Justin Ruiss is the SVP of the Media Sector at BWG Strategy, a knowledge-sharing network hosting in-person and virtual industry events. In his role, he hosts Q&A forums with executives from various sectors, including social media, advertising, connected TV, streaming, and gaming. Before joining BWG Strategy, Justin was the Investor Relations Activations Developer at Cision and an Equity Analyst at The Benchmark Company.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [2:21] Justin Ruiss describes community-based marketing
• [4:31] How search has evolved to include social platforms
• [9:01] Content creation strategies to generate community feedback
• [17:58] Aligning brand goals with consumer preferences
• [24:08] How to leverage community commerce to define your target audience
• [29:40] The rise of connected TV streaming in the next year
• [37:00] What is the future of retail media?

In this episode…

As consumers search for curated answers to specific questions, community-focused platforms like Reddit and TikTok have gained prominence over Google. With content creation shifting, how can brands engage with consumers to meet their expectations?

Social engagement expert Justin Ruiss notes that consumers seek answers to complex questions from other community members on their chosen platforms, initiating what he terms community-based marketing and commerce. By leveraging these platforms, brands can tap into high-intent communities and gain access to conversations that blend social and search attributes. This approach fosters brand loyalty by collecting and adapting to consumer feedback and community insights. The shift toward community-driven engagement allows brands to identify their target demographics and create content that resonates. 

In this week’s episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant chats with Justin Ruiss, the SVP of the Media Sector at BWG Strategy, about community-focused marketing and commerce. Justin also shares insights into the evolution of search, the rise of connected TV streaming, and the future of retail media. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Aaron Conant on LinkedIn
• BWG Connect
• Justin Ruiss on LinkedIn 
• BWG Strategy
• Zach Riegle on LinkedIn 
• Blue Wheel
• “Next Level Amazon Advertising With Adam Epstein” on The Digital Deep Dive
• “Measuring Incremental Retail Media ROI” with Meghan Corroon on The Digital Deep Dive
• Meghan Corroon on LinkedIn
• Clerdata
• “The Current State of Digital With Tim Armstrong” on The Digital Deep Dive

Quotable Moments:

• "Community management is why that word continues to come up in conversations: What does your audience look like? It really kind of looks like a community."
• "The journey for personalization starts at the community level." 
• "Amazon would do everything they can to automate logistics, essentially ripping a lot of human element out of it."
• "The brands have more power than they realize at this point, heading into 2025 with so much data being available."
• "It's this idea of, ‘How can we be better aligned with the consumer’s thoughts and opinions and build that into loyalty?’”

Action Steps:

1. Engage in community listening: Participate actively on platforms like Reddit or TikTok to gather authentic customer feedback and insights. This approach allows brands to understand their audience’s preferences and pain points, enabling more targeted and personalized marketing strategies that build stronger community ties.
2. Diversify content creation: Move beyond traditional photo shoots and create varied content tailored for different platforms and communities. By aligning content with the unique consumption patterns of each platform, brands can increase engagement and relevance, thereby enhancing their visibility and influence.
3. Leverage influencer collaborations: Use influencers not only for brand promotion but also as a source of authentic user-generated content. This strategy helps tap into niche communities and provides relatable content that resonates with the target audience, making marketing efforts more effective and efficient.
4. Implement real-time feedback mechanisms: Establish immediate customer feedback collection systems, like social listening tools or community platforms. This enables brands to swiftly adapt and optimize their products and messaging, aligning closely with customer expectations and enhancing customer loyalty.
5. Integrate data-driven strategies: Utilize advanced attribution and analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns across various channels. By understanding which strategies yield the best results, brands can allocate resources more effectively, optimize marketing spend, and improve overall ROI.

About BWG Connect...

BWG Connect provides executive strategy and networking sessions that help brands from any industry with their overall business planning and execution. We network and knowledge share together to better understand and adapt to the newest trends, strategies, and pain points shaping growth in the digital space. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Strategy, has built an exclusive network of 125,000+ senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events on an annual basis.

In addition, we have had 1x1 conversations with over 5,000 brands and have a real-time pulse on what digital strategies are successful and why. This in-depth knowledge allows our team to operate on the cutting-edge and provide our clients with best-in-class guidance on how to win in the digital world. We have provided free consultations and strategy sessions for companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune-100, to enable growth, resolve issues and make curated service provider introductions that can impact your digital footprint.

We have held to the philosophy of providing high-level insights and actionable knowledge with no sales pitches in order to provide to our network the ability to listen, learn and act to improve themselves as well as their organizations. Our ultimate goal is to be the resource out there to help digital executives find the research they need to excel in the modern marketplace.

If you are interested in getting involved with any of our current or past events, you can find them here. If you are looking for help & would like to set up some time to chat with our team, you can schedule a time or reach out directly to Aaron@bwgconnect.com or Tiffany@bwgconnect.com.