Becoming the hit-maker

What’s the most radical thing you’ve ever done? Most people might take a few moments to think of an answer to that question. But Mark Himmelsbach ’07 MBA isn’t most people. A serial entrepreneur, Himmelsbach left a successful career as an ad agency executive to found his own boutique marketing agency devoted to data-inspired creativity.

That radical change in his career path has paid off. His agency, Episode Four, has not only created viral hit campaigns for leading brands, but it has also turned its internal data and insights into a generative AI tool, RYA, that any marketer can use to turbocharge their creative thinking.

We sat down with Mark to chat about his entrepreneurial journey, the secret to creating “hits” for brands, and what’s next for marketers in the age of AI.

How did Episode Four set itself apart from the start?

When my cofounder Teddy Lynn and I started Episode Four, our mission was to make “hits” for brands. But we realized we needed some kind of methodology or a system that gave us a better shot at doing that on a consistent basis. We were inspired by industrial designer Raymond Loewy and his “MAYA” principle, which stood for “most advanced yet acceptable.”

Our take on that was “RYA” for “radical yet acceptable.” For us, that came down to data: we decided to survey 1,000 people weekly and ask them in a very detailed way where they would spend their free time and extra money across 180 possible genres and 20 actions. Because we’ve been gathering that data for the last seven years — about 83.5 million data points per week — we have an enormous wealth of information, which sometimes yields wildly unexpected insights.

How can that data translate into a full advertising campaign?

Here’s a great example: in 2019, we worked with investment advisor Charles Schwab to target their audience of golf fans who would watch the Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA tour. Believe it or not, the RYA data clearly showed that golf fans also love muscle cars. So, we pitched a giveaway of a hand-built ’73 Dodge Challenger, to be awarded to the winner of the tournament. Even Mr. Schwab himself was wary. But our data made the client feel comfortable green-lighting a more creative campaign than they normally would. It was a viral smash hit, and the muscle-car giveaway has been a tradition at that tournament ever since.

Another great example was a global treasure hunt campaign we did for Windstar Cruises. Our RYA data showed us that cruisers love cartography and board games, and so we hid clues in 180 different film clips to align with their “180 degrees from ordinary” brand positioning. Players could win credit to use on board, and one grand prize winner won a free cruise. The whole campaign was wildly successful.

We’re working now with another financial services brand. So far, we’ve discovered that investors in their ETFs are surprisingly more likely to enjoy celebrity cooking shows, so we’re planning a campaign with that at the center.

Are you experimenting with artificial intelligence within advertising?

Definitely. We’ve trained an AI tool not only on our audience insight data, but also on the finite number of creative formats that you can apply to an idea. For example, if you think about cooking as a genre, you can do a biography, you can do a travel show, you can do a demonstration show, but you can also do a pop up. We came up with about 10,000 formats off of our 180 genres.

The possibilities for creating out-of-the-box ideas get really exciting when you can start crossing genres and formats and mashing them up infinitely with an AI tool. We turned that internal use case into a product, also called RYA, that any marketer can subscribe to and utilize. Advertising will always need that feeling of human-to-human connection between a brand and an audience to succeed. But AI-powered tools are helpful to get more divergent ideas on the wall to consider faster.

What’s the most “radical yet acceptable” thing you’ve ever done?

Honestly, it’s been this — going from a stable and fairly successful career at large agencies to starting and leading my own. There was a moment in time where I said to my wife, “I think Teddy and I are going to start something.” And she paused and said, “I'm only worried because I'm not worried.” And so it was a hugely radical move, but wildly acceptable both to me. It just made so much sense to me.

What parts of your Kellogg experience are you pulling on as a founder now?

Kellogg was a foundational experience in so many ways. It may be cliché to say, but first and foremost, the alumni network is massive and so important. Five or six of our clients over the past seven years have been Kellogg grads, but even beyond that, the number of pieces of advice and advisors we have access to is invaluable.

What big shifts do you predict we’ll see across marketing and advertising in the next 5 to 10 years?

Firstly, we are at a huge inflection point. But even if an AI tool can generate a text or image output that’s 85%-90% “there,” that still may not be widely acceptable by the public. I believe it will quickly become clear that humans are more important than ever.

Secondly, and speaking of AI, I think we’re also waiting for the form factor that will make it explode — whether that be a smart speaker, a smartphone, VR goggles or even a brain implant. In the early part of my advertising career, I saw social media take off on the desktop then on the smartphone, and I think AI hasn’t figured the hardware part out yet.

Finally, I think we’ll see a lot of angst among brands getting really granular with messages and audience targets to try to reach you, the individual consumer, on a one-to-one basis. But I think brands that also have these big water-cooler moments, that everyone everywhere can share in and feel good about, are going to be able to win even more. It all comes back to that human touch and connection to the culture and the zeitgeist becoming more and more important.