The stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2020, ushered in a new decade and activated the most sweeping privacy law passed in the U.S. during the digital age: the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). In broad brush, the law grants Californians : the right to know what personal data about them is collected and where it’s shared; the right to opt out of data sharing; the right to delete their data; and the right to suffer no consequences for exercising any of these rights. Consumers are also given an implicit limited right to data security through language that assumes businesses have a duty to perform reasonable security practices. Businesses that fall under CCPA regulation must abide by these regulations as it relates to California residents under penalty of fines and litigation.

That this state-level law focuses only on California residents is cold comfort. California boasts the and generates almost 15% of the country’s GDP. The law’s reach stretches across California’s boundaries, too, as organizations located elsewhere are if they conduct business in the state. If you’re headquartered in Houston and harvest data from San Franciscans or Los Angelenos, the CCPA applies to you.

While the CCPA might be the furthest reaching of all state privacy laws, it’s not the only one on the books. Three months before CCPA went into effect, requiring companies to obtain consumer permissions to sell certain information to data brokers. , with privacy bills being debated in New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Hawaii and North Dakota. Outside the U.S., the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) already affects many American marketers and directly influenced the CCPA’s creation as well as the revelation that political consulting firm of nearly 90 million users.

For marketers, it must seem like the walls are closing in as governments position themselves as vexing interlopers. Some might even be tempted to entertain notions of withdrawing from jurisdictions with privacy laws—if such a fantasy didn’t fly in the face of the modern marketplace. Most brands today are national, if not global, and the idea of cutting Californians out of marketing efforts to avoid CCPA compliance is defeatist and likely impossible. And who’s to say there won’t be a national law soon to follow?

“The train has left the station,” says Alan L. Friel, a law partner specializing in digital media, intellectual property, and privacy and consumer protection law at . “CCPA is just the first of what will be a multi-state and potentially federal effort to provide consumers with greater transparency, access and choice regarding their personal information.”

Yet CCPA’s mandate is not universal, even within California. Nonprofits are exempt. Ditto for-profit companies that gross less than $25 million per year; handle data for fewer than 50,000 California customers, households or devices annually; and earn more than half their revenue from something other than selling Californians’ personal information. Only a for-profit that falls outside any of those three thresholds is . Others required to comply are organizations that , or through the cumulative weight of its subsidiaries.

If anything, CCPA’s selective application creates more uncertainty about compliance requirements, especially for companies that aren’t small but are by no means the gigantic ad-sellers the public has in mind when it thinks about consumer data mining.

“CCPA is hard for some people to take seriously because they don’t fall into it today,” says , senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at martech company . “That’s kind of a slippery slope because today you don’t—[but] tomorrow you might.”

The number of marketers who are not yet compliant with privacy laws, and don’t know how to get there, . CCPA has been law since January, yet noncompliance is rank and enforcement has not begun. “Organizations are typically behind on [CCPA],” says , founding partner and chief strategist of marketing and operations firm , which is currently assisting six large companies in meeting CCPA requirements.

The GDPR fares little better. “There are very few shining examples of companies that have addressed this and dealt with it in a positive way,” says , CEO of U.K.-based mobile lead capture software company . “I’m sorry to say that as a marketer, but it’s the truth.”

Why is this so hard? CCPA and GDPR are not the first laws to come on the books that impact how marketers work. True, complying is neither fast nor inexpensive. The California attorney general’s office estimates in the years spanning 2020 to 2030. A 2017 PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of American GDPR preparedness found that . But the biggest hurdle may be that the process of adapting to privacy laws does not fit into a single organizational lane. CCPA compliance is not achievable without coordination among most branches on the org chart. The only route that assures failure faster than delegating CCPA compliance to marketers alone might be cutting them out entirely.

Though legal, financial and technology officers have crucial roles to play in any compliance roadmap, marketers are the supreme stewards of customer data. They must—at a minimum—be empowered to develop ways in which the consumer will experience CCPA-required changes.

Read more about how CCPA and GDPR affect marketers

Legal

Any attempt to satisfy new privacy requirements must begin with an understanding of new expectations. With the CCPA, that means unraveling the legal definitions of terms such as “personal information” and “data selling.”

Accept that it will be impossible to proceed with certainty on every point, at least initially. Data-selling is one of the larger facets of CCPA where expressed language hasn’t translated into concrete reality.

“This remains a matter of controversy and unfortunately the [state] attorney general has provided no guidance,” Friel says. “A conservative interpretation is any disclosure or making available of personal information in a commercial context could be a sale unless there is a statutory exception.”

Despite that large uncertainty, there are many areas where CCPA changes are clear. One example is knowing the law applies to your organization.

Marketers who have determined they are subject to CCPA must then work out the exact legal definition of personal information, which is critical to any compliance effort.

“Marketers’ first step is to understand the responsibilities of companies that fall under the law and the scope of the term ‘personal information,’” says Chris Olson, CEO of The Media Trust, a digital security service agency. “Knowledge of the law will enable them to collaborate effectively with colleagues in charge of compliance.”

as anything that could be linked to a specific consumer, household or device. This includes data traditionally viewed as sensitive—such as birth dates, addresses and social security numbers—but it also applies to less historically protected information like IP addresses. CCPA goes a step further than GDPR in this specific instance, as . With both laws, companies must then create a way to facilitate consumer requests to view, delete or prohibit the sale of their data.

No understanding of privacy laws would be complete without an awareness of the penalties attached to noncompliance. . The California attorney general, responsible for enforcing the law, has maintained that (as of press time) CCPA will be enforced starting July 1.

Here again, the GDPR might serve as a model for what noncompliance may entail. Last year, the . The stats show a total of 206,000 violations reported by 31 EU countries. Of these, 94,000 are consumer complaints, 64,000 are breach notifications, and the remaining 47,000 are unspecified. Fines totaled 56 million euros (or $61 million). That figure was dwarfed within months after following a data breach affecting some 500,000 customers. A watchdog website created to track GDPR enforcement reports a total of .

