Marketing Growth Conversation: Stephen Hunton of Mahalo Hill Country

Stephen Hunton is a builder and storyteller with over 20-years’ experience in agency and corporate marketing roles. He’s passionate about social and finding ways to build deeper connections with audiences through creative content, social listening and brand activations. Most recently, Stephen led the social marketing discipline at IBM, focused on curating the best experience for audiences through engagement, thought leadership, and podcasts.  Prior to IBM, Stephen worked in the agency world for companies like FleishmanHillard and BBDO, supporting brands such as Google, Chevrolet, AT&T Wireless and The Home Depot, among others. 

In conversation with Stephen, we touch on how brands are adapting to greater efficiency expectations, the immediate operational opportunities around generative AI, what it means to be “brand-to-demand,” and the growth value of an experimentation mindset.

Explore highlights from the discussion below:

As generative AI has gone mainstream, the conversation that has made headlines has been mostly around “generative creativity.”  But the opportunity for gen-AI to augment operations should not be lost on marketers. For teams that have to do more with less people, resources and time, AI can help teams deliver cross-platform publishing with a leaner operational model.

Stephen is a self-described “tinkerer by nature.” When new tools come out, Stephen learns by getting his hands dirty and trying the tools. With so many lanes where AI is making huge strides, it’s exciting for him to stay close and explore how new intelligent tools can “augment the work,” particularly around areas that have traditionally been time consuming. Tools like Scipio.AI, Canva, Adobe, Shopify, Miro and more have been “unlocks” for Stephen.

Stephen’s passion for learning by experimentation and creativity recently came to life with his new project, Mahalo Hill Country. Stephen was inspired during a trip with his wife to Maui, during which he bought a Hawaiian shirt that he still loves, and was taken by the entire experience. He was playing with the notion of “a mahalo mindset with a hill country vibe.” That led to brainstorming imagery within Dall-E, leading to a brand identity and a series of shirt designs. This new creative project allowed Stephen to fully explore creative possibilities with gen-AI, and also begin to work more with platforms like Shopify and Canva. Check out the project at MahaloHillCountry.com, here.

Stephen offers that great marketing leaders today balance the art and science of marketing. They focus on data and outcomes, while also having a willingness to be creative and innovative. They are “a little bit maniacal about wanting to understand their audience” so that they can connect on a personal level. They are great listeners to source insight and ideas from across teams, and they demonstrate results within and across their organization.

For Stephen, modern marketing is about going beyond omnichannel with activations that are tailored to each channel and audience. Not only does this approach maximize relevance and connectivity, but it also requires operational savviness to do it in an efficient, timely and targeted way. 

The power of “brand-to-demand” is that even when you’re bringing to life a brand activation, you’re always thinking about fully connected customer journeys and how work lands in the business. The challenge with brand-to-demand at large enterprises is that with so much work happening everywhere, it all can feel very disjointed, especially with many different agencies working on many different things. The benefit of a brand-to-demand mindset is that there’s both a creative and an operational layer.  Vision and execution all need to feel like they are coming from one brand and a consistent experience.

One of the best pieces of marketing advice Stephen received from a CMO was that “clients don’t see your strategy, they only see your execution.” Stephen views this as a great reminder for strategic marketers that you also have to stay focused on generating ideas and getting into market to drive real value.

Be sure to listen to the full growth conversation with Stephen.  We’ll be taking the discussion to LinkedIn, the Serial Marketers Community, the AI Marketing Guild, and Pros & Content to connect and share further.