CMOs maintain optimism for post-Covid marketing budgets despite fears, says Gartner

Marketers are adopting a 'stoic' attitude to their marketing budgets post-Covid-19, but it is an opinion not widely shared by their C-suite colleagues.

That is the top line finding from the latest Gartner CMO Spend Survey, which found almost three quarters (73%) of CMOs expect the pandemic's negative impact to be 'short-lived.' The after-effects, according to heads of marketing, are expected to turn positive within 18-24 months, with CMOs reporting increased investments across...

6 July 2020 | Advertising

Facebook: Zuckerberg says ad boycott will end ‘soon enough’ as Oxford study explores impact

As the number of companies boycotting Facebook continues to grow, a study from the University of Oxford argues an 'immediate' negative impact could result, particularly in the retail sector.

Various major brands, including Adidas, Coca-Cola and Starbucks - with PlayStation the latest big name to join - are withdrawing advertising to pressure the social network into taking a stronger stand against hate speech.

According to the Information - with the story's veracity later...

3 July 2020 | Advertising

Tech behemoths maintain brand dominance as sustainability is key, says Kantar

Tech companies continue to dominate the biggest global brand lists - as the latest ranking from WPP and Kantar shows the largest brands are in a solid position to recover and thrive post-Covid-19.

The 2020 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking saw Amazon retain top spot and Apple again secure second place, with Microsoft and Google swapping places for third and fourth. The latter was down to a 30% brand value change for Microsoft compared with last year, although this...

30 June 2020 | Branding

The state of influencer marketing amid Covid-19: Concern but micro-influencers show path forward

Influencer marketing campaigns, so often trying to achieve a balance between aspiration and authenticity, have seen a fault line rip through them as the coronavirus pandemic has progressed.

For all of the missteps which made the news last year - Philip Morris breaking its internal rules on a campaign, fashion influencer Marissa Casey Grossman's marriage which brought a new meaning to the term 'brand engagement' - the statistics around influencer marketing were solid. According to...

29 June 2020 | Campaigns

Thoughts on how to ensure GDPR does not kill your marketing strategy

Webinar The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was supposed to be a wake-up call for marketers to clean up their act. But how has this actually played out?

It is safe to say the consensus from the industry in 2018 was less than universal. In a blistering New York Times op-ed, Alison Cool noted that, in the run-up to the law's introduction, many scientists and data managers who would be subject to the law 'found it incomprehensible... doubting that absolute...

22 June 2020 | Advertising Technology

How Covid-19 has shifted consumer expectation – and digital commerce investment

The global coronavirus pandemic has driven half of shoppers to buy products they have never bought online before, with 70% admitting to buying more than usual, according to a new report. But what does this mean for customer experience?

According to Bloomreach, in a study put together alongside Forrester, heightened customer expectations has meant a greater shift in investment from brands.

Overall, the impact of Covid-19 has been variable. Based on 50 global decision...

11 June 2020 | Commerce

Achieving transparency and responsibility in digital advertising amid technological change

Webinar Digital advertising is in many ways like any other technological landscape: the advancements on the tech side cause ramifications which are played out with regard to ethics.

Last week marked the two year anniversary since the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force. A plethora of articles arrived to mark the occasion, with bunting and birthday cake duly provided.

Yet it's GDPR's party, and the data subject will not comply if they want to....

3 June 2020 | Advertising

Salesforce State of Marketing report promotes empathy, AI, and more focused KPIs

Salesforce has published its latest global State of Marketing Report, which has explored the rate of transformation within marketing and the data and organisational goals needed to achieve it.

The report, which collected data from almost 7,000 marketing leaders globally, had three overarching findings:

Marketing transformation is taking on new urgencyMore empathetic marketing is being achieved due to greater data and personalisationMarketers are doubling down turning...

22 May 2020 | Automation

Aimee Stone Munsell, CMO, Contentsquare: On leadership, learning, and lateral job moves

Aimee Stone Munsell, chief marketing officer at digital experience software provider Contentsquare, is a firm believer in the adage that a leader is only as good as their team. "A leader's job is to make themselves obsolete," she tells MarketingTech.

Realising the bluntness of that statement, Stone Munsell (left) laughs and clarifies. "What I mean by that is my job is to create at each level of management and leadership, to make the people underneath you successful and the...

18 May 2020 | CMO

Marketing and brand purpose in Covid-19: Getting social media right while social distancing

Call it a 'new normal', an adjusted reality, or whatever you will; for many businesses amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the show has to go on. But with it comes extra nuance; the standard off-the-shelf marketing messages may not cut it right now.

Or could they? Tom Goodwin, of comms agency Publicis Groupe, recently wrote on LinkedIn that 'by now, what [he] really wants in advertising is for [companies] to ignore the current crisis, rather than pretending to care about it.' "I don't...

13 May 2020 | Content Marketing