Jo Kerr

Brands and Prof G Jon Evans spent some quality time with Prof G, and it was a good show. Scott is entertaining, smart, and pulls no punches when conveying his beliefs, especially regarding social media. He clearly believes in brands- he’s a brand himself, values the importance of storytelling, and understands that products and experience are key to brand success. He challenges that brand advertising is how to build brands in 2024 because people have better ways of getting information. He doesn’t acknowledge that advertising has helped many brands grow in many categories. For many others, it has transformed their businesses. He also doesn’t get that the big agencies do far more today than make ads- he’s stuck in Don Draper’s Mad Ave. Those points aside, he’s a compelling listen. It’s just that brands aren’t dead—far from it.

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It’s often joked about how New Year resolutions tend to fade once ‘Auld Lang Syne’ has finished. But could these lapses become a thing of the past? Our research suggests so. Wellness, once relegated in significance post-January, is now receiving sustained search interest from consumers throughout the year - and this is creating an opportunity for brands. With wellness becoming a perpetual priority for consumers, brands equipped with agile strategies, leveraging real-time insights and automated advertising solutions, can navigate these evolving behaviours and foster meaningful engagement. Find out why here. 👇 https://lnkd.in/dmAqKicp #ThinkWithGoogle #MentalHealthMonth #Wellness

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I felt both elation and despair when I read McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden’s comments in Cannes this week. Elation from the realisation that there is a CFO out there who gets that marketing is a critically important investment to drive growth. Despair from the fact that things had gotten so bad that marketing was seen as a “nebulous black box” at McDonald’s. So here’s a sneak peak from episode 2 of my MAD//Masters By Rory Sutherland course. In this lecture, I echo the great Jeremy Bullmore and claim that the notion of ‘marcomms’ has contributed to marketing being seen as a comms discipline - and not an important source of value creation and competitive advantage. I also introduce the concept of the broken binoculars, why taking market research literally is a mugs game when it comes to things like pricing, and how behavioural science can make us better at communicating the value of marketing. If this sounds like the kind of content you’d like to get your teeth into, do sign up for this summer’s intake of MAD//Masters. Featuring 10 on-demand episodes, monthly Q&A sessions, an in-person meetup at MAD//Fest London, a practical assessment and bonus content, I’ve made it my mission to help marketers (or CFO’s with an interest!) unlock the value of behavioural science and creativity in value creation. And just because everyone loves a deal, enrol today using the link below for just £1295 + get a free ticket to MAD//Fest London worth £995! https://lnkd.in/eBXJD2ek P.S. Contact Sam Benton for group booking rates and join teams from Amazon, Nestlé, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, VaynerMedia, NEOM, Sony and many more! MAD//FEST Sam Benton Dan Brain Harry Clark Ian Houghton Ben Phillips Aiden Lucas

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A really good piece today in The Media Leader UK from EssenceMediacom UK's Chief Strategy Officer, Richard Kirk. Sharing an unpublished chart (see comments) from our £1.8bn econometrically-fuelled Profit Ability 2 study, he suggests that "spend in paid social for large brands may be treble the optimal level for growth" and that "Linear TV for big brands could be delivering much more with a boost in investment, with online video also offering headroom for growth." Addressing the "Well, obviously Thinkbox would say that" elephant in the room, Richard states: "...the dataset here is collated from brands’ own econometric data, across a series of agencies and auditors. No data capture or analysis has been undertaken by Thinkbox itself. Ebiquity and WPP, brands that trade on their neutrality in media, have done the work and built this tool." #TV #TVAdvertising #Advertising #MarketingEffectiveness Jane Christian, Olga Zaitseva, Dominic Charles, Matthew Chappell, Nic Pietersma Thinkbox | ITV Media | Channel 4 Sales | Sky Media UK

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The UK feels really heavy right now and it's hard to know how you can help when you work in advertising, essentially encouraging people to buy more stuff. But I encourage my network to take a minute, check in on your colleagues and then get down to business, ensuring that you are investing your ad budgets intentionally and meaningfully. First things first, drive revenue to publications that give voice to communities being affected by the carnage, secondly ensure that the media you are buying delivers on your brand's core values and ensure your brand is showing up in an authentic and well judged way. And when you're done with all that, here are some amazing charities you can support either personally or through corporate donations: Refugees at Home Hope at Home Stand Up to Racism Hope not Hate Migrant Voice Women for Refugee Women Refugee Action Choose Love Amnesty UK Unicef British Red Cross Refugee Council Care4Calais Runnymede Trust Be well and keep safe xx

