2011 Incentive Merchandise Trends Survey
Corporate Meetings & Incentives
After one of the most difficult economic periods in recent history, companies that cut merchandise are once again including it in their incentive mix, according to joint research between Corporate Meetings & Incentives and the Incentive Research Foundation.

The study—which defines merchandise as “material awards that are not travel-related, including gift cards and logoed apparel options”—was conducted in spring 2011 to identify the latest trends in the corporate incentive market. A total of 160 respondents who plan merchandise incentive programs or purchase incentive gifts for their companies responded to the survey. Their input provides new data on the state of merchandise incentive budgets, the types of behaviors rewarded, and the range of merchandise selections included in program offerings.

At the end of 2009, many organizations remained uncertain about sales growth for 2010, and forecasts were clouded by lingering pessimism. However, according to our respondents, it turned out to be a good year: Almost 75 percent reported their 2010 sales revenues either increased or remained unchanged. The outlook for 2011 sales is even better, with 38 percent of respondents expecting them to be about the same and almost half (48 percent) predicting them to improve from 2010.

This trend back to financial stability coincides with the growth in merchandise incentives. Only 11 percent of respondents indicated that they were forced to cancel their merchandise incentive programs in 2011. That number shrinks even further—to only 6 percent—for those who predict their 2012 programs will be canceled.

Kraft Spiffs Up Its Old Brands
Wall Street Journal
In a new Kraft Foods Inc. commercial, a Greek grandmother tells a party hostess she looks like a prostitute.

The snarky Athenos hummus ad is part of Kraft's effort to shuck its stodgy image and adapt decades-old brands like Miracle Whip and Macaroni & Cheese to the denizens of Facebook and Twitter.

The 108-year-old cheese maker has stirred up online discussions about the virtues of its Miracle Whip, dished out free mac-and-cheese through a Twitter contest, and made the grandmother, or yiayia, in its commercial popular enough to claim more than 150,000 Facebook friends.

Next month, Kraft will begin national ads for a contest in which divorcing couples can win money to pay for their split if, at least in part, it resulted from their differences over Miracle Whip. "We've seen Twitter posts about how people have broken up over this," says Chris Kempczinski, Kraft senior vice president of meals and enhancers, explaining the campaign.

Global Ad Spending Remains Resilient — Albeit Somewhat Muted
AdWeek
As 14 million Americans continue to hunt for work, their Congressional representatives are negotiating how much more (or less) money the government will be allowed to spend, presenting a fiscal crunch coming from both ends of the economy. Add to that the world's economies facing down one crisis after another: Japan earthquake; Arab spring; Greek collapse; China inflation; India corruption.

Despite these spasms, the global economy is now being propped up by emerging nations like Russia, Brazil and, in yet another sign of its significance, China, though not quite as much as one would think. Economists expect a slight increase in domestic and global growth in the latter half of the year, a pink-hued outlook that will help global ad spending. Expect a slight uptick in ad dollars, but only slight.

"From our last focus from April, our expectations slightly increased in most regions," said Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at ZenithOptimedia, who anticipates global ad spending to rise 4.2% this year, down a bit from an earlier forecast due to the earthquake in Japan and the uprisings in Middle East states.

Mr. Barnard expects these events to chip away a bit at overall ad growth, but said he believes they will not have a long-term effect. "Japan obviously caused a lot of damage, leading to about a month or so of no television advertising," he said, "but it didn't have much of an effect on long-term expectations."

When’s Prime Time in Mobile? Same as TV
AdAge
Prime time in mobile is shaping up to look a lot like TV: Working stiffs turn to their phones after they've logged off their computers for the day and plopped down on the couch at home.

Users surf the mobile web and apps on phones most during the early evening, between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., and keep usage up through the night, according to a recent study from third-party ad server MediaMind. Looking at billions of mobile ad impressions across devices, carriers and operating systems, mobile ad click-through rates are also highest between 7 p.m. and midnight, with clicks reaching a peak at 8 p.m. MediaMind serves global campaigns for advertisers and agencies in all digital media, including mobile.

Mobile ad network Jumptap concurs with the findings and so does Google. The highest click-through rates—0.63%—happen between 5 and 6 p.m. on Jumptap's U.S. mobile ad network, said Chief Marketing Officer Paran Johar. Findings are based on the network's 83 million unique users' 11 billion ad requests on both the mobile web and in apps. Google, too, sees the highest volume of mobile search in the evening.

