Vimeo CMO Harris Beber: The best brands “do the right thing, even when they don’t have to”

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Vimeo CMO Harris Beber is unapologetically honest. That was evident in our conversation, which ranged from the marketing world’s new reality to a work from home catastrophe when he spent the entirety of a company-wide town hall with his son's poop emoji pillow in perfect view behind him.

As Beber sees it, the voice of the consumer has never been louder and loyalty can be lost in an instant. “Customers with complaints, once relegated to robotic interactions with a person on the phone, now can voice their dissatisfaction on social platforms,” he says. “Those who might have otherwise considered that brand, now think twice about where they want to spend their hard earned money.”

He’s passionate about how essential it is to listen at a time when brands are so often inclined to speak. The best brands in the world, he says, “do the right thing, even when they don’t have to, even when it is only that one customer who will know about it.”

He doesn’t hold back when talking about how many brands inadvertently open windows of opportunity for their competitors, “No amount of slick marketing claims or campaigns can compete with truly serving a customer's needs. If you let your customers complain long enough about being overcharged for your product, ignore their frustrations expressed online, someone else will be listening, and they will step in to meet their 'new' customers’ needs.”

Beber joined Vimeo, the video hosting, sharing, and services platform, in 2017 as it shifted its strategy from a Netflix and YouTube competitor to a subscription-based software platform for creators and businesses. Like Zoom and other video-based products, Vimeo has seen usage spike during the pandemic. The IAC-owned company announced earlier this month that it had raised $150 million from outside investors to accelerate its growth, and IAC said it’s “contemplating” spinning it off entirely.

Before joining Vimeo, Beber was the CMO of the Direct to Consumer business at The Nature’s Bounty Co., a leader in the health and wellness space, and head of digital marketing and strategy at Amazon.

On the new ways in which the platform has been used during the pandemic, Beber says, “Communities and masses always drive innovation in unique ways that companies don't think about. Seeing that has been incredible.” Below he shares more of his story. 

1. What has had the most impact on your perspective as a marketer?

Taking a risk to start my own business. I quickly learned the importance of customer transparency and the value of mission-driven work. 

In 2006, I left a job I was succeeding at to pursue a passion project— it was a company that enabled you to support charities of your choice while making everyday purchases. I spent our first holiday in business, Valentine’s Day, emailing 500+ customers— who had placed orders expecting them to arrive on time for the holiday— to let them know their purchases would be delayed. Those orders were sitting on a snowy tarmac, grounded due to one of the largest snowstorms in 20 years. Just a stroke of bad luck that I was sure would be the end for us. It was only two months after we launched, and 500 orders was a big deal for the business. We barely had enough money in the bank to cover inventory costs and couldn’t afford to provide refunds. Amazingly, after I sent that email, not one person complained or asked for a refund. The whole idea for our business— to encourage and simplify the process of making charitable donations— meant that buyers were supporting their favorite causes and non-profits along with their Valentine’s purchases. That, ultimately, was more important to our customers than the timeliness of their Valentine’s Day gifts. It was a humbling moment.

When you go out on your own, every decision you make matters, and you don’t always get a second chance. Sometimes you do.  

2. What’s changed the most about your job as a marketer over the course of your career?

The voice of the customer, and the power it rightly holds. Customers with complaints, once relegated to robotic interactions with a person on the phone, now can voice their dissatisfaction on social platforms, where others with similar experiences can amplify those unmet needs. And those who might have otherwise considered that brand, now think twice about where they want to spend their hard earned money.

The best brands in the world have always listened to their customers and had their needs as the driving force of the business. They do the right thing, even when they don’t have to, even when it is only that one customer who will know about it. They earn loyalty over time and with consistency. But there has also been no shortage of brands that put profits ahead of the customers that deliver those profits. They use their market position as leverage, and they leverage their customers instead of serving their needs. 

These are the brands that are being disrupted. I don’t know of a single person who felt good about spending $50 on the latest Gillette Mach Turbo and Gillette Fusion. In fact most purchased them with resentment. I purchased them with resentment. You have a brand like Harry’s come along, that listened to the customer needs that others were ignoring. They offered a high-quality razor at a fair price, conveniently delivered to my door. No amount of slick marketing claims or campaigns can compete with truly serving a customer's needs. If you let your customers complain long enough about being overcharged for your product, ignore their frustrations expressed online, someone else will be listening, and they will step in to meet their “new” customers’ needs.

