Marketing

For anyone in the CPG industry still unclear about the power of direct-to-consumer models, Unilever’s July purchase of Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion in cash was a deafening trumpet blast. The five-year-old startup,  which had pole-vaulted from obscurity to huge consumer awareness through brilliant YouTube videos, had also created a large subscription business and millions of direct consumer relationships in the process.

The findings include surprising juxtapositions. Some tactics are clearly performing well, but only utilized by a small number of brands. Other tactics are widespread among brands, but the performance data shows little to no payoff. The report also puts concrete numbers behind strategies that marketers have believed intuitively to be effective, but never had good data to corroborate. Based on Beckon’s marketing performance analysis, third-party research and case studies from customers, the report makes recommendations to help data-driven marketers set benchmarks for success and chart a better course for action.

Youth may be wasted on the young, but when it comes to taking control of their health and well-being, Millennials are pretty much kicking older generations’ saggy-old butts. That’s because, unlike Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, Millennials have a decidedly different take on what wellness means to them and how they’re living their best lives.

The U.S. Hispanic population is exceptionally diverse and the report considers different variables, such as country of origin, number of generations in the U.S., sex, age and family structure. According to PwC, companies will need multiple customized strategies to appeal to the unique preferences of these different Hispanic ethnicities and generations. In short, marketing to U.S. Hispanic consumers requires a nuanced understanding of their behaviors.

For consumers, having content options is no longer a luxury, but an imperative. And so, too, are the multitude of devices that they use to engage with that content—be it a TV, tablet or soon-to-be emerging technologies. But having a plethora of content options at our collective fingertips doesn’t necessarily mean consumers are connecting with ALL choices ALL of the time.

Companies that know how and when to use the wide array of research tools available today have a big competitive advantage in generating insights that lead to new organic growth.

Programmatic ad spending in the US is exceeding projections, and will continue to grow at double-digit rates for the next several years.

This comprehensive report explores virtual reality’s promise and pitfalls as the “the next big thing” in digital advertising.

How do companies such as LEGO, Chobani, Beats, Diageo, and Dollar Shave Club significantly outgrow their competition, and what can consumer companies learn from them?

As a consumer group, they’re just starting to flex their spending power, which will grow significantly in the coming years. While they’re years from fully establishing themselves, they’re already having a marked impact on the global consumer landscape.

EY and the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) released a new national survey of Millennials gauging their views on a variety of issues related to the economy, education, American institutions, and the challenges they continue to face almost seven years into the recovery from the Great Recession. The results reveal a generation convinced the economy is failing them, a generation that is willing to work hard to better their lot, and a generation experiencing a great deal of anxiety about the future. Many Millennials entered the workforce in the midst of a deep economic crisis and today find themselves racked by student debt and lacking confidence in most American institutions.

As media fragmentation increases, it is more and more difficult for networks to generate the levels of viewership they have historically been used to. Driving engagement and cultivating loyalty is correspondingly more challenging, too. The net result is a threat to the value networks can deliver to their advertisers, which is, of course, a threat to their own success.

The FCC’s latest proposal relies on apps to be developed by pay-TV providers and then licensed to third parties for use on their own platforms and networks. At this point, though we’re not sure just how, the FCC sees itself as the arbiter of such agreements and intends to take enforcement action against discriminatory or unreasonable behavior in apps’ implementation.

Psychology is an important metric for marketers to consider when analyzing data coming out of digital marketing campaigns, according to Jonah Berger, a professor of marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” and “Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior.” In advance of Berger’s presentation at eMarketer’s Attention! 2016 event next month, Sean Creamer spoke to Berger about how about how word-of-mouth influences consumers online and offline.

The IAB Data Center of Excellence and DMA, the largest U.S. data and marketing association, have released “The Data-Centric Organization,” a whitepaper showing that a lack of talent and ongoing functional silos are major hurdles to taking full advantage of “big data.”

Verve released new research on Millennials and Generation Z, two groups of young mobile experts that Verve now terms Mobile Prodigies.
New Research from Verve – The Rise of Mobile Prodigies

Digital interactions influence 56 cents of every dollar spent in retail stores, totaling $2.1 trillion by the end of the year–up from 14 cents of every dollar spent in 2013, according to Deloitte’s latest study, “The new digital divide: The future of digital influence in retail.”

Two-plus years on from the launch of the Viewability Guidelines for desktop display and video ads, there continues to be a great deal of discussion around viewability across the industry.  We understand the focus on this, given its importance and the difficulties that are always inherent to a shift in an industry’s currency measurements, but we also believe the debate is overly focused on analyzing the limitations of viewable impressions rather than understanding their intent.

Gone are the days where shoppers would anxiously wait for the big Black Friday circular unveiling—they now have access to the Black Friday sales well in advance of the event.

Virtual Incentives has released the first round of data from a new research study on consumer perceptions and preferences surrounding incentives. The study, formally called “Incentive Research Paper” also explored how the incentive itself impacts brand perceptions, while studying influencers like gender, age, income levels and political affiliation.