112: Pride or pandering? 120M left out of ads, future of ABM, your biggest B2B competition + brand safety
Happy Summer? It's in the 60s right now in Boston.
At least it's Friday:
In this special Friday summer solstice edition of The World's Best Newsletter:
1. Pride or pandering?
2. Up To 120 Million People In The U.S. Do Not See Themselves Portrayed In Ads
3. On Martech, ABM, and big glass boxes - my conversation with Sydney Mulligan
4. Five marketing videos that defeated buyer apathy
5. Your biggest competition in B2B (and book recommendation)
6. Brand Safety - What to Do in the Era of Sleeping Giants
7. Quote of the week
Let's do it!
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1. Pride or pandering?
It's pride month! And that means we are neck-deep in rainbow'd logos, LGBTQ employees and allies marching in pride parades, and lots of brand activations featuring, you guessed it, rainbows.
This is rainbow-washing, and in a time when it's really still not very fun to be LGBTQ at many organizations, it amounts to nothing more than rainbow-pandering.
I wrote a new piece on this that I'd LOVE for you to read and share. It's been described today as:
"The definitive text on pride marketing" (thanks Derek!)
"The real story on pride marketing" (thanks Nandini!)
"An opus on how brands too often merely pander to the growing popularity of the pride movement" (thanks Kate!)
And, because I believe in naming the enemy.... you'll meet Pandering Panda:
Read the full piece here, and thank you in advance for sharing what I feel is an important message for every consumer, every employee (whether part of the community or an ally) and every marketer to read.
2. Up To 120 Million People In The U.S. Do Not See Themselves Portrayed In Ads
On a related note, new research from Adobe was released in concert with the 25th anniversary of the first digital ad and Cannes 2019. Its headline is poignant: "Despite 25 Years Of Ad Growth, Diversity Remains A Challenge."
It found that 61% of Americans find diversity in advertising to be important, with 38% of consumers saying they are more likely to trust brands that show more diversity in their ads.
But, up to 120M people in the US do not see themselves portrayed in ads -- namely African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino/Hispanic Americans, who make up nearly 37% of the population.
3. On Martech, ABM, and big glass boxes - my conversation with Sydney Mulligan
At the recent Adobe Summit, I sat down with Etumos consultant and Marketo Fearless 50 member, Sydney Mulligan about what's to happen post-acquisition of Marketo, and what's ahead for B2B marketing.
Watch it here:
Yes we are in a giant glass box on a trade show floor and it is weird. I loved it.
4. 5 marketing videos that defeated buyer apathy
I wrote a piece for Brightcove after my recent talk at PLAY 2019, featuring examples of great marketing videos and why they served to nudge buyers from I-don't-give-a-damn (apathy) to action. Read it here!
5. Your biggest competition in B2B (and book recommendation)
Last week, April Dunford and I both spoke at Conquer Local. I was laughing and nodding vigorously like some kind of caffeinated human bobblehead through her entire talk. It was that good.
She spoke about B2B positioning with clarity and humility, including this truth:
"In B2B your biggest competition is likely cheap intern labor."
Let's be honest, she's not wrong. Why buy tech when you can get a bunch of interns to do it?
I kid, but as a perk of the event we all left with a copy of April's NEW book which I am promoting here through no solicitation on her part (not even sure she subscribes. She will have to now that I am hyping her:)
Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning So Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It.
You're welcome. It's great.
I should say it's awesome.
Obviously.
6. Brand Safety - What to Do in the Era of Sleeping Giants
Cannes Lion-winning (!!!!!!!!) Sleeping Giants is now an award-winning "campaign to defund bigotry."
It provides a way for consumers to call out brands accidentally (or intentionally) using marketing dollars to fund hateful sites and individuals.
For example, HR recruitment software company Workable learned through a Sleeping Giants tweet that its ad was sitting above this Breitbart headline: "There's No Hiring Bias Against Women in Tech, They Just Suck At Interviews."
One of its wizards-behind-the-curtain, Nandini, wrote a great piece for MarketingProfs aimed at helping companies navigate the new rules of brand safety in 2019. She identifies five areas to focus:
1. Acceptable-use policies
2. Clients and client projects
3. Partnerships
4. Investments
5. Political campaign contributions
Good advice for all of us to be aware of, congratulations Nandini and Matt, and thanks for all you do!
7. Quote of the week
"If we collect customer data it's our responsibility to use it to enhance their experience."
- Linda Schumacher of Qualified Digital
via Jaqi Saleem on Twitter
Have a stellar weekend, and thanks, as always, for reading.
Best,
Katie
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