Building Influence in Brand Communities
Channel: Jason Falls
Date: 2023-01-23

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We all like killing to birds with one stone, right? Metaphorically, of course. I don’t actually kill birds. Neither do you, I hope. 

But when you can learn amazing insights from someone who leads influence marketing for a big brand, but that person also happens to be a content creator themselves, well now we can double our takeaways and smarts without having to go two different directions.

Zeena Koda has been a content creator and media personality for the better part of the last 15-20 years. She’s been everything from a red carpet host on television to a voice-over artist to a podcast host and even a standup comedian. Her background is in the music industry … she’s been in a band as well … and like any artist or creator, she has multiple avenues and outlets for that content and creativity. 

But sometimes we also have to pay the bills if that art doesn’t necessarily take off right away, so she’s also built a nice career on the brand side of things engaging communities, building marketing and influence programs and more.

She recently landed at 2K Games, which is one of the most successful video game companies out there. With titles like PGA Tour 2K23, Marvel’s Midnight Suns and the Borderlands series, Zena has the interesting challenge of managing community and influencers for 2K … the brand … but also the sub-communities and influence programs for each title, because each game is different with a different audience, and influencers.

When I realized we had the opportunity to learn two volumes of expertise from one guest, well, I jumped on it. 

Zeena and I caught up recently to dig into her new role at 2K, her approach to influence and influence marketing, and some of the other issues she tackles in the business. She still has a popular podcast called Everything is Political, so she’s still a creator and influencer in her own right. She is also a co-founder of the Asian-American Collective, which is an organization worth paying attention to.

We’ll explain why and dive in deeper with Zeena on Winfluence.    

Winfluence is made possible by Cipio.ai – The Community Commerce Marketing platform. What does that mean? It’s an influencer marketing software solution, but it has additional apps that function to tap into your brand community to drive commerce. Community Commerce Marketing moves beyond influencers to fans and followers, customers, employees and more. Try its generative AI application, Vibe Check, with a two-week free trial at cipio.ai/vibecheck, and generate a library of social captions in minutes you can use right away.

LINKS: 
2K Games: https://www.2k.com/en-US/
Zeena Koda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeenakoda/
Everything is Political Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everythings-political/id1541779595
Asian-American Collective: https://www.asianamericancollective.org/
CIPIO's Vibe Check: https://cipio.ai/vibecheck