Episode 231 / Jill Cress / H&R Block / Chief Marketing and Experience Officer
How Audiences Drive Marketing Effectiveness
Jill’s career spans multiple roles in financial services, with some time spent at National Geographic, before rejoining the finance world at PayPal and now at H&R Block. She believes strongly in the power of audiences for driving marketing strategy, which is why she’s picked this as her Shiny New Object.
Audiences have, of course, always mattered. Ultimately, says Jill, the role of a value proposition is understanding who your brand is serving - what matters to them and who is that client?
But, in today’s world, having access to real-time data and more sophisticated insights, following the audience doesn’t mean following the traditional customer personas. For Jill, getting at who the audience is influences how you market to them, but also how you create personalised experiences. A successful marketer needs to be able to evolve this based on continuous insights.
“It starts with data,” explains Jill. Organising it and creating empathy with the consumer enables marketers to generate content that resonates. Having access to real-time feedback gives them an opportunity to adjust and test, continuing to meet the customers where they are doing really important jobs for them.
Listen to the full episode to hear more of Jill’s tips and listen to her advice for starting out in the industry.
Concerned about hitting those Q4 marketing goals?
Most marketers are feeling an increase in pressure to deliver marketing efficiency by the end of the year. Your budgets for 2024 depend on it, and so does this and next year’s success. At Automated Creative, we’ve got solutions to help you take control of your end-of-year campaigns.
Developed together with the World Federation of Advertisers and our clients at Brown-Forman and Mars, our white paper “Compounding Creative: An Urgent Q4 Wake-up Call” sets out the biggest mistakes marketers might be making with their Q4 campaigns and shows you actionable steps you can take today to boost results by the end of the year.
Read it here and get in touch to see how we can help increase creative effectiveness.
Transcript
The following gives you a good idea of what was said, but it’s not 100% accurate.
Jill Cress 0:00
We look at the total addressable market of the US we've got 150 million plus people who pay taxes every year, but they have different needs, states, different financial situations and getting at who they are is a really important part of not only how we market to them but how we create really personalized experiences.
Tom Ollerton 0:17
This holiday season marketers are facing their biggest decisions at a point of maximum pressure, delivery fatigue and budget crunch are real and it's leading to complacency around creative effectiveness in digital marketing and that could make or break campaigns. So what can you do about it? Well, you should read the automated creative white paper called compound and creative and urgent q4 Wake up call. So you can get this on this bitly link which is Bit.ly/Q4XMAS2023. Enjoy.
Welcome to the shiny new object podcast. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of automated creative the creative effectiveness ad tech platform. And every week I get to interview one of our industry's leaders about their vision for the future of our industry. And this week is no different. I'm on a call with Jill Cress, who is Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at H&R Block. Jill, for anyone who doesn't know who you are and what you do. Could you give the audience some background?
Speaker 1 1:36
Absolutely. And thanks for having me, Tom. I am a marketer at heart. I started my career in banking, quickly moved to MasterCard, where I fell in love with financial services and understanding people's relationship with money. I had a long and I had a long and rewarding career there for over 20 years, I left to become the Chief Marketing Officer at National Geographic where we unlocked the power of the explorer and adventurer in all of us, went back into financial services and joined PayPal. And I am now at h&r block, which is a company that helps people with their taxes, but is really a company that is grounded in its purpose of providing help and inspiring confidence around what can be a really intimidating moment in their year financially.
Tom Ollerton 2:34
So in that extensive career in financial services marketing, you must have worked with a lot of people. And I'm keen to know how you want to be remembered. So you must have managed tons, hired tons, lots of different locations. But if someone was gonna go, oh, yeah, I remember working with Jill she was dot dot dot, what would that be?
Jill Cress 2:53
I have had the opportunity to meet so many interesting people throughout my career, particularly at MasterCard, where I had the opportunity to travel to really interesting places and understand culture and people's background, I am really curious per, I'm a really curious person. And so one of the things that has mattered most to me is the relationships that I've built, and how I have learned about the people that I met their backgrounds, their stories. And so I guess what I would really hope is that people would remember me as someone who cared about them, as someone who challenged them as someone who was not only invested in their career, but invested in who they were, as a human, I just had this amazing, rewarding experience of being invited to a wedding for a woman who I worked with, in my time at PayPal, she was a marketer on my team. She was always one of the most valuable people in the room, she grew in her career, she was promoted. I no longer work with her but have become friends with her and continue to mentor her from afar. And she invited me and my family to her wedding recently in Scotland. And that was a real testament of what your career is all about. It's not only what you achieve, but it's about the relationships and the impact that you have on the people around you.
Tom Ollerton 4:35
So I have this theory Jill, which is you can measure how great a person you are on how many weddings you get invited to.
