CMO No Mo’
Kimberly-Clark didn’t hire a new CMO after Zena Arnold left in 2022, and it doesn’t intend to.
Instead, the company, which owns brands like Cottonelle, Scott and Huggies, added a chief growth officer role and just hired Luiz Sanches to be its first-ever chief creative and design officer.
This new marketing model is a chance to “redefine the relevance of creative leadership,” Sanches tells Ad Age.
Sanches, who spent three decades at BBDO, will work closely with Patricia Corsi, who took on the chief growth officer job over the summer – and it’s a reunion of sorts. Corsi used to be the CMO of Bayer, a BBDO client.
Now, Corsi is in charge of a project to consolidate KC’s agency roster, which has been whittled down to IPG, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP. That may not sound all that consolidated, but M&A among the holdcos could simplify matters.
Sanches, meanwhile, will have a different mandate, one more focused on “emotional value.”
“Although there will be some metrics in terms of sales and transformation,” he says, “I think there’s also the human element, and that’s the thing that everybody’s forgetting to talk about today.”
Travel Partners
Anyone who reads AdExchanger is likely familiar with the maxim that “everything is an ad network.”
Well, add WHSmith to the list. This week, the bookseller, best known for its locations in airports and rail stations, launched its own retail media business, Digiday reports.
There are lots of data collection opportunities in airports in particular. Who among us hasn’t handed over their name and email address in return for free Wi-Fi access? Wi-Fi data and mobile data make it relatively easy for brands to retarget devices in transit.
The TSA itself is a partner with the new WHSmith airport ad network and contributes audience data based on footfall at stores and in terminals.
WHSmith must stand out in a crowd, though.
ReachTV, for example, already offers a hybrid DOOH and CTV ad network of screens in more than 750 airports and hotels. Not to mention Expedia and United Airlines, which each launched data-driven ad networks last year.
Still, the commercial opportunity is clear, says Sean Crawford, managing director of SMG, which is WHSmith’s retail media consultancy.
“When [people] are on their way through the airport,” he says, “we can start hitting [them] with display ads and in their feeds, and then link that to in-store offers.”
It certainly is a captive audience.
Open The Door
Let us welcome the newest entrant to the retail media battle royale … OpenAI.
Well, not really. But, hey, it could happen.
The latest update to OpenAI’s “Operator” agent can perform tasks, including buying groceries of its own accord, reports The Wall Street Journal. The product is available to paying users ($200 per month) and is in a “research preview” mode, meaning it’s not fully launched yet.
But OpenAI’s expansion into grocery ordering, among other consumer tasks, as well as into advertising revenue, makes an eventual retail media play feel almost inevitable.
Right now, OpenAI works with the likes of Instacart, Priceline, Etsy, OpenTable, Uber and eBay to license its operator solution for their sites and apps. “We’re not trying to build an agent,” according to Instacart Chief Product Officer Daniel Danker.
Except, nobody’s worried about Instacart eating OpenAI’s lunch. The question is whether OpenAI at some point decides it can autogenerate its own grocery ordering solution (or travel price aggregator or restaurant booking service).
You get the idea.
But Wait! There’s More
Assessing the most likely outcomes of Google’s pivotal ad tech antitrust trial. [Digiday]
ChatGPT went down for several hours on Thursday, which, depending on what part of the internet you spend time on, was either disastrous or hilarious. [BBC News]
Despite user declines, X saw a jump in consumer spending this month. [TechCrunch]
Brands targeting Gen Alpha are heading to Roblox. [Marketing Brew]
You’re Hired
AppsFlyer promotes Gal Ekstein to the role of chief business officer. [release]
Zeta Global names Ed See as its new chief growth officer. [release]
