The Role of Storytelling in Brand Building: Insights from Stephanie McCarty, CMO of Taylor Morrison

Summary

Marketing Vanguard Podcast Summary Episode: The Role of Storytelling in Brand Building: Insights from Stephanie McCarty, CMO of Taylor Morrison
Release Date: October 24, 2024

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Introduction and Guest Background

In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney welcomes Stephanie McCarty, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Taylor Morrison, a leading public home builder in the United States. Stephanie shares her extensive background in corporate communications and journalism, highlighting her 17-year career dedicated to storytelling and strategic communication.

Notable Quote:

"I’m a trained journalist and spent 17 years in corporate communications, growing my skill sets writing on behalf of leaders who know that communication is very important but don’t necessarily have the skills to tell the right story."
— Stephanie McCarty (02:01)

Transition to CMO Role

Stephanie recounts her journey to Taylor Morrison, starting nearly a decade ago when she met Cheryl Palmer, the CEO of Taylor Morrison. Initially brought on as Vice President of Corporate Communications, Stephanie was instrumental in establishing the communications function within the company. Her role evolved as she recognized the absence of a Chief Marketing Officer at Taylor Morrison, leading to her elevation to the CMO position.

Notable Quote:

"We had three people in corporate marketing at the time and I just sat and listened... We built a creative studio and we hired graphic designers. We started doing our own annual report and sustainability report in house."
— Stephanie McCarty (08:13)

Building the Brand at Taylor Morrison

Upon stepping into the CMO role in 2018, Stephanie focused on consolidating Taylor Morrison's disparate marketing efforts across 17 divisions into a unified brand voice. She emphasized the importance of insourcing key functions to maintain control over the brand narrative, moving away from outsourcing to external agencies.

Notable Quote:

"We made the decision to one by one by discipline, to insource it and to say, hey, we’re going to control our destiny."
— Stephanie McCarty (08:13)

Stephanie also highlights the significant growth Taylor Morrison has experienced under her leadership, increasing revenue from approximately $2 billion to nearly $10 billion and expanding the company’s footprint nationwide.

Notable Quote:

"When I started at Taylor Morrison, we were doing about 2 billion in revenue and we're just shy of 10 billion today."
— Stephanie McCarty (07:11)

Leveraging Storytelling and Digital Tools

A core component of Stephanie’s strategy is leveraging storytelling to build a strong, consumer-facing brand. She discusses the challenges within the home building industry, where traditionally, the focus has been on transactional interactions rather than brand building. Stephanie aimed to change this by emphasizing the importance of the brand behind the homes, fostering an emotional connection with consumers.

Notable Quote:

"No one buys a home builder brand. And that was where I was like a challenge accepted. Sure. Because people are spending 600,000 plus on these homes. They should care about who’s building this house."
— Stephanie McCarty (09:20)

Stephanie spearheaded the development of a suite of digital products that allow consumers to personalize their home-building experience online, enhancing engagement and emotional investment in the process. This innovative approach has resulted in impressive conversion rates and reinforced Taylor Morrison's reputation as America's most trusted home builder for nine consecutive years.

Notable Quote:

"Conversion rates in the 60%. People who go through that process, they become emotionally connected to what they're building. They’re not being hard sold to."
— Stephanie McCarty (16:45)

Personal Branding and Public Profile

Stephanie discusses her deliberate efforts to build her personal brand alongside Taylor Morrison’s corporate brand. Initially a ghostwriter for executives, she transitioned to sharing her own insights and experiences, which resonated widely on platforms like LinkedIn. This move not only amplified her voice but also fostered a community of like-minded marketing professionals.

Notable Quote:

"I started doing this in like January, February, just started sprinkling out a few thoughts... My phone was going. I had thousands and thousands of direct messages, emails, people saying, thank God you put it out there."
— Stephanie McCarty (11:02)

Future Plans and Success Metrics

Looking ahead, Stephanie outlines her vision for further brand partnerships and expanding Taylor Morrison’s reach beyond immediate home buyers. She emphasizes the importance of planting the seed of brand awareness among potential customers who are not yet in the market for a home, ensuring Taylor Morrison remains top-of-mind when the time comes.

