Experience

15 years ago, I had a dream job: leading marketing and advertising for ooVoo, a video chat startup with $100 million in funding. A blank check, a high-growth industry, and trips to Tel Aviv where I spent Shabbats with our brilliant Israeli engineers. It was intoxicating.

Our mission? “Become the #1 business video chat platform”. We had the money, the talent, the ambition.

We could have been Zoom.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, I’m guessing that you’ve never heard of ooVoo. So we didn’t become Zoom.

Instead, we burned through $100 million and dissolved.

Did we fail because we were lazy? No.

Dumb? No.

Greedy? Not any more than the average startup exec.

We failed because we had no clue at all who we were supposed to serve.

I don’t remember once talking to a customer. I don’t think the CEO ever did either.

Our ‘target market’ was a vague blob of ‘businesses’. We were trying to serve everyone (i.e. no one).

We were a solution in search of a problem.

I was a digital marketer who didn’t know his audience.

Reflection

ooVoo didn’t fail because of bad luck or being ‘too early to market’. It failed because we lacked clarity around our audience.

First mistake: We wanted all businesses. Law firms? Retailers? Tech companies? It didn’t matter. Instead of carving out a niche, we stayed broad and got lost in the noise.

Second mistake: Because we didn’t know who our SuperFan audiences were, we didn’t know what they actually needed. We built a product on assumptions and without any insights.

Third mistake: Without a defined audience or product-market fit, we ‘sprayed and prayed’ our budgets.

This is a lesson that applies to everything: brands, careers, even relationships.

If as a marketer, you don’t know who your SuperFan audiences are, you’ll be at the wrong place, and definitely at the wrong time.

No amount of marketing creativity or hard work will have an impact, if it’s aimed at the wrong people.

Action

Want to hit the nail on the head, and make sure your marketing hits your SuperFans? Try this:

Step 1: Get Uncomfortable – When was the last time you talked to a customer? A real one, not a persona on a slide deck. Marketers who don’t know their market, aren’t ‘marketers’. They’re PowerPoint enthusiasts.

Step 2: Become the Customer Whisperer – The best marketing leaders don’t just ‘know’ their audience; they channel them in board meetings. If you can tell your CEO exactly who your brands’ SuperFans are, what they need, and how your brand fits into their world, you become indispensable.

Step 3: Make Yourself Unignorable – Clarity = influence. If you know your market better than anyone else on the exec team, you’ll be the one shaping big decisions, getting the bigger budgets, the bigger teams, and the better comp.

Step 4: Win the Long Game – Marketing leaders who represent the customer at the exec level don’t just keep their jobs longer; they get promoted faster. No one sidelines the person with the deepest insight into what actually moves the needle on revenue growth.

Know your SuperFans. Serve them relentlessly.

References

SuperFans are the lifeblood of any brand. They don’t just buy – they advocate, evangelize, and defend. They are the reason some companies thrive while others fade into obscurity.

Apple didn’t become a $3T company through casual customers. It built a cult-like following by making products people obsess over. Every iPhone launch isn’t just a release; it’s an event. SuperFans camp outside stores, dissect every feature, and spread the gospel (Muniz & Schau, 2011).

Nike once mastered this. Sneakerheads lined up for days to get limited-edition Jordans. They didn’t just wear them – they collected, traded, and created entire subcultures. But in recent years, Nike has lost touch. Bots dominate drops, resale prices skyrocket, and die-hard fans feel neglected. The result? Declining brand loyalty and rising competition from smaller, fan-focused brands like On and Hoka (Thompson, 2023).

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift has turned fandom into an empire. The Eras Tour is more than a concert – it’s a pilgrimage. Fans spend thousands, dress up, and analyze Easter eggs in every move she makes. Her SuperFans don’t just listen; they live the brand (Click et al., 2019).

SuperFans amplify everything. They generate word-of-mouth marketing that money can’t buy. They create content, bring in new customers, and shield brands from downturns.

Build for them. Speak to them. Reward them.

Casual buyers pay the bills. SuperFans build empires.

If you’d like to discuss your career journey with me one-to-one, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn.

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