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Cheap as chips advice. Ritson bangs on about stuff he’s been banging on about for a while now. IPA Effectiveness winner McCain applying the known and proven fundamentals of marketing. Advice on a plate. It’s not rocket science. It’s available to all. It’s as easy as chips. It works. Just needs a little dollop of secret sauce. #strategy #creativity #humanity Chapter Brand Leadership

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It was amazing to welcome back one of our former team Chris Jillard to talk to the teams across The Salocin Group, Edit, Join the Dots & Wood for Trees on the importance of understanding stress and how to reduce fighting fire with fire 🔥 As a former media planner himself, Chris Jillard talked about how he experienced burnout and and gave some practical tips on how 'empty your bucket', taking a step back to re-evaluate our stress management strategies to help balance work and relaxation to maintain our mental well-being in a hybrid world 🌿 Healthy Habits to Combat Stress: - Walk outdoors 🌳 - Take 10-minute breaks 🕒 - Enjoy your lunch break away from your desk 🍴 - Plan weekend getaways 🌅 Tips for Better Sleep: - Maintain a consistent sleep/wake time ⏰ - Get early daylight exposure ☀️ - Avoid emails after 7 PM 📧 - Reduce alcohol consumption 🍷 - Limit screen time before bed 📵 - Ensure a dark room for sleeping 🌑 Making a commitment to our mental health is a priority and embracing these simple yet effective changes to boost your productivity and enhance your quality of life are top tips, having worked with Chris Jillard personally as a life coach, I can highly recommend him to anyone. #StressManagement #MentalHealth #Productivity #WellBeing #HealthyLiving #WorkLifeBalance

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This week I spent a couple of days in a wet and windy Brighton at Media360. There was SO much great content but here are just a few golden snippets I thought were worth sharing... We are all #bonkersbusy. Thank you Natalie Bell I have used this many times in the last 3 #bonkersbusy days already About AI.... ‘The World of uncertainty is with us’. Certainty drives paralysis so experiment, take baby steps, experiment and demystify Anna Forbes It’s easy to do the right thing wrong when it comes with connecting with disabled audiences. Consult with the community and design with them in mind from the start Dom Hyams The day you start working in advertising is the day you stop being a consumer. Listen to your audiences, use varied and good quality data and lived experience Ndubuisi Uchea We need to examine the maths of retail media more – a strong accountants view! Sam Tomlinson More young people read news than ever before – 9 in 10 on average 4x a day Heather Dansie That it’s a civic and democratic responsibility for advertisers to invest in news Gideon Spanier. More on this to come - watch this space About risk taking…Make me uncomfortable, just don’t get me fired. Be really annoying but don’t be a d**k Maya Gallego Spiers In 30 years climate change advertising hasn’t worked. Brands are failing consumers in the fight against climate change because people don’t like being scared; they want to see the benefits to them, their family and the area they live in. Get the ostrich’s head out of the sand! Matt Bourn Thank you for the fond reminder of my heavy-metal youth. All hail Rage against the machine x fantasia! As media has become more addressable, consumers have become less identifiable. Geo-keys are the way forward. Satin Reid Most brands under-index against minority audiences so if you’re looking for growth, this should be an obvious place to start Claire McAlpine Thank you everyone for your wise words! From me.... check the weather forecast properly before you go anywhere in the UK away from home and whatever it says take a raincoat, a warm jumper and some comfy shoes. And remember when you go to the pub that it is only Tuesday. Thank you Haymarket Media Group for a great conference & hopefully see you all there next year if not before!

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Jaguar's Bold Rebrand: When Challenging Convention Challenges Fans   Challenging convention has always been at the heart of Jaguar's DNA.   Yet last night's unveiling of their new brand identity and ad campaign has sparked intense debate within the automotive community - petrolheads and car nuts like me. As Chief Creative Officer, Professor Gerry McGovern stated, 'This is a complete reset. Jaguar is transformed to reclaim its originality and inspire a new generation.’ To be fair, the response has been remarkable - over 20 million views across key social channels in less than one day. But most comments have been negative. Perhaps the problem is not the rebrand itself but the absence of a brand-inspired dialogue surrounding it. A more open, made-for-social conversation about the brand's new direction might have helped bridge the gap between the old Jaguar and the new. Nonetheless, I'm still cheering on from the slide lines for Jaguar's future success. Here's to hoping the Art Basel reveal puts the entire JaGUar rebrand into context. Love to know what others think about the campaign and the online reactions. #Jaguar #BrandTransformation #Automotive #LuxuryCars #EVs #BusinessOfCreativity #AdvertisingWhoCares

