The Marketing Architects

Nearly half of marketers believe senior stakeholders focus too much on ROI. Because while it’s the top metric the C-Suite cares about, ROI alone doesn’t show marketing’s full impact.Proving marketing’s value to the business isn’t a new challenge. But it is a persistent one. This week, Elena and Angela are joined by John Wojcik, VP New Business and Solution Development at Brother USA and former CMO at The Zebra, to discuss strategies marketers can use to communicate the value of their work to larger business goals and growth.Topics covered: [02:00] The top marketing metrics senior stakeholders care about[04:30] Balancing brand and performance initiatives[06:00] How the size and scale of a company affect marketing goals[09:30] Advice for pitching leadership on brand efforts like TV advertising[16:30] Connecting marketing to a brand’s growth strategy[19:00] The importance of relationships for communicating marketing goalsTo learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: Connect with John 2023 MarketingWeek Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Based on an analysis of 2,500 B2B ads, one thing is very clear: B2B needs a new creative formula, one that’s actually effective. This week, Ty Heath, Director of Market Engagement at The B2B Institute, a think tank funded by LinkedIn, joins Angela, Rob, and Elena to talk about why B2B advertising struggles with creative effectiveness. They cover why marketing to businesses is still marketing to people and explore the ABLE formula’s guide to developing B2B creative that people will remember. Topics covered: [02:00] The problem with B2B ad creative[04:30] Connecting brand investments to business results[08:00] Why a lack of likeability harms creative effectiveness[14:00] What Disney teaches us about applying a consistent creative formula[18:00] Examples of B2B ads that aren’t boring[23:00] Using the ABLE formula to develop effective creative[29:00] Why awareness is the first hurdle B2B marketers need to clearTo learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: Connect with Ty 2023 Adweek Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The battle over whether marketers should focus on sales or brand results has raged for years now. But while many marketers are now embracing both, this philosophy of “bothism” has only recently been applied to TV advertising.This week, VP Client Growth Devan Futterer joins Elena and Angela to talk about ways they’ve seen brands set up TV campaigns to drive both long- and short-term results. It starts with a media strategy optimized for reach, requires thoughtfully produced creative, and of course, means measuring results immediately after your campaign launches and months down the road. Topics covered: [01:30] Defining bothism and the brand vs performance debate[05:00] How to apply bothism to TV advertising[06:30] How to measure brand and sales in a TV campaign[09:30] TV’s halo effect on other marketing channels[12:30] How Nuts.com used TV advertising for short- and long-term results[17:00] Recapping principles for successful TV advertisingTo learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2020 MarketingWeek Article 2021 McKinsey Article Effectv Report Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Targeting the right customer at the right time is a marketer’s dream—but only if the price is right.This is the second of three episodes reviewing a report released by Marketing Architects called “Reach, Revenue and ROI: 3 Principles for Effective TV Advertising.” This week, Elena and Rob are joined by VP of Analytics Matt Hultgren to talk about the tradeoffs between targeting and cost, the importance of reach in a media plan, and how to leverage technology to get the most out of traditional media channels.Topics covered: [01:00] Reviewing the high costs of traditional marketing channels [02:50] How to calculate the value of reach[04:15] How creative costs pile up for marketers[05:45] Explaining the marketing cost/value debate [09:50] How to set up traditional media tests cost effectively[13:50] Questions to ask your future television agency [15:30] How to decide what to spend on a mass media test [17:25] What success on mass reach channels looks like To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2023 Cost of Super Bowl Commercials 2023 MarketingWeek Article 2023 WARC Article 2023 Marketplace Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Why would anyone market to those who aren’t likely to buy right away or who don’t fit perfectly within your ICP? Actually, there are multiple reasons.This is the first of three episodes reviewing a report released by Marketing Architects called “Reach, Revenue and ROI: 3 Principles for Effective TV Advertising.” This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Chief Client Officer Whitney Stratten to talk about the power of broad reach marketing, how reach builds mental availability, and how clients have used TV advertising to gain massive levels of reach and build their brands.Topics covered: [01:30] Reviewing the power and challenges of brand-building channels[04:00] Explaining the rationale behind “Operation Holy Cow”[05:30] How Airbnb used brand channels to drive growth[08:00] How reach builds mental availability[12:00] How Joybird used reach to grow their brand[17:00] Using reach to find new audiences To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2020 WARC Article 2021 The B2B Institute Report 2021 MarketingWeek Article 2022 The Wall Street Journal Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Awareness vs affinity. Reach vs resonance. Even customer acquisition vs loyalty. The debate has many names, and it’s clearly not going anywhere. But what if everyone’s right?This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by SVP Brand Strategy Catrina McAuliffe to break down the purpose of both brand awareness and affinity. Because one thing is very clear: this is far from a simple debate. They’re talking through the definitions of awareness and affinity, the importance of both, how to measure them, and just how intertwined every marketing and brand measure truly is. Topics covered: [02:00] Defining brand awareness vs brand affinity[05:30] Why both awareness and affinity are essential[08:30] How to measure brand awareness[13:30] How to measure affinity and brand positivity[17:30] What’s the real value of brand?