Advertising Week: Building Your Future-Proof, Privacy-First Advertising Strategy

BY

As industry standards change and increasing regulatory scrutiny forces media publishers and advertisers to adapt, organizations are either expressing a lack of concern over the death of cookies or busy implementing tools to activate their data in a post-cookie world. 

Many of the latter have adopted Snowflake, a leader in cross-cloud computing and one of the fastest-growing software companies. Snowflake aims to improve the efficacy of advertising by empowering organizations to collaborate with any data set across any cloud and essentially allows entire industries to share data and drive innovation.

During an Advertising New York panel about building a future-proof, privacy-first advertising strategy, Bill Stratton—Snowflake global head of media and advertising industry—shared why businesses are adopting Snowflake to securely share, protect, and activate their data to promote growth in a cookie-less climate; how data enrichment, identity, measurement, activation and analytics data partners connect in near-real time; and how leaders leverage the Media Data Cloud to future proof their data foundation, protect consumer data and drive advertising growth.

According to Snowflake chief executive officer Frank Slootman, privacy laws are preventing new players like Disney from enriching and weaponizing their data for advertising purposes and competing with Google, Facebook and world governments. Snowflake seeks to overcome such constraints and allow companies to enrich and share data by engaging its data cleanroom capabilities while maintaining compliance.

We’re in the golden age of content and consumers have more programming to choose from than ever before, offering new levels of personalization and relevancy. Advertisers are able to develop new approaches to measure marketing performance and reimagine their marketing strategies altogether. 

However, the industry is in a unique position. Though the element of security and privacy is becoming stronger, there’s now a greater demand for data collaboration and transparency. Privacy legislation such as GDPR is on the rise yet advertisers and publishers are expected to leverage data matching and enable a single view of the consumer or measure media campaigns across multiple platforms. 

Traditionally, privacy and data collaboration have opposed one another. Enter: Privacy Sandboxes, the industry’s initial approach to providing anonymity to user data while allowing advertisers to use behavioral targeting where only the tech platform governed the rules of how data operated. While a step in the right direction, this measure lacked the level of true, two-way transparency advertisers sought.

Snowflake has sought to provide any company with the technological means to essentially design their own Privacy Sandbox for any purpose—without having to store the data in a silo or be sent to several different platforms. 

For marketers to get the most out of Snowflake’s offerings, they must invest in a future-proof data strategy to drive advertising growth while taking a proactive approach towards privacy. Further, Statton implored advertisers to recognize that future-proof data strategy mandates the capacity to maintain strict data governance while accessing all relevant data from a single source and sharing it with ecosystem partners. 

Snowflake’s Media Data Cloud provides advertisers and media publishers the means to recognize and accomplish adaptive goals by allowing them to leverage Snowflake’s platform capabilities, tailored solutions and an increasing amount of data natively available. Through this, advertisers can plan campaigns, collaborate with partners and measure effectiveness in a governed and secure environment. 

The Media Data Cloud also offers identity and enrichment services that enable businesses to execute without managing fragile, complex and expensive pipelines. In turn, those businesses can accelerate advertising growth, increase subscriber acquisition and retention and deliver differentiated advertising technology solutions.

Refilling The Creative Well

BY

“An artist lives always in the imagination, so the barrier between the sensory reality and his imagination is very vague.” 

Federico Fellini

What is creativity? Where does it come from? What is its relationship to the imagination? Where does it go when you can’t find it? And how can you bring it back?

We tend to talk a lot about the power of immersion these days, especially at space.camp where we’ve had the privilege of working in the VR space with our friends at Oculus and in the AR space with Pokémon GO. Oculus and Pokémon GO both saw explosive growth in the pandemic, as people marooned in their homes sought new ways to enhance, transcend, and inspire their realities.

In our new post-COVID reality, the “O.G.” immersive experience—reading books—was thankfully always within reach, but other pre-digital paths to immersion like concerts, museums, travel and clubbing were suddenly off the table. And if you are anything like me, the pandemic saw you replace all of those with more and more of the increasingly compelling yet utterly un-interactive pastime of streaming content.

Many of us fell into the rut of seeking inspiration from our 2D screens, feasting like vampires on neverending streams of high-quality must-see content gushing forward (why yes I did recently binge Midnight Mass, why do you ask?). But for those of us on the creative side of agency life, it narrowed in our source of inspiration as memories of our former extracurricular activities began to fade.

