Challenge the status quo – Steevan Glover, brand director and marketing expert

Steevan Glover recently joined Carlota Pico to discuss the 25+ years he’s spent working in marketing. His career in the industry started as a temporary gig and eventually led him to create his own company, Brewd Marketing. Steevan shared his proudest marketing moments from the past few decades, discussed his aversion to marketing jargon, and explained why we should avoid pigeonholing audiences based on their generation.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or on YouTube, listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify, and read our recap below.

Key takeaways

Marketing is quite simple, but seems complicated when it’s peppered with jargon that leaves audiences lost. Simplicity is a winning approach; after all, marketing is about human-to-human connection and engaging with audiences on an emotional level.

Brands that have made waves in recent years include haircare company OGX and educational tech company ClassDojo for their authentic and innovative approaches, respectively. Tech giant Amazon has also established widespread dominance by providing backup and data services for a large and ever-growing part of the internet.

Companies should aim to create “evergreen content” that’s powerful, insightful and authentic, and isn’t just created for the sake of it. Brands should seek to be dynamic on social media and leverage the various platforms, tools and technologies available.

People have a tendency to pigeonhole generations, especially when it comes to audiences for marketing and communication. But there’s no one correct way to reach any demographic, and coming at it from this angle will limit your potential engagement.

Unnecessarily large and trendy office spaces are staples of many modern marketing companies. However, Brewd Marketing focuses their efforts on messaging, value proposition and content; avoiding a big office means offering lower fees and less inflated promises.

So many marketers are obsessed with youth, but young people don’t have the same spending power as older generations. There’s also a fear that older people don’t have the same access to tech, which is nonsense. They do—they just use it in a different way.

Rapid-fire recs

What’s an app or tool that you can’t work without?

I enjoy Slack. It helps to keep my email inbox less cluttered, and it’s a really useful tool in our agile and digital world. Trello is great as well; kanban boards are proven to be effective.

Lastly, I’d recommend Receipt Bank. As a small business owner, it makes organizing and filing invoices and receipts super easy.

An influencer or professional role model that you admire?

I find most marketing books to be full of jargon and repetitive ideas. However, one person I’d recommend is Simon Sinek. He’s been a powerful influencer for me.

I’ve also got a couple of personal role models who I’ve worked with and for, one being Kathryn Leno of Blueprint. She was very inspiring, incredibly intelligent, and always challenged the status quo.

A valuable resource, event or group?

I’d recommend a book called “Natural Business Development” by Isobel Rimmer. It’s a good read that focuses on go-to-market strategy, among other things.

I’m also inspired by reading about history. People think content marketing was invented in the last few decades, when in reality it’s been around since the first catalogs began decades ago—starting with Sears. And did you know the MICHELIN Guide was born from the Michelin tire company’s desire to encourage road trips to popular dining establishments?

Additionally, The Agency Collective is great. It’s a peer-to-peer network for agencies and senior members within agencies to share information. What I particularly like is that it’s a group of people who aren’t afraid to admit they don’t know something, which isn’t prevalent in marketing.

I also tune in to the BBC and CNN to see what’s going on, but I try not to listen to any one particular thing all the time. I think a lot of people can become stuck in their routine and say, “This is what I know and this is what I like,” but it’s quite dangerous. The more variety you have in the content you consume, the better.

Connect with Steevan and Carlota on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Mary Kresge, a freelance content creator based in Madrid.