In this episode, Lauren and I discuss Square’s business model, how it has dimensionalized and expanded over the years, the impact of data on Square’s marketing efforts, and the incrementalism and principled risks that marketing organizations need to take to be competitive. Square started in 2009 with the purpose of enabling any individual or business to participate and thrive in the economy with the little white card reader. Now, 14 years later, they have a full ecosystem of software and hardware that allows companies of all sizes to run their entire operation through Square. With such a diverse audience, Square thrives on implementing an audience-first marketing perspective. By focusing on key audiences and tailoring messaging for each, Square can drive discoverability and cultivate relationships with a variety of different demographics and businesses in all sectors and scales. Square is very data-driven and informed, so everything they do and plans for is tied back to the overall strategy, metrics of success, and business results. Their category is competitive, so they have to be responsive and adapt quickly while also being smart with their risk-taking. Lauren tells us taking small incremental risks gives them space to break through and try new things. Thankfully, experimenting and learning from failures is in Square’s DNA, which serves them well in being innovative. Lauren’s marketing teams measure their success on how much revenue they bring in from the new customers they acquire. She tells us it’s a blessing and a curse to be in the spotlight with their contributions so directly linked to the business’s success, but she thrives on the challenge.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The benefits and challenges of implementing “audience first” marketing
• How incrementalism, principled risks, and a culture of learning drive innovation at Square
• Laurens take on marketing cuts in light of an oncoming recession

Key Highlights:

• [01:30] A cross-country pandemic move
• [05:00] Where Lauren got her start and how she ended up at Square
• [09:00] What is Square today
• [10:30] How does Lauren think about marketing role in driving growth
• [12:00] What has Lauren learned at Square over the past six years?
• [13:20] How is Lauren using data to inform her marketing efforts?
• [15:40] Data in understanding long-term investments
• [16:48] Marketing mix modleing
• [19:05] Educating a variety of audiences
• [21:40] Audience first marketing
• [24:30] Marketing cuts in light of an oncoming recession
• [27:50] Benefits of constant communication and transparent decision making
• [30:00] The impact of her first job and being a boy mom
• [32:30] Advocate for yourself and trust your intuition
• [34:30] Generative Ai and unlocking TikTok
• [36:00] Trends and subcultures to watch
• [38:45] Returning to a beginners mindset

Resources Mentioned:

• Lauren Weinberg
• Square
• Parent Company Block Inc.
• Prior career stops: Media Metrics, AOL, MTV, Yahoo!
• You Two Should Meet – video series from Square
• FORWARD – Accelerator for Black and Latin business owners
• Jack Dorsey
• Platforms mentioned: TikTok and Clubhouse

Follow the podcast:

• Listen on iTunes (link: http://apple.co/2dbdAhV)
• Listen on Google Podcasts (link: http://bit.ly/2Rc2kVa)
• Listen on Spotify (link: http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)

Connect with the Guest:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenweinberg13/
• https://twitter.com/WeinbergLauren
• https://twitter.com/Square

Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:

• Twitter Alan B Hart – http://twitter.com/abhart
• LinkedIn Alan – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanhart
• Twitter Marketing Today – http://twitter.com/themktgtoday
• Facebook Marketing Today – https://www.facebook.com/themktgtoday/
• LinkedIn Marketing Today – https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-today-with-alan-hart/

Post-Production Credits:

• Sam Robertson

Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The post Audience First Marketing And A Culture Of Learning With Lauren Weinberg, CMO At Square appeared first on AList.

In this episode, Alan and Amrita discuss her journey from developer to Marketing VP, the moves that played a key role in taking Superside from $0 to $55 million in annual recurring revenue in just four years, and the importance of Design and Creative Ops in running an efficient and effective team. Superside is a fully managed design subscription company that serves marketing and creative teams to help them un-bottleneck their design challenges and empower them to get creative work done in a fast and efficient manner. Unlike an agency, freelance marketplace, or internal team, Superside acts as a point solution for key problems inside a company. They optimize for efficiency, speed, and scale, which allows them to cater to companies that are pivoting and changing rapidly. Amrita says an understanding of the importance of Design and Creative Ops helps Superside be an extremely efficient and effective partner. When it comes to Superside’s rapid and sustained growth, Amrita tells us they did make smart moves but also attributes some of their good fortune to good timing. One key move was figuring out their differentiation early. With marketing, the problem is well-defined, but the solutions are messy, so from the start, Superside dove deep into their best use cases and what value they would provide in that space. Another key move was the founder’s investment in marketing from day one to intentionally “build an efficient machine” for lean operations.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What is the Superside use case?
• How Amrita took Superside from $0 to $55 million in ARR in four years
• The benefits of a marketing-first mindset

Key Highlights:

• [02:05] An appreciation for “community”
• [07:30] Path to becoming CMO of Superside
• [10:20] What is Superside?
• [14:00] ARR increased from $0 to $55 million in four years.
• [18:30] No convincing is needed when the higher-ups get
• [20:00] What are “moon shoots,” and what is an example of a win?
• [28:10] The nexus of design, creativity, and operation
• [31:50] A crazy (and impressive) designer to design operations ratio
• [36:00] Being a chameleon isn’t such a bad thing.
• [39:00] Advice for her younger self
• [40:05] Be aware of dilution in marketing.
• [42:40] Misconceptions around mass amounts of data

Thank you to our sponsor:

PartnerHero: to waive set-up fees, go to https://www.partnerhero.com/marketingtoday and mention “Marketing Today” during onboarding!

