In Ep. 109 of Earned, we sit down with David Neyman, Global Lead of Talent and Content at innovative technology company Logitech.
To start the episode, we dive into Logitech’s innovative approach to marketing, and David explains how the brand builds “cultural cachet” with consumers by partnering with talent (like Lizzo) on creative campaigns. David emphasizes the importance of aligning internally and externally on the purpose and goals of a creator partnership, and striving for the right balance of art and science when determining brand partners and initiatives. Conor and David discuss how Logitech actually sits at the center of technology and lifestyle by connecting consumers to their favorite digital experiences with best-in-class tech. We also hear how Logitech tailors its product marketing to resonate with its diverse, target demographics, from software engineers to social media creators.
David shares why Logitech is looking to expand its creator strategy from brand awareness to conversion, and unpacks the challenge of identifying the “holy grail” creators that can actually influence purchase intent. Next, we explore Logitech’s participation in the metaverse, and David reveals the origins of the brand’s Song Breaker Awards activation with Roblox, which aimed to shine a light on impactful yet underrecognized creators, before learning how Logitech co-created the “Own The 8 Count” short film about choreographer JaQuel Knight. To close the show, Conor asks David about his predictions for the future of VR.
We’ve included a couple of highlights from the episode below, but be sure to check out the full video above, or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
“Make sure that you're communicating clearly what your goals and intentions for the partnership are, and that the talent is also aligned”: Logitech’s Approach to Partnering With Creators
Conor Begley: The approach that Logitech has taken over the years, particularly during the time that you've been there, is really quite fascinating, because I think of [the brand] as a technology company, but you guys have done all kinds of stuff with entertainment, celebrities, music, et cetera. And of course your product is integrated into some of that, but a lot of it isn't. How do you guys think about that in terms of the way that you work with talent?
David Neyman: Yeah, so I appreciate that you've recognized that. I think we've been a little bit of everything and all intentionally, obviously. I think it all starts at the brand level first and foremost. So when I first joined Logitech a couple years ago, there was definitely a pretty significant focus on what is our brand, what does it represent, and then how do we build some of that cultural cachet or that cultural connection with the brand and consumers? One of the best ways I think that we all know how to do that is through talent and creators and building partnerships that are authentic, engaging, and obviously achieve the goals that you have in mind. So for us and myself as part of my role, that's definitely been first and foremost a huge priority.
We don’t look at partnerships as vendors, these are true partnerships. Regardless of size, the process is always the same. Some folks might know us from our higher level partnerships like Lizzo, and that's great and sexy, but day in and day out, we obviously cannot sustain or have budgets just for that. We work with tons of creators from all sizes and all backgrounds. But I think the most important thing is that the process of working with creators—regardless of if they're the high-tier celebrity talent or they're just starting their journey—is really the same. And that work starts both internally and externally.
Internally, everything that we do obviously stems from a purpose and a goal. And so for a lot of things that you mentioned in the beginning, that's really around the brand, but we have the same sort of goals and mission when it comes to product as well. So first and foremost, we try to identify what the goal is and what we are trying to achieve. And the next thing we try to do is figure out, now that we know what that is, how do we extend that and expand that into a talent and creator strategy? Who are the creators that we want to work with? What are the types of creators that we want to work with? And really have a vision for what we want that partnership to be.
One of the things that I like to do before we even start outreach or before we even get to that conversational point, is sketch out and have a vision of what an ideal partnership could look like. Best case, you've nailed it. Worst case, you have a starting point when it comes to those conversations with creators or talent and then move on from there. Once you've identified all that and you feel good about where you are, you start those conversations. And I think the most important thing for us, and probably for anybody listening, is just make sure that you're communicating clearly what your goals are, what your intentions for the partnership are, and make sure that the talent and the partner is also aligned.
It's not always going to be the case. The last place you want to be is trying to identify a partner and activate a partnership that isn't necessarily checking all the boxes. I think sometimes folks believe that creators or talent are a silver bullet and that if they create content or you leverage their brand or their name, it can unlock a lot of value. But I don't think that's necessarily always the case. So you really need to be aligned internally on what you want from this partnership and make sure that all elements internally are on the same page.
Conor Begley: Let's talk a little bit about that process. You've got different constituencies you're trying to communicate with that obviously align with different product lines that you're ultimately selling. What does that evaluation process and sourcing process look like? How do you end up deciding that Lizzo is the right person, or Roblox is the right area to invest in?
David Neyman: Yeah, I mean we just throw stuff against the wall and see if it sticks. While the process, whether that’s for working with talent or finding the right platform distribution for the right program, they obviously look different on the outside. They're completely different types of approaches. But from the inside, we still ask the same questions and we still go through the same process.
I think the first part is probably not a surprise to you, but we look at the data and see where the data leads. For somebody like Lizzo or a talent partner, we would look at, does their audience correspond with our audience? Does their promotional or marketing cycle reflect our trajectory and our timeline as well? So I think that's the first thing you identify. There's a lot of tools and analytics, maybe more than ever before, and sometimes it feels a little overwhelming, but it's a good thing. I'm happy to have it. So that's the data part of it.
