Evin Catlett

With third party cookie deprecation coming soon, I've been working with several of my fractional CMO clients to get the teams, systems and data ready for the change. I've outlined some of the things we've been working on in the article below. If you've already addressed these, great! If not, you should definitely take a look. These are things you should be considering. https://lnkd.in/g-HuERfM

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This is hella interesting. I don’t think it’s a brand problem…I think it’s a profit over people problem. When you get comfortable just because of your name, cut corners on quality/material/innovation, and shift away from facilitating community+connection—why buy when you can no longer resonate with a brand whos values go against your audience and their cultural touch points are surface level at best. Sometime you have to slow your processes down and give people the room to develop regardless of what the board says. New Balance moves so strategically and slow when making choices and have been at the center of creating culture. Moving as fast as culture is never the answer if it’s at the expense of people for profit and doesn’t create impact over time.

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How do you know what your best audience is on linear TV? 📺 When I began advertising on linear, I’d read through the reports and they’d sound something like this: “Last week we spent $X at Y ROAS. We saw good response from Hallmark, AMC, and Travel Channel. Next week we plan to increase investment on Animal Channel and FX with a small amount of test budget on NFL.” That sounds fun. However, when asked how TV was performing I’d basically repeat it back word for word. I realized I had a vast amount of actionable insights from Meta, Google, and TikTok, but almost nothing from TV. So I started bucketing the networks and shows into categories. For example: - News - Information - Entertainment - Comedy - Home Improvement - Sports Some of these had subcategories. For example “Sport” can broken into basketball, baseball, football, college, etc. I asked to see reporting on performance within these categories (usually on a monthly basis). Then how each ad creative performed within the buckets. Then, I could see if a 30 second emotive ad performed better on Entertainment and a 15 second product-driven ad did better on News. (Hypothetical example). This led to conversations about where to invest, and how to strategize creative per placement so we could double-down on the highest converting audiences and creatives. Hope my experience helps others!

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Beware of the hyperactive hive mind.... A worthwhile listen, Cal Newports investigation into the growth of email / IM and how it has filled the gap as a tool to show we are "Working". He argues how as we have moved from farms where our measure was the crop, to factories where the measure was numbers of widgets, and now in a knowledge economy its the amount (Not efficiency) of unstructured communication. https://lnkd.in/gQSMTepG

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☀ The YPulse Summer of Innovation starts TODAY. All summer long we'll be looking at the innovative brands, trends, and big ideas that teens and YAs are pumped about. And to kick it all off ... here are *the* most innovative brands according to teens. We interviewed over 35,000 teenagers in North America and Western Europe to find out which brands they is, "improving on what came before it and is willing to try new things.” #summerofinnovation #genz #teens #innovation #brandtracking

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Today marks 30 days at Consumer Reports Here are a few takeaways for anyone (especially marketers) about to start a new gig: 1. Balance education with action. Every biz book says to spend your first 30-90 days on a listening tour. While I agree that listening and learning is critical, you need to show that you can get stuff done. Follow your gut to jumpstart small projects and make incremental changes, all in pursuit of getting more data and insight into what might work when you’re more fully onboarded. 2. Immerse yourself in the product. It shocks me how many marketers I speak with don’t know their product inside and out. I’m very fortunate that CR’s products are useful and fun! I’ve spent recent evenings looking up the ratings and reviews for every appliance in my home, diving into our socials, scrubbing my PII from the web via our Permission Slip app, and even leafing through our iconic magazine. 3. Resist the familiar. So many CMOs I know bring their agencies with them wherever they go. Sometimes that makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s often difficult to know until you’ve given existing partners a chance and really know the business. No matter how agile your team and org is, changing agencies or vendors is disruptive, and the benefits of the change must outweigh the cost of disruption. Don’t do something just because it’s comfortable or part of your “playbook”! And a note to new agencies and vendors reaching out to me constantly: I’m not there yet!! 4. Invest in cross-functional relationships from day one. When I was exploring new opportunities I can’t tell you how many times a recruiter said, “The CEO is looking for someone highly collaborative, especially given that the previous CMO didn’t get along with so and so.” Marketers can’t do anything without strong partnership across Product, Sales, HR, Finance, etc. The early focus you have on building trust and confidence throughout your team needs to permeate throughout the organization, and every new initiative you soon take on will happen much more quickly. Hope this helps! 🫡

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I'm a sucker for brand metrics so when The Business of Fashion drops an AI powered brand study I'm all ears. I like the general methodology and it's intriguing to have an AI analyze brand alignment. I get why brand/audience alignment is a measure of brand strength but that little annoying contrarian in me says that the opposite could also be true. My sentiment has always been that a truly strong brand that stands the test of time is one which lets the audience interpret and make it their own (like a blank canvas). If that's the case, misalignment (in combination with high engagement and intent) may actually be an equally telling indicator of strong brand equity. Ok, that just did my head in. What do you think? #brand #ai #idontknow https://lnkd.in/gBrQSY2m

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It’s so refreshing to see such an emphasis put on great branding and the creative that drives it. It’s a struggle with some clients to get them to understand why branding is so important. Some either have an inflated sense of the brand’s actual reach or don’t understand why it is important at all. Engaging creative with a solid brad is a winning formula for sales. Great series!

