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Concluding the three part prediction series, I turn to Will Smith, Brown Shoe Company’s Chief Marketing Officer, to get his thoughts on what 2014 holds for the retail industry.

2014 Predictions within the Retail Industry and How They Have the Potential to Affect Marketing and Advertising, with Brown Shoe Company’s Chief Marketing Officer, Will…

Continuing with predictions on what the rest of 2014 will hold, I turn to Jon Podany, Chief Marketing Officer for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), to get his thoughts.

The Way The Industry Sees It

2014 Predictions within the Sports Industry and How They Have the Potential to Affect Marketing and Advertising, with LPGA’s…

It sure didn’t take long for 2014 to shift into high gear.

Little more than two weeks into the New Year, we’re already knee deep in stories with big implications for marketers in the retail sector (charged anything at Target lately?), sports marketing (the ruling on Alex Rodriguez’s suspension for the 2014 season), and the…

It seems youth marketing has always been a hot topic in the advertising world. As young people move from the “discovery” phase of their tween years to the “experimental phase” of young adulthood, they shift from being motivators of their parents’ buying habits to influential consumers in their own right. But today that demographic is extremely important. Not only are today’s young people the first true digital natives and harbingers of how digital media will influence how we all interact with brands, but also, as baby boomers age and their $400 billion in annual consumption slows, retail, food, and entertainment companies are counting on millennials to fill the gap.

One marketer that has been particularly successful in tapping the youth market is Erin Yogasundram, the twenty-one year old founder of Shop Jeen, an online boutique that sells everything from dollar packs of Ouija gum to $530 filigree sunglasses. Yogasundram launched Shop Jeen in March of 2012, while she was a junior at George Washington University (GWU). She started out with posting cell phone photos of new products to Instagram and filling orders out of her dorm room. The Instagram feed and the business were such an immediate hit that Yogasundram walked away from the remainder of her full-ride scholarship at GWU and moved to New York City, where Shop Jeen now has three offices, nine employees, and half a million Instagram followers.

The Way I See It

  • I see a retail industry increasingly focused on millennial and youth marketing. As baby boomers age, their $400 billion in annual consumer spending will fade. The world will turn to millennials to make up the difference.
  • I see a demographic increasingly inclined to shop at multi-brand retailers and to do their shopping online.  According to recent research by Piper Jaffray, roughly eighty percent of teens shop online. Piper Jaffray’s research also confirms millennials’ growing reliance on peer recommendations when making buying decisions.
  • I see a social media market in continued flux as young people gravitate toward new platforms; according to the latest semi-annual Pew survey on teens and social media. While Facebook still has the largest number of teen and millennial users and those users have their largest networks on Facebook, the percentage of teens citing it as their most important social network has fallen by half, from forty-two percent in the fall of 2012 to twenty-three percent in the fall of 2013. In that same period, the percentage of teens citing Instagram as their most important network doubled.

The Way the Industry Sees It

I sat down with Shop Jeen’s founder, Erin Yogasundram, to discuss her brand and how she uses social media to build a customer base.

Where did your initial vision for Shop Jeen come from? What niche or need did you want to fill?

I started the company, junior year, in my dorm room at The George Washington University. I had worked a few internships in the fashion industry in high school as well as during my winter and summer breaks in college.  I was working three part time jobs in retail, and one day I thought, I could do this myself.  I have always been an entrepreneur, and for example I sold autographs online when I was twelve and owned a shoelace selling business in high school. While working retail, I found that I had a keen eye for what would sell well.  I was always suggesting new brands for the stores to carry and had an invisible hand in the buying process.  I had about $2,000 saved from working retail and blew it all on a Celine bag (the bag was very rare, and had a wait list process at the time).  I have always been a workaholic and never a bookworm, so I quickly realized I could have used that money to start a new venture for myself.  I then sold the Celine bag for $3,000, yielding a $1,000 profit!  I decided to pool my money into wholesale purchase orders to fund my new venture.  Initially the site was to be a hub for the “best of Etsy.”  Etsy was gaining popularity, but it was very difficult to navigate and find the good stuff.  I used my keen eye, combined that with my researching skills, and I was able to find the cream of the crop on Etsy.  I negotiated wholesale terms with the sellers on there – most of which did not know what wholesale even meant when I approached them – and Shop Jeen was born.  I coded the original website from trial and error CSS writing.  I sold on campus at every event possible.  And I slowly started bringing on more well-known brands to gain traction and reputation in the industry.  Though we do carry some of the same brands as Bloomingdales, Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic, Bergdorf Goodman, Nasty Gal, Spencer’s Gifts, and ASOS, our curation is what makes us unique. So unique, in fact, that those retailers would not normally be mentioned in the same sentence.

