Breaking the Marketing Mold: Karl Mawhinney Of Campus Multimedia On 5 Innovative & Non Traditional Marketing Strategies That Can Engage Audiences Like Never Before
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Serving K-12 Schools in Responsible Scholastic Marketing
AI Custom Creator Channels
Micro-Influencer Social Media Marketing
Unexpected Brand Partnerships
Event Marketing
Traditional marketing methods are no longer sufficient in today’s dynamic and fast-evolving market. To truly engage and captivate audiences, businesses need to think outside the box and adopt innovative and non-traditional marketing strategies. What are these strategies, and how can they transform audience engagement? I had the pleasure of interviewing Karl Mawhinney, CEO & Founder of Campus Multimedia.
Karl Mawhinney is the Founder & CEO of Campus Multimedia, a company reshaping trust in school marketing, setting a new standard in education support through its rare expertise rooted in decades of experience building K-12 programs. Prior to founding Campus Multimedia, Karl served as Chief Revenue Officer at Huddle Tickets and GoNoodle. Karl also held leadership roles at Harlem Globetrotters, Van Wagner, Lagardère Unlimited, Learfield IMG College, MAAC, and the Atlantic 10 Conference. Karl holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from The College of Wooster.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! To start, could you share when and how you got started in marketing?
Most of my career has been focused on sponsorships and helping brands reach a valuable audience. It was during my time as the Head of Global Partnerships for the Harlem Globetrotters when I first saw the impact our players and sponsors had on students and teachers when we visited elementary schools. Our players would visit hundreds of schools each year and to see the smiles and laughs they put on peoples faces really made me think about how to continue impacting schools in different ways.
What has been the biggest shift in the marketing industry and can you give us an example of how it impacted you?
The digital and social media markets are saturated with content geared towards individuals. There is a shift to targeting smaller, yet broader audiences with more authentic messaging that develops relational trust within communities. Instead of reaching the individual digitally we engage the schools mindfully, meeting a need or offsetting a cost. This is the catalyst for building trusted partnerships with schools that go beyond an individual relationship. Schools are a highly guarded and protected space, and an essential one for families. When a brand is able to step in and serve this ecosystem, the returns and rewards are enormous. We build trust with the staff and meet a need, it’s all about responsibility and mindful communication.
Can you explain why it’s essential for businesses to break away from traditional marketing and embrace new strategies?
In our view, the best way to develop trust in communities is to engage in its epicenter — schools. Schools represent safety, learning, teamwork and collaboration. What is a better place to develop trust and value-producing partnerships than the organic ecosystem of a school? But, in order to ethically engage with our nation’s young minds, this relationship has to be handled mindfully, conscientiously and strategically. This kind of relationship comes with responsibility. This comes in the form of meeting a need by generating value for the school’s staff that encourages student involvement. Student engagement coupled with overall school engagement is the catalyst for community partnerships that build long-term customer loyalty.
Could you share and briefly explain the first major change you made to break the trend of traditional marketing that was not so common?
Instead of focusing on individual ads and other traditional marketing techniques we looked for a way to offset a cost or labor that schools were experiencing and found a way to meet that need while creating a direct line of impact to brands and organizations. We help create new revenue streams for schools that they can’t create on their own. In exchange for providing this tangible value to schools, brands receive access to the school community ecosystem.
What specific results did you see after implementing this change?
The K-12 sports audience, especially at the high school level, is larger than every national pro sport’s audience combined. We’re talking over 510 million people attending high school events annually.
How do you ensure that these new marketing strategies resonate with your target audience?
We’re able to measure program effectiveness and resonance using both qualitative and quantitative measurements following its conclusion. The strategic framework of each program we roll out with clients is rooted in data and insights, so we know we’re engaging our client’s target audience. It’s more ensuring we created the impact and value in the K-12 community we intended, and then measuring the brand’s audience resonance.
Can you share an example of something you tried that didn’t deliver expected results or ended up becoming a financial burden, and what you learned from that experience?
We learned that schools are eager to receive help, but they don’t want to have external parties providing curriculum. We’ve previously attempted to execute a financial literacy partnership and despite aligning with standards, school receptivity was much less when compared to our other program solutions that offer direct resources and offset costs.
Great. Now, let’s dive into the heart of our interview. Could you list “5 Innovative & Non Traditional Marketing Strategies That Can Engage Audiences Like Never Before”?
- 1. Serving K-12 Schools in Responsible Scholastic Marketing
- 2. AI Custom Creator Channels
- 3. Micro-Influencer Social Media Marketing
- 4. Unexpected Brand Partnerships
- 5. Event Marketing
What challenges might companies face when transitioning away from traditional marketing strategies, and how can they overcome them?
For a brand to succeed in the K-12 space there needs to be a strategy. Our success is found in a service-first approach that creates value for schools and a reciprocated value for brands. Without a mindful and intentional approach to the program and its messaging, schools will view the engagement from brands as spam, insincere or bait-and-switch.
How do you measure the success and ROI of these new marketing strategies?
We’ve built a custom marketing dashboard that tracks how each targeted school is engaging the messaging and moving them forward into engagement funnels based on their opens, clicks, engagement, and sharing of content to highlight their enthusiasm. One notable example of success we measure looks at total school engagement and how school communities amplify a program within its network.
Looking forward, how do you see the role of innovative marketing evolving in the next 5–10 years?
I think we’ll see a shift from brands partnering with influencers with large national audiences to partnering with influencers with more targeted regional and local audiences that have higher levels of trust and engagement. I won’t buy something a celebrity uses anymore but if my friend down the street uses it, I’ll go pick it up. The dollars invested are the same when you consider how partnerships like these can scale.
Current marketing trends target younger generations who are already lost, wandering in a digitally cluttered world driven by algorithms. We are shifting to bring students back to reality, engaging a generation crippled by anxiety and depression by meeting a need and recognizing their strengths and therefore starting a mutually beneficial relationship.
What advice would you give to business leaders who are hesitant to move away from traditional marketing methods?
I’d ask them to tell me about their favorite memories from their high school experience. I’d then have them imagine a brand being intertwined in that and helping add meaning. Often schools are budget-starved and brand support can enable incredible moments that forever create endearment and brand affinity that can be incredibly impactful for everyone involved. In a day and age where families and youth are constantly being bombarded with ads and marketing, schools and brands have an incredible opportunity to breakthrough by meaningfully contributing to the student and teacher experience.
Can you share any upcoming initiatives or plans you have for further innovating your marketing strategies?
Campus Multimedia has found schools often struggle to capitalize on sponsorship sales. Even schools making a lot of money from sponsorship are disorganized, unsure of pricing, and missing tools to simplify. We’re working to build a digital marketplace that equips school staff to sell sponsorships easily and sponsors to find schools they want to support at scale — it will be a game-changer.
How can our readers follow your work and learn more about your approaches to modern marketing?
Follow us on LinkedIn to see our latest client campaigns and visit us at www.campusmultimedia.com to learn more about our approach to K-12 marketing and how to partner.
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur and Thought Leader with over 25 years of business experience. He has founded, operated, and exited multiple companies and now builds into a handful of high impact CEOs. Chad has launched multiple online communities, including a recent leadership development platform, and also serves as a strategic advisor for Authority Magazine’s thought-leader incubator program.
To learn more and connect with Chad visit: chadsilverstein.io
Breaking the Marketing Mold: Karl Mawhinney Of Campus Multimedia On 5 Innovative & Non Traditional… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.