A few highlights: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’ name is changed to Jalen Hulu Has Live Sports (or maybe that’s what it always was?) in a not-so-subtle Hulu spot. Little Caesars hypes its current free delivery offer with a little help from New Orleans Saints defensive end Cam Jordan. And pro tennis player Leylah Fernandez stars in the latest from Morgan Stanley.
‘We Are Racing’ brings SailGP’s action-packed battles to world famous Piccadilly Lights
SailGP, the world’s most exciting racing on water, officially launched its Season 4 ‘We Are Racing’ global brand campaign with a week-long digital 3D OOH immersive full screen takeover at the world-renowned Piccadilly Lights, the largest advertising display in Europe.
With Season 4 well underway, SailGP is laser-focused on bringing the best racing to fans, both new and pre-established, across the globe. ‘We Are Racing’ aims to drive brand awareness and grow the league’s global fan base. The launch in central London comes as the global championship begins its European leg. Kicking off with the third event of the season in Saint-Tropez on September 9-10, before Grands Prix in Taranto, Italy, September 23-24 and Andalucia-Caìdiz, October 14-15.
Using innovative DeepScreen® technology produced and developed by Ocean Outdoor and SailGP’s own production team, the 30 second takeover running August 28 to September 3 includes action-packed footage showcasing SailGP’s hydrofoiling F50s and dramatic 3D graphics highlighting Sir Ben Ainslie’s Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team, three-time SailGP championship winners Australia plus the United States SailGP Team. Imitating SailGP’s own high-octane events and close to shore racing, passersby will literally see the F50’s fly out of the screen and come hurtling towards them at unbelievable speeds.
To unveil the new campaign, Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team strategist and most successful female sailor in Olympic history, Hannah Mills OBE, and fellow Emirates GBR athlete and Olympic rowing gold medalist Matt Gotrel MBE – who stunned fans in Season 3 by falling overboard in Sydney Harbour – arrived in Piccadilly Circus in full race kit to surprise and delight gathering fans in London.
Mills said: “It’s fantastic to see SailGP on such a prominent platform and it has been great to come here today to see it for the first time. While the new brand campaign aims to grow our audience and fan base – which will be great to have more people around the world cheering us on – I also hope that it inspires the next generation. As athletes, our actions can have a real impact and influence others. I’m passionate about using that platform to get people involved in both sport and sustainability, which is the core of SailGP.”
The Piccadilly Lights activation also celebrates SailGP’s new UK broadcaster with ITV becoming the latest home of SailGP and the Emirates Great Britain SailGP team. Fans can stream all the events live on ITVX with highlights from each event available the following week. For the first time, highlights from one of SailGP’s showcase events in Saint-Tropez will be shown on ITV1.
As part of the first phase of the season-long brand campaign, SailGP also unveiled new team identities for the national teams competing in the league. Tying in with the league’s strategy to put fans at its heart, the new identities provide an opportunity to drive deeper engagement with fans and build greater national affiliation to the teams – particularly with a younger audience – helping to grow the teams’ fan base. Recent Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix winner Diego Botin’s Spain SailGP Team has been relaunched as ‘Los Gallos’ after the team was nicknamed the young roosters by Spanish fans and France SailGP Team becomes ‘Les Bleus’, due to the historical nickname given to many French sporting teams of the past and present.
The ‘We Are Racing’ campaign, developed by SailGP and WePlay, tells the story of SailGP’s commitment to delivering heart-stopping, cutting-edge sport with purpose, to recruit a new generation of racing fans worldwide. This breakthrough global campaign will run across 14 markets – relevant to SailGP’s teams and event locations – and leverage a range of digital platforms, social channels and broadcast partnerships to reach an ever growing global audience. The campaign will bring fans closer to the action through feature hero content, behind the scenes footage, athlete marketing and immersive storytelling – around the teams, athletes, events and purpose – to give fans an intimate view into the world of SailGP and emphasizing why SailGP is one of the most exciting new developments in the global sporting calendar.
Leah Davis, SailGP global marketing director, says: “Season 4 is a breakthrough season for our championship and the launch of the global brand campaign is key to growing and broadening our fan base and increasing brand awareness. And, what better way to launch it than with an innovative, high-speed, high-impact 3D activation at Piccadilly Lights that really brings to life everything that SailGP has to offer and gives fans and passersby a unique opportunity to get a taste of SailGP – in central London.”
Welcome to Ad Age’s influencer marketing news roundup. Each week, we’ll be highlighting the latest developments at the intersection between brands and the creator economy, including new partnerships between brands and creators, notable new features across social media platforms and the growth of creator-led businesses.
Have tips or news to share about influencer marketing and the creator economy? Email Gillian Follett at [email protected].
Khaby Lame and Fortnite: TikTok’s wordless comedian Khabane “Khaby” Lame, who has held onto the title of “most-followed TikTok user” since June 2022 (161.9 million), will be the latest celebrity to feature in Fortnite’s “Icon Series” of character skins alongside Ariana Grande, MrBeast and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, among others. Fortnite leans heavily into collaborations with creators, athletes, celebrities, brands and entertainment franchises to entice players to continue playing—and spending their money on the “skins,” or new character appearances, that result from these partnerships. The Lame skin is part of Fortnite’s Battle Pass, which costs $9.50.
The campaign, handled by Omnicom’s TBWA\Chiat\Day, will further the real estate theme with a couple of influencer partnerships. One deal is with Caleb Simpson, who is known for producing video tours of regular people’s apartments and homes on TikTok ( where he has 7.7 million followers) and Instagram (1.4 million followers). For Nissan, he will tour the Heisman house with the football greats and mascots. The automaker is also partnering with TikToker Jonathan Carson, whose humorous video reviews of homes, often sourced from Zillow postings, have gained him more than 380,000 followers.
This is the first Heisman House campaign under the watch of Marinkovic, who joined Nissan in March from Kia, where she served as director of marketing operations and strategy at Kia Motor America. The campaign stems from Nissan’s long-running sponsorship of the Heisman Trophy.
“Heisman has been a tradition at Nissan for many years now. And when I joined, one of the things that I was excited about with this property, and one of the reasons that we love the Heisman, and the Heisman House, specifically, is it’s part of culture,” Marinkovic said.
Ad Age’s take on the hottest celebrity marketing moves of the past month.
We are given permission in Salesforce to view and mine account plans that give us really great information. We just transitioned to having more structured data within account plans, not free text, so that we could mine some of those.
We have a ton of Excel spreadsheets, analytics and dashboards and we use both Tableau and a Salesforce tool called Datorama to surface those. Once we have our accounts or personas identified, we tag them in Salesforce so that we can track penetration of those accounts, personas, engagement score increases, etc.