What’s your curation process like? How do you decide what makes it on ShopJeen.com, and how have your decisions affected revenue?

Our Creative Director, Amelia Muqbel, and I work very closely to decide what products are sold, our marketing strategy, our social media voice, the look of our graphics, etc. Everything Shop Jeen stands for is a true representation of the two of us. Luckily, we somehow managed to find each other in this massive world. We share a very unique sense of style, thought-process, and outlook on the world, which is why we work so well together. I think our cohesive mindset comes across when you visit Shop Jeen.  We approach everything from a different angle than everyone else, and I’d say this has aided our success.  We quickly pull apart “competitors’” strategies and try to do the exact opposite.  It sounds crazy, but it’s been working! A lot of retailers are trying to mimic each other in order to come out on top, but if everyone is doing the same thing, how boring is that going to be for the consumer?

Continue Reading Youth Marketing: How the Founder & CEO of Shop Jeen Builds a Customer Base

We’re all familiar with the classic product demonstrations in television commercials: who hasn’t seen re-enactments of the super-absorbent paper towel, or the dish detergent that cuts through grease with a single drop?

How do we define a demonstration?  Well, a demonstration is just that: a way for advertisers to show the product functioning as it actually would, as objective “proof” of performance.  As such, it is especially important that demonstrations actually consist of a true and accurate portrayal of the product.  When the FTC began bringing enforcement actions concerning advertising demonstrations in 1959, it encountered cases where products or props had been doctored, enhanced or replaced to achieve the desired performance, and the advertiser had not disclosed any modification.  Even if the product claim itself was not false, the issue was that the demonstration was false.   For example, in the early 1990s, Volvo ran an advertisement which showed a monster truck crushing other cars, except for a Volvo station wagon, in order to show that Volvo vehicles would provide superior safety in a collision.  However, the commercial was produced by weakening the competitor vehicles’ roofs and reinforcing the Volvo’s roof, and then subjecting the Volvo to less severe crushing by the truck – none of which was disclosed to consumers.  Subsequently, the FTC issued a consent order requiring Volvo to stop depicting demonstrations that involved undisclosed mock-ups or material alterations to products.Continue Reading Brand Activation Association Marketing Law Conference: Demonstrations

This week, leading lawyers, legislatures and marketers attended the 35th Annual Brand Activation Association (BAA) Marketing Law Conference in Chicago. At BAA I gave a presentation titled, “Journey to the Center of Advertising Law: Knowledge, Insights, and Practical Tips on The Most Important 2013 Advertising Developments.” Over the next few days, I will share with you three video clips from my presentation. Let’s dive into the first one…

How do we determine “reasonable consumer” behavior?  This is an increasingly important question in a world where the consumer population comprises people with differing views, perspectives, education levels, and experiences.  The “reasonable consumer” is crucial in advertising law:  this person interprets advertising, determines what claims are actually being made, decides whether there are any implied claims, decides whether a statement is “puffery,” and helps courts decide whether advertising is ultimately misleading or deceptive.Continue Reading Brand Activation Association Marketing Law Conference – The Reasonable Consumer

Madison Avenue is a hotbed for creativity and innovation. The evolving nature of the digital world means new opportunities and platforms, and also means that agencies are constantly pushing the envelope to meet new client needs, develop new campaigns, and rise to new challenges from global competition, the economy, and the like. The constant change that agencies are moving with is what has propelled the creative industry forward all these years.

 The Way I See It

  • I see more agencies successfully melding creative and data to meet the needs of clients and deliver the type of advertising and marketing campaigns that build upon the new trove of consumer data to frame brands in a positive light.
  •  I see competition in all industry segments constantly growing, with new brands launching all over the world, and each agency being forced to develop creative that both trumps competition in its segment and also stands out for consumers in terms of advertising.

The Way The Industry Sees It

I sat down with Peter Krivkovich, Chairman and CEO of integrated marketing communications agency Cramer-Krasselt, to discuss the industry and the state of today’s agency.

