Introduction to McCain Kennedy
McCain Kennedy is the founder and COO of Set Fire Creative, a digital marketing agency that helps small to midsize businesses grow through digital marketing. Born in southern California, McCain found his love for marketing in high school. After graduating from Brigham Young University with a marketing degree in 2015, he and his wife moved to Utah and have been here ever since.
McCain’s digital marketing journey includes working at several agencies before starting Set Fire Creative. He was named 2023 Sales and Marketer of the Year by Utah Business magazine.
When he’s not growing businesses for clients, McCain likes to read, eat spicy buffalo wings, do combat sports and hang out with his wife and two boys.
Table of Contents
- Who is McCain Kennedy?
- Current Projects that Excite McCain
- Tactical and Strategic Digital Marketing Advice from McCain
- Where Does McCain See the Future of Digital Marketing?
- How to Get in Contact with McCain
- Additional Insights from McCain Kennedy
- McCain’s advice to his younger self would be
- What books, podcasts, and/or leaders currently inspire you?
- Conclusion
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Who is McCain Kennedy?
From Southern California to Business Success
McCain was born in Marietta, California, a small commuter town about an hour from San Diego, LA and Orange County. His dad worked for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and eventually became the police chief at Irvine Community College.
Unlike many business owners who come from entrepreneurial families, McCain didn’t grow up in that world. This public service background shaped his work ethic and business approach:
“My parents just taught us to work hard. They kind of did that thing where like, ‘Hey if you really want something you just have to work for it.’ We kind of joke around that we were never given anything as kids. Everything we wanted we had to work for.”
His parents taught us valuable life lessons about work, money and finance. Those lessons have stuck with him in his professional life and business.
Career Aspirations
Like many kids, McCain’s career aspirations changed over time:
- Professional skateboarder or surfer (early childhood)
- Rock star (pre-teens)
- Police officer (late teens)
- Marketing professional (college and beyond)
It wasn’t until he met his wife that McCain’s path in marketing solidified. When he mentioned becoming a police officer after graduation his wife was concerned about the stress of that career and steered him towards marketing.
The Journey to Utah and Entrepreneurship
McCain and his wife moved to Utah for her esthetician schooling. The plan was to go back to California after she finished school. But they fell in love with Utah and decided to stay. Eight years later they have two boys and have built a life there and started Set Fire Creative.
Being an entrepreneur wasn’t a lifelong dream of McCain’s but rather an evolution:
“I know there are people who are sitting there like, ‘I need to go start my own thing. I need to do my own thing. I don’t wanna work for anyone else.’ I hate to admit it but that wasn’t me. It just kind of came organically to this point.”
Current Projects that Excite McCain
New Year, New Opportunities
As the founder of Set Fire Creative, McCain is constantly excited about new opportunities and growth potential for his clients. The start of a new year brings renewed energy and focus:
“The new year got me really excited. Every time we get into a new year, I just feel like it’s a fresh start. Let’s crush it this year. So that’s what’s got me most pumped right now. My team’s pumped. We’re just excited to help a lot of new clients.”
Pre-Launch Project
While unable to disclose specific details due to confidentiality, McCain mentioned an exciting pre-launch project for a client:
“We’ve got a few clients that we’re working on some pretty cool stuff for. One in particular, they’re pre-launch, they’re launching here in the next few weeks. I can’t unfortunately talk about what it is until they’ve actually launched. But it is such a cool product that I can’t wait to see how everything goes once it’s launched and once the word starts getting out there.”
This level of excitement for client projects demonstrates McCain’s passion for his work and the potential impact of digital marketing on business growth.
Tactical and Strategic Digital Marketing Advice from McCain
Focus on What Works for Your Business
McCain emphasizes the importance of tailoring marketing strategies to each individual business rather than following trends or copying competitors:
“Do what’s best for your company, not what’s been best for maybe some of your network. We get a lot of small businesses that come to us and they say, ‘I was talking to someone over here who has a company. Facebook ads worked really good for them. I wanna do Facebook ads.’ And we’ll look at their business and we’ll say, ‘Actually, we think Google Ads are gonna be better. Or maybe you need to focus on email marketing.'”