Oh, every day. The beauty in data and in applying agile marketing principles is that you can test and learn and refine the data. The days of creating an annual marketing plan are completely over. We do two-week sprints. We launch tactics to ICPs, and if it isn’t working, or we’re getting bad feedback or unsubscribes, then we’re certainly going to pivot and refine those strategies. The other element of all of this is the inclusion and new modernization of data to include intent data, and to be able to say, “Yes, they meet my criteria, but are they in a buying cycle for us or our solution?”
Working out of its Chicago office, the agency will handle creative marketing across Principal’s asset management, benefits and protection, and retirement and income solutions business. The first projects are expected to launch in the spring of 2024 and focus on Principal’s workplace retirement and group benefits business.
Principal wants Dentsu Creative to bring “a fresh set of eyes, a more modern approach” to marketing workplace benefits, particularly amid churn in the market due to layoffs and reorganizations.
“The macroeconomic environment that’s all around us is really volatile, and you need an expert to help you individually and as a business leader understand how you attract and retain talent for your business and how you ensure that that talent feels valued,” Wood said.
Bud Light’s US sales disaster shows little sign of abating after its disastrous flirtation with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, sales are down nearly 16% year on year and it’s lost its number one spot in grocery stores to Modelo Especial (whatever that is.)
As ever with these things (and the Mulvaney business was a standout marketing howler in a crowded field) it’s a long way back and Bud has been trying rather desperately to re-establish its credentials.
Now The Martin Agency appears to have taken over from Anomaly in charge of this onerous task and pretty well all the clichés of good ‘ol America are here in its new effort, timed for the start of the NFL season in September.
It’s not exactly bad but does rather invite snorts of derision. Maybe they should return to the ‘dilly dilly’ days of W+K’s faux medieval court – no, withdraw that, an even worse idea.
MAA creative scale: 3.
Aperol’s U.S. sales have multiplied from 9,000 cases in 2010 to 390,000 cases last year, according to Impact Databank figures reported by Shanken News Daily. In the fiscal second quarter, Aperol’s U.S. sales increased by 122.5%, Campari execs said. Aperol Spritz is the most popular cocktail in Italy and No. 6 worldwide, according to Drinks International’s 2022 report.
U.S. growth reflects consumer trends toward lower-alcohol cocktails (Aperol is 11% ABV), bitter taste profiles, and a growing appreciation for “apertivo” culture, helped along by appearances of the Aperol Spritz in TV programs such as “White Lotus.”
“Consumers are looking for sessionable, delicious, fun, beautiful beverages,” Sengara said. “I think we as an organization identified the Aperol Spritz as the main way to bring Aperol to consumers globally, and as we started to do that here [in the U.S.], we saw how it was really playing to other dynamics at the same time, which was the interest in more sessionable, lower-alcohol products and that continues to drive the brand today.”
One thing that helps encourage social media sharing is the elegant appearance of an Aprerol Spritz, which is golden orange and typically served in a balloon wine glass with an orange slice, Sengara said.
Owned media, also known as owned marketing, has long been a valuable channel for brands to build communities with their consumers. During times of economic uncertainty, when marketing budgets are under increased scrutiny to prove ROI, owned marketing channels such as websites, email, SMS and social media are driving cost-effective customer acquisition and retention strategies.
These ultimately result in profits, particularly as brands plan for the biggest retail event of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
To highlight the emergence of profit- and growth-driving owned marketing channels, Klaviyo held its inaugural OWN IT virtual summit on Aug. 15-17. The three-day event featured fireside chats and panels with leading challenger e-commerce brands focusing on why owned marketing, scalable growth and profitability are more important than ever; how to scale customer retention strategies in a way that increases acquisition budgets; and accomplishing all this in anticipation of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and driving year-round growth.
Cody Plofker, chief marketing officer of Jones Road Beauty, spoke on how implementing a growth marketing strategy in the beauty industry was a novel concept when Bobbi Brown, the founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and Plofker‘s mother, launched the DTC brand three years ago.
“I had the belief from the beginning that we always wanted to grow our paid and organic revenue at the same rate,” Plofker said. “We didn’t want to be a brand that was completely reliant on unpaid, but we also wanted to grow. Our industry is so geared toward revenue at all costs, but that’s misleading because sometimes you can make more revenue but not make a profit.”
Among the other featured speakers at the conference: Former Outdoor Voices CEO Ty Haney, co-founder and CEO of the Web3 platform TYB (Try Your Best) and the CBD supplements brand Joggy, who discussed why the future of marketing depends on using owned media and cutting-edge technology to build communities that co-create with brands.
Also speaking was Kyle Cooke, founder and CEO of hard teas company Loverboy, who detailed how he used the dramatic storytelling of the hit Bravo reality show “Summer House,” which he has starred in since 2017, to launch his brand five years ago.
And Kim Kreuzberger, previously chief revenue officer of Goop and founder and CEO of Pivot Projects, revealed how her consultancy firm helps scale such celebrity brands as Cravings by Crissy Teigen into sustainable businesses She does that by creating exceptional customer experiences relying on measurable organic rather than paid social campaigns.
Panel discussions dove deeper into the debate over whether customer retention is really the new customer acquisition (spoiler: It isn’t, according to Plofker)—and how brands can best prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Other speakers included Grace Clarke, founder of Grace Clarke Consulting; Tom Coburn, co-founder and CEO of quiz software maker Jebbit; Nikki Tooman, co-founder of retention marketing agency Sticky Digital; and Alexandra Cassis, U.S. partnerships director of customer-advocacy referral company Mention Me, discussing how brands can grow sustainably without sacrificing their ability to get in front of new and larger audiences.
Also on the agenda were Sriya Karumanchi, director of marketing and communications at sustainable jewelry brand Catbird; Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of customer experience at women’s wellness product brand Love Wellness; Jacob Sappington, head of email strategy at digital growth agency Homestead Studio; and Molly O’Connell, senior manager of technology partnerships at e-commerce customer service platform Gorgias, exploring how brands can earn long-term loyalty in a time when customers are as fickle as ever.
Meanwhile, weighing in on the emerging trends to watch for this Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and how to evaluate the best- and worst-performing holiday shopping strategies, were Josh Behr, CEO of email and SMS marketing agency AMB Interactive; Rob Iacocca, head of user experience and design at growth marketing consultancy Stream Commerce; Sammy Tran, founder and CEO at BMO Media; and Dylan Gifford, VP of strategy at shopping experience company Rebuy,
While the myriad brands, agencies, tech platforms and consultancies that appeared during the conference represented a wide variety of industries, one major theme emerged: Success in the past, present and future. This was and is incumbent on brands who use data and owned media available to understand exactly who their customers are, so they can execute and refine marketing strategies to attract new consumers and retain loyal ones.
