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WARC Talks: Do we need to rethink ‘brand vs. performance’?

In this episode of the WARC Podcast we talk brand vs. performance marketing, and why these entrenched industry metaphors need revisiting.

• WARC’s David Tiltman is joined by Jim Stengel (ex-Procter & Gamble GMO, CEO of The Jim Stengel Company and board member at BERA Brand Management), Cait Lamberton (Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School) and Ken Favaro (former CEO of Marakon Associates and CSO of BERA Brand Management).
• As authors of a recent article on this topic, the trio make a case for moving beyond the brand/performance dichotomy.
• They discuss better ways of conceiving and measuring brand equity and why performance needs to take greater accountability for brand.

Listen to the episode in full here

Timestamps

00:57 – Introduction.

02:24 – Jim Stengel, Cait Lamberton and Ken Favaro’s article.

03:34 – Are brand and performance marketing mutually exclusive?

06:50 – Why is this topic so important?

11:11 – How aware were the authors of existing literature on this topic?

17:12 – Moving away from ‘balance’ between brand and performance.

21:36 – How to measure brand equity: the Familiarity, Regard, Meaning and Uniqueness model.

27:18 – Backing this up with robust positioning and activation.

29:45 – Applying this across categories.

34:10 – Making brand more measurable in the real world.

38:29 – How performance marketing can take greater accountability for brand.

42:45 – What should happen next in this space?

47:08 – Better ways of conceiving brand vs. performance.

Further reading

Performance marketing effectiveness needs to get better

How to marry branding and performance marketing for Pharma brands

Creative impact unpacked: Building brands for a new economy

Future of Strategy 2023: bravery in a risk-averse world

Strategy needs more revolution, a wide ranging survey of strategists for WARC’s Future of Strategy report finds; but clients appear to be drawing back on brave ideas, creating a strategy gap - here’s what you need to know. 

The Future of Strategy 2023 report, which includes quantitative and qualitative data analysis, expert commentary and advice from leading strategists, is available to WARC subscribers. 

Why the strategy gap matters

Advertising needs new ideas, but too often it prefers to run with what came before. In part, that’s down to the bravery needed to go with a big new idea, but there are other critical elements: research and insight on real people rather than lazy ideas of generations or personas; and, ultimately, putting the climate at the centre of marketing activity.

Examining the big issues defining marketing, such as economic downturn, career development, measurement and diversity, the report uncovers insights and opportunities for today’s strategists.

The method

This eleventh edition of the annual WARC study unpacks the key trends considered pivotal to the future of strategy. The research is based on a worldwide survey with 971 client- and agency-side strategists, fielded in June and July this year. 

Three ideas you need to know

1. Strategy needs more revolution 

“The future of strategy is straightforward,” observes Matt Klein, Head of Global Foresight at Reddit, and a contributor to the report. “Uphold the bureaucratic way things have always been done and study from a distance, or immerse oneself and explore the way the world truly operates to affect progress.” 

Seventy percent of strategists say their company encourages them to make brave strategic choices, in contrast, just a third (34%) agree that clients encourage strategic bravery as tightening budgets mean brands are taking fewer risks. 

Over-reliance on frameworks can leave strategists and strategies in a safe/conformist zone. Almost half (48%) of respondents agree that accepted marketing frameworks are a hindrance to strategic bravery, while 30% disagree.

2. Planning in a world where niche is big 

Seventy-six percent of strategists agree that greater emphasis on qualitative rather than quantitative methods is necessary to understand emerging and niche communities and that understanding how they spread from those communities to larger groups will be crucial moving forward.

“Niche communities… give a sneak peek into what may come in popular culture," notes Charlie Elliott, Strategy Director, Billion Dollar Boy. "[F]rom vocabulary, to fashion trends, to the next big rising star - and allow brands to get ahead of it and engage audiences with greater impact.”

3. Planning for a sustainable future

Sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) objectives rarely feature in client briefs, suggesting an intention-action gap in what marketers say, and what they do.

The majority (59%) of strategists say DEI objectives do not feature in briefs and half (50%) say sustainability never features, but strategists expect this to change. 

