Trinity Projects

Marketing

  • Festival of Marketing 2016: The top takeaways from M&S, Mondelez and Unilever

    Festival of Marketing 2016: The top takeaways from M&S, Mondelez and Unilever

    M&S on why it doesn’t target by age and Mondelez talks about the balance between data and creativity.

    Marketing Week 5th October 2016

    Targeting has ‘nothing to do with age’

    Marks & Spencer doesn’t want to “judge people by age” and instead uses data from its members club and loyalty programme Sparks to identify customers by attitude.

    Speaking at the Festival of Marketing today (5 October) head of CRM and loyalty at M&S, Ryan Davies explained

    “It’s more important for us to market based on attitudes and products you are interested in”

    He told delegates that the brand’s targeting is based on a combination of attitudes, purchasing frequency and customer journeys, which has “nothing to do with age” and “everything to do with how we talk about products and the content we put around those things”.

    The brand is hoping to use this interest-based targeting to encourage customers to shop across the business, for example food then over to clothing and vice versa.

    If we can move the food shoppers into becoming clothing shoppers then we have opened [that person] up to two categories so we have twice as much of a chance they will come back and shop with us.

    But this process will take time, according to Davies, who is six months into the role. He also told the audience that he wished he knew “how big and complex the organisation” was before starting and that “coming in and thinking you are going to change the world in two months doesn’t work out”.

    For the 133-year-old business, Davies said it will take time to go from mass offers to personalised dealsthat are less restrictive and reward its customers. “It’s a journey and not a big bang,” he concluded.

    It’s tougher for legacy brands to stand for something

    Union is an artisan coffee roaster built on offering maximum returns to its growers. It was established in 2001 to combat historically low global coffee prices and to combat the subsequent negative impact on the local communities in the likes of African which rely on the coffee trade.

    And speaking on the Realising Your Potential Stage today (5 October), Jeremy Torz, founder and MD of Union Hand Roasted Coffee, warned that achieving true brand purpose takes patience.

    Tori was quick to hit out at the major coffee giants, which “act like being FairTrade-compliant is a job well done.”

    He joked: “I would rather companies paid more for coffee rather than getting a cheap deal and then having a big marketing budget and partnering with WWF or webcams for rainforests.

    “Most consumers don’t know what FairTrade means either. Does it mean the price paid to growers is aspirational or minimum wage? In my experience it is the latter. At the end of the day, consumers realise empty promises straight away. They want real purpose.”

    Achieving real purpose and the profitability that comes with it also takes  a long time, according to Torz.

    He added: “The difference between a business founded with social purpose versus a legacy business is key, as if you’re the latter it is harder to be trusted and understood.

    “If you want to make a social impact then it needs to be something you keep on backing. Not everything comes back with an immediate media sale. It has taken us years to build a supply chain in Africa and to change people’s lives. It doesn’t happen over night.”

    Balance data and creativity to achieve your best work

    The ability to use data creatively is the key to devising marketing that is not only personalised, but highly relevant to the customer journey.

    Speaking at the Festival of Marketing 2016, Mondelez International growth analytics manager Matthew Stockbridge argued that data does not mean the death of creativity, rather that drawing on the right insights creates a stronger and more relevant campaign.

    “I’ve had wonderful discussions with someone on the creative side who will say, ‘if I have any kinds of boundaries in terms of data then you’re killing me creatively.’ But at the end of the day we still need to drive value for shareholders and sell bars of chocolate,”

    “Creating amazing campaigns that win lots of awards at Cannes are great and we like to do that, but what we also like to do is sell some products”

    Matthew Stockbridge, growth analytics manager, Mondelez

    “I fundamentally believe that if you squeeze the creative process something really clever can come out of it. I don’t think the absence of barriers and rules makes the creative better at breaking through. We can still do epic creative work, but you’ve got to think how things are changing.”

