If the content is good, the distribution – paid, earned or otherwise – nearly takes care of itself, said Anthony Ingham, global brand leader at W Hotels & Resorts. “We’ve steered away from peppering tactical ads in mass numbers across multiple channels,” Ingham said. “We start with the premise of trying to create the best content, and then […]
On the heels of Lyft’s first national TV spot that aired this spring, the ride-sharing app’s advertising efforts are still in overdrive. As a challenger to Uber, Lyft seeks to convert willing drivers and passengers in less-penetrated markets for the brand, such as New York, by combining big brand activations (TV and out-of-home) with smaller […]
For Vancouver, Canada-based Indochino, a purveyor of made-to-measure suits and apparel, omnichannel retail is an ongoing journey. Most retailers begin with brick and mortar and expand into ecommerce. Indochino took the opposite approach. Similar to Warby Parker, the company combines online customization with offline service. Customers pre-select lining, fabric and lapels online. After assessing a […]
Rachel Weiss, L’Oréal USA’s VP of innovation and entrepreneurship, has some advice for any startup that comes a knocking: If you can’t share results, the deal’s off. “We’ve had so many great pilots I’ve believed in, but then I had to pull my hair out to figure out whether it worked or not,” Weiss said at […]
Andy Kauffman, Marriott’s VP of digital marketing, loves running tests. “We’re very comfortable failing as long as we learn from that and iterate going forward,” said Kauffman, who oversees product and digital brand strategy for Marriott.com. “It may be an overused term, but we really do embrace a test-and-learn approach.” There are dozens of multivariate […]
More marketers are adopting data-driven tactics by blending their own first-party data with third-party sources. Financial services, for example, is undergoing major digital disruption, and banks are looking to translate direct-to-consumer marketing tactics to business constituents. Capital One seeks to reach small and medium-sized merchants nationwide through its small-business division and does so using Salesforce […]
Intuit has hired Mike Zeman, an architect of Netflix’s programmatic trading desk, to help grow its Mint personal finance brand. Zeman will serve as director of marketing and business development for Intuit’s Consumer Ecosystem Group, reporting to SVP Albert Ko. During his three years at Netflix, Zeman led digital marketing during a period of dramatic […]
New Balance sells sneakers and sports apparel, but the brand is not all about chasing the transaction. The Boston-based footwear manufacturer, which competes with names like Nike, Under Armour and Adidas, instead seeks to differentiate by pushing stories, not products. As such, it faces a unique challenge in combining content and commerce. “We hear these […]
Luxury automaker Lexus has set its sights on sports fans to sell a new 467-horsepower, high-performance vehicle. The Toyota-owned auto company has created a branded game from the ground up called “GS F the Bracket” with Yahoo Sports to support the rollout of its new luxury sports sedan in tandem with the NCAA men’s college […]
Facebook on Thursday formally unveiled Canvas, its new full-screen mobile ad unit that offers creatives the real estate they’ve been craving in the news feed. But the richer mobile ads will not be constrained for long to what the company internally refers to as the “big blue app.” At a Facebook press event Thursday, execs […]
For Honda and other automotive advertisers, TV tentpole events such as the Super Bowl are their main drivers of brand awareness. But mobile has increasingly emerged as a priority in test budgets since performance-based strategies can affect sales, too, and auto manufacturers want additional ways to remarket to users who, for example, are nearing the end […]
What do loyalty programs and paid media have in common? Not a lot, at face value. Loyalty marketing has long been relegated to card-based, point-of-sale programs and customer retention. It was always the stuff of database marketers and direct mail – not user acquisition. But that’s starting to change. Coalition loyalty programs or “co-ops,” such […]
Intel’s ambitious new brand strategy is no chip shot. Primarily known since the 1990s as “the computer inside,” the microprocessor manufacturer aims to break out of the box with a campaign that “stops focusing on where we are and starts focusing on why we are,” said Penny Baldwin, VP and GM of global brand management […]
H&R Block is targeting millennials, TV and your tax dollars. The tax preparation giant is gearing up to air three new 30-second broadcast TV ads just in time for tax season, with a goal to increase awareness among the youngest demographic set of tax filers. H&R Block declined to disclose how much it is investing […]
Glenfiddich, a family-owned maker of single-malt Scotch whisky, is among the first advertisers to place an addressable TV buy through DISH Network’s new programmatic marketplace, which launched in October. Glenfiddich’s media planning and buying agency, Resolute Digital, is using Rocket Fuel’s demand-side platform to serve an addressable, 30-second TV spot to the brand’s target audience […]
