Agency

For a long time, demographic information (such as age, gender and location) was the only way companies could segment their customer base. Today that is no longer the case. The wealth of consumer data now available means brands can layer attitudinal and behavioral insights on top of demographic data to paint a far richer, more nuanced picture of real people.

The winner of the 2020 Presidential Election will need to reach 270 electoral votes. Getting to that number will mean understanding who’s voting and who’s not, and who can be engaged, so they’ll turn out at the polls. Whether you want to engage in a “get out the vote” campaign, or focus messaging efforts in key swing states, you’ll want to tune in each month as we explore voters and their role on the road to election 2020.

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

• Good advertising – or good marketing for that matter- is all about putting a pebble in the target audience’s shoes.
• Inserting a little blip on their radar.
• Adding a mental note in their to-do list.
• In the marketing & advertising business we tend to believe that CPGs is where the action is.

2020 ends the ‘General market era’ glorified by Madison Ave. where my career started, and Minority-Majority is officially an oxymoron. The states driving our economy are already majority-Multicultural, Gen Z will be in 2020, Millennials by 2025, Gen X before 2030, the U.S. by 2040. Over half of all USA HHs today are Multicultural or mixed races, over half of Hispanics under age 29, over half of Blacks grew up as digital natives, and Asians are the most affluent and educated of any racial group with $110K average HH income. The Census will only reinforce the urgency of revisioning these high value super-consumers who will account for $4.2T buying power next year and all future growth, while Non-Hispanic-Whites decline at an accelerated rate as deaths exceed births, putting brands that don’t do proper Multicultural marketing at risk.  By Liz Castells-Heard, CEO & Chief Strategy Officer, INFUSION

Hiring an advertising agency is an art. No matter how scientific one is during a search process, there is always a significant degree of subjectivity associated with it. This is especially true when hiring a segment agency, where one may not be a subject matter expert.  By Isaac Mizrahi – Co-President of ALMA

This year was chockful of defining moments. From ongoing trade disputes with China and political unrest, to legalized marijuana and online privacy concerns. In our final report of the year, 2019 Defining Moments: Insights Into Culture and Authenticity™, we highlight trends in consumer sentiment, purchase behavior, and digital media use, and explore the impact culture has on these trends. We’ve combined these insights into a brief narrative of Total Market consumer behavior over the last twelve months and marketing predictions for 2020.

What makes someone a growth leader? In conversations we’ve had with business leaders, the answer tends to boil down to a variation of “I know it when I see it.” But it turns out that there is a specific set of attributes that growth leaders share.

In 2018, 13.6% of counties had a statistically significant increase in median household income compared with 2007, the year before the most recent recession, while 5.5% had a statistically significant decrease, according to data released by the Census Bureau.

When a popular trend takes a market by storm, it’s tough to not want to go all in on it. There is, however, something to be said for having too much of a good thing. And in many ways, having too much of a good thing can actually have a negative effect on category sales.

The advertising industry has come a long way from newspapers, magazines, flyers and mailers. With the entry of the internet era in the 90s, advertising initiatives expanded to web banners, click campaigns, and search engine results. The ability to reach consumers further advanced with cell phone and tablet technologies, enabling even easier access to social media, with mobile internet plus push notification marketing.

An estimated 192 million U.S. consumers – or 70% of Americans ages 13-to-64 – are gamers, demonstrating massive appeal among consumers for the gaming industry, according to a new Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® study. While traditional gaming platforms still hold strong interest, the emergence of live game streaming services is revolutionizing gaming into a connected and social experience.

Nielsen announced that Sandra Sims-Williams will join the company as Senior Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), beginning January, 2020. In this role, Ms. Sims-Williams will lead Nielsen’s D&I strategy and teams for both the Media and Connect sides of the business, through Nielsen’s transition into two independent, publicly traded companies.

In a new report, Generation Alpha – children born after 2010 – identified all people being treated fairly no matter what they look like as one of the top issues they care about in today’s world. In fact, across the board, the report revealed Generation Alpha cares more about all issues than their Millennial and Baby Boomer parents did when they were kids, or even than they do now.

US Ad Market remains strong, but rest of the world slows down.

The days of one or two great ads playing to the masses on a single channel are over. Today, many ads go to a dizzying array of screens and devices. It’s no wonder that marketing teams and their field and agency partners are struggling to keep track with simple spreadsheets. Wrangling brand stories and keeping track of who has permission to touch them, prepare them, tag them, and, ultimately, play them according to strict guidelines covering talent and rights terms is a high-stakes game that calls for a sophisticated, intuitive, and collaborative solution.

Ulta Beauty’s holiday campaign of “Give, Gather and Glow” focuses on the fact that no matter how we celebrate the holiday season, the joy of giving to others, gathering with loved ones and looking and feeling our best is something we all share.

The rapid turnover of CMOs today does not mean they are underperforming. Instead, it may stem from unrealistic expectations on the part of CEOs and boards, who often don’t know which key attributes they should be looking for in a marketing leader.

I find my Mum’s idea of a salad totally uninspiring. Sorry Mum! But then, she is working with whatever Waitrose and their growers can most easily supply. For instance, the average supermarket tomato is designed to travel well and look good but, as a result, it does not taste of much. A similar affliction applies to a lot of marketing today: it is efficient but not necessarily effective.  by Nigel Hollis

When it was time to launch this year’s back-to-school marketing campaign, the clothing company Old Navy knew it had to switch gears. Typically, the San Francisco-based clothier, which is owned by Gap Inc., devotes its marketing efforts to the moms who purchase clothes for their sons and daughters.

Corporate America needs to awaken to the challenges faced by black professionals, according to a new study published by nonprofit think tank the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI). In the workplace, black professionals are more likely to encounter prejudice and microaggressions than any other racial or ethnic group. They are less likely than their white counterparts to have access to senior leaders and to have support from their managers.