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Alix McAlpine is VP of revenue, ads, at Giphy. Prior to Giphy, she was director of international creative at BuzzFeed, where she oversaw the development of branded distributed content offerings.
Favorite project you’ve worked on? One of the most interesting projects of my career so far is what I’m working on right now—bringing the Giphy ad platform back to market. It has been a lot of fun to work on our new messaging, hire the right people, and help brands reach their audiences through GIFs again. Each campaign is like a puzzle to be solved, and I really enjoy helping the team find the link between the way our users communicate with GIFs and what campaigns help brands communicate.
What’s your favorite ad campaign? I am a fan of everything the creative agency Loop has been putting out. They create really clever work that is the perfect mix of familiar and unexpected and uses elements of internet culture in interesting ways that never feel too forced. I loved their work for the Ninja Turtles movie, which included a classic meme about turtles, and the show they produced for Duolingo last year, which was a creative take on the classic sitcom format.
One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I ran a blog about dating horror stories in the early aughts that was almost made into a book. I still can’t decide if I’m sad or relieved it didn’t pan out.
What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? QSR brands have created such memorable experiences through products in the past few years. The Chipotle napkin holder (would’ve loved to be a fly in the wall in that pitch; what a brilliant idea) and the McDonald’s “adult” Happy Meal collaborations have been genuinely cool. Continuing to bring value to consumers in ways that reach beyond the product they typically sell seems like a tactic that is here to stay.
Least optimistic? One of the first things I learned when I first joined the BuzzFeed creative team back in 2012 was to never let a brand force a meme, and, 12 years later, I still stand by that. Consumers can sniff out inauthentic content now more than ever.
What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? I love the Ladies Who Strategize community, and I’m a huge fan of newsletters. Casey Lewis’s After School is a must-read for anyone hoping to market to Gen Z and Gen Alpha.