{"id":216163,"date":"2025-09-10T18:28:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T18:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216163\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T18:28:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T18:28:19","slug":"ways-cmos-can-use-ai-and-technology-to-target-their-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216163\/","title":{"rendered":"Ways CMOs Can Use AI And Technology To Target Their Message"},"content":{"rendered":"

Small and medium businesses are putting more resources into marketing nowadays, but many businesses don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s making much of a difference<\/strong>. A new study<\/a> from Constant Contact found that just 18% of SMBs felt confident about the effectiveness of their marketing, down from 27% last year. Nearly a quarter say that their biggest frustration is not knowing what\u2019s driving results.<\/p>\n

The past year has been unpredictable<\/strong> from an economic and messaging perspective, so it makes sense that marketers at smaller businesses aren\u2019t sure how well their messaging is performing. More than two in five are concerned with the rising costs of goods, and about that many have begun to raise prices in response. Just under a quarter of companies are delaying planned launches because of economic uncertainty\u2014and that means there needs to be a renewed focus on messaging to keep customers\u2019 interest and spending alive.<\/p>\n

Marketers acknowledge that email is still performing well<\/strong>, with 44% ranking email as their most effective channel\u2014and the adoption of AI is helping bolster their campaigns. Fifty-three percent of small businesses that use AI find email successful. They also found that AI boosts paid social posts (43% success with AI and 20% without) and helps them do better in search marketing (21% success with AI, as opposed to 9% without).<\/p>\n

But these tools aren\u2019t as useful if there\u2019s no way to measure how effective they actually are<\/strong>. And these days, digital marketing produces a host of data that can help determine that effectiveness. There are many places that marketers can look to for help in analyzing their results, which can help them regain confidence that their messages are getting through to target audiences.<\/p>\n

Mark Penn is a well-known name in digital marketing. After decades as a renowned pollster, PR head and chief strategy officer at Microsoft, he started Stagwell, which focuses on using technology to create successful digital campaigns, in 2015. I talked to him about how technology and AI are changing marketing<\/strong>, and an excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.<\/p>\n

This is the published version of Forbes’ CMO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief marketing officers and other messaging-focused leaders. Click here<\/a> to get it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.<\/p>\n

BRANDS + MESSAGING<\/p>\n

LeBron James in Nike’s “Why Do It?” campaign.<\/p>\n

Nike<\/p>\n

One of the most iconic ad campaigns in recent decades just got a revamp for today\u2019s generation<\/strong>. Last week, Nike unveiled a campaign that turns its \u201cJust Do It\u201d slogan into a question: \u201cWhy Do It?\u201d<\/a> The campaign not only puts a new spin on Nike\u2019s ethos of finding personal greatness in sports, but it also dives into the effort behind the goal. Nike CMO Nicole Graham told<\/a> Adweek that younger generations are often hesitant to get out there because they want to be perfect, and the new campaign pushes them to try.<\/p>\n

The ad features many star athletes<\/strong>\u2014including LeBron James, Caitlin Clark, Carlos Alcaraz, Tara Davis-Woodhall and Vini Jr.\u2014but it also shows a number of young athletes giving their all on the baseball diamond and at a neighborhood pick-up soccer game.<\/p>\n

Social media\u2019s reaction so far has <\/strong>been mixed<\/strong><\/a>, writes Forbes senior contributor John Brandon. Some have said it\u2019s a courageous challenge to a younger and anxiety-filled generation, while others say it\u2019s pandering. The success of the campaign is yet to be seen, but it\u2019s clear that Nike needs a message to drive it forward. The company is working through a major reorganization and posted<\/a> a 10% revenue loss in its last full fiscal year. One thing is certain about the new campaign: It\u2019s a complete change of tone and attitude from the widely panned<\/a> \u201cWinning Isn\u2019t For Everyone\u201d slogan during the 2024 Olympics.<\/p>\n

MARKETING MATTERS<\/p>\n

Customers eat at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Florida City, Florida.<\/p>\n

Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The backlash against Cracker Barrel\u2019s revamp continues<\/strong>, and the restaurant chain is backing down<\/a> amid the pressure. The company, which announced a three-year brand refresh last year, said this week it would stop its plan to modernize its restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard clearly that the modern remodel design does not reflect what you love about Cracker Barrel,\u201d a statement<\/a> from the chain says. \u201cWe had tested this design in only four out of 660 locations, and we won\u2019t continue with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cracker Barrel\u2019s brand refresh became big news after impassioned <\/strong>social media criticism<\/strong><\/a> of its new logo<\/strong>\u2014which removed the old man leaning on a barrel and focused on the restaurant\u2019s name\u2014erupted last month. The criticism, mostly from conservatives who said the changes were \u201ctoo woke,\u201d inspired President Donald Trump to weigh in, telling the chain to keep its old logo and admit it made a mistake.<\/p>\n

The debacle over Cracker Barrel has earned the restaurant a lot of free publicity, but it\u2019s unclear whether it will pay off<\/strong>. The company announced the brand refresh as a way to better attract younger customers. In Cracker Barrel\u2019s most recent earnings report<\/a>, revenues increased just 0.5% year-over-year, with comparable restaurant sales increasing 1%. (In that time frame, menu prices also increased 4.9%.) Investors so far seem unimpressed; Cracker Barrel\u2019s stock is down about 20% since it announced it would keep the old logo.<\/p>\n

IN THE NEWS<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pharmaceutical advertising has become common on television broadcasts, but President Donald Trump is looking to rein it in<\/strong>. Trump signed<\/a> an executive order Tuesday that calls on his administration to step up enforcement on DTC drug ads, ensuring they are transparent and accurate. The Food and Drug Administration announced it was sending about 100 cease-and-desist letters to companies it says are airing deceptive ads, and that it would issue thousands of warning letters to pharmaceutical companies. Officials said that previous administrations had been lax in enforcing transparency in drug advertising.<\/p>\n

