An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Authenticity is something consumers crave these days. Anyone can sell a product or market a service but being authentic in the process helps customers not only relate to the individuals behind the concepts but the products and services in a new way. People don’t buy products, they buy people, experiences, and feelings.
As a part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Mark Homza.
Mark Homza is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of creative storytelling and global marketing ecosystem, Funday. Previously known as Flixel, the hollywood-loved company known for re-defining photography through Cinemagraphs (also known as “living photos”), Mark is now working to future-proof brands through world-class storytelling. Built to lead companies in the Web3 space, Mark and Funday breathe, live and understand the inner workings of what it means to be a Web3 company because they are one. Mark is a prosumer and pioneer with a proven track record and has used this expertise to successfully grow and scale notable, global brands and the Funday ecosystem.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
While I was growing up in Montreal, Quebec, I always had a desire to see the world. I wanted to experience different cultures and contribute to society. It was important to me to be surrounded by brilliant people who were shaping and changing the world as we know it. Initially, I thought being a musician was the career path for me. Musicians get to go on tour and travel the globe. When I realized only around 0.01% of artists become successful I knew those odds were not in my favor, so I decided to pivot. I looked towards entrepreneurship and creating companies, which at the time, had about a 4% success rate. I have always had a creative mindset and I knew if I was going to do any shaping of the culture or contribute to this world I’d have to create things from scratch. And so that’s what I did. When I was 24 years old, I met Phil LeBlanc. We started our first company together, a health and wellness business. That’s when and where it all started.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When we first launched our app, Flixel, it hit 100,000 downloads in 21 days. Right from the start, it was a major success and so the initial push into the market was quite impressive. We received tons of organic press and thought we were set. Unfortunately, doing this a second time with version two of the Flixel app, didn’t go so well. We didn’t put our best foot forward in terms of providing a more in-depth product or any enhanced messaging. We assumed that because we had been carried by that initial wave and presence in the market that anything following would have win public attention, which ultimately just wasn’t the case. That was a good lesson. You constantly have to bring world-class content into the process no matter what stage you are in within the business development process. You can never sit around with what you did yesterday to carry you through. It was a good reminder that you have to continuously follow up and have relevance. If you don’t have substance, you’re going to be ignored.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I think what makes us stand out is our entrepreneurialism. It’s the entrepreneur or entrepreneur mindset all of us have that makes us so special. The distinguishing fact is that we can practice and be ourselves in the shoes of a decision-maker as well as a leader when we work with early-stage startups or Series B. There’s a certain genuine authenticity — how we connect and how we understand one another because of our experience. Having empathy is critical and it’s a rare thing to learn to do while being in the driver’s seat. The pioneering sort of mindset has enabled us to again become synonymous with an up-and-coming challenger type industry, the web 3.0 space. And so that’s a reflection of the type of clients we have. It creates a certain degree of separation because even within that space, we’ve been very successful. Everyone is growing and trying to change the “status quo”. People are trying to redefine what organizations are going to look like via DAO’s or even what the financial system is. Web 3.0 is the next wave of the internet’s biggest change since web 1.0, so to speak. Entrepreneurialism becomes the core varying separator for us.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
The most exciting project that is underway is gmgn supply co, the very first consumer packaged goods CPG) DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). It takes a very democratic approach to the consumer packaged goods industry. The goal of gmgn is to bringmore transparency, healthier products, and mindfulness of the environment to the industry. And so, with the introduction of gmgn, specifically through the structure of a DAO , we’re trying to experiment with the changing organizational culture and processes and governance. gmgn supply co is a web3 business model where members of the DAO are owners and can vote on major decisions from what they eat to what products are being sold and/or marketed. gmgn is well-understood Web3 speak for good morning and good night and it broadly represents the sense of unity that’s been cultivated between web3 natives in the new, borderless, and hyper-connected world. In addition to community participation via the DAO, gmgn will foster Web3 collaboration with each brand it develops. Every box of gm Cereal will include rewards, like an NFT, token airdrop, merch, or collaboration to further fuel community participation.
Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview.
In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
Branding is what your company believes in, how consumers feel about the product or services, and why it exists in the first place. Branding is the story. Marketing is how you sell your product or services. You can’t successfully have good marketing without building a good brand. You need each to work hand in hand with each other to achieve optimal success.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
Building a brand is important to long-term success and growth. To build a business, you HAVE to build a brand. Having a brand that is credible and real will make marketing and advertising easier. Your brand will tap into the emotions of your customers and reach more people. With such a competitive market, you need something that makes you stand out in the crowd. Having a recognizable brand including a logo, a key message and a mission can be the difference between success and failure. Your brand should represent you, your employees, and what you stand for. This is something worth investing in. The brand is the first step in the equation. You can’t funnel dollars into marketing and advertising before you develop who you are.
Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each. ✅
Communication: Do you have constant communication with your community? The only way to build a community is to communicate and be accessible. The key to success here is engagement. Creating good conversation and dialogue is crucial for growth. Making sure someone is accessible to answer questions, solve problems or talk through solutions is something you will need to have in place. There are different strategies within this vertical to ensure your customers are happy, connected, and engaged.
Transparency: Operating in a way that’s as transparent as possible is another fantastic strategy. It is important to share how you operate, who you are, your brand mission, who you are targeting, and what your goals are. These key factors will help you reach the correct customers and clients.
