From Chicago media giants to agency leadership, Rick has witnessed the evolution of marketing firsthand—and he's sharing lessons every communicator, entrepreneur, and brand builder should hear.
Ready to find out? Listen in below.
Full Podcast Transcript:
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Welcome to another special edition of Marketing Insights. I'm your host, Shanita Baraka Akintonde, professor, author, career coach and marketing shero. We are here for a treat. We are in for a treat. We're here for a treat. All things treat related. I know it's not October. Usually I save this kind of banter for the Halloween version of Marketing Insights, but it's okay. We're in the month of June and every month is a treat, especially when you have a guest like I have for us today.
We're going to be talking about this idea of marketing in a changing media landscape. The exact title of this month's podcast is Leading Sales and Marketing in a Changing Media Landscape. I am excited to talk to you all about it because everything changes, even change changes, but the times that we're in now in terms of media, AI, digital, the world is changing at a rapid fire pace.
And so today's guest is Rick Rivero. We met at a networking event and I'm going to pause for the pause here and say something that I usually say Marketing Maestros. If you're new to this podcast or you're tuning in as a regular member, you know I call members of our community Marketing Maestros because you're all maestros in the marketing field. But I always mention the importance of networking and connecting with people. And so it's interesting that that actually has come to full fruition for this podcast because I met Rick at an event at the Metropolitan and it was a networking event. I think I was crashing it, honestly. And when we connected and he told me about himself and who he is, I said to him immediately, "You need to be on my podcast." And guess what? He agreed. And that's really a big deal because as you're about to hear, he's a big deal.
He's the founder and president of Connections Marketing, a Chicago-based full service marketing agency that he launched in 2009. His stated goal was to create a one-stop marketing partner after seeing clients struggle to coordinate multiple agencies for different marketing needs. Now that's something we talk about a lot, marketing needs and the idea of trying to meet them. And so he thought, "I'll be the solution," because if you're not a part of the solution as they say, "You're what?" Are you the problem? Well, maybe not the problem, but part of the problem. Before starting his agency, he has a variety of places that he worked. We share background with the Chicago Tribune, I worked there as well, CBS Television and Comcast Spotlight, him, not me. And those experiences obviously have shaped him in some interesting ways, which I hope he'll sprinkle in to today's conversation.
Last but not least, what makes him interesting other than his wonderful face is that he has experiences that have exposed him to a wide range of this advertising platform, marketing platform as it were. And so he's the Real Deal, Holyfield. So without further ado, welcome Rick. I'm so happy you're here. Thank you for being on the podcast. Anything you want to add to what I said in your intro or anything that I may have missed that you want to tell the listeners?
Rick Rivero:
No, just first off, thank you for the invite. And to your point, I've owned this business for 16 years, even as the owner, as the founder, entrepreneurs always know you still always have to get out there. So I mean, I met you at a networking event, you know what I mean? And those are the type of things that, it's always to continue to be out there meeting with new potential clients. I was actually with a teammate of mine at the time. I was just training him about networking and so that's how we met. But yeah, networking, no matter who you are, is a vital part of any successful business in my opinion.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Amen. Thank you. And no matter who you are, no matter where you are in your career trajectory, you're a founder of your company. I too am an entrepreneur. I'm a founder of my company here. And even at those stages of our careers, we're still out meeting people, making connections and networking and making ourselves available for opportunities. And so it's never enough to kind of rest on your laurels. You have to always be out and about and willing to make those connections. So thank you again, Rick.
So speaking of making connections and entrepreneurship, so you started your agency 16 years ago. I mentioned your goal a little bit in the intro, but what is it that you can tell us that is still misunderstood about what true integrated marketing really means? Because that is what you do. Is that correct? Not all of what you do, but that is what you do.
Rick Rivero:
Yeah, correct. And a lot of the times is that clients will forget how important it is to make sure whether they're posting something on social media or writing a blog or creating videos, you all want it to have one uniform look and feel. And today's, especially with so many people doing social media at rapid fire rate is that sometimes a lot of clients will forget to do that. And I always tell people marketing today still has the same fundamentals in place that it did prior to the digital age and that's people want to have one consistent look and feel. Back in the day when you had an ad on TV, it was the same ad that you saw on the newspaper or the magazine and the same taglines where we're also being using the radio ads. It's the same stuff that you do today, whatever you're doing on social media, paid ads, YouTube, logging, you want it to all have one uniform look and feel because at the end of the day, companies that have brand standards seem to be well more respected online than those who do not.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yeah. So the fundamentals, it sounds like you're saying, Rick, that basic, the foundational piece, if you will, remains the same. It's just that you're expanding perhaps how you do it, but the fundamentals that the clients are going to be looking for need to be solid. And that actually-
Rick Rivero:
Yeah, and because you asked what's most misunderstanding. They just misunderstand it because for whatever reason people forget. I'm like, "Well, just because you're on social media, blogs, people still are going to see all this stuff you want it to be uniform," and they just kind of ... [inaudible 00:06:19] your question for what do they misunderstand about running an integrated marketing campaign?
