What marketers can do in a time of tariffs
Grace KiteGiven the erratic nature of Trump’s tariffs, marketers need to be prepared and have a scenario and a strategy for each future possibility.
Grace Kite
The ‘Margherita Funnel’: Effective marketing sticks to two ingredients
Grace KiteJust as great pizza chefs focus on the quality of their two key ingredients, the marketing funnel can be more useful if it’s simplified to just two stages.
How to fly out of the Bermuda triangle of marketing measurement
Grace KiteEconometrics, experimentation and attribution have been described as the ‘golden trinity’ of measuring effectiveness but there is a far better framework that brands should consider.
When it comes to data, do yourself a favour – play chess, not whack-a-mole
Grace KiteReading data and reacting to it means you can get caught in a never-ending loop that prevents you from seeing the bigger picture. It’s far better to set your strategy first and use data to check the plan is working.
Make finance the co-star, not the villain, in your marketing movie
Grace KiteFinance departments want to back good marketing, not thwart it, but to earn their trust you need to present your case in terms of financial outcomes.
Don’t blow your 2025 media budget on ‘renting’ retail media
Grace KiteMarketers are spending huge sums of money on retail media search – but without a strong brand you are just frittering budget away for limited results.
In brand building, it’s the little things that count now
Grace KiteData shows effectiveness builds as more channels and touchpoints are layered in but brands and their agencies need to ensure everything is served up in a coordinated way.
Think of your media mix like ‘Moneyball’ if you want to find success
Grace KiteMarketers who ignore media channels with high ROI but little buzz could be doing themselves – and their function – a disservice.
The great day of third-party cookie anger has come and who can stand upright?
Grace KiteSee the cookie apocalypse as an opportunity to ditch flawed forms of measurement in a quest for greater accuracy.
The idea is the bullet, data is the gun
Grace KiteIdeas generation is a job for people, not data. But when data is paired with good ideas it can be powerful.
Only people can give the gift of effectiveness
Grace KiteHaving the right people at the heart of effectiveness programmes is the difference between succeeding and failing.
Rising costs mean TV’s payback advantage is now in question
Grace KiteThe price of TV ads has risen much quicker than the price of other channels over the past few years, while viewing has also declined, meaning it could be time for brands to change the channel.
Justify budget requests with a solid set of projections
Grace KiteRunning the numbers through different scenarios enables you to identify the budget that’s needed to reach your targets and will make it more likely to be approved.
The economy is going to be ‘meh’ in 2024 but your marketing plan can’t be
Grace KiteLast year Mark Ritson put forward his triple-cooked chips method for budgeting, but Grace Kite reckons it’s worth dunking them one extra time to take into account the strength of demand in the economy, your target market and category.
Believe the hype: Online ads are finally living up to their effectiveness promise
Grace KiteThe effectiveness of online ads hasn’t always been entirely clear but there is now solid evidence they are more than pulling their weight.
Amazon needs saving but is advertising going to be its saviour?
Grace KiteIt’s hard to imagine Amazon as vulnerable. But after Covid, demand dropped while the costs of expensive fulfilment capacity set up during the crazy times continued. Almost a trillion dollars’ worth of turnover netted out a loss of $2bn in 2022. With this peril in the background, the advertising business, where Amazon sells access to […]
It’s not women that need fixing, it’s how the workplace treats parents
Grace KiteWomen’s career progress and salaries take a dive when they become mums, not because they become less good at their job but because policies around parental leave and childcare continue to be biased.
The worst thing you can do is freeze: A guide to making marketing plans in recession
Grace KiteEconomists now believe this year’s recession will be relatively mild, but marketers still have important work to do to ensure their brands come out stronger on the other side.