STRATEGIES

Georgia’s On Brands’ Minds

Major brands are responding to Georgia’s new voting law, and you could say the responses feel a little disingenuous.

• ICYMI, Georgia recently passed a law that (critics say) makes it more difficult for many voters—particularly people of color—to cast a ballot, per The Washington Post.

Companies headquartered in Georgia have made public statements about the law since March 25, when Governor Kemp signed it.

• Coca-Cola didn’t mince words: “We want to be crystal clear and state unambiguously that we are disappointed in the outcome of the Georgia voting legislation.”
• Delta CEO Ed Bastian said that the bill is “unacceptable and does not match Delta's values” in a memo to staff.

It’s complicated: Those statements sound nice enough, but Delta and Coke aren’t exactly putting their money where their PAC is.

• CNBC recently reported that Delta and Coca-Cola’s political action committees (PACs) have, in recent years, donated to some of the Georgia Republicans who pushed the legislation through.
• It’s worth noting that corporate PAC $$ make up a small fraction of political donations. But in a world where brands are expected to take a stand on social issues, even the smallest contribution can raise eyebrows. 

+1: Patagonia picked up on the hypocrisy too, saying: “We don’t have a PAC at Patagonia, but if your company does, please consider suspending contributions to any politician suppressing votes from people of color” in its official statement against the Georgia law. 

Bad reputation

But performative brand messaging isn’t anything new. 

• Remember Uber’s “If you tolerate racism, delete Uber” campaign which rolled out as the ride share company came under fire for unfair labor practices and racialized price discrimination?

But that’s not to say brands can’t change. We couldn’t help but wonder: Is there a way to make purpose-driven messaging feel authentic if your company has a less-than-stellar history? 

Yes, but it takes time: CEO and founder of social impact consultancy Beyond Advisers Scott Curran told Marketing Brew that brands should acknowledge where they are and be transparent about their past.  

• “Market it all—internally to your team, and externally to your customers and other stakeholders, so they know where you are, what you stand for, and where and how you’re moving forward toward greater impact,” he explained.

Bottom line: Being upfront about past transgressions, both externally and internally, carries weight on the authenticity scale. —PB

CHANNELS

Amazon

Amazon just passed another marketing milestone: The everything store now claims more than 10% of the US digital ad market, according to a recent eMarketer report.

eMarketer estimates that Amazon pulled in $15.73 billion in US ad revenue in 2020. Even if the milestone was inevitable, the pandemic helped.

How: While Amazon’s share of ad dollars has been trending upward, 2020’s lockdown-induced digital shopping spike accelerated the shift. 

The rest of the pie

Amazon’s making enough to keep the lights on, but it’s still falling behind its digital advertising triopoly counterparts.

• The eMarketer report predicts that Facebook and Google will each bring in US digital ad revenue to the tune of roughly $50 billion this year, more than Amazon’s expected $20 billion.

For reference

Should you fail to comprehend the sheer size of these figures, here’s a look at what media companies brought in from ad sales last year:

• The New York Times made $392.4 million. Disney’s broadcast division brought in $3.26 billion, per Bloomberg. In the US, ViacomCBS ended the year with $8.6 billion. 

They’re not even in the same ballpark. And Amazon’s US digital ad revenue only makes up a small portion of the $386+ billion it made in 2020 through its retail, subscription and cloud services.—RB

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• Identify and define intent data
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Don’t get lost in the intent data wilderness. Download Terminus’s guide here.

BRAND LOYALTY

Ketchup Conundrum

Want fries with that? Better bring ’em home. 

The US is undergoing something of a ketchup crunch, according to the Wall Street Journal. But fear not, condiment kings and queens—so far, the crisis is mostly affecting packets.

• As the country turned to takeout, packet prices soared. Since January of last year, prices are up 13%.
• A Kraft Heinz exec told the Wall Street Journal that its restaurant customers need to sit tight while it revs up supply, but some have resorted to serving other brands.

Hit to the 57

Where there’s a supply deficiency, there’s often opportunity. Who among us didn’t try a new toilet paper brand last spring? 

We asked Mansur Khamitov, assistant professor of marketing at Indiana University, how Heinz can keep up brand loyalty when its product isn’t readily available. He said there’s not much it can do but fix the issue. 

“To keep die-hard brand fans from making a scene or pursuing alternative brands, major ketchup brands need to make a consolidated effort to ramp up distribution,” he said, adding that brands like Heinz have “inadvertently found themselves in a fairly tricky situation from a marketing as well as PR” perspective.—RB

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Neutrogena is rolling out its own branded content studio. It’s tapped Kerry Washington to star in a short documentary about skin cancer, which we hope Hayden Panettiere is okay with.
• Hulu is undergoing a sonic rebrand (?) ahead of this year’s NewFronts. 
• Yahoo Answers is shutting down for good in May.
• Roku plans to debut a new video ad product called “Roku Recommends” this year.

SPONSORED BY COMMON ROOM

Remember last Wednesday? You had a turkey reuben and Common Room announced its new people-first community journey platform. Common Room empowers you and your teams to deepen relationships with the people who matter most to your organization—your user community—by showing you what’s happening across platforms like Twitter, Slack, Discord, and GitHub, all in one place. Join their waitlist or, heck, join their team.

AD FRAUD

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

1. Budweiser Social Push Helps Fans Scream Profanities atop a Mountain
2. The '#NowYork' Campaign Aims to Bring Optimism Back to NYC 
3. Results from Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shrimp DNA Test Are in—The Shrimp is a Crayfish
4. Budweiser Channels Jimmy Durante—and Plenty of Beer Drinking—in Vaccine Awareness Ad

Keep scrolling for the answer.

FRENCH PRESS

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

SEO: On the off chance there are any lawyers (okay fine, paralegals) reading this, here’s why SEO matters more than you’d think to law firms. 

Small biz: This infographic shows how 400 small businesses are currently handling their social media marketing strategy, from platform distribution to who runs the accounts.

Instagram: If you’re not a TikTok fan but want to understand Remix—the TikTok feature leaking onto much of the wider social landscape—read this guide to using Instagram Reels’ Remix feature. 

AD FRAUD ANSWER

As of this writing, we still have no word on the shrimp DNA.

ICYMI

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

• Airlines are shifting their marketing strategies as people start traveling again
• The ad industry’s latest awards show is dedicated to in-house agencies
• The best tweets from the ‘Is Cannes Lions Coming to NYC?’ saga