Branding matters. Because branding matters.
Published by
08.20#94
brandknew.groupisd.com brandknewmag.com
Dear Friends: As we still remain in the vice like grip of the Corona pandemic and hope that you and yours are safe and fine, a little bit of thinking within reveals that BrandKnew is now heading close to it’s 100th Edition(this being the 94th). All of you have had an incredible role to play in this and our immense gratitude for the love, attention, support and loyalty. QR(Quick Response) Codes were a shiny object some years ago but never got the ‘ attention ‘ it needed. But this Covid 19 has changed it. Understand more in this edition. We also do a bit of crystal ball gazing and offer 5 Predictions on the Future of Marketing post the pandemic. It goes well beyond paying lip service for innovations to hit pay dirt. We feature in this issue how innovators walk the talk. Brands have to be ‘ empathetic customer experiences ‘ and that is the takeaway from this article. We are not being poker faced here but do talk about how the game of poker can teach us about making this world a better place. How Artificial Intelligence is powering the future of marketing is reviewed in this issue. Burnout and stress are common pitfalls in a rat race to the bottom world. The article on How To Recover From A Burnout will be helpful surely. We have also capsuled some Future Insights and articulated some Trends for the rest of 2020. The feature on Cultivating a Sense of Creative Purpose will encourage brand owners and brand guardians certainly. Does the world need another Advertising Agency Podcast? Listen sorry read about it here. There is mighty more on offer as always and I urge you to dive in and soak up. Till the next, my very best. Stay safe.
@ISDGlobalDubai
@Brandknewmag
linkd.in/1dsjYaW
isdbranding
bit.ly/1h95tgO
isdglobaldubai
suresh@groupisd.com
All Copyright of the content in this issue rests fully & comprehensively with the respective contributors and/or media platforms at all times, as the case may be.
www.brandknew.groupisd.com www.groupisd.com
10 22 42 54 60 38
30 14 28
Brand Knew is published by
For Advertising Enquiries: engage@groupisd.com or call + 050 6254340
20
26
Suresh Dinakaran
Brand Consultancy | Advertising | PR | Publishing Digital Media | Film Academy
32
Managing Editor: Suresh Dinakaran Creative Head/Director Operations: Pravin Ahir Magazine Concept & Design/ New Media Specialist: Mufaddal Joher Chief Strategy Director: Rishi Mohan Chief Growth Architect: Deepak Chandrasekharan 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: Ryan Govindan Video Content Specialist: Vinayak Sivaprasad
18 16 46 52 62
CONTENTS Does The World Need A New Advertising Agency Podcast? Cultivating A Sense Of Creative Purpose Successful Innovators Walk The Talk How Will The Pandemic Change Influencer Marketing How Digital Sensory Marketing Is Key To Appealing To Today’s Consumer What Poker Can Teach Us About Making The World A Better Place A Startup Is Testing The Subscription Model For Search Engines Kolster To Brands:avoid The ’Hero Trap’ And Close The Intention-Action Gap 3 New Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Powering The Future Of Marketing Close The Marketing And Sales Gap, And You’ll Close More Deals A New Card Ties Your Credit To Your Social Media Stats The Future Of Marketing Organizations Post-Pandemic: Top 5 Predictions How To Recover After Burnout It Took A Global Pandemic, But Qr Codes May Finally Take Off In An Era Of Covid-19 Disruption, Brands Must Rethink Marketing As Empathetic Customer Experiences Futurist Insights: Trends Of 2020 Book, Line & Sinker
Built right. The world’s most creative minds need the world’s most cutting-edge workstation. Meet the all new ThinkPad P53 from Lenovo. Outfitted with the latest Intel® processors, desktop-grade NVIDIA ® graphics, and up to 6TB of storage. There’s nothing you can’t accomplish.
To learn more about Lenovo Workstations visit solutions.lenovo.com/workstations
Powered by Intel® CoreTM i9 vPro® processor
Does The World Need A New Advertising Agency Podcast?
By Peter
A large number of marketers start a content marketing initiative without knowing the ‘why,’ ‘what,’ or ‘how’ behind it. They don’t review the purpose of the content. They don’t analyze how it can fix within the overall content mix. They don’t know what they are supposed to do with the content, and they don’t know how the content will impact the business. Is it to create ancillary revenue? Is it to drive sales? They simply don’t know. Only a few digital content marketers spend time in analyzing the purpose of content and curating them to drive more leads. Content marketing influencers consistently create marketingrelated and high-quality search content. They are always at the forefront, churning one great blog post after another. And they yield over 10,000 visitors a week. So, how do they get there? In this blog post, I’ll answer that question for you, through the 3Cs of Content Marketing. The First: Content Creation
The path of content strategists and marketer is clear. To boost their SEO ranking, gain leads, and earn traffic, they must create great content. I’ve heard a few bloggers ask, ‘What exactly makes a content exceptional?’ In this section, I’ve listed few ingredients that make a content great: Original content creation: Original means originality. Rehashing the same post or concept over and over again is not originality. Your ideas should also be original. Google algorithm updates now prevent poor quality content from ranking high in search results. You cannot just find a bunch of articles and rephrase them. That ship has sailed. True ahead-of-the curve content creators produce unique content by paying attention to trending topics, focusing on timely, relevant news, and writing trending content. You can be more effective by evoking emotions in your readers, bringing your perspective, and talking about your experience. This way, you’ll be able to make your content more relatable. Focus on writing strong headline When you’re writing a headline, remember that 8 out of 10 people read headlines, but only 2 out of 10 will click the article open and read the rest. Give time to your headlines. I suggest making a few and selecting the best one. A great headline convinces more people to click open the article and read it till the end.
brandknewmag.com
11
Produce Actionable content The best content is the one that provides users with a sense of how to apply the information shared. When you’re writing content, give readers tips on applying what you’re telling them. Write contents that can provide answers People using search engines ultimately want answers. There are millions of How-tos in the minds of millions of users, and your blog should deliver a few of these answers. When you write a thought-provoking content, you engage the readers. And an engaged audience will take every word you’ve written. To make your content engaging, tell them stories, have a promising introduction and leave them with questions.
Eliminate fluff: Write Short, precise, and pointed content Stop focusing on the word count, and try to make it as brief as possible. Your content must be ‘to-the-point’ and filled with information. Content is the king. You’ve heard this phrase so much that it has almost become a cliche. Yet, the importance of creating quality content is usually overlooked. Let’s look at some of the blogs/Website that create great content: • Troop Messenger
Be reliable and accurate in your sourcing of information When you’re linking to a source of information, you’ve to make sure that they are an authoritative and trusted source. The more you can substantiate what you’ve written, the more reliable your content will be. Make sure to updates your blog or website regularly. If you’ve a website or blog, there’s no alternative but updating it frequently with great content. Add images and videos to communicate better It’s a digital era, and you must know the importance of visual aids. Add images, diagrams, videos, infographics that help add value to your content.
At my company, Troop Messenger, we feature tips, tactics, trends, and how-tos of the SaaS world. There are 100s of informative, original articles that offer actionable insights on different topics.
What makes Troop Messenger blog useful:
Step Two: Find where these customers hangout online
• There is lots of content to keep a reader engaged
• A variety of topics
To curate content for the right audience, you must find where they hang out online, and what is the source of information. Do they read blogs of specific genres? Are they active on Facebook? Do they prefer reading news websites? Are they twitter junkies? Find answers to all these questions and you’ll know how you should curate your content, and where to publish them.
• Covers the data and fact
Step Three: Build a buyer personal
• Great information for anyone interested in using or creating SaaS products
For effective content curation, you must establish customer profiles for your business. That way you can segment the audience and also develop a strong marketing campaign. An ideal ‘buyer face’ is important to effective marketing. It helps the marketer tailor content while focusing on the specific pain points, and it drives great results.
• Each article is actionable and sourced • It’s easy to read • Updated every few days with new articles
• CopyHackers
Successful content marketers and marketing campaigns make it big when they put a brand’s message (context) at the right time, in the right place. Creating content is not the only solution to providing your audience with valuable resources and information. Through content curation, you can become a source for industry tips, tricks and trends. KYC as the core of content marketing strategy:
What makes CopyHackers Website great:
Can you expect a 13-year old to take interest in what business owners prefer to read about? Same way, would you expect a middle-aged entrepreneur to read about the latest superhero movies? Try to think about it. If you get your content in front of the wrong audience, you’d have already lost half the resources and time.
• Discusses impactful topics in an engaging way
The Third: Circulate
Copyhackers feature tips, tricks, trends of writing a more persuasive, Believable and Usable content that can help businesses increase traffic to their website and boost the email conversion rates.
• Content can be understood by general people • Plenty of visual aids in every article • Bold content that helps their content stand-out • Covers the data and fact The Second: Curate
A content curated in a way that focuses on the interest of your target audience will drive results. You’ve to get to know your customers, learn about their expectations, struggles, and then tailor your content accordingly. 3-Steps to Identifying an Ideal Customer: Step One: Know your customer Dig about the key demographic of your prospective customers using tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush. Find out everything about your target audience. From Gender to Age, Occupation, Level of education, Interests, Location, Relevant behaviors, Income, Marital Status, and more.
As Jonathan Auffray says, ‘If you’ve spent 20% of time in content creation, spend 80% of your time in content promotion.” This may sound weird but it’s true. To find success with content marketing, you must shift focus on content promotion and distribution. Content Distribution Marketing:
Channels
and
Tips
for
Content
In this section, we’re going to share with you the best of the tips of content circulation: Partnership with Influencers: Influencer marketing has a great reputation in the content marketing world since they have direct access to your target
CAPITALISM IS BROKEN. Green Swans is a manifesto for system change designed to serve people, planet, and prosperity.
GREEN SWANS THE COMING BOOM IN R E G E N E R AT I V E C A P I TA L I S M BY J O H N ELK IN GTO N
If Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Black Swans are problems that take us exponentially toward breakdown, Green Swans are solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough. Our success—and survival—now depends on how we rein in the Black Swans and accelerate the Green Swans.
J O H N E L K I N G TON.COM
VO L A N S.COM
“J OH N E L K I N G T ON H A S ON CE A G A I N P R O V EN HIS S TA TU S A S ON E OF T H E G RE A T T H I N K E RS OF OU R TIME. ” – PAU L P O LMAN,
Former CEO of Unilever, Co-Founder and Chair of
IMAGINE, Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce, The B Team, and the Saïd Business School
AVA I L A B L E N O W
EVERYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD
audience. When you create content with an influencer, your content will be promoted by you, and also someone who’s more audience reach than you. Share content in niche groups It starts with identifying a relevant group of communities where you can share your content. Instead of sharing it everywhere, pick a few platforms that you know. At Troop Messenger, we make significant use of Quora, Reddit, and also Facebook groups. Repurpose your content Repurpose your content into different formats: Images, Infographic, Tutorials, Graphs, Ebooks, Whitepaper, and Slides. Repurpose content for different distribution channels like: Email, Newsletter, LinkedIn, Quora, Reddit, Online Forums, Communities, and Sites like Medium. For example, if you start with long-form content (video, or a podcast), you can extract text from it to create shareable gifs, video bites, and images to post. Each Subtopic from podcasts or videos can become a topic for writing a blog post. Share all these components (blog post, twitter threads, images, video bites) on social media and you’ll expand your reach since your content is diverse, shareable, and easy to consume. Cross-Publish on Websites and Content Communities Cross-publishing on websites can help your content reach a wider audience and also create a backlink to your site. Submit your content to communities like Tumblr, BigSugar, Disqus, Plurk, Hacker News, Growth Hackers, and Inbound. org You can opt for paid Ads on Facebook Advertising, Instagram Advertising, Pay-per-click ads, and YouTube Ads. Sometimes,
content marketing can be as easy and embarrassing as asking for help. The key here is to make your content radically sharable. Find a catchy two-liner in your blog-post, a quote, tweetable advice, and add the option of ‘Click to Tweet’ and this will generate a custom link for the tweet. Know the right content marketing software: Social Animal: With social animals, you can discover and find top-performing content for your competitor or any niche. GetSocial: It is one of the most powerful tools for content distribution analytics. Using GetSocial, you can effectively distribute content on social media track social shares of each content. Outbrain: With outbrain, you can serve the right content to the right audience, at the right time. Outbrain uses pointers from demographic, lookalines, interest groups, and location, and also brings publishers and marketers to the same platform. BuzzSumo: With BuzzSumo you can analyse the best performing topic in a particular niche. The advanced search engine helps with analysis of most shared content. Signing Off Content marketing, especially the adoption of visuals, continues to change how customers consume content. A good digital content marketer knows how important it is to value the 3Cs of content marketing and stay on the top of trends. If you’ve observed the way today’s content marketers approach content promotion and production, you probably know that they’re creating fewer pieces of content, and investing much more in driving people to that content. As I sign off, I encourage you to take advantage of all the tips and tricks mentioned in this article. The steps mentioned should guide you to generate more sales and traffic.
Cultivating a Sense of Creative Purpose By Mia Pinjuh
Clarifying why you do what you do can be the bedrock that gives your work direction and meaning. We asked six creatives to reflect on what shapes their ambitions and determination. Much like developing your creative voice or building up confidence, defining your purpose can be a life-long pursuit that shifts and changes over the course of your career. Whether mired in writer’s block or tackling an ambitious project, naming and defining a sense of purpose can be the touchstone that gives you crucial momentum when you need it most. We asked creatives to reflect on what defines their intention and gives their work meaning. Human connection Reveling in social connections and taking solace and inspiration from the community was a strong theme in our contributors’ responses. Feeling a sense of belonging, and making a positive impact that helps someone find the same feeling of kinship was the driving force of many creatives we spoke to.
“Dialogue is an interesting way to live intentionally, it forces us to constantly recalibrate our thinking about ourselves and the world.”
Photographer Reggie Black says “My purposeful moments occur when I’m engaging in human interactions. Whether it’s through conversations, hosting creative experiences, or showcasing artwork at exhibitions, each of these opportunities offer chances to learn something from someone else.” Entering into a conversation with peers and strangers can open up your world and give you a valuable sense of perspective and compassion. As Black puts it, “Dialogue is an interesting way to live intentionally, it forces us to constantly recalibrate our thinking about ourselves and the world.” For John S. Couch, VP of Product Design at Hulu, he thought about his role as a manager and leader. He feels a keen sense of responsibility for the kind of environment he is creating for his employees and colleagues. “For me, purpose derives from being positively impactful on others. In the workplace, a creative, non-fear-based culture is extremely important as it allows for engagement with the work and for the designer to express their true self. I remind [my team] that even though they get paid every two weeks and get health insurance (no minor thing), that in exchange, they are giving away eight to ten hours of their lives to the work: time they do not get back.
