Marketing

To the surprise of virtually no one in marketing, it appears that 2019 will be the year when spending on digital advertising finally surpasses traditional ad spending for the first time, a development that eMarketer dubs “a major milestone in the world of advertising.” It projects that total digital ad spending in the U.S. will grow 19 percent, to $129.3 billion, and account for more than 54 percent of estimated total U.S. ad spending this year. Perhaps more noteworthy is the strength of this trend, with digital ads forecast to surpass two-thirds of total U.S. media spending by 2023. Marketers best buckle up.

After a decade of steady growth, in-house agencies are finding their place in the sun. In March, marketers from some of the world’s best-known brands took the stage at the ANA In-House Agency Conference in Orlando to celebrate the evolution of their departments from transactional “creative services” shops to high-value divisions that drive growth and customer engagement in a changing media and consumer marketplace.

When it comes to setting benchmarks, there’s a lot of information to know and data to sift through, but they’re a necessary part of any consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturer’s business.

When you have worked with survey data for over thirty years – gulp – you take for granted things that other people do not. For instance, unlike many, I tend to assume that consideration and stated purchase intent questions do anticipate consumer behavior. However, I do not assume that an individual’s stated intentions will guarantee they buy the brand they state.  by Nigel Hollis

The ANA released a new report, “Enhancing Trust Between Marketers and Agencies,” in 2019 — for which 119 ANA client-side marketer members were polled.

Forbes Insights recently surveyed over 2,000 companies in the midst of a digital transformation, and found that those in CMO roles are best suited to driving digital revolution within their organizations. When encouragement to innovate and iterate comes from the top, it has a widespread impact on their teams and culture.

Now, more than ever, customer experience makes or breaks brands. In our smartphone era customers’ praise or complaints are amplified. Who remembers the United Airlines brand crisis, in which $1.4 billion in value was wiped out overnight when a passenger’s bad experience went viral on social media? To grow value, brands have no choice but to deliver a great exp

Majorities say race, ethnicity shouldn’t be considered in hiring and promotions As the United States becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, and as companies from Wall Street to Silicon Valley grapple with how to build workforces that reflect these changing demographics, Americans have a complicated, even contradictory, set of views about the impact of diversity and the best way to achieve it.

Influencer marketing is one of the fastest growing segments in the worlds of marketing and advertising.  For better or for worse, brands and agencies continue to commit financial resources.  Projections show that by the year 2020, between $5-10 billion will be spent on influencer-based programming and marketing.  The high level of growth ensures that the competition to justify the budget spend will be fierce.  Even as the marketing budgets dedicated to influencer marketing continue to grow, a deep understanding of the culture of influence is less certain. 

As the only conference for multicultural marketing leaders developed by multicultural marketing experts, the CMC Annual Summit delivers more top-level content and compelling conversation with its dynamic panel discussions. The Culture Marketing Council: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing will bring together C-suite leaders from top agencies and marketing associations, celebrated creative directors and pop culture experts for a series of powerful panels, taking place June 10-12 at the Statler Hotel in Dallas and covering topics critical to connecting with today’s complex and multicultural mainstream.

Consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) manufacturers are feeling pressure from all sides. For one, consumers are becoming more value conscious and less brand loyal. They’re also steadily shifting spending away from traditional brick-and-mortar stores toward channels with higher costs to serve, such as e-commerce. And, in part enabled by these new consumer preferences and channel trends, small brands are elbowing out bigger, established brands on retailers’ physical and virtual shelves.

This study looks into the different ways consumers watch digital video – going beyond dayparts, demos and/or personas. It illuminates how perception of different types of video advertising is impacted by the motivations and mindset a consumer is experiencing as they choose to watch. The analysis provides correlations between video content and attention to ads, ad relevance and ad receptivity when in these motivation/mindset states.

Today’s consumer packaged goods (CPG) landscape bears little resemblance to that of 1990. There are currently 9,000 more products in U.S. grocery stores than there were back then, but the average retail store is almost 7,500 square feet smaller. Organic, gluten-free, heart-healthy and sustainable products are everywhere in today’s stores because consumers demand them. And with a new product hitting the shelves approximately every two minutes, the list is growing.

According to Forbes’ 50 most influential CMOs of 2018, most are grappling with three important issues that center on understanding changing relationships between consumers and brands, defining ways to offer the very best customer experience, and defining how to make their brands more human and approachable.  By Terry Soto

Over 100 years after women in the UK won the right to vote, women’s sense of self-empowerment still lags behind that of men. Women with lower self-esteem are motivated by different values then their high self-esteem peers. Closing the self-esteem gap could help improve how all women feel about themselves… but also change the brands they buy.  by Amy Cashman -co-CEO Insights Division UK Kantar

One of the frequently asked questions about the “plumbing” that enables the multi-touch attribution process to function is how individual users are tracked.

Younger, digitally engaged consumers love to use almost any technology that might make their buying process more self-sufficient, whereas traditional consumers are driven more by cost and ease of use.

I know that good ad targeting can make a big difference in the short-term impact of a digital campaign. And I also know that success is relative. Better targeting increases the probability of reaching a person likely to buy your brand; it does not guarantee it. But are advertisers really investing enough time in creating the right profiles for accurate targeting?  by Nigel Hollis

Plenty of companies measure their marketing activities, yet too often, they don’t make the most of it. Their measurement does not lead to useful actions or inform important strategic decisions. When one team optimizes for website traffic and another for in-store foot traffic, but do not communicate with each other, the company will end up with a disjointed marketing strategy or investments in the wrong audiences or metrics.

Mother’s Day spending is expected to total a record $25 billion this year, up from $23.1 billion in 2018, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation. A total 84 percent of U.S. adults are expected to celebrate in honor of their mothers and other women in their lives.