Companies shouldn’t only consider how the state will act: The CCPA also grants citizens the right to sue companies in response to a data breach. , or actual damages if the amount is greater. Individuals are empowered to band together to file class-action lawsuits against companies that fail to safeguard data, greatly elevating the potential for high-value payout.

Friel advises marketers who are fortunate enough to have an in-house corporate counsel to meet regularly and discuss data collection and usage practices, and to develop language on data collection disclosure. Those without an in-house legal team should seek help from outside firms, or at least consult guidance issued by .

Technical

Even the most limited response to CCPA will likely need a substantial technical overhaul, as most pre-existing data collection and management techniques are not up to snuff with new standards. In 2019, a single seller posted a collection of breached data made up of 773 million unique emails and 21 million unique passwords—the largest single public data breach to date. The issue didn’t even address the new need to track consumers through every piece of software used throughout organizations.

“Most companies I see are making mistakes on how they onboard new contacts and move them from system to system, not following the path of origin for those contacts or matching the compliance language agreed to,” Holtzclaw says. “You have to show that you’ve kept track of compliance throughout the chain, from collection to use.”

Here, almost nothing can be accomplished without straying beyond the marketing team, but marketers can still set themselves up as point people who lead and execute, starting with a complete datamap. Most data inventory and mapping of data flows are important stepping stones to CCPA compliance, but . And while companies can easily map what is input into a client database, .

“The challenge arises in the dynamic digital asset environment, where executing vendors and their activity continuously changes according to geography, device or user behavior profile, often without the enterprise’s knowledge,” Olson says. “Marketers aren’t even thinking about the amount of personal data that is collected every time someone accesses their website or mobile app. From cookies to device IDs to fingerprinting, the myriad ways of consumer data leakage expose enterprises to significant risk.”

It’s a highly technical process that underscores the need for hand-in-glove partnerships with information teams. But the marketer’s role during data mapping is no less vital.

“Since most corporate websites are managed by marketing teams, they must take the lead or collaborate with security and privacy colleagues on staying compliant with the law,” Olson says.

Only departments working in lockstep can fulfill the requirements of new privacy laws with minimal glitches. Gillett recommends appointing a single leader empowered to make decisions on customer data protection and management. The role would function somewhat like a customs officer, inspecting how data passes in and out of a company, only with a fresher title (Gillett suggests “data enhancement officer”).

A map and a navigator make the road ahead feel less formidable. When consumers request their data—and they will—it won’t be easy to track down every last bit of information . Many companies cannot automatically pass opt-outs across back-end systems because of silos or business unit divisions that aren’t apparent to the general public. Consider assigning each consumer a unique internal ID number to cross-reference between all systems.

, a category that potentially includes advertiser networks, social networks, automation platforms and data analytics providers. Included within the universe of third-party organizations, CCPAs carve out a distinct category called . Only they can receive personal information from consumers who have opted out of data sharing—the remaining third-party vendors cannot.

For that reason, it’s extremely important that companies . Without this agreement, data for customers who have chosen to opt out of selling must never be shared.

Companies can still provide information to third parties that are not service providers for consumers who haven’t opted out of data selling. Third parties that aren’t service providers may themselves sell the consumer data, but . Though not required under CCPA, contracts with both service providers and other third-party vendors should specify data security practices. Periodic audits of vendors should be on the table as well.

“Today’s internet is designed to enable user tracking, and periodic audit strategies don’t work in this ever-changing environment,” Olson says. “The only way to control user data collection and meet regulatory obligations is by identifying all executing vendors, analyzing their tracking activity, communicating enterprise policies, demanding full tracking disclosure and continuously monitoring for compliance—tasks that require collaboration across marketing, risk, security and digital operations.”

GDPR eschews the CCPA concept of third parties and service providers in favor of a data controller and data processor schematic—this is based on who makes the business decisions regarding the collection and use of personal information, and who merely acts on instructions. . Note that GDPR also includes a legal definition of a third party, but it’s radically different than third parties as defined in CCPA. GDPR’s data processors are much closer to the CCPA definition of service providers.

Third parties shouldn’t be viewed only as liabilities, though: They can also be assets. Holtzclaw believes contracting with outside vendors to manage CCPA requirements is preferable to building a new internal database designed to collect and store all consumer information, comply with user data requests and intersect with the marketing workflow.

“The biggest mistake I see is companies trying to build something internally,” Holtzclaw says. “Just like the rest of the marketing technology stack, a company may need to tap multiple vendors in order to build a comprehensive solution. … Specialization is a strength in this category because each enterprise has different approaches, customers and needs.”

“Get help from digital security experts who have the tools to identify and eliminate digital threats,” Olson adds. “Relying on convenient though ineffective conventional website security tools will fail to meet CCPA’s requirements for reasonable security.”

Customers

Money allotted to building a new database could be spent directly engaging the consumer. Empowering consumers with control over their personal information forms the backbone of CCPA, even if the law requires little in terms of customer-facing changes. CCPA requirements are limited to the creation of a personal information management webpage where consumers can request to view, delete or prohibit the sale of their data, and affected companies must now provide notice to customers at or before data collection, and cannot ask consumers who have opted out to reconsider their decision for at least 12 months.

CCPA and GDPR diverge on customer control over data collection, with , and . An important exception to this dynamic is how the CCPA treats minors. , rather than requesting to opt out of data collection in progress, as is the case with adults. Consumers younger than 13 must have a parent or guardian opt in for them.

Yet marketers have so many more opportunities to get creative with communicating their steps toward privacy sensitivity beyond announcing that they’ve satisfied barebones legal requirements.

