Introducing the First Episode of “Making the Marketer,” With theAmplify Founder Justin Rezvani

We did something cool at Hawke Media (again)! We started a series where our Founder and CEO Erik Huberman interviews other marketing executives making waves in the marketing world on how they got their start, how they grew their businesses, and what advice they have for entrepreneurs just starting out. For our first ever episode of the series, Erik is interviewing theAmplify Founder Justin Rezvani.

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What is theAmplify? They’re a data-driven advertising technology platform that produces influencer advertising campaigns for premium brands across social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and Periscope. They have produced major campaigns in every vertical for industry-leading clients—including Lions Gate, COTY, Unilever, Taco Bell, Campbell’s, and Nissan.

Who is Justin Rezvani? He is part of the Forbes’ 30 Under 30, is a notable keynote speaker for global marketing events, and has been featured in cover articles in The Wall Street Journal, AdWeek, Forbes, and The Los Angeles Business Journal.

At the age of 25, Rezvani founded theAmplify to produce influencer advertising campaigns for premium brands across social platforms. In April 2016, a majority stake of theAmplify was acquired by You & Mr Jones, the world’s first Brandtech™ group, and continues to grow its client base and advertising technology offerings.

Towards the end of 2016, he led theAmplify’s partnership with fellow You & Mr Jones company Automat. Together, they invented the world’s first Influencer Chatbot, which debuted in a campaign for COVERGIRL. This tech innovation was the first to imbue the personality of a social media star into the AI of a chatbot.

Here are 4 Key Takeaways from This Episode of “Making the Marketer”

On What Makes a Good Marketer…

Justin: “I always would look at these large-scale brands and who is running these brands, and often which was unfortunate was that they happened not to be practitioners in how their customers live. How are their customers spending their time? How are they actually engaging? They don’t have empathy for their experience, nor do they have empathy on how they engage with everything that they do—so they’re not a practitioner. One thing that I found that makes an expert marketer and one thing that I always strive for in everything that I do is that I am an incredible practitioner in what I do. I dive in. I spend more time than anyone, and I master not only the medium but also the experience that we’re trying to create. To me, what makes a great marketer is empathy for the customer and, most importantly, becoming a practitioner — their craft.”

On the Role Marketing Played in Growing theAmplify…

Justin: “My focus was to be a topic expert only on that topic, right? Like, I don’t know much about paid media. I don’t know much about email. I don’t know much about anything else but this one topic that I kind of know everything about, so I focused on being a master of one.”

On the Importance of Empathy in Marketing…

Justin: “If you want to be a great marketer, you need to understand who’s on the other end. You need to understand who is actually receiving whatever you’re putting out there. Why are they receiving and how can you understand what they’re going through and potentially build something around that topic?”

On What the Next Big Thing in Marketing Will Be Next Year, and in the Next Five Years…

Justin: “Are we doing things that are good for humanity? Are we providing the things that make this place a better place to live? Those are the things that excel, not just the cheapest and the best market in the companies that have the most money.”

Did you enjoy these tidbits of marketing knowledge and the full episode too? Stay tuned for more of “Making the Marketer” soon! If you fill out the free consultation form below, we’ll have plenty more marketing tips to share with you.