I just completed attending my 12th consecutive year at SXSW so I have the ability to assess the most recent SXSW in the context of its predecessors, a comprehensive way to evaluate the festival. This year seemed busier and less sparse than last. In contrast, much like the previous years, there was no single standout…
The news from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) that nearly 80 percent of the country’s largest advertisers are taking at least some of their advertising in-house, including select strategy and creative assignments, has understandably put the agency community on the defensive. To hear the counters, one might think that the in-house movement will suck…
March 8 was International Women’s Day, giving companies everywhere the opportunity to spotlight the achievements of women within their organizations and beyond. Research from McKinsey & Company reveals that a diverse organization delivers positive impact, growing revenue and supporting innovation. This is one reason why the day is so important: It brings attention to the…
If having Bren? Brown, the guru of “courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy,” as the kick-off to SXSW 2019 was a harbinger of things to come, perhaps we’re on the way toward vanquishing the divisive demons that have dominated the political discourse in the U.S. today. Finally bringing our culture’s obsession with both mental and physical…
For marketers who have been honing their analytics skills and building an AI strategy, the coming months promise to be transformative because AI is finally getting us closer to the holy grail of 1:1 marketing at scale. Varying levels of marketing personalization and segmentation have been around for years, but a variety of roadblocks–namely too…
In 2018, eMarketer forecast the number of connected TV users at 182.6 million, or 55.5 percent of the U.S. population. In 2022, the number is expected to rise to 204.1 million, or 60.1 percent of the population. While smart TVs have been around for a while now (Samsung unveiled theirs back in 2008), adoption rates…
No marketer’s day passes without touching data privacy. Personal data is now the most prized commodity of the information age, traded on an unprecedented scale by some of the most powerful companies in the world. For marketers, it’s no longer business as usual. Consumers now dictate how their personal information is collected, stored, accessed and…
Running multiple social media accounts can be challenging, especially if you’re a global business running those accounts across multiple markets and in several languages. B-to-C companies will most likely split their accounts by function and/or sub-brand. They may even set different social accounts up for each new product and campaign. What happens to these accounts…
Marketers are swimming in customer data and quickly sprawling technology stacks that promise to help them manage and make sense of it. With nearly 7,000 mar-tech vendors, marketers are overwhelmed with options, investing in many solutions to solve for different needs. As a result, they’re working with siloed, inconsistent data, which makes it nearly impossible…
For the first quarter of 2019, happenings at YouTube and Fox News have had us focused on brand safety. Instances of negative attention to each channel caused brands to question their spend and presence in these spaces. Suddenly, 157 died in a plane crash, quickly shifting the focus to actual safety. The flight that went…
Alcohol has always been a sensitive category for advertisers to walk the straight and narrow–and for good reason. Organizations such as the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) have been self-regulating and working with the Federal Trade Commission to make sure advertising policies are properly adhered to. But like all government-monitored regulatory environments,…
Before there were emojis, infographics, flowcharts and photo collages, people shared ideas through the oral tradition of storytelling. Humans are hardwired to remember stories as every person on this planet comes from a lineage of storytellers. Over a millennium ago, storytelling was the primary means of making ideas memorable, impactful and actionable. Because of its…
It was clear to me early on in life that I wanted to become CEO of a multinational company. I imagined traveling the world, working with all kinds of different people and achieving both success and respect from my peers. I knew one day that would be me. However, I never realized how rare this…
The announcement by the Association of National Advertisers late last year that brand purpose was chosen by its members as the 2018 Marketing Word(s) of the Year served as a timely reminder that so-called purpose marketing has come of age. But that doesn’t mean that marketers have discovered the secret sauce for making it work….
The last 12 months saw media giants face several data-related incidents: 87 million people had their Facebook data siphoned by Cambridge Analytica–nearly 40 million more than first expected–and 500,000 Google Plus users were exposed by a security flaw. The effects of these events were felt worldwide. Consumer trust was dented, especially for companies shown to…
Look at the Instagram of CGI influencer Lil Miquela. Now look at Kylie Jenner’s. Is there really a difference? Both have flawless skin, structured cheekbones, perfectly manicured eyebrows and posts that elicit an air of mystery aimed at generating buzz. Today, social media lets us play with reality, making it hard to discern between real…
When YouTube announced that they’d be dropping the paywall from many of their Originals, they noted that it was to “make our YouTube Originals ad-supported to meet the growing demand of a more global fanbase.” In other words, more fans want to watch Originals for free, which means more advertising opportunities for brands. YouTube is…
We know which team won the Super Bowl and which film nabbed Best Picture, but which advertisers won those events? Another big events season has come to a close, and some of the priciest and most-watched ad programs of the year–across the Grammys, Golden Globes, College Football Championship, Super Bowl and the Oscars–are receding into…
Communication, or lack thereof, is at the root of many of the world’s most challenging problems. We listen as people talk, but somehow we fail to hear what they’re actually saying. Sometimes we hear what we want to hear; other times we can’t distinguish the real message behind the words. It’s no different in client/agency…
It’s a battleground out there. Mass retail brands are falling every week. Profits are either down or up in smoke. Holiday discounting was at its deepest level on record. Challenger brands continue to tear down established brands twice their size. For most advertisers, the future is at best uncertain, at worst bleak. Yet turn on…
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