Interview with Julio Villalobos, Marketing Director at ESADE

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Alright, let's go. Would you like to introduce yourself?

I am Julio Villalobos. I am the Marketing Director at ESADE. I am very passionate about team management, marketing, and sports in general.

We know you've lived in many different places. You've lived in Barcelona, the Canary Islands, the UK, the United States... Do you feel you belong to any of them in particular?

No. The typical thing happens: when I'm in the Canary Islands, I'm the one from Barcelona, and when I'm in Barcelona, I'm the Canarian. What I have had is the great fortune of living a stage of my life in the United States and another stage in England, and I think this has been a differentiating factor. Not only because of the language issue, but because when I had to live in these places, I was quite young, 16, 17, and 18 years old. This helps you mature a lot, and knowing other cultures always helps you value your own even more.

Considering your background in engineering and marketing, what led you to pursue your current career? Was it what you wanted when you were a child?

No, well, when you're a child, you never really know what you want to do. So I studied engineering, partly due to family tradition, but I quickly realized that engineering wasn't what I was passionate about. It could be a good job, a good career, a good way to make a living, but it didn't excite me. As an engineer at Philips, I already started to steer my career towards the more Commercial Marketing area. Then I complemented it with marketing studies where I found my passion: marketing at a professional level. I do believe that being an engineer makes me a better Marketing Director. In fact, I'm not a creative Marketing Director; rather, I'm a Marketing Director of processes and operations. I rely heavily on a good team made up of professionals who are much more creative than I am.

A digital marketing provider must be able to integrate technology.

My relationship with technology is very important. In fact, it's a key piece when we select a provider. Whatever that provider does, they must be able to integrate technology.

I would like to understand what your day-to-day is like at Esade. What is a normal workday like? You arrive at the office, and what do you enjoy most about a normal day?

Well, my position has really evolved. I am a person who tries to rely heavily on the team, in a positive way. I give a lot of empowerment to people. And real empowerment. I mean, not just the responsibility or the work, but really letting them take the lead... letting them be the directors of their work area. So my work is more about seeing how I can gather the big guidelines from general management or strategic direction to pass them down to the teams. And also how I can make everything flow. ESADE is indeed a complex organization at an organizational level. An organization that has so many talented people, and management is not easy. So my work is much more about making that more pragmatic work of my team easy. Or as easy as possible.

ESADE is a very complex organization, with many talented people, where management is not easy.

Therefore, my work is very dynamic because the team is in Sant Cugat, but our internal clients (because in the end, we work in “client/provider mode”) are spread throughout ESADE: in Barcelona, Sant Cugat, Madrid, and even abroad, as we have partner programs with Università Bocconi, with Georgetown University, with Fundação Getulio Vargas... so our internal clients are also in the United States, in Brazil, or in Italy. For this management, we either travel physically or via videoconference or email. This without leaving out other areas, because there is almost no marketing project we do alone. We are always working in co-creation with other departments and especially closely linked with technology. Therefore, there is always a lot of interaction with the technology department in addition to other areas of the house, whether program-related or more corporate.

What was Esade like before your arrival?

Well, obviously there wasn't a 90% investment in digital resources when I arrived. When I talk about resources, I mean time, people, and money. I joined in 2010, which is five years ago, but 5 years in the 21st century is a long time. Therefore, it's not that I pushed it, it was pushed by the team, but the environment also helped.

Today, the marketing we develop is 90% digital-based.

I wouldn't say that five years ago the percentages were reversed, 90% analog and 10% digital, but there was more weight in analog than in digital. In 2010, the presence in analog paper media, in the press, was significant. Today, our weight in paper is much lower, and we put a lot of effort into ensuring that all the content we create is digital and goes through digital channels. Which is ultimately where you achieve volume, speed, and where our target audience is.

Your professional development within ESADE is very interesting. We know you started with a small team, then you had more people under your charge, etc. How have you faced change, new responsibilities, more team, more open fronts...?

I joined ESADE as Corporate Marketing Director to reorganize and boost the Corporate Marketing Area, which had been left somewhat leaderless because the previous director had left. It was about taking that car that was stationary, that was rolling backward, and getting it going, giving it speed, but I wasn't alone. I found a good team that just needed a leader, but it was already a very good team, and ESADE saw certain capabilities in it. The evolution resulting from this work gave us new opportunities and new responsibilities, such as the unification of all marketing teams. At ESADE, we had different marketing teams, one for each business unit, which reported directly to the Executive Director. This had its advantages but also many limitations. So we deemed it appropriate to present a project of unification of marketing teams where we could better leverage all the professional strengths of each of the people working in these individual teams, the budgets, and all the processes... and really that project that was on paper is today a success, a reality, and I believe it is a project where with fewer people, more things are being done and more efficiently based on the results.

