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Community Intelligence and the Future of Reddit Marketing: Insights from Roxy Young, CMO of Reddit
00:22:09
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- [00:02]
Tracksuit Representative
We know brand growth equals business growth, but do your stakeholders Tracksuit is an affordable, always on brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers and agencies prove the impact of their work on brand metrics over time. Benchmarked against competitors. Built from best in class methodology, the Tracksuit dashboard is accessible and easy to understand for everyone from CSOs and CMOs to CFOs and founders. Research shows that brand investment in good economic times and bad is essential to driving sustainable growth. The bottom line? Turning off the brand tap will cost you in the long run. Tracksuit gives marketers and agencies a common language to measure and communicate brands impact without the $100,000 price tag. Their in house research experts will have your survey live and your full marketing funnel and brand perceptions visible in just 30 days. Check tracksuit out@gotracksuit.com.
- [01:01]
Roxy Young
Reddit will not be successful for 20 plus more years if we're not doing this in partnership with our communities. And so you know, in my seat at this vantage point, yes we want to build the brand and grow our business, but we have to do this in lockstep with our communities and with our moderators.
- [01:22]
Jenny Rooney
Hi everyone and welcome to the Marketing Vanguard Podcast live from Cannes. This is our special edition and I'm Jenny Rooney with Adweek. I'm thrilled to be joined by Roxy Young of Reddit. Roxy, welcome.
- [01:34]
Roxy Young
Thank you.
- [01:34]
Jenny Rooney
Thanks for being here. It's great to see you here along the Quazette in the heat, but this is really fun. It's great to be able to interview you here, talk a little bit about what Reddit's doing here in Cannes and then we'll kind of back it up and talk a little bit more broadly about what you've been focused on and obviously what's ahead for the company. But let's just start with you being here in Cannes. This is your how many year Cannes experience?
- [01:58]
Roxy Young
I've been coming to Cannes since 2017 with Reddit. We were a ragtag team of nine people, no official space, meeting anyone and everyone. He'd be willing to take a meeting with us and Fast forward to 2025 where you know, if I look to my right, we have this amazing two story Reddit house where we're having over 300 meetings. I think over 4,000 people will make their way through our experience and what we're shar here at can this year is community intelligence. And if you think about Reddit and the power of Reddit, it's a 20 year old company that has billions and billions of posts and comments that are all organized around topics that people are interested in. It's incredibly powerful for marketers. The conversations that are happening on Reddit are driving decisions that people are making. And so as we're engaging with brands and marketers here, we're helping them harness the power of Reddit's communities in scalable, performant, safe advertising tools so that they can show up authentically in a way that represents their brand.
- [03:10]
Jenny Rooney
Listen, 2017 in this industry is frankly light years from where we are now. Reddit's been on its own journey. The industry has been on its journey. The concept of community is something that's like so core to this industry and I think it's frankly elusive to a lot of marketers. It's in like hyperdrive now. And yet you have been doing it. Reddit's been doing it for quite some time now in a really meaningful way. Correct me where I'm wrong, but it just feels like Reddit is having this incredible moment. I guess I can't call it a renaissance because that is probably indicative of companies that have been around for decades and decades. But there's just the resonance that I think Reddit has right now amongst consumers, but also among brands. To what do you attribute that?
- [03:55]
Roxy Young
I would agree. You know, I think when I started my career back in 2020, I always joked that we would sit around in a room for a year and come up with the perfect message, very Don Draper style, shoot it in the perfect location, and then you would have a very one way relationship with consumers. You would package that all up and you would say, this is who we are, these are our benefits, here's our product or service. And then, you know, a few years later came social media and brands realized, oh, wow, like consumers can have a perspective, they can have opinions, they can be talking about it. Then came the influencers after social media, like, let's get these influencers to talk about our products and services. And all the while, Reddit has been marching to the beat of its own drum, helping our communities be these vibrant places for conversation. And I think we're now entering this new wave of community marketing. And you know, what that really means is being brave as a brand and going in front of these communities and engaging with them in a more human and authentic way. And sometimes that means that you have to give up a little bit of control, all those things that you as marketers want to be just perfect. But the result is that you get more engagement, more brand affinity, building more meaning in the minds of consumers because you're engaging with them on a more human level.
- [05:31]
Jenny Rooney
Yeah. Do you consider Reddit social media?
- [05:34]
Roxy Young
Yeah, it's a really good question. We get asked that all the time. And the answer is no. I think Reddit is an alternative to social media. Social media is about your followers and about me and how, you know, great I am, whether it's professionally on LinkedIn or my great life that I post on Instagram. But we get bought in the category of social media. So, you know, we're not a traditional search. And so when people are thinking about their social media bucket, Reddit falls in there. But we're really at the intersection of search and social. We have amazing intent signals. If you're on Reddit and you're in an electric vehicle community or a skincare community, we don't need to know your demographics, we don't need to know where you went to school, but we know what you're interested in. And that's an incredible signal for marketers.