Notable Quote:

"We have this great product that you can personalize from beginning to end. It’s like Carvana meets TurboTax, because you’re personalizing your home from start to finish."
— Stephanie McCarty (16:00)

One of her notable upcoming initiatives includes a partnership with The Home Edit and securing an exclusive role in the reboot of Extreme Makeover Home Edition, aiming to showcase Taylor Morrison’s commitment to building not just homes, but communities and memorable living spaces.

Notable Quote:

"We built all these stunning homes for deserving families who’ve gone through some hardship and needed a leg up. America is going to see the heart behind Taylor Morrison."
— Stephanie McCarty (17:21)

Advice and Inspiration for Marketers

Stephanie offers valuable advice to marketers, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, vulnerability, and continuous learning. She highlights the necessity of building genuine partnerships with agencies and the significance of fostering a culture of curiosity within marketing teams.

Notable Quote:

"The best marketers know that you can’t just coast by on an assumption or work in the established way of doing things and never really iterate on it. They’re curious, they challenge the status quo and end up creating campaigns that really hit home."
— Stephanie McCarty (27:39)

She also shares her admiration for peers who challenge the status quo and innovate within their fields, drawing inspiration from marketers outside her immediate industry to fuel creativity and strategic thinking.

Notable Quote:

"I find inspiration at events like this and so being able to be around marketers, I just soak it all up."
— Stephanie McCarty (19:21)

Conclusion

Jenny Rooney wraps up the conversation by expressing her appreciation for Stephanie’s insights and stories. Stephanie emphasizes the ongoing journey of brand building and the importance of storytelling in connecting with consumers on a deeper level.

Notable Quote:

"Here's to more stories to tell together as we move forward."
— Jenny Rooney (20:41)

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Key Takeaways:

• Storytelling as a Core Strategy: Stephanie underscores the pivotal role of storytelling in transforming Taylor Morrison’s brand from a transactional home builder to a trusted, consumer-focused company.
• Digital Innovation: Implementing digital tools that allow for personalized home building has significantly enhanced customer engagement and conversion rates.
• Personal Branding: Building her personal brand has complemented her role at Taylor Morrison, fostering a community of engaged marketers.
• Future Initiatives: Strategic partnerships and media engagements are set to further elevate Taylor Morrison’s brand presence.
• Advice for Marketers: Embrace curiosity, authenticity, and continuous learning to drive innovation and effective brand building.

This episode provides valuable insights into how strategic storytelling and digital innovation can revolutionize brand building, offering actionable strategies for marketers aiming to strengthen their brand’s connection with consumers.

Transcript

[Unknown Speaker A]

Partnerize is the only partnership management solution powering profitable growth for marketers through an end to end software platform and comprehensive service practice. The Partnerize platform delivers a fully integrated, comprehensive suite of discovery, recruitment, optimization, payment, brand safety and fraud prevention capabilities supported by unrivaled service expertise. With partnerize, you're in control of the entire partnership marketing lifecycle, all on a single platform.

[Stephanie McCarty]

We have this great product that you can personalize from beginning to end. You can pick the piece of dirt you build your house on, you can pick the floor plan, you can personalize it from fit and finish on the inside to structural options. I mean, this is a really fun, enjoyable experience, but we make it hard. We don't give consumers any information. No wonder they bring a Realtor, which is way more money for us to pay the Realtor for that procurement too. But this should be fun and rewarding. And so we built a suite of digital products that exist on our website that no other builder has because either they don't have the desire or the gumption to take it on. And everyone was like, Stephanie, no consumer is ever going to do that.

[Jenny Rooney]

Hi everyone and welcome to the Marketing Vanguard Podcast. I'm Jenny Rooney with adweek and we are coming to you live from Brand Week 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. I am joined now by Stephanie McCarty, the CMO of Taylor Morrison. Stephanie, thanks so much for joining me.

[Stephanie McCarty]

Thank you for having me.

[Jenny Rooney]

It's been a treat meeting you this week and this is your.

[Stephanie McCarty]

We're in your hometown, I know. Very convenient for me. Thank you for that.

