There’s so much opportunity to have a brand-led type of event like this. These types of events are typically led by vendors, partners or leagues that are trying to showcase all of the things they’re doing with their partners. The opportunity arose to flip the script. Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts is about what we want to see as brands, and what is it that we want our partners to know. With the unique circumstances we’re in today, these conversations are so important to really communicate with our partners what we’re looking for, and what we need in this new terrain.
This year was all about empathy, communication, and agility. AMEX has a huge focus on fan access and engagement, so the decisions around postponing or canceling an event, to have fans or not - those were critical pieces to how we would show up. We had to make sure our policies were clear and our customer service, social channels and call centers were prepared for the massive influx of questions from our customers. We had to set the groundwork in terms of customer service, which our brand is synonymous with, before we did anything from a marketing standpoint.
We leaned onto the storytelling aspects and technology showcases to extract value from the partnerships even though full games weren’t being played. We were even able to help in terms of working with the NBA and WTA in trying to keep their players and staff safe and making sure that people were checking in properly. We focused on their mental health, which is so important given the state of the world.
There are new cultural moments that have emerged that we wouldn’t have tried before COVID-19. Some of the most exciting things to emerge from the year are based in technology. An acceleration of technology comes as no surprise, from both an arena standpoint or a brand perspective. In the future of the new normal, some of that will stay and integrate. There will be great learning to come from this.
The key is to focus on the influence, and not the influencer. You need to identify who and what you are trying to influence, and let that lead you. Brands have gotten that wrong by focusing on the number of likes or followers instead of thinking who you’re trying to reach and how. Should I be working with a mom, or a doctor, or a celebrity? At the broad level, we’re trying to incorporate the influencer part of our plans as just part of our plans. The idea is for it to be one holistic plan and one holistic community.
There is not a more valuable currency right now than data. That asset is giving you the power to serve your consumer and also your partners. We partner on the food service side and we partner on the retail side as well. Building this value for consumers is so incredibly valuable. The agility that companies need to have to survive and even to thrive in today’s world is very close to the data conversation because you need to move fast and to move fast, you need to make decisions super fast. You cannot wait a month until some results come to decide what you are going to do.
With everybody at home, we just saw a natural interest in our brand. For Mother’s Day, everybody looks to go out to brunch with Mom and we were all forced to stay home and not see Mom, so customers turned to us to help celebrate the millions of Moms across the country and have that virtual connection with Mom. Our mission is to deliver smiles at the end of the day, and we’re glad we’re still able to do that.
With virtual events, you can watch your favorite artist with your friends at home and you can have a front row experience. You can buy a more expensive package and get to ask questions after the show or before the show. You can also create that exclusive experience by maybe voting for the next act or the next song. So I see this happening especially for maybe the up and coming artists. The top artists have the way that they do things, but the up and coming artists,it is much harder for them to do a tour. It is harder for them to fill venues, it is harder for them to have fans all over the US and they may not have critical mass, so these virtual events can be huge for them.
Transparency, inclusivity, and diversity is core to Ulta’s mission, so when we moved into that time of civil unrest and social injustice, it made a lot of sense to really make sure that our mission was clear to our guests and consumers. We really needed to understand fundamentally the role our brand plays in that narrative and the specific positions that our consumers expect from us. A lot of that was represented through the work we’ve been doing with our influencer network and the Ulta Beauty collective in celebrating our black creators, uplifting and celebrating the black brands we have, and also acknowledging the work we have in front of us in terms of where we need to go and how we need to continue those partnerships.
My advice for other females in marketing is to ask a lot of questions, but don’t question yourself. In the time it might take you to raise your hand, the man next to you is already raising his hand, so you need to go for it. If you’re not exactly sure how to do something but you want to do it, say yes, and figure it out afterwards. It’s the passion that matters. Jump at the chance, find the right mentors and keep pushing forward.
It’s so easy to just cast multicultural faces in your advertising. That has to be just the beginning. When you’re impacting communities and lives through your advertising, that’s when you make a difference. When you start to employ people behind the camera that reflect that diversity on screen, that’s when brands really make a short-term and a long-term difference and that’s what we’re working to do at Cadillac.
When it comes to the NBA, not everyone is an all-consuming, avid sports fan, but there are still so many people that love the game, and love what the NBA brings from a cultural standpoint.. You have people that love the competition, the celebrities, the showmanship. The NBA is a perfect example of a platform that lives well beyond the sports - it’s the music, the talent, the fan experience and so much more.