- [06:28]
Jenny Rooney
Okay. So in many respects, it's a really nice alternative for marketers. My mind goes to a couple things. One is brand safety, because you can't in any way undermine the authenticity, credibility, and the frankly unvarnished opinions that people might have. That's the whole beauty of Reddit, right? Is for people to be just like, sharing their true thoughts and opinions and best practices and advice to each other around different topics of which they have passion. So brand safety is an issue. And then obviously you mentioned that some marketers are putting in the same bucket as search and like the search category is going through such incredible transformation with the advent of OpenAI perplexity and all these AI driven new opportunities for search. How are you thinking about those influences and how are you thinking about protecting the business and also creating opportunities?
- [07:17]
Roxy Young
Yeah, I'd love to talk about both of these things. So from a brand safety perspective, Reddit is so unique. Reddit is a community of communities. There's over 100,000 communities, from pets to parenting to politics. Any topic imaginable you can find on Reddit. And the reason that it is such a safe and authentic place is because we have a layered approach to safety. So at the foundational level, we have the Reddit rules. Those are the rules that no matter who you are participating on Reddit, you have to abide by these rules. And it's our responsibility as Reddit Inc. To make sure that content that violates those rules is removed and doesn't make it onto the platform. Then the really unique to Reddit part is that every community is started by a person is moderated by oftentimes a team of people and is governed by a set of its own unique community rules. So a fun example is if you are a community about cats, you can't post pictures of dogs and vice versa. And then the third layer is we give brands a whole suite of tools so that they can take control of the experience, that they're comfortable with their brand suitability. They can negatively target particular keywords that they don't want to be adjacent to. They can choose to run in premium inventory spaces because they feel like that better aligns with their brands. And so this layered approach to safety ensures that a brand is showing up in the way that they want to. And then if you think about search, it blows my mind. Reddit is the sixth most searched term on Google, sandwiched in between news and Trump, I believe. And what that means is that people are actively seeking out the conversations on Reddit. It is an indicator to the search engine that they want to see in the results the conversations about these topics on Reddit. And so what that means for brands is that these conversations they're going to drive consumer decisions. And so it's important that they're aware that they're happening. 365, 247 someone is talking about the category and maybe your, your brand. And so it's an important place for them to be. And you mentioned, you know, search is really kind of at a crossroads right now. Answer engine optimization is a term that I didn't expect to hear entering into this. You know 2025 can and is the question that every is asking how do I show up not only in Google but in these answer engines. ChatGPT Reddit has a search like product called Reddit Answers where you can just type the same thing that you would type into a Google search bar. And we'll synthesize the conversations that are happening on Reddit and point you to the communities where they're happening. And so, so much exciting change happening here.
- [10:29]
Jenny Rooney
Well and that's where you know, when you think about content right now and somebody said yesterday, you know, the story's happening in the comments and that has major implications for certainly for media brands and content creators. Content producers in the traditional sense. But so that point about like the real narrative comes from what people are actually talking about. Right. Which is so fascinating. I am curious. I think about things like Discord, I think about things like even substack. How are you thinking about other communities that exist? Are they direct competitors? They different? How do you sort of think about differentiation and what are you seeing in the space in general that as a CMO you feel like you need to pay particular attention to?
- [11:09]
Roxy Young
Yeah, it's a great question. You know, I think one of the most unique things about Reddit is we have always, for 20 years, marched to the beat of our own drum, done our own thing, even when it wasn't, you know, the popular thing to do. You asked if we were social and I was like, not really, but we get bought in the social category. And so. So we don't spend a lot of time sitting around worrying about other community like platforms. I think some things that are unique about Reddit's communities is they are open. We are one of the few platforms where we don't hit you with a gate that says to enter into Reddit you must provide us with all of this information. We have 20 years of content that people can discover and we've got some really fun facts, like content that was created a year ago, like 35% of that is still getting surfaced even after that year. And so we've just got this really rich corpus of information and it's just core to who we are to keep it open and accessible. And so when you think about other community based platform, they're often a closed platform. You're inviting people into a closed environment and there's tremendous value in those types of community like offerings. But there's so much opportunity for us to continue to build on our open community architecture that we're really excited about.
- [12:42]
Jenny Rooney
As a cmo, what do you spend the most time putting your time, effort and energy around? Is it building the brand and brand storytelling, or is it just spending time wrapping your head around the product and working with that team?
