, Toni Clayton-Hine, joins Drew for a conversation about how Xerox is embracing the new connectivity trend and how it is breaking through old brand perceptions to stay relevant in the 21st century.

Toni shares with Drew the story behind Xerox’s latest marketing initiative, Set the Page Free, and how Xerox is striving to be at the forefront of the intersection between digital and physical workspaces. They also discuss the pros and cons of such a risky marketing project and Toni’s top “do’s and don’ts” for current CMOs.

Join Drew and Toni for this engaging conversation – you won’t want to miss a single minute. Click here to listen now.

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Xerox’s latest Set the Page Free project and how they “marketed the marketing” so effectively

When faced with seemingly cemented brand perceptions, Xerox came up with a creative and big-picture marketing campaign: Set the Page Free. With 14 world-famous writers and creative minds in collaboration, Xerox told the story of the modern workplace – and the entire project was produced using Xerox technology. The end result were podcasts, videos, and a final free download book. After creating the piece, Toni and her team had to answer the question, “who is going to consume this content?” Drew asks Toni about how they “marketed the marketing campaign” so effectively and she explains that they really leveraged the celebrity collaborators and their social channels. For the full story behind the project, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What does brand storytelling mean to Xerox in the 21st century?

Shifting Xerox’s brand perceptions became a balance of using the company’s history to their advantage, while still demonstrating to their customers that they are about more than just copying and faxing physical documents. The Set the Page Free project helped Xerox transition from the realm of a 1990s office verb into a frontrunner of 21st-century workplace technology. This engaging act of brand storytelling allowed the company to show the outcome of using their technology, not just the inputs. Since Xerox is a B2B technology company, Toni’s goal is to ensure Xerox is seen as fresh, relevant, and understanding of their different types of customers. To hear more of Toni’s marketing initiatives at Xerox that are continually shaping their brand perspectives, be sure to listen to the full audio.

The biggest lessons Toni has learned since joining Xerox and why taking marketing risks can be beneficial

While developing Set the Page Free, Toni explained that she often struggled with the desire to control every aspect of the project and subsequent brand awareness surveys. But when Drew asks her about the biggest lessons she learned while working on the project, Toni explains that Xerox had to take a risk in order to shift how people think about the company – and taking that risk also meant dealing with unpredictable variables. She also learned the importance of being more directive in her approach to help customers understand how to bring their Xerox technology tools to life. To hear Toni’s top “do’s and don’ts” for other CMOs, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

What You’ll Learn

  • [0:30] Why does brand awareness matter when you’re trying to sell a product or service?
  • [3:15] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Toni Clayton, CMO of Xerox
  • [4:52] The main strategy behind Xerox’s marketing
  • [9:31] The benefit of working with creators who deliver extraordinary content
  • [12:58] Once you’ve created the excellent content, you have to “market the marketing”
  • [15:47] Toni explains how she had the courage to approach her CEO with this big, untestable idea
  • [18:30] What does storytelling meaning to Toni and Xerox?
  • [23:29] How Xerox is currently demonstrating their broader platform and usability
  • [26:48] Combatting the loss of reach associated with using digital marketing tactics
  • [30:19] How Xerox is showing customers new ways to use their products
  • [32:11] The biggest lesson Toni has learned in her career with Xerox
  • [37:03] One “do” and one “don’t” for CMOs as a result of Toni’s experience with Xerox

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