Resources Mentioned:

• Amrita Mathur
• Superside
• Bridging the Gap Between Marketing and Design Teams (report by Superside)

Follow the podcast:

• Listen on iTunes (link: http://apple.co/2dbdAhV)
• Listen on Google Podcasts (link: http://bit.ly/2Rc2kVa)
• Listen on Spotify (link: http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)

Connect with the Guest:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/amritamathur/
• https://twitter.com/AmritaMathur
• https://twitter.com/SupersideHQ

Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:

• Twitter: Alan B Hart – http://twitter.com/abhart
• LinkedIn: Alan B Hart – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanhart
• Twitter Marketing Today – http://twitter.com/themktgtoday
• Facebook Marketing Today – https://www.facebook.com/themktgtoday/
• LinkedIn Marketing Today – https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-today-with-alan-hart/

Post-Production Credits:

• Sam Robertson

Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The post Differentiation And Design Ops With Amrita Mathur, VP Of Marketing At Superside appeared first on AList.

Among those challenges were capturing the essence of the game and translating it for fans and new audiences.

The latest trailer for ESO’s most recent iteration, Necrom, reflects the game’s ethos as well as the new possibilities presented in this edition.

Behind The Scenes Of The Elder Scrolls Online: Shadow Over Morrowind – Cinematic Announcement Trailer

The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom is an interconnected story that will unfold across multiple content releases. The Shadow Over Morrowind storyline centers around the Daedric Prince of Knowledge, Hermaeus Mora, and the secrets he guards against mortals and the Daedra. Unknown forces threaten to reveal these secrets, potentially placing the nature of reality itself at risk. Players will undertake quests, uncover clues, and solve puzzles to avert a catastrophic event.

We spoke with Robert Sethi, a director with The Mill, about the experience of collaborating with Ayzenberg Group on the creation of ZeniMax Online Studio’s Shadow Over Morrowind cinematic trailer.

What drew you to the project, and how was it working with the Ayzenberg Group?

[Before starting the project], I knew the style of work at Ayzenberg, which I think is really collaborative and transparent. They have a really cool way of sharing their creative ownership, and everyone is involved—it’s very similar to how we like to work.

Then, of course, The Elder Scrolls Online is a cool IP with a strong legacy. I think one of the main things [that drew me to the project] was the brief that we got with four different worlds… If you really wanted to pare down where the passion for making this film came from, it was the cosmic horror aspect and the mystery of it. That’s what engaged us.

Behind The Scenes: The Creative Collaboration

We caught up with Paul Wallace, Director of Brand Creative Integration at Ayzenberg, to chat about the development of the trailer for the latest expansion.

You had the opportunity to craft a new creative vision for the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) CG trailer – how did you and the team go about that?

It is a huge privilege to be trusted by our clients, Bethesda and ZeniMax Online Studios, to honor the long legacy of ESO cinematics while being able to evolve where the franchise’s creative marketing is going.

The Ayzenberg team began crafting this new vision by defining an entire palette of creative possibilities. We cut tone films to articulate the editorial rhythm. We explored how sound design could become a character. We built a design toolkit of visual and narrative devices that would embody the themes of the story while pushing its technique into an expressionistic territory. And we wrote lots of scripts that explored the emotional depth of each character and what their journey through Tamriel could be.

Would you talk about the creative partnership and how it impacted development?

Evolving the ESO vision also meant finding a new creative partner, which we found in The Mill. The Mill’s incredible dedication to photo-real visuals, epic action, and emotional storytelling allowed us to honor the high bar set by past cinematics while realizing this vision of where the franchise could go.

How did the Ayzenberg team ensure that this vision was expressed throughout the project?

We worked in lockstep at every stage of the process, empowering The Mill to do what they do best and supporting them with Ayzenberg’s greatest strengths: A deep understanding of the audience, dedication to emotional storytelling, and a focus on editorial craft. For instance, before MoCap facial scanning occurred, Ayzenberg wrote a detailed account of the main character’s internal world and emotional journey so that every detail could play out during the actress’s performance.

How did this cinematic fit into the larger integrated campaign for the entire Necrom Chapter?

Before beginning this CG film with The Mill, I had been working with the visual identity team at Ayzenberg to develop a complementary campaign arc told through key art. Together, we designed the Morrowind setting with a huge exploration-based vista, the epic reveal of the new character class alongside Hermaeus Mora, and some other pieces of art you’ll see later in the year, which I don’t want to spoil!

We did the same for the packing art, designing a Standard Edition rooted in Morrowind and Necrom, and a Collector’s Edition based in Apocrypha – which would later become the journey our new class takes through the CG film. Tying this all together lets us tell an interwoven story across CG, key art, pack art, and animation – creating a campaign-wide “red thread” that, we hope, is a treat for fans to experience throughout the year.

