Greg Ippolito, President and Creative Director of Ippolito Media Arts (IMA), was interviewed on Mission Matters Marketing Podcast by Adam Torres.
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Greg Ippolito believes small and medium-sized businesses have a hard time cutting through the noise generated by larger competitors. Through his agency, Ippolito Media Arts (IMA), he helps them engage in smart, creative digital marketing that gives them a decisive edge.
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How did the IMA journey start?
Ippolito’s career began at an advertising agency 25 years or so ago. “Ad agencies like to go after big brands,” he says. “They have the deepest pockets. And, having those logos on your client list gives you instant credibility. But few agencies give much thought to smaller companies. So when I started my own firm, that was a need in the marketplace I was happy to accommodate.” Today, IMA develops award-winning digital marketing strategies and campaigns for SMB companies across the country.
Insights into B2B marketing
Most of Ippolito’s clients are B2B marketers who are used to dry, overly pragmatic messaging. His agency helps them with visibility and lead-gen through a range of services, including paid and organic search marketing (SEO and PPC/SEM); social media marketing; digital brand activation; website and mobile app development; and digital branding. The development of truly engaging and relevant content, he notes, is critical across the board.
“Most companies have something really fascinating to say,” Ippolito notes. “Our job is to discover what that is, and say it in a way that is both highly relevant and truly compelling to the client’s best-fit targets.”
What is a “digital brand activation”?
Digital brand activations are immersive online experiences that promote a brand to the front of its audience’s mind. Smaller companies usually don’t have big enough budgets to execute full-scale IRL brand activations, so IMA works creatively to develop integrated campaigns—inclusive of landing pages or microsites, social media, native and programmatic content, and more—that engage audiences deeply and generate “buzz,” much quicker and at a fraction of the cost.
The importance of empathy
Marketers need to understand the thoughts and emotions of their audiences, Ippolito says, but the data available can only speak to their behavior. The key is to harness existing technology, like AI, and integrate it with human analysis, to “walk it backward.” That is to say: If we can use the information at our disposal to draw educated hypotheses on why an audience behaves a certain way, we can then test and vet those hypotheses. That is how behavioral data can lead to true human understanding at a mass scale.
Empathy is the key, Ippolito notes, in both our professional and personal lives. Client and audience interactions are not dissimilar from our own personal relationships. We should always be trying to understand what “the other” is saying, put ourselves in their shoes, and do whatever we can to be of service.
What’s next for IMA?
In the short-term, Ippolito says he sees big things shifting in the social space. Per the recent Meta/Facebook announcement, social media platforms may soon include virtual reality experiences. This switch, he says, will change how we think about content creation and user engagement. As for IMA’s role in addressing that new realm, he says the team will keep watching, keep evolving, keep questioning, and continue building meaningful relationships with clients and end users.
To learn more, visit Ippolito Media Arts (IMA), email Greg Ippolito at [email protected] or call 215-421-3034 to start a conversation.
