It’s been a newsworthy week for the controversial CEO of Twitter. And that’s not counting his SpaceX Starship rocket exploding mid-launch.

Twitter announced a new content moderation policy on Monday, April 17, dubbed “Freedom of Speech, Not Freedom of Reach,” which aims to restrict the visibility of tweets that violate its rules against “hateful conduct.” The following day, billionaire owner Elon Musk talked up Twitter’s recent efforts to promote transparency to a crowd of advertisers, marketers and media folks—this editor included—at MMA Global’s inaugural POSSIBLE conference in Miami.

Though extremely attentive to the CEO’s remarks, we’re not convinced all in the crowd were receptive—despite outbursts of cheers from some in attendance. Many advertisers fled the platform after Musk took over the company in October and began making moves that prioritize his views on free speech—“the bedrock of democracy,” in his words—over content moderation, from reinstating formerly banned users to a new paid verification service for accounts with blue check marks.

The new enforcement policy, according to Musk, will make tweets that potentially violate its rules less discoverable on the platform. “If somebody has something hateful to say, it doesn’t mean you should give them a megaphone. They should still be able to say it, but it needs to be not then pushed on people,” he said. “So, if somebody wants to say something that’s technically legal, but that is by most definitions hateful, we’re not going to promote that. We’re not going to recommend hateful content to people. We’ll put it behind a warning label.”

But will advertisers consider the platform safe enough to reinvest? Moderator Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Global Advertising and Partnerships at NBCUniversal, summed up advertisers’ concerns with this: “Have you de-risked the opportunity or chance of their campaigns landing in these awful hateful places?”

Musk responded that Twitter is indeed taking action to allow brands control where their ads show up. “People may not be aware of this already, but we have adjacency controls in place that are really quite effective… Ads will not appear next to anything remotely negative.” He added, though, that campaigns launched without using adjacency controls do not mitigate that risk. “That should never be done,” he said. “You must put controls in place, because we have excess inventory on negativity.”

Trust and Transparency

When it comes to implementing warning labels that accompany tweets that possibly violate Twitter’s Hateful Content policy, Musk said he has open-sourced a list of words associated with such content, as well as the recommendation algorithm and the Community Notes algorithm. The latter function—formerly known as the Birdwatch program—allows Twitter users to add context to “potentially misleading tweets” by leaving notes that are then evaluated and rated by Birdwatch contributors.

“I think in order to really build trust you have to have transparency,” Musk said. “If you want to trust something, you’ve got to know how it works. And so that’s why we open-sourced the algorithm, and we actually fixed I think over a hundred issues with the algorithm. So it’s actually very helpful to open-source it.” When asked whether his own tweets are subject to Community Notes, Musk said that they are—and that he’s been corrected before as well.

The Feedback Loop

Musk also shared his long-term vision for Twitter, which is “to have a platform that is so useful that you find it is essential.” That means providing a “meaningful communication pathway,” with voice and video calls, encrypted and public communications, and payment capabilities.

But in addition to having concerns regarding the protection of their ad campaigns, advertising experts are also looking for more of an open feedback loop of communication with Musk, Yaccarino argued, “to help develop Twitter into a place where they will be excited about investing more money, product development, content moderation.”

If Twitter becomes an open-sourced conversation, in which users can conduct their lives, their business and their commerce, that’s a huge advertising opportunity for Twitter and for brands, Yaccarino said. “But they need to feel that there is an opportunity for them to influence what you’re building—that vision, what we’re doing here,” she added.

Yaccarino pointed to the beloved former Influence Council from Twitter 1.0, which allowed key stakeholders to have recurring access to Musk. However, the CEO seemed unwilling to reinstate the Council. Pointing again to protecting “the true voice of the people,” he responded that he worried such a move could create “a backlash among the public… There’s legitimate concerns that advertisers have that I want to hear. I think these things should be discussed in an open forum.”

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Retail media ad networks have ballooned over the past couple of years, as brands seek more ways to reach online shoppers with highly-targeted campaigns informed by first-party data insights. One such platform committed to the long game is RM+—a network launched by The Home Depot in 2019—which just scored a dedicated chief focused solely on its growth and monetization.

Retail media’s potential for The Home Depot is huge, Melanie Babcock, Vice President of Retail Media+ and Monetization, told Chief Marketer this week. A lot of cross-department support helped get the network to where it is today, she said, “but now we need to think about the next big jump for us over these next three to four years. And then, how do we make sure that we stay in the game long-term?”

Following is an excerpt of our conversation with Babcock about her new role and what’s entailed; the challenges of maintaining The Home Depot store experience while building an ad platform; her approach to researching competitors; and how the brand is courting consumers who are semi-endemic to the home improvement space.

Chief Marketer: What are your responsibilities in this new position?