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I interact with a lot of business owners, from small (~$500k/annually) to very large (~$80m annually). A common theme this year - almost everyone is struggling with growth. Particularly when it comes to paid advertising. We've been able to continue to grow Barbell Apparel's online revenue at ~30% YoY - and that's all planned. We could probably grow a bit faster, but we take the excess profits as dividends instead. It's low stress at this point - but that doesn't mean it's low work. I feel like we've had to be five times as skilled to achieve the same results that were easy 3 years ago. For a very long time - digital advertising was cheap enough, that you could simply buy ads and make up for any mistakes in the rest of your operation. In my estimation, those days are gone, and they aren't coming back. We actually have lower CPAs now than we have at almost any point in the last 5 years - but it was a ton of work to get there. And our marketing organzation is heavily diversified across channels (paid digital, paid influencer, ambassador, organic, owned, etc.) Everything gets tested. Everything gets optimized. That's the what it takes these days. People look at their cost of customer acquisition - and think there's something wrong with facebook, google, etc. but really - that CPA is most likely telling you there is something wrong with your business. And if that's off putting to you, it shouldn't be. If advertising is truly not cost effective anymore - then we're all screwed. But if the problem is in the business itself, that is something within your power to fix. I've audited dozens (maybe hundreds) of businesses at this point - and I almost always find the same or similar problems. Lack of optimization in: the offer, AOV, CLV, funnel strategy, creatives, etc. Once those things get fixed - things tend to fall in line when it comes to CPA, ability to scale, etc. Granted - depending on your company, some of those problems could be very difficult or long term to solve. But you have to start solving them. There's nothing wrong with paid advertising - it's working as well as it ever did. But it's not cheap enough anymore to cover up a bunch of mistakes.

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Monday Morning Kickoff? >>>> Optimism Your Feed 🌟 Love when a brand does something to make a deeper connection -- related to their brand but NOT specific to their products. LG Electronics new campaign about "Optimism Your Feed" is exactly that. They have created an easy way for consumers to retrain their social media to show positive content -- supporting their brand vision of making Life Good. In addition, the idea leverages not one, but three, highly-relevant themes around algorithm retraining, influencer partnerships and emotional wellness. Nicely done to the LG team and kudos to influencers they partnered with and those that are dedicating to uplifting content. What optimistic content do I need to add to my social feeds? Drop below 👇 #branding #trends #mentalhealth #socialmedia

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Monday Musings: What if LinkedIn made Premium free when you needed it the most? Make it free until you land your next job (using LinkedIn), with the caveat that you agree to pay for the service - at a minimum - one month for each month you recieved the free benefit. I'd sign up for that in a hot second. Would it make me more loyal to LinkedIn. 100%. Would I probably pay for longer than I recieved the benefit? You bet your LTV I would. Would I be more likely to leverage LinkedIn for posting jobs and recruiting? 1000%. Losing your job is a traumatic event. Why force people when they're down on their luck have to choose between LinkedIn Premium and gas, groceries, or rent? THIS is what LinkedIn should be about. Take care of the community and the community will take care of you. What do you think?

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Thrilled to have represented Vintage Faire Mall in a live segment on Good Day Sacramento in my prior role as a Senior Manager of Marketing. Now, as a brand strategist, I have the opportunity to discuss the powerful synergy between marketing and live TV with my clients.🚀 In today's fast-paced digital world, where personalized connections are key, leveraging live TV presents an incredible opportunity to engage with your target audience both dynamically and authentically. 💼 Live television amplifies brand visibility, fosters trust, and drives meaningful interactions with viewers through a more personal connection. In this case, with the host and I as their guide, I was able to provide an experience we were offering for a holiday activation. 📈 Here are a few key takeaways: 1️⃣ Real-Time Engagement: Live TV allows for instant interaction with the audience, fostering genuine connections and feedback. 2️⃣ Authenticity: Nothing beats the authenticity of live content. It humanizes brands, making them more relatable and trustworthy. 3️⃣ Targeted Reach: By strategically aligning marketing messages with live programming, we can reach our target audience at the right time and in the right context. 4️⃣ Memorable Impact: Live TV leaves a lasting impression. It's an opportunity to tell compelling stories and leave your audience wanting more. Not to mention, provide shareable content to the platforms that you control. 5️⃣ Call To Action: Provide an actionable next step for your potential customer. For instance, "Make Your Reservation" and pre-plan your visit. Let's continue to push boundaries and redefine the future of marketing together! 💪 #Marketing #LiveTV #Innovation #brandstrategist #adagency

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Lauren Lamb, Desiree Mejia and myself had the honor of attending our THIRD Meta Performance Marketing Summit in San Francisco this month! 🛩 We got to spend a few days nerding out with some of the most talented performance marketers in the game discussing the latest and greatest from the Meta ecosystem of products. We recapped our top learnings from the Summit to share with YOU for free! For those who attended, what were your standout learnings from the event? Let's keep the conversation going! #metaperformancemarketingsummit #metaads