[Jenny Rooney]

You're welcome. I'm thrilled you've been able to come to a lot of our events and you've been able to be part of the programming and thrilled to have you here. You are someone who we had never met previously, but I had seen you have quite a following on LinkedIn and you are not afraid to share your frankly, your opinions and your personal feelings about this practice. Tell me a little bit about you and how that is something that comes so naturally to you.

[Stephanie McCarty]

Yeah, well, I am a Zoni. As we discussed, I've lived in Arizona my whole life. I'm a mother of three and a wife to a wonderful husband. But I'm a trained journalist and spent 17 years in corporate communications, really growing my skill sets writing on behalf of leaders who know that communication is very important but don't necessarily have the skills to tell the right story, to get an audience to move in the direction that they want. So I started out in a PR agency in a publishing house Right out of school and quickly learned that pretending to know everything about eight clients was very stressful. I'd fall in love with a client and then tend to bill more time to that client, even though I wasn't supposed to. So I went in house and I say my first big girl job was at a global semiconductor in manufacturing, writing on behalf of a CEO who was an engineer who knew he wanted global expansion and needed to get 15,000 employees across the globe. Chasing one vision and rowing in the same direction. And at 21, taking on a job like that and learning an organization through the lens of a CEO and being a trusted confident was like a crash course in the making. I left the semiconductor in 2008 when the world was, you know, falling apart and went into a Fortune 500 IT reseller where they didn't have a communications function in the Northern American business. Started that department again right under the CEO, helping them to communicate their vision. In 15 months we went through divestitures, acquisitions, three CEO changes and storytelling. And that connected narrative to get employees to understand and feel connected to the organization is really important. I moved from there to a for profit higher education. Spent about six years at University of Phoenix, where I got to. I was picked up under the wings of our chief operating officer and president at the time. And University of Phoenix was going through tremendous changes with the Obama regulation on the for profit education sector, where one day they had a program on this is how you were successful. And then it was wiped out underneath their feet. And how do you get 22,000 employees to show up to work every day and just quote, unquote, do the right thing for the student enrollment dropped like 40% overnight and we went through a lot of layoffs and communications is just at the core of that. I ended up meeting Cheryl Palmer, who is our CEO at Taylor Morrison at a networking event and just fell in love with her as a person. And I told her a little bit about what I was doing. I was six months pregnant at the time and not really looking to jump ship. A couple weeks later she asked me to meet her for breakfast and we started talking just about the power of communication. And she ran a local home builder and had big ambition to grow and knew that she couldn't do that without getting all of her employees to understand what that strategy is. So I was on a job interview I didn't even know I was really on.

[Jenny Rooney]

How many years ago was that?

[Stephanie McCarty]

This was almost 10 years ago now. Oh, okay.

[Unknown Speaker D]

Wow.

[Stephanie McCarty]

And so I joined her at Taylor Morrison as the vice president of corporate communications didn't have that function in the business. Grew that team built the infrastructure and the thought leadership strategy was doing all of her media relations in pr. She's the only female CEO in public home building. So as a PR practitioner, it's like a lethal weapon and got her to really to see the opportunity for us as a home builder. And about three and a half years into that, I'm having a blast. And we're in a meeting and she's like, you're touching every key stakeholder. I was also helping her with all of her investor relations. I had her voice down and who's writing, earning scripts and dabbling in all kinds of different important communication activities. And she said, you're not talking to our customers. They had never had a chief marketing officer. And she said, we're not stopping from this gross plan and I need you. And I told her, when I was at University of Phoenix, in my six years there, I saw CMOs come and go with the change of the season. And I said, I don't really know if I want to sign up for a job that I might not have in 18 months. And she was just like flabbergasted. She's like, what are you talking about? We've never had this role, make it your wrong. Which was frightening. I was 33, I had just had my second child. I didn't know what I was signing up for. And at first I felt like a fraud. I was like, what do I know about marketing? But I. It took maturing and realizing that my strength as a journalist and a storyteller and that ability to be really influential and get buy in from people actually really serves me well in the role. And I'm not afraid to hire people smarter than me that know the ins and outs of marketing. And at the time we were very decentralized. Our marketing efforts were very disparate. We had 17 divisions, all speaking a different language. If you went from buying a Taylor Morrison home in Texas to buying a Taylor Morrison home in Southern California, the experience and the sound was going to be totally different.

