Digital Brown Bag: Newell Rubbermaid’s Bert DuMars

Digital Brown Bag: Newell Rubbermaid’s Bert DuMars

Bert DuMars, Vice President of Digital Marketing and E-commerce at Newell Rubbermaid, spoke at the New Media Institute Digital Brown Bag last Tuesday. He shared with the students the goals and philosophies of Newell Rubbermaid’s brands including Sharpie and Graco, and offered them advice about finding jobs post-graduation. Dumars explained how to combine digital and physical to teach consumers about brands. He believes the digital arena is the best way to reach consumers in today’s market. “In social media you don’t always want to be behind a screen because you miss out on actual interactions.”

DuMars says that at Newell Rubbermaid, their “goal is to reach people in the digital space throughout the different stages of their life.” For example, Graco knows that they have to reach a mom the moment she finds out she is pregnant with her first child because that is the moment she decides which brands to buy. As such, they are focused on effectively using “touch points” and representing themselves uniquely in each different touch point.

Equally important is content. Making sure pictures, tutorials, reviews, product details, and the like are the best out there is key because that is their biggest form of advertising. As DuMars says, “What’s going on with advertising right now is very content driven.”