The end of the year is both an exciting and anxiety-ridden time for marketers. Media planning for 2023 presents the opportunity for a fresh start, and yet there’s the sometimes-debilitating weight of not knowing where to begin.
For a long time, annual planning was the norm. Now, media planning 12 months in advance is more challenging. As the digital landscape shifts on a continual basis, tactics must be adjusted on the fly to flex with the needs of your business.
So how do you forge a smart path forward for 2023 media planning without wasting time and energy? The answer: Strategize on a macro level, but plan on a micro level.
Search: It’s Google’s world. We’re just living in it.
This may have been true in the past, but not anymore.
Google is still the dominant traditional search engine, but AI advances and shifting consumer behaviors have changed the world of search as we know it. Social media and ecommerce have become mechanisms for consumers to discover and purchase new items, without leaving their preferred apps and platforms.
Marketers need to understand and adapt to the new ecosystem of search and brand discovery.
Let’s unpack these three key aspects of Search 2.0.
- Search is social.
- Search is ecommerce.
- Search is omnichannel.
Last night, I saw a streaming TV ad for my local Chicago news station. Except I don’t live in Chicago; I reside 400 miles away in the Twin Cities. As someone who makes her living in digital media buying, I felt that cringe moment. Someone, somewhere, screwed up. Marketing dollars aren’t endless, and as a marketer, I pride myself on being a good steward of my client’s media budgets.
While data on my geographic location might not feel invasive, it’s one of the many touch points available for consumer targeting. But this data-based performance is only as strong as its data-based audience inputs.
This is why it’s critical to consider the three universal truths of personalization when planning and executing campaigns: transparency, relevance, and compliance.
Agencyland is always looking for the next digital rockstar. That one person who will solve an agency’s problems with one powerful chord. But is hiring a rockstar the most effective way to level up your agency, or is building a solid “rock band” team the way to go? We turn a magnifying glass on the reality of hiring shining stars, and how to harmonize uniquely diverse marketers to create a solid team greater than the sum of its parts.
Listen to Coegi’s CEO Sean Cotton and other guests on The Drum’s CEO Matters podcast below:
Oh, the humanity! You’ve lost a potential lead because your only attempt to reach out was a message buried in a pile of unopened LinkedIn In-Mail.
That person might get around to clearing those out on a rainy day and responding. But even then, you’ve likely missed the window when your marketing efforts would be credited for the result.
Thankfully, there is a better way to reach B2B audiences: Stop limiting yourself to traditional “B2B” strategies.
Fully 83% of business buyers say that you must treat them like a human, rather than just a sale, to win their business. Your audiences live full lives outside of the workplace. You have ample opportunity to humanize B2B marketing strategies with cost-effective digital media.
Use these five tips to improve your B2B marketing strategy:
You couldn’t run a successful business without a diverse team with unique skill sets. So, why would you attempt to launch a global marketing campaign without the same care; without assembling a team of experts to help you navigate the complexities of cultural nuances and regional platforms and publications?
Continue reading to learn how to build your own ecosystem for international marketing success.
Hybrid agency models allow brands to gain the best of both worlds, with in-house marketing capabilities being supplemented by agency specialists. Taking a hybrid approach to agency contracts can be a win-win for both parties, leading to healthier, longer-lasting partnerships.
Here are four key reasons why brands should consider a hybrid agency model…
A marketing campaign is nothing without a strong measurement strategy. Each channel and tactic you are investing in needs to be held accountable to business results. Confirmation bias creeps in when you consider a KPI that is easily manipulated but isn’t a true reflection of business results.
Here are three ways confirmation bias may be hurting your campaigns…
Retail media networks are having a historic year, with projected ad spend growing by $10 million YoY from 2020 to present in the U.S. alone. Even with the delay of cookie deprecation, CPG brands are flocking to these partners to gain access to end-to-end solutions including robust customer data sets, category and competitive insights, and sales attribution. It’s very appealing, especially for CPG marketers who do not have large customer databases.
Here’s how to use retail media in the marketing mix at each stage of your CPG brand’s growth…
Launching a brand in a new international market is no easy feat. Thankfully Ryan Green, vice-president of marketing and innovation at Coegi, shares some of the key challenges and considerations to make the transition as seamless as possible.
From a technical standpoint, you have to consider possible language barriers, time zone differences, dynamic advertising regulations, platform preference and availability, and more.
From a cultural perspective, there’s even more to unpack. What’s considered funny in the United States could be completely misunderstood, or even offensive, elsewhere. Holidays and lifestyles are likely to vary dramatically. The consumers’ day-to-day behaviors and perspectives are, simply put, nuanced and distinct. Because of this, the most important component of an international marketing strategy is cultural relevance.
