Here is a transcript generated by Otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with VeraContent’s Kyler Canastra and Lauren Pederson, CMO at Airthings, on using education-based marketing to raise awareness around air quality:

Kyler Canastra 0:00
Hi everyone, I’m Kyler from The Content Mix, and I’m excited to be here with Lauren Pedersen CMO at Airthings. Lauren is a global marketing and commercial leader who has focused her career on building great brands, increasing sales and boosting consumer usage. With a background working on startup and agency teams, she has gained key knowledge to be able to successfully manage teams while keeping them motivated. With experience in areas such as digital marketing, product marketing, and public relations. Lauren also understands the importance of content marketing, which plays a pivotal role in her work promoting the importance of air quality in her current role at Airthings. We’re excited to have Lauren on the show today to learn more about the wonderful work she’s doing. So without further ado, I would like to thank Lauren, for joining us today on today’s episode of the Content Mix.

Unknown Speaker 0:48
Great to be here. Thank you.

Kyler Canastra 0:50
I started pleasure to have you on the show. So I just put together this you know this really nice introduction based on a lot of research that I did on your profile, and oh, and who you are and the work you’ve done. But I also kind of wanted to hear more from you. Could you just share with our audience? Or maybe introduce yourself in your own words? And tell us a bit more where you’re from? And what’s your connection to content marketing and your?

Lauren Pedersen 1:09
Yeah, sure. I’m from New Zealand, originally, so born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand. And I ended up studying in the US at American University in Washington, DC, where I studied communications, marketing and graphic design. After that, I was lucky enough to start working in some of the world’s largest advertising agencies. So my first jobs at grey in New York. And then I moved to London for a couple of years and where I worked also in advertising, so in gray, and in McCarran Erickson, which was a fantastic kind of start, I got to, you know, brilliant look into kind of everything from media buying to research, market research into strategy, comms creative, that kind of the whole works as a basis. And then about 14 years ago, I moved over to Oslo, Norway, where I’m living now. And when I made that move, I really also made a move when it came career wise. So I started working with startup or scale up businesses that were coming out of Norway, and trying to help them to scale around the world. And that’s kind of what I’ve been doing now. And what I see myself in the role with air things today,

Kyler Canastra 2:11
that’s awesome. So it’s kind of been as long trajectory, no different experiences, that one thing kind of led to the next. And now here you are in Norway, kind of on this track of helping these companies get their international presence known. And as you said before, right, you’ve had it, you will start your career off as an account manager after having graduated from the American University. And which led you to the marketing and to work for marketing and brand for Opera Software. So as many of us know, opera is a multi platform web browser developed by Opera Software, which nowadays is a chromium based browser. So where are you I wanted to know, like, a lot of times marketers will come in and on the show, and they’ll say, oh, you know, I’m really passionate about wine or chocolate. And that’s kind of why I got into this area of marketing. But I was wondering if you were interested always in like the IT sector? And what makes marketing in the sector different from others?

Lauren Pedersen 2:59
Yeah, I think it started quite organically. I mean, working in the ad agencies, one of the accounts I worked with was AOL in the UK. So bringing in AOL back in the day and introducing kind of broadband. I mean, that’s taking me taking us back a few years. But and now I’m going to have been in in Norway, I’ve been working with tech companies, so and everything is really about bringing kind of new technology into consumers and figuring out or to use is to figure out who it’s most relevant for, how can I explain it in a way that is relevant for them. So sometimes you’re taking something that’s quite complex, and trying to make it as simple as possible. So whether it’s for a b2c user to make it relevant for them in their house or their home, or for a b2b user to make sure that they can understand how they can use it in their business to grow. And that’s the same that we do with with Airthings, you know, when we’re trying to understand help people understand why they should be monitoring the air and why that’s important for their health and well being

Kyler Canastra 3:56
right and making it you know, approachable to people that maybe don’t have the knowledge and the initial understanding, that’s always the hardest part, I feel like with it things, you know, or anything that’s a bit more complex is really kind of getting the language to be more, I don’t know, approachable, and also understandable. So I’m sure you have a challenge with that your current role. But I’m sure with your experience, too, that you’re able to navigate it quite well. Now, after Okpara, you held multiple roles, but your which include your work as a CMO instant Bank, which is a good example know of taking a smaller company and bringing it to a larger scale. So you were part of the team that helped launch this new digital bank, which offers savings loans and insurance to consumers in the Nordics. So what marketing strategies and our brand development did you implement to help with this launch? So how was how was that process?

