An ad campaign from insurance company Aflac earlier this month illustrated how a recent shift in its marketing plans is taking shape: To conserve the additional media dollars that are required to target consumers in a fragmented digital media space, the brand has moved creative budgets in-house. AdExchanger explores how Aflac now uses its internal content studio to supplement creative and produce campaigns more efficiently.

The post How Aflac’s March Madness Campaign Leveraged In-House Creative and Channel Diversification appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Officially sponsoring a major global sports event can be pricey. The just-wrapped US Open tennis tournament, for instance, rakes in millions of dollars from sponsors—which included Cadillac, American Express and Chase Bank this year—seeking to secure a presence inside the stadium.

But there are other ways to get your marketing messages in front of consumers through more unofficial channels. Take Santander Bank, the global sponsor of Spanish tennis champion Rafael Nadal, which leveraged the athlete’s presence at the Open with a brand awareness campaign featuring a TV spot he starred in, out-of-home advertising along attendee walkways and a cause marketing partnership with nonprofit City Year that included a coaching session with Nadal himself.

“We’re not spending the amount of money that probably some of the larger banks would do by being an official sponsor of the US Open,” Maha Madain, Chief Marketing Officer at Santander Bank, told Chief Marketer. “So how do we create a lot of awareness in a very strategic and economical way? Not being in the heart of the stadium, but surrounding the stadium.”

We spoke with Madain about the campaign’s strategic marketing goals, expansion plans for the future, the importance of leveraging partnerships and the challenges financial marketers face, particularly from a regional perspective.

Chief Marketer: What is the inspiration behind the campaign with Rafael Nadal?

Maha Madain, Chief Marketing Officer at Santander Bank: Globally, we are official sponsors of Rafa Nadal. Santander Bank is a globally known brand, more in Spain and South America. In the U.S., we’re relatively new and concentrated in the Northeast as well as Miami. The inspiration from a brand strategy perspective was, how do we create brand awareness by leveraging partnerships that represent our core values?

Rafa is known for his grit, perseverance, determination, commitment to the game and being in the business for 20 years, with all the ups and downs. Yet he’s committed and he’s there. That’s parallel to our core values, [which] are all about helping people and businesses prosper in a sustainable way. Our brand strategy, and this campaign in particular, is about how we create that relevant awareness in the minds of our audiences through these kinds of partnerships—where you meet them, where they’re interested, at moments that matter to them. In this case, it’s the US Open.

CM: Your campaign also has a live event component. How have you used Rafa for that?

MM: Rafa has appeared on social media talking about us and so forth, but this is our first time doing this in the U.S. He attended an event that we held with nonprofit City Year, whom we’ve supported for years. He gave us an hour of his time where he played tennis with young kids and coached them on how to manage life expectations and how to not let defeat hold you back. In our spot we demonstrate that we’re here for the long game, which is obviously what he’s here for, and how you need the right partner to help you achieve your goals.

CM: What KPIs are you tracking?

MM: We’re trying to lift brand awareness. As I mentioned, Bank Santander has strong brand awareness globally, but we don’t in the U.S. The name Santander in the U.S. started in 2013, so we’re relatively young, but we have plans for national expansion as well as digital transformation. We’ve announced a multi-year investment in digital transformation centered around the customer experience. COVID has taught all of us how important digital is. We’re going through a transformation of how we do business and relying more and more on social media and digital marketing to be efficient and to drive our messages.

CM: Why did you choose a commercial and out-of-home as marketing tactics for the campaign?

MM: We’re not spending that amount of money that probably some of the larger banks would do by being an official sponsor of the US Open. So how do we create a lot of awareness in a very strategic and economical way? Not being in the heart of the stadium, but surrounding the stadium. How do we do it with the right budget? As you know, there were very big names within the stadium. So how do we strategically create that awareness? That’s what led us to this out-of-home campaign, where we had significant billboards in the boardwalk leading up to the stadium that you couldn’t miss. We did takeovers of the subway station, outdoor materials and digital to display that message. If we couldn’t be inside, how could we surround it? We also leveraged a lot of our branches in the area with digital messaging on our ATM screens.

CM: What are some of the biggest challenges that you face right now as a financial marketer? And how are you meeting those?

MM: There are a couple of things. From a marketing perspective, how do I create brand awareness when all of this change is happening? You are rolling out new products and trying to address a lot of the activities that are occurring, but how do I create awareness within a certain budget? As a regional bank, we’re trying to build that momentum. That’s one of the challenges, and this campaign is a prime example of how we’ve addressed some of it.