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A brand stretch too far? Continuing on the topic of brand stretch in this week's blog, David Taylor explores Sainsbury's decision to exit banking and refocus on its core business. Reflecting on the importance of balancing both size of prize and ability to win. https://lnkd.in/ehEUr-vY

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Need to level up on your audience insight? 🕹 Check out the next instalment in our 26PMX retail realities series which focuses in on how to unlock and get more from your customer data to ultimately get the performance gains. So sign up and get some intel to prep you for Q4 and beyond - all from the comfort of your own home, desk or commute! 🗓 Date: 12th September 2024 ⏰ Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM What To Expect: - Major performance boosts through audience insights - Fast AI-driven audience segmentation - Unlocking hidden value in first-party data - Practical strategies for immediate Q4 success Who you'll hear from: A squad of the smart minds at MSQ, InfoSum and SQREEM Technologies 🔗 Sign up now! Link in the comments. #RetailWebinar #AudienceInsights #AI #FirstPartyData

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Following last week's post, I wanted to first focus on the Auto category; how AI will transform the category, the impact on the consumer & opportunities it will present Brands. Whilst we are unfortunately some way off flying cars, I think we are only 5-10 years off getting a self driving taxi back home from the airport. In fact Waymo (Alphabet) already have driverless taxis operating in some small geofenced areas in the US. Whilst they are first to market, their offering isn’t scalable; their cars rely on a combination of expensive hardware including LIDAR, radar, cameras, ultrasonics, etc. As a result, their cars cost $250k and they are miles from being able to scale the tech. They can’t get enough cars on the roads getting data for AI to truly “learn”. They therefore have to be “taught”. Geo fenced areas need to be mapped and everything needs to be coded (red light = stop). Tesla’s approach is to focus hardware on the 8 cameras already on their cars and a computer. They use the same inputs that we use to drive; two eyes (vs 8 cameras) and a brain (AI), that processes the data we see, which then provides instructions on what to do. Whilst most FSD (full self driving) solutions are taking Waymo’s approach, Tesla is not alone to focus on a vision-only solution. None however, have the levels of data that Tesla has access to due to every one of their cars already being equipped and collecting data. Tesla recently achieved 1.3bn FSD miles - Waymo only has 20m miles. Waymo would need to drive its fleet for over 750 years to catch up. So what are the implications of FSD? Consumer implications: On 8th August Tesla will announce their plans for Robotaxis. Given they eliminate the need for a driver (45% of an Uber fare), a robotaxi fare can be nearly halved. This will dramatically increase the appeal to substitute owning & maintaining a car. As a kid I would never have imagined not owning music, however we are now all signed up to subscription services like Spotify. In the future the automotive category will see a similar transformation Category implications: Fewer people owning cars would have a significant impact on legacy automakers & I would expect consolidation. The solution Tesla (or NVIDIA) develop could be licenced out to automakers, much like how Android is used in most mobile handsets Advertising implications: No longer having to focus on the road frees up time for people to consume media. Most new cars have large tablets, perfect for watching your favourite movies on Netflix, Prime, Disney+. People will have their phones to scroll through TikTok, Instagram etc. Great news for consumers, media partners and Brands alike The race for AI to solve FSD is on, and the opportunities it will unlock for Brands to reach a captive audience are immense. Real life KnightRider - exciting times ahead! Share your thoughts on this transformative technology. #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #BusinessGrowth #GenerativeAI #FSD #Automotive #Tesla

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If you didn't have time to attend the Kantar BrandZ global webinar in June, or read our report in July ... shame on you! But all is forgiven if you read the summary of 10 key takeaways from our last year of brand insights :)

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'Peak season is officially underway. Running from November through to the January sales, it’s the busiest time of year for brands. And it’s a period that’s becoming more and more important according to Imogen Beri, head of social media at John Lewis: “Customers are spending more time and energy thinking about what they want to purchase in that time frame,” she says. “And so for us as a brand, we want to make sure that we’re there for them in a highly relevant way.” To do that, John Lewis’s strategy is underpinned by a “dynamic test and learn approach”, which Beri says begins at the start of every year. This year, John Lewis ran a test using Meta’s Advantage+ shopping campaigns, an AI and machine learning tool designed to help brands “reach valuable audiences with less setup time and greater efficiency.” The retailer saw some “really compelling” results, says Beri: “We were able to reach 20% of a new audience and we achieved 70% higher return on ad spend when we used this type of campaign.” When it comes to AI’s implementation within marketing strategies, Beri says it’s important to see it as an enabler, as opposed to a driver. “Our marketing strategy still needs to be driven by customer insight and driving towards our business objectives…and AI is an amazing tool to help us deliver that.”' https://lnkd.in/e-cVirmc