Lauren Pedersen 4:41
Yeah, I mean, that was an incredible experience is trying to actually bring a completely new brand to the market. And it I think, in many ways, the strategy has to always be about first, looking at what our offering is to the market and making sure that People are aware of the benefit for them. And then also building a brand and it can be really layered, it can start at this highest level of awareness, and then trying to engage them. So they’re understanding more and figuring out how the products are relevant for them personally, and then looking at more kind of acquisition based tactics to try to get them on board, become a customer and become a loyal customer and, and hopefully come back for more and tell their friends and thank you. So although, you know, on Instagram, it was obviously very different to working on air quality. But when it comes to kind of marketing in general, and building a brand and driving kind of usage for these products and services, you know, a lot of the tactics can remain the same.

Kyler Canastra 5:38
Right? For sure. That’s really interesting. Now, you also helped the company start, like have zero customers 10s of 1000s, within two years. So what was your approach, I guess, to the brand awareness of this as well, like, in this market, getting the name out? Or some efforts?

Lauren Pedersen 5:52
Yeah, yeah, well, actually, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s more interesting probably to talk about where I am today, when you buy Airthings. There we work, all the way from trying to educate people about the you know, all around the world about the importance of air quality, and how air, the air you breathe in your home has an impact on you and your family’s health and also how we can have an impact on air quality, when it comes to sustainability and energy savings and things like this. So we for example, work we partner with organizations around the world, such as the American Lung Association, and there we do kind of content partnerships, for example. So we’ve recently released a report which we we partner with a la on, which outlines the importance of good air quality in schools and what you can do to ensure that there is healthy air in schools, and what you can do about it. So that’s an example kind of a content partnership that we’ve done with, with a leading player over there. Another example, on that kind of high level awareness side of things, we work with the champions chest tour. So we’re the official year quality partner of the champions, Chester. And that’s where the world’s best chess players like Magnus Carlsen compete, and we have our air things devices in the room where they compete from, and they can be competing from all around the world. So it’s on. And we stream the live air quality data into the broadcast so that you can see, you know, if the co2 levels or the temperature or humidity or particulate matter is changing within the games, can have really an impact on their focus, their cognitive ability, as well as their kind of health and well being. And it gives a chance for the commentators to talk about something other than just the chess move, they can be talking about how the conditions for the player can be and really bring up the awareness about the importance of air quality. So these are kind of examples.

Kyler Canastra 7:55
Yeah, and they’re cool examples, because they kind of, you know, your, your wouldn’t think chess and air quality would be something that go hand in hand, right. But I think you’re kind of raising awareness in different aspects of like what people are interested in. So people are interested in test, they’re also gonna be learning more about air quality. And I think, you know, the approach is that this is something that we all need to worry about moving forward, like the world’s kind of, you know, not going down the path that we need it to be. So I think it’s really cool and like, inspiring that you’re kind of putting yourself out there putting the brand out there in different areas, in different arenas really to see like how people react to

Lauren Pedersen 8:29
it. Yeah, we see that there’s, you know, there’s a major increase when it comes to obviously eSports around the world. And people, you know, chess is becoming much more of a kind of online platform experience. And people are spending a long period of time inside, kind of in these rooms, where they have to concentrate over long periods of time, and they have to perform. So air quality has a massive impact when it comes to those cognitive abilities, and also ensuring that these players stay healthy and well. So yeah, it’s a great,

Kyler Canastra 8:59
it’s everyone. Now, just to kind of dive more into the work, you’re doing now air thing, so you’re currently leading a team, I think a 14 marketers. And then as you mentioned before, air things is a manufacturer of world class radon detectors, indoor air quality monitors, using the most accurate technology to create user friendly products and solutions. So kind of I wanted to know how you ended up working and getting involved in this project.

