While most of the headlines last week about the planned $25 billion Kroger and Albertsons supermarket merger were about antitrust regulatory hurdles, us marketers were investigating it from a different angle. Namely, what would it mean for retail media? Retail media, for those who’ve been paying attention, is a burgeoning digital advertising medium that has…
Ad Net Zero takes on standardizing measurement of how media affects climate change after naming former OMD CEO John Osborn to lead group in U.S.
Everybody came back from their summer vacations rested, rejuvenated and ready to power through the rest of the year. Or did they? It’s possible, maybe even probable, that extended family trips to jam-packed tourist spots were a hassle at best and exhausting at worst, truth be told. It’s that insight that fuels a new campaign…
When Jon Beebe joined Epsilon as its senior vice president of marketing and customer experience in 2020, one of the first things he said to his new boss was, “Oh my God, I wish I would have put more eggs in your basket.” When Beebe was a performance marketing director at General Motors, he felt…
Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney went on Ulta’s “The Beauty Of…” podcast last week to talk about their journey with sexual and gender identity. Some Ulta customers objected to the conversation.
Chewing gum has pretty limited use: You unwrap it, chew it, spit it out, and throw it away. (Well, except if you’re MacGyver, who has been known to fix a blown fuse with a gum wrapper.) British rocker Yungblud and sugar-free 5 Gum have found a new use for spent chewing gum: jewelry. It doesn’t…
Study presented at Advertising Week finds brands have opportunity to fill the trust gap between consumers and government, media.
British bank HSBC is the latest advertiser to have its ads spiked for “misleading” customers over green initiatives. The brand has been warned by the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after running a series of posters under the tagline “Climate Change Doesn’t Do Borders.” Following 45 complaints from the public, the regulator said the bank’s…
“I don’t mean to start throwing darts at certain advertising platforms,” Brommers said at Advertising Week New York, before throwing one.
Netflix rebounded following two poor quarters, adding 2.4 million subscribers after previously shedding nearly a million in the second quarter–the streamer’s biggest subscriber drop ever. The world’s largest streaming service now has 223.09 million subscribers in the third quarter, handily beating its projected 1 million additions. “After a challenging first half, we believe we’re on…
Agency company boosted its 2022 organic growth forecast but is preparing for a potential economic slowdown.
In the 2017 action film Wonder Woman, the leading lady of DC Comics’ pantheon got quite a workout. For two-and-a-half hours, she jumped off cliffs, outran machine-gun bullets, threw a tank in the air and singlehandedly defeated a battalion of soldiers. Gee–wonder what she had for breakfast. Well, starting this week, ordinary mortals can at…
Advertising Week New York is back—today is the second of four days—and so is our Advertising Week Today pop-up newsletter. Reading this online and want it delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up here. (By subscribing, you’ll get occasionally pop-up newsletters for various industry events through the year, including Cannes Lions, SXSW and CES.)
The second day of Advertising Week New York continued to draw impressive crowds—particularly in the morning. For instance, a 10:35 a.m. panel titled “Buying CTV: The Power of Decisioning and Data on Premium Video” reached capacity as wannabe attendees were still in a long line snaking outside the conference room. Imagine the sadification of all those people who decisioned to attend that session, only to be rejectified! (If you were among those turned away, you can watch the archived video of the session here.)
Ad Age’s Garett Sloane worked up his appetite by attending McDonald’s Chief Marketing Officer Tariq Hassan’s appearance on “The Google and YouTube Morning Show” at AWNY Tuesday. His dispatch:
Hassan mentioned the McRib’s comeback, without getting specific about the date. McRib watchers are always anticipating when the sandwich drops into stores; it was last seen last year around this time.
As it turns out, McDonald’s is watching for McRib watchers as it plots its McRib ad campaign on YouTube.
“Before we launch, we get to get an inside look into who’s actually out there, looking for McRib,” Hassan said, “and then [we] tie it back to very specific elements around what they’re actually watching on YouTube.”
Hassan was, in essence, revealing some of the secret sauce of the data strategy behind McDonald’s marketing. In recent years, the fast-food giant has gotten more sophisticated with first-party data—the information it can collect directly from consumers. All marketers are trying to create first-party data relationships through their websites, marketing and rewards programs. A key source of first-party data for McDonald’s is MyMcDonald’s Rewards.