Combine that with the relentless grind of shorter deadlines, longer Zooms, and extended bouts of isolation away from the whiteboards and war rooms and coffee walks that used to fuel our creative collaborations, and it’s no surprise that many creatives have been feeling more burned out and less inspired than ever.

“Come with me and you’ll be

in a world of pure imagination

Take a look and you’ll see

into your imagination.”

Willy Wonka

I’m sure I’m not the only creative who felt like the rabbit would always be in the hat when I reached in. That no matter how many times I lowered the bucket into the well that it would come back sloshing with fresh ideas.

Even the deepest wells run dry if they aren’t replenished. And this is a tale of a happenstance creative restocking that I hope will inspire you to step out from behind the screen and consciously seek out a fresh dose of immersion to refill, refuel and recalibrate.

The day before I was going to board a plane (for the first time since ‘19!) to visit my brother in Denver, I overheard a co-worker at an offsite mention that Meow Wolf had recently opened a new installation in Denver. A few years back I’d streamed Meow Wolf: Origin Story and really dug it, but otherwise hadn’t really spent much time thinking about them. 

So after my brother picked me up I got us two tix to their new exhibit Convergence Station, that aside from its trippy trailer I knew nothing about. Soon we were inside, where a costumed tour guide took us into the elevator and told us that we’d all already been here before, we just didn’t remember it. The elevator door opened and we emerged in a massive futuristic city street scene, not unlike a cross between Blade Runner, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and the Mars of Verhoeven’s Total Recall. From here, we were free to wander from this ecosystem through dozens of other loosely connected worlds, interactive exhibits, hidden rooms, and towering structural installations. 

I will fight my instincts to try and describe the experience in any detail because that would ruin the fun. Zooming out, I saw all of the creative artistry, world-building, deep lore, intoxicating sound design and gobsmacking immersion that we as creatives and storytellers dream of.

I could literally feel my spirits lifting, my optimism returning, my well-being replenished. If I hadn’t overheard someone in Pasadena mentioning the new Meow Wolf in Denver, none of this would have happened. 

Don’t be like me and wait for a happy accident to jolt you out of your waking stream dream. Seek out immersion wherever you are. And revel in it. It will reward you tenfold.

Advertising To Streamers: Why Regional Buys Are On The Rise

BY

Regional buys regarding streamers are rapidly becoming the next logical step in most successful brands’ comprehensive media campaigns. At a recent Advertising Week New York panel about the rise of regional buys, Jason Swartz, Interconnect vice president of advanced advertising and new business for national sales, discussed the benefits of market-to-market execution including data, targeting, reporting and exclusivity. Swartz was joined by Carolyn Sheflin, Spectrum Reach vice president of advanced advertising sales, and Brad Stockton, Dentsu vice president of advanced advertising and new business for national sales.

Despite the fact that linear TV has been and continues to be the quickest and easiest place to drive a mass reach, streaming has changed the TV advertising space on both an agency and multichannel video programming (MVP) level, according to Swartz. While it was nice to have just a few years ago, the pandemic caused all demographics to start streaming. As a result, regardless of what audience a brand is seeking to engage, streaming must play a part in their omnichannel strategy to maximize reach.

Today, the definition of TV has changed to include new platforms such that streaming is TV. Over 106 million households steam content in any given month, that’s 82 percent of Americans who have watched some kind of streaming content in the last 30 days. 

Streaming has become such a force to be reckoned with in just the last two or three years, and especially since the pandemic caused the world to spend more time at home, that it must be a part of any successful campaign. For advertisers, the issue remains how to get the right message in front of the right person. A new definition of success in this space involves streaming platforms in addition to linear TV.

Some verticals have picked up on streaming quickly as others are still acclimating. According to Sheflin, all verticals—local, national and addressable—have utilized streaming due to the reach it has in the marketplace. A study conducted by Spectrum Reach at the end of 2020 analyzed 1,000 campaigns within the Spectrum footprint either running linear campaigns only or linear and streaming campaigns together to find that the addition of streaming increased reach by 28 percent. Additionally, the effect is consistent on a local and national basis.

Streaming isn’t new, it’s just now more popular than ever before. Years ago there were direct-to-consumer brands utilizing streaming to get in front of linear TV screens in an efficient and effective way. One of the primary benefits of streaming is that it’s highly targeted and highly measurable. These elements together point to why streaming was so popular among early adopters. 

