When innovation accelerates, marketing can't stall

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Looking for the inside scoop on tech marketing? You’re listening to XTech XTRA, the bite size series brought to you by the experts at Fox Agency.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Hello and welcome to XTech XTRA by Fox Agency. I’m your host, Debbie Forster MBE. Join me as I take a deep dive into the expertise of those who live and breathe B2B tech marketing every day – the Fox Agency team. Now today I’m joined by Jessica Lambert and she’s the Lead Consultant in automotive here at Fox Agency. And Jessica, welcome.

Jessica Lambert:
Hi Debbie, wonderful to be here.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Now I really like trying to get in to know people as humans before we jump into the deep expertise that you’re going to share with us. So Jessica, tell me about your career so far and how did you find yourself here at Fox Agency?

Jessica Lambert:
Great question. So, well, I suppose I started my career in the B2B space actually, but in a very much like a small agency on the Kings Road in Chelsea actually. So pretty much like a start-up style environment. So very fun. I thought I’d lucked out at the time because I was on the Kings Road and I had all the nice shops available to me.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Deeply cool, nice location.

Jessica Lambert:
So I was there for some time actually and I, I ended up kind of going part time and doing my MSc and media communications. And then after I finished that the small agency was growing into New York and I got offered a position there. So I moved to New York with them to head up kind of client services which was very cool. And it wasn’t till kind of after that and after I had the whole kind of New York experience that I headed back to the UK and got into more traditional advertising and that’s when I kind of got into more of the automotive space which was also amazing. So I initially worked with Hyundai, that was at one of our flagship clients at the time working on Click to Buy, which is their first e commerce play.

And then I went from that to a really cool role for me at the time which was heading up Ford owner area of marketing in Shanghai. So again a very different experience in Asia Pacific. A whole new world for me to take in and a real adventure and then back to the UK with Jaguar Land Rover. So I got, as you can tell, very in depth knowledge of automotive across.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Yeah, and then some big names and really different names with different images, et cetera. So then why Fox Agency? How did you end up here with us?

Jessica Lambert:
Well, I guess Fox was kind of like a perfect connecting of the dots really. So obviously started in B2B, which is so different. It’s very big, global, complex corporates and it’s a very sort of specific mindset. And so connecting that with my auto experience here at Fox just felt like a nice kind of bringing together of everything for me, so yeah.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Now listen, as a Lead Consultant in automotive, you must be immersed in vehicle systems, software, EV ecosystems. It’s all moving really fast, all under pressure. From your perspective, what’s changed most in automotive in the last 10 years

Jessica Lambert:
Oh, I get asked this a lot, but it’s an odd one. It’s almost everything and nothing is changing because I think we’ve been reimagining the auto space for like a decade now. So much technology has advanced and changed, but it’s still, you know, a very slow moving beast and it’s kind of takes a long time to change. So you know, I was looking back the other day like I think a report I did in 2018 and the same trends were there. So we had kind of this move moving into like digitalisation of buying vehicles and E commerce. But you know, autonomous vehicles and connected vehicles were sort of still in the mix. So a lot of the same trends are still around, but they’re just taking shape now finally, so.

Debbie Forster MBE:
And that’s useful to know, I think, if you’re trying to establish yourself in that B2B space.

Because for someone like me outside looking in completely different, you know, it feels more often like we’ve got computers with wheels. Now you work with some of the most advanced automotive technology businesses out there. When you think about it, vehicle technology systems providers are at the heart of safety, performance, compliance. Yet so many of them are really struggling to communicate. Why is system critical value so hard to articulate?

Jessica Lambert:
Well, I think when you’re trying to communicate something like safety or performance, it’s very tricky and there’s a thin line because it holds invisible value and it’s almost forming like the baseline of what we think of as a necessity. So, you know, if I get into this car and drive from A to B, am I going to be safe? We hope that’s just a given and you don’t necessarily want to shine a spotlight on that. But I think there’s great examples in the B2C space of those that really own that narrative and reshape it.

