How Hulu’s Head of Social and Brand Embraces Disruptive, Earth-Shattering Moments

Streaming service Hulu has Live Sports, your favorite shows and movies —and great leaders. Meet Tatiana Holifield, Hulu’s Head of Social Media, Brand and Adweek’s Social Media Council co-chair, who has found herself at the crossroads of innovation and social media. Discover why Tatiana says we haven’t seen it all when it comes to artificial intelligence and machine learning, how a group of Hulu employees (or "Hulugans") showed their support of the AAPI community, the three skills that would make a powerful marketing leader, and the importance of having support from your tribe. How did you get to where you are today? Any noteworthy aha-moments along the way? I have to credit my tribe for supporting me throughout my career journey. My tribe consists of my family: a hard-working Mother who worked tirelessly to provide a better life for girls, an Army veteran Father who never stops learning, my brilliant CEO Husband who holds me accountable, and my entrepreneur Sister whose hustle never quits! My tribe also consists of several Mentors and Peers who continually share their expertise, experience, and learnings with me. But the career road certainly wasn't easy to navigate. I was once told by a former manager that I wouldn't be a good leader because I didn't articulate myself well because of my accent/dialect. I lost all my confidence and thought I wasn't cut out to be a leader. Rather than sulking in that negative energy, my gift of resilience kicked in! My tribe’s positive energy made me realize that I was worthy and could be the leader I always wanted to be! I went hard focusing and educating myself, volunteering, and learning how to thrive in this digital world—that's the grit that continues to fuel me every day! What's the most innovative thing you're currently working on? Leading social media strategy for a streaming service affords me the opportunity to work on so many innovative projects as Hulu sits at the intersection of technology and storytelling! This week we launched our new brand campaign, Time To Have Hulu. In a world with too many decisions for TV viewers, our new spot highlights the earth-shattering moments consumers have when they realize Hulu has everything they love in one app—all their favorite shows and movies, premium channels, Hulu Originals, Live TV, and even Live Sports. With this innovative and highly creative 360 campaign, we share why Hulu is truly the indispensable streaming service. From high-impact social to experiential Augmented Reality, our new brand campaign is truly disruptive! (Huge kudos to the amazing GreenHouse Creative Marketing and social teams who worked on this campaign.) https://twitter.com/hulu/status/1379086449912471559 I'm also excited about a 360 VR campaign that will honor the contributions of some very legendary female leaders! More to come on that later. What new or up-and-coming innovation(s) are you most excited about and how do you think it will change the future of marketing? Artificial Intelligence (AI) will shape the future of marketing and cause significant disruption. Machine learning has already identified patterns of consumer behaviors that have reduced the need for human transactions and streamlined business operations. The innovations that have the most longevity are the ones that provide automation which allows people and companies to free up resources to engage in more productive work. I also know that "Smart" technology will be an integral component of social marketing: from Smart Content Intelligence, Smart Image Tags, Smart Bidding to Smart Rules and Alerts, the future of AI is now! Hulu’s New Marketing Campaign Goes Back to Basics What’s one piece of work from your career that you’re the proudest of? The recent wave of injustices against Asian Americans has left many of us wanting to do more to change the narrative and spread love instead of hate. Along with a passionate group of Hulugans, we formed a small taskforce to propose and implement actions that will inform Hulu's immediate, mid-term and longer initiatives in support of the AAPI community. One of the initiatives included galvanizing communities across social media by hosting a livestream in support of StopAAPIHate.org which depicted a strong, humanistic view of Asian/Pacific Islanders breaking stereotypes. I'm proud of the team that worked tirelessly over three days to pull off this livestream, and even more proud that Hulu supported us and amplified this important message. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw_hqvvDQ5o What is one skill that you think is currently underdeveloped in Marketing? Data Science. The primary skill that many marketers lack is a deeper understanding of insights, derived from data and analytics about their audiences. Marketers should have a clear understanding of the scientific methods and algorithms that extrapolate insights from data so that we can strategically make decisions about how to best market a brand/product to consumers. As I mentor college students who aspire to become marketers, I advise them to learn about data science, psychology, and persuasive behaviors. These three underdeveloped skills would make for one powerful marketing leader! How do you pick and develop the talent on your team? I look for the 3 P's: Passion, Proactiveness, and Preparation. Having a degree in marketing is beneficial but not mandatory. I can teach the foundational elements of social media, but I can't teach someone to be passionate about it! I look for candidates who are curious about the industry and proactively educate themselves about where it's headed. Candidates that stand out are those who come prepared with ideas, present solutions to current challenges, and offer strong POVs on their approach to reaching new audiences via social media. In terms of developing the talent on my team, my first manager in the media industry, Angela Cannon, taught me a valuable lesson in being a leader: "Each One, Teach One." With that mantra, I ensure that my team works as a team so that when one person is promoted, we're all elevated! What is one thing marketers who are not in social should know about? Social media does not follow traditional principles of marketing. Social media is driven by culture, and personalization is the best tactic to drive scale. We must continue to try new ways of reaching audiences and A/B testing creative to be disruptive. As a result, your audience will evolve and so should your marketing strategy. What’s the first post to come to mind when you hear “best-in-class social”? The marketing team at Nike has cracked the code on how to authentically connect with global audiences through highly compelling imagery, powerful use of its brand identity, strategic publishing cadence, and inclusive tone within their well-written captions. Their approach to storytelling, leveraging influencers, community management, and content curation has translated into record-breaking engagement that many brands often try to emulate. Not to mention, Nike has seamlessly transitioned its slogan into a hashtag that serves as a call-to-action for culture and lifestyle around the world! What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? "Never stop learning." At the age of 55, my Father (a retired Army veteran and USPS Postmaster), went back to school to obtain his PhD. He always tells me to never stop learning. That's the reason why I love social media! His advice fuels me to stay abreast of trends and technology. I will forever be a student of human behaviors and I'll never stop educating myself and others.

Innovators

How Hulu’s Head of Social and Brand Embraces Disruptive, Earth-Shattering Moments

Tatiana Holifield shares how a skill set of data science, psychology, and persuasive behaviors make one a great leader

Julian Gamboa

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Julian Gamboa