What impressed you most about The Mill as a creative partner?

So much impresses me about The Mill as a creative partner. The thing that impresses me the most is their passion. They poured their hearts into every aspect of this film.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome along the way?

Our biggest challenge was always time itself. Since part of the process this year was finding a new creative partner, we lost precious months of production. We refused to scale back creatively, so everything had to be done incredibly efficiently.

What was most exciting for you creatively about this newest chapter of ESO?

ESO’s latest chapter presented our creative team with a rich tapestry of themes, from buried secrets to cosmic horror. Personally, I absolutely love cosmic horror as a conceptual playground for storytelling.

These themes also allowed us to craft many thematically tied narrative devices, such as spatial misdirection, visual metaphor, and psychedelic, shifting environments. This marriage of form and content allowed us to be expressionistic while remaining rooted in an emotional story.

The Production: Managing Complexity And Vision

We spoke with Ayzenberg Executive Producer/Director of Production Jonathan Clark, about his perspective on how teams collaborated to manage the complexity of the project.

What were some elements of the production that were the most complex?

With a project of this size and profile, one of the most complex elements of the production was creating/establishing a schedule for delivery on an accelerated timeline that worked for both the production process and our clients. Finding the best path forward for production and a creative review with our internal team, our production partner, and our client stakeholders took significant planning.

There are a lot of moving parts and dependencies when you are working on something of this size and complexity. Landing a schedule that integrates everything seamlessly and still allows some flexibility for the inevitable small changes or challenges that happen on any creative endeavor with a significant number of people involved is essential to the success of the project.

How did the team come together to develop a unique solution?

Our creative, account, and production teams focused on communication and process. Though these are obvious pillars of the success of any project, they are even more essential for one of this size, type, and complexity. Every project presents a unique set of challenges. The Ayzenberg team worked diligently with our partners at The Mill to better understand their workflow’s “how and why” and this project’s many production components and dependencies. We also shared our own preferred creative and production process and landed on a path that worked for everyone involved. The result was better and more well-informed communications both internally and with our clients—and a fantastic final result!

Launching The Creative Vision: Honoring The Elder Scrolls Legacy

Matt Bretz, Chief Creative Officer at Ayzenberg, shared some history of the agency’s relationship with Bethesda and the significance of this Elder Scrolls evolution.

You’ve been working with Bethesda for a long time. Is there anything different about how you approached this release? Have there been any consistencies over those projects?

I’m proud to have started with The Elder Scrolls at its launch almost ten years ago and at another agency. Back then, we made gameplay trailers. While social and digital marketing was just beginning to be “a thing,” we enjoyed the luxury of simply making the best trailer our creative minds would empower us to make.

We’d hand it off to a media team, cross our fingers, and find out how the game had sold months later. To be fair, the Bethesda marketing team was always ahead of the agency on driving measurably impactful integrated advertising. But cut to 2023’s launch campaign for The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom and YES! A ton has changed about the way that we’ve approached this announce trailer.

We have all sorts of data that represent the voice of the core ESO fans about what they love and want, and we get to start by listening to that. So, bringing the new class to life became a critical part of the trailer. Taking players back to beloved Morrowind is also important. And we knew that players of the DLC for Skyrim—an audience adjacent to the ESO core—were deeply intrigued by Hermaeus Mora and Apocrypha, so they have been featured heavily in the game and the marketing.

Perhaps more to the point, in 2023, we are much more purposeful than we were when I began working on ESO about how the announce trailer fits into an integrated array of story-driven assets on multiple platforms where we know that potential ESO players live. All these assets are different because they are optimized for the strength of each platform.

But with the ESO team, we work to create a “red thread” that we can find anywhere we look in this year-long marketing tapestry that tells us, “This is Shadow Over Morrowind!” Rather than a cinematics’ typical linear adventure, we set out to mash worlds, characters, and emotions more like a movie trailer.

All that being said, ZOS (ZeniMax Online Studios) was handing us a precious baton, and we needed to do a number of things that you can always count on from an ESO cinematic. Deliver technically on the bleeding edge of CGI capabilities. Maintain the brand’s essential classy fantasy—fans want to feel they could step into this world—not be distracted by commenting on it. And tell an emotionally engaging story that teases the rollercoaster ride that you will experience 10X as a player of Shadow Over Morrowind.

How does the way the team managed this project reflect the Ayzenberg ethos of Listen, Create, Share?

Many advertising agencies think about disruption first. At Ayzenberg, we start by listening. Listening to clients. Listening to fans. Listening to each other as a team while we develop a viewpoint. Disruption is a very powerful tool. Sometimes it’s the right one. But we have many other tools in our toolbox, and by listening first and frequently, we determine the right time to use each.

Listening is pretty subtle, so we’re best known for how we create based on listening. We always remind ourselves to anchor what we hear as we create. And when we’re ready, we have another set of tools to share what we’ve created. So that we provoke a response in our audience that we can listen to again. Adapt and create based on what we hear. Share again, etc.

Can you give an example?