So if they are not engaged, then I will help them become engaged or even find a more fitting job.”
“The world needs creative thinkers more than ever.” He finds his own sense of direction and resolve when he is part of the process of self-discovery for others, recognizing the value of creativity in today’s world. “I feel most purposeful when I can help to alleviate suffering and empower others to create and express themselves to their fullest. The world needs creative thinkers more than ever.” Illustrator and artist Michelle Rial takes joy from the meaningful connections her work sparks. Her witty charts have a tender, thoughtful quality that invites viewers to feel a kinship with her. Documenting the specificity of small human experiences strikes a chord, as her success has proved. “I feel purpose in putting something into the world that can help someone else. Even something as simple as laughter or a shared moment of understanding. Being able to express myself creatively gives me a deep feeling of purpose and fulfillment, and I feel an immense privilege to be able to do creative work.” A work in progress Sometimes, there is no single answer to such an encompassing question, as senior culture writer for BuzzFeed, Anne Helen Petersen will attest. “To feel purposeful is to have a clear understanding of purpose, and I don’t know if I have that. Sometimes it feels like my purpose is just trying to articulate something broadly for a lot of people, sometimes it feels like it’s adding nuance to an un-nuanced discussion.” For Petersen, her career experienced a fundamental shift when she left the world of academia, where the objectives are clear and one’s trajectory is firmly rooted in tradition. “It was a lot easier when I was an academic, and the purpose was “imparting knowledge.” Now, as a journalist, it’s that, but also “maintaining the integrity of the fourth estate” and so much more.” Leaving the confines of any structured environment is bound to stir up fundamental questions around what gives your work meaning and why you chose the path that you are on. For Petersen, the freedom of journalism allowed her to explore a personal issue that turned out to be a defining cultural moment. “Writing about my own burnout—and the burnout of the larger millennial generation—was a creative breakthrough for me, which allowed me to think through so many phenomena on the macro and micro level in a new way.” Going solo CEO and Founder of Sylvain Labs, Alain Sylvain, has a pared-back approach. “In truth, I feel most purposeful when I’m alone. I know this might sound uninspiring or egocentric, but I believe that purpose, at its core, is a deeply individual, personal thing.” Listening to your own voice when exploring the question of purpose can be the most useful guide available to you. While inspiration and influence are all around (sometimes too much), finding your own center often means bringing all
the focus inward.
“I believe that purpose, at its core, is a deeply individual, personal thing.” Sylvain notes the temptation to let others define this very personal notion for you, and how important it is to resist the lure. “We run the risk of losing that individuality when we’re influenced by the intoxicating stimuli of the everyday. And in this “purpose”-crazed moment, the term is beginning to lose meaning—abstract, lofty, and, increasingly exploited by brands, businesses, and celebrities. Exploring my purpose feels true only when I’m alone—either in a physical or more mental way.” When reflecting on what has shaped her creative voice, Michelle Rial reflects on the multiple paths, starts and stops that her career has featured. ”Attempts (mostly failures) at careers in graphic design, photography, illustration, design, production, advertising, and the skills picked up along the way.” All these disparate pursuits are united in her “overanalysis and exploration of everyday things, which I suspect is a product of growing up in the American South with Latin American immigrant parents. To me it feels like what messy looks like when it’s haunted by perfectionism.” Recognizing the personal roots of a professional path is a valuable tool when exploring the question of purpose. After all, for many creatives, it is near-impossible to make a clear distinction between their public output and a private creative journey. A multitude of passions Where some careers are defined by a singular drive, others derive their meaning from a mix of rewarding sources. For Nishat Akhtar, Creative Director at Instrument, her purpose is defined by what she calls “triangulation.” As she says, “community, creativity, education, and mentorship are where I feel my best. My roles as an artist, educator, creative manager, collaborator, and even just as a friend get satisfied by these pillars and are the core reason I do any of this.”
“I care about people, creativity fuels me, and I am committed to a lifetime of learning.” Echoing the sense of community that gives meaning to many of the creatives we spoke to, Akhtar finds joy and purpose in the “intentionality that enriches my life and work, by helping others in areas big and small.” Moreover, triangulating her sources of purpose means that there is a steady stream of inspiration and drive, and naming the central tenet to all of these grounds Akhtar’s focus on the essentials. “I care about people, creativity fuels me, and I am committed to a lifetime of learning. From hard life moments to working through creative blocks—the moments when conversations emulate finding sparkle in the dirt are my favorite. These are the times I exercise my two strongest and most inherent parts of self: curiosity and empathy.”
In innovation—as in life—drive, size, and skill are a powerful combination. Drive to set an ambitious agenda and fund promising opportunities. Size to transform these opportunities into real sources of new revenue. And the skill, as embodied in a well-tuned innovation system, to be able to do it over and over again. And the world’s most innovative companies have been getting bigger. The revenue of a typical “small” company on BCG’s 2020 list of the 50 most innovative companies is $30 billion—up more than 170% from $11 billion (in constant dollars) in our first survey in 2005. But drive and size mean little if your innovation system can’t build on them for serial success. And here our research offers a more sobering assessment. Serial innovation is hard. Of
the 162 companies that have been on our top 50 list over the past 14 years, nearly 30% appeared just once—and 57% appeared three times or fewer. Only 8 companies have made the list every year: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Samsung, and Toyota. When we began the research for this 14th edition of BCG’s Most Innovative Companies report, COVID-19 had not yet emerged. As we explored the data and interacted with clients, however, it became clear that this year’s core findings— about the advantages of scale and the imperative for serial innovation—may be even more relevant today as innovation leaders need to adapt to rapidly shifting patterns of supply, demand, consumer behavior, and ways of doing business. Moreover, our research has shown that companies doubling
groupisd.com
19
Successful Innovators Walk the Talk By Michael Ringel , Ramón Baeza , Florian Grassl , Rahool Panandiker , and Johann D. Harnoss
The Most Innovative Companies 2020
down on innovation during downturns—using the opportunity to invest and position for the recovery—outperform over the long term. But doing that successfully requires developing a clear innovation strategy and supporting it with appropriate investment, leveraging the advantages of scale, and ensuring that your innovation system is nimble enough to spot and seize the best opportunities quickly and decisively. As we explore these themes, we draw on our global innovation performance database of more than 1,000 firms to detail the practices that make the best stand out from the rest.
and wholesale and retail (32%).
COMMITTING TO INNOVATION Innovation is a top-three management priority for almost two-thirds of companies. This is the lowest level since the financial crisis in 2009 and 2010—perhaps reflecting the uncertain economic outlook amid geopolitical tensions even before the outbreak of COVID-19. We can disaggregate our findings further. “Committed innovators” (45% of the total) say that innovation is a top priority, and they support that commitment with significant investment. “Skeptical innovators” (30% of the total) are the reverse, seeing innovation as neither a strategic priority nor a significant target of funding. And “confused innovators” (25% of the total) are in between, with a mismatch between the stated strategic importance of innovation and their level of funding for it. (See Exhibit 1.) We find the highest proportion of committed innovators in the financial and pharmaceutical sectors (both 56%)—and the lowest in industrial goods (37%)
Committed innovators are winning. Almost 60% of them report generating a rising proportion of sales from products and services launched in the past three years, compared with only 30% of the skeptics and 47% of the confused. The skeptics may or may not be making wise strategic decisions— it is sometimes neither strategically sound nor feasible to pursue innovation leadership—but at least they are consistent. The confused are a puzzling lot with a worrying disconnect between strategy and innovation spending. And winners are more likely to be committed innovators, further evidence of the divide between the best and the rest that we have discussed in the past few innovation reports. In 2019, for example, we found a wide gulf between strong and weak innovators with respect to their use of artificial intelligence (AI). We also discovered that strong innovators
were making increasing use of external innovation channels such as incubators and partnerships with academic institutions. Our 2018 research showed that almost 80% of strong innovators have properly digitized innovation processes compared with less than 30% of weak innovators. The relationship between commitment and results is the latest evidence of the strong getting stronger—across a spectrum of innovation-related criteria. HOW COMMITTED INNOVATORS ARE PLACING THEIR BETS While many companies struggle to address multiple innovation challenges at once, committed innovators prioritize a handful and as a result address them more effectively. They focus on advanced analytics, digital design, and technology platforms. (See Exhibit 2.) Companies may embrace these enablers for different reasons. Advanced analytics, for example, are a top priority for industrial goods companies that are seeking to develop new analytics-driven value propositions, such as agricultural equipment manufacturers moving into precision farming enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT).
their own industry. This year, we noted a new and surprising pattern: compared with 2015, significantly more respondents named companies traditionally associated with a different industry as a leading innovator in their own industry. Think Amazon in health care or Alibaba in financial services. In a world where every industry is becoming a technology industry to some degree, this kind of boundary-busting innovation is an increasingly important innovation capability. We have therefore added a new scoring dimension to our most innovative companies ranking methodology that captures each company’s variety and intensity of boundary breaking. Granted, some companies have always been boundary busting. For example, 3M has innovated in multiple industries over the years, including consumer goods, chemicals, manufacturing, and medtech. Yet today, we already see significantly more such activity compared with 2016—an increase of 20%. New players that are active across industry borders and exemplify this trend include firms such as Sony, Nike, Xiaomi, and JD.com. Looking at the data on the industry level, software and services companies are the ones most frequently cited as entering other sectors—further confirmation (if any is needed) of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s 2011 observation that “software is eating the world”—but tech is far from the only cross-industry disruptive innovation force. (See Exhibit 3.) Automakers, chemical companies, retailers, and industrial manufacturers are also playing more and more often in other companies’ sandboxes as they see opportunities for new technology-enabled business models and revenue streams outside their own core businesses.
Even among committed innovators, only 60% report success in solving the challenges they prioritize. All companies have plenty of room to improve but doing so may be hampered by the “AI paradox” we pointed to last year—the ease of achieving powerful results with AI pilots and the difficulty of replicating those results at scale. Another issue is the challenge of making success repeatable, establishing a successful serial innovation machine. (See the related article in the 2020 report, “When It Comes to Innovation, Once Is Not Enough.”) Consider the example of Target. The company is making a major push to innovate in its core store-based retail business and achieve synergies between offline and online commerce. Target doubled capital expenditures from 2016 to 2018. The intent is to attract foot traffic by making stores more interactive—for example, customers can better imagine how products fit their homes by using augmented-reality point-ofsale displays. The company also wants to create omnichannel customer journeys so that shoppers can seamlessly move among channels, ordering at home and picking up in stores, for instance. Target’s online sales growth outpaced its competitors in 2019, and in a sector that has been under sustained disruptive attack, it generated 25% annualized TSR for the past three years. INNOVATION AND DISRUPTION Since 2015, we have asked executives to name not only the three companies they regard as the top innovators across all industries but also the three most innovative companies in
These disruptors are often orchestrating ecosystems that bring together the capabilities of multiple participants in a new platform or service offering. The auto industry’s shift toward autonomous driving and a mobility model is one prominent example, as demonstrated by Sony, Alphabet, and Apple, as well as automotive companies such as Tesla, Volkswagen, and Bosch. The IoT and other technologies create opportunities for traditional companies, such as manufacturers, to transform themselves into data-enabled software or service businesses. These companies often play offense and defense simultaneously. Think of the ongoing transformations in the automotive, aircraft, and farm equipment industries, where companies are moving from manufacturing equipment to combining equipment, data, software, and connectivity to provide entirely new types of solutions. The data suggests that successful self-disruptors earned an annual TSR premium of 2.7 percentage points from 2016 to 2019 over companies that focused solely on defending their own turf.
brandknewmag.com
21
EVERY LIT TLE THING EVERY LIT TLE THING IS EVERY THING. EVERY LIT TLE THING IS EVERY THING. IS EVERY THING.
10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor
The new XPS 13. Call a Dell Technologies Advisor at 855-341-5261 or learn more at The new XPS 13. Dell.com/SB/XPS Call Dell XPS Technologies Advisor at 855-341-5261 or learn more at Theanew 13. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Copyright © 2019 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Dell.com/SB/XPS Call Dell Dell Technologies Advisor attrademarks 855-341-5261 more at All Rightsa Reserved. Technologies, Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other are trademarks of Dellor Inc. learn or its subsidiaries. 347260 Dell.com/SB/XPS Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Copyright © 2019 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell Technologies, Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. 347260 Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Copyright © 2019 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell Technologies, Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. 347260
10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor® 10th Gen Intel Core™ i7 processor
HOW WILL THE PANDEMIC CHANGE INFLUENCER MARKETING By Mark Schaefer
I recently saw two statistics that seem to be at odds.
has gone from punchline to a $5 billion to $10 billion industry.
• One-in-five influencers say brand collaborations have become their main source of income turning them into career influencers.
A recent study in the U.K. showed that 20 percent of the
• Influencer income is estimated to be down by at least 60 percent due to the pandemic. Some influencer income has been knocked down by 90 percent.
For many, this might seem bizarre. A career as an influencer?
Influencer marketing has become the second-fastest-growing line item on CMO budgets (behind content). But the pandemic is creating an epic shake-out in this business.
I have a friend who is one of the most accomplished, smart,
Where will it end up?
her income as an influencer for fashion and tech significantly
How will the pandemic change influencer marketing? “Influencer” has become a legitimate profession. It may be easy to hate influencers while they live a life better than yours (and then sell you on it). The “career influencer”
youth in that country wanted to grow up to be a professional influencer.
Let me share one anecdote.
and innovative business leaders I know. She gave up a successful professional career as an entrepreneur because exceeded her company salary. I mention this simply to establish that all influencers are not gamers shilling energy drinks. The level and sophistication of this profession have been transformed in just the last two years.
