Brand in action: How Genki Forest plans to be the next Coca-Cola

From an investment background, to selling sparkling water and tea, as well as building a new energy drink sub-brand, Genki Forest is a disruptor brand with plans to go global.

Key insights

• One of Genki Forest’s goals is to restart from a brand-focused point of view, rather than a more product-oriented one.
• Genki Forest doesn’t want to be just a Chinese company going abroad but to be a truly international company.
• Managing a brand and building a team are about the quality of relationships, caring for team members and having a vision.

Key quote

“We always have this consensus within the company that we have to be problem-oriented. Everyone can make the decision to change” – Uki Zhang, Partner and Head of Functional Brands and P, Genki Forest.

Five key priorities for delivering effective advertising

WARC today releases ‘Anatomy of Effectiveness: 2022 Edition’, a white paper giving brand marketers, advertising agencies and media owners a fresh perspective on the five key building blocks of effectiveness.

Why it matters

Much has changed since WARC published the first Anatomy of Effectiveness in 2019, David Tiltman, SVP Content, WARC, observes: “We’ve had a pandemic that saw budgets switch out of brand investment into performance marketing; we’ve seen the rise of ‘retail media’ platforms that are reshaping the media landscape; and with the impending death of the cookie we see a growing lack of confidence in advertising and media measurement.

“This updated edition of our white paper draws on new thinking and the latest evidence to present the key building blocks required to deliver commercial impact today.”

Five priorities

• Invest for growth

Understanding how factors such as brand size, campaign investment and category dynamics will determine effectiveness are key first steps when it comes to setting budgets and agreeing on objectives. Getting the right framework for investment is crucial if a campaign is to meet its potential.

• Balance your spend

Set the right framework for investment to ensure sustainable success. Whether it is long-term effects vs short-term sales impact, brand-building vs performance marketing, broad reach vs active in-market buyers or upper funnel vs lower-funnel, plan for effectiveness across different timeframes, messaging, audience types and buyer journeys to deliver maximum growth.

• Plan for reach

Campaign reach is becoming harder to achieve as media consumption fragments. This is forcing marketers to reconsider long-held assumptions about reach and frequency management. Factors to be considered include brand objectives, media selection and consumer purchase habits.

• Be creative

Creativity makes a difference and is the most powerful weapon under the marketer’s control. There is widespread evidence that creativity delivers increased effectiveness when it is distinctive, engaging, emotional and has some longevity. Recent research cited in LIONS’ State of Creativity 2022 study claims only 8% of agencies feel confident in convincing clients to invest in high-quality creativity and 12% of clients feel confident in convincing the CFO to invest in high quality creative.

• Plan for recognition

Advertising must be associated with the brand behind it, if it is to work. Planning for recognition involves creating shortcuts in consumers’ minds that make brands more memorable, impactful and easy to recall. Failure to brand communications properly is a common pitfall. Investing in and nurturing distinctive assets will enable quick recognition.

The white paper, launched in conjunction with WARC's Anatomy of Effectiveness hub, features new case studies, expert opinions and over 20 'Evidence' decks. WARC clients can read the full report here. A sample edition is available for all.

Highlights from the white paper will be presented to Cannes Lions attendees today as part of a full week’s worth of content curated by WARC, together with the world’s leading effectiveness experts, covering strategy, media, creative and digital commerce. For more details on WARC x Cannes Lions, click here. 

Move over shrinkflation, here comes skimpflation

If shrinkflation is a manufacturing sleight of hand, reducing pack sizes while maintaining the price, at least consumers are still getting the real deal; with skimpflation, that’s not the case, as lower quality ingredients and materials are used or service levels are cut, even as prices stay the same.

Why it matters

It’s a new name for an old practice – coined by NPR in the US – but there are very real implications for brand equity. And consumers do notice. According to the chief executive of the UK’s Institute of Customer Service, “The number of customers experiencing a problem with an organisation is at its highest ever level.” 

Its most recent data shows 16% of customers had experienced a problem with a brand’s service in the previous six months, with quality issues or items being out of stock the most common complaints.