After spending most of the past decade in the DTC space at Outdoor Voices, Haney realized the immense value of community to brands. But engaging with that community was both difficult to manage and measure, she said.
“At OV, we would be engaging with our community across different channels—SurveyMonkey, Slack, Google Docs, etc., which was operationally difficult,” Haney said. “But more importantly, it was really hard to measure. So I‘d go to the boardroom and say I know that investing in community is netting more high-value customers, but I couldn’t show the clear ROI.”
Haney said TYB is all about helping brands make community a growth channel and proving the ROI of community, with the key making community measurable.
“For the first time, TYB is able to help brands formalize their relationship with their community members and then connect purchase data to engagement,” she said. “Engagement might be sharing on social, referring a friend, submitting a review—all things that are really valuable to brands.”
For Loverboy’s Cooke, many of the viewers of “Summer House,” the long-running hit reality TV show he appeared in, represented a built-in community to tap into, long before the brand even launched.
“No matter what you’re selling, no matter what industry you’re in, customer acquisition and retention is probably your biggest cost,” he said. “And so when the opportunity to film “Summer House’ came around, I thought, Hey, that’s a fun way to make a buck, but more importantly it was a platform to raise awareness for a brand.”
Cooke noted two best examples to answer that question. In scripted TV, it was Avión tequila on “Entourage,” and on reality TV it was Bethenny Frankel’s Skinnygirl margarita.
“Look at what the platform did for those two companies,” he said. “They essentially didn’t have a marketing budget. Imagine removing the biggest cost on your P&L. If the show happens to be successful, that becomes my marketing machine.”
For Cooke, the ability to depict the building of Loverboy allowed him to flip the traditional marketing plan for an alcohol brand on its end. Typically alcohol is wholesale-driven and then retail driven, he noted. “We’ve now done over $40 million in sales with zero marketing.”
Pivot Projects’ Kreuzberger has a similar perspective on the unique advantages—and challenges—presented by the reality of marketing celebrity- or influencer-backed brands, particularly ones that she has consulted on, including Cravings by Chrissy Teigen, where she has served as interim CEO.
“They have these huge microphones, which are really just audiences,” she said. “So it’s determining how to use that audience, what is that lever we’re pulling, when are we pulling it and what’s working and what’s not working.”
Kreuzberger said this can be powerful for conversion and connections, but on the downside, you always have to plan for your worst press release.
“With Chrissy at the helm, it’s been incredible because she’s truly so connected to our audience,” she said. “But you just have to plan. Sometimes you can overshare, and sometimes you can be vocal about a subject that doesn’t connect with everybody who’s in our community. But ultimately I’m grateful to have that microphone.”
For Kreuzberger, building brand communities includes business partners that add value in an equal exchange. “If I was a founder, I‘d be looking for a lot of like-minded brands to try to acquire audience,” she said.
Clarke of Grace Clarke Consulting agreed. “Brands that are winning right now understand the power of building a community network for themselves that goes way beyond their customer,” she said.
The post-pandemic shift in consumer behavior, combined with privacy-driven changes in access to customer data has resulted in an economic and marketing climate that emphasizes customer retention over acquisition.
“There are three main things that have changed my client strategies,” Clarke said. “One is a focus on finding the right customer rather than as many customers as possible. People are thinking about building relationships for the long term with their customers. The second thing is actually thinking about retention in terms of reacquisition. Now that people have more choice than ever in the brands that they want to invest in, there might be less loyalty on the customer side.”
Clarke also noted that brands are still heavily invested in paid, but they’re doing it in a way that’s more of a test-and-learn approach.
“So they are diversifying their paid spend across certain channels only when they’re ready, when they actually have learnings to scale them on Reddit or Twitter, or test new ad programs,” she said.
Clarke also noted that brands are still heavily invested in paid, but are doing it in a way that‘s more of a test-and-learn approach.
“You have to be able to adapt, and really look at earned growth,” she said. “We have a customer who was saying they know they need to focus on their data and their earned growth, but they keep pouring money into paid and expecting results to be the way that they used to be. They’re not going to go back to the way that they were. Looking at your data and your earned channels is really important right now, as is making sure that you’re utilizing that data from your customers to get that retention—and acquisition.”
Speakers on multiple panels stressed the importance of not ignoring acquisition in the name of retention.
“One of the things we’ve been kind of dancing around is that it’s really important to not think of acquisition and retention as two separate buckets,” said Jebbit’s Coburn. “If you could sit down and have coffee face-to-face with all the end consumers who buy your product, what are the things you’d want to walk away knowing? First, make sure you’re engaging existing members of our email database; then once we get them on the existing database, we look for who the highest purchasers with the highest lifetime value are or who are the highest referrals that are promoting us the most.”
Coburn noted that after this, marketers can use that data to create better audiences to feed back to the acquisition funnel. Once viewed as one cycle, and your acquisition team and retention team are talking regularly, that’s where you really start to unlock the best benefits, he said.
Cassis observed that when you get a customer through referral, they’re a much better customer, with 11% higher average order value, two times higher lifetime value and five times more likely to refer their friend. “Acquiring a better customer is going to lead to better retention,” she said.
“You actually do have to play with both sides of the coin at the same time,” said Love Wellness’ Kwasniewicz, urging marketers to look at customer types and understand what is most effective to them based on who they are.
“If you’re a brand-new customer who has never purchased, maybe we do need to give you an intro offer,” she said. “If so, it’s really important to present a website that sprinkles a discount here and a popup somewhere else. But subscribers are a huge part of what keeps our DTC machine going. We use a lot of onsite personalization.”
Homestead’s Sappington observed that many people try to condense retention marketing down to just email and SMS, but subscriptions, loyalty programs and customer interaction with the support team are also important, he said.
“With retention marketing, it’s a multi-channel effect, particularly with email and SMS, if you see that a customer is a bit more lapsed or unengaged in that area, able to mimic some of the themes and timeliness of a product push or go-to-market strategy,” said Catbird’s Karumanchi. “This might be across Meta and with in-store signage and with personal email outreach. These are all multi-touch strategies to amplify your email and SMS strategy, and give it a little bit more efficiency as well.”
With the increasing focus on first- and zero-party data, personalization is driving strategies for Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, said AMB Interactive’s Behr.
“How much do you know about your customers and how do you use that first-party data in the subject line, something that’s going to grab the attention of the consumer in a very crowded market and busy area?” Behr asked. “If you’re an apparel brand, do you know the size that they’re looking for, the colors that they seem to be purchasing? How do you use that information as much as possible to get the opens and clicks—and sales—to your website?”