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The whole ‘Rishi Sunak has killed Sambas’ thing is funny. I think if someone like #Rishi (establishment figure, tries to be cool but is always a bit behind trends rather than in front of them) is flexing a pair, then we’d probably hit peak #Samba anyway; irrespective of Rishi himself bringing his whole tainted goods loser vibe to the game. But I would imagine Sunak has accelerated what might have been an otherwise slow and steady descent down the other side of the hype curve - and lost #Adidas a fair bit of cash in lost sales in the process. The whole sorry tale does, though, highlight the awesome power of #culture as a negative force for brands as well as a positive one. We tend to think of culture as a wave to be surfed or a well to be tapped, but equally it's a fickle beast that can just as easily dump us or run unexpectedly dry (to torture both metaphors). And in an age when brands are chasing cultural relevance like it's their next crack fix, it probably highlights the need for #brandmanagement to include a deeper focus on managing a brand’s place in culture – and to be nimble enough to flex when the unexpected happens.

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I've been having fun reading everyone's thoughts about the recently released ad that's part of the Jaguar re-brand, and thought I'd add my $.02. In no particular order: 1) The brand flatlined as its traditional target audience aged out of the automotive market, and it needed to do something drastic to own a new corner of the market. Many of us remember, "It's not your father's Oldsmobile." The brain remembers the last three words it hears. Oldsmobile is no more. 2) To quote Ted Lasso, be curious, not judgemental. This is the first in what obviously will be a series of ads/experiences to relaunch the brand. It's too early to judge, and a great time to say, "I wonder what the Jaguar car will look like if it copied nothing." 3) This is no more bizarre than 1984, and I can imagine a brief that said: Target Audience: Affluent late millennials and early Gen Zers who are looking to separate themselves from their peers through their sense of fashion. This is a haute-couture ad. No one buys the dresses from the fashion shows and the ads scream, "no one looks or dresses like that," but it drives the perception of that brand's more mass offerings. Let's be curious, see what they do next, and learn from another approach to the challenge our brands all have - Standing out in a sea of same. https://lnkd.in/exU_KVbp

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In which I reflect on how marketing leaders must embrace the changing shape of the B2B sales funnel – and channel budgets accordingly.

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Controversial - I like the new Jaguar Land Rover UK ad! Jaguar has received a lot of backlash over its rebrand and car-less ad. But I think it's achieved what most ads fail to do now... conversation, interest, eyeballs, attention and recall. How many car ads over the last ten years do you remember? Probably just a couple out of the hundreds made. Now think of how many adverts you could recall in the previous ten years...not that many? Jaguar has enough brand awareness; it doesn't need to educate consumers on what it sells. However, they need to stand out in a crowded market, attract new eyeballs to the brand, and get people to discuss them; this ad achieved this. We, of course, need ads that tell you what you are buying, but we also need ads that grab attention. John Lewis did this with their first Christmas ad, sparking a wealth of creativity. Creativity is needed in ads; if social media platforms have taught us anything, consumers watch short-form videos, essentially what a traditional TV ad is, and engage with banners...Instagram is just basically a feed of them. So, as much as you may hate the rebrand and the ad, it's achieved what most ads fail to do: gander attention and recall. Maybe it's time you rethought your ads. #creatives #design #branding #jaguar https://lnkd.in/e6hEpf72

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Bla bla Tesco yadda yadda OOH bla bla brand equity yadda yadda logo recall. 🤪📢 I can’t help but think we, in the marketing and advertising industry (particularly here on LinkedIn), get a little too caught up in over-analysing things🧠🧐📈. A pretty simple, well executed brand billboard campaign here, sure, but I can’t help but think it’s just our echo chamber analysing and celebrating (or criticising) it. Joe Public will walk or drive past and be more subliminally reminded that Tesco sell a range of food. Y’know, like a supermarket should. And maybe they’ll have their ego massaged for working out the “O” via “Okra” and “Oyster Mushroom” (cos, you know, Tesco does some international/quirky ingredients too). 🤯 As Matt W - Webster pointed out, there’s a lot of people getting “frothy pants” over this… but I’d ask, is it the people that actually matter? Anyway, bla bla etc. Happy Humpday. #advertising #ooh #billboard #brand #tesco #retail #marketing

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