Marketing

Over the past four decades, the U.S. Census has documented the growth trajectory of our Hispanic population.  While the numbers alone tell a powerful story of the value of the Hispanic market to brands, to fully understand the opportunity we have to dig deeper.  The Hispanic market is uniquely relative to past immigrant groups.  Hispanics represent a unique movement due to a combination of factors including language, duality and tenacity.

A year ago, the advertising industry was stirred by the ANA-commissioned report “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the U.S. Advertising Industry” from K2 Intelligence.  The key finding of that report was that non-transparent business practices, including cash rebates to media agencies, are pervasive in the U.S. media ad buying ecosystem.  By Bill Duggan

Many aspects of the digital world are dominated by a single giant: Google dominates search, Facebook dominates social, and of course, Amazon dominates e-commerce. For the vast majority of brands, walking away from the giants simply isn’t an option … so digital success means dancing with these giants more effectively.

In recent years, most consumer goods companies have exponentially grown their digital agendas, typically resulting in higher costs of time, energy and money. Yet for many, top-line growth remains elusive and profits are under pressure.

From the rise of online shopping channels to ad campaigns created for an audience of one, consumer marketing has changed more in the past ten years than it did in the previous 30. Despite that level of change and disruption, if you had put a few typical marketers from the 1980s into a time machine and sent them into the marketing departments of today, they would probably feel right at home. There might be a new IT department and a few other changes, but the job titles, structures, approach to performance management—even the vocabulary—would be remarkably familiar.  By Raphael Buck, Biljana Cvetanovski, Alex Harper, and Björn Timelin

New research by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has found that global brands have made major changes or are planning to make extensive changes to their media governance practices across a wide range of areas.

Social media is deeply embedded in our culture and has emerged as a leading indicator of overall media consumption.  Its burgeoning power can be vividly seen when assessing the consumption patterns, habits and trends of Gen-Z.   By Graeme Hutton

Brand marketers are always developing strategies that influence purchase intent. For the last decade or so, these marketers assumed that social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are driving consumers to engage with brands and make purchase decisions.

Bob Liodice, the President and CEO of the ANA, once said (and I’m paraphrasing here) that client CMOs are not sufficiently in charge of the activities of their agencies.  He wasn’t chastising them but merely sending a word of caution that if clients expect more from their agencies, particularly in areas of transparency, they have to be more intimately involved in what they do and how they do it.  By Mike Drexler

The agency holding companies continue to find themselves the pariahs of the industry, implicated in dubious media-buying practices, non-transparent digital media processes — and now by murky advertising production practices as well.

nfluencers are driving engagement with brands on Instagram at levels well beyond those seen by companies’ own posts on the Facebook-owned social media platform.

Brands that market to multicultural audiences have found music as a key approach to connecting across generations. But multicultural marketers sometimes overlook the many facets differentiating their target audiences, ranging from differing countries of origin to local cultures and experiences. To truly connect, marketers must craft precise messages for specific segments rather than treating the multicultural community as a singular audience.

The debate over the power of purpose flared up again at Cannes, largely fueled by the fact that Fearless Girl won the Titanium Grand Prix and more. Many acknowledged that the Wall Street statue was on message, but questioned whether it was on brand after struggling to remember which company sponsored it.  by Nigel Hollis

In an era of hyper-segmentation and personalization, can mainstream marketing still provide total relevance? The concept of mainstream is obsolete. It comes from a simpler time, when the U.S. population was less diverse. The overwhelming majority was non-Hispanic, White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant, and, relatively speaking, the population was much more economically secure.

It was once the case that multicultural marketing initiatives were only considered after the general market strategy was in place–but no more.  The influence of these important consumers is rapidly expanding. Today, multicultural shoppers control more than $3.4 trillion in buying power thanks to a growing population, advancements in education and business, as well as an intense interest in everything tech.

How quickly and effectively marketers respond and adapt to ongoing consumer feedback has become a new determinant of brand performance, reports the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council in a survey report.

ANA, ever-faithful and aggressive on behalf of its advertiser members, struck a second blow to 4As this week — a right uppercut to the chin — with a new ANA study of advertising production practices.  The report detailed “a range of improper behavior, including allegations that some agencies have steered production contracts to their in-house production and post-production outfits by urging other companies to inflate their prices during the bidding process,” as reported in WSJ.  ANA’s first blow — a left to the head — was its 2016 media transparency report, which outlined improper media owner rebates and kickbacks to media agencies.  The combination 1-2 punch is sure to further undermine trust and lead to contract reviews and reductions in agency remuneration. 4As is taking it on the chin.  What can they do?  The fight is a mismatch.  ANA has the weight advantage — or does it?  By Michael Farmer – Madison Avenue Manslaughter Archives

There’s a quote that gets thrown around and misattributed all the time that says, “Hope is not a strategy.”  In the digital media and advertising business the word “identity” gets thrown around even more, so to paraphrase this oft-used cliché, I’ll say: Identity is not a strategy.

Advertising campaigns that resonate in the minds of consumers are hard to find: A Nielsen study shows that 22% of digital ads failed to drive uplift for key brand metrics in Australia. Encouragingly, understanding frequency – the number of times consumers see a campaign – has a demonstrated impact on resonance, and can ensure brands maximise their digital spend.  By Gabrijela Okadar, Manager – Marketing Effectiveness, Nielsen

Rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent Automation (IA) brings a host of broad questions leaders must thoroughly consider as their organizations move into the automation age. A new KPMG LLP report explores these potentially massive issues and provides important insights to help drive decision making as robots and cognitive technology begins to outpace human intelligence.