Despite a surplus of data and advanced targeting capabilities, marketers aren't targeting as well as we think we are. And it’s hurting performance. IJRM recently found many targeted campaigns have to double their click-through rate to outperform untargeted ones. Another study from Truthset discovered nearly half of data used for ad targeting is incorrect. So is targeting really what marketers have been promised? This week, Angela, Elena, and Rob dig into the classic targeting vs reach debate to ...
Oct 31, 2023•25 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Despite a heightened focus on growth, businesses frequently sideline creativity. Even though unconventional thinking is exactly what’s needed to reach new levels of success. Demand for chief creative officers has declined by 4% since 2018. And marketing roles increasingly prioritize analytical skills over creative talent. This week, Rob and Elena are joined by Chief Creative Officer Steve Babcock to discuss the growing creativity gap and how to fix it. Surprisingly, the answer might not be about...
Oct 24, 2023•29 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast How do you defend marketing’s value through economic changes, a narrowing focus on ROI, and changing ideas about how to build a memorable brand? This week, Elena and Angela are joined by Mary Kyriakidi, Global Thought Leader at Kantar. Mary is the author of Kantar’s evidence-based report “Modern Marketing Dilemmas” which explores some of the most contentious and widely debated topics in marketing today... and what the research says about those topics’ answers. Topics covered: [02:30] How common ...
Oct 17, 2023•28 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Connected TV. Podcasts. TikTok. Even virtual reality. They all offer advertisers new opportunities to reach potential customers. But emerging channels are inherently risky. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob dig into eMarketer’s report on the mismatch between the channels consumers spend time with and those marketers invest in most. They also explain why that mismatch can sometimes be the right decision. Because with emerging channels, starting small is often a smart approach, even if you fall be...
Oct 10, 2023•22 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast The term "marketing effectiveness" has gained attention lately, but what does it really mean? And what’s stopping marketers from developing truly effective work? The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) recently investigated this exact question with a survey of more than 300 marketers. This week, Angela, Rob, and Elena are breaking down the definition of marketing effectiveness, discussing the findings of the WFA’s report, and sharing their own thoughts on how to reach, measure, and educate oth...
Oct 03, 2023•23 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast Marketers have been overwhelmed with lessons from the success of the Barbie movie’s marketing strategy. But those lessons only go so far if you don’t have a 150-million-dollar budget to spend. This week, Rob, Angela, and Elena explore why Barbie’s marketing was so successful and how other marketers could replicate the principles of Barbie’s strategy with smaller budgets. They’re discussing category design, lightning strikes, and the importance of making bold strategic moves to stand out from com...
Sep 26, 2023•24 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Research from System1 and Pinterest found that digital ads rated highly for emotion resulted in a staggering 90% average increase in brand favorability. And this isn’t the first time research has proven emotion’s effects on ad performance. The IPA reports that 43% of emotional ad campaigns lead to very large business effects across sales, market share, loyalty and new customers, compared to only 23% of rational campaigns. Clearly, emotion is a valuable creative lever. But how do you use it well?...
Sep 19, 2023•24 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast Nearly half of marketers believe senior stakeholders focus too much on ROI. Because while it’s the top metric the C-Suite cares about, ROI alone doesn’t show marketing’s full impact. Proving marketing’s value to the business isn’t a new challenge. But it is a persistent one. This week, Elena and Angela are joined by John Wojcik, VP New Business and Solution Development at Brother USA and former CMO at The Zebra, to discuss strategies marketers can use to communicate the value of their work to la...
Sep 12, 2023•26 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast Based on an analysis of 2,500 B2B ads, one thing is very clear: B2B needs a new creative formula, one that’s actually effective. This week, Ty Heath, Director of Market Engagement at The B2B Institute, a think tank funded by LinkedIn, joins Angela, Rob, and Elena to talk about why B2B advertising struggles with creative effectiveness. They cover why marketing to businesses is still marketing to people and explore the ABLE formula’s guide to developing B2B creative that people will remember. Topi...
Sep 05, 2023•31 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast The battle over whether marketers should focus on sales or brand results has raged for years now. But while many marketers are now embracing both, this philosophy of “bothism” has only recently been applied to TV advertising. This week, VP Client Growth Devan Futterer joins Elena and Angela to talk about ways they’ve seen brands set up TV campaigns to drive both long- and short-term results. It starts with a media strategy optimized for reach, requires thoughtfully produced creative, and of cour...