For the making of this ESO cinematic, we listened to, as usual, the most thorough of briefings from ZeniMax Online Studios on the game. We used proprietary and third-party tools to listen to the fans. And it shaped the story look and feel of our cinematic trailer.

We are just at the beginning of our first cycle of sharing this asset, and what we are hearing is, thankfully, mostly good. The creative team is hard at work on assets further along in the year, and every day, we check in on what questions fans have based on the cinematic trailer. What parts were they most moved by? The next big moment for us in this virtuous cycle will be ZOS opening the first two dungeons of the game. Can’t wait to listen to that! And share more of our creations soon.

Parting Shots

Following the Scribes of Fate DLC in March, the Necrom Chapter launched on PC/Mac on June 5, 2023, and on June 20, 2023, for Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

The game features 30 hours of all-new story content. Players will be able to journey into two extraordinary new zones in Eastern Morrowind with two new companions and a playable new class: the Arcanist.

Learn more on ESO’s official website here.

The post How Two Renowned Studios Collaborated To Launch The Elder Scrolls Online’s New Expansion appeared first on AList.

In this episode, Raj and I discuss the first steps he took when he arrived at Align Technology and how he has transformed the organization to deliver on the brand purpose. Align Technology encompasses several brands (Align Tech, Invisalign, Itero, and Exocad) that combine to provide end-to-end service, from generating interest to helping doctors model and use their products. They operate in a two-sided market by serving consumers and doctors, but a common purpose of “transforming smiles and changing lives” brings the two together. Align Technology is creating a whole new market and modernizing a discipline that has been stationary for hundreds of years. By ensuring the seamless integration of their products, Align Technology is able to increase throughput, drive demand in the general population, and match it in the doctor’s office.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How seamless integrations are increasing throughput and driving demand
• How Align is creating a new market and modernizing a stationary discipline
• Where Raj learned his leadership style

Key Highlights:

• [01:50] Poker pro
• [02:45] From engineering to CMO
• [04:50] What brought Raj to Align?
• [06:30] The huge market opportunity
• [08:00] Wire-crossed lovers
• [09:15] The complexity of the system
• [11:40] Where did Raj start when he got to Align?
• [13:40] How does purpose make a difference?
• [11:25] The power of a smile
• [20:40] Lessons learned
• [23:30] How Align is keeping the brand authentic
• [25:00] The transformation needed to bring the vision to life
• [26:45] Consumer marketing vs. doctor marketing
• [29:45] Being a market maker
• [31:45] Personalization and seamless integration to create demand
• [33:00] Modernizing a stationary discipline
• [34:50] Measuring the effectiveness of marketing
• [37:50] Learning to make people feel respected and valued
• [41:05] Stop and smell the roses.
• [42:55] AI doesn’t preclude thinking.
• [44:30] Brands to watch
• [46:15] The pace of innovation is increasing.

Resources Mentioned:

• Raj Pudipeddi
• Align Technology
• Invisalign
• Campaign “Invis is”
• Bounty Paper Towels – More Life per Roll Campaign
• Corporate Social Responsibility & Operation Smile
• Prior career stops: P&G, Airtel (India)
• Brands mentioned: Apple, Nike

Follow the podcast:

• Listen on iTunes (link: http://apple.co/2dbdAhV)
• Listen on Google Podcasts (link: http://bit.ly/2Rc2kVa)
• Listen on Spotify (link: http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)

Connect with the Guest:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/raj-pudipeddi/
• https://twitter.com/AlignTechInc
• https://twitter.com/Invisalign

Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:

• Twitter Alan B Hart – http://twitter.com/abhart
• LinkedIn Alan  – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanhart
• Twitter Marketing Today – http://twitter.com/themktgtoday
• Facebook Marketing Today – https://www.facebook.com/themktgtoday/
• LinkedIn Marketing Today – https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-today-with-alan-hart/

Post-Production Credits:

• Sam Robertson

Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The post Bringing Your Brand Purpose To Life With Raj Pudipeddi, CMO Of Align Tech, Makers Of Invisalign appeared first on AList.

In this episode, Hiroki and I discuss Airbnb’s post-pandemic rebalancing of spend between performance and brand, why he is a firm believer in the importance of in-house creative teams, and what he thinks makes a great campaign today. Hiroki is an advocate for the creation of in-house creative teams for the benefit of the company, brand, and creatives alike. He believes in-house teams offer the distinct advantages of having creatives closely connected to business challenges and maintaining a close integration between “in-bound” and “out-bound” aspects. When hiring creatives, Hiroki looks for individuals who can both take a broad perspective and execute artistic visions while understanding the larger business impact. He also touches on the importance of storytelling and differentiation in marketing, highlighting the need to shift the narrative through brand tactics rather than solely focusing on performance metrics. In his opinion, a good campaign shows truthfulness and real stories by embracing simplicity, authenticity, intelligent messaging, and shared experiences as a response to the proliferation of overproduced advertisements. To this point, Hiroki tells us how Airbnb’s newest campaigns around Rooms and The Host’s Passport were influenced by first-hand user experiences, leading to a transformation in people’s perceptions and overcoming hesitations they may have about staying with strangers.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The benefits of in-house creative teams
• What Hiroki looks for when he’s hiring new creative team members
• What makes a great campaign?

