When direct-to-consumer cleaning startup Truman’s launched seven months ago, it didn’t just set out to disrupt the way cleaning companies make and distribute products. Its underlying goal was to humanize the category by creating a direct connection with customers. “I like the idea of reimagining what a brand can be in a sleepy category,” said […]
Diageo has an internal mantra: “Responsible media performs.” “When was the last time irresponsibly sourced media was good for anybody?” said Joshua Nafman, head of global media buying and operations at Diageo, on stage at AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O conference in New York on Wednesday. Yet, ad buyers hunting for scale have spent years avoiding the […]
Direct-to-consumer brands have just as much to learn about retail as traditional retail brands can learn from DTCs. “DTC founders make the mistake of thinking we know everything, just because we were able to scale and build our businesses faster,” said Nate Checketts, CEO and co-founder of Rhone, a men’s sports apparel startup founded in […]
Clorox’s Vivian Chang will speak at AdExchanger’s upcoming PROGRAMMATIC I/O New York conference on Oct. 15 and 16. When Clorox acquired dietary supplement maker Nutranext in 2018, it wasn’t just to gain share in the health and wellness category. Nutranext already owned ecommerce health brands, like vitamin manufacturer Stop Aging Now, so the company also became […]
Nathan Poekert has reason to be cynical about the influencer industry. As global director of communications and marketing at BMW Group he’s seen influencers Photoshop their metrics or completely whiff on their contractual obligations. He’s stumbled across engagement pod communities where influencers pool support for each other in a quid pro quo effort to game […]
Why pay an agency to concoct expensive creative when your consumers are already doing it for free? For direct-to-consumer bedding and bath brand Parachute, the answer is simple. Its customers regularly tag the brand in their organic posts on Instagram, which Parachute is able to repurpose for campaigns to retarget site visitors. Say someone is […]
As a CPG, Diageo is always looking for efficiencies. And as a spirits’ brand, it’s especially vulnerable to brand safety issues. That’s why the beverage giant brought programmatic and social buying in house in North America, a decision that has driven both more control and “a lot of productivity and return,” said Jason Acker, Diageo’s […]
Most chocolate and candy bars are bought last minute on the way to the cash register, a difficult experience to recreate online, where there is no physical checkout. Rankin Carroll, Global VP and CMO of Mars Chocolate, oversees a portfolio including Skittles, M&M’s and Snickers, and he must not only transform their business models as […]
Major League Baseball team the San Diego Padres is calling out-of-home up to bat. In the past, the Padres generally avoided OOH advertising, because the team doesn’t have an awareness problem in its local market, said SVP and CMO Wayne Partello. Although the Padres do buy local radio and TV to drive conversions among more […]
Cost per acquisition (CPA) on Facebook has increased over the last few years as news feed ad load nears saturation. That’s a big problem for advertisers like DTC hair care and coloring company Madison Reed, which spends a large portion of its budget on Facebook. The company is always on the hunt for ways to […]
Smart home devices are not the first things that come to mind when consumers think of ADT. That caused a perception issue for the 145-year-old home security brand, which is one of the largest smart home security providers in the market. So when ADT brought on ex-Chewy.com, Amazon and eBay marketing exec Jochen “JK” Koedijk […]
Consumer food preferences are changing almost as quickly as their media habits. For 130-year-old packaged foods brand Del Monte, keeping up with both required a major revamp. Del Monte used branding marketing campaigns to increase awareness of its canned fruits and vegetables and shopper marketing tactics to drive purchases. But with consumers gravitating toward fresh, […]
CPG giant Unilever has 400 brands in its portfolio. Multiply that by a fragmented media landscape, an international consumer base and a crowded vendor ecosystem and it’s fair to say that Unilever’s global media manager, Luis Di Como, has a complex job. Unilever, in Di Como’s view, has four main challenges when it comes to […]
Qualcomm CMO Penny Baldwin has the unique challenge of marketing a behind-the-scenes brand. While Qualcomm technology powers smart phones with wireless cellular technology, video streaming and mobile GPS, most people outside of the technology world may not even realize it exists. “Qualcomm has been somewhat of a silent, invisible brand in the background,” Baldwin said. […]
The French automaker Renault goes big for its marketing push around the Formula 1 motor speed races. But Formula 1 fans and Renault customers live all over the world, so the brand needed to reach audiences with different languages and cultures in a way that resonated. The challenge wasn’t just a global one, but a […]
