Ryan Raiker of ABBYY: 5 Ways To Grow Your Marketing Career
Marketing is becoming much more educational, especially in the tech space. Innovation is occurring so fast, many industry leaders do not even know what they need, or should be looking for to succeed in today’s highly competitive and digital age.
As a part of my Marketing Strategy Series, I’m talking with fellow marketing pros at the top of their game to give entrepreneurs and marketers an inside look at proven strategies you might also be able to leverage to grow your business or career. Today I had the pleasure of talking with Ryan Raiker.
Ryan is Director of Digital Marketing at ABBYY, where he leads global digital marketing initiatives, promotes corporate messaging, the web experience, and advances ABBYY’s Digital Intelligence positioning. He joined ABBYY after the 2019 acquisition of TimelinePI, now ABBYY Timeline, where he led product marketing and brand strategy. Ryan graduated with a Master’s of Business Administration, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Analytics/Informatics, and a Minor in Operations Management from Widener University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Previously I worked in the public sector. My focus there was around IT planning, streamlining, and modernizing citizen experiences, and integrating enterprise technologies that helped transform government for the digital age. I think the biggest thing that had me thinking of a career outside of government was the lack of change. Everything in government felt stale and dry; everything moved so slowly.
While I have a huge passion for all things tech, there wasn’t enough digital tools in my experience working in the public sector. I mean I was working with people who were still using paper and pen to record constituent service requests and move them from department to department.
I didn’t plan to be a marketer, actually, if you told me that I’d be where I am today 10 years ago, I’d laugh you out of the room, but things change. Candidly I think I’ve always been quite good at marketing. My background in analytics and process improvement certainly helps me understand buyer behaviors, customer analytics, and ways to improve workflow in marketing. However, when I started my role at the technology startup TimelinePI I was a Solutions Consultant, basically a sales engineer.
I suppose I was always around sales and marketers and maybe I was helping some of my clients with marketing in my consulting business, it wasn’t my main focus. It all kind of just happened.
Wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. What advice would you give to other marketers to thrive and avoid burnout?
Simple: Love what you do.
Many of us assume that we should have much more than we do or that we somehow should be achieving or doing something different. We often see people around us who seem to have the things that we want. Maybe it is the nicer office setup, the better projects, the better team, etc.
We see the other guy who is making more money than us and experiencing “Instagram Envy” while seeing all the fun and happy lives others are living. We all know people who are polished, who are confident, who look attractive. We all know people who seem to have it all. So why can’t we have that? Why didn’t our project succeed like someone else’s? Why are we struggling to get things completed and get ahead?
All of this comes back to a way of looking at the world: finding joy, seeing opportunity where others see obstacles, and taking risks when others take refuge.
I hear all too often from friends, colleagues, and peers online — “TGIF!” Me, I dread Friday. I really do. I’m blown away by people celebrating the end of the week like the weekend is some kind of trophy. Is the weekend some escape from reality?
I’m not saying that the weekend is bad, but when you think about the concept, if you are a person genuinely celebrating Friday, you really need to reevaluate what you’re working for. You need to rethink your career and your life. Are you working for yourself, or are you working for that Friday night bar tab or something else entirely? If you genuinely dislike what you do so much that you beg for Friday, this has to stop. Maybe it’s time to break the pattern and do something different. Change.
Once you change, find something you love to do, the rest will follow.
Making that change was one of my best life decisions so I’m a big fan of that answer. There are hundreds of memorable marketing campaigns that have become part of the lexicon of our culture. What is your favorite marketing or branding campaign from history?
While not a full-blown campaign, Oreo pulled off a marketing triumph in the 2013 Super Bowl. During the third quarter, a power outage at the Superdome caused some of the lights to go out for 34 minutes. The Oreo social media team reacted fast, tweeting an ad that read “Power Out? No problem” with a faintly lit image of a single Oreo and the caption, “You can still dunk in the dark.”
With the new world of Digital Marketing, Oreo came to Super Bowl XLII prepared — they had a 15-person social media team at the ready to respond to whatever happened online on game day. So, while not only did they have a regular commercial segment, they had copywriters, a strategist, and artists ready to react to any situation in minutes.
In a competitive environment where every advertiser is fighting for attention and are spending nearly $4 million to run a spot during the Big Game, having a brand respond in real-time on social media is a clever way to reach people.
I really appreciate creative thinking, both as a consumer and a marketing leader. This was a touchdown for Oreo. I hope more brands take notice, and realize there’s new opportunity beyond the old, often saturated, and unengaged mediums of marketing.
Consumers have become more jaded and resistant to anything “salesy”. In your industry, where do you see the future of marketing going?
Marketing is becoming much more educational, especially in the tech space. Innovation is occurring so fast, many industry leaders do not even know what they need, or should be looking for to succeed in today’s highly competitive and digital age.
One more before we go: Is there someone you consider to be your hero?
I really admire Steve Jobs. I think when you look back and hear some of the experiences with the guy, he seems to come off as largely a jerk, but when you peel back the layers, he’s an incredibly complex and motivated individual.
Thank you for sharing your story and so many valuable insights with us today!
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