Melanie Babcock, Vice President of Retail Media+ and Monetization, The Home Depot: As the retail media practice has grown, it requires a dedicated leader. The potential for retail media for The Home Depot is big. Getting us to where we are today required a lot of cross-department support. For instance, we lean on our media team and our creative team. But now we need to think about the next big jump for us over the next three to four years. And then, how do we make sure that we stay in the game long-term?

In any new startup phase or new thing that comes into the market, everyone jumps in—and then a lot of people jump out, because they realize it’s more complicated than they thought, or maybe it’s not a good fit. We think that it is a fit [for us]. So we want to make sure that we continue to think strategically and long-term about the success of retail media as another Home Depot growth channel.

CM: So part of it is doing research on how the marketing landscape is evolving?

MB: In my previous role, I was Vice President of Integrated Media, and that was inclusive of this retail media network. And also paid media buying and strategy, agency management, our personalization practice using first-party data to drive incremental sales, measurement, and category marketing and strategy. And then I had teams that worked with me around data science, analytics and creative. That was to run The Home Depot marketing program. In my current role today, it’s less about research and more around how we continue to provide the value to our suppliers, whether they be a current supplier today or a new supplier of the future.

My end goal is The Home Depot customer and their satisfaction with The Home Depot experience, which is inclusive of retail media because we use a lot of our first-party data to fuel and empower our retail media practice. I think about maintaining an eye on some of the first people that came in—your mass retailers and Amazon, obviously, as a leader in this space—because they could be setting the standard in the marketplace. Do we accept those as our standards and do we want to follow that, or create a version of that that works for Home Depot? That’s always the case, especially in this scenario, where our suppliers are their suppliers. We want to make sure that we have those standard experiences and offerings.

But then I have to also think about our customer, who they are and what can we offer for them. How do we service that customer, and how does retail media support that customer journey? It’s twofold: keeping your eye on the industry and what’s going on there, but also the customer, to make sure that we’re developing relevant products that our suppliers can buy into that affect the customer journey and make it a more positive one.

CM: And your focus now is more on the monetization piece?

MB: We’re on the cusp of thinking about what monetization means for a retailer outside of just product on shelf. That one we’ve got down pat. When it comes to thinking about the assets that Home Depot has invested in, that may just be cost of doing business. For instance, putting up a bay in a store—that’s an expensive investment. How do you convert those assets that Home Depot has invested in over the years into monetizable moments for our company?

I think that’s the most exciting part of this. Yes, we’re in a business of retail media as most define it today, with on-site ads and off-site ads, but we have a lot of other assets at our company that we can bring forward into the marketplace that would be of high interest not only to our suppliers, but to these non-endemic (we call them semi-endemic) people who maybe already have a relationship with us.

The short game is a great advertising experience, right? How do we make sure we’re contributing to the customer journey and the customer experience? But what’s that long-term game around other monetizable moments in assets in our company that we have never really thought of before?

CM: Can you provide any examples of those assets?

MB: We’re doing a test right now and bringing screens into stores. In the world of retail, that is quite a large proposition. Our stores are highly efficient and run with precision, and to introduce a new concept takes a lot of cross-functional partnership. We’re putting small- and large-format screens into our stores that do not disrupt the shopping experience. If you think about going into a Home Depot, you don’t want a screen in your way. You want to be able to access your product. And they can’t disrupt the associate who’s in that aisle all day. They don’t want to hear something on autoplay.

We’re working through a system that provides screens that tell a message that the suppliers want to tell [customers] about a product, and then introduce a new product that happens to be in the aisle. Or even talk about a benefit to Home Depot, like our loyalty program or our private label credit card or a workshop on the weekend with your kids. How do we bring those messages into the aisle to get people more connected back to The Home Depot? So we’re testing, and we’re in 50 stores now. We’re going to go out to a larger footprint, because we’ve already met the basic criteria within our stores. That’s going to be a big play for us as we think about what screens and stores mean—not only to our suppliers, but maybe even non-endemic suppliers.

CM: What would be the benefit for non-endemics?

MB: For instance, if you’re in the same parking lot with a McDonald’s or a Dunkin Donuts, would they also want to advertise? Especially to that “pro” customer, who comes into our store every day, two doors down, maybe to buy their cup of coffee in the morning. We’re thinking pretty broadly about that. There’s a lot of interest in parking lots as well. We get a lot of questions around putting in different charging stations and things like that. That’s something else we need to consider. In the past, we may have considered that to be a customer benefit, and it is, but now all of a sudden it’s a customer benefit and a monetizable moment. And that makes the asset even more attractive. We’ve had these ideas before, it’s just they never had a monetizable aspect to it.

CM: How much are you courting these potential non-endemic customers?

