CAMPAIGNS

Lovely 365 Days for a Guinness

Last spring, being a marketing industry creative meant scrapping old campaigns and cobbling together footage from old ones to make new, relevant ads for people stuck at home. 

But you know who had to do that before anyone else? Alcohol marketers at brands like Jameson and Guinness—which rely on St. Patrick’s Day for sales and promotions. With very little time between the 2020 holiday and when Covid-19 began rocking the US, they were baptized by fire.

Despite the crunch, Jameson and Guinness don’t regret their 2020 St. Patrick’s Day work. In fact, they’re replicating it for 2021. 

Guinness pulled from old St. Patrick’s Day parade footage for its March 2020 TV spot, followed by simple text saying Guinness donated $500,000 to those in pandemic-era need. 

• Its 2021 spot recycles much of the same footage, soundtrack, and “Give back” messaging…with one major difference: an added call to action (CTA).
• “Bring the pub home to you,” the now-familiar Irish accent says, as a can (rather than a beer tap) pours beer into a pint glass. 

Jameson also pledged $500,000 to bartenders in honor of St. Patrick’s Day 2020 through the United States Bartender’s Guild’s emergency assistance program.

• The whiskey brand’s St. Patrick’s Day 2021 strategy isn’t drastically different either. It’s still giving away cash, but this year, it’s for those taking PTO from home. 

Why we’re seeing double

E-commerce insights platform MikMak founder and CEO Rachel Tipograph told Marketing Brew that because “intent is high to buy alcohol” during the pandemic and around St. Paddy’s day, alcohol marketers “don't need to worry about creative” right now.

Let’s break that down: Normally, when it comes to driving online sales, top-of-funnel brand marketing converts at a way lower rate than bottom-of-funnel performance marketing. But because demand for buying alcohol online is currently so high, brands are seeing conversion rates for brand and performance campaigns converge.

• Right now, for “brand awareness media you'll see…[about a] 17% e-commerce conversion [rate]. Lower funnel performance: 20%,” Tipograph said. 

My takeaway: It’s not that Jameson and Guinness are obsessed with the spots they had to suddenly revamp when the pandemic hit last year—it’s that there’s no reason to spend $$$ improving them. 

CMO HIRES

Clubhouse VIP

If you need an invite to Clubhouse, you know who to ask: Maya Watson and Fadia Kader, two of the platform’s major marketing and media hires.

• Watson is a marketing industry vet, having climbed the ranks at Oprah’s Harpo Productions, the Oprah Winfrey Network, and Netflix before being named Clubhouse’s head of global marketing.
• Kader comes from Instagram, and will be Clubhouse’s head of media partnerships and creators.

Twitter beef

Watson and Kader’s gigs, at least for the moment, won’t necessarily be easy. Clubhouse has earned a reputation for hustle porn and self-interested tech bros, and has faced criticisms of harassment, particularly toward women.

And it’s not the only game in town. Rival Twitter aims to fully roll out its copycat own in-app audio platform, Twitter Spaces, by April. 

One plus: This week Clubhouse announced an accelerator program to support top creators while they learn to monetize their work on the platform.

Zoom out: Watson and Kader will become two of the few minority women who head up marketing and media efforts at major brands—according to the Association of National Advertisers, only 12% of senior level marketers are Black, Hispanic or Asian.

SPONSORED BY ATTENTIVE

Newsflash: People Like Using Their Phones

Pretty obvious, right? But considering how much of a given it is that everyone spends a ton of time on their phones, it’s shocking how much more brands could be doing to take advantage of SMS marketing.

Readers, don’t make that mistake. Instead, take a peek at Attentive’s “2021 SMS Marketing Consumer Trends Report.”

You’ll find oodles of SMS marketing goodness in this digital bad boy. For instance: Did you know that 91% of consumers are interested in signing up for texts? And 58% want to hear from brands multiple times per week? Or 70% want to be able to ask brands questions directly?

Those are just a few of the insights Attentive dug up after they surveyed 2,000 US consumers.

If you want all of ’em, you’ll have to download their report here.

PRIVACY

Privacy Matters

We have new entrants into the chicken fight over Apple's IDFA update: China's tech giants. ByteDance and Tencent are trying to skirt Apple’s new privacy rules—without consent from users or Apple.

In the States...Apple’s update will make it (slightly) harder for brands to track you. American companies have to bend toward Apple’s rules, or fear the (Tim) Cook in the kitchen.

In China...there’s no such fear. Hence the China Advertising Association, a trade group backed by the government and which counts ByteDance and Tencent as members, is testing a tool that circumvents Apple's privacy rules for Chinese users.

Apple’s response:

“We believe strongly that users should be asked for their permission before being tracked. Apps that are found to disregard the user’s choice will be rejected,” the company told FT.  

And where could that lead?

• “You could imagine Apple being kicked out of China, in the same way Huawei wasn’t allowed in the US,” Wayne Blodwell, an ad-tech expert, told Marketing Brew. “It’s an impasse.”

Translation: If this were Peoria, Apple would just boot you from the App Store. But what plays in Peoria may not fly in China, one of Apple's most important markets, where the dynamics are very different.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Anheuser-Busch is launching an ad-free streaming sports show via video service Ficto.  
• Weather Channel owner Byron Allen wants brands and agencies to spend a minimum of 2% of ad dollars on Black-owned media, and is threatening legal action.
• Facebook will soon test writer partnerships for its new newsletter platform.
• Clubhouse boasts nearly 13 million downloads on its first birthday this week.

SPONSORED BY STACKADAPT

Snack on this CPG playbook. StackAdapt’s CPG Playbook helps you navigate the programmatic ecosystem within the CPG industry. It offers strategic CPG targeting solutions, measurement options, and best practice recommendations to plan your campaign and reach your customers at every stage of the funnel. Get your copy today. 

AD FRAUD

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. Meow Mix Releases Collectible Vinyl Record with Remixed Jingles
2. Sweetgreen Partners with Local Farmers to Join the Chicken Sandwich Wars
3. Taco Bell's $187,000 Crypto Taco—and What Brands Should Know About NFTs
4. Musk adds ‘Technoking of Tesla’ title and CFO Is Coin ‘Master’

Keep scrolling for the answer.

FRENCH PRESS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren't those.

Clubhouse: Everything brands need to know about the social audio app lives in this handy infographic. 

SEO: Read about the top five ways to grow your organic search traffic if you haven’t taken your annual trip to SEO land yet. 

LinkedIn: HubSpot wrote this step-by-step guide to using hashtags on LinkedIn, because it knew you were too afraid to ask after all this time. 

The best things in life are...FREE: INBOUND 2021, hosted with love by HubSpot, is on the horizon. Get your free Starter Pass or purchase a Powerhouse Pass (ask your boss to expense it). Join some of the most influential business leaders and get your ticket today.*

*This post contains sponsored content.

AD FRAUD ANSWER

Sweetgreen would never.

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Marketers check in after one year of WFH
• Reddit’s getting serious with Omnicom
• Disney hits the ice with the NHL