One phenomenon of the Black Friday Cyber Monday shopping season is that it seems to be expanding ever longer.
“We’re starting to see BFCM creep two weeks, three weeks, even a month prior to the actual date,” Stream Commerce’s Iacocca said. “And with that, there’s a lot of increased competition, specifically with people shopping across other brands. It’s even more important this year to ensure that you’re nailing the fundamentals on your site, things like site speed, and ensuring you have excellent and effective flow set up for after consumers purchase. These are all going to be really valuable this year.”
Brands dealing with a longer Black Friday Cyber Monday shopping season will have to do more to stand out with consumers rather than merely offering discounts.
“Those brands that can bring something interesting and unique to look at will have a significant advantage over the brands that are just trying to discount,” said Rebuy’s Gifford.
Iacocca observed that personalization can mean a lot of things. For one segment that could be corporate social responsibility initiatives that are meaningful to some users. Another could be a limited-edition drop that has limited SKUs, a great way to try a different sort of value proposition.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday will continue to be impacted by post-pandemic consumer behavior. As people are starting to gather in person, there’s more of a propensity for people to focus on gift giving.
“I think it’ll be a good year,” said BMO Media’s Tran. “And to everyone’s point, be different with your offers. What if you tried something else where you can give customers a gift card in exchange for purchasing a certain amount? What you’re essentially doing is giving them cash again to spend back on the site to combat post-sale fatigue.”
Gifford suggested doubling offers to remedy any shopper fatigue.
“Shopify’s made it easy for brands to set up post-purchase offers,” he said, noting that the moment someone completes checkout, you have the opportunity to present them with an offer.
“If someone purchases your hero product, then people can subscribe to similar products, giving them the chance to double up on that offer,” Gifford said. “If you can market it as a gift to someone else, it will be gravy on top of a Black Friday you’ve hopefully already crushed.”
Several brands appear to be holding off on developing an influencer marketing strategy for the new platform. Bluestone Lane, for example, hasn’t leaned into its ambassadors for its Threads strategy following its initial flurry of posts when the brand launched on the platform, Stone said. Working with that group of ambassadors allowed the brand to announce its arrival on the platform with a rush of user-generated content, taking some of the initial strain off of the brand’s two-person marketing team already overseeing Instagram and TikTok content, he said.
Over the past few weeks, Bluestone Lane has prioritized its work with ambassadors on Instagram and TikTok instead, while Threads has fallen to a distant third place, he said. The brand hasn’t posted on Threads since the first week of August, and toward the end of July it had shifted its strategy to focus on prompting conversations and jumping on emoji and post structure trends. But Stone is still glad the brand partnered with creators to lay a foundation on Threads and establish an initial audience, despite the current risk that comes along with investing in emerging, and potentially fleeting, social platforms.
“The brands and creators that do invest early in [a new platform] will inevitably see it pay off, because that’s always the key. Whether it’s YouTube or Facebook or TikTok, the guys that are going in early and going in hard to develop their audience will end up being the cash cows of that channel if it takes off,” he said.
Stewart-Harfmann hasn’t posted much on Threads because she accidentally linked a secondary Instagram account to the new platform instead of her primary account, but she’s resolutely continued posting on TikTok’s sister app Lemon8 in hopes of establishing a community on the newer, unsaturated platform, she said. Her friends have questioned her stubborn dedication to Lemon8 when it isn’t earning her any income, but she plans to continue sharing content on the platform for the foreseeable future.
“It’s because you don’t know what’s going to take off,” she said. “You never know.”
The Adalytics report raised several concerns about sensitive subjects: One, brands were worried about data collection if children interacted with their ads and services online (Google insists that is not the case); two, the ads would appear to be a waste of spending if children are watching cartoons but get an ad for adult-oriented goods and services; three, advertisers were alarmed that the third-party verification firms they employ to limit their exposure to low-quality ad inventory appeared to fail.
Google, which owns YouTube, has years of experience managing brand crises like this one, and it has been able to work with advertisers, mostly behind the scenes, to prevent any brand exodus, according to top ad agency executives who spoke with Ad Age on the condition of anonymity.
In 2017, the term “adpocalypse” was popularized when major brands froze spending on YouTube after finding ads running within unsuitable content. Google has made a series of changes to its platform over the years that addressed advertisers’ concerns, though. One big change came in 2020, when YouTube made it so only non-personalized ads would run on videos made for kids. YouTube also overhauled how it categorized made-for-kids videos, among other fixes. YouTube also has become more transparent with advertisers and developed more advertising controls. Over the years, YouTube has expanded its measurement program, which now includes brand safety reporting from third parties, including Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify and Zefr.
To be clear, there are advertisements amid kids’ content all over the internet and TV, so that is not unusual. Some sensitive brands, however, must be careful about children’s advertising, such as fast food, sugary food brands and ads for alcohol.
The Media Rating Council, the industry organization that accredits and audits TV and digital platforms, works with Google and others, and it audits YouTube’s made-for-kids videos. YouTube’s advertising works similarly to how ads work on other connected TV services, according to George Ivie, CEO of the Media Rating Council.
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“There is advertising being presented in made-for-children content. Now, even that made-for-children content is not supposed to be targeted [to children],” Ivie said. “And as far as we know, and our audit does look at this, Google doesn’t target [advertising intended for adults] to children. Children could run across it. But if you’ve ever been on Hulu and you’ve watched ‘SpongeBob’ … you’ve probably seen you get commercials for non-children.
“Just because a child’s program, and a made-for-child content, is presented with a made for an adult commercial,” Ivie added, “that doesn’t mean that child was targeted. So the Adalytics report is confusing a lot of things.”
In its first salvo in June, Adalytics claimed that an ad program called Google Video Partners, which was marketed as a way to run ads on premium inventory outside of YouTube, wound up placing ads on low-quality websites. To that, Google said Adalytics overstated the scale of Google Video Partners and said that advertisers could always opt out of the program. Then this month, Adalytics found ads geared toward adults on videos made for kids, and that raised questions about whether those ads used any targeting data that would run afoul of online advertising rules for children’s content.
The report about the “made for kids” videos and ads, prompted Fairplay, a children’s advertising watchdog, to send a letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission asking for an investigation into whether these were targeted ads that could potentially capture sensitive data. Fairplay alleged that YouTube could have sent targeted ads to “made for kids” videos, which would violate YouTube’s polices. Also, if a child clicked on an ad that sent them to a brand’s website, then that could lead to data collection that violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
Google has insisted its ad platform prevents sophisticated audience targeting and data collection on “made for kids” videos. A Google spokesperson said the company is reaching out to Fairplay to explain its ad rules.