So the likes of Volvo, I’m sure, you know that advert with the young couple who are kind of looking into the future and basically we won’t give a spoiler on it, but essentially it shines a light on the fact of like it’s almost those things that we don’t talk about or the things that don’t happen that are just as important as those that do. And I think it’s that kind of a really interesting play on it. But I think what’s also a bit more tricky in the B2B space is that things to do with safety and testing and compliance are actually being redefined now. We’re moving from kind of hardware component LED solutions to software defined vehicles. You know, there’s more at play and there’s like iterative software updates and things that need to happen and be tested and be compliant. So it is a lot more complex in this industry in particular.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Now parts manufacturers, which I have learned are called OEMs according to the acronyms for your sector.

Jessica Lambert:
Well done.

Debbie Forster MBE:
These are complex buying organisations. They’ve got stakeholders and commercial technical executive functions and often with competing agendas. From a marketing and messaging point of view, how do successful suppliers influence multiple decision makers with just one coherent story?

Jessica Lambert:
Well, I think you always have to remember, and this is any kind of marketing, you have to remember what problem are you solving for your audience? And it’s not always to start with kind of like the technicalities, but to actually start with that solution in mind and get to that point. And I think this is where marketing is really important and becoming more and more valuable in these kind of B2B environment because marketing’s role is to maybe hear from all the internal stakeholders or hear from all the external stakeholders or customers and actually see what is that one thread that ties everything together? What is that singular kind of narrative that helps communicate a core value of whatever solution you’re trying to sell?

Debbie Forster MBE:
I mean, I think that’s important because it would be easy to try and make a complex environment complicated and a different story for each stakeholder. But what you’re talking about is bringing one single thing that seems to anchor it all and building off from that. I think that’s really important. What about strong positioning? What does that look like when you’re selling something that’s deeply technical but we need it to be understood.

Jessica Lambert:
Well, again, similar sort of principles. So you have to sell the value to whatever customer it is. You can’t sell the technical specification, you know, especially when there might be multiple technical specifications related to your solution.

Debbie Forster MBE:
There’s a novel accompanying it, the old spec sheet isn’t there.

Jessica Lambert:
It would be a bit much. So I think storytelling is a great way to do that. I think sort of user generated experiences or ways to demonstrate an experience can work really well. And I think there’s a great example that I love which is of course everyone will know this. It’s the Apple Mother Nature advert.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Oh yeah.

Jessica Lambert:
Communicating sustainability. So sustainability is very technical actually. You know, you’re talking about carbon neutral and you know a lot of statistics and you know, this has meaning to investors, it has meaning to partners, it has meaning to the end customers. But that advert actually humanised and created a character out of those technical specs, which is super smart because that character can have accountability. And also it’s almost like the spine of which that lots of different stakeholders or customers could really understand the value proposition that they were selling there and the promise they were making. So I think that’s a way. I also think there’s lessons we can learn from more advanced sectors like China, where they’re actually doing what we kind of term industrial tourism.

So they’re actually making, you know, factories an experience where people can come in, students can come in, prospective clients can come in and experience with the experts what’s going on in these factories. Obviously a bit of a sort of behind the curtain element, but I think that’s an exciting opportunity as well of like, how could that work in this space?

Debbie Forster MBE:
Okay, so focus for a minute on that EV ecosystem. Businesses often have strong technology, but they’re still facing equally strong scepticism. Now why is the confidence, operational and economic, such a big commercial hurdle?

Jessica Lambert:
Yeah, well, I think you can have kind of great technology and this is a great example of this. You have great technology but without the human adoption or trust element, you don’t get that tipping point in society where everything just rolls out and it feels normal to us all. And we’ve definitely got that with EV for sure. And it’s almost like the two need to converge. So you absolutely need obviously the tech to be ready to go. You need investment, incentivisation. Arguably, I don’t think in some parts of Europe we have been incentivised as much as other places like China where they’ve incentivised across, you know, the supply chain, but right into kind of like infrastructure and down to the end consumer. We have some incentive, but not all.

