Helen Edwards: It takes courage to push back against consensus
Disagreeing with someone on Twitter is one thing but calling out a colleague’s way of thinking takes a lot more courage.
Santander CMO: Martech is oversold, but it’s marketers’ fault
Martech may overpromise, but it is marketers’ fault for not really knowing what they want, says Santander CMO Keith Moor.
Tesco, British Army, Uber: Everything that matters this morning
Good morning and welcome to Marketing Week’s round-up of the news that matters in the marketing world today.
Hack your commute: Take a test to get more insight into your working mind
Are you in the right profession, working in the role best suited to your skills? If you’re unsure there are a whole host of personality tests to help you figure out the right path to take.
‘If I was Tesco’s boss I’d be sacked’: Iceland’s MD on the cost of sustainability
The supermarket’s managing director Richard Walker admits its banned Christmas ad “did nothing for sales”, and while its drive to remove palm oil has been expensive it is helping to strengthen its position as a corporate activist.
Harry Lang: The pros and cons of hitching your brand to a celebrity influencer
Working with celebrities comes with risks and rewards, but self-made social media influencers offer an affordable route to fame for canny marketers.
Coca-Cola and Subway’s former CMO on ‘marketing’s dirty little secret’
From the danger of being a dysfunctional client and why FMCG firms should stop resisting change to the power of brand equity, Joe Tripodi shares all after 40 years in marketing.
Amazon doubles down on TV advertising
Amazon is now TV’s third-biggest spender, with total TV ad revenue reaching £5.11bn in 2018 thanks to increased investment from online businesses.
Constant change won’t cripple the CMO, inertia will
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Why it’s time marketers became B2B changemakers and used disruption as a catalyst for growth, scalability and competitiveness.
Monzo preps first major ad campaign as it looks to ‘supercharge’ growth
The digital bank has previously relied almost solely on organic word-of-mouth to grow the business but is now exploring how paid advertising could play a role, although the brand is adamant it must not become reliant on paying to acquire customers.
How Audi is bringing creativity to marketing effectiveness
By using econometrics, Audi has found ads that cut-through are three times more efficient at driving orders, making creativity “really key” for the business, a learning it is taking to the rest of its communications.
Diageo’s Andrew Geoghegan: It’s basic stuff, but marketers are still failing to put their audience first
Brands need to rethink how they fit into consumers’ lives, whether that’s online of offline, to ensure the audience always comes first.
Tesco ‘frustrated’ at media spend being ‘siphoned off’ to protect brand reputation
Tesco believes too much of its media spend is being “siphoned off” to ad tech instead of being used to reach customers in quality environments.
Tesco, Audi, Monzo: 5 things that mattered this week and why
Catch up on all the biggest marketing news this week, including Tesco’s frustrations with media spend being ‘siphoned off’, Monzo prepping its first major ad campaign and how Audi is bringing creativity to marketing effectiveness.
Faster, stronger, better: How PepsiCo is reinventing insight
PepsiCo is taking a “systemic approach” to insight that positions it as a driving force within the business and enables it to continually learn and grow each year.
Why responsiveness is key to brands’ content strategies
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Speed and agility are crucial to creating content for today’s digital platforms. Marketing Week and Creative Review, in partnership with Shutterstock, ask marketers and creatives how to ensure their approach is fit for purpose.
Boots’ top marketer on marrying insights with instinct: ‘You can’t rely on people to tell you what they want’
Story of my CV: From the BBC to Boots via DFS, Helen Normoyle has experience of many well-known British brands. But even with such impressive marketing pedigree, she is still embracing change and seeking new challenges which put her out of her comfort zone.
Mark Ritson: A true brand purpose doesn’t boost profit, it sacrifices it
Time and again companies have proved unwilling to stick to their lofty purpose statements when it costs them money. For purpose to have any meaning, corporations need to put it before profit.
Ex-Unilever boss Paul Polman: We need to bring humanity back to advertising
The former CEO of the second-largest advertiser in the world is calling on brands to move on from taking the easy route and short-term focuses to consider how diversity can boost businesses in the long-term.
Nationwide: The term ‘performance marketing’ is fuelling short-termism
The swing to short-termism is being accelerated by the term performance marketing as it suggests long-term activity doesn’t perform, according to the building society’s director of advertising and sales.