The other challenges we’re dealing with is how do you transform your capabilities so that you are ready and prepared? I think all banks are working through that. We’ve learned through COVID that consumers yearn for doing business in the most friction-less way. They want be able to access their accounts in the easiest way. So we’re very focused on building our customer experience—not only from the physical channel, of course, which we do a very good job of—but also, how do we do it digitally, in a human way? How do you build those journeys to deliver that digital experience so that consumers feel at ease in doing it?

CM: What is your growth strategy for the brand?

MM: We touched on it a little bit, but it’s around how we leverage partnerships that make sense and reach audiences. One of the next partnerships we’re looking at is Formula One. That is a long-term partnership for Santander Global, at Formula One and Ferrari. We’re working with them on how we create awareness of our focus on sustainability as an organization. We’re looking for opportunities like that to showcase these core values: commitment to consumers and businesses, being here for the long-term, sustainability, equality in the marketplace. These are all pillars that we will be focusing on in the next 12 to 18 months to advance the brand message forward until we’re national and able to leverage a strong national brand positioning.

CM: What are the key trends that marketers should be paying attention to right now?

MM: To be a successful CMO, you have to be open to embracing new trends and changes. You have to embrace new mediums, things that are coming up, and see how they evolve. I also think it’s about being very data-driven. In everything we do, that’s the biggest pillar. Unless you’re part of a very large organization that spends a ton of money on marketing, how do you become very smart and surgically invest your budget—because you are the investor of that budget—in the most efficient way? The only way to do that is by being very data-driven.

My advice would be, look at how you can reach your target audience in the most effective and efficient way, and leverage great opportunities. You don’t have to be the biggest spender, but leverage what you have for how you can win in that space. And if you think that way, you could advance quickly.

The post Marketers on Fire: Santander Bank CMO Talks US Open Tennis appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Unilever brand Liquid I.V. has launched its first-ever national branding campaign across TV, OTT and out-of-home media channels to drive awareness and educate consumers about its hydration product. AdExchanger explores the company’s new approach to measurement, which taps media mix modeling, and its unique marketing journey from a Facebook and Instagram-based company to a successful business now primed to achieve scale.

The post Liquid I.V.’s First National Brand Campaign Taps Legacy Media Channels and Media Mix Modeling 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.

Godiva is putting $5 million behind the campaign, which coincides with its 95th anniversary. In the assets, the brand’s signature gold hue is offset by bright blues, pinks and magentas that will help it compete for attention on crowded supermarket shelves. Likewise, the voiceover for the 30-second spots references both “magnificent artistry” and “at a chocolate aisle near you.”

“We want them putting Godiva on their shopping list,” says Godiva CMO John Galloway. “To understand that you can buy us, you need to know we’re on the chocolate aisle.”

Now that Godiva is readily available at Costco and Target, Kroger and CVS, could the brand lose its premium cachet? Galloway doesn’t think so. “Some believe in the notion that scarcity drives premium. That’s not a notion I believe in.”

Galloway cites approachability, desirability and accessibility as the cornerstones of the campaign’s message. “One thing we got dinged on in the past was that we weren’t accessible to people,” he explains. “Now we’re saying, Hey, we’re a brand where you might not have thought you could walk into our boutiques, but we want to hang out with you, and you want to hang out with us.”

In fact, Godiva announced in January 2021 the closure of its 128 North American boutiques and cafés, whose pristine, precisely curated interiors had nurtured the brand’s aura of exclusivity. COVID-19 restrictions played a role in that decision, but even before the pandemic, “we as an organization had already started to pivot to refocus on CPG and ecommerce,” Galloway says. “The CPG business is where we continue to double down.”

While overall CPG chocolate sales since the beginning of 2021 are up 7 percent year-over-year, with premium CPG chocolate up 17 percent, Godiva has enjoyed a 22 percent lift in CPG sales. What’s more, Godiva’s ecommerce sales were up 77 percent last year, and year-to-date sales have increased another 22 percent.

The pandemic contributed to some of that increase, of course, and not just because grocery stores, drugstores and ecommerce channels were for many the sole sources for chocolates and other goods. “I think during challenging times, people want to go get a little bright spot in their day, a little bit of premium indulgence, and that’s why they turned to Godiva,” Galloway says. The campaign plays into that, with spots referencing “celebrations, every day or night” alongside imagery of Godiva candies certain to instill a craving for chocolate in viewers.

“At the real center of this is to open people’s eyes to a more wonderful world, one that chocolate is a part of,” Galloway says. The campaign will deliver that message via ads on BuzzFeed, Hulu, YouTube and Amazon, among other media properties and publishers, supported by social media. There will also be “a nice holiday promotion,” Galloway says. And in New York City in June, the team will be dish out samples from a branded pink truck to celebrate its 95th anniversary and “bring a little bit of happiness as New York comes back to life.”

The post Godiva CMO: Marketing Campaign Positions Brand as Both Accessible and Premium appeared first on Chief Marketer.