Adweek Outlook was speaking our language. How does marketing drive business growth?
As Sadie Smith on our Hunt team said at our first team meeting of the year, 2024 is refreshing. The last 4 four years have been a weird mix of abundance and scarcity, of uncertainty and certainty.
2023 in particular was a turbulent year, and one of the speakers at Adweek Outlook referenced that. We, as an industry and in the business world, thought at this time last year that 2023 was going to be a rather smooth, soft landing year. It wasn’t. It was a year for introspection, of revisiting the core of who we are and what value we bring each other as a team and to our partners.
An overall positive from 2023 is that it made us all more resilient and ready for an abundant 2024. We will not take for granted that the core of marketing is to drive business growth.
Adweek Outlook focused on that topic. The speakers referenced that we are a trusted partner for businesses, that we have to focus on providing value and being efficient and effective with our marketing, and that in a world of AI buzz, we have to build a human connection.
One question posed was: Were the dollars we spent enough to drive the business forward?
That is a tough question, but one we need to consistently ask ourselves. And be willing to give the marketing time to connect with the audience at the right time. We should focus on short-term value AND long-term value, and protect that long-term value perspective at all costs.
One of our goals is to get the attention of humans, which is hard. In order to get that attention, we should invest in great creative that they will talk to their friends about. The power of this earned media (or “free” media) is just as valuable, if not more valuable, than the paid media.
One of the two major 2024 events discussed was the Super Bowl, and one of the goals of spending $7 million plus for a 30 second spot being the value of humans talking about it to their family and friends. As Gary Vee has said, the Super Bowl is the one time each year that people actually want to watch the ads.
That is very true, but how can we create valuable, shareable, great creative throughout the year that humans want to talk about and share with their network of friends and family?
The biggest opportunity for 2024 is embracing great creative that brings out the core of who your great brand is. I encourage business leaders from the CEO to the CFO to the CMO to the Marketing Directors and Managers to embrace this opportunity.
Let’s revisit content and distribution strategies from the pre-COVID world and embrace a modern twist on growth marketing to drive business forward.
One Great Word is a blog series written by Hunt CEO & President, Will Hunt. To learn more about how Hunt can help you build a great brand, reach out to newbusiness@huntmarketingfirm.com.