A Battery That Lasts Longer Than Yours

I often discuss the interplay between brand marketing and performance marketing, as well as the intersection of the two combined. However, brand campaigns can blend together with product marketing in interesting ways as well.  

That’s what Sennheiser's new campaign for their Momentum 4 Wireless headphones does exceptionally well. It’s a clever blend of humor and relatable storytelling, specifically highlighting the impressive 60-hour battery life. In partnership with Ogilvy Amsterdam, Sennheiser developed a campaign that taps into the universal experience of commuter fatigue that makes the feature benefit a little more relatable. 

The campaign features candid shots of people napping on public transportation, showcasing the headphones' unwavering performance even when their owners are fast asleep. 

The message is clear: while your battery might give out, the Momentum 4 Wireless headphones will keep going strong.

Shot guerilla-style with a handheld camera, the campaign captures the raw, authentic moments of commuting life. The viewer is invited to peek into the lives of fellow passengers, adding a touch of humor and relatability.

There’s a clear consumer goal communicated here, which is that people want to listen to music uninterrupted for hours. They’ve also incorporated a key human insight here that makes the message more emotional, showing how hard-working people who give it their all during the day simply fall asleep on their commute at the end of the day.

There’s a subtle aspirational quality to the creative as well, seeing people who give it their all and push themselves. It’s what we admire in other ads featuring famous athletes leaving it all on the court or on the field. Here, it feels a little closer to home as Sennheiser opted instead to show “normal” people exhibiting the same dedication.

British Airways Redefines Travel Marketing: A Must-See Campaign

Sometimes you need to be bold to reinvent yourself. 

British Airways clearly accepted this challenge in its new ad campaign that attempts to re-establish its premium brand positioning, amid internal struggles and encroaching competition.

The airline went so bold that its ‘Windows’ ads don’t appear to be ads at all. There’s no tagline, no website URL, no call to action, no QR code. Even the logo is hardly visible.

Out of home executions feature uniquely cropped imagery that at first may seem off-kilter, like they were printed in error, undoubtedly prompting some bystanders to look twice. 

According to the airline, the campaign is designed to "capture the wonder on customers’ faces when they look out of an aircraft window and onto the world from 35,000 feet."

‘Windows’ is clearly a departure from your typical travel advertising, which often shows gleaming planes soaring across an open, majestic sky. Or, exotic locales where travelers frolic happily in their intended destinations. 

British Airways is no stranger to bold advertising

Instead of using the traditional travel advertising playbook, Uncommon Creative Studio – the London-based agency behind the creative – put the focus squarely on travelers’ emotions as they look towards their destination while building on British Airways’ 'A British Original' positioning. 

British Airways isn’t new to emotional campaigns. In 2022, the airline used OOH, digital, and print placements to highlight relatable reasons to fly. Once again, the ads were void of traditional product benefits, promotional prices, or specific calls to action, showing the airline understood travelers and their motivations.

Brand marketing that sells more than value 

Brands that are looking to move up-market should tap into something more than a customer’s basic needs or their hunt for value. Ultimately, British Airways knows that price isn’t an area where they will be able to compete against low-cost European counterparts. 

This campaign aims to solidify BA’s brand and positioning before travelers begin their search for flights, and even before price comes into account. But when that happens, the travelers are confronted with a tradeoff. Should I spend $100 more for a British Airways experience, or save $100 and settle for a discount airline that simply gets me there? 

What’s more is that the airline isn’t touting features or where they can deliver value. For example, BA is not advertising slightly more comfortable seats, or more convenient routes, or recently remodeled terminals. Diving into those features may very well bring it back to price for the traveler. Is it really worth paying $100 more to have just a slightly better seat?

That line of consumer decision making is what this campaign is cleverly trying to avoid altogether. 

Of course, the bravado of this campaign works because British Airways already has an iconic brand with strong awareness. Still, it underscores that powerful brand marketing has the potential to shift perceptions and expectations, ultimately making the purchase decision about excitement, emotion, and much more than dollars and cents. 

In the case of British Airways, they’re not trying to convince you to choose the cheapest airline, or even the one with the most bang for the buck. They want you to believe that having a truly great trip is only about choosing the right airline.

