CONNECTIONS Ezine: Issue 53

In this issue:

• Innovations in Advertising & Media
• Blog Roundup
• Career Announcements

In Our Opinion

Innovations in Advertising & Media

by Jeff Gundersen

We are witnessing the positive impacts of technology everywhere in our lives. The game-changing industry revolutions Steve Jobs championed in personal computers, music, and consumer electronics have resulted in a new generation of smart phones, tablets, and PCs which are sleeker, faster, cheaper, and offer greater consumer convenience and mobility. So why are so many people surprised this kind of innovation has finally hit the Advertising industry, a place long overdue for adapting?

Advertising Week 2012 has become, as one speaker suggested, the equivalent of the Consumer Electronics Show for technology fanatics, and I recently had the opportunity to attend.

Best Innovative Ideas from Advertising Week 2012

As a marketing executive talent management firm in constant search of excellence, we wanted to share some of the standout comments we heard at this conference:

• Bill Ludwig, Chairman & CEO of Campbell Ewald, cited their innovative work for the US Navy as an example of the shifts in both creative and media resulting from rapid transition to leading with digital. Instead of typical 30-second TV ads, CE created 8-12 minute “mini-movies,” providing an immersive experience into Navy life. 90% of the Navy’s media budgets are spent online to draw target audiences to view “long form” content on tablets, PCs, and mobile devices. CE further launched “Navy for Moms” and recruited Mom bloggers who have built an online community of 80,000+ and growing.
• Robin Koval, CEO of Publicis Kaplan Thayler, cited their innovative work in creating Red Bull TV as a popular YouTube channel as evidence of “managing the convergence of the physical and virtual customer engagement.” Koval said advertising is less about great ads and more about great (long form) content.”
• Denise Warren, SVP & GM of The New York Times, emphasized that consumers who engage with the newspaper’s content on more than one device are more loyal. They are increasing their news access because they are able to get more frequent updates on topics of interest.
• Greg Schaefer, President & CEO of NCC Media, indicated he sees a great future for TV advertising. 40M+ 30-second spots were sold in 2012. In the new multi-platform environment, TV will be used for brand awareness, while tablets and mobile devices will be used for brand engagement. As marketers, we should assume multi-screen use, and our challenge is how to make it simultaneous.
• David Roman, Global CMO of Lenovo, who built Lenovo into the new global category leader in the PC business by focusing on the global youth market, spoke about the new intersection of marketing and entertainment. He said, “The youth market globally does not differentiate between entertainment and news/media, content has to be entertaining.” Roman observed how global Millennial generation (the “net generation”) have witnessed entertainers like Lady Gaga become an international phenomenon in one week, how international college students listen to the same music, and how they share values on things like the environment and aesthetics. Therefore, Lenovo has focused on creating 4-5 minute online videos that have garnered over 220M+ views. Because the youth market wants/expects “authenticity” and a “WOW factor,” in one highly successful online video, Lenovo threw a PC out of an airplane to prove it would boot up in faster than 10 seconds in order to open a parachute.
• Tim Ellis, CMO of Activision, discussed the risks of playing it too safe in launching new products. “Call to Duty” outsells their closest video game rivals by 3X, and their recent launch of the newest edition resulted in global sales exceeding $1B+ in less than 16 days. He said going the safe route would be much more risky—if the music, talent, etc. feels too safe, it is too safe. To hedge their bets, Activision hired brand planners who studied what drives their target audience, why they like the product(s), and online gaming behaviors of a 30M+ player universe. This detailed knowledge of the experience allows them to create and send individualized tips to enhance the pleasure of the game. Because Ellis came from the agency side, his relationships with Creative teams are as strong as his relationships with Account teams. What is even more inspiring, because of security and secrecy in the development stages, this CMO’s team only learns the new products features and benefits seven days prior to the brand launch. How’s that for pressure to produce?
• Diego Scotti, CMO of JCrew on raising the brand image: “90% of consumers knew the JCrew brand, but not the way we wanted to be considered by them.” As a 30-year old brand, we wanted to move our brand upscale. “We transformed our direct marketing from a ‘catalog’ to a ‘style guide’ and gave it a more authentic WOW factor (by giving it a global feel and shooting it in Tokyo) to gain increased viewership. As a “product-obsessed” company, we buy competitive products and study how they are made, packaged, and delivered in order to enhance the customer experience.
• Tim Armstrong, CEO & President of AOL, cited three mega-trends – (1) growth of closed networks – Android, Microsoft – with a lot of content living on these networks; (2) companies mixing products and services – Nike Fuel Bands is an example of a product company moving into technology and services to enhance their customer’s engagement and experience with their products; and (3) a huge shift in programmatic buying – 40%+ of media budgets are purchased through online buying platforms.
• Laura Lang, CEO of Time Inc, on the future of great storytelling with any primary delivery platform: “We are seeing a profound shift in how people consume news and entertainment content, and mobile could be the biggest game changer. We reach 130M+ consumers, and people really want quality content and great curation. While the written word will always matter, we will see more integration of visual storytelling.”
• Josh Sapan, CEO of AMC Network. In the “Arab Spring of Advertising,” the consumer has the controls, and traditional measures like overnight ratings are obsolete. Given social networks, brand/marketers impacts are vastly different in “live+3” and “live+7,” and the impact of social interaction with content and brand messages goes viral.
• Carol Everson, VP, Global Solutions of Facebook. We see big shifts in mobile budgets. Don’t put mobile in a silo; if you treat mobile/social media like TV, you will fall short.
• Paul Caine, Chief Revenue Officer of Time Inc. Keep the consumer at the center. Use geo-targeting, know what actions they are taking, learn editorially how to get to them and how to seamlessly integrate ads into the consumer experience. When ads are connected to branded content it works.

Key Takeaways

Today’s marketers assume consumers are concurrently on multiple platforms and, therefore, have to rise to the challenge of creating engaging multi-channel campaigns in real-time. Plus, as media spending shifts more and more toward digital, marketers are finding new ways to integrate other offline media. At the same time, consumers are considering the boundaries they will need to put in place to keep clear of information/advertising overload that threatens the quality of their personal relationships. Since great content will cut through the noise, what will constitute “great content,” and what innovations (i.e., HBO Go, Weather Channel) will cause consumers to access it more frequently?

Missed Advertising Week 2012? Mark your calendars for these upcoming professional development and networking events.

As always, your comments and input are greatly appreciated.

Blog Roundup

Did you catch these recent posts on our blog?

NEW TACTICS FOR GETTING HIRED IN DIGITAL

Bethany Simpson of iMedia Connection recently interviewed Jeff Gundersen for his fresh insights into how digital marketers get hired.   Watch this video.

WOMEN MENTORING WOMEN

One of the highlights of Advertising Week 2012 was AWNY’s breakfast and panel discussion at The New York Times. It was a milestone event with AWNY celebrating its 100th anniversary.

The theme of the panel discussion was “women mentoring women” to achieve the highest executive levels in their careers and many of the women in attendance invited their mentees to attend with them. Here are our takeaways from this inspiring event.  Read more…

OUR LINKEDIN WEBINAR RECORDING IS AVAILABLE

We see LinkedIn as being very important for executive brand building and strengthening career connections, and we appreciate the opportunity to share our experience and best practices with you. Read more.

Do you have a marketing-career related-personal branding question for “Ask our Coach?” Contact us, and we’ll answer it in an upcoming blog post.

Career Announcements

Senior Executive – Financial Services
Senior Executive – Strategy & Innovation Lead
Learn more.