Jasmine Presson

"Warner Bros. Discovery saw TV advertising fall 13% in the third quarter of 2023, to $1.71 billion. Paramount Global registered a 14% dip in the same category, to the same figure, while NBCU logged a decline of 8.4% to $1.91 billion. Disney noted “a decrease in advertising revenue” at ABC and its local TV stations and “a modest increase in advertising revenue” at ESPN and around its other sports programming. Even Fox, which relies more directly on sports, saw its overall ad revenue fall by 1.6%. These results challenge the conventional wisdom that TV advertising will grow even with declining ratings because major advertisers can’t resist the power of the medium’s mass-market reach. Many observers were surprised to see the double-digit drops at Paramount Global and WB Discovery, both of which are heavily dependent on big bucks from ads to bolster the bottom line." by Brian Steinberg https://lnkd.in/gzdhFfTF

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David vs. Goliath: How OBM Triumphs Over GroupM In the world of advertising, the classic tale of David and Goliath is playing out once more, this time between agencies and not consumer brands. Ocean Bridge Media (OBM), a powerhouse built from humble beginnings, helped transform a brand from $9 million to over $150 million in annual sales revenue. After nurturing it to over a half-billion-dollar acquisition, we continued to lead the business with the new owners. With larger budgets now at play, enter GroupM, the largest media placement firm globally—the Goliath in our story. Leveraging their influence, they convinced the new brand owners to shift their business to GroupM, claiming it was essential for the "ecosystem." This was misleading and the new owners accepted their pitch. GroupM’s intervention cost us tens of millions in billings annually—a drop in the bucket for them, but for us, those budgets sustained part of a team that helped build the brand's success. Goliath strikes at OBM again. This time, it was a newer client, and GroupM didn’t have our proven blueprint of success to poach and amplify with larger budgets. They placed a campaign and failed, surprisingly with dubious studies offered to mask the failure. Those digital CPMs were also extremely high. With that failure, we got another chance. The OBM formula being the stone in our sling, we did what we were born to do and let a winning campaign fly, striking Goliath and he fell. OBM was victorious and the account returned to us. Today, the brand is now thriving, breaking sales records and achieving major wins in retail. Here's what we've learned that may help against your Goliath: 1.) Bigger isn’t better. Goliaths are more in the public eye, which is a measurable vulnerability, and they're slow. Your size and unique attributes become their weaknesses—stay true to who you are and you'll win. 2.) Do what you were born to do. We provide better results through a custom approach, and that supports the families of our clients and our dedicated team. It's not about inflating executive bonuses or shareholder profits. Offer something uniquely better— and succeed for all of those around you. 3.) Transparency matters. Goliaths have insatiable appetites and must solely focus on profit maximization or they cannot sustain their size. At times, this monetary focus brings about questionable practices and makes Goliaths vulnerable. Execute from integrity. GroupM’s former chairman, Irwin Gotlieb, said this about their arbitrage practice: "It doesn’t say in Genesis that everything we do has to be on a fully disclosed basis to clients." This philosophy underscores their approach, and as they attempt to use Genesis to conceal, we point to 1 Samuel to reveal, Goliath was in fact beaten. Join us in standing up to Goliaths. Message me anytime to help—let's chat on positioning and media!

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‘Publicis says he’ll “integrate technology and tools,” which is corporate speak for “figure out how to make our clients pay us more for doing less.”’ That’s the billion question for an entire industry

