Spotify is THE number 1 music streaming company globally and Marco Bertozzi is their Vice President of EMEA Sales. Marco and I grew up in the same area and started our working life in the same place at Zenith Media. Our careers have evolved and gone in very different directions and that’s why I was super pleased that he agreed share his Marketing Mind with me.

The Marketing Minds series delves into the minds of some inspirational people involved in the wonderful world of Marketing and asks them to answer a set of questions that probe into their career journey and what inspires them. This is what Marco had to say

1.What’s your name? 

Marco Bertozzi 

2. Where do you work and what do you do? 

I run monetisation of the Spotify Free tier across EMEA

3. What’s your career path been like and how did you end up where you are? 

If I look back at my career, I would say it contains some common denominators throughout. I have generally been a self starter, worked in roles that need to be started and then grown and scaled and more often in new areas like digital in 1999 or programmatic advertising in 2010. I enjoy applying the attributes and energies of a new business to something within the realms of a big organisation. Basically not as brave as an entrepreneur but similar levels of passion and energy. 

4. What elements of your job do you dislike? 

I am not ever a fan of being slowed down or bogged down in red tape, especially if I have a very clear vision of what I want to achieve. Over time though I have realised that to do something well you have to take a certain amount of time. I think the art though is to decide when to just make something happen fast, be decisive and don’t hesitate, vs other projects where some extra planning and time will pay off later on. 

5. What’s your favourite brand and why? 

Apple – clean, works seamlessly, beautiful functionality, consistent brand always and if they do take a wrong turn, I believe they find a way back, but in their time, not rushed. 

7. What’s your favourite advert of all time? 

I think it would be the Fanta black currant ad from the 90s where he marches off to the white cliffs of Dover – I love the cinematic impact of it and totally off the wall at the time. Close second is Nike removing the seat part of park benches and on the back rest, it just said ‘just do it’

8. What advice would you give your 20 year old self if you could go back in time? 

Say yes more, be braver, explore more. Only old people say ‘life is short’ but it is true! The sooner you work that out the better and more you get out of life.

9. What makes you get out of bed in the morning? 

My son – he is the motivation, the reason for everything. After that, or perhaps because of that, I then really focus on doing the best I can and making sure I perform. It is vital that you choose work that you feel passionate about and enjoy and so that is something I would suggest one focuses on when considering work options.

10. What is the creative idea or innovation that you wish you’d thought of first?

I am not sure there is one thing, but I am in awe of people who invent the simplest thing like the Post-it. Something so simple and yet created a revolution. I heard a story about how someone once got in touch with 3M and asked them if they had any other colours or sizes when they only had the yellow ones and that the boss of 3M laughed out of the room. Obviously, we know where that ended! There are other things of course, but simple and scaled is amazing.

11. What’s your favourite way to spend a day off? 

Well on my own, would be anything that involves relaxation in the form of dog walking, golf or exercise. If it is warm, I love to settle down and relax in the sun and have a snooze! I find the best way though to relax is to engage my brain in some way, that includes running or skiing is great.

12. What was the last thing you learned? 

That if you hold down the space bar on an iPhone you can scroll the cursor to where you want it to be! Hot tip!

13. Which blog or podcast are you currently listening to / would recommend? 

I actually really enjoy listening to the Amy Schumer podcast, 3 girls, one Keith. She is very funny, very rude, poor Keith gets the rough end of the stick, but overall very amusing.

14. What 3 words sum you up? 

Passionate, determined, straight-talking

15. Do you think technology is killing creativity in marketing or helping it? 

I actually did a debate on this exact topic and I think we came to the conclusion that there is no right or wrong answer to this, it is in fact the combination of the two that is important. A really strong creative idea will always be needed to drive a brand forward, everything needs to hang off that creative focus and technology can help make that happen. Dynamic advertising, use of data to power solutions and many other techniques will enhance a creative idea.

16. What’s the work you are most proud of? 

I love our work with Smirnoff Equalizer – check out www.smirnoffequalizer.com – we worked with the brand who wanted to support young female DJs, they asked how we could help bring their ideas to life on the platform. So we created a site where users could hook up their Spotify account and analyse their listening, giving them a read out of what percentage was male or female. We then provider an Equalizer that they could shift the balance to whatever they wanted; all female, 50-50 etc. We then created playlists based on their listening but to the ration they requested. Lovely idea and great visualisation and solution.

17.What are you going to do now? 

Press Save.

If you’ve enjoyed my talk with Marco Bertozzi, then why not read the other interviews in the Marketing Minds series here and if you want to find out more about GingerTree then visit my homepage here.