Coworking with Priscilla Barolo

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Priscilla Barolo is head of marketing and communications at Neat, a video technology company. Before joining Neat, she was head of communications at Zoom.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Zoom’s IPO—and probably not for the reason you’d think. It exposed me to aspects of business I knew little to nothing about. Legal, finance, investment banking, compliance. I know I’m doing something exciting if I have to Google half the terms that are being thrown around in the room. That was me in pretty much every meeting for nine months straight. What I brought to the table was a deep understanding of the company, its culture, and its customers. Others involved in the process brought their knowledge of technical aspects, business processes, finance, and more. Coming together as a team, we pulled off impressive results. The experience taught me I didn’t have to “fake it ’til I make it” to be a valuable contributor; I just brought my own perspective and experience to the table.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I loved the Burger King campaign that showed a burger getting moldy to show it has no preservatives, though I was apparently alone in that. It was a disastrous campaign. People want to see yummy burgers. It was a good lesson to not get too clever, but I do love it when people are clever. A couple of years ago, Twilio Segment had billboards up in San Francisco that said, “Good morning, LA!” I thought it was a great way to show the importance of using “good” data in business decisions.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I have severe ADHD. It appears in some unexpected ways, like, I destroy approximately one fidget toy per week through overuse, and I tend to fly into meetings like a bat out of hell. But in other ways, it’s a bit of a superpower. I am high-energy and flexible. I easily switch between tasks all day. I make decisions quickly. I am mindful that everyone digests information in all kinds of ways. It can’t all be webinars and e-books because some of us just won’t consume that kind of content. We need the 30-second video, the infographic, etc. I feel fortunate to be in a profession that works well for my brain. If I were a grant writer or an accountant, I’d probably lose my mind daily.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? Honestly, I don’t pay a lot of attention to trends right now. Not because I’m above it—I think great practitioners keep their ear to the ground—but right now, I’m focused on getting the basics right: Having the right marketing mix, treating leads properly when they come through our door, and showing up in places where people are looking for us. I candidly don’t have the wherewithal to consume a ton of marketing news at the moment. As for optimism, I love to see brands experimenting and producing genuinely fun and unique experiences. We don’t all have the Barbie movie’s marketing budget, but I think we can all learn from some of their more fun installations, like their collab with Airbnb on Barbie’s Malibu DreamHouse to promote both brands. It’s a good lesson, even for those of us with smaller budgets, to save some mental and resource space for experimentation and new ideas.

Last year, it was hard to see brands waffling on pride support. I think the commoditization of activism has downsides, but I’ve also seen the impact of how corporate stances matter to employees. It’s part of the process of society embracing more progressive issues. I’d like to see brands do a better job of gaming out the potential consequences of their actions. If they decide to support a cause or partner with someone, stick to it.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? This may sound basic, but I’ve found Hubspot’s blog to be a great resource as a massive archive of marketing and comms best practices.