The Marketing Architects

Ep 36 - AI and the Future of Ad Agencies

82% of ANA members say their company has an in-house agency. And now generative AI threatens specialized digital agencies. What does the future of ad agencies look like? Do they have a future at all?

Ep 35 - Marketing to the CFO

Only 22% of CMOs feel they have a collaborative relationship with their CFO. And only 39% of financial directors have confidence their marketing team will make smart commercial decisions. The numbers, well, aren’t great.

Ep 34 - Planning a Merry Holiday Shopping Season

This summer, consumers dug into their wallets to attend concerts, watch movies in theaters, and enjoy sporting events in person. But as economic concerns grow, can the summer’s spending keep up for retailers’ crucial holiday sales season?

Ep 33 - How to Create Sticky Digital Advertising

Do digital ads have your attention, really? What about your audience’s attention? Marketers have shifted from traditional channels to digital ones—but the long-term returns of TV, radio, and print have been difficult to replicate.

Ep 32 - Avoiding the Google Tax with SEM

In 2023, Google will rake in $57 billion from search. Their dominance in the market has left marketers heavily dependent on Google’s platform even as prices rise, making it both necessary for success online... and a massive headache.

Ep 31 - Research Says You’re Targeting the Wrong People

Despite a surplus of data and advanced targeting capabilities, marketers aren't targeting as well as we think we are. And it’s hurting performance.

Ep 30 - Closing the Creativity Gap

Despite a heightened focus on growth, businesses frequently sideline creativity. Even though unconventional thinking is exactly what’s needed to reach new levels of success.

Ep 29 - 7 Modern Marketing Dilemmas with Kantar’s Mary Kyriakidi

How do you defend marketing’s value through economic changes, a narrowing focus on ROI, and changing ideas about how to build a memorable brand?

Ep 28 - How to Invest in Emerging Marketing Channels

Connected TV. Podcasts. TikTok. Even virtual reality. They all offer advertisers new opportunities to reach potential customers. But emerging channels are inherently risky.

Ep 27 - What Prevents Your Team from Achieving Marketing Effectiveness?

The term "marketing effectiveness" has gained attention lately, but what does it really mean? And what’s stopping marketers from developing truly effective work?

Ep 26 - Barbie, Lightning Strikes, and High-Impact Marketing on a Budget

Marketers have been overwhelmed with lessons from the success of the Barbie movie’s marketing strategy. But those lessons only go so far if you don’t have a 150-million-dollar budget to spend.

Ep 25 - Emotion is Advertising’s Untapped Performance Lever

Research from System1 and Pinterest found that digital ads rated highly for emotion resulted in a staggering 90% average increase in brand favorability. And this isn’t the first time research has proven emotion’s effects on ad performance.

Ep 24 - How to Speak Marketing to the C-Suite with John Wojcik

Nearly half of marketers believe senior stakeholders focus too much on ROI. Because while it’s the top metric the C-Suite cares about, ROI alone doesn’t show marketing’s full impact.

Ep 23 - Rethinking B2B Advertising with The B2B Institute’s Ty Heath

Based on an analysis of 2,500 B2B ads, one thing is very clear: B2B needs a new creative formula, one that’s actually effective.

Ep 22 - Effective TV Advertising Part 3—Driving Brand and Sales Together

The battle over whether marketers should focus on sales or brands results has raged for years now. But while many marketers are now embracing both, this philosophy of “bothism” has only recently been applied to TV advertising.

Ep 21 - Effective TV Advertising Part 2—Cost Determines ROI

Targeting the right customer at the right time is a marketer’s dream—but only if the price is right.

Ep 20 - Effective TV Advertising Part 1—Reach Over Targeting

Why would anyone market to those who aren’t likely to buy right away or who don’t fit perfectly within your ICP? Actually, there are multiple reasons.

Ep 19 - Brand Awareness vs Affinity – Which Drives Brand Growth?

Awareness vs affinity. Reach vs resonance. Even customer acquisition vs loyalty. The debate has many names, and it’s clearly not going anywhere. But what if everyone’s right?

Ep 18 - How Do Earned, Owned and Paid Media Fit in Your Marketing Strategy?

Earned media is a small part of marketers’ budgets, but it’s a growing focus for brands across all categories. Still, is it really a winning marketing strategy on its own?

Ep 17 - What Does Creative Effectiveness Really Look Like?

75% of marketers struggle to link creative activities to commercial returns. And 79% say they have inadequate training to connect creative impact and business outcomes.

Ep 16 - Is It Time for a Contextual Targeting Comeback?

Google announced they would disable cookies for 1% of Chrome users at the beginning of 2024. Now, the pressure is on advertisers looking for targeting alternatives that don’t need cookies. Like contextual targeting.

Ep 15 - How Will AI Change Creative Work?

Following AI news has been quite the rollercoaster ride lately. The technology’s potential is incredible for a wide range of fields. But especially for creative work like copywriting, design, and video editing.

Ep 14 - How to Build a High-Performing Marketing Team

1,100 marketers were asked if they’d recommend working in their own marketing department to a friend or colleague. The results were a definitive "no." Clearly, marketing teams need a rebrand.

Ep 13 - What Does Tesla’s Pivot to Advertising Mean for Marketers?

For years, Tesla has been the poster child for why not every brand needs advertising. With word-of-mouth alone they became one of the most valuable companies in the world. So why is Tesla now shifting gears into advertising? .

Ep 12 - Navigating the Dark Funnel of Marketing Measurement

The “dark funnel” gained attention when marketers realized prospects were beginning the customer journey sooner than they’d thought. And they weren’t measuring it.

Ep 11 - The Untapped Value of B2B Brands

The top 100 B2B brands across the globe are worth a staggering $2 trillion collectively. But they have $1 trillion in untapped brand potential. Talk about missed opportunity, right?

Ep 10 - How to Target Your Audience on Mass Marketing Channels

Reaching large audiences is powerful. But they still need to be the right large audiences. Because even the biggest brands can't afford to skip targeting. Even on mass-reach marketing channels like TV, radio and print.

Ep 9 - How Airbnb Used Brand Awareness to Drive Profitability

Airbnb is the only public VC-backed company founded in the US in the last 15 years that is meaningfully profitable. How did they do it? They dramatically changed their approach to marketing.

Ep 8 - Brand Awareness – Is it Overrated or Effective Marketing?

Brand is far more measurable today than even five years ago. So why are we still questioning brand’s value? Maybe becauseit’s tough to know exactly how to grow brand—and defend its importance to the business.

Ep 7 - Behavioral Advertising – How Does Targeting Really Work?

Behavioral targeting has undeniably changed marketing and advertising, fueling the online advertising industry’s growth to $540 billion globally. But what’s the real impact... for marketers and for consumers?

Ep 6 - What Do Marketers Need to Know About a TikTok Ban?

TikTok has over 100 million American users, and US marketers will spend more than $11 billion on the app by the end of 2023. So what happens if the app is banned?

Ep 5 - How Will AI Reshape Marketing?

Marketing might just be the category of work most impacted by artificial intelligence in 2023. So how should marketers be thinking about using the technology in their daily work?

Ep 4 - How to Measure Upper Funnel Marketing Channels

There are more than 130 marketing metrics. But how many really determine marketing effectiveness? Especially for brand-building channels?

Ep 3 - Advertising During a Recession

The economy can be confusing. How marketers should respond to economic change can be equally difficult to navigate.

Ep 2 - Narrow Targeting vs Broad Reach Marketing

How do you balance broad reach and highly targeted marketing efforts?

Ep 1 - The Danger of Digital Marketing Dependence

As a marketer, what is the danger of relying too heavily on digital advertising?