Try This: Walk the halls to drive change
Marketing Week columnist Thomas Barta offers quick, practical tips to help marketers solve perennial problems and become better leaders.
How brands can put messaging into action
Sponsored by Facebook
Marketers that don’t take consumers’ growing use of messaging platforms seriously will quickly be left behind, as distinctions fade between conversations with friends and those with brands.
Eve’s CMO on walking the line between controversy and offence
Marketers need to be able to read the cultural mood and fully understand their brand tone of voice if they want to tread the fine line between sparking conversation and causing offence, says Cheryl Calverley.
Marketoonist on innovation myopia
Tom Fishburne is founder of Marketoon Studios. Follow his work at marketoonist.com or on Twitter @tomfishburne See more of the Marketoonist here
Speed, agility and engagement: How to solve the content conundrum
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Marketing Week and Creative Review, in partnership with Shutterstock, present a roundtable debate on how to deliver content at speed and scale, alongside case studies of three brands that transformed their approach to creative imagery.
What consumers think about influencer marketing
Brought to you by Influencer Intelligence
The way young people perceive digital influence is critical to the future of influencer marketing, with 61% of millennials claiming they have been influenced by a social media content creator.
Create resonant integrated campaigns through earned media management
Brought to you by Cision
Digitisation has broken down silos separating PR and comms, marketing and advertising, allowing effective campaigns using paid, owned and earned media.
A complete guide to using Google Ads with your channel partners
Brought to you by TIE Kinetix
Resellers don’t choose not to adopt digital marketing but they do struggle to do it on their own, meaning your channel partners may need your help to embrace it.
A guide to what drives marketing ROI
Brought to you by Analytic Partners
Access the latest trends on ROI comparisons for offline and online marketing, split by channel and strategy, and find out what factors really drive ROI.
How to build your customer model
Brought to you by Optimove
Find out how harnessing your data to understand your customers’ value can help you create one of the most useful tools your business can have.
Find out how Rituals conquered the biggest SEO challenge
Brought to you by Dept
Download this case study to find out how the upmarket retailer optimised its search strategy to prevent losing sales through duplicate web pages.
Is there still hope for the high street?
Brought to you by YouGov
YouGov analyses how retail brands are faring on consumer perception metrics in a challenging environment.
Earned media management: The evolution of PR and comms
Brought to you by Cision
The PR discipline needs to adapt in order to be recognised for its strategic role and be seriously considered in board-level conversations.
Developing and communicating your social purpose: A practical guide
Brought to you by Verity London
Brand purpose is among the most talked-about topics in marketing today, with companies’ challenge being to link their business credibly to doing social good.
Find out which smart home devices are gaining ground
Brought to you by YouGov
This white paper looks at the public’s perception of smart devices and how much success brands have had in encouraging take-up of appliances.
Find out what the British think of loyalty programmes
Brought to you by YouGov and Mando-Connect
Learn what Britons want from loyalty programmes, who engages most, and the impact that offering a programme has on brands.
UK pitches itself as ‘next port of call’ for Asian brands looking to export
As Britain prepares to leave the European Union, the UK ad industry is looking to establish a much higher profile internationally, with growing interest directed at China, the US and Japan.
Google’s EMEA boss on brand safety, policing ‘bad actors’ and regulation
YouTube has been the subject of many brand safety scandals over the last 24 months, with the recent tragedy in New Zealand prompting louder calls for urgent regulation of big tech players.
Volvo looks to ‘challenge established thinking’ by hiring from outside the auto industry
While Volvo’s marketing strategy director Mike Johnstone says there are benefits to spending his entire career in the automotive industry, he is keen to hire from outside the sector to encourage new ways of working.
‘Marketers must beware of over-relying on ROI’
Former Heineken and Sainsbury’s marketer Sarah Warby warns marketers against trying too hard to relate everything back to ROI or risk looking “like an idiot” in front of finance.
Marketers’ frustrations, loyalty, social video ad spend: 5 killer stats to start your week
We arm marketers with all the numbers they need to tackle the week ahead.
‘It literally makes no sense’: Facebook’s top marketer questions why so few CMOs become CEO
Philippa Snare, Facebook’s head of EMEA marketing, says marketers must aim higher because their resilience and experience means they are in a great position to lead successful businesses.