Its mass scale is what has enabled all verticals and brands to take advantage of it today. Brands that neglect streaming in 2021 and beyond are missing a massive amount of the market that is otherwise unreachable. So, regardless of whether the industry is quick-service restaurants, auto, or retail—brands must be leveraging this space.

According to Stockton, there are a number of elements to track and assess in order to get the most bang for your media buys. For example, it’s essential to determine which markets are popping on both local and national audiences to know where the next dollar should be spent. 

In addition, advertisers running local and national campaigns must know where they intertwine and how effective they are. Last, engaging in one-to-one experiences with audiences through digital and streaming—which is local in nature—means double-clicking into those regions, which assists advertisers in gasping a campaign’s effectiveness.

Multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) have unique data sets on linear, video-on-demand, and all streaming services and partners that can be compiled and de-identified for the purpose of understanding unduplicated reach and frequency (TURF) metrics in a marketplace whether in an individual market or on a national scale. Doing so provides proof of performance in individual markets and national markets from an addressable perspective that allows two things: it allows advertisers to target more homes that are in a specific audience and it helps them understand the impact of every platform on the buy.

Set-top box (STB) data is second-by-second viewership information collected by operators such as Cablevision, DirecTV, Dish Network, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T Uverse. The term refers to the box that delivers linear TV to the home and excludes internet-based devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Apple TV. 

Beyond STB data, there’s data available that can be used in a cross-platform situation. According to Sheflin, all MVPDs have unique data that can be aggregated and de-identified to then be matched with consumer profile data from a myriad of different platforms for the purpose of reaching audiences beyond age and gender. This shows up from a targeting perspective and from a measuring perspective. 

From a targeting perspective, addressable is the easiest sort of literal match, but it isn’t always scalable, especially on a local basis. Often, advertisers can look at viewership habits and audience concentration to create a digital or linear TV campaign for a specific audience comprising a high concentration of a certain characteristic.

From a measuring standpoint, advertisers may take the de-identified data and analyze it with exposure files to look at things like the lift of a TV campaign or cross-platform reach and frequency and other metrics. This unique data set offers TV solid proof of performance.

Data is everything. Advertisers must first break down behavior tactics and profiles to identify who the individuals are that make up the target audience. Remaining privacy compliant in this context means the individual’s data with one company, such as name and email address, can connect to another partner’s first-party data for the purpose of hyper-targeting. This approach allows advertisers to know exactly who they’re reaching with the right message.

Harnessing The Promise Of The Digital Revolution With Stagwell’s Mark Penn

BY

Mark Penn is the Chairman and CEO of Stagwell, the newest agency holding company with over 10,000 employees in more than 24 countries.

On the show, Mark and I discuss his journey from polling in his early teens to being the lead pollster for President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, through her Senate races. In addition to these accomplishments, Mark founded his own company, which eventually got acquired by WPP. His latest venture was the creation and build of Stagwell Group and the recent merger with MDC to create the newest agency holding company—Stagwell.

Later, we talk about the future of Stagwell—what they are looking toward, their strategy, and why they are a different type of holding company for marketers and brands. Ultimately, Mark believes “digital disruption is both the biggest opportunity and the biggest threat to marketing, and our marketers need to be able to effectively harness the promise of the digital revolution.” Listen to find out how marketers should be thinking about the future.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The four layers of the “marketing cake”
  • The importance of digital-first marketing
  • Marrying media and creative to power marketing

Key Highlights:

  • [01:28] The first poll Mark ever conducted
  • [03:34] Polling for the New York State Democratic party 
  • [05:00] Mark’s career path
  • [08:53] Landing Microsoft as a client
  • [12:04] Working with MDC
  • [18:00] The vision for Stagwell
  • [20:27] The four layers of the “marketing cake”
  • [25:40] Stagwell’s global ambition
  • [29:53] An experience that defines Mark makes him who he is today
  • [32:05] Mark’s advice to his younger self
  • [34:30] What marketers should be learning more about 
  • [37:50] The brands and organizations Mark follows
  • [39:00] The biggest threat and opportunity for marketers

Resources Mentioned: 

Follow the podcast:

Connect with the Guest:

Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:

Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies, but he is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

Tapjoy: 73% Of Millennials Shop On Mobile 1-4x Per Week

BY

Millennials are approaching their prime purchasing years and are expected to spend over $1 trillion annually moving forward. Tapjoy tapped into these consumers for its annual Modern Mobile Gamer 2021: Millennials Edition, surveying 5,028 millennials on the MobileVoice by Tapjoy network in Q1 through Q3 2021. Respondents opted in to participate in the survey in exchange for in-game rewards or premium content. 