Lauren Pedersen 9:23
Yeah, well, it is a Norwegian founded company. And, you know, the reason I ended up starting there actually was that I just saw that there was such a window at the back when it came to people concentrating and focusing more on health and wellness. And that kind of health tech focus on the world is increasing dramatically. This was even before COVID And also when it came to the understanding of air quality and sustainability because this is a major impact. When it comes to monitoring air quality and having heating and ventilation systems and buildings. It takes an enormous amount of energy and With air things, by monitoring the air quality in the building, you can then do kind of smart sensor work to ensure that the air quality is great in the building while minimizing the amount of energy use you have for the building. So that’s, that has a major impact. I think that those things were really a driving factor for me making the choice.

Kyler Canastra 10:19
So I also was curious to know about how, like, Do you have any tips in terms because you you’re managing a team of 14 people? Do you have any tips for how to, like motivate them and kind of just in general, managing a team of that many people and making sure that everything, you know, everyone’s motivated and interested in passionate about what they’re doing every day?

Lauren Pedersen 10:39
Yeah, I think it really starts with having kind of a joint in the line of vision and strategy. So you know, at Air things, we, we empower the world to breathe better. That’s our mission in life and vision. And from that, you know, you kind of go down in trying to clarify what that means to us as an organization, and on a daily basis, what should we be working towards? So I think ensuring that people buy into that vision of the company is incredibly important. And then having a high level kind of strategy of like, which markets we’re going into, what’s the key messaging around these products? Why does this How does this enable people to breathe better and have a have a better life. And from that, then you can give a bit more autonomy to people. So to kind of bring that to life with different content to different partnerships, you know, and, and give them individual responsibility at a greater level. So I think, for me, that seems to be working great with the team. And we’re really lucky, we’ve got an international diverse, passionate team, who really loves the idea of ensuring that people are breathing really good air

Kyler Canastra 11:50
is good. And I really love that like giving, making sure people have their independence and their autonomy. It’s so important. I think, a lot of times leaders don’t tend they don’t think that’s important, but it’s so important to have make sure people are invested in it. They feel like they’re being listened to, which I think I’m sure you do a great job with that. But I also cuz you said you had a very international team. I was wondering, is everyone based in Norway? Or are you working remotely, everyone’s online house, like the structure of everything.

Lauren Pedersen 12:17
We’re about 140 people now in the company, and Oslo is the headquarters and definitely the largest office. And but we also have offices in the US. And we have people in the UK and you know, around Europe, and we’re moving into Asia. So we’re very, yeah, we’re moving very global, but even the team that’s here in Oslo, I mean, it’s like the United Nations over here, everyone’s from different places, hopefully more even more effective than

Kyler Canastra 12:46
a nation. That’s really cool, though. And it kind of reflects like the wherever the trends that we’re going toward is now a more globalized world and kind of being able to collaborate with people, especially online now that we the chances that we never had before. Now we’re having more and more of them, because we exceed the importance of of that, I think kind of things flu pandemic, but I don’t want to give credit to the pandemic for anything positive. But there are some things that are positive that came out of it, in my opinion,

Lauren Pedersen 13:11
I also see that, you know, just having a really diverse team, it enables us to have a much better perspective, when we’re moving into new markets or talking to new user groups and these things, you know, it’s, it’s completely different than having a team of like minded individuals, you know, so it’s, we see that there’s a huge advantage, and we really try and build that up and strengthen their things team with.

Kyler Canastra 13:33
So important that diversity, because then you have people that actually understand what you know, your audience in certain markets are gonna want and how they’re gonna react. So it’s all about that localization, which is coming up all the time, I think in marketing nowadays, as well. Now, I think all the interviews I’ve done so far in the content next year, the first person I’ve interviewed in the Nordics. So I was just wondering, what makes this region a bit, I guess, unique or different from the rest of EMEA? And what are some things that marketers should have in mind when launching campaigns in this market?

Lauren Pedersen 14:07
Oh, that’s a tough one. I’m not sure actually what it has. I mean, I think the thing is that maybe people outside of the Nordics or outside of Scandinavia, bomb everyone together as being Nordics and Scandinavia. But when you’re in the Nordics, you definitely know that there’s a difference between Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and then if you look at Finland, they’re a whole different ballgame. You know, so, you know, when you’re coming in here, even though the languages for know Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are quite similar, they are not the same. Not everyone has the same exact cultural understanding in these different markets. So you know, you got to you got to respect that and treat them differently.

