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What’s marketing going to look like in 2023? Will anyone be spending? Will the job market hold up? Will three years’ worth of crisis fatigue take its toll on everybody?
All anyone seemed to be certain about at Adweek’s Outlook 2023 event was the uncertainty surrounding the coming year. Yet across 10 sessions, marketing experts offered strategies, solutions and subtle reminders that their industry has weathered far worse and learned some difficult lessons through its survival.
One common thread: Stay the course as best as you can. While shifting marketing resources toward performance-based goals and away from brand building may bolster a company in the short term, it can hinder a brand’s standing with consumers years down the road.
As we sat in on the Outlook 2023 sessions, here are nine takeaways from the virtual stage:
Balancing growth
With marketers facing a difficult road ahead to drive growth, Molly Battin, Home Depot’s CMO, said part of the answer lies in her chain’s floor workers “delivering value, giving [customers] the confidence that they need to do their project.” This mission includes going back to basics like understanding what the brand stands for, and how to show up for customers and employees in every interaction, she added.
Lindsay Morgan, CMO at Pizza Hut, noted that customers have been going through difficult times since the pandemic began and “are a little fatigued,” forcing her parent company Yum Brands to balance short-term sales with long-term brand growth. Lauren Weinberg, global head of marketing and communications at Square, sees inflation and potential recession as a chance for her brand to experiment.
“We’re thinking a lot about going back to our roots … being a little bit more scrappy, doing more local activations,” she said. “Our customers are mostly small business owners, who have been through a lot over the last couple of years. It gives us license to be laser focused on the most important initiatives, which hopefully will help our teams with burnout and fatigue.”
Fewer areas have been hit harder since the pandemic began than the healthcare industry. For Julie Spencer Washington, svp and chief marketing, communications and customer experience officer for Trinity Health, burgeoning demand is offset by the needs of a depleted workforce.
“For three years, people have not been coming into their physician’s offices for the care that they need, and so we’re trying to understand why,” she said. “At the same time, we have to be mindful of the workforce—who went from heroes in 2020 to standing on the wall for three years—and think about helping our own people who are tired.”
Clarifying purpose
Land O’Lakes isn’t just butter: It’s a large brand that encompasses Purina Mills animal feeds, the Truterra agricultural sustainability program, and WinField United seed and field supply.
Its CMO, Heather Malenshek, noted that even the company wasn’t sure what the purpose of its breadth was in 2020. It has a much better idea now: It wants a sustainable future, vibrant rural communities, and a safe and plentiful food supply.
It wants all of these things so much that it made those points the core of its “Farmers Are Incredible” campaign. It even had the Purdue University marching band spell it out on the field during a football game against Nebraska just before National Farmer’s Day in October.
“If you know who you are at the core of your brand, and you can align that to clear objectives, you can weather the storm,” Malenshek said.
Engagement > enragement
When Suzy founder and CEO Matt Britton interviewed Pinterest CMO Andréa Mallard, they were both aware that consumers are feeling a lot of anxiety about the economic outlook. While Pinterest’s more than 500 million users want a more shoppable platform, which creates opportunities for brands that want to harness Pinterest’s trend predictions in 2023, they’re being far more deliberate about their purchases.
“People are still spending, they really are, they’re just being a little bit more intentional so they can be more certain and so they can be more satisfied,” Mallard said. “And if you have that criteria, if you have that constellation of factors, actually, they end up spending more.”
But Mallard isn’t interested in destroying Pinterest’s goodwill for short-term gain. The “last positive corner of the Internet” doesn’t want to become addictive, traffic your data, threaten democracy or encourage “engagement through engagement” that taps “into your animal brain versus your better self.”
Mallard warns marketers not only to consider where they invest on social media and the outcome of that spending, but to remain focused on long-term brand spending even as competitors shift toward performance marketing and a smaller pool of consumers during tough times.
“If you’re getting the pressure, remember the brand is that long term health-building activity,” Mallard said. “You can lower spending if you’re in a situation where you need to, but I wouldn’t adjust your ratios.”
Beyond the recession
Marketing industry mainstay and The Conference Board leader Ivan Pollard dropped in to remind everyone that an economic downturn doesn’t have to result in marketing malaise.
Think beyond this recession and think about lifetime value.
Ivan Pollard, leader, The Conference Board
He pointed to George Lucas plotting out the Star Wars universe and releasing his first films in the middle of a fuel crisis throughout much of the Western world. He noted that during his time at Coca-Cola, agencies and a client in Australia took the Coca-Cola brand name off of the logo on soda bottles and replaced it with the names of consumers. A less-than-ideal economy presents obstacles, but also opportunities for willing marketers.
