Business

Insights from a new CMO study of more than 400 marketing organizations across the globe illuminate how top CMOs and companies are organizing and operationalizing their marketing functions to succeed in today’s disruptive business climate while providing a roadmap for critical planning and decision-making needed to ready and evolve modern marketing organizations for the future.

Since 2009, ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has led an effort to improve diversity and inclusion across its locations. The Memphis-based nonprofit’s leaders conduct regular employee surveys and focus groups, and they have established “business resource groups” they call BRGs, that bring together staff from underrepresented populations to help with recruitment, retention, and community relations. ALSAC managers receive regular training on diversity and inclusion, and division heads work with human resources to measure progress.

There are countless ways in which the internet and e-commerce have transformed the way brands do business. Yet despite the relative commonness of online shopping today, many brands still have questions about how to best adapt their innovation strategies for the digital age. It should go without saying, but launching a product in a physical environment is not the same as doing so online. Yet as intuitive as the statement is, many brands are exploring their options as they seek the best route for succeeding online.

I really wonder about the long-term effectiveness of Burger King’s promotions, including the famous Whopper Detour promotion. I don’t care that Detour won the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes, I cannot help but feel that this sort of marketing is a recipe for weakness, not strength.  by Nigel Hollis

Employers in the United States are increasingly in pursuit of workers who are adept in social skills, like negotiation and persuasion, and have a strong grounding in fundamental skills, such as critical thinking and writing. In the past nearly four decades, employment in the U.S. has expanded most rapidly in jobs in which these skill sets are most valued. Jobs attaching greater importance to analytical skills, such as science, mathematics and programming, are also hiring workers at a brisk pace.

By Gonzalo López Martí  – Creative director, etc. /  lmmiami.com

• “Low-hanging fruit.”
• “Where the rubber meets the road.”
• Corporate clichés come in all shapes and sizes.

Millions of years of evolution have shaped our brains, with nature selecting for many adaptive and energy-saving, if imperfect, shortcuts. Some are easy to spot—for example, how we systematically fall for optical illusions and how our loss-aversion reflex biases our choices. Other ancient shortcuts trip us up in subtler, more personal ways.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) and startup brands have been eating away at the margins of long-established legacy brands for years. From belts to booze to Keto snacks, no industry sector is safe from the onslaught, which is just beginning.

AI isn’t just a mysterious, ethereal machine swirling around every aspect of our daily lives, from physical spaces to cars to smartphones. It’s also an increasingly vital tool for brand marketers. AI isn’t just about making jobs seamless but enabling the right message to find the right person at precisely the right time — while also making the process of purchasing, learning, or engaging online and offline a lot easier.

MAMAS 411 – PODCAST: Claudia Romo Edelman de We Are All Human, líder en temas de diversidad, inclusión y equidad

Having worked in General Market and Hispanic advertising agencies, and now placing top talent in both for the past twelve years, my experience has taught me a lot about the Hispanic advertising world.  It’s twice as hard to be a Hispanic advertising professional as it is to be a General Market agency person.  By Tony Stanol, President of Global Recruiters of Sarasota

The leadership challenge of balancing short- and long-term business pressures, and doing so in an ethical way in which both a company and its stakeholders can thrive, is a challenge that is well-known to all business leaders.

Super Bowl advertising has come a long way. This year’s commercials were no longer limited to male targets with creative using guy humor to get a good laugh and be memorable. The categories represented were no longer dominated by the more traditional ones, like beer, soft drinks, snacks and automobiles, but included technology, beauty and, of course, politics. Female-targeted spots were in full force, with empowering, #FutureIsFemale-themed creative including Secret, Olay and Genesis; as were messages of sustainability from Saucony and SodaStream. The casting selection made major strides in terms of diversity, with spots featuring protagonists representing the Black, Asian, Hispanic, 50-plus and LGBTQ+ communities.  By Louis Maldonado – partner at d EXPOSITO & PARTNERS

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / lmmiami.com/

• Here’s Gonzalo’s take on the big game’s advertising extravaganza. Methodology: I made a point of watching the whole thing the way an average Joe or Jane would: untethered to the biases of an industry insider. I might have missed a few spots due to bathroom breaks or sheer disinterest, but what you will read below is unaided recall off the top of my head, which, if you ask me, is the one and only way advertising should be judged and measured. Then again, I’ve been in this racket far too long so the professional critique is there.

For the second year, Bain Media Lab and AI pioneer Hive partnered to analyze marketing within and around the Super Bowl using Mensio, an AI-powered TV advertising and sponsorship analytics platform developed in partnership between Bain and Hive.

LBI Media, Inc announced that it has changed its name to Estrella Media, effective immediately.

I have to thank those nice people at Mediacom for sharing ‘Two minutes with Simon Peel, Global Media Director at adidas’. In the video, Peel shares his thoughts on the power of a shared idea, and while he might be thinking that a shared idea of what makes things cool encourages people to buy a pair of sneakers, I think it applies to all strong brands.  by Nigel Hollis

A world that is inclusive, values varying perspectives, and prioritizes the growth of all is a world all marketers should foster. Leaders should be especially focused on this goal, and the ANA Marketing Futures Podcast Series highlights just these kinds of leaders, who come from all backgrounds to discuss the future of marketing, current issues, trends, and areas of growth.

Renown economist and consultant Heide Calero has created a series of videos that help businesses better understand the transformation of Puerto Rico’s economy through the decades.  The up and downs of certain economic strategies that have impacted the island’s past and current state.

In-house creative teams at advertisers may play a bigger role in Super Bowl advertising this year.  Procter & Gamble will air a pregame spot for its Secret brand on Super Bowl Sunday that was conceptualized, written and cast by its in-house creative team. The in-house team also had a hand in the editing, graphic design and revisions of the spot.