Each October, thousands of marketers flock to Orlando for the Masters of Marketing conference. Put on by the Association of National Advertisers, the conference is three days of buffet food, subpar coffee, hobnobbing, and performances from the likes of the Backstreet Boys (seriously). Oh, and lots of CMO presentations.

• Of course, the conference went virtual last year. This year, the ANA went with a hybrid approach that...kind of worked?
• The ANA told Marketing Brew that nearly 500 people turned up to the conference last week—a pretty big drop from the roughly 3,000 that attended in 2019—while more than 1,300 people tuned in virtually.

At any rate, Marketing Brew watched the conference from the comfort of our apartments to bring you some of the highlights, all rounded up below.

Changing with the times

The NFL is gay, the NFL is transgender, the NFL is American. It’s ad copy that would have seemed unthinkable 20 years ago. But now, it’s a message the league isn’t afraid to hide from, explained Tim Ellis, the league’s chief marketing officer, during his presentation.

• The strategy to commit to a more progressive worldview was accelerated by 2020’s social justice initiatives. Of course, the league’s own players have been asking the NFL to be outspoken about social justice since 2016, when several started protesting police brutality and racism.
• “We should have listened to some of the powerful voices of our players, including Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid and Kenny Stills,” Ellis said, naming athletes who were criticized and unsupported by the league when they started kneeling during the national anthem in 2016. “We realized that we needed to step up and use the full power and influence of our platform to address and help create true change.”

More recently, the NFL has promoted talking about depression and anxiety among its players, and has seen the first openly gay player come out of the closet to wide support from his teammates and Goodell—as well as the league placing social justice messaging on the field.

“I wanted our players to be relatable, which meant removing that proverbial helmet and showcasing a more human face for the league, a league that’s willing to have tough conversations, authentically lean into youth culture, and stand behind the players and what matters most to them,” said Ellis.

Bonus quote: “If we don’t have the NFL this fall, this country is in for a whole lot of shit,” a quote Ellis attributed to former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi in the spring of 2020.

Standing out

Marisa Thalberg, EVP and chief brand and marketing officer at Lowe’s, said a main challenge she has faced since joining the retailer in February 2020 has been differentiating it from its rival Home Depot.

Ultimately, the company’s goal is to sell products, which it can theoretically do by pouring money into performance marketing, but Thalberg said that felt like a trap.

“If we just do that, we’re in a race to the bottom of one Google search away for [the] cheapest price,” Thalberg said. “I want people to say, ‘I want to get those tools,’ but I want them to say, ‘I want to get those tools at Lowe’s.’”

To that end, Thalberg said he set out to reframe the Lowe’s brand as a destination. For example:

• Lowe’s held curbside trick-or-treat events last year for Halloween, giving away free candy and pumpkins.
• The company collaborated with New York Fashion Week designers to curate lists of home-decor items.

The latter was an effort to remind people that while Lowe’s is a hardware store, style-minded consumers can also visit it for housewares.

“People knew they could come to us for a hammer and nails,” Thalberg said. “But did they know that they could come to us and get a gorgeous, fluffy pouf?”

Click here to see what marketers from McDonald’s and Unilever shared during their talks.—PB, RB, ZS, MS

There are always mixed sentiments when Halloween stuff starts hitting the shelves. Some can’t wait for spooky times, while others think summer is way too early for pumpkin-shaped Reese’s.

Well, we’re squarely in October now, and there’s no excuse. And as you’d expect, the brands are at it. Apparently, you don’t have to sell candy to get in on the action. Here’s what some brands are doing:

• Crest is giving away jack-o'-lantern-shaped candy safes so kids can “securely store their candy...from parents, siblings or even friends.” We have a feeling some parents will reverse the roles here.
• Franzia’s boxed-wine costume isn’t new, but this year, it added the ability to actually dispense wine. Functional.
• Dunkin’ reintroduced its costume line with two new additions: a cup of cold brew and a box of donut holes. Regrettably, these don’t dispense anything.
• Home Depot’s 12-foot-tall skeleton (which was a viral obsession last year) is selling out again this year.
• Does your cat even know it’s Halloween? Doesn’t matter. Temptations, the cat-food brand, is selling “Tasty Human”-flavored snacks.
• Starburst is capitalizing on “Berries and Crème” TikTok by selling costumes of the Little Lad from the classic commercial.

It’s no surprise that some of those are feeding from or are driven by social media. It makes sense then, that Snapchat put out a Halloween marketing guide ahead of the holiday.

Zoom out: It’s the first post-vax Halloween, and people are expected to spend record numbers on the holiday. Consumer spending on Halloween is expected to reach $10.14 billion, compared to $8.05 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation.—ZS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Instagram: ICYMI, Insta merged IGTV and feed videos into one new format called Instagram Video. Here are the details.

B2B: This infographic dives deep into what influences a B2B purchase decision.

Content: Look into this crystal ball to see a few content marketing predictions for 2022.

Spice it up: With insights that turn up the heat and strategies that actually work, Chili Piper’s podcast, Demand Gen Chat, breaks down how today’s marketing leaders are driving revenue. Learn what they’re raving about in the latest episode.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content}

Vintage Ad Browser

This Seagram’s ad from 1989 may or may not inspire our Halloween costumes this year.

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