Jill Cress 4:43
I've had a good run this summer so I'm feeling good.
Tom Ollerton 4:46
I really haven't so one thing but I think like if you're gonna make the list of family right you gotta get invited doesn't count if you found me to get any points zero right but you gotta plus one. If someone who is not related to you or you have you have to be there for some other reason. If I It's your wedding that that's your score. You know, I think that's really important. So I back in Europe, there was some some data, I think you just made me think that I know, find a good way to articulate this. But you will, you will forget that literally every slide in PowerPoint you've ever seen, I'm sure pretty much very quickly, but you will remember all of those those moments and those people I was even speaking my data, but we can't. And he said, he's 30 years older than me and long retired and he says he still wakes up arguing with his old boss, gentlemen. So yeah, and I think it's the point I said briefly, like you're carrying challenging and supporting their career and interested in in them as a human, and I genuinely feel like gets lost a lot. So that's a fantastic answer to that question, but I'm gonna get down to brass tacks now. So what is your top marketing tip? What is that silver bullet bit of advice that you give your teams or find yourself trying out most often,
Jill Cress 5:52
one of the things that continues to play true in my career is understanding how your own values line up to the purpose of the company that you're working with. I've had the good fortune to work at companies who are all really grounded in purpose from h&r block to MasterCard, National Geographic and Pay Pal. And I think if you are clear about what matters to you, what matters to the company, and what you're really good at, I think about three concentric circles.
Tom Ollerton 6:25
This sounds like the ikigai, Japanese philosophy of what you love to do, what you're good at, what you get paid for.
Jill Cress 6:32
That's exactly it. That's exactly it. And I think that what you're good at has to sync up to what matters to you, as well, and sort of that that higher, higher purpose of the impact that you want to have. And yeah, so I think you just you said it better than I could.
Tom Ollerton 6:52
So how would someone do that? Right? So I'm a grad, I just want a job, man. I just want to get off the couch. And I want to get into a brand or an agency. And you know what, like, if they're greenwashing and guzzling have all kinds of resources. But I just need to get a start. How would you suggest someone balances that?
Jill Cress 7:12
It's a great question, particularly in this economy, I think finding work is sometimes more important than finding meaningful work. And I think sometimes there is a choice to be made in that. And I guess it's really a balance. And if you're fortunate enough to, even as you you make a choice, listen, I started my career in banking. And I thought that was going to be a way for me to build out my my acumen and all the capabilities that I needed to understand how markets were made, and how business gets done. Even in that decision, I was able to find purpose in the people. Again, it goes back to the people that I worked with, and, and learning from them. And not to say that banking isn't isn't highly relevant. But it was through that experience that I ultimately found my way to MasterCard, where I was able to connect to a higher purpose. And so I think in one's journey, we have to make decisions and make those trade offs, I believe that even if it isn't at the highest level of corporate purpose, that aligned to one's personal values, there will be bright spots within an organization within a team that you work on and finding where you know, those those places, whether it's a project, whether it's someone you're working with, whether it's an external partner, where you can really find that synergy of, of energy and like mindedness of of purpose or ambition, where you start to thrive and grow.
Tom Ollerton 8:59
So we're going to move on now to your shiny new object, which is the role of audiences. So I know what you mean, because we chatted about this before the show, but what is the role of audiences to someone who has no idea why is that your shiny object?
Jill Cress 9:14
Audience has always mattered in marketing and product development. I think I have been fascinated by what I later learned in life to be value proposition since a very young age. One of the first thing one of the first jobs that I had was when I was 10. And I organized a summer camp for kids. I called it kiddie camp. And I created a flyer and a brochure and I got it the pain points of of moms who just needed some free time in the morning and I dragged kids around the neighborhood in a wagon with a friend and took them to the park. And that was really again, you know, it was the job of those hours that I could could spend with those kids doing for the moms who needed time. I've always been fascinated by the job of marketing to solve pain points for humans. And as I've grown in a career that definitely was largely oriented around marketing, but also spent a lot of time in in sales and strategy. The role of a value prop is really grounded in understanding, well, who are you serving? Who is that client. And, you know, in traditional marketing, in the Leanback era, where people were watching TV, you needed to understand who your audience was, so you could find them and create content that would resonate with them. Today, we have such a robust opportunity to understand who is our audience and not only where to find them, but through what we can do in the way of creating really delightful personalized experiences that work from how we attract them in media, how we bring them into our experience. through.com how we personalize that through journeys that get at their pain points, is really, really exciting. And so, at h&r block, we're really doubling down on understanding who who are we for? And how can this work that we do of providing help around that moment of tax and giving clients confidence really help them and that if we look at the total addressable market of the US, we've got 150 million plus people who pay taxes every year, but they have different needs states different financial situations, and getting at who they are is a really important part of not only how we market to them, but how we create really personalized experiences. So it's taking that audience work and applying it new and exciting ways. And the audience that I'm absolutely fascinated with at the moment is the audience that's comprised of the gig economy, and we're doing a lot to really understand that.