Key Highlights:

• [01:40] Hiroki’s recent travel
• [02:50] From skateboarder to graphic designer to CMO
• [05:30] Coming to Airbnb
• [06:40] Hiroki’s view on in-house creative
• [08:20] Advantages of in-house creatives
• [09:50] What to look for when hiring an in-house creative team
• [12:00] “The Great Rebalancing”: shifting post-pandemic marketing mix
• [14:00] The interplay between the ethos and the product
• [15:50] What makes a good campaign?
• [19:50] Airbnb Rooms
• [25:15] The Hart Family’s Airbnb experience
• [30:20] Advice for your younger self
• [31:05] Close the gap between design and marketing.
• [32:45] Brands to watch
• [33:55] Marketing shouldn’t be your differentiator.

Resources Mentioned:

• Hiroki Asai
• Airbnb
• Airbnb Rooms
• Youth Subculture (Wikipedia)
• Brands mentioned: Apple, Uma, Former, Mollusk

Follow the podcast:

• Listen on iTunes (link: http://apple.co/2dbdAhV)
• Listen on Google Podcasts (link: http://bit.ly/2Rc2kVa)
• Listen on Spotify (link: http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)

Connect with the Guest:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiroki-asai-a44137110/
• https://twitter.com/Airbnb

Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:

• Twitter Alan B Hart – http://twitter.com/abhart
• LinkedIn Alan  – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanhart
• Twitter Marketing Today – http://twitter.com/themktgtoday
• Facebook Marketing Today – https://www.facebook.com/themktgtoday/
• LinkedIn Marketing Today – https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-today-with-alan-hart/

Post-Production Credits:

• Sam Robertson

Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The post Simply Honest Ads And In-House Creatives With Hiroki Asai, Global Head Of Marketing And Creative At Airbnb appeared first on AList.

Brands Focus On Measurement And Optimizing Influencer ROI

According to the report Can Creator-Led Marketing Really Drive ROI?, based on a survey by CreatorIQ, 94 percent of organizations could attribute direct sales to creator content, and brands are now using influencers to boost campaign performance across multiple channels. Seventy-six percent increased their budgets to bring influencers into digital, email (48 percent) and owned social (42 percent). According to the report, 51 percent of firms were proactive in evaluating influencer impact, tracking consumer engagement levels, conversion rates (28 percent) and quality of impressions (11 percent). 

As marketers review the numbers, they are also thinking about how to expand the value of their investment in influencers. This has led some marketers to introduce AI as a component of their influencer strategy to enhance campaign performance. In a recent survey by Influencer Marketing Hub in The State of AI In Influencer Marketing 2023, 63 percent of marketer respondents planned to use AI to identify potential influencers or help them manage their campaigns.

Despite many marketers’ interest in integrating AI with their existing influencer strategy, efforts to replace human creators with AI influencers have produced mixed results. While 49 percent of marketers saw virtual influencers as highly effective, consumers in a study quoted in the report found virtual influencers less trustworthy and distant than human influencers. In addition, the survey found no substantial difference between the purchase intentions of consumers interacting with virtual and human influencers. According to the report—that may mean both virtual and human influencers have an equal potential to stoke purchase intent.

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub

But other data shows that AI-powered influencer experiences can drive meaningful engagement for specific demographics such as Gen Alpha and female audiences.

The Takeaway:

Influencers can deliver powerful results for brands, but AI shouldn’t be ignored as a tool to optimize influencer investment. While consumers may not trust virtual influencers as much as their human counterparts, consumers still follow and interact with AI influencer content. That means savvy marketers can leverage the power of engaging human influencers and adopt AI tools to speed content creation and automate repetitive content tasks without compromising performance.

The post New Report: Brands Shift Budgets To Influencers, Leverage AI appeared first on AList.

Marketers Want More Retail Media Inventory And Measurement Capabilities

According to LiveIntent’s “The 2023 Retail Media Market Report: Unlocking Adoption, Mastering Best Practices, Overcoming Challenges & Driving Performance,” 63 percent of marketers surveyed stated that they saw retail media advertising as more effective than other digital channels, with 73 percent saying that they planned to increase investment in 2023.

According to the report, marketers saw retail media networks as a locus of new opportunities to engage audiences and glean valuable insights. Per the survey findings:

• Seventy percent of advertisers believe retail media networks will likely increase customer engagement and sales for retailers. 
• Sixty-five percent of retailers think that retail media can provide them with expanded revenue opportunities for advertising and sponsorship.
• Fifty-six percent of retailers see retail media as a significant source of first-party data to support a user experience personalization strategy.
• Forty-five percent of retailers believe building the employment of retail media will be first-party data as third-party cookies become obsolete.

Approximately 60 percent of advertisers planned to use retail media networks to target customers with discounts, deals, and relevant search ads. Another 43 percent planned to use retail media content with AR or VR content.

Advertisers also stated they want access to more video (64 percent) and connected TV and streaming (57 percent) options. That tracks with recent findings from Insider Intelligence which reports that by 2024, retail media will be the fastest-growing ad format, outpacing linear TV ad spending by 2025.

