The Cuttlefish Marketer: The Five Essential Traits Of A Modern Marketer

In the old-school advertising world of offline-only campaigns, the Marlboro Man reigned supreme. He successfully rebranded Marlboro as an ultimate masculine trademark and positioned them as the best-selling cigarettes in the world. However, in the modern marketing world, such marketing efforts fall flat, unable to maintain relevance.
Another masculine brand, Old Spice, capitalized on crowdsourced, digitally-driven content after its premiere of the Old Spice Guy at the Super Bowl. Old Spice proved that the marketing techniques required in today’s world are vastly different from those needed in the past. Drawing from over forty years of combined experience, Scott East and Ivan Aguilar share how marketing executives must learn new skills to shift from reactive marketing to proactive marketing. By adopting the qualities of one of the smartest predators in the ocean—the cuttlefish—marketers can go on the offensive and thrive.

SCOTT EAST is CEO and co-founder of MSIGHTS. He has developed and managed traditional and digital marketing campaigns for some of the nation’s most recognized brands, including Sprint (Nextel), FedEx, Verizon, World Wildlife Fund, GTE (now Verizon), and AOL. He holds a bachelor’s in political science from Syracuse University and an MBA from Georgetown University, where he graduated with honors. He is based in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA).

IVAN AGUILAR is Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of MSIGHTS. Previously, he was the founder of Enlista Corporation, an award-winning software company, and a founding member of tech incubator Iron Street Labs and MicroStrategy. Aguilar holds a computer engineering degree from ITESM CEM in Mexico and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of International Business. He is based in Monterrey, Mexico.