BET+ VP of marketing on growing subscribers and diversity efforts

The deadline for Ad Age’s annual 40 Under 40 feature is just a few weeks away. Ahead of its publication on Sept.19, we are asking former honorees to share career advice, including how they got to where they are today. Don’t forget to nominate your own rising stars for this year’s list ahead of the July 11 deadline. You can do so at AdAge.com/40u40. Honored in Ad Age's 2020 40 Under 40 feature, Natasha Aarons was formerly head of multicultural marketing at Google. She went on to lead marketing for Caviar at DoorDash before joining Black Entertainment Television (BET) earlier this year as VP of marketing of BET+. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Aarons recently spoke with Ad Age about how her dedication to greater diversity efforts in the workplace is continuing in her new job. Below, she talks about that as well as how she is growing subscribers for the streaming service. Responses have been lightly edited. Tell us a little bit about how your previous role paved the way for your current position at BET. When I had the honor of receiving the 40 Under 40 honoree from Ad Age, I was the multicultural marketing leader for Google's mobile hardware business—overseeing multicultural marketing strategies for Nest devices, Pixel, etc. And my role there was really to look at communities who we were just not speaking to—African American, Asian American, Hispanic, Hispanic-American, LGBTQ+ audiences and even disability audiences. So those audiences were not necessarily prominently featured in advertising on a day-to-day basis. And my role now, I am the VP of marketing for BET+, which is our streaming service. I oversee brand marketing for our streaming services, and I also lead all of our top priority launches. So for instance, we just launched “Martin: The Reunion.” It was very, very exciting for me personally, as someone who was a fan of Martin as a kid, and seeing just the enormous cultural impact that he's made. So I'm working on titles like that to bring to our audiences and also to grow the subscribers of the BET+ platform. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BET Networks (@bet) What has the transition from Google to BET been like? I had been at Google for six years. And like most people, in the pandemic, I started looking at ‘What does the next phase of my career look like?’ One, I knew I wanted to grow as a leader, and two, I wanted to be back in my passion space, which is entertainment. So before joining BET, I actually left Google to go to DoorDash to be the director of marketing for Caviar. And really what inspired that move was to be able to grow as a leader. Becoming a director in tech was definitely one of my goals, and then I followed a phenomenal leader, Kofi Amoo-Gottfried [chief marketing officer at DoorDash], who was also a previous Ad Age 40 Under 40 honoree, and I learned so much. One of my gaps was performance marketing and really understanding martech—I'm a brand person. How do you use martech? How do you connect above the line with below the line? And I got that at DoorDash while leading marketing for Caviar. Then this opportunity at BET came my way and I had to say yes, because it really matched that goal of being back in my passion space, which is entertainment. Also, I've spent my entire career leveraging all the work that I did to really give a voice to those who have been underrepresented, and this has been BET’s mission since its inception 40-plus years ago. You talked about Martin [Lawrence]. Can you name one other project or campaign that you worked on this past year that you're proud of? Upon joining, we were launching “Kingdom Business,” which is a phenomenal show on BET+, featuring gospel music superstar Yolanda Adams in a role that you've never seen her in, playing the villain. So that was a big launch that I worked on when I just started that I'm very proud of. Martin, again. We just learned as part of our marketing campaign, Martin was getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and that was announced the day after the premiere. So it's just been phenomenal, again, to be able to be a part of reminding the world of the cultural significance of Martin and celebrating that. Have you encountered any surprises in your career journey? As a younger marketer, early in my career, I thought once you get to the VP level, you know it all. You are an expert but I'm constantly learning. I learned so much from the other members on my team. Just seeing from a cultural perspective, I'm no longer under 40, so there are certain things that are happening culturally that I'm not aware of. I'm constantly learning and so I think that's the most surprising; to sit in this seat and realize that I still have so much to learn to be a better marketer. The business continues to transition. There's so much advancement in technology and what’s happening in martech, and so, what's surprising to me is that I'm still a student. I'm still learning, even though I sit in this seat and I have a deep level of expertise in marketing.See last year's 40 Under 40 honorees When we honored you, you talked about diversity, and you said that you've basically used your position, often as the only woman of color on a team, to be a bold change agent who consistently demonstrates commitment to championing diverse voices. How have you applied that mission to where you are now? What I said back then is actually the mission of BET and has been the mission of BET for over 40-plus years. So it's actually really refreshing to be in a room ...[where] you're not convincing. Everyone is on the same page. They get it and now my role really is not to do that internally but it's to do it externally and introduce new fans to Black culture. So I get to live that personal mission out day-in-and-day-out in that job and that's part of the reason why I came here. A big reason why I came here. What advice would you give a younger version of yourself who is just starting out in the industry? My 21-to 22-year-old self, I was really bold and at that point, in my life and my journey, I had not heard no’s or had doors shut in my face so I was really bold. I would say, 'Keep that same energy.' Still be bold. Life's gonna toss you some no’s, you're gonna face some adversity, but keep that same bold energy. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

BET+ VP of marketing on growing subscribers and diversity efforts

Featured Stories