Season 3 Episode 4
Variety’s Transformation: Dea Lawrence on Digital Strategy, and Fandom

Listen on
Spotify

Listen on
Apple Podcasts

Listen on

RESOURCES   ❯   The Marketing Rapport Podcast

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Marketing Rapport, Dea Lawrence, Chief Operating and Marketing Officer at Variety, joins Tim Finnigan to discuss Variety’s evolution in the digital age. Dea shares her unique career path, transitioning from acting to sales and eventually leading Variety’s marketing strategy. She highlights the importance of understanding your product and aligning sales and marketing efforts.

Dea explains how Variety, a 120-year-old brand, stays relevant by embracing digital platforms, engaging fan communities, and creating video content like the Emmy-winning “Actors on Actors.” She emphasizes the need to balance data analysis with intuition when making strategic decisions. Dea also discusses Variety’s successful expansion into music and plans to explore the gaming and sports industries.

Dea shares her leadership style and the challenges of managing a multi-generational workforce. She advocates for promoting from within based on merit and dedication. Finally, Dea touches on her Emmy-winning experience as an executive producer and Variety’s commitment to thought leadership through exclusive summits and events

Guest-at-a-Glance

Key Insights

• Balancing Data with Intuition
  Effective marketing requires a balance of data analysis and intuition. While data provides valuable insights into consumer behavior and market trends, it shouldn’t replace intuition. Dea Lawrence points out that relying solely on data can lead to missed opportunities. Intuition, informed by experience and a deep understanding of your target audience, allows marketers to interpret data creatively and make innovative decisions. This balance is crucial for developing successful marketing strategies that resonate with consumers on an emotional level, particularly in industries like entertainment where trends and preferences can shift rapidly. A data-driven approach helps identify what’s working, while intuition helps anticipate what will work next.

• Staying Relevant in a Changing Landscape
  Maintaining relevance for established brands requires a willingness to adapt and innovate. Variety, a 120-year-old brand, demonstrates this by embracing digital platforms and engaging younger audiences through social media, video content, and events. Dea Lawrence emphasizes the importance of evolving with the times and understanding how to keep an older brand feeling young and fresh. This includes focusing on current trends like fandom and social video. By diversifying content and exploring new platforms, Variety maintains its position as a leading voice in the entertainment industry while attracting new generations of readers and viewers. This approach ensures the brand remains current and continues to resonate with audiences.

• The Power of Thought Leadership
  Thought leadership is not just a buzzword; it’s a powerful tool for establishing credibility and driving business growth. Dea Lawrence explains how Variety uses summits, events, and insightful content to solidify its position as a thought leader in the entertainment industry. Rather than simply claiming thought leadership, Variety actively creates opportunities for dialogue and knowledge sharing. This includes bringing together industry experts, studio heads, and other key players to discuss important trends and challenges. By demonstrating expertise and providing valuable insights, Variety attracts a loyal audience and establishes trust within the industry. This proactive approach positions Variety as a go-to resource and strengthens its brand reputation.

Episode Highlights

Variety’s Business Transformation
[00:07:00 – 00:13:00]

Variety’s shift from a print-focused publication to a digital-first brand involved several key strategies. Dea Lawrence describes the challenges of transitioning from a reliance on print revenue to embracing digital advertising and subscriptions. This included building a strong social media presence, creating engaging video content, and recognizing the value of their social media platform. Dea also highlights the importance of understanding the market value of their products and aligning sales and marketing strategies. Variety’s diversified approach, including a focus on events and consumer advertising, contributed to their profitability and growth in the digital landscape.

“The very first thing you have to do is, first of all, understand your product, understand the value in the marketplace, and make sure that the product is aligned with sales and marketing. And that is what we did. And then we started selling social.”

The Evolving Media Industry
[00:09:00 – 00:15:00]

The media landscape has undergone significant changes, particularly with the rise of programmatic advertising and the increasing importance of data. Dea discusses how Variety adapted to these shifts by focusing on digital strategies and targeting younger audiences. She notes that understanding data is crucial for reaching specific demographics and achieving marketing goals, while also balancing this with intuition and industry knowledge. Dea emphasizes that Variety has successfully navigated these changes by staying ahead of trends and understanding audience preferences.

“We do look at the data. We always look at our data. We look at who our audience is. We look at where the audience is coming from. 25% of our audience is international, outside the United States.”

Leadership and the New Workforce
[00:18:00 – 00:21:00]

Leading a multi-generational workforce presents unique challenges. Dea Lawrence discusses the changing expectations of younger employees and the need to balance ambition with the understanding of paying dues and investing time in skill development. She emphasizes the importance of finding fulfillment in a role, even if it includes less desirable tasks. Dea advocates for open communication and a focus on continuous learning and growth within an organization. She also highlights the importance of recognizing and rewarding hard work, while also setting realistic expectations for career progression.

“What I would say to anyone is, whatever it is that you’re doing, make sure that you’re the very best at it, and that you have fully invested yourself in where you are before you start looking to go to the next step.”

Future of Variety and Emerging Trends
[00:21:00 – 00:24:00]

Variety’s future strategy involves diversifying revenue streams and expanding into new areas like gaming and sports. Dea Lawrence discusses the importance of exploring emerging trends and technologies to stay ahead of the curve. She highlights Variety’s focus on thought leadership through summits and events, particularly in areas like AI and the intersection of sports and entertainment. This proactive approach allows Variety to remain relevant and continue to provide valuable insights to their audience while expanding their reach into new markets.

“We want to keep diversifying our products so that our revenue streams are coming in from, let’s say, e-commerce — e-commerce is very important to us — so that we’re not solely dependent on selling advertising or selling subscriptions.”

Top Quotes

[00:14:00] Dea Lawrence: “How do we keep this very old brand young? How do we make it look fresh and new so that it’s not, you know, “Oh, that’s Variety”?”

[00:04:00] Dea Lawrence: “Let me just start by saying I did not transform Variety alone. There is a large team of people at Variety, all very passionate, highly engaged.”

[00:11:00] Dea Lawrence: “The very first thing you have to do is understand your product and its value in the marketplace. Ensure that the product is aligned with sales and marketing. That is what we did, and then we started selling social. We had to figure out what else we were going to sell because print was still doing well.”

[00:21:00] Dea Lawrence: “Whatever it is that you’re doing, make sure that you’re the very best at it, and that you have fully invested yourself in where you are before you start looking to go to the next step.”

[00:27:00] Dea Lawrence: “We’re extremely smart about what we do and how we spend our money. So we start small.”

[00:25:00] Dea Lawrence: “When new hires come in, they think, “Oh, Variety.” I always say in the job interview, “Don’t think we’re this old-timey newspaper,” because when you come here, you’ll see how fast-paced it is and how much we’re doing. I think people are taken aback.”