CMA Connect

Our guest on CMA Connect this week is Matt McGowan, Director and General Manager of Snap Inc. Canada, and an active member on the CMA’s ‘Media Council’. Matt joins John Wiltshire to dig into the topic of augmented reality (AR) in today’s media mix. * Journey from the early days of YouTube at Google to today’s vertical streaming, AR assisted landscape in Snap What mobile video was to streaming 12 years ago is what, in 2022, augmented reality is as “the new thing in advertising”. We’ve moved beyond ‘helmets’, to glasses, to interplay with augmented reality on smartphones. Matt talks about why Snapchat is a camera company: “when you open the app, you open a camera where we empower you to overlay augmented reality; to overlay computing on that world.” * Is AR mature enough for marketers to use in reaching their targeted clients? (4:38) “Yes! You can use augmented reality to entertain yourself, grow some bunny-rabbit ears or dog ears, but you can also use augmented reality to make purchases. Smart cameras with LiDAR sensors can sense depth, size, and so forth. Our Snap camera has something we call ‘Fit Tech’, which can size you. We've seen AR take off with apparel companies and retailers.” * Where does AR fit in the marketing mix? (8:46) “At Snap, we have a self-serve ads manager very much like our peers. You create an account, put in a credit card, and you're off to the races. You can upload your vertical video from other platforms, as well as your augmented reality. Outside of the ads manager, we also have software called ‘Lens Studio’ which is like a new version of Adobe Photoshop that is much easier to use for non-designers. If you drop a lens alongside your Snap ads, you’re likely to see 40% incremental reach. There’s a definite upside to using AR.” * ‘In 2025, will AR be baked into everything we do as marketers?' (16:03) “There's a lot of chat right now about augmented reality versus virtual reality. We truly believe that layering computing on the world in front of you, or ‘augmenting reality’ is the right approach. In 1998, cell phones had just started to hit the market. That phone has evolved so much over the decades. I firmly believe that evolution isn't going to stop all of a sudden.” Tune into this episode of ‘CMA Connect’ for the full conversation between Matt McGowan and John Wiltshire.

Our guests on CMA Connect this week are an accomplished marketing duo: Scott Megginson, President of Kantar, Canada and Peter Rodriguez, CMO and Founder of Brand Igniter. We chat about all things partnerships. * The relationship with a relaxed conversation The riveting story of how Scott and Peter met over throat lozenges and went on to form a partnership between insights and brand management. And how many great partnerships like this one start with three things: a true respect for the areas of expertise each partner brings, the ability to build on each other's strengths, and a good challenge that helps align the organization. * How can marketers foster powerful partnerships that would benefit brands? Scott Megginson talks about how excellent partnership templates exist in a number of sectors, particularly ones that really invest in consumer insights. This includes sectors like technology and financial services. * The challenges of globalization and regionalization “There is a big push to standardize things and centralize. Let's say, out of the US and then go from there, as opposed to finding success wherever in the world, and then testing that success outside of that market to expand it. The strategy that Scott and I put together grew a category that no one thought could grow anymore, because of the way it was measured. It had 70% market share; how are you going to grow that? Well, only if you break all of those patterns around it, and stop thinking in a way that is limiting” - Peter Rodriguez * The paradox of cost-cutting measures Why cost-cutting (like advertising cuts) may mean a brand is cashing in permanently on brand equity, which may have been built over many years. Scott talks about how this may be a reason we see “many commoditized brands in the market now, not brands who could really demand a huge premium, because we've really gone beyond the point of no return with the cutbacks that we've made.” Tune into this episode of ‘CMA Connect’ for the full conversation between Scott Megginson, Peter Rodriguez, and John Wiltshire.

Today's guest on ‘CMA Connect’ is Karen Zuccala, Head of Brand Strategy for Google. Our host John Wiltshire, and Karen, take an in-depth look at connected TV, and how it's impacting media investments. * Why should marketers consider Connected TV? “Connected TV enables brands to have the best of both worlds: The big screen impact of TV, but with the precision and control of digital. And YouTube really brings together the power of reach, relevance and the world’s most connected ad ecosystem.” * The importance of meeting your audiences where they are. For marketers, Karens says it comes down to really knowing where your audience is, and where they are spending their time. It doesn't have to be either YouTube or traditional broadcast. Brands need to consciously consider the right media mix that mirrors where their target audiences are engaging. * How can marketers keep up to rapidly changing consumer experience expectations? “It’s fair to say that for over 60 years, nothing has really changed in the world of media. I love to think about the analogy of what's happened to the evolution of the phone. It started with the rotary phone, and then it moved to the cordless phone, and then came the cell phone, and now the smartphone that we use today. I think what we're going through right now in this revolution of the TV screen is really the same journey the phone once took.” * What metrics are relevant? “The metrics we use to measure connected TV are actually very similar to what we use to measure any type of video campaign. Views, unique users reached, frequency, and brand lift. We know that ad over exposure and frequency is an issue on broadcast. With connected TV, we're able to effectively manage ad frequency across a brand's target audience, which brings in a whole new level of efficiency to advertising.” Tune into this episode of ‘CMA Connect’ for the full conversation between Karen Zuccala and John Wiltshire.

Today, on CMA Connect, we bring you Vice President of Walmart Connect Canada Dana Toering. Dana specializes in the world of data in marketing, having worked with brands like Adobe, AOL Canada, Accenture Interactive, and fun fact: Kanye West. John and Dana dig into a case study of Walmart Connect, with some of the strategies and thinking behind the program. “I always talk about this sort of virtuous flywheel of investment that retail media provides partners, in the sense that, we work with the vendors that sell products on the shelves at Walmart, they invest their dollars with us, and we try through our solutions and channels to leverage our first party data to drive great ROI” * Partnership and collaboration channels in retail “Since the mid 70s, retailers have been working with merchants, vendors and suppliers, to provide them opportunities to connect with customers, in their stores, in the form of advertising in the form of trade investment, and this (Walmart Connect) is a natural evolution of that for the age of connectivity.” * What's the quid pro quo for consumers to actually share their data with retailers? “I think the key is how we use the mountain of purchase level data we have that is both ecommerce driven, as well as from retail locations. We understand what consumers are buying, when they're buying it, what their basket composition looks like. As we start to create a view of this customer our goal is not to hound them around the internet with ads; our goal is to make their experience better, and provide them offers on behalf of brands, in those moments.” * Retail trends - what Dana sees coming in the next few years that will bring together the online and offline world “I think you're going to see a lot more digital signage in stores. Customers tend to wait a little bit, either they're waiting for the butcher to cut their meat, or their prescription. So there's an opportunity there to create a content experience, and then feather in ads.” For all of this and more about the opportunities and the obstacles that marketers face around the collection and use of consumer data, tune into this episode of CMA Connect.

Today, on CMA Connect, we bring you highlights from last year’s CMAb2b panel. This roundtable was held one year into the pandemic. Almost exactly a year ago. Listen in on how businesses shifted their focus. The panel includes our moderator and guest host for the day, Jeff Lancaster from LinkedIn. He is joined by Linda Hazzan, Director of Communications and CMO of the Toronto Public Library, and Andrew Au, President of Intercept Group, a digital marketing agency. Here’s some of what they dig into: Constantly changing challenges offer massive disruption and non-traditional partnership opportunities (5:31) “The Toronto Public Library is the biggest and busiest library in North America, with 100 branches that 75% of our staff work out of. One thing that’s been an impact for us from a marketing and communications perspective is a narrowing of communication channels. We’ve shifted to completely digital and a lot of our customers aren't comfortable on digital channels. We did not have sufficient tools and mechanisms or even practices to be communicating with each other that way. The other is the development of several non traditional partnerships. We partnered with food banks and turned our closed branches into community food banks, with our staff providing support. We also developed partnerships to distribute internet connectivity kits.” - Linda Hazzan The rise of consumer-centric, marketing-led business (9:43) “Intercept is a b2b agency. We focus on the global tech industry. One thing we observed is that improving customer experiences has been key. If you want to be customer centric, you've got to be marketing-led, and I think for the first time we saw marketing step up and really take charge.” - Andrew Au Finding standard organizational definitions for ‘digitization’ (15:07) What does it mean for a whole organization to understand going fully ‘digital’? Everybody has their own interpretation of what that means. Clear definitions and understanding are key for public organizations in particular, says Linda Hazzan. A greater understanding of advanced technologies within mainstream operations (21:21) Jeff Lancaster talks about developments at LinkedIn, “We're building some products - like conversation ads, in which we're starting to introduce AI and chatbot technology to offer a better experience.” For the full conversation, listen to the episode.