BRANDS

Keeping Up With the CPGs

Has the new brand of paper towels you snagged from a barren grocery store shelf in March become a mainstay in your kitchen? You’re not alone. 

As the pandemic rolls on, consumers are becoming more loyal to the smaller brands they were basically forced to try back in March.

• Over 39% of respondents to a global Bazaarvoice survey cited by Marketing Dive said they experimented with new brands during quarantine.
• 88% of those who bought a new brand said they continue to keep buying those products.

Zoom out: Those stats represent long-term friendship bracelets in the making. The COVID-19 pandemic could accelerate the shift from consumer interest in CPG mainstays to smaller, more niche brands. 

Key word: Accelerate. That shift was already happening before the pandemic. In pre-pandemic 2020, smaller manufacturers saw market share jump 0.1% compared with a 0.4% decrease for larger CPGs. Since the end of April, big CPGs have seen market share slide 1.6%, while smaller businesses have enjoyed a 0.7% bump. 

Living in the future

Larger CPGs are pretty well-positioned to slow the changing tides—particularly through changes to packaging and broader marketing strategies.

Big picture: Conagra (which heads up brands like Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's and Banquet) found that modernizing the packaging of its old-school mega brands and adding more global flavor variety, “bowls,” and trendy ingredients helped it keep up with new kids on the block like Beyond Meat during the pandemic. 

TL;DR: Just like the smaller brands purchased out of necessity at the start of the pandemic, these larger brands showed strong repeat buying rates among new buyers in the 14 week period ending May 31, due to their revamped product offerings and package design.

CAMPAIGNS

Shake It Like a Red Wing

In 2020, it’s hard to find a job—but on Labor Day, a job might have found you.

More than 50 brands joined a campaign by footwear brand Red Wing Shoes and Droga5 to promote their job openings, rather than traditional Labor Day sales promotions. 

You’re hired

• The Minnesota-based boot brand challenged other companies to post open roles on social media with the #LaborDayOn hashtag by September 7 to help 25 million unemployed Americans on their job hunts. 
• From running a full-page ad in the NYT and releasing a short film with clickable links to job postings, to transforming 500+ stores into job centers, it’s safe to say Red Wing went all out here. 
• General Mills, New Balance, and Burger King were among those who participated in the challenge.

Why it matters: #LaborDayOn is aligned with what consumers want during the pandemic. 89% of global consumers agreed that they “want brands to shift money and resources to producing products that help people meet pandemic-related challenges” in Edelman’s spring 2020 brand trust survey.

SPONSORED BY NETELIXIR, INC.

A Holiday Retail Carol

Last night we had a holiday dream. A bunch of snowmen showed up at our door, singing, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow holiday revenue.”

We had no idea what this dream meant; our therapist was baffled; and then we heard about NetElixir’s e-book, “Along the Road to Recovery: How the Coronavirus Pandemic Reshaped E-Commerce Trends and Online Shopping Behavior” and their webinar, “A Different Holiday: Opportunities and Challenges in a Covid World,” and now we understand.

The snowmen were trying to tell us that the perfect opportunity to prepare our retail brand for the holidays was coming! And they were right!

On Thursday, September 10th, NetElixir will be joined by the founding executive of Lenovo’s global online strategy, Ajit Sivadasan, to break down the insights you need to be prepped for the holidays.

From digital strategies to business model transformation to adapting to our new reality, NetElixir’s live webinar will provide crucial holiday insights.

Check out their e-book here and register for the free event here.

CMOS

For Once, Gap is On-Trend

This hasn’t been a particularly chill year for anyone, but Gap’s marketing department has seen more change than the average bear. 

The clothing brand named Mary Alderete its new CMO six months ago, and she’s currently rolling out her first marketing campaign, called “Stand United.” Like many campaigns these days, it’s about civic engagement and registering to vote. 

But here’s the most important change: Stand United is the first campaign in which every single aspect of its creation came from the marketing team under Alderete—without an agency in sight.

• Alderete told Adweek that Gap made the decision to go all in-house, “so that we could create that seamless experience across channels, across all the touch points.”
• The World Federation of Advertisers recently found that 74% of internal creative teams were created over the past five years, and 82% of that group reported that workloads have increased in the past year, per Marketing Dive.

Looking ahead: The in-housing trend’s resilience during the pandemic could further cement agencies’ place on the 2020 struggle bus.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Taboola and Outbrain called off their $850 million merger.
• Gannett hired former Spotify Global Growth & Marketing VP Mayur Gupta as its new chief marketing and strategy officer.
• TikTok added a new feature that lets users cut and paste bits of other users’ videos.
• Apple will let app creators offer promo codes for their subscriptions.
• Nielsen found that global consumer desire for small luxuries is still seeing unexpected levels of growth despite the pandemic.

SPONSORED BY ATTEST

Our secret ingredient? Data. Attest helps brands like Microsoft, Walgreens, Gymshark, and Discovery be data-driven about the way they plan their campaigns. You can download their guide to discover how data can elevate your creativity and clearly illustrate the impact of your campaigns. Make campaign and creative decisions easier with data today.

ADWEEK OR ADWEAK?

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is from marketing satire Twitter account @ADWEAK? 

1. Vita Coco Sends Coconuts In Snail-Mail Stunt
2. Ikea Reimagines The Tortoise And The Hare To Highlight The Benefits Of Sleep
3. Entertainment Marketers Are Bullish About Industry’s Prospects Post-Pandemic
4. Trump Says The U.S. Will Not Intervene In Escalating Bud Light/Coors Beer War

Keep scrolling for the answer.

AD ANTIQUES

eBay

Zsa Zsa Gabor and her poodle are timeless in this 1994 Gap ad. The khakis? Not so much.

ADWEEK OR ADWEAK? ANSWER

Trump wishes he could intervene in some brand Twitter beef (he didn’t have a quick enough comeback).

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Marketing Brew stories from the last few editions.

• A little tweak in the Arizona Lottery’s ad strategy led to its best month in 39 years during a pandemic
• Why marketers shouldn’t write off Instagram Reels just yet
• Droga5 laid off about 7% of its U.S. staff