By Stu Girgins, VP, Client Consulting, NCSolutions

I had the opportunity to moderate a fireside chat at Brand Innovator’s Marketing Leadership virtual summit with Mark Wakefield, Ferrero’s SVP of Marketing for Nutella and Chocolate Snacks, along with his long-time creative partner, Tim Piper, Co-Founder of creative agency and production company, Piro.  Continue reading “How Brands Can Use Their Voice During Time of Uncertainty” →

Months into the pandemic Americans are still spending more time at home, consuming both more groceries and more media. Meanwhile, lower advertiser demand across industries like automotive, entertainment, and travel have caused ad inventory prices to drop. 

This confluence of factors present an enormous opportunity for consumer packaged goods brands to increase loyalty among existing customers, make in-roads with new ones and make the most of their ad dollars.  Continue reading “Advertising in a Pandemic Economy” →

By Peter Topol, VP, Advanced TV Partnerships, NCSolutions

“The year of addressable TV” is perhaps the most overused news headline of the last five years. (Admittedly, we’ve even used it ourselves.) Although the market has grown steadily, many hurdles — lack of inventory, lack of standardized measurement, technological complexity —  have deterred advertisers from adopting this platform into their media strategy at the expected pace. But could this year actually be the one? All of the collaboration that’s consistently making the news, plus the perfect storm of changes to the TV industry caused by COVID-19, point to “yes.” Continue reading “Peanut Butter and Addressable TV: A Winning Combination For New Buyers” →

By Patrick Roman Gut, Vice President, Head of Advertiser / Agency Sales, NCSolutions

I had the chance to sit down (virtually) with OREO’s head of brand strategy, Justin Parnell, at Brand Innovators’ E-Commerce, CPG & Retail Live Summit. The Oreo team has been up to some pretty impressive activation these past few months, and there are lessons for everyone in the way they’ve quickly pivoted to connect with consumers during an uncertain time. Check out the recording below to catch our full discussion.

Don’t have time to watch the video? Below are three things that struck me from our discussion. Continue reading “What I Learned from OREO’s Brand Senior Director” →

By Lisa Kerins, VP, Publisher Sales and Business Development, NCSolutions

What’s the most effective way to drive success for your platform’s advertisers? On the surface, the answer seems straightforward: Provide sound advice and best practices backed by solid insights to improve the advertiser’s ability to drive sales and achieve their goals. 

After thousands of campaigns, publishers have insider information about what strategies and tactics are most likely to improve the effectiveness of advertising on their platforms. The challenge is that every advertiser’s situation is unique, and generic blanket recommendations won’t suffice. Brand A, for example, might have a goal to increase sales lift among New Buyers. Brand B might be focused on improving return on advertising spend (ROAS). Product, category, creative and target audience are only a few of the variables. Strategies and tactics have to be customized to each situation for campaigns to deliver the right results. Continue reading “The Incredible Sales Lift Power of a Custom Meta-Study” →

By NCS Marketing

Sports are coming back to TV. It’s an election year. Many brands that went dark in March are returning to the air. It’s shaping up to be a competitive couple of quarters for TV advertisers. What’s a brand to do, with sales goals to meet in a short period of time?

For advice on this topic, we sat down with Tom Eaton, our SVP of TV and Programmatic Solutions. Other than growing a quarantine beard, building a garden bed and cooking for his family (you might think he was a Millennial), Tom has spent a lot of time talking with the big players in TV and streaming to discern what opportunities are available for CPG brands in the second half of the year.  Continue reading “At Home With Tom: Making the Best of Your TV Budget for the Rest of the Year” →

Although the fourth of July looked different in many ways this year, two things remained true: Americans like to celebrate the holiday with fireworks and food. 

While consumer fireworks sales more than doubled, food shopping looked very similar to how it looked in 2019. It’s those traditions – like that of a grilled hot dog with ketchup on Independence Day – that Americans are clinging too in a time of great uncertainty. 

With ongoing health and safety concerns related to COVID-19 causing folks to limit social and public interactions, purchases did increase slightly this year over the previous. Pie, which practically shouts “America!” remained a popular choice for the holiday. Both filling and pre-made crusts have seen disproportionately high sales figures for the past several months.  Continue reading “Red, White & Food” →

By NCS Marketing

At the start of the pandemic, we had a lot of questions—as did our clients—on how to advertise during these uncharted times. So we embarked on a research study to understand how sales for 50 CPG brands were impacted by the changed economy, and the role that brand loyalty played in these shifts. We presented our findings in a webinar with Adweek on brand loyalty in an age of COVID-19. 

Now that we’re nearly halfway through summer, a few things have changed. Continue reading “The CPG Loyalty Compass: Brand Loyalty Insights to Plan for What’s Next” →

By NCS Marketing

As we enter our fourth month of the pandemic, it’s still unchartered waters for advertisers. Should you continue to advertise? How can you best reach your consumers as their purchase behaviors shift? How is measurement changing? 

To provide some guidance on these questions, we sat down [virtually] with Lance Brothers, NCS’ Chief Revenue Officer. For Lance, the pandemic has meant less time on the road, more time with family, and more cocktails and home-smoked ribs. While he misses time spent with clients in real life, Lance is working alongside some of CPG’s top advertisers to help them increase their share of voice and adapt for what’s next. He shares some advice for brands on how to reach the right buyers and measure those outcomes, to understand what’s happening now to prepare yourself for what might happen tomorrow.  Continue reading “At Home With Lance: Advertising for the Now and the Next” →

By Lance Brothers, Chief Revenue Officer, NCSolutions

A few weeks back, NCS presented in a webinar with Adweek, where we shared our research on brand loyalty. Bottom line: while it’s unsure what the future may hold, it’s clear that the brands that continue to efficiently reach and connect with consumers are the brands most likely to succeed during this crisis — and beyond. Continue reading “Brand Loyalty Encore: Seasonality, Pantry Loading, and How to Leverage Loyalty” →