Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk stresses marketing for today
PHILADELPHIA — Attention brand marketers: Market in the year that we actually live in. That was a key piece of advice that entrepreneur, author and CEO of VaynerMedia, Gary Vaynerchuk, had for attendees during his lively, no-holds-barred presentation at the 7th Annual Emerson Group Retail Industry Day.
“The amount of decisions being made in this room because of what you are personally comfortable with versus what is actually happening with your consumer makes me want to vomit on my face,” said Vaynerchuk, drawing laughter and a round of applause from the crowd, during his presentation dubbed, “On the Right Track but in the Wrong Race: How to Get Customers to Really Care About Your Brand.”
Vaynerchuk, a self-proclaimed non-techie, is an entrepreneur who has mastered the art of doing what works. Right now.
Vaynerchuk’s foray into business began at the tender age of 8 years old, managing seven lemonade stands across his neighborhood in Edison, N.J. When he turned 12, he started selling baseball cards at the local mall on weekends, selling $2,000 to $4,000 cards each weekend. In high school, he joined the family business, a liquor store called Shoppers Discount Liquors that his dad started, and it wasn’t long before he became obsessed with collecting wine.
He went on to launch WineLibrary.com, one of the very first wine sales sites. As soon as Google Adwords came out, he became the first — and, for some time, the only — person to advertise against people searching for “wine.”
In the spring of 2009, Vaynerchuk and his brother launched VaynerMedia, a strategic creative agency focusing on social and digital.
Over the years, he has also invested in companies like Twitter, Tumblr, Uber and Birchbox.
“What connects us is very simple. I’m not a techie. … The only reason that I have the luxury of standing in front of you and you are giving me your attention is very simple, … the one little thing I’ve got is that I market in the year that we actually live in,” Vaynerchuk told attendees.
“We are living in a world today, in 2015, where whoever can story tell to the end consumer best wins, whether you are the producer, whether you are a retailer, whether you are a media company,” Vaynerchuk said. “There’s a reason why Birchbox can go in four years from zero to $300 million in sales because they are marketing in the year that we live in, and they are playing the arbitrages that matter.”
During his presentation, Vaynerchuk shared what he believes are today’s most powerful tools — Twitter.com/search and Facebook — more specifically, Facebook “dark posts”.
“We need to start building brands, and the way we start building brands is by actually building relationships with the consumer,” said Vaynerchuk. “… Even though Facebook will sell more stuff for you, I am deeming Twitter.com/search the most important. Do you know why? Because every one of you can go on that web site, type in your brand’s name and see what everybody says about it. Consumer insight data that we’ve never seen at scale, and it’s free.”
Vaynerchuk also stressed the importance of Facebook “dark posts” or unpublished posts. This functionality allows page owners to share their messages with audiences without reaching their page audience organically through newsfeed distribution or timeline. These page posts are only distributed to users through promoted channels.
“We are lucky enough to right now be living through the second industrial revolution, that’s what we are living through,” Vaynerchuk said.