Dear BAMf Podcast: Episode 40 with Tina Rubin

Dear BAMf // Episode 40: Tina Rubin of Wave talks about vetting your PR agency for IPO experience. 

In this episode of the Dear BAMf podcast, we speak with Tina Rubin, Chief Marketing Officer at Wave. Tina is a consumer-centric marketing leader with nearly 20 years of experience spanning tech, entertainment, and consumer packaged goods. In this episode, Tina answers some tough marketing and PR questions from our listeners, including this one about preparing for an IPO:

Dear BAMf,

I could use some insights here. My startup is approaching an IPO in the next two years, which is quite exciting. I have no experience taking a startup public. Though I've worked in comms at companies that were public, so I have a background in IR and quarterly reporting. My question, I've enjoyed working with our PR agency of record for nearly two years, but I know for certain they do not have IPO experience. I have to say their unstoppable results have certainly gotten us to this point of the startup success. Should I be looking at agencies with IPO experience at this point or keep the one I have maybe supplement them? Thanks for the insights.

Listen now to hear how Tina advises this writer to move forward.

Dear BAMf: Episode 40

Episode 40 highlights:

• (00:50) What is Wave?

  "Imagine taking an artist and putting them into an avatar format and dropping them into this digitized world," this is achievable with Wave. Waves are what the company calls its live stream concerts as Tina elaborates, "Wave is a virtual entertainment company that creates live interactive virtual concert experiences for audiences and artists around the world." They have had the opportunity to work wit big names, as Tina excitingly explains, "We've put on over 50 Waves working with artists like The Weeknd, John legend, Lindsey Stirling, Zlatan, and Imogen Heap to name a few."

• (05:30) What are you most proud of accomplishing in the last 12 months?

  Tina recently joined Waves after leaving Netflix and is the first person dedicated to marketing on the team. She is consumer focused and centers her recent pride around developing a marketing campaign that aligns with Waves audience. Tina had this to say, "I believe that it's my responsibility as the chief marketing officer to always represent the voice of the consumer at the table. It's not enough to create cool, innovative virtual concerts. We need to always be asking ourselves, is this something the consumer would want or like, is there a demand for it?"

• (07:01) What is your favorite way to tell a story?

  
  Tina summarizes her favorite way to tell a story into 3 parts stating, "It's all about three things for me, it's about authenticity, it's about having relevance, and it's being able to be multi-dimensional in the narrative that you're telling." 

• (13:00) Our company is going public in the next 2 years. We have a great relationship with our PR agency, but they lack IPO experience. Should I be looking at agencies with IPO experience at this point?

  Tina's first thought is to be transparent by saying, "We've enjoyed working with you over the past couple of years. We're about to embark on this whole IPO journey and we do question your lack of experience." She suggest giving the agency a chance to respond, because good relationships are hard to come by. See how the agency responds when you say, "Hey, come back to us with a plan for how you would bridge the gap in your IPO experience." This gives the agency time to find a solution in-house. Continue looking at options and launch a formal RFP process to find a PR agency with IPO experience.

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