Editor's Picks for ANA Magazine
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Exhausted by the Pandemic, Consumers Want Simple
B2C April 1, 2022With their lives turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are leaning toward brands that can deliver simple experiences and talk about their products and services in a straightforward manner. But making things easier for people and explaining brand value in everyday terms does not mean companies have to dumb down the message.
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When Cancel Culture Comes
B2C March 25, 2022When consumers shame and/or boycott companies and organizations due to actions or statements they deem offensive or harmful, marketers at the center of the cancel-culture storm may want to wait until things blow over, a recent study says. At the same time, a brand could risk irrelevancy if it goes too long before responding to public concerns. How best, then, to respond?
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Corona Is Opening an Island
B2C March 11, 2022Corona Island is taking brand extension to another level. The island, which opens this summer, will offer visitors a slew of environmental lessons that they can apply at home. Felipe Ambra, global VP for Corona at Anheuser-Busch InBev, hopes the destination will also serve as a beacon for other brands eager to accelerate their sustainability efforts.
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What Will the 'Great Return' Mean for Offices?
B2C March 4, 2022With the economy growing at a rapid pace and rates of COVID-19 declining, companies that had sent workers home to work remotely are reopening their offices and people who left their jobs in the so-called “Great Resignation” are beginning to return. But both are bringing with them a different perspective on how the workplace should, well, work. Organizations will have to be much more accommodating compared to before the pandemic.
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Brands Turn Up the Dial on Podcasting
B2C February 18, 2022Podcast advertising still needs to catch up with the explosion in programming in the past few years, with plenty of marketers taking a wait-and-see approach. But with consumers increasingly burned out by screens, podcasts may grab both mind- and wallet-share a lot sooner than marketers anticipated.
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Social Commerce Goes Mainstream
B2C February 4, 2022Many American consumers may be reluctant to buy stuff from Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms. However, younger generations are among the biggest social shoppers, suggesting that adoption rates are poised to surge. Job one for marketers to join the fray is to meld their catalogs with their social media accounts and tag their products in posts and videos.
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Marketers Bolster Their Efforts to Support Mental Health
B2C January 28, 2022Even before the surge in the COVID-19 Omicron variant, there was ample data chronicling the huge toll the pandemic has taken on people's mental health. Brands in the health care sector are responding proactively, offering new counseling services at or near their retail outlets. The efforts have led marketers to reevaluate how they talk about the highly sensitive subject of mental health and reduce the stigma people have about asking for help.
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Meeting Consumers on Their Own Terms Has Seldom Been More Important
B2C January 24, 2022Diversity, equity, and inclusion is top of mind among a growing number of CMOs. In this interview, Esther Franklin, president of global strategy and cultural fluency at Spark Foundry, offers brand managers a roadmap.
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Can You Relate?
B2C December 31, 2021The traits associated with empathy have been part of the marketing mix for years. But COVID-19 has dramatically, and perhaps permanently, altered the framework when it comes to how brands communicate with their audiences.
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Branding Out of Thin Air
B2C December 17, 2021Deepfake technologies, or synthetic media, have advanced rapidly in the past few years, spawning a range of applications that could have profound implications for marketers. For all its potential, however, synthetic media presents thorny ethical and legal questions for brands and organizations.
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Brands Set the Stage for Awards Season
B2C December 3, 2021With awards season around the corner, consumer brands have to make sure their real-time marketing operations are up to speed and not in any danger of missing something that suddenly goes viral.
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Brands Offer Consumers an Escape from the Mundane
B2C November 24, 2021A growing number of consumers are looking for an escape from the familiar as they start to venture out and the pandemic starts to wane. Some niche brands are responding to the call by touting the unique experiences they have to offer while encouraging consumers to unplug from their digital devices.
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What a Hot Job Market Means for Brand Teams
B2C November 19, 2021To push back against the tide of the “Great Resignation,” agencies and brand-side marketers need to focus on building a people-first workplace. They have to be flexible when it comes to where people want to work and reassure current and prospective employees that their time is valued — inside and outside of the office. Companies demanding that people constantly be in the office are going to lose.
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Marketers Greet the Metaverse
B2C November 12, 2021Originally the stuff of science fiction, the metaverse is on the verge of reality. Companies are taking an incremental approach to entering what is a very complex universe for brands — and people — to navigate.
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There's Less and Less Daylight Between CMOs and CIOs
B2C November 5, 2021When CMOs and CIOs collaborate the results include more engaged customers and healthier returns from marketing technology investments. However, without both sides first agreeing on governing principles, merging marketing and IT teams may end up being a wasted exercise.
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Marketers Join the Fight Against Climate Change
B2C October 25, 2021The escalating threat posed by climate change has prompted some of the globe’s largest brands to take steps to dramatically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. As they bolster their sustainability efforts, marketers must strike a delicate balance between communicating how they’re helping to improve the environment and keeping the focus on the benefits of their products and services.
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Is Your Brand Loved?
B2C October 15, 2021Knowing what consumers love is all well and good. But marketers also need a sixth sense for what makes their audiences tick — particularly during stressful and uncertain times — if they want to generate love in return.
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What Does the Ascent of the Chief Purpose Officer Mean for CMOs?
B2C October 8, 2021The proliferation of chief purpose officers provides CMOs with a lot more runway to boost the value of marketing throughout the company. But as they bring their company’s brand purpose to life, marketers must take the long view and be careful not to slip into ad-mode. They also need to collaborate with other business units on the best path forward.
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Marketers Get Flexible with Payment Options
B2C September 27, 2021Brands are accelerating their buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) financing options to appeal to younger consumers looking for more flexible ways to pay for their stuff. At the same time, retailers are trying to increase the appeal of BNPL to older generations used to traditional credit cards.
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With New NCAA Policy, Brands Win Big
B2C September 17, 2021Brands and organizations are scrambling to sign up athletes after NCAA rule changes give amateur athletes the opportunity to sell their name, image, and likeness. Some deals could reach epic proportions. Sports marketing may never be the same.
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