“Think beyond this recession and think about lifetime value,” Pollard said. “Think in the order of owned, earned, shared and paid media, and think of the most amazing stories that you can tell about where your brand has come from—but more importantly, where it could take people after this downturn.”
Human resources
Despite what seems like months of layoffs in certain sectors, it turns out companies still have to put some work into acquiring and retaining talent.
As Liz Matthews, svp of global brand and creative at Dell, put it: “Talent lands top.” Even at a time when AI and technology like ChatGPT have employees worried about the future of work, Matthews sees opportunity for new data scientists and analysts to harness those tools and unlock their strengths.
Dell wants its workers to take courses and add emerging technology to their skills. It breaks its employees into small cohorts where they can speak to people they don’t necessarily work with and share ideas and concerns in something resembling a safe space. The idea is that employees who feel secure and valued will feel more comfortable innovating and engaging.
“How you show up is infectious, so if you value culture and connection, show your team members,” she said. “You can shift energy every day—it’s hard, but if you’re passionate and you believe it, that is bringing your whole self to work.”
Bringing home the Bud
Tough times require brands and their marketers to adapt—whether they want to or not.
Anheuser-Busch InBev global CMO Marcel Marcondes steered his company’s message through a pandemic, war in Ukraine and worldwide inflation. When people stayed home, he promoted delivery. When they wanted other options, he sold them Michelob Ultra, Cutwater Spirits and Nutrl hard seltzer.
But when Qatar, the 2022 World Cup’s host nation, banned beer sales at its match sites at the last minute, Marcondes and his crew changed the game. Suddenly, whichever country won the World Cup would win all the Budweiser that was supposed to be sold at the tournament.
The shift made Budweiser the top brand at the World Cup for social media mentions and impressions, while Argentina’s victory party and the brand’s Lionel Messi tribute video turned a marketing disaster into a near-miraculous triumph.
“Whenever you have a business or consumer problem, this is when you need to apply creativity, because otherwise we become invisible,” Marcondes said.
A bowl full of data
It isn’t the split into snack, cereal and plant-based food divisions that’s going to drive Kellogg’s through a turbulent 2023. It’s a heaping pile of consumer data.
Charisse Hughes, Kellogg’s svp and chief brand analytics officer, used her time as CMO at Pandora to take night classes on data marketing, and learn from other marketers and suppliers at Google. She took that knowledge to Kellogg’s and used it to turn the brand’s more than 30 million Family Rewards members into a stockpile of data and analytics. She’s since added to it by linking the Pringles brand with gaming and Cheez-Its with digital sweepstakes.
“At the heart of it is all about the value exchange,” she said. “What’s in it for the consumer, and what’s going to motivate them to give you their data and want you to use it in ways that will help to improve the experience that you’re providing them afterwards?”
Looking to 2K23
“The only constant is change, and culture does not stand still,” said Melissa Bell, global chief marketing officer for 2K.
The heart of 2K’s business is relevance to its core video game consumer. In a good economy or bad, Bell said that requires a player-first approach that understands their passions, is a part of their culture and understands their dialog. Whether that’s dropping Baby Metal, Deadpool and Topgolf into games, letting Nike drop Fear of God in NBA 2K3 or having Ronnie2K appear at every major sporting event on the planet, 2K keeps up with its players so it doesn’t get left behind.
Bell noted that building a community of players means moving at the speed of culture and just enough ahead of technology to keep up pace and scale.
A balanced partnership
The Martin Agency and Geico have been partners for 29 years. They’ve seen the U.S. economy through recession, war, dot-com bubbles, housing crises, a global financial crisis, a pandemic and myriad other calamities.
Along the way, they’ve learned not to let those bumps in the road upset their marketing balance.
“Having that delicate balance of brand and performance is critical,” said Damon Burrell, vp and CMO of Geico. “Even as budgets begin to tighten, it’s important to pivot or allocate dollars to areas that are going to drive performance, and drive direct response and drive revenue and drive sales, but they can’t be at the expense of brand and brand work.”
Danny Robinson, chief content officer of The Martin Agency, pointed out that while Martin is known for its creative output, it’s also done performance work for UPS. He said there’s value in finding harmony between both sides of the marketing equation, especially in leaner times.
“The performance work fuels financially, and then gives momentum to the brand work,” he said. “So it’s critical, and more and more of our clients are asking [for it].”
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