Examples of skimpflation

• Slower delivery times, whether that’s pizzas or furniture. “That loss of timeliness is a quality downgrade,” economist Alan Cole tells the Guardian. 
• Cancelled or delayed flights. Staff shortages are at the root of the recent and ongoing chaos at UK airports.
• Thin socks. Economics professor David Blanchflower recalls that in previous recessions “the price of socks remained the same and, as costs changed, the thickness of the sock changed”.
• Menu engineering. Restaurants use cheaper ingredients and/or adjust the meat-to-veg ratio with less, expensive meat and more, cheaper vegetables. 

Final thought

“Skimpflation is a leadership issue masquerading as an economic issue,” suggests leadership strategist Scott Edinger, writing in Forbes. “Successfully combatting it will help you preserve your brand, strengthen your differentiators, and succeed where others fail. Especially with a recession looming on the horizon.”

Sourced from Guardian, Forbes, Traveller, NPR

Australia in 2021: a generational shift and more diversity

Australia’s Baby Boomers are on the verge of being displaced as the nation’s largest generation by Millennials, according to the latest census, which also finds that more than half of the population was born overseas or have a parent who was. 

Why it matters

Boomers and Millennials now each account for 21.5% of the population, with Boomer numbers on the way down and Millennial numbers on the way up. There are implications for everything from government policy to marketing strategy, which may need to be adjusted to reflect shifting demographics. Similarly, new migration patterns may require a rethink of some brand communications.

Takeaways

• The latest five-yearly census shows the population has increased by more than two million people (+8.6%) since the 2016 census.
• Half the growth in population has come from overseas arrivals: the proportion of Australian residents that are born overseas (first generation) or have a parent born overseas (second generation) is now above 50%.
• After England, India and China are the main source of overseas arrivals, followed by New Zealand and the Philippines.  
• The number of people using a language other than English at home has increased by nearly 800,000 (792,062) from 2016 to over 5.5 million people.
• The number of people identifying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander jumped by a quarter from the last census; they now number 812,728 or about 3.2% of the population.

Sourced from Australian Bureau of Statistics, BBC, Guardian

Consumers increasingly turn to private-label products

Shoppers are reaching for privately owned brands over big-name products, both for lower prices and increased availability during the pandemic, as well as a myriad of other conveniences, according to trade body the Food Industry Association’s (FMI) 2022 Power of Private Brands report.

Why it matters

For consumers looking to save money during the COVID-19 pandemic, private brands posed a viable alternative to national ones. But more than two years after the onset of the crisis, many shoppers are still maintaining a focus on small brands, for the price and value proposition, putting the onus on marketers to make products available and accessible in order to win against the competition.

Takeaways

• Forty percent of consumers have reportedly increased their store-branded purchases since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Three quarters of that portion of consumers said they will continue shopping private labels in the future.
• Sixty-three percent of the study’s respondents who purchase private brands said that they do so because of increased value perceived from the transaction.
• In contrast, 55% of respondents said that they purchase private brands because of lower cost.
• “Less than 2% of shoppers say the only reason they purchase private brands is because other products were out of stock,” said Doug Baker, vice president of industry relations at FMI.
• Additionally, “when asked about 14 product attributes,” shoppers pointed to a handful of essential reasons for choosing private-brand products. 
  These reasons included: taste (42%), quality (43%), meal planning needs (24%), and health needs (20%), as well general interest and curiosity (20%).
• Forty-two percent of respondents said they liked the taste of private-brand products.
• Forty-three percent of respondents reported choosing store-brands for superior quality.

The big idea

“When it comes to taste and quality, shoppers clearly see private brands as a good option, on par with national brands” - Doug Baker, vp/industry relations at FMI.

Sourced from Supermarket News

Why Apple is a guide for modern brands

Apple tends to be thought of as a brand apart – simply on a different level from most others and therefore not really worth exploring – but veteran strategists Tom Morton and James Hurman told the audience at a WARC session during Cannes Lions 2022 that Apple and other digital brands’ experiences are not only useful, but can strengthen existing models of brand growth.