“Imagine the power coming in your house,” Holtzclaw says. “There’s a big on-off switch outside that the fire department can turn off. Then you have your fuse box on the inside, which should organize all your electricity by room, and then you have light switches.”

Holtzclaw says businesses tend to think in terms of fuse boxes, whereas customers are asking for light switches. Directing users to a fuse box, such as a marketing preference center in an app or on a webpage, represents a failure in some respects. Most customers want the ability to make small modifications.

Emails are a textbook example. Not everyone wants to hear from a brand every day. Given the choice between daily emails or no emails, a lot of users will select the latter. The solution is to make the tech upgrades necessary to give users a tiered system of permissions, allowing them to set their preferred email frequency.

“If I’m only responsible for marketing, I would look for the lowest-hanging fruit,” Holtzclaw says. “If you’re getting a lot of unsubscribes, put an opt-out page in place. We’ve seen those have greater than 60% retention of people staying on a list. It’s not that people don’t want to hear from you; they don’t want to hear from you as often.”

Another way of preventing absolute opt-outs is to offer what the CCPA terms as . The exact nature of financial incentives is a fine line, as CCPA also . In practice, this might look like a retailer offering discounts to customers who sign up for mailing lists (but can later request to obtain, delete and opt out of selling their personal information).

“In the context of a loyalty program, if personal information is only used for program administration and you can opt out of marketing and still get loyalty benefits, there is no restriction on the program,” Friel says. “However, if you lose discounts or benefits if you delete data to avoid marketing, then the value of the benefits would need to be reasonably related to the value of the ongoing marketing consent.”

Subscriptions are another example that have the benefit of already being in use. Imagine a website or an audio or video streaming service that offers free content to users who receive ads between content, but provides an ad-free experience to users in exchange for direct payments. When it comes to CCPA, some of the financial incentives that companies may share with users could resemble such a model. Consumers who opt out of the data sharing could be charged to consume content, so long as the price tag is reasonably related to the value of revenue lost from collecting and selling consumers’ personal information. Jacobson says this course of action is proved to boost consumer’s willingness to share data.

Whatever changes companies make, updated terms and conditions need to be visible and companies must provide notice of any financial incentives in place. But marketers don’t need to trumpet each dotted “i” or crossed “t.” They merely need to respect the customer’s privacy. Sometimes, marketing will be more impactful if it focuses on showing over telling.

“It’s about being a decent corporate citizen,” Holtzclaw says. “If [customers] love that brand, [they] need and want to hear from them. It’s when [companies] start to do things outside their charter, or they’re selling your data to another company, that’s where you start to get into these gray areas. Did you ever have the friend that sent you to a multi-level marketing person and you start getting calls from them? It’s the same concept.”

Culture

It’s one thing to hold your nose and comply with a law. It’s another to warm to its spirit. In some cases, the most significant obstacle is changing a culture of resistance or inertia. Adopting an internal culture that prioritizes privacy means that if additional laws come about, your business will be prepared.

Experts repeatedly touch on the importance of creating a new mindset. Friel calls for all future marketing campaigns to include “privacy by design” through the consideration of privacy impact during planning stages. Olson advises companies to regard customer data like it’s intellectual property. “[Customer data is] something of value that can lead to serious damage should it be stolen, lost or misused,” he says. Holtzclaw echoes their sentiments. “It’s a practice, not a project,” he says.

Anecdotal stories paint pictures of future marketing departments well-versed in responsible data management. “If you’re going to go work in marketing, you’re going to have to know things about the CCPA, especially in California,” says Kristen Walker, marketing professor at California State University, Northridge. “I’ve heard from at least three students who ended up getting job offers based on that.”

Yet Holtzclaw warns that compliance rhetoric often fails to align with brutal business reality, particularly when the solutions are perceived to be tech-centric and not system-centric.

“Let’s say I’m the vice president of marketing for a business unit and I want to be the CMO,” Holtzclaw says. “You tell me that [privacy] is important, but you also tell me I need to sell 800,000 units this year. I’m going to go sell 800,000 units and [privacy] will be the next guy’s problem.”

Marketing is not alone in its need for soul-searching. There will always be a tug between honoring the customer and fulfilling the business goals of the company. And there will always be moments when it seems the privacy laws are a blunt instrument producing unhelpful results. But more than ever, consumers today want to know that companies share their values. Privacy will be among consumer values if it’s not already, even as it erodes in the face of omnipresent surveillance. Marketing teams that meet privacy laws with zeal will emerge not just unscathed, but lauded.

And when it comes to the introduction and design of new cultural attitudes, who better to execute than the marketing department? By using internal marketing strategies, staying on-message and leading by example, marketers help companies live their values or create new ones. You could say it’s a law of marketing.

Illustrations by Eugene Smith.

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For offering their thoughts on life during the coronavirus outbreak, our thanks to:

• Jennifer Miller, president-elect of Austin ��������� (director of marketing at )

• Chris Hill, president-elect of ��������� Knoxville (CEO and producer at )

• Emily Fay, VP of special events at ��������� Nashville (marketing manager at )

• Aaron Templer, president-elect of the ��������� Professional Chapters Council (founder of )

• Gina Bonar, VP of strategic alignment at ��������� Cincinnati (chief marketing partner)

• Chad Annable, VP of sponsorships at ���������DC (marketing coordinator at )

• Mandy Arola, secretary for ��������� Nashville (director of marketing at )

• Tyler Samani-Sprunk, president of ��������� Lincoln (CMO & co-founder of )

• Scott Elliott, treasurer at ��������� Birmingham (president and partner at )

• Kimfer Flanery-Rye, VP of diversity, equity and inclusion for ��������� Puget Sound (founder and principal consultant at )

• Jamie Parris, president of ��������� Birmingham (marketing director and founding partner of )

• Dennis Devlin, chair of the CMO Roundtable Program and VP of the Executive Marketer Community for ��������� Cincinnati (CEO of )

Illustration by Bill Murphy.

