MarTech Interview with Dayna Prepis, Associate Vice President of Digital Marketing at UpSpring

Hi Dayna. Could you tell us about your professional journey and now your role as Associate VP at UpSpring?

My first job was at a small start-up agency where I quickly fell in love with the creative process involved in marketing. Since then, I have worn many different hats in the architecture and design marketing world, from launching and managing awards programs for a design publication, to leading marketing and new business efforts for a hospitality architecture firm. I also helped grow an international building material company by expanding its presence in the U.S. market. These roles gave me a unique vantage point to understand what is important to other people in the industry.
Now, my career has come full circle and I am back working at an agency. UpSpring is a holistic PR, marketing, and creative agency focused on elevating brands across the built environment, including architecture firms, building material manufacturers, real estate developers, hospitality companies, and more. At UpSpring, I have the opportunity to serve the types of clients that I embodied in my previous career “lives”. The best part of my role at UpSpring is being able to tap into the creative process and develop innovative marketing strategies for some incredible clients across the industry.

In your role at UpSpring, how do you view technology’s role as a bridge to enhance the future of digital marketing with a human connection rather than diminishing it?

We’re currently leaning into the idea that human emotions are the original algorithm. While technology provides the platform, humans will always bring the feelings—of joy, FOMO, inclusion, desire, etc. Technology is a bridge that connects brands with their audiences through trust, shared experiences, and meaningful interactions. When used with intention, technological tools enhance human connection rather than replacing it. We can utilize technology to help us break barriers and remove the physical and geographic limitations between people.

Let’s look at social media as an example. Community management and proactive—but authentic—connection on social platforms is crucial for building trust. Truly responsive brands engage with their audience through responses to user comments that go beyond a simple “thanks,” and instead share useful information, engage in dialogues, and address concerns head-on.

Technology can also be a helpful tool for productivity, when used in the right way. At UpSpring, we embrace AI as an additional set of hands, not an idea generator. Using technology with a purpose can enhance relationships, offer new perspectives, and provide additional resources. These tools provide a pathway to build on our ideas, but they do not replace human creativity.

With new technologies emerging rapidly, how do you maintain a balance between automation and maintaining a personal touch in marketing strategies?

Automation opens up many opportunities in marketing, but all strategies require the human “x-factor”. As an example, consider something like an e-mail marketing campaign. A product manufacturer might launch a three-part “Welcome Series” to nurture new contacts. With automation tools, you can trigger a second email a few days later for anyone who has not opened the email or taken a certain action. That said, we would not recommend that these tools be left to run unchecked for the next year. Instead, have a quarterly check in to discuss the success of the initiative. Are the contacts engaging and actually converting? What else can be optimized or implemented into the strategy? Is the final effort actually resonating with our audience?

Similarly, tools such as ChatGPT may be able to automate the production of certain types of work. If you describe a specific audience or pain point, it can help to generate content ideas for paid ad copy—but this will never be the final round of copy that goes into production. An account lead will always be looking at it with a critical eye, asking “How can I make this unique to our specific client and audience?” It’s SO important to balance speed with specificity and this is where a lot of people are missing the mark.

Marketing is by nature a collaborative creative process and the human “gut check” is a vital component when developing digital strategies. At UpSpring, our process is set up to incorporate numerous team check-ins and collaborative review sessions, to ensure that everything we produce is fine-tuned and tailored.

The digital marketing landscape is evolving, and amidst that, how do you approach the process of evaluating and selecting new AI tools, and what key factors do you consider to determine the effectiveness of a new technology?

Start with the biggest pain points in your own work flow and prioritize those. There are dozens of AI products available, and trying to implement all of them will only lead to chaos. Ask yourself, “What is my team’s biggest challenge right now?” to identify the most urgent need. From there, when evaluating potential tools, address how well they integrate into your current workflow and whether they actually make your team’s job easier. Most importantly, do they provide more value or happiness to your client? If not, then they are more work than they’re worth and the tasks we are hoping to automate are better off being completed by a human.

What is the best way to ensure that data-driven decisions remain aligned with client expectations and broader business goals?