Why it matters

Penetration still matters, but what of the brands that have really grown through loyalty?

What’s happening

Morton, R/GA’s global chief strategy officer, who made this point more fully in an exclusive essay for WARC in May, outlined his idea that the lessons of Professor Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow remain vital but that there is a different generation of brands and companies, mostly in tech, that have bucked the model and that these ideas should be absorbed into the corpus of marketing knowledge. Without it, we’re trying to fix Google-shaped problems with Tony the Tiger tools.

At the other end of the scale, many young digital startup brands delude themselves that their low-cost acquisitions will continue indefinitely; James Hurman, founding partner of Previously Unavailable, and a long-time WARC collaborator, outlines how an idea of future demand should become part of the startup lexicon if they are to emulate ecosystem brands like Apple.

The ideas

How Brands Grow has had a colossal influence on marketing, but much of it is based on cases from CPGs or “replenishment” buying brands that grow because their products are bought by increasing numbers of light buyers. In this way, loyalty is at best overrated and at worst a harmful myth. Penetration is what you need.

However, HBG doesn’t include many cases from streaming services, DTC, search engines or subscription businesses – which tend to be the biggest contemporary companies. R/GA, the tech-focused agency that Morton joined six years ago, works on these kinds of brands and spotted an opportunity to add some useful caveats. 

In response, Prof. Sharp maintained that it is still user growth that matters most, with the example of Netflix showing how higher revenue per user was not enough to stem the effects of user decline. 

Apple

Between 2016 and 2020, Apple grew its total customers by 16%, but revenues grew quicker at closer to 27%.  The reason, explains Morton, is an explosion in unit sales, which tripled. This is the beauty of an ecosystem: “you can start to add products and services that fit nicely together. And you can start to find growth that a specific product-penetration alone model wouldn’t find.”

Targeting before broadening

Many startups grow first by finding a specific, niche audience. Startups “should expect to go through a targeted growth phase before they target the general market,” explains Morton. It’s not because they’re “dumb or immature” but early on you need to achieve product-market fit before progressing to the general market.

But then the opportunities broaden. “If you’re a disrupter, your product isn’t fixed,” he points out. “You can actually harness product innovation to grow your penetration in a way that, respectfully, I don’t think the standard brand model accounts for.”

Future demand

However, startups need to be aware of the existing demand trap. James Hurman explains that startups tend to follow a tested pattern. The company has a solution to a problem that an existing-demand audience already have (especially in B2B). The problem is that these are a vanishingly small group. And usually within about two years those buyers are exhausted and you need to grow future demand.

Those ready to buy now need product and price, but the future demand audience doesn’t need any of that. “What it’s all about in terms of driving those future customers is building a brand in a way that makes it familiar to that big group. They become familiar with you, and they feel positively towards you.”

Effectively, you need an eye on both – in the style of Apple – so that brands are able to build demand that they can convert at a sustainable rate. “This is really the answer to creating sustainable long-term growth”.

A better definition of brand building

If you’re looking for a good definition of brand-building for a non-marketer, the following is key: brand advertising is about building the company’s reputation and name “among an audience who aren’t necessarily going to buy from us right now but will in the future”.

Reported by SPT [Image: Apple]

Coca-Cola's three key marketing metrics

The Coca-Cola Co., the soft drinks giant, is focusing on weekly consumption levels, brand equity and the profit from its investment as it tracks the impact of its marketing programs.

Coca-Cola’s pivot to experience

• Manuel Arroyo, global chief marketing officer at The Coca-Cola Co., told the dbAccess Global Consumer Conference that its marketing was transitioning into a “world of experiences”.
• This involves connecting shopper passion points – like music, gaming and sports – with specific “consumption occasions” for the company’s products.
• “Consumption occasions are basically about explaining, to someone that doesn’t drink our portfolio today, when, where, and why they should consider one of our brands in a unique way,” Arroyo added.