“Sustainability isn’t a ‘thing’ out there, it’s part of culture. If we want brands to be culturally relevant we could do worse than aligning with, amplifying and exploring themes in sustainability, nature and wellbeing,” argues Helen Brain, Communications Strategy Director, Iris, in the report. 

Bottom line

“A recurring theme in this year’s Future of Strategy report is the need for strategists to get away from their desks and meet real people. Without this, it’s harder to have a realistic understanding of people’s lives, their hopes, fears, pain points and harder to spot game changing opportunities that build a better future,” explains Lena Roland, Head of Content, WARC Strategy. 

“Calling for a revolution suggests we need a rethink. Strategies need to be more imaginative and ambitious, and research needs more respect and reality."

Go further

Two Future of Strategy podcasts will be available to all this week including one with Richard Huntington unpacking his call for a Marketing Reality Movement.

The new WARC Awards 2024 - what you need to know

Big changes are coming to WARC’s Awards: a new, global format of five leagues celebrating the best campaigns from around the world that deliver strategic brilliance and business effectiveness, before Gold regional winners compete globally for the coveted Grands Prix.

Register your interest here to receive the entry pack on launch day, 24th October 2023. 

What’s going on

Changes are being introduced to the WARC Awards for Effectiveness 2024. 

The updated WARC Awards will be organised around five regional leagues: Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and North America. 

Gold winners will compete in the Global league. 

Submissions will continue to be judged, regardless of origin, to the consistent standards laid out in the Creative Effectiveness and the B2B Effectiveness Ladders.

How it works

• In a first round of judging, entrants compete in one of five regional leagues: Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and North America. 
  
  
• Each regional league will be judged by high-calibre panels made up of senior marketers from some of the biggest brands and top agency professionals from around the region, and will be chaired by a senior industry executive. 
  
  
• In a second round, the Global league, the Gold winning entries will automatically go on to be judged by a high-profile super jury made up of all the regional league chairs (no need to re-enter or pay additional fees) for the chance to be elevated to Grand Prix status, the ultimate global recognition for marketing strategy and effectiveness. 

Key dates and information

• 24 October 2023: Open for entries
  
  
• 12 December 2023: End of early bird entry fee
  
  
• 6 February 2023: Final deadline for entries
  
  
• 14 May: Regional shortlists announced
  
  
• 20-25 May 2023: Bronze, Silver, Gold winners announced for all categories across all regions
  
  
• May-June: All Gold winners automatically proceed to the Global league
  
  
• June: WARC Awards 2024 Grand Prix winners announced during Cannes Lions week

All other WARC Awards (WARC Awards for Asian Strategy, WARC Awards for MENA Strategy, WARC Awards for Chinese Strategy, WARC Awards for Effectiveness North America) are now subsumed into these WARC Awards. 

Entry fees are priced consistently across the globe, with a lower fee for WARC customers. 

For more information on the new WARC Awards, register your interest here.

Marketers feel confident on AI

Three-quarters (73%) of marketers globally feel confident about using AI tools, according to new research* from LinkedIn, and a similar proportion (74%) anticipate that the tech will significantly change the way they work in the next year.

Key findings 

• Globally, six in ten marketers are using the technology today, with around half (49%) experimenting with tools such as ChatGPT. 
• 84% believe AI will support their work and help create space for teams to think innovatively.
• 42% hope it will help them to be more productive. 
• Marketers plan to use AI for day-to-day tasks, such as summarising lengthy articles and videos (77%), creating first drafts of written content and presentations (74%), and helping them problem solve (75%).

Why AI in the marketing industry matters

AI is still in the hype cycle: questions remain about how it operates and how reliable some of the output is, but it’s clear that the industry is taking on board the argument that AI will enable marketers to spend more time on higher value work.

LinkedIn itself is piloting Accelerate, a new automated B2B marketing-campaign-creation experience powered by AI.

* Research spanned 29,937 professionals in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, India, France, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, Italy, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, UAE and Japan, including 1,574 marketing professionals. 

Sourced from LinkedIn  

How B2B marketers can enter the ‘circle of boom’

B2B marketing and sales efforts are rarely aligned to the same audiences, leading to adverse business effects, according to research from the B2B Institute.

