The Geek Marketer

In my Advertising Age column this week I wrote about a new career path I see emerging. It exists both in PR/advertising agencies and on the client side as well - The Geek Marketer.

My thesis is this: it's very difficult for anyone in marketing to keep up with all the twists the digital space because technology changes so darn fast. It's like chasing a cheetah. Most marketers - be they clients or agency side - are heads-down running their business. Therefore, companies are creating a new role. They're hiring people who act as translators between the ultra geeks and the marketers, if you will, and shepherd the development of pilot programs. More follows in my column below.

This has sparked an interesting discussion (see posts by Stephanie, Jim, Teresa, Karl and others). Some disagree strongly, especially in the comments to the article.

More follows below. However, what I would really love to hear from you is: what kind of skills would you put in this person's job description? Do you agree or disagree that there is such a role in corporate America? I have a job description someone sent me for such a role and I may post it on a wiki to see what you come up with. As always, eager for your opinions.

As Technology Develops, So Does Role of Geek Marketers

These Cross-trained Specialists Are Fluent in Both Worlds

By Steve Rubel

Published: September 03, 2007

With the lazy days of summer officially behind us, now is when many start thinking seriously about their career plans. For those who are deeply interested in both technology and marketing, this is your time. A new kind of career is emerging: Enter the Geek Marketer.

While hard statistics are hard to come by, anecdotally I can tell you that dozens of Fortune 500 companies -- including some of our clients -- are recruiting Geek Marketers either from within or outside. That's not their specific title, of course. However, it is their role.

With CEOs demanding accountability and time spent online climbing, chief marketing officers are on a push to embed technology into every facet of their strategy. But marketers and technologists are not exactly two peas in a pod. They speak different languages. Marketers like GRPs (gross ratings points). Geeks like APIs (application protocol interfaces). Dilbert mercifully pokes at these differences. It's all very Mars and Venus.

Enter Geek Marketers. These cross-trained specialists are fluent in both worlds and bridge them. They are marketers by trade, yet they also have a hard-core interest in technology and social anthropology. As curious individuals, they are constantly studying how digital advances are changing our culture and media. Armed with these insights, they regularly apply them in a marketing context by working closely with brand teams to codify new best practices.

Geek Marketers create competitive advantage through rapid-fire testing and learning. The people I know in this role are shepherding the development, testing and measurement of all kinds of groundbreaking marketing programs. Their pilots span from the simple, such as building RSS feeds, to the complex, creating multifaceted community programs. Often they are paired with people like me, who are in a similar role on the agency side.

This may sound like the trendy occupation du jour, but something tells me the position has staying power. To be sure, the entire industry is innovating and everyone's technical acumen is slowly rising. Still, Geek Marketers are freed to live just a little bit further out on the edge than most. And with no end in sight for what technology can do to transform business, they can continue to play a key role.

Comments

[Matt Dickman]

Steve -- I completely agree with what you are saying here and it's where I've hung my hat so to speak. If you read my blog, it's custom tailored to helping marketers explore technology in a non-threatening environment. While I don't think the "geek" term is the most marketer-friendly, the premise here is spot on.

The biggest challenge for this person is to weave technology through the business, use it for more successful/higher impact programs while at the same time making the technology disappear. **Great technology is invisible technology**. It just works.

[Ariel Waldman]

I can't help but feel that my ears are burning ;) As for job description, it's almost a "you have it or you don't" situation. Passion for it, regardless of background or experience, tells you most everything.

Hybrids (of categories or careers) are obviously a favorite topic of mine, so I can't help but call into question the term "geek marketer". I agree that there's a new demand for it, but not sure if the terminology appropriately describes it. Just something to think about.

[Scott Dickerson]

As a young man running a photography business, new technology and the digital/web revolutions are two things that I embrace eagerly. One of the greatest advantages I have over older more established photographers is that I'm young and I have a greater understanding of the web, html, blogging, SEO, social media etc. . While I'm not in a position to be hiring a geek marketer I take my efforts to learn the skills a geek marketer should have seriously. I think applying the knowledge I'm accumulating about these new forms of marketing is the #1 way I can grow my business.

Operating a one man business I have to wear many hats, but I agree with you on the importance of my geek marketing hat. I'm thankful for this new field that is so new, and open to young eager minds.

[Bastian Scherbeck]

Hey Steve,

being all new in the field of PR and Marketing - believing that both blend more and more - I never thought about the "geek marketer" before. But I do have to admit: To me it sounds interesting and more than reasonable; probably because, as an intern in a german PR agency, I notice everyday that there isn't much time left for the consultants to focus on new technologies and its embedding into everyday work.

Thanks for your interesting comment!

[gianandrea]

Steve, I agree with your point and the job description. My fear is that marketers may feel a loss of control and/or they do not fully understand such process.
Probably mine is a typical European point of view and in the States the situation is different.
But working as consultant I see a defensive attitude from the marketing dept. towards something they do not know.

[Barry Campbell]

Steve, I think you're onto something here, and not solely because you've just neatly summarized my job description. :-)

There has always been money in being the resident geek-to-suit translator, especially in the IT business. I concur that it's the *pace* of change that is now driving this to the fore.