It’s time to upgrade your thinking about this emerging profession. Yes … You can have a legitimate career as an influencer. But would you want to? The economics of influence The tidal wave of money going into influencer marketing is easy to understand. In our streaming content culture, people don’t see ads as they used to. And if they see them, they don’t believe them. But people do believe each other — their family, neighbors, and friends. Influencers are seen as trusted friends, and perhaps even subject matter experts. Some 88 percent of consumers now trust online recommendations as much as face-to-face recommendations. Influencers garner more trust than celebrities and athletes, and more than half of young Americans aged 13 to 38 have made a purchase based on the view of someone in their social media feeds. As traditional marketing channels have dried up, brands have naturally migrated to these influential taste-makers. But as social distancing crushes retail, dining, and travel — the holy trinity of influencing — social media stars who could charge $10,000 or more per post have seen revenue streams drop to almost nothing. It might appear that this promising marketing channel is imperiled … but I don’t think so. The future of influencer marketing The pandemic will change influencer marketing forever, and in some ways, for the better. 1. A shake-out With this wallop to influencer income, there will certainly be a dramatic decline in the number of people who are able to survive this hit. This is a time of the survival of the fittest and only the elite content creators will make it to the other side. 2. Re-focus Scott Guthrie, a consultant in the influencer space, told me that the current crisis will provide a much-needed re-set to the influencer field. “We’ve had too much concentration on celebrity and Instafamous,” he said. “Great influencers are storytellers and the pandemic is helping us re-discover that imperative and that power. The influencers who survive will be our greatest storytellers.” 3. A mission-critical role Guthrie also pointed out that influencers took center stage during the early days of the pandemic. “Organizations like the W.H.O. had to get the message out about the coronavirus
quickly,” he said. “How do you reach young people with that important information? Influencers. In this case, I think the power of influencers was acknowledged and elevated on a global scale. 4. Unprecedented innovation I’m excited by the rapid innovation occurring in this space and I think this will only be super-charged by the pandemic. For example, ApexDrop was one of the first companies to focus on vetted and approved unpaid organic influencers. Most importantly, they seem to have cracked the code on ROI measurement. In the last few months — in the teeth of the pandemic — they have had all-time record revenues! Influencers are a relatively safe haven for pandemic marketing messaging. Another company creating some excitement is Guru Club. This start-up encourages user-generated content by offering instant cash-back options in exchange for social media posts. This just makes so much sense and brands are piling on to this service. GuruClub launched just as the pandemic was starting to spread. Didn’t matter. The start-up already has nearly 100 companies on board a few weeks after its launch. At a time when almost every other form of advertising is paralyzed from a seemingly endless spiral of bad news, trusting the voice of the consumer still works. We will see a burst in influence marketing innovation in the coming months. 5. The fundamentals are unchanged The market conditions that drove brands to embrace influencer marketing before the pandemic will be even stronger after the crisis. People are consuming more streaming content and fewer ads than ever before. Many of these consumption habits will transcend the crisis. So brands will have to turn to other channels like influencers. The formula for successful influencer marketing is simple: Influencers provide exposure and credibility to a trusting and relevant audience. Every brand needs that, and they will always need that. Over time, measurement will improve, and brands will be more fair and enlightened in their approach and in their expectations. The pandemic will change influencer marketing. But the fundamentals that drove the trend will still be there on the other side of the pandemic — even stronger than they are now. Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions and COO for B Squared Media. He is the author of several best-selling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.
How digital sensory marketing is key to appealing to today’s consumer By Marketing Staff
Will Griffith explores how marketers can adapt sensory marketing – utilising senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch in a digital context. 2020 is a year of reckoning for marketers like no other. Against the backdrop of global economic uncertainty heightened by the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been a spotlight on those accountable to the people they serve, and marketers to consumers have not been exempt. For many, it has been a wake-up call to adapt digitally to suit the needs of today’s omnichannel consumer. The pandemic has forced brands to revisit their marketing strategies because as we now look to the recovery phase, there is so much more at stake. Whilst looking for new ways to reinvent themselves and embrace a whole new type of customer, marketers must forget the buzzwords and get back to basics by appealing to the five senses of consumers to drive the path to purchase. Sensory marketing is traditionally associated with engaging in-store consumers, however, what if marketers can appeal
to the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch in a digital context? For example, visual sensory is mostly used to connect with consumers online. Evolving technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented reality and the Internet of things (loT) are now key to building more interactive, immersive and informative online shopping experiences. Marketing tactics that target any of the five senses provide ample opportunity for brands to enhance their marketing objectives, action consumer insights and develop attractive creative to appeal to today’s consumer. Sight Consumer’s attention spans are dwindling and for digital marketers, appealing to the sense of sight has become increasingly competitive. Marketers must go beyond
traditional techniques like bold colours, logos, videos, and website design and integrate the latest technologies into their strategies. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are gaining huge popularity because, for the first time, consumers are in full control of the interaction. As active participants, they can reinvent the real-life environment and try various combinations before making a choice to buy. From virtual catwalks, vehicle demos to testing make-up using face-tracking algorithms, AR and VR make shopping online easier and more accessible for consumers, especially when content is personalised to the user’s needs. AR provides a richer user experience that is more likely to increase consumers’ perceived value of products and brands. VR helps build trust between a brand and consumer, which is crucial during the ‘try before you buy’ phase. Touch Engaging the sense of touch in a digital context is difficult and has led to widespread webrooming and showrooming. These tactics make it harder for retailers to convert impulse shoppers but help provide the customer with their preferred shopping experience. loT intertwined with AR and VR encourages mental simulation among consumers. In other words, imagining taking a specific action like using a product. Brands should also consider the use of multi-gesture apps and direct touch effects – like pinching and scrunching a material – to drive conversions online. Sound Atmospherics in music, sound effects and voice-overs influence consumer behaviour by triggering emotion and memory. Recent industry research has found that nearly twothirds (60 percent) of consumers globally find that “music lifts [their] mood”. Many companies have an ‘audio’ brand to accompany their visual identity, namely music played in stores, jingles and so forth. The same goes for digital. Whether it be digital ads, social media videos or embedded music on a website, marketers must select music that aligns
with their brand messaging. A primary example is the affiliation of luxury brands with classical music. Brands can successfully evoke emotion through sound at every customer touchpoint by treating them as colours (e.g. joy as yellow, grief as blue). Emotions exist on a spectrum and marketing can be truly effective if brands define which emotions they are trying to elicit from the outset. Do not underestimate the power of emotional marketing. Many decisions we make each day are dictated by how we’re feeling in the moment. Smell and taste Our sense of smell is tied to the part of the brain involved in motivation, emotion and memory. Therefore, it can affect how consumers behave and what they remember about a branded experience. Interestingly, when it comes to instore shopping, scent can lead to a 28 percent emotional level increase in consumers, according to an independent sensory marketing study from Mood Media. Depending on the product, digital marketers can create and display images and use emotive language in a way that stimulates mental images of its texture, smell and even flavour. Scented packaging is also a key tool, allowing brands to develop a personalised smell which can be applied across the product range to help strengthen the brand identity as a whole or promote individual products. While the pandemic is a passing moment in time, brands will be remembered by how they supported their consumers in a time of need. Marketers must become more innovative in their approach to connecting with their target audience using real time data and the latest technologies. Central to this is creating multisensory experiences akin to a service and which ultimately integrate the brand into consumers’ everyday lives. But before this, marketers must have their finger on the pulse in terms of understanding and engaging their customers in real time, which is where the right technology partner is invaluable.
What Poker Can Teach Us about Making the World a Better Place By Wharton Staff
her new book, The Biggest Bluff, psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova writes about her immersion into the world of high-stakes poker. Starting as a novice who knew nothing about the game, she eventually rose to become a world-class professional poker player. Yet, poker was never just about the cards or money for Konnikova, and neither is her book. Instead, she picked up poker as a means to explore human decision-making in an environment where every player has very little control. Wharton operations, information and decisions professor Katherine Milkman recently spoke with Konnikova about what poker has taught her about letting go of the control we think we have over our lives, and using the control we do have to make the world a better place. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Katherine Milkman: I wanted to start by asking if you could tell us what motivated you to write this book. It’s such a fascinating story. Maria Konnikova: The book is, on the face of it, about poker, but it really isn’t. And my motivation had nothing to do with poker because I was never a poker player. It’s not that I didn’t like it, I just didn’t know about it. I didn’t care. What I was really interested in writing about was luck and the nature of chance, and how we can learn to tell the difference between the things we control and the things we don’t control. When I was a grad student with [psychologist] Walter Mischel at Columbia, I studied the illusion of control. We thought we were studying self-control, and we thought that we were
going to be studying how these very smart people are able to make really good decisions in stochastic environments with a lot of uncertainty. What we found instead was that actually, maybe the Achilles’ heel of self-control is when you put someone in an environment where they’re not controlling a lot of variables. They’re so used to being in control and being good in their lives, that they fall for the illusion of control. They think they have more agency than they actually do. This was totally fascinating to me. We didn’t find a solution. It’s not like we said, “And now, this is how you cure the illusion of control.” It’s a really difficult thing to break through. A few years ago, I had a rough patch in my life when I got really sick, my grandmother died, my husband lost his job, my mom lost her job. It made me stop and think about luck again in a new light, and think about, “You know what? I’ve studied the illusion of control. I thought I knew all about it, but it ends up that I probably have some of these illusions myself, because this really caught me off guard.” I wanted to find a way to explore it. I did what I always do at the beginning of any project — a lot of reading. Someone said, “You should be reading about game theory if you’re interested in chance, because it’s a great framework of looking at it.” So I picked up The Theory of Games, which is the foundational text of game theory. One of its authors, John von Neumann, was a poker player. And what I learned was that game theory was actually inspired by poker. Von Neumann said, “This game is the perfect model for human decision-making.” Chess is a really bad model for that, because it’s a game of perfect information. All the
brandknewmag.com
31
pieces are there. The board is there. You can make a right decision.
“Poker is a game of incomplete information. There are things I know that you don’t know. There are things you know that I don’t know.” But poker is a game of incomplete information. There are things I know that you don’t know. There are things you know that I don’t know. There are things that both of us know. And now we can try breaking our brains by saying, “Okay, what do you think I know about what you know?” And, “What do I think you know about what I know?” And we do those iterations over and over and over. But that’s what makes poker so fascinating, because it’s not just a game of math — von Neumann was a mathematician; it’s not like he had any problems with math — but it’s also a game of humans, and it’s a game of intention. It’s a game of deception. It’s a game of reading people. It’s a game of information. How can I gain the informational advantage here? And that’s what fascinated him. He said, “If I can solve this, I basically can solve life.” And poker, by the way — nolimit, hold ’em — still hasn’t been solved. It’s like the gold standard for AI, but it has not been solved. As I started reading about this, I thought, “Maybe this is my
book.” Maybe I start to play this game. Maybe I dive into it and learn it and use that as a laboratory of sorts — a way of exploring all of these issues and trying to figure out if poker can help me discern the limits of my control. Can it teach me what I should be focusing on, what I should be letting go of? Milkman: It’s such a wonderful journey. How did your training as a psychologist change the way you approached becoming a world-class poker player? Konnikova: First of all, it helped in getting my coach, Erik Seidel. He’s one of the greatest poker players in the world. I think it intrigued him that I had this psychology training, and not just any psychology training: I’d studied decision-making under uncertainty, and I’d studied hot emotional conditions. When he saw that, he was like, “Wow, this is poker. You have a background for this.” But I think it also helped me have the correct vocabulary for conceptualizing the experiences and being more introspective about it. I’m a big believer in having the correct vocabulary to express your thoughts, that it actually can help you realize what’s going on. When you have the right word, you can identify emotions that you couldn’t otherwise. I quote one of my favorite poets in the book, W.H. Auden: “Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought.” I really believe that. It’s not like you have thoughts and then you try to get words to express them. And so in that sense, I think that being a psychologist and having studied all of this and being able to spot it in myself and in other players really
helped me home in on it and helped me figure out, “Okay, this is what I need to work on.” And let’s be clear, it’s not like I magically didn’t have any of these biases. There were certainly moments when I was playing, and I thought, “Oh, boy. I am definitely experiencing the gambler’s fallacy right now, but I’m just going to bet again because I can’t lose again, can I?” You see it happening. Knowing it doesn’t magically mean you’re not going to experience it, or that you’re going to be able to overcome it — but it’s a first step. Milkman: You mentioned the gambler’s fallacy, and that’s a great segue to research you cite in your book. What research studies did you find most important to becoming a poker player, and why? Konnikova: I dedicated the book to [my dissertation adviser] Walter, who unfortunately died before it came out. But he was very excited about the project. He had introduced me to Julian Rotter’s work on the locus of control very early on in my grad work and said, “This is a theorist who’s often forgotten. A lot of people don’t go back to his early papers, but this is such a fundamental concept in everything, and it has really inspired me.” So, I have a special place in my heart for those papers, and they really helped, because the locus of control is, at its core, all about the question of my book — your internal locus, the things that you control, your external locus. I tried to marry that to Walter’s work on CAPS (the cognitive-affective processing system) and how you really can’t study personality in a vacuum. Everything needs to be conceptualized. You need to figure out what people’s “if-then” patterns of behavior are. I realized those two things can actually go hand-in-hand, because the way the locus of control interacts with positive versus negative events tells a lot about the person. For instance, there are people who have an internal locus for all good things, and an external locus for all bad things. There are people who are the other way around, and they have an external locus for the good things. They say, “Oh, no, no. That’s not me. I just got lucky.” And an internal locus for all the bad things. They say, “Yes, that’s my fault.” Those people tend to be depressed.
“Knowing [about a bias] doesn’t magically mean you’re not going to experience it, or that you’re going to be able to overcome it — but it’s a first step.” If you can spot those at the poker table, those sorts of dynamics are incredibly useful, because you can try to start thinking, Okay, is this a player who sees themselves as in control, or sees the game as happening to them? How are they talking? What’s the vocabulary they’re using? Are they saying, “Oh, man, I’m so unlucky,” or are they saying, “I may have made a bad play.” How are they analyzing their decisions? That really helped. And a lot of the work on self-control really helped, because poker gets very emotional. You’re at the table for 10, 11, 12, 13-hour days — these really long stretches of time. You get tired, and when you’re tired, your
decision quality deteriorates. It’s really, really hard to make decisions that are as good and as logical at 1:00 a.m. as it was at noon, if you started playing at noon. Knowing all of that helped me just look at some of the research. I used some of Ethan Kross’ work about distancing and learning how to step away from emotional situations. I would actually do some of those exercises at the poker table as I got tired and knew that my nerves were getting a little bit more frayed. I would say, “Okay, I’m a fly on the wall, looking down at Maria.” It actually worked. Of course, it would have been impossible to do my research, and it would have been very difficult to conceptualize a lot of this, without Danny Kahneman’s research on decisionmaking. It’s so integral to the field, and it’s so ingrained in my thinking that I almost take it for granted — “Risk-averse or risk-seeking. Yeah, yeah, we know all about that.” But we didn’t, right? He made it part of the vocabulary. Having his knowledge was incredibly helpful. A lot of those biases that you see in poker are things that Dan Kahneman had identified decades earlier. Milkman: You mentioned you dedicated the book to your late dissertation advisor, the great Walter Mischel. For listeners who aren’t familiar with this work, he’s best known as the scientist behind the famous marshmallow experiments. I’m curious — if he had been able to read this book, what you think he would have found most interesting about it? Konnikova: Oh, boy, that’s not a question I have ever been asked. It’s a great question. We had talked about this game, and we talked about what I was working on. And he was really excited about it, but he had no knowledge of it in terms of what poker actually entailed. I think he would have been really happy to see that in poker, I have found a solution to a lot of the things that we had studied. If you teach someone to play poker correctly, you can solve a lot of those biases that we found. You can solve the illusion of control a lot of times. You can make people more aware of randomness. You can make people better able to examine their decision process and to divorce themselves from the outcome, which is so difficult. And these are things that we were never able to fix when we were working together. So, I think he would have been excited, and he probably would have said, “Okay, you’re going back to the lab now. Now we’re going to use poker, and we’re going to see what we can do.” Because that was Walter. I mean, to his last day, he was just always excited about research ideas, and he was always gunning for the next thing. And I got him at the very, very end. I was his final grad student…. He had thought he wasn’t going to be taking any more students, and then he decided to take me as the last one…. He told me that I kept him teaching many more years that he would have wanted to. But he wanted to, that’s the thing. I don’t think it was me. I’d exchange war stories with some of his old students about him calling at 3:00 in the morning, not because anything was wrong, but because he got excited about someone else that he was reading at the time. So, I can definitely see him reading this book and saying, “Okay, I know you’re not really in academia, but we’re going to do these studies, and we’re going to use poker, and it’s going to be awesome.” And you know what? For Walter, I would have gone back to the lab and done it.
