The Marketing Architects

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.

1,100 marketers were asked if they’d recommend working in their own marketing department to a friend or colleague. The results were a definitive "no.” Clearly, marketing teams need a rebrand. Results were better among the 11% of companies the researchers identified as “winning marketing organizations” based on sales and profit growth, implying a relationship between a healthy workplace and teams that achieve success. In this episode, Elena, Rob, and Angela explore why marketing has an image problem in the first place, how bad it is, and strategies leaders can use for successful marketing team management such as fostering clarity, aligning marketing efforts with business goals, and investing in team building. Topics covered: [01:30] Reviewing marketing’s image problem[06:30] Why individual achievement doesn’t translate to management skills[09:30] What does a high-performing team look like?[13:00] Why brand and performance should be separate teams[16:30] The importance of clarifying who owns business growth[20:00] The benefits of investing in learning and coachingTo learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 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.

For years, Tesla has been the poster child for why not every brand needs advertising. With word-of-mouth alone they became one of the most valuable companies in the world. So why is Tesla now shifting gears into advertising?CEO Elon Musk publicly claimed to hate advertising, preferring to invest in research and development. But in a recent shareholder meeting, he changed his tune, suggesting advertising as a solution to the company’s recent growth challenges. This week, Elena, Rob and Angela dig into Tesla’s decision, how growing competition is changing the playing field for the company, and why all brands eventually need advertising to grow and reach new audiences. Topics covered: [01:00] Why Tesla is launching advertising for the first time[05:30] How advertising affects pricing power[12:30] The importance of investing in product quality[14:00] Advertising provides greater reach than word-of-mouth marketing[16:30] Great advertising isn’t a solution for a bad product[18:00] Reviewing Tesla’s first advertisement To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2022 Statista Chart 2023 Reuters Article 2023 MarketingWeek Article 2023 BusinessInsider Article Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The “dark funnel” gained attention when marketers realized prospects were beginning the customer journey sooner than they’d thought. And they weren’t measuring it.The earliest stages of the buyer journey happen before marketers can identify prospects engagement or without those consumers providing any personal information. These dark funnel touchpoints take place through off-site channels like word of mouth, organic social, reviews, third-party communities, and even podcasts. In this episode, Elena, Rob, and Angela are joined by Director of Analytics Jordan Rossler to talk about the challenges (and benefits) of the dark funnel plus how to set your marketing campaigns up for measurement success. Topics covered: [02:30] What is the dark funnel in marketing?[07:00] How are privacy changes impacting measurement?[09:00] Using multiple models to shed light on the dark funnel[13:00] How to use a “How did you hear about us?” survey[15:30] Where should marketers start with testing a channel’s effectiveness?[17:00] How to approach test design with intentionality[20:00] Using creative pretesting to set marketing tests up for success To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: MarketingProfs Article 2021 6sense Blog 2022 LinkedIn Post Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The top 100 B2B brands across the globe are worth a staggering $2 trillion collectively. But they have $1 trillion in untapped brand potential. Talk about missed opportunity, right?Historically, B2B marketing has been highly rational, focused on features and benefits. But this has come at the price of undervaluing brand-building and awareness. Now, that’s starting to change. In this episode, Angela, Rob and Elena discuss B2B’s emerging focus on brand-building, creativity and reach. Because the truth is that many B2C marketing strategies have just as much relevance for B2B. After all, even as a B2B company, you’re still selling to people. Topics covered: [01:30] Summarizing the study "B2B companies are lagging behind...” from Brand Finance[04:30] B2B buying decisions are still made by people[08:00] What are the differences between B2C and B2B?[13:00] Using characters in B2B creative[18:30] Using TV advertising for B2B growth[23:30] Telling the same story to all buying decision-makersTo learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast. Resources: 2023 MarketingWeek Article 2021 The B2B Institute Report 2019 Gartner Report Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.