Aug 29, 2023•19 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Targeting the right customer at the right time is a marketer’s dream—but only if the price is right. This is the second of three episodes reviewing a report released by Marketing Architects called “Reach, Revenue and ROI: 3 Principles for Effective TV Advertising.” This week, Elena and Rob are joined by VP of Analytics Matt Hultgren to talk about the tradeoffs between targeting and cost, the importance of reach in a media plan, and how to leverage technology to get the most out of traditional me...
Aug 22, 2023•20 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast Why would anyone market to those who aren’t likely to buy right away or who don’t fit perfectly within your ICP? Actually, there are multiple reasons. This is the first of three episodes reviewing a report released by Marketing Architects called “Reach, Revenue and ROI: 3 Principles for Effective TV Advertising.” This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Chief Client Officer Whitney Stratten to talk about the power of broad reach marketing, how reach builds mental availability, and how cli...
Aug 15, 2023•21 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Awareness vs affinity. Reach vs resonance. Even customer acquisition vs loyalty. The debate has many names, and it’s clearly not going anywhere. But what if everyone’s right? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by SVP Brand Strategy Catrina McAuliffe to break down the purpose of both brand awareness and affinity. Because one thing is very clear: this is far from a simple debate. They’re talking through the definitions of awareness and affinity, the importance of both, how to measure the...
Aug 08, 2023•27 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Earned media is a small part of marketers’ budgets, but it’s a growing focus for brands across all categories. Still, is it really a winning marketing strategy on its own? Deciding how to prioritize marketing investments across earned, owned, and paid media has been a long-debated topic. Even the definitions of those three categories are contested. This week, Elena, Rob and Angela are diving into the pros and cons of each type of media, why growing challenges in paid digital advertising has more...
Aug 01, 2023•23 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast 75% of marketers struggle to link creative activities to commercial returns. And 79% say they have inadequate training to connect creative impact and business outcomes. Are we in the middle of a creative effectiveness crisis? In this episode, Elena and Rob explore what creative effectiveness really means, how to measure it, and why award shows are so bad at identifying it. They even explore a framework that marketers at brands of all types can use to evaluate the likely impact of their creative ...
Jul 25, 2023•19 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Google announced they would disable cookies for 1% of Chrome users at the beginning of 2024. Now, the pressure is on advertisers looking for targeting alternatives that don’t need cookies. Like contextual targeting. In this episode, Elena, Angela and Rob are joined by SVP Technology Aaron Lange to discuss what contextual targeting is, why it’s seeing renewed interest across the advertising industry, and how streaming TV advertisers especially can benefit from testing the targeting method. Plus, ...
Jul 18, 2023•29 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Following AI news has been quite the rollercoaster ride lately. The technology’s potential is incredible for a wide range of fields. But especially for creative work like copywriting, design, and video editing. In this episode, Elena and Rob are joined by Marketing Content Designer Greg Brannen to talk about the way AI is transforming creative work and how creatives should feel about that shift. Their discussion covers everything from how technology has changed creative work in the past, to why ...
Jul 11, 2023•31 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast 1,100 marketers were asked if they’d recommend working in their own marketing department to a friend or colleague. The results were a definitive "no.” Clearly, marketing teams need a rebrand. Results were better among the 11% of companies the researchers identified as “winning marketing organizations” based on sales and profit growth, implying a relationship between a healthy workplace and teams that achieve success. In this episode, Elena, Rob, and Angela explore why marketing has an image prob...
Jun 27, 2023•29 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast For years, Tesla has been the poster child for why not every brand needs advertising. With word-of-mouth alone they became one of the most valuable companies in the world. So why is Tesla now shifting gears into advertising? CEO Elon Musk publicly claimed to hate advertising, preferring to invest in research and development. But in a recent shareholder meeting, he changed his tune, suggesting advertising as a solution to the company’s recent growth challenges. This week, Elena, Rob and Angela di...
Jun 20, 2023•24 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast The “dark funnel” gained attention when marketers realized prospects were beginning the customer journey sooner than they’d thought. And they weren’t measuring it. The earliest stages of the buyer journey happen before marketers can identify prospects engagement or without those consumers providing any personal information. These dark funnel touchpoints take place through off-site channels like word of mouth, organic social, reviews, third-party communities, and even podcasts. In this episode, E...