Weekly consumption within the “consumer base”

• One key metric in tracking success is looking at penetration rates within the consumer base.
• The typical person has 50 “beverage occasions” a week, and anyone who “repetitively” drinks one of the firm’s brands once per seven days is included in its “consumer base”, Arroyo said.
• At present, on this metric, the consumer base for Coke stands at “slightly below” 500 million people, from a global population, Arroyo noted, of 7.7 billion people. “So, the growth potential is just phenomenal,” he continued.

Marketing effectiveness rises

• A second “critical metric” for The Coca-Cola Co. is the effectiveness of its marketing communications, according to Arroyo.
• “We look into, particularly, how much profit are we driving per invested dollar in marketing,” he said.
• This metric improved by 7% last year, he noted, suggesting it has made tangible progress in this regard.

Brand equity is a pricing proxy

• The equity of the assets within The Coca-Cola Co.’s portfolio is another important indicator, not least as it gives the company potential space to raise prices in inflationary times.
• “Equity is very important, because it … is what we define as ‘earning a right’ to take pricing,” Arroyo said.
  
• “Moving forward, you will see how we move more into ensuring that we first drive our consumer base, but also increase our equity at least in line or more than inflation.”

Final thought

“We’d love to invest more and more in marketing. We’ve going to make sure, first, that the base of our marketing investment, which is very substantial, is as effective and as efficient as it should be” – Manuel Arroyo, global chief marketing officer, The Coca-Cola Co.

Sourced from SeekingAlpha

Healthy eating is a casualty of cost of living

As the cost of living bites, UK consumers are cutting back on perceived healthy food choices, with fewer now buying organic or consciously avoiding genetically modified crops.

That’s according to new IPA TouchPoints 2022 data looking at daily lifestyle choices and food purchasing decision-making in the light of current inflationary and income pressures. 

Why it matters

The data reveals a strong correlation between consumers’ squeezed budgets and their less healthy food choices. And since the data was collected in Q1 it’s likely that these behaviours will only have become more pronounced. 

Financial concerns increase

• The number of adults saying they are coping on their current salary has fallen 5.5% since pre-2020 lockdown to the first quarter of this year, from 67.4% to 63.7%. 
• Half of young adults and just under two thirds of women say they are coping on their current income. 
• Over a quarter of adults and 40% of the younger generation feel their level of debt will increase in the next few years, with this figure rising by over 50% for 35-54 year olds since pre-lockdown 2020.

Food ethics are less of an issue

• The number of adults preferring to eat organic food has fallen by almost a third in early 2022, particularly among younger generations and women.
• The number of all adults preferring not to buy food that has been genetically modified has dropped by almost 40%.

• The number of adults who state they always read the labels on packaging before they buy food is down by almost a quarter.

Key quote

“People are having to buy what they can afford rather than having the luxury of choice ... for brands, it may be prudent to focus their comms activity on asserting value for money, on staples vs luxury items and on being seen to be in tune and supportive of their consumers at this tough time” – Belinda Beeftink, Research Director, IPA.

Sourced from IPA

IPL ecosystem faces shake-up

A combination of inflated media rights and falling ratings means that advertisers will be taking a long, hard look at their ROI from different media at next year’s India Premier League. 

Why it matters

Broadcast rights for the next period were sold for more than three times the previous deal, which is inevitably going to result in higher ad rates. Would-be advertisers will have to make hard choices between appearing on TV or on digital or sponsoring teams.

At the same time viewership declined by 30% or more for the initial stages of this year’s event (although that may be related to the easing of COVID restrictions), meaning that advertisers are re-evaluating potential reach. “While not all advertisers necessarily come to IPL only for the ratings and they are not the entire game, they are still very important,” Madison Media CEO Vikram Sakhuja told The Economic Times.

Takeaways 

• Ad rates could increase up to 10% for TV and 30% for digital.
• Startups accounted for more than half of the IPL’s advertisers in the past two seasons but their funding is drying up – a concern for broadcast rights holders.
  

