Anecdote:
In 1993, Tupac Shakur was still a rising star, fresh off the set with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice, the first Black road trip romance film.
While promoting the film in Atlanta with the director, John Singleton, Tupac came across Notorious B.I.G.'s song, "Party and BS" and immediately fell in love with the song playing it everyday for weeks—that’s part of their story that never made it in any version of the script, Notorious, a biopic written by Cheo Hodari Coker—and here’s the other part.
Back in LA, working on his new album 2Pac got a call to connect with the hungry Brooklyn MC, Notorious B.I.G. who had flown to L.A. Following the call, 2Pac didn’t just meet him—he welcomed him like family. They bonded over beats, shared dreams, and freestyled in a cypher with other rappers—high on life, music blasting—and then 2Pac slid into the kitchen, no one knew for what, but something good was cooking.
Next thing they hear, "Yo, come get it." When they walked into the kitchen, 2Pac had plated juicy beef steaks with fries, garlic bread, and red Kool-Aid. The food made the vibe, created a space where everyone felt at home and solidified the bond between the two artists.
Moral of the Story:
As 2Pac rapped in “Dear Mama,” mamas make “miracles every Thanksgiving.” Great cooks, like great marketers, don’t just follow recipes—they create experiences.
To whip up campaigns that resonate like 2Pac’s kitchen spread, marketing admins and messaging architects must master the following:
Application:
These principles aren’t just for chefs—they’re the secret sauce behind marketing operations at companies like McDonald’s making their business strategies more consumable for leaders in a landscape bustling with marTech products. Let’s break it down:
The illustration above demonstrates how companies like McDonald’s may apply these marketing tech products and tools to cook and execute their operations.
Crafting to Truest Intent: Define the Core of the campaign
Just as 2Pac knew his steaks were about creating a vibe, marketers must define a products vibe like opening a new McDonald’s restaurant. A marketing operations leader might ask, “What is the facility's true goal? Is it to drive reengagement, or convert market opportunity to sales?” Much like a server asks for orders before submitting a ticket to a cook, marketing operations leaders must possess a requirement document that answers technical questions. Without such clear tech details about user intent, action, event or data points—efforts and resources, risk becoming exhausted and cold, like a dish lost in food runner relay. This is why the crafting of each campaign is underpinned with a sort of warming like the temperature of Tupac’s beef steaks, otherwise it's "all heat and tough talk."
Experiment Relentlessly: Create fusions between disciplines
Look at this article itself. It was cooked up to exhibit the power of cross-disciplinary thinking much like how a cook fuses together cuisines from different cultures, marketing operations leaders not only connect with users via an array of channels, formats, or strategic purposes, but they select tools and arrange use cases with the same tools. They may put them all in order or together to create a cohesive experience and narrate user experience through data by natively integrating, or merging data-driven targeting with bold creative narratives. The result? A campaign like a McRib, when served up, it's filled with surprises and satisfies all who crave it or items on the secret menu.
Integrate Ingredients in Unique Ways: Innovate Within Constraints
Great cooks innovate within constraints—think of a chef turning pantry scraps into a gourmet dish. Marketing ops leaders face similar limits: budgets, platforms, timelines. Take McDonald’s Secret Menu: it’s a clever way to spark buzz without overhauling the core menu. Similarly, marketers can innovate by integrating unexpected elements—like using AI to personalize emails or gamifying a loyalty program. For inspiration, imagine a dish like Oxtail Ragu with Plantain Gnocchi, a fusion of Afro-Italian, while balancing flavors—understand such innovations can only be the result of routine and discipline i.e. following recipes.
The Recipe:
Season 2.5 lb oxtails with all-purpose seasoning, browning, salt, and pepper; refrigerate 3 hours. Brown oxtails in a Dutch oven with oil. Sauté onion, carrot, garlic, then add tomato paste, thyme, paprika, scotch bonnet, lemon zest/juice, San Marzano tomatoes, brown sugar, red wine, and beef stock. Braise in oven at 360°F for 3.5-4 hours. For gnocchi, boil 2 ripe plantains, mash, mix with flour, egg, olive oil, and salt. Shape, boil until floating. Serve with ragu, garnish with parsley, Parmesan.
Pictured here: Fresh, homemade plantain gnocchi topped with oxtails that have been braised for hours in a rich tomato sauce flavored with lots of red wine.
Reinventing Interpretation: Redefine the Game
The boldest cooks redefine food itself—like the cast of Netflix American BBQ Showdown, a bar-be-que competition show for pros and amateurs. For a marketing leader, this might mean creating a campaign that breaks form, taking an avant-garde approach by reimagining how audiences experience their brand or product feature even if their genius goes unsung by consumers. Reinvention demands courage to challenge norms, like a chef who swaps brisket’s burnt ends for chuck in a twist resulting in consumers reciting Notorious B.I.G. lyrics: What’s Beef?
Conclusion:
In the kitchen of marketing operations, be the executive chef. Remember the ingredients are data, creativity, and strategy; the constraints are budgets, platforms, and deadlines. Like Tupac crafting a moment with steaks and Kool-Aid, or Biggie transforming his hustle into hip-hop legend, the task is to innovate within the chaos. Define the campaign’s soul, fuse bold ideas, integrate unexpected elements, and dare to redefine what’s possible. The result? A masterpiece that lingers in the minds of the consumer, long after the campaign ends.