Partner Content

Influencer marketing has redefined the way companies drive awareness of their business. Leveraging brand messaging, endorsements, or product placements from industry icons in direct mail campaigns can help companies further capture consumer attention when and where it matters. Here’s how brands can leverage today’s top direct mail innovations and tactics to help make the most of their influencer marketing efforts.

The production back office is a hive of activity before, during, and after the cameras roll. Teams manage a multitude of essential functions, including onboarding talent and crew, tracking the post-production process, and managing the hand-off to campaign activators.

Choosing between in-house and outsourced marketing is an age-old debate, and there has been a lot of industry discussion over the past year about brands opting to bring their outsourced agency work in-house. The idea is that brands can cut costs, increase focus on their business, and improve speed to market. However, there are pros and cons to making this change.

With streaming at an all-time high, having a CTV-focused media strategy is now table stakes for advertisers. But it’s not smooth sailing just yet. At the same time as marketers shift ad dollars to streaming TV, they’re waking up to a world with holes in identity resolution, which makes it difficult to accurately engage and report on the new CTV audience.

One of the most pronounced effects of the pandemic has been the change in how people shop at brick-and-mortar stores: They have become more deliberate in their behavior, focused on keeping within budgets, making fewer visits, and getting in and out as fast as possible.

TV is undergoing a generational shift from linear to a fragmented landscape of digital, over-the-top (OTT), and connected TV (CTV). Now it falls on whether walled gardens or advertisers dictate the terms of this massive transition.

With large swaths of the workforce at home or staying home more to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, people are spending a lot more time in leisurewear, research has found. For marketers, the change in wardrobe has some interesting implications that affect inventory, marketing, and messaging. This article dives deep into not only demographics but other nuanced cross-comparisons brands and buyers should know.

The pending changes in the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) are setting off alarms for marketers. To succeed, a true industry solution must work cross-device and cross-screen; allow advertisers to reach their critical audiences; be completely measurable, neutral, and interoperable; and, most importantly, put consumer privacy first. A number of contenders exist, but only one truly fits the bill. Here’s how these identity solutions currently stack up.

In years past, content meant a few highly rated prime programs and sports. Today, it’s thousands of titles available across multiple platforms, so each consumer can seek what they love. So far, it does not look like there will be a winner in the ad-supported streamlining platforms; instead, those that generate great content will get time from consumers. As the TV landscape continues to shift, marketers will need to change in kind; here’s what they can do to adapt.

While consumers are ready for a renewed sense of normalcy, the shift to digital remains. Marketing teams need an integrated, customer-first strategy that aligns with short- and long-term digital behaviors. The strategy should combine digital and traditional tactics, leverage data to personalize campaigns and maximize reach, and be flexible enough to adapt and scale over time.

The pandemic has raised the stakes and allure of click-and-collect. That’s because it’s a form of commerce offering more than just a convenience for routine weekly grocery shopping, but also a way to avoid stores altogether.

While many marketers currently find themselves in unexpected and challenging situations, they could benefit from using this moment as an opportunity to prepare for what’s next. Doing so will require data and the right technology to wield it. So what should brands do to harness the full effect of data in 2020 and beyond? Here are three ways marketers can put data to work.

By using the right data to identify differences between two outwardly identical groups, a brand can make better decisions which to reach and how. One key data point that can have major implications for a brand’s marketing ROI? Financial durability.

The disruption of TV and the decay of linear reach are here. Technology is giving consumers new ways to view TV content, but TV ad planning and measurement often live within legacy tools built for that time when TV was linear only. That’s changing.

For marketers, the primary benefit of keeping the data close is helping customers transform and adapt their marketing strategies to a rapidly changing landscape. Brands also need to benchmark themselves against macro trends and make data-driven decisions to better navigate the new terrain shaped by the pandemic.

A strategic, companywide approach to governing production spend is still a relatively new concept for many CMOs, but the approach can help marketers simplify and optimize complex processes by consolidating and standardizing data across all production activity. Here’s how to get started.

Before rushing to copy the offline marketing efforts of direct-to-consumer brands, it’s crucial for traditional brands to first understand the overall purpose driving the strategy. The timing, messaging, and medium also play a part in the broader scheme of the campaign.

Since the pandemic began, video consumption has grown across all categories. But most marketers struggle to take advantage of video because they are caught between traditional linear TV and digital video and they lack the tools to handle both at once.

As more and more people look to brands to affect positive social change, companies that demonstrate leadership, confidence, responsibility, and, above all, safety, are likely to be rewarded.

Brands have to turn run-of-the-mill interactions with customers and prospects into something remarkable and unexpected. Such experiences not only boost the top and bottom lines but also strengthen brands and turn their customers into advocates for their products and services.