For most brands, the holiday season is a discount deluge. Not so much for high-end sports and eyewear maker Oakley. “We’re not a highly promotional brand,” said Krysta Brown, the company’s director of online marketing. Oakley might participate in seasonal promotions so long as they’re “brand right” and don’t undermine its messaging around premium, high-quality […]
With the exception of back-to-school needs, office supply retailer Staples focuses on small-business owners. Like most brick-and-mortar retailers, Staples knew mobile played a vital role in its customers’ daily lives, but it was less clear from a media standpoint how mobile impacted the ultimate sales conversion. Staples wanted to use mobile to drive upper-funnel awareness […]
Frito-Lay, the $14 billion chip-and-dip division of PepsiCo, wants to engineer 360-degree marketing programs. Ram Krishnan, CMO of Frito-Lay North America, recently outlined a 70-20-10 plan, which will enable it to do so. The brand will allocate 70% of its resources to proven methodologies, 20% to partners who prove value (Krishnan called it “validated risk”) […]
Everyone talks about TV dollars leaking into digital, but what happens behind the scenes to make those dollars move? Vic Walia, senior director of brand marketing for Expedia, said it involves change management and rewiring old assumptions. “We’ve always invested heavily in TV as a brand, but we wanted to extend our reach beyond our […]
General Motors’ Cadillac might be a nostalgic brand, but it’s trying to become more relevant to the modern car buyer. The brand is facing an ongoing sales slump as buyers steer toward the German luxury automakers like BMW and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz. “We will not out-German the Germans,” said Uwe Ellinghaus, Cadillac’s chief marketing officer who, […]
For 128 years, Coca-Cola has distinguished its brand through mass media, but consumer tech titans like Apple, Microsoft and Google have usurped its top spot among the world’s most valuable brands, as rated by Forbes. “That’s indicative of the world we’re living in,” said Michael Weaver, director of data strategy for The Coca-Cola Company, speaking […]
The extent to which data drives an online brand’s marketing varies distinctly, a key theme that emerged at Quantcast’s data summit in New York on Thursday. For Blue Apron, a subscription commerce site and meal delivery service, data helps refine the online experience but is less applied to offline investments. For Amazon-owned shoe and apparel […]
Nitin Bhutani gets pitched by eager ad tech vendors daily in his role as VP of marketing at LendingTree.com. “We’re inundated with proposals from companies soliciting business,” said Bhutani, who came to LendingTree in 2011 after nearly a decade in various exec roles at HSBC, including VP of Internet marketing. But as a brand that […]
Toyota Motors is a big TV spender. It bought, according to Kantar Media, three minutes of commercial airtime during Super Bowl XLIX –trailing only Anheuser-Busch and Fiat Chrysler. Although Toyota will continue to invest in big TV tent poles, it’s test-driving more digital video activation, and is sponsoring premium NBCUniversal video running on AOL’s network. […]
The yogurt section of the supermarket looks a lot different today than it did seven years ago. Chobani has taken over by offering Greek yogurt perceived as more healthful but at the same price as traditional yogurt like Yoplait. The yogurt company owes its success to ignoring a critical piece of data. When it started, […]
If native advertising is a message designed to mimic the form and function of its environment, then there’s almost nothing out there as native as a podcast. As in the early days of radio, hosts often read and personalize an advertiser’s message so that it “feels inclusive, like part of the program,” said Matt Turck, […]
More than 32,000 will congregate in Cologne, Germany, this week to spark a dialogue about the connected consumer and the state of the digital media economy. Among those gathered here will be MasterCard’s chief marketing officer, Raja Rajamannar, who will join a bevy of global agency and platform execs at the yearly Digital Marketing Exposition […]
Build-A-Bear Workshop, the children’s specialty retailer with strong roots in American shopping malls, is getting a facelift. Plagued by the realities of brick and mortar retail—Build-A-Bear was in a slump with steady profit declines, but has more recently ignited a comeback in sales—the company is transitioning away from its focus on traditional retailing. Instead, it’s […]
CPG brands are the big TV spenders, but ecommerce and subscription startups like Gilt and Birchbox are coming on strong. Take Urban Ladder, a Bangalore, India-based online retailer specializing in home furniture and décor. While the company historically focused on digital, it has lately begun to include TV for awareness building. It declined to share […]
There’s no larger driver of brand awareness than a 30×60-foot cinema screen. At least, that’s the logic for Swedish auto manufacturer Volvo, which is test driving 90-second interactive cinema ads targeting 18- to 34-year-olds across 100 Screenvision theaters in the US. The effort involves partnerships with cinema advertising company Screenvision and interactive, motion-detection company Audience […]
