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Strategic Communications Advisory For Visionary Founders
Actionable
Takeaways
Lead with Optimism Over Competition:
Rather than positioning against competitors or pointing fingers at what others do wrong, focus marketing energy on solving the customer's problem and championing the industry. Positive emotion trumps negative emotion, and buyers want to align with ambitious, optimistic brands rather than pragmatists and naysayers. The enemy should be the pain point your customer faces, not the competitor you're trying to beat.
Leverage PR for AI Search Optimization:
Press releases and earned media are experiencing a renaissance due to LLM-based search. Being cited in authoritative publications like major news outlets now provides dual benefits: traditional SEO impact plus visibility in ChatGPT and other AI search tools that pull from reputable sources. This makes PR especially valuable for global companies looking to scale brand awareness efficiently.
Maximize Content Longevity Through Distribution Planning:
Don't fall in love with creating the content itself at the expense of distribution strategy. What happens in month three after launch is as important as month one. Build comprehensive reuse and distribution plans upfront to maximize ROI, arm your sales team with assets they can leverage for months, and avoid constantly returning to create new executions every few weeks.
Apply "Pragmatic Creativity" to Marketing Initiatives:
Start by listening and understanding organizational needs first, then apply creative thinking to how you solve those problems. Use a "fusion cuisine" approach where you deliver the fundamental requirements but add your own accents and character. This ensures creative campaigns remain tightly connected to business objectives rather than feeling disconnected or self-indulgent.
Get Budget V1 Out Fast for Real Feedback:
When planning annual budgets, share your first version quickly with key stakeholders rather than perfecting it in isolation. You'll never get the first version approved anyway, so speed to initial feedback accelerates you into the real discussion where you can refine assumptions and validate you're in the right ballpark. Don't be afraid to have initial conversations without all the answers.
Hire for Skills Over Traditional SaaS Background:
Look beyond conventional B2B tech resumes when building marketing teams. The best hires can come from outside SaaS if they bring complementary skills—particularly in short-form content creation and AI implementation. With how rapidly marketing is evolving, fresh perspectives from other industries often provide more value than another resume with identical B2B credentials.
Navigate Sensitive Industries with Thoughtful Newsjacking:
When operating in spaces involving sensitive material or worst-case scenarios, avoid "ambulance chasing" approaches that exploit tragedies for product positioning. Instead, frame commentary around learning opportunities and solving real-world problems without accusation. This maintains brand integrity while still participating in relevant conversations that demonstrate expertise and value.
Build Authority by Championing Your Industry:
When marketing to niche or lesser-known sectors, position yourself as the champion telling interesting stories that no one has heard before. This approach works particularly well for intellectually curious marketers in specialized verticals—unearth the compelling narratives within your industry and shed light on topics that don't typically get mainstream attention.
Conversation
Highlights
In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Aimen Chouchane, Head of Marketing at IntelexVision. IntelexVision is an AI-powered video analytics platform transforming the global security and safety industry by adding highly contextualized intelligence to CCTV footage. As the company’s first marketing hire, Aimen is building a comprehensive go-to-market strategy that bridges traditional PR expertise with cutting-edge AI positioning, all while navigating the unique challenges of marketing to non-desk-based industries. From planning ambitious feature-length content to rebuilding market confidence in video analytics after past false promises, Aimen shares his pragmatic approach to creative marketing and budget planning.
Topics Discussed
- Marketing to non-traditional SaaS verticals (retail, hospitality, fire protection, physical security)
- Building marketing strategy as the first full-time marketing hire
- The resurgence of PR and press releases in the age of AI search and LLMs
- Leveraging earned media coverage with paid LinkedIn advertising
- Educating markets that have been burned by previous technology promises
- Newsjacking and trend capitalization in sensitive industries
- Competitive positioning without creating “phony wars”
- 2026 marketing planning and ambitious video content strategies
- Pragmatic creativity: balancing creative ideas with organizational needs
- Hiring outside traditional B2B SaaS backgrounds
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