Branding matters. Because branding matters.
Published by 05.22#113
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Dear friends As the sun burns down in extreme anger, our team at BrandKnew has curated a scorcher of an issue for you to take refuge in. Though not out in the open but very much on but under the radar is the Apple V Facebook war. Read more on it here. We bring to light ‘ the cost of living crunch ‘ caused by the pandemic and how it will affect marketers. Creativity and indifferent consumers- the twain don’t meet. We talk about it in this edition. We also debate the need and the rationale for marketers needing to create competitive brand tensions. Now that Advertisers have the Data, what comes next? Explore the possibilities in the feature on the topic. There are some great insights from behavioral science that will make you really good at influencing others. We discourage startups from making their branding distinctive- though counter intuitive, understand why in this issue. Short term thinking never helped any brand or organization. We reiterate the case strongly here. We demonstrate in Graphic detail how consumers are really feeling about the Metaverse. And discover that there is more than meets the (virtual) eye! Ample more to deep dive into and soak in and I leave you to do precisely that. Till the next, my very best.
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Managing Editor: Suresh Dinakaran Creative Head/Director Operations: Pravin Ahir Magazine Concept & Design/ New Media Specialist: Mufaddal Joher Chief Strategy Director: Rishi Mohan Business Performance Director: Sunil Vasudevan Brand Engagement and Outreach Specialist: Anuva Madan Chief Country Man, India: Rohit Unni Brand Trends and Research Architect: Meeta Pendse Revenue Growth Architect: Ritu Dey Country Head, Australia: Norbert D’Souza Country Head, UK: Sagar Patil Performance Marketing Architect: Suresh Babu Technology & Web Enabler: Vyanky Charakpalli Social Media Outreach: Pooja Chhabda SEO Advocate: Santhosh Rakonda Content & PR: Nitin Kumar
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CONTENTS The Other War: Apple Vs Facebook How is your company showing up when customers look for you? Research: When Praising the Competition Benefits Your Brand Simple steps to ensure successful brand partnerships Advertisers Have the Data. What Comes Next? A guide to TikTok marketing strategy The Emotion Missing From the Workplace Should marketers create competitive brand tensions? How brands should be texting with consumers What Can Leaders Learn from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy? Marketing voices: Transformation in the trenches Why it’s a bad idea for startups to make their branding distinctive The User-Generated Content Advertising Ecosystem [Infographic] In Graphic Detail: How do consumers really feel about the metaverse? 3 traits digital leaders have in common 5 insights from behavioral science that can make you better at influencing others Why Australian brands are embracing the partnership economy Why creativity always loses the battle against eight indifferent consumers The cost-of-living crunch: what it means for marketing, and what to do next Short-term fixation is a challenge for both brands and agency cultures Crocs: How Fashion’s Most Divisive Footwear Wound Up In Everybody’s Closet How long is too long for an ad? Apple releases 9 minute spot Book, Line & Sinker
The Other War: Apple Vs Facebook By Bob Hoffman’s
For a few years now Apple and Facebook have been at each other’s throats. The war got really nasty last year when changes to Apple’s privacy policies on its mobile operating system cost Facebook $10 billion in ad revenue. The way Mark Zuckerberg is pissing away money on his metaverse hobby horse, he needs every ad dollar he can get. According to press reports, Zbag now has 18,000 people working on metaverse hardware and software. The 10 billion in revenue he lost to Apple’s privacy changes would have funded his entire metaverse addiction for the year. Privacy is the issue the two companies battle over in public. Facebook makes almost 99% of its revenue from advertising -- in which privacy abuse is its Unique Selling Proposition. Apple makes most of its money from hardware and software in which privacy abuse is helpful, but not essential. Consequently, Apple positions itself as privacy friendly, while Facebook pretends that it’s the friend of small business, and that privacy abuse is a necessary part of defending small business. While some of Apple’s posturing regarding privacy is
bullshit, nobody comes close to out-bullshitting Facebook. At Facebook, bullshit isn’t just a habit, it’s a lifestyle. Which brings us to last week... Apple is under pressure from antitrust advocates who think they are guilty of monopolistic practices for having charged a 30% fee to app developers who sell their products in Apple’s app store. Of course, not wanting to miss an opportunity to be an annoying little prick, the great and powerful Zuckerberg piled on and ridiculed Apple’s greed in charging such high fees to developers... As usual, total bullshit. Facebook announced its “revenue share” pricing for selling shit on its “Horizon Worlds” (someone shoot me) metaverse platform this week. Take a guess what their vig is going to be... 47.5%. Or as Reuters put it... I’m starting to think you can’t trust this Zuckerberg guy. Bob Hoffman is creator of the popular “The Ad Contrarian” blog and newsletter, named one of the world’s most influential marketing and advertising blogs by Business Insider
How is your company showing up when customers look for you? By Tom Martin
There are two ways you can acquire customers: First, you can pay for the acquisition in the form of paid marketing. The second way is to develop and deliver great content to attract customers through unpaid digital channels, which is called organic marketing.
marketing is how most customers find what they are looking for. Who owns organic marketing at your company and how are they doing? Showing up first when your customers are looking for you can be critical for business success and revenue generation.
With organic search accounting for 53% of site traffic (compared to 15% for paid search), and with conversion rates that are almost always better than paid, organic marketing is usually the most effective way to attract new customers and increase your online revenue. Organic
It’s well-known that most organic clicks come from the first search results page, so the value of investing in organic marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) is selfevident. Getting onto page one when your customers are looking for you is key. If you’re not there, someone else is
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(likely a competitor), and they are getting that customer’s attention. Your website and all of its sales possibilities are a click away for most consumers. Despite this ease of access, it’s still common for companies to fall short of showing up to earn the click. Answering the question of how your digital presence meets customers is essential in effectively generating traffic, leads, conversions, and revenue. HOW ARE YOU SHOWING UP ONLINE? It’s more important than ever to understand how your company’s online presence stands on its own and against competitors. Many customers do some form of research before making direct contact with any company. Before marketing even has a lead, consumers are evaluating not only your product but also your brand, business practices, and existing customers. Each search is an opportunity to answer a customer’s question and deliver content that helps them. This is your digital presence, and it’s all about helping people with the right content. Say a company marketing executive is searching for the best leadership development program for their management team. They might enter “best leadership development programs” into the search bar. If you are in the leadership development program space, you should have a lot of content on your website that refers to that topic. If you do, you have the opportunity to show up near the top of the results and earn that executive’s click. Earning that click means you likely have the best content. Great content has a compounding effect. When the search engine returns your content and it is clicked, the algorithms learn that it’s relevant and valuable. Over time, your content continues to be displayed and delivers long-term lead value to your company. ORGANIC MARKETING IS UNDERVALUED Organic marketing makes up a significant portion of most lead volume and often converts to revenue at much higher rates than other lead sources. Do you know how much of your company’s lead volume is coming from your organic marketing content? Despite the effectiveness of organic, many companies are underinvested in it. While it’s true that effective organic marketing doesn’t always generate leads immediately, it has the potential to provide sustainable leads. Over months, quarters, or even years, high-value leads will start coming and continue indefinitely. With paid marketing, leads often stop as soon as the campaign ends. Well-branded websites and strong outreach strategies go a long way toward establishing sustained lead generation. At the same time, if that effort isn’t supported with quality SEO, it will still struggle to generate quality leads that convert to revenue. Managing the SEO of your website is a science. It takes a team, and—given the wide-ranging impact and
foundational importance it has across enterprise marketing strategies—is often best developed and managed in-house, where knowledge can be built upon instead of outsourced to an agency. It may be more effective, more controlled, and clearer to measure, and it’s usually less expensive. Digital marketing efforts that lack a strategy for SEO will ensure a company appears lower in search results and reaches fewer customers. BALANCING YOUR SPEND Balancing your demand generation spend across lead sources is important. However, demand generation marketers often overlook organic—the most efficient lead source—because they perceive it as free or the channel owner sits on a different team. Investing in organic can also create a moat to protect you from budget cuts. We saw this during the pandemic as companies that didn’t invest in organic were left with no leads when budgets were cut, whereas many of those with great SEO prospered. Paid marketing is by no means ineffective, but it should only make up part of your total demand generation strategy. By taking the time to measure attribution through to conversion, you can effectively evaluate your return on marketing investments to understand where you can and should grow your organic efforts. Having a dedicated team devoted to SEO and strategy is the best way to focus on organic marketing. Paid campaigns may yield quick results, but investing in organic marketing provides lasting, longterm benefits at far better returns. MOVING TOWARD GENERATING REVENUE Making the most of your marketing spend requires paying close attention to creating leads that generate revenue. In tandem with paid efforts, investing more in organic could drive more leads and higher conversion for longer periods of time, and have an incredible impact on your company’s revenue results. Organic marketing takes patience. In the demanding environments that shape the relationship between marketing and sales, it’s easy to conclude that content strategies aren’t delivering when they don’t generate immediate results. However, reorienting your company’s focus to a long-term strategy and allowing it the time to come to fruition lays the groundwork for more consistent revenue generation overall. Your website and how you show up digitally is a science and requires a dedicated team to ensure you get the right long-term results. Ignoring organic marketing could mean you are leaving money on the table and your market share is declining where your customers are trying to find you. Tom Martin is the Chief Revenue Officer at Conductor. He works in collaboration with the entire executive team to drive and deliver the revenue results for the company. Prior to joining Conductor, Tom held several go-to-market executive positions at Hewlett-Packard, Symantec, Rackspace, Nuance Communications, and ICIMS.
Research: When Praising the Competition Benefits Your Brand by Keisha M. Cutright, Katherine M. Du, and Lingrui Zhou
What’s the best way for a brand to engage with its competition? Many brands focus their marketing efforts exclusively on their own strengths rather than acknowledging competitors — and when they do talk publicly about competing brands, it’s typically to criticize them. Consider, for example, the “Mac vs. PC” TV ads that pitted a stodgy, suit-wearing PC user against a younger, hoodie-clad Mac user; the decades-long “Cola wars” between Pepsi and Coke; and today’s ongoing battles among light beers. This approach is understandable, but it’s not the only option. For instance, PlayStation and Xbox openly congratulated Nintendo on the launch of its new Switch gaming system, Oreo shared a playful message on Twitter suggesting that KitKats were irresistible, and the New York Times even used a full-page ad to encourage readers to consult other trusted news sources. In a world where consumers are increasingly fed up with divisive, vitriolic messages, it’s no surprise that consumers might appreciate this kinder, more positive tone. But of course, the question remains: Does praising your rivals harm your own profitability, or can brands take this approach and still beat the competition? We conducted a series of 11 experiments with nearly 4,000 consumers to explore this question, and found that when a brand praised a competitor, consumers developed a more positive attitude towards the brand — and that shift in attitude was directly reflected in consumers’ willingness to buy the brand’s products. In one study, we showed one group of consumers a (fictitious) tweet in which KitKat praised Twix: “@twix, Competitor or not, congrats on your 54 years in business! Even we can admit — Twix are delicious.” We also showed a control group of consumers a tweet in which KitKat simply referred to its own products: “Start your day off with a tasty treat!” Eleven days later, we contacted all the participants and asked them what kinds of candy they had purchased over the last 11 days. Those who had been shown the tweet in which KitKat praised Twix were 34% more likely to have purchased a KitKat than those in the control group. Importantly, consumers were equally likely to have purchased a Twix regardless of which tweet they saw, suggesting that Twix did not benefit saleswise from receiving KitKat’s praise. We then replicated this study with brands across the food, ride-sharing, accessories, media, and technology
industries, and consistently found that consumers showed greater interest in buying from brands that praised their competitors. We further found that this effect was largely driven by consumers’ perceptions of a brand’s warmth. When a brand praised its competitors, consumers reported feeling that the brand was warmer — that is, more thoughtful, kind, and trustworthy. As a result, consumers engaged more with these brands on social media, clicked on more of their ads, reported more-positive attitudes and a stronger sense of connection to these brands, and ultimately bought more of these brands’ products. Of course, this strategy will work better for some brands than for others. For example, we tested the impact of praising a rival with both for-profit and non-profit brands, and we found that while both types of organizations were viewed more positively after sharing praise, the for-profit brands benefited the most. This is likely because on average, forprofit brands are perceived as less warm than non-profit brands, so consumers were particularly surprised and thus reacted most strongly to shows of warmth from the forprofit brands. In addition, we found that this approach only worked if the brand praised a rival — praising an unrelated brand had no effect. In one study, for example, we showed consumers a marketing campaign in which an eyewear company praised a hamburger brand. Since the recipient of the praise wasn’t a competitor, the praise failed to boost the eyewear brand’s image or sales. We also found that consumers who were most skeptical about advertising in general exhibited the greatest increase in positivity about a brand when it praised its competitors. This is likely because these consumers tend to have less positive baseline feelings towards brands, and so when they witness a brand demonstrate warmth by praising a competitor, it makes a more substantial impact on their impression of the brand. Ultimately, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, and every organization will have to determine the approach that will be most effective — and feel most authentic — for its unique brand and customers. But our research suggests that praising the competition can substantially benefit brands, both in terms of consumers’ perceptions and bottom-line sales. Plus, in a world that’s increasingly cynical and rife with conflict, it couldn’t hurt for brands to add a small bit of positivity to the mix.
Simple steps to ensure successful brand partnerships By Jackie Peskin
Working with strategic partners is one of the most valuable ways to drive brand loyalty, foster engagement with existing customers and reach new ones. But identifying the right partner is like dating: Sharing common interests and values are a great starting point before getting too deep into the relationship, which will benefit both parties in the long run. Our agency helps clients in various capacities along this journey, from amplifying existing partnerships to recommending partners and developing the activations that maximize value. Let’s examine some key factors that may help you evaluate your next partnership.
