Mediaboss Marketing

Jul 16, 2021

In the initial public offering prospectus for Authentic Brands Group (ABG), Jamie Salter, founder and CEO, describes how he came up with his companys licensing platform that deconstructs and reconstructs the traditional brand building model.

I came to realize that most brands were structured for a different erabefore the speed of digital and the complexity of global; antiquated, and ultimately difficult to retool as the market and the consumer evolves, wrote Mr. Salter in a letter to shareholders. Being best-in-class in every competency at every step of the value chain is an impossible task for most teams, but thats what defines success in the traditional model.

Mr. Salter, who previously spearheaded the formation of Hilco Consumer Capital, describes his company as brand owners, curators and guardians. The platform combines the operational and financial benefits of a traditional brand licensor with the brand development, marketing and long-term value approach employed by successful brand owners.

Under the model, ABG retains brand ownership and approval rights over marketing strategies, product development and use of data. Licensee partners bear the capital, manufacturing, inventory, markdowns and distribution responsibilities.

We are a licensing business and are purely focused on brand identity and marketing, Mr. Salter said. This unique approach allows us to:

One area of investment has been digital, where ABGs marketing capabilities serve as the basis for brand development.

ABG has completed over 30 acquisitions since being founded in 2010 including partnering with Simon Property Group and others to acquire stakes in Forever 21, Aropostale, Lucky Brand, Barneys, Brooks Brothers and Eddie Bauer. It has a 17 percent stake in J.C. Penney.

The company said it signs a core licensee partner agreement before an acquisition is executed, in most cases, significantly de-risking the successful execution of the intended strategy and providing upfront visibility into the future revenue, profit and growth potential of acquired brands.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Does Authentic Brands Groups licensing model better set up brands to pursue digital and global growth than traditional models? How would you rate the models pros and cons for acquired brands and retailers?

"An aggressive strategy, indeed. But in reality, it needs the weight of time to determine success as none of the brands in the portfolio are that unique."

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Has Authentic Brands Group created a new brand-building model? RetailWire - RetailWire

Reactive social media tactics have created some of the most memorable online moments of the past few years. The Drums social media executive Amy Houston speaks to Laura Perry, head of creative operations at creative communications agency Tangerine, to find out whether this approach still packs a punch.

At its core, reactive social marketing is when a brand responds to trends, news stories, pop culture or major events, providing a chance to be creative and engaging in a meaningful or humorous way.

Building a strong presence online is an integral part of this strategy and cant be achieved overnight. Having a solid plan in place and the infrastructure to publish responsive content will ensure comms wont feel hollow. So which companies are doing this particularly well?

As a specialist creative comms agency, Tangerine has successfully elevated the Specsavers identity online, establishing a recognizable tone of voice and fostering a burgeoning social presence. To get better insight into this I speak to Laura Perry, who heads up its creative operations, to get her thoughts on brands that are killing this tactic. There is no doubt about it, there are some brands that do reactive social incredibly well and have helped set a precedent for other brands. She cites Paddy Power, Netflix, Greggs and KFC as brands that have strong identities they are confident, consistent and relentless, they dont lose the momentum, get scared, or switch off from reactive social.

Perry also states that the supermarket brandter deserves a noteworthy mention. We all witnessed the conversation play out between Aldi and M&S over their respective caterpillar birthday cakes, and the subsequent #FreeCuthbert movement.

However, its worth noting that social media users can more often than not see through the click for likes mentality, and simply tagging brands for the sake of it will not work. Always keep the brand values top of mind and have conviction in your approach. Dont jump on every and any bandwagon assess what your community wants and give them what they need.

Creating a personal relationship with your audience is one of the many benefits of reactive marketing, but are there any downfalls? Everyones a critic, and everyone will openly have an opinion about the content posted, Perry tells me, but stresses that you cant let one, two, (sometimes more) negative comments outshine the positive aspects of creative reactive and to stay strong and aligned with the strategy.

This is when a strong, trusted relationship with the client and alignment on brand strategy becomes imperative. Reactive social sometimes means posting without sign-off from the client. This tactic requires trust. I ask Perry how Tangerine maintains those relationships. Working with [brands] as an extension of their team, rather than a separate entity, has taken time and dedication. Weve built and refined strong tone-of-voice guidance and a clear brand personality directly with them, to the point where we have their trust and therefore autonomy (to a certain extent) on what were able to post.

Demonstrating the value of reactive marketing through regular reporting to clients and communication is key to elevating the brand-client trust. Perry tells me that at Tangerine there are times they need to flag an idea thats a bit borderline, and to solve this they have worked with clients to set up WhatsApp groups for out-of-hours reactive opportunities for those too-good-to-miss opportunities.

Inevitably Covid-19 restrictions have affected how we communicate online and social media users are looking for different sources of entertainment, which has provided brands new opportunities to be creative. People want to be removed from the pandemic, not reminded of it, Perry tells me.

Having an always-on approach to social media is so beneficial, but its important to remember the real people behind teams. On this subject, Perry says: As an agency, we need to be reactive all day and all evening, but we have worked hard on making sure that delivering great work doesnt come at the expense of individuals wellbeing.

Social media moves so quickly that sometimes switching off seems almost impossible, but its so important that agencies get this balance right. Its something that Tangerine is constantly working on. After this last year, it has never been more important, Perry concludes.

Being reactive on social media provides a huge opportunity for brands to show relevancy and organically build a strong online presence. Striking the balance of proactive and reactive communication is key for brands in the fast-paced online space.

What are your thoughts on reactive social media? Join in the conversation on Twitter using #TheDrumSocial

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Reactive social media: a conversation with the agency behind hilarious Specsavers tweets - The Drum

Major educational institutions in the U.S. and Canada use Wishpond's solutions on Stukent's digital courseware platform.

VANCOUVER, BC, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Wishpond Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: WISH) (OTCQX: WPNDF) ("Wishpond" or the "Company"), a provider of marketing-focused online business solutions, is pleased to announce a partnership with Stukent, Inc. ("Stukent"), a digital courseware provider, to introduce new real-world digital marketing and social media assignments with Wishpond's technology on Stukent's platform.

Since 2017, thousands of students have used Wishpond technology on Stukent's platform gaining valuable experience in how to perform foundational digital marketing and social media tactics to grow a business. Major education institutions that have consistently used Wishpond on Stukent include Dartmouth College, The Ohio State University, University of Florida, Gonzaga, BCIT, Frostburg University, and others.

"Today's students that are taking marketing courses have the potential to be catalysts for growth during a time of significant economic recovery," said Stuart Draper, CEO of Stukent. "We are excited about pairing our innovative platform with Wishpond's industry-leading technology and expertise to support these future business leaders."

To mark the partnership announcement Wishpond is adding new Email Marketing Automation coursework to the existing curriculum which includes Digital Marketing Essentials and Social Media Management textbooks.

"My students are really impressed with the design and functions of Wishpond, and I would love to see more students learning with this type of hands-on experience," said Dr. Lilly Ye, Associate Professor of Marketing at Frostburg University.

For higher education institutions interested in leveraging Wishpond on Stukent, visit, https://www.stukent.com/higher-ed/.

On Behalf of the Board

"Ali Tajskandar"Chairman and CEO

About Wishpond Technologies Ltd.

Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Wishpond is a provider of marketing-focused online business solutions. Wishpond's vision is to become the leading provider of digital marketing solutions that empower entrepreneurs to achieve success online. The Company offers an "all-in-one" marketing suite that provides companies with marketing, promotion, lead generation, and sales conversion capabilities from one integrated platform. Wishpond replaces entire marketing functions in an easy-to-use product, for a fraction of the cost. Wishpond serves over 3,000 customers who are primarily small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) in a wide variety of industries. The Company has developed cutting-edge marketing technology solutions and continues to add new features and applications with great velocity. The Company employs a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model where substantially all the Company's revenue is subscription-based recurring revenue which provides excellent revenue predictability and cash flow visibility. Wishpond is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker "WISH" and on the OTCQX Venture Market under the ticker "WPNDF". For further information, visit: http://www.wishpond.com.

About Stukent, Inc.

Stukent, Inc. provides digital courseware and simulation for high schools and higher education while fulfilling its mission to help educators help students help the world. Stukent products, which are used by over 5,000 instructors in over 50 countries, include first-in-the-world simulations, continuously updated digital courseware and expert mentoring sessions by industry professionals.

Forward Looking Disclaimer

Statements that are not reported financial results or other historical information are forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding the Company, its subsidiaries and the industries in which they operate, including statements about, among other things, expectations, beliefs, plans, future operations, origination of additional targets in which the Company may hold an interest and acquisition opportunities for the Company, business and acquisition strategies, opportunities, objectives, prospects, assumptions, including those related to trends and prospects, and future events and performance. Sentences and phrases containing or modified by words such as "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "intend", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "predict", "potential", "targets", "projects", "is designed to", "strategy", "should", "believe", "contemplate" and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions, are not historical facts and are intended to identify forward-looking statements.Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking statements has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control, including, but not limited to, the risk factors discussed in the continuous disclosure materials of the Company which are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Wishpond Technologies Ltd.

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Wishpond and Stukent Partner to Bring Digital Marketing and Social Media Expertise to Colleges and Universities - PRNewswire

A decision to ramp up social media management has given the Gold Coast Titans the means to improve content and community processes, stakeholder reporting and marketing team efficiencies as well as build that all-important fan base.

Gold Coast Titans head of marketing, Dean Madders, said social media channels when he joined the NRL team 12 months ago were used to publish content but in an adhoc fashion, leading to inefficiencies. The youngest NRL club was also sitting at the bottom of the ladder in terms of audience size in social media and keen to improve its ranking.

It was clear we could bring more strategic planning and analytics to social media to improve those numbers, Madders told CMO.

As Madders pointed out, the Gold Coast Titans are a brand but also represent a passion point for people who love NRL. You only have to read the comments to see how passionate people are about the game and teams, he commented.

An organic social media and digital presence therefore plays a significant role in the communications strategy and in engaging consumers in an emotive way. There is a role for coverage in paid, but we need those softer points to drive that, Madders said.

But with each individual channel managed organically, it was time to invest in a centralised platform and change the approach. Over the 2020 offseason and ahead of the 2021 season, the Gold Coast Titans implemented Hootsuite as its social media management platform over a three-month period.

The business case centred around better allocation of marketing team resourcing, creating and refining community management processes and more robust reporting up to key stakeholders including both sponsorship partners and the board.

Every time you bring in something new and its an expense, there is a question as to what its going to do. So being able to appropriately show the business case of what the results would be for our team plus the efficiency improvements for staff was key, Madders explained.

Every sporting team runs lean, which means you wear many hats. Time savings are a major benefit to gain. Key things in our case were gaining efficiencies We also have a number of sponsors and partners, so being able to deliver and track appropriate is important.

Another nice benefit is managing staff time and being able to plan content over weekends and holidays so staff can get a break.

The first step was agreeing everything would be done through one central point. As we have gone along, we have become better at utilising the reporting, but there is further growth there, Madders said.

The clubs set-up also saw marketing work with the membership team to set up flags so that when key terms such as membership or ticketing crop up, queries can be sent to the right people internally and answered promptly.

Then theres the content piece. Madders said a unified platform approach is enabling the club to have more strategic conversations internally around content resonating with audiences, whats driving the best commercial return, as well as how to prioritise content across channels.

Social is not always the answer, sometimes its the ability to say no, and being able to back that up, showing this is why its not quite right for this audience, but then saying how do we find a solution that meets your objectives, Madders said.

A recent example of highly impactful content was around Gold Coast Titans foundation player, Preston Campbell, a popular sportsman on and off the field. With his son, Jayden Campbells NRL debut in June, Madders and his team were able to track the journey to his first game through content, optimising social posts based on what was resonating.

That delivery of content ticked many boxes for us across the business, from a positioning point of view of being a local team, to establishing us in the Gold Coast as were still in our infancy, and engagement. We saw real success off the back of that, Madders said.

Multimedia pieces highlighting engagement with local fans as well as tongue-in-cheek insights on player tactics and relationships have also been strong performers socially, such as those with fan-favourite, Jamal Fogarty Mockumentary, and the Micd Up Instagram post.

Being able to show what this [social] does and why its important is important its not just a case of throwing something in the mix and hoping for success, Madders said.

In terms of metrics, engagement is the overarching measure of success for the Gold Coast Titans social strategy. Its social following has grown month-on-month and the club now sits third behind last years two grand final teams.

We know we need to grow our audience base. Were now 14th so were up a couple of rungs and were progressing at a strong rate. We need audience to foster connection, Madders said. Then its about converting those metrics into more engagement. That ties into achieving faster growth.

Delivering value back to commercial partners is another win, giving the sponsorship team hard data on audience reach.

In a lot of cases, these sponsors are using their partnership for brand reach and association as a primary objective. Were giving them a platform to deliver back on those audiences and provide feedback on what we have managed to deliver, Madders said.

Messaging is another potential area of development. We try and respond where we can to give personality to the brand or where we can facilitate an answer on a practical question, Madders said. We are using social to drive that conversion as it is a lead mechanism for us as well.

With a project to refresh the Gold Coast Titans brand and positioning rolling out over the upcoming off-season, Madders said the team will look to again harness social channels to reflect the change in tone, look and feel.

If we can give our players personality, show who they are and help members and potential members to engage, then were taking big steps forward, he added.

Check out more of our social media case studies:

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The social strategy driving the Gold Coast Titans fanbase - CMO

Theres a video on YouTube I keep coming back to, even though I absolutely hate it. Its a 46-minute mix of songs titled Lofi glug glug mix beats to drive/study to. The buzzy, mostly wordless electronic tracks are set to an animation of an anime girl driving a car with a cheerful Shiba Inu hanging its tongue out the window. Its a lot like other lo-fi mix compilations on YouTube, except in this one, theres a tiny red car with a Conoco logo on the anime girls dashboard. Thats not an accident: The video was produced not by a random YouTube DJ, but by the official account of Conoco, a giant chain of gas stations owned by Phillips 66. (The glug glug in the title apparently refers to the sound of gas being pumped into a car.)

No joke this actually isnt too bad as late night cruising music, the top comment reads. Mad props to Conoco on this one as this is .

I really, really hate that I agree.

Most oil and gas companies seem to struggle with how to present themselves on social media, isolating their brand presence to strictly photos of refineries on Instagram or making cringy statements about Pride on Twitter. Some have started dipping a toe into Instagram influencer marketing; an Earther investigation last month revealed that Shell has worked extensively with Instagram influencers, most recently on a campaign to promote a carbon offsets scheme for their gas. (Phillips 66 also worked with influencers on an Instagram campaign.)

But Conoco stands out from its competitors: Its social channels are filled with content theyve created thats actually interesting, mostly because it has absolutely nothing to do with gasoline. In one Instagram story, a makeup artist paints their face and chest to resemble a mountain scene, complete with gondola; theres a short that starts off with a man whose body is a cat tree; theres a whole series called Conococooks, which features recipes with illustrations for foods like Thrilled Cheese and Hamburgizzadog. The whole thing is well-designed and a little disorienting, meaning I spent a lot of time on their account just looking at posts (which, I suppose, is the goal of a social media campaign). The vibe is somewhat reminiscent of Brand Twitter, the ever-growing ecosystem of companies who attempt (sometimes too far) to assert a personalitythink of how the Steak-Umms account keeps picking fights with Neil DeGrasse Tysonbut with a remove that makes it not too annoying.

Reaching a younger, Very Online crowd, it seems, is Conocos whole goal here. Most of Conocos social content appears to have been produced by Carmichael Lynch, an ad agency based out of Minneapolis. (Carmichael Lynch also ran the Phillips 66 campaign where it tapped Instagram influencers.) In a case study posted on their website, the agency sheds a lot of light on the goal of all this strange posting from a gasoline brand.

G/O Media may get a commission

Conoco wanted to reach 18-24-year-olds, a hard-to-engage audience, the case study begins. Skeptical of marketing and unlikely to interact with brands, they sit, text, curate and retweet in an endless stream of #content.

Surveys have found that around 70% of this age group also experience eco-anxiety due to the climate change caused by the product Conoco is trying to sell them. But, of course, that wouldnt make for a very good brand campaign. (Carmichael Lynch didnt answer questions as to whether young peoples concerns about climate change were part of their conversations with Conoco.)

The result of the analysis is a campaign called Choose Go, which, the case study describes, is a social-first campaign that changed the rules of social engagement by understanding the audiences perceptions of brands. Instead of forcing advertising-like objects on them, we built content around their interests. AdWeek wrote a glowing review of the glug glug lofi mix video, and per the case study, the campaign generated millions of impressions on social media.

This strategy of increasing brand loyalty while not focusing on the actual product was pioneered by another oil giant. In the 1970s, Exxon sponsored several episodes of the PBS program Masterpiece Theater in one of the earliest examples of a company associating itself with a cultural touchstone to boost brand loyalty. This strategy can be really successfulwhich isnt great news for the climate.

This is why ad agencies are so dangerous: they can take a boring fossil fuel company and turn them into your hip best friend, Jamie Henn, the director of Fossil Free Media, which runs a campaign called Clean Creatives dedicated to pressuring ad and PR agencies to quit working with fossil fuel companies, said over Twitter DM. Who cares if ConocoPhillips is blocking climate legislation if theyre sharing dope playlists and funny animations, right? Im sure the team at CarmichaelLynch had a good time working this account, but creativity has consequences. Shilling for Big Oil is an act of climate denial no matter how cool it looks.

There could be limits to how far this dont-focus-on-the-oil-and-look-how-funny-we-are approach can go with other oil and gas companies. Im not sure if high-profile brands like Exxon will be able to appeal to Gen Z since its name is associated with lying about climate change for decades. Other Big Oil companies like Chevron, BP, and Shell have had a more intense and unforgiving spotlight put on them for their role in delaying climate action.

One of the reasons this particular strategy seems to have been able to succeed here is that Conoco hasnt come under the same scrutiny, perhaps because it only sells gas. But it does have a dirty history: ConocoPhillips, its predecessor company, produces about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. In 2012, ConocoPhillips, then the third-biggest oil company in the country, split its oil-and-gas producing arm from its oil-and-gas selling arm; the resulting companies are ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66, which owns Conoco.

Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips have done quite well since then: They are currently the fifth-largest and third-largest oil and gas companies by market share in the U.S. And at the end of the day, selling all that oil is what these kinds of campaigns are for.

Conoco sold 40 million more gallons of gas in the campaigns first five months compared to the year prior, Carmichael Lynch concludes their case study proudly. Lets hope none of the other oil companies figure out how to replicate this success.

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I Hate That Conoco Is So Good at Social Media - Gizmodo