The chief marketing officer of Mastercard’s health business says the quest for user privacy is right-on.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Rajamannar explains which replacements may work best, and how advertisers should respond.
Privacy is right
“I completely agree with a statement which Tim Cook had made brilliantly, ‘Privacy is a fundamental right’,” he says.
“There are so many data breaches that are happening. If you guys don’t know how to protect my data, you have no business collecting my data.
“As a marketer, I have to behave in a very responsible way to my consumers.
“I think it’s a good decision that they have taken, but we need to find solutions.”
Congratulations to Mastercard CMO @RajaRajamannar for on not only being awarded the @Adweek Brand Genius Award, but also being recognized as the Grand Brand Genius for your creativity, leadership & #marketing innovation. https://t.co/VIWHgTy8jy
— Mastercard News (@MastercardNews) September 27, 2021
Safety in numbers
Vendors across the industry are racing to cook-up alternatives to third-party tracking cookies – not only as Apple has reduced its own identify offering but with Google’s deprecation of Chrome cookies now looming by 2023.
Rajamannar sees three categories of replacement emerging:
Cohorts – “It is one step better than blindly bombarding all consumers with all kinds of ads. It’s a step better, but still not good”
Vendor-specific alternatives – “You’ve got companies like Trade Desk, LiveRamp and a whole bunch of other companies out there, they’re coming with their own solutions, which we need to see how they are.”
Broad-based initiatives – “ANA is working on some solutions at the industry level, which I think is the smartest way to do, taking advantage of the scale that all of us collectively bring to the table.”
I am excited that my book, Quantum Marketing, is now published in Korean, and reaching more people as we head into this next paradigm of marketing! pic.twitter.com/LrI3khvVHl
— Raja Rajamannar (@RajaRajamannar) September 7, 2021
How to act
Regardless of what comes after the cookie, the Mastercard CMO thinks brands don’t have to wait; they can take two key steps now:
1. Minimise the collection of data
“What information do you really need to know about the consumer? Do you really need to know all this stuff? Or can you actually come up with the same decision, with the same precision, knowing a lot less data?”
2. Reach the user right
“How do you then track the consumer, or how do you contextually serve the right advertisement in a non-intrusive non-repetitive fashion that makes sense to the consumer?”
Production Notes: This video is an except from an extended conversation which will be published 10.11 on the BeetCast, the podcast. The BeetCast is sponsored by TransUnion.
]]>Raja Rajamannar, in his new book, Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow’s Consumers, says the industry is emerging into what he calls “the fifth paradigm” of marketing.
Rajamannar is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Mastercard and current president of the World Federation of Advertisers.
The fifth age
In this fireside chat with IBM SVP Bob Lord for Beet.TV, Rajamannar outlines the historical development of each “paradigm” as he sees it:
- Product marketing.
- Emotional marketing.
- Data-driven digital marketing.
- Social media and ubiquitous connected devices.
- “Quantum marketing”.
“Unlike in the previous paradigms where there are a couple of technologies … this paradigm is going to be powered by … at least two dozen technologies,” Rajamannar says.
“You’ve got AI, you’ve got AR, you’ve got VR, you’ve got 3D printing, you’ve got drone deliveries, then you have got … autonomous cars, wearables, internet of things, smart speakers.
“The bunch of them which are coming at us, each one office has got a direct impact on consumers’ lifestyles and their behaviour. And, therefore, consequently on marketing itself.”
Challenge everything
Rajamannar has long been saying that the cracks in traditional marketing are showing.
He has variously advocated the deployment of “story making“, overhauling the TV upfront sales season and urged brands to find an inner authenticity to deal with troubling times.
In his new book, Rajamannar urges brands, in the “fifth paradigm”, to “challenge every single hypothesis and framework”.
He thinks that the explosion of so many different channels and devices means the arrival of new gate-keepers, as each device will represent its own, unique path to purchase.
AI needs education
Amongst the plethora of technologies Rajamannar says constitute his “fifth paradigm”, artificial intelligence is the biggest.
“AI is probably going to be the single biggest disruptor and enabler of marketing in total,” he tells Lord. “It’s a dream come true, from a marketer’s perspective.
“Data that is coming in real time cannot be humanly processed unless you have got something like AI.”