Kyler Canastra 14:47
Yeah, I think that’s an important point. Cuz I do think, you know, outside of the Nordics, a lot of people we do lump it together kind of thing, and it’s like, no, I don’t think your audience if you’re doing a campaign and audience is gonna be more receptive if you’re making sure About you, like, for example, its content marketing, you’re localizing the content. So it’s in the right language and the way they speak, etc. So like, I think me, and probably that’s how the people in the Nordics feel that they’re always lumped together. But I think if you go into a campaign, knowing the differences and understanding and localizing your your content, then you’re gonna have a lot more success, I think.

Lauren Pedersen 15:21
100% Yeah, totally, you’re out. And

Kyler Canastra 15:23
guess your overall career? Because you have, you know, lots of experience. And I wanted to know more about that, in general. But is there like a piece of content or a campaign that you found to be very successful? Like, that worked very well, for you throughout your career?

Lauren Pedersen 15:38
I’d like to say there’s many cases, there have been? No, there have been and I, you know, I mentioned that the chess partnership, which is, which has been cool for us at Air things. But there’s one other partnership that I want to talk a little bit about our partnership, one initiative, where earlier this year, we launched a site called air for kids.com. And the whole goal of this site in this initiative is to educate children around the world about the importance of good air quality. And, yeah, it’s it’s not commercial at all, you’ll never see any of our products in there. It’s not branded air things, it really is an education piece. And we kind of brought this forward, initially from the from the marketing team at Air things, and actually has been kind of really embraced by the organization. And now we’ve taken it up a notch and incorporated educating a goal within our sustainability goals of educating over a million kids over the next few years around air quality. So it kind of sparked something within the organization that we realized was really important to us, was not only educating adults about air quality, but the kids are our future, right. So ensuring that they understand why this matters to them into their health and well being and why having an active role in ensuring that the air quality and sustainability in the future is there for them to

Kyler Canastra 17:01
know important answers nicely, it’s good to see like how companies are, you know, like you said, there’s no commercial part of it. And there’s no like direct benefit for the company in that sense. But you’re benefiting society by you know, educating children and kind of instilling this passion about the Earth rate and air quality, that maybe they wouldn’t have had or known anything about without this, you know, the website you mentioned. So that’s really, really exciting. And it’s just nice to see that too. Because sometimes I feel like in a world of, you know, corporate life and all these things, that it’s hard, you know, sometimes we forget about these things. I think it’s a great initiative. Now, I also want to ask you to, from your experience, what do you think are some things that companies get wrong when it comes to content marketing? Some things you would advise against?

Lauren Pedersen 17:44
Yeah, I think, I mean, you have to have, I think, a strategy overall on content. So it’s, it, first of all, content marketing can be time consuming, it can be difficult to make it local and relevant. You know, there’s a lot of challenges into it. So you have to have kind of an overall strategy about what you’re trying to achieve. So are you trying to achieve wellness around a particular theme that your company is addressing? You know, for us, we want to ensure that people understand the importance of air quality, both when it comes to health, both when it comes to how you deal with ventilation and things in buildings, so of sustainability, and things like smart home, so how these kind of things interact. So having some overall strategy when it comes to what themes you want to talk about what markets you want to be in. So to make sure that they really are localized and relevant for the audience’s you’re in, and also how they’re structured, for example, on your site, so that they are working with kind of an SEO strategy in mind as well. So these are kind of a few things to think about before we start, like pouring out 1000s of articles or a ton of videos or left to have some structure of what you’re trying to achieve with it, I think,

