Specialists in connecting brands with young audiences.
rocket A marketing and content company that helps brands and organizations better understand and engage young people, children and families. As a specialist in reaching this audience, they have now gained over 12 years of experience in the field.
James takes some time to talk to Business Matters.
What is the main problem you solve for your customers?
We use social media, influencer marketing, media partnerships and content to reach brands’ target audiences. We have to deliver results for our clients – sales, brand lift, downloads – we focus on how we measure the success of our business and what we can do to solve business challenges, not just marketing challenges. The problem we solve is knowing the right mix of content and media to drive the results our clients want.
What prompted you to start your business – did you want to change the status quo or was there a gap in the market you could fill?
It was a pioneering attitude and spirit. We were among the first to work on social media advertising in the UK and we knew that the use of content when engaging children, parents and families had to change – so we changed it. We were among the first to experiment with influencer marketing and changed it to work harder for our clients. Now clients are looking to us to change the traditional way of doing things in order to make them work harder to achieve results.
What are your brand values?
We are agile, innovative and committed to making a difference – without these qualities I believe our client base would have stopped working with us long ago. Because we are able to innovate and adapt, it means we are able to work on something that is designed to deliver results for our clients.
Do your values drive your decision making?
To some extent, yes! We ensure that our responses are always innovative, creative and flexible. We also take care to do what we do responsibly – ensuring that when we target children we do so in a way that fully adheres to guidelines/regulations as well as focusing on what works.
Is team culture an integral part of your business?
Very much so. I know this sounds a bit cliché, but we try to foster a family atmosphere. We always try to focus on taking our work seriously and not taking ourselves too seriously!
We also ensure that we respect each other and know that there is more than one way to complete a task and that this can vary depending on who is pushing it forward.
What do you do to go the extra mile to show your appreciation to your team?
Some things are obvious, some are less so. We have a “yes” management style – we always try to say “yes, but…” to new ideas and initiatives with a caveat about what the new idea might do to help us achieve our broader goals and objectives.
We try to finish work by 3:30 p.m. on Fridays. We have regular quarterly meetings and team nights. We give employees their birthdays (or the day after) off and everyone gets a day to do Christmas shopping.
What do you think about inflation and interest rates – will you pass that on to your customers or will you let your profit margins take a hit and reward customer loyalty in these tough times?
We’ve been working with some of our brand and enterprise clients for 8 or 9 years, so the relationships have weathered all sorts of storms! Right now, it looks like the social media advertising market will see advertisers pay a slight premium, but we haven’t seen this cause day-to-day issues with campaigns yet.
How often do you evaluate the data you collect and address your KPIs and why?
Continuously. We have 12 years of campaign data across a number of key sectors and target key targeted audiences.
This means that we know (for example) what children want from a new book and what parents want from a new book for their children… Parents tend to focus more on the author, and children tend to focus on the characters or narrative – for example.
We know which social platforms are most likely to help boost family ticket sales for a particular attraction, and which social platforms are effective in promoting “date nights” at a different attraction.
This campaign data helps us ensure we can respond to our targeting and achieve better results.
Does technology play a bigger role in your day-to-day work at Rocket?
We have always involved technology and social media data in planning and distributing creative content.
What is your position on your competitors?
There are some great content and marketing companies/agencies that cater to those who want to target young people, kids and families. In some ways, it is important to know where we fit in.
It’s so easy to get caught up in what your competitors are doing and not focus on the work you’re doing. We also understand that sometimes we won’t be the right partner for every brand and organization that wants to work with us and vice versa. Developing and understanding what makes the perfect relationship means it’s easier to not obsess over competitors.
Do you have any advice for anyone starting out in business?
Think carefully about whether you want it or not! Running a business or being a shareholder or director of a company is not for everyone. Many people may prefer their role in a company that does not involve shaping the strategic growth and direction of the company.
Plus, don’t worry about the little things too much – details matter, but it took me having kids to realize that it’s not the end of the world if a tweet doesn’t get posted at exactly the right time over the weekend.
It can be a stressful and isolating place to work, where you can be the main decision maker at work. What do you do to relax, recharge and sharpen your focus?
I enjoy playing with my kids and am constantly amazed at how much fun I can make them. Outside of the usual household stuff, I love the theater, I love a nice bottle of red wine, and when it comes to rediscovering focus, I’m a huge podcast consumer. I listen to a few podcasts that really help me in my day-to-day work (and many that fuel me as a news and politics junkie).
We also launched our own podcast focusing on youth marketing and youth culture…. Search for Rocket Fuel Youth Marketing to find our previous episodes or click here: https://pod.link/1481856126
Do you believe in the 12-week method or do you develop much longer planning strategies?
It depends entirely on what you are looking to accomplish in 12 weeks. Some ideas may take longer. Some ideas can be extracted. I am a firm believer that all ideas get the time they deserve, but not all ideas deserve the time they deserve.
What is Rocket’s environmental strategy?
We need to do better. We have appointed someone as a head of employee wellbeing, whose focus is on the environment, employee mental health, company culture and acting as a whistleblower.
We try to prioritize partners who are aiming for net zero, but it’s not always easy. I want our company to do everything it can to improve the environment.
What are three things you wish would happen in the next 12 months?
- Briefings on campaigns that reflect our company values.
- A better technology solution for our Family Collective customers – a short-form social content offering featuring real families for marketing and research purposes.
- Great hire – someone to inspire and manage some team members to allow our brilliant Strategy Director to become a Managing Director.