MB: We’re in early days. We do have a couple of really good partners who are looking to go after “movers.” We have invested a significant amount of time and money to be able to identify a mover with accuracy, as well as our contractor customer. (We call them a “pro.”) Those are two audiences that are difficult to get in front of in a traditional media landscape, and we have really fantastic first-party data on those, so we have the ability to reach them easily. We’re speaking to a lot of financial services, automotive and those type of companies, and saying, how would we best be able to bring you into our environment and make it feel natural?

One of the things that my CEO has asked us to do is to maintain “The Home Depot.” In other words, don’t turn us into just an advertising platform. We still have a commitment to the customer. We still need to make it easy for them to shop. So, don’t disrupt that. But how do you then be additive to that experience? We need to be thoughtful about those non-endemic partners, but we also believe that we’re in the very beginning of understanding the value of those relationships. The few that we’ve engaged with have seen really good results. But we’ve been focused a lot more on our existing suppliers, our ad tech stack, our offering. Is it priced appropriately? What are the insights and measurement tools that we’ve spent the majority of our time focused on these last few years?

Now we need to start thinking a little bit bigger, especially with the looming third-party cookie removal and the value of first-party audiences. How will that change in the marketplace, and does the value of our data help those non-endemics with their marketing goals? As a person who has run media buying for many years at The Home Depot, I believe it will.

CM: For those marketers considering getting into the retail media space in general, what are its advantages?

MB: Again, [from the perspective of] a former media buyer, the person who’s out there trying to drive the most efficiency and high value to my media dollar, the media landscape has changed so much with technology and data science and everything else. The accuracy of media buying has become highly efficient. But a CPG (in our world, we call them suppliers) can spend their dollar in many ways across many digital and traditional channels, always with the hope of connecting to that end customer who is either in the beginning, middle or at the end of their purchase journey. Before retail media networks, they could get as close as humanly possible, but never right to the source. Retail brings that “last mile delivery” to reach the customer.

A CPG can say, not only is it a digital media ad that I can measure based on a great audience, but they’re at the point of decisioning. And that is the last piece that’s been missing in that marketer’s toolbox. Not only can you connect me to the customer at that point of decision, but I can influence that decision, with new product introduction, new feature introduction, or maybe upgrade that customer to a higher-end product.

We have a lot of information about our customers. I’m not talking about specific people, obviously, but what’s in the basket and who is a pro and why they buy like this. We have a lot of that knowledge, and that better informs those CPGs and suppliers with their own media buying and planning—and, frankly, their own product development. It could affect them in ways that go beyond just the advertisement that they’re buying.

CM: And how does Retail Media + differentiate itself in the space?

MB: When The Home Depot started this journey, there were less than 10 retail media networks in the market, and they were heavily focused on grocery and mass. That’s because they have such great frequency of customer visits. We don’t have the same frequency, so that concerned us. We don’t have that weekly or biweekly trip cycle. Our contractor does, but our consumer doesn’t. So we had to step back and think, what is our right to win in this space? Number one: We are a specialty retailer. I don’t think we’ll ever be as big as some of these mass retailers, or even grocery. We don’t have the same mix of suppliers. But we do have something that’s really important—and that is a really high intent signal. People come to Home Depot to solve a problem in their home, and that requires a little bit of research—the smallest amount to the biggest amount.

And there’s a lot of thinking through that. I have this problem now, and I’ve got a project, big or small. Am I going to do it myself? Do I have the right tools? Do I have the right product? All of a sudden, now you’re in this consideration stage of research and you come to our website. We have a very high percentage of customers who start online and end up in the store, because of that intent. That’s very different than mass in grocery. Our website is about connecting those customer journeys between online and the store. A customer gives us a lot of signals. And with those signals, we learn a lot. That’s really important to our suppliers. If I know more about The Home Depot customer, I could be a better supplier to the Home Depot. Better products, features, timing… There’s just so much more to learn and gain, and therefore we both win.

The post The Home Depot’s VP of Retail Media+ and Monetization Talks Retail Media Networks appeared first on Chief Marketer.

According to a study from ecommerce analytics tool provider Triple Whale, ad spend on TikTok in Q2 was up 53 percent from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram’s ad spend slowed in comparison. An article in Multichannel Merchant explores TikTok’s recent success with younger, engaged audiences, plus additional statistics surrounding DTC purchasing behavior.

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According to American Express’s just-published 2022 Shop Small Summer survey, 76 percent of small business owners say that rising costs from inflation is a great concern for them this summer. But the majority are also optimistic about their businesses’ performance, and most—87 percent—say that local community support will be integral to the success of their company.

These insights, among others, informed the brand’s new digital-out-of-home- “Shop Small” ad campaign featuring geo-specific QR codes—a first for Amex—that connect consumers in seven cities to small businesses nearby offering summer- and entertainment-themed goods and services, from restaurants to sunglasses to nail salons.