Eyes on the prized partner Are you looking to raise brand awareness? Introduce a product? Reinforce category expertise? Reach a niche demographic? There’s a partner for that. “Partnership” is a fairly broad term encompassing brands, non-profits, organizations, academic institutions, specialized experts and influencers. Before reaching out to anyone, it’s critical to identify the goal of the partnership. It sets the stage for the nature of the relationship, lays the groundwork for the guiding strategy
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and helps weed out or zero in on potential partners. Also, think through the duration: Is the goal a limited time offer, an extensive campaign, or a multi-year program? Our agency uses a “results first” framework with clients; we’ve found that asking a lot of questions upfront can avoid people searching for answers later. A match made in insights Once you figure out your goals, it’s time to take a deeper look at prospective partners. Beyond like-minded audiences, goals and values, understanding consumer behavior can take a collaboration to a whole new level of success. For instance, we know people who work out generally tend to eat healthier. Faced with the challenge of getting health-conscious consumers to consider choosing more nutritious Eggland’s Best eggs, Coyne PR went in search of a partner that would build brand awareness and drive trial for our client. While digging through potential partner consumer research and data, we uncovered that two out of three members at Life Time gyms go grocery shopping after visiting the gym. Bingo. Not only did this potential partner check the boxes on common interests, values and potential to reach a shared target demographic, but this insight also revealed we could reach consumers at the exact moment when purchasing healthier products was top of mind. The team built a robust program with multiple touchpoints, including customized coupons to drive trial. The partnership ended up being one of the most successful campaigns for both Eggland’s Best and Life Time, resulting in a 16.5 percent coupon redemption rate Leveraging assets Beyond the traditional cross-promotion efforts, the right partner can bring their unique set of assets to add value. One example is a partnership we proposed and implemented for our client Castello Cheese, a brand that continually looks for ways to educate consumers on Havarti cheese. The target audience over-indexes on the use of charcuterie boards and DIY projects. We combined both interests into a partnership with Board & Brush Creative Studio, a company that organizes workshops for DIYers around the United States, Canada and Japan (we utilized the U.S. system for this campaign). The Castello and Board & Brush target audience overlapped perfectly. The initiative called on consumers across the country to attend Board & Brush cheeseboard workshops where they had the opportunity to discover Havarti along with other Castello varieties while learning how to create their own custom cheese tray. Castello Havarti was able to utilize the large built-in network of Board & Brush to deliver its message and encourage trial. For Board & Brush, the partnership provided attendees with a unique workshop experience that helped drive additional foot traffic. Commit to collaboration Just as you know your brand better than anyone, so does your partner about their brand. Accept and embrace this fact. This means being open to compromise, to doing things slightly different than you’re accustomed to, or moving in different directions than initially anticipated (which is
perfectly fine if it continues to meet your original objective). At Coyne, our goal is to be an extension of a client’s internal team. Likewise, you and your partner should work as one team. Keep an honest and open dialogue. Communicate frequently. Be respectful of each other’s internal structure and timing for approvals. As part of our ongoing work with Just Born’s PEEPS brand, Coyne provides media relations and social media support for the brand’s limited-time partnerships during the Easter season. Past collaborations include a who’s who of iconic brands in their own right: Oreo, Kellogg’s, Dunkin’ and Crocs, to name a few. In every instance, our PR and social media teams collaborate with the corresponding brand team, melding together best practices, creative muscle and media relationships to drive attention. Watchouts and pitfalls We can all agree that even the most thoughtfully designed program will encounter a hiccup or two along the way. It’s no different with partnerships, but there are steps that can reduce the risk. When vetting partners, brands should be clear about their expectations and ensure partners can deliver on the established objectives. Ask for case studies, sample content and referrals to better understand expected results and the experience of working with the potential partner. If partnering with an individual, a thorough audit can help reveal any potential issues. Take note of your initial communications with the partner and most importantly, listen to your gut. Whether it’s a question of culture compatibility or issues that may arise later down the line, if something feels off, chances are it is. A partnership can leave lasting impressions—both good and, unfortunately, sometimes bad. Avoid the trap of the “shiny new object” syndrome, where you jump headfirst into a partnership without proper vetting or collaborating for the wrong reasons. Wrong reasons include, “They get lots of press!” and “Everyone I know knows them!” Unfortunately, shiny new object syndrome will inevitably increase your chance of heartbreak, to use our dating analogy. Once a partner checks all the boxes, make sure to establish ownership roles ahead of time. Confusion over who is owning what during the execution phase can impact timelines, budgets and the overall success of the campaign. Finding the right partner may seem like a lot of work. That’s because it is. But the right partner paired with a wellexecuted plan will without a doubt deliver great results and set a blueprint for successful collaborations in the future. To end with our dating analogy, the result will be true love for everyone involved. Jackie Peskin is VP, Food & Nutrition, at Coyne PR.she is responsible for managing the accounts for Just Born, maker of the iconic PEEPS candies, Bimbo Bakeries USA, with category leading brands like Nature’s Harvest, and Perrigo.
Advertisers Have the Data.What Comes Next? By Bryan Lufkin
Hyper-personalization is the core of a great digital experience It’s no secret that brands have been using first-, second- and third-party data to deliver more personalized advertising experiences for customers. And for the most part, surveys show customers appreciate it. But all those customized Amazon pop-ups and Netflix entertainment recommendations consumers receive every day could soon fall victim to their own success. This is because, just as listeners eventually tired of hearing overplayed hit songs on the radio, consumers too may grow weary of retargeted ads—and wind up ignoring them. In fact, according to a global Twilio survey, 77% of consumers say they become frustrated when they get push notifications or text messages for promotions that don’t really interest them. To avoid this future, brands need to shift to the next big advertising trend: hyper-personalization. What is it you truly desire? Think of hyper-personalized ads as a digital concierge that can anticipate customers’ needs and direct them to what they want. Whereas today brands use historical data to serve up cursory buying recommendations, tomorrow they will collect, aggregate and analyze a wider array of information and truly cater to specific customer’s needs. Also known as “Segment of One,” many brands and advertisers are moving from catering to cohorts and segments to individually serving the needs of the consumer. As a result, they’ll be more likely to capture a customer’s attention and ensure their purchase.
For example, imagine browsing overcoats while sitting in the lounge at San Diego International Airport in early January. A traveler is headed to Chicago, where air temperatures are frigid and snow is in the forecast. Moments later, while browsing a site, a pop-up suggests checking out a long brown coat that just happens to be on sale. But in a hyper-personalized world, an algorithm may have known the traveler was waiting at the airport. It would have consulted weather reports, traffic conditions and airline schedules. It could then provide a wider range of suggestions: winter hats and umbrellas, ideal transportation options to and from your hotel, restaurant and theater ideas for the traveler’s downtime. Because those things matter in the moment, a traveler is more likely to pay attention. This is just scratching the surface of possibility. Hyperpersonalization is really a way of diving deep into data to make it work for the customer. Instead of pushing ads that pitch things they want to sell, brands could instead use data, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to understand and engage customers based on the context of their behaviors: What were they doing at the time they were viewing a product? Where were they? What were their surroundings? How were they feeling at that moment? What was their life situation? Were they married, a parent, single, working, looking for work? All of this matters. Differentiation in the evolving digital world will depend entirely on a brand’s willingness to go beyond the surface
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to hyper-personalizing ad experiences for a customer. We are already seeing signs some companies understand this necessity. And in the upcoming cookieless world, future brands must collect first-party data on customers and prospects, in an opt-in data and privacy compliant way, to deliver hyper-personalized experiences. Without it, a brand lacks the ability to develop a personalized relationship with their customers. Differentiating in the age of hyper-personalization
on social media sites, identifying what international travel destinations people were considering for vacation and then juxtaposing similar in-country images to encourage them to vacation closer to home (via railway stations). Deloitte estimates hyper-personalization can deliver ROI of up to 800% on marketing spend and lift sales by 10% more. At the same time, Netflix’s recommendation engine has been instrumental in customer retention, as 80% of users follow recommendations while only 20% search for content.
By delivering targeted ads to customers in more sophisticated ways, brands not only generate more goodwill through better experiences, but also create more revenue opportunities. It goes without saying that if customers click on things because they speak to their needs in the moment, they’re more likely to buy.
Conversely, the professional services firm warns that ignoring such opportunities can lead to higher customer churn, lower ROI on ad investment, fewer impulse purchases and higher product returns from customers who do not feel the brand or product fully understands their desires.
If they don’t click, the odds drop precipitously. Investing in technology to enable hyper-personalization, therefore, becomes a no-brainer for the bottom line.
It’s true that the path to using customer data for hyperpersonalized experiences won’t be easy—but done right, it’s the core of a great digital experience.
Last year, for example, people watching the Discovery Channel, the Food Network and Animal Planet were treated to a commercial about a new brand of frozen yogurt bars. Not everyone saw the ad. The advertisers reportedly analyzed personal data and then streamed the ad to viewers who were identified as most likely to care about leading healthy lifestyles.
By rethinking how businesses engage with customers and their personal data, businesses can gain a better understanding of what drives behavior and build a mutually beneficial relationship. Because as McKinsey’s most recent Personalization 2021 Report revealed, hyper-personalization is not going anywhere, with 71% of consumers expecting companies to deliver personalized interactions and 76% frustrated when it doesn’t happen.
Additionally, German railway company Deutsche Bahn’s “No Need to Fly” campaign used a combination of AI and geotargeting technology to pour through customer data
Looking ahead
We’ll soon see more disruptive brands step forward to transform digital advertising—because they must.
A guide to TikTok marketing strategy By Nicole Penn
Just a few years ago, most brands resisted the idea of marketing on TikTok. They dismissed it as a passing trend among middle schoolers who used it to share dance parodies and memes. But TikTok’s fresh take on social media has won it a large and growing audience. It has more than 73.7 million active US users today, and the majority of its audience is now over the age of 30. It’s a regular source of entertainment and information for many consumers. Moreover, the brands excelling on the platform are seeing results. So, how can marketers use TikTok? First off, marketers must move beyond a “one-campaign-fits-all” way of thinking. When your content strategy is tailored to fit the platform, TikTok can help amplify your message, increase brand recognition, engage customers and drive sales. In this guide to TikTok marketing strategy, we’ll cover the three main ways to kickstart your TikTok marketing strategy: •
Branded content
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Influencer content
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Ad campaigns
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Let’s dive in!
Use branded content to drive conversations Why it’s useful: A big part of TikTok’s appeal is the usergenerated content. You are watching everyday people who can make you laugh, cry – and, yes – dance to their content.
This can pose a real challenge for marketers looking to break into the conversation. Every TikTok marketing campaign must come across with that kind of grassroots authenticity. You have to drive usergenerated content in creative ways, so your campaign feels genuine. Chipotle has had great success on TikTok and has gained more than 1 million followers. Chipotle uses a simple formula any business can employ that comes across as organic and real. What do they do? They post a mixture of tips, recipes, fun facts and hacks about their menu items. The information is useful to fans and followers. Most importantly, it’s practical information – not sales content – that’s delivered in a short tutorial manner, as are so many other TikTok videos. Chipotle also offers light, humorous video scenarios based on customer experiences. I suspect that the scenarios are largely made up, but they’re plausible and fun. I also suspect the “customers” pictured in the skits are actors, stock photos or employees. By keeping production values minimal, however, all of the content comes across as genuine and has the feel of being user generated. How to do it: If you’re planning to build a TikTok presence, it’s important to study the platform to get a feel for its storytelling techniques. It’s also smart to explore what competitors are sharing. To do this, search for keyword hashtags that are appropriate for your industry and see what others are saying. This will give you some content ideas of your own.
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For brands that are just starting out, we recommend producing short videos with value-added information about your products or services. Just as Chipotle does, you should offer tips, tutorials and interesting user examples. Be sure to hashtag content with appropriate keywords that will help the TikTok algorithm place your video in front of people already interested in the subject matter. It’s a great way to build an initial following. TikTok influencers can help you reach new audiences Why it’s useful: Influencers are emerging on TikTok and can help your brand speak to their audiences. The platform is still relatively young and these influencers are often available at more reasonable prices than on Instagram and elsewhere. As with brand-produced content, influencer content has the best impact when it comes across as organic and when the target audience can relate to it. It is for this reason that many brands have shifted away from polished, highly producedlooking content to more organic content. How to do it: When looking for an influencer, be sure to perform all of the necessary due diligence to ensure that his or her audience aligns with your brand and customer profile. Influencers usually bring their own ideas to the table, but it’s a good idea to stay on top of what’s driving traffic on the app. TikTok is full of trend videos that go viral on a weekly basis – from challenges and songs to dances and glow-ups. It’s crucial to stay in the loop on the latest fads, as they go away quickly. If executed correctly, however, implementing a
trend can be a great way to get creative and jump into the conversation. TikTok trends can be monitored through tracking hashtags, perusing the “Discover Page,” and exploring other tabs for related content. The number of views and likes on a particular video is a telltale sign of TikTok content that works. At the EGC Group, one of the TikTok-inspired trends achieved for beauty brand, KISS, was the “This or That” Challenge. Ads are a useful way to capitalize on content Why it’s useful: If all of this sounds like too much work – or you feel creativity is in short supply, but you still want a TikTok presence – consider an ad campaign that will put your brand in the feeds of thousands of users. Ads can also be used to supplement your organic content, creating a space for a more direct sell than you might make in organic stories. How to do it: It’s worth finding an experienced marketing agency that knows the ins-and-outs of the platform. That way you are designing ads that will resonate and connect with target audiences. Even though many more brands are finding their way on TikTok, there is still plenty of room to utilize and flourish on this creative, cutting-edge platform. Now is a great time to get on board with the platform, when a viral video can have a huge impact for your brand. With the right inventiveness and knowledge, it’s possible to engage consumers meaningfully and produce lucrative campaigns.
