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Downloaded over 165,000 times, Renegade Thinkers Unite is the #2 podcast for CMOs and aspiring B2B marketing executives. Every week, we cover a hot topic with a seasoned marketer, ranging from strategy to bots, metrics to marketing automation, branding to demand generation and much much more. Listen in and join our community of renegade thinkers. 

Aug 3, 2018

Fans of The Simpsons may remember the episode in which Homer is jubilant about "new billboard day." This 1995 episode happened long before digital marketing became an obsession that in some circles rendered outdoor obsolete. Well Homer Simpson has a new comrade in arms with Janine Pelosi, the CMO at Zoom, at least when comes to the appreciation of outdoor advertising.
In past 18 months, Pelosi and Zoom put forward the simple but powerful message "Meet Happy" to build awareness of their online meeting platform. Then they shared it with the world, but not just through ads on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. They invested heavily in billboards and transit ads across major US and European markets. The results? 100% year over year revenue growth. 135% year over year user base growth. 1600% growth in weekly web traffic. That Simpsons gag was released in 1995, but Janine's team is proving that billboards and outdoor advertising can still be powerful, as long as the message is right.
In this episode, Drew and Janine talk about effective, honest messaging and how to broadcast it to the world. Janine talks through Zoom's success, its challenges, and her high-level thoughts on the role a CMO should play, especially in being an advocate for their team.

Learn from Janine’s journey at Zoom by listening to this episode.

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What You’ll Learn

Zoom’s latest brand awareness campaign is “Meet Happy,” and it works wonders without digital marketing

With over 700,000 businesses using Zoom to meet virtually, Janine and her team realized that meetings were a critical piece of modern business. They sought out to create a brand awareness campaign that would generate demand in a unique way. That’s why they stayed away from typical digital marketing strategies such as Facebook ads. Instead, they put outdoor marketing pieces across the world on buses, billboards, taxis, etc.

The “Meet Happy” campaign speaks to so many prospects because it encourages a positive emotion and interaction with a product. Delivering happiness and great meeting experiences are what Zoom does best, and it shows.

Generating demand is one thing, delivering on a promise is another. Zoom succeeds at both!

The “Meet Happy” campaign simply generates demand. It doesn’t capture that demand and turn it into leads and sales. For capturing the demand, Janine still relies on digital tools. By using this form of promise-based marketing, Janine creates positive connections with prospects even before they visit Zoom’s website. Their team follows through on that promise by always focusing on perfecting their product and having exceptional customer service.

Internally, the Zoom team keeps “be happy” as a company culture pillar. It focuses everyone around a central mindset and has bonded the team together as they grew.

Janine shares her main ideas for successful marketing, company culture, and innovation

At Zoom, having a supportive CEO is one of the biggest ingredients in their “secret sauce” of success. Janine explains that without the support and encouragement of top company leaders, organizing successful campaigns is difficult.

Are you interested in achieving the same amount of success as Zoom? Janine encourages all marketers to keep marketing practical, keep it simple, and stay focused. Don’t chase after all the tools on the market and don’t overthink your messaging. Simply know your brand, believe in your product, and trust your intuition.


  • [1:15] How Janine’s work has increased Zoom’s marketing success in just 3 years
  • [2:35] Janine’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [11:49] How Zoom’s “Meet Happy” brand awareness campaign works wonders for capturing demand
  • [20:07] The “secret sauce” behind Janine’s marketing strategy at Zoom
  • [23:34] Delivering on the promise of the “Meet Happy” campaign
  • [26:45] Learn from the challenges Zoom’s marketing team has faced

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