Be Strategic and Scrappy
For small businesses with limited marketing budgets, McCain advises being strategic and scrappy:
“Especially those brands that are on the smaller end and they don’t have much of a marketing budget, you really have to be scrappy. Especially if you have big competitors out there, you’re gonna have to be pretty scrappy. So you really need to be strategic. But the advantage is if you are more strategic, because you’re so small and because you’re scrappy, there’s a lot of time that there’s these big companies out there that quite frankly, and we see it all the time, that they’re just kind of throwing money at stuff with not a whole lot of strategy behind it.”
Utilize Free Tools for Competitor Research
McCain recommends using free tools to research competitors and gather insights:
- Facebook Ad Library: “Facebook’s ad library where you can actually just go look up your competitors and just see what ads they’re running, if they’re running ads.”
- Google Search: “If you are a plumber in Lehigh, Utah, you can always go on Google and just type in ‘plumbers near me’ or ‘plumbers in Lehigh, Utah.’ And you’re gonna see any ads that pop up and it’ll show you which competitors or some of the competitors that are advertising.”
Audience Targeting Strategies
When it comes to audience targeting, especially for new businesses, McCain suggests a more open approach:
“Sometimes leaving the targeting a little more open rather than getting as granular as you can get. What we’ve found now is like in those cases when people say, ‘Hey, we don’t know who our target demographic is,’ there’s a lot of cases where we like to just leave the targeting a little more open and let Facebook show us and teach us, okay, who’s clicking on my ads, who’s making the purchases, and things like that.”
Continuous Testing and Optimization
McCain emphasizes the importance of ongoing testing and optimization in digital marketing:
“We are on a constant quest to find the perfect ad for every business. And so it’s a never-ending quest. We’re always running new iterations.”
He outlines a process for testing and optimizing ads:
- Start with a video ad and test different ad copies
- Identify the best-performing ad copy
- Test the winning ad copy against different creative formats (e.g., carousel, single image)
- Continue refining elements like headlines and hooks
Be Patient and Look for Upward Trends
When asked about how long it takes to find a winning ad, McCain stresses that results can vary greatly depending on factors like ad spend, industry, and audience. However, he advises looking for positive trends:
“What we’re always looking at is, is there an upwards trajectory? Like are things getting better week over week? Are we seeing more clicks, more add to carts, more purchases and things like that.”
Where Does McCain See the Future of Digital Marketing?
The Impact of AI
McCain acknowledges the significant role AI is likely to play in the future of marketing:
“AI is obviously, I know it’s almost feels overtalked at this point. AI’s just gonna be, plays such a big role in marketing moving forward. Hopefully more than anything as just a really good tool for people.”
However, he also notes the concerns some clients have about AI use in marketing:
“We’ve had clients reach out and send us a document saying, ‘Can you please sign this, that says you will not use any AI in our marketing.’ And I don’t blame ’em. I’m kind of the same way. If I knew I was paying an agency to run my marketing, and they went from a year ago doing everything manually to today, now they’re just doing everything through AI, I’d probably be a little hesitant.”
Virtual and Augmented Reality
McCain expresses interest in the potential of virtual and augmented reality in marketing:
“What’s gonna happen in like VR and AR is probably what I’m most interested to see. I even just read something the other day that said, I can’t remember what company it was, but someone with the author of Ready Player One, they were ready to bring that world. They wanna create this world.”
The Importance of Human Connection
Despite the increasing digitization of business and marketing, McCain believes that human connection and customer service will become even more critical:
“The more digitized the world becomes and business becomes, the more important the human connection and customer service becomes. And this is across the board, not just for marketing.”
He emphasizes the growing importance of building trust with customers:
“How much more important it is to just build trust with your customer base and potential customers and how to give it that human touch and let people know that you’re there and you’re real.”
How to Get in Contact with McCain
While the transcript doesn’t provide direct contact information for McCain Kennedy, interested parties can likely reach him through the following channels:
- Set Fire Creative website: Set Fire Creative
- LinkedIn: Search for McCain Kennedy, Founder and COO of Set Fire Creative
- Utah Business magazine: As the 2023 Sales and Marketer of the Year, McCain may have contact information listed in relation to this award.
