Music isn’t new to the marketing industry, using an artist’s song in a commercial to a catchy jingle is something marketers have had in their toolkit for years. But the lower cost of producing and releasing music into the world has given brands, corporations and executives new opportunities to connect with their consumers.
And the data suggests this is on the rise, per eMarketer, the average time spent listening to digital audio in the U.S. is expected to hit 1 hour and 37 minutes a day in 2022, up from 1 hour and 14 minutes in 2018.
General Mills made a splash recently by dropping an Album, highlighting their Lucky Charms brand, called “Magically Delicious”. There are eight songs on the album, each in a different music genre and each focused on one of the eight different marshmallow charms in the cereal. While we had our doubts, we have to admit some songs are fairly catchy and seem to be on the same level as much of the music on the radio today. While we don’t think this album will be up for a Grammy, it does show a newer side to established brands – finding new ways to connect with consumers on different mediums.
Using music to connect with your audience isn’t new. Celebrities, Influencers, Executives, Artists and even Presidents have shared playlists to their followers.
- We have seen recently on Spotify they are releasing playlists from various CMOs as an almost “peak behind the curtain” as to their personalities and interests.
- Earlier this year, newly elected President Biden released a playlist on his inauguration day to help connect with the country, a collection of 46 songs that “represents the diversity of our nation, and our strength and resilience”.
- And while this was a few years back, even the likes of Elon Musk have made headlines with their playlists that they are sharing to the world.
And just last week, Spotify announced a new addition to their music service allowing friends to make playlists together called Blend. Add to that the literal thousands of podcasts out there and it’s easy to see why there is a push to be part of it all. The traffic is up on streaming services like Spotify, and brands are realizing their consumers are there – it’s going to be fun to see how many brands will be jumping on the music train over the next year.
I don’t think this is the last time we will be writing about this topic, as music is a pretty serious topic here at RetailWit. Did you catch our ‘Album of the Week’ in our Friday post last week? Maybe we should start dropping playlists too??
Now, in case you missed a day here is the top news from the last week:
Chain Store Age announces their Breakout Retailer Awards. Spoiler Alert: Chipotle Mexican Grill, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Goldfish Swim School took top honors in Chain Store Age’s annual Breakout Retailer Awards.
A sneak peek at Bloomies. A first look at Bloomingdale’s new small-store concept. “Bloomie’s is designed to be a more convenient and casual concept that fits into our customer’s everyday lifestyle,” said Tony Spring, CEO “And, with our staff of stylists, omni services, lively restaurant, and elevated assortment, Bloomie’s can be their favorite neighborhood store.”
It isn’t all about speed in Ecommerce. Spoiler Alert 2: It is more about precision than Speed, new data suggests shoppers care more about ability to select a specific delivery day and precise delivery time. Convenience wins again, “I want what I want, when I want it” trumps “I want it now”
GNC enters the meal kit business. Last week the new entrant in the race for a larger share of stomach is GNC. They are now selling meals and offering meal delivery through a new partnership with RealEats
Grubhub, Doordash sued for alleged deceptive pricing during pandemic. The lawsuit, filed Friday by the city of Chicago against the two major food-delivery platforms, make a number of allegations —some jointly and some particular to each service — that the companies used “unfair and deceptive tactic to take advantage of restaurants and consumers who were struggling to stay afloat” during the pandemic.
Tokinomo provides 4 recommendations on what you can do to prepare for cookiegeddon and how to still personalized offers and experiences?
- More First-Party Data Collection
- Contextual Retail Advertising
- Retail Media
- Focus more on in-store marketing
Allbirds goes public. Allbirds filed to go public yesterday – the second digitally native brand to do so in the last two weeks (Warby Parker went public last week via direct listing). Allbirds’s online sales revenue grew 74% from 2018–2020 but it is important to note they still have not made a profit. Also, of note, both of those brands have also seen the need and moved into brick & mortar as well, Allbirds has 27 stores and Warby Parker has 145.
Walgreens raises minimum wage. As the labor market continues to become more competitive drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance announced on Tuesday that it will raise its wages for hourly workers in phases, with the goal of reaching $15 per hour by November 2022. We have seen most retailers raising wages and thinking more creatively on benefits (education benefits etc.) as they are all competing for associates.
7-Eleven Drafts Roster of Superfan Influencers. 7-Eleven is drafting three social media-savvy customers to join its squad of football superfans and show their followers – and the world – how 7-Eleven helps fuel their fandom. Led by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, pro football wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, and sportscaster Erin Andrews (each with a social media fan base in the millions!), the 7-Eleven Superfan Influencer Team will “Take It To Eleven” all season long as they cheer on their favorite teams.
Walmart and Amazon are on a hiring spree. Most of it appears to be centered around supply chain, which has yo-yo’d quite drastically over the last few years. The Great Labor Shortage hasn’t slowed, especially in an area that’s had a lot of friction, mixed business models (and subsequent results), and key to winning customers.
Campbell’s reports Q4 & FY2021 Results. They beat expectations with Q4 sales decline of 11.2% ($1.87B vs Street consensus of $1.81B). Organic net sales declined 4%. For the Fiscal, net sales decreased 2% and organic net sales remained flat. Campbell’s faced a tough year, considering the pandemic and supply chain constraints, and performed better than expected—the stock was up 2% after the announcement.
MarketingCharts talks digital customer engagement strategy. The number of data sources leveraged by marketers has and is expected to increase—essentially doubling from 2020 (6 sources) to 2022 (12 sources). Put (too) simply, the death of the cookie is fragmenting the market, and teams will be paying it through piecing together disparate platforms. It’s easier than ever to stand up data architecture, and harder than ever to realize the value.
Walmart is the latest retailer to increase hourly pay for associates. It will affect roughly 565K store associates and is the third increase to compensation in the previous 12 months—yet, that trails the investments made by Target and Amazon. Walmart’s minimum wage will sit at $12/hour versus $15/hour for the aforementioned competitors. It’s a challenge for Walmart, who eclipses the count of associates of Target and Amazon significantly, but must raise wages to remain competitive.
Speaking of Amazon, they’re preparing their air fleet and logistics for 3P deliveries. Taking on USP and FedEx, Amazon has been making significant investments in this area. An estimated 70% of Americans are now within a ~2 hour drive of an Amazon Air airport (+54% increase YOY).
Walgreens launches bank account and debit card. Another revenue stream for the retail chain, the goal is to help customers “build healthy financial habits, earn rewards, and save on future purchases”. This latest move is another innovation within an extensive financial services portfolio.
Proctor and Gamble is making leadership changes: Monica Turner will become P&G’s North American President and replace Carolyn Tastad, who will be P&G’s Health Care CEO. Monica started and rose through the Sales ranks at Proctor. She steps in while P&G is seeing success. Their recent annual results had a 7% increase in net sales and 6% increase in organic sales.
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