Always managed to approach an important social issue perfectly within a global marketing campaign

We continue our series of looking back and brand marketing campaigns that will resonate for decades to come. Next up we have Proctor & Gamble's Always brand and their 2014 #LIKEAGIRL campaign. It will forever be remembered not for the content of the advert, but for the conversation it sparked in society. [si_guide_block id="29978" title="Download FREE Resource – Essential marketing models" description="15 classic planning tools to inform strategy development."/]

The Brief

Always’ commitment to empowering girls through puberty education dates back decades. Yet in 2013, P&G realized the brand’s purpose wasn’t apparent to the new generation of consumers. Always’ brand communications had remained focused on product performance, while its main rivals had moved on. The challenge was to build a fresh and more meaningful understanding of confidence which would resonate with the…

The Complete 6-Step Guide to Running a Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign

In the world of marketing, influencer marketing has been picking up a lot of steam. Influencer marketing has helped businesses increase brand awareness and even drive sales. It can bring up to 11 times the ROI of banner ads. That’s because people are increasingly using ad blockers and cutting the cord with advertisers. A survey by PageFair showed that 11% of the global population used adblock in 2016. The survey also said that blocking ads would increase over the next few years. With influencer marketing, businesses can still reach their target audience, even if they’re blocking ads. And better yet, they can reach their audience through content they actually opt into, making…

If you've been thinking about starting an e-commerce business, you might want to consider the subscription box market. Subscription-based mail order businesses like Ipsy, Dollar Shave Club, Blue Apron, and Birchbox have been growing by leaps and bounds

According to Forbes, the subscription services e-commerce market has grown by more than 100 percent every year for the last five years. There are countless subscriptions available, from high-end niche products to deliveries that save customers a trip to the store for food, toilet paper, and razors. The typical subscriber has higher-than-average income but little free time, so convenience is a big part of the appeal. Novelty is also a big draw with boxes that provide everything from goodies for Star Wars fans to rare teas from around the world. The costs vary widely. Some subscription boxes like Birchbox and Ipsy charge around…

Agile digital marketing: It's time to consider how focusing on agility can reenergize your marketing efforts.

As a marketer, you are probably familiar with the traditional waterfall process. This is where your team creates monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans comprised of a series of initiatives to launch throughout the year. While it is straightforward, this approach still makes it difficult to foresee the market pulse from 12 or even six months out. As a result, this lack of predictability can derail workflows.

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True, the waterfall process has certain advantages, such as the ability to meticulously plan details, establish timelines, and delegate duties, but as a marketing professional, you should also consider using an agile approach. With agile digital marketing, your team works…

For marketers, there’s never been a more important moment to reconcile ethics and strategy

If you want a room of nerdy marketers to bicker and disagree, ask them for a definition of “strategy.” If you want to make the debate divisive and uncomfortable, pivot into the topic I’m going to address today (you’ve been warned). Strategy has become a toss-out word. Perhaps you work in a business where every plan, initiative, operation, idea, and launch is labeled “strategic.” Don’t you want to roll your eyes when you hear that?! Behind that bluster, what do we mean? A good definition of a word is one that speakers of the language intuitively understand and easily apply. Strategy defies good definitions, which is part of why we debate, discuss, and write articles about it. I’ll offer a definition that works well for me in the marketing technology world: Strategy is knowing today why and how you're…

Chart of the Day: What are the success factors for improving sales and marketing alignment

This research from the Content Marketing Institute and LinkedIn shows how the continuing popularity of content marketing in business-to-business (B2B) marketing has highlighted common flaws in the way organisations are structured to manage their content marketing. The report starts by showing how changing buyer behaviour has demanded an increased focus on content marketing since, of prospective buyers: 92% start with an information search 53% find that going online and researching is superior to interacting with a salesperson 75% depend on social networks to learn about different vendors 90% won’t take a cold calling The report goes on to compare the performance of highly aligned sales and marketing teams with less well aligned teams. Across the board, the highly aligned content marketing and sales teams collaborate far more frequently than the low aligned. This chart reviews these success factors for alignment…

How Melbourne Metro made a public service video marketing ad creative instead of doom and gloom

In 2012 Melbourne Metro needed to promote rail safety in a campaign that had to resonate with their rail users in a video marketing campaign. It was something that would usually take the form of an informative safety display ad which would not envoke much of an active response from viewers. Not this time. [si_guide_block id="70611" title="Download FREE Resource – Essential digital marketing tools 2017" description="A free download giving our recommendations on tools for audience insight and managing digital marketing."/]

The Play

McCann, Metro's agency, decided to go down the route of entertainment, writing some hilarious lyrics to a song about all the dumb ways to die—such as poking a grizzly bear, selling both your kidneys on the internet or using your privates as piranha bait—to underline the message…

Demand generation should be a core component of a Blue Ocean Strategy - instead it is frequently confused with either brand awareness or lead generation

Demand generation is a critical theoretical component of the 'new' marketing- a catch-all term for the kind digital marketing which relies on inbound techniques and new platforms, all underpinned by the 'Blue Ocean' strategy first popularised by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne just over a decade ago. But the term has become confused and diluted, with marketers overly keen on fashionable buzzwords using it in a similar way to 'growth hacking', a term now associated with so many marketing techniques it has lost all meaning and value.

Defining Blue Ocean Strategy:

So what is demand generation precisely? To answer that question we first need to explain the concept of 'Blue Ocean Strategy', which the whole concept of demand generation depends on. Blue Ocean Strategy is the idea that companies can thrive not…

To make the benefits of online marketing more concrete, let’s consider some common goals for auto dealerships

The automobile industry has come a long way — and not just in terms of technology. At the beginning of the millennium, those looking for a new car would typically go around town trying to find the right model at the right price. But according to research from Google, the customer journey has become much less physical. Questions about product affordability, suitability, and ranking are increasingly being resolved during online micro-moments.

If you’re in the automobile sales market, the message is clear: with car shoppers spending less time exploring dealerships firsthand, digital marketing is gaining more importance in capturing their attention and business. To make the benefits of online marketing more concrete, let’s consider some common goals for auto dealerships — and how digital tactics fit…

Three tools and frameworks to shape your brand’s positioning

Defining your business or brand’s value proposition is one of the most important tasks you will undertake as a marketer. A clear, differentiated value proposition is what will enable you to communicate to prospects and customers the overall benefits you have to offer and why you are better option when compared with your competitors. The value proposition is an articulation of the overall position your brand occupies in the marketplace from your customers’ point-of-view. Although you will always start with an internal view of how you want to be perceived, the customer will ultimately make a final decision. I’d therefore like to look at three practical frameworks that can be used to develop a brand proposition that will keep the customer front and centre.

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