Oops emails, TBD subject lines, sending messages to the wrong segment, sending notifications at the wrong time – even the most data-driven marketer is going to screw up sometimes. Embrace the mistakes, said Spencer Burke, VP of growth at Braze, speaking at the MAU show in Las Vegas on Wednesday. “It’s not something you need to […]
The in-housing trend is real, but agencies aren’t getting kicked to the curb. Their role is simply evolving. “Agencies have been around for years, and they’re not going away,” said Freddie Liversidge, HP’s director of digital activation, speaking at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO show in San Francisco on Tuesday. HP recently completed a multiyear process to […]
Travel is a personal experience, and travel marketing should be too, according to Sheila Schottland, senior director of brand marketing at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. “People travel for different reasons – family, business, leisure – and they have different needs,” she said. “Because these moments are relatable, we make sure that our media mix follows suit, […]
After 15 years as the biggest player in the online job search category, Monster got comfortable at the top – and began losing market share to competitors. The company had stopped innovating on its core product and pumped all marketing spend into low-funnel media at the expense of its brand. At the same time, new […]
McDonald’s is buying an Israeli startup called Dynamic Yield that provides personalization software to brands and publishers – but this acquisition is about a lot more than tailoring menus based on the weather or serving up customized content. The deal, announced late Monday, is the first major acquisition McDonald’s has made in around 20 years, and […]
National Football League players train during the offseason – and so does the NFL’s marketing team. From January through July, Aaron Jones, the NFL’s director for club and international marketing, is busily stress-testing his marketing stack and experimenting with new tools to prepare for August and September, when it’s all about activation. “Then, it’s like Black […]
Allison Lowrie is at home with data-driven marketing tactics. As CMO of ANGI Homeservices, the IAC-owned parent of Angi (formerly Angie’s List), HomeAdvisor and Handy, Lowrie is helping the company infuse a performance mindset into how it approaches offline channels. HomeAdvisor, which connects homeowners with home improvement professionals online, advertised during the Super Bowl for […]
Marketing, once largely a creative occupation, now requires understanding of data, tech and business. And many CMOs don’t have the necessary skills. “Clearly, marketing folk are not able to justify their existence,” said Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar. He added: “There is such a significant component of technology within marketing that without understanding how to leverage […]
When Jeanna Corley started working in Radio Shack’s marketing operations in 2014, she knew it would be a short-term gig. But the CEO at the time, Joseph Magnacca, coached her into the role, promising there’d be no red tape and, as a marketer, she’d be able to do whatever she wanted. “So, take a risk, […]
While most luxury brands take themselves quite seriously, Gucci likes to have a little fun, especially with its marketing. “We’re a brand that puts great emphasis on joy and optimism,” said Robert Triefus, EVP and CMO at Gucci for more than a decade. “We’ve put creativity at the center of everything we do since we […]
Kraft-Heinz’s $15 billion write-down on Kraft and Oscar Meyer last week shows that underinvesting in marketing and brand hurts long-term growth. “It indicates investment in innovation and branding is essential,” said Martin Sorrell, CEO of S4 Capital. “In addition to being frugal, you have to invest in product or service innovation and marketing. You’re throwing […]
A data orchestration strategy isn’t the sort of thing you can just pull out of a hat – a fact that sports cap and apparel brand Lids knows firsthand. “For a long time, that was one of our biggest challenges as an omnichannel retailer: We had no centralized place for all of our customer information,” said […]
When the LA Rams beat the New Orleans Saints en route to Super Bowl LIII, the citizens of Atlanta could finally start breathing again. At least, when their city hosts the big game on Sunday, they won’t be forced to decide whether to root for the Saints – their hated division rival – or the New […]
Like the New England Patriots, Verizon will pick up where it left off at last year’s Super Bowl. Though in Verizon’s case, that means honoring first responders. This year’s campaign is titled “The Team That Wouldn’t Be Here.” Verizon CMO Diego Scotti said the company will start rolling out spots two weeks before the big […]
There’s no rest for direct-to-consumer mattress marketers. “We’re constantly running tests,” said Scott McLeod, co-founder of DreamCloud, a mattress startup housed under Nectar Home, parent company to a growing portfolio of DTC sleep and home furnishing brands, including Nectar Sleep and ecommerce rug brand Wovenly. “We have disdain for the idea of running something without […]
