Business

The latest insights from Comscore show that while certain retail categories saw significant decreases in visitation and consumer spending, overall spending and visitation to online retail increased across desktop and mobile in March 2020 compared to March 2019.

What’s next? That is the question everyone is asking. The future is not what we thought it would be only a few short months ago.

What trends and best practices should shared services and functional leaders be considering as they think about the evolution of their operating model? What role might global business services constructs play in enabling digital transformation across the enterprise?

Marketers are pretty intimate with content marketing metrics, data, and analytics these days—and if you’re not, you’d best get learning.  By Lauren McMenemy

With the recent demand fluctuations caused by the Great Lockdown many brands have focused on driving short-term volume but to grow market share in the longer-term, brands must gain more than their fair share of category entrants. The latter growth mechanism is facilitated by making sure new category entrants are predisposed to choose your brand, and do not just do so because it is easily available.  by Nigel Hollis

Spring is here in DC.  Still some cool days, but progressively it is looking and feeling like summer.  People are anxious—they are increasingly going out, but still are fearful of the external COVID-19 world.  And America is, well, America—completely disorganized and decentralized politically.

Unprecedented times like these bring massive challenges. Yet even during a crisis like the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, businesses need to consider strategic plans and continue to invest in their brands. While sales may be down, it’s important to maintain—or increase—your share of the market. Continuing to invest in advertising will help set your company up for success when life eventually settles into a new normal.

A large majority (75 percent) of ANA members have strategic plans in place to hire suppliers with diverse backgrounds for their overall organizations, but only 40 percent have such strategies specifically for marketing and advertising services.  Those are two of the key findings in a new ANA study, “The Power of Supplier Diversity,” which also revealed that among those with a supplier diversity strategy, the top segments targeted are women-owned (98 percent), ethnic/minority-owned (95 percent), veteran-owned (90 percent), LGBTQ-owned (88 percent), and disability-owned (80 percent).

As more states loosen their stay-at-home orders, a study released by the Network of Executive Women (NEW) and Hispanic marketing platform Latinarrific prompts interesting questions regarding whether the COVID-19 pandemic will ultimately reverse or accelerate corporate America’s Latina leadership crisis.

In just a week’s time, the Coronavirus pandemic has completely upended the globe. It has had substantial effects on people’s lives and livelihoods, and it has entirely transformed the way companies do business. In the advertising industry, we’ve all felt the immediate effects: Cancelled events, meetings and business trips. Work-from-home mandates that include hunkering down inside our houses and apartments alongside our entire families. And yes, even paused and pulled advertising campaigns.

BOTTOM LINE: Following the onset of Covid-19, it has not been surprising to see the strength in eCommerce, but what has caught us by greater surprise has been the boon lower priced media – particularly on FB – has been toward that acceleration. We have spoken to several agencies that are focused on the DTC-native eCommerce segment. Their advertisers indicated that beginning early/mid April, they were seeing multiple successive days of record spend at prices down 30-40% post-Covid vs pre-Covid. Beyond the benefits of lower eCPMs, this has been accompanied by higher conversion rates as well – driving record ROAS for this cohort of advertisers. We have not touched base with any gaming advertisers, but based on FB’s comments on their 1Q20 eps call, suspect this is likely driving a further boom. Notably, we have heard about pricing increases though early May on FB in the HSD/LDD range, though pacing still well below pre-Covid 19 levels. Our interpretation is this is more a reflection of firming up of the auction at FB, though it is having a slight negative impact on this cohorts’ ROAS.

A discussion with Lerma’s Principal & Founder, Pete Lerma and Brand Planning Principal, Quim Gil, as they take a close look at the impact the Coronavirus has had on communities of color, specifically U.S. Hispanics. They’ll discuss how brands can leverage their power and become dynamic social actors in favor of equality.

It’s not easy to find candidates for advertising, media, and marketing roles that have all the desired skills.

As social distancing and virtual work have become our new normal, here are five suggestions to help ensure everyone on your team feels included and valued.

“Gal Friday, Spanish helpful but not necessary,” read the 1980 newspaper ad that caught Rochelle Newman-Carrasco’s attention and changed the course of her life. In this segment from last week’s “IAP Live” interview, Rochelle Newman-Carrasco utilizes hilarious impersonations to tell the story of the wildly eccentric Pedro Font, her introduction to the U.S. Hispanic marketing industry, and the meteoric rise of Font & Vaamonde.

Media buyers should follow five key criteria when venturing into the complex and opaque ecosystem of third-party data that is designed to help them target their programmatic digital media buys.

Here in the US, the hard-pressed retail industry has suffered the first of what is likely to be a string of bankruptcies. Last week fashion retailer J. Crew and department store Neiman Marcus both filed for Chapter 11. While neither brand could be considered strong, the real issue was the debt load both companies were carrying. The Great Lockdown simply delivered the coup de grâce.  By Nigel Hollis

In this episode of Hispanicize Hangout BUSINESS edition, get an inside look into the three largest U.S. multicultural media practices via an in-depth and personal conversation with Lisa Torres (Publicis), Gonzalo Del Fa (Group M) and Karina Dobarro (Horizon Media).

In this episode of Hispanicize Hangout BUSINESS edition, get an inside look into the three largest U.S. multicultural media practices via an in-depth and personal conversation with Lisa Torres (Publicis), Gonzalo Del Fa (Group M) and Karina Dobarro (Horizon Media).

In times of uncertainty, it’s especially important to stay connected with your consumers. Whether you’re trying to add new benefits to your offerings to keep up with changing consumer opinions,  updating claims on your packaging or building your innovation pipeline to meet emerging needs, you need consumer input. But at the same time, getting that input is more difficult. Restrictions on in-person data collection, such as with focus groups, leave a gap in your usual processes, and a fast-evolving environment means you have to be even more agile.