According to Tapjoy’s findings, millennials use their smartphones for everything, but predominantly for gaming and shopping—70 percent play mobile games daily and 73 percent shop on mobile up to four times per week. But to truly understand this group’s engagement with mobile, one must first understand their background. 

The youngest millennials were born in 1996 and the oldest in 1981, with about half of the millennials on the Tapjoy network being parents. This cohort’s upbringing has been marked by consistent periods of strife—from 9/11 to the war on terror to multiple recessions to the pandemic. And while their baby boomer parents grew up in times of professional and economic prosperity, many millennials face growing college debt, stagnant wages, inflation and excessive home prices.

Like Gen Z and unlike baby boomers, millennials are tech-savvy, socially aware, active on social media and almost always have their mobile phones on them. One of their defining features is that economic struggles affect almost every facet of their lives – from whether to buy a home to how many children to have to how they engage with brands and ads. For insights into millennials’ behavior toward mobile gaming, mobile shopping and mobile ad engagement, see Tapjoy’s findings below.

Mobile Gaming

Mobile is millennials’ gaming platform of choice. Tapjoy’s research shows that 86 percent of millennials use smartphones for gaming while only 37 percent game on console or handheld and only 27 percent game on PC. Additionally, roughly 75 percent report playing mobile games on any given day.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the amount of mobile gameplay as 73 percent of respondents said they played more mobile games, 59 percent downloaded new gaming apps and 42 percent experimented with new gaming genres. Consequently, millennials are now more receptive to mobile games than they were before the pandemic.

Despite the fact that millennials are relatively easily drawn into the free-to-play ecosystem, they are almost just as likely to play mobile games based on humorous or creative advertising.

Mobile Shopping

Mobile is the go-to shopping platform for millennials, with 80 percent saying that they make mobile purchases “often,” according to Tapjoy. Among their top mobile purchases are streaming services (74 percent), to-go food and restaurant delivery (66 percent), clothing (55 percent) and beauty products (46 percent). As with mobile gaming, mobile shopping also increased during the pandemic—a phenomenon showing no signs of slowing down.

Values

Having grown up with political, social, economic and environmental front-and-center, millennials tend to hold their values in high regard, prioritizing them in every aspect of their lives including which brands they support. Close to half of millennials said that a company’s values, from sustainability, diversity and employee treatment, factor into whether they accept a new job and which brand they buy from.

Ad Engagement

Being extraordinarily receptive to ads with a value exchange, 55 percent of millennials engage with rewarded mobile game ads more than other ad types and 63 percent reported enjoying engaging with rewarded ads via offerwalls—more than any other age group Tapjoy surveyed. To engage millennials with ads, the ad must get to the point quickly, be non-intrusive and humor should play some part in grabbing their attention, found Tapjoy.

Brand Engagement

In order to seize the attention of the millennial audience, brands must convey social awareness, be active on social media, and be engaging with short videos, memes and social posts. Forty-one percent of respondents reported following brands with funny and engaging content while 55 percent do so if the brand treats employees well.

Family Dynamics

As previously mentioned, economic issues have impacted how millennials engage with their families and whether they choose to start one of their own. Tapjoy’s data mirrors other studies showing that millennials are delaying having children. Of those surveyed in Tapjoy’s study, only half are parents—compared to 72 percent of Generation X. Similarly, millennials are substantially less likely to be married compared to older generations. Nevertheless, 74 percent have one or two children, and 27 percent have three or more children. 

Education and Career

Compared to other generations, millennials are remarkably educated, especially when it comes to holding advanced degrees. Unfortunately, this hasn’t guaranteed them financial freedom. Older millennials reached adulthood during the dot-com bubble and Twin Tower attacks and subsequent recession. Other millennials graduated college amid the Great Recession or its aftermath. As a whole, millennials are more likely to be unemployed than Gen X and deem fair treatment and a work-life balance equally as important as the income they earn.

General App Habits

Overall, not all millennials can be grouped together in the context of general app habits. Older millennials, for example, open their social media apps when they wake up in the morning and before they fall asleep at night, according to Tapjoy. They’re particularly attached to social media and use it as a tool to socialize, network, remain informed and research new products to purchase. 

