INSIGHTS
What’s on the Minds of Marketers in 2024?
A Year of Complexity Ahead, but a Year that Will Demonstrate the Essentiality of Marketing’s Role in Both Business and Society. Yes, TODAY’S MARKETERS face a long list of urgent priorities… However, 2024 is shaping up to be a very different year. Marketing leaders are now tasked with expanded responsibilities of extraordinary complexity and greater accountability— from external concerns to internal aspirations, from accelerating technological developments to shifting consumer mindsets. And while many marketers admittedly feel a sense of overwhelm at the pace of change and the need to become expert on so many new subjects, smart marketing executives are now recognizing their time has come.
What Role Should Brands Play in a Global Crisis?
Is Marketing’s Role in Society Equally Important as its Role in Business?
Once upon a time, brands and politics didn’t mix… or at least some topics were considered taboo by most organizations. The rise of social media, the constant expression of personal opinions, the speed at which misinformation flows, corporate interest in customer values, and even commitments to purpose, have changed how many brands communicate in a post-COVID world. Yet, when complex geopolitical issues intensify and combine with entrenched and often fiery viewpoints, it can become challenging for many products, services, or companies to serve the best interests of all their stakeholders.
ANA Masters Highlights How Legacy Brands Have Embraced Reinvention to Grow New Markets
“Acknowledge and recognize unprecedent disruption. Yesterday’s practices will not work today. What got you here will not get you there. Rethink everything– consumer insights, ads, experience, not just methodology, but everything! Even ask, ‘What is loyalty?’ Everything must be reinvented.” … Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer- Mastercard October marks the annual ANA Masters of Marketing— a significant week in the […]
Is Marketing at an Inflection Point?
Are we now facing a time that dramatically changes marketing’s role in both business and society? According to The Internationalist‘s recent Insights Survey, 68% of respondents agreed that Yes– Marketing is at an Inflection Point. One savvy respondent offered a comment that sets the tone for many CMOs: “Yes, we are at an inflection point, but marketing has two directional shifts to […]
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: Contradictions or Progress?
Before International Women’s History Month ends, I wanted to acknowledge the many uplifting posts about women in the workplace, but also point out some conflicting, and quite confusing, findings from articles and studies published or reposted this month. I couldn’t help but notice several contradictions about women’s evolving roles, so I attempted to look beyond the headlines […]
How Marketing Shifts of the Past Two Decades are Shaping the Future
At the end of January, The Internationalist, the company I founded at the beginning of the 21st century to connect the people and ideas in international marketing, celebrated 20 years. While that’s a milestone for any independent venture, it also caused me to look at how marketing has evolved over the last two decades and perhaps where it might […]
Media Market Update: 2023 Outlook
By Manuel Reyes, Founder of Cortex MediaConcerns about economic uncertainty continue to be front and center as many brands remain unsure about what to expect and how best to prepare for the year ahead. It’s yet to be seen if the U.S. will suffer a significant recession in terms of a widespread and prolonged downturn. Given the Fed’s […]
Purpose and Profits– Does the Balance Shift with Economic Uncertainty?
IN A MARKETING WORLD where expressing brand purpose is now de riguer, The Internationalist asked its global audience if it is possible to balance purpose and profits amid economic uncertainty. In many ways, the survey answers were surprising. While respondents clearly had a strong understanding of the fundamentals of purpose-driven marketing, they were increasingly skeptical of not only “purpose washing,” […]
What’s on the Minds of Marketers 2023?
Marketers Shift Priorities to the Immediate and the Practical
TODAY’S MARKETERS face a long list of urgent priorities. However, this year, the order of those priorities is changing. And while the word of the moment at Davos was arguably “resilience” or more specifically “a CEO’s preparedness to build resilience and navigate the impending turbulence to create economic growth,” 83% of CMOs cite ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS as their leading current concern— particularly relating to new messaging and adjusted budgets. Whether or not we use the “r” word— that’s recession rather than resilience— marketers, as well as investors, understand that the global layoffs of thousands at social media platforms and AdTech firms are largely due to drops in advertising revenue (along with earlier over-hiring).
Client-Agency Relationships: Changing Expectations Amid New Ways of Working?
The world has undeniably changed since COVID-19, as have ways of working. The client-agency relationship has long been at the center of advertising and marketing. While the pandemic caused extraordinary examples of urgent, purpose-driven, remote teamwork, there are now new expectations of these important relationships that are shaping both corporate decision-making and individual priorities.