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yes. No, that's good. And actually leads to the next question because if I'm hearing you, it's not about just trying to get online or go digital. And I know that that's what some people say or clients may say this, I don't want to put words in their mouths, but the idea of just making it happen without the idea of understanding attention, which comes with that, but then there's also the trust factor, right? And there's something that has to be said and those are two very different things. Getting attention and having trustworthiness are two different things, let me put the S on that. So what have you learned about building credibility in the digital space, Rick, especially in an era where consumers are more skeptical perhaps than ever before?
Rick Rivero:
Really what it comes down to is we always tell our clients to create authentic content. If it's authentic content, then people are going to trust it. Consumers today are more educated than they've ever been before, so they'll easily know whether if it's authentic or not. And a lot of the things with, especially with AI service becoming a big thing today is customer sentiment is a big part of how you're ranked. How do people feel about your brand? And so as long as you're always creating this what I call authentic, natural content, you will always be able to get the trust of the user. And that's where a lot of people right now are using all this AI and people can tell whether it's AI or not. Consumers have caught up pretty quickly. So as much as I know a lot of people are like, "Oh, I'll just create all these AI videos." It's like, "Well, that's not really building trust with the end user," which at the end of the day is the most important part of any marketing efforts is building trust with whoever you're targeting.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
So that word authenticity or authentic gets tossed out a lot. Can you unpack that for our listeners? What is that to you? What does that mean when you say to be authentic?
Rick Rivero:
Be yourself. A lot of times when I meet with clients, because a lot of them, I try to get them on camera and interview them. And I like to think that a lot of the clients we work with are leaders in their industries and I always tell them, the reason why people work with you is because you're an expert in your specific field, whatever that field is and just go on camera and talk. Talk to the camera like how you go out and talk to your clients.
And so that to me is with authenticity. It's about them talking and it's also getting feedback from their clientele as well, getting testimonials. So you get that true feeling of who the client is, not actors, not the person who's the best spoken person in the office who might not be there in two years, it's you want to either talk ... Obviously if the owner can do it or somebody who's very important at the industry, especially for your bigger company, it's obviously like a C-suite person. I mean, you're even seeing like the McDonald's CEO, he's doing the whole, I know you saw that whole thing, the one bite-
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yes, yes.
Rick Rivero:
... where he's talking about the new burger they're offering. Even he's doing that.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yes.
Rick Rivero:
And as funny as it was, it was still authentic and people ripped him on it because he didn't seem authentic and that was a big part of it too.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Isn't that funny?
Rick Rivero:
And that's the thing too. So it's got to be authentic. And so there's a good example where they're trying to be authentic, but unfortunately it didn't come across that way. But yeah, at the end of the day, it's just really about you sitting there talking about your brand in a way that how you genuinely feel. There's no fluff. It's authentic. I know we over use that term, but that's truly what it means is you telling the end user what are your value propositions and why they should trust you and work with you and whatever you're selling, a product or service.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
It's interesting because the beauty of what you just said, Rick, is that it's going to be unique to each individual person or company or brand. If you're authentically presenting yourself as you, being you as you're saying, then it is going to be different from other people. I've heard a lot of people, my listeners, just so you know, there's a large portion of the listenership that are students who are still in school studying the field of marketing, advertising, public relations, then we have mid-career folk and then we have seasoned individuals. So it's a whole gamut.
But regardless of where you are in your professional trajectory, the idea of being yourself is going to make you stand out because I get that question a lot. "Well, how do I stand out?" Or, "How do I beat the competition?" And people get caught up in that and obviously there's some specific things you can do, but what's going to make you stand out starts with you being you because no one's going to be you no matter what space you're in. And so what you just said, I think reinforces that because you should be you. What happens is people start to emulate others or try to copy or think, "Oh, this is working for this person, so I'll adopt it and try to make it work for me." But it won't be the same, even if you do take it, it won't be the same because that special sauce isn't there, right?
Rick Rivero:
It's huge.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
All right.
Rick Rivero:
You're the brand.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
You're the brand. You're the brand. So let's talk about high-tech versus high touch. In this increasingly high-tech space or spaces that we're in, is there room for high touch? And what does high touch mean to you? Does that mean having a connection with your customers? Are folks missing the touch "aspect of marketing" because everything is becoming more high-tech? What are your thoughts on that?
