Let’s assume for the rest of your life, a minute, that you can’t be an expert on everything in marketing, even if you’re the CMO of a multinational holding company of successful brands. Chances are, you spend a lot of time analyzing the marketing landscape in the back of your mind, and some more time very deliberately exploring it. What should I be focused on? What should we be doing more of? Less of? This is normal in my world, and I find it very worthwhile for our client brands because it helps to shape the marketing counsel that our team provides to our clients who want to lead their respective categories.
Today, streaming platforms are getting a lot of our attention. Simply put, the targeting is pretty great — we can finally have “targeted television,” which has been promised in some manner my entire career. Moreover, we can prove the worth of this video format because attribution is not only possible but pretty obvious. Audiences are more engaged when they control the content. So, think television that is no longer top of the sales funnel.
This seems like an appropriate time to piss people off state that experienced marketers have always been able to attribute campaign success to channels that are not clickable. These more traditional channels can very much support marketing efforts in a measurable manner. If you have ever run a direct marketing campaign that didn’t have brand support, you know exactly what I am talking about. Think about your own habits today or 20 years ago: You are much more receptive to an offer if there is brand familiarity. Billboards in the geography of your direct mail drop always proved to be far more profitable than the mail alone (today we say it increases conversions). Today, direct response brands know this to be true as well. This gave rise to the influencer industry and obviously made Amazon what it is today. I am not here to convince you on the merits of any particular media tactic — but I will say that an executive who recently criticized a billboard campaign got more marketing eye rolls than a dad joke.
Back to another hot marketing topic… Paid social is a growing opportunity. It’s not getting enough attention because it’s not the newest tactic. If you need convincing, tell me where you spent the most time this week with any type of content. And just like your favorite streaming platform, the targeting is superior to just about anything else where you could place an ad (OK, paid search, I hear you). All social platforms are different and provide different opportunities — choose and utilize them wisely.
I suppose you can’t cover current marketing trends without mentioning GEO. Generative Engine Optimization allows your brand to show up in AI answers like the ChatGPTs of the world. How and why you show up differs from Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which remains highly important. It is argued by some that GEO is more important because the answer appears before organic search results on Google’s Chrome search engine. I disagree. Some people mistrust AI due to consistent inaccuracies. And, if you think about your own search habits, do you always click on the first brand? Me neither. (Why is a potential blog post in the future?)
I am interested in what marketing topics are taking your attention at the moment. Hit me back @ Tberney@thevibrand.com
Note: Neither VI Marketing and Branding nor Tim Berney has any investment or ownership in any advertising platform.
