Mobile Minds is a new series where we’re featuring the brightest minds in mobile to give you new perspectives, learn more about their backgrounds, and how Attentive has helped them grow their brand and connect with their audience. For our first interview, we spoke with Brian Lim, CEO and Founder of Emazing Group.
Tell us a little about yourself and your company.
I grew up in SoCal and attended UCLA. After graduating, I went on to work at Deloitte Consulting and was introduced to the EDM music festival space. My girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife, got me into a dance art form called “gloving” which involves the use of fingertip LED lights to accentuate fun creative patterns. We started selling lights out of the trunk of my car in the parking lot of the local In-N-Out Burger. The first week we had five customers; the next week we had 10; and at one point, 100s of people were showing up every single week. Eventually, we were able to open up our first retail store and e-commerce business under the EmazingLights brand. About a year later, we started the iHeartRaves brand. After that, we acquired INTO THE AM, our vendor for iHeartRaves, and we integrated all three brands into what we now call the Emazing Group.
Who would you describe as your target audience? Is the audience different for each brand?
Our target audience differs per brand. EmazingLights is more male-focused and targeted towards the music festival crowd. iHeartRaves is the opposite, probably 85% female-focused. INTO THE AM is more male-focused right now, but it has the ability to cater to multiple verticals, like the gaming space, for example. Whereas, EmazingLights and iHeartRaves are really catered toward the music festival space.
What in particular about launching a text messaging program initially was appealing to you?
We started using text message marketing about a year and a half ago. Like other digital marketers out there, it’s always a race to find the next most profitable marketing channel. For us, we started our businesses with $100 and no funding, and we grew exponentially because of social media—back during the times where we could publish a post and reach thousands of people without paying a dime. Obviously now, that strategy has changed, and we were looking for a new performance marketing channel. With SMS, we’ve had great results since implementing it.
You had been working with a different text messaging vendor prior to partnering with Attentive. What challenges were you facing that inspired you to start working with Attentive?
With our previous vendor, although they were helpful and scrappy, they didn’t have a lot of the robust features and capabilities that Attentive offers. When we were introduced to Attentive, we saw the additional features and knew we’d be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t give it a try. We also didn’t have a dedicated Client Strategy Manager before, as we have with Attentive, who was willing to answer questions whenever we needed help—having that dedicated support has been a game-changer. It doesn’t force us to become instant text messaging experts—especially as this is a new channel for many brands to communicate with their audience, there can be a lot to learn. It’s been really exciting for us to leverage the platform and see incredible results within just a few weeks.
Does your voice differ per brand? How do you ensure a consistent voice across your marketing channels—i.e. email, text messaging, social, and any others?
Staying consistent with a brand voice has definitely been challenging. Out of our three brands, INTO THE AM is probably the most challenging because it’s constantly evolving. We’ve implemented strategies to help ensure we’re using the same brand voice across all of our channels, like brand guidelines that include specific examples of each persona that we’re selling to.
For example, with iHeartRaves, we’re always asking ourselves, “What does she like?” since it’s a female-focused brand targeted toward music festivals. It’s important to always keep that person in mind with the messages we communicate from each of the brands.
What are some ways you’re thinking about continuing to scale your Attentive program?
Right now we are really focused on leveraging even more robust segmentation in our text message sends in order to reach our audiences with the right message at the right time.
What’s your favorite emoji and why?
The fire emoji 🔥 is my favorite. I use it in our company chat because it allows me to spread positive reinforcement with the work the whole Emazing Group team does.
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