In addition, 71 percent use the Facebook app, 62 percent use mobile gaming apps, 62 percent use Instagram, 37 percent use TikTok and 31 percent use Twitter. During the pandemic, 64 percent spent more time on mobile.

Social Media Advertising Strategies For Top Challenger And Leading Brands

BY

This week the industry convenes at New York’s Hudson Yards for Advertising Week New York, which has returned to host live in-person events. On-demand videos online will also be offered and altogether the event will feature more than 200 hybrid sessions and 500 speakers.

At a panel today led by Alon Leibovich, co-founder and chief executive officer at BrandTotal, Leibovich shares the metrics that exist for optimizing the top and middle of the funnel, including how top challenger and leading brands are using these tools to strengthen their social media advertising strategies.

Holding a Master’s in organizational behavioral psychology, Leibovich likens marketers’ inaction toward optimizing every stage of the buyer’s journey to the feeling dogs exhibited during psychologist Martin Seligman’s experiment on learned helplessness, which is defined as behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control.

In accepting that they can’t understand what tactics their competitors are using at any particular moment, marketers have struggled to clearly understand how their messaging, positioning and ads are truly resonating with consumers.

Despite the advent of social media, which has enabled a two-way street and instant feedback, marketers are stuck in the frame of mind when TV and after-the-fact campaign metrics were their only option.

To evolve beyond siloed measurement that only compares your current top and middle of the funnel efforts to your previous efforts, Leibovich suggests following these three steps.

Step 1: Measure and Benchmark

First and foremost, keep tabs on what your direct competitors are doing while also comparing yourself to the industry average. Leibovich emphasizes the importance of ongoing measurement to assess your and competitors’ share of voice, media mix, ad formats, the volume of messages being used and campaign themes.

This includes tracking and predicting pre-click buying intent during the awareness and consideration stages. If, for example, you’re a luxury brand attempting to persuade consumers to pay more than the category index for your goods or services, look to other luxury brands to see how they’re achieving that success. Leibovich cites Lululemon in the apparel category and Ray-Ban in eyewear as standouts.

Step 2: Look At Creative Critically

Social comprises four key components—the copy, the visuals, the theme and the call-to-action. As Leibovich notes, these are levers brands should be adjusting based on what their competitors are doing. He suggests marketers apply the same level of precision and science to creative as they apply to media.

By finding the right balance between data and creative “spark,” brands can optimize their impact and drive creative strategies to elicit the type of engagement that leads to a higher conversion rate.

Step 3: Metrics

Lastly, Leibovich said to measure engagement rate and positive consumer net sentiment to correlate top- and mid-funnel activity with bottom-funnel purchase metrics. At BrandTotal, he noted, social share of voice and engagement rate are two metrics that have a bottom-of-the-funnel correlation.

When Gillette received backlash for its ‘The Best Men Can Be’ campaign, competitors including Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s capitalized on that moment and experienced positive net sentiment while Gillette’s was overwhelmingly negative.

Final Thoughts

Implementing the aforementioned strategy will also require brands to understand which brands are doing better than the industry benchmark currently—their brand or one of their competitors. If a competitor is over-indexing in engagement rate, that should serve as an alert to understand by how much they exceed the benchmark and spur a deep dive on their creative. Then comes time for changing and optimizing your creative because as Leibovich noted, all marketing is performance marketing.

“There’s no dichotomy between brand marketing and performance marketing. It’s up to us to make all marketing performance marketing. This is how it should be,” said Leibovich.

EMarketer’s Retail Media Advertising Report Addresses Key Retailers Driving The Market

BY

According to eMarketer’s latest ecommerce forecast, ecommerce ad spend will increase by 27.8 percent year-over-year (YoY), reaching $23.92 billion this year, or 12.5 percent of all digital ad dollars. That increase comes after 2020 experienced a 50 percent increase YoY in ecommerce channel advertising. The firm’s forecast will be reexamined and likely increased as Amazon (up 87 percent YoY) and Walmart (up 95 percent YoY) post higher growth for their respective ad businesses in earnings reports. 

The pandemic caused a boom in ecommerce, increasing the influence of digital retail media by expanding the number of retail sales transacted online. Emarketer estimates that the share of online US retail sales increased by an exceptional 11 percent in 2019 to 14 percent in 2020, and will continue growing through the end of 2025 by over one percentage point annually.