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This is a VERY IMPORTANT READ - please repost (gift link): “Our industry is ageist as f*ck,” said Cindy Gallop. Gallop recalled a Fishbowl survey several years ago that asked industry professionals when they first experienced ageism. “Literally, the answers began in the early 30s; that was when people felt ageism kicking in.” .... Lisa Balser • Creative Director • Brand Coach • Certified Diversity Executive® • Author said, “I have personally experienced direct comments; I was called grandma by a direct report who was 24 years old when I was 30.” ... Many older professionals have been working with AI for 10 years and are “pioneering” the technology, argued William Charnock Five0 Consulting. “Especially if you’re young, this transition we’re in as an industry is totally new,” Charnock said. “It’s not. We’ve been through these transitions before. I’m 58 and I’ve evolved 10 times in my career.” .... There is the argument that, when companies need to cut costs, some of the people most vulnerable are those with higher salaries. But, at the same time, Balser said agencies are not hiring older professionals even when they agree to lower salaries, which they currently are. She said she’s seen older executives making $175,000 a year apply for jobs that are offering $100,000 a year or lower, and then they’re being told that they’re overqualified. Another indicator of ageism to some, including Edward Cotton and Balser, is that agencies are requiring fewer years of experience for senior executive roles. .. Gallop said one of the best skills an older employee brings to an organization is a sense of tranquility in tough times or periods of mass disruption, which is what the industry is currently undergoing. She said that as a young agency professional, she’d look to the senior executives in tense meetings or pitches, who always maintained a sense of calm, and that was something she strove to emulate as she climbed the ladder. “I’ve done a ton of pitches at BBH London BBH USA, where [agency founder] Sir John Hegarty was always the one joking and laughing and making sure that everyone decompressed,” Gallop said, adding that whenever young employees feel like “the sky is falling,” an older executive is there to reassure them it isn’t.' .. Gallop suggested eight ways the industry could end ageism in an Ad Age op-ed in 2019 including reshaping culture away from just focusing on the youth, using data to make the case for marketing to older consumers and encouraging every professional to publicly post their age across social media, thereby owning it. She said she hasn’t seen any results, more than five years later.' With great input and insights from Christie Cordes, Tony Stanol Simon Fairweather Sasha Martens Gian Carlo Lanfranco Greg Collins Patti Temple Rocks Lindsay Rittenhouse Ad Age https://lnkd.in/eam3KBC8 #LiveOlder #SayYourAge

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New D2C brand? Please do not look for ‘Purpose’. Hellmann’s mayo survived 110 years without a social purpose and got to $250mn in revenue. THE STORY OF HOW PURPOSE BECAME FASHIONABLE In 2019 Unilever CEO Alan Jope announced that brands without purpose will have no long term future at Unilever. His idea was that every brand at Unilever, from detergent to ice cream to fabric conditioner, should have a purposeful ‘why’. 🌭 🌭 🌭 Hellmann's is a brand that is over 110 years old but only recently discovered that it's true purpose is to reduce food waste by helping to use up leftover food in your fridge. This repositioning came in for scathing criticism from Unilever investor Terry Smith, who said, "a company which feels it has to define the purpose of Hellmann's mayo has in our view clearly lost the plot." HERE IS WHY PURPOSE IS NOTHING BUT HOGWASH 😡 Many brands start from an over claim. British Airways says it is the world's favorite airline. Carlsberg says the best lager in the world. Red Bull says we give you wings. Its one thing to exaggerate about your product; it's another thing to make an exaggerated moral or ethical claim. ALL PURPOSE ADS STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS 🏋‍♂️ 🏋‍♀️ 🏋‍♂️ Hellman's was able to spend a hell lot of money on making terrible ads with very big celebrities and then putting them on Super Bowl where they made news for all the wrong reasons. (The creative agency came up with the tagline MAKE TASTE NOT WASTE.) The only reason why Hellmann's was able to spend all of this money was because of decades of simple product based advertising that got them to be coming the world No. 1 mayonnaise. To that extent, all purpose ads stand on the shoulders of giants. 🔴 So if you are a new D2C brand - tell consumers why your product is great, what is your product, and get them to remember your brand name. Everything else is a load of BS. 🍒 🍑 CREDIT: fantastic book i'm reading by Nick Asbury - The Road to Hell. Have lifted excerpts as is. Its a brilliant book - very simple, logical, unpretentious and real. Byron Sharp recommends it wholeheartedly too. https://lnkd.in/g8prqyPs Nick Asbury #marketing #marketingwithvani #purposemarketing CherryPeachPlum Growth Partners Ehrenberg-Bass Institute

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Interesting article about why brands shouldn’t go dark during the election cycle. For us, interestingly it’s been more food and supermarket brands on Gourmet Ads that have opted to go dark this year whereas no brands on Healthy Ads. This is super important for us as a company as all Political ads are now banned in the US on Microsoft Advertising / Xandr now. #politicaladvertising #advertising #uspolitics #programmaticadvertising