Based on your objectives, is there any digital project that has particularly excited you?

For me, launching ESADE's first mobile website, also at our risk because the organization wasn't aware of how important it was, was a differentiating point. Reorganizing the entire Executive Education website, which was the sum of 100 websites made over a historical period, with websites of all types, and organizing it from a user perspective, too.

We are creating the new ESADE website, which is a project that excites me and is a challenge.

And specifically, the current project we are working on is redoing the entire ESADE website and achieving a very new website, user-focused with programmatic navigation, thinking in tags, where content is paramount, where we are able to manage that amalgam of different users we have, different programs... Consider that we have programs from a BBA, whose potential user is a 17-year-old, to Global Management programs where the potential user is a 60-year-old who wants to understand how the world works because they are going to internationalize their company. From a person here in Barcelona, to a Brazilian, to a Chinese or a Japanese. We have programs with partners, as I mentioned, with Getulio Vargas Georgetown, with Bocconi, with Lingnan, etc., for which we are going to make specific agreements. Therefore, we have to manage all that and have it well reflected and from a user perspective in the main tool of communication, information, recruitment, loyalty, and recommendation, which is the website. It is a project that excites me and is a challenge.

If we talk about outsourcing, what are the most important factors in selecting a provider?

Well, I had a boss who once told me an anecdote, and I use it both to select providers and to select, if you allow me the word, people who are going to work with me. And it's good people, good people, and passion. That is, good people in the sense that if I hire you to draw lines with a pencil, then those lines with a pencil should be well drawn. In other words, people who are technically good at what you're hiring them for.

When choosing a provider, we base it on the idea of hiring good people, good people, and with a passion for what they do.

Good people in the sense that... wow! They are people you are going to work with. You are going to relate to them; we don't relate machines to machines. We relate people to people. And when everything goes well, fine. But when everything goes wrong, you need a person on the other side you can talk to, you can understand, you can argue with, you can reach an agreement or a point of disagreement. Therefore, we don't need the most sympathetic people in the class, but neither do we need complicated people. We want normal people. Both providers and internal collaborators in the team. And then passion. Personally, I am a very passionate person about what I do, and I like the people who work with me to have the same passion for what they do. And if they are going to do it with my product, then they should have a passion for my product. In that line... What do we try to do? We try to avoid large companies that maintain the distance between this personal relationship or affection for the product. We also try to avoid freelancers for capacity reasons, because we are an organization with a lot of dynamism, with a lot of capacity to saturate the provider. We look for that hybrid provider mix of 15, 20, or 25 people where the partners are integrated into the project. They are in the day-to-day of the project and not necessarily do we require that the partners manage the ESADE account, but we do require that when there is a problem, they face it.

How did you meet Runroom?

I met Runroom through another provider we have called Firma, which is our creative agency and also our media center. Basically, Firma helped us a lot in design and all the more analog part. When I joined to digitize marketing and we decided to make that leap to digital, Firma suggested a partner they usually collaborated with and worked very comfortably with, making a great tandem, which was Runroom. And well, that's where the interest was born, and we started talking. Through different moments, we got to know each other until a key moment of team unification occurred. As I mentioned, at ESADE, there were many marketing teams, each with different providers, including, for example, for the SEM and AdWords management in Google. When we unified the team, we decided to look for a single SEM provider, and we held a competition with the purchasing department, whose incorporation has given us a step forward at ESADE thanks to the mix of the methodology that a purchasing department has and the know-how that the marketing department has. We held a competition, we presented two large agencies, two much smaller ones, and two medium-sized ones, of this size that we said made us feel comfortable. And in the end, the one that won was Runroom.

Can you define Runroom in one word?

Affectionately, I would define it as, and I say affectionately, as geeks.

I would define Runroom as "digital talent." Because they have really helped us.

But professionally, and leaving the joke aside (and it's something I always tell them), I would say not in one, but in two words: “digital talent.” Because they have really helped us. Their talent in the digital environment has helped us make a value leap at ESADE as an organization in the marketing environment.

Do you remember the first ESADE-Runroom meeting?

