An Unlikely Duo

Crockpot - yes, that Crockpot - is getting into the NFT game. As they approach 50 years in business, the company is looking to diversify their consumer base by entering the oh-so-young-and-cool arena of NFT's. The open auction style release will feature designs that honor their past and future and be sold on OpenSea with profits going to charity. 

As the NFT/crypto world evolves, it's so interesting to see how major corporations react to the hottest thing in technology since the iPhone. Crockpot is probably one of the most unlikely players you'd see getting in the game but, surprisingly, it's also one of the first. By using this channel to build brand awareness, Crockpot is also, somehow, showing that the company is innovative and is willing to take risks to engage and broaden their target customer. This more than likely piggy backs off of the massive amounts of cooking younger demographic groups did at home during the pandemic. It's a strong, smart play and it'll be interesting to see how much success it brings. 

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-crockpot-brand-auctioning-first-ever-nft-to-celebrate-its-50th-anniversary-301399827.html

Marketing Futurist's Predictions: Still relevant 5 years later?

Can a Marketing Futurist's Predictions Stand the Test of Time?

Gerd Leonhard is a renowned Marketing futurist. Let's evaluate his predictions from 2013 to today... 

1. By 2020, most interruptive marketing will be gone. Instead, marketing will be personalized, customized, and adapted to what I have expressed as my wishes or opt-ins — which essentially means that advertising becomes content.

On track, but not there yet. Digital marketing strives to involve the customer and interact with them rather than push content. YouTube ads and TV commercials are still rather invasive, and not everyone has the power to pay to get rid of them. I hope this change does take effect by 2020.

2. The idea of having a separate marketing department is going to vanish. In the future, the “reason to buy” will be socially motivated

Yes! As noted in my previous post about digital natives, brands spend more than ever on engaging content (like Instagram ads masked as posts, and funny videos like Honda's bad lip reading commercial). Backcountry, an outdoor lifestyle company, does a great job with their email campaigns to entice purchases based on hiking, camping, and climbing lifestyle choices. He is 10/10 spot on.

Example: USA Triathlon article I wanted to read, so I pursued the content of my own accord. This strengthens the trust in USAT and my relationship with the brand. There are lots of examples of film shorts and posts that have the same effect.

3. Location-based services will be immensely valuable and useful, but not until we have some kind of a privacy bank — some authorized authority or entity that will keep the public safe, and that has a neutral objective

Perhaps GDPR will help with the unethical use of data, however this is still a forthcoming change. Would be a welcome update by 2020.

4. Companies are going to try to predict how people feel about their brand, and then adjust in real time by changing features, and starting new conversations with customers in real time.

Yes: Based on Ankit's recent post about automated marketing, this seems to be accurate.

Marketing Automation is a category of software, paired with data & business processes, 

designed to streamline, integrate, automate, measure and optimize a broad set of 

marketing tasks and workflows across channels and partners.

5. Companies can collect all the data they want, but data alone will never be enough. You still need to reach consumers on an emotional level.

True. Consumers are less likely to be loyal to the brands of yesteryear unless they improve offerings and features. 

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Brand Reputation Protection & Programmatic Advertising: What Does the Data Say?

Brand Reputation Protection & Programmatic Advertising: What Does the Data Say?

This article offers an insight into the risks of programmatic advertising. 
Based on a study by CMO Council and Dow Jones of 300+ senior marketing decision makers, the report Brand protection from digital content infection: Safeguarding brand reputation through diligent ad channel selection questions the up and downsides of a $40 billion programmatic advertising market.

Who is concerned?
72% of brand advertisers are worried about brand integrity and digital display placement

What are the challenges with programmatic location? 
Risk of ads appearing alongside conflicting or hosted on disreputable websites.
The large call to action is 25% of the marketers have examples of their ads appearing alongside and compromising content. This is not the only concern as less extreme challenges such as appearing alongside conflicting and off-brand/off-message content impacts the efficacy of such ads.

What does the audience think? 

63% of consumers respond more favorably to ads which are hosted on trusted and well-established media environments.

Why does this matter?

Brand reputation and image can be damaged by incidental association with content, in a reactionary digital world, this can harm a brand despite the lack of endorsement or affiliation with the content or website the ad appears on- Reputation is key.

5 Key Response Actions of Brand Decision Makers 
(% of CMO Council Survey Respondents Focused on Key Action)

1. 48% Developing digital advertising guidelines for their agency and ad buying networks
2. 37% Relying on their media buying firm to better manage and control placements
3. 32% Tracking and monitoring digital advertising placements internally
4. 27% Moving to programmatic direct buys and private exchanges rather than bidding in open exchanges
5. 24% Developing whitelists of pre-approved publishing channels and reputable content/editorial channels

"Our member research shows clients are going to be putting more pressure on their advertising and media-buying partners to provide greater due diligence, control and monitoring when it comes to ensuring ad placement efficacy through automated platforms," Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council

What's the end result? 
Marketers will likely shift their ad spend toward the most trusted and proven digital channels and websites, moving towards pre-approving channels to host their ads content.