Marketing Re-Imagined: Yoel Israel Of WadiDigital On How We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It More Authentic, Sustainable, And Promote More Satisfaction
An Interview With Drew Gerber
If your marketing is authentic, it will be successful. The free market will help us become more authentic in that way. As long as you have good and authentic marketing, then you’ll be rewarded accordingly.
From an objective standpoint, we are living in an unprecedented era of abundance. Yet so many of us are feeling unsatisfied. Why are we seemingly so insatiable? Do you feel that marketing has led to people feeling unsatisfied and not having enough in life? If so, what actions can marketers take to create a world where people feel that they have enough, and they are enough? Can we re-imagine what marketing looks like and how it makes people feel?
In this interview series, we are talking to experts in marketing and branding to discuss how we might re-imagine marketing to make it more authentic, sustainable, and promote more satisfaction. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Yoel Israel.
Yoel Israel grew up in Philadelphia in a traditional Jewish home.
One of his life dreams was to make Aliyah and build a house and a family in Israel. When reflecting on his future as a Bar Mitzvah, Yoel promised that he would work aggressively towards his goals when the time was right.
Yoel started to build his own business, WadiDigital.com, and started to provide marketing solutions to the leading Israeli tech companies. WadiDigital has since grown to a team of 22 full-time employees in Israel. Yoel’s agency is unique that he brings the American customer service and long-term thinking and strategy to B2B technology marketing; this led to tremendous growth in helping Israeli tech companies and unicorns.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to know how you got from “there to here.” Inspire us with your backstory!
I was doing organic social on the side when I was in Philly 11 years ago. I had a client who asked me to take out some ads, and when I saw the dashboards, I fell in love. It took everything that I love from my finance degree and numbers, but it had personality. Instead of interpreting the numbers, I get to be part of the conversation by changing, targeting, ad messaging, bidding, strategizing, et cetera. And I fell in love. I knew that’s what I wanted to do for my career. From there, I built and built. And I got good referrals, as I did good work.
What lessons would you share with yourself if you had the opportunity to meet your younger self?
Do not go to college, do not get an undergrad, and do not get a master’s degree. College is the biggest waste of time and money. It teaches you how to do things the wrong way. It doesn’t teach you how to think critically. It teaches you how to be an employee. It doesn’t teach you how to be objective. And what you’re learning is already out of date compared to what’s currently going on in the market and industry.
None of us are able to experience success without support along the way. Is there a particular person for whom you are grateful for that support to grow you from “there to here?” Can you share that story and why you are grateful for him or her?
Two people:
- Gary Vanerchuk — just following him about putting out content regularly and how to grow a marketing agency.
- Hillel Fuld — In 2009, I was getting my MBA. He didn’t even know who I was, and he invited me for a cup of coffee. We met up in Israel. He told me I had to get on Twitter. And that was the first time I was introduced to digital marketing. I loved social media, communication, and the fast speed of digital marketing. That kind of put me in place to start to do it on the side for small businesses back in Philly.
What day-to-day structures do you have in place for you to experience a fulfilled life?
Except for working, which I find extremely fulfilling, I have a personal trainer who comes over twice a week. I have my wife and my daughters that I spend time with often in the evenings. I take my daughters to school in the mornings. I spend all Friday and Saturdays with them going to synagogue. Additionally, I make sure that I have a strong social life with other men in my neighborhood. This helps me be more fulfilled and get other feedback from other people outside of business.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think it might help people?
I’m looking into creating a tech marketing recruitment agency. This is going to help people by placing them in better jobs. We’re also going to focus on career development for job seekers. And for employers, we are going to help them find the perfect people using the unique, go-to market strategy.
Ok, thank you for sharing your inspired life. Now let’s discuss marketing. To begin, can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority on marketing?
I was one of the first early adopters of LinkedIn and Quora ads. This has helped me create my brand. I am obsessed with LinkedIn. In fact, I had a college class on LinkedIn in 2006 when it was just about recruitment and a platform to share your resumes or CV. I’ve been posting on LinkedIn regularly the moment they allowed users to share content. Also, I was one of the very first advertisers on LinkedIn which has been very good for our growth. By doing daily posts, I’ve been able to build a very strong brand of marketers in tech, and it’s helped me grow the company and help more people by providing value without asking anything in return.
You can find me at Linkedin.com/n/YoelTIsrael if you want to follow and keep up to date.
Throughout history, marketing has driven trade for humans. What role do you see that marketing played to get human societies where we are today?
Marketing is a reflection of the culture. To be able to catch people’s attention for them to remember you, you need to go beyond creativity and display edginess.
Edgy might mean doing things a little outside of the box. It could also be having a little jingle that will help people remember your brand if you play it over and over on the radio, TV, or on YouTube.
Marketing is a reflection of what is going on and what solutions that people are currently looking for. So one of the ways that things progress, whether it’s politics, business, or culture, is often through marketing and advertising.