Tom Ollerton 12:11
This episode of the shiny new object podcast is brought to you in partnership with Madfest whether it's live in London or streamed online to the global marketing community, you can always expect the distinctive and daring blend of fast paced content startup innovation pitches and unconventional entertainment from Madfest events, you'll find me causing trouble on stage recording live versions of this podcast and sharing a beer with the nicest and most influential people in marketing. Check it out at www.madfestlondon.com.
So how on earth do you start this process? So 150 million taxpayers? I mean, we can sort of slice it up by age sector, but then the emotions that people are going to be going into around in tax season you've got the last minute Larry's, you've got the you know, been there been there and done it all before. I've been worked in and around financial services in one way or another a fair bit in my career. And I've always thought that it's a it's a massively emotional subject, right? Banking, exactly the mechanics of banking, no, but the impact of finance is, so not only have you got different age groups, different sectors, like you know, English and Spanish in the US, you've got all of these different things. And then you've got to be representative of that audience. From a visual and written perspective. How on earth do you start building out multivariate experiences, from advertising through to site through to all of these journeys? That sounds like a big job?
Jill Cress 13:44
It's a big and exciting job. And of course, it starts with data. You got at it, Tom, which is, you know, we have to understand what's on the hearts and minds of these audiences. And we look at it through lots of different cuts, what is the total addressable market? Where is their headroom for growth? What is our share versus the competition? What matters in the short term versus what matters in in the long term? And then, of course, there's really the overlay of what's happening economically, which is a big reality for Americans as we enter this upcoming tax season as it relates to financial stress and challenges on making ends meet, etc. So, you know, we have an audience strategy that is driven by, as you said, life stage, needs state stage income bracket tax complexity, and then we prioritize and work to get at it. And so as I said, then, you know, we've got the, the total opportunity and then we get into some traditional marketing terms of those who are our prime prospects and understanding how how we can do All the things that you just shared in a really effective way with them. And, you know, as I said, I'm pretty fascinated by by the gig economy. And then of course, like many brands, we have to win with Gen Z. And we have to be a brand for them today so that they will stick with us in the future as they continue to grow and, and become more more complex as it relates to their their earning potential and what that means and how we can continue to serve them. We've got this really interesting legacy at h&r block, we're 70 year old company. And in season, we have 60 million tax preparers. We do millions of hours of conversations with Americans every year. So again, we have the data, but we also know what's on their hearts and minds. And we really feel like we have this privileged front row seat into what it means to be an American today, someone who's, you know, kind of emerging within their income opportunity, someone who's striving to do better, or someone who's just getting by to make ends meet and those who are, who are doing well but have higher ambitions around their legacy and what they want to leave. So lots of really exciting cohorts and, and how we bring our capabilities and, you know, human expertise into how we serve them. And also how that human expertise and all those years of experiences is really serving our our corpus of knowledge as we we think about things like AI to serve them even more efficiently. So yeah, there's a lot going on.
Tom Ollerton 16:43
So tell me about your interest in the gig economy. That sounds like it's coming from a very genuine place. So does that mean you've got like a side hustle in the gig economy, Jill? Or is it people you know, or is it? They're an interesting client? Because just help me understand why that's a fixation for you?
Jill Cress 17:00
Well, you know, I think this is one of those external trends, that is pretty fascinating to understand. The American workforce is absolutely changing. And it's, it's at this intersection of what has me curious about Gen Z, and younger generations are less interested in the grind of a nine to five job and gravitate towards more entrepreneurial work. And so we're in a world where there's an opportunity to thread together potentially more rewarding work with fewer formal jobs and what that means in the way of fewer, in tax talk, fewer W-2s, more 1099s, more gigs, more side hustles. And really understanding what is the impact on the American economy of what is, you know, a two sided economy. And so we've got close to 60 million total workers in the gig economy. And what's fascinating as we've got about $450 billion of value on the other side of that equation, and how users are embracing the gig economy, and so, you know, I hit on a couple of things that matter at h&r block, which are those tax-y things, right? So as your as Americans are embracing the opportunity to either have a side hustle or embrace what gig provides them in the way of flexibility. They have things like, you know, lots of 1099s, and how do they navigate that? How do they understand what they can expense, et cetera? Can we be a brand that brings that level of expertise in and care to them. And so it's fascinating when you think about it. And it's a really complex, not complex, it's a really interesting set of categories. I think we all traditionally think of gig as rideshare, you know, brands like Uber and Lyft. And, and then we go to understanding things like delivery where we can get, you know, food delivered to us, but then there's everything that's happening in the way of caregiving for humans and pets fashion, and how Americans are embracing the gig economy and how Gen Z are wanting to upcycle and be responsible and what that means for marketplaces like Poshmark. There's the rental economy where, you know, it started with renting out lodging, but now you can rent out your car with things like Toro, my daughter just moved into an apartment and she hired a Task Rabbit, a Tasker to come in and help her build some stuff. And she said, it was fascinating to just sit there and observe how quickly they could get through some of those tasks. So you start to look at that and think, you know, what is the opportunity that those who are embracing that kind of work are seeking? And what are the things that We can can do for them. And when we market to them and bring them into a dotcom experience, how do we bring them into a product experience that starts with the multitude of 1099s that they might have. So I don't want to get too tax-y, sometimes I think we get excited about taxes at h&r block, but you start to see where it all comes together. And I think it's just a fascinating intersection of opportunity for both consumers and those who are serving those consumers through some of those categories that I talked about.
