Photograph by Shane Van Boxtel/Image Studios
In the world of marketing, connection is everything — whether it’s creating campaigns that resonate with consumers or fostering internal collaboration. For Nikki Peroutka, the new president of Element, connection is at the heart of her leadership philosophy.
After 20 years in various roles at the De Pere-based integrated marketing agency, Peroutka took on the title of president July 1. Now, she’s leadingthe 45-person team into its next era.
Peroutka sat down with Insight to discuss the future of marketing, the role of artificial intelligence and what to do when you’re feeling frazzled by rapidly evolving digital trends.
Insight: You started with Element as an account assistant 20 years ago. How do you intend to grow the agency now as president?
Peroutka: Part of what I’m still determining is what growth means for Element. I’ve always attached the size of our agency to being successful. But after 20 years, that isn’t necessarily defining success, in my opinion, and I think what defines success is finding a good group of clients that appreciate the work we do and having long term partnerships, in addition to finding really good talent that is connected and passionate about what they do. I’ve really detached the idea of growth and success being determined by the size of our business. It’s about the quality of the people, both from our client side and the people who we employ. It’s about the connections that you make and, ultimately, that’s what we’re doing for our clients — connecting them to their customers and their prospects. As a staff, we connect with each other and I think when we connect with each other, we do our best work. To me, it is some of our secret sauce that makes what we do so special.
Artificial intelligence is a hot topic, particularly in marketing. How is Element utilizing AI for its clients and its own operations?
We developed a task force which is a cross-functional team of all the different departments in the agency. We took a lot of time to research the different tools and then tried to figure out how they applied to what we were doing on a day-to-day basis. We did find a couple tools that increased our operating efficiency, but nothing to date has replaced anything that we offer as experts in our field. We embrace technology, but we need to combine it with the skills and expertise of experienced marketers and leverage both of those things as a combined unit, versus thinking that technology can replace the human brain. Our task force is staying on top of different software, trends and solutions. It has given us greater capability from a paid media standpoint and how we target different audiences. There are some really savvy analytics tools that have allowed us to measure the performance of our marketing strategies. AI brings the data to the surface, but it still takes the human to come up with what those insights are and how we’re going to optimize that strategy. Marketing is just one of those industries that’s always impacted by constantly evolving technology. Right now AI is the buzzword, but honestly, it’s always been something that we’ve had to stay on top of and think about. We’re always making sure that we’re evaluating, incorporating what works and getting better.
Besides AI, are there any other trends that are on the forefront?
Consumer behavior is something that, in addition to technology, is always evolving. What are consumer demands as the space becomes more congested and flooded with more messages that are trying to grab people’s attention? We’re trying to offer more real time, personalized messaging, because that seems to catch the eye of our consumers. Consumers really just want authenticity. I think about different social strategies like video content and earned media that really showcase our brands in a more authentic light. Those services are becoming more and more relevant in the strategies we’re producing. Consumers are looking for brands that align with their values. Sustainability is a big one that we’re working on with a lot of different clients right now.
Do you have any advice for business leaders feeling overwhelmed by the vast digital marketing landscape?
It always comes back down to the basics. I think one of those basics is knowing and understanding your target audience. The beauty of marketing is that there is no right or wrong answer, and there are often multiple solutions to accomplish a goal. The things that I’ve seen work 20 years ago are some of the things that still work today. Just because there are all these digital marketing trends that everyone’s talking about doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be relevant to your particular situation. If you want to try those things then I do think partnering with an agency whose job is to stay on top of the cutting edge trends of marketing isn’t a bad idea, but it’s not the only solution. Some of these digital-focused strategies are great, and they can become very targeted and you can get all these analytics and data from it, but there are still some very basic things that tend to work. Sometimes it’s going back to the basics of understanding your competitive landscape, understanding what makes your business unique, understanding your audience and how to connect to them. Sometimes people have shiny object syndrome. Just because it is the latest and greatest doesn’t mean it’s applicable to your target audience. Take a step back to make sure that it’s relevant for your business and it’s going to be effective for your strategy and your audience.
What excites you the most about the future of marketing and Element?
We have a really clear vision of where we are headed, and I feel that rolling this out to the organization has created a lot of momentum and excitement about where we’re going. We have the vision, but the map to get there isn’t spelled out. That’s up to us to define as we go. And there are going to be times when we might take the wrong turn, or this road might get extremely winding, but ultimately it’s our course to design. I get excited about people wanting to be part of that vision. It’s building that culture of connection. When I see that happen, that’s what really excites me about the potential and the possibilities in the future, because we are only going to continue to build off of the great momentum that we’ve established over the last 20 years.