Uber, KFC, Nike: Everything that matters this morning
Good morning and welcome to Marketing Week’s round-up of the news that matters in the marketing world today.
Why Birds Eye decided to kill its ‘Inspirations’ fish range
The frozen food giant has decided to ditch its premium fish brand as it looks to make better use of the Captain’s dominance in the category and be seen as ‘everyday premium’.
Hack your commute: Reflect on the day’s tasks
Taking some time to think about the day’s work can help improve performance. And there are studies to prove it.
AB InBev’s UK marketing boss: Don’t underestimate the importance of culture when taking on a new job
Many marketer look to move between sectors to help accelerate their career but AB InBev’s UK and Ireland marketing director Tatiana Stadukhina says there are challenges so it’s important to ensure the culture is a good fit.
Starbucks, Aviva, Direct Line: 5 things that mattered this week and why
Catch up on all the biggest marketing news this week including Starbucks’s move into dark social, Aviva’s attempts to rebuild trust in the insurance market and how Direct Line is diversifying its marketing.
How to bounce back from redundancy
Being made redundant can knock your confidence and make you doubt your abilities. But the advice from those who have experienced it is to start networking, reassess you career direction and come back stronger.
Camelot targets millennials with new game it hopes will ‘unlock’ a different part of people’s brains
Targeted at the experience hungry millennial market, Camelot believes the Set for Life game will take players to an “emotionally different place”.
How Clinique deciphered the in-store impact of video ads
Sponsored by Facebook
Clinique didn’t know the offline effect of its Facebook video ads until it undertook a landmark six-month study to demonstrate their impact on metrics including in-store sales and product consideration.
How outsiders and interims are challenging the status quo
Marketing Week Explores: From the benefits of bringing new thinking to an unfamiliar sector to driving change as an interim marketer, Marketing Week explores the opportunities and challenges of taking a different path.
Recommended reading: Everyday leadership and inspiring innovation
Marketing Week reviews the latest books for marketers.
The benefits of taking control of the creative process
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The typical marketing agency business model has had to change because the customer journey increasingly starts on mobile and ends up on ecommerce.
Watch on-demand: How to reach shoppers at key moments
Brought to you by MiQ
A host of technologies and tactical considerations are on marketers’ radars as they seek to help shoppers choose their brands over the competition, especially during key shopping periods such as Black Friday and Christmas.
How messaging bridges the chasm between brands and customers
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From discovery of new products to customer care, today’s customer journey is more complex than ever. In this competitive landscape, brand success is centred on meaningful, one-to-one interactions.
Should brands have a voice on society’s big issues?
Sponsored by YouGov
New research from YouGov examines whether it’s riskier for brands to speak up on important social and political matters, or to stay silent.
Starbucks explores dark social for market research
The coffee giant is trying to bring its marketing and product development closer together so it can jump on trends faster and get better insight on what resonates.
Why marketers need to stop chasing data like it’s ‘crack cocaine’
Marketers express their fears about the future of marketing if the next generation become too obsessed with data.
Why are marketers kidding themselves that AI is about more than sales?
There will be many uses for machine learning in the future, but right now marketers should focus on improving sales by continually tweaking communications.
Food porn to food norm: Why M&S’s Britain’s Got Talent deal risks de-premiumising the brand
Marks & Spencer’s motivations for sponsoring ITV’s long-standing talent competition are clear, but driving short-term sales growth could come at the expense of longer-term brand health.
Mark Ritson: For the first time big tech faces a credible threat of breakup
If Elizabeth Warren or another Democrat wins the White House, Facebook, Google and Amazon may finally realise they can’t hang on to their dominant positions forever.
Tanya Joseph: Brands have the chance to change the mood of the nation
Whether it is Nike championing Colin Kaepernick, Lacoste changing its logo or Gillette’s ‘The Best Men Can Be’, it is better to stand up and be criticised than not do anything at all.
‘We had to make sure it didn’t fall on its arse’: How Tesco revolutionised loyalty with Clubcard
The Inside Story: In the first of a new series, Marketing Week looks at how Tesco Clubcard transformed retailing, shopping and marketing forever, as told by the people who were there at its conception.
Keith Weed: CFOs count where money’s going, marketers where it’s going to come from
Unilever’s outgoing marketing boss says that despite a challenging business environment, marketers must take a “we approach” to business and position as future-forward to succeed.