And then I think the other part of it is the art and the subjectivity. You want to make sure that from a brand standpoint, their values and their mission align with yours. You start to look at the quality of the content that they have in the past: is that aligned with what you’re envisioning and what you feel is best reflective of the brand? So it's really this balance between data and art, and then you try to make the best decisions that you can.
“We will continue to innovate and think outside the box, and try to find new ways to grow our footprint and reach audiences in different places that they're excited about”: David Neyman on Logitech’s Song Breaker Awards and Future Plans for the Metaverse
Conor Begley: Logitech did some really interesting stuff with Roblox. You've dabbled in the metaverse quite a bit with Roblox and the Song Breaker Awards. I'm curious, is that something that you expect to continue to invest in?
David Neyman: Yeah, so Song Breaker Awards is actually really interesting because it wasn't built for Roblox to begin with. Roblox was actually year two of the activation. The program was initially intended to celebrate and honor creators who were making a giant impact on culture but weren't necessarily getting the credit and recognition they deserve. So if you think back to 2020 when all these dances were going viral on TikTok and influencing the pop charts and actually making real contributions to culture and also artists’ bottom lines, the actual creators that were creating these trends were sort of forgotten, or maybe their trends were co-opted to a point where nobody really knew where that trend sort of started from.
So we saw that and were like, this is not okay, something needs to be done. And again, going back to our mission and values of creator rights and supporting creators in a way that elevates and inspires them, we decided that there's a there there. And so the team, initially in partnership with Billboard, developed a chart called the “Song Breaker Chart,” which I think now has actually evolved into the TikTok Billboard chart. We'll take a little credit for it, I guess. And then we thought, how do we take this offline or how do we grow this program and grow the awareness, and really try to do everything we can to recognize these creators?
So we developed a traditional award show format and threw it up on TikTok, which in the moment you're like, great, we're honoring TikTok creators, award show, TikTok, boom, perfect synergy. It makes sense. Come to find out that people don't go on TikTok to watch long-form content or award shows that feel very traditional. It could be fun and could be cool, they'll maybe tune in here and there, it might be the right context, but not the right format and not the right execution, on the wrong platform. So we did it and it went well, but we took a lot of learnings from it, and one of the learnings was that if we were going to bring this to life, how do we find a platform that will engage with this and feel a little bit more native?
The world does not need another award show. There's already enough. How do we do this in a way that feels fresh and feels interesting? And so that's really where the conversation and the Roblox dynamic really came in. We looked at other traditional platforms, we thought, do we go and build our own metaverse and own something completely? Or do we go and fish where the fish are, and go somewhere where maybe there's a little less ownership, but a little more structure, and you can't do everything that you really want to do, but you're already sort of participating in an established ecosystem?
And so for Roblox, this was in 2021, where at first I was like, oh, Roblox, isn't that a much younger platform? I don't necessarily know if it's aligned to our core audience. But the more we discovered about it—I think this was also around the time that they were making an effort to grow and expand their audience and their footprint and bring in bigger creators and talent that go beyond just what you understood them to be. And it felt like it made sense. We were able to still take the heart and soul of what Song Breakers was about, which is recognizing creators.
Fortunately, these creators also have an audience reflective of the Roblox audience as well, and we built something that felt native to that platform. It wasn't just a stuffy award show with creators coming in and out. We created avatars for everyone that we honored. We had a cool performance from Gayle and Lizzo as Roblox characters. And then we integrated the brand in a really fun way. And this was I think the first time in my experience here where we were able to take the products and do something with them that didn't feel like the way that they were intended. So we had our Ultimate Ears earbuds as jet skis, we had keyboards as trampolines. So we really made sure that we created something that was organic and native and would be receptive to an existing Roblox community.
And it went really well. I think we did almost 7 million visits in three days. We did almost 2 billion earned media impressions, 147 countries. People were in the chat saying like “we love Logitech!”—things that maybe don't happen to us on a day-to-day basis, but organically came up just because we created an experience and it wasn't meant to be transactional. It was meant to be an experience where the brand can show up, can celebrate, can find ways to live in that world in a way that makes sense without having to own an entire ecosystem. So that's Song Breaker and we were really excited about what happened.
And to your question of what's next for us and the metaverse, I think what we will continue to do is really what this experience really allowed us to do or what it represented, which is to continue to innovate and think outside the box and try to find new ways to continue to grow our footprint, continue to reach audiences in different places that they're excited about and they're engaging with outside of maybe our 9-5, if you will, which is TikTok and Instagram and YouTube.
Keep up with new episodes of Earned by following the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, or subscribing to our YouTube channel. To catch up on our previous episodes, featuring leaders from brands like Revolve, K18, Instagram, and Roblox, visit our Earned Podcast page.