Cramer-Krasselt’s business model is built on the idea of integration with a constantly growing range of disciplines, from creative to public relations to CRM. How do you think this notion of integration plays into your work?

Integration is a highly over-claimed word. The question is not whether everyone has access to those various disciplines – the better question is how does everyone have access to them. If they are run as separate profit centers, separate profit and loss statements (P&L) with the people heading them up having separate budgets or separate revenue-based bonuses, then it can’t possibly result in sustained unbiased contributions to a marketing solution. The former is more akin to the old corporate world conglomerates. And they didn’t work out that well – few synergies beyond a revenue pile-on. Integration plays into our work from inception. Because we are outcome – rather than output – driven, because we have no profit-center walls between people, we can have a diverse group of thinkers around the table minute one, with no discipline politics agenda biasing a solution. It’s never about simply checking boxes – it’s all about connection points that will drive results and that require multiple disciplines in constant motion and in constant sync.

For any creative firm, there is a constant pressure to show return on investment (ROI) and to harness data to drive results. How do you think data has changed the role of advertising?

Data has certainly made us smarter about the people with whom we need to connect. If we’re smarter about them we can get closer to them and be more relevant to them. And, of course, data – big or small – helps us optimize our approach in ways we never could before. We’re much more real-time now. It’s an exciting development, and really just beginning. But like integration, it’s also a terribly over-used word – and more importantly, data is a misused one.  Getting consumer information is no longer difficult, it’s prolific. Knowing which data leads to genuine actionable insights is. That’s where we concentrate our talent. Not on data compilation and output, but on what specifically will lead to an outcome for what’s next.

Continue Reading Breaking the Traditional Agency Model in Today’s Data-Driven Economy with Cramer-Krasselt’s Chairman & CEO, Peter Krivkovich

In 2004 – the inaugural year of the industry’s biggest event, Advertising Week – Facebook was launched as a social networking site open only to Harvard students.  Now ten years old, Advertising Week – like social media – has seen many changes and, more importantly, has shaped critical conversations driving change in the advertising industry in the past decade.  Advertising Week now has its very own app, not to mention too many hashtags to count.  With dialogue and events on the most important topics in the industry, featuring many of the industry’s biggest innovators, movers, and shakers, Advertising Week is the most important week of the year for everyone on Madison Ave and beyond.

The Way I See It

  • I see an event that has grown vastly in the past ten years, mirroring the growth and innovation that the industry has achieved, to present hundreds of events, discussions, panels, and live case studies  on advertising’s most important issues.
  • I see a week of creativity and innovation that is truly unmatched.  With some of the brightest minds in an industry that is notorious for driving change faster than you can say, “Advertising Week is a hotbed for big ideas.”
  • For Advertising Week’s tenth year, programming is right on point for what will shape advertising moving forward, with mobile, data, video, and innovation tracks.  With a session called “Will Robots Ever Cut Your Bangs,” it’s safe to say that Advertising Week is looking toward the future.
  • I see the industry’s biggest leaders gathering in New York City to share and discuss the latest ideas, creations, and technology that are shaping the future of the industry.

The Way The Industry Sees It

I sat down with Matt Freeman, the Chairman of Advertising Week and Operating Partner at Bain Capital, to discuss all the details of Advertising Week’s tenth year.

It’s hard to believe Advertising Week is in its tenth year.  The industry has experienced a lot of change in this past decade – the advent of smartphones, Twitter, and YouTube, to name a few.  How do you think this year will differ from others in terms of programming and topics?

Data has truly become a central player in marketing – as is reflected in the strong presence of technology and analytic companies this week. The ability to use data to unify and optimize a brand’s connection to consumers – increasingly in real time – may be the most dynamic sector of marketing today, and it is changing all facets of the business. This data trend not only makes for exciting new capabilities, but also for a more diverse set of talents and conversations – ultimately a great strength for our industry.  Also, Pamela Anderson will be doing a Q&A. So, to summarize: data and Pam Anderson.

What role do you think this week plays in the industry?

Advertising Week is a unique chance for our industry to come together each year for both celebration and (even more importantly) advancement.  Our business is replete with award shows, but Advertising Week is a chance to celebrate the best and brightest aspects of marketing in the interest of education and advancement.  From promoting diversity to attracting and developing young professionals, the week is fundamentally centered on the long term health of advertising – in turn, a vital driver of our economy.

Continue Reading A Decade of Advertising Week