I’m excited to announce that Nicola (Nic) Cloherty, guest co-host for the Tech Marketer podcast and all round awesome human, will be a regular contributor to the Tech Marketer podcast and blog.
Nic is a digital marketing and branding expert with 10 years experience in how to engage people with projects, products and brands. She’s worked with awesome brands in New Zealand, the UK and Spain and is now based in The Netherlands. I’m excited to share Nic’s insights with you and also get her take on what’s happening in Europe.
I asked Nic to tell us a bit about herself as an introduction to the Tech Marketer audience…
What software or apps you could you never live without?
Google. I have been a huge fan for years! I love gmail and its apps. The ability to share and collaborate in real time rocks my world. I think their iOS apps are pretty good too – and a lot of people don’t like it, but I love Inbox.
And for obvious reasons, I love all my social apps – I would say my fave is whats app – having lived away from London for over seven years, it has been a brilliant way to stay connected without distraction (FB used to be that, but as it is now I don’t use it like that – or quite as much!).
What’s your favourite marketing campaign?
Eeeeek! I have two specific campaigns, both video. First up, Reebok. They’re 25,915 Days video campaign was the absolute bomb! And I love that it was female focussed!!
Secondly, Google Maps tapping into emotion (yes, I cried!) and using that to highlight how awesome their maps and Google Earth product is.
From a social media standpoint, as boring as this may sounds, GE do brilliantly. They make large scale machines for industrial markets – bit blah to joe public, even though pretty innovative, it’s not appealing to mainstream social media audiences. But they use social to promote engineering and innovation rather than their own products and technology, and I watch their engagement soar!
Why do you love working in marketing?
I love communicating to people and telling stories and marketing lets me do what I love. It’s been such a joy connecting people to brands, products and services that really add value to their lives – and now I am freelancing and consulting, I want to focus on companies that do that. I couldn’t market stuff I didn’t believe in or that didn’t fit with my values.
I specifically love working in digital marketing because it’s broken down those barriers of not knowing if you really connect with someone when marketing to them, like more ‘traditional’ channels. And because we live in an ‘always connected’ society, so the opportunity to interact with customers is stronger and genuine and rewarding for marketers.
What trend do you think tech marketers should be looking out for in the next 2 years?
It’s happening now and on the up, but live streaming of video. This is why Facebook won’t die a death – Facebook Live will keep them moving for the next year or so at least! And the beauty of it is that it doesn’t have to be polished!
I can see a time where brands have to part with more cash to be seen on social channels, and potentially go back to basic digital marketing because of algorithms, and I believe the ability to talk to people in an even more tailored and personal way is dawning. We’ve seen it happening through Facebook advertising – being able to select where people are (not just where they live). Plus, quite scarily, Facebook has so much info on us that brands can learn a lot about a consumer and offer and connect with them about what they’re actually interested in.
And of course, marketing automation. It’s booming and will soon be a must for small businesses, as well as large.
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You’ll be hearing more from Nic on the Tech Marketer podcast. If you’re interested in blogging or being a podcast guest to share your insights to tech marketing, please get in touch on Twitter.
techmarketer.org 