It’s critical to find the right balance of analytics versus anecdotes. Clients want hard numbers to support their decisions, but we also need insights and conversation to translate them into something tangible and actionable. We can present all the data in the world, but if something isn’t feeling right, there’s usually a deeper root to uncover. We have to remember to step back, look at a wider data set, and always, always, always go back to the client’s overarching goals to ensure we are still pointed due north with our efforts. The last ingredient to the secret sauce is creativity. How can we make what we’re working on more meaningful, unique, or authentic?

What are some strategies you’ve employed to build highly personalized marketing campaigns that have resonated with your target audience?

The best personalized campaigns result from deeply-researched and interview-led conversations. One of our clients, a building product manufacturer, came to us looking for help launching a new, highly complex product line for a very specific market. To inform our marketing strategy, we conducted dozens of interviews during the audit phase to uncover their main selling points from the eyes of those who would use the product. This meant getting insights from a contractor who has specified their products for the last thirty years, but also getting insights from someone who has never specified their products. From there, we were able to develop a truly informed campaign based on the experiences of their actual audience and potential customers.

Later on, as part of this campaign, we developed a VIP sample mailing program. We could have sent off thousands of samples to names purchased from an online list. Instead, we drew from our client’s specially curated list of people who had previously attended their seminars, previous customers, etc. We built a beautiful sample folder that walks through all the features and benefits of the new technology. Everything we had gathered from our market research created a beautiful opportunity for storytelling. Focused efforts drive focused results.

With so many targeting tools available, how do you ensure that the personalization you offer doesn’t feel too invasive or over-targeted, especially with growing privacy concerns?

There’s a level of authenticity required for an impactful marketing campaign. We all know the feeling of getting a cold email from someone who spells your name wrong or thinks you work in an unrelated industry. It’s easy to tell the difference between a message that has been blasted to a wide list and one that is well curated and positioned in a way that feels beneficial.

If you’re going to utilize targeting tools, lead with empathy and put yourself in the other person’s shoes. What would I do with this message? Be very cognizant of the frequency in which you reach out, and make sure you always present an easy way to opt out if they aren’t interested in your brand. The definition of insanity is trying the same tactics, to the same person, and expecting different results.

Reflecting on your time at UpSpring, what digital marketing trends have you seen evolve most significantly, and how have you shifted your strategy as a result?

The biggest trend I’ve noticed is the prevalence of the e-commerce model and style, even if the sales journey itself is not e-commerce. For our clients, we’ve learned the importance of making everything feel “approachable” and “shoppable”, in terms of visual experience and ease and transferability for the audience.

For example, one of our clients is a major tile company. Their product isn’t a typically shoppable item that you can click on and “add to cart.” However, their website feels as easy to navigate as shopping for a handbag or skincare. The touchpoints are straightforward, the imagery makes it clear what is being offered, and you can order a sample immediately. Marketers need to bring this “shoppability” mentality into brands that haven’t previously been seen in this way.

What are the emerging trends in digital marketing that marketers should be paying attention to in the upcoming years, and how do you plan to adapt to these trends in your work?

One of the biggest emerging trends is engaging niche influencers to generate social media and video content. Connection and trust have never been so important, and real people are the gateway to real trust. If I tell someone “I am awesome,” that message will be received very differently than a third party telling that same person all of the reasons why I am awesome.

We have also grown away from marketing as a sales pitch and now focus more on storytelling. We have to romanticize everyday products and interactions in order to break through the noise.

What advice would you give to digital marketers looking to integrate new technologies or AI tools into their campaigns while still preserving the authenticity and human connection that clients value most?

The output of AI will never (and should never) be your first or final product. It’s a great collaborator, but bringing your own ideas to the table first will ensure they are rooted in fact and foundations that ring true for your client and their goals. AI is a great opportunity to get outside of your own head, reassemble, then quickly take an idea further.

A quote or advice from the author:
“Curiosity never killed anything. Curiosity not only shows your interest and investment, it unfolds so many layers of possibility—for creativity, for growth, for solutions, and for engagement. We need to foster more curiosity and feed what drives it”.