I work in marketing so I’m very cognizant of this question. What role does marketing play in creating the human experience of “I don’t have enough” even when basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing are met?
Partly, the problem is when marketing becomes misleading. Too much airbrushing. The models are anorexic and way too skinny to the point that it is unhealthy.
On the other hand, the other problem is that marketing is a reflection of our culture and society. If we become too much of a consumerist and excessively care about things and not people or our character, then it is a problem.
Probably as a little less faith-based society in the west, that might have had an effect on us looking for ways to find meaning in something that could be consumed. Since we’re not looking for spiritual meaning, we need to fill that void with something else. Marketing steps right in and hits us with those dopamines and that fake meaning that we think that we need.
It is a problem, but at the end of the day, it’s a reflection of culture and society. We need to use marketing to put culture on the right path — having good substance, doing good deeds for other people, and finding meaning that isn’t evolving around consumerism or advertising.
What responsibility do marketers have when it comes to people feeling that they aren’t enough?
Marketers have the responsibility not only to show the ads, but also to call out ads that are inappropriate. As you can see in my viral post here on LinkedIn, I called out a company (but redacted their name) for their ads looking down on the working class. People want others to talk about it. This is why this post went so viral.
These are my most viral posts. As marketers, we need to call them out. We need to lead by example of what good marketing is.
Many 21st-century marketing professionals in a capitalistic society will discuss solving human “pain points” as a way to sell products, services, and other wares successfully. In your opinion or experience, has aggravating pain points led to more pain?
Yes and no. I think some pain points about losing weight and getting in shape are helpful for people. I know I enjoy those ads and posts on Instagram. They serve as a good reminder. We all have pains in our lives and we want them alleviated. But we need outside help, and as humans, we get it anonymously through an ad rather than a person telling us directly.
Different cultures view trade/marketing differently. While some may focus on “pain-points” others may focus on “purpose-points”. How do other cultures differ in how they approach marketing? Please give examples or studies you may know about.
In my experience, if you have a product that’s a disruptor, meaning people don’t know about your solution, you need to talk about pain points in order for people to say, “Yeah, I have that pain. Hey, here’s a solution that I wasn’t aware of.” The purpose points are usually solutions or products that they’re already familiar with, but you might have an add-on or something a little better or different than your competitor. If that’s the case, you might want to focus on purpose points.
The culture also plays a big role on how much you can call out the pain points in a society, your business, or products, depending on how aggressive or polite they are. I’m in Israel, and people here are very direct, so you can get straight to the point in talking about pain points or purpose points. You can rip it all up left and right, and people don’t take offense to it. However, we do advertising in Britain for British clients, and our approach has to be a little bit more passive. They’re, let’s say, more polite and indirect in their criticism. Therefore, you have to alter your messaging, graphic design, and ad copy itself, to ensure that you’re being considerate of other cultures so you can provide them with the best value in your market.
Okay, fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview: It seems as if we have never stopped to question marketing. In your opinion, how can marketing professionals be more responsible for how their advertising shapes our human experience of feeling safe, secure, and knowing that we matter? Based on your experience or research can you please share “Five Ways We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry To Make It More Authentic, Sustainable, And Promote More Satisfaction”?
My answer is going to be a little different from most. One, as I touched on earlier, is that there should be extended legislation about false advertising. That means excessive airbrushing of photos, and very skinny people modeling for clothes, should be prohibited: for example, only 0.5% of an extreme weight class for their height or BPI.
On the other hand, if your marketing is authentic, it will be successful. The free market will help us become more authentic in that way. As long as you have good and authentic marketing, then you’ll be rewarded accordingly.
How can marketing create more satisfaction? By playing to the positive feelings and the positive images that people have. Unfortunately, they say posts on Facebook that get the most engagement are those that get you angry and are often political. We should drive away from things that would get you angry. A lot of fear-mongering is always going on: a lot about doomsday, the world is ending, things like that. Those should be left out of marketing because we’re using fear, which is unfortunately the number one motivator.
That’s something that should be avoided altogether. We should get rid of the word fear. Fear should not be relevant in our marketing at all.
We are already pretty good about helping people feel safe with marketing. The major platforms, for example, Google won’t let you do remarketing for any pharmaceuticals or medication. Or if you don’t want to be obsessively remarketed with religious stuff of faiths other than your own, you’re not allowed to do that on Google. Moreover, Facebook has also removed religious targeting. And even though I think faith is good for society, I understand the negative side of trolling people with remarketing, with any religious belief, or any kind of pharmaceuticals to remind you that you’re unhealthy or you need to take medication.