But Rajamannar says marketing is challenged when it comes to AI, by three limiting factors:
- Lack of knowledge.
- Insufficient quantitative mindset.
- Mystique surrounding AI.
“When you demystify it, when you simplify the whole thing for them and speak in plain English, as opposed to the mumbo-jumbo, they’re ready to embrace,” he says.
You are watching “Media In Transition: How AI is Powering Change,” a Beet.TV leadership video series presented by IBM Watson Advertising. For more videos, please visit this page.
]]>In 2020, the nation is living through a virus pandemic and racial tension. Marketers had already been challenged to respond to the former, now they are also contending with the latter.
So, how should brands best behave? Using a unique empathy or not at all, says Raja Rajamannar, the chief marketing officer of Mastercard and president of the World Federation of Advertisers, in this video interview with Beet.TV
These topics will be explored later this month as the virtual IAB NewFronts takes place June 22-26.
‘Be unique’
“You can quickly fall into a trap of looking like everybody else,” he says. “In a sea of sameness, you are just one of those folks who are out there, and consumers cannot differentiate one brand from the other.
“In those situations, it is not to even just worth spending your money, because you are just saying something, but nobody is noticing what you’re saying, so what’s the point?
“So it’s very critical for you that you are true to your brand and be differentiated and the unique, but highly relevant to the consumers.”
‘Sea of sameness’
The “sameness” of brands’ response recipe to COVID-19 has been highlighted in a number of recent video skits.
Rajamannar has a prescription he thinks can avoid creative homogeneity.
- “Be sensitive to people, their feelings, their emotions, and their situations. If you’re tone deaf, that’s going to be disastrous for your company, for your brand, for your product.”
- “Be authentic. Be genuine. If you don’t have anything to say, simply shut up and save your marketing dollars … Nothing is going to be more wasteful as faking something. Just stay on the sidelines.”
- “Let people know that you’re there for them. It is about serving them. It’s not about self-service. It’s not about being opportunistic. But it is truly being in service of the people.”
The current moment is, in a way, the high-water mark so far of “purpose-driven” brand marketing, the trend which began a number of years ago.
But it is also a moment in which some consumers are more actively holding brands to account on their purpose, even their lack of expression of purpose, and some are growing weary and cynical of purpose-centric marketing.
Huge responsibility
All that is a minefield for brands to walk through. Rajamannar, whose World Federation of Advertisers members control $1.2 trillion marketing budget, says those companies have “a huge level of responsibility … to either shape the cultures around the world or to address and solve the problems”.
He recommends the companies focus on three kinds of stakeholders:
- Employees: “You need to give them a sense of reassurance that we understand as a company what they are going through.”
- Consumers: “Don’t try to sell. This is the opportunity to build a trust that is very deep and on solid foundations.”
- Communities: “(They) expect you to take a stance on issues that they believe in. They want you to take action.”
This video is a preview in a series leading up to the 2020 IAB NewFronts. Please visit this page for additional segments from the Road to the NewFronts 2020. This Beet.TV series is presented by the IAB.
]]>In an announcement, the ANA demands upfront sales, which were due to be for ads airing between October 2020 and September 2021, now occur this fall for ads transmitting starting 2021.
More than that, it also lined up a series of chief marketing officers to call for “sweeping changes and improvements in the media ecosystem”, including “transformative changes to the upfront marketplace” – effectively questioning not just the timing but the purpose of upfront ad sales.
“While there are benefits to the upfront, it remains an antiquated business system that needs reform,” said ANA chairman and P&G chief brand officer Marc Pritchard.
Delay to the new year
“Right now, we are going through a substantial turmoil, upheaval literally, and we don’t exactly know what to forecast for 2021,” says Mastercard chief marketing officer Raja Rajamannar, one of those firing the ANA’s warning, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
“To be able to commit in this level of uncertainty that is prevailing right now, it’s not very easy. So it does help us to have more time.
“In times of crisis, such as this, we are very flexible to our partners and we want the same flexibility to be displayed to us from our partners as well.
“This is the right time, given the level of uncertainty, that the industry has to look at upfronts in a slightly delayed cycle, starting with the new year, as opposed to doing it right now.”
