Disclaimer: The opinions represented here are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent those of their current or former employer.
Morgan Friberg is a veteran B2B marketing leader, and current VP of Marketing at Shovels. He cut his teeth growing the Mobile Heroes series for mobile advertising firm Liftoff, pioneering a community-driven content program. Splendid Engines sat down to discuss Morgan’s approach, which puts customers and community at the center of the awareness stage of marketing strategy.
Watch the full interview below, or read on for a selection of key takeaways.
In the early days at Liftoff, Morgan faced a challenge: mobile ad tech algorithms aren’t a flashy, easy-to-pitch product. Instead of pushing feature-driven campaigns, Morgan and his team doubled down on community content. Alongside then-CMO Dennis Mink, Morgan and crew built and grew “Mobile Heroes,” a program spotlighting experts in the industry and sharing their tips, insights, and success stories. This approach positioned the company as a facilitator of valuable knowledge rather than a company tooting its own horn.
“Mobile Heroes was meant to be a thought leadership program, positioning Liftoff as a leader and a supplier of really good content. The whole idea was to provide people in that industry with unbiased information, tips and tricks.”
It clicked. Liftoff’s Mobile Heroes has featured over a hundred talented marketers swapping tips and sharing actionable insights. Over time, the program not only expanded Liftoff’s reach across the mobile marketing ecosystem but also cultivated a loyal network of advocates. It helped grow Liftoff’s brand and prestige, turning it into possibly the best-known name in the mobile advertising space and a trusted resource for performance marketers across the globe.
Splendid Engines’ own survey data from our upcoming report also illustrates the point. We found that 84% of B2B decision makers are more likely to buy from vendors who interviewed them for a community program.
Want to learn more? Get in touch with Splendid Engines to learn how our GTM engine can power your business.
Many marketers feel that every piece of B2B marketing content needs studio-level production quality. Morgan argues the opposite: When it comes to community engagement and thought leadership, authenticity beats perfection. In a world saturated with slick corporate webinars and $10K-per-episode podcasts, what stands out is a human voice that feels real. Audiences gravitate toward content that is relatable and honest rather than overly engineered marketing speak.
“You could do a high-polish production; even in this interview, we could have the best lighting and sound with a big budget behind it. But ultimately, what matters is the content coming out of it, the information being shared, and whether it’s legitimate and valid. You don’t need to go crazy with production value to get the value of the message across.”
Studies show that authentic, user-generated content often resonates far more than dressed-up corporate productions. One Nielsen survey found that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, versus 33% who trust display ads on mobile devices. Embracing a bit of imperfection and leaning into community-driven content signals that your brand is human and trustworthy. In short, drop the corporate veneer. By letting genuine voices and unscripted moments shine through, you foster a sense of community and trust that polished marketing alone can’t achieve.
Great community programs don’t run on autopilot. Morgan emphasizes that to keep a customer advocacy or community initiative alive and growing, you need people power, a dedicated owner whose job is nurturing that community. Without consistent attention, even the best program can wither. For instance, if no one is tending to your community pipeline, you’ll quickly run out of testimonials and enthusiasm. Morgan’s experience scaling the Mobile Heroes program taught him the importance of having at least one person focused on it day in and day out.
“To have a community program succeed, you need a dedicated person… community must be one of their top priorities so the program doesn’t die… [Mobile Heroes] always had at least a junior person managing it… [They had to be] organized and a good communicator, since they worked with external people. You also have to keep at it. A customer advocate might drop off or leave, so you need a steady funnel of new advocates coming in. It can’t just be a monthly check-in. It has to be a continual program.”
Notion, the productivity software unicorn, embraced community-led growth almost from day one. Notion’s early marketing team noticed users passionately sharing tips and templates on Reddit and Twitter, so they leaned in, hiring one of those super-fans, Ben Lang, as Head of Community and launching formal ambassador programs. By investing in community before they were a household name, Notion created a grassroots growth engine: millions of users recruited friends, ran local user groups, and contributed templates that attracted even more users. None of that could’ve happened without replicating Morgan’s strategy: finding a dedicated community champion, and letting them get to work.
Community-led marketing operates on a “give first” philosophy. Morgan stresses that the quickest way to earn a community’s trust is to deliver real value with no strings attached. That means helping in ways that aren’t just about selling your product. In the Mobile Heroes program, Morgan’s team went so far as to help polish members’ personal LinkedIn profiles, an act that had nothing to do with Liftoff’s product, but everything to do with uplifting the community’s careers. By empowering and celebrating the individual Mobile Heroes, they created genuine goodwill.
“Value is a genuine, unbiased message that provides something someone will benefit from. It’s not always a sales pitch… It’s more genuine when a peer says, ‘Hey, I used this product to solve these issues.’ Value is anything that truly helps someone… We even grabbed people’s LinkedIn profiles and said, ‘Let us redo this for you to make you look better.’ That’s value, and it had nothing to do with our product.”
Many early Mobile Heroes turned their participation into meaningful career growth. They landed new jobs, received speaking invites at conferences, and dramatically grew their professional networks. Their success was directly tied to the value Liftoff delivered them as community members. Mobile Heroes who happened to be customers reciprocated the value. Morgan shares that Mobile Heroes participants remained Liftoff customers for three times as long as non-participants.
Whether you’re a scrappy startup or an enterprise, weaving community into your growth strategy from the get-go lays a foundation of trust-building content that you can keep building on. The benefits of community content aren’t confined to top-of-funnel activities like social media buzz; they extend deep into the sales cycle. Testimonials, peer quotes, case studies, and user insights gathered through community can be repackaged into nurture emails, whitepapers, webinars, fueling your entire marketing engine with authentic voices.
“The community piece is really important. I’ve seen companies with great products and happy customers, but they don’t bother to leverage a dedicated resource to get the community message out. And I’ve seen the flip side, companies that struggle to get the message out at all. Either way, the sooner you start, the better. As you gather community knowledge — testimonials, quotes, case studies, whatever — you can repurpose it down the funnel: nurture streams, reports, even as a spark for webinars.”
For years, HubSpot produced blogs, ebooks, and courses to teach marketers how to do their jobs better without overtly selling HubSpot’s software. That created an educated audience that eventually came knocking when they needed tools, and now HubSpot dominates the CRM space, standing alongside titans like SalesForce. The key to achieve such success is for marketers to constantly ask, “Is this content genuinely helping my customer, or just pushing my agenda?” Optimize for help, and you’ll earn the credibility to talk solutions later.
Morgan’s advice is simple: Your customers and community are your best marketers. By fostering genuine community marketing programs, companies can build trust at scale, turn customers into evangelists, and differentiate in crowded markets through authenticity and peer influence. In a world where people follow people, community content is not just a feel-good effort but a strategic imperative. As you consider your own marketing plans, remember Morgan’s core message: Invest in your community, and your community will invest in you.
Ready to embrace community-driven marketing for your business? Splendid Engines can guide you on that journey, from mapping your community strategy to co-creating content that turns your industry peers into powerful growth partners. Contact us and let your customers’ voices drive your story forward.