Digital retail media’s influence isn’t confined solely to ecommerce. Offline purchases are also affected– especially given the increase in digitally transacted ads that have a physical presence outside of the home and apart from personal electronics. Emarketer predicts that total retail sales in the US will increase by 7.9 percent in 2021 to upwards of $6 trillion.

Given that digital retailers have significant audiences, they also have significant amounts of audience data. Roughly 90 percent of digital shoppers, for example, will make at least one purchase via a digital channel in 2021. That equates to 209.6 million digital buyers in the US—higher than the number of people who will use social media at least once per month.

As for online grocery sales, this year marks the first in which a majority of US consumers will buy groceries online. Emarketer estimates that 142.9 million individuals ages 14 and up will shop for groceries digitally in 2021, or 50.5 percent of the population in that age range. 

According to ChannelAdvisor and Dynata, US shoppers began their product search on a retailer site or marketplace like Amazon before making a digital purchase in August 2020. 

Overall, the structure of the retail media market is comparable to other performance channels such as social media and traditional search. Sometimes, companies that began in these other sectors have expanded to serve clients interested in retail media. Platforms or publishers in this instance are usually retail marketplaces or retailers, as opposed to media companies like Facebook and Google.

In the US, retail marketers offer an array of solutions in their retail media networks. In August 2020, 60 percent of respondents offered social media, 57 percent offered data and first-party audience insights without media and 55 percent offered on-site (.com) banner ads and display advertising. Only 33 percent and 21 percent offered on-site (.com) brand pages and closed-loop reporting, respectively.

The most important retailers selling retail media include Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Kroger Co. and Instacart which recently onboarded chief executive Fidji Simo—who previously oversaw Facebook’s main “clue” app—and president Carolyn Everson (also of Facebook). Emarketer expects more brands of all types to focus more heavily on retail media as other sources of customer data become less obtainable. 

Retail media is changing as it changes advertising more broadly, according to eMarketer’s research. As more brands and retailers inject themselves into this space, eMarketer predicts that retail media will continue disrupting traditional advertising due to third-party data deprecation, the rise of connected television (CTV) and subsequent decline of linear television, retail media’s move up the funnel and consumers’ impatience with retail media ads. 

Many retailers have built out their ad business offerings in the last couple of years, including Walmart, Best Buy, CVS and Target, to name a few. As a result, advertisers must make more decisions about which and how many platforms to advertise on. Additionally, due to the increased spending and increased complexity in the market, advertisers are under more pressure now than ever before to utilize technology and even experts to ensure funds are spent as efficiently as possible.

One approach to make this process easier, according to experts eMarketer tapped for its report, is for brands to, at a minimum, test ads on the retail platforms where they sell products and then focus only on those that provide the most value. One issue that may arise here is that platforms may share results that differ from each other, for example with different attribution windows. Advertisers may need to engage tech solutions to make sense of the data across platforms.

Nevertheless, the retail media expansion and the array of retailers venturing into the space doesn’t necessarily mean that current market leaders should be worried. Emarketer actually expects Amazon to carry on with its growth of ecommerce channel ad spending through the end of 2023.

As Emarketer notes, despite the fact that most of the focus remains in the search ad market, retail media has transformed it into a different beast entirely. Still, video and display ads targeting consumers with the purpose of making them aware of the brand are becoming a more valuable element as time progresses. Innovation in technology is producing new products that fuse the best of performance marketing and branding.

Internet users are mostly indifferent to digital ads, but not all are treated equally, as eMarketer found. Consumer surveys have reported that interruptive ads are the most frustrating, especially when they overtake the entire screen and prevent individuals from reading text or force them to wait for a video to play. On the other hand, less-invasive ad formats where the ad fits in with the content of the page are less bothersome especially when the message is useful or relevant.

EMarketer also found in prior years that Amazon buyers in the US relatively rarely reported noticing ads on the site. When they did notice the ads, they were more likely to describe them as useful or helpful rather than distracting or untrustworthy.

To tap into the growing opportunity in retail media advertising, eMarketer suggests endemic brands prepare to use more data clean rooms and run tests as retailers launch new ad platforms, formats and targeting options. 