“With this campaign, and with all of our Shop Small efforts, it’s about demonstrating strong backing for small businesses and trying to drive more traffic into their stores, because we know that is an incredibly critical need for small business owners,” says Marianne Rausch, Vice President, Small Business Saturday & Shop Small, Global Advertising & Brand Management at American Express. We spoke with Rausch about the DOOH campaign’s interactivity, the brand’s overall Shop Small business strategy, and more.

Chief Marketer: What was the inspiration behind the campaign?

Marianne Rausch, Vice President, Small Business Saturday & Shop Small, Global Advertising & Brand Management, American Express: We know that people are eager and excited to be out and about this summer, in the communities where they live but also the places that they travel to. We wanted to find a fun way to engage consumers around shopping small, wherever they are this summer, so we designed these eye-catching digital-out-of-home creative units in high-traffic areas featuring fun GIFs that are meant to stop people in their tracks. Each one highlights summer relevance in small business categories, things like bookstores, restaurants and nail salons. We’re giving [consumers] a way to make small businesses central to that kind of summer fun and enjoyment.

CM: You’re using geo-specific out-of-home QR codes for the first time. What insights informed the choice to use that specific technology?

MR: At Amex, for Shop Small and beyond, we’re about delivering the right message at the right time at the right place. The customer experience is always at the center of all we do. So we wanted to think about current technology that could make it really easy and simple for consumers to find great local businesses to immediately support, right where they are. Hence the QR codes. The businesses served up when you click on a QR code in one of those summer relevant categories are geographically close to that unit so you can get right over there. And they’re all Amex-accepting merchants featured on our Shop Small map. It’s a curated list of businesses that are thematically linked to the creative and the digital-out-of-home unit, and then geographically close to where you’re located.

CM: What are the strategic marketing goals of this campaign?

MR: At the heart of every Shop Small campaign is raising consumer awareness about the importance of shopping small and the positive impact that they can have in communities when they decide to support small businesses. This campaign, and with all of our Shop Small efforts, is about demonstrating strong backing for small businesses and trying to drive more traffic into their stores, because we know that is an incredibly critical need for small business owners.

CM: How has your overall small business strategy evolved?

MR: Amex has a very long history of supporting small businesses and Shop Small is core to who we are as a company. It’s a powerful proof point of our commitment to back our customers, small businesses and their communities. We created Small Business Saturday way back in 2010, designed to encourage consumers to visit local small businesses following the financial crisis, at a critical holiday shopping timeframe, to ensure that people were making the decision to shop small during that busy holiday weekend.

Since then, Small Business Saturday has expanded and grown into a year-round and global Shop Small movement. It’s incredibly important for us to continue to support those efforts because we know that small businesses continue to need that backing. You’ll continue to see us sustain that commitment and roll out more campaigns to keep raising awareness about that importance of shopping small, and really honing in on some crucial seasons for small business owners, like the holiday season, the summer timeframe, and even during slower winter months when they might need some additional support.

CM: What research and insights have informed the campaign?

MR: We recently conducted our new 2022 Shop Small Summer Survey, and we found that 76 percent of small business owners are concerned about the rise of inflation. They’re also counting on their local communities to support them this summer, with 87 percent of small business owners saying that local support is going to be integral to the success of their business. That puts a fine point on the need for us to rally around small business owners this summer.

We also know that consumers want to support them. In that same survey, we found that 8 in 10 consumers say that they are prioritizing shopping small right now because they recognize that it’s going to have a positive impact. Insights like that solidified our need to continue to not only raise awareness of the importance of supporting small businesses, but also to find ways to make it easier than ever for consumers to find them.

CM: Lastly, what other interactive technologies do you plan to incorporate into Amex campaigns?

MR: We are always looking for ways to evolve, not only with how we can support small business owners, but also with how we can reach our consumers in new, fun and engaging ways. A great example beyond the QR codes is our 2021 Shop Small holiday campaign. We created 100 custom jingles for small businesses during the holiday season because we understood that those would help them stand out in a fresh way in a very crowded space. The great thing about technology, especially marketing technology, is that it’s always changing. There’s always some new insight about how consumers are taking in media or the next popular platform that’s emerging, so we’re keeping our eyes on what’s next and innovating on how we can better deliver for our customers and small business owners.

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Dozens of media and tech brands activated at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last month, from big tech on the beach to adtech along yacht row to pop-ups from newcomers along the Croisette, each looking to make a splash during the festival’s first in-person experience since the start of the pandemic. (ICYMI, here’s a photo tour of some of the standout brand activations).

But digital advertising company Infillion, formerly known as TrueX, Inc. and Gimbal, wanted to signal something new. A key objective was to allow people to touch, feel and experience the tech rather than simply talk about it. It also introduced its location-based “We Cannes” app at the fest, designed to raise funds for Ukraine Refugee Relief and reward attendees with tokens redeemed for swag when they participated in partner activities.