    Focus on the craft

    Speaking on the same panel, managing director of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), Rachel Aldighieri, advised marketers not to get caught up in the data and lose focus on the craft that creates great marketing.

    “It’s about taking a customer centric approach, as opposed to saying how much advertising can we get out there. We talk more about relevancy, not necessarily personalisation. We also talk a lot about craft. People block ads if they’re not entertaining and they don’t want to engage with them.

    “Instead put more focus on the craft. Data and technology is obviously hugely important, but the creative is really important,” she added.

    Brands should not expect influencers to create content for free

    The payment piece around influencers continues to cause controversy, according to Heather Mitchell, global PR and social media director, haircare at Unilever.

    “Five years ago brands weren’t paying influencers as much as they are now and I think some people questioned that,” she said. “We shouldn’t expect influencers to create things for us or talk about our products for free.”

    While Unilever will not stop advertising its mass reach products through traditional channels like TV and print, its focus is shifting to influencer-created content, she said.

    Mitchell believes brands should now be paying influencers and content creators in the same way they used to pay publishing houses “quite frankly because their reach is much bigger but also because their credibility is even stronger”.

    While the number of influencers vying for consumers attention continues to rise, Mitchell suggests we are beginning to reach a tipping point. She predicts a lot of influencers making a name for themselves today will not be around in a few years time as they are not adding value to consumers’ lives.

    “If I’m completely honest, as a consumer, there are a lot of influencers I’ve stopped following. I don’t care that you were at Fashion Week again. How are you actually adding value to my life? It’s going to be survival of the fittest. The ones that are continually connecting with their audience, are engaging with them and sharing their personality are the ones that will continue.”

    Festival of Marketing 2016: The top takeaways from M&S, Mondelez and Unilever

  • Medialink’s Manning: ad industry has gone too far down the ‘maths route’

    Medialink’s Manning: ad industry has gone too far down the ‘maths route’

    In the pursuit for more data, more numbers and more measurement, perhaps the industry has forgotten that it markets to people, not machines, Medialink’s senior vice-president, Nick Manning warned at Media360

    Campaign 18th May 2018

    “Perhaps the ‘Mad Men’ were not so mad after all. We don’t advertise to machines, we advertise to people and these people are pushing back on being treated as a product. There is a swing back to the fundamental truths of advertising,”

    Manning said

    “We need to get back to what makes advertising really powerful and it’s not in the demographics, it’s how you speak to people.”

    This concern that too much measurement is causing clients to question if advertising even works isn’t true for Mondelez, Matt Stockbridge, growth analytics manager for the brand, said

    “We’re increasing our ad spend across each year and investing more in digital, social and more in traditional as well – it’s not a barrier.”

    In terms of the measurement environment, Stockbridge believes things are getting better

    “We have great partnerships and the conversations around measurement is a good thing – as long as it doesn’t descend into a slanging match around viewability and size of screen.”

    The overreliance on data may also be driving the industry to be “precisely wrong rather than roughly right”, an audience member pointed out.

    “There is a correlation between the rise of targeting and the decrease of effectiveness,”

    PwC partner Sam Tomlinson, said, citing a study by Enders Analysis.

    On the other hand, Stockbridge, pointed out, there’s a lot more access to advertising now and there may simply be more crap ads.

    “Obviously there is great advertising out there that’s justifying spend or we wouldn’t keep spending on it. It’s a question of balance,”

    https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/medialinks-manning-ad-industry-gone-far-down-maths-route/1465087

  • Mondelez: ‘We welcome a bit of ad blocking’

    Mondelez: ‘We welcome a bit of ad blocking’

    Mondelez International is relaxed about the immediate threat of ad blocking, believing that as long as it works to produce content that people want to should see its media strategies continue to be effective.

    The Drum 1st March 2016

    While many of its peers are sweating as ad blockers proliferate, the Cadbury owner is calm; it pays millions to the likes of Facebook, Google and Twitter to ensure its content is viewed via paid native ads and what’s more believes other channels like TV, radio and outdoor ensure that its brands are in front of enough people.

