TV

Turn the TV Down So You Can Read This

If you can hear your TV in the background right now, that’s a huge deal for a lot of marketers.

• Professional and managerial workers watched 21% more TV between 9am and 4pm in October than they did a year ago, per new Nielsen research. 
• And this isn’t linear TV only—Nielsen defines “total TV time” as “live, time-shifted, internet-connected device, or game console,” per MediaPost.

And if your kids can hear the TV in the background while they’re reading this newsletter, 1) congrats on raising tiny Marketing Brew readers and 2) that’s an even bigger deal for advertisers. 

• For instance, children between the ages of six and 11 and 12 to 17 watched 40% to 80% more TV during the hours of 11am, noon, 1pm, and 2pm on a daily basis in October. 

Why it matters

There’s a reason I said TV “in the background right now”—daytime TV watching habits could be different than primetime. Between the mass uptick in working from home and high unemployment numbers in the U.S., I'm going to bet that while daytime TV numbers are up, it's likely distracted viewing.

My takeaway: Knowing TV viewership is increasing during daytime as a result of more WFH hours logged during 2020 gives you an edge. It means you can create ad spots for the multitasking or distracted viewer rather than the viewer who hasn’t blinked in over an hour because they’re so locked into The Bachelorette. 

+1: Here’s who is taking advantage of the newfound viewership already. iSpot shared the daytime brand spots that garnered the most TV ad impressions between September 1 and November 30 with Marketing Brew.

1. Carvana: “Pioneers of 100% Online Car Buying” (939.2 million impressions)
2. KitKat: “Vampire Alarm Clock” (588.9 million)
3. Domino's: “Designed to be Delivered” (586.1 million)
4. Liberty Mutual: “Video Game” (509.7 million)
5. Liberty Mutual: “LiMu Emu & Doug: Volleyball” (435.4 million)

Honorable mention: Stitch Fix’s “Not Today, Sweatpants” took the number ten slot at 377.2 million impressions. 

CMOS

Hunter Plants a New CMO

Hunter Boots of rainy day fame got a new CMO last week, and she has quite the resume. Claudia Plant was not only one of Net-A-Porter’s original co-founders, but also…

• Was Burberry’s senior vice president of brand experience
• And recently served as interim CMO of Charlotte Tilbury Beauty.

Plant, who has never once heard a joke about having a green thumb, spent 17 years at Net-A-Porter back when it was still “trying to establish itself with a consumer group that wasn't yet convinced luxury and online went together very well,” per Fashion Network.

Why it matters: In a sense, that Net-A-Porter struggle is exactly what marketers at luxury brands have been tasked with since the pandemic began. 

Case in point: 2020’s online Black Friday sales broke records, growing digital Black Friday sales 21.6% YoY to $9 billion, per Adobe Analytics data shared with Retail Brew.  As e-commerce accelerates, having someone like Plant who has been there, done that will be integral to luxury brands’ success.

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We Don’t Usually Spill The Marketing Beans...

Lots of folks wanna know how we got where we are today—which is from a shabby-chic college dorm room to a media powerhouse that’s making business news sexy. 

We would love to say Morning Brew has more than 2.4 million subscribers purely because of our media business acumen, comedic wit, and news writing genius. 

But that’s only part of the story. 

The other part has to do with Sailthru—the integrated marketing solution that helped us become a bona fide media company (and not end up in spam folders). To learn more about how Morning Brew utilizes Sailthru, we chatted with Jenny Rothenberg, our Head of Growth and marketer extraordinaire.  

So if you are wondering how to best connect with today’s audiences, give our article a read. You’ll learn about the ways we use Sailthru—and what their platform can do for your business.  

Sail into our article with Sailthru here.

HOLIDAYS

The 10 Most Viewed Black Friday Ads

AcuityAds just shared with Marketing Brew its data on Black Friday’s top 10 most viewed video spots across all channels. I bet you can guess the one thing they all had in common: They capitalized on Covid-19 themes, from at-home fitness and rent-to-own payment models, to gaming and wanderlust.

• The most successful ads also embraced digital channels and offered free shipping or curbside pickup options as bait.

While Aaron’s, the lease-to-own furniture company, took the top spot for the most-viewed ad this year, Gymshark’s ad in slot number four felt the most compelling to me. Perhaps that’s because it doubled down on multiple Covid-19 ad themes rather than just one. 

• Escapism: The fitness apparel brand’s spot garnered 2.8+ million views with an action-packed adventure bridging real and virtual worlds. 
• Timeliness: It plays on a phrase you’ve probably seen on a bad t-shirt, “Big Deal Energy,” to keep it young and fresh while touting earlier-than-usual sale prices. 
• Gaming: The ad also stars mega-YouTuber KSI, who turns into a giant video game character and breaks through people’s living room walls.  

My takeaway: Those Covid themes we’ve come to know (and apparently love?) in 2020 ad creative aren’t going anywhere yet. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Kia is planning a New Year’s Eve marketing campaign, because even an automaker will have more plans than you do for the holiday.
• Facebook will buy e-commerce startup Kustomer for $1 billion. 
• Verizon Media unveiled a “cookieless” ID as part of its end of the third-party cookie solution.
• Prebid is launching a publisher-controlled universal ID for similar reasons.

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The year that everything changed. During the pandemic, Validity has been updating marketers often with email trend data and insights from across the industry. Now they’ve synthesized what they’ve learned into an e-book to help marketers tailor their email strategies to the challenges and opportunities of 2021. Learn how the inbox has changed, how you can stay relevant once inside, and more in Validity’s new e-book.

ADWEEK OR ADWEAK?

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is satirical à la Twitter account ADWEAK?

1. Ad Spend Retraction Due to Covid-19 Worse Than Expected
2. Ad Industry’s Pandemic Slide Not as Bad as Originally Projected
3. Pandemic’s Impact on Ad Industry on Par with Q4 Predictions 

Keep scrolling for the answer.

AD ANTIQUES

Vintage Ad Browser

 A perfume ad from 1890 that either promoted cologne for tiny porcelain children or real dogs (?). 

ADWEEK OR ADWEAK? ANSWER

Both A. and B. are real headlines, which somehow means C. is fake.

ICYMI

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

• The hottest social media marketing takes on Snapchat’s spotlight
• Is Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade still an advertiser’s dream?
• DTC “blanding” can't sell everything