Brain-hurt scale = 8/10. Just days earlier, Ross Sergeant, global head of media and touchpoints at Asahi, spoke to a conference where he debunked the 40/60 rule advocated by Binet and Field. Most marketing scientists, and savvy marketers in the crowd were not surprised. But so alluring and well-crafted are some of these 'laws', many in the UK, Australia and beyond, are still convinced a reliable path to growth relies heavily upon mass-reach broadcast media. There's a belief that this type of media should form a large percentage of the marketing budget.
But as you'll find out, this is not the approach at Asahi where they use an agnostic approach to media. In this episode we take media strategy out of the clouds of theoretical discussions and into a real life context with a global FMCG brand. We highly recommend you listen to independent media agency, Jonathan Rolley episode (S2 Ep4) before, or in conjunction with this episode.
Why do so many believe in this '60/40 rule'? What parts of it hold true? Does Asahi concentrate on building brand awareness through reach? What do they do differently?
As two fellow marketers we had quite a bit in common. We've both worked for large brands, inside large ad agencies, started our own agencies and worked with small and large brands alike, in multiple and very diverse categories. So this was always going to be an interesting discussion. And Ross has an answer for everything. An old school agency-outsourcing, hands-off head of media head, he is not - it will become quick apparent that hes at the bleeding edge of marketing science with particular liking for the learnings exposed by the Ehrenberg Bass Institute.
We start the discussion with his recent conference talk, but then quickly bridge into a great talk about how he applies modern marketing ideas into a global media strategy.
But this isn’t just a discussion about media. We talk about vendor management. Marketing epistemology, brand measurement and touch on distribution as well. It’s a very contextual discussion, so if you're in the beverage or alcoholic beverage category, this is a must listen. But likewise, just as relevant for all FMCG/CPG brands. And there's still a lot of takeaways no matter what product category you are in. Everyone can learn something here.
Ross espouses what a real life practicing marketer, who’s at the top of their game should be. And it's not easy. This is an episode which serves part of our 'A day in the life of a real-life practicing professional' series. Check out other episodes such as Robin Daniels (ex-WeWork CMO), Matthew Hammon (Google), Andrew Roper (wine) and Andrew Walker (entrepreneur) episodes.
Warning - do not listen if you are attached to, and wish to stay in the adland-media bubble - and believe that the secret to growth is all about award winning creative with lots of reach.
Do listen if you wish to discover out how to do things properly with media budgets.
You know what to do...
Champagne Strategy