Marketing

Marketers are always under pressure to prove the ROI of their campaigns, but the demand for brand growth has only sharpened as companies work to pull themselves out of pandemic-induced strains. Though this demand is more pressing, the question of how to solve it is an age-old one: To grow market share, should brands spend their time on upper-funnel, brand-building efforts or mid- and lower-funnel efforts that will secure quick wins for the business?

The biggest problems currently plaguing agencies stem from a single source: loss of power in their client relationships.  By Mark Duval – The Duval Partnership

In 2020, the global economy experienced one of the worst declines since the Great Depression.  Yet, while the ripple effects of COVID-19 have thrown many businesses into disarray, some companies have not only managed to stay afloat amidst the chaos—they’ve thrived. Using data from Kantar BrandZ, this graphic looks at the top 100 most valuable brands of 2021.

Marketing leaders are increasingly turning to agile methodologies to help improve the speed and performance of their teams along with the many partners they use for creative, production, and measurement expertise. In our experience, though, the shift to agile is often far from seamless for these constellations of teams. Our recent survey of marketing executives found that only 3 percent characterized their transition to agile marketing with their partners as “smooth,” while more than 80 percent reported the journey to be filled with obstacles.

After a year like no other, consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers face a hard question: how to power above-average growth in the next normal.

The digital era of industry change has emphasized the lowest price, automated tactics, and direct response metrics at the expense of strategy. Planning our media investments in order to maximize the outcomes we seek is a lost blend of science and art.

An overreliance on outdated tracking methods could mean costly delays in a fast-paced market

A critical finding of the study is that misaligned content erodes the impact of hardworking ad creative that had proven strong performance in the standard content. In addition, the study found that brands need to be proactive about how to treat misaligned content to avoid diminishing the effectiveness of otherwise powerful ads.

Despite higher inflation, labour shortages, and wage inflation, corporate confidence is growing across the world. There is a consensus that, despite the lingering impact of the pandemic, we are through the worst of times. Consumer confidence is also high and rising, starting with China and the West and gradually spreading to other economies.

ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), Nielsen and Media Framework announced a collaboration aimed at increasing investments in multicultural and inclusive-owned media (African American, Asian, Hispanic, LGBTQ and People with Disabilities) to help brands and agencies measure their investment and impact on multicultural and inclusive-owned media and the communities these represent. 

More than 70 percent of the meanings behind words, ideas, and concepts in culture are implied. Decoding those meanings through technology can not only help brands better understand what people are talking about but add value to their products and services and create a feeling of authenticity and purpose.

Collage Group announced its CultureRate:Brand and CultureRate:Ad rankings of the more than 500 brands and 200 ads evaluated as part of the data pool.

Demand for buy-now-pay-later offers is surging among younger consumers

Existing in the time of “cancel culture” can be very tricky for a brand. They tell you to simply do the right thing and you’ll be fine, but “the right thing” varies according to your audience’s beliefs. In this case study, we explore the cancel culture phenomenon and present suggestions to help brands navigate a potential cancellation.

Whether you call it fútbol or soccer, there’s no denying the sport’s importance within Hispanic culture.

An important function of marketing is to make it easy for people to pay the price asked. No second thoughts, no checking competitive prices, no delaying in case something better comes along. Easy to pay could be as simple providing access to a delayed purchase app like Affirm, Sezzle, or Klarna, but the biggest influence is likely to come from building perceptions that the brand is worth the price asked. If people perceive that a brand is different from the competition, they will be more likely to pay the price asked for it.  By Nigel Hollis

How should marketers adjust their skills in the age of AI, automation and beyond?

The unprecedented growth in advertising spending in the first half (+32%) was more than low comps due to the COVID lockdown and recession last year. It was caused by a unique combination of national brands reconnecting with consumers and competing for a limited amount of traditional media inventory, while the lasting changes of COVID on lifestyles and marketing methods continue to fuel huge digital advertising spending from both big brands and small businesses. These ongoing organic growth engines, combined with Olympic budgets and the Mid-Term election spending, will continue to generate double-digit spending growth in the second half and into 2022.

Still the top category in digital advertising, CPG takes on aspects of nearly every other vertical, with multiple sub-categories and products that span the entire digital landscape.

Gartner research has been tracking how consumers engage with brands on social media since January 2019, and our most recent research finds that the proportion of users who follow brands, and the proportion of users who say they like seeing content from brands on the platform have both increased markedly across the 10 most popular social media platforms.