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.
When we talk about Danone’s mission, which is one planet, one health, all of our brands are committed to delivering that vision, but of course in a way that is authentic to that individual brand and its brand purpose. We know that today more and more consumers care about brand purpose. They want to buy brands and believe in brands that share their values. We are living in this value-driven world, so it is more important than ever that we are building brands that have a purpose in the world.
Almost every company is shifting towards giving employees the choice of where to work and when. People aren’t going to come to the office five days a week anymore and there's going to be less and less willingness from employees to sit in the same chair for ten hours a day. The core themes here are more employee empowerment and a more distributed way of working. Instead of having a one-size-fits-all workplace, you’ll see more diversity in spaces and the ability for employees to move throughout.
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.