The Emotion Missing From the Workplace By Susan Cain
Before a recent virtual talk I gave to an executive team, the moderator asked attendees to share in the chat box how they were feeling that morning. The answers were, without exception, emphatically cheerful: Productive! Energized! Thrilled to be here! These are wonderful feelings—but what are the chances that these responses were an accurate representation of an entire team’s emotional life? They seemed more indicative of what the Harvard Medical School psychologist and management scholar Susan David calls the “tyranny of positivity” that dominates most workplaces. More than two years into a pandemic that has revealed the painful side of reality, many employees remain discouraged from sharing difficult feelings and experiences at work, creating a culture of emotional repression that hurts workers and managers alike. Fortunately, change seems to be under way. Harvard Business Review now regularly runs articles on the virtues of compassionate leadership. Last year, the organizational psychologist Adam Grant devoted an entire episode of his WorkLife podcast to the idea that “we should allow sad days, not just sick days.” Management scholars have even started to highlight the unique advantages of leaders who
express sorrow. In a business culture that once demanded positivity, a new set of norms is slowly emerging. The leadership researcher Peter Frost identified the problem of workplace positivity in his 1999 paper “Why Compassion Counts!” He quoted the Buddha’s purported observation that suffering is “an inevitable part of the human condition,” yet noted that suffering is ignored in most offices. Soon after, Frost and some of his colleagues founded the CompassionLab, dedicated to “a new vision of organizations as sites for the development and expression of compassion.” In one informal project, the CompassionLab scholars Jason Kanov and Laura Madden combed through employee interviews that Kanov had conducted for a previous study on social disconnection. They found that although the transcripts were full of stories of pain and sorrow at work—panic attacks, injured relationships, feelings of devaluation—the interview subjects rarely used words related to those emotions. They were anxious but said they were angry; they were sad but said they were frustrated. “There’s an unspectacular mundane suffering that pervades
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the workplace,” Kanov told me. “But we don’t feel allowed to acknowledge that we suffer. We endure way more than we should, and can, because we downplay what it’s actually doing to us.” Certain kinds of distress are more socially acceptable to express at work than others, Kanov said via email. It’s okay to openly grieve the death of a spouse or parent, but much riskier to share the struggles of a breakup, office politics, or financial worry, for example. The bereavement expert Kenneth Doka calls these losses—the kind we feel we have no permission to mourn—“disenfranchised griefs.” And according to David, suppressing these types of feelings can backfire and leave workers depleted long after they leave the office. “When emotions are pushed aside or ignored, they get stronger,” she says in a popular TED Talk. “Psychologists call this ‘amplification.’ Like that delicious chocolate cake in the refrigerator, the more you try to ignore it … the greater its hold on you.” Creating workplaces that make space for these feelings may require rethinking ideals of leadership itself. Researchers know that the emotions bosses express affect workers’ perception of how powerful they are. Those who behave angrily during challenging situations are typically seen as more influential than those who react sadly. Yet a 2009 study by the management professors Juan Madera and D. Brent Smith found that showing sorrow rather than anger sometimes creates better outcomes for leaders, including stronger relationships with their employees and being viewed as more effective. While doing research at the Technical University of Munich, the scholar Tanja Schwarzmüller wondered what could explain this seeming contradiction. In a series of studies in which subjects were shown videos of actors dressed as business leaders, Schwarzmüller and her team found that the difference between angry and sad leaders lies not in the amount but rather in the kind of power they are ascribed. Those who were angry were perceived as having more “position” power, with a greater ability to reward or punish others. Those who were melancholic were viewed as having more “personal” power. They inspired more loyalty among their hypothetical followers, who were less likely to want to sabotage them and more likely to “feel valued and personally accepted.” Both types of power can be valuable, depending on the situation. For example, when an organization faces an outside threat, displays of anger might be more effective. But in other scenarios, such as the recall of a product shown to harm a company’s customers, a bittersweet touch might be more appropriate. “If followers mess up on an important project,” Schwarzmüller told Ozy’s digital magazine, “it might be good to consider saying, ‘I’m sad this happened,’ instead of ‘I’m angry this happened.’” Personal power “motivates people to work for you toward shared goals, and because they like you.” Indeed, embracing personal power can help create emotionally healthy and high-performing workplaces. For example, Rick Fox, a charismatic former leader of a Shell oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, found that sharing his fears and shortcomings with his employees, rather than pretending
to be an all-powerful boss, boosted his work performance and enriched his personal life. Encouraged by his progress, he arranged for his whole team to go through an intense training program intended to promote openness. Afterward, the guys on the rig started developing genuine connections with one another. They grew more comfortable admitting problems at work, started sharing ideas, and ended up with sky-high productivity levels, contributing to an 84 percent decline in the company’s accident rate, according to a case study by the Harvard Business School professor Robin Ely and the Stanford professor Debra Meyerson, which the radio show Invisibilia also covered. Of course, not all of Fox’s staff relished this level of vulnerability. And for all of the evidence showing the benefits of emotionally open bosses, some studies have found different results. For example, in a 2018 study called “When Sharing Hurts,” the Babson College management professor Kerry Gibson found that managers who disclose troubles to their subordinates can lose status and undermine their influence. But much evidence indicates that as long as managers respect personal and professional boundaries, they can acknowledge that sorrow is inevitable, make space for workers to express it, and instill the value of responding to one another with compassion. Building these practices into workplace culture can be especially helpful. In 2011, a group of management scholars from the CompassionLab published a study on the billing unit of a community-health system in the Midwest. This department’s workers had the dreary job of collecting unpaid bills for medical treatments. But this unit, known as Midwest Billing, created a culture in which it was assumed that personal troubles were a normal part of every worker’s life. Staff members cared for one another when they went through divorces or got sick. As one employee, Korinna, told her uncle after her mother’s unexpected death, “I need to go back to work because I need to work and I need to have my mind off everything that’s going on. But I also need to go back to work because I am surrounded by women who just open their arms to me.” Sharing troubles turned out to be very good not only for mental health, but also for business. During the five years prior to the study, Midwest Billing got its bills collected more than twice as fast as before, and by the time of the study, it was close to beating industry standards. Turnover rate in the unit was only 2 percent, compared with an average of 25 percent across all of the Midwest Health System and a significantly higher rate across the medical-billing industry. In private discussions I’ve had over the years with executives and managers, they’ve raised one recurring objection to these ideas: If everyone is encouraged to air difficult feelings, won’t this sap workers of their ability to get things done and make offices depressing? But this growing area of management research suggests otherwise, showing the value, for both productivity and employee well-being, of workplaces where staff are free to name their emotions and experiences—both the bitter and the sweet. And though American businesses still have a long way to go, managers may one day be able to kick off meetings with a call to share how everyone is feeling—and actually expect honest answers.
Should marketers create competitive brand tensions? By Jeff Beer
Pusha T, Arby’s, and why more brands should be willing to pick a fight Like any worthwhile surprise, the latest rap diss track came out of seemingly nowhere. On March 21, rapper Pusha T dropped “Spicy Fish Diss,” which lit up the internet immediately. This time Pusha wasn’t aiming his ire at Drake or any other rapper, but instead at McDonald’s and its Filet-O-Fish sandwich, all on behalf of fast-food underdog Arby’s. If this sounds at all bonkers, welcome to pop culture in 2022. What made this even more compelling was that Pusha was not just a paid spokesattacker or a particularly passionate consumer of fast-food fried fish. No, Pusha was apparently relishing this project to continue his claim that he wrote— and was underpaid for—McDonald’s global tagline and song “I’m Lovin’ It,” which launched in 2003. Pusha told
Rolling Stone this week that his spicy take was inspired by resentment over lack of credit and payment. “I did it at a very young age, at a very young time in my career where I wasn’t asking for as much money and ownership,” he said. “It’s something that’s always dug at me later in life like, ‘Dammit, I was a part of this and I should have more stake.’ It was like half a million or a million dollars for me and my brother—but that’s peanuts for as long as that’s been running.”
“I’m the reason the whole world love it, now I gotta crush it/Filet-O-Fish is sh*t/You should be disgusted/How
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dare you sell a square fish asking us to trust it/A half slice of cheese, Mickey D’s on a budget?” Coming just over a month after his latest Ye-produced single “Diet Coke,” (which was definitely not a branded track), the overall online reaction to “Spicy Fish Diss” was Supa Hot Fire-ing across social media. Fans were, um, lovin’ it. According to marketing analytics firm Apex Marketing, within just a couple of days, the song had generated $8 million in advertising value for the brand. As a single piece of advertising, this is a bonafide hit. Brands continue to pan for pop cultural gold in the hopes that it’ll get them any attention, and you could do much worse than enlisting the world’s preeminent diss-track rapper to take a swing at your industry’s largest player. In evaluating it, ad strategy heads have spent the week asking themselves, Why this celeb? Why this brand? Is there a genuine pop culture insight here? Is the brand appropriating pop culture or participating? “Spicy Fish Diss” answers all of these pretty emphatically while effectively tapping into the cultural alignment between an industry that has historically been unafraid to diss rivals—from Where’s The Beef? to Burger King’s brilliant Whopper Detour—and a category of music where diss tracks are an established genre. It participates in the culture by allowing itself to be used as a tool by Pusha T to inflict his own version of revenge for a decades-old resentment. You could also say that Arby’s isn’t even new to using hip-hop hype as a boost in cultural clout, if we count the Pharrell Grammys Tweet of 2014. OKAY, BUT WHAT ABOUT . . . All that said, let’s indulge on why this may not be the fastfood finishing move that it might initially appear to be. First, the backstory. As previously stated, Pusha told Rolling Stone that the inspiration was his resentment (real or perceived) over underpayment for a McDonald’s jingle 20 years ago, and not solely the tasty delights of Arby’s fish sandwich. One senior ad exec told me that almost any CMO would see this as a distraction. Arby’s CMO Patrick Schwing will have to balance between the cool-kid attention for pulling off this marketing coup and the risk that all the love for Pusha redirects the spotlight away from the fact that the point here is supposed to be that Arby’s has what is reputedly an excellent new fish sandwich that you should try. That, and all the chatter about how Pusha snuck a coke reference into his ad. Second, and more importantly, this is the year 2022. In the very recent past, McDonald’s has given us BTS tote bags and Saweetie N’ Sour sauce, while Popeye’s served up Megan Thee Stallion Hottie Sauce. Where’s the Pushathemed merch drop, Arby’s? One of the genius aspects of the McDonald’s Famous Meals is how it’s coordinated with original products, music, social media, and more. Third, let’s just talk about the Filet-O-Fish as the focal point here. I get that Arby’s is trying to sell their own fish sandwich. But you’re the 15th-ranked fast-feeder in America, taking aim at the clown-faced behemoth at the top—and you’re
not even using one of its top sellers as ammunition? It’s like using Bill Wennington to diss the ’98 Bulls. Should Arby’s, which, after all, is generally oriented around its “We have the meats” campaign, have used the spicy fish sandwich launch to attack McDonald’s burgers? MORE TENSION, PLEASE Seven-foot Canadian NBA role players aside, Arby’s obviously got a lot incredibly right here. Not only because it nudges us dangerously closer to the commercial jingledominated future predicted by Demolition Man in 1993, but also in its creative use of tension to gain our attention. It’s an age-old tactic, but one that simply isn’t used enough. When Coke and Pepsi fight in public, it boosts both brands’ visibility and the audience’s interest in what will happen next. Were you and I—much less Hypebeast, GQ, Complex, and Rolling Stone—talking about Arby’s two weeks ago? Exactly. Our human brains are wired for stories, and the best stories have tension. It’s conflict that makes the resolution interesting. Not enough marketers embrace tension to really tell us who they are or what they—and their product—are about. There are always a few examples sprinkled throughout the years, beyond even soda and burgers, and often it’s this work (if done well) that gets us talking. The long-running Mac versus PC campaign is arguably one of Apple’s best and most beloved. Samsung turned the tables on Apple years later, and it added more personality to its brand proposition. More recently, when Neil Young pulled his entire catalog off Spotify in protest of Joe Rogan in January, Apple Music quickly put out tweets and push notifications declaring itself “the home of Neil Young,” and put a “We Love Neil” playlist at the front of its browse section, all of which was covered by the culture and tech press like it was the latest move in a brand beef. Because it was. That tension doesn’t even need to be directed at a specific competitor. Witness how Ben & Jerry’s uses everything from podcasts to new flavors to tap into the cultural tension of where it stands on social and environmental issues. Or Patagonia stitching that tension right into its shorts with its Vote the Assholes Out label calling out climate deniers ahead of the 2020 election. There’s also consumer tension, in terms of what problem this brand can help you solve. Nike has built its empire on using the tension between the athlete we are and the athlete we want to be to create some of the most stylish and persuasive advertising in history. According to the ad folks I talked to about “Spicy Fish Diss,” whatever flavor of tension a brand chooses, it has to ring true. One senior source said, “The internet sniffs out posers and interlopers from a mile away. So I’m always looking to see if the strings are showing. Does it feel authentic? Do they understand the culture?” Otherwise, that sought-after, and ever-lucrative, audience your lusting after will smell something . . . fishy.
Jeff Beer is a staff editor at Fast Company, covering advertising, marketing, and brand creativity. RSS.
How brands should be texting with consumers By Expert Panel®Forbes Councils Member
In the digital age, there are numerous effective options for businesses to communicate with customers and clients, and one increasingly popular method adopted by many companies is SMS text. For businesses, texting is a highly direct form of communication that easily gets your message in front of the right audience. Of course, there is bound to be a learning curve whenever businesses tread into new territory with customer communications. Below, 15 Forbes Communication Council members shared their best advice for companies using SMS texting to market to or communicate with their customers. 1. Use An AI-Based Platform Use an artificial intelligence-based platform that provides accurate, reliable and timely information to improve response speed and provide relevant and accurate messages. To get the right message to the right people, draft and test templates in advance. Drive efforts to increase opt-in rates.
