Hello Brooklyn.
Two words that are so simple yet carry so much weight. Sure, Lil’ Wayne and Jay-Z rapped them on the latter’s American Gangster album in homage to the New York borough, but this spotlight isn’t about Weezy or Hova.
This is about Elisa Padilla.
Padilla is the woman who spearheaded the “Hello Brooklyn” campaign when the New Jersey Nets moved to New York in 2012 and rebranded themselves as the Brooklyn Nets. Billboards around Brooklyn were plastered in the Nets’ new colors — black and white — and rather than have lots of flash, the signage was adorned with the approachable greeting, not just in English, but in a host of languages. The campaign wasn’t so much about the Nets as it was about Brooklyn. Its people. Its history. Its community. The storytelling behind it was subtle, yet incredibly effective.
“We wanted to enter the borough in a humble way,” Padilla said. “We wanted to embrace the borough and have the borough embrace the team from day one. We knew that Brooklynnites were starving to have a team to call their own since the Dodgers left for Los Angeles.”
The campaign was a success, and it ultimately took gold in the Sports Media Marketing Awards for best overall integrated marketing campaign.
At the time, Padilla was chief marketing officer for BSE Global and was responsible for the Nets, the New York Islanders, and the two teams’ new home, the Barclays Center. Padilla led business strategy and analytics, oversaw Barclays Center arena marketing, and was in charge of both teams’ marketing and content management.
Since then, she’s been the head of product launch at Apple, the senior vice president of marketing for the Miami Marlins, and the senior vice president for creative strategy and partnership marketing for Roc Nation. Currently Padilla is a brand consultant and advisor, a role that allows her to help established brands with strategic thinking in areas where they want to continue to accelerate. Projects have varied in scope, from platform developments and rebrands to marketing strategies and customer acquisitions.
Padilla recently took time to talk about her career and how storytelling has played a major role throughout it.
As you develop marketing strategies for clients, what role does storytelling play in your development process?
Storytelling is critical in all aspects of marketing. In the development of a marketing strategy, it’s important to understand the brand’s positioning, what makes them authentic and how they are perceived in the consumer’s mind. This is all important because developing a brand story starts with authenticity and what the brand offers to its customers and why. What problem are they solving? Who are their competitors? What makes the brand better than their competitors? There is a lot to understand in order to frame a well thought out story that will be effective.
From your perspective, what makes a good story?
A good story evokes emotion in your target audience. It gives them goose bumps and they want to share it. There is a set up [beginning], the why [middle], and the payoff [end].
You’ve worked in sports and outside of sports. Does storytelling come easier in one versus the other?
I believe the principals are the same in sports and outside of sports. It’s about developing a theme that showcases the brand in the most relevant manner. I always think about evoking emotion, to drive action, and gain share of wallet.
When it comes to rebranding an organization, like you did with the Nets as well as with the Miami Marlins, or like you’ve done with some of your own clients, what’s the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge of a rebrand is making sure you have everyone’s buy in. You have to make sure the vision of what’s to come is embraced from the top down. If it’s not, you won’t be successful. Change is hard. It’s extremely hard for people who don’t like change and can’t see the outcome of the new.
What’s the most exciting part about a rebranding opportunity?
The discovery — the why of why are we doing this? Is it necessary? What’s the outcome? What’s the vision? So many questions. Once discovery is over, the work really starts. What’s the north star of the brand? What does success look like? Everyone’s story is different. Framing it up to a successful outcome is where you see the fruit of your labor.
How does your approach to storytelling have to change when you’re dealing with multiple platforms (in-venue, social, billboards, etc.)?
In storytelling, one size fits all doesn’t work. The marketing landscape has really changed. We need to think of digital first. How will this story translate in digital? By digital, I mean website, email, social media and in-venue. How will the consumer react to your content pending where they are physically? The most critical aspect is consistency. Your brand message must be consistent across the board or else you won’t be successful.
What brands do you admire for the way they tell stories?
Nike and Apple do it the best. Nike ties in culture to make their story relevant and resonate with its consumers. You never feel like they are “selling” you sneakers. It’s aspirational — changing the world whether you are an athlete or not. Apple makes you believe you need their products even before they hit the market. You know that they have created something to enhance your life and to do it better. Their approach to simplicity is what I admire the most.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
I’d tell my younger self to be patient. Patience, my friend.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Authenticity matters. Transparency matters. This is all part of building trust with your customers. Consumers are so smart, they know when you are trying to pull the wool over their eyes.