Tom Ollerton 20:36
And how are you making your customer profiles big enough to encompass large groups of people, because you're dealing with a ginormous market, but still have enough accurate information? I mean, I've worked with agencies for years. And I remember seeing those briefs with things like, this is Steve, he's 26. He loves his mobile phone. I'm like, what and just the nonsense, like pictures, stock images of playing with his mobile phone. And you just think I understand that what you're trying to do is lump a group of people into a bucket into a group of people. But if Steve ever saw himself described as so the idea that that is the foundation for strategy, and that is the foundation for creative always terrifies me, you don't have a niche kind of got everyone really in a sense. So how do you make sure that your personas are useful to the people delivering the creative off the back of them?
Jill Cress 21:30
Yeah, I love that as you're right, you kind of have these traditional, you know, meet Steve, the persona, we're fortunate to be in a world where we have so much data today, and to really lead you know, we're leading less with a persona and really leading more with data and trends and trying to get at those, those pain points. And using that to inform how we think about the role of claims that we can make, and how those claims come to life for different audiences. You know, so you think about something as broad as Gen Z, a subset of Gen Z, that's really important to us, are college students who will be transitioning out of college into their first job. And what we can do in the way of working with a collection of you know, content is also becoming so diverse, we talk about the role of a content supply chain, and how we can personalize that and how we can automate it and make it dynamic. But it really starts with understanding, you know, what is the need state and kind of, you know, how do you start adulting and taking on filing a tax return for the first time. And that gets into more of the intimidation factor and sort of, you know, understanding for that audience, it's about it's about ease simplification, being able to do it yourself from online from anywhere, leveraging, as I said, that corpus of knowledge that we have to make that to make that easy. I think personas are interesting, because it helps to think of them as, as you said they they have to inform the brief, but they create empathy and they do allow us to put ourselves into those prospects' shoes and really understand them. Beyond the persona. I think what's really important is spending time with real customers, we've got a tremendous passion, tremendous team of insights, and researchers at h&r block, who really helped us to illuminate those audiences, and take that data and humanize it through not only satisfaction data that we have on them, like, you know, from Medallia and other places, but through real discussions with them, where they help us to ride along and and unpack why are things so intimidating? What does it mean to be really financially challenged? For example, for families right now, as they're thinking about the holiday season ahead and and how products that we have like a Holiday Loan? How does it really help them how important it is not only for the joy of the holidays, but for the functional things like putting food on the table, and just really, really hearing from those those clients. Anyway, I put I put a lot into that. But it's it's leveraging the data. It's organizing the data, it's creating empathy, it's checking in with your customers. And most importantly, we get, we have real time data now so we know if the content we're creating is resonating with our audience. We have an opportunity to leverage tools that allow us to you know, adjust and test and continue to meet those customers where they are by doing really important jobs for them.
Tom Ollerton 25:01
Jill, unfortunately, we're at time. But you've taught me a lot and demonstrated how much you care about tax. And that is fantastic. And to hear that, that genuine voice to talk with such passion about the subject area has been a real treat for me. So thank you, if someone wanted to get in touch with you to discuss your role, or any of the points that we've covered today, where would you like them to get in touch? And what makes the kind of message that you will actually reply to?
Jill Cress 25:31
I'm very active on LinkedIn, so you can find me there. And message me and I often respond to something that is a reflection of the humanity and why you're interested in connecting on the thing that we kicked this call off on relationship, as opposed to selling me something, lead with something that you care about, or is an interesting bit of information about you when you reach out.
Tom Ollerton 26:04
Fantastic. Jill, thank you so much for your time.
Jill Cress 26:06
Thanks, Tom.
Subscribe to the ‘Shiny New Object’ Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and Soundcloud.