“We do not allow ads personalization on made-for-kids content and we do not allow advertisers to target children with ads across any of our products,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement provided to Ad Age. “We also do not offer advertisers the option to directly target made for kids content as a whole.”
For its part, Fairplay remains skeptical. Fairplay ran its own ad experiment in which it set up targeting parameters to include, say, “motorcycle enthusiasts,” and then it set the campaigns to run on “made for kids” videos. Fairplay’s findings seemed to mirror Adalytics’ findings.
“If these reports are accurate, they are violating COPPA [Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act],” said Josh Golin, executive director at Fairplay, in an email to Ad Age. “Of course, it’s possible that Google is misleading its advertisers about the efficacy of its ad targeting. If Google would like to provide evidence that its ads didn’t really reach the people we paid them to reach and they told us we reached, we’d be happy to revisit our COPPA claims.”
Google has said that these experiments “fundamentally” misunderstand how advertising works on “made for kids” videos. “If a campaign uses ‘audience targeting’ advertising, it could potentially appear on [made for kids] content but would only be relying on contextual signals, and not the user signals,” a Google spokesperson told Ad Age.
Crayola received the same cultural resonance score with Gen Z as it did with the broader population but other brands resonated with that generation more than Crayola, Colditz said. Marvel and YouTube, meanwhile, were in the top one-third of brands among the total adult population.
The most resonant brands across both Gen Z and all adults, the report found, share three common factors: “high recognition; distinction among their most loyal consumer base; [and] success in driving engagement beyond shopping.” The report pointed to Amazon Prime Day as an extreme example of a brand accruing cultural resonance by transforming the event “from a set of discounts to a holiday that has reshaped the shopping calendar.”
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The Marketing Arm did not disclose rankings of brands outside of the top five overall and the top five among Gen Z, but did highlight the highest-scoring brands in each of the four components of the cultural resonance formula.
Disney, for example, dominated the recognition category, while Target climbed above other brands in advocacy. Brands that didn’t make the overall top five, including Chick-fil-A, Levi’s and M&M’s, also popped up on these lists, which indicates that brands can still resonate with consumers in one area even if they aren’t able to achieve overall cultural prominence. (The Marketing Arm’s Platinum Rye Entertainment unit has procured celebrities for Amazon and M&M’s.)
Each of the four pillars of cultural resonance The Marketing Arm identified is also tied to different marketing strategies, Schank said. Recognition is directly linked to brand storytelling—“how are you going to get people to truly understand what your brand stands for?”—while alliance involves “putting your brand into places that the consumer already has a passion for” through strategies such as product placement or influencer partnerships, he said. Brands can boost engagement through experiential marketing tactics, whether in-person or through digital experiences such as Roblox activations, he added.
More news: Purpose marketing hits and misses
Ultimately, consistency in a brand’s identity and marketing, not just jumping onto online trends or pop culture moments, is essential to achieving cultural resonance, Colditz said.
“Even if you aren’t a customer of one of these brands, you do know what they stand for, and they don’t waver from that,” she said of the top-scoring brands.
The work, promising ‘50 seconds of calm,’ includes headphones-like packaging and a partnership with Taskrabbit.
Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s civil rights ‘March on Washington,’ and, among other things, it’s a timely reminder of the dignity of politics at a time when the peroxide menace Donald Trump, instigator of a far less wholesome march on Washington, is cantering to the Republican presidential nomination – in or out of jail.
King, no saint either but these things are relative, didn’t get everything he wanted – indeed, for some, America remains implacably racist. But, with political advertising on both sides of the Atlantic revving up, politics can stand for more than narrow self-interest. By Elite Media for American Family Insurance and Time.
Integrated Campaign of the Year
Exceptional campaigns that carry through various media (i.e., TV, print, social, etc.) to form a cohesive whole.
Print/Out-of-Home Work of the Year
Impactful ideas in print and out-of-home advertising, including billboards.
Purpose-Led Campaign of Year
Campaigns and initiatives that have a positive impact on society and move communities to action.
Social Media Campaign of the Year
Innovative strategic thinking, strong brand voice and thoughtful attention to and engagement with communities on their respective platforms.
Tiny But Mighty
Showcasing how, through creative ingenuity, “small” formats, budgets or media buys can lead to big impact.
Think of how the Sears catalog was basically the first Amazon, a place where you could order a refrigerator, underwear, a fly swatter or anything else. It stuck with what it did and never evolved. Though human nature can encourage us to stick with what’s working, businesses and brands require evolution to succeed.
The most careful listeners you’ll ever meet are Army recruiters; how else do you get people to sign? Brands need to find the compelling intersection of who the brand is and what people want. In that way, they can keep what makes the brand great, but change in ways that are consistent with the brand’s truth.
A brand’s story is what makes it unique and different. Use analytics to identify your unique selling proposition, which is the one thing that sets you apart from competitors. Using quantitative and qualitative tools, brands can discover their strengths and weaknesses, and determine how to leverage them to highlight that advantage.
When brands motivate consumers to become evangelists, they become the best communicators. A Nielsen study found that 92% of consumers believe friends and family over any kind of advertising. In the military, and with so many products and experiences, passionate word-of-mouth is the greatest way to create believers and buyers. Once I had total buy-in into the military, I excitedly told friends and family about my experience.
As a soldier, I learned the necessity of change and adaptability. Granted, brands aren’t literally fighting battles, but they are contending for the hearts and minds of passionate consumers.
Shein: Two major fast fashion retailers are teaming up. On Thursday, DTC brand Shein announced that it acquired a one-third interest in SPARC Group (the joint venture between Simon Property Group and Authentic Brands Group, which operate Forever 21). At the same time, SPARC Group is now a minority shareholder in Shein, which will start selling Forever 21 clothes on its platform.
Fearless Fund: The venture capital fund that has recently invested in DTC brands such as Bread Beauty Supply and Oui the People is facing a new lawsuit from Edward Blum, the conservative who helped end affirmative action policies at U.S. colleges in a recent Supreme Court case. The lawsuit accuses the Fearless Fund of racial discrimination because it specializes in funding women-of-color-led businesses.
Mosh: Maria Shriver and Patrick Schwarzenegger’s DTC protein bar brand announced that it just closed its Series A funding round, led by clients of Main Street Advisors. Mosh is now hoping to expand its retail presence.
According to research by Upland BlueVenn, today’s consumer on average interacts with brands across 20 different online and offline channels, ranging from in-store and mobile browsers to social media, radio and television.
