Marketing

The marketing community has been closely monitoring the evolution of the path to purchase and its impact on not only reaching, but influencing and engaging consumers. P2P has become a key reference point for media planning, resulting in major changes to the way consumers buy and the way marketers plan their campaigns. In this “new media mix,” consumers have emerged as a critical partner in media planning.

The results of the survey revealed an increased awareness of content marketing since last year, with marketers more frequently putting formal content marketing programs in place. 78 percent of respondents stating that they are somewhat familiar or very familiar with content marketing (up 13 percent), and nearly half (49 percent) reported having a formal content marketing strategy in place.

How do you effectively leverage online advertising to build your brand? There are a lot of opinions floating around, but what really works? In January of 2013, Vizu partnered with the CMO Council to assess the potential for the industry in 2013 and identify best practices for leveraging your online brand advertising.

While matters of race and culture continue to be the reason for much controversy and political blame games could corporate America draw a practical lesson from this emotional topic?

After being part of a vivid panel during Fox News’ Hannity, I went into evaluating some recent happenings in pop-culture, social media and news to expose an eminent reality; culture and race does matter in America.

By Lili Gil Valletta, Cofounder XL and Media Contributor

Often treated as an afterthought by marketers and agencies alike, the 15-second TV spot is usually just a cut down version of the 30-second spot, rarely copy tested, but assumed to be at least 50 percent as good as the :30 from which it’s derived.

BlueKai released its second Data Impact Report which revealed that brands are dramatically increasing their reliance on data to power their marketing efforts. According to the new study, 36% of respondents indicated that at least a fifth of their marketing budgets were “data driven” vs. only 11% cited in the company’s report in December 2012, showing a staggering 227% increase over the last 6 months.

The importance of cross-channel activity keeps rising, with nearly three-quarters of companies worldwide analyzing interactions between different online channels, according to a survey by research firm Econsultancy and data consulting company Lynchpin. More companies also paid attention to social data in 2013, at 63% of respondents, up from 56% the previous year.

Hispanic agencies, thus, hold all the right cards. Or, in Miami, all the right domino chips. They have the insight to not only direct Hispanic marketing efforts but also hold the keys to the truck that’s driving all of a brand’s efforts moving forward, given the multicultural population surge that will one day soon make Whites a minority across the US, and not just in the top 15 DMAs. By Adam R Jacobson – Hispanic market media strategist and veteran journalist.

The unprecedented tsunami of data available to marketers has dramatically changed digital advertising – and the ways CMOs must make decisions about it. Big Data continues to amplify digital’s capabilities and creates entirely new ones. Marketers now have a nearly infinite number of variables they can tweak to design the best campaigns possible for their audiences. Yet as the ad world becomes more automated thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, data collection and analysis is more complex than ever before.

“The death of the CMO.” “The end of the CMO.” “The failure of the CMO.” These headlines demonstrate the prevalence of articles, writers, and researchers discussing issues related to an important C-level position, that of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). While these articles are often incendiary, it’s intriguing that they are almost always written by people who have something to sell, having never been a CEO or CMO. As a result, they are often long on accusations and short on solutions. As the saying goes, it’s easier said than done when it comes to solving problems.

What about in the healthcare space? After all, it’s not like we are the guardians of Coke or BMW or Apple, building up equity over the decades, instead we have the reality of patent expiry and loss of exclusivity. Plus, our customers don’t always get to choose a brand, one is prescribed to them. So, isn’t building a pharmaceutical brand an expensive luxury rather than a must-have investment? All in all, would it really matter if pharma brands didn’t exist?

Retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies tare dealing with new rules of consumer engagement as they seize opportunities from advanced technology and the digitally connected consumer, according to the 2013 Financial Performance Report by the Grocery Manufacturers Association(GMA) and PwC US, titled Growth Strategies: Unlocking the Power of the Consumer.

A new commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Silverpop reveals that while marketers who leverage buyer insight in their campaigns experience significant business benefits above their peers, behavioral data still remains the greatest untapped marketing asset.

The standard of beauty in many parts of the world still fits a Caucasian ideal. Maybe the explanation for this comes from an understanding of the West’s popular cultural influences that have global reach. Music, movies, television, and internet content has largely come from the West, which still exudes an Anglo standard of appearance more often than not. CNN reports that Korean and Chinese, who have increasingly high levels of per capita occurrence of plastic surgery, are driven by a desire to “look American”. By Stephen Palacios – Added Value / Cheskin

The Science of Sharing white paper, which gives brands and agencies actionable insights on how they can maximize their online video campaigns, found the two most popular ads from this year’s Super Bowl attracted the most shares on Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere because they did not try to make people laugh.

The Dodge brand is targeting multicultural millennials[1] with a Spanish/English ad campaign for the 2013 Dodge Dart featuring global music sensation Pitbull.

If the Hispanic market were a brand, it would be undervalued.

With the hotly-debated immigration reform bill having made its way through the Senate with a decisive 68 – 32 vote, and on its way to a rocky future in the House, there are many issues surrounding the subject that are often overlooked. Not everyone is a proponent of immigration reform, but I certainly am. For this reason, and due to my career as a marketing executive, it’s difficult for me to sit on the sidelines and watch both political parties thoroughly botch the messaging required to get this bill passed.

By Mike Valdés-Fauli / Jeffrey Group