“It’s really, really hard to make decisions that are as good and as logical at 1:00 a.m. as it was at noon, if you started playing at noon.” Milkman: What a wonderful gift you both gave each other, it sounds like. And I’m sorry he couldn’t read the book. I want to turn to a really different topic, but one that I find fascinating, as well. Your gender played a really important role in the stories you share about professional poker. I’m wondering if you have any advice for other women attempting to enter and succeed in traditionally male forums, based on your experiences? Konnikova: Absolutely. For people who haven’t read the book, the field of poker is 97% male. So when Katy says, “gender imbalance,” she means gender imbalance. Three percent female. I’ve been in other fields that are predominantly male. Media is male. I was in television. That’s male. But I was not prepared for this. I mean, 97% is a lot. You can go for days and not see another woman. At the beginning, it was really difficult, but I think it ended up being a big advantage, and I was able to make myself into a much stronger player and person because of poker, for a few reasons. I think one thing —and this is true from all of the psychology research — there is a reason that women aren’t as “good at negotiating” and don’t get promoted as much. And that’s because they are punished for negotiating the same way that men do. It’s actually a very smart strategy to be nicer and to just kind of smile and not be aggressive, because you get punished [otherwise]. I remember when I was doing a story for The New Yorker, I found this woman who had a job in a philosophy department. She was offered a job at a small liberal arts college, tenured track, and she had written an email about the offer, asking about certain aspects of it. And the job was taken away. They just rescinded the offer. They said, “You know what? Clearly you’re not the right fit.” And I just could not see that happening to a man ever. Milkman: No. Konnikova: There’s a reason women don’t necessarily speak up as often, because that’s what happens when you do. So, my advice is to both be aware of this, but also to learn to channel your inner poker player — the aggressive one. It took me a very long time to bring her out. And in order to do that, I had to do a few things. First, I had to deal with my hang-ups. I had to acknowledge: You know what? I’ve actually internalized all of these gender stereotypes that society puts forward. I don’t play as aggressively as I should. I make bad strategy decisions knowing they are bad strategy decisions, because I want people to think I’m nice. That is bad. I’m losing money. And so I had to figure out, Okay, people can think you’re nice, even as you’re raising. That’s okay. You just need to figure out the way to do it. That was step one, to actually acknowledge that I had these problems. I like to think of myself as a strong woman, and so it was not very pleasant to acknowledge that I do all these things that are the hallmarks of not-very-strong women and women who let themselves be
bullied and who let themselves be run over. It wasn’t a good realization, but once I realized it, I started being able to work on it. And then there are a few other things: Try to figure out how the people you’re playing against — in whatever world you’re entering — view women. If you can figure that out, then you can play against them. You can use their biases against them. You can use the fact that they underestimate you against them. If they think that women are incapable of bluffing, you’d better bluff, because they will think, “Wow, she must really be strong. She must really be confident, because women wouldn’t bluff.”
“Focusing on yourself is so powerful because you’ll maximize a lot of the things that can make the world a better place.” And then, see what the aggressive guys who are winning do, and take a page out of their playbook. Realize that they don’t always have the best hand. They don’t always have great cards, but boy, do they know how to project confidence. Boy, do they know how to make other people think that they’ve got the goods. I don’t necessarily like them, but I can take that from them and say, “Okay, projecting confidence is a huge part of the battle.” No one knows what cards you have — and I’m now talking very metaphorically. No one knows what you hold in your arsenal, and no one knows what you are and aren’t willing to lose. Being able to bluff is very powerful. People can see that confidence, and it will make you seem more qualified. Milkman: That’s great advice, and hopefully a lesson readers will take from your book. But if your readers left this book and remembered just one thing, what would you want it to be? Konnikova: I would want it to be something we started this conversation with: Focus on the things you can control. There’s so much about life that you can’t and are never going to be able to control. And that’s okay. Just learn to let go of that and focus on yourself. What can I control? Well, I can control my decisions. I can control my reactions to people. I can control my mental framings. I can control my interactions. I can control what I do. I can’t control other people. I can’t control the world. So what do I do to make the world as good as I possibly can, knowing that my abilities are limited? Focusing on yourself is so powerful because you’ll maximize a lot of the things that can make the world a better place. It’s really important to realize both that your agency is limited, but also that that doesn’t mean you should stop making decisions and stop trying. I think it can be a hopeful message, and not just a hopeless one. Milkman: As a scientist who studies these kinds of things, I love that message. And I look forward to sharing your book with many people. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today, Maria. Konnikova: Thank you so much for having me, Katy. It was an absolute pleasure.
A Startup Is Testing the Subscription Model for Search Engines By Wired Staff
Neeva—formed by ex-Googler Sridhar Ramaswamy—asks users to be the customer, not the product. IN NOVEMBER 2017, Sridhar Ramaswamy—the head of Google’s $95 billion advertising arm—left the company after a scandal concerning advertisements for major corporations found on YouTube videos that put children in questionable situations. Ramaswamy told The New York Times that shortly after that incident, he decided that he needed to do something different in his life—because “an ad-supported model had limitations. ” Ramaswamy’s startup company, Neeva, is that “something different”—and though it, too, is a search engine, it seeks to sidestep some of Google’s problems by avoiding the ads altogether. Ramaswamy says that the new engine won’t show ads and won’t collect or profit from user data—instead, it will charge its users a subscription fee. Neeva’s approach follows an old truism that says if you pay for something, you’re a customer—but if you get it for free, you’re a product. That’s likely to be a difficult sell to a public that has come to expect “free” services and doesn’t often care very much about privacy aspects. Even if we hand-wave the difficulty of acquiring a market, other privacy-focused players are expressing significant doubt about Neeva’s approach. Search engine DuckDuckGo is probably the best-known privacy-focused Google competitor. DuckDuckGo serves ads but doesn’t track its users individually. Its CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, says the ads are a practical necessity. “If you want the most impact to help the most people with privacy,
you have to be free,” he said, “because Google will be free forever.” However, DuckDuckGo may not be the most relevant comparison to Neeva. The new search engine is planned to be a second-tier provider, with public results sourced from Bing, Weather.com, Intrinio, and Apple. It also plans to offer its users the ability to link cloud accounts such as Google G Suite, Microsoft Office 365, and Dropbox. In addition to providing search results directly from these private sources, Neeva will include that data in building a profile to personalize search results for each user. Startpage is a closer analogue to Neeva’s proposed model. Like Neeva, Startpage sources search results externally—in its case, directly from Google. Unlike Neeva, Startpage still shows Google ads and collects a cut of the proceeds. But it shows those ads without attempting to personalize them for the user—no profile is built, and the user’s potentially identifying information is stripped from the queries passed along to Google as well. Startpage CEO Robert E. G. Beens reached out to Ars by email shortly after Neeva’s launch. He expressed extreme skepticism about Neeva’s model—he describes the connections to private data, personal profile building, and long-term data retention as “a hacker’s dream, and a user’s nightmare.” He expressed equally strong opinions about Neeva’s actual privacy policy, calling it “a joke—and not a
funny one,” after remarking that “marketing messages can claim almost anything, but a privacy policy has legal status.” We should note that there are two different sections of Neeva’s site that appear to address privacy concerns—a Digital Bill of Rights prominently featured in the company’s About page, and the official Privacy Policy, linked more austerely from the footer of each page. Neeva’s Digital Bill of Rights appears to be just the sort of marketing message Beens alluded to. It makes lofty statements about users’ rights to privacy, controls on data collection, data usage transparency, and user ownership of their own data. It further declares that companies in general should respect those rights—but it makes no outright promises about whether or how Neeva will respect them. The closest thing to a concrete statement of policy on the page is a line at the bottom stating, “We at Neeva stand by [these values], in solidarity with you.” Neeva’s Privacy Policy, in contrast, is a standard legal document, and it reads like one. It’s also much more concrete and lays out some troubling details that sound opposed to the lofty ideals expressed in Neeva’s Digital Bill of Rights. A section titled “Disclosing Your Information to Third Parties” even seems to contradict itself. Neeva opens that section by saying it does not share, disclose, or sell your personal information with third parties “outside
of the necessary cases below”—but those necessary cases include “Affiliates,” with the very brusque statement that Neeva “may share personal information with our affiliated companies.” Although the “Service Providers” and “Advertising Partners” subsections are hedged with usage limitations, there are no such limits given for data shared with affiliates. The document also provides no concrete definition of who the term affiliates might refer to or in what context. More security-conscious users should also be aware of Neeva’s data-retention policy, which simply states,”We store the personal information we receive as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our Services or as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected … [including pursuit of] legitimate business purposes.” Given that the data collection may include direct connection to a user’s primary Google or Microsoft email account, this might amount to a truly unsettling volume of personal data—data that is now vulnerable to compromise of Neeva’s services, as well as use or sale (particularly in the case of acquisition or merger) by Neeva itself. Neeva is currently in limited beta testing and is not available for general use. Interested potential users can join a waiting list to become an early tester.
Kolster to Brands:
Avoid the ’Hero Trap’ and Close the Intention-Action Gap By Brands Staff
brandknewmag.com
39
Internationally recognised speaker and author Thomas Kolster, also known as Mr. Goodvertising, takes a hatchet to his earlier beliefs around purpose-driven brands in a new book, The Hero Trap. He says the one question brands need to be asking and acting on to change behaviors at scale and unlock sustainable growth that benefits all is ‘Who can you help people become?’ Most brands today are firmly on the bandwagon around social and environmental issues from oceans plastic to diversity, like bees around a honey pot. People are increasingly distrustful towards these efforts viewed as cheap marketing stunts meant to wow people into buying more. In The Hero Trap, Thomas Kolster draws on top-line marketing case studies and indepth interviews with the likes of P&G CMO Marc Pritchard, to demonstrate how people are truly motivated to act when they’re in charge of their own life and happiness. One commissioned study comparing well-known commercials shows that, by taking a people-first approach, people are 29.5 percent more motivated to act on the messaging than the traditional purpose approach. ‘Who can you help me become?’ is the one essential question you need to be asking and acting on to chart a new course for your brand, changing behaviours at scale and unlocking sustainable growth that benefits all. Kolster heralds the beginning of a new, “postpurpose” era, where brands will be seen as villains if they don’t put people’s dreams, aspirations and creativity first. The following excerpt is taken from the introduction to Kolster’s book, which frames why organizations and leaders have to step down from the purpose pedestal, or risk running into “the hero trap.” Your brand is not the hero — turn people into the heroes I was wrong about purpose. All these years, I had been asking the wrong questions. Let me ask you this: Who do you want to be? And I’m not talking about when you as a child could simply say fireman, pilot or doctor. I’m talking about “who” you see yourself as becoming. “Who” do you aspire towards being? “Who” embodies a good life for you? It can be smaller “who’s” or roles in your life — like a more considerate boyfriend or girlfriend, a better vegan chef or a better runner, right up to passions like a hotshot creative director, a skydiver or simply a great mum or dad. We all go through life struggling to find our “who.” Often, we lose focus on what’s important in our lives, or we prioritise wrongly; the same can be said about marketing and building purposeful brands. Our dreams, fears and aspirations are the building blocks of great, long-living brands that matter to people. The organisations that get this are touching the very core of people’s being, the very top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs — people’s urge to fulfil themselves through sports, art, work or whatever rocks their boat. Think of the sense of safety you feel when driving a Volvo: you are a responsible mom or dad. Or think about the unhindered creativity when working on an Apple MacBook: You are truly a creative. It’s not about the product, it’s about who you become. Admittedly, it’s easy to get lost in the fast-paced world of
marketing, with all the talk of artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation, real time and whatever else is trending — but the answer is right in front of you: People. In a postconsumerist society, the cost of ignoring people’s urge to reach self-fulfillment is brutal and, in most instances, fatal. It’s time to refocus. Market economists have made us believe we’re driven by green bills or status, but the inherent human truth that goes across age, culture and gender uncovers a stronger force: We want to be in charge of our own lives and our own happiness. You’re truly motivated to act when you’re calling the shots or chasing that dream. The organisations that get this win by making people become more, do more. My own story of transformation In my early twenties, I started working as a copywriter in an ad agency in Denmark. I liked writing and I guess I always had a creative edge, but I didn’t feel a burning purpose; and quite bluntly, I was getting paid for what most of the time seemed like a hobby. But something within me didn’t feel right. It took me the better part of ten years of advertising agency life — from copywriter to creative director to owner of an agency — to realise that I had to change. It wasn’t an easy journey; and, in hindsight, it probably wasn’t even a conscious one. More of a spontaneous outburst, a rallying cry against my industry and the unhinged capitalism and consumerism it stood for — but, maybe more importantly, an alignment of my work life and my values. My wake-up call happened when politicians from all over the world gathered in my hometown of Copenhagen in 2009 to agree on a climate treaty to curb rampaging carbon emissions. I had high expectations — but, as you know . . . nothing happened. Frustrated, I couldn’t help but think that I’m selling cars, burgers and quick loans people really don’t need. How can I make a difference? How can I make marketing people realise that their voice and work truly matter in shaping a better world? How can I make them realise that creativity and communication are powerful tools that can be used to serve human and planetary betterment? My mission was shaped, and it formed the springboard for my first book, Goodvertising (Thames & Hudson, 2012). So, I slowly developed a voice and a conviction, which was ultimately to give others a voice, give others a platform. I grew from feeling I was getting paid to use my passion and creativity on something I didn’t believe in to waking up energised and ready to spark change. From ‘why’ to ‘who’ I’ve been in the hurricane’s eye of the purpose revolution the last decade and have been a vocal advocate. Today, I’ve lost my belief in putting organisations or leaders on that purpose
pedestal rallying for change. If you try to fly like superman, you’ll fall like a can of soup. If we are to create change, we have to put people first. I’ll argue that organisations have to chart a different course, where they instead help people to follow through on their needs and their ambitions in life. It’s a move from “why” your organisation matters in the world to understanding how you as an organisation can help me to achieve “who” I want to be: making me matter. It’s a move from being a self-obsessed evangelist to a real leader.