Beyond the Brochure: Where "Ultimate Driving Machine" Becomes Reality at the BMW Performance Center

When I was in high school my parents had a BMW 3 Series wagon. I have so many fond memories of this car. Once on the road, this seemingly demure family hauler truly embodied the brand’s late ‘90's to early 2000's slogan: The Ultimate Driving Machine.

Responsive acceleration, grippy brakes, and precise steering, were some of the qualities that made the car an absolute blast to drive. It also handled like a dream thanks to the near perfect 50:50 weight distribution—something of an obsession by BMW engineers.

Simply put, the car was made to be driven. For those who love driving, these qualities are what makes a BMW so thrilling every time you get behind the wheel.

However, BMW didn’t just stop with creating a high-performance product. They’ve long created experiences that showcase what The Ultimate Driving Machine really means to owners and non-owners alike. Perhaps no better place to experience the thrills is at BMW’s Performance Center West. 

Located about 45 minutes southeast of Palm Springs, the driving school consists of several race tracks within a private club in Thermal, California. There are a range of programs available, from a teen driving school to Mini stunt driving program to intense two-day track events. I recently had the pleasure of taking the M Performance Course where I put a BMW M3 Competition through its paces. 

Following some light refreshments in the Center's lounge and instruction space, and a surprisingly quick tutorial on track fundamentals from a seasoned racing driver and instructor, it was time to get behind the wheel. 

Turning on to the racing track, we followed the instructor on a reconnaissance lap to get familiar with the course. Slowly we followed the instructor, mirroring his path, how he turned into each corner, braking when he slowed down, accelerating when sped up 

After only one intro lap, it was time to open up our M3’s. 

With each adrenaline-pumping lap at speed, the instructor continued to provide on-going tips over the radio, like when to brake, reminders to accelerate out of turns, and suggestions to help refine our skills and lap times.

Trying to keep only a few car lengths from the instructor’s car I hit higher and higher speeds—close to 120 mph—and felt the G forces increase as I tamed over 500 horsepower around the twists and turns. 

The experience certainly helped forge my performance driving skills. It also kept the focus on what sets BMW vehicles apart. 

BMW’s promise of building The Ultimate Driving Machine isn’t just about speeds and feeds. It’s about delivering sheer driving pleasure to anyone who gets behind the wheel. 

At BMW’s Performance Center, that ethos is perfectly brought to life in a one-of-a-kind experience. You can see the caliper size of the M3’s massive Brembo brakes on a table of specs, but feeling of their stopping power before heading into a turn and smelling the pads after a pit stop gives you a completely different understanding of the product feature. 

In a crowded marketplace, experiential events like these can help brands stand out from traditional marketing strategies and grab consumer attention. The community built at the performance center was also amazing. Everyone was there for the same reason, and that made for a great day.

This event also perfectly reinforces and envelops participants in the brand message as they learn about products in a fun and interactive way. After all, the path to purchase for premium products is by no means linear. Plus, there’s even an opportunity for brands to gather valuable data and insights to inform future marketing efforts. 

I am not even in-market for a new car, yet somehow I found myself venturing to BMW’s website to learn more about the vehicle I happily tortured around the track. 

While navigating the course, as my heart rate went up, I got closer to understanding my limits, as well as the car’s (considerable) limits. It also revealed that there’s a lot more to BMW than a tagline. That’s the point at which the promise of a slogan gives way to a memorable brand. 

For me, the experience in Thermal brought back childhood memories of that 3 Series wagon I had a love affair with, amid some adolescent mischief. It also reminded me that BMW hasn’t lost their way. Even decades later, at least in my mind, BMW remains The Ultimate Driving Machine.

Prepare for the Future: How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2024

From the explosion of AI to the exploits of X, it’s been an exciting year for social media, e-commerce, and digital marketing in general. 

There are countless trends to watch and predictions to make for next year. Here are just a few of the things I’m thinking about as I look to the year ahead. 

Cookies are Being Deprecated

Third-party cookies for ad targeting and measurement are going away. This is huge. 

According to eMarketer, more than $123 billion in programmatic advertising is transacted via real-time bidding on the open internet—much of that being guided by the use of cookies today. 

As a result, brands, agencies, publishers, and ad tech companies, all have to rethink their media strategies in 2024. The entire advertising industry will shift to new targeting and measurement technologies in the year ahead, if they haven’t already.