And I think we also have, you know, PR that’s out there around kind of more negative stuff like EV batteries being dumped in the ocean and the impact of that, which just spreads that sort of doubt when there’s already a lot of doubt existing. You know, range anxiety might have been resolved.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Oh, I felt my range anxiety now, I do know that. And it’s over-egged by the press, isn’t it, if I haven’t got to have range anxiety. I didn’t know it was a thing until the, you know, the news told me it had a name. And I have that feeling.

Jessica Lambert:
Yeah, we can all, you know, we know that anxiety, especially if anyone’s a mother or, you know, have, you know, that thing of you don’t need another thing to think about. But I think, you know, we’re in, you know, uncertain times economically. There’s a lot of financial pressures on people. There’s a perceived expensive cost with running EV vehicles. There’s also the inconsistency in sort of charging points and where they will be and, you know, is that network really fully set up? And then of course, the range anxiety. So there’s loads of reasons that haven’t pushed us over the edge. A lot of those things are actually resolved. And we know from when, look at China and places where they have rolled out. We know these things, you know, can be solved. But yeah, I think we just haven’t had that convergence yet to tip us over.

Debbie Forster MBE:
And if we’ve got to make that case, it has to be beyond incentives, it has to be beyond policy. We’ve got to be able to show that business case or some kind of proof point – is there is the way forward to break through there.

Jessica Lambert:
Yeah, I mean, I definitely, my opinion is, you know, all the trends will say that we’re going to get there. I mean, the Paris Agreement, you know, for us to be kind of climate neutral by 2050, it’s there like a lot of countries have signed up to it. I think there’s some great things within the auto space, like fleet, for example, where you’ve got, you know, vans that are driving the same route, where they have a lot of emissions you know, so nailing it in certain areas I think can have a cascading effect to really help the rest of the industry. So I hope that happens.

Debbie Forster MBE:
I think that’s a really smart way through because when you’re talking fleet, you’ve got the scale, you can drive up some numbers, get some stats that are good. But also, you know, your B2B fleets are driven by Cs who can then bring that through. And that’s a great breakthrough point to think about in that respect. Okay, so uptime, reliability. Now these are often the real value in the ecosystems. How should companies be translating that into compelling, competing commercial messaging?

Jessica Lambert:
Well, I think this is where authenticity is really important. So if you could imagine, we spoke about range anxiety earlier. I think the best way to actually communicate that trust element, and this goes from consumer side, but in the B2B space as well, is actually having real authentic user generated content, talking about some of these experiences and really bringing it to life. And I think that’s, that’d be a great way to kind of transcend some of that and get the right messaging. And this is where I think marketing is increasingly important in this space because they play a role where they can get involved earlier, help to shape that strategic narrative and make sure the right tools are sort of used to get that kind of messaging across.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Okay, when we think about the storytelling, you know, it’s balancing positive and negative stories and responsiveness, speed, these are critical when things go wrong, but they’re really front and centre in marketing. Should they be?

Jessica Lambert:
I think absolutely. Again, I think it goes back to is that the single message that you should be putting out there or is it part of the message? So, but it is quite crucial in these spaces, particularly in B2B. And again you will find whether it’s crucial for your particular message. If you involve marketing, if you go through those practises, if you, if marketing are at the table, when we talk about kind of the tech and the specs and the solutions, if they’re involved at that stage, they will know what then will resonate as that kind of value proposition later on.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Okay, let’s start tying it all together. If I’m thinking across systems, software and EV, what are the keys to success for go to market strategy?

Jessica Lambert:
Well, we’ve spoken a lot about trust. Trust is a huge element, the human side of things. And actually arguably so more important in the B2B space you’re talking about complex long sales cycles, relationships are long term. So I think really investing in creating a solution for your customer is key. So I think concentrating on and building authentic connection with your audience, whoever that is. I think being clear on a singular core message which you want to put out there for that solution.