We’re at a tipping point; and although a sustainable narrative is becoming more commonplace, there is still far to go in pushing people to live better, more sustainable lives. This can only happen if organisations truly motivate people to act. Great leaders make you grow Michael Jackson hit the nail on the head in the classic hit song “Man in the Mirror”: “I’m starting with the man in the mirror / I’m asking him to change his ways.” No doubt about it, we are our own biggest enemies of change. That’s why organisations should look to people as the agents of change. Everyone has the potential to change at any point in his or her life — from small goals like eating healthier to bigger aspirations like living with your heart first. We just need the right motivation. Very few organisations have been able to bridge the purpose gap and get people to move from buying into the purpose to actually buying the product or changing behaviours for the better. The intention is there, but action doesn’t follow. Through years of advising leaders and organisations on purpose, I finally realised what the missing link was: the very people you are supposed to serve and consequently motivate. I looked to coaching methodologies and psychotherapy to understand how to move people from inaction to action, from unfulfilled to fulfilled. One simple but essential question helped spark the needed change: “Who can you help me become?” When you dare to ask “who,” you motivate people to make that jump across their own personal gap from aspiration to
action. You become a gardener of change and prepare the soil for people’s growth. Ultimately, you have to help people grow. You have to light a fire in everyone — not by passing it on, but by helping them to make it! The best leaders I have come across in my life have been those who made me grow, who made me better. The “why” of an organisation has to be found in the individual’s “who.” Mass-marketing, mass-production and the other “masses” are dying, as people are gaining control. Organisations are faced by smaller, more agile challengers; and there are plenty of those — potentially eight billion ordinary people armed with great ideas and a burning passion; Davids with a sling. Across industries, the big players — the Goliaths — have felt the impact, and some have been brought down. It’s the many Davids who are taking over the very creation of marketing, the very creation of business. It’s unavoidable to put people first. The transformation toolbox: Begin with ‘who’
I want to set a new agenda for leadership, a new agenda for brand growth going forward; that’s bottomup, inclusive, diverse, democratic, sustainable, open, life-improving — everything that’s so far from how organisations, businesses or marketing programs traditionally behave. My goal is to write a practical, hands-on book, one that’s not just left on the bookshelf to gather dust but is being applied again and again to transform people, organisations and leaders. It’s goal-oriented; it enables you — and your stakeholders. We all need a friendly push from behind sometimes, that reminder not to leave going for that run till tomorrow. Your “push in the back” for crafting organisations that are not dumb, irrelevant, self-centric or outright harmful is now. I believe that together we can create a wave of change for happier, life-improving growth, and it all begins with truly putting people in charge of their own change. The aim of this book is to provide you with the tools for that transformation, and it begins with that one simple question: Who can you help people become?
Artificial intelligence is top of mind for many in the marketing and communications world. Many Marcom departments already use AI to analyze consumer behavior and try to predict future needs. Many brands use algorithms to recommend personalized content, show personalized ads, as well as power customer service chatbots. But what if AI can help brands take their brand voice to the next level? Brands usually spend thousands, if not millions of dollars, fine-tuning their brand voice, which describes a company’s personality. Now, AI in digital marketing has a whole new face - literally, as digital avatars and synthetic beings enter the digital marketing world. Here are three examples of how brands are using artificial intelligence in interesting new ways to power campaigns beyond what’s been done before. Cost Saving Power of AI Before AI, companies would have to shoot the same commercial multiple times but with a different brand name or item, but now AI lets brands reach all markets they operate in with reduced time and money. Synthesia, an artificial intelligence, and video synthesis company, showed that’s no longer the case. In a recent project posted on their website, Synthesia partnered with global marketing and ad agency Craftww to save their client, JustEast, a lot of money. The agency had worked with JustEat on a widely successful Snoop Dogg advertisement. JustEat’s Australian subsidiary is called MenuLog, and the client wanted to leverage the successful campaign in all the markets they operate. However, they only recorded the original “JustEat” version of the ad. With Synthesia’s help, they were able to transcreate the ad. They took the Snoop Dogg commercial for Craftww’s JustEat brand and morphed it into a commercial for JustEat’s subsidiary called MenuLog. How they did it is the interesting part of this story.
Synthesia did more than swap out logos. They changed Snoop Dogg’s lip movements in all the shots of the commercial. The outcome was a considerable cost savings for the client because they didn’t need to produce the ad twice. Synthesia believes that synthetic media and deep learning will create a new generation of content creation tools that are “are empowering, effective, and ethical, for everyone.” Building the ‘Business to Robot to Consumer’ Business Model The connected world of devices combined with artificial intelligence has created a new frontier for companies to explore: Business to Robot to Consumer (B2R2C). While the new business model may be a lot to take in, the applications are simple but powerful. Marketing to robots happens when more virtual assistants, digital avatars, and even robots become the gatekeepers between brands and consumers. For example, when your voice assistant knows what you need to buy for your pantry before you even know you need it. Enter the AI Foundation, an organization at the forefront of this new trend. It has been partnering with personalities like Deepak Chopra and Sir Richard Branson to further their mission of responsibly moving the world forward by giving each of us our own AI that shares our personal values and goals. For the Foundation, AI will revolutionize how people connect, communicate, live, and work. This, in turn, will create a massive potential for those who own it, but AI can pose grave threats when used by a few to manipulate us, when it malfunctions, and when it divides us, but AI itself can help prevent this. For them, AI must be for all, and we each need our own AI — to protect us, make us wiser and more powerful, and unlock the full potential of our world. The AI Foundation is working on use cases where people can
brandknewmag.com
43
3 New Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Powering The Future Of Marketing By Cathy Hackl
benefit from AI in their day to day life — cooking is one that recently became increasingly important as we’re spending more time in our kitchen’s lately. The are working on an AI chef “who’s familiar with what is in your kitchen, pantry, and even knows what is on your mind for dinner!” The AI chef helps customers perfect their favorite dish or share new recipes based on their favorite ingredients. “With our technology, companies, and brands can build a stronger connection with their customers/fans through more interactive and intelligent engagement. They can learn exactly what users want and are interested in, and deliver better value and less noise through 1-1 conversations,” said Chris Acosta, VP of Product Innovation & Growth at the AI Foundation In a video on the Foundation’s Facebook page, a woman talks to her AI chef. They have a conversation about making a meal or start prepping for dinner. The woman says that she’d like to make stuffed bell peppers. The AI Chef responds that “great stomachs think alike.” Digital People make powerful brand experiences
Soul Machine calls the artificial intelligence that powers their digital humans the “Digital Brain,” which drives the Autonomous Animation functionality. Soul Machine says use cases for digital people range from training, entertainment, and financial services - any type of repetitive business function. But digital people can perform them in ways that seem more helpful than an automated chatbot. Soul Machine’s Digital People are designed to evolve over time based on user interactions. Soul Machine believes it’s important to see through the “smoke and mirrors of hightech marketing [it] requires a clear definition and taxonomy for understanding the new generation of Digital Humans that will soon surround us.” In order to give these new digital humans a personality that matches their brand, companies will have to define their brand values, the role they need the digital human to fill, and do it in a way that appeals to their client base. Let’s Go Beyond the Deep Fake
Synthesia & the AI Foundation aren’t the only organizations working to make digital people available to brands for engaging and compelling experiences. Soul Machines announced in May that it’s making their Digital DNA™ Studio (DDNA Studio) available for companies so that “brands can connect with every customer in a personalized way at scale with Soul Machines’ Digital People.”
These examples show that artificial intelligence, when used creatively, can do more than the grunt work. It is a way to build relationships with customers on a personal level while at the same time scaling at large in a cost-effective way. It’s important to go beyond equating AI to only chatbots and have conversations around how AI can actually work in service of brands and, in turn, be used to better their customer’s experience.
Soul Machine’s Digital people are “designed to deliver the personalized, emotionally engaging experience that customers crave with brands at a cost that allows them to scale.” Creating digital people no longer takes a team of developers and CGI experts. Brands can now use the Digital DNA studio to develop people that match their brand’s culture and customers to create a more engaging experience.
We should continue to have meaningful discussions around deepfakes and setting up safeguards and ethics around synthetic media. But, we must also move the conversation beyond just focusing on that element of synthetic media. It’s also time for brands and businesses to better understand the broader trends that are on the horizon, so they are prepared for the future of marketing to come.
Close the Marketing and Sales Gap, and You’ll Close More Deals By Helen Yu
With the flood of information readily available to buyers about potential vendors, modern sales reps are expected to deliver insights and articulate value if they are to generate real opportunities. The days of small talk and generic pitch decks are over. To make the sale, marketers need to arm sales teams with dynamic content tailored to a potential client’s specific needs. When preparing for any interaction with a prospect, your organization’s sales and marketing teams must be in lockstep. However, nearly one in three buyers say they are presented with irrelevant information at some point during the sales process—a statistic indicative of just how siloed many marketing and sales departments are. And yet, with today’s buyers more in control than ever, the stakes and expectations are high for your marketing and sales teams. How to Maximize the Sales and Marketing Partnership Buyers expect a personalized, convenient, and consistent sales experience—whether it’s digital or in person. Unfortunately, historically siloed sales and marketing teams often struggle to deliver the right mix of assets to answer potential questions from the buyer. Pulling out relevant, personalized information for every pitch
is a big task—and difficult to scale, especially for teams that aren’t used to collaborating. Providing sales teams with the tailored content they need for each pitch and customer conversation is possible, but the right shared tools, processes, and KPIs are needed to make it seamless. The key is getting sales and marketing teams out of their silos and taking a fresh look at how they work together. Marketing should view sales as its internal customer, and so work to serve Sales’s needs with the assets it creates. If your prospects are often left with more questions than answers, or if you just want to do a wellness check on how Sales and Marketing are working together, keep the following five tips in mind. 1. Don’t overwhelm your customer Most sales reps have plenty of options when choosing sales content. But as marketing departments develop assets for every part of the buyer journey, sales reps are often faced with an overwhelming number of options.
brandknewmag.com
45
Without structure, reps waste valuable time digging for what they need. Or, worse, they call an audible and create inconsistent, off-brand assets of their own. A sole focus on quantity of sales materials is the wrong approach. Today’s buyers feel bombarded with too many options: 86% of buyers say 10 pieces of content is too much, and more than 50% say even 5 pieces of material is overwhelming. To succeed, marketing teams must focus on quality over quantity. Buyers are coming to the table more informed than ever; you can’t afford to put something irrelevant in front of them. To avoid those types of mistakes and to optimize their efforts, tap into data: Marketers can use analytics to understand what content their sales teams are using and what content is actually driving sales. 2. Make presentations a dialogue about the value your solution offers The static deck is all but dead. Sales teams know that pitches have evolved into a less formal and more interactive event, and it’s on the marketing team to help make this new conversational format flow. As buying scenarios increase in complexity, so do products and services do. Prospects need to be guided through the process, and sales reps should be able to tailor information mid-pitch to meet a client’s needs. Some of the most advanced solutions equip sales teams with interactive content that lets reps navigate dynamically throughout a conversation. By surfacing relevant information quickly and easily, this capability can help reps focus on articulating the business impact of the solution, avoiding “we will get back to you” answers that stall a sales process. 3. Help customers better visualize your product Helping your customers see your product in a new way can help close a deal in ways traditional presentations can’t. For sales presentations that are really memorable and engaging, consider making use of augmented reality. Augmented and virtual reality allow sales reps to help prospects view a product in their space—enabling them to consider the context, logistics, and potential value it might bring. Consider a rep who sells large appliances for commercial kitchens. During a sales meeting, the rep is able to open an augmented reality app on her tablet that allows the kitchen’s head chef and line cooks to view how a new stove and ventilation hood would fit into the existing space. With a few swipes, the rep can show other models or change the color. Research shows that customers are ready for content beyond static information. Nearly 60% of respondents to a recent survey said they would be willing to spend up to 20 minutes with interactive content. That statistic drives home how important it is for marketers to go beyond creating traditional sales assets to find new ways to engage their buyers.
4. Enable sales teams to be constant learners Customers can spend up to two full business days researching a product before they even reach out to start the buying process. The days of a prospect’s taking a meeting with you before looking at your website, materials, and company background are long over. Today’s sales teams must have a deep knowledge of the industry verticals they are selling in. Without understanding the personas, unique challenges, and capabilities of businesses within a particular industry, reps will not be able to make the case for how their products and services are positioned to help. Furthermore, they won’t know which existing marketing content can help them make the case. Digital solutions are helping ensure that sales reps get the ongoing training and coaching they need to build up their knowledge and skills. Just as marketers can use analytics to determine what content drives sales, coaches can assign training materials based on past performance and the leads they are currently pursuing. The digital nature of these systems lets coaches identify the behaviors of sales team leaders and provide the training necessary to elevate the middle of the pack. 5. Iterate on the sales and marketing dynamic Though every member of a go-to-market team should be aligned around the buyer, it all starts at the top. Sales and Marketing leaders should connect regularly to identify ways to foster collaboration and ultimately improve the buyer experience. At its core, collaboration should center on ensuring Sales and Marketing are aligned on common goals. That means giving both groups access to data that can serve as a single source of truth for decision-making. For example, when marketers have data on what content is working, they can optimize their efforts by providing sales teams with better content—and point to the numbers that prove their strategy is successful. With the proper feedback cycle and tools in place, sales and marketing teams alike can get what they need to drive stronger results for the company. Sales Enablement To meet the needs of a more prepared, savvy buyer, sales reps need relevant and personalized content. Tools like sales enablement platforms empower the marketing and sales functions to band together to deliver a better buyer experience through more tailored pitches and customercentered solutions. By enhancing collaboration, those systems also highlight process gaps that show how organizations can improve change management and governance. Finally, they can also help identify what content works and what doesn’t, at last allowing marketing teams real insight into their efforts.