An analysis from LinkedIn measured the targeting overlap between sales and marketing across 7,046 B2B organisations and found the average alignment was just 16%. 

Why alignment matters

Outlining the research in Marketing Week, Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo, heads of research and development at the B2B Institute, explain that ideally marketing and sales activity should form two concentric circles, with marketing by far the bigger circle.

In other words, the degree of overlap is 100%. “B2B marketing and sales should talk to the same buyers,” they write. “When the circle of marketing and the circle of sales intersect, B2B businesses get to experience the ‘circles of boom’.”

But that is rarely happening. And they additionally caution that marketing itself is misaligned, with only an average 5% overlap between top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel marketing strategies.

Takeaways 

• When sellers reach out to buyers who have been exposed to marketing within the last 30 days, B2B buyers are, on average, 19% more likely to accept a connection request from sales.
• Those figures can be significantly higher depending on category: buyers in financial services, for example, are 56% more likely to connect with a seller when they see marketing within 30 days.
• High alignment can increase marketing-generated revenue by 208% and increase customer retention by 36%, while also reducing sales and marketing expenses.

Sourced from Marketing Week

Axel Springer goes all-in on AI

Axel Springer’s reported bid for the Telegraph Media Group could accelerate the use of generative AI in the UK’s newsrooms. 

Why generative AI matters

“Our goal is to become an AI-first company,” Samir Fadlallah, chief information officer at Axel Springer, said at the recent DMEXCO conference. As the German publisher goes all-in on AI, one can assume that any new titles it acquires will also be transformed by the tech. 

Three challenges

• Content creation and consumption. Generative AI will change how people consume content and how publishers create it, Fadlallah noted. Axel Springer is embracing the technology from both directions – using chatbots to combine news websites with generative AI-prompt engineering done by journalists, and applying the tech in newsrooms to optimise headlines, create keywords and metadata, and shorten text for social media distribution. It’s also using it in the advertising space, where it is seen as supplying a contextual targeting solution to the problems caused by the death of cookies. 
• Fake news. It’s easier than ever to create fake news using GenAI, which is itself prone to “hallucinations”. Add in deepfake video tech and the risks to society are clear. “We need to emphasise even more that we are the trusted source of news,” said Fadlallah. “We are responsible for everything we put out there.”
• The copyright issue. Regulation will come but that will take time. The chief information officer highlighted the fact that already the quality of large language models is going down as they scrape everything on the internet, including fake news and hate speech. “We’re really open to talk to these providers and provide our high quality content to them,” he said. 

Key quote

“We want to shape the future when it comes to consumption and also to content creation. We don’t want to lose the relationship to our readers. Generative AI is neither saviour nor nemesis, but will be an ally and a valued friend” – Samir Fadlallah, chief information officer at Axel Springer.

BEC

South Asian TV sees boost in US viewers

New 4k content launches appear to have been the trigger for a jump in viewership of South Asian CTV content in the US.

That’s according to ZEE5 Global, the SVOD service based in Mumbai, as reported by IndianTelevision.com. It reveals a 150% increase in its CTV base in the US over the past 12 months, along with a 75% surge in viewership.

Why South Asian audiences in the US matter

While the base figures for that growth aren’t disclosed, there’s a small but significant population of South Asians in the US, including perhaps 4.4 million of Indian origin. And with the growth of CTV among such communities, marketers face an evermore complex task in deciding how they can best reach target audiences. 

Interestingly, a group of US investors, mostly of South Asian heritage, recently made a significant investment in Major League Cricket, hoping to replicate the success of the India Premier League. The fanbase, which includes many South Asians, is said to be wealthy and successful, so definitely a segment for marketers to watch.

Takeaways 

• ZEE5 also reports a 35% year-on-year increase in content consumption and 46% growth in watch time of original content.
• Smart TVs and Amazon Fire TV are the main drivers of Connected TV growth for this segment. 
• San José is the city with the highest consumption of content on connected devices, with close to a 2x increase in users.

