For the latest edition of our Marketing Briefing, available exclusively to Digiday+ members, senior marketing editor Kristina Monllos looks at how the continued rise of the Delta variant is affecting marketing messages.
In this week's Media Buying Briefing, another member exclusive, senior editor Michael Bürgi explores where auto manufacturers and dealers are spending their media dollars.
You can get a taste below and subscribe to Digiday+ for full access to all briefings as well as original research, reports and guides, tutorials, unlimited stories and much more.
By Kristina Monllos
If you ask marketers and agency execs how the continued rise of the Delta variant is affecting marketing messages now, you’ll probably hear that there is a resigned focus on safety and solutions in the face of ongoing uncertainty as opposed to the ‘we’re in this together’ creative rife throughout the first chapters of the pandemic.
As one creative agency CCO put it, “we’re out of the ‘connected messaging’ fog now.”
“We’ve got a phrase here that we’ve got to keep our head on a swivel to make sure we’re watching at all times for what’s happening with Covid, the variants and how guests are feeling at our restaurants,” said Denny’s CMO John Dillion. “Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been focused on consumer needs of value, comfort, convenience and reassurance. Reassurance has really emerged [as a priority] to make sure guests know it’s safe to eat at Denny’s.”
Denny’s isn’t the only brand leaning into safety messaging as the Delta variant has continued to rise. In December 2020, Alaska Airlines worked with Mekanism to create a lighthearted spot featuring the Men Without Hats tune “Safety Dance” to show how the airline was handling safety. That ad is making a comeback, according to Lisa Zakroff, managing director at Mekanism.
“The video aimed to not just show how clean our planes were but to get people to trust that their fellow-fliers were following the rules,” said Zakroff. “The campaign was so successful — and because of continued COVID-19 concerns — we are now running the spot in new markets who have not seen it before.”
Quote of the Week
“I’d be lying to you if [I said we] think we have the answer just yet. Right now, we’re just trying to figure out what is actually working.”
— Diarrha N’Diaye, founder of clean beauty brand Ami Colé, on managing the impact of iOS 14 on paid social media advertising.
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By Michael Bürgi
Headline after headline about the auto industry’s supply-chain woes (Not enough computer chips! Expensive raw materials! Used cars are more valuable than new cars!) have dominated the business pages for at least a year now. It turns out those impacts on the industry, combined with a more selective consumer who expects to get things on his or her terms, is having an impact on where auto manufacturers and dealers are spending their media dollars.
On top of it all, the auto industry has had to deal with Tesla, an independent car brand that hasn’t spent a penny on advertising but sold almost 450,000 fully-electric cars in 2020. Though Tesla has its own set of challenges, carmakers and their agencies are keeping a close and envious eye on how the upstart has marketed itself.
“Tesla changed the game. Their no-dealer model has really affected what consumers expect,” said Scott Schwartz, managing director, business lead at Omnicom’s PHD. “They don’t advertise. What they do well is they foster fandom — they’re creating experiences, moments and this fandom. And it pushes [the entire auto] industry to figure out how to tap into a little bit of that magic. It’s going be hard to recreate what they did, but we can look at their playbook a bit.” Among other accounts, PHD handles Volkswagen’s media.
That magic, it seems, is being sought more and more on digital channels, at the expense of some traditional media. “Manufacturers are working on building brands with long life cycles, which tends to require sustained [ad] spending, with more of a digital skew,” said Brian Wieser, global president of business intelligence at GroupM. With used cars in some cases generating more value than new cars, dealers are looking to reach prospective buyers online, which Wieser said can come at the expense of local broadcasters.
“In certain times and channels, the consumer wants to be inspired or educated or assured. We go beyond the channel mix to focus more on the consumer journey, and right now that journey is more digital, streaming, and influencer focused than ever before,” said Kimberley Gardiner, senior vp of marketing for Volkswagen of America. “Given the supply issues and all the production challenges in the auto space right now, channels that allow for maximum flexibility in regards to both flighting and creative certainly have an advantage.”
Direct quote
“What I found on the agency side … I wanted more transparency in the ecosystem. I had clients who were frustrated by how opaque it was — I was frustrated on their behalf … and I felt there was an opportunity for a player to be out there who could really open the kimono and A. make clients feel comfortable in terms of how their money was being spent, but also B. share that data with clients and agencies so that they could really understand what was happening in terms of how algorithms were working, how bids were working, where they were winning and losing, so they could optimize what they were doing.”
— Kasha Cacy, global CEO of agency group Engine, talking with BeetTV.
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Further reading
What is the fate of DMPs in a post-cookie world?
Audits get noticed only when things go wrong. So it stands to reason that marketers are scrambling to get them done for ad tech stacks that stand to be upended now that the data that powers them is increasingly bereft of the cookies and mobile identifiers that made it so rich in the first place.Companies are coworking in the metaverse to stave off Zoom burnout and spark new types of collaboration
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have adopted virtual communication tools to make up for in-person collaboration, but those channels have come with limitations. Some firms are addressing these shortcomings by coworking in the metaverse.- Cheat Sheet: Why email marketers are calling Apple’s iOS 15 update ‘a proverbial nail in the coffin’
At Tuesday's Apple Event, the tech giant revealed its latest slew of offerings, including the iPhone 13 and new Apple Watch, slated to hit the market in coming days. Mention of iOS 15 was only a footnote, but updates like Hide My Email and other privacy related features have advertisers in a tizzy as Apple continues its crackdown on data privacy.