[Jenny Rooney]

And by the way, you compete with companies like Cahovenian and those kinds of solutions.

[Stephanie McCarty]

We're one of the largest public home builders across the country. We're delivering, you know, over 12,000 homes a year and we've gone through massive growth. When I started at Taylor Morrison, we were doing about 2 billion in revenue and we're just shy of 10 billion today.

[Jenny Rooney]

Wow. And that is a nationwide, nationwide company now. Yeah. I mean there's just so much new home building and frankly new styles of homes. Right. Townhouses, a lot of that's happening on the east coast.

[Stephanie McCarty]

And new home construction is the one, one adding incremental inventory into the market where inventory is very low and it's got the more modern design, more sustainable, more energy efficient. So a lot of consumers are gravitating towards that. But it's also the longest purchase cycle decision and the most expensive purchase you will ever make. So it's not like selling toothpaste or a bottle of ketchup. Like you have to be extremely thoughtful and have research and know who your consumers are and what motivates them to make that kind of purchase decision.

[Jenny Rooney]

So you come in a CMO at this point. Well, you had been there but you were elevated to the CMO role and that was a net new position as well.

[Stephanie McCarty]

Yes.

[Jenny Rooney]

And just coming in and leaning on your expertise in communications and telling stories, but knowing quickly where you needed to hire folks to round out your organization was really, it sounds like your first step.

[Stephanie McCarty]

We had three people in corporate marketing at the time and I just sat and listened and it grew very apparent very quickly that we were outsourcing everything, which meant that we were putting the control around our brand in someone else's hands and having a short stint on the agency side, at least in the PR world, I knew that they weren't giving it their all. They're just spread too thin. And so we made the decision to one by one by discipline, to insource it and to say, hey, we're going to control our destiny. And so we built a creative studio and we hired graphic designers. We started doing our own annual report and sustainability report in house. And as soon as the organization got a taste of, hey, this is what it means to have a brand that is cohesive. And so we introduced like our first integrated brand campaign and put that control in place and said, hey, we're going to have one voice. We've got copywriters and we centralize the media spend so that we could scale and be more effective, get a bigger bang for our buck. We bought social media in house and now we have a full funnel media team and they're dedicated to the brand. When the brand succeeds, they win.

[Jenny Rooney]

But is this a consumer facing brand?

[Stephanie McCarty]

It is. Okay. I would say it's direct to consumer. We do have that middleman. We have real estate agents. Right. That are also out there as a market to them and build relationships with them. That world is changing too with the NAR regulations and what realtors are obligated to do. And also I'm in a very archaic industry where historically they're very focused on lower funnel that transaction. What's the incentive? What's the promo? How do we get someone to buy today? And there hasn't been a lot of energy spent on building brands. I mean, the minute I stepped foot in the role, I was talking to senior operators who've been in building for decades. These are really smart, tenured people who said, hey, yeah, good luck. But no one cares who built the house. It's location. No one buys a home builder brand. And that was where I was like a challenge accepted. Sure. Because people are spending 600,000 plus on these homes. They should care about who's building this house.

[Unknown Speaker E]

Yeah.

[Jenny Rooney]

You're redefining the category then in that regard.

[Stephanie McCarty]

And I think there's so much white space to do it. And given the tenure and the history that we have as an organization, the leadership team, it's the only home builder brand that can do it.

[Jenny Rooney]

So fast forward to today. And you've been in that CMO role now for how many?

[Stephanie McCarty]

Since 2018, so about six years. Okay, very good.

[Jenny Rooney]

So you've already upended the tenure staff.

[Stephanie McCarty]

Exactly, I have.

[Unknown Speaker D]

Woo hoo.

[Stephanie McCarty]

Thank you.

[Jenny Rooney]

So Spencer Stewart should make sure that they have you in there in their research. I know, but talk a little bit about how you've in the same time, frankly, built your profile and built your name in the community. And as I referenced, you are putting out into the world of CMOs and your peers, your strong opinions about things that you care about, what had to happen for you to feel comfortable doing that. And how are you thinking about that in terms of certainly helping to drive the Taylor Morrison brand in business as well?