- [12:56]
Roxy Young
Yeah, great question. Well, I would love to say I spend 90% of my time thinking about these amazing creative ideas and bringing them. Every marketer, I think, would love to say that, but the fact of the matter is, you know, I think that the CMO role has become so dynamic and you're at this intersection of the product team, the strategy team. And so, you know, I think what I spend over half my time and energy thinking about is how do we continue to evolve who we are as a brand and as a product and become more globally relevant with our community in partnership with our community. One of the most unique things about Reddit, as I mentioned, is that Reddit is the community. It is of the community. It is made by the people who start and contribute to communities. And so when we want to make a change to our product or how we operate, we have to bring them along that journey because they're probably precious about it. They very much are precious about it. And so we spend a lot of our time making sure that we have the right programs for moderators to learn about the roadmap. What's going to change, what does that mean for them? We've got a variety of different things that they can do to be active participants and sit in on sessions with our product team, have an account management like function where they can escalate things that they're having problems with and we can help them solve those problems. And so Reddit will not be successful for 20 plus more years if we're not doing this in partnership with our communities.
- [14:44]
Jenny Rooney
The ultimate co creators.
- [14:45]
Roxy Young
The ultimate co creators. And so, you know, in my seat at this vantage point, yes, we want to build the brand and grow our business, but we have to do this in lockstep with our communities and with our moderators.
- [14:59]
Jenny Rooney
Back to what you were saying about the brands. It's so funny because yesterday I was in a panel and somebody, we were talking about innovation and brand storytelling and somebody said the one area that he encouraged brands to really get into and explore is Reddit. And like, what are you feeling that brands aren't getting elsewhere, that they're coming to you, they're coming to Reddit and you've touched on this. But just can you reiterate that again? And is it indeed true that you're seeing a little bit of a sea change in terms of the brand marketer community, what they're finding in Reddit?
- [15:28]
Roxy Young
There are so many different channels that marketers can utilize to, to reach their audience. And that year after year that just becomes more and more comple. Do you show up experientially? Do you show up in search? Do you use more traditional channels? Do you use new channels? We were having a conversation the other day about these new emerging channels and it becomes like sometimes a little overwhelming. And so, you know, I think what we are seeing with marketers is that we are now a critical part of the marketing mix. And I think it's taken us, you know, many years to earn that trust. We needed to show that you can reach relevant audiences based on people's interests, you can deliver scaled performant roi. And what they're getting from us that they're maybe not, you know, getting in other platforms or channels is a very leaned in user who is seeking out information.
- [16:32]
Jenny Rooney
But they could say something really negative about a given brand that happens to be an advertiser.
- [16:37]
Roxy Young
They could, but those are the opportunities where you can show up and you can win them over and you can change their perspective. I have countless examples of brands seeing on Reddit people talking about their product or their service, and instead of shying away, they show up and they say, we hear you. We hear that you've got some feedback for us. And I'm going to come before you and I want to have a conversation and I want to tell you what we're doing to help address some of these issues. And you ha. In that moment, you have a real opportunity to win over the consumer and to truly change their perspective. And you just don't get that on many other platforms.
- [17:18]
Jenny Rooney
It's a great point. Yeah. But I have to think that the brands who want to show up and actually actively work with Reddit have to know those ground rules too. You know, they have to be part of that conversation. And let's go back to can real quick. And your big activation, you know, you're, as you said, you're situated in this great intersection of the crowd biggest activation in 20 years at Cannes that you think Reddit has had.
- [17:38]
Roxy Young
Definitely, yeah. I told you. I think in 2017, we were a small crew on the ground trying to have meetings. This is our biggest physical activation. And I also think the most integrated set of solutions that we can offer marketers. And it's so exciting. It's under this community intelligence umbrella. And if you think about that, that's basically us analyzing and synthesizing 20 years and billions of posts and comments and breaking that down so that it's easy and actionable for marketers. So there's two products I'd love to chat about.
- [18:14]
Jenny Rooney
Did you unveil them here?
- [18:15]
Roxy Young
We did. We unveiled them on Monday. One is called Reddit Insights. And you can think of this like a power tool for a strategist or a media planner. But. But anything that is relevant to their brand or their category, they can simply type it in and we can tell you this is a synthesis of what you just queried. This is the nature of the conversations that are happening on Reddit. This is whether they're positive or negative. This is how they're trending. These are the communities where they're actually happening. And we've been demoing it live over the last three or four days, and people's minds are just blown. It's the number one question people would ask us is, okay, I'm interested in activating on Reddit. Please give me some insight so that we can shape our creative. We can Shape our strategy. That used to take two to three weeks. We would, you know, put a ticket in. The insights team would go and run.