Sourced from IndianTelevision.com

MFA sites in industry body sights but the answer is obvious

Industry bodies, including the WFA, ANA, 4A’s and ISBA, recently defined ‘made for advertising’ (MFA) websites which are harvesting billions of ad dollars quite legally while offering advertisers nothing in return, but the solution lies in advertisers’ hands 

Why MFA sites matter

Two things. The first is the huge sum of money being wasted by advertisers: it seems extraordinary that they are willing to throw away $13bn (ANA estimates) on such sites for no return at all. Is that really just seen as a cost of doing business? 

The second thing is the concomitant amount of energy consumed in serving up those ads to MFA sites that the ANA said earlier this year accounted for 30% of all ad auctions. For an industry that talks a good game about net zero, this issue needs to be addressed. 

Typical characteristics of MFA sites 

• High ad-to-content ratio – usually twice the internet average or more.
• Rapidly auto-refreshing ad placements.
• High percentage of paid traffic sourcing – they’re highly dependent on visits sourced from clickbait ads that run on social networks and content recommendation platforms.
• Generic content – non-editorial or templated, low-quality content.
• Poorly designed, templated website designs. 

What’s the answer?

The MFA definitions above were developed in consultation with Chris Kane, founder of ad research firm Jounce Media, who points out that the existence of such sites is simply a response to the continued demands of advertisers for cheap, viewable impressions placed in front of valid human traffic. Change those demands and you can change the whole ecosystem. 

Key quote

“When marketers tell DSPs to optimize by sales, conversions and real-world outcomes, they run away from MFA. When DSPs are told to value cost per viewable impressions, they gobble up MFA” – Chris Kane, president, Jounce Media, quoted by Ad Exchanger.

Sourced from Ad Exchanger, ISBA

Mondelēz expects ‘significant’ uplift during World Cup

India’s recent victory in the Asia Cup has whetted the appetite of cricket fans for the upcoming World Cup, with brands hoping to capitalise on that enthusiasm over the next seven weeks.

For Mondelēz, sponsorship of the Asia Cup proved to be a “great investment” opportunity which it’s looking to replicate with the World Cup, according to Anjali Madan, local head of consumer experience at Mondelēz India.

Perfect timing 

With the World Cup coinciding with the festive season, “the timing couldn’t get better”, she explained to IndianTelevision.com. 

• Mondelēz is partnering with Star Sports and will be launching a number of campaigns to take advantage of an expected surge in viewing. 
• The combination of cricket and TV, she said, “helps you get that quick, rich build-up that you need … almost immediately for your campaign”.
• Mondelēz has a large gifting portfolio of brands and will be targeting different sets of consumers for the festive season.

Cricket delivers on metrics

• “One of the big things that we see every year for us when we do IPL is that the ROI uplift for us is significant,” said Madan. 
• “We see almost a 3-4X uplift that happens in the brand metrics as well as our ROI numbers when we are on cricket.” 

Sourced from IndianTelevision.com

News subscriptions vulnerable to being seen as ‘not worth it’

The idea for subscriptions originated in the media sector, but news organisations are finding that their value to consumers is more easily questioned than that of entertainment brands, figures from Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism suggest. 

Why subscriptions matter

Subscriptions for news, entertainment, or even household essentials like toilet paper are all around us. The business model became extremely popular when non-traditional sectors discovered a large and generally more predictable revenue stream built on one key decision to buy rather than a series of decisions to buy each week or month. As the model has proliferated, however, competition has intensified, leaving news brands exposed to being seen as ‘not worth it’. 

What’s going on

The study from the Reuters Institute combines data for 20 countries from its annual Digital News Report with 110 qual interviews across the UK, US, and Germany. 

• Beware introductory offers. While price promotions or introductory offers are effective in bringing onboard new subscribers, many drop off once the deal ends and they are asked to pay full price – chiming with Les Binet’s observation that “price promotions are the crack cocaine of marketing.”
  
• Differentiation. People are attracted to news brands when the content is the differentiating factor, and considered high quality, curated, and exclusive. A strong brand, based on a perception of quality and a good experience, is also vital. 
• Market context matters. In the US, 21% of people surveyed subscribe to a digital news product; in Germany the figure is 11% and in the UK it's 9%, because there are more free news services and fewer pay. The aggressive pricing of entertainment streaming services have a similar effect of conditioning expectations. 