Kyler Canastra 18:51
yeah, it’s so important too. And I think one thing you said is just kind of under like, you have to understand the content. American isn’t something that happens overnight. I think that’s a message that, you know, I’ve worked with clients do that sometimes they just want, you know, results right away, or they want to implement a strategy without really putting my time in it. And I think it’s like so important, like this whole planning aspect that you’re mentioning, really understanding what you’re doing, what’s the purpose behind you’re doing, what you’re doing? And then also, kind of what’s the what do you want to achieve making sure your objectives are clear and concise and not overwhelming yourself. And I think that’s so important, as you mentioned, you know, to have that and know what you’re doing so that when you implement it, you actually gonna get the results you want. And understand that it does take a little bit of time. It won’t happen overnight, especially SEO. It’s my favorite thing. And my results now like it takes time. But one day, I think we’re all learning now, I always like ask this question to to our guests because I think you know, our listeners or you know, people who are starting out and people that have a lot of experience like yourself, and people are in between. I think we kind of have a very wide range of listeners. I hope people are interested in marketing. So I was wondering if you Whether it’s someone that’s starting out, or someone that maybe just needs a refresher or a reminder and you know, midway through their careers, what are some of the most important skills that you think marketers should have nowadays and why?

Lauren Pedersen 20:13
I think marketing, in general, or once you start building a team, it’s become much more specialized. So I think, you know, some years ago, it used to be that if you needed to do more marketing, you would hire more marketing managers. But now I feel like, if you want to build out a team, you can have specialists when it comes to search marketing, you can have specialists in branding and specialists in content and video production and design. And there are many, many elements that are made up of a great marketing team. And they can be supplemented with agencies who you have to manage and understand as well. So I think when it comes to a CMO role, you’re often orchestrating this team of specialists so that they are moving in the right direction, that they have the same vision and the same strategy to achieve goals together. But it’s not like you have one person who will be the expert in everything, you typically will not, I feel. So you have to be all kind of at least motivated towards the same goals but have different specializations.

Kyler Canastra 21:18
Yeah, and so important to make sure your team is diverse in that sense, as well, having people specialize in different areas, and then having them all come together, it’s probably what the best synergies you can have on a team that, I think especially like this, I think, something that I pulled from what your response was also this idea of like, how things are changing all the time, and how, like, marketers also need to be continuously learning and always kind of on top of it, and, and, and addressing these things like, Okay, well, now, this area of marketing, we need a specialist in this, let’s get someone in there, because things are changing all the time. So I also think that’s another advice that I got from that. So that’s great. Now, we’re kind of asking you now do’s and don’ts and tips and tricks, I kind of want to continue with that and ask you some for some recommendations, like things that you would do on daily basis or like tools that you use, etc. So my first question in this regard is kind of, do you have any daily habits that you attribute to your success that you could share with our audience? Some people will come on and you know, say I do yoga in the morning and stuff like that. But I don’t know if there’s like anything that you do in your day that helps you stay more productive?

Lauren Pedersen 22:22
I don’t have a great answer, I don’t think but I do try to make sure that there are quite simple high level plans that are that are brought forward into the team often throughout the year. So if we go into planning, and we look at like campaign themes, or like a kind of calendar of how things are going to work. I usually, you know, plan for that, for example, for the next year. But that’s evolving. So we bring it up all the time. And we see, okay, what’s adjusting what’s changing now, although a lot of those key themes will stay the same, we have to understand that this kind of flexibility, when especially when you’re in a scale up or a startup environment, we get opportunities popping up here and there. So I try to come back to a lot of the same framework, but kind of remind people that these things are always kind of flexible and moving a little bit. And we should be enabling ourselves to jump on opportunities when they can I mean, that maybe that’s not an everyday type thing, but at least kind of coming back to it as a theme so that we recognize still where we are going 12 years back. Yeah,

Kyler Canastra 23:29
I like that. It’s kind of like a good way and good habit to have to make sure you’re not losing foresight and what’s going on. And you know, I like the idea of an idea that’s evolving, like you said, like, you know, these things really take time, and it’s good to remind ourselves, you know, okay, even though we might feel stuck today, how much progress we’ve made in the past couple months. So we can like, reflect on that. I think it’s important, it’s an exercise that people could, you know, apply every day they want to do like, write down, your goals are write down, like, what you are, you know, what you’re grateful for you doing and stuff like that to kind of remind yourself, okay, you’re gonna get through this, you may be stuck now, but you can move forward. Now, this question to a lot of people are like, it’s kind of weird, but I don’t know, do you have a professional role model or source of inspiration that kind of drives you? Because I mean, we’re like, it’s kind of like, oh, who was my role model? I feel like yes, kids this but I’m always curious.