Additional Insights from McCain Kennedy
The Power of Combat Sports
McCain shared his passion for combat sports, which he pursued later in life after wrestling in high school:
“About five years ago, I drove by a boxing gym out here in Utah locally. And, went in and just said, ‘Hey, how do I get started?’ Started doing it. So that was about five years ago. And then about three or four years ago, started going to a different gym and started doing Muay Thai kind of kickboxing and some jiujitsu stuff.”
This passion culminated in McCain participating in an executive fight night at Fit Con in Salt Lake City, where he had his first amateur boxing match.
The Therapeutic Power of Boxing
McCain highlighted the stress-relieving benefits of boxing:
“Every day after work, that’s what I would do is go and hit a heavy bag. There is no better stress reliever than just going, getting your sweat on and just hitting a heavy bag and working out.”
Balancing Family and Combat Sports
As a father, McCain is already looking to introduce his children to wrestling:
“I have a 2-year-old. He turns three in a couple of months and no kidding. Last night I was actually looking up how early can you get kids into wrestling because I wanna get into wrestling. It’s just a great sport and it’s a lot of fun.”
The Importance of Asking Questions
When asked what advice he would give his younger self, McCain emphasized the value of asking questions:
“Ask more questions. It’s one thing I realized that when I was younger, whether it was in school or at home or whatever, I never felt like I could ask questions. A lot of it was kind of like a pride thing. Like I didn’t want people to think I was dumb for asking questions. I am more confident than ever being the dumbest person in a room like I hope to be. And I will ask questions and I can tell, some people may even get annoyed how many questions I like to ask, but you learn so much more when you ask questions.”
Book and Podcast Recommendations
McCain shared some of his favorite resources for business and marketing insights:
- Books by Seth Godin, including “Purple Cow” and “All Marketers Are Liars”
- “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller
- The “Business Wars” podcast, which explores rivalries between major companies
The Changing Landscape of Digital Trust
McCain noted the increasing importance of establishing trust and credibility in the digital age:
“I had someone this morning tell me, and we’ve, I’ve actually never had this before. I sent them some case studies and a proposal. They called one of those clients of ours and had a phone call with them to make sure we were legit, to make sure they were a real client.”
This anecdote highlights the growing need for transparency and authenticity in digital marketing and business relationships.
McCain’s advice to his younger self would be:
“Ask more. I never felt like I could ask questions when I was younger, whether it was in school or at home or whatever. A lot of it was just pride. I didn’t want people to think I was stupid for asking questions. I am more confident than ever being the dumbest person in the room and I hope to be. And I will ask questions and I can tell some people will even get annoyed at how many questions I like to ask but you learn so much more when you ask. So if I could go back to my younger self I would say, ask more.”
What books, podcasts, and/or leaders currently inspire you?
McCain recommended:
Books:
- Anything by Seth Godin
- “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller
Podcasts:
- “Business Wars” – McCain called it “a great one” where each season is about two companies, like Netflix vs Blockbuster or Microsoft vs Sony.
Leaders: McCain didn’t mention any specific leaders but likes Seth Godin’s work in marketing.
Conclusion
McCain Kennedy’s journey from Southern California to owning a digital marketing agency in Utah has some great lessons for entrepreneurs and marketers. His focus on strategic thinking, continuous learning and being human in a digital world is a path to navigating the ever changing world of digital marketing.
As the founder of Set Fire Creative, McCain’s approach to helping small to mid size businesses grow through custom digital marketing strategies shows the power of understanding each client’s unique situation and market position. His advice on using free tools, being scrappy with limited budgets and testing and optimizing campaigns applies to all businesses.
Looking ahead, McCain’s thoughts on AI, virtual and augmented reality and the importance of human connection in marketing is food for thought for anyone in the industry. As digital gets more advanced his focus on building trust and being authentic with clients and customers is a reminder of the fundamentals of marketing.
If you liked McCain’s insights and want to go deeper into digital marketing check out the resources he recommends, like Seth Godin’s books and the “Business Wars” podcast. As the digital revolution continues McCain Kennedy’s journey and advice is a roadmap to navigating the wild and changing world of digital marketing.
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