There’s also a lot to love with respect to retail media’s access to consumer data, according to marketers surveyed by LiveIntent. Logged-in consumers opt-in to data sharing while on retail sites. This makes targeted and audience analytics simple for retailers and brand marketers. It allows them to harvest consumer preferences, purchase, and search consumers that can direct and enrich real-time targeting and optimize user experiences.

Fifty-six percent of marketers surveyed believe retail media will lead to more relevant and engaging deal offers, and 59 percent of respondents believe retail media can also enhance in-store consumers’ shopping experiences. But there are caveats. While retail media networks can earn a profit margin of as much as 80 percent from ad sales, 44 percent of advertisers in the LiveIntent report cited problems with accurate campaign measurement as an ongoing issue. That’s a powerful motivation for retail media networks to relentlessly promote their channels even when they cannot offer marketers the tools they need to drill down and examine granular performance insights.

“Many of our clients are spending a lot of money advertising on retail media networks (RMNs) – especially on retail search channels,” According to April Carlisle, EVP of Spark Foundry, speaking to Ad Exchanger, “But they’re still just hitting the same households.”  

As the number of RMNs grows, marketers are faced with a lot of choices, but the need for better results may be driving brand marketers to use a wide range of networks in a trial-and-error fashion, even when performance is lackluster. 

Source: McKinsey & Company

Marketers Now Use Multiple Retail Media Networks To Drive Sales

According to a recent report by The Association of National Advertisers, 75 percent of advertisers using retail media networks (RMNs) cite driving new sales as their most crucial goal in using RMNs, with fifty-six percent employing five or more retail media networks (RMNs) and 40 percent use five to nine different RMNs. Sixteen percent use ten or more RMNs.

Source: McKinsey & Company

 “As budgets get cut,” the report quotes one survey respondent, “RMN programs have remained largely intact. This is shifting the balance of our overall marketing budget from building brand equity to driving product sales.” The report states that fifty-eight percent of advertisers surveyed expect to be using more RMNs than they are today by 2024, and 73 percent expect to be spending “somewhat or significantly more” on RMNs than they did in 2022.

Source: ANA

While brand marketers are looking at traditional metrics like return on advertising spend (ROAS), they are also looking at other metrics that offer deeper insights, such as “new-to-brand,” to assess which RMNs drive the highest sales and awareness.

Source: Statista

The Takeaway for Marketers: As behemoths like Walmart expand their RMNs, marketers are shifting spending toward retail media for its bottom-funnel capabilities and access to first-party data from logged-in users. Yet advertisers need more certainty in determining which RMN will offer the best value over time. Because the marketplace is fragmented, access to accurate real-time performance data will be vital in avoiding wasted spend. Marketers should also attempt to leverage tools to compare historical and current results between RMNs over time. Incremental sales can be an essential revenue source. Logged-in RMN consumers may scale their purchasing behavior as marketing content stokes engagement. However, marketers may miss opportunities to convert them without access to a comprehensive, multi-platform analytics tool.

The post Marketers See Retail Media As 2023’s Most Effective Digital Channel appeared first on AList.

In this episode, Oded and I discuss “Decisions Over Decimals,” Oded’s latest co-authored book with Christopher Frank, Vice President of the Global Advertising and Brand Management team at American Express, and Paul Magnone, Head of Global Strategic Alliances at Google, who are also professors at Columbia. Having worked on the front lines and taught future executives, they identified two data myths that served as the inspiration for this book. Oded presents these myths and explores the three core pillars of quantitative intuition covered in the book, highlighting how marketers can improve decision-making by understanding these concepts.

Oded advises against the inclination to rush to find a solution and instead encourages spending more time understanding the problem. According to Oded, a well-thought-out problem is already half-solved. This interview and the book emphasize the significance of asking insightful questions and properly defining the problem. This approach is evident in the emergence of Prompt Engineers for tools like ChatGPT, where precise questioning leverages quantitative intuition to achieve desired outcomes.

The conversation also touches upon unstructured data and its implications for marketers in terms of analysis, decision-making, customer listening, and demonstrating that marketing is not just a cost but can also drive revenue.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• “Decisions Over Decimals”: Why this book and why now?
• What we should be thinking about in terms of good data-based decision-making
• How quantitative intuition is relevant to Prompt Engineers using tools like ChatGPT

Key Highlights:

• [01:50] The son of a Holocaust survivor
• [03:45] From the chicken house to the university classroom
• [06:30] Why this book and why now?
• [09:25] Three pillars of quantitative intuition
• [16:30] “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
• [18:00] Analyst in Wonderland
• [21:00] Prompt Engernerrs
• [23:15] What is so special about ChatGPT?
• [25:45] The best is yet to come with AI.
• [28:00] How should we think about unstructured data?
• [30:50] Connecting marketing with unstructured data
• [35:20] Gen Z pushing for “doing well by doing good”
• [38:00] What excites Oded in the marketing space now?
• [39:55] Travel is the best teacher.
• [40:50] Enjoy the journey.
• [41:30] Generative AI and creating a win-win
• [42:10] Brands to watch
• [44:30] Gen Z and AI are driving the future

Resources Mentioned:

• Oded Netzer
• Decisions Over Decimals: Striking the Balance between Intuition and Information
• Co-Authors: Christopher Frank and Paul Magnone
• Amazon Scholars
• ChatGPT
• Prompt Engineers
• Brands mentioned: Google and Amazon for customer centricity. Kyte for product/service design, Patagonia and KIND Bars for win-win propositions.