Spooked by agile demand
The ANA’s message will ring alarm bells amongst broadcasters. TV companies have been dealt a blow by diminishing advertiser demand during the pandemic, causing many to discount their inventory.
On both sides of the industry, “agility” is the new watchword, as broadcasters try to keep ad buyers engaged and as ad buyers strive to pivot their spending strategy within the space of a quarter or two.
The key pressure is that marketers, in the current climate, are struggling to gain the visibility and confidence required to make the kinds of annual upfront purchase decisions they have in the past.
But the pandemic may also end up being the straw that broke the camel’s back. Over the last couple of years, broadcasters have tooled-up to offer ad buyers fine-grained targeting of OTT viewers and much closer to transmission.
Many will be asking if now is the moment when the upfronts calendar gets consigned to the history books – or if we are in a particular moment in time that simply calls for a time-out.
End of upfronts?
All this is quixotic because TV demand is booming – yet networks’ production calendars have been impacted by COVID-19, leaving some 2020/21 premium content line-ups looking relatively thin.
Mastercard’s Rajamannar, who is also president of the World Federation of Advertisers, says: “I think that upfronts are absolutely essential and do serve a purpose, clearly.
“Depending on how this entire upfront situation ends up, there might be some scenario where you are making some upfront commitments still, probably, and in some cases you’re not able to.
“Every marketer is significantly after good content, less clutter and, of course, very good economies that are supported by the kind of impact that gets created when you have less clutter, when the content is good, when the consumer engagement is good, etc.”
Shifting sands
The ANA broadly is articulating what its media advisory board said in mid-May, when its white paper called for upfronts to be “shifted from a broadcast year to a calendar year to reflect and improve business planning, elevate marketer decision-making, and align television buying with most marketers’ fiscal years”, as “an immediate priority”.
This year’s upfront sales season would be for ads due to air between October 2020 and September 2021.
Instead, the advisory board wants upfronts moved to the fall for inventory in the year of 2021. “That would be after advertisers have greater financial certainty and the major network groups are able to publicly share their approach to programming based on studio production limitations and their contingency plans around sporting events based on league decisions,” it says.
The ANA’s demands don’t just pertain to the upfronts. P&G’s Marc Pritchard also repeated his historic calls for improvements like transparency, decrying the “sub-optimal media ecosystem”.
This video is part of a series titled Trust in Partnership in a Time of Change presented by WarnerMedia and Xandr. Please visit this page for additional segments from the series.
]]>In contextual targeting, ad buyers would seek optimal adjacency to various kinds of content.
But, to Raja Rajamannar, there is one overriding context that everyone shares in 2020 – a global pandemic.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, the CMO of Mastercard says brands need to recalibrate their messaging because a number of tectonic shifts have occurred.
“Data clearly shows that people’s movement patterns have dramatically altered,” he says. “The screens that they are watching has dramatically changed, the mix of the screens, and the kind of content that they are watching has changed.
“Right now the larger context is that the whole world is in a crisis. So be attuned to it, be appropriate in terms of what you’re communicating.”
Change your plan
Rajamannar thinks the ongoing pandemic crisis has thrown consumers in to a number of different contexts, and that means brands must adapt.
“Once you have got this data, for every brand, you need to identify, in addition to the right audience, the right context in which you are going to communicate your message in a most appropriate tone and manner,” he says.
“You need to really make sure is that you are absolutely tweaking, or correcting, or modifying your media plans completely based on the new audience behaviour, and their viewing habits, and viewing patterns.
You’re in the business of selling some luxury product, you have to be much more careful. A lot of people have lost their jobs … You cannot be tone-deaf and say, here is a fantastic luxury product that you should (buy). The message is critical, the product that you’re selling is critical. The context is very important.”
Out of context
An article by Gartner senior director analyst Laurel Erickson last week brought the problem of context and tone in to sharp focus.
She was taken aback by seeing an ad depicting a woman jumping for joy, placed in an article about COVID-19 deaths.
“Your users have landed on your site in the middle of stressful days probably filled with worry and uncertainty,” Erickson writes, making four recommendations: “Check tone”, “Provide easy access to COVID-19 specific content,” “Adjust to current traffic trends” and “Adjust to current consumer concerns”.
