We recently connected with Andreea Borcea and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Andreea, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Marketing is a unique field in so many ways. It’s one of the first departments to be cut during lay-offs and yet also one of the first to be invested in when funding comes in. The biggest difference between Start-ups, SMBs and Corporate America is the willingness to take a risk. Large Corporations and enterprises have spent years, maybe even decades, building their empire. While they want to grow and stand out, they also don’t want to upset the apple cart and cause damage. This leaves room for smaller businesses to be a lot more experimental and attention-grabbing. There’s so much less to lose and so much more to gain. As an example, a brand like Liquid Death has quickly become the second most popular non-alcoholic drink (behind Monster) in an over-saturated bottled water market. They did so by coming in a can instead of a plastic bottle, by thinking Marketing-First rather than trying to fit in. We see similar opportunities with the clients we work with. Our clients are often smaller businesses that can do better, because by doing better they can stand out. One example is Sprayology. The company has proven over the past 20+ years that they have effective, safe homeopathic and vitamin formulas specifically designed for people that hate swallowing pills and dislike gummies. Telling that story and showing how we stand out is helping us grow the brand exponentially year over year.

Andreea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I bring over 20 years marketing experience as the founder of Dia Creative, a digital marketing agency that builds out your retention efforts to generate 30-50% more revenue from your existing customers. I’ve worked with pre-revenue start-ups to multi-national billion dollar conglomerates and everything in between and performed as a Fractional CMO overseeing $100M in revenue across 6 start-ups. I’ve built Dia Creative to be an extension of your existing team because I know how often businesses want to feel better connected to the people helping them grow their business. Working with Dia Creative means that you’re working with a team that’s Creative, Collaborative, Compassionate and Clever (and we’re fun too). 

I specializes in discussing anything marketing, digital marketing, eCommerce growth strategies, retention – Email, SMS, Social Media & SEO and Health/Wellness/Medical marketing (marketing in a highly regulated and emotionally charged field) I know how to amplify ad dollars through proven conversion optimization, loyalty builders and retention strategies. 

Fun facts – I’m IMDB official, was part of an improv group for years, have 2 dogs and love to go on bike rides. 

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I had been playing with a side project for a few years when it finally felt like the right time to launch it by leveraging Dia Creative, my digital marketing agency. Dinner Table Debates is a game for people that like to debate. Debate real topics – politics, science, philosophy not just silly topics. I did a market analysis and all the debate games I found were silly topics like favorite ice cream or best pizza topping. I wanted something for people that wanted to expand their critical thinking skills and have in-depth discussions in a way that hadn’t felt welcome with the rise of social media tear downs and trolling. It’s not for everyone, but it’s also been a great tool for schools, parents, teachers, lawyers and friends that like to debate.

This was my first time manufacturing a card game and I really wanted to do it in the US. That ambition turned into 8 months of hunting for someone, anyone, that could print card boxes and cards in the US. I called manufacturers across the country. I spoke to experts in the printing industry and sourcing firms. What I discovered is that to print playing card level quality, the manufacturer needed a very specific type of machine. In fact, one sourcing company I talked to knew where in the world nearly all of these machines were and none were in the US. So the cards would have to come from outside the US. But I did find a box manufacturer in the US. The first batch of boxes were terrible quality. We ordered 1200 boxes for the first run, I had to throw away 800 because of prints that were askew. The quality of the cardboard was ok, but not as resilient as we needed for a game we were promoting as great for long car rides and camping trips.

I found a site called Pietra, which links eCommerce companies with manufacturers around the world. It has extensive reviews and allowed me to message these companies. I got access to manufacturers that were making playing cards for companies like Disney and Mattel. What surprised me even more is that they were willing to print in small quantities and treat my small first project as important as a larger, established brand. The quality is fantastic! And it’s all done in one place – the box, the cards, the shrink wrap. Only a few boxes came crushed but they provided 10 extra for free. The process was much longer – 3 months from order to receipt. But it was perfect for launching my new game Dinner Table Debates on Kickstarter. We sold out in 6 days!

I think the lessons here are: 1. be more open-minded when first starting to explore new arenas I haven’t done before, 2. don’t rush the process when it’s something new and don’t be shy to get the expertise from other people (most people are usually friendly and open to share) 3. test in small batches as much as possible and then expect to spend an extra 25% more than you budgeted at the beginning as you’re learning.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The creation of Dia Creative, my digital marketing agency, was a pivot. My career has been a series of pivots really! About 4 years before starting the agency, I was spending my time as a Fractional CMO. By that point in my career, I had worked my way up through the ranks in Marketing. I started my career cutting my teeth in the new, emerging field of eCommerce. That gave me an opportunity to work for a multi-billion dollar global conglomerate. Because it was a conglomerate I was able to work with a number of small health & medical businesses that they had acquired. I found I really loved working with smaller businesses. I enjoy the hustle of the beginning of something new and innovative. I enjoy carving out where our business fits in the marketplace and how we’re better than the established behemoth.

Because of this, after that job I pivoted into being a Fractional CMO. This meant I was able to work with a number of small businesses and start-ups that couldn’t afford high-level marketing strategy and it appealed to my desire to experiment across industries and learn quickly. But four years in, I identified that we kept running into the same issue. While we came up with amazing strategy, because they often only had one internal Marketing Manager they were struggling with tactical execution. We were all strategy and little movement. To solve this problem, I began sourcing my own team of designers, copywriters, channel managers and project managers. And that’s how Dia Creative was born. I find I enjoy spending my time running the agency and getting to build strategies for our clients. But the best part is now I also get to ensure we actually hit our goals and see my strategic plans come to fruition.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://diacreative.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/diacreativeagency and https://instagram.com/diacreativeportfolio
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/company/diacreative/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWJjAsF7Mi22nQxb8obVxow

Image Credits

All our work and a team screenshot from our Zoom calls because we are fully remote! :)