Agency New Business
The State of Influencer Marketing: Q2 2024
Last weekend’s Coachella marked the ninth annual Revolve Fest. But, the 2024 iteration of the influencer event was much more...
On Monday, we honored Juneteenth, a day few companies outside of Texas acknowledged until just a few years ago. The recent focus on racial disparities, coupled with the impact of Covid, has put a spotlight on the lives and livelihoods of Black families. And today’s consumers are taking note. In fact, nearly two-thirds of consumers (64%) are at least somewhat likely to purchase a product immediately after seeing it advertised if the brand embodies diversity and inclusion.
Agencies and martech companies, take note. Here are three standout brands that have put diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at the forefront of their businesses. Check out where and how they’re spending their marketing budgets along with the accolades and efforts they’re putting into DE&I:
1) Progressive
According to iSpot, Progressive has spent approximately $332.6m on national TV commercials YTD, up 19% from the approximately $279m spent by this point last year. The company ended up spending approximately $695.1m on this channel last year, up 10% from the approximately $629.8m spent in 2020. Progressive’s 2022 commercials have targeted male sports enthusiasts watching shows such as NFL Football, College Basketball, the 2022 Winter Olympics, NBA Basketball, and the Super Bowl LVI Pregame.
So far this year, Pathmatics reports the insurance company has allocated roughly $56.7m toward digital ads, down 15% from the roughly $67m allocated within the same 2021 timeframe. In 2021, Progressive’s estimated full-year spend of $117.9m reached only around half of that of the $230m in 2020. The company has earned around 6b digital impressions YTD via desktop video (63%), Facebook (18%), desktop display (10%), Instagram (5%), Twitter (2%) and mobile display (2%) ads. The majority of this year’s desktop video ads have been placed site direct onto destinations such as youtube.com (77%), brainly.com, craigslist.org, espn.com, and yahoo.com.
- Sellers: TV spend is rising while digital spend drops, so Progressive is still targeting its traditionally sought-after audience of millennials and Gen-X with a male skew. Per Kantar data, the company additionally utilizes OOH, print, radio, and local broadcast.
- Agency and martech readers: There haven’t been any roster shifts since Progressive named Remi Kent as CMO in November. The window of opportunity is still open. Creative is set with Arnold Worldwide, so you’d probably have better luck offering PR, media and/or digital analytics services.
- Accolades and efforts: ‘Best Workplaces For Women: Great Place to Work’ in 2020. ’25 Best Companies for Latinos to Work: Latino Leaders’ in 2021.
2) Tampax (Proctor & Gamble)
Tampax has gradually grown a stereotype-busting eSports presence thanks to efforts to reach female and non-binary Gen-Z gamers. Its latest effort involved the biggest sponsorship in the space to date for the personal care business. Tampax and its bigger sibling brand, Always, sponsor the Astral Clash tournament series. Always is also increasingly involved with eSports, largely as part of its #KeepHerPlaying campaign that supports female athletics.
It makes sense that Tampax would successfully become popular among female gamers for these efforts. While around half of gamers are women, gaming spaces still often don’t normalize discussions about periods. Per iSpot, Tampax hasn’t utilized national TV commercials since 2021, when around $2.6m targeted women watching shows such as The Voice, The Bachelorette, Big Brother, The Masked Singer and Mom. Tampax allocated around $8.3m toward this channel in 2020.
- Sellers: Tampax will continue to establish sponsorships that can build buzz among Gen-Z females and non-binary individuals, especially gamers. Since the Pathmatics data doesn’t reflect an increase in digital channel usage, assume that Tampax is focused on other digital channels like Twitch. According to Kantar data, the brand also invests in local broadcast, so expect it to continue investing in sponsorships.
- Agency and martech readers: Get in touch to see if parent company P&G is looking for project-based, brand-specific assistance for Tampax. The brand works with Saatchi & Saatchi on creative, Lapiz on multicultural, and MSLGroup on PR.
- Accolades and efforts: With 99,000 employees, P&G has impressive diversity statistics with 48% of management made up of women. 41% of the company’s Global Leadership Council is women.
3) Target
Target recently launched the first of four new women’s collections inspired by a partnership with social star, Tabitha Brown. Her line includes apparel, swim, accessories, home, office, food, kitchenware, and entertainment. A campaign supporting this launch also debuted; it was made by Mythology with heavy influence from Brown.
Per Target, this partnership is the company’s latest intentional effort to support Black-owned businesses, creators, and designers, as part of its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) commitment. Expect it to continue utilizing cause marketing efforts like this one in the future.
- Sellers: Sellers should contact soon to offer ways to help optimize ROI among Gen-Z and millennial parents, especially moms. Remember, this new campaign also includes an experiential activation, OOH installations, and content on Target’s magazine.
- Agency and martech readers: Even with new AOR, Mythology, Target may conduct additional reviews, especially considering the CMO vacancy. However, you will still have a shot at project-based work. Target’s roster currently includes multicultural AOR Third Ear, social and experiential AOR Periscope, creative, PR and multicultural AOR Mother NY and digital and media planning AOR Essence.
- Accolades and efforts: The retailer is on track to meet its 2021 goals. It’s increasing investments with Black-owned businesses by more than 50% and doubling the number of Black-owned brands in-store.
