Month: October 2017

Trending from G/L: Mars Commercials From Another Ad Planet

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Mars Commercials From Another Ad Planet

Creative

Bite Size Horror

The relationship between marketing and entertainment is a long and storied tale of product placements, sponsorships and the like. It’s made the journey from subtle positioning in the background of a movie scene to TV episodes in popular shows that center around a corporate product. And of course, has anything really come full circle until it authentically and hilariously parodies itself?

But Mars and Fox have combined to write the next chapter in the love story between brands and entertainment. Instead of finding ways to make their brands a part of consumer entertainment, Mars went ahead and skipped both the middle-man and the not-so-subtle product placement by just creating the consumer entertainment itself. And perhaps surprisingly to some, it doesn’t feel forced, branded or gimmicky.

While we would have loved to be in the meeting when the idea of a series of two-minute, branding-free videos was first proposed, “Bite size horror” is a great example of where brands and corporations are heading. It’s not about sneaking in some subtle marketing message – consumers are way too smart for that anyways – so much as it’s about simply saying what’s worth saying and making what’s worth making. Would we be talking about it if the videos weren’t worth it? The connection to the brand isn’t convoluted – bite size candy bars are like mini candy bars, these two-minute movies are like mini horror movies. And the rest is just about making something good and bringing cool projects to life. There’s not much more to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1olUV3BGvQ

Watch all of the Bite Size Horror Films here.

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Branding Your Environment

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Branding Your Environment

General

Our client, St. Louis Science Center, recently won the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2017 Building St. Louis award for the GROW exhibit outdoor Gallery. The award recognizes and honors projects that have created a positive community impact. We were thrilled to be mentioned in their FACEBOOK post along with exhibit and construction contractors Arcturis, Gyroscope Inc., Interface Construction Corporation, and SWT Design.

To be mentioned and acknowledged by our client in this Facebook post got me thinking about how critical it is, when creating an environment for a brand to live, whether it be an exhibit, tradeshow booth, retail store environment, etc., to ensure that the process is a collaborative effort from start to finish with the entire team, including architects, designers and marketers.

Our first assignment was to design the GROW logo and brand identity for the project. We were fortunate to have architect and construction renderings as references to truly visualize the brand experience. This inspired the design and allowed us to incorporate a logo and brand identity that reflected the mission of the exhibit – to bring to life the connection each of us has to agriculture and the journey of food from farm to table. Our logo is prominently portrayed at the entrance of the exhibit, on the website and throughout the marketing campaign.

Understanding the vision of the architects, designers and client helped make the brand experience seamless so we could develop a brand identity and marketing campaign that reflected it perfectly. See our work: St. Louis Science Center – Grow

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The Role of Modern Agencies for CMOs and ROI

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

The Role of Modern Agencies for CMOs and ROI

Full Funnel Marketing

In the life of a CMO, addressing consumer “pain points” is among the most thought and talked about of day-to-day responsibilities. CMOs are being challenged to have their finger on the pulse of the customer. But, who’s looking out for the pain points of CMOs themselves? That’s the role that forward-thinking agencies need to assume in the modern age of marketing.

According to a recent article from marketingcharts.com, pain points for CMOs include, among others, disconnected messaging at different points in the sales funnel and increased pressure to prove marketing’s worth via ROI metrics. But for many CMOs, the ad agencies and marketing partners they rely on to help, are not being charged with helping move customers from awareness, to consideration, to purchase. Each respected agency focuses exclusively on messaging for isolated stages of the marketing funnel and can’t actually help CMOs effectively do their job.

When an agency and the campaign they develop, have an enterprise-wide understanding of the business and work closely with the CMO throughout the entire process from consumer interest to customer loyalty, what used to be pain points is now an effective brand experience for the consumer. And in cases where multiple agencies are being used by a client, it’s imperative that the effort for brand awareness, consideration, and purchase campaign are coordinated in terms of consistent brand messaging.

But according to a recent CMO survey conducted by Duke University, effective CMOs can take it a little bit further – and modern agencies can help. With today’s abundance of available data, it’s no longer enough for CMOs and agencies to analyze only the end result. They need to utilize ROI metrics throughout the entirety of the consumer decision process in two major ways. First, ROI metrics give valuable insight into what marketing efforts are and aren’t working, so you can adjust the messaging accordingly. Second, ROI metrics give CMOs a huge leg-up in being able to not just communicate, but quantify just how valuable marketing is to their business, helping to earn more confidence and budget allocation for their department.

Effective agencies don’t just advertise, they partner with CMOs to market their clients’ business and move consumers through the sales funnel. We call it full-funnel marketing, but you can just think of it as a whole lot of pain relief.

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Trending From G/L: Marketing to Millennial Parents

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending From G/L: Marketing to Millennial Parents

Advertising

ICYMI: Millennials are not just the same old flannel-clad, entitled, couch and career surfers anymore. Millennials are growing. Growing into families that is.

That’s right, almost half of our beloved millennial demographic are becoming mommies and daddies. At least 40% of millennials already have children, and that rate continues to climb as millennials continue to age. Considering millennials make up more than a quarter of the population representing 83.1 million Americans, and surpassing the Baby Boomer generation by over 7 million in population, this life-changing milestone means major lifestyle changes for millennials, and major sales category shifts and opportunities for marketers.

As digital natives, this generation has grown-up with cutting-edge technology at their fingertips and has been exposed to marketing messages coming at them from all angles. Millennials understand that brands are going to target them, and here’s what marketers should consider when communicating with today’s millennial parents:

Authenticity

Millennials recognize that parenting isn’t perfect; it’s messy, it’s stressful, exhausting, and absolutely extraordinary. Therefore, millennial parents prefer to see marketing messages that are authentic and honest about the portrayal of parenting. According to research from BabyCenter, 66% of millennial moms say it’s important for brands to realistically portray the challenges of parenting. Millennials gravitate towards brands that can offer a unique, tailored experience that can connect and relate to their own parenting experiences.

Community

Community is critical for today’s millennial parents. Millennials will seek parenting advice and product recommendations from multiple sources including, their peers, other parents, and oftentimes, community boards to get immediate, real-time responses. Much like millennial’s preferences for authenticity from marketers, according to BabyCenter, 55% millennials would rather seek advice from other parents and influencers who are open and honest about their parenting mishaps. And according to, Cassandra’s 2016 Modern Parents Report, 4 out of 10 millennial parents feel better about parenting when they hear about other parent’s mishaps.

Shared Experiences

Millennial parents want to publicly share their experiences navigating the journey of parenthood; the challenges, the milestones, and the joyous victories, all through the lens of a digital camera and shared via social media. And it’s not enough for millennial parents to just share their own experiences, millennial parents are more likely to engage with other parents, offering words of encouragement, advice, and make product recommendations to other parents via social media and community boards.

As millennials continue to disrupt the parenthood industry, marketers need to be more receptive to these lifestyle changes and tailor their messaging for multiple platforms, while reflecting authentic and honest experiences millennial parents are challenged with today.

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