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Sara Brooks is the chief marketing officer of Yardzen, an online landscaping design service. Prior to that, she worked in senior marketing roles at The RealReal and at shopping site The Hunt, which was acquired by Pinterest.
Favorite project you’ve worked on? My all-time favorite project was probably launching the first loyalty program at The RealReal in the early days. We had a robust repeat business, and the loyalty program drove wallet share on both sides of the marketplace. Tactically, building the program took creative, analytical, and technical skills, plus a tremendous cross-functional effort to take the program live. It gave us a foundation to build customer loyalty for years to come.
What’s your favorite ad campaign? I’d be remiss not to say Barbie the movie. Not only were the promotional campaigns and collaborations extensive, effective, and culture-creating, but the movie itself was thought-provoking and culture-shifting. From the moment the first stills were released in 2022 through the summer 2023 marketing blitz, everyone wanted to be a part of the Barbie halo. Not in recent history do I remember a film holding the internet and consumers’ attention for such a sustained period of time.
A campaign that’s firing on all cylinders like that can feel overdone, but they managed to do it in a way that felt fresh, fun, and zeitgeist. It’s also built on the backs of some of my all-time favorite ad campaigns and initiatives that call out and challenge American society’s gender inequity: Always’s #LikeAGirl, Fearless Girl and the Wall Street bull, and Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign.
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One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I’m an avid yogi at my local studio. I love the community, the music, the heat, the quick hour to myself, and pushing my body to master new things.
What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m very bullish on AI as a tool to improve productivity and remove manual tasks. It takes a lot of manual effort to knit together data, create cohesive customer journeys, and make the experience relevant for each individual consumer. AI, like technologies prior, is a great tool for marketers to automate tasks and focus on more strategic work. That said, AI presents a whole new set of considerations, including preserving real original work and not joining the race to the bottom with derivative work.
A “trend” that really provokes me is inauthenticity, or jumping on whatever’s latest without the brand truly embodying the value. There are far too many examples of greenwashing or checking every box for diversity without genuinely living the value. Consumers see right through this, and it can diminish real, important efforts to make progress on critical issues.
What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? I’m a voracious content consumer, so it’s truly so challenging to pick one. I love the team at Reforge for growth leaders. The team is made up of some of the best original growth leaders in the industry, and they publish tactical guides for success, and their courses help those getting started to accelerate their skills and build a growth mindset.