For non-endemic brands, the firm notes that although they may not see the obvious benefits of advertising directly in a retail environment, there’s a place for them as well—such as financial service firms, automakers and more. As tracking users becomes more difficult, retail media will look like an increasingly attractive option for brands that don’t sell through retailers.

Trend Set: Buy Now Pay Later, Digital OOH And More

BY

Ayzenberg junior strategist Ashley Otah surfaces the latest trends at play in the world of culture and entertainment.

Billboards

Let’s get digital. Out-of-home (OOH) advertising has seen a consistent increase in digital outdoor advertising. Digital OOH jumped almost 80 percent with notable recent usage that includes Drake’s Certified Lover Boy rollout, Madhappy’s, and We’re Not Really Strangers. OOH is expected to increase 14.5% for a total of 6.96 billion, but some continue to wonder whether the IRL translates URLs.

Buy Now, Pay Later

Klarna and financing apps alike are taking the shopping space by storm. With over 50% of Gen Z shoppers using “buy now, pay later” apps and a notable 26% of users missing payments at least once this year, higher consumer debt may be afoot.

FTC

The FTC sends over 700 letters before it takes action on unfair or deceptive advertising practices. The letter alerted companies that they may be subjected to civil penalties of up to $43,792 for fake or misleading endorsements and/or reviews. The agency stated that it is “widely distributing letters and the notice to large companies, top advertisers, leading retailers, top consumer product companies, and major advertising agencies.”

Lowe’s

Lowe’s is the latest retailer launching an ad platform with its One Roof Media Network. From the home improvement retailers’ most recent step into advertising to Ulta Beauty and beyond, the ad platform launch showcases a greater shift in the data stratosphere. As data privacy laws and ad practices regarding third-party data rollout, the foray into valuable first-party data will continue.

TikTok

TikTok made me buy it. Kantar’s research previously stated almost half of Gen Z relies on influencers for purchase decisions, but TikTok videos are giving them a run for their money. With over 5 billion views on the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag, items selling out after promotions and the app averaging more time monthly by users, shopping and selling on TikTok are here to stay.

What We’re Reading—Week Of October 11th

BY

How Companies Can Improve Employee Engagement Right Now

Harvard Business Review

Managers must take proactive steps to encourage employee engagement or risk losing their workforce as experts warn of a surge of voluntary employee exits, dubbed the “Great Resignation.” One study estimates 55 percent of people in the workforce in August 2021 intend on looking for a new job in the next 12 months.

Why it matters: Because engaged employees perform better and stay in companies longer, HBR created the Employee Engagement Checklist. Its findings highlight that managers have three levers at their disposal right now: help employees connect what they do to what they care about, make the work itself less stressful and more enjoyable, and reward employees with more time off, in addition to financial incentives.

A ‘Lack Of Concern’ Over The Death Of Cookies, Study Finds

Ad Age

To understand if the industry is prepared for a post-cookie world, Ad Age and Ad Age Studio 30 surveyed 30 marketers. While a little more than half of the marketers reported having a high sense of confidence in their company to navigate the future of privacy and identity, 70 percent said they don’t have the resources necessary to move through the change with success.

Why it matters: Marketers have little understanding of potential solutions, with 69 percent saying they haven’t implemented any identity solutions while another 71 percent said they didn’t see the end of cookies dramatically impact their purchasing behavior for digital ads. Those who sit back and don’t act run the risk of media plans not delivering on their objectives.

The North Face Marks 55 Years With Crowdsourced Archive Of Exploration

Marketing Dive

The North Face’s fall brand campaign, “It’s More Than A Jacket,” aims to celebrate the brand’s 55-year history by calling on consumers and musicians like RZA and Haim to submit adventure-related stories and photos to be included in its first crowdsourced digital archive. A partnership with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) will bring the archive to life via participatory programs featuring some of the brand’s most significant designs.

Why it matters: The SFMOMA tie-in enables the brand to connect to its roots, as it was founded in the Bay Area in the 1960s. The campaign will serve as an on-ramp for the brand’s holiday marketing efforts, extend to social media and be leveraged for future marketing efforts.  

Lowe’s Builds Its Own Ads Business

The Drum

Lowe’s announced the debut of its own retail media company Lowe’s One Roof Media Network, a platform offering omnichannel ad services for brands in the home improvement and home furnishing category. Capabilities of the new platform include the following: ad placement on Lowes.com and in the retailer’s mobile app, digital and social media services, sponsored editorial content shared on Lowe’s website and social channels, bespoke research on shopping trends and reporting and media measurement.