[Stephanie McCarty]

Yeah, I mean, it was a long time coming. It was about December of last year really, that I was talking to my husband and saying, I have been a ghostwriter for so many executives. Not all executives are created equally. Sometimes it's really hard penning that stuff and sometimes it flows. And with Cheryl, it's always flowed. But I was saying I've done it for her now for so long that now I don't know where Cheryl ends and Stephanie begins. Because I do believe in what we're doing as an organization.

[Unknown Speaker E]

Sure.

[Stephanie McCarty]

But who am I when you spend your whole career writing for someone else? And I love to write and I love to tell stories. But it became really hard to do it as Stephanie. And I had come from a place where I grew up in comms and crisis communications and reputation Management and worrying about how I'm positioning leaders and identifying all of the watch outs. Right. And I told my husband, like, how do I do that for me? And he was like, stephanie, you just have to like, stop censoring yourself and just say what you want to say. And I was like, but my first reaction was like, but what if they don't like what I have to say?

[Jenny Rooney]

But wasn't there a post that went viral?

[Stephanie McCarty]

Yeah. So I started doing this in like January, February, just started sprinkling out a few thoughts. And about five or six months ago, and this was again, I'm a new cmo. I've never done it before. And I knew I don't know what I. I don't know. And I'm very humble about that and vulnerable because that's how you learn and grow. And I started partnering with agencies that came recommended from friends. I don't want to go through an RFP process. That sounds horrific. And I think word of mouth is important. So I started engaging with brands that had done really cool stuff and I just got put through these processes and these, like, money pits where I was spending so much money but not really getting with what I felt at the end of the day I needed. But I was like, hey, I've never done this before. I'm going to trust the process. They are smarter than me. They've done this longer. Right. They should know I'm going to lean into this. And after doing it two or three times and walking away with having spent a lot of money and now no longer having the money to actually put the great work into market, I was just like, am I being punked here or is this what every CMO goes through? Yeah, and it's just that mud you have to like, truck through and the tires to, like, pay your dues. And so I took to LinkedIn and I just said, hey, I've got beef with agencies here and am I alone? And it was. I was not expecting that, Jenny. But my phone was going. I had to like, put my phone in the other room because it was thousands and thousands of direct messages, emails, people saying, thank God you put it out there. This is what everyone's been feeling. I had creatives from all over the place saying, you're so right, the system is broken. It doesn't, it shouldn't be like this. And I'm not saying, I mean, it's not a one size fits all. There's lots of agency client relationships that clearly work, as we heard today. But the system is flawed and it made me feel one that like one I wasn't alone. And I actually had CMOs, CMOs that are here today that I won't mention that reached out and said, damn girl, go you. We've all been through it, but you know, it took just putting it out there and not caring how I looked, but just saying that, hey, and then you listen to yesterday we heard from an agency leader. It says clients get the work that they deserve, which I don't agree with. I think that in a good partnership, help me help you. I do think that there are creative shops out there that we've now partnered with that are just more in line and understand. And I did. I wasn't maybe as transparent and maybe I didn't have the best brief because I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but I knew I needed something. So I think it's finding the agencies that can say, hey, maybe let's workshop this together without me having to spend a million dollars to do that. So that was the post that went viral and I think I went from 5,000 followers to 12,000 followers in a week span. And then I told my husband, I'm like, I'm not going to do this anymore. He's like, are you kidding me? I have 12,000 people that care about what you have to say. And so I've also just come to the terms as you get older and you get wiser and more laps around the track that you're not going to be everyone's cup of tea. And that's okay. And maybe we don't share the same opinions, but at least we can have a dialogue. And without a dialogue, then nothing changes. And I've just seen in the six years I've been a CMO and have been fortunate to be in the space, things have changed. And I don't think that a CMO is just it's purely advertising or marketing. I have really close relationships with our board of directors and have the ability to influence real business change and business transformation. When Covid hit, I mean, we have a model, right? And it is our sales offices are open from 10am to 5am and we don't care if you have a job, if you want to buy a house, you better find your way into our sales center. We're going to trap you in here and we're going to sell you hard. And being the voice of the customer to say not everybody wants to go through that experience. And we had this great vision of what if you could do this more online and you can give the Tools to the consumers. We have this great product that you can personalize from beginning to end. You can pick the piece of dirt you build your house on. You can pick the floor plan. You can personalize it from fit and finish on the inside to structural options. I mean, this is a really fun, enjoyable experience, but we make it hard. We don't give consumers any information. No wonder they bring a Realtor, which is way more money for us to pay the Realtor for that procurement, too. But this should be fun and rewarding. And so we built a suite of digital products that exist on our website that no other builder has, because either they don't have the desire or the gumption to take it on. And everyone was like, Stephanie, no consumer is ever going to do that. Right? So go through the system, pick it. I mean, I talk about, like, Carvana meets TurboTax, because you're personalizing your home from start to finish. And at the bottom, your price is growing as you add stuff. And it's also showing your monthly payment, principal and interest. So you get to have these conversations around your budget at home with your spouse, and not in front of some stranger, which is really uncomfortable. And we have conversion rates in the 60%. People who go through that process, they become emotionally connected to what they're building. They're not being hard sold to. And we've also been recognized as America's most trusted home builder for nine years. And that's unheard of in any category to have that kind of trust, especially in. I mean, most people don't trust home builders or car dealerships. Right? Like, they're seen as very greedy. And we're flipping the script on that well.

