Marketing

Marketing

Sharing his thoughts on the social media platform X on Saturday, the investor outlined Tesla's need for better marketing. "TSLA has the best product, but the product won't just sell itself," Black said in the post. He also highlighted that "influencers" sharing videos of Teslas on social media wasn't an example of "great marketing since it reaches audiences who already own Teslas."

If you haven't seen them yet, OpenAI's launched new ad campaign of short 30 seconds videos that embed AI into an idealised, warmly analog, version of the past. They're quite visually pleasing, to be honest, with a slight VHS grain and muted colours, and depict very relatable everyday scenarios like wanting to impress a girl or getting fitter. They lean hard on 80s soundtracks and cheesy movie vibes.

Debuted during NFL Primetime, the ads are slated to run in the US and UK on traditional media - TV, streaming platforms, paid social, outdoor and influencer partnerships through the end of 2025. But underscoring the AI industry's formidable struggles with public perception, Adweek reports that themarketingresearch company System1 tested both theabove ads witha panel of US consumers - and the results were absolutelydismal.

Have we, as a society, reached peak customer satisfaction survey? It's not unexpected to be asked to submit feedback, either on an internal system or on a public-facing website like Tripadvisor, for everything from a hotel stay to a technology helpline. It isn't hard to understand why companies ask for this, or even why they would incentivize filling them out. But there's also a big question: at what point do efforts to get feedback go too far?

The 'madferits' showed exactly how powerful nostalgia can be. It takes us back to (perceived) happier, simpler times, igniting sentimentality, joy and yearning. There is an instant comfort in fond memories and rose-tinted perspectives, and brands attaching themselves to this emotional response can thrive from this association. An emotional connection to a brand holds significant power, it has the potential to turn a one-time customer into a lifelong fan.

Because they land in an inbox already flooded with hundreds of other requests and are immediately deleted. This is usually because they are written as announcements, not as compelling stories. They scream "look at us" instead of offering genuine value to the journalist and their readers. The brutal reality is that you only have seconds to prove you're different, and you can do that by being strategic.

"With Outset Collection, we are offering owners the flexibility they want without compromising on quality,"

Zachary Jarvinen is vice president of marketing for Exact Payments, a leader in embedded payment solutions for SaaS businesses. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is among the most critical metrics for businesses, reflecting the total revenue a company can expect from a customer throughout their relationship. Strategic advertising plays a key role in maximizing CLV-not only by identifying and acquiring high-value customers, but also by driving long-term loyalty and engagement when executed effectively.

I'll never forget the first time I saw the power of a group gasp. Years ago, at a Baltimore Ravens game, a film I'd helped create played across the stadium's newly installed LED screens. In the climactic moment (a close-up shot as the kicker's foot struck the ball) the entire crowd seemed to freeze, breath held, before erupting in a wave of energy that swept the stands. That's because the shot was perfectly timed with the real kick-off that started the game.

This fear is completely misguided. Ads placed next to stories covering politics or crime perform just as well as ads next to business, sports, or entertainment stories, according to Stagwell's Future of News APAC News Advertising Study conducted among 9,876 adults across Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Vietnam. The study, which tested four different localized real brand ads placed next to six types of real news content, found there is unequivocally no difference in key brand reputational metrics - like purchase intent, favorability, and trustworthiness - between ads placed adjacent to supposedly "not brand safe" content and "brand safe" content.

Today's customers don't separate their lives into channels, and they don't expect brands to either. They want experiences that feel relevant and personal, whether that's confirming a delivery, getting a reminder about an appointment, or receiving an offer they actually care about. Imagine a shopper who adds items to their cart but never checks out. Hours later, the reminder email arrives, but by then it's buried in a crowded inbox. The opportunity to recapture their attention has passed.

At this morning's IPA Effectiveness Conference, WPP's Jane Christian dropped the most important digital marketing finding in the past decade: creators are digital's first true brand-building channel. Not via the usual they're authentic guff we've been fed for years. But in hard econometric terms that should make any CFO weak at the knees. We finally know how to use creators Analysis led by the IPA has combined 220 econometric studies across 133m of creator spend, covering 28 markets, 36 categories, and 144 brands.

Rather than in-housing or outsourcing, executives on a panel at Advertising Week New York on Tuesday (Oct. 7) described their new relationship as one built on "co-sourcing," an interdependent approach where the two companies more closely share business KPIs and are less formal - read: speedier - when it comes to processes like briefing. PepsiCo ultimately recognized that, for all its talent, scale and legacy, social remained a difficult nut to crack, but also an increasingly essential one for reaching content-hungry consumers and propelling sales.

Crises rarely start with a press release or a breaking news segment. More often, they emerge quietly on social media-an offhand comment from a customer, a trending hashtag, a viral video-before quickly snowballing into something far bigger. For marketing leaders, the lesson is clear: Reputation can take years to build and seconds to erode. Yet too many crisis management playbooks still rely on slow, traditional escalation paths that leave brands reacting far too late.

Marketing is often undervalued, which is not news to many reading this newsletter. When companies are looking to make budget cuts, they often begin by looking to their marketing teams and campaigns. But a new white paper from insights company TransUnion and marketing trade organization MMA Global uses their Brand as Performance (BaP) framework to determine the true value of campaigns, and finds that traditional measurement methods have undervalued brand marketing's impact on sales by as much as 83%.

Sydney Sweeney has great jeans

Amazon's advertising unit on Wednesday introduced its roster of presenting sponsors for the opening season of Prime Video's NBA coverage, a clutch of top-tier sports spenders that includes the likes of AT&T, Mercedes-Benz and State Farm. As part of a series of signings that will help defray Amazon's annual $1.8 billion rights payment to the NBA, the online retailer/streamer has landed AT&T as the title sponsor of its new halftime show ( The Half).

In the basement of the conference hall, the working-group-turn-therapy session offered worksheets to attendees to find the venn diagram between what individuals enjoy and current industry needs. "You just sometimes have to pause and say, 'Am I going to be OK? Is this going to be alright?', Mirza said, adding that it was important to acknowledge that humans can do some things "better" than AI.

"Brand building is a bit like pointillism ... Every time you activate your brand, you're placing a dot in somebody's brain," said Kaplan, explaining that those individual dots cluster over time to form richer perceptions of a brand. Marketers who have a strong grasp of such perceptions can act with confidence on whether and how to deploy their brands in different cultural contexts while those who don't may simply create more noise.

Digital has never been just marketing for me. It is a tool that connects creativity and influence. I always say: attention is the new currency. It all started with short videos and bold ideas that unexpectedly went viral. This gave me the confidence that I can use the language of cinema and storytelling on social media to create projects that change the perception of brands.

Awards often recognize individuals.

Absolut Vodka has unveiled the latest in its iconic artist collaboration series with a striking homage to Pop Art legend, Keith Haring. With a custom bottle and immersive gallery experience taking over Charing Cross tube station (aptly renamed 'Haring Cross'), the brand champions Haring's mission to make art accessible for all. After a triumphant Warhol collaboration back in 2024, Absolut was left questioning how it could top its previous project.