Finally, plan for times when stakeholders don’t have access to devices to receive alerts and prepare alternate methods of communication. - Sue Holub, OnSolve 2. Allow The Use Of Emojis Emojis are okay! Be real and authentic. Make sure customers know there is a real person at the other end when there is. Keep guardrails in place, but let employees use their unique voice and tone to connect on an authentic level with customers. - Nick Cerise, TTEC 3. Nurture Personal Connections SMS is a personal channel. The fact that it provides easy access to a market is of little value if its use is impersonal, intrusive and just one more source of noise. Innovative SMS strategies incorporate personal touchstones, seed conversations and nurture deeper connections. The test? Evaluate if the SMS communication strengthens the fabric of the relationship and
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never provide links or ask for personal information. Our research shows customers blame the brand, not the fraudster. - Sarah Whipp, Callsign 10. Don’t Ever Abuse Text Never send a text message unless you have explicit permission from the recipient or it is absolutely necessary for the provision of your products. Unsolicited text messages, especially marketing offers, generate more ill will than sales. Yes, text can provide engagement you can no longer get from email, but with this power comes the responsibility not to abuse it. - Dave Platter, PropTech Group and Juwai IQI 11. Use Text To Be More Responsive Or Accessible Text is a two-way medium. It’s intentionally intimate and accessible. When you send a message that people can’t respond to, your audience considers it spam. But if you use it as a way to make your organization more responsive or accessible, you can add tremendous value for your stakeholders. Remember, attention is a currency. Make sure you are always providing as much value as you are taking. Jennifer Eddy, Eddy Alexander 12. Reserve SMS For Sharing Key News In Real Time Be incredibly strategic about the frequency and length of the messages before launching a communication strategy through SMS. Reserve this channel for really important news and news that you know your audience will want to know in real-time only. Have a quick announcement that isn’t urgent? Try sharing it via email or social media. Have a flash discount or major event coming up? SMS could be ideal. - Victoria Zelefsky, The Menkiti Group 13. Provide A Strong Call To Action Companies using SMS text to communicate with their customers should have a strong call to action that offers an immediate benefit to their customers. This increases the open rate and the return on investment because customers tend to perceive SMS marketing as intrusive, especially when it is an outright “advert” offering no value to customers. - Tolulope Adedeji, Anheuser Busch/ AB INBEV 14. Keep It Simple And Straightforward The great thing about SMS is that customers are “opting in” to receive your messages. Optimize the channel with that in mind. Leverage the tried-and-true K.I.S.S. method (keep it simple and straightforward) and your analytics to appropriately target the customer at their preferred contact time. When you have their full attention, the sky is the limit! Kris Pugsley, Skyworks Solutions, Inc. 15. Define How The Channels Will Complement Each Other One of the most important nuances of the digital revolution is the difference between multichannel and omnichannel. SMS is a powerful tool to reach customers (multichannel), but it must be part of a larger channel strategy (omnichannel). Marketers need to define how each channel is going to complement the others as part of the larger journey. Otherwise, SMS will feel cold and intrusive. - Kelly Grover, Acoustic
What Can Leaders Learn from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy? By Michael Useem
While his country is in crisis, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is emerging as a masterful communicator and charismatic leader whose management style is reminiscent of some of the greatest statesmen in history, according to Wharton management professor emeritus Michael Useem. Watching Zelenskyy receive a standing ovation after addressing the U.S. Congress from his presidential bunker last week, Useem couldn’t help but compare him with Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking to the same body after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Winston Churchill delivering his rousing war speech to the House of Commons. “I think the phrase ‘leadership presence’ sums up what we saw,” said Useem, who is director for Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management. “He’s not just there to appear, he’s not just there to show the flag. He’s there to make a case. I think Zelenskyy has proven a master of this moment in ways that we rarely see.” Useem joined Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM to talk about the evolution of Zelenskyy’s leadership style since the Russian invasion on February 24. (Listen to the podcast above.) Drawing on his decades of research and expertise in the field, the professor pointed out two of Zelenskyy’s consistent management strengths: his on-point messaging and his unwavering dedication to the cause.
and a CEO. Useem said both types of leaders need to excel at what is described as general management — juggling a number of urgent and often disparate issues at once. “Being a one-trick pony won’t do it here. You’ve got to master it all,” he said. “That is, we have to think about everything and act on everything pulled together.”
“I think Zelenskyy has proven a master of this moment in ways that we rarely see.” –Michael Useem Legacy in the Making Useem isn’t alone in his positive assessment of Zelenskyy’s leadership style. Many historians, journalists, and political experts are describing how the president — a former actor and comedian who is serving his first term in public office — is rising to meet this moment in history. “I think Zelenskyy’s leadership in this situation has really been inspirational. We talk in the U.S. about profiles in courage. This is what it looks like,” Emily Harding, a deputy director and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told NPR.
Since shelling began, Zelenskyy has communicated strength and stability both to his own people and the rest of the world. Wearing his signature army green T-shirt, he’s appeared frequently on television and social media platforms to reiterate his resolve and ask the world for help in fighting off Vladimir Putin’s brutal advance.
Useem also believes Zelenskyy’s leadership will be part of his legacy.
“This is a time to step forward and not shrink from, and Zelenskyy has demonstrated that in spades, even though the conditions and his own safety are at stake,” Useem said.
Although he describes Zelenskyy as “a person for the ages,” Useem is quick to add that the ultimate measure of effective management is action. Will Zelenskyy be able to persuade foreign leaders to intervene and help his country fight off Russian aggression? The professor thinks he will.
He called Zelenskyy a “master of communication, one of the best ever.” He noted that the president doesn’t take a formal pose behind a lectern during press conferences, preferring instead to sit in a chair or stand in the street to show the landscape of war behind him. “He’s as artful as they come in helping people focus not on him but on Ukraine, the disaster that it is going through, and the solutions that many countries ought to be following in coming to Ukraine’s aid,” Useem said. There’s a close correlation between the skills of a statesman
“We look to the past to better understand our own present and the future, and I think President Zelenskyy is not only inspiring leaders at the moment, he’s going to be inspiring people for generations to come,” he said.
“I think his words are so powerful, his purpose so unequivocal that he is going to indeed move the world,” Useem said. “These are going to be the days that shook the world, and Zelenskyy is at the center of all of the above.” Michael Useem is the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management and director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mike is also co-anchor of the weekly program “Leadership in Action” on SiriusXM Business Radio.
ADVANCE TOMORROW’S MISSION As a key partner in government innovation, we blend unparalleled mission understanding with emerging technology to help our clients modernize their organizations and integrate, innovate, and dominate at speed. See our ideas in action at BoozAllen.com.
Marketing voices: Transformation in the trenches By Jennifer Veenstra, Kathleen Peeters
Global marketing leaders cite changes to data requirements, evolving talent needs, and new customer experience expectations as part of the push into a new era of more personalized relationships. Conversations with senior marketing leaders Deloitte’s 2022 Global Marketing Trends report explores how marketers are prioritizing first-party data, inclusive campaigns, and purpose-driven strategies to redefine the customer experience. But what’s it really like behind the scenes for marketers putting these priorities into action— and ensuring they succeed? Our conversations with senior marketing leaders at nine global organizations offer a rare look at the opportunities—as well as the struggles—CMOs and their C-suite counterparts face while helping their companies create more holistic, personal experiences for consumers. Honing data integration Data drives differentiation when it comes to informing, guiding, and telling stories about customers, and one of the most powerful assets for marketers is having accurate first-party data on their customers in a single unified view. It helps organizations communicate across departments and platforms, ultimately transforming information into actionable insights. But collecting such data also carries great responsibility: In one of this year’s trends, “Designing a human-first data experience,” we found for those organizations that demonstrate transparency and humanity, customers are 2.5 times more likely to share personal information that helps improve the product. With that context in mind, we asked how marketing teams are collating the various information funnels and juggling the concurrent needs for personalization, privacy, and
usefulness? Plus, how are leaders assessing and addressing their organizations’ technology gaps? Turning data into insights Leveraging data requires prioritizing data access, breaking down organizational silos, and ensuring teams understand the data—before moving to integrated solutions. Maria Raad, Vice President, Commercial Excellence, Customer and Digital Strategy, EMEA, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson: “Everybody talks about customer data platforms (CDPs), but what’s really critical is the data. Do you have access to the data before you get the CDP in place? If not, you’re probably only using 10% of your Rolls-Royce. With that in place, then you can really define what you need from a CDP—a foundation of best-in-class analytical capabilities. You can collect data and optimize the experience in a system that’s automated, real-time, and compliant—meeting all the privacy rules.” Guy Flament, Global CEO, Yves Rocher: “Finding the right balance between giving the team autonomy to capture the new way of doing business balanced with the required investments to reach critical scale is probably one of the most difficult tasks in my job. The speed of change and speed of innovation requires us to select state-of-theart integrated solutions to be able to handle this complexity in areas such as CRM or data. We’re changing the way we’re working to have the ability to handle this accelerating
pace of innovation.” Laurie Kowalevsky, Vice President, Global Marketing, Lilly Biomedicines: “One of the biggest challenges that makes me worry is competency around the infusion of data analytics and insights. I’m surprised at the number of times where marketers don’t fully understand the data surrounding their business and their customers. People have gotten used to a variety of dashboards and reports from market research, but they’re not really proficient at connecting the dots— understanding what they need to know, when they need to know it, and why it matters.” Crafting content that converts Marketers highlight the importance of marrying analytics and human stress tests to make sure their content reaches the right audiences. Nic Emery, Chief Customer & Digital Officer, Crown Resorts: “We push out many hundreds of individual promotions to customers over the course of the year. We’ve been chipping away at using econometrics to increase our total marketing return on investment from those promotions. We’ve also stood up a program of personalized offers, and we get about a threefold return on investment. It comes back to the principle of how personalized you need to be in order to make money through meeting somebody’s needs. In our experience, you don’t need to get anywhere near creepy to do that.” Carol Carpenter, former Chief Marketing Officer, VMware:
marketers if they can demonstrate expertise in data modeling and statistics as they are to review their creative talents. In the “Building the intelligent creative engine” trend in this year’s report, CMOs cited analytical expertise as one of the top skills of their highest performers—ahead of creative abilities—in every sector except the consumer industry. As demand for practitioners with data science skills continues to surge, how are marketing leaders using these new skills to meet the emerging demands of the marketplace? How are they incorporating new ways of learning? And how are they leveraging agency relationships to meet these challenges? Redefining the role The pandemic has shifted how marketers consider their overall roles and how marketing leaders enlist new talent, and has expanded the list of skills organizations seek—with an emphasis on being proficient in several areas around digital and data. Laura Curtis Ferrera, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Scotiabank: “I think this is going to be the year that we see a broad shake-up among marketers in terms of where they work, what they expect from their workplace, what they prioritize in terms of what’s important to them from their careers. The ground has been primed for a seismic turnover in terms of our marketing workforce. Marketers are so in demand right now, both on the specialist and the generalist sides. I think we as CMOs need to turn on our head the amount of time we spend on redefining what’s important to our own teams and what we are going to do to make them successful.”
“You could send a hundred emails a day to every single prospect and customer. Go find your most curmudgeonly engineer, show them something you’re about to send and ask, ‘Would you read this? Would you click on it? Do you find this compelling?’ Having IT as a development and thought partner early on is critical. Make sure that the work you’re doing is going to manifest in something useful and usable.”
Helena Andreas, SVP Communications & People, Securitas AB:
Respecting data privacy
The balancing act: Insourcing vs. outsourcing
Customers appreciate increased personalization, but they’re also demanding more transparency into how their data is being used and how that benefits them.
To meet the expanded role of marketing within the digital journey, CMOs have had to rethink which functions they can sustain internally and when they need to look for outside talent.
Malorie Maddox, Chief Marketing, Communications and Strategy Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska: “Data and innovation must be at the forefront of everything we do. Predictive analytics helps us help our customers spot health challenges and warning signs. People are used to interacting with their doctor on their phones now. So, from a telehealth perspective, how do we evolve that even more? What’s our role in helping our members navigate their explanation of benefits (EOBs), find an in-network provider, pay the lowest cost for the drug they need? Our consumers are asking for more price transparency both for services and for pharmaceuticals. We want to provide greater transparency, but we also have to balance that with protecting sensitive information. We need to show consumers that we’re utilizing data in a respectful way.” Finding the right talent Hiring managers are as likely today to ask prospective
“From a marketing perspective, the main objective for us is how to reposition ourselves in a traditional B2B industry. We recruit almost 100,000 people each year, so we do not only want to market ourselves to our clients, but we also want to market ourselves to the wider population. It’s where employer branding meets marketing.”
