ORLANDO \u2013 Listening to Mastercard\u2019s Raja Rajamannar, one wonders how marketers juggle the myriad the complexities and challenges that did not exist a mere decade ago. Even if they manage to master technology, brand safety, cause marketing and acquiring suitable talent, consumers don\u2019t want to see their ads.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s a bit ironic that brands\u2019 best hope derives from a trend dating to the 1990\u2019s: one-to-one marketing, but with a twist. \u201cStorytelling is dead,\u201d says Rajamannar<\/a>, who is CMO & CCO of the financial services company. \u201cIt\u2019s all about story making.\u201d<\/p>\n Not that pursuing this strategy comes easy, Rajamannar explains in this interview with Beet. TV at the Masters of Marketing<\/a> Conference of the Association of National Advertisers.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of the CMO\u2019s have bigger technology budgets than the CTO\u2019s. And that really calls for a level of understanding,\u201d he says before declaring that finding the marketing talent that is required these days \u201cis going to be a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n While one-to-one personalization became something of a fad in the 1990\u2019s, there\u2019s no reason why the concept won\u2019t work today, according to Rajamannar. But there\u2019s a hitch.<\/p>\n \u201cShould we be focusing on advertising the way we always focused on advertising at all? Whether it\u2019s one-to-one or one-to-many, consumers are telling you \u2018I don\u2019t want your stupid ads. I want my uninterrupted experience.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSo as a consumer, with two clicks you block the marketers form your interface altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n It gets worse when one factors in services like Netflix, with nearly 100 million users. \u201cThat\u2019s millions of hours of viewability that\u2019s gone,\u201d Rajamannar says.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cGive 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.\u201d<\/p>\n