These recent changes in industry and consumer mindsets have necessitated a broader ranging yet more customer-centric approach to advertising. Upland BlueVenn’s study shows that in the U.S., when shopping for clothing, homeware or exercise equipment, there’s just a 14-percentage-point difference between the top 10 channels, with the leading five including in store/in branch (35%), mobile web browser (31%), laptop/desktop web browser (30%), Facebook (28%) and Instagram (26%).
In the modern diversified marketplace, it’s all about finding—and meeting—customers anywhere and everywhere. Peloton wholeheartedly embraced this idea when it announced the start of its next chapter, which aims to shift its reputation away from an in-home bike company and focus on showcasing its impactful and entertaining workout experiences available to everyone, at any level, wherever they are.
In the past few years, Peloton has undergone seismic shifts along with the entire fitness industry. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumers shifted to at-home workouts, but according to a March 2022 study, these consumers were ready to leave their homes. Nearly a third of regular exercisers surveyed said they like the community aspect of being a member at a gym or a fitness facility.
Peloton remained ahead of the curve. In August 2021, they anticipated the latest pivot in their industry, and collaborated with Amazon Ads to better understand fitness consumers. Using insight-driven audience strategies, which provide billons of proprietary audience signals garnered from Amazon’s online and offline touchpoints, Peloton was able to successfully build a more holistic picture of its community and strategize more effectively.
With the objective of helping consumers move from consideration to conversion, Peloton took advantage of multiple ad formats and channels to reach Amazon audiences right where they are in their fitness journeys. What’s more, the highly curated lifestyle audiences—such as the Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods and Twitch fitness segments—provided reach the brand wasn’t able to find using other media channels.
To gain even more insight into its audience’s path to purchase in October 2022, Peloton leveraged Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) and discovered that consumers are more likely to convert when exposed to at least three ad types.
“Our goal was to prove the incremental value Amazon Ads brings to the Peloton business,” said Maggie Siegler, group director of retail media at Dentsu U.S. and iProspect, the digital media agency for Peloton. “With our strategic audience setup in Amazon DSP and enhanced signals through the AMC clean room, we’ve been able to validate and optimize for purchase activity on both Amazon and direct-to-consumer.”
It was essential that Peloton develop a holistic marketing strategy that could meet consumers wherever they are. The May 2023 relaunch was all about broadening access to its expert instructors and diverse fitness content. Peloton’s “Anyone, Anywhere” campaign reintroduced the brand with a free access app that offered the most extensive collection of free classes.
By opening up to a wider audience, Peloton helped change the perception of the company as solely a direct-to-consumer model. Their offerings now include a workout app, Peloton Bike rentals and Peloton-Certified Refurbished Bikes, in addition to home trials and financing programs to give flexibility for those looking to join Peloton. “In the early days of Peloton, we were just a bike company,” says Evy Kho, manager of subscription analytics at Peloton, “and now we’re so much more than that.”
In the face of this variability and evolution, Peloton has continued to embrace customer complexity to inform business decision-makers. This has included embracing a wide range of products across Amazon and Amazon Web Services, including Amazon Redshift Serverless. As an early adopter of Amazon technologies, Peloton has been able to quickly run and scale their analytics capacity without database managers and data engineers needing to manage data warehouse infrastructure.
Inevitably, consumer engagement with fitness will continue to shift, requiring that any brands that want to thrive in the industry remain agile and flexible to reflect this evolution.
With this in mind, this past June, Peloton launched a streaming TV (STV) campaign with Amazon Ads as part of an effort to reach their customers where they spend their time. With an expansive streaming video footprint of ad-supported entertainment solutions, including Freevee, live sports on Prime Video, Amazon Publisher Direct, Fire TV channels, and Twitch, Amazon has an average monthly reach of more than 155 million viewers in the U.S.
When Peloton originally collaborated with Amazon Ads in 2022, its top converting audience was from the high-spenders segment. Now, thanks to this STV campaign that allowed the brand to reach a broader audience, initial results show that top segments converting to the Peloton website include millennial gaming enthusiasts, as well as video/entertainment and fashion enthusiasts. By focusing on meeting Peloton’s audience where they are, the collaboration was able to deliver a truly customer-centric experience and demonstrate how with a full-funnel media mix, brands can create more relevant connections.
“As we have reintroduced ourselves as a fitness brand for ‘anyone, anytime,’ our marketing strategy had to evolve to meet current and potential Peloton members where they are,” said Jennifer Director, VP of growth marketing at Peloton. “Amazon Ads has an ad stack that provides us with unique signals, reach and measurement that deliver actionable insights for acquisition marketing programs.”
Peloton instructors are known for inspiring audiences to become the best version of themselves. And with its customer-centric marketing, Peloton was able to push the brand to new reaches in the ever-evolving fitness marketplace. All it takes is a smart strategy, motivation and the right workout partner.
The 300C debuted at the 2004 Detroit auto show, a few months before its spring sales launch.
It had a high beltline, short windows and a front end inspired by the Chrysler Chronos concept shown in 1998.
“What we like to do as designers is create something that will look good forever, and a lot of that’s good proportions,” Gilles said. “We cut a really good deal with engineering to give us a really good stance on the vehicle. Once a vehicle has good stance, it should always look pretty good forever.”
The new 300 elevated the Chrysler brand from the Concorde, LHS and 300M. Perugi said it was one of the first models to use parts from Daimler vehicles.
The sedan was so popular at first that Chrysler was backed up with orders for about five months. Perugi said Chrysler’s share of Black consumers doubled within the first year. Among the early customers were rapper Snoop Dogg and then-Sen. Barack Obama.
U.S. sales of the car nearly reached 113,000 in 2004 and topped 140,000 in each of the next two years. Chrysler CEO Christine Feuell said the brand has sold more than 1.2 million 300s since the launch.
Gilles said one of the secrets to the 300’s longevity is that it came to be viewed as a canvas for self-expression.
“Sometimes you can buy a vehicle ready-made with his expression all said and done, and there are certain vehicles that welcome it,” Gilles said. “The Wrangler is one of those; 300 is one of those, where it just begs people to put their own spice on it.”
The ad, emphasizing Amex perks across sporting seasons, was directed by Nicole Ackerman with Merman Pictures. It features music tracks from Sofi Tukker (“Best Friend”) and Daphne Willis (“Show Up”).
“Directed by an incredible female director, they tell the story of a mother and daughter bonding over their shared passion for sports,” Jess Ling, senior VP of global brand advertising, told Ad Age. “The energetic, fast-paced creative shows how those experiences are even better when you’re an American Express Card Member, with the memories lasting far beyond that NBA game or U.S. Open match.”