We spoke with Infillion CMO Laurel Rossi about the strategic marketing goals of the company’s Cannes presence, the challenges of marketing a tech brand and how it’s navigating the demise of third-party cookies.

Chief Marketer: Why was it important to create an experience for Infillion at Cannes?

Laurel Rossi, CMO of Infillion: Two things. One, we tried to create a presence. We also have a new brand, so obviously we wanted a big debut. There are conventions [at Cannes] that I think put people in boxes. You’ve got adtech in a yacht, the platforms around the beach. We decided we were going to be ourselves, and be a little bit more grown up than adtech row—which is not a bad thing, but it is what it is, and we wanted signal new.

Probably the most important part, though, outside of the space and the geography we picked, is the fact that we decided that we would… create interactivity, give people an opportunity to actually touch the tech, feel the tech, experience the tech, and not just talk about the tech. And, because we’re so consumer-forward, we wanted the person who was going through the experience to feel like a consumer as well.

CM: What are the challenges of brand marketing a tech product?

LR: Tech loves to talk about tech, and maybe sometimes not the outcome of the tech. We are so lucky. Streaming blew up, and we have a streaming business. Ecommerce also blew up during COVID and we own a commerce business. The biggest challenge is making sure that we stay grounded around what is relevant, coherent, and not talk too much about the tech only, and get to the outputs, the things that are either consumer-facing or customer-facing. I find that on the tech side, we tend to talk about the inner workings a lot.

And sometimes people make it super competitive. You’ll have two or three products, and they don’t even have to be in the same space, but they talk competitively. That’s just the nature of tech; you’re kind of groomed that way. I think we’re starting to ungroom. We’re starting to integrate into the fabric of people’s real lives.

CM: From an event marketing perspective, what are the strategic marketing goals of the Infillion experience?

LR: Our business plan was to launch the brand hot in the first six months and then hope that we would have a really good brand by the middle of the year so that we could focus on driving the two business units. [We] won’t ever stop building the brand. But what better way to be in front of all these brands and all our clients on the agency side than to be here? Once [we knew] everybody was coming, it made sense and we wanted to make it immersive. I hope people come, hang out and do the tech, and talk to our people rather than being talked to.

CM: We speak with marketers often about balancing data privacy with targeting consumers online. What’s your perspective on that?

LR: Both of our products are opt-in, so we don’t have a cookie problem. With our programmatic business, obviously there’s some cookies involved necessarily, but our whole business model is about opt-in consumer engagement. We are getting your permission up front, and then we have our clients transact based on those relationships. If you take a location app, you’ve already opted in. If you’re looking at our streaming products, same thing. We’ve gotten lucky, although we are looking at ways to put that opt-in feature in programmatic.

I don’t see cookies as a problem. We launched this study—2,500 consumers and what their habits are—and I think people are starting to talk about this a lot more: If you give the consumer more relevance, they’ll give you plenty of information. Not that we’re trying to steal it from them, but they’ll give [it to you]. They’ll give you time. They’ll give you attention. The principle we’re working on is, what can we give you in exchange for your time, attention and privacy? Make it opt-in.

CM: From a general marketing perspective, what trends should CMOs be looking at right now?

LR: There’s some myth-busting we need to do about the consumer in terms of what they’re willing to do to get more relevant, interesting, entertaining brand information, ads, whatever it is, in front of them. What they’re willing to trade in terms of their time, their attention and their data and information is astounding to me. That’s the rising trend. I feel like we don’t make enough of it, and I don’t think we really knew that. We just talk about how much privacy is a problem.

CM: What are the qualities a successful CMO should have to be successful in today’s business world?

LR: Bravery is at the top of the list. You cannot be afraid to be contrarian. You cannot be afraid to tell the truth. I think CMOs get a bad rap for a lot of reasons. They’re too creative. They’re too business-oriented. They’re too data-driven, whatever. At the end of the day, you have to be brave and be very clear on what your goal is and match those two things up.

The post Marketers on Fire: Infillion CMO Discusses Cannes Activation, Brand Marketing and Third-Party Cookies appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Statistics about the importance of brand purpose and its impact on purchasing behavior abound in the marketing industry. Here’s one: 66 percent of online respondents would consider a company’s purpose when deciding to make a purchase, according to Porter Novelli’s 2021 Purpose Perception Study And the numbers increase when considering trust, loyalty and even forgiving a company if it slips up.

So, when Elizabeth Drori joined as CMO of Sperry footwear last November, she begin establishing a purpose platform—grounded in its 87-year history—designed to break through beyond the boat shoe. Following is our conversation with Drori about the evolution of the Sperry brand, fashion merchandising strategies tapped from her Walmart days, how the company uses data from product launches to optimize consumer messaging, and more.

Chief Marketer: For your new “Make Waves” brand campaign, who is the target audience and what are the strategic marketing goals?