The FDA legalized DTC pharmaceutical ads on TV in the 1980s, and they\u2019ve been a big business in recent years<\/strong>. In December, EMarketer reported<\/a> on an iSpot.TV review that found pharmaceutical companies spent about $3.4 billion on linear TV ads in the first eight months of 2024, an 8.1% year-over-year increase. Advertising on linear TV, radio and print channels makes up 27.8% of the total media ad budget for pharma companies this year. And the ads last year generated 54.2 billion household impressions.<\/p>\n

ON MESSAGE
\nMark Penn On How AI Is Impacting Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stagwell chairman and CEO Mark Penn.<\/p>\n

Michael George<\/p>\n

Mark Penn is a legendary figure in marketing, polling and technology circles. He started out as a pollster and strategist, cofounding the firm Penn Schoen Berland in the 1970s, which did work for top political clients including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, foreign governments, and major corporations. He moved to PR and communications firm Burson-Marsteller as its CEO in 2006, and then started working for Microsoft\u2019s advertising and strategy arm in 2012. <\/p>\n

After more than a year as Microsoft\u2019s chief strategy officer, Penn started Stagwell, his own marketing firm, in 2015. Stagwell was founded as a company that truly integrated marketing and advertising into digital technology. In the last decade, Stagwell has acquired several digital technology companies and marketing firms, and has a large contingent of both digital and creative employees.<\/p>\n

I talked to Penn about technology in marketing today and how it\u2019s changing the game for now and the future. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.<\/p>\n

In general, how has the CMO\u2019s work changed over the last several years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Penn:<\/strong> In the U.S. today, you\u2019re seeing a new generation of CMOs that understands it\u2019s a very different environment from what it was just 10 or 15 years ago. I had a $2 billion budget at Microsoft 10 years ago. We would look at TV first, and then spend some money on digital.<\/p>\n

Today, the CMO doesn\u2019t do that anymore. Today\u2019s CMO very carefully integrates across media and then also has to figure out what are the right media for the marketing problems that they have. A marketer has to ask him or herself: Are you Coke or are you a diaper? If you\u2019re Coke, you\u2019re marketing to 150 million people. You probably should primarily spend on big events, sporting events, sponsorships and things that reach everybody. If you\u2019re selling diapers, there\u2019s only 3 million women giving birth this year. That\u2019s 1% of the country to reach. And a third of those have already picked their diapers from their first child. You maybe have $2 million, and within that you have maybe 60 days to market.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why you don\u2019t see a lot of diaper ads on TV, and you should see a lot of Coke and ads for broader products. Part of it is understanding all of these different markets and products, what their target markets are, and then how they should market to them, because now it\u2019s all about getting the right ad to the right person at the right time.<\/p>\n

Tell me about AI: Where do you see it moving in marketing today, and how do you see it coming through as a force in making changes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In marketing, it will make production a lot easier. In particular, there will be many images that now can be created without shoots. I think that\u2019s the biggest transformative effect.<\/p>\n

Research was already pretty well automated from when I started. When you needed 60 people to do a survey, today, you could do it with three. You\u2019re not going to get below three if you get enhanced coding and analysis.<\/p>\n

Also, we can deliver things to clients now in a dashboard where they can ask any question of the data and it can search the data and provide them with answers that previously, they would\u2019ve had to call us and pore through the data.<\/p>\n

What we are looking for and implementing is those pieces of the industry for which AI can be incorporated. What I think people always forget is that new technology is never about doing the old things more cheaply. It is about doing new things that you couldn\u2019t do before. As I always say, there was radio and then radio ads, TV and TV ads, and Facebook and Facebook ads. There is AI and there will be AI ads. There\u2019s all sorts of new skills and products that are going to be created and delivered as part of marketing. Our marketing cloud people are very on top of that.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of interest in synthetic research, but you have to be careful. You could build junk synthetic research or you can build synthetic research that at least is trained on good data sets that give you something that could be useful across all of the marketing disciplines. We are working as quickly as we can to implement it.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, for [Stagwell-owned agency concentrating on tech] Code and Theory Network, they\u2019ve launched their EXT practice<\/a>. A lot of companies have bought marketing software, but they\u2019re having trouble figuring out how they use it and how they apply it to tasks. That\u2019s a new line of business for us in addition to creating new kinds of websites and consumer experiences that are based in AI. We consider AI to be something that is really going to help us grow, and that we\u2019re going to be a part of.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give a CMO who is trying to use technology in the best way for their brand?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing always is to analyze where do you fit in. What is it that you want to use technology for, and how does that fit in with what kind of consumers you have? Are your consumers people who drive F-150 trucks? Are they consumers who wear hoodies in urban areas? This is not a one-size-fits-all kind of answer. You have to understand what your target markets are, what your consumers are like, where they spend their time.<\/p>\n

Then you\u2019ve got to begin to look at tailoring your marketing, to where your people spend their time. There are two aspects of marketing. I\u2019m either on the purchase channel\u2014which means I\u2019m really looking for a new pair of jeans\u2014or it\u2019s interruptive\u2014I wasn\u2019t really looking for it, but then I saw. I have to figure out the balance of that. I have to figure out whether I\u2019m going brick and mortar. I have to be conscious about all of these decisions before I start the creative process, before I start the process of what kind of media channels are we going to do.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t just do what seems popular. Do it [leaning] against the goals you have and the kinds of people that you\u2019re marketing to. I mean, the most successful ad of the year\u2019s going to be the least digital one of them: The [American Eagle Outfitters Sydney] Sweeney ad.<\/p>\n

COMINGS + GOINGS<\/p>\n