Also read: Amex spotlights Issa Rae’s writing process in playful ad
Along with the spot, Amex has organized an array of on- and off-site partnerships and activations, as usual, around the tournament. The agencies Momentum Worldwide, Day One Agency, Universal McCann and Wasserman all worked on various activations.
For the second straight year, Amex is teaming up with social sports platform Break the Love to provide tennis fans with complimentary access to 10,000 court reservations across 500 tennis and pickleball courts in the New York area.
“There’s a lot of purpose-driven advertising in the world, and a lot of it gets a little cloudy,” Dery said. “The fact that you should never see Yeti in a landfill is a fantastic sustainability message, but it’s also just a great product message. I see these as just product ads. And if you’re unaware of how durable these products are, then hopefully they educate you so you can get behind our premium pricing, by understanding the value of what that longevity gives you.”
The clever copy lines are the cherry on top—using as few words as possible to put the power in the hands of the consumer to choose between a distressing future and a hopeful one. (Dery is a CMO with a creative background—he originally joined Yeti as VP of creative in 2019, following three years as executive creative director at Uber, and eight years before that as a CD at R/GA.)
“I love that it’s not super preachy, too,” said Dery. “It’s pretty matter-of-fact. Our product is built to last. We’ve always had a history, I think, of good writing—we have billboards over our stores where we like to flex our copywriting muscles. And it’s also about having a point of view, right? Having a point of view as a brand is good. We’ve always used copy to really hammer that home.”
“Having DNA-level factors that are inherently biased baked into the system is putting [Amazon] at an advantage,” Cunningham said. “That’s not fair to the other players, especially since there hasn’t been any constructive engagement from the co-authors of this.” He said Nielsen has “gone completely opaque as to how these numbers were cooked up in the first place” and failed to explain the change to “some of their largest customers, who are some of the longest holders of these [broadcast] rights.”
But George Ivie, the MRC’s CEO, said the speed of his group’s effort was exactly about trying to shed light on Nielsen’s proposed methodology to incorporate Amazon first-party data. He disputed any bias in moving fast, saying the group initiated an effort to look into “Thursday Night Football” measurement early this year, after seeing the significant disconnect between Nielsen and Amazon numbers last year.
At that point, Ivie said the two parties were already well into discussions around incorporating Amazon first-party data into the ratings. Nielsen was planning to put the new data into the market by September, Ivie said, and the MRC pushed to have it audited first, which now has happened. The results of the audit, and whether MRC members will approve the new methodology next week, remains to be seen, he said.
Amazon since last year has cast doubt on Nielsen’s household panel-based ratings for “TNF,” publishing its own numbers alongside Nielsen’s each week last year. Amazon’s data averaged 18% higher for overall viewership across all 15 games.
The result of mashing up Nielsen and Amazon data looks a lot more like Amazon’s numbers, at least when it comes to the number of households watching, based on historical impact data Nielsen provided to clients in June. A copy of that report obtained by Ad Age shows the new methodology calculated household audiences that averaged 18% higher than Nielsen panel data and 19% higher than Nielsen’s “big data” from set-top boxes and smart TVs for the five Amazon “TNF” games in December.
On a viewership basis, however, it was more like splitting the difference between Nielsen and Amazon numbers. Measurement of viewership for all people ages two and up was 9% higher using the new methodology than using Nielsen’s panel and big data combined, a Nielsen spokeswoman said.
Look back: Last season’s NFL ratings fell 2%
The impact data was made available to clients on June 15 amid this year’s lengthy upfront negotiations. Nielsen communications that went out at the time did not specify that the company expected to have audits and possibly accreditation for the new methodology in place for the current season as currency.
One agency executive expressed uncertainty about whether the new data figured into negotiations with Amazon. Another reported being unaware of the impact of the data Nielsen had made available in June. “Our investment folks were not under the expectation that Amazon methodology would change during upfront negotiation,” the executive said.
Bottom line, advertisers could end up paying more than they bargained for when making this year’s deals for “TNF” based on projections from last year’s numbers, or at least shouldn’t count on much in the way of make goods for audience under-delivery this year, should the Nielsen-Amazon hybrid numbers become the new currency.
Next week’s MRC meeting to consider the change follows what was described by some participants as a contentious meeting last week that provided a first look at Nielsen’s complex methodology for reconciling and blending the data sets, in which several questions were raised about the statistical validity of the process.
Amazon: NFL advertisers will be able to target in-game ads
“We became aware that Nielsen and Amazon were going through this process of defending their measurement to each other and going through a kind of reconciliation,” Ivie said. The MRC had its auditors sit in on those discussions, and the results were inconclusive initially, he said. “They were trying to collaborate, but they really didn’t find a smoking gun of the source of the differences, so that concerned us,” Ivie said.
Ultimately, the two sides agreed on a process to incorporate Amazon data into the national service, Ivie said, “and we said, based on what we know about this, we need to audit this and audit it hard.” That includes what he called a “two-sided audit” looking at all factors of Amazon’s origination of the data and Nielsen’s processing and calculations.
Amazon servers are not directly integrated with Nielsen’s computer systems; rather, Amazon is providing summaries of its data, Ivie said, and part of the process is evaluating the accuracy of those summaries.
The speed was driven largely by Nielsen and Amazon’s timeline to get the new data into the market by next month, Ivie said, and the MRC concluded it was important enough that it should be audited before anyone trades on it.
Prettybird director Lucrecia Taormina helps kick off a high-octane campaign themed ‘Live Delicious.’
The foundation, which honors John Reisenbach, the All American Television ad executive who died in a random act of violence in 1990, is rebranding as part of a recent initiative to evolve from a grantmaker to an incubator for what its website calls “frontline organizations that innovatively tackle the city’s most intractable problems, block by block.”
“We wanted the branding to reflect the optimism that we feel for New York, all of our grantees and all of the people working to support,” said Allison Arden, chairman of the foundation.
The former logo saw the foundation’s acronym in bolded maroon. The new logo, created by FCB New York, consists of five colorful lines—representing city sidewalks and the five boroughs that make up New York City—in the shape of a heart.
“This really is a much brighter representation and really tells how we feel about the city and how we feel about the work we’re doing,” said Arden.
“We thought now was a really important time to do that,” she said. “There’s a lot of negative stories right now around New York. And we believe there are so many wonderful things happening.”
“Pumpkin spice lattes have weirdly become kind of a cultural icon of their own. Unlike a lot of products, honestly. They’re kind of inextricably linked with fall, whether you love them or you love to hate them.” –Brynna Aylward, executive creative director at Gut Toronto, on the enduring appeal of PSL.