I remember two important conversations. A long phone conversation that also took place at a particularly sensitive moment for me because I was at the Google headquarters, just after joining ESADE when we had multiple teams managing AdWords, and I asked them to show me the average conversion rates in the sector and the average conversion rates at ESADE. For me, it was evident that we needed to improve and change the methodology. And I remember that conversation returning from Google's headquarters in Dublin to the hotel, talking to Carlos from Runroom, and I even missed the hotel and ended up on the beach and thought “I'm going to leave the island.” I saw that there was a lot of personal connection and that there was a lot of technical knowledge on the other hand.

Without a doubt, I would recommend Runroom. I was very impressed by the technological mastery of the subject and the closeness with which they made something seemingly complicated, simple.

I remember the first meeting moment, which was also with Aurelio, where they made the first presentation for the competition, I remember perfectly that he was wearing a yellow and black shirt and a bow tie. And I said “wow…” It caught my attention! This was one of the things that I have marked. But then I was also very impressed by the technological mastery and the mastery of the subject. And the closeness with which they made something so seemingly complicated, simple.

Would you recommend Runroom?

Would I recommend Runroom? Without a doubt. In fact, I have recommended it several times. I think it is an organization that has that mix. I would recommend Runroom to an organization that is looking for what we are looking for. A provider that is not excessively large but not small either. A provider that masters the subject but is also technologists and capable of implementing what they propose. And where the human relationship matters. We are very proud. One of the things I always bet on is investing in brains. It's better to invest a little less in the medium, in this case, if we take it to the SEM topic, invest fewer euros in Google and give that investment difference to someone who knows and makes the most of that money. And in fact, this has happened at ESADE.

Before we invested 100 in Google and obtained 1,000. Now investing 80 in Google and 20 in Runroom, we obtain 10,000.

We used to invest 100 in Google and obtain 1,000, and now investing 80 in Google and giving 20 to a provider, which in this case is Runroom, we obtain 10,000. Therefore, it is profitable to invest in brains and more in a market where everything evolves very quickly, and internally it is very difficult to have enough knowledge to keep up. And we, for example, in SEO, in SEM, in SMM look for external partners who are aware of the market. That is, I know that if Google changes the SEO positioning algorithm my agency will be there and will find out.

You mentioned technology and how it affects your day-to-day. What is your relationship with technology?

My personal relationship is that of a normal user. I don't consider myself a special technologist or a geek of technology. I'm connected, like everyone else, I have my laptop, my iPad, my Smartphone, I'm connected through social networks, I use the internet a lot... But I think like more or less anyone from my generation. I was born in 1972, I'm absolutely an analog native, and at the same time, I'm a big believer in digital, and therefore I've taken that step.

I would like to think there is life without the internet, but I don't think so.

Professionally, my relationship with technology is much higher because, as I said, today the marketing we develop is 90% digital-based. This was one of the challenges I was tasked with when I came to ESADE: to digitize the marketing ESADE was doing. Today we could be talking about 90% of the marketing we develop to position programs or for programs to have relevance and get students, in a 90-95% digital environment. All digital, in the end, or at the beginning, ends up leveraging technology. Therefore, my relationship with technology, with the technology department, and with providers that touch technology is very important. In fact, it is a key piece when we select a provider. Whatever that provider does, it has to be a provider capable of integrating technology.

Is there life without the internet?

I would like to think so, but I don't think so. I would like to think that we are not tied to anything in the world: neither to the car, nor to gasoline, nor to the internet. Perhaps there are areas or industries where not, but today I find it hard to imagine my life, personally for example, without the internet. The world of padel moves on the internet. You find out about tournaments, news through the internet. And professionally, I also find it hard. The internet and everything it means, the social media environment, the whole ability to be found on the internet, to position yourself, to offer your product to your client specifically at the moment they need it,… Whether we like it or not, we are in the hands of the “Google world” today. So I think no, there is no life without the internet.

Something few people know about you...

I don't know, I try to be a fairly open person. I try not to hide things. As the English say, “what you see is what you get”. I think it's the best way, but I don't know. I'm also a bit of a geek. For example, I'm an obsessive list maker. I like to be very clear about what I'm going to do this week. And have everything in lists. Those who work with me know it because I always carry the lists in a Moleskine.

I always carry a Moleskine with lists that tell me what I'm going to do that week and where I write everything down.

And this is another point: despite being digital, I still carry the Moleskine and I still write everything down in a Moleskine. And I like that. Otherwise, I think the people who are close to me know me quite well, I don't hide anything. At the same time, I'm a person who doesn't open up to people who aren't close to me.