Elizabeth Drori, CMO of Sperry: We launched our brand campaign “Make Waves” with the goal of driving brand awareness and desire for Sperry. It’s the first time in a few years that we’re really investing behind the brand and not just product stories. It speaks to a lot of what we stand for, but it’s also a rallying cry for our consumers and encourages people to make the most of every moment, make your own path, make a difference. From a targeting perspective, we’re serving it to households ages 18 to 34.

CM: Is this target a shift for you?

ED: It’s a shift from where our current customer is. We had this audience 10 years ago and now we’re looking to get there again. Brands often reach a cycle where they have a target audience and they grow with that audience. And now that audience is the next generation and you need to reach a younger consumer again. That’s where we are. Our current customers are a bit older, so we’re looking to drive that resonance with younger consumers in the next generation today.

CM: How are you accomplishing that through specific channels?

ED: From the media standpoint, the brand campaign is running on YouTube, for the demographic targets we talked about, as well as interest segments. But then we also market on other channels that resonate. We have been experimenting on TikTok. We do a lot on Instagram. We use influencer marketing.

CM: How are you evolving the brand to recruit those younger consumers once again?

ED: We’re doing a few things differently. First we updated our visual look and feel, which ranges from modernizing our logo, which we refreshed at the beginning of the year, to colors, fonts, the topography as well as styling. We’re trying to portray a younger, more fashion-forward audience just through our creatives and how you visualize the brand, no matter of the channel. We’re also partnering with brands and people of influence. As I mentioned, we work with influencers and style leaders.

We’re also doing a lot of product collaborations. One example is a collaboration with Warm and Wonderful, which is the British brand known for the sheep sweater Princess Diana made famous. That collaboration’s coming up later this summer; we shot a campaign with them and Madelaine Petsch of “Riverdale.” We have some of that creative out in the marketplace right now. And then finally, investing in the brand through the Make Waves campaign and also through a new purpose platform that we call “All for water, water for all.” We’re trying to create a desirable brand by making it more purpose-driven and more of a lifestyle brand.

CM: What are the challenges of marketing to a younger audience with a brand that has an 87-year history? How do you tap into its history while also refreshing it for new customers?

ED: Sperry has an incredible heritage and backstory. We were founded by Paul Sperry who had a passion for sailing and yet a problem with slipping on boat decks. Our story is that he noticed one winter day how easily his dog was able to walk across an icy pond without slipping, and after looking at the groves in his paws, he decided to invent boat shoes and sneakers that have those grooves cut out as traction. We have this powerful story, and it is still the foundation of our brand in terms of being innovators, adventurous, explorers.

We’re a brand that gets passed down from generation to generation, so we have a lot to build on. How do we stay close to our roots, but then make the brand feel relevant for today? This story gives us is a connection to the water. We’ve done a lot of research and exploration on what an association with the water means for consumers today. How do we unlock that power of water and harness the joy and associated emotional well being to the water for consumers today?

The second aspect of it is our role in fashion. Post-World War II, Sperry became known for an association with nautical, preppy-style. JFK wore us, Paul Newman wore us. We have these amazing associations, but we still need to modernize how to stay relevant in fashion and culture today. What’s wonderful for us is that preppy fashion is returning in a more modern aesthetic–more diverse, more open… we’re trying to hone in on that. How do we take this amazing legacy and focus on what it means to be connected to the water, and how do we unlock that? And then how do we continue to lean into the preppy trend in a way that feels current?

CM: You’ve had experience launching new brands at Walmart in the past. What did you learn that you’re applying at Sperry?

ED: At Walmart, we were focused on building fashion credibility. We had a strategy that we called “borrowing fashion credibility.” You can advertise yourself, but it’s even more impactful when other people talk about your brand and your product. At Walmart, we leaned heavily on influencers and content partners to change perception. At Sperry, to the extent that people perceive the brand as something only for the elite, there’s still a perception challenge to address. We’re leaning into partners and influencers in a similar way.

And then we’re also paying very careful attention to how we show up. We want to portray the brand in a relatable, youthful, approachable way, but we still love the water. We’re optimistic. We seek adventure. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’ve done a lot to portray ourselves as a much more open and democratic brand, and then also leaning into partners to drive that fashion credibility.

CM: How has Sperry’s brand purpose evolved?

ED: I mentioned that we have a new brand purpose platform, “All for water, water for all.” Before I got to the brand, we didn’t have a purpose platform. We were doing some things in the sustainability space. We supported the LGBTQ+ community, but we didn’t have anything that tied all that we were doing together. This platform was meant to create a purpose-driven strategy that’s grounded in our heritage. “All for water” is the sustainability piece. Water is the world’s biggest playground. How do we ensure we protect it? We have really great goals: By 2024, we want half of what we produce to be made from primarily recycled materials. We have a collection that we call “SeaCycled.” That’s growing more and more, and we’re very close to achieving that goal.