A New Card Ties Your Credit to Your Social Media Stats By Arielle Pardes
Founded by Instagram and finance alums, Karat wants to be the black card in every influencer’s wallet. SPENCER DONNELLY, WHO goes by TheRussianBadger on YouTube, has cultivated an audience of nearly 2.7 million subscribers for his gaming videos. For years, business has been rosy. YouTube shares a percentage of the ad revenue on each of his videos, and the money is good enough that playing videogames on camera has become a full-time job. A few years ago, he even incorporated The Russian Badger, legitimizing his YouTubing business. The only problem: No bank would give him a serious credit card.
“Imagine that you’re making $2 or $3 million a year and they’re capping you at $20,000 a month,” says Donnelly, which was the best he could get from a traditional bank. When it came time to upgrade his gaming setup—a pricey but necessary expenditure—he found himself buying components in parts and then paying off the card to cycle through his own credit. Donnelly, like many of the creators who make their living
brandknewmag.com
47 on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch, has long felt shunned by institutions that don’t understand that his lifestyle is also his business. That makes him the target market for Karat, a new startup offering financial services to the influencer set. Karat’s first product is the Karat Black Card, designed specifically for influencers, with credit lines starting at $50,000. Its perks can be customized (gamers get cash back on streaming services; beauty influencers get perks for product purchases), and the credit limits are determined by an influencer’s social metrics, revenue streams, and cash in hand. To issue the cards, Karat has partnered with the payments company Stripe, which launched its own corporate card late last year. For now, Karat wants to be the flashy card in every influencer’s wallet. But eventually, the startup could become a one-stop shop for a creator’s business needs. Before its official launch, Karat piloted the black card with a small group of successful creators like Donnelly, many with similar stories of financial frustration. “We actually have clients who make millions of dollars, and the bank had given them a card with a $10,000 credit limit,” says Eric Wei, Karat’s cofounder. “We’ve met creators who have over $100,000 in a PayPal account—they’re not even using a bank.” A former product manager at Instagram, Wei had been astounded to see how much money some creators were making on the platform. He was even more shocked to see how many of those creators were turned away from financial products like credit cards and mortgages. “The traditional banking system is messed up,” says Will Kim, the other cofounder, who previously worked in finance. “It’s overlooking these vast swaths of underserved groups. That’s where we were like, ‘Wait. This is a massive opportunity.’” The influencer market will be, by some estimates, worth close to $15 billion in just a few years, with hundreds of thousands of people earning sizable income from viral videos and social posts. By Karat’s own count, there are over a million professional full-time creators globally who earn at least $80,000 a year—but many of them have trouble accessing the same resources as someone with a more traditional small business. Part of the difficulty in loaning to influencers is that their business models vary so much. Influencer income can seem, to a bank, unreliable; the money can vary wildly from month to month, and it can come from a variety of different sources, from sponsorship deals and shares of ad revenue to subscriptions and donations from fans. That makes it more difficult for banks to gauge what sort of credit they should offer to an individual creator, and to compare one creator to another. “It’s hilarious seeing traditional institutions work with YouTubers,” Donnelly says. “The easiest way to put it is that everybody thinks you’re a drug dealer.” To develop Karat’s underwriting capabilities, Wei and Kim had to collect data on how various influencers were making money. In order to apply for the card, creators submit social media metrics and income information. (Karat’s website says it will “prioritize creators with verified followings of at least 100K or those referred by our partners.”) But “it’s not as simple as millions of followers equals millions of dollars,” says Kim. “Social stats are good indicators, but they’re not the full picture.
” Each social media platform has different options for monetizing an audience, and some are more lucrative than others. “I’d rather have a million followers on YouTube than 10 million on TikTok,” says Wei, since YouTubers can get money from both ad revenue and channel subscriptions, while TikTok has no direct monetization options and makes it difficult to follow specific creators. Engagement is also critical. An influencer with 1 million followers and 10 percent engagement will do better than another with 10 million followers and 1 percent engagement, because engagement doesn’t scale linearly. In gauging creditworthiness, Karat also looks for signals that the creator has “professionalized” (incorporating their business, responding to emails on time) and the ways they have diversified their revenue (affiliate links, AdSense, sponsorships, subscriptions, and merchandising). It’s essential to see that they’re not mono-platform, Kim says, since “creators who are too reliant on any one platform struggle when something goes wrong with that platform.” Karat advertises that it doesn’t charge user fees or interest. Right now, it makes money from interchange revenue, the fees that merchants pay for each transaction. Longer-term, though, the startup plans to expand into other financial services, becoming a sort of Central Bank of Creators. “Multiple creators have asked us, ‘Can you help me with my mortgage?’” says Wei. “Today, we’re focused on building something where every creator has us in their wallet. But yeah, we want to help them with that.” He adds that basic accounting services were “desperately needed” by many creators, and they have ideas to provide those services at scale. Wei and Kim aren’t the first founders to see a business opportunity in the gap between traditional institutions and a rising class of new digital entrepreneurs. Brex, the startup that offers charge cards for other startups, got started in 2017, after its cofounders saw how people who couldn’t get business credit were paying for startup expenses on their personal debit cards. Within a year, Brex had reached unicorn status as demand for its cards surged in Silicon Valley. Karat’s founders hope to do something similar with their card. Like Brex, Karat doesn’t require a personal guarantee. And like Brex, Karat hopes that it can turn its underserved market into a gold mine. Some accountants have already caught on to the growing market for influencers. Donnelly, for example, pays a monthly fee to a Southern California-based company called Sempahore, which specifically handles financials for YouTubers. “They will do every scrap of paper to run your corporation: meeting minutes, taxes, corporate filings, distribution of profits, payroll, everything,” says Donnelly. Incorporating his business and then farming out the accounting to Semaphore saved him “like half a million in taxes.” More YouTubers would be smart to do the same, he says. But if Karat managed to provide a similar service using software? “That could have huge potential,” he says. Arielle Pardes is a senior writer at WIRED, where she works on stories about our relationship to our technology. Previously she was a senior editor for VICE. She is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania and lives in San Francisco.
The Future of Marketing Organizations Post-Pandemic: Top 5 Predictions By Gabriela Barkho
The pandemic has caused unprecedented upheaval in the corporate world, and we marketers are trying to find our bearings in an environment unlike any we have known. Granted, some of the changes we are experiencing are bound to be only temporary. But others are likely to persist, forming a new foundation for the way businesses function post-pandemic.
in overhead costs if employees work remotely? Will people end up preferring their home offices to long commutes, or will they miss the camaraderie and collaboration of shared workspaces?
What will that “new normal” look like? Can you prepare your team now for what lies ahead?
The conversations about redefining “employment” have already begun, and employees are proving that they can perform well from home, provided they have the right tools and appropriate support.
Here are five of my top predictions about what the future may hold for marketers and marketing organizations. 1. Business leaders will fully recognize the benefit of a solid digital strategy In the past, championing digital transformation was often an uphill battle. Everyone recognized its importance, but few were willing to take the necessary steps. Now, digital is providing a lifeline. Customers around the globe are turning to the brands with the most effective outreach and e-commerce and/or digital-delivery capabilities. As a result, many companies—particularly those that were not far enough along on their digital transformations—are being forced to rapidly re-evaluate their approaches. I expect changes within sales and marketing organizations to happen quickly as business leaders begin to truly understand the value of digital marketing—and then reprioritize their multichannel, content creation, and personalization strategies. After all, those are among the key components of a game plan that can help safeguard business from similar market shifts down the road. 2. Marketing plans will come together faster The crisis over the past few months showed us that customer demands and requirements can change quite literally overnight. That means a six-month marketing plan may not be as valuable as we once thought it was. Moreover, we have all learned that a new marketing strategy can be created and implemented in weeks, not months. We proved that internal red tape can be removed and lead times can be cut. Why wouldn’t we want to continue moving that fast in the future?
At a fundamental level, video conferencing has become invaluable for our teams, not only to keep us on task with work projects but also to help everyone feel less isolated right now. Thinking ahead, how will your B2B marketing tactics change if more and more of your buyers are working from home? 4. Innovative virtual events Most big companies have canceled in-person events through the end of 2020, and some even into 2021. Many of those events are being transformed into virtual experiences so that brands can continue to stay in touch with customers and prospects. That may sound easy enough on paper, but the challenges are significant. Simply offering a webinar is not going to be as effective. Marketers are going to need to get creative so their companies can stand out among the myriad virtual events coming everyone’s way. It’s also worthwhile to think about how you can expand participation to those who, in the past, were unable to attend your in-person events. How does moving to digital only events open up new opportunities for your organization? 5. Marketers will feel emboldened with a new nimbleness It is not hyperbole to say that marketing teams are navigating across uncharted waters. None of us has ever experienced a business environment like the one we are now facing; and though at times that has been unnerving, it has also been incredibly empowering.
3. More people will work from home
I have been amazed and inspired by how quickly the Sitecore team—like many others—adapted, how much new we are learning along the way, and how better prepared we are now to deal with the unexpected.
Many of us are participating in the largest work at home experiment ever conducted—and the longer it continues, the more we are going to learn. How much can companies save
As the demand for digital accelerates, we marketers can rely on our newfound knowledge—and courage—to keep us agile and adaptable.
With that, I anticipate more marketers will harness AI to further improve efficiencies and enhance personalization.
CL E RMONT K . Y.
U. S .
MAY YOUR YEAR-END BONUS BE WORTHY OF YOUR EFFORT.
EVERY BIT EARNED
KNOB CREEK® KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY AND STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY 50% ALC./VOL. ©2019 KNOB CREEK DISTILLING COMPANY, CLERMONT, KY.
How to Recover After Burnout By Laura Entis
What to do when you feel as if you have no energy left. Burnout, unfortunately, is everywhere. If you haven’t experienced it personally, you probably know someone who has self-diagnosed. Defined by the World Health Organization as a syndrome “conceptualized as resulted from chronic workplace stress,” it causes exhaustion, “feelings of negativism or cynicism,” and reduced efficacy. That’s a big umbrella, and the condition has become something of a catch-all for chronic, modern-day stress. “The sort of internal atmosphere of burnout is always, ‘I should be doing something but I’m not,’” says Josh Cohen, a psychoanalyst and the author of the book Not Working: Why We Have to Stop. “It’s the feeling you are always a step or two behind where you should be and yet you feel you’ve come to the end of your capacity to do anything.” Given the continuous demands of modern life, in the professional realm, yes, but the personal, too, it’s no wonder burnout has become so commonplace. We’re simultaneously exhausted and plagued by the idea that we’re not trying hard enough, a phenomenon Anne Helen Petersen explores in her viral essay on millennial burnout. “I’d put something on my weekly todo list, and it’d roll over, one week to the next, haunting me for months,” she writes. “I think it’s very hard to find someone who has not felt burnt out,” says Terri Bogue, who co-authored Extinguish Burnout: A Practical Guide to Prevention and Recovery with her husband, Rob. The condition is frequently associated with work, but it can just as easily arise from issues outside the office. Terri last experienced burnout over concerns about the path one of her children was heading down. “I felt completely out of control, like I had no impact,” she says. “That lack of ability to feel effective turned into burnout quickly for me.” She was flooded with feelings of inadequacy that bled into virtually every other aspect of her life. “At the root of it are exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy,” adds Rob. “If I feel ineffective, I am going to be exhausted because I don’t feel anything I’m doing is enough. You become
cynical because you feel like you can’t change things.” It’s a vicious cycle that is easy to enter and hard to emerge from. With that in mind, experts and creatives share strategies for how to recognize the signs and develop strategies for recovery. Avoid comparison Brooklyn-based graphic designer and artist Kelli Anderson rarely experiences burnout. She attributes this, in part, to her ability to switch from different modes of work, interspersing sometimes amorphous passion projects with deadlinedriven assignments for clients. Just as important, however: a gift for avoiding “the bad habit of comparing myself to other people,” an activity she’s found often manufactures unrealistic and arbitrary goals. Frustratingly, comparisons can be hard to avoid. “We live in a culture that’s inundated with everyone’s updates,” Rob says. In real life and on social media, we’re exposed to curated versions of friends, acquaintances, and strangers’ existences. Epic vacations, prestigious jobs, elaborate wellness routines, homemade meals, and picture-perfect families flood by in a well-staged blur. It’s a good environment for inadequacy to thrive. “You feel ineffective because your expectation is built on the aggregation of everyone else’s highlight reel.” Recognizing this is a good first step, as is dialing back the modes by which you make comparisons in your daily-life. (Yes, this likely means reducing your social media consumption.) Reframe your relationship with productivity and achievement Along with endless forms of comparison, our modern-day life is built on the concept of continual productivity. No matter how much we’ve achieved, there’s always more to be done.
brandknewmag.com
51
This, unsurprisingly, fuels burnout. Recovering from an episode or, better yet, avoiding the condition altogether often requires a reset. “It’s about developing a different internal relationship to that voice in your head that says, ‘You have to push on, you have to achieve more,’” Cohen, the psychoanalyst, says. Most people are familiar with the superego, which acts as the minds’ self-critical conscience. The ego ideal is less wellknown, but Cohen believes it is intimately involved in mental patterns that contribute to burnout. Compared to the superego, the ego ideal “is ostensibly more positive…it’s like one of those insanely peppy fitness trainers who pushes you to do more reps. It seems like it’s your ally and your friend; it wants you to do more because it knows you can do more.” (For many of us, it’s a voice that has been cultivated by adult figures who showed encouragement by denying that we had limits—anything was possible if we just worked hard enough.)
“Ask yourself what you’d want to do— not what you feel you should do.” For the vast majority of people, such continuous striving is unsustainable. Recovery from burnout, then, requires a more understanding, realistic, and less demanding internal motivator, one that allows for moments of rest and doesn’t view life as something to be optimized. For those who are feeling early signs of burnout, often the first step is to pause, Rob says. A day off or a vacation is rarely a long-term solution, “but it can be self-care in the moment to give yourself the ability to pause and just sit.” Ask yourself what you’d want to do—not what you feel you should do—if you had an hour of free time. “And then give it to yourself without feeling bad about it,” Rob says. Reevaluate your expectations Redefining your relationship to productivity requires a similar reassessment of expectations. Cohen frequently hears from people who feel as if they can’t slow down; they have too many external demands and deadlines. If this is truly the case, it’s worth considering how you got to a place where “your commitments are so persecuting and pressing that you don’t feel there is time to do anything else,” he says. “That requires a reckoning with your particular working situation.” Siobhan Murray, a Dublin-based psychotherapist and the author of The Burnout Solution, recommends that clients regularly audit their activities and obligations. Once a quarter, Murray takes stock of what is going on in her life and reviews any major changes. If she feels at all overextended, she goes over her negotiables and non-negotiables in order to reduce stressors and time commitments.
“Social media can delude us into thinking it’s possible not just to do everything, but be excellent at everything.”