    “Are we worried about ad blocking? No, not really. We’re fortunate in that we create greate content that people want to see… and so hopefully if something does pop up unexpectedly then they might want to look at it,”

    said Matt Stockbridge, analytics manager at Mondelez at Newsworks’ Shift event earlier today (1 March).

    “We are relying a little on the platforms or the agencies’ credentials [to ensure] that the content is going where it needs to be.”

    The dangers of that slightly removed approach to distributing content were brought into sharp focus last month when Mondelez sponsored a negative story on the Guardian about rival Nestlé. The snacks business admitted it did not have any say in the writing of the story, a stance indicative of how many native content deals are structured now.

    That stance chimes with the company’s wider move to become better at producing ads that people are willing to pay for, from TV shows to articles. Stockbridge added that, while deemed a “small part” of the wider challenges Mondelez marketers face, it is spending more to address its growth in “platforms and areas where “we’re pretty sure the message is going to get to the audience that we want to reach.”

    “We welcome a bit of ad blocking if the content we’re creating then rises to the surface and all that horrible stuff stays below us so that we in turn get a bigger share of voice,”

    claimed Stockbridge.

    “We’ll start worrying about ad blocking when we can’t watch TV, look at posters, read newspapers and listen to the radio.”

    One side-effect of trusting technology companies like Google and Facebook is that Mondelez is getting more data on the effectiveness of its ads.

    “Whereas two or three years ago we relied completely on the media agency to provide the information, those platforms are keen to share their data as well. It’s meant that there’s now this interesting conversation happening between the media agency and the platform about what’s actually being served and what’s been paid for,”

    added Stockbridge.

    Mondelez’s relaxed view to ad blocking chaffs somewhat with that held by Google et al, with those companies at risk of losing much more should ad blockers to continue to proliferate without them having a robust counter-measure.

    https://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/03/01/mondelez-we-welcome-bit-ad-blocking

  • How Mondelez wants its digital partners to pitch for business

    How Mondelez wants its digital partners to pitch for business

    Mondelez’s growth analytics manager, Matt Stockbridge, is tired of being pitched by digital advertising companies that don’t understand the FMCG giant’s challenges.

    Campaign 12th October 2016

    Speaking at IAB Engage 2016, Stockbridge mocked the language of digital companies that cold-call him. Mondelez is open to pitches from digital advertising companies, he said, but they need to be aware of the company’s challenges.
    Here he outlines four key challenges prospective digital partners need to be aware of.

    Innovation in FMCG is tough

    “We get accused of not moving fast enough,” says Stockbridge. “But all I have known about this business is constantly changing and evolving.”He pointed to the failed takeover of Hershey as an example. “It’s not happened, it may happen in future – it’s constantly changing,” he said.
    Mondelez also has less leeway than other categories, he added. Stockbridge pointed out that a car manufacturer that spends $1m advertising a $25,000 car only needs to sell a few vehicles to see a strong ROI. “It’s more difficult for us – we have a massive range of brands,” he said, adding that Mondelez targeted “incremental growth”.
    He said it is rare for an FMCG brand to continue growing past its first year. He pointed to Belvita, the breakfast biscuits that rival standard cereal. “It’s targeting breakfast on-the-go, where there are lots of established brands,” he said. Belvita has continued to grow beyond its first year, he said before quipping, “Anyone from Kellogg’s here?”. Another example of innovative marketing is Mondelez’s Creme Egg Cafe, launched in January. Tickets sold out fast, despite continued press criticism over the changing taste of Cadbury’s chocolate since its acquisition by Mondelez.

    Despite the coverage of Oreo’s outdoor eclipse campaign, such stunts don’t yield much in terms of immediate sales, Stockbridge said. “It’s all very well talking about instant returns, 100 clicks and this that and the other,” he said. “For what we’re trying to make, the products are not particularly expensive, so we have to drive a lot of sales. “A lot of advertising spend in 24 hours probably isn’t going to provide a big return. That doesn’t mean we don’t do it, it’s about finding balance.” He added that Mondelez is “absolutely” investing in digital, pointing to the company’s partnerships with Facebook, Google and Twitter.