Rick Rivero:
I mean, if anything, you can actually touch your clients more closely than ever before, especially with implementation like a good YouTube video strategy. I mean, that's really what it comes down to is all this, if you take it back, it's inbound marketing and customers are looking for information. That's what they're actively doing. So if you're out there producing content that's going to touch your customers and you produce good content that you know is going to touch your customers, they'll find you. So it's very possible.
And then even with technology today, you can even follow up with some sort of eBlast which a lot of people still use, but a lot of it really is push notifications, whether it's texting them or pushing through something via an app. You can touch your client more than ever before and it's just about how to leverage technology. I mean, you even see it with like, I mean, it's older now, but geofencing where if you say you have your Dunkin' Donuts app and you're walking past a Starbucks, all of a sudden that Dunkin' Donuts app is going to send you alert because you know they know you're close to a Starbucks and they're going to alert you. So yeah, I mean, you can touch more than ever and if you know how to leverage the technology around it, it's a lot easier. Back in the day, it was very difficult and very expensive.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yes. Okay. I appreciate that response as well. See, this is why I'm happy you're here, Rick. This is why you are the CEO of your own company because you're such a smart man. So it sounds like what you're saying is that because of our ability to touch people, so to speak, "in a digital way," that it can become even more personalized or specific to me as a consumer that you can know my vicinity and say, "Okay, Shanita, we ... We know you like coffee in the morning or donuts, you're near that Dunkin' Donuts. Why don't you just go right on in here? Here's a coupon perhaps for you to get 50 cent off," or something.
Rick Rivero:
[inaudible 00:14:01].
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
So now we're able to do things, it sounds like you're saying, even more personally in some ways than we were ever before.
Rick Rivero:
Absolutely. It's just about leveraging it. That's really what it comes down to.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
So what do you say about those folks who think the opposite though that now, or if not the opposite, or feel that it's somehow ... And I guess I'm speaking more and this is off script in terms of it being more personally related. We have multiple screens up in front of us at a time, our phone, our computer desktop, our laptop, our Apple Watch, whatever. And so because of that, sometimes people are more distracted than ever before. So what kind of challenges does that present, if any, from a marketing perspective?
Rick Rivero:
Well, and that's kind of where it's important to have, as I mentioned before, an inbound marketing strategy, because outbound before was disruption media, a TV ad, a newspaper ad. I'm not looking for that. Whereas in today's world, there's a great book to read about it, it's ... Actually, I have it in my office, it's HubSpot, The Story of Inbound Marketing [inaudible 00:15:07] book on it. But the reality of it is that yes, people are on all these devices, but people are always actively looking for information. And so if you're out there publishing good information, some people could say it's easier than ever to touch and it's more efficient than ever because there's no waste. So I used to work for CBS television, how much waste there was and [inaudible 00:15:33]-
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
What do you mean by waste? What do you mean by waste?
Rick Rivero:
So for example, when you buy broadcast television, you're targeting the whole DMA. Whereas say we do a lot with home care, home care agencies for seniors. I mean, not everybody in the Chicago DMA is in the market for that. And so with digital marketing, you write content specifically to individuals who you know are actively looking for your product, whether it's in paid ads, social media, logging. So then you are getting a very educated consumer who is in the market for your product. That's the beauty of it. Everything that you're doing from a strategic standpoint current in today's world is you are getting people who are in the market and you know for sure, because if they're coming to your website, you know they're in the market services.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yes. So there's an ability to be more laser focused as it were to-
Rick Rivero:
Oh, it's more important than ever. [inaudible 00:16:29]-
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yes, to the minutes detail. Right. So for those who don't know, DMA, Designated Market Area, right?
Rick Rivero:
Yep.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yes, so-
Rick Rivero:
Sorry.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Now we don't have that waste, as Rick is saying, we can take all that and recycle it and do other things. And that's exciting and this is an exciting time to be in for that reason. I was teasing someone the other day. I said, "I logged onto my computer. I have a nickname that my family and friends call me and I promise you, I think I may be mistaken that ChatGPT called me that." And I was like, "How do you know?" No, I'm just kidding. But you feel like that sometimes, that it knows you so well that it has details, not in an invasive way, but in a way that's going to make my experience, as you said, that much easier, that much faster. And that is wonderful. That is really great.
Okay. So is there anything that you want to tell us about what you feel folks are chasing right now, Rick, be it marketers and/or consumers that they're overvaluing right now? Maybe they're giving too much credence to it or thinking it's really more than it is in your opinion that they shouldn't be thinking about. We'll start with marketers. Anything you think marketers are chasing or overvaluing right now that you want to tell them, "Hold up, stop, stop. Maybe you shouldn't put so much attention there or in the way that you think you should put the attention there."
