This Mother’s Day, consumers are expected to spend approximately $152.52 on gifts for mom – up 8 percent from last year. As we head to Mother’s Day weekend, we surveyed MMC’ers who are quite the shopping enthusiasts to see where they’re getting their gifts. A majority named online retail sites. The list included:
Happy Mother’s Day to all!
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Women, particularly mothers – who represent a $2.4 trillion market – are making about 83-87 percent of purchase decisions in American households.
In March 2013, Mom Central Consulting surveyed 900+ moms to understand the power of peer influence on these purchasing decisions. The results showed the following about moms:
- 99% research products online before purchasing; of which, 87% specifically look for first-person recommendations. Marketers need to engage with consumers to get feedback and address it to maximize positive brand sentiments.
- 81% read 5+ blogs per week, which confirms the importance of encouraging online influencers to blog about your brand.
- 76% trust social media recommendations for products before purchasing them, and 69% are more likely to purchase if a product is recommended by those they follow on social networking sites.
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- When it Comes to Purchasing, Moms Do Their Research…Online
- by Alyssa Marderstein
- Tagged: Creative, digital, Integrated marketing, Marketing, Marketing to Moms, marketing to women, public relations, shopper marketing, Social Media, Women's life stages
That’s a question we asked Arun Sudhaman, managing editor of The Holmes Report on the heels of a study about creativity his publication conducted with creativity experts Now Go Create and sponsored by our Omnicom sister agency Ketchum.
One of the findings that caught MMC’s attention was that the 650 interviewees named three campaigns MMC has worked on out of the 12 they cited as “best example of a creative PR campaign that drove business results over the past 18 months.” These were: P&G Moms, Head & Shoulders with Troy Polamalu and Depend Great American Try On.
So we followed up with Arun recently to ask him a few more questions about creativity in PR campaigns. Here’s what he had to say.
Q: Are you seeing any new trends in creative campaigns?
A: There are two trends that we’re seeing. One is an increase in integrated marketing communications programs, particularly in consumer marketing. While a campaign might begin with a “PR Idea,” many campaigns, particularly those in consumer marketing, include the whole gamut of marketing communications.
The second trend is the importance of purpose, or social marketing. To stand out in a crowded marketplace, marketers need to demonstrate that they care about people’s lives – not just their products. An excellent example of this is a campaign Electrolux did called “Vac from the Sea.” Electrolux’s idea was to recycle plastic debris from the ocean and turn it into vacuum cleaners to draw attention to the issue of plastic ocean waste. As one of the world’s biggest appliance makers, Electrolux had a natural stake in the idea as the company uses recycled plastics in its appliances.
Of course, not every campaign has to be purpose driven. The last thing you want to do is align with a purpose that’s not authentic to your company or product. And just as many campaigns that have tried to tap into a cause fail as succeed. It really depends on how the campaign is developed and executed.
Q: Are you seeing an increase in the central idea for integrated campaigns coming from PR?
A: Yes, but those ideas aren’t necessarily coming from PR agencies. Often they come from the advertising agency.
You can almost count on two hands the big ideas coming from the PR industry. A big part of the challenge is that clients may not be willing to accept ideas that drive an integrated campaign from the PR agency. Clients may say they don’t care where the big idea comes from, but I think they really do care — they expect them to come from the ad agency.
Whenever we interview CMOs, they always say they want more ideas from their PR agencies. It’s hard to believe that PR agencies aren’t coming up with those ideas. I think it’s a matter of PR agencies doing a better job of articulating how the idea can solve a client’s marketing challenge.
Check back tomorrow to see what Arun has to say about how PR agencies can be more creative.
Image courtesy of The Holmes Report
We’ve read the reports. We’ve seen the data. Emotion plays a huge part in “why she buys”. We get it.
But, how often do we take the time to lift that layer of emotion. Does it just make her feel good, or is there more to it?
Since we’re talking about women here, my money is on the fact that there’s more to it.
Check out this photo. I’m on Spring Break, beach bound for the day in the Caribbean. I’ve got my SPF 30, 40, and 60. But, what’s that in the corner? Is that…? Yes, it is.
I was on line at the pharmacy this morning and spotted Ban de Soleil Orange Gelee Classic Formula SPF4. What is happening? They still make this?
If I were in a romantic comedy the camera would immediately cut to a flashback of me in my teen years with all my girlfriends at the beach, with a sea of magazines at our feet, slathering on this glamorous St. Tropez Tanning formula – soaking in that signature fragrance and the excitement of what the night would bring as we sport our new fresh-faced, bronze glow. Notice no mention of wrinkles, skin cancer or sun spots.