Immersive In-person Shopping Experiences

During the pandemic, we loved browsing our favorite products from the comfort of our own homes. However, shopping behavior during this past year indicates something truly shocking, at least to me: brick-and-mortar isn’t going away. 

In-store sales have rebounded post-pandemic, and most businesses are confident that physical stores will continue to play a large role in the purchase journey. 

As such, brands need to invest in enhancing the customer’s in-store shopping experience to stand out from the competition. This is especially important when put into the context of an omnichannel landscape, where shopping can happen anytime, anywhere. 

The journey to the store is no longer just transactional, either. Enjoying the in-store experience is the main reason 35% of consumers shop in-store, and another 24% want to interact with products before buying.

Perhaps the biggest opportunities will be in bridging the online and offline gap, which might include options for: buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS); buy in-store, ship to home; buy online, return in-store. These will all be important to savvy shoppers in 2024. 

More Selling with Video

Video had a huge impact on the shopping journey this past year, with 54% percent of consumers demanding more video content from brands.

Video will continue to have a massive influence, helping shoppers decide which product or brand to buy, as well as enhance the in-store experience. That’s also why online retailers are introducing more video advertising units and live streams within their platforms. 

Brands will likely embrace more video across social media, where selling via live videos on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and others, is likely to grow. That’s apparent in the continued shopping capabilities that are being added to social media platforms. 

Of course, B2C brands are doubling down on short-form video and UGC content for good reason. The ROI on short-form videos is there, and that’s expected to continue next year. 

All Eyes are on YouTube

YouTube always amazes me. I’ve seen success on the platform from my own campaigns and content initiatives. In 2024, it’ll continue to be ripe with opportunities for brands and marketers. 

According to eMarketer, YouTube accounts for more than 20% of ad revenues and time spent with CTV in the U.S. That’s staggering, and it shows that the platform is building a following, even on the big screen. 

YouTube also caters to a wide audience, with Gen Zers and millennials accounting for the majority of viewers. YouTube’s influence is also expanding, fueled by a younger demographic deeply engaged with the platform. While TikTok and Instagram get all the buzz, Pew Research reports that 19% of teens use YouTube “almost constantly.” 

YouTube Shorts specifically shouldn’t be ignored in 2024. While daily views are still eclipsed by Meta’s Reels, YouTube Short generates more than 50 billion daily views and it’s growing rapidly. 

eMarketer predicts that YouTube’s growth will reach double digits in 2024 and 2025 and will exceed Hulu by 2025. That is just incredible and reveals the impact that YouTube still has on audiences. 

A Shift to Nano-influencers

Influencer marketing seems to have taken hold this past year, as brands become more savvy and embrace the fact that people follow people on social media. 

But what exactly is an influencer? That’s the question brands will grapple with in the year ahead. 

While macro influencers will continue to drive broader reach and brand recognition, there will likely be more opportunities for nano-influencers, or those with anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 followers. 

For brands, these influencers offer two advantages: lower cost and higher engagement. 

Consumers are on a Quest for Quality

The cost-of-living crisis hit hard consumers hard this year. Inflation, among other economic trends, are making consumers reevaluate their spending habits and prioritize long-lasting, premium items.

This was a BFCM 2023 trend where shoppers did hold out during big shopping moments earlier in the year to spend during Holiday. 

Beyond promotional cadence, brands should enhance their premium product offerings to cater to this rising demand. If you have a unique product story that emphasizes quality and longevity, tell it loudly and proudly.  

Shoppers are also looking for other qualities in their decision-making. Specifically, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword anymore. There should be messaging that speaks to what brands are doing to address it, either in their product, the packaging, or through other corporate programs, to appeal to the modern, socially conscious consumer. 

That too feeds into the shoppers’ quest for quality, where consumers say they’re willing to pay a premium for sustainably sourced items. Sustainability is also factoring into brand loyalty, especially among Gen Z. 

Rise of Retail Media Networks (RMNs)

Retailers are still investing heavily to create omni-channel digital experiences both in-store and online. The innovation here is really being led by Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart.

Stores will become more like their online counterparts, leveraging technology like self-service scanners and cashierless checkout, to produce more seamless shopping experiences. 

