This interview is part of our Expert Advice series, where CEO's, CMO's and best selling authors share their expertise.
Jeff Hayzlett is recognized as one of the most influential marketers of our generation. As Chief Marketing Officer of Kodak, the company saw record growth and established themselves as a global leader in research and new product development. Jeff left Kodak in 2010 and is currently an author and speaker. Jeff recently took some time to speak with me.
Connect with Jeff: hayzlett.com and on Twitter (@jeffreyhayzlett).1. During your time at Kodak, from 2006 to 2010, social media went mainstream. How did you integrate social media marketing with traditional marketing to generate sales?
For the most part, you shouldn’t look at it as a different type of destination, but an overall program. That’s part of everything you do. It should be natural to everything you do. Spent a great time doing activities to step and repeat (an old printing term) but had great applications in the digital world. Had content, but found different channels to implement the message. Social media is now one of those channels.
2. How important was social media to your overall marketing plan? Was there a tool/network (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc) that stood out above the others?
At Kodak we were using about every tool there was and is, in order to listen and talk to customers. One of the most effective ones for Kodak has been Twitter. When you think of the essence of the Kodak brand, it's around Kodak moments and memories. These happen when you share them. Twitter is about sharing moments of your life so there is a natural affinity between the two.
3. Since Dell announced their Twitter sales success ($6.5 million in 2009), companies have began to take social media seriously as a sales generation tool, not just a passive marketing tool. Have you see this happening with Kodak? Were actual sales being generated through social media? Or did it function primarily as a communication channel?
Kodak’s campaign to name the “Kodak PlaySport” has become a legend in the social media community. The subsequent sales that have been generated for Kodak’s HD pocket videos has been carried out almost completely by promotions on twitter and word of mouth via that channel.
4. What role did blogging play in your marketing plan at Kodak?
Kodak had one of the very first corporate blogs in the country. But when I say corporate blog, it is the most uncorporate blog it could be, which probably makes it one of the most successful. It is with personality and flair, and at the same time we were one of the first people to implement a chief blogger. It operates much like a chief editor in the newspaper. They blog about areas of interest where other talented people get to write and share. Everyone in the world knows a picture is worth 1000 words, and at Kodak the blog is titled "1000 Words"; appropriately so.
5. Since leaving Kodak in May 2010 how have you changed your marketing approach, now that you are marketing your personal brand, instead of the huge and storied Eastman Kodak?
Jokingly, I will tell you that I have less conversations with attorneys and HR : ) But nothing at this time. At Kodak, I was very successful in getting the message across using the tools at hand. I will say that I’ll be spending a great deal more time in mobile and in the use of video because I think these are two huge growth areas by consumers and media, and will be an extremely effective tool.
6. What role is online marketing playing in the promotion of your new book, The Mirror Test?
A great deal. It’s been spread almost exclusively online, and word of mouth. We purchased some ads, but a great deal of it is in the area of SEO and driving good content that is searchable.
7. What motivated you to write The Mirror Test?
To let other business owners know they are not at it alone and there are other people like them that have similar dreams hope and aspirations and they are looking for answers.
8. How much of what you write in The Mirror Test is based on your experience with Eastman Kodak? Can these principles be applied to small business as well?
They are all intertwined. There is no difference between a small business on Main Street, and a big business on Wall Street. Same principles, same energy, same success metrics, marketing campaigns all apply. The only difference is in the scale. There are more zeros on Wall Street businesses than main street business in the numbers being generated. What is good on Main Street, is good on Wall Street. That is one of the big lessons I have learned.
9. What do you hope your readers will take away, and put into practice?
The key message is that every business leader, big or small needs to look into the mirror and ask themselves those big questions and know for the most part the person in the mirror is responsible for answering those questions.
10. What are you reading now? And what's next for you?
Elizabeth I. The story on the life of Queen Elizabeth, and her reign. The next book is “The Last Stand”. I am reading another book on Custer’s defeat at Little Big Horn by Crazy Horse and my Lakota friends. It most certainly will not be a book containing any vampires or werewolves. I’m a veracious reader. Although I do a few eBooks I am more traditional in my reading. I like paper, and hard cover.
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