Authenticity: Authenticity is something consumers crave these days. Anyone can sell a product or market a service but being authentic in the process helps customers not only relate to the individuals behind the concepts but the products and services in a new way. People don’t buy products, they buy people, experiences, and feelings.
Honesty: Be honest. You have to implement honesty when you’re developing a brand. Like authenticity, honesty is something people also need to have. When there are issues, consumers want straightforward answers. This also helps them feel a little more empathy and compassion. Being truthful is crucial for any business or brand.
Consistency: Consistency is key. This relates to almost everything in life. The more you start being consistent the more successful you will be. If you work out consistently you will see results. If you practice a skill consistently you will improve. This goes for branding as well. The more you stay on your targeting brand the more aligned you will be with your audience. Sticking to key messaging is important. This allows consumers to recognize your brand for exactly what it is. The longer you are established as a certain “brand” the more credible you will be.
My key to long-term success was to stay on track and stay consistent. I find for a lot of young entrepreneurs, will fall off and stop pushing ahead. It’s very, very tough. But, one of the most important parts of developing a successful brand.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
From a brand perspective, Apple and Tesla have both done a tremendous job. When you look at Tesla, the company hasn’t done any type of traditional marketing whatsoever. But why is it so relevant? They have a CEO that has a flair for being in the public eye but the company itself acts almost as its own marketing vehicle. It has become synonymous with this idea of the green movement, electric vehicles, and the automotive industry as a whole. When you think about electric cars you don’t think of anything other than Tesla. You know that’s extremely, extremely powerful. For a company that hasn’t done any traditional advertising yet, it has such a profound place in the market — it’s impressive.
When it comes to Apple, we all know they put a lot of money into their campaigns. If you don’t have any money, it’s tough. You have to be smart in terms of how do you capture everyone’s attention? Everyone’s eyes are on social and digital platforms. If you’re starting up and you don’t have a lot of money, it makes it more of a challenge to get the attention you may need to thrive. Do you have a product with innovative capabilities or features? Does your product or service have that you can tie it to some form of movement, some form of change or can it make a significant contribution to the market. Will it get some journalists or get some folks interested to say they need to cover this because something new is happening. At the end of the day, if you don’t have a product that fixes a problem in the marketplace, or has a new twist or take on something else, it’s going to be difficult. If you’re going to try to compete and win something in a market that’s saturated, it’s going to be hard.
In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand-building campaign? Is it similar, or is it different?
When you measure a brand-building campaign you don’t usually base the success on sales metrics like the number of leads brought in or ROI. Ultimately it will lead to sales but brand-building campaigns are about brand recognition, creating awareness that you exist and about what you stand for. The KPI’s or “Key Performance Indicators” look like website visits, clicks, downloads, a low bounce rate, and time spent on individual webpages. This is a good way to gauge if people are curious, looking you up, or interested in more information. Another way to measure is by social channels. How many views is your post getting? Are your posts being shared? Commented on and engaged with? Social media is a natural way to measure performance. Lastly, if you have an app then you can measure the number of downloads, retention rate, session lengths, and reviews. Technology is evolving fast and these days there are dozens of ways to measure success without seeing “sales”.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
Social media plays a major role in branding efforts and should never be underestimated or overlooked. Social platforms can help you develop your brand identity and also connect you with customers. Social platforms allow you to approach people in a more natural way and engage in a two-way conversation stream. Social media posts can also be conversation starters and be used, shared, and leveraged to again, help measure your KPI’s. You have to be careful with what you post on social media but if used correctly it can boost your brand in amazing ways.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
You are what you eat. This is something that people say but can be rooted in goodness and longevity if addressed. I have always been passionate about the food and beverage space, especially in recent years. Many people turn to processed products for convenience and rarely choose healthy options because frankly there are not that many out there. Companies have to do a better job. As a civilization, we also have to be more responsible with what lands on our store shelves or gets delivered to doors. In many ways, that’s the mission of gmgn supply co. We decided to create an organization that says, hey, we’re putting better food out in the marketplace while society is moving faster than ever before. We want to provide better options and an overall better experience.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“What you feed grows.”
As an entrepreneur, in the areas where I’ve consistently nurtured my career, there’s been a tremendous amount of growth. Despite challenges and many obstacles, which is par for the course, what helped me grow was continuously being consistent and feeding my career. Even in the face of tremendous obstacles, such as the pandemic to facing challenges as early entrepreneurs during the Flixel days, and near bankruptcy, we always pushed ahead. These types of issues coupled with trying to find our product-market fit, trying to survive and live out the dream without giving up — was a true test and is also what showed us we were able to succeed. This doesn’t just apply to entrepreneurship, it applies to all aspects of your life. It applies to those relationships that are important to you; if you feed them they will grow and get better with time. Growth is at the core of any healthy relationship and that translates back into the business. What I’ve seen with such clarity is that a lot of our success over the years, has been a byproduct of community, it has been a byproduct of getting certain access and getting access to certain individuals and communities and people. All of that comes from fostering relationships. And so you have to seed your new yourself to get yourself better.
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂 ✅
It would be interesting to sit down with Elon Musk and get a sense of what is truly going on. If I sat down with him I wouldn’t speak at him or to him but try to get as much of his perspective and insight as possible. I want to know what got him here and what major challenges he’s overcome. He would be a fascinating person to talk with because he is truly a pioneer and a successful entrepreneur.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Twitter: Mark Homza
Website: https://www.funday.agency/
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Mark Homza Of Funday Agency On Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