[Rod Martin]

I chuckled as I read this Steve. It's what I did for 2 1/2 years at a large Christian ministry just outside Cincinnati. The VP of Marketing couldn't understand what the Web Team was telling him and the Web Team resented his constant desire to "meddle" in their area of expertise.

I bridged the divide on three levels:
1. Vocabulary
2. Passion for the message
3. Expectations

I ended up protecting the web team from constant changes and diddling and allowed them to build what became an industry award-winning site (2006). On the marketing side, I was able to help them see that without the great ideas from our VP, to keep the message going out and revenues coming in, there wouldn't be a web-site.

Sometimes we're way too focused on our own areas... enter the geek marketer!

Great column.

[phil gillman]

Steve - this isn't just a marketing/strategy side issue, but a creative issue as well. As someone straddling the line of tech/creative I see a huge need in both agencies and corporate to bring the power of digital (aka geek) deeply into all processes.
The firms that get the fact that digital should become the leading component of their communications, with other mediums falling out of it rather than vice versus will be the firms that are able to capitalize on changing communications norms. Firms are beginning to really understand the power of design, but failing to incorporate digital at the same time will limit the scope of their advancement.
Creative/Design Leadership that gets digital & technology, whether on the corporate side or agency side is a must. Yes, it is crucial to marketing, but it is just as crucial to innovation, design and creative components of business.

[Yvonne DiVita]

Funny...it's already out there. I thought everyone knew about it. Tom, my partner, was getting a masters degree in Informatics at UB, until our business demanded more of his time. The UB program is designed to bridge that gap between marketing and IT.

Long time coming. Very needed.

[Steve Ellis]

You're correct. Its a trend that the Forrester team picked up on a couple of years back in some papers they wrote - Left Brain Marketing was one (I checked back - it was 2004!). They focused more on the skillsets - ie the need for a new generation marketers with analytical, mathematical skills and an aptitude for technology. A trend which is still gathering momentum.

The new angle you highlight is the need to add an ability and an appetite to stay ahead of constantly shifting technologies and tools now coming into the equation.

[Michael @ SEOG]

It seems Google and the rise of search marketing is forcing more of these kind of marketers. While there has always been a huge role for data and technology with direct marketing and the like, now the issue is really forced. As we enter an information economy those people who can straddle both the technological side of this transition as well as having an understanding of psychology and more traditional approaches will increasingly be needed.

As a manager of a large search marketing budget, I'd say I'm one of them. Philosophy major in college, heavy amount of social sciences, psychology, film, music, etc, but also a computer user from age 4 who has taken computer science and can write scripts, build a PC from scratch, setup a web server and write efficient SQL queries to segment large datasets.

For me search marketing is not just about keywords and data but what those keywords mean and how they relate to the type of person who typed them in. What state of mind was that person in, what are they looking for, and how can we respond to their language and way of thinking. With broad base marketing the segmentation had to be general and appeal to wide swaths of the society but now with the rise of the internet and an endless array of communities around narrow niche markets, the challenge is how to appeal to all these small demographics and hone in on what they need and want.

Good news for all those geeks out there who know enough about html, css, javascript, rss, MySQL and the like to be dangerous, but not enough to want to create it day in day out. I think they will also come into play with roles as account managers and technical sales consultants who can explain what all the lingo means and why it matters to a business. What the impact of 50,000 people subscribing to your RSS feed is. Why server load time time matters in a world where people will evaluate your site in seconds and there are billions of other choices to choose from. Generally, people who can understand the technology enough to see the impact and explain it to the executives and business owners who must use it but may not really understand it.

[Wayan]

As Director if IESC Geekcorps, I am a Geek Marketer to the US government. I sell technology-empowered economic development solutions to USAID, convincing government that things like TV over WiFi or the Wikipedia offline can achieve broad, long term goals.

My personal favorite job description title is a "Geek to Human Interface" or GHI, where I translate between hackers who think in Linux kernels and wonks who talk "transitional diplomacy".

[Michael @ SEOG]

Very cool job Wayan! Good to know there are folks like you out there.

[Rachel Clarke]

A bridging role is something I've been doing for a lot of years - initially sitting between 'the business' and the IT developers, translating between them and keeping things running. (in fact, when trying to describe the job, I usually used the term translator). Over the last 5 years, the 'business' has been the marketing teams. At that point there were 3 parties in the relationship - marketing, Tech development and the creative agencies. I felt like the counsellor trying to avoid misunderstandings between them. Now I'm on the agency side and it's not really changed that much, clarifying things between the tech teams, the account teams and the clients. I love the role!

[Daniel R]

Steve,

I work at e-Storm, a 10-year old purely interactive marketing agency, where we've always seen technology as the enabler for us and the client (it is why interactive marketing agency exist). Because Marketers are not naturally technical folks, education - internal for the agency and external with the client - is essential.

As the medium diversifies from print, display and TV to interactive media, marketers need to upgrade their skills to understand the technical complexities that make interactive media possible (from MMS to Facebook APIs).