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Thanks to Cindy Gallop for sharing this important article from Lindsay Rittenhouse and Ad Age. It is not the first time they have written about this problem and sadly, I doubt it will be the last, but I do honestly believe that any conversation about ageism is a good thing and I was happy to be included in this one. And, I was especially thrilled to see so many important voices sharing their insights and ideas. Ageism is the one form of discrimination that can (and likely will) impact each and every one of us. But, it is also a problem we can solve -- or we can at least make better progress towards solving. Doing so will require erasing ageist stereotypes from our thinking and from our behavior. If businesses want to create an industry-leading workforce (and who doesn't) they must be just as committed to creating an "agenostic," multi-generational workplace. For the first time in history, there are five (!) generations of talent ready to go. I know from my years in the agency business, nothing was as much fun to work on as a big, hairy audacious, seemingly impossible, client brief. Consider yourselves briefed on ageism, agency world. Get after this. https://lnkd.in/g2Ge9Kmm

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So quite a potential saving...'The two companies employ over 130,000 people and expect to find $750m (£588.4m) of annual synergies, partly through offshoring and reducing duplication. Cuts are more likely to fall in back-office “overhead”, than “client-facing, client-servicing”... 'That will be achieved through nearshoring and offshoring jobs in cheaper locations, automation and other “platform investments” to drive smarter working... Clearly data and technology with Ai is the north star for any size companies in the sector such as our own much, much, much smaller Salocin Group...still... you have to start somewhere :o) as “a media platform, a CRM platform, a dynamic content generation platform” — and expand in new areas such as generative artificial intelligence... It will be very interesting to see if the vision can become reality and make 1 +1 =3

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‘Big Advertising’ needs to think small. Advertising today is a myriad of smaller things, not just a few big things, and the ad industry needs to more fully embrace this reality or continue to be disintermediated. In large part the industry employs old world approaches to meet new world challenges. And in quite a big week for Big Advertising, this is the first of a double header by me. It lays some foundations for change, and the second part will be published next week, detailing more of the implications for brands. MarketingWeek Jellyfish The Brandtech Group

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Looking forward to this discussion on the future of #measurement & the incredible insights from this amazing panel! #attribution, #MMM, #MTA

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Mark, Those are great points, but the merger will also destroy the culture of their go-to-market brands. Professional service firms' culture drives talent, unique approaches, and distinctive ways of thinking—their "secret sauce that fuels competitive advantage much more than scale ever will. 

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If you’re thinking about what your Qual strategy looks like in 2025 and beyond, this new webinar with our own Liz White and Karen Lynch from Greenbook is a must see! Don’t miss it!

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Excellent article highlighting the industry's shift toward new compensation models. The WFA/MediaSense study provides valuable data validating what many of us are seeing in the field. The insight about 74% of advertisers wanting to better align agency remuneration with intended outcomes is particularly telling. I recently wrote a deeper analysis of the evolving agency compensation landscape that complements these findings. While AI and automation are indeed key drivers, we're also seeing fascinating shifts in talent dynamics, the rise of specialized independent agencies, and the emergence of innovative hybrid compensation models. For those interested in exploring this topic further, here's a link to my recent article that examines additional factors reshaping agency compensation: https://lnkd.in/daQWhhPJ #advertising #marketing #cmoinsights #agencycompensation #newbusiness #procurement #cmo #agencyselection #partnerships

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For Marketers: This article could also have been titled "How Brands Got So Boring." Agencies have always dealt in cultural arbitrage, but to create true and lasting differentiation we need to start paying more attention to the divergent ideas and get off the short-cycle hype machine. https://lnkd.in/eXh8Juqw

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Google's cookie phase-out may have been delayed until 2025, but that doesn't mean advertisers should be complacent. In fact, now is the time to embrace innovation and adaptability, according to Ryan Storrar, CEO UK & EMEA at GroupM Nexus. Learn more about the new privacy-friendly targeting and attribution methods that can help you succeed in the post-cookie era:

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As the exclusive partner of NBCUniversal, delivering ads across linear and digital TV for the 2024 Paris Olympics, XR Extreme Reach leveraged our AI-powered asset analysis to identify key trends around skin tone and gender representation in this year’s ads. Skin Tone Representation: Darker skin tones were featured in 38% of Olympic ads, surpassing the industry benchmark and the overall US TV ad average of 28% for the first half of the year. Gender Representation: While we celebrate gender parity among athletes and in prime time coverage, women’s representation in ads fell slightly short at 40%, 3% less than the industry benchmark. These findings underscore the power of data-driven insights in driving positive change. We’re committed to enabling brands to unleash their creative intelligence to create more inclusive and impactful campaigns. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3MdDAsG #CreativeIntelligence #Advertising #Paris2024 #XR

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The merger between Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group (IPG) presents significant implications for the advertising and marketing landscape. 🤯 Here at AAR Partners agency search consultancy, we believe these are some potential outcomes: 1. Enhanced Market Position: The combined entity could create one of the largest advertising networks globally, strengthening its competitive position against industry giants and allowing for greater negotiating power with media outlets. 2. Expanded Service Offerings: By merging resources and capabilities, the new organization can offer a broader range of services, from creative development to data analytics, enhancing value for clients. 3. Increased Innovation: The merger may foster innovation through shared technology and talent, leading to more effective marketing solutions that leverage data-driven insights and cutting-edge creative strategies. 4. Operational Efficiencies: Streamlining operations and reducing redundancies could lead to significant cost savings, enabling investments in growth areas such as digital marketing and customer experience. 5. Client Consolidation: The merger might result in a shift in client relationships, as overlapping accounts are consolidated under one umbrella, potentially leading to improved service delivery or challenges in managing diverse client needs. Reviews are imminent. 6. Cultural Integration Challenges: Merging two distinct corporate cultures poses risks; ensuring alignment in values and practices will be crucial for maintaining employee morale and client confidence. The Omnicom and IPG merger has the potential to reshape the advertising industry, fostering growth and innovation while also presenting challenges that must be navigated carefully. #agencies #newbusiness #marketers #brands

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When was the last time you saw a TV commercial? Many consumers have moved to streaming television (CTV/OTT) over linear cable, but ads are quickly infiltrating what has been an ad-free arena. Two things are happening: the American public is moving to streaming, and ads on streaming are growing fast. A recent report by DoubleVerify and TVision highlights some compelling data on the growing influence of CTV ads, indicating a shift in viewer attention that marketers cannot afford to ignore. According to the report, U.S. viewer attention to CTV ads surged to 51.5% in the first quarter of this year, up from 49.2% the previous quarter. While linear TV still holds a slight edge in overall ad attention at 54.5%, premium CTV apps have now surpassed linear TV, achieving a remarkable 56.1% attention rate. This trend signifies a pivotal moment for advertisers. With CTV ad volumes increasing across major brand categories, industries like education, electronics, and consumer products are witnessing significant boosts in ad spend. Additionally, political and government ads have seen a surge as we approach the upcoming election cycle. The report also reveals interesting insights into consumer behavior. Most households use three or fewer CTV apps, with YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu leading in viewership. Furthermore, the reach of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) apps, such as The Roku Channel, has grown by 9%, reflecting the expanding CTV ecosystem. So, what does this mean for advertisers? 1️⃣ Enhanced Engagement: CTV offers an interactive and immersive viewing experience, capturing viewers' attention more effectively than traditional linear TV. 2️⃣ Targeted Advertising: With advanced data analytics, CTV enables precise audience targeting, ensuring that ads reach the right demographic at the right time. 3️⃣ Flexibility and Innovation: CTV allows for creative ad formats and dynamic content delivery, allowing brands to experiment and innovate. Yan Liu, CEO of TVision, aptly stated, “Each quarter, we see advancements in CTV advertising - in terms of reach and scale but also in terms of attention and engagement from viewers.” This sentiment is echoed by the report's findings, which underscore the increasing value and effectiveness of CTV advertising. As we continue to navigate the transformation of media consumption, it's clear that the CTV trend continues to grow despite naysayers. But evenmore importantly, in the same way that death and taxes are inevitable, so are ads. Brands that leverage the unique advantages of CTV will be better positioned to engage their audiences, drive conversions, and achieve long-term growth. ❓ What are your thoughts on the evolution of CTV❓ Comment 👇 For more insights, check out the full article here: https://lnkd.in/etw-q_Ri #Marketing #CTV #Advertising #DigitalTransformation #AdTech Data Genomix

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