We work with Waterkeeper Alliance, which is the world’s largest nonprofit dedicated to clean and drinkable water. We’re doing a lot with them this year and making the sustainability piece a bigger part of our brand. And then “water for all” is something we’re activating this year. It shapes our vision for a world where everyone, everywhere, has access to the water and feels welcome there. When we came up with this platform, we started digging into some of the reasons why people of color don’t have access to water. It’s complicated. They’ve been excluded because of discrimination. There’s fear that dates back to slavery. There are socioeconomic factors. There’s so many reasons.

What we started to learn is that the solve is very grassroots. There isn’t one national or global organization that’s doing anything here. So we partnered with a media organization to create documentaries telling stories of entrepreneurs that are making a difference in the space in their own way and in their own communities. We’re starting to roll that content out this summer and will look to amplify their stories, and we’re really excited about having this conversation, learning ourselves, and then having that conversation more publicly later this summer.

CM: How does Sperry use data to achieve marketing goals?

ED: One of the biggest ways is through our product launches. We are launching new products regularly and we use data to assess their performance. We’ll track data that we get from Sperry.com to understand if we’re bringing in a new consumer. And if it’s an existing consumer, what are they cross-shopping? What’s their demographic information? And then we’ll also be tracking how fast product is selling through across all points of market, whether it’s Sperry.com or through our wholesale partners. Those pieces of information give us a solid feedback loop for how we can optimize our advertising and how to lean into what’s working and understand for future launches.

CM: Lastly, what are some marketing trends that the industry should be watching right now?

ED: One, for fashion in particular, continues to be influencer marketing. We see that evolve as new channels like TikTok come up and content changes. It’s an important validation mechanism and it can also drive sales. And it requires a lot of test-and-learn. There’s really no one-size-fits-all approach. The metaverse and everything that’s happening there is also a trend that people need to pay attention to and figure out if there’s a way in or not.

The post Brands on Fire: Sperry Footwear Chief Marketing Officer Elizabeth Drori on Building Brand Purpose appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Audio and video formats are becoming more actionable in the digital advertising space thanks to a pair of familiar technologies: display ads and QR codes. For instance, rather than relying on affiliate codes to promote discounts in podcast advertisements, brands can now use Spotify’s clickable CTA Cards as a more seamless way for consumers to access those promotions. Read how these tried-and-true technologies are eliminating friction along the customer journey, according to a piece in AdExchanger.

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Digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising is on the up as consumers return to offices, use public transportation, shop at grocery stories and frequent airports in greater numbers. In a piece from AdMonsters, Stephanie Gutnik, Yahoo’s Global Head of Digital Out Of Home, dishes on what’s driving the increase in DOOH advertising, creative engagement tactics, how it fits into an omnichannel marketing strategy, and more.

The post Yahoo’s Stephanie Gutnik on the Return of Digital Out of Home Advertising appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Grocery delivery service FreshDirect is leveraging real-time weather data to inform ad creative for a new digital-out-of-home (DOOH) campaign in New York City’s subway stations. It’s the company’s attempt to learn how weather influences people’s lives as well as understand shifting commuter traffic patterns in the post-pandemic era. AdExchanger reports on the campaign’s approach and how the brand is tracking results.

The post How FreshDirect Used Real-Time Weather Data to Inform a DOOH Campaign appeared first on Chief Marketer.

The wireless service provider space is a crowded and competitive one. So for Visible, an all-digital carrier powered by Verizon’s network, the goal is to devise innovative ways to cut through the clutter, often with tongue-in-cheek creative. Look no further than its unlimited “eyebrowsing” campaign, fronted by the brow-endowed star of “Schitt’s Creek,” Daniel Levy, where consumers could literally scroll through a website using their eyebrows. (Not kidding.)

Visible recently developed a campaign that catered to singles, a target market that might find its low-cost, single-line plan featuring unlimited data appealing. Ahead of what’s likely to be an expensive wedding season that benefits everyone but single people, the brand teamed up with Match Group’s portfolio of dating sites to create a registry for singles, featuring gifts like a pair of “Mine” and “Also Mine” tea towels, matching merch for a single and their pet, and a chance to win a gift card to Airbnb for a “Single Moon” of their choice.

We spoke with Visible CMO Cheryl Gresham about the campaign’s brand awareness play, the brand’s plans to build community among its customers, marketing lessons learned from her time at TikTok and how Visible is approaching the industry’s measurement challenges.

Chief Marketer: What inspired the singles registry and collaboration with the Match Group?

Visible CMO Cheryl Gresham: At Visible we have a wonderful single-line wireless service. You can get the same savings that other places give you on family plans or multiple-line services, but here you don’t have to bring a bunch of people with you. You can get it just on your own. One of the things we thought about when we were talking with the Match Group was that so many of us through our lives have been bridesmaids, [attended] bachelorette parties, [given] baby gifts, wedding gifts, et cetera. But if you are single, you are never on the receiving end.