Why it matters: More than 100 brands including Kohler, GE Lighting and Samsung participated in Lowe’s One Roof Media Network’s beta tests. The results: one kitchen and bath brand saw a 700 percent return on ad spend. The retailer says some brands generated returns over 1,000 percent and that many have seen surges in daily revenue. Lowe’s plans on launching its next public beta stage soon.

Tiffany & Co. Appoints First Chief Marketing Officer In Over Five Years

BY

This week in leadership updates, Tiffany & Co. promotes Andrea Davey to chief marketing officer, Jones Soda Co. names Bohb Blair its first chief marketing officer, Calvin Klein global chief marketing officer Linh Peters resigns, Capitol Music Group names Mike Sherwood executive vice president of global marketing and strategy and more.

Tiffany & Co. Elevates Andrea Davey To Chief Marketing Officer

Tiffany & Co. has promoted Andrea Davey to chief marketing officer, making her the first in over five years.

Davey has been with Tiffany & Co. since 2013 and most recently served as senior vice president of global marketing.

Before Tiffany & Co., Davey held an array of corporate marketing roles and led key businesses for Procter & Gamble.

Jones Soda Co. Names Bohb Blair Its First-Ever Chief Marketing Officer

Jones Soda has scouted Bohb Blair for its inaugural chief marketing officer position.

Previously, Blair was global chief experience officer at Starcom. Prior to Starcom, he held director-level positions at several creative agencies.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation Appoints Karen Madden As Head Of Marketing

The ABC—not to be confused with the American Broadcasting Corporation—has hired Karen Madden as chief marketing officer.

Madden was most recently a divisional director of marketing, communications and fundraising at Taronga Conservation Society in Australia. Prior to that, Madden worked at Nine Entertainment Co. for over two years.

Linh Peters Steps Down As Global Chief Marketing Officer Of Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein global chief marketing officer Linh Peters has resigned, according to WWD.

Prior to joining Calvin Klein in November 2020, Peters worked at Starbucks as vice president of loyalty, partnerships and licensed stores product and marketing.

Before Starbucks, Peters served as Ulta’s head of loyalty marketing and strategy.

Capitol Music Group Names Mike Sherwood Executive Vice President Of Global Marketing And Strategy

Capitol Records has tapped Warner Bros. Records veteran Mike Sherwood as executive vice president of global marketing and strategy.

Reporting to Capitol Records general manager and executive vice president Larry Mattera, Sherwood will lead CMG’s commercial and DTC marketing strategies, according to Billboard.

Previously, Sherwood spent over 15 years at Warner Bros. Records, most recently as senior vice president of streaming and revenue.

Open Farm Inc. Appoints Mark Sapir As First-Ever Chief Marketing Officer

Open Farm has named Mark Sapir its inaugural chief marketing officer.

Sapir most recently was chief marketing officer of Stella & Chewy’s. Prior to that, Sapir served as vice president of marketing at Merrick Pet Care.

Truck Hero, Inc. Taps Tony Ambroza As Chief Growth Officer

Tony Ambroza is Truck Hero’s new chief growth officer, the company announced in a press release.

Ambroza joins Truck Hero from Carhartt, where he was chief brand officer for over a decade. His experience also includes leadership roles at Nike and Under Armour.

Smalls Sliders Hires Katherine LeBlanc As New Chief Marketing Officer

Smalls Sliders is bringing on Katherine LeBlanc to serve as chief marketing officer, according to QSR Magazine.

Most recently, LeBlanc served as chief marketing officer of Twist Brands. Prior to that, she was director of brand marketing for Smoothie King.

Quality Bicycle Products Taps Shylo Masumi Farnsworth As Vice President Of Brand Marketing

Shylo Masumi Farnsworth has been appointed Quality Bicycle Products’ vice president of brand marketing.

Farnsworth joins Quality Bicycle Products from Nike where she spent over 13 years, most recently as global senior director of men’s brand creative.

BMG Elevates Maximilian Kolb To Senior Vice President Of Repertoire And Marketing For Continental Europe Division

BMG’s Maximilian Kolb has accepted a promotion as senior vice president and marketing for the company’s operations in Continental Europe.

Kolb, who’s been with BMG for the past 9 years, recently served as managing director of the company’s Germany, Switzerland and Austria operations.