63%: Percentage of passive-aggressive emails coming from those in the advertising and media industry, per a recent report on passive-aggressive communication from Preply, an online language site. It found that “Per my last email” is the most passive-aggressive email phrase.
Falcon’s Beyond Global, an entertainment company, hired Toni Caracciolo as executive VP of marketing and branding, a newly created position. She had been VP of global marketing at Visit Orlando.
Rothy’s hired Shaheen Mufti as VP of retail. She was most recently VP of retail at Reformation.
Einride, a mobility company, hired Corinne Aaron as chief marketing officer. She was most recently CMO at Lynk & Co.
Contributing: Erika Wheless
In the latest from Farmers Insurance, J.K. Simmons commiserates with a baseball fan who “struck out with the cheap seats” at a stadium.
In an agency review undertaken a year ago, Martin had been engaged by Anheuser-Busch InBev to lead advertising for Bud Light brand extensions such as Bud Light Seltzer and Bud Light Next. Anomaly was recruited to lead its flagship, referred to as Bud Light blue.
“I think at this point they are talking to many agencies within their world,” one person familiar with the brewer said. “They seem to want other people’s opinions.”
An AB InBev spokesperson said both Martin and Anomaly work for Bud Light. Martin referred questions to AB InBev. Anomaly had no comment.
Bud Light is a longtime NFL sponsor and typically spends heavily on the season. But this year’s kickoff arrives at a tumultuous time for the brew. Bud Light remains stuck in a sales slide that began after an April Instagram promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney featuring a specialty Bud Light can with her image triggered a consumer boycott.
The fallout accelerated Bud Light sales declines and, for the first time in years, the brand is no longer America’s best-selling beer in retail channels. Modelo Especial surpassed Bud Light in year-to-date share as of Aug. 12, according to NielsenIQ data reported by Beer Marketer’s Insights.
Look back: Bud Light to triple summer ad spend
“Easy to Sunday” kicks off the brand’s 2023-24 NFL partnership, which includes custom cans and giveaways.
Bud Light is the official beer of 27 NFL teams. Twenty-three teams will be featured on special cans including team logos and player illustrations. The player illustrations are possible now that rules prohibiting such partnerships have been relaxed.
A QR code on cans gives fans a chance to enter a sweepstakes giving away more than 2,000 NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions from YouTube and YouTube TV, and gift cards to NFLshop.com from Fanatics. Fans can also play online for the chance to win game tickets.
More: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s NFL Sunday Ticket strategy
The new Bud Light ad features real fans including a 63-year ticket holder of New York Giants who is famous for his game-day mussels; a Tennessee Titans fan whose ritual is listening to games on the radio in a decked-out tractor; and a military vet Philadelphia Eagles fan who never misses a game.
Gen Z – aka the “loneliest generation” – exited the pandemic buoyed by a newfound appreciation for in-person interactions, which are craved by 83%, according to Wunderman Thompson’s “Building a better normal” report.
This IRL awakening has given Gen Z a new respect for the way real-life interactions fulfil an emotional and physical gap that hasn’t yet been mastered in the digital world. The UCAS 2022 Freshers Report showed that 90% of Gen Z want to engage with brands through both URL and IRL channels, so it’s no wonder that many brands are investing more in experiences like Barbie’s Proper Corn-er Store, Spotify’s Greasy Tunes and Moncler’s The Extraordinary Exhibition.
But how do you nail an experience aimed at an audience that can smell inauthenticity from a mile away?
IRL X URL go hand in hand
Live experiences do not sit in silo. As the ultimate digital generation, Gen Z doesn’t think about real life as separate from digital presence. Gen Z wants to engage with brands that are connecting through both URL and IRL, reflecting the way they interact themselves. This creates a two-way conversation dynamic, and a chance for brands to showcase how their values marry-up with their audience. Follow the ethos of “experienced by few, seen by many” by cross-integrating digital and real-life elements.
Psychographics not demographics
Targeting Gen Z means hitting a huge spread of age groups, life stages, value systems and passions. By trying to encapsulate it all in a broad strategy, it becomes diluted and appeals to no one. Focus on the core customer, research their mindset and behaviours, and find the brand values that align with theirs.
Influence is different from influencers
Finding people that will sway a campaign comes back to target audience and culture. There’s now a bigger focus on creators, experts, rising stars and heroes. Gen Z wants to learn, create, evolve, and support one another. They’re looking for guidance and know-how from peers who have already nailed it.
Tap into talent (in the right way)
Make talent central, not a quick guest appearance. Consider why they represent the target audience and how an IRL activation can deliver a twist that mobilises their established community. An exclusive and intimate gig for a big-venue musician; a podcast game that integrates live audiences; a workshop where creators collaborate with guests to make limited editions; or a panel where experts from different cultures unite: these create rare and memorable moments for dedicated fans.
Get smart with brand integration
Be clever at key photo points by adding carefully positioned branding that’s unavoidable in shots. This way, even posts without hashtags can spread awareness. Subtle branding across set details will deliver repeat exposure. Create moments that are irresistible to capture, so content can spread beyond the physical location. Offer exclusive, useful and personalised freebies that allow the brand to live on.
Culture is an extension of Gen Z’s identities, representing who they are and what’s important. Added extras and a clear depth of understanding make brand experiences more credible. From a basic product giveaway to something more involved like Spotify’s Greasy Tunes cafe, success lies in creating impact alongside a tonne of content opportunities.
Louise Millar is strategy director at Seed (part of the Amplify collective)
A trio of three 15-seconds spots were created in-house, with animation by Buck.
It’s going to be another year until Ikea Oxford Circus is open, but work has finally started on the store that used to house Topshop’s flagship.
To keep shoppers excited in the interim, Mother London has wrapped the site in one of Ikea’s iconic blue bags; the same ones that Balenciaga copied a few years ago.
Ikea is taking its time to turn the site into a much more sustainable retail environment, replacing gas boilers with energy-efficient air source heat pumps and installing secondary glazing. The building will be powered by renewable energy.
The finished store will have 150 staff, three floors and 82,000 square feet of space, housing a showroom, market hall and Swedish deli. About half of the 6000 product lines will be available at the site.
Peter Jelkeby, CEO and chief sustainability officer, IKEA UK, said: “By having a presence at one of the most iconic shopping destinations in the world, we’re taking a significant step forward in our ongoing journey to make it easier to shop with IKEA. Packed with inspiration to help customers create better everyday lives at home, the store will also feature exciting, new elements worthy of this incredible building and location.”
Oxford Street will be Ikea’s second city store in London. The first opened in 2022 in Hammersmith.
