Marketing

WPP points the finger at ZBB as the most important factor driving cuts in WPP’s agency revenues — cuts that have taken 35% off WPP’s share price from its 2017 high.  Leading industry analyst Brian Wieser identifies ZBB as a major factor suppressing holding company organic growth, along with other factors like increased contract scrutiny.  ZBB is the flavor of the month.  Mention ZBB to an ad agency and watch the panic.  “Here it comes!  Another excuse to cut fees!”

I spent an amazing morning today at Media Kitchen’s annual Venture Capital Conference in New York City listening to leaders in media,
investing and banking talk about “new TV”:  the merging of broadcast TV, social video and everything in between.  by Dave Morgan

Research suggests some ways artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, and blockchain are reshaping creative work.

Oracle announced the findings of a global study titled “Retail 2018: The Loyalty Divide” auditing consumer perceptions and brand realities of loyalty programs and influences. “Retail 2018: The Loyalty Divide” reveals that retailers are out of touch with consumers that demand more personalized experiences and discover brands and affirm purchase decisions through social influencers.

Digital Lives 2018: A World of Digital ‘Everything’ through a Cultural Lens, a groundbreaking study by the trade group Culture Marketing Council: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing (CMC) reveals that culture drives digital behavior regarding how information is shared, how on-demand content is consumed, and which platforms are chosen, permeating outside of in-culture spaces and across non-Hispanic white, Hispanic and non-Hispanic African-American segments. Presence in cultural platforms, in-culture ads on mainstream sites and organic diversity in social media and video content are some of the critical strategies that resonate across all audiences and increase brand engagement.

Good customer experience leaves people feeling heard and appreciated; it minimizes friction, maximizes efficiency and maintains a human element.
 

Being in multicultural advertising, I’m always looking for images to use in presentations and on behalf of client work. What I’ve discovered is how hard it is to find any kind of diversity in the Hispanics represented in stock imagery.  by Karla Fernandez Parker

In a survey of 120 CMOs worldwide by marketing consultancy NewBase, 43% of respondents said they outsource their programmatic efforts. No other marketing function had an outsource rate this high.

Many of you are familiar with WARC research data.  It probably won’t surprise you that the company’s recently published Global Ad Trends overview has a significant portion dedicated to the challenges of digital advertising.

Over $46 billion will go to programmatic advertising in the US this year, according to eMarketer’s latest programmatic forecast—about $10 billion more than last year.  That means 82.5% of all US digital display ads will be bought via automated channels in 2018.

To continue to compete, CPG companies must increase agility, reskill the C-suite, and leverage millennial talent.

In this post Bill Pink, Head of Brand Guidance Analytics in North America, considers whether brand marketing is less important than it was in days gone by.

Attention. Human-viewable. Audience. Fraud-free. Sales.

Are the marketers and advertisers that the Executive Director of the Culture Marketing Council (CMC) speaks to every day aware of the power of Hispanic radio? Are they actively using Spanish-language radio stations to reach an important consumer segment?

No, no and no. Stop. Niet. Nein. Stay away! Don’t even think about it. Leave it to me! I do this for a living, seriously. It’s how I pay for my frijoles! Yankee go home!

As a Millennial marketer, it’s a weird feeling to listen to panels and read articles from current CMOs, CEOs and Marketing Directors explaining how to reach the “elusive Millennial.”  Hello!  We are right here in the audience; just ask us.  Millennials, born between 1980 and 1995, have experienced the launch and rebranding of social media sites, search engines and online shopping sites.  We are aware that our data is being collected and now influencing advertising creative and what ads are personally delivered to us.  In my opinion, this very recognition and insight makes Millennials the very opposite of elusive.

Terms like “emotional marketing” and “share of heart” advertising almost always conjure up images of tearful, romantic goodbyes or tender moments between loved ones. They’re thrown around much too often, alongside terms like “inspirational” and “aspirational,” in an attempt to describe emotional connections. But they fail to say much of anything.

National advertisers are so enamored with influencer marketing that a full 75 percent of their companies currently employ the discipline and almost half (43 percent) are planning to increase their spending on it in the next 12 months.

In an open letter to CMOs, Tom Roach, Managing Partner at BBH, shares data-points designed to prove that a strong brand is a company’s most valuable asset, and asks that his letter be forwarded to the CEO. If you check out the letter you will find that four of the proof points come from work done by Kantar Millward Brown.  by Nigel Hollis

Association of National Advertisers (ANA) client-side marketers are making strong progress in achieving gender balance among CMOs, but in stark contrast there remains significant work to do in attaining ethnic diversity.