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Hamid Saify is CMO of the energy-drink brand Lucky Energy. He previously worked at Liquid Death, and he has worked at agencies like Doner and Deutsch.
Favorite project you’ve worked on? There have been so many of them at Lucky Energy, but I loved our Art Basel project where we took trash and other items curated from Art Basel trash cans and repurposed them as “art,” selling them on the website ArtBaselTrash.com, and donating proceeds and making a contribution to charity to support a local inner-city arts program in Miami. I loved this the most because we can take a jab at the subjective nature of art while cleaning up Miami and doing something for a great cause. We received really good feedback on social for this project and were able to sell quite a bit of the trash as well—which included things like Baby Taker (a used condom), fake Leonardo DiCaprio first-class plane tickets, and unopened cans of our competitors’ drinks.
What’s your favorite ad campaign? The Converse ads with Larry Johnson, where they introduced Grandmama as a fictional character played by Larry. It was a culturally fun moment for kids in that time, and it catapulted Converse as a player for a period of time in basketball.
More recently, I loved the Coinbase campaign “Update the System,” which in a very simple way shows you the regression much of middle-class America has made in terms of standard of living in the last 30 years. I thought it was so beautifully done.
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One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I love reality television. Bravo is just my pleasure—I’m not even guilty about it. The community built around these shows is the most intriguing thing. How “good guys” and “bad guys” are edited and crafted. How the stars in these shows play to their personas and how they grow and evolve as fame becomes a bigger part of their lives. It’s all fascinating.
What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m optimistic about the idea of marketing being entertainment. This is something we did well during my time at Liquid Death, but I think brands are starting to realize that boring-ass brand marketers probably aren’t going to have the most breakthrough ideas.
I’m least optimistic about AI—not that I’m not optimistic overall about it, I just think there are certain parts of making campaigns that feel best with humanity, emotions, and the support of actual talented people in our industries. That’s something I’m not farming out.
What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? I do love Hidden Brain. It’s not marketing specific but is a deeper dissection on psychology and why humans behave the way they do. That’s the pursuit I’m most interested in.
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