Follow the podcast:

• Listen on iTunes (link: http://apple.co/2dbdAhV)
• Listen on Google Podcasts (link: http://bit.ly/2Rc2kVa)
• Listen on Spotify (Link: http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)

Connect with the Guest:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/oded-netzer-700255/
• https://twitter.com/OdedNetzer
• https://twitter.com/Columbia
• https://twitter.com/Columbia_Biz

Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:

• Twitter Alan B Hart – http://twitter.com/abhart
• LinkedIn Alan  – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanhart
• Twitter Marketing Today – http://twitter.com/themktgtoday
• Facebook Marketing Today – https://www.facebook.com/themktgtoday/
• LinkedIn Marketing Today – https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-today-with-alan-hart/

Post-Production Credits:

• Sam Robertson

Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The post Striking The Balance Between Intuition And Information With Oded Netzer, Co-Author Of “Decisions Over Decimals” appeared first on AList.

While Max still has fewer ad-supported tier subscribers than other networks, it has a powerful pitch as a destination for prestige advertisers seeking the attention of affluent customers. That’s because earned media value (EMV) can serve as a barometer for advertisers, showing them the best place to invest their budgets to reach targeted audiences.

Source: MediaPlay News

Decoding Succession’s Earned Media Surge

Succession’s buzz continues to surge, even when many of those articles, as Axios points out, fall well below the readership of posts about less trendy shows, like “Young Sheldon.” But the show’s earned media power is not only based on its cool factor: the show’s appeal to publishers may play a role in a surge in advertising dollars that have funneled into Max’s new ad-supported subscriber tier. That rise signals Max’s new efforts to appeal to advertisers may be working—and earned media is likely playing a powerful role in that success.

Advertisers covet Max’s core demographic, which since 2020 has earned the loyalty of adults aged 22-44 as well as more affluent households. In its first quarter report for the year, Warner Bros. announced WBD was the “most-watched Total TV linear portfolio among 25-54.”

Source: Axios

(Advertisers’) Money Wins: How Earned Media Drives Value

Source: YouTube

HBO saw a 29 percent surge in advertising revenue in the first quarter, along with 1.6 million new subscribers, driven by its ad-supported tier, per Warner Bros. Discovery. The brand also decreased its operating expenses by 24 percent and its cost of revenue by 8 percent over the previous quarter—meaning the company is doing everything possible to optimize spending while cutting costs.

Yet with “Succession”’s finale, Max brought in just two sponsors, Mercedes-Benz and Vital Farms; the latter of which presented a 15-second pre-roll video highlighting the brand’s ESG commitments in a spot called “Keeping It Bullsh*t Free.” That limited inventory model may mean that Max focuses on the appeal of high-impact, long-play ads tied to content that packs a similar powerful punch.

“What we thought was really interesting is that we have this [ad] spot that talks about corporate bullshit, and here is a show that is about corporate bullshit, and what an interesting juxtaposition we could create,” Vital Farms CMO Kathryn McKeon told Modern Retail. “And what a bold way of bringing an unexpected brand into a new advertising platform. So, not only was it interesting to be one of the first to try from a pure media standpoint, but the storylines and the interest of that tension made it so much richer of a place for us to bring our message.”

That appeal to advertisers is nowhere more evident than in Succession’s ability to garner social media engagement that is equivalent to a significant ad spend, even after the show is over.

For example, using Social Index, a tool that allows marketers to calculate dollar equivalencies for social media value, we see that a single finale highlight post generated over $66,000 in earned media value through audience engagement. 

(Subscribers) Are Not Serious People

The ability to calculate earned media has another significant role in driving revenue— keeping a channel or a popular show top of mind. As consumers discuss and interact with content around specific programming, the ability to calculate EMV allows marketers advertising on streaming services to identify new opportunities to stoke engagement and support new shows that might reach similar audiences. That’s a powerful strategy for advertisers seeking to connect with targeted audiences when popular shows like Succession end. Calculated EMV allows marketers to determine which streaming service offers content targeted audiences care about.

For example, using Social Index, we calculated that a recent YouTube post generated over $150k in EMV, representing the same amount in equivalent advertising value.

The ability to calculate EMV is also critical for marketers seeking clarity over the range of choices when selecting a streaming channel to support—for example—when marketers attempt to gauge the value of staying with Max as it transitioned from HBO to an expanded roster. 

EMV: Money Still Wins

Succession’s patriarch Logan Roy’s nihilistic catchphrase “money wins” often applies to how CMOs invest their streaming advertising budgets with networks that have popular shows that offer consistent earned media opportunities. As consumers view and share content around Succession and journalists cover the show, advertisers may gain new exposure as sponsors or direct advertisers. 