Rick Rivero:
What I would say, I wouldn't say too many people are not putting ... I say enough people aren't putting enough attention on AI search. I would say that's the big thing right now and we're even seeing it from even some of our vendors who don't even have the or even offer the level of technology we need to properly get data on how people are doing AI search. We're seeing a lot of our competitors are doing nothing with AI search. It's very surprising how few people understand even the term zero click search because everybody's now talking into their phone asking a question and now you don't click around anymore. So you need to ensure that your current digital marketing campaign understands today's search habits. I mean, 60% of people don't click through right now, the latest stat.
So you want to appear in those AI results, whether it's AI Overview with Google, ChatGPT, Claude, there's so many of them that people are using today. I think that's the thing, because I have to say people are focusing on creating content. That's always been a core principle of digital marketing, but I just don't think enough of them are focusing on the tactics necessary to appear in AI search.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Gotcha.
Rick Rivero:
I think that's a very big thing that people are lacking. And the other thing too that I would tell your listeners is for a long time, video was always like this nice to have in any sort of digital marketing strategy, but based on the most latest trends and all the data, it is a requirement to have a successful digital marketing campaign today. You have to have video and it has to be authentic video too. You can't go ahead and just generate a bunch of AI video. [inaudible 00:19:37].
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
So authentic video is important.
Rick Rivero:
Correct.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Yes, I've heard that several times before as well. Maybe that'll be another podcast that I focus on. Speaking of podcasts and focuses, this one again is Leading Sales and Marketing in Changing Media Landscapes. And our guest is Rick Rivero, who is the president of Connections Marketing. Rick, last question for you so I can give you back some of your time. What would you tell your younger self, your recent college graduate self, your 23, 24 year old self, anything different? Anything that you wish you knew then that you know now or would you do everything exactly the same?
Rick Rivero:
A lot of who I am today is from the journey I got to get here. So I wouldn't change any of that. I felt like I was very fortunate enough to work with some very good people who trained me great. I worked for three great companies. I mean, CVS and Tribune and Comcast did an amazing job training me. So no, the only thing I would tell my younger self though when it came to starting my business is right out the gay focus on recurring revenue. Recurring revenue is the key to any sort of long-term sustainable business. So that's what I would tell.
So the actual younger self and my sales journey, how I got to where I am today, no, I wouldn't change any of it [inaudible 00:20:52]. I had some great mentors, Gladys Arroyo, Debbie Buckley, Tim Hagee. Those were all three of my bosses and they were just all great people who really showed me the ropes in a world that ... I mean, because here's the funny thing. So I went to college, got a polysci degree. I never took a business class in my life. I never took a marketing class in my life. So all this stuff I was taught, it was on the job training. It was basically somebody thought I would be good in marketing and I-
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
And look at you today.
Rick Rivero:
... and I got a job offer at the Tribune. And yeah, here we are 25 years later.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
Wow. What an inspiring story and what an inspiring message, Rick. And you're doing the same thing because when I met you, you had some mentees with you there too. So you're paying it forward, which is great. I think that's a lesson and we'll close with this that as much as things change, they remain the same. I think we started with that by talking about the fundamentals of our practice and how you can change the kind of attire, the outward dressing, if you will, but the inner core remains the same. And so your inner core to that point, Rick, is to be a successful man, to do what you do well now as an entrepreneur, but the foundation has to be there.
And then you can just kind of pivot to what it is that your heart and passions drive you toward, which is why I do this podcast because my heart and passions are driven toward this and having the opportunity to talk to wonderful guests like Rick Rivero and others who join me on this platform. And all of you listeners, again, this is our eighth year doing this Marketing Insights. It's number one on McGraw Hill's platform for marketing podcasts, which is very exciting. Continue to like, share, subscribe, let folks know to tune in and listen, especially to this episode with Rick. And until next time, which will be our very best time, this is Shanita Baraka Akintonde signing off. Subscribe to us wherever you find your favorite podcast. So that's on iTunes, Google Play, Audible, et cetera, et cetera. You can follow me on LinkedIn at Professor Shanita Akintonde or on Twitter @_shanitaspeaks. Rick, thank you. We are going to stay in touch. I am your new BSF-
Rick Rivero:
Thank you.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
... whether you know it or not, much respect to you and thank you again.
Rick Rivero:
Thank you for the invite. I really appreciate it.
Shanita Baraka Akintonde:
All right. Bye.
Rick Rivero:
Bye.
