BRAND: According to the just-released 2016 Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report from Millward Brown the aggregate brand value of the component companies grew 132 percent over the past 11 years. And in the past year, the combined valuations of those brands jumped 3 percent to $3.4 trillion from $3.3 trillion. Topping the list of the top 10 most valuable luxury brands were Louis Vuitton at number one followed by Hermès and Gucci. The top 10 most valuable apparel brands had Nike at number one, which was followed by Zara and H&M.
BRAND: With in-house content creation teams popping up and new content creation startups setting up shop, the natural question is what role do media and PR agencies play? Presumably their staff is also being courted by these in-house teams and their services may be in flux as alternatives crop up. Agencies have decades of experience working with brands and according to Islam, “They are helping produce quality content as well as ensuring it gets in front of the right people.” While old-fashioned advertising pitches may decrease, Kroeker adds that “The value of an agency’s strategic guidance and execution bandwidth is more important than ever.”
ECOMMERCE: Online retailers Hayneedle, Wayfair, HelloFresh, and many more are using direct mail marketing to acquire new customers for their ecommerce operations. Direct mail may be a traditional, old-school way to market, but it can also be extremely effective. An omnichannel retailer located in the northwestern United States has been using shared direct mail for a few years. Shared direct mail is a subcategory of direct mail wherein advertisers gang coupons together in one envelope or circular to reduce postage costs. For a recent campaign, the company mailed 100,000 coupons to homeowners across two counties.
BRAND: Ralph Lauren's chief executive met with analysts today and laid out a closet full of details on the company's turnaround plan. One key: make the pony less ubiquitous. Ralph Lauren will close 50 or more stores and cut shipments to department stores. In a sense, the famous brand wants its brand back. If you shop at Macy's or Kohl's or JC Penny, please don't be offended. But there are people out there who think luxury brands like Ralph Lauren don't even belong in the same sentence as these department stores. Houman Salem, CEO of Argyle Company, fashion retail consultants, is one of them.
ECOMMERCE: Customers are the driving force behind keeping your business afloat. The first step in going in the right direction is to understand your customers’ needs. What is it that they’re looking for, and how can you adapt that into your own business approach? Centering your work to be business first may seem like a niche approach, but customers respond to brand authenticity. Remaining upfront about the value you place on your customers will drive them to your brand.
DATA: The company is offering advertisers short and long-term projects where Insiders participate in surveys. The former, which can be turned around as quickly as a few days, might include asking Insiders to evaluate a live campaign so agencies can fine tune it in real-time. Long-term projects can take four to six weeks to complete, are research intensive and might include how a new product or movie should launch its ad campaign.
DATA: If you are an independent app developer or publisher, you have probably known this for a while, because you have found it very difficult to get people to download your app — the average American smartphone user downloads zero apps per month. But now even the very biggest app publishers are seeing their growth slow down or stop altogether. Most people have all the apps they want and/or need. They're not looking for new ones. Last month, the top 15 app publishers saw downloads drop an average of 20 percent in the U.S., according to research from Nomura, which relies on data from app tracker SensorTower.
BRAND: Basketball has always been accommodative of celebrity culture — the small arena and the courtside seats make seeing and being seen one of the central perks of high-dollar tickets. In an earlier time, Jack Nicholson became a fixture at Lakers games, while the Knicks claimed Spike Lee and Woody Allen as all but official mascots. Now, in Oakland, the Golden State Warriors have … Eddy Cue. Who is Eddy Cue? He is Apple’s senior vice president for internet software and services — blame him for iTunes.
MEDIA: The projected growth online comes despite television executives’ efforts to claw advertising dollars back from Facebook and YouTube, positioning TV as a more reliable way for brands to reach the masses than the wild west of the internet. Last month at the so-called upfronts, the industry’s annual pitch to advertisers, Les Moonves, chief executive of CBS, declared that predictions that ad spending would move to digital were “obviously not happening” and that digital advertising “sometimes lacks accuracy and credibility”.
MEDIA: In his keynote, Thompson admitted that publishers and media companies have created much of the ad blocking problem themselves through the use of intrusive and annoying ads. But despite the newspaper’s successful paywall, the Times CEO said it will always rely on advertising. “We do not believe that we will ever be able to sustain Times journalism or The New York Times as a flourishing business without an advertising business of real scale,” he said.
BRAND: Last year, in the most significant shoe launch since the company was founded in 1908, Converse totally re-engineered its most popular shoe, the Chuck Taylor. With the help of Nike, which acquired the brand in 2003, designers used the latest in fabric and cushioning technology to make the sneaker more comfortable. But in a nifty sleight of hand, they didn't alter its exterior, so it retains its iconic look, even though it has an entirely new internal construction.
BRAND: According to the gift idea lists in Business Insider and The Huffington Post, I and millions of fathers like me are in desperate need of comfortable underwear, some sort of bygone-era hobby (brewing, barbering or surviving in the woods) and a drone of any kind. My hedonism should veer toward rare bourbon and cigars, while my whimsy should allow me to splurge on a vintage turntable, a bespoke suit or a statement watch.