3. What’s the hardest part of a marketer’s job today?

Waning attention spans. Marketers have always had to find ways to break through the noise. But today they have to do more than just convey a message or value prop. Marketers need to build deeper, lasting connections with customers— which is not an easy thing to do— and it needs to happen within 3 seconds, before they scroll past you to the next thing. It’s about finding a meaningful way to resonate with your audience and customers, and I think brands that do this well— Patagonia, Apple, Nike, OKCupid— have the perfect mix of brand values, powerful storytelling, consistency, humor, poignancy and relevancy.   

4. Tell us about the marketing campaign you’re most proud of working on in your career.

Stories in Place, a grant project Vimeo launched this past April. We gave 8 filmmakers a grant to tell the story of their favorite businesses adapting to the pandemic (and we gave a donation to the featured businesses).  

The initial idea came from a very sincere desire to help out our community. At that point, we were just a month into sheltering in place, and the whole world was feeling the impact of the pandemic. We had been hearing from our community how challenging things were getting for them. Productions were halted, projects canceled, small businesses shuttering their doors indefinitely. But we also kept hearing these incredible stories about scrappy folks who were, in just a matter of days, turning their business into essential services. Who were finding ways to get their employees paid when the government bailouts didn’t cut it. It was important to us to have these stories told, to balance out some of the negativity, provide some inspiration, and shed a light on some really amazing businesses and individuals. When we put the call out to our community, we expected to get a handful of responses, but received hundreds of pitches in just a couple of days.

I’m proud of this campaign because it took grit and ingenuity from everyone involved— my team, the filmmakers, the businesses owners. And it came together so quickly with beautiful results. I think from start-to-finish— brainstorm to launch— the project took just over a month. The films were made in 12 days while remote, which is almost unheard of in a production-sense, and we gave the creators very little guidance. They had total creative reign over their projects. That’s a risky approach for a brand to take, but we thought it was important for these stories to be told authentically by people who know these businesses and love them.

5. What’s a marketing campaign you wish you’d thought of and why?

Apple at Work — The Underdogs video. Apple was able to find a common problem every team faces, the “deadline,” and use the combination of wit and relatability to get the audience invested, while managing to keep the product at the core of the video without it taking over the video. It truly demonstrates the power of good storytelling, and— when it's done right— how you can capture attention for 3 minutes, not just 3 seconds. 

As marketers, we all have campaigns that inspire us, that push us, that lead us to do better work. This video is one that does that for me. So much so, that when our new VP of Creative, the incredibly talented Dan Brooks, started last year I shared it with him. Fortunately for Vimeo, I later came to find out, he worked on that campaign.

6. What’s your must read, watch or listen for all marketers?

Linchpin, by Seth Godin. He perfectly captures the notion that brilliance exists in every person. The ability to do what others won’t, to see what others can’t and to become indispensable by overcoming the things that hold you back from leaning into your individual gifts.

7. What’s an under the radar brand you’re watching and why?

Crossrope— see below for why.

8. Name a product you can’t live without (that doesn’t connect you to the internet) and tell us why.

My Crossrope jump ropes. They found a way to make an incredibly simple product, better. It is by far the best jump rope I have ever used. They have quick switch handles and ropes, an easy-to-use app that has weekly challenges. And most importantly, in this increasingly sedentary WFH life, they found a way for me to stay a bit healthier in 20 minute increments. In a world where it is commonplace to express disappointment in a brand for failing to deliver, it is nice to find one that overdelivered so much it compelled me to reach out to their CMO, Serge Popovic, just to let him know how much I loved their product.

9. Finish this sentence. If I weren’t a marketer, I would be…

An entrepreneur. This may be skirting the question slightly, as entrepreneurs are some of the best marketers in the world. They need to take an idea and be able to compel reasons to believe for employees, investors and customers. But beyond their ability to sell an idea, they need to be able to be an operator, an executor, a customer service rep, an accountant, a doer of “all the things.” 

10. Finish this sentence: The marketer I most want to see do this questionnaire is…

The incredibly inspiring, talented, kick-ass CMO of OkCupid, Melissa Hobley.

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