Curtis Ferrera, Scotiabank: “Our assumptions going into insourcing and outsourcing were largely thematically correct, but then quantifiably wrong. I thought there was going to be a slower rampup period when we opened Lighthouse, our in-house creative agency, but it was full tilt from day one. The sheer demand for all forms of creative production has exploded. We increased output by 54% from March 2020 to January 2021 in response to the increase in personalized customer communications. The other surprise for me was that the type of talent we are hiring has changed to include more of an emphasis on 2D and 3D motion design, illustration, and motion production.” Carpenter, VMware: “Traditionally, we looked at what’s strategic—not outsourcing strategy, but outsourcing the arms and legs
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for scale. If you need more bodies on a specific project, or need help amplifying a social campaign, you hire a social agency to help you amplify. The rise of digital in the pandemic has accelerated this. There’s too much real-time feedback happening in those channels, and while yes, you could say, ‘OK, we are going to have a social strategy’— these key themes you set out at the beginning of the year— then times change, and things happen.” Raad, Johnson & Johnson: “What we want to ensure is self-sufficiency. What we also cannot do is grow the organization indefinitely. What we are looking at is some of the skills that will give us flexibility in how we work today. For example, everything from creative roles like graphic designers that you could put internally that will allow for agility. I would personally think for a hybrid model, rather than saying we insource everything or outsource everything.” Enriching the customer experience These days, consumer journeys comprise a broad array of online, offline, and hybrid options—each having its own advantages and degrees of friction. According to the 11,500 global consumers Deloitte surveyed to better understand what information they found most helpful while making purchase decisions, what unites these options into a cohesive journey is a focus on timely offers and knowledgeable customer service. From AI-developed insights to exploring interactions across multiple channels, marketers have more ways than ever to enrich their customers’ experience. What are the benefits they’re seeing, and what are the hurdles? Accounting for multiple touchpoints Engaging with customers in a variety of interfaces creates opportunities for a richer customer experience, but it creates challenges, too—namely privacy concerns as well as ensuring data from different touchpoints gets integrated for better customer insights.
ourselves, ’Are we being intentional with this information?’ ’How do we maintain customer trust?’ ’How do we utilize information to help our customers navigate the system?’ We need to be mindful of these issues as we continue to partner and share information with providers in new ways.” Kowalevsky, Lilly Biomedicine: “We’re thinking how we can use technology to enhance the experiences and the solutions that people need to lead healthy lives. And there’s so much opportunity there, whether it’s digital therapeutics, or helping someone with passive tracking so they can really understand their progress, or the utilization of it in clinical trials so we can get more diverse patient populations in our trials, representing all of the people who need help and not just those who could benefit. The barrier to what’s possible would be that our platforms are siloed and not integrated. So, we can implement some programs on these platforms, some on other platforms, and we’re leaving insight and data and opportunity on the table because we don’t have the mechanisms to pull those things together.” The human connection, improved CMOs realize that AI is not a stand-alone solution, but one that enriches the human factor at the center of their solutions. Only then can brands expand the reach of AI and tech and what’s possible to better serve their customers. Flament, Yves Rocher: “We put human bonds at the center of everything we do. But for several years we have been testing different ways of improving our customization algorithms. We look at the way our most loyal customers have behaved and have defined automated propositions for forecasting for product supply, as the time to market is shorter. Using AI, we can see how new categories of products might behave, saving us time and money.” Carpenter, VMware:
“We are working on seamless use of data online and offline in our various marketing campaigns. For example, we offer a campaign in which more points are given for the second purchase when that purchase is made offline. By doing this we will conduct online/offline marketing and understand the difference between online/offline needs. For example, cosmetic samples are often obtained offline, and the goods are purchased online. So, information can be shared to provide new insights.”
“Firstly, we’ve implemented AI into our automation around cloud management and infrastructure management. Customers who are using the products are getting recommendations on how to update their settings. The second way that we’re applying AI is in our customer success team and work and propensity models to understand which solutions they’re using, which ones might they use, but also where do we think they are in terms of cloud maturity and where could we offer them services to help them with their transformation? Lastly, we’re also applying AI to be smarter when customers call in. It’s meant to supplement our technical advisors or customer success folks, not to replace them.”
Maddox, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska:
Maddox, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska:
“We recognize that customers are seeking more digital solutions. So, how do we partner with providers to make it easier on customers throughout their entire health care journey? Back in the day, you had only a couple of tangible touchpoints with your insurance company; usually your ID card and EOBs. Now we have member portals and apps— very different ways to engage with our customer base. But we also have a higher expectation of privacy. We need to ask
“In the first few months of the pandemic, we saw a 14,000% increase in telehealth calls, and 78% of those were for mental health. Telehealth has provided more comfort for people to make a connection with their doctors, to open up and share what’s on their mind, and reach out for help. We have a real opportunity to change the game when it comes to access to mental health services and making a very complex system easier to navigate.”
Naho Kono, Group Managing Executive Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Rakuten Group Inc.:
Why it’s a bad idea for startups to make their branding distinctive By Saskia Ketz
When Google Chrome revealed its first logo refresh in nearly a decade earlier this year, the internet was left scratching its head. The change was so slight, the new logo so simple, merely removing the highlights and shadows to completely flatten the logo, slightly adjusting the proportions, and saturating the colors.
for simple designs that give them flexibility to adapt across
As someone who has worked in branding for more than 15 years, I don’t think this subtlety was a failure—it shows that the company is paying attention to where the design world is going. If you look at the major rebrands of 2021—from Burger King to GM—almost all of them involve paring down, flattening, or simplifying a brand’s look.
recommend a brand that delivers simple experiences.
The driving factor is more than just a trend in our visual language—it’s about adjusting to our new normal as companies and consumers. As we’re all too aware, the world is changing at an unprecedented pace. Brands are looking
and save a lot of money in the process.
new platforms, appeal to new audiences, and pivot as things change around them. And—jokes about Chrome’s new logo aside—consumers are craving simplicity in an increasingly complex world. A 2021 study by brand strategy agency Siegel+Gale found that 76% of people are more likely to
While this shift is important for all companies to pay attention to, it presents an especially exciting opportunity for startups, which are constantly changing by nature. When done correctly, approaching branding with simplicity can help startups more easily align their brand with their strategy—
WHY DISTINCTIVE BRANDING DOESN’T WORK FOR STARTUPS
Company branding used to feel permanent: You spent a lot of time and money getting it right and then didn’t change it for as long as possible. Take American Airlines, which didn’t change its branding for 40 years. While the original branding was classic, it ended up looking a little too patriotic as the world became increasingly globalized. When they addressed this issue with a major rebrand, they faced some pushback for such a drastic change. And yet, too many founders still adhere to a mindset where they see branding as a boxed-in solution that will last, even if their business changes. The reality is exactly the opposite. There’s no way to create strong visual branding without a solid understanding of a company’s core product, purpose, and audience— something startups are still figuring out in the early years. As startups pivot their strategy to find product-market fit or appeal to different audiences, branding that used to work might not anymore. I’ve even seen designer friends work on projects where the brand is already dated by the time they’re exporting the final files (no exaggeration!) because of the speed at which the client is pivoting. The more distinctive a brand identity, the more exaggerated this problem becomes. Foursquare is a great example: They launched over a decade ago with complex, consumer-focused branding and have had to significantly rebrand every few years as they found their footing and eventually expanded to include a B2B business model. A MORE FLUID WAY FORWARD Looking at Foursquare’s latest rebrand, you see how simplicity helps solve these issues. The company stripped its branding back to a wordmark and a few basic colors, describing the new approach as a “simple, scalable system” that allows them to appeal to the multiple audiences they’ve grown to serve. Simplicity not only helps growing brands be more things for more people, but it also gives them more flexibility to tweak things as they grow and evolve. I like to think of this approach as “fluid design”—start with something simple, and make subtle updates as your strategy changes or you learn more about your audience. Chat app Discord took a fluid approach last year in a brand update they described as “not too different: just a little
friendlier”—a move to make the product more welcoming as they expand beyond the gaming community. Dropbox has seen a similar fluid evolution, starting with a simple logo that has seen small upgrades over the years, and more recently adding pops of color to their traditional blue branding in order to appeal to a more creative audience. It’s still obviously the Dropbox brand—just more playful. SAVE MONEY ON SIMPLICITY So, why am I talking about this approach when there are plenty of brands—big and small—that already do it? For one, there are still plenty of startups taking the old approach, looking for trendy or flashy design to help them stand out, when they should really be seeking a simple brand that gives them flexibility while they find product-market fit. The other issue is that startups are hiring branding agencies at all—at great cost. Top agencies for early-stage companies typically charge $150,000–$500,000 for their branding work; even entry-level agencies often start at $50,000. At that price, growing companies (that barely have that money in the first place) feel pressure to get it perfect and never update their branding. Instead, young companies can DIY a simple design system, with a sleek wordmark, professional fonts, and a basic color palette. Moreover, when they take the fluid approach, there’s no pressure for this early branding to be perfect: Tweaks can and should happen along the way. I’m not saying that the work brand designers do isn’t valuable—but it’s only valuable once a company feels secure in what it’s doing and who it’s marketing to. So, my advice for startups: Take advantage of this simple design trend to create something that’s good enough for now, make perhaps imperceptible changes as you learn along the way, and spend the bulk of your resources getting your product right. Once that’s in place, you can pay for all the fancy design work you want. Saskia Ketz is the founder of MMarchNY, a New York City-based branding agency that’s worked with brands like Netflix, IKEA, Timberland, and Mojomox, an online wordmark builder that allows startups to create dynamic, professional-looking logos themselves.
Top brands come to SCAD seeking new ideas, inventions, and business strategies for a changing world. SCADpro delivers. Tap into our talent bank. scad.edu/scadpro
The User-Generated Content Advertising Ecosystem [Infographic]
By Ayaz Nanji
What do marketers need to know about user-generated content (UGC) advertising? An infographic (below) from Consumer Acquisition looks at the state of the ecosystem in 2022.The piece explores performance trends for UGC advertising and how social networks are investing in UGC. The infographic also covers some top UGC advertising creative trends.
Ayaz Nanji is a digital strategist and a co-founder of ICW Media, a marketing agency specializing in content and social media services for tech firms. He is also a research writer for MarketingProfs. He has worked for Google/YouTube, the Travel Channel, AOL, and the New York Times.
In Graphic Detail: How do consumers really feel about the metaverse? By Alexander Lee
Over the past year, the metaverse has grown from buzzword du jour to buzzword de l’année. Tech companies, game developers and brands alike are racing to claim a corner of the virtual world to come. But though the metaverse hype continues to rise — in marketing departments, at least — brands interested in activating virtually should take precautions not to overwhelm potential customers. Multiple sectors such as gaming, social media and blockchain tech are currently competing to become the builders of the metaverse, leaving consumers scrambling to stay up-to-date with the latest jargon and technological developments. If brands put the virtual cart before the horse, they could risk burning their audiences out on the metaverse before it is able to fully take shape. To get a better sense of how regular consumers are approaching the metaverse, Digiday has pulled key insights from five data reports and surveys regarding consumer sentiments and activity in the space. Most people still don’t know what the metaverse is How are consumers defining the metaverse? A January survey by market research firm Ipsos revealed that 38 percent of Americans state that they are very or somewhat familiar with the metaverse — though this figure varies drastically depending on consumers’ age and the presence of children in their households. Over 50 percent of respondents from households containing children were familiar with the metaverse, while only 20 percent of respondents aged 55 or older said they knew the term.
As shown by the chart above, the respondents who claimed to know about the metaverse differed greatly in their explanations of what exactly it was, with some associating the term with social media and others with virtual worlds. As brands continue to activate within metaverse platforms, it could be wise for them to use these activations to educate consumers rather than assuming they have prior knowledge of the metaverse. Most brands don’t know about the metaverse, either What percent of marketing executives understand how the metaverse will impact their brand? If consumers are still unsure about the metaverse, some brands might be even more cautious about dipping their toes into the virtual water. A December survey by social analytics company ListenFirst revealed that only 18 percent of brand marketing and analytics executives stated that they understood the metaverse and how it would impact their brand, as reported by MediaPost. That said, this figure could increase as metaverse activations become more mainstream, as 49.5 percent of survey respondents said they “somewhat” understood the metaverse. Regardless, this data shows that, despite the presence of flashy activations such as the VR-powered AT&T Station, not all brands are ready to follow these big names into the metaverse, given the relatively untested nature of metaverse platforms and the lack of clarity about exactly what a more fully realized metaverse might look like. People are willing to spend money in the metaverse
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Percentage of respondents who have made a purchase in a three-dimensional virtual store While only some consumers are familiar with the metaverse, those who are comfortable operating in virtual spaces find virtual commerce to be an appealing prospect. A quarter of consumers have shopped online in a three-dimensional virtual store, per a January study by the experiential e-commerce platform Obsess. Among that cohort, virtual commerce activity was highest among millennials, with 77 percent of millennial respondents saying they had made a purchase in a virtual store. It’s worth noting that the language around virtual commerce has not caught up with the metaverse concept. Though commerce in a three-dimensional virtual environment certainly fits into most definitions of the metaverse, only 38 percent of respondents said they would like to be able to shop in the metaverse. Gamers are the first residents of the metaverse How deeply are modern consumers immersed in digital space? Using data from its November 2021 Consumer Energy Index and Retail Pulse Survey, research company Forrester divided online adult consumers in the United States and United Kingdom into four segments: digital immersives, digital socialites, digital commoners and the digitally disconnected. The first two groups, comprising 47 percent of all online adult consumers, are the ones best accustomed to
immersive experiences and multiplayer online games, per Forrester’s recent State of the Metaverse report — and it’s the 22 percent that is digitally immersed that is most likely to adapt to the metaverse early on. 49 percent of this cohort — 11 percent of respondents overall — uses a virtual reality headset often, one indicator that Meta’s VR-focused vision for the metaverse could line up with future consumption habits. Gamers are accustomed to virtual spaces, but still wary of web3 technologies Percentage of gamers that claim to “hate” NFTs Companies from the Web3 and gaming sectors are vying to become the builders of the metaverse, with some game developers combining the two to create play-to-earn games that hinge on blockchain and NFT technologies. But the majority of gamers are uncomfortable with the presence of NFTs in games — 69 percent, according to a March survey by online community platform FandomSpot. Of the 69 percent of respondents who stated they hated NFTs, only 12 percent said they fully knew what NFTs were, so sentiments are likely to change as knowledge of these technologies becomes more widespread. At the moment, though, it is undeniable that many gamers have reacted with vehement negativity whenever large game developers such as Ubisoft have indicated an interest in NFTs. Given the wrathful sentiment surrounding NFTs in the gaming space, brands interested in getting involved in virtual space might be able to avoid bad press by leaning into the gaming origins of the metaverse rather than its web3 potential.
