Brand Marketing

As we get used to living with a global pandemic and the resulting economic fallout, brands and advertisers are changing the way they communicate with customers in our ‘new normal.’

All generalizations are false. Including this one. Local campaigns always beat global campaigns. Always. Except when they don’t. If there is ever a topic that gets heated, it is the local versus global marketing debate. People get angry.

Generation Z, the cohort aged 13-22, is the first generation to grow up surrounded by mature technology and platforms (social and entrepreneurial). Their foundation of digital capabilities and hyper-connectedness is unleashing tremendously fluid and vibrant creative expressions. In the US alone, a report from Mintel in 2013 estimated the purchasing power of Gen Z to be $44 billion. Tapping into that market means brands have to understand what this generation means when they say “be yourself” (which, according to a research report from JWT Intelligence and Snapchat is the top phrase this group used to describe itself).

In the wonderful world of marketing technology (MarTech), the only constant is change—and 2020 will be no exception.

In 2017, Pepsi had a banner year: their market share was increasing, their leadership was a model for diversity & inclusion, and they were celebrating 10 years of consistent revenue growth. Yet, in all their new-found swagger, they had a major stumble: a tone-deaf campaign from their in-house agency that attempted to jump into the speedway of culture through a Kendall Jenner spot that left the company in a tailspin of criticism that united the internet.