Final thought

The IPL media rights auction saw the value of digital rights exceed TV broadcast rights for the first time. “IPL media rights is a case study for the entire world to understand where the OTT industry is going,” Jean Francois Pigeon, Global EVP & Head of Sales-Marketing at Synamedia, told e4m.

Sourced from Economic Times, e4m

Cracking the code of creative effectiveness

The ANA, WARC, and LIONS have announced a unique long-term research partnership to create a global framework that guides and supports brands in ‘Cracking the Code of Creative Effectiveness’. 

Why it matters

The initial goal of this project is to address both the culture of effectiveness within organizations as well as the elements of campaign effectiveness. Other fundamentals of effectiveness, aligned with the ANA Global Growth agenda’s Brand, Creativity & Media pillar, will be incorporated into the creation of the roadmap and foundation for the practice.

What’s happening

• Over the course of the next twelve months, this partnership will work together, using insights from the ANA, WARC & LIONS, and leveraging work from award-winning marketers, to create a framework that CMOs and brands can follow to establish a culture of both effectiveness and creative excellence leading to long term success for their businesses. 
• As part of the partnership, the ANA and WARC will conduct an extensive worldwide qualitative study among CMOs to identify the elements of a culture of effectiveness and jumpstart the industry in moving towards more effective marketing. The study will build on the existing Creative Effectiveness Ladder, developed by WARC and LIONS, a framework to understand how to utilize creativity to drive specific marketing outcomes.
• To kick-start the project, on-stage interviews were conducted at last week’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Further insights will be presented at the ANA Masters of Marketing conference 25-28 October 2022.

Key quote

“The aim of this partnership is to drive a culture of effectiveness in our industry. WARC’s vast knowledge base, proprietary data and extensive experience in marketing effectiveness, combined with the ANA’s work with their Global CMO Growth Council in partnership with LIONS, will help accelerate the practice of effectiveness” – Paul Coxhill, CEO of WARC.

For further information or for any CMOs wanting to get involved, please go to www.warc.com/ana. 

CEOs think CMOs can do better

The majority of US chief marketing officers receive a “B” grade from chief executives with regards to their overall performance, a study* finds, with many needing to improve in terms of thinking big and understanding corporate finances.

Overall performance scores

• Chief executives were asked to rate their CMOs on a similar spectrum to that used in the academic world, with “A” grades being the best and “D” the worst.
• Only 16% of respondents gave their marketing lead an “A” grade for overall performance, while 55% scored a “B”, 23% got a “C” and 6% received a “D”.
• Similarly, just 16% of CMOs were afforded an “A” grade for their ability to drive company growth, while “41%” received a “B”.

Areas for improvement

• Exactly 25% of CEOs regarded marketing heads as possessing “above-average” skills when it comes to decision-making.
• Another 51% suggested that their CMO “plays safe” and avoids risk, whereas 27% thought marketers “play big” and inspire other members of the C-suite.
• While 53% of chief executives agreed their chief marketer understood profit-and-loss statements and balance sheets, 47% did not have this confidence.
• Just 49% of CEOs concurred with the statement that the CMO “is on my side [and] I trust them,” the study found.

*The study was conducted by Boathouse, a full-service agency based in Boston. Its chief executive (CEO) panel was made up of 150 corporate leaders from enterprises in the United States. The sample was evenly split between three cohorts in terms of annual company revenue: companies earning between $250m and $500m ; from $500 m to less than $1bn; and over $1bn.

Sourced from Boathouse

How Clorox thinks about purpose

Brand purpose has often been presented as being “much more fancy than it actually is”, according to Linda Rendle, chief executive of The Clorox Company, the consumer packaged goods manufacturer.

How Clorox defines brand purpose

• Speaking at the dbAccess Global Consumer Conference 2022, Rendle outlined how Clorox thinks about this issue.
• “Purpose is about knowing your stakeholders and then acting in a way that's consistent with what’s important to them and that drives why you do what you do,” she said.
  
