MarketingDojo #83: 🧠 Make Smarter Marketing Decisions💡
Real-Win-Worth of marketing initiatives, marketing's job scope, Paypal's hummable advertising and more.
Hello everyone,
Welcome to the 83rd issue of Marketing Dojo!
I’ve been living in the future for the past few weeks.
For my day job, I was neck-deep in a stretch project about the future of a particular industry and the metamaterials that will make it all possible.
It was both fun and mind-bending to dive into predictions that go well beyond the usual five-year horizon. So, today’s newsletter is sprinkled with insights I picked up while trying to assemble a pixelated picture of what’s to come.
In the P.S. section, there’s a podcast recommendation I think you’ll enjoy.
Here’s what’s on the docket this week:
📊 A framework to filter marketing initiatives
😂 Meme-time: Marketing’s ever-expanding role
🎭 Commerce Media Networks - Same same but different
🎨 Creative Excellence: PayPal
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Now, let's kick off this week's marketing wisdom...
The Real-Win-Worth Approach:Balancing Risk and Reward in Marketing
Virtual influencers, AI chatbots, 24/7 AI live streamers, metaverse marketing, AI video generation—every week, marketing teams face a deluge of ideas for the next big thing.
The challenge? The time and resources to run these experiments are limited. Every misstep wastes valuable resources, and the opportunity cost is high—time spent chasing dead ends could’ve been used to pursue ideas with real potential.
How do we make smarter decisions? The Real-Win-Worth framework is particularly useful. First published by George Day in HBR in 2007, the framework helps organizations choose product portfolios by balancing risks and rewards.
But much like product development, marketing isn’t just about moving fast and breaking things—it’s about moving in the right direction.
Here’s my first attempt at adapting this framework to help sift through marketing initiatives and find the ones where your organization can truly win:
Start with an open brainstorming session—invite as many ideas as your team can generate.
Apply the first filter: Is It Real?
Then, the second filter: Can We Win?
Finally, form sub-teams to analyze the “Worth” of the handful of shortlisted ideas.
Often, activities get the green light just because someone higher up says so. The Real-Win-Worth framework systematically evaluates ideas while encouraging collaboration, ensuring marketing teams stay resource-efficient and adaptable in an ever-evolving landscape.
Memetime: A 3-Member Marketing Team Army.
I confess: I am addicted to the memes subreddit. It is a refreshing break from my crazy workweek. Mr Beast has dropped some fresh content with fellow YouTubers, and the entire meme page is full of his content.
Here's my humble attempt at using a green screen to depict the pains of a three-member marketing team working in a fast-paced environment, crumbling under the pressure of an ever-expanding list of responsibilities.
Do you relate?
Creative Excellence: PayPal’s Pay Everywhere.
A highly entertaining and hummable ad from PayPal? Not on my bingo card! But PayPal is making some bold moves as part of a massive strategic shift.
For starters, PayPal officially announced its entry into the retail media space with PayPal Ads.
But that’s not all—PayPal is moving beyond its roots as an online payment platform. The latest ad highlights this shift, featuring Will Ferrell off-key humming PayPal’s new tagline.
The ad focuses on the ease of using PayPal in the real world—whether at the grocery store, a local coffee shop, or even a gas station.
The ad is a creative gem, striking the perfect balance of humour, a catchy tune, repetition, and strong brand recall. It’s a big departure from the usual serious tone of payment ads, and I have to say, PayPal’s new creative direction gets a big thumbs up from me!
Same Same, But Different:Exploring the Variations in Commerce Media Networks
Whether it’s the hotel you checked into, your online transaction platform (looking at you, PayPal), or even your taxi, everyone is becoming an advertiser these days.
What started with Amazon’s retail media network has sparked a wave of similar business models—it’s tough to keep up! eMarketer’s chart offers a great snapshot of this complex landscape.
But here’s the thing: retail media networks don’t entirely cover everything, especially with networks expanding into finance, travel, and more. That’s why commerce media networks is a more appropriate term.
Not all networks are created equal. The chart also highlights what’s native to each type of commerce network. For example, advertising with PayPal offers deeper insights into customers’ purchasing habits across multiple merchants, but bear in mind that your audience might not be in a buying mood.
My only gripe? Commerce media networks still don’t capture the full scope—streamers like Netflix and Disney+ are left out of the picture.
Short Stuff:
The European Commission seeks details from YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok on how their recommender systems work (Digital Services Act in action).
Social media ads skew towards low-consideration products (Social commerce is built on impulse).
Facebook announced its Gen Z-focused redesign (Trying to look cool).
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 newsletter's discoverability.
Regards,
Garima Mamgain
P.S: How to Get Forecasting Right - By Paul Saffo.
Imagining the future is no easy feat. We often overestimate the impact of new technologies in the short term and underestimate them in the long term—making anyone who tries to predict the future wrong twice.
Last week, I stumbled upon a podcast featuring Prof. Paul Saffo, and I was instantly hooked. I found myself diving into more of his talks and ideas on forecasting the future.
Summarizing an information-packed podcast like this one is tough, so here’s my simple recommendation: give it a listen. I’m confident you’ll have at least one “Aha!” moment.
One line from the podcast stuck with me, and I’ve jotted it down in my notebook of interesting ideas: “Never mistake a clear vision for a short distance.”
Here’s a quote of his:
Just because it looks like something is really exciting and about to happen, chances are it'll take a lot longer to arrive than you expect. And when it finally does arrive, it will unfold in unexpected ways. Quite simply, most ideas do take 20 years to become an overnight success. TV took 20 years from invention in the 1930s plus time out for a war before takeoff in the 1950s. Radio took 20 years from its first invention to the broadcast of station KDKA in 1921. The personal computer's antecedent– it took the personal computer almost 20 years before it had takeoff. And of course the internet was almost exactly 20 years old when it took off in the year that Al Gore invented it, 1988.