[Jenny Rooney]

So I would look forward to continuing to stay in touch with you and seeing how this continues to progress. And a year from now, what does success look like for you?

[Stephanie McCarty]

I took on the whole brand building thing from day one. And about two years ago, we did our first big brand partnership with the Home Edit. So Joanna and Clea, you might have seen them on Netflix. They're very famous for organizing celebrities homes. And it made so much sense to invest in a consumer brand that has a large following. And everyone loves them and their banter. They always talk about how do you organize existing spaces, but how do you organize from a blank canvas like a Taylor Morrison home? And so for two years, they've been talking about our product and helping our customers organize their spaces. And as part of that investing in that, they just got picked up as the new hosts for the reboot of Extreme Makeover Home Edition so great. Which is an iconic franchise that Ty Pennington was on for decades and it's been off air for years. And I was able to get a sign on as the first ever exclusive home builder for the show. So we built all these stunning homes for deserving families who've gone through some hardship and needed a leg up. And America is going to see the heart behind Taylor Morrison. And it's so much about planting the seed and being in people's minds before they know they need the home. Because you're not always in the market for a home. And that is going to put us on the map because awareness is everything. So we're really good at the performance stuff and getting people to act now when they're in market. But it's how do you reach those people who aren't in market yet? But they're not really sure about this new home construction thing? Because when people are in market, they go to Zillow and they think resell. But there's this great big world out there of new home construction and we build incredible communities.

[Jenny Rooney]

And that's the point, too. I think that's important to get through. It's beyond just the house itself.

[Stephanie McCarty]

It is the community where you're raising kids and the memories and the good, the bad and the ugly that happen inside those walls. Right. Very cool.

[Jenny Rooney]

Last question I'll ask of you. And I ask this of every guest I have on the podcast. Who's next? Who's somebody you admire either from afar or another CMO you know really well, and you think they're doing pretty extraordinary things that we should have on the podcast?

[Stephanie McCarty]

Yeah. Well, I find inspiration everywhere and unfortunately, I can't really find it within my own category. So I'm always seeking it outside. And there's terrific marketers everywhere. I think coming into the community without the traditional path was hard. Right. I think it was hard to network with CMOs. I think one of the CMOs that kind of took me under her wings early on was Marissa Thalberg. At the time, she was at Lowe's and she was in that home improvement category and we could talk shop a little bit. And I just admire how much she's been able to pivot from category to category. It just shows how marketing is so transferable across those different spaces. So I love following her and connecting with her and going to her for, like, motherly advice. I did talk to her before we signed the deal with the home edit on. Am I positioning this the right way? What am I not seeing? I love Polly Derry who just left YETI and went to AG1. I love AG1. I love Cat Cole. Follow so many creative directors. I just, there's inspiration everywhere and there's so much creativity and I think I really connect with people who are not afraid of challenging the status quo and trying different things and making a name for their brand in an area where brand maybe isn't the thing. So I just, I find inspiration at events like this and so being able to be around marketers, I just soak it all up.