• Based on this thinking, Clorox has developed its own clear set of objectives. “For us, [our] purpose is: We want to put people at the center of everything we do. We champion people to be well and thrive.
  “And in order for people to live a good life, we have to have a healthy planet. We have to have a healthy social structure. And so we make choices consistent with our brands to do that.”

Turning theory into practice

• Sustainability is a critical element of its strategy, such as reducing its use of original-use plastic and fiber packaging by 50 by 2030%.
• The company has also committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, a goal benefitting the planet and letting consumers act in accordance with the values.
• “That is an important way that we create value for the people that we serve. To give them options to be more responsible: that’s important to them,” Rendle said.
  
• Improving the quality of life by making more effective products is another aspect of its approach, as tasks like household clearing are “not the most joyous thing to do”, she added.
• “So the way you create value is you make it easier for people. You make it a better experience,” Rendle said.
  

The big idea

“That’s all purpose is to us. It’s really about being as human-centered and people-centered as possible, and then knowing that’s how we create value over the long-term by meeting those people where they are” – Linda Rendle, CEO, The Clorox Company.

P&G’s three principles for creative marketing

Procter & Gamble, the consumer packaged goods manufacturer, is tapping into creative principles based on human connection, product performance and diverse partnerships as it seeks to drive growth.

Why it matters

Growth is the superpower of the creative industries, according to Marc Pritchard, P&G’s chief brand officer. Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2022, he set up three principles for defending adspend, creating business growth and attempting to make a difference to society, not only as part of brand purpose, but across the marketing ecosystem itself.

The three principles

• Creativity must feel personal and talk about people’s lives, reflecting their reality and making their day a little better. “It touches people,” Pritchard said. “You can make them laugh, cry, act – and, of course, buy.” (WARC subscribers can read more here.)
• Communicating product performance and superiority matters for driving growth at a time of growing competition. “Performance matters. There’s a job to be done and a problem to solve,” said Pritchard. “We need to convey what that everyday product is, what it does, how to use it, why it’s better – and do so in a way that is useful and interesting.”
  
• The third creative principle for P&G is to build trusted creative partnerships – and to make sure these efforts reflect the diversity of the audience it is hoping to reach.

The big idea

“It’s creativity that makes markets bigger; that inspires innovation to attract more people to markets; that advances economic inclusion, where more people benefit through higher incomes, increased wealth, and more purchasing power” – Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer, P&G.

Brand in action: How Thread to Fabric champions the ethics of sustainability in SE Asia

Can brands effectively address climate change without also tackling other social impact issues in their sustainability strategy? WARC speaks to Jakarta-based Felicity Pascoe – senior gender equality, disability and social inclusion advisor – about this interplay and how to onboard more conscious consumers in Indonesia.

Why it matters

The issues of social impact and environmental impact are different but they are interlinked and mutually supportive. Brands need to look more holistically at their sustainability strategy.

Insights

• The sustainability movement is aligning with a broader movement in Indonesia towards fitness, health and wellness.
• Brands need to understand the social impact of climate change and how it worsens social inequality.
• For a brand’s sustainability strategy to be environmentally friendly and ethical, it must ensure fair pay and fair work.

Key quote

“Authentic sustainable brands that are profitable are a clear indication there is a conscious consumer market we need to be catering for” – Felicity Pascoe – senior gender equality, disability and social inclusion advisor and founder of kids clothing brand Thread To Fabric.

Employee comms becomes a CMO priority

Communicating with a brand’s employees has long been relegated to corporate newsletters or town hall meetings, but CMOs are increasingly looking to their own employees for inspiration as the brand values become more of a recruitment consideration.

Why it matters

Increasingly, marketers need to work with other functions within the organisation – such as human resources – to further the aims of the whole business.

“This is a key area where brand can play in terms of attracting future talent,” said Ty Heath, Director, Market Engagement, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn, following her presentation at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. “People see how powerful your brand is and want to work for your brand, which lowers your cost to have them join and helps them stay at your company much longer. 

“All in all, it’s something marketing can bring to an organisation in partnership with the human resources team,” she said. 

