Everyone on the internet has pretty much heard the phrase “Break the Internet”, all thanks to Drew Elliott. He is the mastermind behind Kim Kardashian’s Paper Mag cover that brought in 16 million users to Paper Magazine’s website within two hours. That cover also made up 1% of Google traffic in the United States. He is now the co-owner and chief creative officer of Paper Communications. Business of Fashion, one of my favorite podcasts, brought him on as a guest in their episode called “Inside the Magic and Math of Digital Marketing”.

What I love about this episode is that Drew Elliott is pretty relatable, at least to me. He is a guy from a small town in Indiana obsessed with pop culture. His dream school was NYU – mine, too – and attended when he was 18 at the Gallatin School. He wrote his thesis on the Osbornes, which was a total throwback upon hearing that. When I think of reality families I automatically think about the Kardashians – but really, the Osbornes is the OG.

He began his internship at Paper Magazine while attending NYU. He interned for two years and then worked there for five years. He mentions how slow their dial up internet was when he began working there: the front end of the office was allowed to use the internet in the morning and the back-end of the office could use it in the later day. He then left to work at Ketchum doing experimental marketing, working for big companies like Frito-Lay and IBM, and then came back to Paper to build an agency to contact with big brands and create content. He left again to work for The Audience in Los Angeles and then came back to Paper, once again, with an agenda: to modernize the brand and entertain the consumer.

He then talks about how Paper’s project with Kim Kardashian “broke the internet”. He says that the element of surprise was a key factor to the success of their cover campaign; there was no build up or teasers. He talks about taking the images from the shoot and using them in different social media platforms, focusing on Kim Kardashian’s status from “celebrity” to “influencer”, and working with different media brands to popularize that concept. He also says that user-generated content (meeemes) from the internet helped popularize the shoot, too.

He defines “influencer” as “someone in the digital world who is an extreme expert in something that they do” and also “just cute”. He also talks about “micro-influencers” as someone who is “able to start a conversation and lend huge credibility” without having a large audience. Elliott says that the days of publishing is gone and creation of content that entertain the audience is the new way of digital marketing, with influencers being a huge part of it.

He then talks about the relationship between “math” and “magic” in digital marketing. By math he refers mostly to data and algorithms, and by “magic” he talks about the content that the audience wants and loves. He says that companies can be too reliant on data and forget how important the actual content is. Companies will lose themselves in the math and paid media trying to reach the consumer instead of putting out attractive content that the consumer will love. He thinks the conversation should be shifted to creating the magic first, then figuring out the math on how to get the content to the consumer. “Break the Internet” was centered around that philosophy.

Overall, I think this podcast was pretty interesting. It was really cool to hear the perspective from the man behind Kim Kardashian’s iconic #BreakTheInternet. What I think the podcast could’ve improved on was a little bit more depth about the relationship between math and magic. I noticed there was no advertising in this podcast. I think it’s because Business of Fashion has an established online presence and isn’t reliant on advertisements to keep its podcasts relevant. However, if they were to bring an advertiser on its podcasts, I think it would be a great idea to partner with Fashion programs to advertise courses, degrees, etc.

Check out Business of Fashion’s podcast with Drew Elliott, titled “Inside the Magic and Math of Digital Marketing” at apple.co/2MKc6LU