    Supermarkets are squeezed

    Mondelez’s margins are constantly squeezed by the fact its items are often sold discounted. Stockbridge illustrated his point by showing a pile of Oreo packets discounted and stacked next to a full-priced pile of Quavers. “It’s how to understand the balance of consumers, what’s happening at the discounters, and how that effects price, value and the decisions customers make in-store,” he said. The confectioner also has to consider where growth is coming from in groceries – Aldi and Lidl – without contributing to the issues of its biggest customer, Tesco’s.

    How people buy snacks hasn’t changed

    Despite the growth of online shopping and increasingly “frictionless”, on-demand options such as the Amazon Dash button, ecommerce is difficult for a firm like Mondelez.
    “We want to sell our stuff online if we can find a profitable way of doing it [but] the traditional way people buy snacks hasn’t changed,” Stockbridge said, adding that ecommerce was “difficult” for retailers to do well. Nonetheless, he hinted there could be a Cadbury’s Dash button in the works.

    https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/mondelez-wants-its-digital-partners-pitch-business/1412017

  • Test, learn and partner: Mondelez on how to foster a culture of effectiveness

    Test, learn and partner: Mondelez on how to foster a culture of effectiveness

    Being willing to experiment, thinking long term and appreciating the value of old and new media channels alike are all part of a successful approach to effectiveness, Mondelez’s Matt Stockbridge says

    Campaign 25th July 2018

    Small and big agencies and some of the biggest names in adland have their fingers and toes crossed for victory, after the IPA shortlisted 38 campaigns for the Effectiveness Awards, which take place this autumn.

    It got me thinking about effectiveness beyond awards, as an intrinsic part of business culture and what can marketers do towards growing a culture of effectiveness?

    Back at the end of the noughties I was very excited about my new role at Cadbury and even more excited about all that we were planning as a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics.

    We were investing in initiatives above, below and through the line and part of my job was to evaluate these efforts.

    The goal was to drive a legacy. The feeling was that this was probably a one-off opportunity for us to engage with a huge market locally.

    However, this created a challenge: how do you measure a legacy? How do you know if you’ve created one and how much revenue is it worth?

    The answer to all of this would take a much longer article than this but one thing is very clear now.

    We’ve been able to apply a number of learnings from and since the Olympics, which have been applied in our first year of partnership with the Premier League.

    Over the last few years we have steadily been growing a culture of effectiveness in our business, which is now consistently driving real and measurable business results.

    Based on much of what you read in the marketing press we are supposed to be spending less on advertising, spending less on TV (because it’s, at best, not being watched or is dead), spending more on digital, creating more content in house, killing the agency model and destroying creativity through big data.

    So far we’ve managed to avoid doing all of these things and, in most cases, have done the opposite while building a healthy culture of effectiveness.

    The approach to creating great campaigns is not exactly rocket science and isn’t in need of reinventing despite many people seemingly being intent on doing so.

    As soon as you start with the channel or being deliberately “digitally” led, you are immediately potentially limiting your success.

    The combination of the story or idea, the audience and finally the channels pays back on far more occasions than the other way round.

    An added element for more impulsive, snacking brands like ours is how to involve our customers in the process too.

    For the Premier League activation in particular, this has been an essential part of our efforts.

    Test and learn

    We don’t always get it right and not every one of our campaigns drives a record-breaking ROI. We can’t always explain why every element of a campaign works even if we know what the ROI is.

    But this is liberating as it allows us to have a test and learn culture and to work with many partners who are constantly helping us to evolve and develop how we advertise.

    Over the last couple of years, as well as Facebook, Google, Twitter and Snapchat, we’ve also worked with likes of Oath, Mumsnet, Spotify, Buzzfeed and Match.com.