Jun 13, 2023•23 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast The top 100 B2B brands across the globe are worth a staggering $2 trillion collectively. But they have $1 trillion in untapped brand potential. Talk about missed opportunity, right? Historically, B2B marketing has been highly rational, focused on features and benefits. But this has come at the price of undervaluing brand-building and awareness. Now, that’s starting to change. In this episode, Angela, Rob and Elena discuss B2B’s emerging focus on brand-building, creativity and reach. Because the ...
Jun 06, 2023•28 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Reaching large audiences is powerful. But they still need to be the right large audiences. Because even the biggest brands can't afford to skip targeting. Even on mass-reach marketing channels like TV, radio and print. In this episode, Elena, Angela and Rob are joined by VP of Strategy Dan Cleveland to discuss the MarketingWeek article “ Even sophisticated mass marketers need targeting. ” The team explores the marketing industry’s shift toward mass marketing, but homes in on the need to use mass...
May 30, 2023•27 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Airbnb is the only public VC-backed company founded in the US in the last 15 years that is meaningfully profitable. How did they do it? They dramatically changed their approach to marketing. Two years ago, Airbnb started prioritizing brand-building while limiting their previous focus on search advertising. In this episode, Elena, Angela and Rob discuss the Airbnb success story, why finding a balance of performance and brand marketing is crucial for business growth, and whether this approach coul...
May 23, 2023•20 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Brand is far more measurable today than even five years ago. So why are we still questioning brand’s value? Maybe because it’s tough to know exactly how to grow brand—and defend its importance to the business. In this episode, Elena, Angela and Rob tackle brand misconceptions from a performance marketer’s perspective. They discuss what it means to build brand awareness and drive tangible business results related to brand growth. Their conclusion? While building brand may seem like a “fluffy” goa...
May 16, 2023•21 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Behavioral targeting has undeniably changed marketing and advertising, fueling the online advertising industry’s growth to $540 billion globally. But what’s the real impact... for marketers and for consumers? In this episode, Elena, Angela, and Rob discuss a recent article featured in The New York Times that digs into what it means to target (and be targeted) online. They explain the different types of targeting available to marketers, pros and cons of each, and why it’s important to be skeptica...
May 09, 2023•27 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast TikTok has over 100 million American users, and US marketers will spend more than $11 billion on the app by the end of 2023. So what happens if the app is banned? In this episode, we’re reviewing everything from the earliest rumors of a ban to the latest court hearings. Elena, Angela, and Rob delve into the discussion around banning TikTok, what it means for marketers, and why even the threat of a ban has implications for data privacy on social platforms ranging from Facebook to Snapchat. They w...
May 02, 2023•20 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast AI is probably the hottest topic in business right now. And while the core technology is far from new, the launch of ChatGPT has kickstarted a fresh frenzy around AI’s implications for marketers especially. In fact, marketing might be the category of work most impacted by artificial intelligence. In this episode, Elena is joined by Marketing Architects founder Chuck Hengel to discuss how marketers should approach experimenting with AI to improve both efficiency and quality of their work, what it...
Apr 25, 2023•29 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast There are more than 130 marketing metrics. But how many really determine marketing effectiveness? Especially for brand-building channels like TV, radio, and print advertising? Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet when it comes to marketing measurement. But there are ways to design your campaign to be as measurable as possible. And to be more confident in your results. VP of Analytics Matt Hultgren joins Angela and Elena to discuss how measurement best practices have changed and the importance...
Apr 18, 2023•30 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Budget cuts. Layoffs. Rethinking your entire marketing strategy? The economy can be confusing. How marketers should respond to economic downturns can be equally difficult to navigate. Research shows brands that maintain or increase ad spend during an economic downturn perform better long term. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Angela, Rob, and Elena share advice on how marketers can use economic uncertainty as an opportunity to step into leadership roles and even grow market share for the...
Apr 11, 2023•24 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast How do you balance broad reach and highly targeted marketing efforts? Angela and Elena are joined by Chief Creative Officer Rob DeMars to talk about the challenges and opportunities marketers face in finding the right balance for their businesses. Learn how the HurryCane became the best-selling cane in the US only after reaching broad audiences, the history of performance marketing, and the team’s thoughts on Les Binet and Peter Field’s 60/40 rule for balancing brand and sales activation. Hint: ...
Apr 04, 2023•29 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast 
