#10 - Chris Aarons: Digital Marketing, Branding, Consumer Psychology, Celeb Encounters

The Smart Alec Show

Chris Aarons is a digital marketing expert running his own consultancy — Chris Aarons Strategy + Marketing. He’s a lecturer at UT Austin and St. Edward’s University, has an MBA from Pepperdine Business School, and above all is an incredible guy. Uncannily knowledgable on topics ranging from sports, fashion, music, food, cocktails, and almost anything else, Chris is not only a friend of the show but perhaps the most easy-going and cool professor of all time.

Connect with Chris:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caarons/

Website: https://www.chrisaarons.com

Timestamps real:

0:00 Intro

0:55 Chris’s expertise in Digital Marketing, why he pivoted out of Public Relations and finds Marketing a lot better

4:39 How Chris leveraged influencer marketing in its infancy in the 2000s

7:40 The Evolution of Social Media, “Social Dilemma”, the Kardashians commanding millions of $ per post, is this all good or bad?

9:57 What makes good digital marketing?

• “The Right brand, doing the right things at the right time, worthy of evangelism”

12:11 What makes a brand worthy of evangelism?

• Brand loyalty and brand persona implications
• 17:30 iPhone v android, Apple’s investment into psychology and optimization of the Apple experience
• 18:40 The most powerful brands that don’t even market their product

19:11 How humans being “narcissistic bastards” plays into marketing?

• We love ourselves; it’s hard to buy things that don’t resonate with with us
• Social proof that resonates serves as a mental shortcut to purchase

26:53 Russell Westbrook trying to get a triple-double in a charity game

30:59 Chris meeting Colin Kaepernick

• Why he started kneeling
• 36:08 “The simple answer is rarely the best answer”

38:32 Chris’s favorite vodka, admiration for the hard seltzer category’s emergence and marketing in recent years

40:10 NBA 2021 Champion Prediction

42:23 Chris’s advice for those trying to break into digital marketing

Podcast info:

• Podcast website: https://smartalecshow.com
• RSS feed: feed:https://feeds.simplecast.com/ngBH2BfM
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/634MOIW582k2STgC06Rvl9?si=Zr4Fmx2nR6mqaeWNpFCfQQ&dl_branch=1
• Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-smart-alec-show/id1577614268
• Amazon Music & Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/96993c84-1664-4a67-921d-9b731fbdca99

Connect with Alec on Social:

- Linktree to all platforms: https://linktr.ee/smartalec

Recorded in December 2020