3 traits digital leaders have in common By By Karalee Close And Hrishi Hrishikesh For Bcg
Senior business leaders are keenly aware we’re in a new era of digital consumption—one that’s been rapidly accelerated by COVID-19. If the past few years have shown us anything, it’s that companies must be ready to move quickly to stay ahead of the pace of change. This has familiarized many marketing teams with a new catchphrase: digital transformation. Since 2018, we’ve been partnering with Google to explore digital transformation, as it’s evolved from a relatively nascent concept to a business imperative. Most recently, we teamed up to better understand why some companies are able to generate significant value from digital solutions—and why so many others still lag behind. Our approach was to study the digital proficiency and maturity of 2,000 global companies, and we found that the value companies get from their digital solutions is inextricably linked to their ability to scale those solutions at speed. Achieving scale is what transforms digital pilot programs from interesting experiments into drivers of significant value. Companies that can do this faster than the rest of the market hold a considerable advantage. This became an important factor for our study; it differentiated the “digital leaders”—roughly 30% of companies generating significant value from digital—from the others. Our research showed that digital leaders achieve three times higher revenue
growth and cost savings, and they have an accelerated timeto-market twice as high as companies unable to gain value from digital. By taking a deeper look at the digital leaders, we were able to identify three key factors that allowed them to successfully scale their digital solutions. Here’s what you need to know. 1. C-suite alignment Becoming a digital leader begins at the top. Companies are successful when digital transformation isn’t just the remit of one executive, but when the entire C-suite aligns on a common strategy and road map. Once they’ve set the North Star, CxOs must work together to galvanize the entire organization to execute the vision from the top down. According to our research, 72% of digital leaders say that consistent C-level collaboration is essential, and 82% claim to align across the executive suite on digital vision, investment, and other resources to drive the agenda forward together. To do this successfully, leaders must embrace agile ways of working. They can’t work in silos if they plan to cascade strategies and targets down to local business units. Flexible planning and budgeting processes are critical, and the whole C-suite must be more involved in tech, data privacy, and analytics to follow a successful digital road map.
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2.Build capabilities With C-suite alignment in place, digital leaders next invest in whatever helps their businesses gain value from digital. To effectively understand this question, companies need to take advantage of first-party data, from their customers and themselves. Gathering insights from data requires access to the same high-quality data throughout the organization. More than 90% of digital leaders have gained the ability to connect digital solutions to their tech stacks by using APIs and microservices. An emphasis on proper data governance procedures paves the way for a continuous supply of high-quality data that teams use appropriately and consistently. Digital leaders also focus on creating agile working environments, powered by productivity apps and AI analytics, which appeal to high-performing employees and aid in recruitment. Fostering a competent workforce—and a more inclusive and diverse workplace—also enables digital leaders to build more resilient business models for the long term. 3.Always-on mindset Rather than viewing digital transformation as a one-time project, digital leaders steer with an adaptive, alwayson mindset to improve and scale pilots as the landscape
changes and they prove their ROI. Just as technology, markets, and consumer behaviors constantly evolve, so too will your approach to digital transformation. A cultural reset is required to get comfortable with constant pivots. Digital leaders continually test and learn, invest in flexible planning and budgeting, and develop cross-functional teams, starting with the C-suite. It’s also clear from our research that digital leaders have embedded these behaviors into their company culture. As C-levels align to invest in a digital foundation, they become adept at using internal data as a decision-making tool for operational challenges. This adaptive, always-on mindset also increases businesses’ ability to reimagine customer experiences. By working crossfunctionally, digital leaders are better able to determine which customer-centric opportunities to quickly scale and which unsuccessful or slow-moving initiatives to cut. It’s clear that digital transformation delivers outsize value to digital leaders. All companies can expect to realize similar value if they are willing to commit to change. By embracing necessary success factors—an aligned C-suite, capabilitiesdriven investment, and an always-on approach—any organization can become a digital leader. Further your business’s transformation by exploring the full BCG research report.
5 insights from behavioral science that can make you better at influencing others By Next Big Idea Club
Zoe Chance is a behavioral scientist and professor. She runs a course at Yale School of Management called Mastering Influence and Persuasion, and it ranks as the school’s most popular elective. Prior to Yale, Chance managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand at Mattel; also, she was an actor. Her research has been published in such top academic journals as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Psychological Science, and covered by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the BBC, and others. Below, Chance shares five key insights from her new book, Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. Listen to the audio version—read by Chance herself—in the Next Big Idea App. 1. MAKING IT OKAY FOR SOMEONE TO SAY NO MAKES THEM WANT TO SAY YES. What do you wish for? Maybe you’re hoping to find meaningful work, lead a successful team, get a raise, share your art, fall in love and have a happy relationship, change a policy, change a politician, or save the planet. Or maybe, right now, you’d just like to get your kids to bed before you’re exhausted. The only way to make your dreams come
true is to influence other people to change their behavior. Trying to influence someone means you’re a threat to their time, money, pride, or social capital. Most importantly, influence threatens their attention. Attention is in short supply, and they’re already handling hundreds of influence attempts per day from marketing, kids, bosses, and internal temptations. It’s no wonder that when someone realizes you’re trying to influence them, their gut reaction is to say no or tune you out. They meet your pressure with resistance. But when you make an invitation without any pressure whatsoever, they become inclined to lean forward. It’s one of the aikido moves for handling resistance. All you have to do is add a softener to your request like, “I know you’re probably busy,” or “Please don’t say yes unless you really want to do this,” or “Would you feel comfortable?” Keep in mind that people are more likely to say yes to a face-to-face request, and far less likely to respond to a social media post. The pressure and likelihood of saying yes depend on the closeness of the interaction. Use your own judgment about balancing the two, and focus on the long run. Conversion doesn’t happen in one conversation— it happens in a relationship. 2. INFLUENCE DOESN’T WORK THE WAY YOU THINK
BECAUSE YOU DON’T THINK THE WAY YOU THINK. Influence isn’t rocket science, but it is a science—which is great news because that means it can be mastered by nerds like us. If you’ve read other “big idea” books, you may have learned something about what behavioral economists call System 1 and System 2. In a nutshell, there are two internal systems governing all our thinking and behavior. The first is fast, unconscious, emotional, and instinctive; these are your gut reactions. The second is slow, conscious, effortful, and seemingly rational; these are your deliberate decisions. Because the unconscious mind is fast, it is the first responder. The conscious mind, being slow, is the second-guesser. This means the unconscious mind has more influence on the conscious mind than vice versa. Gut reactions can, and often do, influence reasoning. Even brain anatomy is designed so that there are far more neurons sending information from the primitive parts of the brain to the prefrontal cortex than there are going in the opposite direction. Furthermore, because the conscious mind can focus on only one thing at a time, it has to ignore most of what’s going on in the world. As a result, people tend to make choices that require the least effort. We tend to overestimate the conscious system because it’s the only one we can experience, but the unconscious mind is far more powerful. Being influential requires us to focus first and foremost on people’s gut reactions, and on making their path to a choice as easy as possible. 3. THE BEST PREDICTOR OF BEHAVIOR IS EASE. The biggest misperception about changing minds is that you need to do it at all. A lot of our behavior doesn’t reflect any conscious thinking; that’s why the best predictor of behavior is ease. It’s more powerful than motivation, price, quality, satisfaction, or intentions. You might not be selling something, but you can still take inspiration from a little-known marketing metric for measuring ease called the Customer Effort Score, which comes down to a simple question: How easy was it? How customers answer explains one-third of their willingness to buy again, increase their business with the company, or rave about it to others. The Customer Effort Score is 12% more predictive of customer loyalty than of customer satisfaction. Ease makes people happy, and effort can really annoy people. In a study of 75,000 customer service calls, researchers found that 81% of customers who reported a difficult experience said they intended to complain to friends or post negative reviews, while only 1% of customers who reported having an easy experience said they would do the same. So whenever you want to influence behavior, make that behavior as easy as possible. 4. BEING CHARISMATIC ISN’T SOMETHING YOU ARE—IT’S SOMETHING YOU DO. When I ask people which influence skill they’d like to master, the most common answer is charisma. When I ask what that means, they tell me charisma means people pay attention to you. So how do we get people to pay attention to us? You could run through the office in your underwear, but that’s not exactly charismatic, is it? The most charismatic performer I’ve ever seen was Prince. As he took the stage, he looked right into my eyes (I was sure), and I took my friend’s arm and whispered, “Oh my
God, I’m going to faint!” At that moment, the woman on the other side of me fell to the floor, unconscious, knocked out by Prince’s powerful charisma. The paramedic who loaded her onto a stretcher told me it wasn’t an unusual occurrence. If I didn’t know better, I would have imagined Prince was supernaturally gifted. But the truth is that he was so uncharismatic that when Warner Brothers signed him and he had a #1 Billboard hit, they wouldn’t let him go on tour! He was such a nervous performer that he’d play with his back to the audience. When he spoke, it was barely a whisper. That all changed when Rick James invited him to join his tour as the opening act. Prince studied James’ moves, the way he interacted with the audience, and, most importantly, how he directed his attention. Prince completely transformed himself. You don’t have to be loud to be charismatic. You also don’t have to wear lingerie on stage or play an electric guitar— you can master charisma with simple tools. You can become more charismatic—someone people want to pay attention to—with a few tweaks to your language, body language, and your attention. The simplest charisma hack is to practice focusing your attention on people one at a time. Start by asking questions and using people’s names more often. Pronouns reveal where your attention is focused (and I don’t mean gender pronouns). To have charisma is to shine so that other people feel like they’re the only one in the room, and people want to say yes to you. 5. AUTHENTIC, LASTING INFLUENCE IS A GROUP PROJECT. As our paths cross, entwine, diverge, and reconnect, we form a greater whole—an interconnected web of influence. You are already part of this collective power. The root of the word “influence” is the Latin influere, to flow in—as a river, a current. Your influence flows from other people and to other people, and from them to others, and so on. Sometimes you’re aware of your own ripple effects, sometimes not. Few of history’s turning points can credit just one hero. Instead there was an army of angels who spread the word, or they stepped up and did it. Working together in 1943, the Danish people saved 99% of their Jewish neighbors from the Holocaust. In the middle of the night, they ferried them in tiny fishing boats to Sweden and safety. In 2005, the “Cajun Navy” rescued 10,000 of their neighbors from Hurricane Katrina. Rebecca Solnit writes in Hope in the Dark: In Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of boat owners rescued people—single moms, toddlers, grandfathers—stranded in attics, on roofs, in flooded housing projects, hospitals, and school buildings. None of these people said, I can’t rescue them all. All of them said, I can rescue someone, and that’s work so meaningful and important I will risk my life and defy the authorities to do it. And they did. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes our hearts break open. Sometimes inspiration strikes, our timing is perfect, luck is on our side, and the gates of heaven part for us. And all the time, the seeds of our influence are floating off like the tufts of a dandelion, carried on the wind. Whether we mean to or not, we are planting seeds. We are making history. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Why Australian brands are embracing the partnership economy By Ayaan Mohamud
What isn’t simple for marketers in 2022 though is finding effective (both performance and cost wise) ways to do this with privacy regulations and changing customer behaviours making things increasingly tricky. Well documented changes to Apple’s identifiers and the phasing out of third party cookies are making it challenging for marketers to reach new audiences, which in turn is pushing up customer acquisition costs as more brands have to rely on walled garden Alpha publishers like Facebook and Google where (unsurprisingly) costs are rising. Cost issues aside, customers themselves are turning their back on traditional forms of digital advertising – overwhelmed by the volume and the tenacity of ads following them around the internet and decidedly underwhelmed by poor creativity, clunky load times and lack of relevancy. Importantly, the poor experience and concerns around privacy is serving to undermine consumer trust – one quality that’s essential for building meaningful customer connections and growing long-term revenue. The good news for marketers is that there’s a booming channel which meets the brief of attracting new and existing customers in a trusted and authentic way – it’s called partnerships. The Partnership Economy Partnerships have their roots in the world of traditional affiliate marketing but todays’ modern partnership economy is much broader. It encompasses a myriad of diverse partnerships including premium publishers, social influencers, content creators, mobile apps, charities, brand to brand and more – essentially if two entities share similar values, aspirations and have complimentary audiences then a partnership can be formed based on agreed outcomes. We’re seeing brands of all sizes expand their partnership programs not only because it’s an efficient customer acquisition channel, but because partnerships are perfectly in tune with today’s consumer environment. Partnership and the new customer paradigm With consumer trust in brands continuing to nose dive, purchase decisions are increasingly being driven by authentic, third-party recommendations such as trusted influencers and content-rich sites that inform choice. This is why savvy marketers are aligning with partners who have already created a trusted community to benefit from the halo-effect of alignment.
Further, we are now firmly in the era of values based marketing. Consumer activism is becoming an increasingly powerful force in shaping demand, as recent pressure on corporations operating in Russia have brought to the fore. This means brands must be authentic and genuine in their communication with customers – something that partnerships do incredibly effectively. It’s a return to the era of the soft persuasive sell vs. the hard ‘in your face’ intrusiveness of a pop up banner or interruptive video ad. Technology is unleashing the power of partnerships We’re seeing partnership programmes really beginning to take off. Partnership management platforms like impact. com allow workflows to be streamlined and automated across the entire partnership lifecycle. Whether finding and recruiting partners, onboarding them, setting up and managing contracts and payments or finessing productive, revenue-generating partnerships, technology has removed many of the traditional burdens of partnership management. Crucially, this can now be done at scale which means the ability to include as many types of partners as can be imagined, as well as allowing brands to manage partners across multiple territories, languages and currencies. And it’s not just a channel for the big brand guns as the SaaSbased technology breaks down barriers to entry – at impact. com we have a number of small to mid-size businesses including Sans Drinks, JS Health, LVLY, True Protein as well as larger enterprises like The Big Red Group, Coles, Canva, Virgin Australia and Westpac as customers. The beauty of partnerships is that as well as being a very strong performance play that can become a significant revenue opportunity they can play a role at all stages of the funnel and help support critical branding, acquisition and retention strategies – with partners being rewarded depending on desired outcome. The Big Red Group, for example, achieved an impressive 117 percent year on year increase in its return on ad spend (ROAS) and a 32 percent increase in partnership revenue in just five months after implementing impact.com’s partnership management platform. In the shifting sands of today’s marketing ecosystem, partnerships are emerging as a way to develop long-term relationships which drive more value than just focusing on short-term marketing activities. It’s an opportunity that marketers can’t afford to miss.
