This Week In Marketing: Sport, Politics and the Importance of Strategy
Welcome to This Week in Marketing, The Drum team’s new-look briefing bringing you the stories that matter most across agencies, brands, creative, media and tech.
You’ll also get behind-the-scenes updates from our specialist reporters, a preview of the trends we will be investigating, and an opportunity to get involved with our journalism. Today, we have highlights from Dove, our Sports & Fitness focus, and the UK election.
Agencies
Cameron Clarke: During elections, agencies tend to keep themselves as far away from politics as possible, but not so Uncommon. Living up to its name, the London-based shop can lay claim to some of the most striking advertising of the UK general election, and all without being on the books of any party.
OK, so it was not a vintage election for ads, but the agency’s viral D-Day billboard and striking sewage protest poster tower above any of the ‘official’ party messaging. Non-partisan but far from non-political, it has dared to tread where few others would. Why? Agency co-founder Nils Leonard offers some clues in our latest episode of the Politics for Drummies podcast. For admirers of the agency’s work and political anoraks alike, it’s well worth a listen.
Of course, we probed the UK ad bodies and WPP’s Mark Read about the Labour result. If you want more from me, you’ll need to subscribe to The Drum. My weekly findings go to the members who support us. You can email me cameron.clarke@thedrum.com
Brands
Hannah Bowler: There was big news from Dove HQ last week as its CMO Alessandro Manfredi, one of the key marketers responsible for Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, departed Unilever after 28 years.
Just two weeks ago, Alessandro shared with me his formula for turning purpose into profit. Even after 20 years and a lot of backlash around purpose, Dove’s strategy is still teaching other brands how to get it right.
Asics’s EVP also told me this week he has modeled the fitness brand’s mental health campaign on Dove’s Real Beauty. You can read that interview here.
On the complete flip side of purpose marketing this week, Pride wrapped with a deafening silence from brands. I got the inside scoop from some of the biggest brands in the industry on why they didn’t shout about Pride this year. I didn’t see anyone else talking about this.
If you like this, subscribe to my weekly brand briefing here. Email me [email protected].
Opinion
John McCarthy: With the Sports & Fitness focus UK election watching the Euros worrying about sleepy Biden refreshing this newsletter, it’s been a busy one. And one where there’s a lot to opine about. So without further ado, here’s a handful of opinion pieces I think you stand a substantial chance of enjoying.
System1’s Andrew Tindall has had to watch a lot of panels this summer. And he thinks they’re all shit (mostly). He has the solution.
Creative leader Livvy Moore has some sage words for sports marketers who think women will react well to the same marketing strategy that works with men...
VCCP’s Richard Harriford (Bradford) authored the ‘Cracking the Memory Code report. He explains why there’s a fine line between an ad being instantly forgotten and remembered forever.
Amar Singh gave American investors a handy steer on how to activate in the Premier League without looking like Ted Lasso.
And Blue State’s Hannah Johnson reveals how majority-winning Labour can now communicate the hope back into the public.
I have a pitching and op-ed writing guide accessible on LinkedIn. And I handle The Drum’s Daily Briefing. You can get on that list. You can email me [email protected].
Tech and Media
Kendra Barnett: Before really enjoying July 4, I covered CNBC’s new sports content vertical. Its output, helmed by veteran Forbes journalist Michael Ozanian, will explore the intersection of sports and commerce. It’s part of the legacy network’s efforts to diversify its monetization strategy with specialized content verticals across platforms. Sports in particular is proving especially promising for the organization, which plans to cover the forthcoming Paris Olympic Games extensively.
More broadly speaking, fragmentation in the media ecosystem is disrupting sports in major ways. While the on-air audiences for most sports is declining (in lockstep with linear TV consumption habits), networks are shelling out bigger bucks than ever to ink streaming deals with the likes of ESPN, Amazon, Warner Bros., NBC Sports and others. Whether CNBC plans to package its budding sports coverage into streamable formats at this point remains unclear. Stay tuned. You can read it here.
You can also subscribe to my media briefing here. And my colleague Webb Wright’s Emerging Tech Briefing here. If you’ve got a pitch, I'm available [email protected].
Creativity and design
Tom Banks: I caught up with Aston Villa’s president of business operations, Christopher Heck, to understand how a new visual identity and design language are helping the club illuminate its past as it tries to connect with fans in new ways and build a global brand. Meanwhile, we covered the rather fun Charlie XCX-sausage brand crossover and Dua Lipa’s ‘Walk’ ad, which saw her strut into her own O2 show (without the interruption of buskers).
You can see the Best Ads of the Week here or subscribe to the weekly creative briefing. Email me [email protected].