CPG/FMCG

What Brands Did in 2020

  • INSIGHTS STUDIOS

In this presentation, Paul Donato, CRO of the ARF, covered findings from the seminal year of the “What Brands Did in 2020” (Brands 2020) project. This project will go on for at least the next two years or until the effects of 2020 are no longer felt. ARF researchers in the Brands 2020 study used IRI and NCS data, Kantar Ad Insights, NCS sales and Nielsen Ad Intel data, between 2017 and 2021. The IRI data was a very deep dive but across three categories: salty snacks, pasta sauce and personal care products. The NCS data was shallower but across 10 broad categories. Using all these data, ARF researchers looked at share of media, media spend and share of market before and after March 2020 (Covid) and before and after March of 2021 (start of inflation).

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Evidence-Based Research for Effective Marketing

On November 9, 2022, industry leaders joined us to share highlights from EffWorks Global 2022 — a week-long celebration of the best new thinking and evidence-based decision-making research for marketing effectiveness. Topics of discussion included: marketing in the post-Covid economy, effective advertising in unprecedented times, the value of Share of Voice/Share of Attention/Share of Search in terms of effectiveness and commercial decision making, and more.

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Taste-testing the Brand Premium

Even in instances where consumers face lots of options, they routinely pay a premium for national brands over private labels, research shows. This is true even when they believe that the quality of a private label is comparable. However, one thing that can shift consumer preferences toward private label brands is blind taste tests—at least in the short-term.

FORECASTING 2022: How Can Scenario Planning Improve Agility in Adjusting to Change?

On July 12, 2022, forecasting, and product experts shared frameworks and strategies for participants to consider as they plan amid disruptions in the industry. Presenters discussed techniques marketers could use to drive consumer action and advocacy — as well as econometric models for search trends, insights on holistic analytics programs, reflections on gold standard probability methods — and new forecasting techniques in the wake of the pandemic and more.

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  • Article

Privacy Safe Approach to Ecommerce Audience Quality Measurement

A multi-billion dollar pet food manufacturer analyzed its audience targeting strategy with the goal of ensuring efficient online ad spending, according to Souptik Datta and Zulema Doiny-Cabre of GroupM. The analysis with GroupM evaluated the performance of existing audience segments, pinpointed profiles of high-performing audience segments for additional opportunities and determined the optimal ad impression frequency.

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  • Article

Doldrum of COVID Leads to Breakthrough Creative

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, PepsiCo embarked on a 21-month research project to find out how the quarantining affected people’s lives. The goal: adapt its brand messaging to the experiences of its core consumers, from both a human and consumption perspective, and then develop new creative. “We know that our primary consumers are really out there,” Kevin Moeller of PepsiCo said, citing data on Pepsi’s core base. “They enjoy letting loose, they don’t like to hold back. They’re people that sing karaoke and cheer at sports events. So how did quarantining impact them?”

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  • Article

Audience Trends for Products with Supply Constraints

IRI’s Michael Tscherwinski addressed the challenges marketers are facing due to supply-constraints and provided a best-practices playbook for unlocking opportunities. IRI’s 2022 outlook on product availability predicts continued challenges. Inflation, supply chain issues, as well as the war in the Ukraine, impact the operations of CPG companies. Category out-of-stock conditions are widespread, and many CPGs are pausing media. However, Procter & Gamble, one of the largest advertisers in the world, stated that it would continue to invest in marketing.

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