Online, retail media networks will get even better with new targeting capabilities, cross-selling and upselling opportunities, and provide easy access to retailer first-party data—critical in this new cookie-less world we live in. 

These retail media networks will grow by an estimated $10 billion this year, fueled by their ability to capture omnichannel sales attribution, tie online experiences to offline sales, and extend access to shopper data to exciting new digital ad formats such as social media, streaming video, and other offsite media. 

Closing Thought

By no means is this an exhaustive list. However, these are just a few trends and tactics I’ll be taking into consideration as prep for 2024 gets underway. What are you excited to lean into? Send me an email with some of your marketing predictions for this year.

From Deals to Dollars: BFCM 2023 Marketing Strategies for Success

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) have come and gone, and now it’s time to reflect on the success of your marketing efforts.

Did you see an increase in sales? Did you reach your target audience? Did you effectively utilize digital advertising?

It’s always an exciting shopping period, but I was eager to see how impactful it was going to be this year given just some of the headwinds:

• The United States is currently over $1 trillion in credit card debt.

• Even though the annual inflation eased, consumers have become accustomed to tightening their belts.

• With a two-year slump in electronics sales, a weak holiday season was more or less expected.

Regardless, challenges are important and it felt great to be a digital marketer that prepared well for the season – aiming to exceed all projections!

Over the long weekend, here are a few observations I had from this year’s shopping frenzy.

High AOV Made the Difference

Brands that sold higher ticket items seemed to perform well, driven by folks holding out through sales periods in September and October to capitalize on BFCM.

Successful brands removed friction from the shoppers’ journey. Deal-seekers are looking for one thing, so brands with messaging and offers that were loud, clear, and direct, ultimately won.

Building on urgency was critical. Countdown timers, limited quantities, and flash sales – those are some of the tactics that deal-seekers responded to this year.

By emphasizing the limited time or availability of a deal, you can also create a sense of exclusivity that customers respond to very well.

Brand Awareness Mattered

If people already knew your name and wanted your product, you were set up for success for BCFM 2023. As soon as sales turned on for brands, consumers that had waitlisted or wishlisted products earlier were ready to pounce.

Throughout the year it’s easy to focus on low funnels tactics or the blocking and tackling of performance marketing to support your e-commerce strategy. However, building brand awareness pre-Holiday really helps you capitalize on that investment when BFCM arrives.

Many marketers and big brands fall into the trap of solely focusing on direct response KPIs. This myopic approach misses the bigger picture of the customer journey and fails to build organic buy-in. Without a strong top-of-funnel strategy, brands miss the opportunity to cultivate genuine interest and establish a connection with potential customers. Instead of merely selling a product, they should strive to be seen as cool, interesting, and integral to the target lifestyle.

For brands, this is also where consistent/unique content, brand or media collaborations, good customer experience, and positively reviewed products, make up the four key ingredients of building strong brand perception to be most relevant when it really matters.

If your brand isn’t easily associated with a product they want to buy, start early and ensure your pre-BFCM efforts solidify your brand's connection to the products customers crave.

Build on Anticipation

In the weeks or even months leading up to BCFM, building out a specific opt-in list could help unlock incremental sales for brands. So too can emails with a “Back in stock” message.

One idea to build on this list is to create a page to unsubscribers from your emails with an option that says, “Only send me Black Friday/holiday offers.” Again, it’s just another way to cater to the single-minded needs of deal-seekers.

Simplified Media Won

As already mentioned, deal-seekers are looking for one thing. As such, static ads with a clear message won this year.

Shoppers looking for the best deals want to see the product, the offer, and then decide whether they want to click.

UGC was another type of content that seemed to perform well, signaling why people should buy your product outside of an ad. This is also easily consumable while shoppers are at home, on their phones, while potentially polishing off Thanksgiving leftovers.

Offer More Than a Discount

Big brands weren’t necessarily relying on deep discounts this year.

Many brands might have dropped prices, but some offered a free gift with purchase instead to show greater value. For those brands, higher revenue was on the table, without serving up a discount.

Focus on Gifting

It’s easy to forget that this season is ultimately about gift-giving.

Segmenting your customers into gifters versus self-purchasers can be extremely beneficial.

At the very least, you’ll want to try blended messages in your marketing that appeals to both types of purchases.

