We’re searching for the most pressing marketing insights this week.
Tik Tok: The Perfect Way To Reach Heartland Gen Z’ers
Forbes
TikTok’s highly intuitive algorithm produces a personalized video feed and its suite of creativity tools allows limitless originality and potential for videos to go viral.
Why it matters: 75 percent of Gen Z in the Midwest report feeling overlooked because of where they live, making TikTok a promising avenue for brands to build rapport with this audience.
3 Brands Pivot To Content In Winning Ways As COVID-19 Rears Its Ugly Face
Media Post
With live sports canceled, the Jacksonville Jaguars started providing educational material for fans including video content featuring at-home workouts and actual players reading books to kids.
Why it matters: To promote their new content, the Jaguars sent out a weekly newsletter titled “Quarantine Content,” which saw an 8-12 percent lift on open rates.
Bozoma Saint John Took $7 Million Payday To Leap To Netflix
TheWrap
Bozoma Saint John was offered a nearly $7 million payday to become CMO of Netflix. She came from Endeavor, where her contract was set to expire at the end of 2020.
Why it matters: Saint John’s move follows WME laying off or furloughing 20 percent of its workforce in May.
Brand Marketers Are Needed To Build The Post-Third-Party Cookie Ecosystem
AdExchanger
Since Google announced Chrome would stop supporting third-party cookies within two years, there’s been a lack of communication between the tech and marketing sides on how to reinvent audience planning practices.
Why it matters: A solution to retargeting without third-party cookies that’s co-designed by marketers and tech experts would ensure wider adoption and limited disruption.
Amazon Tells Sellers To Remove Washington Redskins Items
Adweek
Amazon said it’s removing products with the Washington Redskins’ name and logo from its stores, giving third-party sellers 48 hours to remove similar flagged products. Walmart, Target and Nike have also dropped Redskins apparel from their sites.
Why it matters: The decision to pull Redskins merchandise comes after the NFL began a review of its name, which has long been considered a racial slur.
7 Strategies For Promoting Collaboration In A Crisis
Harvard Business Review
Leaders can foster collaboration in times of uncertainty by involving people from a wide variety of backgrounds to help the group collectively see potential risks or solutions and making direct contact with people down the hierarchy to learn about their actions and states of mind.
Why it matters: Research shows that during a crisis, anxiety causes people to fall back on actions that have worked in the past, what researchers call “threat rigidity.”
Global Brands Launch Co-Branded Products, Appeal To Chinese Millennials
WWD
Chinese brands are partnering with mega-influencers and eclectic media properties such as museums and gaming titles on co-branded products. For example, Vans China recently launched a shoe collection in partnership with National Geographic and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty brand launched a limited-edition blush set with China’s popular bubble tea brand, Heytea.
Why it matters: These partnerships enable brands to connect with new young customer segments.
How Essence Pulled Off Its First Virtual Festival
Adweek
In April, COVID forced Essence to transform its 50th in-person festival, which typically draws over half a million people and contributes $300 million to the New Orleans economy, into a free virtual event in just two months.
Why it matters: The pivot required Essence to pre-record some content and incorporate interactive components such as a voting hub, offering attendees access to resources for amplifying their voices in local and national elections.
Research: Only 10% Of Joint Venture Board Members Are Women
Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review’s studied over 200 joint ventures across industries and markets and found that just 10 percent of joint venture directors are women. Whereas 26 percent of directors on S&P 500 corporate boards are women.
Why it matters: Joint venture boards aren’t subject to the same public scrutiny or quotas that have helped to encourage greater gender diversity on public company boards. Yet studies show that companies with female board directors have higher average operating profits and returns on equity compared to companies with all-male boards.
Uber Buys Postmates In $2.65B Deal
Restaurant Dive
Uber is acquiring Postmates for $2.65 billion in an all-stock transaction, according to a company press release.
Why it matters: The deal will give Uber Eats the largest market share in Los Angeles and 35 percent of US food delivery market share. Uber estimates it will issue about 84 million shares of common stock for 100 percent of Postmate’s fully diluted equity.
Rethinking Work Schedules? Consider These 4 Questions
Harvard Business Review
The Harvard Business Review examined 153 academic articles on how working a nonstandard schedule affects employee attitudes and well-being. They found that irregular work schedules can lead to irregular habits and put a strain on family relationships and that certain employees are better suited to work certain hours.
Why it matters: Employers considering implementing nonstandard work schedules should find employees who, based on their personality, needs or life circumstances, want to work them.
Reviving High-Touch Business Models For The Social Distancing Era
MIT Slogan Management Review
Lockdowns have led to a resurgence of interest in services that evoke nostalgia, like milk and frozen-food delivery services and drive-in theaters.
Why it matters: Social distancing presents an opportunity for brands to identify new value propositions including a shift from a self-service to a full-service model and the transcendence of a brand’s physical location to reach new markets.
Influencer Pioneer Coltrane Curtis On The Steps To Success
Adweek
Coltrane Curtis, founder of marketing agency Team Epiphany, whose clients include Audi, BET and HBO, says females and/or minorities represent over 50 percent of his staff.
Why it matters: To sell a visionary idea, Curtis suggests giving a client what they want, and something that they’re not paying for. “The first one is on you but, when you prove that it works, they’ll pay the second time and beyond.”
The Future Of Grocery Stories
Forbes
The grocery store of the future will focus more on experience than things, such as offering cooking classes and wine tastings and will utilize artificial intelligence to answer routine questions and facilitate the checkout process.
Why it matters: Customers use their experiences to differentiate between brands.
