PPB September 2018

Ben Taylor, 35 Chief Marketing Officer BamBams F ollowing in his father’s footsteps at supplier BamBams was never Ben Taylor’s plan—and it took working at six other jobs before he joined the company in 2016. After earning a business and computer science degree fromGeorge Washington University, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for seven years and then worked in digital marketing for various corporations, including Gallup Consulting. His father, Dan Taylor, founded BamBams in Manassas, Virginia, in 2002 and the younger Taylor was eventually drawn in by the opportunities the company presented. “My dad has always been my hero,” he says. “He tried hard to teach me to never be outworked, but I wasn’t mature enough at the time. The Marine Corps helped me bridge the gap.” During his short time in the family business, he’s been making things happen by infusing the business with practical marketing strategies and driving discussions about the value of content marketing, analytics and marketing in general. “Before Ben, BamBams was viewed as a very solid supplier of cost-effective noisemakers,” says nominator Bill Petrie, president of PromoCorner. “Since Ben joined the organization, he has crafted and executed a very well thought out marketing plan that has resulted in BamBams now being viewed as an integrated partner for custom sourcing for a wide variety of products, including knitwear and apparel.” Petrie adds, “It is truly extraordinary for a son to build on the legacy of his father’s business without completely disregarding the accomplishments of the past. Ben has been able to navigate this very challenging situation with great aplomb.” Most Difficult Challenge Overcoming my ego. As a young man, I often thought I was the smartest person in the room, so I would just skate through things doing the bare minimum. I could have never been more wrong. It caused me to be dishonest with myself and others. The three biggest lessons I have learned the hard way in life are to listen first, keep my ego out of it and be transparent. TheNext 24Months I still see myself here at BamBams in my same role. However, my goal is to finish my book on digital guerilla marketing and business development and have it published by July 2020. ChangeHe’d Like To See I would love to see the industry bridge the gap between suppliers looking at each other as competition/enemies and really beginning to collaborate and share with each other. When I first joined this industry, I often asked why everyone holds their cards so close to the vest instead of working to improve supplier-side relationships and collaborate together. We’re an extremely fragmented industry. There is so much opportunity for all of us. We should be working together instead of against each other. Earlier this year, Adam Walterscheid of T-Shirt Tycoon and I started a program called CoLab—to bring other like-minded suppliers into the group to work with distributors to provide a true system of innovation and service so that all of us, together, can provide a greater level of creative services with a consultative approach. FEATURE | Rising Stars 40 | SEPTEMBER 2018 |