MarketingDojo #52:✂️Cut Costs, Not Impact💥
Carrefour takes on Pepsico, the impact of Google's Search Generative Experience, Solo Stove's cautionary tale for marketers and more.
Hello!
Happy Macintosh Day! 🎉
On Jan 24th 1984, Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak launched a mass-market personal computer with a whopping 128K RAM, a Graphical User Interface and a Mouse. At the time, most developers weren't interested in creating software for the Mac and the desktop was considered a "toy".
Now, decades later, Apple's latest innovation, the Vision Pro mixed reality headset(128GB version), sold out just 18 minutes after pre-orders opened! What a remarkable evolution from the Mac's humble beginnings.
In today’s newsletter, we will cover:
💸 Don’t spend your cash on celebrities
🛡️ Brace for SGE impact
🚫 Creativity is not welcome
🦸 A new anti-inflation hero rises
And lots more.
Let’s dive right in.
Cut Costs, Not Impact: Choose Mascots Over Stars.
Celebrity endorsements are expensive, and guess what? There is a far more affordable way for a brand to increase their ad's recall value.
Brand characters outshine celebrities in Super Bowl ads in terms of appeal, brand recognition, and overall impact, as per a study conducted by System1.
Ads with brand characters and branded situations averaged 3.8 Stars, yet only 10% of ads used them. By contrast, 39% of ads featured celebrities and averaged only 2.7 Stars.
System 1 scores ads for brand impact on a scale of 0 to 5.9 stars.
The Super Bowl is one of the most watched sporting events in the USA. It is also exceptionally expensive - the cost of a 30-second advertisement slot is reported to be between $6.5 million and $7 million for Superbowl 2024.
System1's tip on the effectiveness of brand characters is interesting for those looking to build brands whether we advertise in SuperBowl or not!
The Decline of Website Traffic Is Here.
The Search Generative Experience (SGE) is an experimental feature from Google that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate contextual answers to complex questions.
SGE provides users with detailed and informative answers directly in the search results, potentially saving them time and effort in finding information. But there's a catch for website owners.
Fewer folks will click through to websites. And guess what? Those sites feeding data to Google's AI model might soon have to buy ads to keep their traffic up. Life's not fair.
Brightedge, an organic search content &company, shared the industries most likely impacted by SGE.
AI-generated search results will impact an estimated 84% of all queries, and Google is likely to rake in around $ 40 billion annually through SGE ad placements. $40Bn is double Adobe's annual revenue (~$18Bn) and 8.7 times the Snapchat's.
Healthcare will be the most impacted segment, with 3 out of every 4 queries followed by eCommerce and B2B Tech.
It will take significant time for SGE to scale up - user behaviour on Google is fiendishly tough to change, giving website owners much-needed time to brace for impact.
When Creativity Costs Job: A Solo Stove Story.
We often lament the lack of creativity in marketing, yet we overlook a critical ingredient: a safe space for growth and experimentation. The smokeless pit maker, Solo Stove's story involving a campaign with Snoop Dogg, perfectly illustrates this.
Part 1: The Creative Leap
The campaign kicked off with a bang. Snoop Dogg hinted at "giving up smoking," a clever lead-up to promoting Solo Stove's smokeless fire pits and grills. This viral PR stunt garnered massive attention, with Snoop's Instagram post raking 4.7 million likes. It was a full-scale effort, encompassing social media, podcasts, outdoor, and digital channels - Solo Stove's first major national marketing push. A seemingly clear marketing win, right?
Part 2: The Unexpected Outcome
However, despite the campaign's success in awareness, it didn't translate into the expected sales boost. Solo Stove's CMO parted ways with the company earlier this month.
The situation raises an important question: Are we measuring marketing success correctly, especially for high-involvement products like Solo Stoves?
The rush for quick ROI and hefty expectations on marketing teams can stifle true innovation. No groundbreaking idea can thrive under constant justification pressure.
One of the most balanced LinkedIn posts on this topic is below. Click on the image below for the complete post:
Carrefour vs. PepsiCo: A Battle Over Shrinking Products
France's largest retailer, Carrefour and Pepsico's war against each other took a strange twist.
Dialling back, Carrefour started a campaign of sticking warnings on products that have shrunk in size. Multiple Pepsico products, such as Doritos and Lipton Tea, were called out.
As the tensions escalated, Carrefour pulled out Pepsico products from its shelves. A new twist in the tale: Pepsico and Carrefour now claim they ended the agreement, not the other party.
Europe is PepsiCo's largest geographical market in terms of revenues, and hence, restoring a working relationship with Carrefour is critical for Pepsico.
The increasing food inflation coincides with lower grocery spending across the top EU economies. As consumers feel the bite of increased food prices, Carrefour has emerged as a brand that listens to its customers by waging an open war against its long-standing partner, Pepsico.
Hat Tip: Thank you, Laura for sharing this with me.
Navigating Turbulence: Kayak's Agile Response.
The ability to tweak your products to suit customer trends is a significant flex—case in point: Kayak.
Following a recent incident where an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 9 MAX, lost a passenger door mid-flight, Kayak saw an opportunity to address growing traveller concerns.
Kayak innovatively responded by enabling customers to quickly filter out specific aircraft types from their travel options, especially the notorious Boeing models.
Result: The modified aircraft filter saw a 15x increase in usage within a few weeks. Not to mention, Kayak's lightning-fast response time generated tonnes of PR value & customer goodwill.
Short Stuff:
Hello Fresh, a UK-based food delivery service, was charged £140,000 for sending spam emails & texts. (The cost of spam).
Google tweaks the search algorithm in the EU to give better placement to comparison sites. (Why regulation is important).
Facebook launches creator management tools for agencies to manage multiple creators. (Making influencer marketing easier).
Misuse of AI in product naming led to Amazon listings starting with “I'm sorry, I cannot fulfil this request as it goes against OpenAI use policy.” (2024’s version of File Not Found).
That’s a wrap on this week. Thank you for your time and attention. If you liked this week’s newsletter or found something interesting - please give me a like or drop a comment. Your support helps drive the discoverability of the newsletter.
Once again, thank you for your time. See you in your inbox next Wednesday.
Regards,
Garima
P.S.: Last Saturday was truly special. Despite the rainy morning, I found myself in a room energized by inspiring women at the Leadership Development for Women's Lean-in Circle in Singapore.
It was their annual leadership conference, and I had the privilege of contributing to a panel discussion on "Climbing the Corporate Ladder" and delivering a keynote on "Self-Advocacy."
We delved into topics like sponsorship, overcoming self-doubt, and challenges in shattering the glass ceiling. The exchange of ideas and experiences was both enlightening and empowering
.Here's a link to the slides if you are interested.