Marketers

Johnson & Johnson saw the writing on the wall when it began marketing in a digital world. The 130-year-old CPG giant was born and raised in what Alison Lewis, CMO of J&J Consumer Brands, called a “right-handed world.” “We were dominated by brick-and-mortar, Mom was the CEO of the household, big players used size and […]

“We need CMOs to turn up the leadership dial,” Association of National Advertisers CEO Bob Liodice told attendees during his opening keynote at the Masters of Marketing conference Thursday. Liodice rattled off a litany of problems familiar to the contemporary marketer, including fraud, viewability, privacy, talent shortages and poor creative, that have withered the effectiveness […]

Adidas-owned Reebok is in a unique position, both as a challenger to Nike and as a target of other challenger sports and apparel brands like Under Armour. As such, it invests heavily and consistently in content – despite its fluctuating ad spend over the years. Because content must generate larger, measurable performance results, Reebok bets the […]

In a bid to capitalize on digital ad growth in China, AdRoll has recruited a new adviser with lots of experience in the country and is developing a go-to-market strategy. Peter Cheng is Tencent’s former GM for ad platforms and products, as well as the former COO of AdChina (which sold to Alibaba in January […]

Sometimes good marketing means less marketing, according to Belkin CMO Kieran Hannon. “Wherever we’re able to provide a superior experience backed by data, we do,” said Kieran Hannon, CMO for Belkin. “Otherwise, we’re more about minimizing our interaction with people so they can get on with what they need to do.” Each of Belkin’s three […]

After many years in leadership roles at media agencies, Jordan Bitterman will move to the brand and media side as chief marketing officer of The Weather Co., the IBM-owned company said Wednesday. Bitterman brings extensive knowledge of how media companies can drive efficiencies in the data-driven milieu. He said The Weather Co. is in a […]

Agencies that don’t comply with the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ (4As) Transparency Guiding Principles of Conduct (TGPC) will risk losing their memberships. Under the new rule, which the agency trade body blogged about on Monday, anyone (from marketers to executives from other agencies) who finds an agency is not compliant with the 4As’ guidelines […]

Eight trade associations, including the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab, the 4As and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), have teamed up to develop cross-platform standards for video ad delivery. Their goal, according to Alanna Gombert, SVP of technology and ad operations for the IAB and GM of the IAB Tech Lab, is to […]

HotelTonight, the five-year-old booking app, spends all its marketing budget on mobile. For CMO Ray Elias, who joined nine weeks ago after a decade at StubHub, being mobile-only gives HotelTonight an edge over its desktop-first competitors in the online travel agency space. “We exist in an elite group of customer experiences that really only work […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Damian Garbaccio, executive vice president at Nielsen Marketing Cloud. We all know that consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies spend a lot on advertising. In the US alone, CPG and consumer […]

Consumer packaged goods companies are going direct-to-consumer, spurred by a desire for greater data governance and less reliance on third-party retailers. As a result, the principles behind shopper marketing, which traditionally centers on in-store promotions, are blurring with brand marketing, which focuses on building brand affinity. “We’ve seen shopper marketing move from this singular approach […]

While media bartering isn’t commonly discussed, the ANA’s two reports on agency transparency referenced the practice 49 times. Here’s how it works: A barter agency might agree to buy an advertiser’s surplus product, such as an airline’s unsold flight tickets at full price, which it would give to employees for business travel. In return, the […]

In 2014, Nestle Waters’ data was spread across different digital agencies and databases. “Our go-to-market strategy was very complex,” said Antonio Sciuto, EVP and CMO of Nestle Waters North America. Because Nestle Waters sold its beverages online as well as straight to stores, through single-serve machines or in bulk to warehouses, the company’s digital and […]

Google parent Alphabet finished out Q2 2016 with $21.5 billion in overall revenue, a 21% jump from Q2 2015. It’s also a notable acceleration of growth rate from that year-ago quarter, when top line revenue grew 11%. [Read the earnings release.] The company chalked up the faster growth to investments in mobile and video. “The strength of the quarter […]

