Laird Stiefvater

If you’re thinking about what your Qual strategy looks like in 2025 and beyond, this new webinar with our own Liz White and Karen Lynch from Greenbook is a must see! Don’t miss it!

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As a brand creative and strategist, I often face the dilemma of when to disrupt a winning formula and when to protect a brand’s heritage (and when to do both at the same time). In my new article in Forbes https://lnkd.in/gWXffTCr, I examine how to navigate this balance by breaking down four case studies of successful brand stewardship. It turns out that sometimes the marketer’s bravest move is restraining themselves from changing what is already working. You wouldn’t rebrand the Mona Lisa, would you? #brandstrategy #brandstewardship #branding #Firehouse #Forbes #marketing

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Proving that brand content can be authentic and totally entertaining: https://lnkd.in/em7CPvvQ

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“THE POWER OF ONE” IN A WORLD DIVIDED. Just for the record … The key difference between Publicis and other agency holding companies like WPP, Omnicom, and IPG is that Publicis actually has and makes work a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) … “The Power of One”. That is, the promise and delivery of truly and fully integrated Brand marketing communications services where there are ultimately only two questions to be answered: 1) Are we making money for our clients? and 2) Are we making money for ourselves and shareholders? That’s it. Because one follows the other if the individual agencies and their holding company parents do their jobs harmoniously. Hence, the power of one! “One Brand, One Voice. With Distinction” for consumers, investors, and shareholders alike. 😎       

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The big question is going to be around what consolidation means to competition and therefore how are #brands going to perceive this merger when it comes to evaluating their annual spends. Efficiencies may be found by merging, even downsizing, but what they will not find is #creative excellence with this level of turmoil, let alone cost effectiveness. #AgencyLife #WUTWUT

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If you want to understand why Meta pivoted back to politics, it's because that's where voters are getting their news and information. In the 2024 post-election survey I did with the Center for Campaign Innovation, more voters now get their news from social media than from their local TV news. Between Facebook and Instagram, Meta has 2 of the top 3 social media platforms that voters use on a daily basis (along with YouTube). While Meta and other social media companies may have tried to downplay politics the past few years, it's clear that their users are still wanting to get news about politics and government through social media. https://lnkd.in/em79gWtp

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I'm nervous about tomorrow, but it gave me a little extra comfort to weigh in on this year's election. CBS Sunday Morning News was a chance to go mainstream with the perspective I can bring. I got the "walk and talk" shot with David Pogue and I got emails from my family and friends who watch the show. In this business I'm in, we're responsible for help shaping messages and experiences that define what people think about brands. Hopefully based on a truth. Can't say the truth piece feels quite as true anymore for political ads. Although that was probably debatable about marketing as a whole, unfortunately. And It's harder than ever to unify people around a message-- we've moved beyond the broad message to much more niche. In many ways good because there was an assumed bigger perspective that left many out. But we're also losing a shared narrative, which makes truth impossible. And in media today we must navigate the complexity of platforms and subculture to try to align people around a set of values and beliefs, if not a message. We must try and break through peoples' bubbles-- that they aren't even aware they are a part of. Or maybe they are and don't care. Luckily with brands we still have to play the long game. So we haven't gone all negative. We need to build the brand over time. In politics, fear of what could happen can be more unifying than the hope and belief of real change. It's an all or nothing for candidates, so they have to go all in. They don't just have a low sales quarter. The winner of the election controls the next 4 years. The loser gets nothing. However while fear can serve as a unifier or at least a barrier to voting for your opponent, it doesn’t work as well as a motivator for most. I just hope we've given people enough to show up for: pride, hope, optimism, joy--belief that moving forward is a good thing.

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Some good advice here.

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Successful CEOs surround themselves with experts to advise. Analytics, impressions, CTRs - what matters? All these new numbers now in marketing don’t make sense. It’s like learning to read a balance sheet. 😩 With our help, CEOs and CMOs can now look at a dashboard, have the correct metrics, and know what #marketing success is. Let’s do this.

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#CauseAndEffect #BurdenOfProof #BetterSafeThanSorry Unsolicited advice for advertisers making claims about net-zero emissions, bamboo products, or recyclability: Until there is clarity on what qualifies as an “internationally recognized methodology,” it’s probably best to stop making environmental claims - not just in the oil and gas sector -, or have a chat with legal.

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As I think about the changes our industry is facing, and I am professionally here in early 2025, it's a good time to regenerate and get back to the basics. I don't know what meaning the name Ogilvy would have to a Gen Z marketing professional today, but David Ogilvy was one of my heroes in the early stages of my career, and his book "Ogilvy on Advertising" was crystal clear about how we need to listen to the voice of the consumer, and by treating them as intelligent, to be their advocate in the stories we tell. I think that's critical for storytelling. Even advanced analytics folks like me need to focus on storytelling for the numbers and data we provide to our own clients, as the voice of the consumer (or prosumer) they service. That's the most important learning I think I've had in the last year. https://lnkd.in/gcnTP75V

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Brian Jacobs's article today made me wonder how people will respond to advertising content in the future, knowing that much will have been AI generated. Will they be less interested in it or less trusting of it? I am also thinking this might impact how we capture people's experiences in real-time. At the moment we ask people whether it was the first time they had seen the ad, or 2nd etc. Maybe we should ask whether they think it was generated through AI? We capture how positive, persuasive and relevant every brand encounter is. Will AI generated content be more relevant? Or more persuasive? What do you think? Dana DiGregorio Karen Fraser MBE #advertising #ShareOfExperience #SOE

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In a fast-moving marketing and branding landscape, the greatest risk can be playing it safe, says Sam Shepherd, chief creative officer for Uncommon Creative Studio. Read more in What the Future: Risk: https://lnkd.in/eDrTf8us

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What Romantic Comedies Can Teach Us about Communication http://dlvr.it/TG4JfY #KelloggInsight #Insights #ConsumerInsights

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How best to measure brand value gleaned from marketing efforts? Four measures for #CMOs to consider. #marketing #brand #measurement

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‘Big Advertising’ needs to think small. Advertising today is a myriad of smaller things, not just a few big things, and the ad industry needs to more fully embrace this reality or continue to be disintermediated. In large part the industry employs old world approaches to meet new world challenges. And in quite a big week for Big Advertising, this is the first of a double header by me. It lays some foundations for change, and the second part will be published next week, detailing more of the implications for brands. MarketingWeek Jellyfish The Brandtech Group

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Looking forward to this discussion on the future of #measurement & the incredible insights from this amazing panel! #attribution, #MMM, #MTA

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With a world focused on instant gratification sometimes the importance of consistent brand presence goes unnoticed. Chief Brand Officers are the unsung heroes that keep the ship from hitting that iceberg. This is a good read if you are interested in finding out how instrumental branding is to your success.

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So quite a potential saving...'The two companies employ over 130,000 people and expect to find $750m (£588.4m) of annual synergies, partly through offshoring and reducing duplication. Cuts are more likely to fall in back-office “overhead”, than “client-facing, client-servicing”... 'That will be achieved through nearshoring and offshoring jobs in cheaper locations, automation and other “platform investments” to drive smarter working... Clearly data and technology with Ai is the north star for any size companies in the sector such as our own much, much, much smaller Salocin Group...still... you have to start somewhere :o) as “a media platform, a CRM platform, a dynamic content generation platform” — and expand in new areas such as generative artificial intelligence... It will be very interesting to see if the vision can become reality and make 1 +1 =3

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