Marketing

As Facebook develops an ever-more diverse portfolio of businesses, questions arise of whether it risks diluting its core identity.  Put another way, will the future of Facebook look like Google? Or, will it look more like Yahoo?

The problems with programmatic are well-covered and greatly ignored.  Reported growth in spending continues to fan the frenzy, while sweeping significant problems under the rug.

For the many years that preceded social media, marketers relied mostly on engaging with their consumers in one-way communications. This included television, radio, direct mail, billboards etc.  Once social media came along, consumers had the opportunity to “talk back,” so to speak, and tell brands what they thought about their products and services. Brands quickly learned just what consumers thought about the products and services. This type of consumer feedback was once relegated to the more controlled environments of market research and/or customer service listening.

In an era of digital, telegraphic communications, old and new codes provide an emotional dimension to cross-cultural messages  We can relate.  This post is contributed by Brenda Storch, Director, Multicultural Social Media and Shawn Savage, Senior Engagement Specialist

Deloitte’s latest millennials study looks at their world view and finds many, especially in developed economies, are anxious about their future. They are concerned about a world that presents numerous threats and question their personal prospects.

In many consumer markets, companies that once relied on developing new product features and improving customer service increasingly see competitive advantage rooted in the entire experience that’s wrapped around the product.  By Gerard du Toit, Rob Markey, Jeff Melton and Frédéric Debruyne

“What’s next?” That question drives our industry every day. Answering it isn’t easy. You don’t get there using conjecture or assumptions—you get there using passion, precision, experience and rigorous science. And when it comes to measuring the breakneck evolution of social media—answering the question can be as difficult as it is vital. But when you take a closer look at up-to-the-minute social media data, the direction forward snaps into focus.

If you spend any time in CPG product innovation, you’re likely using a“Jobs To Be Done” (JTBD)approach. Created by Harvard Business School professor and disruptive innovator Clayton Christensen, the JTBD approach simply suggests people don’t buy products, they hire them to do specific jobs.

Executives who know how to set up and manage agency relationships are best positioned to improve their marketing ROI.

Beyond a surprising comeback by the Patriots and a never-before seen overtime game, Super Bowl 51 delivered many life and business lessons for us to treasure.  By Lili Gil Valletta, Entrepreneur and Cultural Innovator

What is becoming clear, despite some new entrants, is that economic value is coalescing around a very small number of companies with respect to digital advertisers.

Audi, Anheuser-Busch, Airbnb and other Super Bowl advertisers risked controversy this weekend with ads that were seen as having a progressive edge. But how risky is it, really, for advertisers to take a progressive stance in a mass-market settin

AdReaction: Gen X, Y, Z study reminded me once again that the slow shift in people’s attitudes toward advertising places more emphasis on the need for emotionally-engaging content, rather than touting product specs and reasons to buy. It is not enough just to get your ad in front of someone; you need them to attend to it long enough that some impression sticks with them.  by Nigel Hollis

Last week, the Doomsday Clock was moved from 3 minutes to midnight to 2.5 minutes to 12. Scientists believe that the chance of the world going up in a thermonuclear puff of smoke is the highest it’s been since 1953. This in the same week that Marc Pritchard, the global brand building officer from P&G, made waves by announcing that P&G, in effect, had moved the hand of the ad-spend doomsday clock to 12. High noon!

Donald J. Trump has been in office for less than two weeks and the level of anxiety it has brought upon our society is unlike anything I’ve witnessed. While most Americans hoped the president would unite the nation and lead the healing process after a highly divisive and contentious election, it is fair to say that he has not.  By Tony Hernandez, CEO, Latino Broadcasting Co. and Founder, Immigrant Archive Project

Today, millions of Americans, nachos in front of them, groaned at the TV screen, sometimes because their favored team fumbled, and other times because the commercial was too mawkish, or dumb, or, and this is becoming the new reality, because it pushed their political buttons.  By David R. Morse

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creatve director, etc. / LMMiami.com

• Here’s a review of the ads on last Sunday’s annual sports & marketing extravaganza.
• As usual, I wrote this off the top of my head, making the effort to view the material as actual consumers do: surrounded by noisy friends and family, eating processed food, mildly inebriated on cheap beer and simultaneously checking various mobile devices.

2016 was  rife with stories pointing out the decay of advertising. The saddest of those suggest we have lost our way. If so, the reason would be that the landscape has changed.

Sir Martin Sorrell announced at a conference I attended toward the end of last year that Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) was the biggest threat to the marketing and advertising industries that would bite in the next year, 2017.  To be honest, I’m sure this is a worry for the country’s highest-paid executive, that huge mega contracts don’t just roll over but are instead replaced by brands commissioning work as and when needed. But what I’m discovering from smaller agencies is that it could be a godsend.

The lines between market research and marketing data are blurring. This really comes as no surprise, however. The convergence of these two disciplines was bound to happen at some point. While both industries are grappling with the implications of what this phenomenon means for the way they conduct research, startups shops are seizing the opportunity.  By Mario Carrasco -ThinkNow Research