Also, we need to stop marketing and advertising pharmaceuticals. It is not a secret that America is overmedicated. We’re taking too many pills. We’re over-prescribing children. We’re taking too many painkillers. A lot of people are becoming dependent and even addicted. Those people that are living very fulfilling and healthy lives can very easily get caught up in this. So I think it’s very important that we have, if anything, a marketing conversation and maybe take out some ads about how destructive these are. We need to go and look inward, and not look to marketers to tell us what to do.
Another point that is extremely controversial as someone who loves social media, is that I think some platforms just need to be banned or limited for children. There’s no reason that children should not be allowed to go on YouTube under the age of 12 if there is a YouTube children-only filter to make sure there isn’t terrible content on there. As an example, TikTok has proven to be terrible to the brain as it makes us feel very insecure. I see this first-hand, having little girls who have become depressed and extremely anxious and often putting them in the ER. Maybe TikTok should even be banned, let’s say, for people under 14.
I don’t know the right age, but I do know that there’s a problem here. And as marketers, we need to be very careful of dangerous platforms for children and young teens. We need to work together to encourage our children not to use it. Over a decade ago, Steve Jobs said that he wouldn’t let his kids have an iPad, because it was addictive and not good for their brains.
He knew how bad it was then, and it’s only becoming more and more addictive as they’re trying to optimize the iPad and all of the social media platforms for more engagement. It encourages us to get more emotional from posts and keeps longer dwelling times so we consume more ads.
This is very, very unhealthy. I do think we need to have an open conversation about how social media can be very destructive for people. I do think every single social media account that is created should have automatic parental controls, that if you’re under 18, you would need an adult to open an account.
Additionally, some default parental controls for adults in a way might be good. I know people are starting to do this. They’ll tell you, “Hey, you’ve been on your phone too long, you’ve been scrolling for a while. Maybe take a break.”
I have a Nintendo Switch and I put Al control for myself. So after an hour and a half a day, I can’t play anymore. These are the kind of constraints that we kind of need to put on ourselves, even if they’re not required. I do think we need to encourage these companies to make it an opt-in to at least let us know, “Hey, you’ve been playing for a while. Why don’t you go outside?” Just like my smart watch says, “Hey, you’ve been sitting for an hour. Why don’t you get up and stretch?”
For you personally, if you have all your basic needs met, do you feel you have enough in life?
Yes. I have a wife, children, and a family. I have my basic needs met. I have faith and a community, and I’m doing everything I can to make the world a better place and to leave a positive impact as much as possible.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that have inspired you to live with more joy in life?
Dennis Prager has a book called “Happiness is a Serious Problem”. I know as a marketer, it is a terrible name for a book, but it is more about the lack of happiness and us not understanding what it is, and how it can provide a serious problem.
I strongly recommend people read this book if they really want to find their happiness and have more joy in their lives.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Getting people that aren’t studying STEM to stop going to college. It is the best and most formidable years of your life. If you take what you pay for college and just invest it, you’ll retire as a multi-millionaire in your 50s. What you learn isn’t relevant. Go travel instead for a year. See the world. Then you will start to understand how great living in the west is; how great the cost of living is; how blessed we are to have our freedoms, and how great life actually is. You get far more perspective.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to do that, you can go and just work for free from three to six months. You’ll have far more skills and you’ll end up earning more than most people that walk out of college with a degree.
Whenever I meet anyone that is going to college, or says their kid or someone they know is going to college, I ask what they’re studying and if it’s not STEM, then we have a moral obligation to tell them not to go if they are not studying STEM.
Most of the things that we like about college don’t help us earn. We should be learning in high school, and you can get a lot of lessons for free on YouTube. So it’s totally not necessary. When it comes to money, if you gave someone a hundred thousand dollars, how would they invest it? People might say, “Cryptocurrency.” People might say, “Maybe I’ll buy a piece of real estate.” “I’ll put it in the stock market.” No one is saying, “I’m going to put it towards university”. That’s going to give you the worst ROI. If you see people with very affluent houses and really nice cars, you don’t think, “Oh, they must have gone to college.”
We need to decouple college with success and a good living and happiness. The opposite is true.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoeltisrael/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb9Wu1BS1Q_1xePDvwHUx6A
Twiiter: https://twitter.com/YoelTIsrael
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About The Interviewer: For 30 years, Drew Gerber has been inspiring those who want to change the world. Drew is the CEO of Wasabi Publicity, Inc., a full-service PR agency lauded by PR Week and Good Morning America. Wasabi Publicity, Inc. is a global marketing company that supports industry leaders, change agents, unconventional thinkers, companies and organizations that strive to make a difference. Whether it’s branding, traditional PR or social media marketing, every campaign is instilled with passion, creativity and brilliance to powerfully tell their clients’ story and amplify their intentions in the world. Schedule a free consultation at WasabiPublicity.com/Choosing-Publicity
Marketing Re-Imagined: Yoel Israel Of WadiDigital On How We Can Re-Imagine The Marketing Industry… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.