Key quote

“News is as important as anything, but if I were to cut one, I would first think of cutting my news subscription before any other” – Male, 29, based in the United States and a new subscriber. 

Sourced from Reuters, WARC

Why advertisers should be more discerning with YouTube ad placement

Advertisers benefit from being adjacent to premium YouTube content in three key ways, according to a new study* from Vevo and Channel 4.

The advantages of appearing next to premium content 

• Viewers are more likely to watch premium content in superior environments – and as a result are open-minded to seeing ads as part of that experience.
• Premium content is 3.2x more likely to be viewed on a TV than non-premium content, meaning it is more likely to be watched socially, organically boosting reach. It also tends to be viewed in longer, dedicated sessions, enhancing engagement; and enjoyed in a more relaxed, immersive setting, increasing reception.
• Audiences are more likely to have a positive emotional response to watching premium publisher content – creating a positive halo effect on advertising brands.

Why premium content matters

“For advertisers, not all content is the same and nor are publishers,” says James Cornish, SVP, International Sales & Partnerships, Vevo. “Premium publishers’ content delivers significant advantages: a safe and positive environment that fosters trust, prestige, and receptivity.”

Key findings 

• In most cases, trust and believability metrics were doubled when an ad was found within premium content. Conversely, negative connotations for that brand decreased five-fold.
• The study reported nearly 3x more positive brand perception because of placement within premium content, while ads in non-premium were 5x more likely to be perceived as low quality.
• Overall, the expectations of advertising brands are fundamentally elevated when situated within fit-for-TV content, with the association that ads and the content they sit with have a similar quality.

* Retaining Trust and Quality in a Sea of Content is based on a survey of 1,000 British consumers (aged 16 to 40 years old who regularly watch video content) which identified and quantified the factors that boost the value of ads consumed within ‘fit for TV’ content (as defined by BARB) on YouTube. Qualitative research was also undertaken with 16 consumers. 

Sourced from Vevo, Channel 4

Podcast fans aren’t really listening to ads

UK podcast fans are increasingly likely to find ads intrusive, with two in five skipping them entirely, according to research from YouGov Profiles. 

Why podcast ads matters

Podcast audiences are growing and advertising spend is following, with previous research indicating that listeners show greater engagement with ad content and are more receptive than TV audiences. But that was a couple of years ago. As the podcast ad market has matured, with a rise in programmatic inventory helping move it beyond host-read ads, the podcast experience has changed – and not necessarily to the benefit of the listener.

Takeaways

• Two in five (42%) of regular listeners find adverts that are played during a podcast to be intrusive and choose to skip them; four years ago the figure stood at 36%.
• A further one in five (18%) finds ads to be intrusive, but listen to them anyway (vs. 17% in 2019).
• 14% say they do not find them intrusive but they also don’t find them particularly interesting (compared to 17% in 2019).
• Just one in seven (14%) say they do not find them intrusive and do find them interesting (vs. 11% in 2019), and a further 6% say they don’t listen to podcasts with ads at all (vs. 15% in 2019).

Sourced from YouGov Profiles

WARC Talks: Why anime is the next big subculture for marketing

In this episode of the WARC Podcast we discuss why anime is the next big subculture for marketing.

• WARC’s Rica Facundo is joined by Robin Lau Global Strategist – Digital and Entertainment at Dentsu.
• Establishing the origins of the Japanese art form and how it differs from animation in other cultures, Rica and Robin unpack the rise of anime as a cultural force, anime fandoms and why marketers should be paying attention to this.
• The podcast contains best practice examples for brands looking to use anime in their activations, as well as common pitfalls that should be avoided.

Listen to the episode in full here

Timestamps

02:24 – What is anime?

05:47 – What’s the difference between anime and animation?

08:13 – Why is anime so popular in Asia and around the world?

11:37 – What does the average anime fan look like?

15:49 – What do anime fans look for in brands that are trying to reach them?

18:59 – Successful examples of anime activations.

22:09 – Common pitfalls.

25:10 – Why should brands work with an anime ambassador?

27:58 – What’s the first step for marketers looking to work in this space?

Further reading

Has the influencer bubble burst? Your next brand ambassador could be a famous anime character

Anime: A cultural phenomenon that SEA marketers can't ignore