“The biggest change has been moving from a short-term transactional mindset to really thinking about long-term relationships, and obviously the ability to leverage data to do that,” Hassan said. “And that data is not only giving us those insights, fan to fan, but it’s allowing us to think about how we really create experiences that are going to truly resonate.”
McDonald’s has used data to guide its creative strategy, Hassan said. The chain has had some marketing wins recently, such as its collaboration with Cactus Plant Flea Market. McDonald’s let the streetwear brand design its food boxes.
Also today, McDonald’s announced it would sell Krispy Kreme donuts at its locations in Louisville, Kentucky, home of the donut chain.
“I like what’s going on in the industry on the whole, and how we’re really in a cultural mashup,” Hassan said, “and so you’re seeing the most unlikely of partners coming together—[for] collabs.”
Ad Age’s Parker Herren was on hand for Tuesday’s AWNY panel “TV Streaming’s Next Frontier: Commerce.” His dispatch:
Hugh Scallon, VaynerMedia’s VP, head of video activation, described a future of TV infused with the brand utility of social media—what he called “TV 3.0.” After diving into the evolving technologies of shoppable TV, such as a Roku partnership with Walmart in which purchases can be made via remote control with little content disruption, Scallon predicted, “Television will probably look more like Facebook towards the end of the decade.”
As viewing trends further away from linear TV and into digital video, Scallon also predicted phone-centric viewing will not only grow on platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Snap, but as a primary means of TV consumption. “That critical mass should open up opportunities for brands, for consumers, for data, for learning,” said Scallon of TV becoming a leading venue for e-commerce. “It’ll be like, five, six years ago with social—brands come in and look at it as foundational. That’s where we’ll be probably in 2025.”
“How do I want people to get involved emotionally, how do I want them to feel after this, how do I get them to care?” —Becky Lynch on the art of marketing
Wait, did we say marketing? We meant wrestling. Or, wait—maybe we meant both. (Lynch took the stage at AWNY on Tuesday in a panel titled “Out of the Ring: Building Iconic Brands with WWE Superstar Becky Lynch.”)
Forrester Senior Analyst Nikhil Lai took the stage at AWNY Tuesday as part of a panel titled “Forrester Insights on Retail Media, Presented by Roundel”—one of several sessions dedicated to advertising’s hottest trend: retail media. Ad Age’s Adrianne Pasquarelli reports:
Lai spoke about retail media’s growth as a revenue stream for retailers and an ad channel for brands. Forrester estimates that $40 billion was spent on retail media this year, up 39% from last year, and predicts the category to reach $85 billion by 2026.
Lai noted that while advertisers are using trade and shopper marketing dollars for retail media, they are also “increasingly” diverting budgets from search and social advertising into retail media.
Yet challenges remain. In a Forrester survey, 45% of brands said there are too many retail media networks to manage.
A few in-depth dispatches from today’s AWNY sessions:
• “Brands must speak out on Roe v. Wade with activism, not statements, consumers say,” from Ad Age’s Judann Pollack.
• “Omnicom partners with NGL Collective to highlight Hispanic creators,” from Ad Age’s Erika Wheless.
• “American Eagle’s CMO on how to get shoppers’ attention—and why brands should experiment,” from Ad Age’s Jack Neff.
A secret ingredient to better marketing that I’ve only just rediscovered: a good vacation. Sure, a vacation helps beat burnout, reduce stress and increase motivation levels. You’ve probably heard of that already. But the most underrated benefit? You start experiencing marketing from a customer’s lens with a work-free brain. This is what happened as I…
Netflix said it added 2.41 million customers in the third quarter and will no longer provide subscriber forecasts.
Netflix said it added 2.41 million customers in the third quarter and will no longer provide subscriber forecasts.
Netflix, which has about 223 million subscribers worldwide, will soon introduce a lower-priced service with ads in a bid to attract more customers.
On this week’s episode of Brave Commerce, Sucharita Kodali, vp and principal analyst at Forrester, joins hosts Rachel Tipograph and Sarah Hofstetter to discuss financial business strategy and consumer spending habits. Kodali shares her thoughts on how consumers are spending despite inflation, the post-pandemic commerce landscape and how habits will change over the next year….
NFL hopes to make a new “holiday tradition” with extra game starting next year.
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