[Jenny Rooney]

Stephanie, thank you so, so much. It's been a pleasure getting to know you this week and I'm thrilled you've been able to tell your story here.

[Stephanie McCarty]

Thank you.

[Jenny Rooney]

And here's to more stories to tell together as we move forward. So best of luck and thank you.

[Stephanie McCarty]

Thank you so much for all your.

[Unknown Speaker E]

Meeting, event and workplace needs. Conveen is a partner, not just the place. A preeminent global hospitality company within the meeting, event and shared workplace industries. The company and its portfolio of brands provide clients with concierge style service in house, food and beverage in house, event production resources and dedicated service staff, all to ensure a seamless and memorable experience.

[Unknown Speaker A]

Partnerize is the only global partnership management solution powering profitable growth for marketers through an end to end software platform and comprehensive service practice. The partnerise platform delivers a fully integrated, comprehensive suite of discovery, recruitment, optimization, payment, brand safety and fraud prevention capabilities supported by unrivaled service, including the category's only in house support program. With partnerise, you're in control of the entire partnership marketing lifecycle, all on a single platform. Partnerize gives marketers a better way to partner.

[Unknown Speaker E]

The most innovative marketers are the ones who dare to ask the questions that matter and encourage a culture of curiosity in their organizations. That's the essence that distinguishes the 10 marketers who are being honored as winners of the inaugural Survey Monkey Curiosity Awards. The premise of the awards is simple celebrate extraordinary marketing professionals working at Survey Monkey customer companies who are driving innovation and shaping what's next for their businesses, industries and communities. Now we've had the pleasure of speaking to some of the winners, but today we sit down with someone from SurveyMonkey, Ms. Hillary Wilson, communications lead at SurveyMonkey. Hillary, hi, how are you?

[Unknown Speaker D]

Hi. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.

[Unknown Speaker E]

Thank you for joining us. I have to say I was speaking to someone else from your team and I was just telling them it's been really rewarding to speak to some of these winners and just hear their passion and everything that was involved in these awards. But before we get into that, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at SurveyMonkey? Like, what does your day to day look like?

[Unknown Speaker D]

I'll say our day to day is never predictable or the same. But as the communications lead at SurveyMonkey, I lead our external communications team, and I work right alongside our marketing team. My job is generally to craft the narratives that shape how our brand is perceived and make sure that those messages reach our intended audiences in a meaningful way, which can encompass all sorts of different work. In terms of the Curiosity Awards, my team played a key role in the initial ideation and development of the program, as well as seeing it through its new completion.

[Unknown Speaker E]

Gotcha. So you're a little busy is what I'm hearing. But why was curiosity such a focus for this program? I mean, it makes sense, like, as a marketer and just working in this industry. But I love that it was a focus here. And why was that? What was the insight?

[Unknown Speaker D]

Curiosity is really important to SurveyMonkey. We often say that SurveyMonkey, the workplace is where the curious comes grow. And SurveyMonkey, the product powers the curious. So it's in all sorts of our messaging. We've always believed that it's a trait worth nurturing. So that's why we were excited to have a program that highlighted marketers working at our customer companies who not only embrace curiosity, but also encourage a culture of curiosity in their own workplaces.

[Unknown Speaker E]

I love that, and I love that mantra because I feel like it provides such a clear lens to tackle the work that you guys do over there.

[Unknown Speaker D]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Unknown Speaker E]

Now, why did you decide to target marketers specifically for the Survey Monkey Curiosity Awards?

[Unknown Speaker D]

Yeah, I don't think it's anything new to say that marketing is no longer just about promoting a product or a service. The mandate for marketers has really expanded in recent years. While unfortunately, budgets and researchers may not have kept up with that, you kind of have to get creative as a marketer to really make trends and work that pops. So marketers, they obviously need creativity, adaptability, and empathy, and all of these traits that make a great marketer. But one that we feel is often overlooked is curiosity. I've never really met a great marketer who hasn't been curious about something in the world, or I've never met an excellent marketer who already knew everything they needed to know and did not need any new information. I mean, curiosity, it's the foundation for a lot of the qualities that top marketers have.