    At the same time we’ve done specific activations with The Sun, The Daily Mirror and Global Radio.

    This allows us to incorporate different thinking and create specific content to reach new audiences.

    Great work doesn’t always drive a short-term uplift in sales and neither should it be expected to.

    There should be room in your plans to do both and not one at the expense of the other.

    Looking at ROI in relative terms

    Another evolution in our thinking is in moving away from seeing an ROI in absolute terms but rather how can we improve it.

    This allows an even playing field across all of our brands and categories across our region and helps to focus our efforts on growth.

    It’s easy to get lost in a debate around why an individual ROI is higher or lower than the expectation but it’s far more productive to talk about how it’s evolved from one year to the next.

    How did the plans change, was the creative the same, was it optimised for the channel that was used, how many impressions, cost per point?

    The answers to all of these questions are helping us to make better decisions and build learnings, which identify what sort of campaigns are more likely to drive better results.

    Working with partners

    We are also keen to be involved in healthy ongoing conversations around wider issues of brand safety, transparency and measurement.

    We welcome being a part of the work that ISBA and the IPA are doing to improve things from an industry perspective.

    It’s also encouraging to hear about the work that the IAB, Newsworks, Thinkbox and Radiocentre have been doing to help build an understanding of how consumers respond to advertising.

    A lot of this work doesn’t necessarily create headlines but it certainly helps nail the point that long-standing media channels have somehow become dated or unsound.

    My view remains that a culture of effectiveness in a client will allow all media channels to play to their strengths.

    https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/test-learn-partner-mondelez-foster-culture-effectiveness/1488618

  • Meet the CMOs taking time out before securing their next role

    Meet the CMOs taking time out before securing their next role

    A growing number of CMOs are leaving their roles without a new position to go to. What is their rationale?

    Marketing Week 29th January 2020

    Marketing is a demanding career and, if you’ve been in senior posts for many years, there can come a time when you need to take a step back.

    For some people it is not simply enough to just change jobs. Instead they feel it necessary to remove themselves completely from the day-to-day rigour of working for a leading brand, even without a new job to go to. Such a move can appear to others as an incredibly brave, if risky, career decision.

    But is it? We ask four senior marketers why they have left their posts in the past few months and what they plan to do next.

    Matt Stockbridge’s LinkedIn profile simply says: “Taking a Break”. Like many senior marketers who have left their jobs without a new one to take up, Stockbridge is not overly worried. He has just left his role as analytics lead at Mondelēz International, where he spent almost nine years. He had become frustrated. Three times he applied for a new role internally and on each occasion the position was offered to an external candidate.

    “I just thought it was time to move on, nothing against the company,” he says. “I feel I need to rest, reset and restart my career.”

    Stockbridge comes from a research background, having previously held a senior business insight role at Cadbury and led consumer insights at Kantar Worldpanel, where he spent 17 years – if you include his time at TNS UK. He does not consider his latest career decision to be particularly bold.

    “People look at what you do from their own perspective, but they do not walk in your shoes,” says Stockbridge. “I have been working since I was 14 and I have always spent a long time at the companies where I have worked. I’m now looking for more flexibility.”

    He expects to be drinking a lot of coffee as he networks tirelessly over the coming weeks.

    “I have given myself three months, but I’m very relaxed about things. I am just crystallising my thoughts. I might even do something completely different such as find a house to do up and turn it into an Airbnb property. Who knows?”

    Stockbridge says the fact many senior marketers are choosing the same path is a reaction to the uncertainty in the economy over the past three years. This has led to stagnation in the marketing industry as brands wait for things to happen. While younger marketers are prepared to bide their time, older ones have got itchy feet.

    “My advice to others would be to try other routes first, such as applying for moves internally, ensure you can afford to just leave and be confident enough to buy yourself enough time to really benefit from a break from the industry,”

    Marketingweek.com/cmo-taking-time-out