Moments of Brand Joy: Advice from Tusar Barik
Marketing / And returns for Season 7 with conversations that explore how today’s marketing leaders are navigating constant change. Hosted by Bennie F. Johnson, the podcast centers on a deceptively simple question:
What advice would you give to today’s marketing leaders?
In this episode, Bennie sits down with Tusar Barik, Senior Vice President of Advertising at The New York Times. Their conversation explores how marketers can create moments of brand joy, and why intentionality, simplicity, and partnership are essential to building momentum in today’s landscape.
Few brands occupy as personal a place in consumers’ lives as The New York Times. Whether through Cooking, Wirecutter, The Athletic, the daily crossword, or The Daily podcast, audiences engage with the brand across rituals, interests, and everyday moments.
For Tusar, that depth of connection is more than a brand asset—it’s a strategic opportunity.
With over 12 million subscribers and 150 million registered users, he saw room to evolve how advertising shows up within the NYT ecosystem. Over the past year, his team has introduced new ad products, expanded video capabilities, and launched AI-powered tools—all designed to better serve marketers while preserving the integrity of the audience experience.
Underpinning this innovation is a clear philosophy: marketing should feel useful, relevant, and even joyful.
Become Customer-Obsessed
When Tusar stepped into his role, he inherited multiple teams that had never operated under a unified strategic lens. His first move was to align them around a single principle: customer obsession.
That meant shifting the focus from products to outcomes—reframing the marketing mission around what customers are actually trying to achieve, from awareness to conversion, and building solutions to match.
His advice is simple but powerful: Start with what the customer is trying to achieve—not what you want to sell.
This approach comes to life in moments like NYT Cooking’s seasonal trends. Each year after Thanksgiving, searches for cookie recipes surge. Rather than simply responding to demand, the team built Cookie Week, a recurring franchise rooted in audience behavior. This year, it also created an opportunity for a first-of-its-kind integration with McCormick.
The result is more than a campaign—it’s an experience audiences anticipate.
Use Data to Simplify, Not Complicate
Tusar is candid about the challenges marketers face: an overwhelming number of platforms, products, and expectations.
His solution? Simplify. By analyzing NYT’s portfolio of ad offerings and mapping them to clear marketing outcomes, his team developed a more streamlined, measurement-driven framework—one that helps marketers make better decisions with less friction.
The takeaway is practical and urgent: Don’t overwhelm customers with options. Guide them with clarity.
In a high-pressure environment where marketers are expected to deliver results, simplicity isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
Treat Every Engagement as a Partnership
A defining element of Tusar’s leadership philosophy is how he approaches client relationships.
Not as transactions, but as partnerships. In a moment where AI is accelerating possibilities—and expectations—it can be tempting to prioritize short-term gains. Tusar takes a longer view, emphasizing trust, transparency, and shared success.
Great marketing partnerships are honest, strategic, and aligned around mutual goals.
That mindset includes being upfront about what will and won’t work, and focusing on what truly drives impact over what simply closes a deal.
Bringing It Home: Marketing That Resonates
Across each of these ideas, a clear throughline emerges: the most effective marketing doesn’t just reach people, it resonates with them. It aligns with real behaviors. It simplifies complexity. And at its best, it creates moments of genuine delight.
That’s what Tusar defines as “brand joy.”
In a landscape defined by constant change, that ability to connect—authentically and meaningfully—may be the most powerful advantage marketers have. Listen to the full conversation on Marketing / And.
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