For instance: A few years ago, Murray decided she wanted to start a book club—it sounded fun and relaxing. The reality was more complicated. A single mom, each meeting required that she find the time to read the book, secure a babysitter, and get to the meeting spot. After six months, she threw in the towel. “I wanted it, but it wasn’t working for me.” Her kids and her work? Non-negotiable. A book club? Negotiable. Social media can delude us into thinking it’s possible not just to do everything, but be excellent at everything. This, of course, is a fantasy. “We can’t be successful when we have ten identities and want to fill all of them personally,” Terri says. Like Murray, she recommends paring back. Start by mapping out all of the various identities you’d like to fulfill, and then separate them into those that are core to your personhood and those that are aspirational. Next, plot out how many hours each identity consumes (for example, the hours you put in as an employee, as a parent, as a friend). Most of the time, “you end up with a deficit,” she says, which means it’s time to adjust your expectations for how many identities you can simultaneously juggle. Cultivate rest To recover from burnout, you need to truly rest. Often, this first requires an acceptance of the state itself. Engagement, activity, and connection are crucial parts of being human, “but they aren’t the only things that define us,” Cohen says. “There is equally an impulse to retreat into privacy and to commune with oneself rather than the outside world.” In our over-stimulated, productivity-obsessed culture, too often this urge is recast as an aberration that must be suppressed.
“It’s distressingly easy to apply an achievement-mindset to the concept of rest itself.” Cohen recommends finding past times that aren’t attached to any productive outcome or purpose. This can be tricky; It’s distressingly easy to apply an achievement-mindset to the concept of rest itself. “You see this with people who are really into activities that are supposed to induce a state of rest.” Under the wrong circumstances, meditation and yoga simply feed our drive to become even more efficient machines. Murray has noticed a similar trend. When doing a personal audit, she recommends including “wellness” activities, which can suck up a lot of time and energy. “Maybe you realize that going to three yoga classes a week at 5:30 in the morning is not going to work, but doing 20 minutes on YouTube is more manageable,” she says. Ironically, she’s found the wellness industry contributes to burnout by trying to convince us that if we only ate paleo, meditated more, and practiced Reiki, “our lives would be perfect.” Instead of chasing an impossible regimen, she recommends that overwhelmed clients simply find a way to move that works for their schedule. Maybe it’s yoga, maybe it’s running, maybe it’s simply carving out 15 to 20 minutes a day to walk. “Go back to the basics,” she says.
It took a global pandemic, but QR codes may finally take off By Gabriela Barkho
With the increasing acceptance of contactless payments — considered a more sanitary solution — quick response (QR) barcodes could see a resurgence in use among retailers. The technology has been around since the early ‘90s, but several factors have brands revisiting its use for marketing and payment solutions. For one, unlike encrypted smartphone wallets, QR has an advantage in allowing customers to view and use unique virtual code without downloading an app. Like other non-cash payments innovations, overseas markets have been quicker to embrace them. Take for example China’s WeChat Pay and Alipay systems, which both use QR codes and are used by millions of shoppers daily. Scanning a colorful 2D barcode in the WeChat app gives users a wide range of services — from adding a new contact, to applying special promo codes to paying street food merchants. Meanwhile, Snapchat — of which WeChat parent company Tencent is an investor — has been pushing further into integrating AR lenses into its growing e-commerce offerings. GlobalData’s latest stats also show that QR codes transactions have witnessed an especially strong boost during the pandemic. As GlobalData fintech analyst Ayushi Tandon explained, QR codes emerging popularity is credited to the simple technology — it doesn’t require vast infrastructure like card payment networks, merchant accounts and special payment terminals. Last month, 1-800-Flowers.com implemented a custom QR code to market its new collaboration with designer Jason Wu. Bouquets from the Jason Wu for Wild Beauty collection come with custom hangtags printed with a QR code, which recipients use to “virtually step into the studio” with Wu. According to chief marketing officer Amit Shah, this marks the first time the e-commerce gifting retailer has used a QR code for a specific product collection. Some of the exclusive content includes behind-the-scenes footage from Jason’s
Ready-To-Wear Fall 2020 New York Fashion Week Show and a photo shoot from the collaboration. With the event taking place online this year, Shah said the decision to include a QR code with every arrangement made for a straightforward way to connect the online and offline experiences. While it’s early days, he said customer engagement is substantial thus far. Brands’ demand for QR code integration is also being felt by e-commerce vendors in the space. Seek — which uses QR codes in the augmented reality solutions it builds for brands like Overstock, Nestlé and Walmart — has experienced a 600% increase in AR usage through its customers’ websites since March. The company has since also added several new retail clients, including Sperry and Klipsch looking to add the virtual technology. “Using QR codes to deliver AR experiences isn’t a novel concept,” explained Seek co-founder and CEO Jon Cheney. But like other e-commerce trends adopted during the pandemic, it’s quickly becoming relevant today for both instore and online try-ons while shopping from home. Cheney said clients in the home decor space have seen a “significant lift in sales” over the last few years. The AR e-commerce features have also increased conversion rates “from 10% to as much as 200%,” with a 25% drop in returns. QR codes’ usage may get more creative over time. For retailers that rely on timely events, like 1-800-Flowers.com, Shah said there’s room to continue creating virtual features for gift senders and recipients to connect from afar. Cheney added that for retailers still relying on e-commerce sales to offset shutdowns, QR codes can be an easy way to give customers a sense of size and fit of items like furniture, “as the 3D models are to scale.” Furthermore, as stores reopen, shopping with QR codes can help customers get more product info with minimal contact from associates.
In An Era Of COVID-19 Disruption, Brands Must Rethink Marketing As Empathetic Customer Experiences By Brian Solis
New research shows that brands that embrace innovation and agility with an aim on humanizing the customer’s experience, outperform their peers, especially in a global pandemic. COVID-19 has disrupted markets and lives at levels not seen by many. As cases around the world soared, executives were stunned, unprepared for the rapid shifts that would test even the most experienced of experts. The disruption wreaked by this pandemic was swift, unprecedented, and underestimated. While it largely reset the world we once knew, the term “new normal” became a staple in how we defined these novel times. But the impact on, and shifts in, markets and human behaviors were far from normal and definitely elusive of offering insights necessary to recognize any sense of normalcy or clear path forward. Businesses that don’t take the time to understand what’s changing and why, as times and trends continue to evolve, will miss their opportunity to earn relevance and thrive in this new world. The most meaningful way forward is to place the customer at the center of your vision and decision-making in two distinct strategic phases: one with-COVID and the other, post-COVID. Like the Novel Coronavirus, businesses are operating in uncharted territory. I refer to these times as the Novel Economy, a socioeconomic period that is, just like its namesake, new and unusual. Brands don’t have access to a disruption vaccine nor do executives possess a playbook for responding to and thriving in a global pandemic. At the same time, decisionmakers are without best practices and case studies to skillfully
guide their actions. The most direct source of insights resides in the signals and inputs customers willfully share with those who are willing to pay attention. What executives don’t want to do right now is make assumptions about customer needs and predilections. This was clear in the unanimous customer response to seemingly timed marketing campaigns in the early days of COVID-19. For example, an initial wave of emails from brands to customers, in a time of great sensitivity, appeared to reference the same generic template. This led to consumers wondering why brands felt compelled to reach out without understanding what they were and weren’t looking for from brands in these times of great uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. These types of emails represented just one form of “out of touchness” at a time when it was more important to listen than speak. But this out of touchness wasn’t limited to email. In digital and television advertising campaigns, brands also seemed to source the same pandemic style guide. Customers were quick to respond in uniform. The last thing they needed to hear from brands is how “we are all in this together.” In a video titled “Every Covid-19 Commercial is Exactly the Same,” Youtube user Microsoft Sam compiled footage from advertising spots published by numerous leading brands. The video features clever editing that spliced together key themes from each video into an all-too-familiar arc and template. According to AdAge, this pandemic inspired montage featured “somber music, a reminder of how the brand has been with the consumer throughout its entire
Get more done with an all-in-one Marketing Platform. Using Mailchimp is like having four arms (for marketing). See how we can help get your business up and running with websites, CRM, social, email, ads, analytics, and more.
Learn more at mailchimp.com
history and that in these ‘challenging,’ ‘trying,’ ’uncertain’ or ‘unprecedented’ times, while ‘doors are closed’ or ‘distance between us’ has grown, we can still ‘stay connected’ in the ‘safety of our home’.”
marketing or digital transformation, will be rooted in empathy, purpose, and compassion. This means that the next generation of style guides and playbooks need development in real-time.
It’s hard to believe that executives would intentionally aim for anything other than sympathy. Executives are human too. They’re worried about financial devastation and the impact that has on the brand and their teams. Yet, executives cannot lose sight that customers are human beings who are worried about the health and well-being of their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
COVID-19 accelerates digital customer behaviors and amplifies importance of empathetic experiences
The intention of brands reaching out is understandable, and from a business perspective, necessary. They’re simply trying to remain relevant and in-demand. Customers on the other hand, were less than inspired. This isn’t a time to upset anyone. It is a time to be a light in the lives of consumers, to find ways to add value or remove friction, especially when customers feel overwhelmed and anxious by the impact of the pandemic in their lives. I call this #IgniteMoments. It’s an opportunity to humanize and enliven touchpoints, to touch the customer in a novel and refreshing way that creates memorable experiences. If you’re taking pause and listening, consumers are expressing that, rather than market to them in the same ways as before or by using the pandemic guide to generic engagement, they’d rather engage with companies that represent values associated with kindness and caring. The digital transformation of legacy marketing to modern, personal customer experiences In its sixth edition “State of Marketing” report, Salesforce learned that brands need to rethink engagement from a much more innovative and human-centered frame of reference. According to its research, leading marketing executives are prioritizing the following five strategic initiatives: 1.
Innovation
2.
Real-time engagement
3.
Regulatory compliance
4.
Improved use of tools and technology
5.
Modernization of tools and technology
With a global pandemic still raging, marketers must operate with compassion and attentiveness led by a “with COVID” mindset. The existing brand style guide and marketing playbooks do not account for these times nor the speed and breadth at which they’re operating. Traditional marketing will no longer have the same effect moving forward. If anything, it will negatively affect customer relationships rather than enhance them. In its research, Salesforce learned that 69% of marketers say that today’s traditional marketing roles limit customer engagement — up from 37% in 2018. This sets the stage for more meaningful, personalized engagement now and also in a “post COVID” world aka the next normal. As such, customer-centricity, whether you call it CX or
A significant majority of customers are more than ready for brand humanization. According to Salesforce research, 84% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services — up from 80% in 2018. This means that marketing is evolving from a classical, one-to-many approach, toward delivering customer experiences that connect, build trust, and guide mutually beneficial outcomes. What’s needed to break through today? Total CX, i.e. marketing becomes bigger than a series of departments or functions. Marketing becomes the stewards of customer experience across the journey. This is the future of brand. Eighty-eight percent of high performer marketers report leading CX initiatives across their organizations, compared to 68% of underperformers. Of the 7,000 marketers surveyed around the world, only 15% were high performers, those completely satisfied with their overall marketing performance and the outcomes of their marketing investments. On the other side of the spectrum, 14% were underperformers. The vast majority of marketers (71%) were described as moderate performers. In time of a global pandemic, when emotions are running high, experience is personal. That’s what an experience is after all, an emotional, mental and physical reaction to a moment. This is why CX leaders define the customer’s experience as the sum of all experiences a customer has with their business. Each touchpoint counts in their own right, but also are keystones to the bridges that connect entire experiences together. Marketing transformation takes on a new sense of urgency, requiring true 360 customer understanding and engagement It’s critical for marketers to have a real-time 360 view and understanding of a customer’s full journey, at every stage, from discovery to engagement to retention and loyalty to advocacy. Sixty-nine percent of customers are reporting that they expect connected experiences. Legacy roles that only focus on stages of the customer journey, in isolation, without coordinating with those who manage other connected touchpoints, will lose favor with customers. By design, the brand message and the experiences they deliver will be disconnected and likely confusing. Said another way, if it’s not complementary, intuitive, and additive, individual experiences are likely taking away from its total potential. Cross-functional collaboration is a mandate. As such, integration will become the new standard and will quickly become table stakes as every company rushes in this direction.
brandknewmag.com
57 So how can brands deliver value? Value lies in the eye of the beholder. Gaining unbiased outside perspective on how customers define value is where we begin. Customers seek information their way in the channels that they trust and are native and intuitive to them. They don’t care what challenges you face internally. They don’t care about siloes, politics, egos, or resource constraints. They want what they want. The journey, defined by each touchpoint and how they connect with each other, defines the customer’s experience. That experience is theirs. You’re creating and architecting experiences open to interpretation. You have to design moving forward, accordingly. Processes, means of communication and engagement, systems of record, need to be interconnected, frictionless, fast, productive and experiential in every touchpoint. The vast majority (81%) of marketing teams are learning how to share goals and metrics with sales. But, that’s not all. Eighty percent of marketers are doing so with service and e-commerce. Sixty four percent suppress marketing when there’s an open service case. To do so effectively, takes a common, agile platform that can keep up with customer evolution while bringing cross-functional teams together around the customer’s truth. The foundation is already being set for success by marketing’s high performers. It’s reported that 63% of these elite marketers, for example, use the same CRM system as sales and service departments. Executives are in a prime position to lead a marketing revolution that better connects brands with customers to deliver a total experience one engagement at a time. It’s about understanding what they need, when they need it, and how to create new value they didn’t expect, but now can’t live without once they’ve experienced it. Data-driven empathy helps marketers deliver personalized and meaningful customer experiences as customer expectations and preferences evolve The average enterprise has 900 different applications, an average of only 28% of which are integrated according to a recent Mulesoft report. This explains why marketers cite data unification and activation among their top five challenges. Therein lies opportunity for differentiation and innovation. Data is the answer, yet marketers have to update the questions that they ask. I call this data-driven empathy and helps marketers get to the heart of the matter in real-time. Customers are changing as a result of COVID-19 and the emotions and health advisories guiding their well-being. Shelter-in-place, physical distancing, concern for their own health and well-being, as well as for their loved ones, is accelerating digital-first behaviors in every touchpoint across their journey.
