Brands and agencies pull out of Russia and a medical insights company shaping media planning

In this week's Marketing Briefing, available exclusively to Digiday+ members, senior marketing editor Kristina Monllos looks at how Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine is continuing to have ripple effects in the world.

In a recent Media Buying Briefing, another member exclusive, senior media buying and planning editor Michael Bürgi looks at how a medical insights company is shaping media planning and buying using its data.

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Marketing Briefing: As brands and agencies pull out of Russia, ripple effects of the Ukraine invasion continue in the ad world

By Kristina Monllos

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine continues to have ripple effects in the ad world.

Late last week, WPP announced that it would discontinue its operations in Russia. The holding company released a statement that continuing to run its business in Russia would be “inconsistent with [its] values” and that it stood with Ukraine. WPP isn’t alone. Other businesses have announced they will suspend services (TikTok, Netflix, Visa, Mastercard, Amex) or halt advertising (Google) in Russia. Awards shows Cannes Lions and D&AD also said it wouldn’t be accepting submissions from Russian agencies or brands.

Some in the ad world see the moves as clear-cut. “Pulling out is a no-brainer in the short term,” said Allen Adamson, brand consultant and co-founder of Metaforce, when asked about the impact on the ad world. “This is a moment in time when the amount of revenue you can make by staying open in Russia is diminished by the pressure to do the right thing.”

Others have a more nuanced take on brands and agencies’ response to the ongoing invasion. Some agency execs and industry observers say that while they support businesses pulling out of Russia as it may send a signal to the Russian government, they also feel for people in the advertising community in Russia who don’t support the atrocities that the Russian government is committing against Ukraine.

Some wonder about the possible precedent these businesses may be setting with this decision.

“It’s a slippery slope for offices to be closed irrespective of business or organization,” said one media buyer who requested anonymity. “What happens when more countries behave like Russia? What happens when the war stops? Do those offices reopen? What about the humanity and dignity of innocent hard-working people at those companies whose economic livelihoods are harmed from this?”

The impact of the ongoing invasion in Ukraine also has ripple effects for those in other countries as they watch the horrors of the attack from afar. Some say that business leaders need to be cognizant of that impact as well.

“The trauma of war and adding another pressure to what has already been a panic enduring two years with COVID,” said Duane Brown, founder of performance marketing agency Take Some Risk. “Brands need to give their people space and time to think and heal. You never know who has friends, family and loved ones based in Ukraine.”

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Media Buying Briefing: How a medical insights company is shaping media planning and buying with its data

By Michael Bürgi

In the age of COVID, the more health-related information a marketer has access to, the better.

Kinsa, a health tech company that’s created a connected thermometer, is using data feedback to inform media plans from health marketers and their agencies to ramp up its enterprise side of the business. The company has helped multiple health-related brands, from cold and flu medications to tissue makers, optimize their media spend, working directly with the brands as well as their media agencies. Kinsa is also selling its insights to retailers getting into the media sales business — and which one isn’t these days?

I spoke with Kinsa’s cmo Andy Yost as well as vp of data science John Zicker about their work with brands, agencies and retailers.

The following has been edited for clarity and condensed for space.

What makes Kinsa’s data different?

Andy Yost: What’s unique about us is our predictive real-time illness insights allow us to work with consumer packaged goods brands to fuel smarter business decisions around media planning, but also around supply-chain management decisions. It allows them to get ahead of where illness is striking and take action quickly. An early strategic advantage for us over others is our ability to collect three key data sets: where illness starts — people who are using our product before going to the doctor; how fast illness is spreading; and understanding illness severity. Those three unique inputs have really helped us create a very interesting and compelling offering for enterprises, like the packaged goods industry.

With whom do you share that data, and what’s the process for sharing it?

Yost: There’s a range of ways that we’re working with consumer packaged goods companies. We identify the brands that this is most relevant to cold and flu [remedy] manufacturers, talking to CMOS and brand managers of those companies. We also work with their agencies, particularly around media spend and media optimization. And we’re having conversations with retailers, which are working with these brands to make sure that products are on the shelves where illness is spiking. It’s also led us to interesting partnerships with players like The Trade Desk, where we’re able to help our brands and our agency partners make more effective decisions around their media spend.

How do you gather the data and make it ready for prime time for brands and agencies?

John Zicker: We’re collecting information in the household at the time of need, which all marketers really care about. Somebody feels feverish, they grab the thermometer, and then it opens up a conversation where we collect other symptoms — cough, headaches, chills, body aches, those types of things. Using that, we then can combine it and match that up with whatever [brand or marketer] we’re working with. The other thing is, unlike publicly available data about illness, we aggregate that into DMAs, which [is] how marketers think — as opposed to the whole state or the whole nation. So it’s better targeting.

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Further reading

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Why American Eagle is looking to be an early adopter in metaverse-based marketing and sales
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How Disney is using its audience data and Hulu’s ad tech to compete with Google, Meta and Amazon
Many media companies, for years, have been talking about trying to compete with the likes of Google and Meta for advertisers’ dollars. Those media and tech companies have remained set apart in terms of audience size to the amount of data they have from those audiences. However, Disney is among the few media companies actually in a position to narrow that gap, if not close it.