Hasta La Creative!

Here’s a message to CMOs: Consumers don’t trust your ads. In fact, fewer than 25% of U.S. online consumers trust ads in print publications, and the numbers are even worse for digital media. The truth is, campaigns alone just won’t cut it anymore — no matter how good you are at tuning them.

Let’s face it: Your brand is defined by the interactions people have with it. Despite all the activity that you try to catalyze through campaigns, individuals more commonly interact with your brand outside of those carefully orchestrated messages. They may learn about your product or service prior to purchase from a friend. After a purchase, they’ll use your product, connect with others and even organize activities around it. They spread messages by word-of-mouth — positive or negative — and that, whether you like it or not, is your actual brand image.

The context of all those interactions determines whether customers will engage with, and more importantly, transact with your brand again. Marketing’s new remit is to exploit customer context to deliver utility in the moment of need. Think I’m full of hot air? Take McCormick & Co. The 125-year-old manufacturer of herbs and spices created FlavorPrint to do exactly that. FlavorPrint’s promise is simple: If you tell the online tool what you like, what ingredients you have in your pantry, and what your cooking preferences are, it provides tailored recipe recommendations. This works so well that since the site was launched, repeat usage has doubled, users increased the time they spent on the site nine-fold, and McCormick & Co. has seen double-digit growth in spice purchases from FlavorPrint users.

Continue reading at AdAge.com