BFCM really started much earlier

There’s a misconception that starting a sale too soon can cannibalize what you might see on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That simply was not the case this year.

If you watched major retailers, sales started well ahead of the Black Friday. For example, Target’s BFCM marketing strategy focused on deals starting on October 29.

Many brands started early and amplified their holiday sales message over and over again. When tapping into existing customer lists, this proved to perform well.

Black Friday Has Given Way to “Cyber Weekend”

“Black Friday Sale” messaging is still impactful for truly limited time offers. But if your sales run through Cyber Monday, consider “Cyber Weekend” messaging instead.

This strategy lets you continue the sale throughout BFCM without any confusing messaging or mis-naming sales period. Also, keep in mind that Cyber Weekend is even starting to give way to Cyber Month.

Landing Pages Work

Custom BFCM website experiences continue to perform. Once again, deal-seekers are on a mission in this critical but narrow window of time. So, think of ways to showcase offers, value props/benefits, unique merchandising, and messaging, that directly resonates with these shoppers.

Landing pages dialed into the seasonality of this period will drive higher conversions than when using more evergreen customer journeys.

What Else Resonated this BFCM?

Send me an email with other realizations you had from this year’s BFCM.

5 Ways to Maximize Content Marketing ROI

Content marketing is one of the best ways to drive awareness, purchase intent and favorability. According to Nielsen, content such as video or native advertising can increase brand lift by as much as 42%!

The creation of content that’s both informative and helpful is also key to improving trust with customers. It’s especially powerful in the mid-funnel, helping to drive consideration through education. So, it should be no surprise that nearly 70% of consumers also prefer to learn about products and services through content rather than traditional advertising. 

Of course, not all content is created equal. As you build plans around high-quality content, here are a few tips to ensure it’s both profitable and flexible. 

1. Keep it Evergreen

The best way to maximize return is by creating content that’s going to last. 

Leverage original research and data, fact-based information, and visual charts, to tell a compelling story. 

A solid SEO strategy should complement these efforts, driving both link-building and search traffic around targeted keywords within a larger topic cluster.

2. Improve User Experience

Quality content isn’t enough to improve the return on content marketing without a strong design and information architecture that removes friction. 

Users should be able to read and interact with content without hurdles. But if the site takes too much time to load, has confusing navigation, and way too many pop-ups impeding their forward momentum, the content you create isn’t going to be consumed. 

Remove obstructions such as ads and pop-ups, and always be looking at ways to make navigation simpler and more intuitive. Remember that the user’s experience with your content is important for search.

3. Improve Calls to Action

As a marketer, a call to action or CTA, always seems obvious. But it’s amazing how easily they can be minimized or completely forgotten. You won’t be able to maximize content marketing ROI if you aren’t clear about what you want users to do next. 

Of course, leading up to CTA, you need to consider the user’s journey and keep their intent in mind.

What do users need? What are the pain points they’re trying to solve? What will they want to achieve after viewing or reading your content? Perhaps it’s to learn something, acquire a specific benefit, or make a purchase decision. Help your users narrow down those choices and take action – that’s a big key to increasing your content’s return. 

4. Great Headlines Sell

Whether it’s a banner ad or long-form article, your headline should catch attention by speaking to your users’ needs.

Headlines can have a direct impact on the return of content marketing, which is why A/B testing headline variations is also an important tactic to employ. The strongest headlines ultimately should convey a value proposition to users. 

Test several headline variations to help increase click-through rates on your content by as much as 5-10%.

5. Repurpose and Extend

Content curation is just as important as content creation. 

In many cases, improving return of content isn’t about creating something all-new, but rather editing or refining what you have already created. 

Summarize blog content into infographics. Use snippets from email newsletters for social posts. Expand a series of blog posts for an ebook. Embed a YouTube video on a landing page to drive organic search performance. Syndicate blogs within a sponsored article campaign.

The more you can reuse and repurpose content for other channels, the more you’ll get out of the content you’ve created. Plus, this strategy will help you maintain consistency in new formats as you reach different audiences.

In Closing

Content is critical for businesses large and small, but planning and creating high-quality content that customers will respond to isn’t easy. To ensure you’re maximizing your content marketing investments, following the above are just some of ways you could improve the ROI on your content development.