And by the way, I think there’s a lot that some of the OEMs and the tier one kind of engineering companies can learn from kind of the tech space at the moment, because I think tech really place marketing at the centre of what they do and it’s allowed them to, you know, dominates the market share because of that and I think actually we’re in a state where we’ve got kind of software defined vehicles and actually it needs to have more of a prominence to own that space and to actually push things forward into the next sphere of like where we’re going to take automotive and define that space. I think they’ve got a really important role to play.

Debbie Forster MBE:
So, Jessica, I want you to imagine I am on the leadership team and I need to turn complex automotive innovation into sustainable growth. What do I need to remember? What must I do?

Jessica Lambert:
I think the first thing to remember is you’ve got really key experts probably at your disposal that you’re not utilising, i.e. marketing. So so many times in more traditional OEMs you find that marketing are really treated as the colouring in department. And I think those days are done, in my opinion. I think that as I mentioned before, there’s a lot we can learn from the tech side of tech companies where they’re actually really putting marketing front and centre. As a leader, I would hope that you would bring marketing in earlier, involve them in those strategic conversations to make sure that they can actually really help you position yourself in an industry that, where, you know, we’re actually creating solutions to drive the auto sector forwards. You know, it’s a pretty important thing to do and a pretty important time to do it.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Fantastic. Okay. All right, now we take a breath. I love hearing from guests thinking about the horizon on what’s worrying them, annoying them or getting them excited. What’s that for you? What’s on the horizon?

Jessica Lambert:
Well, of course, driverless vehicles is a quite exciting one in the sector and you’ve probably heard that robo taxis, driverless robo taxis are coming, well, actually due to hit cities like London this spring, which is insane. Yeah, it’s insane. And I’m just very intrigued to understand how driverless cars will adapt to the streets, windy streets like London compared to like more simplistic grids. So I think there’s a lot for us to kind of watch and learn from and that will be really testing how the systems work and how they interplay.

Debbie Forster MBE:
And what stories you tell around it. Because again, it’s a very different scenario winding around the back roads in London during rush hour. So. Okay, something to watch.

Jessica Lambert:
Absolutely.

Debbie Forster MBE:
And then I go back to you as a human. I love to gather a list of what I could be reading, listening to or watching. What would you recommend?

Jessica Lambert:
Well, I’ve definitely got two favourites. The first, who I go back to again and again is Seth Goldin, who probably is a bit like Marmite for some people. For me, I find him really inspirational. I particularly like his book, This Is Marketing, which is actually really got some really important points around. I think B2B marketing and actually creating solutions and serving your customers as opposed to pushing things out to them. But really actually you have a role to actually deliver and push things forward and help your customers, which I love. I love that whole concept. The other one, he’s a bit more controversial, but I think a bit of a genius in advertising is Rory Sutherland, who says it how it is really. But I think again, sometimes you need to do that in this space to kind of cut through. So I do enjoy listening to him as well.

Debbie Forster MBE:
Cutting through the noise. And I think there’s been a thread of some of what you’ve been talking through for a lot of this. However complex something is, it doesn’t have to be complicated and it’s returning back to first principles. It’s understanding however much things change on the outside, there are those core principles that you should go back to make sure that you’re still driving forward the right kind of value.

Jessica Lambert:
Yeah. And that’s what I love about marketing, I think marketing, the core strategic principles always stay the same. You know, it’s about the customer, it’s about getting the messaging right, it’s about doing all the thinking to lead to that one point that’s going to land and cut through. But I think there’s obviously a lot of tools at our disposal now that have really changed that. You know, user generated content and all the stuff that’s going on in the B2B space. But you know, that’s what makes it fun.

Debbie Forster MBE:
And that’s great. Thank you. And thank you for doing this, Jessica. I’ve really enjoyed talking to you today.

Jessica Lambert:
Likewise, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Thanks so much, Debbie.

Debbie Forster MBE:
And that’s all for this episode of XTech XTRA. Don’t forget, you can also hear from more of the leading voices across the entire global tech community on the main XTech podcast. We’ll be back next time with more actionable advice from the minds at Fox Agency. Thanks for tuning in.

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