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It feels like we're witnessing the modern day business war of PEPSI V COKE play out between OLIPOP PBC and poppi. The battle lines have been drawn, strategies are coming into focus. Who will win? To me, that answer depends on what you consider winning. If acquisition is the game then it looks like Poppi is steaming towards being acquired by Coca Cola which would mean "Victory"? I wish this weren't the case, because I would love to watch these two grow and battle for years to come, but this end seems more likely than not. If you think winning is building the largest independent operation, it appears Olipop will continue to drive in that direction successfully as they eye $400Mil in sales this year - doubling last year. INCREDIBLE. On the marketing front, I give the edge to Olipop for long term brand building. They are forming strong partnerships, adding sponsorships and investing in content that resonates. The tone seems consistent and on point and should resonate long into the future. Poppi went big with the Super Bowl ad which will hit a quick awareness button, but some of the big screen ads like this feel in conflict with the modern and more authentic work like activating ZENYARA. If that message conflict persists Gen Z and Millennials will notice and shy away. Both product sets are interesting, solid and offer functional benefit so I'll hold that as a tie. Ultimately time and perspective will deem the winner, but in the meantime we get to watch something very cool play out. Fundamental marketing ignited with creativity will help lead both of these companies to success, and I'm here for it.

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Yes, I've started adding the "award-winning" descriptor to every relevant mention of this amazing marketing team and yours truly. You know that feeling when you've just survived production hell, you step back and take in the totality of what you all have conceived and managed to bring to life. You think, "It's done. And it's good!" Then you see the results and think "It worked!" Your colleagues agree, and usually, that's enough to carry the momentum into the next thing. And the next thing. And so on. Therein lies the challenge for high-performance teams. We yearn for the recognition, but the production cycle keeps turning. So I'm incredibly grateful to Evi Loveres--truly one of the most talented creative professionals in the industry--for breaking the cycle and championing this opportunity. In case you don't feel like clicking the link, Fictiv's annual State of Manufacturing report is my favorite campaign (and a beast of a project.) "State of Manufacturing is an in-depth annual report published by Fictiv to demonstrate its leadership and expertise in the manufacturing industry. Last year's report was generated by surveying over 240 leaders in engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, and product development to identify developing trends and gather key insights. These insights were packaged as a landing page, ebook/printed piece and was supported with an integrated campaign consisting of email, webinar, live panel discussion at a trade show, PR, and various social media promotions." Go ahead and click that link for a selection of creative assets developed for this comprehensive campaign. Results (June 2023 - April 2024) - Potential reach: 209.4M - 688 backlinks from 46 referring domains - 7K website users (4.7K new) - 600+ e-book downloads - 375 webinar registrants This campaign would not have been possible without my award-winning 😉 colleagues: Christine Evans, Michael Gorman, Evi Loveres, Varun Mehta, John Honey, Jenn Miller, Kaitlyn Silva 🏆

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HAVE YOU CONSIDERED ROKU FOR MARKETING? With so many option it can be confusing about what is the best strategy. I can help you. If you would like to expand your brand while reaching your target audience, you need to advertise on Roku. Let’s talk. #marketing #ROKU #advertising #consultant

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One thing I see porn stars and media companies complaining about a lot is how the big budget production won't make any impact, whereas something filmed on a phone might go viral. What it demonstrates to me is that "quality" in it of itself is not necessarily what resonates with audiences, but authenticity and quality of the content, not the quality of recording, lighting, production. Certainly, having high quality production can help... but only if it makes sense and actually contributes to the message and goal of the effort. The purity and quality of message conveyed matters most, esp in the age of social media where authenticity ranks high in what people desire. The "authenticity" aspect is probably the core criticism of "gun bunnies" as a marketing concept. Done poorly, it appears as superficial pandering and cheap use of lust. Done well, it appeals to a deep human appreciation of aesthetics. Most social media platforms are primarily a visual, superficial. My guiding principal when using female models are to make it beautiful, and make sure the model knows what she is doing (or at least looks it). It's all a very delicate balance of art, authenticity, and why marketing is as much art as it is science. The science is all the crazy metrics to measure basically one thing: return on investment (ROI). The art is making the content that can reach, and then resonates with a target audience. Very easy to appreciate and critique, supremely difficult to repeatedly execute on. Why my guilty pleasure of LinkedIn archetype is the online whiner with a weak portfolio and track record.

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Follow this Gen Z reporter as they drastically reduce their weekly social media play…by eliminating time on it…to ZERO. #algorithm Is social media an addiction? Maybe the new trend is giving yourself back hours to do other more traditional activities? Social media is engrossing, fun, informative, exciting, and educational, but don’t forget that the real world is out there waiting to be experienced, waiting to teach, waiting to be explored and always offering new trendy things to do as well. https://lnkd.in/gsK-hfzq

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