As you start to evaluate your successes in reaching your first quarter goals, keep in mind that you still have 75 percent of the year left to make needed adjustments. Sometimes all you need is a little push in the right direction. Check out this week’s content radar for the information you need to stay at the top of your game.
What the CMO Scorecard says about diversity in marketing — and in your organization
With the release of the Association of National Advertisers’ first-ever CMO Scorecard, for the first time, organizations of all types are able to take a hard look at diversity — or the lack of it — in organizations across the country. The intent of the scorecard is to give a solid foundation to brands and organizations as they discuss hiring and content creation for target audiences.
Among other things, the scorecard found the following about CMO or CMO-equivalent roles:
- Nearly half (45 percent) of top marketing executives in organizations are female. This is a number higher than some believed it might be.
- Just slightly more than 1 in 10 (13 percent) of top marketing jobs in organizations are held by people of color. This 13 percent is comprised of 5 percent Hispanic or Latin, 5 percent Asian, and 3 percent black.
- Some industries scored considerably higher on the scorecard than others. For example, 53 percent of “Banking and Financial Service” CMOs are women. However, the number of “Food and Beverage” companies who are led by a female marketer drops to about 32 percent.
- The “Consumer Packaged Goods” industry seemed to offer the most opportunities for women and people of color. Exactly 50 percent of CMOs in this industry are women; roughly 25 percent of CMOs in this industry are people of color.
What it means for you
Simply put, the more diverse an organization is, the better it is able to understand a variety of target audiences. Vlogger Andrea Dotterer addressed this in a recent YouTube video.
“When you start speaking to [your audience] in their language, they’re going to be, like, ‘Wow, she read my mind. She knows exactly what I need,’ and that is going to connect them,” Dotterer said. “That already starts building up trust.”
Questions to ask to better understand your audiences
Of course, no matter the circumstances, all organizations can do more to better understand their audiences. Marley Baird of Marley Baird Media recommends organizations ask themselves the following seven questions to improve their ability to understand their audiences:
- How can I help my audience?
- What do I offer that can solve their problems?
- Who are my current customers?
- What are my customers doing?
- Who do I compete with?
- What do they stand for?
- What is my point of differentiation?
“By understanding this you’ll be able to know who your customers are, and what you can do for them,” Baird said. “This is a starting point for you to find the content buckets that are relevant for your brand.”
Google has acquired the popular GIF search engine Tenor. Tenor will remain a separate brand, but Google plans to feature the brand’s GIFs on many of its services. Tenor claims it sees more than 12 billion searches per month and that brands like AT&T, Nestle, and KFC pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to appear in GIF search results.
A recently released podcast discusses some important tips to keep in mind when considering starting a Facebook Group. The podcast includes information about how utilizing groups can help your brand reach a larger audience and allow customers to be more engaged.
A new examination of the spending habits of the top 1,000 Facebook advertisers shows that only 7 brands have ceased publishing ads since the Cambridge Analytica drama first surfaced. Of the brands that have stopped advertising, some have denied it is related to the privacy issues, and none have claimed that ceasing publishing is directly tied to the issue.
Snapchat calls itself a “camera” in its first TV ad. The purpose of the ad is to introduce older audiences to the app and to provide further explanation about what the app — er, camera — is.