Digital ads down
A follow-up survey of brands and agencies conducted by Advertiser Perceptions shows that, in the last few weeks, they have become progressively more worried that the impact on advertising will worsen in Q2 and will stretch in to Q4 and Q4.
Of the immediate impact, the worst may be experienced by digital media. A UBS survey of ad executives shows “ad spending in digital is down over 45% year to date and is expected to drop by that same amount for the rest of the year”, Yahoo Finance reports.
According to an IAB survey, digital display is pegged for the biggest short-term dip in digital ad revenue, eMarketer says.
But the extent of any digital retrenchment may be exaggerated by the extent to which it has long since been the dominant ad channel.
An analysis by Enders Analysis, published Monday, says: “Almost all the evidence we have is that advertising budgets, including online, have been massacred.”
Futuresource Consulting says: “We should expect to see a long-term reinvention in advertising, as the industry will be pressured to make up the shortfall in revenue.”
This video is part of a Beet.TV series titled “Audience, in Context,” presented by Xandr. For more videos please visit this page.
]]>But those qualities are not just nice-to-haves or boxes to tick – they also lead to natural uplift in business effectiveness.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Mastercard chief marketing and communications officer Raja Rajamannar shows how adequately balancing the gender of his team produces positive results.
“Seventy-five to 85% of all purchase decisions in the world are made by women – how strange would it be to not focus on them as the primary target audience?,” Rajamannar asks. “Who can sell things better and communicate things better to a woman than another woman?”
The trouble is, women are not necessarily as equally well represented at the levers of marketing power as they are in the general buying population, Rajamannar says.
So, five years ago, MasterCard began a program to more adequately represent females in senior echelons of Rajamannar’s marketing and communication team. Now more than 70% of that team is female, including at senior level, he says.
But diversity goes beyond gender.
“You need a diversity of thinking,” Rajamannar adds. “That comes from people with different cultural backgrounds, different mindsets and that’s what you have to bring to that if you have to be successful.”
Similarly, the very role of the marketer itself is becoming diverse.
“Marketers are no longer specialists,” Rajamannar says. “They have to be general mangers. They need to understand PR. They need to understand technology. They need to understand numbers. You have to be a consumer advocate.”
The interview was conducted at the annual ANA Masters of Marketing conference in Orlando earlier this week.
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>So it’s a bit ironic that brands’ best hope derives from a trend dating to the 1990’s: one-to-one marketing, but with a twist. “Storytelling is dead,” says Rajamannar, who is CMO & CCO of the financial services company. “It’s all about story making.”
Not that pursuing this strategy comes easy, Rajamannar explains in this interview with Beet. TV at the Masters of Marketing Conference of the Association of National Advertisers.
“Many of the CMO’s have bigger technology budgets than the CTO’s. And that really calls for a level of understanding,” he says before declaring that finding the marketing talent that is required these days “is going to be a nightmare.”
While one-to-one personalization became something of a fad in the 1990’s, there’s no reason why the concept won’t work today, according to Rajamannar. But there’s a hitch.
“Should we be focusing on advertising the way we always focused on advertising at all? Whether it’s one-to-one or one-to-many, consumers are telling you ‘I don’t want your stupid ads. I want my uninterrupted experience.’”
As evidence, he points to the continued rise of ad-blocking software, with some 200 million active users at the end of 2016. By the first quarter of 2017, this had increased by about 25 million, driven in part by manufacturers preloading the software into their devices.
“So as a consumer, with two clicks you block the marketers form your interface altogether.”
It gets worse when one factors in services like Netflix, with nearly 100 million users. “That’s millions of hours of viewability that’s gone,” Rajamannar says.
About four years ago, Mastercard pivoted to experiential marketing. One example from early 2017 was its campaign for the Grammy Awards that included an experiential record store and interactive music experiences for fans who unlocked special offers via a $1 Masterpass purchase, as RetailDIVE reports.
“Give experiences to consumers which are memorable, which are positive, which are maybe once in a lifetime. Then they will tell the story of the brand to their circles. They become your brand ambassadors.”
This video is part of a Beet.TV leadership series produced at the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference, 2017. The series is presented by FreeWheel. Please find more videos from Orlando, visit this page.
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