Coworking with Geoff Renaud

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Geoff Renaud is co-founder and CMO of Invisible North, an experiential marketing agency that’s worked with brands like Bumble, Klarna, and Under Armour.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? I’ve been an advisor to the founder of Coachella for over 20 years. Being part of the core team and helping set the vision for the largest live music event in the world has been the most amazing part of my career. Over the years, my contributions to the festival have varied but I’m really proud of the work we did together to take its Web3 strategy off the ground last year.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? It’s a classic, but Sarah McLachlan’s ASPCA commercial. It has to be one of the longest-running and most successful ads of all time. From the heart-wrenching picture to the emotional lyrics, it works. They’ve raised millions of dollars for homeless pets. As an animal rescuer, it just gets me every time. I want to send them more and more money whenever I see it.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile:

I’m a world-class harmonica player. Unfortunately, that gets less and less cool over the years, but I could play anything. I love to jam.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m most optimistic when I see how AI is going to be used to transform every aspect of business. It’s going to be a wild ride. On the other hand, it’s hard to watch brands try to figure out NFTs and Web3 before Web3 is figured out. It’s far too early for some of these NFT marketing strategies to work. Brands need to know how to interact with consumers in a regulated manner to see success.

What’s one marketing-related podcast, social account, or series you’d recommend? The Download by MIT Technology Review. It’s a fun, engaging daily must-read (other than Marketing Brew, of course). It has an incredible range of insights and news across the broad tech spectrum.