Marketing

Is it me, or have many people forgotten that the only reason to invest in brand building is to help drive sales? The constant debate about whether to invest in brand building or sales activation seems to imply that sales elasticity is independent of the strength of the brand. To my mind that is just plain wrong.  by Nigel Hollis

As brands seek to more efficiently connect with consumers, understanding campaign performance across TV and digital has become essential to allocating advertising investments across platforms.

Modernizing a cherished brand without alienating a loyal customer base or losing market share in a hypercompetitive marketplace is challenging. The hurdles include continuing to drive and maintain growth, choosing the right ideas for big results, knowing the customer, and innovating while staying true to the brand’s roots. Kurt Kane, chief concept and marketing officer at Wendy’s, spoke with McKinsey partner Stacey Haas and discussed how the restaurant chain tackled these challenges.

If I asked a group of ad planners what the one thing they most want from their creative partners, it’d be ‘collaboration.’  That’s because, like it or not, there is a deep insecurity lurking that whatever brilliant brief we arrive at will be completely ripped apart — or worse, ignored — by the creative people it is intended to inspire. Maybe it’s the intangibility of strategy — its ambiguity in the creative process — that makes us seek any evidence of our value to others.  By Ed Tsue- Anomaly / Group Strategy Director / Managing Director

CMO Council Research Lists Amazon, Starbucks and Apple as Leaders in Guiding the Customer Journey and Using Experience for Competitive Advantage; Issues Call to Action for Brands to Identify Micro-Moments of Opportunity to Further “Human” Relationships

In a poll conducted by ad measurement firm Integral Ad Science (IAS), 69.0% of agency executives say that fraud was the biggest hindrance to ad budget growth, compared with more than half (52.6%) of brand professionals who said the same.

Havas has issued a piece of research called “Meaningful Brands,” which it has done every two years since 2008. Shockingly, every study has shown that consumers around the world couldn’t care less if the majority of brands disappeared overnight.

Duncan Southgate, our Global Brand Director for Media, drew my attention to Mark Ritson’s reaction to the latest Ebiquity report titled ‘TV At a Tipping Point’ . Ebiquity finds that TV’s superiority in building quick, cost effective reach may be coming to an end. Ritson questions whether their analysis allows for how people’s behaviour changes as they grow older. I am more concerned about what the forecast means for brand building.  by Nigel Hollis

Some marketing and advertising insiders have recently implied that it’s becoming more common for agencies to be “ghosted” by clients. This would be yet another disturbing trend for agencies to contend with.  by Mark Duval / The Duval Agency

Like most other industries, sports are being disrupted by technology advancements and cultural changes. How can sports executives capitalize on these industry changes in 2019? Our annual report explores eight trends that could redefine the sports industry in the year ahead.

The growth and influence of the multicultural population has made it one of the most sought-after market segments of the past three decades. With its buying power now topping $3.5 trillion, it’s easy to see why.

Recently I was talking to a friend about Alfonso Cuarón’s movie, Roma. We were debating the narrative’s pace and style. He, being an Anglo-American thought it was too slow, too visual. Me, saying that it was a beautiful movie that reminded me of my upbringing in Latin America. I realized this was not only a discussion about just film but rather, about different styles of storytelling.  By Isaac Mizrahi – Co-President/COO of Alma

This year will mark a major milestone in the world of advertising. For the first time, digital ad spending in the US will exceed traditional ad spending, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast. By 2023, digital will surpass two-thirds of total media spending.

Disney overtook Apple for the first time in MBLM’s Brand Intimacy 2019 Study, which is the largest study of brands based on emotions. The two were followed by Amazon, which came in third. The top 10 was also increasingly dominated by media & entertainment brands, comprising four out of the 10, up from three last year. The remaining brands in the top 10 were: Chevrolet, Netflix, Harley-Davidson, PlayStation, YouTube, Ford and Chick-fil-A. Brand Intimacy is defined as the emotional science that measures the bonds we form with the brands we use and love.

Daren Poole, Global Head of Creative at Kantar, recently asked on Kantar’s Workplace what people thought of an article by Zac Martin, writing in Mumbrella, which tells us to not sweat the big idea. So, is the big idea dead, misunderstood, or as important as ever?  by Nigel Hollis

Price, not transparency or partnerships, remains the priority for clients when it comes to their agencies.

As Marsha Appel points out, we have been here before. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) is not a new business model, it is an old one. What is different is the technology that facilitates the business model. What is not different is that people still buy the brands that are meaningful to them.  by Nigel Hollis

The World Federation of Advertisers has issued a call to action to the industry we all represent. It’s asking for ideas on six topics, which will be evaluated prior to the Global Marketer Week event in Lisbon, Portugal at the end of March.

In the latest episode of “Behind the Numbers,” we’re talking about consumer trust in brands and digging into data from a survey by data platform Jebbit. We’re joined in the studio by Jebbit co-founder Jonathan Lacoste to discuss which brands have succeeded in winning customer trust, which have failed, and why.

Whether purchasing recycled paper and plastic, eliminating toxic chemicals from products, or setting goals to reduce carbon emissions, a growing number of global brands have upped their games to meet the standards of environmental watchdogs and conscious consumers, as well as the social media armies that stand behind them.