Why creativity always loses the battle against eight indifferent consumers
By Vince Usher and Adam Ferrier, Thinkerbell
While the commissioning of qualitative and quantitative research is clearly important, the role of the focus group in creative development and evaluation is questionable, argue Vince Usher, Lead Brand Thinker and Adam Ferrier, Chief Thinker/Founder of Thinkerbell. “[They were] judge, jury, and executioner.” It’s a popular idiom, first committed to paper in 1717 by Daniel Defoe as part of a memoir written about the Church of Scotland. With this phrase Defoe analogised the persecution and ultimately often execution of Church-affiliated citizens by regular everyday soldiers given, extraordinarily, magisterial powers. The purpose, according to Defoe, was “to swiftly quell what may have been the church’s potential rebellion, at the risk of a slow judicial process.” It’s a wild-sounding proposition, but the concept really isn’t dissimilar from the ways in which our industry today uses focus groups to judge, analyse, and sentence to death creative ideas. The jury, laypeople, are ordained by those with the ultimate power, marketers, with the power to both judge creative ideas and swing the executioner’s scythe their way. Stepping back, do we really think this is good, brandbuilding, decision making? Or is it a smokescreen, fear thinly veiled, stamping out rebellion and maintaining the status quo? The focus group in a literal sense is almost always eight or so bored people who’ve never met each other, sitting in a deliberately dull meeting room behind a two-way mirror. The concept also holds up metaphorically: unqualified people attempting to home in on an idea, on the focal point, to decide its worth, generally with naught more than dinner at
the front of their minds. It’s wormed its way into all forms of culture, from politics to architecture, to movies, entertainment, academia and, of course, marketing – the logic being that ideas are best judged by those who’ll experience them. Dig a little deeper and this ends up being about as sensible as Defoe’s soldiers, there’s almost no independent research that supports this method. There’s a bit out there, of course, but most of it fails the sniff test once you look into the body or company that has funded and designed the research. From the more rigorous investigations, we know that group decision making is often flawed at all levels. Cass Sustein’s (1999) research on legal juries showed that in jury situations groups often push moderate participants toward increasingly extreme positions until regression toward a confused and diffident mean takes place. Closer to home in the world of advertising Brooke Hempbill (2018) writes, paraphrasing the work of Professor Rachel Kennedy (Ehrenberg Bass), that “the real question is whether pre-testing can predict if a campaign will lead to the behaviours in-market the advertiser desires. The short answer is that in a lot of cases, it cannot.” Creative agency scepticism has been omnipresent around the focus group, especially when used for ‘creative testing’. For years a video showing the famous Apple 1984 ad being exposed to a focus group has done the rounds, highlighting the absurdity of testing creative work in this fashion. And so, taking inspiration from Ehrenberg Bass and the makers of that video (Arnold Worldwide), we decided to test the focus group as part of a podcast series called ‘Black T-Shirts’.
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We asked two focus groups what they thought of one of the most lauded and successful ads of our generation: the famous John Lewis Christmas ad ‘Monty The Penguin’. As reported by the IPA in WARC (2020) the ads were very successful, returning 883% ROMI, £1.2bn in incremental sales, and £411m in profit. A beloved classic in the UK, ‘Monty the Penguin’ was unrecognisable to an Australian audience. The ad was shown in two formats: one cell received a storyboard of the ad, the other cell received the ad as shown to television audiences in the UK. The focus group that received the storyboard version of the ad (Cell A) viewed it as absurd and depressing: •
“It’s a bit [censored]… I don’t see how it’s relevant, it doesn’t tug at my heart strings at all. I like penguins, I’d like to have a penguin, and I don’t understand what the point of it all is”
•
I “think the premise of the story was really lovely, but I think the animation, and the lack of colour in the animation made it not as engaging and the voiceover that read very slowly like you were reading to a child made you zone out and not focus on what was happening in the storyline”
•
“I feel sad, and I’d tell people not to watch it, because they’d get p*ssed off too”
Overwhelmingly, the group strongly opposed the making or progression of creative development of the ad. Those who saw the final ad (Cell B) were not nearly as
scathing, but still didn’t see the ad as something that would impact their behaviour: •
“It doesn’t tell you too much about the brand, it’s more focused on the little boy and the penguin, I’d like to see more about the brand”
•
“It was that long of an ad and it took that long for me to realise that it was a department store ad, that yeah, I probably would’ve lost interest a long time ago…”
•
“Realistically I’m not going to base my buying decisions off an ad about a penguin, at least not consciously”
These results are interesting for several reasons: 1. Many market research companies laud the fact that their benchmarks show no difference between a finished ad and a storyboard concept, but our research suggests that this is much more likely salesmanship than a wellbacked argument. 2. Development of good, effective, advertising could be at risk if testing ads at a ‘storyboard’ concept continues (it’s hard to storyboard charm!). 3. Without context consumers will reject, or at least view sceptically, the very best of advertising. While we’re strong advocates of research and the commissioning of qualitative and quantitative research, there’s a lot that makes us cynical of the contribution of the focus group in creative development and evaluation. It’s also worth considering the serious dearth of independent research on pre-testing. More than anything, this article should be a stimulus for someone to take this on.
The cost-of-living crunch: what it means for marketing, and what to do next By Anna Hamill
2022 was always going to be a difficult year as the aftereffects of the pandemic played out. Now war in Ukraine is dialling up the impact. WARC’s Anna Hamill introduces a new series in which industry experts consider what it all means for the 4Ps of marketing. Coming into 2022, brands hoped that the new year would herald a more optimistic outlook for business after a long period of upheaval. With the successful vaccine rollout promising an end to two years of COVID tumult, there were indications that life would – at long last – go back to something resembling normality. For brands, that meant a welcome return to growth and stepping away from the crisismanagement whiteboards. Unfortunately, the first three months of the year have turned those good intentions upside down for many marketers. A cost-of-living crunch, ongoing supply-chain issues and the economic impact of the invasion of Ukraine have changed the calculus once again. Many marketers who did the hard yards during COVID are benefitting from lessons learned about scenario planning and ensuring business stability in a ‘black swan’ event. But the basic principles of marketing – the famous 4 Ps of price, place, product and promotion – will need a rethink if brands want to stay top of mind as the screws tighten for consumers.
In a new series for WARC, industry experts examine each of the 4 Ps in the context of a cost-of-living crunch and offer practical advice on how marketers can respond. The cost-of-living crunch is set to define 2022 The cost-of-living crisis that emerged in the second half of 2021 shows few signs of abating and is now being supersized in many aspects by the knock-on economic effects of war in eastern Europe. According to KPMG, one in three British households will trim their household spending this year and most people will likely cut the products they see as superfluous. Oil and gas prices have soared to previously unthinkable highs, while resurgent inflation is hitting shoppers directly in the pocket. The rising price of essentials such as heating and food is hitting lowerincome households especially hard, and wages simply aren’t keeping up. At the same time, ongoing supply chain challenges mean that many brands are struggling to ensure consistent product availability, while managing customer expectations amid shortages and delays. These concurrent economic storms are hitting brands just at the time they had hoped to move toward clearer skies postCOVID.
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55 “The war in Ukraine has created a new negative supply shock for the world economy, just when some of the supplychain challenges seen since the beginning of the pandemic appeared to be starting to fade,” reported the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in midMarch. The report noted “numerous significant economic implications”, including for the price of basic commodities such as oil and wheat, which are key exports from the affected region into wider Europe. “The war is having an impact on the rest of the world through two main economic channels: higher food prices, which will hurt low-income and emerging markets especially, and energy prices, which will affect businesses and consumers worldwide,” said Laurence Boone, the OECD’s chief economist, as reported by the Guardian.
Brands are not created equal: some sell status and may be able to put prices up with little ill-effect; others meet a more functional need, and even a small price increase can harm margins unless there are genuine product benefits. Acknowledge that a crisis won’t stop consumers from consuming: Savvy marketers will look to focus on how small changes in customer behaviour can help guide their brand’s behaviour. Recognise that, above all, that fairness rules: Transparency is key – customers can easily find out why you’re raising prices, and some may even sympathise; but if it’s unwarranted and profiteering, they’ll churn, especially if competitors haven’t put their prices up. Product
This complex reality is redefining plans in real time for businesses of all sizes and categories, but consumers are still likely to bear much of the burden of increased costs.
As inflation and the increased costs of living bite consumers at a time when brands are aiming for post-COVID growth, companies will need to rethink their product proposition, writes Jacob Lovewell, Senior Strategist at RAPP.
Here’s what WARC’s industry experts have to say about how brands can respond to a cost-of-living crunch, with a focus on each of the 4 Ps.
Lovewell offers sounds advice for marketers with regard to managing their product portfolios:
Place (distribution and channels) Choosing the most appropriate distribution channels with care is vital to preserving a brand’s carefully orchestrated position. This is especially important when dealing with business conditions outside of the norm, writes Frances Dennis, Client Development Director at Brandwidth. Marketers should remember this fact during the cost-ofliving squeeze, when the temptation to ‘spray and pray’ gets ever greater. Brands in a position to do so should invest in a comprehensive digital strategy (where relevant) and do so with the same care and consideration as the brand would approach a flagship store location. “Creating a distribution strategy requires strong insights gleaned from market research and economic analysis,” says Dennis. “The choices a marketer makes about these, and how those augment the brand’s approach in response to the cost-ofliving crisis, can have a huge organisational impact on the business and how your customer encounters and considers your product.” Price In these unpredictable times, brands have crucial choices to make about how they set prices. Do they cut prices and keep customers buying the brand, eating into their bottom line but ensuring a long-term customer base? Or do they put prices up, increasing their margins but risking significant churn? According to Will Humphrey, Strategy Director at Wunderman Thompson, when pricing in a crisis, brands should be aware of four central lessons: The effects of the crisis will be unevenly felt: Depending on who they serve and what they sell, some brands will have to take far more drastic actions than others. For customers, every brand sits between status and satisfaction:
If a brand’s product serves more than one purpose for a consumer, then it is an investment more worthy of spend than a single-purpose or single-use product. Understand the individual needs of customers and talk to them in a way that treats them as people instead of numbers. In doing so, marketers can forge a more prominent and positive presence in the mind of their audience. It doesn’t have to be a binary choice between super expensive or bargain bucket products. Giving customers the chance to choose their level of spend is an emerging trend. Wise premium brands will understand that their products offer an experience of escapism that is worth paying more for. Promotion Soaring everyday costs impact consumers in different amounts. Brands will need to walk a line between staying relevant and top of mind, while also being sensitive to their increasingly challenging financial circumstances, write Jamie Kenyon and Louise Martell from Yonder Media. Brand owners must acknowledge economic disparity and ensure all aspects of their marketing communications are responsive. This means getting to grips with audiences’ financial reality and aligning all communications to their expectations, priorities and behaviour. Those still able to invest in big-ticket items will crave security in their purchases. Brands in this space should bolster trust cues – emphasising protections, approval ratings and testimonials while employing social proof bias in messaging to reassure potential customers. The ‘lipstick effect’ will assume increased importance with consumers placing emphasis on things they have been denied during the pandemic as well as cheaper indulgences. The full articles in WARC’s new series addressing the rising cost of living are available to WARC.com subscribers.
Short-term fixation is a challenge for both brands and agency cultures By Chris Skinner, UM
It’s an exciting time to be a consumer. We can get almost everything we want when we want it. Amazon, the retailer many consider at the heart of this transformation, reported net sales up 22% in 2021 and it has become a major technology brand in its own right.
culture issue as a brand growth one.
The media sector is equally blessed. On top of amazing people, our access to data and technology through services like Acxiom enable agencies to reach the right people and also to close the sale in real time. It’s the marketer’s dream.
So how do we approach this challenge and ensure we can move at pace, keep our talent and drive sales, whilst also instilling long-term growth solutions?
Of course, that means we’re under enormous pressure to not only deliver ever-increasing growth, but also to ensure we measure and make accountable everything we do across the media landscape. There is both great challenge and great opportunity in helping companies drive sales and influence culture and communities. And it brings us back to one of the oldest debates in our industry – short-term versus long-term thinking. It’s a cultural thing We all agree marketers need to find the balance between near-term sales value and longer-term brand building. It’s certainly been written and spoken about enough times. Agencies have tended to structure their businesses around the sales goals of clients. This means we need to spend a lot of time ensuring we don’t get sucked into an everwidening maelstrom of non-stop optimisation, without also developing the strategies that create sustainable growth over time for the brands in our care. Not to mention that building that strategic long-term view means our people can find time to think and create ideas and ways of working that drive success – the things they love to do. However, the ‘need for speed’ is something we have to embrace, though agencies have to balance this whilst also remaining aware of the stress it can put on our people. Quick-win performance marketing, driven by data rather than human insight and creativity, can lead to greater pressures at a time when teams are already trying to get to grips with new skills. And this has very real risks: denying our top talent the job fulfilment they need at a time when the industry is already facing a serious recruitment crisis. The short-term focus therefore becomes as much a working
The short-term focus is as much an issue of working culture as brand growth. Find the balance
On the one hand, it’s about structure. Agency teams need to be balanced and constructed with the right mixture of generalists and specialists: imagine a T-shape where the client leadership team has the dedicated focus, but also has access to bespoke specialism – including people from outside the ‘media bubble’ – in fields like e-commerce, strategy and performance marketing. On the other hand, we need to ensure we have the right real-time data – information that can provide teams with the navigation and insights to plan and activate media better. It has to be driven by data analysts who sit at the centre, utilising project management technology to ensure processes are followed systematically. Automating those processes and the laborious work will open up more time for teams to focus on other key elements of the job – the creativity and the long-term, insight-led planning. Finally, and perhaps critically, it’s a question of building a better, brighter internal culture. Agencies will have to ensure our teams are highly trained, are continually developing, share a common purpose and have clear open communications and support. That allows us to ensure there is ‘joy’ in what we do and how we behave as a business. Get this right and we can manage the stress and balance short- and long-term brand and business needs. After all, people are looking for faster and more seamless ways to purchase and the move to a digital-first market grows every day. The changing landscape will enable us to build in technology-led approaches that will open up time for staff to focus on those elements of the job that are most interesting and can really drive business performance to a higher level. The sector may currently be in a transition state, but it promises to become a more interesting place as we find that balance. Most importantly, this way our industry can ensure that our people still enjoy what they do and have the tools and technology to work with real agility.
