In this podcast, Sr. Employer Brand and People Experience Manager, Tannum, talks about Golden Hippo’s exciting and unique company culture with the people who know it best. This episode, we spoke with Adam, who has been at Golden Hippo for almost 10 years and is currently our Chief Marketing Officer.
Here are some of the highlights of Tannum and Adam’s conversation:
Can you walk us through your journey within Golden Hippo, from your early days to becoming our Chief Marketing Officer?
My friend Ethan and I started writing screenplays together after college. I retired from writing after a writer’s strike and ended up leaving LA for a long time. The month before I got hired at Golden Hippo, I was living in a tent on a farm in Hawaii. I reached out to Ethan who was still in LA, who told me he was working at Golden Hippo and thought it would be a good opportunity for me. I got hired as an e-mail writer without having done copywriting before. There were 30 people at the company at the time. I was coming from such a weird place of not knowing what I was doing and I was just grateful; it put me in a mindset where I was super humble and happy to be wanted somewhere.
Can you walk me through a brief overview of the history of Golden Hippo? How has the culture evolved since you first started?
When I started, it kind of felt like the Wild West. There was so much open land to claim. The low-hanging fruit had already been grabbed, but there was so much more to explore. Within the larger industry, I still feel like it’s the Wild West - if you just look at the last few months with AI and how much departmentally it’s sprinkling in.The good thing about Golden Hippo is that we’ve recently been hiring from other companies in our space that are shrinking. Because we’ve been so successful, there’s always new brands that require new teams and leadership. It never ends, and even though at 30 people it looked different, that spirit is still alive and well. One note I give to us is to always blend that the right way. We have to remember that new people might be coming from traditional spaces and might not understand that they can grow outside of their role.
What do you believe sets Golden Hippo apart from other direct-to-consumer marketing companies in terms of company culture and overall strategy?
We are all in-house; we don’t get hired to work on other people’s brands, we work on our own brands. We’re also an employee-owned company through our ESOP which is great. All of us being in house really lends itself to collaboration. I’m in awe of many of our competitors - they all seem to do it a different way. What Golden Hippo has leaned into is long-form copy and educational storytelling. When I approach a new product, the two most important things the video must be is educational and entertaining. I don’t think of it as persuasion, I think these brands and products speak for themselves if you’re informative.
In what ways do you collaborate with other departments, such as product development or customer service, to ensure alignment in our overall approach to customer experience?
Since the pandemic, most people are hybrid or remote. When we were smaller and everyone knew each other, the collaboration was natural. Now, some of that has been lost because the company is larger and we’re spread out. As much as possible, I would recommend not to silo yourself. You want to have a feel for what’s going on. Some people take on more of an individual contributor role, but if you understand what other people are doing, that’s valuable. Naturally you want to work with people who are good, but you only know which people would be great to work with on a project if you are familiar with them. Jobs are more fun when you work with people you like, and you respect the quality of their work.
What do you envision for the future of Golden Hippo?
We talk about it every day. Without getting too specific, we want to break out into new categories. I’m working on a few new brands now which keeps me excited to come in. I don’t think we should be hypercompetitive; if you are happy and relaxed, you will naturally grow. On the individual side, people growing into leaders and achieving their dreams.
What advice would you give to aspiring marketers looking to make an impact in the direct-to-consumer industry? And specifically those who are trying to get their foot in the door at Golden Hippo?
Cutting through the applicant pool is applying to the right role and being overqualified for the right role. One of the luxuries for Golden Hippo is that we’re taking the best. In a more general sense if you’re getting into marketing here: be a sponge. If you can present successes that you’ve had, that’s shorthand. The resume can only say so much. When I do an interview with someone, they have to be prepared to explain your successes. Explaining your impact on that success is so valuable. You might have 5 years of experience doing marketing at another company, but it’s not what we do. You have to get good at doing things the way they’re done here, and after you’ve proven that, you can start coloring outside the lines from a position of strength having already had success.
If you’d like to listen to the full conversation, click here!
