Coworking with Becky Owen

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

Becky Owen is the global chief marketing officer of Billion Dollar Boy. Before that, she held creator marketing and branded content roles at Meta and the Walt Disney Company.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I really enjoyed the Maybelline mascara-tube campaign from last year, where eyelashes on trains and buses can be seen getting mascara reapplied to them as they travel along their routes. The concept was playful and surprising, the execution was brilliant, and most of all, I loved hearing the behind-the-scenes story on how the campaign came about. A marketing manager at Maybelline took to TikTok to describe the fun, impulsive idea that sparked the campaign and how she leaned into true creativity following CGI inspiration she saw online. I thought the result was charming and simple, yet creative, and found it to be an example of why you don’t always have to overthink in order to inspire community. It’s also a reminder that leading brands don’t always have marketing teams conducting months of research to execute campaigns. Sometimes it’s just a few marketers having fun with cultural moments like this one, which had a lasting impact.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I was a drama teacher in Birmingham for four years, teaching students ages four to 18. I taught elocution and acting—I often joke that I made my first living teaching kids how not to sound “Brummie,”though I personally find it a really charming accent. It was the most rewarding job I’ve ever had: teaching students from different backgrounds, capacities, and abilities, and watching them shine through the experience of being onstage. It was so fulfilling to witness their growth and accomplishments. I’m still connected to many of those students and am still witnessing their incredible achievements.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m optimistic about the evolution of community-launched trends and the value these can have in marketing. There’s a certain magic in the way brands are shaping their trend personality, which is defining how they participate in cultural moments in a way that is both enriching and respectful to the trend originator. Do they, themselves, take part in the trend, enhance the trend to something applicable to their services, or bring the concept into their own offering? Brands are learning that in order to get involved, they have to give back to the trend setter and the community, like many have with Tube Girl, for example. Brands helped skyrocket her career and benefited from being around a huge cultural moment, which (when done right) has no end in benefits. I expect to see more brands being strategic with their trend personality, because it not only provides cultural relevance but also allows them to participate in conversations and moments in a more natural way.

I’m least optimistic about the blanket, speedy adoption of any new technology. As soon as there’s an emerging technology, it seems like the industry panic runs to adopt it out of fear of being the last one to do so. I’m a fan of generative AI, and our company is operating in an emerging field where things don’t come with a rule book. But it’s not a good idea to blindly run to an emerging technology and adopt it into offerings without conducting thorough interrogation.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? Honestly, I gather a lot of marketing insight from different podcasts that I discover on TikTok—the algorithm is constantly offering up new thought leaders for me. But our very own senior marketing director hosts an incredible podcast called House of Content alongside two other hosts who have diverse and extensive marketing backgrounds. It’s a great place to get the scoop on trending topics and updates within the creator economy.