Life was good. Life was simple.
And so was the decision today, 20+ yrs later, to pay $14.99 for this little Time Machine tube. I couldn’t resist the idea of rubbing even a tiny bit of this potion into my skin, enjoying that signature fragrance, feeling simple.
Of course, today I sit under my umbrella, covered in La Roche-Posay 60, while wearing a larger-than-life visor that could probably pick up several more movie channels than my current cable package allows.
You could say the path to purchasing this was my version of taking a spin in Doc’s DeLorean equipped with the flux capacitor.
What’s yours?
Today, one out of every nine Americans is over 65, and, for the next 19 years, nearly 30,000 boomers will become seniors every single day. But in an age where 50 is the new 30, boomers don’t feel constrained by their age and marketers should take notice. I recently attended the What’s Next Boomer Summit in Chicago along with 400 other marketers interested in reaching this consumer (our Depend client also presented a case study on our work for The Great American Try On). Here are some key takeaways for targeting this age group:
- Age and frailty don’t sell. Age is just a number right? When 60 year olds are asked what age they feel, the average response is 45. And this only increases slightly as people get older. Boomers are active and are concerned with looking cool too!
- Boomers and millennials are a lot alike. Surprising, yes? You may think these are two very different target audiences but they actually share many of the same values. Hot topics like green work places, flexible schedules and work/life balance are very important to both segments.
- Entrepreneurs at heart. More boomers create start ups today than 20 somethings. Their motivation comes after spending many years in corporate America and wanting to embrace their creative sides.
- Don’t waste their time. Boomers have a lot of life to live and are extremely sensitive to anything that wastes their precious time.
Today’s boomers are different from every generation before them. Take some time to get to know them if you want to capture them as a target.
Image courtesy of Depend
Who can resist sweet memories of childhood like Twinkies and Peeps? Both are in the news this week for new and upcoming campaigns.
For those Twinkie watchers and hoarders out there, it was exciting news to hear that this wonder of the food world could be back on shelves as early as this June, trumpeted by celebrities and possibly with a healthy twist. A brand that has long been a poster child for what’s wrong with the American diet can use nostalgia and humor, and maybe even a portion control play with 100-calorie snack packs, to reinvigorate a cult following and woo new consumers. Capitalizing on the Twinkie stockpiling and online market that burgeoned in the wake of the Hostess bankruptcy could be another fun way for the brand to turn its one-time demise into a positive.
The Peeps brand celebrates 60 years of molding marshmallow sweetness into cute chicks, bunnies and more with its first TV ad in a decade. The spot celebrates the endless ways to enjoy Peeps as told by a boy to his brother over the course of Easter day, a humorous nod to the many uses for Peeps, food and otherwise (diorama contests abound). Like many successful brands that embrace alternative uses (Q-tips and macaroni come to mind), embracing consumer love for their brand, even if it doesn’t fit neatly into an Easter basket all the time, has helped Peeps grow its business. I suggest for their 60th they make a bold social media play as well and change the Twitter bird to a Peeps chick for a day, say Easter, (and Tweets to Peeps) and invite consumers to Peep about why they love the product. And encourage all their peeps to do the same. Or host a Vine Peep Show. The ideas, like the many ways to enjoy Peeps, are endless.
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- How Peep It Is
- by Loren Fisher Coleman, M.S.
- Tagged: Big ideas, Creative, digital, Integrated marketing, Marketing, Marketing to Moms, marketing to women, news, Pop Culture, public relations, shopper marketing, Social Media
According to research on Mother’s Day gifting, most people search for gifts for mom electronically the week of Mother’s Day. Marketers targeting shoppers online this May will need to keep this in mind.
xAd classifies Mother’s Day online gifters into two categories:
Planners: Those searching and purchasing six days ahead, generally looking for salons, spas and jewelry.
- For salons and spas, mobile activity peaks two days before while desktop peaks the day before.
- For jewelry, mobile activity is consistent during the six days leading up to Mother’s Day. Desktop activity peaks the day before.
Procrastinators: Those searching and purchasing three days ahead, generally looking for bakeries and flowers.
- For bakeries, both mobile and desktop activity increases two days before and peaks the day before.
- For flowers, mobile activity spikes three days before and gradually declines, while desktop search ramps up drastically six days before and drops off just as drastically the day before Mother’s Day.
Which category do you fall in? Don’t worry, we won’t tell mom.
Image courtesy of xAd