When Brand’s Goal Is Generating Audience
Marketing Daily News
When people discuss "building brands," they are usually thinking about a long-term process, which for a new product involves shifting the consumer through the various stages of the purchase funnel: building awareness, influencing attitudes, developing favorability, fostering purchase intent, and ultimately building preference for the product or service. The end goal of all of which is to drive sales. This is a process that may play out over the years.

In the entertainment industry, where the "new product" is often a movie or television show with a specific release date and limited window to grab attention, you may think standard brand-building logic doesn't apply. But you'd be wrong. Effective brand advertising is critical in this industry; it just needs to happen in an extremely rapid manner.

Entertainment companies' advertising needs to very quickly 1) create awareness of the product and 2) drive people to attend a movie opening or tune in to a television show. Technology exists in the online medium that allows entertainment advertisers to measure and optimize these key Brand Lift metrics, awareness and intent, and the resulting attendance (increased sales) in real-time so that the branding plays out in hours and days, not months or years.

Amazon, Apple Gallop Up Retail Rankings
Marketing Daily News
The National Retail Federation just released its latest ranking of the 100 largest U.S. retailers—and yes, Walmart, Kroger and Target are still in the top three spots. And yes, the entire top 10 is virtually unchanged from last year.

But the big news, the group says, is that Amazon is moving fast. Powered in part by sales of the Kindle, it zoomed from No. 26 to No. 19 on this year's list, with U.S. sales climbing 46.2% to $18.5 billion. And tech fueled another seismic power shift, with Apple Stores jumping more than 30 spots—moving to No. 21 from No. 52, with U.S. sales advancing 32.3% percent to $18 billion.

(The report, compiled by Kantar Retail and sponsored by Verizon, ranks stores by U.S. sales only.)

After Walmart, Kroger, and Target, Walgreens, Home Depot, Costco, CVS Caremark, Lowe's, Best Buy and Sears Holdings filled out the top 10. (Best Buy and Sears swapped positions this year, and were the only chains among the top 10 that showed a decline in 2010, with U.S. sales slipping 0.3% and 2.2%, respectively.)

Marketing to the Heartland: How to Build Brands for the US Faithful
AdWeek
Most marketers don’t understand the American Heartland, a unique segment that is ever evolving, and requires constant attention for brands to remain relevant. But being underestimated and underserved means it presents a huge opportunity for brands that become Heartland savvy. There is a new Heartland that is as complex and diverse as the rest of the U.S. It’s comprised of the Midwest, Southeast, and parts of the Southwest—which have more in common than you might think. It includes large, cosmopolitan cities, small rural towns, and spots in the middle of nowhere. Its residents are corporate executives, factory workers, celebrities, soccer moms, debutantes, tobacco farmers, and former U.S presidents.

Marketers no doubt conduct volumes of market research to find ways to engage these customers. But if you want to form a deeply rooted relationship with the 177 million “new Heartland” consumers, you must first understand their lifestyles and core beliefs.

Consumer Divide Grows Between Haves and Have Nots
AdWeek
The rich—and marketers who cater to them—just keep getting richer as everyone else struggles through a so-called recovery. That fact of economics could reshape marketing strategies this year, and for years to come.

Last year, the only growth in spending came from people making $100,000 or more annually, said David Calhoun, CEO of Nielsen Co., speaking at the Advertising Research Foundation's annual Re:Think conference in March. If anything, the disconnect between the haves and the have-lesses has only kept widening since. The ConsumerEdge Research monthly tracker, based on surveys of more than 2,000 consumers, helps illustrate this vividly.

Overall, its "Willingness to Spend" index of U.S. consumers has fallen fairly steadily from 103 in May 2010 (just before the so-called summer of recovery) to 96 last May, where 100 equals sentiment levels in December 2009. But willingness to spend has been on the rise lately among the high-income segment—that 16% of the U.S. population making $100,000 or more annually. Their spending sentiment index rose from 118 in December to 131 in May. Their index is down 6 points from 137 a year ago, but they're the only income group more willing to spend now than they were in December 2009.

For marketers, the growing disconnect in the market can have big implications. Perhaps none feels it more acutely than Walmart, caught in a classic middle-class squeeze.