Lauren Pedersen 24:21
No, I don’t think I do. But I would say that I mean, people have been have had different influences and being role models throughout my career. So every job I’ve gone into I’ve seen people that are kind of inspiring and that I’ve learned a lot from so I think it’s just super important to take in the best of all the people that are always around you and learn from from all of them. And you know, I simply don’t think there’s one person who’s the perfect role model I think you got to pull as best parts out of all the people you meet along the way.

Kyler Canastra 24:52
And I feel like everyone comes into your life for like a reason or like, you know, you take your learning lessons from them, so whether to call your boss anyone that you can always learn From them, I think it’s a great source of inspiration. And I guess to wrap up the section, I don’t know if you have any recommendations when it comes to apps or tools, platforms or books that people could like if they want to learn more about marketing, or kind of be more efficient in the workplace, I don’t know if there’s like a tool use or book you’ve read.

Lauren Pedersen 25:19
I don’t think I have a book exactly on the marketing, content marketing environment to recommend. But I did read a book that I thought was very interesting recently, which was called, I think it was called How Bad are Bananas and that is helping people understand the carbon footprint of kind of everything we do. So it tells you how what the carbon footprint is for a banana versus taking a flight to New York. And that’s kind of something that I think everyone in the world should be aware of. And we in our things, when we’re talking about kind of sustainability, we’re trying to make it much more concrete through these processes, so that we understand how much you know how much carbon emissions, we can help our customers eliminate, for example, when they’re putting the sensors into buildings, and how we can make our business hit our sustainability goals, for example, and how we can write about it in a credible way. So there’s a book tip for you. Anyway,

Kyler Canastra 26:12
that’s awesome. Any books welcome for this section? And now I’m curious to bananas have a big carbon footprint?

Lauren Pedersen 26:19
Oh, you’re gonna have to read the book now to find, like ocean

Kyler Canastra 26:23
and find out? That’s awesome. No, I think it’s good that we’re all aware about these things. But now, I was wondering if you had any, like, we’ve come to the end of the interview, unfortunately, it’s a great chat. And I’ve learned a lot from you during this time. But I was just wondering if you have any final takeaways or a parting advice for audience that you’d like to share?

Lauren Pedersen 26:45
Yeah, I think there was, it was one thing I was thinking about when you when you mentioned, kind of daily habits. And there was one thing that that I want to mention is that marketing has also become, it’s much more important that you understand the numbers. And I think coming in and looking at when it comes to kind of things like conversion rates and sales numbers, and customer acquisition costs, and you know, traffic numbers and things like this, I think it’s critical that people going into marketing start to understand these numbers and take them into heart. I look at these numbers myself every day. And I see how we’re progressing, when it comes to like lead generation and all this kind of stuff. So it is balancing both creative content, and also the numbers based results. To really maximize results, I think,

Kyler Canastra 27:34
I think that’s been a theme that’s come up a lot in recent episodes. So I don’t think you’re the only one thinking that but it’s important, I think, you know, marketing is always pegged as, you know, a very creative field, which it is, but at the same time, the numbers even though creative minds don’t like numbers, they’re very important. And they kind of give you like a good, you know, way to track your progress and see where you can improve. So that’s really important to keep in mind. So that’s a great piece of advice before we sign off. Now, I got in touch with you on my team did on LinkedIn. And I was just wondering if that’s a great if people want to follow up with you. If they listen to the interview and maybe are inspired. They can reach out to you. Is that the best place to do so? If not, are you active anywhere else?

Lauren Pedersen 28:15
I think LinkedIn is a great place to reach out to me for sure. Yeah,

Kyler Canastra 28:18
it’s definitely a good place for networking. Well, Lauren, I want to thank you so so much for joining us and sharing such great insights and sharing a lot of you know great things that you’re doing in your current work at Airthings. And I want to thank our audience again for listening and tuning in. And as always, for more perspective on the content marketing industry in Europe, check out veracontent.com/mix and keep tuning to the podcast for more interviews with content experts such as Lauren. We’ll see you all next time. Thanks again. Lauren. Thank you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai