Revolutionary times call for new shopper ‘marketing manifesto’

CHICAGO — A seismic shift in how people interact with technology, consume media and forge bonds with brands is forcing manufacturers, retailers and agencies to rethink how they go about business in order to win over consumers. The reality is we are living in a revolutionary period, and for marketers, that means a new marketing manifesto.

“You are living in what is called a ‘revolutionary period.’ … This is a massively disruptive time. It is not normal. It is not business as usual,” Aidan Tracey, president of AMG-Acosta Mosaic Group, told attendees of the Shopper Marketing Expo seminar “A New Marketing Manifesto: What Brands, Retailers and Agencies Need to Ask Themselves for 2014.” The session walked participants through a “new marketing manifesto” — an approach that showcases the evolving role of experiences to drive storytelling across a range of media platforms and retail environments.

Aidan Tracey, president of AMG-Acosta Mosaic Group

Demonstrating his passion for new forms of media and for creating innovative ways for brands to better connect with consumers, Tracey argued that marketers surround today’s consumers in three key environments:

• The shopping environment — in-store or online;


• Experientially — direct-to-consumer connections outside of retail; and


• Online.

“Connecting all three of those things is very difficult, and you have to make sure you have the right partners at the table,” Tracey said. Acosta Mosaic Group is a full service marketing services business created by the merger of Acosta and Mosaic Sales Solutions in July 2012. Prior to the merger, Tracey was the CEO of Mosaic.

To help attendees with their future planning in the midst of today’s revolution, Tracey outlined five key questions that retailers and agencies need to ask themselves for 2014:

• What are we changing in the way we do planning for 2014?


• What links do your agencies have to actual in-store execution at key retailers? If none, do you have an agency at the table that does?


• How quickly can we get real-time information from the field to affect the way we plan?


• Where are our ideas being generated?


• How are we measuring ROI?

Bringing it all to life and helping attendees connect the dots on how consumers are changing the game, Tracey highlighted Red Bull and its freefall from space campaign as a best-in-class example.

In 2012, Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team pulled off a stunt that no doubt caught the world’s attention — parachuting from the edge of space. The campaign became the largest branded event in social media history with 8 million simultaneous YouTube views and generated $60 million in earned media within the first two days, with scores of major news outlets covering the event.

“An experiential-type program becomes the heart of what you do because it is no longer reliant on just a television campaign to be successful. It can permeate all forms of media,” Tracey said.



For more DSN coverage from the Shopper Marketing Expo, visit DrugStoreNews.com/Shopper-Marketing-Expo.