Marketing

American families and small businesses are rightfully skeptical of traditional advertising, which is clearly designed to persuade or manipulate us. In an effort to make advertising appear more authentic, companies are increasingly pouring marketing dollars into social media influencers: the individuals who promote products, services, and brands to those who follow them online.

Insights from a new CMO study of more than 400 marketing organizations across the globe illuminate how top CMOs and companies are organizing and operationalizing their marketing functions to succeed in today’s disruptive business climate while providing a roadmap for critical planning and decision-making needed to ready and evolve modern marketing organizations for the future.

We hear a lot in the news these days about how big companies are both challenged by and responding to the threat from start-ups. In many cases, start-ups are lauded as more consumer-focused and agile. As a result, big companies have set up small units designed to mimic the start-up model, but is this truly a recipe for success?   by Phil Sutcliffe – UK Board Director / Kantar

Even though Hispanics over-index on the usage of many products and services, and even though they demonstrate higher Lifetime Value, the market does not command marketing shares of budget commensurate to its share of the population.  US Hispanic ad spend is at 6% of the total US ad spend, while comprising 20% of the market and even more across key demographics.  Why is that?

The ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) released key findings from its second Cultural Insights Impact Measure™ (CIIM™) study, its first-ever focusing on how the role of culture impacts audience’s view of television programming. Learnings demonstrated that greater cultural relevancy drives +19% higher net likeability for shows; the CIIM™ score is 27 points higher for Hispanics in endemic (networks with 85%+ multicultural audiences) vs. non-endemic networks (networks targeting all segments).

It’s no secret that marketing has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. Digital channels now capture over half of all advertising spending in the U.S. Understanding that marketing has changed doesn’t mean you know how to navigate the new landscape or what others in the field are doing to keep up.

I really wonder about the long-term effectiveness of Burger King’s promotions, including the famous Whopper Detour promotion. I don’t care that Detour won the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes, I cannot help but feel that this sort of marketing is a recipe for weakness, not strength.  by Nigel Hollis

Amidst a decline in CMO tenure, companies weigh promoting from within or hiring from outside the organization

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) and startup brands have been eating away at the margins of long-established legacy brands for years. From belts to booze to Keto snacks, no industry sector is safe from the onslaught, which is just beginning.

Younger generations are more likely to buy products based on influencer recommendations, as well as consider them reliable. However, these demographics still see influencers as less trustworthy than other sources.

As companies look to improve their multicultural marketing in 2020 and beyond, it’s time to bring new depth to the conversation and address colorism.

The leadership challenge of balancing short- and long-term business pressures, and doing so in an ethical way in which both a company and its stakeholders can thrive, is a challenge that is well-known to all business leaders.

Super Bowl advertising has come a long way. This year’s commercials were no longer limited to male targets with creative using guy humor to get a good laugh and be memorable. The categories represented were no longer dominated by the more traditional ones, like beer, soft drinks, snacks and automobiles, but included technology, beauty and, of course, politics. Female-targeted spots were in full force, with empowering, #FutureIsFemale-themed creative including Secret, Olay and Genesis; as were messages of sustainability from Saucony and SodaStream. The casting selection made major strides in terms of diversity, with spots featuring protagonists representing the Black, Asian, Hispanic, 50-plus and LGBTQ+ communities.  By Louis Maldonado – partner at d EXPOSITO & PARTNERS

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / lmmiami.com/

• Here’s Gonzalo’s take on the big game’s advertising extravaganza. Methodology: I made a point of watching the whole thing the way an average Joe or Jane would: untethered to the biases of an industry insider. I might have missed a few spots due to bathroom breaks or sheer disinterest, but what you will read below is unaided recall off the top of my head, which, if you ask me, is the one and only way advertising should be judged and measured. Then again, I’ve been in this racket far too long so the professional critique is there.

For the second year, Bain Media Lab and AI pioneer Hive partnered to analyze marketing within and around the Super Bowl using Mensio, an AI-powered TV advertising and sponsorship analytics platform developed in partnership between Bain and Hive.

I have to thank those nice people at Mediacom for sharing ‘Two minutes with Simon Peel, Global Media Director at adidas’. In the video, Peel shares his thoughts on the power of a shared idea, and while he might be thinking that a shared idea of what makes things cool encourages people to buy a pair of sneakers, I think it applies to all strong brands.  by Nigel Hollis

Product innovators and marketers spend an exorbitant amount of time and effort perfecting their products before they bring them to market. So, after they spend all this time behind the scenes developing the packaging, positioning the marketing materials and finalizing the product itself, how do they know when the innovation is ready for launch?

The great hope for digital/social media was addressable advertising, with its lower creation and production costs coupled with higher advertising effectiveness. How could one argue with this formula, particularly while the consuming public was retreating from broadcast advertising? Unrecognized by digital/social enthusiasts, though, are the hidden costs of complexity, which today threaten to erode the marketing effectiveness of advertisers and agencies alike.

I always used to say that the people that created a great TV ad got fed up with seeing it long before its intended audience did. After all marketers and agency team see the content on a regular basis, normal people do not. But, on reflection, this problem applies all aspects of marketing activity. Maybe all marketers should remember the adage, ‘If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’.  by Nigel Hollis

Given all the hoopla about virtual assistants it seems so yesterday to be talking about the importance of visual impressions in marketing, but not everyone has a virtual assistant, and even fewer use them to make purchases on a regular basis. Most purchases are still made in a physical environment and marketers still need to make sure people recognize and respond to their brand in that context.  by Nigel Hollis