Ideas to share

Instagram tracking to pass Twitter as a news source

Since 2014, the % of internet users who use Instagram to access news has increased from 2% to 11%. Instagram is now on par with Twitter (12% of internet users use it for news) and is tracking to pass it.  Advertisers should consider the tone of their message and brand safety issues as the content and usage of Instagram shifts in the coming years.

See chart here:Twitter vs. IG for news

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According to CMOs, COVID-19 has increased the importance of branding

New survey of of 432 marketing executives in North America, the U.K.,France and Germany at companies with $500 million to $20 billion or more annual revenue by Gartner. The study outlines the immediate impact on marketing strategies and spending as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and CMOs’ expectations of the future — how budgets, spending and strategic priorities will evolve heading into 2021.

Key highlights:

  • 33% cited brand strategy as their most vital strategic capability (the #1 capability, significantly higher vs. 2019)
  • Brand health and competitive benchmarking ranked as the top 2 metrics
  • 44% are facing mid-year budget cuts as a direct result of COVID-19, 11% facing major cuts of more than 15% of budget
  • 73% expect COVID-19 near-term negative impact to be short-lived
  • Top positive reactions to COVID-19:
    1. Launched special COVID-19 communications to customers
    2. Deployed listening tools to monitor customer COVID-19 sentiment or trends
    3. Developed scenarios for planning purposes
  • Top negative reactions to COVID-19:
    1. Canceled or postponed customer-facing marketing events
    2. Delayed a campaign launch
    3. Reduced permanent, temporary and contractor head count

Download the full report here:
research-gartner-cmo_spend_2020_research_part1

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Stoic wisdom – Staying calm when the rest of the world is freaking out

Great post from Ryan Holiday to consider as we are faced with the pandemic and social unrest.  He shares nine quotes from ancient Greek philosophers that offer advice that is very helpful today.

  1. Accept What’s Outside Of Your Control, Get To Work On What Is
  2. Focus On The Smallest Thing You Can Do Right Now
  3. Examine The Costs Of Panicking Or Emotional Reaction
  4. Seek Stillness
  5. Have Confidence In Your Ability To Make The Best Of Anything
  6. Limit Your News Consumption
  7. Stick To A Routine
  8. Take Care Of Your Relationships
  9. Dead Time Or Alive Time?

Read the full post here.

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The magic of kindness

Below is a great 2019 TED talk from Holocaust survivor Werner Reich. It is a short video (under 10 minutes) that shows how a small, kind act can inspire a lifetime of compassion. As we enter into a pandemic where there will be an enormous amount of fear, this video helps remind us what a big impact that understanding and small acts of kindness can make.

Watch the video here.

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A new benchmark for consumer loyalty programs in aesthetics

Allergan just announced an upgrade to their Brilliant Distinctions patient loyalty program with a rebrand to Alle. The new program:

  • Covers all products so the company can better cross sell device and injectable treatments
  • Is streamlined and faster, reducing manual steps for practices and sales reps
  • Is more user-friendly for patients with checkout under 1 minute
  • Offers other deals based on consumer interests (vacations and movies)

Consumer membership has grown to over 6 million with 25,000 providers participating. The new program will fully roll out this summer and likely build on these numbers.  If you are an aesthetic manufacturer, you should take a look and see how you might upgrade your own program.

The full press release is here.

 

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Changing demands on CMO’s

As marketing changes with digital technology and increased focus on CX, there are many views on the skills marketers need to be effective. Below is a short post from CMO.com with a perspective.

https://blog.adobe.com/en/2019/01/21/why-todays-cmo-must-break-down-barriers.html#gs.lhay27

The “hard” skills, financial and digital savvy, have been important and are growing in importance.

“Soft” skills of inclusiveness and teamwork are also highlighted given the increased interaction with all functions in the organization (due to management of the customer journey through more touch points with the company and product experience).

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Biggest branding mistakes of the year

With short timelines and limited budgets, there is a push to rush past research or not fully vet marketing initiatives. With social media, these mistakes can be exponentially bad. Read this article from Inc.com and get a sense of the types of miscalculations that some good brands had this year, so you can avoid them.

https://www.inc.com/brit-morse/2018-biggest-marketing-branding-fails.html

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6 Marketing Trends for 2017

As we kick off the year, it’s important to capitalize emerging trends.This article from Chief/Marketer outlines a few things to keep your eye on this year.

https://www.chiefmarketer.com/6-marketing-trends-for-2017/

Some key takeaways:
-Make sure you are thinking mobile-first in your digital marketing, even business to business
-With improvements in attribution, if you have the budget, push to measure what’s working, possibly in real time
-Add first and 3rd party audience data as a part of cross-channel media plan to get a better understanding of consumers’ interaction with your brand

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What are people worried about these days?

As marketers, we need to stay on top of how people view our products and categories, but even more importantly what are the core motivations and worries that drive life choices. This interesting research from Shullman shows that health and money are weighing on the mind of most adults, while millenials are more worried about employment than anything else. How do our products solve these concerns?

What are people worried about – Shullman research

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Overall time spent with media still huge, but growth is slowing

The average American consumer spends a whopping 12 hours per day consuming media. However, the growth is slowing – projecting to increase by only 8 minutes in the next 3 years vs. 1 hour in the past 4 years. Multi-tasking with mobile devices is the cause of the slowing trend. Digital is now a more significant amount of time than TV at over 5 hours per day with over half on mobile devices. Mobile and TV will still be workhorse mediums over the next 3 years.

Time spent with media slowing – emarketer

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