That’s a win-win for networks like HBO that need to not only hold on to existing subscribers and draw new ones but also prove to marketers that they can provide new opportunities to reach audiences beyond the viewers of top shows like Succession and The Last of Us.

As HBO became Max and added Discovery+ to its roster, it also gained lots of reality and family-oriented programming, which gives marketers new opportunities to reach audiences beyond fans of the former HBO’s prestige dramas. As Logan Roy famously said of his feckless children, subscribers are fickle and constantly searching for the next shiny object. That’s one reason HBO is promoting its war on “churn”—the phenomenon of consumers subscribing to watch a specific show and leaving when it’s over. Churn can hurt advertisers because consumers are attached to the show, not the network. Without the right mix of engaging content, networks lose subscribers or simply get a ton of trial subscribers who never pay and stay long enough to generate trackable engagement for brands.

“The real challenge is the churn,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said as he and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels outlined plans to take Max to the promised land of profitability by next year. “With churn, it’s very difficult to build a strong business.”

Discovery+, launched in January 2021, has had a low churn rate. HBO Max, which launched in May 2020: not so much.

“Driving (down) that churn may be more important than driving the growth. If we can drive down the churn, the growth will be very substantial,” Zaslav said in a statement reported by Variety. “The more people that use it in the family, the more, the more engaged people are, the broader the offering, the lower the churn.”

The Takeaway For Marketers:

Max will offer many new opportunities for marketers to reach its niche, affluent and wider audiences through its combination of general interest shows and prestige programming. But finding where to direct your spending can be challenging since HBO/Max and Discovery+ content can be found on multiple platforms. One simple way to evaluate a potential spending choice is to look at the earned media surrounding specific programming, like “Succession” and its ilk.

Look for passionate fans but also coverage across publications that reach specific audiences—publishers are reading the analytics too, and coverage of shows that connect with findings from their first-party audience data tend to reflect what their readers want. So WSJ and Vanity Fair homages to “Succession” make a lot of sense if you read the data, even if the show’s actual viewership was much less than “House of the Dragon.” Once you know what your audience is saying on social media and the messaging that they engage with around specific programs, you’ll have meaningful insights for your creative and where your campaign should land. Learn more about earned media valuation and how Social Index makes it possible.

The post How Max’s ‘Succession’ Won Earned Media And Boosted Its Ad-Supported Tier appeared first on AList.

In this episode, Guillaume and I discuss what Extend does, why it uniquely benefits marketers and agencies, and how they utilize marketing within their B2B2B model. Extend is a platform that turns business credit cards into a full spend management platform. They do not compete with banks but rather partner with them and empower them to offer better add-on products to their clients. Those banks then have to give Extend access to those clients, the real end users. This B2B2C or B2B2B model has unique challenges. Extend must be strategic about how it markets and communicates to its banking partners to gain access to cardholders and ensure the partnership is beneficial for all parties. Guillaume and his co-founders believe that effective marketing efforts continue well after customers walk in the door. Whether it be through cross-selling or continued engagement, you have to get them, keep them, and increase their usage. The nature of marketing is understanding how to create a strategy to influence consumers. Guillaume tells us that marketers and marketing agencies are a large portion of Extend users, and he outlines several use cases that highlight why.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Guillaume’s founding story and how he has found success with his two other friends
• What Extend does today in the virtual card and payment spaces
• How Extend conceptualizes marketing to support their goals

Key Highlights:

• [02:00] A friendship/business partner success story
• [05:37] Guillaume’s career path
• [08:20] What does Extend do?
• [09:40] Extend isn’t competing with banks; it is partnering with them.
• [11:30] How does extending help marketers specifically?
• [17:20] Getting banking partners to promote Extend
• [22:40] Halo benefits
• [24:10] The value added for banking partners
• [25:40] Organizing marketing to support GTM
• [29:05] Measuring the impact of marketing
• [32:30] Being pulled in two directions
• [37:30] Advice to your younger self
• [38:50] Everyone is talking about AI.
• [40:40] Brands to watch
• [42:50] The landscape is evolving. Marketers must do the same.

Resources Mentioned:

• Guillaume Bouvard
• Extend
• Co-founders and Leadership Team
• Prior stops in career: American Express, Capital One
• Brands mentioned: Decathalon, Patagonia

Follow the podcast:

• Listen on iTunes (link: http://apple.co/2dbdAhV)
• Listen on Google Podcasts (link: http://bit.ly/2Rc2kVa)
• Listen on Spotify (Link: http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)

 Connect with the Guest:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/bouvard/
• https://twitter.com/PayWithExtend

 Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:

• Twitter Alan B. Hart – http://twitter.com/abhart
• LinkedIn Alan B. Hart – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanhart
• Twitter Marketing Today – http://twitter.com/themktgtoday
• Facebook Marketing Today – https://www.facebook.com/themktgtoday/
• LinkedIn Marketing Today – https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-today-with-alan-hart/

Post-Production Credits:

• Sam Robertson

Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on brand, customer experience, innovation, and growth opportunities. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies but is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine companies.

The post Establishing A Mutually Beneficial Partnership Model With Guillaume Bouvard, CMO At Extend appeared first on AList.