Lauren Oakes spent her formative years in New York working for a digital analytics company, Nudge Analytics, which sparked her interest in the media industry. The broad learning palette in the fast-paced environment helped her keep excited. She needed a role that was constantly evolving and challenging at the same time. And what better industry could she fall for?
There can’t be a better way to express yourself especially when you know your Why. Lauren understands the power of this new-age marketing method called Targeted Digital Marketing. No wonder why she celebrates being the CEO of Megaphone Marketing.
The Inception and Uncertainty
The Megaphone was established 10 years ago by Max Hertan with a mission to change the way traditional workplace functions. He always followed an entrepreneurial lifestyle by combining interests and striking a balance between brand marketing and performance. Though this may appear straightforward, Megaphone was created to help businesses grow while validating its business model.
Discussing the current scenario of the media industry, customer preferences have been changing constantly especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The uncertainties were confining but the Megaphone team reassessed their strategies with a positive outcome. They acted fast, pivoted all of their clients to an e-commerce offering. Their business currently stands with 70% e-commerce brands which are exactly where the stability in the industry has been. Along with this, the Company believes that digital marketing is the only reliable source of marketing amid the pandemic because the huge involvement of customers in businesses became the sudden norm.
Propelling Wheels of Motivation
Taking a broad view of marketing will benefit, Lauren supervises all four departments at Megaphone, i.e. Acquisitions, Sales, Accounts, and Hiring & Ops. Her focus is across the Sales and Hiring & Ops teams. She admits that hiring has the biggest impact on the growth of the Company because it demands the ability to hire consistent top performers. Like every penny counts, she has been involved in every interview to date.
Lauren is proud of being a CEO at the age of 27, and she celebrates this personal achievement by focusing on maintaining the culture of Megaphone which is to continue staff enjoyment and retention. She is responsible for the 100% per year growth rate in 2020 and 2021. It’s magnificent! The devotion pushed her towards receiving Bronze in the global Stevie Awards for the Chief Happiness Officer in 2020. The celebration didn’t stop here when they won the Top Social Media Agency of the year in 2021.
Personalization and Transparency
Megaphone engages, not just sells. Since customers are the most important part of the process, the Company values individual customer feedback throughout the year. They understand what their clients value which helps them set minimums for delivery across the entire team.
Note: Minimums are significantly more than their competitors, i.e. as accounts are analyzed and edited every day. New ads are made each week and each account is looked over by four different experts each month. Even the smallest clients have their head of strategy and head of accounts review them. Megaphone implements personalization correctly which helps it to grow business and assert happy clients.
Authenticity matters at Megaphone. It upholds everyone within the company to a very high standard. At a time when customers are more empowered than ever before, being genuine is the only way to win their trust. With its product, Megaphone is inclined towards user-generated content to create a more genuine approach to marketing. People use a product or service based on real reviews which build confidence rather than a TV ad. Similarly, the same formula works for copywriting with genuine reviews and testimonials.
Aiming for Future Scaling
As Megaphone works on result-based, they are more into Google, Facebook, and Instagram advertisements. Slowly but effectively they are shifting to a constantly-evolving market. For example, after witnessing the growth of TikTok in 2021, it is included in their core offering. It’s clearly known that they will keep testing out new platforms and services as they arise, and put focus on the ones that generate.
“The more you learn and push yourself in the industry, the more you are going to grow and get out of it.”
