The Marketing Architects

Forrester predicts “experience with generative AI” will be written into 20% of new CMO job descriptions next year. They also say brand purpose is out of style and highly practical, results-driven campaigns will soon be in vogue. In this wrap-up episode for the year, Elena, Angela, and Rob are sharing their own predictions for the biggest marketing trends in 2024. From a focus on effectiveness to t...

QR codes achieved mainstream status in 2020. But they're more than just a pandemic fad. In 2022, 83 million US smartphone users scanned the codes. And 3 in 4 consumers say they plan to scan the codes in the future. This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Associate Director of Product Optimization Tilly DeNardo to talk about the future of QR codes in TV advertising. The team dives into Mark...

82% of ANA members say their company has an in-house agency. And now generative AI threatens specialized digital agencies. What does the future of ad agencies look like? Do they have a future at all? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by SVP Client Growth Dhiren Khemlani to discuss the pros and cons of in-housing, the impact of AI on agencies, and the importance of remaining agile and ad...

Only 22% of CMOs feel they have a collaborative relationship with their CFO. And only 39% of financial directors have confidence their marketing team will make smart commercial decisions. The numbers, well, aren’t great. To uncover the reason for this disconnect, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by CFO Brent Longval. Together, they explore why marketing and finance can end up at opposite ends of...

This summer, consumers dug into their wallets to attend concerts, watch movies in theaters, and enjoy sporting events in person. But as economic concerns grow, can the summer’s spending keep up for retailers’ crucial holiday sales season? This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Strategy Director Kyle Lewis to discuss the trends retailers can expect during the holiday shopping season and ho...

Do digital ads have your attention, really? What about your audience’s attention? Marketers have shifted from traditional channels to digital ones—but the long-term returns of TV, radio, and print have been difficult to replicate. According to Data2Decisions and DDB, digital attribution techniques overestimate the business effects of search by a factor of two and underestimate the impact of TV by...

In 2023, Google will rake in $57 billion from search. Their dominance in the market has left marketers heavily dependent on Google’s platform even as prices rise, making it both necessary for success online... and a massive headache. This week, Elena and Rob are joined by Director of Analytics Jordan Rossler to discuss how marketers can improve the effectiveness of their SEM investment—while reduc...

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...

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...

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...

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 dec...

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 fi...

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 categor...

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 2...

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 CM...

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 pe...

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 st...

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 impor...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 fram...

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 industr...

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. T...

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 t...