We worked out this idea with the Match Group, which oversees Tinder and quite a few other dating sites, and thought, what if we created a singles registry where people could register for faux wedding gifts that they could get from all their friends and family and loved ones, just like a couple would do, but they can still celebrate themselves for being single? We thought it was a great way to celebrate the single lifestyle, single people and people who need single-line wireless.

CM: How will you gauge its success?

CG: Our main driver is brand awareness. We also love the strategic alignment between ourselves and the Match Group. The brand awareness amongst the community of people who use Match’s dating websites is something we’re going to be tracking as well. And obviously, all the digital elements, as in website visits, how many singles registries are created, engagement rates, share rates, et cetera. And we’ll be fulfilling on the gifts as well.

CM: Talk about Visible’s strategy with creative. The brand always seems to show up with clever, tongue-in-cheek campaigns.

CG: One of the things we love about the Visible brand is its sensibility and simplicity. This category is one of the largest categories of advertising in the country. And a lot of the advertising and communications look and feel and sound very similar. We know from studying Visible members that simplicity and directness are really important. What you see is what you get at Visible. That’s why we got a little bit more tongue-in-cheek and aggressive with some of our paid advertising that’s running in social, [that says] you’re getting ripped off on all these registries. We believe that’s the best way to communicate with our members and potential members. And it’s a great way for us to be able to stand out in this huge category.

CM: You recently led marketing, media and partnerships at TikTok. What are you bringing to Visible from that experience?

CG: At TikTok, there is this idea of showing up as a brand very honestly and openly—all the good things and the bad things. The things that do best—the videos, the creators, the brands on TikTok—are honest, straightforward and oftentimes helpful. It’s a community. For our members—we refer to them as members versus customers—we are building a community here and we want to help one another. We want our community to be able to see that there’s an easier, simpler way to get phone service. They don’t need to go into a store to get the phone service. They don’t need to have a bunch of things bundled into their phone service that they may not really care about.

And then, it’s important to make advertising that is endemic to the channel that you’re in versus force-feeding your advertising into that channel. We’re making sure that we’re showing up in the right way across all the channels. Our communications belong in the channels that we’re showing up in. Back to the singles registry, if you’re going to do something with the Match Group, how do you show up in a place where people are looking for companionship, love, whatever it might be, and show up in an authentic way that feels right for that community?

CM: Can you talk more about how you’re building community at Visible?

CG: One of the things we’re doing is making sure that we’re keeping our members happy. We’ve got a care team that is on-call, all day, every day, to make sure that the needs that they have, or want to know about or need support in, are taken care of. The other thing is we’re looking at developing a stronger community on social and how we can engage with our members. A lot of brands show up in funny, unique ways, but there’s also a care and communal support aspect.

CM: What is your experiential strategy in the coming year?

CG: We did a great event the first week I started here in New York with the Smash Room. We want to continue to bring that direct, no BS energy to experiential events, but like everyone over the past couple years, in-real-life events have been a little bit more challenged. So one of the things we’re looking at is how do we bring a fun event to our members and potential members through digital. As an all-digital brand with no retail stores, we have to live and breathe and do everything in the digital space. We’re looking at more opportunities like the singles registry that live in the digital space that can be “event-ized”… to bring people together, but with a digital experience.

There are two reasons we like that. One, we get to scale and reach more people who can engage with the brand and the experience. And then two, as the pandemic continues to flex and flow, it’s something that we can depend on a little bit more. The pandemic has taught us to be more creative with how we’re looking to connect. What we did many years ago with Red Rocks Unpaused was an example of that in-real-life, experiential moment, but it was also rooted in digital and scaled. So even though you might not be in the state of Colorado, you could still partake in the event. We’re continuing to look at how we can do more of that in the future.

CM: Lastly, I’d like to get your take on how Visible is dealing with the measurement challenges happening in the industry right now, particularly since you’re an all-digital brand.

CG: It’s been a challenge. We are pulling all the levers and resources that we can. Because Visible is part of Verizon, we have great teams within the organization who look at measurement, ROI, mix modeling, et cetera. What we’re finding is, for us, sometimes it goes back to the basics. Did someone have the chance to view your communications and hear it and see it all the way through? That’s a win; that’s something that we prioritize. Needing to build brand awareness, we are in some ways [using] the basics and the fundamentals of what I call “marketing.” We’re measuring our success in some of those fundamental ways to make sure that we’re reaching the right people, they’re having the opportunity to see, hear, engage and interact with our ad, and then, over time, continuing to measure brand health, brand awareness, and using all the instruments that we can to make sure that Visible’s marketing continues to grow.

The post Marketers on Fire: Visible CMO on Catering to Singles, Fostering Community and Building Digital Experiences appeared first on Chief Marketer.