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If the “OK, boomer” meme demonstrated anything, it’s how quick many are to categorize and stereotype by generation. But of course, any millennial who’s had to scroll through headline after headline of “How Millennials Killed…” knows this.

Generational stereotypes are easy fodder for pop culture jokes and clickbait-y headlines, but they’ve crept into the workplace as well. In 2015, IBM’s Smarter Workforce Institute published a white paper titled, “Generational Differences at Work Are Much Ado ���������t Very Little,” which study co-author Sara P. Weiner says was written in part because she became fed up with articles making blanket statements about different generations in the workforce.

“It just sat wrong with me,” says Weiner, who currently serves as principal organizational development science consultant at Glint. “I felt that, as a consultant, my clients were getting sent down the wrong path and were focusing on things that were really not actionable.”

According to the IBM paper, a meta-analysis of 20 studies found small-to-moderate differences and inconsistent patterns across generations’ work attitudes. IBM also analyzed data from more than 115,000 employees collected over 18 years and found similar results: that differences in work attitudes were small. Only 0% to 2% of work attitude differences were attributable to generation. But Weiner says that the media latched onto what small differences some studies did show, and beat the drum on those figures.

In turn, some companies started using generational stereotypes to inform how they viewed their workforce.

“The problem is that a lot of organizations are using these heuristics, these generational labels to make decisions about selection or how they target certain groups,” says Margaret Beier, a professor in the department of psychological sciences at Rice University. “I’m not sure how valuable those things are going to be because it’s dangerous in some ways. What it’s doing is relying on stereotypes to recruit, select and retain employees, and that can lead you down a slippery slope.”

Assumptions are made that a millennial worker will be drawn to businesses that offer Friday happy hours, or that baby boomer employees are simply no good at using technology. But these lump categorizations don’t always hold true, and it removes the individual’s needs from the equation entirely.

The Problem with Generational Stereotypes

People are somewhat naturally drawn to using generations to easily categorize others.

“It goes back to this idea of social categorization theory,” says Elora Voyles, assistant professor of psychology at Southern Illinois University. “[It] states that humans naturally group people by their characteristics. It’s easier to think about people as distinct groups, rather than acknowledging that age is a continuum. It’s, for example, easier to say, ‘This person is Gen X,’ rather than just stating their age. When you conclude that they’re Gen X, then it’s easier to assign those stereotypes that you would associate with that category that we’ve, as a culture, developed.”

The stereotypes assigned to these generations don’t always track for each person. For example, someone born in 1982—who would be considered a millennial—likely has more in common with someone born in 1978 and considered a Gen Xer than a fellow millennial born in 1993. The time range we assign to generations tends to be relatively arbitrary.

“When you target any kind of effort on the basis of a stereotype, you’re really going to miss the mark with a lot of people because there’s just a ton of variability within each of these generational groupings,” Beier says. A lot of organizations use these heuristics or generational labels to make decisions about selection or how they target certain groups, but Beier is skeptical about the value of such categorization. Like other stereotypes—such as those based on gender, race or religion—it may not only miss the mark, it could be offensive. “It’s dangerous in some ways,” she says. “It can be as detrimental for different age groups as it can be for any other kind of group to rely on stereotypes to target individuals.”

Voyles outlines three variations on stereotypes and how they can be detrimental in the workforce. First are meta-stereotypes, or the ways in which people internalize how others have stereotyped them. “I found in my own research that when people are faced with certain negative stereotypes [about themselves], they are less likely to step up to challenges related to that stereotype.” For instance, if millennials internalize the stereotype that they’re narcissistic, they may not be as forthright in team projects.

Similar to meta-stereotypes, there’s also the issue of stereotype threat—the idea that when you’re aware of a negative stereotype regarding your group, it’ll negatively affect your performance. “For older workers, this has been shown in research, for example, with memory,” Voyles explains. “It’s been shown with training and technology that when they’re aware, or when they’ve been reminded of negative stereotypes regarding their memory abilities or training abilities, it can produce a decrease in their performance.”

Lastly, there’s evidence that even positive stereotypes related to age—which are stereotypes nonetheless—can have negative effects on workers. In a way, it’s a combination of both meta-stereotypes and stereotype threat. In her own research, Voyles found that people can feel threatened by not living up to a positive stereotype that’s ascribed to their group. For example, there’s an assumption that older workers are wiser and can be looked up to for guidance; however, an older worker who hasn’t been at an organization for long or who recently changed careers can feel threatened by this stereotype and unable to live up to the assumption.

Focus on the Individual

People want to be seen as multidimensional, as the sum of the unique puzzle pieces that makes them who they are as a person. Recognizing them as such—not just as their generation—gives workers due credit.

Just as well-rounded individuals make for strong employees, a strong team should have workers of varying backgrounds. In this way, it’s beneficial not to target specific generations to fill the ranks. Beier says research suggests that age-diverse teams benefit from the expertise of some of the older members and the energy or achievement focus of some of the younger members. Even then, don’t make too much of the differing generations in an organization or team. “When we focus on generational stereotypes, this can increase the likelihood of team fault lines appearing based on age,” Voyles says.

Much as marketers have learned the value of personalization over segmentation, the best course of action is to avoid the natural temptation to assign characteristics to demographics and instead focus on the individual. In fact, there is one driver that most workers agree on: a sense of purpose.

“What they really want is work that provides them with a sense of meaning,” Beier says. “And they want autonomy to be able to engage and work when they want to do it.”

There are five generations participating in the workforce right now, from the silent generation to Gen Z. But that’s only a fraction of the variation in a single company, and not every person from a generation will exhibit the stereotypes ascribed to their age group. As Beier jokes: “You’ll find just as many people in my generation who use their cell phone way too much as you will in the millennial generation.”