Indeed, the Marketer at all levels must have a better understanding of Sociology and Technology. Sociology of how the tools are used by difference audience segments. Technology to understand the tools of how people interact and the marketing opportunity

So, I honestly can't see a “Geek Marketer” per se existing as you describe it. I'd be surprised to find a marketer 2-3 years from now not knowing what an API is or the difference between SMS and MMS.

What we will find happen is perhaps the raise of the “Marketing Engineer”, someone how knows the nuts-and-bolts but maybe not be leading the marketing effort in the strategic level.

Either way, great post!

- Daniel

[Nathan Gilliatt]

Steve,

I wrote up a conceptual job description last fall. It'll be interesting to compare with the description you have.

http://net-savvy.com/executive/defining-social-media-relation.html

I'm also looking for client-side folks who are doing this that I can interview to add data points and lessons learned to the theory.

[Richard]

very interesting post, sir..

r

[Daremoshirinai]

Hmmmmm, sounds like it could be interesting, but I do not see this type of position becoming actively looked for. From my experience trying to find a job in the ad world, individuals with cross-disciplinary skillsets are looked upon with confusion. Unlike many ad and marketing people who have a superficial interest in the social sciences, I actually majored in Anthro, Psych, and Soc in addition to attending a fine arts magnet school for painting and design. Try to get a job with that background, people look at you blank faced..."And what exactly can you do?" I want to believe that this cross-disciplinary skillset is becoming valued, but I have seen nothing of it. Additionally, technology is not that mysterious in its effects on society; just read McLuhan, Innis, Ong, Lefebvre, and Mumford and mix with Rushkoff to see how the more philosophical ideas translate into ad and marketing strategy. I sincerely hope you are right, but the enthusiasm this post has generated seems just another blip on the lower left hand corner of larger radar screen. In fact the responses are playing out some basic tenets of Anthro and Psych theory............anyway, here's to hope, cheers

[Wade Rockett]

Daremoshirinai: Your answer is, "I'm a designer, with a focus on user experience."

[Lorna Li]

Hi Steve,

Loved your post, as it describes the career trajectory I am currently on.It made me think about the marketing skills and technical knowlege that Geek Marketers possess, in addition to what Geek Marketers read. Here is a link to my blog post on the subject:

http://lornali.com/internet-marketing/life-as-a-geek-marketer

Cheers,

Lorna Li

[Jamie]

Hi, Steve.

I have a personal bias here as I'm a technologist who is currently a marketer, but to me the better question is, "How do companies keep their geek marketers?"

Like you said, this breed tends to live outside the accepted norms. We're odd ducks who generally thrive on chaos. In most companies, there is a machine in place the runs the profit engine. Messing with the machine is a tricky business and usually approached with caution (i.e. slow). The geek marketer is someone who inherently wants to remake that machine and they get bored quickly in static situations...

It would be interesting to see how some companies find the right balance to take advantage of such creative folks and manage to keep them happy and on-board at the same time.

[Abhijeet Deshpande]

Hi Steve,

It might interest you to know how I 'stumbled' across this blog. I was looking up some career options and searched for the following keywords on Google -
'career can understand technology and explain things in business terms'
Link to this column came up as the second entry on Google :)

-Abhijeet

[Howard Scott]

Great post Steve. For many years I've used the phrase "Technical Marketer" on my CV, but what I really meant is more like this I think. Good post.

[Ricardo Jimenez]

This is very funny. In my case I'm the Marketing Manager for Developers at Microsoft, for the Caribbean and Central America region. This means I must have technical and marketing skills.

I have a very strong technical background; I was software architect for 3 years before joining Microsoft and 4 years as a software consultant for Microsoft, until I found how much I liked marketing. I started reading and learning everything related to marketing that I could, especially because I saw that my marketing peers did not fully understand nor leveraged the Internet trends out there, which in my opinion developers have some sort of advantage being the Internet our beast. It's being now 3 years working at the marketing side at MSFT, and it's a very powerful combination. I now can apply marketing trends (crowsourcing, adver-teining, micro-niches, alternate reality games, viral campaigns, etc) with a deep technological how-to complement (Software + Services, Silverlight, .NET 3.0, Expression, etc) in the current Internet landscape (social networks, tagging, blogosphere, etc). Actually one of our goals is to train the internal sales force and marketing force in becoming fluent in these topics.

I must say these roles are not very common today and it takes your company to be very visionary and to understand the fast pace that not only technology but also user trends have today. It is also ideal that your company gives opportunities for technical people to become marketing-savvy, or the other way around. Thankfully, Microsoft is that place for me.

[Mark]

For anyone who owns a small business if you do not become a geek marketer then you will just get left by the wayside. For example, soon a baker will not only need to know how to bake but also how to create a website, produce a well-written blog, and post video of his/her wedding cake creations on youtube.

All the best,
Mark

[Mark Mayhew]

I link to this, and other of your articles in my Facebook group "Online Influencers":
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7315565666

(And please consider this an invitation to join)