Joline McGoldrick — VP of Insights & Product Marketing, Kantar Millward Brown
Joline talks to TheNextGag about why we still should do research, why advertising is getting harder but is still very much needed and how to overcome current market challenges.
Joline McGoldrick is the Vice-President of Insights & Product Marketing at Kantar Millward Brown in the USA.
Justine McGoldrick leads product development of digital measurement and pre-testing tools, including eyetracking and manages custom projects with emerging measurement technologies.
At Kantar Millward Brown, Justine helps brands sort through all the data thrown their way to better engage customers and create an effective media strategy.
She recently published a new study, “AdReaction” on the media consumption habits and opinions of advertising among Gen X, Y and Z.
“AdReaction: Engaging Gen X, Y and Z” is the first global study to reveal Gen Z’s behaviours, attitudes and responses to advertising to help marketers understand the similarities and differences between the generations and how to effectively engage them.
THENEXTGAG: WHAT IS IT THAT YOU DO ?
JOLINE MCGOLDRICK: I lead the strategy and go-to-market for Kantar Millward Brown’s Media and Digital Practice. Specifically, I study audience behavior and media consumption, as well as industry and platform response (emerging platforms, emerging channels and formats), in order to create and offer clients tools for understanding how effective their media and communications are in advertising.
TNG: IS RESEARCH STILL VITAL IN A WORLD MOVING SO FAST ?
JM: More than ever. The best advertising campaigns start with an insight of universal human truth, which is often derived from research that the brands conduct among their audience. After that initial insight, it’s about evidence-based planning and optimizing so that creative is on point with its intended audience and media is bought and optimized in a way that drives value for the brand.
TNG: WHAT IS SOMETHING THAT YOU WISH ADVERTISERS SHOULD BE MORE AWARE OF ?
JM: Kantar Millward Brown’s BrandZ research shows that clarity has diminished year-over-year. Standing out as a brand and being personally relevant is essential to maintain market share. Whether it’s reflected in corporate practices, paid media or brand imagery, clear brand values are more essential than ever.
TNG: CAN YOU TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING PROJECTS ?
JM: Generation Z (audiences under 18) is a big area of focus for us. Brands, and publishers to some degree, were caught off guard with Millennials. There was a whiplash to adapt with things like hyper-personalization, hyper-targeting or re-targeting. But it was reactive rather than proactive and consequently, there was a lot of waste and also taxing of audience receptivity.
Through our work with Gen Z, we see that this emerging consumer segment has such sophisticated expectations of what good advertising should be. From a brain-based perspective, we don’t yet fully understand how all of this early exposure to media and digital has affected them, but preliminary research shows that creative dimensions like music and good design are much more important to them in advertising than older generations. Brands, publishers and agencies need to give a closer look to their visual imagery and creative elements like music and humor.
TNG: CAN CREATIVITY SAVE US ALL ?
JM: Creativity, with a strong dose of clarity and humanity. If we discount the importance of inspiration, emotion and vision, we’re in the wrong industry.
TNG: DO PEOPLE REALLY CONFORM TO THEIR AGE GROUP ?
JM: Within every age group there is a degree of variation and uniqueness — different interests, tastes and experiences. But we should balance variation with shared experience. We’re certainly living in very interesting times; and though our sentiments towards these times or viewpoint on them varies, it’s undeniable that there is a commonality in our experiences.
TNG: DO YOU HAVE EXAMPLES OF ADVERTISING THAT WAS BEAUTIFULLY EXECUTED WITH AN EFFECTIVE MEDIA STRATEGY ?
JM: So many. My all-time favorite is Under Armour’s What You Do in the Dark featuring Michael Phelps’ preparation leading up to the Rio Games (it was also the favorite at Cannes last year). It has all of the key elements of great creative — good music, a compelling subject, beautiful visual design and a poignant and inspiring narrative. UnderArmour’s media strategy was digital video based and that certainly formed the spine of the campaign, but the visual imagery was pulled through to other offline formats. They also appropriately predicted the benefit of viral potential and shareability was a great amplifier.
TNG: IS THERE SOMETHING LIKE TOO MUCH DATA ?
JM: If you don’t take the insights from the data, then that’s absolutely the case. Data is meant to build understanding and guide better decision making. If we’re fixated on data for data’s sake and not drawing out the insights, it’s low value — that’s the challenge.
TNG: DO YOU BELIEVE THAT DEVELOPING ADVERTISING THAT WORKS ACROSS ALL GENERATIONS IS TOUGHER NOW THAN BEFORE ?
JM: Yes, and I think that is driven by not only because of differences in how we message to generations, but also because generations are in fundamentally different places online. Boomers are still watching a healthy amount of TV, but younger Gen Z audiences are on Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter. Pulling a consistent creative thread across so many different media experiences is challenging.
A lot of the fragmentation can be broken down with a common currency and common language of impact
TNG: IS THE USA IN THE AGE OF FRAGMEN-NATION ?
JM: Yes, both culturally and media-wise. But that means our jobs as marketers, advertisers, and media producers are more important than ever. Cultural fragmentation can be overcome by inspiration and creativity, telling universal stories, and brands that are crystal clear and consistent in their values (think Starbucks corporate messaging). From a media perspective, a lot of the fragmentation can be broken down with a common currency and common language of impact. Then finding a balance of planning, discipline and consistency with adaptation.
Joline McGoldrick
Vice-President of Insights & Product Marketing
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