Creating attention-grabbing ads is a basic principle of advertising. When marketers spend large amounts of money on advertising campaigns, they do so in hopes of capturing consumers' attention and steering the brand in a direction that will benefit the brand. But what happens when that provocative campaign has the opposite effect than intended?
On Monday, dating app Bumble became the latest marketer to quickly pull its latest advertising campaign after online backlash surfaced. The company rolled out signs telling consumers that “a vow of celibacy is not the answer,” a message likely aimed at making some women think twice about dating despite their difficult love life. It seems that it was The message, reportedly created by an internal team, was seen as tone-deaf by some consumers who made it clear to the app through comments on their Instagram accounts and elsewhere that they were not interested in the campaign. long shot.
Bumble isn't the only company to overcome recent marketing missteps. Last Thursday, Apple apologized for its latest iPad ad, “Crush.” The ad was released just two days ago and was immediately met with a wave of backlash. The ad literally features a giant industrial shredder that crushes items associated with creative endeavors, such as trumpets, pianos, and paints, with an iPad shown as a kind of stand-in for many of those items. I was there. The ad, which was also created by Apple's in-house agency, appears to suggest that the tech giant's ads are looking for creative work at Apple, especially in light of the looming AI threat. It struck a nerve with the creative community.
Apple's decision to pull the ad came as a surprise to many in the marketing community. “I think this speaks to the nature of social media in general. [responses] Bas Korsten, Global Chief Creative Officer for Innovation at VML, said: “A small tweet can bring big companies to their knees. That's a sign of the times.”
Of course, Apple and Bumble's response isn't happening in a vacuum. Marketers are well aware that once a true brand boycott begins, it can have long-term negative financial and brand reputational consequences. Last year's Bud Light story is just one example. This may be why even big marketers like Apple reacted quickly to turn the tide before the wave became unsurfable.
Marketers have been generally conservative in their efforts over the past year, distancing themselves from issues that could prompt boycotts. (Case in point: Target is shrinking its Pride footprint this year after last year's backlash, when it was one of the few marketers to face backlash from conservative groups seeking support for LGBTQ+.) It is unclear whether advertising and marketing decisions are based on this. But they are spending more time preparing for a possible boycott.
“Large companies are always conservative,” says Allen Adamson, brand consultant and co-founder of brand consultancy MetaForce, and for marketers, being overly cautious means being invisible or unnoticed. He added that it could be a risk because there is a possibility of consumer. “At some point, it doesn't offend anyone, but no one notices and no one cares.”
Still, Adamson added that marketers should “stay away from highly polarizing issues,” but be prepared to stand up for their position and “approach it with eyes open” if they do. .
At the same time, marketers are grappling with demands to do more with less, faster and more efficiently. Gartner's 2024 CMO Expenditure Survey, conducted by Gartner among 395 CMOs worldwide, found that marketing budgets currently account for only 7.7% of companies' 2024 revenue, and 2023. This is a decrease from 9.1% in 2017. The study also found that overall marketing budgets are down 15% year over year. 64% of CMOs believe they don't have the budget they need to execute their marketing plans for the year.
“Throughout the campaign development process, there was plenty of strategy and thoughtfulness, and a system of checks and balances to ensure that anything potentially controversial was flagged and discussed before it was actually published. “There is a general assumption that you want to make sure that your brand is in the right place,” wrote Chief Brand Officer Michael Miraflor. Hannah Gray, an early-stage venture capital firm, added in an email that this expectation makes sense when brands are spending a lot of money on advertising on campaigns. However, “Budgets are tight and marketing teams are being cut, but the pressure to run and ship campaigns remains.” In reality, it's easy to see how these checks and balances aren't working.
Even if such pressure existed, Miraflor said, it was “not a valid excuse…It's a matter of internal process as well as cultural perception.”
And marketers sometimes view consumer groups as “monolithic,” explained Alejandra Salazar, CEO of Cloing, a creative social agency with expertise in marketing to Hispanics and U.S. Hispanics. Marketers may believe that “Gen Z is all the same,” or that “Hispanics are all the same, but not a monolith,” Salazar said. That mindset can lead to issues where brands are speaking to their audience as if they have a single point of view, which can ultimately lead to potential backlash issues.
As marketers navigate the murky waters of trying to create something that grabs consumers' attention but doesn't offend them, there will likely be more waves along the way.
“Today's audiences don't buy if they're not interested, and that's only going to increase,” Salazar said, adding that marketers may now be more responsive to consumer feedback. He added that he doesn't, but that he does it because he has to. “If they don't care, people will react.”
3 Questions for Randi Stipes, CMO of The Weather Company
How is The Weather Company leveraging AI internally?
Now, using AI, we can combine that weather data with other signals, such as sales and marketing data, to understand purchasing patterns, what drives people's daily decisions, and what drives companies' decisions. You can learn a lot about consumer behavior, including what is happening. In summary, we use this not only to drive the most accurate forecasts, but also to extract consumer insights and how consumers behave in different weather conditions to put the dots in perspective. We connect directly and help brands leverage those insights.
Natural disasters are occurring more regularly. How does that impact The Weather Company from a brand message perspective?
Our company has a history of over 40 years. And while certainly our business, our society, and certainly our climate have changed, our mission remains steadfast. We are a mission-based company…our mission to inspire confidence remains steadfast. It's in people, it's in business. How can we re-instill confidence in people to drive decision-making, especially in this crazy and volatile climate?
What is the biggest challenge facing marketers today?
I have to talk about cookies. I'd like to come up with something more original than that, but I'll have to start there. Because just like our physical climate, the advertising ecosystem faces crazy, accelerating winds of change. It's been a while since this happened. Retiring third-party cookies will hit some organizations harder than others. We know that zero-party data and first-party data play the most important role and that goes back to trust. That's the only way we can succeed as marketers. [the only way that] As publishers, finding ways to foster trust, reciprocity, and loyalty with our readers is critical to our success. — Kimeko McCoy
In terms of numbers
Influencer marketing is a rapidly growing industry, expected to generate $5 trillion in revenue by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs. It is therefore no surprise that advertisers are willing to put money into deals with influencers, their marketing campaigns and their content creators. Influencers also play a key role in driving people's purchasing decisions, according to new research from social media management platform Sprout Social. See the report's key data points below.
- 49% Percentage of all consumers who purchase daily, weekly, or monthly due to influencer posts 30% I trust influencers more now than I did just six months ago.
- 87% A higher percentage of Gen Z consumers are willing to buy from brands that partner with influencers beyond social media content.
- 64% of consumers are most likely to engage with authentic and unbiased influencer reviews. 55% People are more likely to seek out influencer content if they have access to discount and promo codes. — Kimeko McCoy
This week's quote
“The Olympic Village will become a content farm.”
— Joe Weston, Head of Sports at influencer and social agency We Are Social, asked about influencer marketing strategies for this year's Summer Olympics..
