Latest / The Marketing Career Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Jobs, Skills, and Career Growth / How Marketing Unicorns Blend Growth and Brand
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I've been looking at hiring data from the last two quarters, and there's a term that keeps popping up in job descriptions that wasn't really there a year ago: 'marketing unicorn.' Luna: Marketing unicorn? As in, a mythical creature that doesn't exist? Lucas: Exactly. But in this case, it refers to someone who can both run a growth campaign and build a brand narrative. And what's interesting is that companies are actually finding these people. Luna: So they want someone who can do demand gen and brand? Those used to be completely separate teams. Lucas: Right. And for good reason. The skill sets are different. Growth marketers live in spreadsheets, run A/B tests, optimize CAC to LTV ratios. Brand marketers write manifestos, produce video series, care about sentiment scores. But in the last 18 months, I've seen at least a dozen job postings from well-funded B2B SaaS companies that explicitly ask for both. Luna: Is this because AI automated a lot of the tactical growth work, so those marketers need to differentiate, or is it something else? Lucas: That's part of it. But I think the bigger driver is that pure demand gen has gotten brutally expensive. Cost per lead on LinkedIn is up something like 60 percent year-over-year. So companies are realizing that brand-driven leads, which take longer to mature, actually have higher conversion rates and lower churn. They want the hybrid approach. Luna: Can you give me a concrete example of a company that did this well? Lucas: Drift. The conversational marketing platform. They didn't just run Google Ads and call it a day. Their CEO, David Cancel, wrote a book called 'The Lost Art of Closing.' He also started a podcast. Now, that's classic thought leadership from a CEO—pure brand building. But here's the twist: Drift's marketing team then built a demand gen engine around that book. They created lead magnets, email sequences, and retargeting ads that pointed back to the book content. The brand piece gave them a story. The growth piece delivered the pipeline. Luna: And it worked because the book wasn't just a sales pitch. It was actually useful. Lucas: Exactly. They reported something like a two-times increase in qualified pipeline within a year of launching that integrated approach. And it wasn't just the book. They had events, webinars, a community. But the key was that brand and growth were connected by a single narrative thread. Luna: So for a marketer trying to become a unicorn, what's the first step? Do you need to go deep on both, or is it more about being a generalist who can connect the dots? Lucas: I think it's about having a T-shaped skill set with a twist. You still need a deep core—say, you're a killer email marketer or you can write a powerful landing page. But then you need enough of the other side to speak that language and to see the integration. You don't need to be a world-class brand strategist if you're a growth marketer, but you need to know how a brand narrative can feed a nurture sequence. Luna: And I've seen this from the hiring side too. We had an episode a while back about marketing generalists, and this feels like the next evolution. Generalists who can also execute. Lucas: Exactly. And it changes how you should position yourself. If you're a specialist right now, I'd recommend this: pick one brand project to add to your portfolio in the next quarter. Maybe it's writing a thought leadership piece, maybe it's helping shape a brand guide. Something you can show in an interview. Because the companies hiring right now are looking for evidence of that blend, not just a resume that says 'Growth' or 'Brand.' Luna: That's solid advice. And it's a lot easier to start than going back to school or getting another certification. Lucas: Right. And speaking of starting something, if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own work, that's exactly why we keep this show ad-free. We want the advice to be useful, not interrupted. If that matters to you, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep the show independent. We don't have a big ad machine behind us. Lucas: So back to the unicorn idea. I think the reason this hybrid model works so well is that it mirrors how customers actually buy. They don't think, 'I'm in a demand gen phase' or 'I'm in a brand phase.' They have a problem, they search, they hear about a company from a friend, they read a blog post, they see an ad, they talk to sales. It's all one journey. Luna: So marketing organizations that silo those functions are essentially making the customer connect the dots themselves. Lucas: Exactly. And that leads to a fragmented experience. The unicorn marketer, or the hybrid team, creates a unified thread. And I think we'll see more companies reorganize around that idea. Not 'Brand' and 'Demand' as separate departments, but 'Acquisition' and 'Retention' maybe, or 'Narrative' and 'Conversion.' Luna: That makes sense. And for a marketer who wants to make that shift, what's a concrete project they could start next week? Lucas: Pick a high-performing piece of content you already have—maybe a blog post that drives a lot of organic traffic—and build a brand layer around it. Create a one-page brand brief that articulates the voice, the core message, the audience emotion. Then use that brief to inform a new email sequence or a LinkedIn ad campaign. You've just connected brand and growth on one small project. Luna: That's a great starting point. And it shows hiring managers that you understand the full picture. Lucas: Right. Plus, you'll have a measurable result. Did that email sequence convert better because the copy was more on-brand? You can prove it. That's the kind of story that gets you hired. Luna: I also think the unicorn trend is partly driven by startups that can't afford two senior marketers. They need one person who can do both. Lucas: That's a big factor. At early-stage companies, there's no room for a ten-person marketing team. You need someone who can write the website, run the ads, and also think about the brand positioning. That's the unicorn. Luna: So if you're a marketer looking to break into startups, becoming a unicorn is almost a requirement. Lucas: Absolutely. And if you're at a larger company, it makes you more valuable as a cross-functional leader. You can bridge the gap between the brand team and the growth team, which is often a source of friction. Luna: Okay, so let's talk about the risks. What if you spread yourself too thin and become mediocre at both? Lucas: That's the real danger. The unicorn label shouldn't be an excuse to be average. You still need to be excellent at one thing. The second skill is about fluency, not mastery. If you're a growth marketer, you don't need to write a brand manifesto better than a brand strategist. You just need to read one, understand the intent, and use it to inform your campaigns. Luna: So it's more about having a 'bilingual' ability between the two worlds. Lucas: Exactly. And that's a skill you can build without leaving your current role. Start attending brand meetings. Ask questions. Volunteer for a project that touches both sides. Luna: I want to go back to Drift for a second. Do you think their success was replicable for any B2B company, or was it specific to their CEO being a charismatic founder? Lucas: It's easier if the CEO can write or speak well. But the principle works without a charismatic founder. You can build thought leadership around a product person or a customer success leader. The key is that the content has to be genuinely useful, not a veiled sales pitch. Drift's book wasn't about Drift for the first 150 pages. It was about how to close deals better. That's why it worked. Luna: So the brand piece has to add real value before it can feed the growth engine. Lucas: Exactly. And that's hard for a lot of companies. They want the shortcut. They want to publish a blog post and get leads immediately. But the hybrid approach requires patience. You build the brand asset, then you layer the growth tactics on top. Luna: One more thing: how do you think this trend will evolve in the next year or two? Lucas: I think we'll see job titles change. You'll see more 'Growth Brand Manager' or 'Demand Generation and Brand Marketing Lead.' And I think compensation will rise for people who can genuinely do both. If you're a unicorn in 2027, you'll be in a strong negotiating position. Luna: So for anyone listening, if you've been thinking about branching out from your specialty, now is the time. Lucas: Absolutely. Pick that one project, start building that second portfolio, and you'll be ahead of the curve. Luna: Great episode. I'm going to start working on my brand brief this weekend.