NBCUniversal finished its upfront negotiations on a high note, citing CPM increases of 12.5% for prime-time slots and even higher percentages for some networks – 13% on USA, for example. Comparatively speaking, NBC aimed for 7% to 8% CPM increases in 2015, but settled in at about 5%, which speaks to the strength of this […]

To maintain transparent relationships with their agencies, brands must consider significantly investing in things like staffing, continuing media education and legal counsel, according to ANA and Ebiquity. In their most recent report, ANA and Ebiquity issued a long list of recommendations that also included hiring a “chief media officer” to manage agency relationships. It’s a […]

Google launched a customer call center measurement and attribution solution on Wednesday alongside new research on call-based marketing. The product uses a unique identifier placed on Google’s search ads with tap-to-call functionality to tie inbound calls to an AdWords campaign. If the user goes to the company site instead and ends up making a call […]

The Association of National Advertisers’ crusade for greater agency transparency entered phase two on Monday, when marketing analytics firm Ebiquity and its subsidiary, FirmDecisions, released an anticipated set of guidelines for advertisers on how to maintain transparent relationships with their agencies. The overarching message: Agencies may have crossed a few lines, but the onus is […]

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) on Tuesday issued an impassioned rejection of the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) proposed change to online privacy and data security regulations. Wednesday is the final day of the public comment period before the FCC deliberates on the policy, which would force marketers to ask for permission to track consumers’ […]

With major upfront negotiations winding down, Fox, NBC and ABC hope to emulate CBS’ strong showing, which reportedly saw CPM hikes in the low double digits and about 5% higher sales volume. Networks have the leverage this year to command higher prices because of the present scarcity, say buyers. National TV networks reported 19% more revenue […]

The fallout from the Association of National Advertisers’ report on media agency transparency has taken an unexpected twist. WPP’s media buying unit, GroupM, is suing Ebiquity’s media auditing arm, FirmDecisions, claiming it violated an NDA and misused classified information that GroupM accidentally sent to FirmDecisions. Campaign first reported the story. According to the complaint, GroupM […]

Are programmatic advertising and creative storytelling finally coming together in a meaningful way? It’s a good question to ask at the Cannes Lions festival, where the whole point is creativity – or it used to be, before the twin powers of data and media started elbowing in on the joint a few years back. But […]

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 […]

Kohler is looking to do more than just sell plumbing supplies and it’s using content to get there. The goal is to help prospective customers, anyone from an individual homeowner to an interior designer, envision how a new piece of hardware will fit into the home of their dreams. In the pre-digital era, Kohler showcased […]

P&G’s programmatic buying platform AudienceScience has a new CEO. Company Chairman Bill Gossman will assume the role, effective immediately, and former head Mike Peralta will become chief strategy officer. AudienceScience also made two other executive hires: David De Simone, who will serve as COO, and Patrick Reilly, its VP of enterprise sales. “We’ve gotten to […]

In its critical agency report, The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) didnt touch on the complexities of the modern media-buying landscape, said Rob Norman, chief digital officer of WPP’s media-buying arm GroupM, in a blog post Tuesday. Norman’s response comes after the ANA mic-dropped its investigative report into agency transparency, criticizing agencies for taking rebates and a […]

The ANA report on agency transparency erupted last week, intensifying a long-expected public dispute between brands and their media agencies. While the report focused on brands and agency holding companies, its findings could potentially affect ad tech companies. AdExchanger reached out to some leaders in the ad tech sphere to see how they viewed the […]

While it’s still too early to assess the repercussions of the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) media transparency report issued Tuesday, industry analysts expect the dynamics between advertisers and their programmatic trading desks to bear the burden of the impact. Though the 62-page report didn’t name names, it cited instances of non-transparent practices among agency […]

Media rebates and other nontransparent business practices by US agencies are pervasive, according to a long-awaited study from investigative firm K2 Intelligence that was released Tuesday. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) commissioned the study last year in light of mounting marketer concerns about undisclosed media agency revenues. Read the full report. Of the 117 […]

Intent data for a hotel might look very different than it does for a shampoo manufacturer. Whereas luxury and travel marketers have direct access to transaction data that can be used to target and upsell customers, CPG manufacturers often sell at the SKU level through retailers, which retain the purchase data. CPG advertisers need granular […]