Illustrations by Bill Murphy.

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One way to think about your career is to decide whether you want to build your value—that which you bring to an enterprise or society—on what you know or what you do. Put another way: Are you interested in being respected and valued for your knowledge or your actions?

Both of these elements are necessary for true progress. But it’s the tension between the two that interests me most. I’ve spent the past two years working on an update of “The Knowing-Doing Gap.” First conceptualized by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton in the 1990s, it explores how to turn talk into action.

In fact, as we move through the challenges presented by a global pandemic, bridging the knowing-doing gap may be more important than ever: The world needs brave leaders.

The premise of Pfeffer and Sutton’s work is that too many firms possess an overabundance of data and knowledge, but they can’t seem to get things done, whether it’s introducing products or implementing initiatives. But isn’t it still important to be a thought leader in addition to an effective doer?

My good friend Andy Crestodina, co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media, recently shared with me his . He surveyed and interviewed marketing thought leaders about what constitutes thought leadership.

Andy and I both enjoy challenging what I call “suitcase words,” which I define as words people carry and throw around with the assumption that everyone else understands these terms to mean the same thing—but seldom do. Thought leadership falls under my definition of suitcase words. (One of my other favorites? “Strategy.”)

Sure enough, the results from Andy’s survey show that there is little unanimity as to what defines a thought leader. Some common themes emerged, but I can’t say I agree with most of them.

Andy asked me how I would define a thought leader. After answering and reviewing the report, I admit I felt somewhat redeemed after seeing how closely my answer was to Seth Godin’s. Like Godin, I feel a great thought leader is an inspiration to others. And you can’t inspire unless you’re willing to take occasional stands. It creates an inherent presence of tension, which I’ve long asserted is the one common denominator to all great communication.

This leads directly to what I believe is the second quality of thought leadership: originality. In 1998, while working with Gatorade, I introduced the theory that tension is required for effective advertising. I brought the concept to 7-Eleven and refined it in 2003 when joining Burger King. Not long after, I introduced the concept to a larger audience at a Marketing Science Institute consortium. MSI converted it into teaching materials for its members, and I believe it remains active.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has since written in a similar manner about tension in advertising, and I was once the No. 1 Google result for searches of “tension in advertising.” While, admittedly, it pinches a little that I no longer rank as the top result for such a search, it does beg the question: Does a thought leader need to be famous? I don’t believe so. History is filled with anonymous thought leaders—but it doesn’t reduce the value of their work.

Few things have frightened me more in my career than being unoriginal. There must be more than a hundred thousand business books that restate the same concepts using different facades. The rest of us fall for the new packaging of old ideas, fearing that we’ll otherwise miss a hot idea. It makes me think of a quote from George Eliot: “Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.”

But another high-ranking item on my list of fears is being unwilling to take principled stands. The notion of tension shouldn’t be mistaken for being decidedly combative at every turn, nor for creating commotion just to gain attention. Principled assertions stand the test of time and leave a mark. They require managerial courage, which is too precious a commodity in enterprises today.

To answer Andy’s question, here’s my definition of a thought leader: an original and inspired thinker who takes principled stands, and as a result introduces the element of tension that draws others to them.

As we wade through the new world we now face, let’s also not forget to allow our inner angels to emerge and help us embody our best selves and become the leaders society needs now.

Image by Peter H from .

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The first thing I do is look at my calendar to ensure that I know where I need to be, when I need to be there.

I have a daily habit at the end of the work day where I get tomorrow’s calendar and either print or read all of the materials for the meetings or decisions that I need to make the next day. I know once I get into the day, it’s going to change. I’m going to get pulled into a different meeting, I’m going to get a call, I’m going to get asked for something else. I try to be as prepared as I can for what I know is coming and allow those other things to pop up.

FedEx also has a media relations briefing that addresses headlines for our business, those of our competitors or things happening in our industry. I always scan that first thing in the morning to see if there’s something that might inform what I’m working on or that I need to address in a meeting.

I have an incredible administrative assistant who keeps me on track. I couldn’t do my work without her. I also have a kind of chief of staff who I’ve recently hired to make sure that we’re keeping on track with deliverables. She’ll also challenge my thinking when we’re trying to address some issue or make a decision.

What time do you wake up?

6 a.m. I’m not a morning person, so I like a slow start to the day.

What’s your typical breakfast?

Hard-boiled eggs or Ore-Ida’s Just Crack an Egg.

How long is your commute?

20-25 minutes.

What do you listen to on your commute?

Either the news or podcasts: “The Daily” and “The Tuesday People Podcast.”

Illustrations by Eugene Smith.

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Goal

The U.S. Golf Association permits players to carry as many as 14 clubs in their bags, and for manufacturers vying to make the cut for America’s , the competition is intense. Billion-dollar enterprise Callaway Golf has long ranked among the victors, due in no small part to its touted signature craftsmanship. Last fall, Callaway added to its top-of-the-line offerings by rolling out the JAWS MD5 wedge.

All of Callaway’s routine channels were activated to promote this latest endeavor. A press release sent in September trumpeted “the most aggressive grooves in golf for maximum spin and control.” The big-box sporting retailers blasted shoppers with marketing emails that boasted inclusion of the JAWS MD5 in their new stock. But when it was time for Callaway to develop its own digital campaign, the strategy doglegged from the usual.

“We’re always looking for ways to present our content in new and engaging ways,” says Tyler Shean, a Callaway marketing specialist. “With the way golfers are consuming golf content in today’s media landscape, it’s no longer enough to rely on static digital media.”

Callaway linked up with a small, Austin-based company called KERV Interactive to develop web videos that allowed viewers to customize their own ad experience. The strategy already had a successful track record promoting similar high-end brands.

“We find our tech does really well in the luxury category,” says KERV COO Marika Roque. “Luxury items have a longer sales cycle, and users are more interested in understanding their attributes than something that they’ll just buy on a whim.”