- [19:06]
Jenny Rooney
Some queries and are you using AI for this?
- [19:09]
Roxy Young
Of course we're using AI for this, yeah. And the second product that I just think has so much potential is this product called Conversation Summary Add Ons. It's kind of a little bit of a mouthful, but what it is is let's say that you are a brand and you've got a great message to share with people and you know that people are talking about your product on Reddit organically without you even, you know, prompting them. What you can do now is you can turn on your ad and then right below it you can say, you know what, I want to turn on the organic conversations about my product. As an additional proof point, don't just take it from me, take it from the Reddit community that what I'm sharing with you is truth. And the early results have seen like a 19% lift in click through. It's in an early phase, but so much potential for this product just to enable a marketer to say, I want to activate the power of Reddit's community, but I want to do it in a safe and easy way.
- [20:13]
Jenny Rooney
That's a lot of money for you to as a CMO to put into can. I mean, at the end of the day you've got budget and you have to make some important decisions. So. So clearly you expect the ROI from that.
- [20:23]
Roxy Young
Absolutely, yeah.
- [20:24]
Jenny Rooney
All right, so I'll catch up with you in a week's time. I mean, what do you expect to see? Returns?
- [20:29]
Roxy Young
Our advertising business has been so strong. We're a little over a year out from becoming a public company in our first quarter. I think we put up 60% year over year revenue growth. I don't think there's any other platform that's doing that. And so you mentioned, you know, is Reddit having a moment? And you know, as much as I would like to think so, I think our business results really show that it indeed is.
- [20:52]
Jenny Rooney
Last couple quick questions, Roxy. So just as a cmo, you know, what defines you? What do you think of everybody in the CMO community? What would you say is your headline?
- [21:00]
Roxy Young
My headline? My personal headline? Yeah. I think yesterday you, you asked describe yourself in, in five words and I think I said pragmatic brand marketer. You know, I know a lot of other CMOs and you know, all of us, you know, I think are, are unique. I think I'm definitely more of your left brain analytical. I didn't study marketing. I have a finance and worked in strategy for a little bit and have kind of come into a marketing role with a far more analytical approach. And I surround myself by the creative people who can help me channel my pragmatism into these awesome brand moments. I think one of my personal mantras is doing less, better, faster. You know, I think, you know, if you can choose a few things and really do them well, then you're going to be far more successful than spreading yourself too thin.
- [21:51]
Jenny Rooney
So necessary. And this is why you were named to the Marketing Vanguard list, because that pragmatism, that moving fast that is so critical now more than ever. Last quick question I ask this of every guest is who's next? Who's somebody that I should interview on the Marketing Vanguard podcast? Is there a CMO that you know really, really well? Or is there somebody you've never met but you admire from afar that you think is doing some pretty extraordinary things with their brand?
- [22:12]
Roxy Young
Have you spoken to the CMO of Tubi, Nicole Parlopiano?
- [22:16]
Jenny Rooney
So I haven't interviewed her yet, but I know her of course.
- [22:20]
Roxy Young
Should.
- [22:20]
Jenny Rooney
Okay, I'll do that.
- [22:21]
Roxy Young
I think that she is one to watch. A really interesting intersection of B2B growing the advertising side of that business and B2C, like growing the consumer side of the business.
- [22:32]
Jenny Rooney
Love that. Okay, well Nicole, if you're listening, you're next. Roxy, thanks so much. This has been a pleasure. Enjoy the rest of Cannes and I hope to talk to you again very soon.
- [22:41]
Roxy Young
Likewise. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure chatting with you.
- [22:44]
Adweek Podcast Host
Thank you for listening to Marketing Vanguard, part of the Ad Week Podcast Network and Acast Creator Network. You can listen and subscribe to all of Adweek's podcasts by visiting Adweek.com podcasts. Stay updated on all things Adweek Podcast Network by following us on Twitter dweek Podcasts and if you have a question or suggestion for the show, send us an email@podcastdweek.com thanks for listening.
- [23:12]
Tracksuit Representative
We know brand growth equals business growth, but do your stakeholders Tracksuit is an affordable, always on brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers and agencies prove the impact of their work on brand metrics over time. Benchmarked against competitors. Built from best in class methodology, the Tracksuit Dashboard is accessible and easy to understand for everyone from CSOs and CMOs to CFOs and founders. Research shows that brand investment in good economic times and bad is essential to driving sustainable, sustainable growth. The bottom line, Turning off the brand tap will cost you in the long run. Tracksuit gives marketers and agencies a common language to measure and communicate brands impact without the hundred thousand dollar price tag. Their in house research experts will have your survey live and your full marketing funnel and brand perceptions visible in just 30 days. Check tracksuit out@gotracksuit.com.