Member Insights

Schools everywhere continue to grapple with the pandemic’s impact, including running hybrid or online classrooms, handling safety concerns, and making sure students have the support they need to succeed.

As we embark on the critical Back to School season for brands and retailers, it should not be lost on us how important and emotional this time of year is for our shoppers … especially this year. With inflation on the rise shoppers are having to spend more—in fact, an average $661* per student. So how do brands and retailers capture these shopper dollars? 

The ADVERTISING Club of New York, the industry’s leading professional organization representing the advertising, media, marketing, and ad-tech industries is celebrating their 126th anniversary this month. The anniversary coincides with a new home for The Club, which will serve as the headquarters for their 6,000-strong community of members.

When big social issues arise, I often hear both my colleagues and my clients ask the same thing: “What should we be doing or saying about this issue?” Excellent question. Advertising makes up approximately 27% of every hour of traditional television in the United States and the general person in the US is exposed to somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements a day.

The world has changed dramatically since we were founded in 2004, and so have we. We’ve grown from scrappy underdogs to global leaders, from a Brooklyn based team of 5 to a bi-coastal company of nearly 100.

First, I want to acknowledge that brands have a lot on their shoulders in this current complex climate! They have to consider their consumers who expect empathy as well as transparency and accountability in living up to what they stand for.

This year, education marketers have invested more in expanding reach than any year before due to factors like social media marketing, crowdsourcing, and micro influencer marketing. With 36% of campuses experiencing a fall in campus visit requests, universities and other higher education institutions are adopting digital marketing to enhance their student recruitment.

It starts with an honest assessment of what the brand actually currently represents to customers, employees and the general public. It is only from here that you can identify the opportunities or needs for realignment and do so through the lens of a much more consciously aware society.

The pandemic fundamentally shifted the way brands talk to consumers. The influx of the economy and extreme political polarization, accelerated by the pandemic, increasingly influenced consumers to shop based on their social values – actualizing when protestors took to the streets over racial injustice after the murder of George Floyd.

Our research at Nielsen shows that globally LGBTQ+ people felt the best way to improve inclusion in the media was to avoid stereotyping and tropes. That means that marketers have to get to know the community they’re trying to reach. You can’t do that one time a year. You can’t do that by speaking to just one segment of a population. Keep it intersectional, informed by the community and closely tied to what matters to them.