One Question That Will Reinvigorate Your Approach to Marketing – InstantFollowerz

in 2023 We❤️NYC The campaign aimed to encourage New Yorkers, who are still pessimistic about the post-pandemic world, to show love for their city.

And boy did he do it ever.

Last year, Maryam Banikarim royally pissed off the Olsen twins and The Jonas Brothers with their We❤️NYC campaign. But that same campaign earned twice as many impressions as a Super Bowl ad… in 48 hours.

I caught up with Banikarim to get her top marketing lessons, and it was immediately clear that she’s the epitome of “do what you love” — and it all stems from asking herself, “What if I do that?”

So we talked about purpose-driven work, how to use curiosity to power your marketing campaigns, and the best way to stay on top of new technology.

“What if I did?”

1. Good campaigns have tension. That’s what gets people talking.

I can see Banikarim’s eyes shining through my computer monitor as she tells me how she ruffled the feathers two celebrity sibling gatherings. She enjoys the memory of it.

Her agency worked on a citywide advertising campaign funded by members of the Partnership for New York to encourage civic action and community engagement. He tapped into something that New Yorkers care very, very much about: New York.

When “We❤️NYC” started appearing on signs at the bus stop, at the Barclays Center and across from Times Square, “everyone thought we were trying to get rid of the I❤️NY label,” she says. They didn’t, but “Communication is not what I say, but what you hear.”

So once someone (incorrectly, angrily) announced that a new campaign was trying to take out Milton Glaser’s iconic I❤️NY, it became a reality of sorts. The reality picked up by talk shows, Mary-Kate and Ashley, and the Jonas Brothers – “it was just a whole thingBanikarim says with a laugh.

No putting the toothpaste back in the tube: We❤️NYC now posed a threat to New Yorkers’ identity and iconography. Increased tension; the tweets appeared. “Milton Glaser would be so mad.” “Can we please let Milton Glaser rest in the peace he deserves?” “Milton Glaser got it right the first time.”

Banikarim is delighted with this. “We couldn’t buy that medium,” she says.

Your next campaign probably won’t incur the wrath of the Olsen twins (though a girl can dream). But know what your target audience feels ownership of and where to release the tension in your marketing campaign.

2. Do it yourself — with curiosity.

“I always seem to be side hustled these days,” she tells me. (One gets the feeling that Banikarim has always he had to have it on the side.)

It’s just that Banikarim’s side hustles would be the envy of most primary hustles. She celebrated her third year last weekend The longest tablea community-building event born out of a need for human connection at a time when everyone was wearing masks and sharing tips on finding Lysol wipes.

She saw a neighbor put a folding table outside so they could have dinner with a few friends. She introduced herself and thought, “What if I did?”

One also gets the feeling that Banikarim does not ask rhetorical questions. She started with a few posts on Next Door and an outdoor party for eight people on her street in Chelsea. On October 6, 2024, over a thousand people showed up for the dinner.

Together, they built a Squarespace website, and “we use HubSpot to email people.” (We did not bribe her, pay her or threaten her to say that.—ed.) Banikarim isn’t complaining about DIY marketing technologies; on the contrary, it refuses to be overtaken by evolving technology.

“Marketing has always been for people who are curious,” says Banikarim. And “in order to keep learning, it’s really helpful to touch the tools yourself, not just direct from above.”

3. Move sideways, quickly. And take small bets.

Moving sideways means that sometimes you accept a job that seems like a lateral move or even a step backwards. That’s not unusual nowbut Banikarim jokes that she was a millennium ahead of her time, having so many jobs for someone in her 50s.

“But I’ve always looked for a purpose in business.” Like millennials, she is “looking for influence.”

Your marketing career “doesn’t always have to go up. You can move laterally. You can move out, you can move in.”

Of course, millennials don’t need Banikarim to tell them it’s okay to have a non-linear career. But do you resent it or learn from it? (No judgment; glass houses and all.)

“I think there’s a lot of talk about this idea that if you fail, it’s ‘okay,'” she tells me. And then she says what many of us feel in those moments: “but it’s not really okay.”

When I ask her what the biggest waste of money in the marketing environment is, she says it’s not a tool. It’s that “we all need to get better at finding things we can test and learn from” — and we need to stop thinking that if those tests don’t work, they’re a mistake or a waste of time.

Her advice: Move fast. Take small bets. See where you get the signal – and then move forward.