Beyond that, a new school of digital ad artists believe interactive videos hold the key to standing out within the sea of sameness.

“The question I would ask brands is, ‘Do you want audiences engaging with your content?’” asks Andrew Klein, director of content innovation at Spark Foundry, where he advised KERV. “Do you want them to buy your product, learn more, watch more, listen or play? Interactive ads open the door to all these possibilities. I would also ask brands if their static rich media banner units are moving the needle on their KPIs. If not, consider putting your ads on steroids.”

Callaway enlisted KERV to develop an interactive campaign focusing on brand awareness as the primary KPI and with product consideration as a secondary goal.

Action

“With the JAWS MD5 wedge campaign, we had a number of stories to tell in a limited amount of time,” Shean says. “In addition to communicating the performance benefits and variety of options in the JAWS MD5 wedge line, we were also excited to celebrate the career and accomplishments of Callaway’s legendary wedge designer, Roger Cleveland.”

One version of the final ad opens with . Seconds later, a graphic appears center screen that invites viewers to explore the ad, followed immediately by a menu icon arriving on the right border. Clicking the icon brings up a toolbar with a still of the video’s opening scene. As the video continues to play, a second still lines up beneath the first at the seven-second mark. The rest of the 30-second ad plays as a standard video. The action shifts away from the workshop to the range where a trim golfer takes a few swings with the prized club. A final still is created the moment the screen goes dark and flashes the stylized JAWS typeface.

KERV’s value proposition begins the moment a viewer clicks on any of those stills. The screen returns to the captured moment, at which time highlighted explore points reveal themselves when a cursor hovers over top. Lingering on the head of the golf club or the JAWS logo calls up an additional text box providing more club specs and linking to Callaway’s online store to learn more.

Viewers are invited to play with different explore points in the style of a choose-your-own-adventure novel. Because of the added detail, engagement numbers can surpass the total runtime of the video ad, prompting Spark Foundry to develop a new metric called “earned time spent,” or ETS, to measure the resonance of interactive ads.

“ETS meant a brand would pay for a 15-second or 30-second spot, and due to the interactive element of the ad, the user actually opts in to engage with the unit for longer … than if it had been a traditional digital ad,” Klein says.

Callaway’s interactive ad was timed to run near the height of the holiday shopping season in early- to mid-December. “People are usually in that headspace of … buying [themselves] some things as well as searching around for gifts for others,” Roque says.

Various cuts of the ad were made to appeal to different generations. Taking these cuts as a single asset, the entire spot contained 15 explore points that each linked to a unique exit destination.

The separate cuts also lent themselves to targeted data collection by generation and allowed Callaway to gauge club interest by age. Baby boomers engaged the most with Apex irons, while millennials and Gen Z viewers interacted the most with the JAWS wedge. The interactive extras were easy to edit on the fly if data points demonstrated that any tweaks needed to be made.

“We have a couple of different creative levers we can pull,” Roque says. “For example, automatically putting scenes into the carousel so we can adjust the creative without adjusting the copy. If we saw that baby boomers were spending the most time with the iron and we saw that millennials are spending the most time with the wedges, we’re actually able to optimize the same asset for each of the audiences in a unique way.”

Results

The video delivered a click-through rate more than five times what Callaway anticipated. The ad manages to capture attention for 38 seconds, exceeding the runtime by eight seconds, and doubling data analytics company Moat’s industry benchmark of 19 seconds.

“The benchmark-exceeding engagement numbers speak for themselves, but what was particularly impressive was KERV’s in-house production team,” Shean says “They turned our 30-second TV spot into an incredible interactive experience with 15 unique areas to explore throughout the spot.”

Along with the attention garnered for Callaway, the ad’s success gives KERV another winning case study to promote the promise of interactive web ads.

“People need to really maximize the pixels in these creatives that they’re investing in,” Roque says.

Photos courtesy of Callaway Golf.

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The started small. Back in 2001, I was in a newly created job that was going nowhere. I had experienced a fair amount of job instability in my early career, which began in radio news, so I was battle-tested enough to realize that this job might be eliminated soon. I began meeting with three other people about the same age who were either in job transition or were about to be. We met monthly over lunch to discuss how to support one another in finding new jobs.

After we all found work, I saw a need to help others—particularly in the creative fields: marketing, public relations, even sales. I continued to hold monthly meetings at a local restaurant and invite others I had met in the field to attend, doing so because of the help and support I’d received along the way in my vocational odyssey. Over time—and coupled with my deep involvement with ��������� Cincinnati—the program became a part of the chapter’s initiatives. Conversations with the board at the time led to the realization that there was a need for this type of group among our regional members.

The format for the group has changed little over the past two decades. We have attendees briefly share their broad experience level, what they envision their next “perfect job” to look like and name several target companies where others in the group can help provide connection points. We also share community resources and networking opportunities, many of them free, where job seekers can enhance contacts. Occasionally, we host recruiters from often-mentioned target companies.

Since the program has become part of the ���������, we have helped hundreds of people find jobs. We are open to anyone who has been laid off, is new to the region and hasn’t landed with a company yet, is employed but discreetly trying to meet new people and network outside of LinkedIn or is looking to pivot into marketing from an adjacent practice or discipline.

We’ve even helped people find jobs who have never been to our group: I was at an exercise boot camp at a local YMCA one Saturday and a friend there introduced me to an instructor who also happened to be a local elected official. When my friend introduced me, the instructor asked if I was “the Pat Frew?” I blushed. She told me, “Two years ago, I was between jobs in the banking industry and you shared an open job posting with a friend who forwarded it to me,” she said. “I ended up getting the job!” The renown of the Cincinnati ��������� Job Transition Group spreads beyond the individuals who attend events, usually numbering 20 to 30 at each monthly meeting.