[20:30] What’s the right level of brand affinity? To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2023 Retail TouchPoints Article B2B Institute Article 2021 Planet Content Guide Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Earned media is a small part of marketers’ budgets, but it’s a growing focus for brands across all categories. Still, is it really a winning marketing strategy on its own?Deciding how to prioritize marketing investments across earned, owned, and paid media has been a long-debated topic. Even the definitions of those three categories are contested. This week, Elena, Rob and Angela are diving into the pros and cons of each type of media, why growing challenges in paid digital advertising has more brands considering earned media, and how to allocate budget across all three areas for the best results.Topics covered: [01:00] Defining earned, owned and paid media[02:30] Why more marketers are leaning into earned media[09:00] Earned media’s value depends on your brand and audience[12:00] How paid media builds awareness to drive earned media[13:30] How Liquid Death’s branding and marketing stunts drive earned media To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2023 Adweek Article 2023 Search Engine Journal Article 2023 Adweek Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

75% of marketers struggle to link creative activities to commercial returns. And 79% say they have inadequate training to connect creative impact and business outcomes.Are we in the middle of a creative effectiveness crisis? In this episode, Elena and Rob explore what creative effectiveness really means, how to measure it, and why award shows are so bad at identifying it. They even explore a framework that marketers at brands of all types can use to evaluate the likely impact of their creative work. Because great creative should absolutely translate to business results. Topics covered: [01:00] Recapping WARC’s podcast episode from Cannes Lions[03:50] Why aren’t creative award shows better at evaluating effectiveness?[07:30] How do you measure creative effectiveness?[09:30] Explaining the SPARK framework[11:30] Why kindling emotion with creative is so challenging[13:30] How pretesting can guide creative strategy To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2019 IPA Report 2019 WARC Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Google announced they would disable cookies for 1% of Chrome users at the beginning of 2024. Now, the pressure is on advertisers looking for targeting alternatives that don’t need cookies. Like contextual targeting.In this episode, Elena, Angela and Rob are joined by SVP Technology Aaron Lange to discuss what contextual targeting is, why it’s seeing renewed interest across the advertising industry, and how streaming TV advertisers especially can benefit from testing the targeting method. Plus, learn how AI, advancing technology, and in-depth data are making contextual far more advanced than it was before the rise of behavioral targeting. Topics covered: [01:00] What is contextual targeting?[04:00] What does the loss of cookies mean for targeted advertising?[08:30] How AI and technology are advancing contextual advertising[11:30] Why contextual targeting makes sense for streaming advertisers[16:30] Could ads be customized to niche audiences and content?[21:30] What’s holding brands back from contextual targeting?[26:00] What does the future of targeting for streaming TV look like? To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2023 TechCrunch Article 2023 MarketingBrew Article 2023 ExchangeWire Article 2023 MediaPost Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Following AI news has been quite the rollercoaster ride lately. The technology’s potential is incredible for a wide range of fields. But especially for creative work like copywriting, design, and video editing. In this episode, Elena and Rob are joined by Marketing Content Designer Greg Brannen to talk about the way AI is transforming creative work and how creatives should feel about that shift. Their discussion covers everything from how technology has changed creative work in the past, to why AI is blending creative roles, to which tools are already saving design time. Topics covered: [01:30] Recapping recent AI and ChatGPT news[03:00] How Jurassic Park was an example of technology changing creative work[12:00] How content creators are being affected by AI[14:30] How AI is already simplifying design workflows in Photoshop[16:30] Using AI to expand your creative skillset and capabilities[23:00] The top AI tools for creatives right now To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2023 Harvard Business Review Article 2023 BBC Article 2023 Search Engine Journal Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.