Shift happens, literally. For marketers, this shift comes in the form of how we connect messaging with potential clients. We’ve shifted from propaganda driven, one directional marketing, into an age of smart customers. We’re making the most of new technologies to do our jobs smarter while having a mindset to challenge the status quo, even when you’re successful.
Of course, technology moves at the speed of light and by nature, so does marketing. So when your stack is constantly shifting, how do you keep your company culture a constant in your messaging and branding?
In this episode of AMP Up Your Digital Marketing, we meet Jussi Wacklin, Vice President of Marketing at Amadeus, a travel technology company. He discusses why he believes company culture is not just an internal activity and why it’s important that we recognize our culture as a reflection to the outside world, especially when making a shift. This is where branding and linking company culture to marketing becomes so important in both client perception of your company, but also throughout the hiring process.
Transcript:
Glenn: Welcome back to the show. Today we’re speaking with Jussi Wacklin. Jussi, welcome to the show.
Jussi: Thank you very much, Glenn. I look forward for our conversation.
Glenn: Jussi, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Jussi: So, I’m the Vice President of Marketing, currently working in a large tech company, called Amadeus. We empower the travel industry and many different players in it. And I have an interest mix of working with marketing and branding, but also the corporate culture. So, it’s an interesting mix where our company believes that our culture defines how we operate internally, that then influence our brand externally, which is manifested through marketing. So, it’s really, again, unusual mix of many things. And I’m very lucky to not only work in an exciting travel industry but also a great company that approaches marketing in quite holistic manner.
Glenn: So, I need to ask, because you don’t often find culture in someone’s title that also has marketing and branding. So, is that something that you are hired specifically for, or it’s just something that you adopted once you were there?
Jussi: I was hired for that. However, it is unusual mix. And the reason why, I guess, I was the final candidate they chose, that throughout my entire career had the marketing, part of the branding, different things I’ve been doing, I’ve always somehow found myself in various quite HR related topics. How to create organizational development, how to support people through their career paths and development and build up better efficiencies for the company. So, all those things combined, when we had the conversation, both, Amadeus and myself felt that this was not just a marketing gig, it really had foundation that had strong roots to the culture and the people inside of the company. And I think that was a nice match that we were able to find.
Glenn: So, you’ve had quite the career and you’ve touched on a lot of different aspects of marketing, how have you seen the evolution of marketing over the years? Then maybe we can get to where you think it’s going.
Jussi: I’ve seen very big shift and I lived the golden age. When I started marketing in late ’99, early 2000. And I started on business to consumer side. I worked for Nokia. That was the golden age of high growth on technology, stock options and unlimited marketing budgets. And a lot of the marketing in those days were really creative work. So, that was quite a different world where we are today. And if – your question about evolution, in my limited time – 20 years – I’ve seen huge shift ...