In the life of ��������� chapters, leaders don’t often have the luxury to offer many free amenities to members or their communities because it’s the job of said leaders to drive revenue and have strong financial reserves. By offering the transition group to both members and nonmembers, we provide a free resource that enhances chapter member retention. This creates a level of gratitude among nonmembers, and they consider membership when they otherwise may not have. I know of at least 10 to 15 cases where we converted Job Transition Group attendees into ��������� members.

When considering such a specialized group for your chapter, I suggest you research the other job support groups in your metropolitan area. Reach out to the individuals that run them and pledge to publicize each other’s efforts. This tactic has helped to spread positive word-of-mouth about our group and drive attendance. We also use platforms such as Eventbrite as a strong promotional tool.

We are always open to new ideas to tweak the offerings provided through the transition group, but for now, the way meetings are run has changed little over the past decade. We look forward to the future and continuing to provide value for the vibrant marketing and creative community we enjoy in Greater Cincinnati.

I am delighted to talk to other chapters seeking advice on how they can launch a job transition support group or seek to improve one they already host. Please reach out to me at frew.pat@gmail.com. I’ll be glad to set up a time to talk on the phone.

[Ed. note: At press time, no remote meetings have been planned for the Job Transition Support Group, but attendees are being encouraged to share their target company lists and key executives for whom they seek introductions.]

Illustrations by Bill Murphy.

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By Ruta Ruzeviciute, Bernadette Kamleitner and Dipayan Biswas

“,” Journal of Marketing Research, 57 (April 2020)

In a nutshell: Although scented ads have been around for decades, few people understand why and when they are effective. This research uncovers a psychological reason: When consumers sense a soap’s scent, for example, they essentially inhale tiny pieces of the soap itself. This makes consumers feel that the product itself is physically close, which makes it more appealing.

Practitioner takeaways: Scented ads are most effective for advertising products that are expected to have scents, such as liquid soaps or candles—even when the scent of the product is not particularly pleasant (e.g., Clorox). Scented ads do not increase product appeal if the scent, even if pleasant, does not correspond to how consumers expect the promoted product to smell.

By Erik Maier, Rico Bornschein and Lennard Schmidt

“,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 39 (April 2020).

In a nutshell: Cookie notices (enforced through the General Data Protection Regulation) vary in how visible they are and how much governance they offer consumers over their collected data. Data privacy regulations may have unintended effects: Providing only a visible notice without choice will increase consumers’ risk perceptions (and reduce mood and purchase intent), while providing a choice with the notice will heighten perceived power, reduce perceived risk and improve purchase intent.

Practitioner takeaways: By providing users the required cookie notices with the option to approve, firms can improve consumers’ affects and purchase intent by heightening their feelings of power.

By Elaine Chan and Jaideep Sengupta

“,” Journal of Marketing Research, 47 (February 2010).

In a nutshell: The researchers find that when people receive insincere compliments, they nevertheless feel better about themselves and have more positive associations with the products, stores and conversations. This positive association with the related compliments suggests that even when the recipient of the compliment is aware of its insincerity or ulterior motive, the positive effect remains.

Practitioner takeaways: Marketers and salespeople should use compliments during in-person discussions and in promotional materials. While attempts should be made to personalize all communications, managers should incorporate flattery even for those customers or prospects with whom they are less familiar or have weaker relationships.

By Yanfen You, Xiaojing Yang, Lili Wang and Xiaoyan Deng

“,” Journal of Marketing, 84 (March 2020).

In a nutshell: Right after a service failure, most customer service providers intuitively apologize as they attempt to restore satisfaction. However, new research shows that a more effective approach is to thank customers (e.g., “Thanks for your patience as we correct this error.”). Gratitude puts the focus on the customer’s magnanimity rather than the company’s shortcomings, which boosts customers’ self-esteem.

Practitioner takeaways: Consider implementing “thank you” phrasing into customer service scripts and aim to highlight customers’ forbearance rather than your company’s failure.

By Jagdish N. Sheth 

“,” Journal of International Marketing, 28 (March 2020).

In a nutshell: Jagdish Sheth describes the evolution of social media in the international context as we move beyond “glocalization” to the next frontier. In this new world, the largest nations in population are no longer China and India; they are Facebook and YouTube. He describes five dimensions of value creation: access, affordability, acceptance, awareness and activation.

Practitioner takeaways: Marketers will need to shift their thinking in this new era of borderless media. The importance of national markets may diminish, but marketers can use the rich data available from social media to determine the new segmentation.

Illustrations by Bill Murphy.

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The U.S. grocery retail and food services industry has gone through a significant shift in consumer preferences regarding brands and retail formats. Besides supermarkets, grocery purchases also occur in retail formats such as mass merchandisers, drugstores and convenience stores. This has blurred the traditional associations between product categories and channels.

From 2004 to 2010, mass merchandisers increased their share of dry grocery expenditures from 19% to 25%; meanwhile, the share of dry grocery expenditures at traditional grocery stores declined from 63% to 57%. At the same time, there has been a significant increase in grocery sales at convenience stores as compared to supermarkets and mass merchandisers. A study in the Journal of Marketing explores differences in consumer sensitivity to marketing mix variables across these retail formats. It’s an increasingly important factor, as food manufacturers vie for additional distribution coverage in nontraditional formats, which not only differ in their wholesale margin, but also in the type of shopping trips consumers make to them.

To explore differences in how brands respond to changes in marketing mix across retail formats, our research team developed a conceptual framework that links retail formats to different types of shopping trips—major versus minor, planned versus unplanned, for example—and relates how sensitivity to marketing mix variables varies across shopping trip types. Our conceptual framework defines major and minor trips based on dollar spending, number of items and number of product categories purchased. In addition, we posit that while major trips are always planned, minor trips (or fill-in trips) can be either planned or unplanned. Fill-in trips are made in between major trips and are mostly planned in that the household realizes the need for the trip ahead of time. By contrast, unplanned minor trips arise mostly due to unforeseen circumstances such as running out of a specific item or ingredient that is needed urgently and requires running to the store to purchase.