Science is resilient. It can overcome diseases, create cures, and, yes, even beat pandemics. It has the methodology and the rigor to withstand even the most arduous scrutiny. It keeps asking questions and, until there’s a breakthrough, it isn’t done. That’s why, when the world needs answers, we turn to science. Because in the end, Science will win.
Breakthroughs that change patients’ lives Learn more at www.pfizer.com
Crocs: How Fashion’s Most Divisive Footwear Wound Up In Everybody’s Closet By BJ Bueno
Crocs weren’t created to be beautiful. 200 pairs of distinctively shaped, lightweight footwear were created for the 2001 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. They sold out quickly. This was the brand’s first step to superstardom. More than 720 million pairs of Crocs have been sold since then, and the company is enjoying its fourth straight year of impressive revenue growth. This despite the fact that the fashion world deemed Crocs hideous, one of mankind’s worst inventions ever. How did this happen? Know What Your Customers Love About You Crocs may not be pretty, but they are durable, comfortable, and easy to clean. These characteristics, along with the shoe’s iconic clunky silhouette, have remained a constant over the brand’s 20+ year lifespan. Crocs fans are legion in part because the brand has identified what is important to their customer and then improved upon it. Case in point: Croc’s roomy fit and durable construction made them an early hit with people with diabetes, who often have foot problems. Knowing this, Crocs focused on creating specific styles for this audience, using guidance from medical professionals. Other styles were created for health care workers, who appreciated having comfortable shoes that could easily be hosed off after a messy day of work, but needed a solid top to protect their feet from any medical waste that might splatter or spill upon them.
Love means listening, and Crocs has demonstrated that they do that. Focus on Keeping Things Fun As part of their corporate values, Crocs promises to keep an open mind and look on the bright and colorful side. That’s definitely been demonstrated in their product mix. While you can get basic white and black Crocs, the vast majority of Crocs offerings are boldly colored, distinctively patterned, or otherwise eye-catching. Crocs builds trust by delivering on its brand promise to be completely practical and totally goofy. Product options for men include Real-Tree Camo, Classic Tie Dye, styles matched to your Zodiac sign, and more. Crocs also boosts the fun level of the brand through collaborations and limited editions created with pop celebrities and popular brands. The range of options is very impressive, including shoes inspired by the Grateful Dead and Post Malone, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Peeps, Vera Bradley, and Lightning McQueen from Cars. No matter what it takes to put a smile on your face, Crocs likely has a collaboration that covers it. In fact, some of the most popular Crocs collaborations have a deliberately counterintuitive feel, such as the ongoing project with top fashion brand Balenciaga. Platform Crocs aren’t for everyone, but for the people who pay attention to
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what runway models wear, they’re certainly something. Gilding the lily, in 2006, Crocs acquired Jibbitz, a company that made small fun charms people could use to personalize their shoes. Today, Jibbitz sales represent a sizable portion of revenue and have even been credited with the brand’s strong performance during the pandemic. Crocs’ fun, expressive footwear makes their customers and other people smile. This positive emotional experience has resulted in a cohort of fanatically loyal Croc collectors. While the ‘typical collector’ may have a few dozen pairs to brag about, Doogie Lish Sandtiger is on a quest to have the world’s largest collection – he has nearly 800 pairs! Love Means Getting Close: Crocs Direct to Customer Experience While Crocs are available via many high-quality retail outlets it’s important to pay attention to Crocs’ Direct-to-Customer shopping experience. It’s very easy for shoppers to quickly find the products that are meant for them, whether they’re after that classic Crocs look or need a new pair of shoes for work. With special discounts for teachers, healthcare workers, and the military, Crocs effectively honors and recognizes an important portion of its customer base while simultaneously keeping the shopping experience cheerful and bright.
While working hard to maintain the love and trust of their core customer base, Crocs uses its website to effectively leverage the social media influencers they’ve been using to expand the brand’s identity and grow market share. This is a smart way to keep customer experiences in alignment with expectations: the shopper who sees a pair of shoes on Instagram that they want will find those same shoes in the influencer’s collection on the website. Other features to pay attention to are the Crocs Club, the Say Hi feature that directs shoppers to the nearest brick and mortar retail location, and importantly, an opportunity for customers to have their own Crocs images included on the site. The invitation to and celebration of community gives Crocs brand Lovers an easy-to-access way to deepen their relationship with the brand. Going Forward: Growth Based on Core Values Crocs has conducted itself fairly consistently since the beginning. The focus has been on continually improving product quality and keeping the fun factor high. Over the years, strategic acquisitions and partnerships have helped Crocs achieve and maintain a High Trust/High Love position. Crocs core audience includes teachers and health care workers. What professions would you identify as being part of your core audience? How do you recognize and honor these individuals?
How long is too long for an ad? Apple releases 9 minute spot By Liv Croagh
It’s known for its unique and cut-through campaigning, but is a nine-minute spot too long even for Apple? In 2019, Apple released a three-minute ad online. The ad was called The Underdogs, and profiled four office workers looking to make a break from their 9-5. Given an opportunity to pitch an idea to their difficult boss, the workers rely on Apple products to make it happen – and make it happen fast. The ad gained huge popularity, and was a unique way of showing off the plethora of products that Apple has. Apple is no stranger to making viral ads. From relying on its distinctly white colour in the early iPod campaigns through to the Macintosh ads in the 90s, Apple knows how to make waves, not ripples. However, Apple’s latest advertising efforts might be its most daring to date. Why does this campaign stand out? Apple’s campaign The Underdogs is unique for the techgiant. For starters Apple rarely, if ever, do sequels. All of its most famous campaigns are standalone. But, there was something different about The Underdogs. It was never imagined to be a sequel, let alone a trilogy. Yet, the 2019 spot gained such popularity in both characters and plot, it felt like it had nowhere else to go. The short film even has its own IMDb page, where it has been voted as nine out of ten viewing. On the back of the success of the debut, a series was born. In 2020, The Underdogs moved locations. The foursome joined the ranks of those working from home. This gave Apple another opportunity: how to connect when remote. In an era when everyone was learning how to connect to a home network, Apple had the answers. In a real life, insitu event. The motley crew were to pitch a product to their boss. Using iPads, iPens, iPhones and iMacs, the plan came to fruition. It was a genius way to showcase not only the products, but their uses. The most outstanding part though? The ad was seven minutes. It had increased a full four minutes from its predecessor. But, is seven minutes too long to hold an audience’s attention?
We are living in a TikTok generation. Small snippets of information delivered with high energy. This sequel was the opposite. It was long. It had plots and subplots. Plot devices. It was well thought out, but at the core of it all – it was an ad. But, people watched. Currently the ad sits at over 33 million streams on YouTube. So the formula was working. Longer ads to over take tradition? On the heels of the mammoth of success of part two of The Underdogs, we waited two years to find out what happened to the team. On 11 March 2022, Apple released the third instalment of the series. This time, they’ve had enough. The four stars decide to join the Great Resignation. But, it’s not the plot that matters per se. It’s the risk that Apple has taken. This ad spot is a staggering nine minutes long. As viewers and consumers, we are used to seeing ads at 15, 30 or 60-second spots during prime time TV. A nine minute spot means that we are now consuming ads actively rather than passively. When an ad is nine minutes long, we are seeking out to watch it. Rather than it being part of the background noise whilst we run our typical chores that fit into an ad break, we’re making the choice to consume. What does this mean for Apple? It means that the ad has to be more subtle. No one will sit down to watch nine minutes of the same cleaning product being used over and over. But, with a strong story arc and likeable characters, can you make a short film an ad? Well, if The Underdogs is anything to go by – yes. The series works beautifully. From the use of emojis to the Apple watch. Every product used is done with nuance yet tongue-in-cheek. It’s a successful display of creativity with advertising. Apple has again dominated its marketing. Leveraging both current events as well as our interest in the characters, the trilogy has done better than expected. The nine minute ad is worth every minute. All nine of them.
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Brand Builders
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Courtney Spritzer and Stephanie Cartin were pioneers when they started their social media business in 2011. Not just because the medium was relatively new, but also because they were one of the few women-owned startups in the industry. That’s why, today, they use their social media savvy to build a support network that inspires female entrepreneurs of all ages. And with Mastercard’s Digital Doors program, these Citi Small Business clients can further amplify their digital presence. So businesses like Courtney & Stephanie’s can thrive in the digital world while they’re busy impacting the real world. Because their business is much more than the services they provide. /HDUQ KRZ 0DVWHUFDUG® LV SUHSDULQJ ORFDO EXVLQHVVHV OLNH 6RFLDOɥ\ DQG (QWUHSUHQLVWD 0HGLD IRU WKH GLJLWDO DJH DW PDVWHUFDUG XV FLWLVPDOOEXVLQHVV
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Build Your Brand Mania: How to Transform Yourself Into an Authoritative Brand That Will Attract Your Ideal Customers By Matt Bertram he missing piece of internet marketing that almost all business owners miss is transforming themselves into an authoritative brand that attracts their ideal customers.
Sticky Branding: 12.5 Principles to Stand Out, Attract Customers, and Grow an Incredible Brand By Jeremy Miller Companies like Apple, Nike, and Starbucks have made themselves as recognizable as they are successful. But large companies are not the only ones who can stand out. Any business willing to challenge industry norms and find innovative ways to serve its customers can grow into a Sticky Brand.
Linkedin: The Number One Social Network for Personal Branding By Michael King Linkedin The Number One Social Network for Personal Branding is a comprehensive guide to building a successful personal brand on LinkedIn. This book will help you to understand how using LinkedIn can help you to gain an edge over your competitors.
Hook Point: How to Stand Out in a 3-Second World By Brendan Kane Hook Point: How to Stand Out in a 3-Second World, by out of the box thinker Brendan Kane, breaks down the most effective strategies to generate new opportunities, innovate and scale your business, and create a compelling brand— both online and off—so you can thrive in the new micro-attention world in which we live.
Sinker How to Launch a Brand (2nd Edition): Your Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting a Brand: From Positioning to Naming And Brand Identity By Fabian Geyrhalter Most entrepreneurs, even seasoned brand managers, launch first and then work on slowly transforming the new offering into a brand. A logical progression, I would agree.
Identity Designed: The Definitive Guide to Visual Branding By David Airey
Ideal for students of design, independent designers, and entrepreneurs who want to expand their understanding of effective design in business, Identity Designed is the definitive guide to visual branding.
Lifescale: How to Live a More Creative, Productive, and Happy Life By Brian Solis Somewhere along the way, we got distracted. As much as we multitask, love our devices and feel like we’re in control, deep down we know that something is off. Shortened attention spans, declines in critical thinking, lack of sleep, selfdoubt and decreased creativity are just some of the effects coming to light in an age of digital distraction.
Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences on Social Media By Dan Gingiss Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. He is the inventor of countless ideas that have made their way into mainstream business language, from Permission Marketing to Purple Cow to Tribes to The Dip.
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He Said, She Said: Branding By Michael Russo In He Said, She Said: Branding, the husband and wife team of Jaci and Michael Russo share what they’ve learned over their combined decades of experience working in branding and with each other. Through their unique voices, you’ll learn about tried-and- true branding best practices and even get an inside look into how their agency has continued to help businesses from coast to coast thrive for the past twenty years.
Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story By Miri Rodriguez Written by the award-winning storyteller Miri Rodriguez at Microsoft, this actionable guide goes beyond content strategy and, instead, demonstrates how to leverage brand storytelling in the marketing mix to strengthen brand engagement and achieve long-term growth, with advice from brands like Expedia, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Adobe and Google.
The Business of Aspiration By Ana Andjeli The Business of Aspiration is about how consumers’ shifting status symbols affect business and brand strategy. These changing status symbols, like taste, aesthetic innovation, curation or environmentalism create the modern aspirational economy.
Activate Brand Purpose: How to Harness the Power of Movements to Transform Your Company
By Scott Goodson We live in an age of activism - the conscious consumer is more socially aware than ever before, and this is reflected in their buying habits. Yet, activism on behalf of brands is lagging. While many claim to be ‘purpose driven’, far too often this purpose is relegated to a plaque above the CEO’s desk, and never goes any further.
B.Y.O.B. Building Your Own Brand: Branding for Designers, Brand Strategy, Identity Assets, Logo Design, Blogging & Marketing By Karan Gupta Who is this book for? This book is tailored for professionals in the fields of graphic design, branding design, visual design, ui/ux, business administration, brand management, public relations, architecture, interior design, content marketing and communication design.
REBRAND: The Ultimate Guide to Personal Branding By Bernard Kelvin Clive In the midst of this noisy and busy world if you don’t purposely decide to stand-out you will be drowned by competition. This book contains guidelines to help you build an authentic personal brand that will promote your product and services.
Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life By Rory Sutherland “Sutherland, the legendary Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, uses his decades of experience to dissect human spending behavior in an insanely entertaining way. Alchemy combines scientific research with hilarious stories and case studies of campaigns for AmEx, Microsoft and the like. This is a must-read.” —Entrepreneur (“Best Books of the Year”)
The Context Marketing Revolution: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media By Gavin Turner We are in the midst of a massive media revolution. For the first time in history, ordinary people around the world have the ability to create, distribute, and consume content instantly, from anywhere, using connected devices.