[Unknown Speaker E]

Yeah, it's so true. I mean, you have to have some kind of curiosity to, like, look at a certain data point or a trend going on out there and just seeing how your brand fits. So completely agree there. What advice would you give to a marketer looking to empower their curiosity? I mean, you have such a wealth of research and insights over there. So based on that, what advice would you give to a marketer?

[Unknown Speaker D]

Yeah, I think I have two pieces of advice. The first one comes from our award winners themselves, and it's flip the script. Instead of focusing on getting answers, you have to prioritize asking great questions. First, you don't want questions that are just good enough to get some sort of answer. You want the right answers, so you have to have the right questions. We're living in a world, I feel, where we often equate knowledge with expertise, and that's not always true or always the case. So don't be afraid to admit what you don't know and go out and try to find what it is. That's where growth happens. And the best ideas often start with a very basic question that stems from having that curiosity to ask in the first place. My second piece of advice would be to really embrace feedback. I mean, it's old news to say feedback is important. That's how we grow. That's how you get better at your job. But the one thing I'd want to highlight when it comes to feedback is it's not just about getting feedback to become better at what you do in your job, which is very important, but it's also about overcoming the biases and assumptions that we all carry around in our lives. As human beings, we all have our own way of seeing the world, our own lens through which we interpret things, and that can limit your creativity and your ability to connect with different people as well. The more open you are to feedback, the more you'll learn, and then the more your curiosity will grow.

[Stephanie McCarty]

I love that.

[Unknown Speaker E]

I love the ask great questions. And it's also like even it's about being curious and kind of like a little fearless to be able to speak up and ask questions. So lastly, I'm going to ask you the question that I've been asking everyone when we do these interviews is what does curiosity mean to you specifically and how it applies to your life professionally and everything?

[Unknown Speaker D]

That's a big question. I would say that to me, curiosity, it really exists in the space between guessing and knowing. It's that sort of uncertainty between the two, and it's that motivation that you have to bridge that gap between the guessing and the knowing. In the workplace and in marketing especially, this means wanting to get inside the heads of your customers to understand the market that you play with and even or especially to question your own ideas. As I mentioned before, the best marketers know that you can't just coast by on an assumption or work in the established way of doing things and never really iterate on it. They're curious, they challenge the status quo and end up creating campaigns that really hit home. And to me, that's what curiosity is. It's about building a culture where you're comfortable, questioning and questions are celebrated, not just accepted. And what if can lead to whatever comes next?

[Unknown Speaker E]

Yeah, I love that. So you're saying like when my son asked me a question at home for the 10th million time, I should answer it and I should like that he's asking questions?

[Unknown Speaker D]

Absolutely. I mean, kids really embody the culture of curiosity that we tend to lose as we grow up. We start out really questioning things, then as we get older, we start accepting things and maybe we need to tap into that childlike wonder in a way.

[Unknown Speaker E]

Yeah, I love that. Okay, thanks to you, I will have more patience and I will tend to this curiosity environment. Well, thank you, Hilary, so much for joining us.

[Unknown Speaker D]

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

[Unknown Speaker E]

And listeners, be sure to tune into past episodes where we chat with the winners of the inaugural SurveyMonkey Curiosity Awards, celebrating extraordinary marketing professionals working at SurveyMonkey customer companies who are driving innovation and shaping what's next for their businesses. I promise you there are good gems in all these conversations and really interesting insights. Thank you listeners and we'll see you next week.

[Unknown Speaker F]

Thank you for listening to Marketing Vanguard, part of the Adweek Podcast Network and Acast Creator Network. This podcast was produced by Jordan Praetano, executive produced by Al Manarino and John Heil, and edited by Lane McGibony at Boutwell Studios. 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 at Adweek Podcasts. And if you have a question or suggestion for the show, send us an [e-mail] thanks for listening.