What CMOs are saying on the Croisette

“By opening up meetings to 300-400 people – optionally – for full transparency, authenticity [becomes] our internal medium and agenda….it increases employee engagement, their perception of being part of it and being able to contribute to discussions” – Attila Cansun, CMO, No7 Beauty Company.

“The question you always have to ask yourself as an employee is: do the organisation which I work for and my values align to each other? And sometimes they don’t. If they don’t, that’s okay, you can pivot out. For us, it’s about always having conversations” – Sandra Lopez, CMO, Microsoft Advertising.

“In a world where consumer expectations and employee expectations are constantly changing … you’ve got to move with it, you can’t just sit there and be upset that they did” – Lindsay Radkoski, VP - National Marketing, Wendy’s USA.

“There’s one more stakeholder not to be forgotten: HR. We are in the deepest war for talent ... So where’s our position? How do we stay attractive?” – Christian Deuringer, Head of Global Brand Communications, Allianz.

Ads in a relevant context boost favourablity and intent metrics

Increased consumer attention for contextually relevant ads leads to greater purchase intent and brand favourability, new research from Integral Ad Science shows.

Why it matters

With a cookieless future on the horizon, marketers are seeking alternatives to maintain and improve their advertising ROI. The Ad Context & Attention study from IAS, using eye tracking technology from Tobii, highlights the role that context may play in this regard.

Takeaways 

• Contextual targeting strategies yield stronger consumer attention: The in-context ad was the first page element consumers noticed. It took just 0.4 seconds for consumers to notice the in-context ad vs. 1.0 seconds to notice the out-of-context ad when viewing the article. 
• Contextually relevant ads boost brand favourability and consumer purchase intent: Purchase intent was 14% higher among consumers who viewed the in-context ad. This ad also generated a 5% higher brand favourability compared to the out-of-context ad. 
• In-context ads generate higher memorability and increase brand recall and awareness: Consumers were four times more likely to remember a brand, unaided, after seeing an in-context ad versus an out-of-context ad. In general, in-context display ads were more likely to be considered interesting, easy to read, clear and informative.

Key quote

“Desired outcomes can be significantly influenced through contextually relevant ad placements. There is a massive opportunity for brands … to amp up the power of their campaigns and affect the bottom line ” – Tony Marlow, CMO, IAS. 

Sourced from IAS

Luxury experts hope for downturn not recession

An “economic slowdown”, driven by volatile factors like the war in Ukraine, is forecast by 59% of luxury experts in a recent survey to lead to a downturn in the industry, compared with 41% who think a full-blown luxury recession is coming.

Why it matters

Periods of financial stress cause many people to choose not to make bigger-ticket purchases. And even affluent shoppers often decide against conspicuous consumption when the economy is facing tough times. Luxury brands must find the right equation to serve their target audience while providing a level of indulgence for active category buyers.

Takeaways

• Though spending on necessities such as food, housing, and technology is projected to remain steady through economic crises, the luxury industry could see significant effects. This was according to a survey conducted by the research firm the Luxury Institute of its Global Luxury Expert Network (GLEN) members, a group of industry leaders around the globe, including chief executives, senior executives, consultants and industry  experts.
• A luxury downturn or recession will have differing effects on separate luxury sectors. For example, watches and jewelry are expected to take a medium hit in the event of either scenario, and luxury real estate is in a precarious spot as well, for most demographics excepting the highly affluent.
• In contrast, wines and spirits, beauty and health and wellness are all categories that experts predict will face minor hits during a downturn or recession, given their increasing value as necessities for millennial and Gen Z consumers.
• Experts view department stores as the most vulnerable institutions operating in the luxury category, due to their “historically high overheads, high inventories, and low margins”.
• A potential recession could have particularly outsized effects in Europe, given the pressure placed on commerce by the war in Ukraine. In North America, the effects will presumably be less, but still felt.

The big idea

“Downturns and recessions spawn major opportunities. This may be the worst of times; if you act with courage, skill, and conviction, you can make it the best of times” – Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute.

Sourced from Luxury Institute