During these times of disruption, data-driven empathy enables empathetic marketing, customer engagement, and genuine experiences. As customers’ circumstances, needs, and sentiments evolve rapidly, accumulating a clear understanding becomes mission critical for AI-powered platforms and CX and marketing strategies. Marketers are turning to an ever-increasing number of digital signals and data sources to assess transactional data, declared interests and preferences, known digital IDs, offline IDs, secondparty data, inferred interests and preferences, and more. In fact, progressive marketers plan to use 60% more data this year than the overall industry average. Combined with AI, marketers can achieve personalization across the journey at scale by distilling insights from data and guiding teams on how best to take action. The experiences that customers have in each touchpoint must also not only meet their needs, but also strive to surpass their expectations. High performance marketers report that they are increasingly turning to a sophisticated array of modern digital tools and intelligent, connected platforms. Artificial intelligence (AI), for example is helping marketers learn from real-time customer activity and corresponding data signals to personalize engagement with the right context at the right time in the right channel on the right device. Eighty-four percent of marketers report using AI, which is up from 29% in 2018 (an increase of 186% in two years). To lead through this incredible change, real-time, 360 customer data becomes eminent. Before COVID-19 (BC) customer behavior was already becoming more and more digital. This only accelerated after COVID disruption (AD). But the data that organizations need to hyper focus on right now is happening in real-time. The time for placing data at the center of CX is now. It’s essential to have a clear understanding of customer needs as they evolve. In these times of disruption, datadriven empathy enables empathetic marketing, customer engagement, and experiences. Data-driven empathy is both an art and a science. In addition to creativity, communication, emotional intelligence, marketers are now reporting the need for digital-first expertise including digital proficiency, data analysis, and data science. Customer-centric metrics matter, count what counts to the brand and to the customer’s experience What gets measured gets done. At the same time, it’s been said that not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. CX is dependent on the “customer’s experience and as such, their experience, hence the apostrophe, becomes a key CPI (customer performance indicator). New and upgraded metrics, beyond those of vanity and general engagement, need to demonstrate performance and also customercentered benefits. High performance marketers (72%), for example, are already analyzing performance in real time, versus 49% of
underperformers. And, fewer than half (48%) of marketing organizations today track important experience metrics such as customer lifetime value (CLV/LTV). There’s plenty of room for growth here. Customer-centric metrics correlate to business performance. Experienced marketers are being more strategic about ways to invest in customer experiences to showcase customer satisfaction and retention in addition to complementing customer acquisition strategies. By measuring the customer’s real-time and aggregated experience, marketers can learn exactly how and where to improve them, in times with-COVID and post-COVID markets. Innovaiton is the ability to see change as an opportunity Innovation is defined as many things. But at its core, innovation is about creating new value that didn’t exist before. This is different than iteration, which incrementally improves existing value. Both are important. During this pandemic, and even after there’s universal treatment, a vaccine, we establish herd immunity, or all of the above, the customer’s experience is not only an ongoing priority, but also a primary driver of innovation. Following the series of disruptive events, shutdowns, impacts on public health and global economies, and waves of setbacks, customer preferences and behaviors evolved rapidly and will continue to evolve as the Novel Economy unfolds. Even as the world starts to open up as it learns to co-exist with a novel coronavirus and even after its eradication, CX must always be human-centered to genuinely and effectively engage customers. The same is true for CX innovation. Research found that 76% of high performers say they do a great job at innovating marketing technology, tactics, and strategies, versus 47% of underperformers. In the next 10 years, digital will not only be further accelerated, it will also be dramatically expanded. Sixty percent of marketing leaders see opportunities with millions of consumers who were slow to adopt digital but are now expected to get online over the next decade.
1. Shift from classical marketing to a relentless focus on the customer experience. 2. Embrace an ethos and commitment to helpfulness, relevancy, and trustworthiness. 3. Create a culture of innovation in parallel with the continual practice of iteration. 4. Also create a culture of data-driven empathy. 5. Empower and incentivize employees to do the right thing while also learning the next thing. 6. Personalize all forms of engagement and use modern technology to humanize experiences. 7. Make the offline and online customer journey integrated, intuitive, productive, true, and even joyful. 8. Transform touchpoints into #IgniteMoments to articulate and project what your brand stands for and empower mutually beneficial, memorable experiences; values beget value. During a global pandemic, as digital-first customer behaviors are accelerating, delivering the basics combined with empathetic, connected, and innovative, cross- and omnichannel experiences are now matters of necessity. The maturity from classical marketing to CX is indeed the right path. Marketers are increasing adoption of and enhancing important digital and also physical touchpoints, while ensuring that they complement each other collectively. To thrive in an era of pandemic disruption, one where customers are seeking brands to be relevant, genuine, and empathetic, start from the start. This is a time when the world is vulnerable, where every person and organization is adapting to life with a live virus in their midst, where no one is operating from a best-in-class pandemic playbook. Brands, and marketers must become the very people they’re trying to reach. This means that among innovation, compliance, time and technology, humanity must become a killer app. Be hopeful.
At the same time, customer-facing and back office technology is only going to continue to advance. Emergent technologies such as 5G, virtual and augmented reality, smart homes, voice, wearables, smart cars, blockchain, will further influence markets and customer behaviors and standards for sought after experiences.
Be empathetic.
Innovation, personalization, and humanization is now a constant.
Be bold.
Stay alive in an era of disruption, aim to survive in this interim normal, and learn to thrive in the Novel Economy To thrive in the Novel Economy, during and following COVID-19 disruption, it’s imperative to unlearn BC (legacy) mindsets, learn from the high performers, and most importantly, learn from your customers. Furthermore, embrace a growth mindset and an empathetic heartset to effectively…
Be thoughtful. Be creative. Be experimental.
Be agile. Be swift. Be digital. Above all else, be human. Brian Solis is a digital analyst, speaker and author. He is a principal analyst studying disruptive technology and its impact on business at Altimeter Group, a research firm acquired by global brand management consultancy Prophet in 2015
groupisd.com
59
Futurist insights: trends of 2020 By Mark Pesce
Professional futurist Mark Pesce ponders the emerging trends of 2020 as the world shifts out of crisis and into the unknown – from a ‘sterile economy’ to whole nations trapped in their ‘bubbles’. The world saw more change in March and April of 2020 than
began offering passengers Ola Pro – promising a car
in any period since the Second World War – catastrophic,
thoroughly sanitised between rides, along with an additional
fundamental, and still unfolding. All of that change has
infection control ‘barrier’ between the driver compartment
shortened our ‘forward planning horizon’ from years to
and all passengers. The Ola app itself sends a continuous
months. We can’t reliably predict what the world will be like
stream of messages highlighting the safety and cleanliness
in 2021 and beyond. It’s something I’ve noted in my practice
of Ola Pro, working to assure the passenger that the ride will
as a futurist: clients have recently begun asking for guidance
be clean, safe, and sterile.
across the next several months, rather than the next several years.
This kind of messaging will become a significant feature of all sharing economy companies – home-sharing even more
As we continue to flatten the curve, exiting the acute phase of
so than ride-sharing. As these companies work to outbid
the pandemic, entering into a more enduring ‘new normal’ –
one another in the public performance of their cleanliness,
describing the pandemic’s chronic phase – we find ourselves
customers will be offered full transparency, with videos that
with different sensitivities, different priorities, and new needs
allow them to watch the vehicle or apartment being cleaned,
to communicate the altered fabric of the world.
and an emergency panic button summoning cleaners
The first and most obvious of these will be framed as
immediately, and so forth.
consistent messaging about ‘sterility’. The ‘sharing economy’
A more fundamental problem confronts retail, which of
that had loomed large last year has been replaced by a
necessity involves extended face-to-face interactions between
‘sterile economy’, emphasising safety, cleanliness, and the
sales staff and the buying public – exactly the kind of situation
public performance of these as a signal to consumers and
we’ve now been carefully trained to avoid. How does a
employees that the requirements of their health have been
retailer attract customers while publicly assuring both those
given priority.
customers and their salesforce that every precaution has
This public performance of the ‘sterile economy’ can already be seen in ride-sharing companies like Ola, which recently
been taken to ensure their safety and the sterility of the shop? This is where the retail genius of Apple provides a best-
groupisd.com
61
practice example. During a recent visit to my local Apple Store – to pick up an adapter I’d ordered online through Apple’s app – I presented myself, checked in, and after a temperature check was handed a mask to wear while I waited in a very carefully socially-distanced queue. The whole process felt smooth, well-controlled and very safe. The store itself, normally a bustling beehive of activity, had only a few customers inside, each customer being accompanied by an Apple employee while they shopped. That meant much less foot traffic – and probably fewer sales for Apple – but the whole process gave a very public signal that Apple cares about the safety of both its staff and its customers. It also left the impression that it is willing to let revenue suffer as the price of doing business within the sterile economy. All of these public performances of cleanliness and sterility have already been entirely abandoned in New Zealand, which, after a tough lockdown, declared itself “COVID-19 free” on 9 June, lifting all restrictions on behaviours that had been imposed to curb the pandemic. That means business-asusual resumes for the Kiwis, a huge win for them, though with its own costs. As Australia gradually approaches eradication (as I write this, New South Wales has gone two weeks without a case of community transmission of COVID-19, and all states besides Victoria have even better statistics) we may also arrive at a threshold where public health authorities reach agreement that we, too, can resume living our lives as we did prior to March 2020. A cause for celebration, to be sure, but one that, as with New Zealand, carries some punishing costs, reflected in how we talk about that ‘new normal’ world of eradication.
The paradox of eradication is that it provides a bubble of safety, but leaves whole nations trapped within their bubbles. New Zealand has closed its borders to the rest of the world, and even if we manage to extend a trans-Tasman bubble between the two nations, there’s still only about thirty million people ‘under the dome’ – a difficult situation for two economies heavily dependent on international travellers for trade, tourism and education. In their absence we will feel a growing tension, as the economic air within our bubble grows increasingly stale. We’ll long for the touch of the world, while at the same time dreading the contagion that touch might bring. This dilemma could make us anxious and divided, reflected in messaging that reminds people of the comforts of home (and the quiet pleasures of local travel) while slyly, subtly reframing the world outside the bubble as ‘dirty’ and ‘dangerous’. Too long in that and we risk a rise in xenophobia that could outlast the pandemic, keeping Australians thinking and acting provincially long past any need. It’s difficult to know what the future holds beyond the end of this year. In its remaining months, we’ll see ourselves publicly get clean, then settle in behind our bubbles, looking at a world that invites us to be connected, while also warning us to keep our distance. That dilemma will persist – until there’s a vaccine. He invented the technology for 3D on the Web, has written seven books, was for seven years a judge on the ABC’s The New Inventors, founded postgraduate programs at USC and AFTRS, holds an honorary appointment at Sydney University, is a multiple-award-winning columnist for The Register and pens another column for IEEE Spectrum.
Book,
&
Line
Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld by James B. Twitchell
Sinker How Cool Brands Stay Hot: Branding to Generations Y and Z By Joeri Van den Bergh
Branding has become so successful and so ubiquitous that even cultural institutions have embraced it. In this witty and trenchant social analysis, James Twitchell shows how churches, universities, and museums have learned to embrace Madison Avenue rather than risk losing market share.
While the first two editions of How Cool Brands Stay Hot focused exclusively on Generation Y (Millennials), this fully revised third edition looks at both Generations Y and Z. Using new market research to map and quantify the spending power of Generation Z, branding experts Joeri Van den Bergh and Mattias Behrer provide hard evidence on the impact of this generation and suggest ways to market effectively to them.
How to Style Your Brand: Everything You Need to Know to Create a Distinctive Brand Identity
Brands in Glass Houses: How to Embrace Transparency and Grow Your Business Through Content Marketing
By Fiona Humberstone
By Dechay Watts
The right brand identity has the power to attract, engage and compel people to do business with you. But for many entrepreneurs, creating an effective brand can be a challenge.
From mom-and-pop shops to mega brands, from B2B to B2C, one common theme exists: consumers are leading the course of marketing. Today, successful companies do not talk “at” the customer; they talk “with” them, honestly and humanly.
Brand Mascots: And Other Marketing Animals
Book of Branding - a guide to creating brand identity for startups and beyond
By Stephen Brown Mascots are one of the most widespread modes of marketing communication and one of the longest established. Yet, despite their ubiquity and utility, brand mascots seem to be held in comparatively low esteem by the corporate cognoscenti. This collection, the first of its kind, raises brand mascots’ standing, both in an academic sense and from a managerial perspective.
By Ryan Holiday
Branding: In Five and a Half Steps
Identity Designed: The Definitive Guide to Visual Branding Hardcover – January 22, 2019
By Michael Johnson Michael Johnson is one of the world’s leading graphic designers and brand consultants. His studio, johnson banks, is responsible for the rebranding of many notable clients, including Virgin Atlantic, Think London, BFI, Christian Aid, and MORE TH>N, and he has garnered a plethora of awards in the process.
The conversational, jargon free, tone of the book helps the reader to understand essential elements of the brand identity process. Offering first hand experience, insights and tips throughout, the book uses real life case studies to show how great collaborative work can be achieved.
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.
brandknewmag.com
63
Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior By David Meerman Scott Without our realizing it, other people’s behavior has a huge influence on everything we do at every moment of our lives, from the mundane to the momentous. Even strangers have an impact on our judgments and decisions: our attitudes toward a welfare policy shift if we’re told it is supported by Democrats versus Republicans (even though the policy is the same).
The 1% Rule: How to Fall in Love with the Process and Achieve Your Wildest Dreams By Tommy Baker
Enter The 1% Rule — a daily system designed to help you close the gap without the crushing pressure that leads most people less inspired, and more stuck.
Power vs. Force By David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D The universe holds its breath as we choose, instant by instant, which pathway to follow; for the universe, the very essence of life itself, is highly conscious. Every act, thought, and choice adds to a permanent mosaic; our decisions ripple through the universe of consciousness to affect the lives of all.— from Power vs. Force
Instagram Power, Second Edition: Build Your Brand and Reach More Customers with Visual Influence By Jason Miles While other social sites are declining in popularity, Instagram is hotter than ever―and shows no signs of cooling off any time soon. With more features and marketing capabilities than ever, Instagram is a channel that smart marketers can’t afford to avoid.
Conscious Capitalism, With a New Preface by the Authors: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business By John Mackey Whole Foods Market cofounder John Mackey and professor and Conscious Capitalism, Inc. cofounder Raj Sisodia argue that both business and capitalism are inherently good, and they use some of today’s best-known and most successful companies to illustrate their point.
Three Magic Words: The Key to Power, Peace and Plenty By U. S. Andersen Three Magic Words is a ground-breaking book about the greatest idea in the world-a secret revealed in just three words-an idea so simple, so startling, so wonderful that it can start you on an adventure that will forever change the way you see yourself, others, and life. Knowing the secret opens up a whole new world of contentment, fulfillment, joy and abundance.
The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd By Allan Dib
To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn’t get done.
Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media by Brittany Hennessy Every one of your favorite influencers started with zero followers and had to make a lot of mistakes to get where they are today—earning more money each year than their parents made in the last decade. But to become a top creator, you need to understand the strategies behind the Insta-ready lifestyle . . .