Each trip is associated with certain fixed components (independent of basket size) and variable components (based on basket size and category-level marketing mix) of utility. The fixed component of utility is a function of distance to the store, store loyalty and other factors. The variable component depends on prices, nonprice promotions and line lengths of chosen brands and the urgency of need. To the extent that consumers make a trade-off between these components for different types of shopping trips, they might favor certain retail formats over others. In our analysis, we use revealed preference (transactions) data to cluster trips into different types and show that major trips are more likely to be made to supermarkets and mass merchandisers, fill-in trips to drugstores and unplanned minor trips to convenience stores.

Because consumers expend time and effort to visit a retail format (a fixed component), they are unlikely to purchase each product category at the format that gives them highest utility. Because of the commute, consumers are less likely to avail of a price discount or a feature at a different format from the one they visit frequently. This implies that in the presence of the fixed component of utility, consumers are likely to be less sensitive to changes in marketing mix variables of individual brands. Based on this framework, we derive the ordering of sensitivity to marketing mix variables across retail formats. 

For our empirical analysis, our research team studied top-10 spending product categories (orange juice, dry dog food, ready-to-eat cereal, ground coffee, frozen pizza, refrigerated yogurt, refrigerated milk, heavy-duty liquid detergents, toilet tissue and paper towels) that span four product departments (dry grocery, nonfood grocery, dairy and frozen). Our empirical analysis studies the effects of the three marketing mix instruments across different trip types and in four different retail formats (grocery, convenience, drugstore and mass merchandisers). 

Using trip-level information, we estimate that changing prices and nonprice promotions impact brand shares most on fill-in trips and least on unplanned trips. Linking trip type to the retail format, we show that changing prices and nonprice promotions impact brand shares least at the convenience stores level. By contrast, changing line length impacts brand shares most at convenience stores and least at supermarkets and mass merchandisers. We explore the potential implications of our findings in the wake of the recent price increase in Procter & Gamble products and find that the impact on profits of such a price increase varies by retail format. We also find that any potential line length change impacts profits by at least as much as price changes. Together, these findings highlight the importance of accounting for format-level differences in how consumers respond to changes in marketing mix instruments.

[Ed. Note: Per the authors, regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on grocery stores: “Our findings are based on data from 2011-2014 where we do not observe any macroeconomic shocks. Also, we do not account for the effect of income in our analysis, so the paper cannot speak to how consumer shopping behavior may change in the event of an unprecedented crisis such as the pandemic we’re facing right now.”

Illustration by Bill Murphy.

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Respondents:

• , talent engagement manager, WunderLand Group

• , recruitment partner, Sprout Social

• , creative account manager, smartdept. inc.

If called for an interview with a recruiter, how can I best prepare to exhibit the full range of my experience?

EM: It’s important to prepare for every conversation. As a recruiter, I’m impressed by candidates who have their “elevator pitch” or talking points ready to go—a one- to two-minute summary of their professional experience, explained in a way that makes it easy for me to understand their current skills and goals. I’m also impressed when people have viewed my LinkedIn profile, [company’s] website, and have questions prepared about how I can best support their job search.

MK: Recruiters are mostly looking to understand your motivations in what you’ve done. Be prepared to talk through your résumé, key accomplishments and have an answer to, “Why are you interested in our company and this role?” Beyond recruiter interviews, I always recommend preparing specific examples of common interview questions using the STAR method, [which stands for] situation, task, action, result. Practicing out loud can be very helpful, as well.

MI: Look through the job description for the role you’re being interviewed for and compare your experience. Write it down. Then, make edits to your résumé to highlight these experiences that are being tailored to the job you’re being interviewed for.

Why do recruiters like quick aptitude tests?

MK: Companies with strong talent brands can receive hundreds of résumés per week. Quick aptitude tests are an efficient way for recruiters to narrow down their list of qualified candidates. That said, quick aptitude tests can have limitations, such as weeding out candidates that may otherwise be qualified. One way to set yourself apart in a sea of candidates is to follow up directly with the recruiter or hiring manager on LinkedIn to reiterate your interest in the role.

Do you prefer candidates link to their website to show their work or to send a combined PDF file?

EM: Work samples are a great way to tangibly show hiring managers your skills. I like portfolio websites because they are a living, evolving tool—and they’re interactive. The ability to click through materials and quickly navigate to information makes it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to view your work. If a website isn’t possible or it’s still a work in progress, PDFs are a great backup option.

MK: It depends on what you’re trying to show. For example, if you’re a designer attempting to showcase your expertise in responsive design, a link would be much better. If you’re in marketing and looking to showcase campaigns and collateral, a PDF file might be more appropriate.

MI: Website links or portfolios are usually preferred. It makes it a lot easier, and sometimes websites are cleaner than portfolios in a combined PDF file. In my experience, I’ve received a PDF file that’s too large for a hiring manager to open or download, which creates a lot of frustrating back-and-forth between recruiter and hiring manager. We want to make it as easy as possible to view your work.

What’s more attractive: an MBA with an emphasis on marketing or the continued earning of certificates?

EM: I think the most important thing you can do as a marketing professional is show that you care about and invest in your professional development. For some people, that may be pursuing an MBA; for others, professional certifications specific to certain skill sets or technologies. And yet for others, still, it could be networking events, staying on top of industry trends and reading thought leadership materials. There will certainly be industries or companies who require a master’s degree, but I would never underestimate the power of showing your value in other ways. Do your research, come prepared for any conversation and add value.

What’s a must-have on a résumé for a marketing professional?

EM: Marketing is a broad, diverse field with so much opportunity to either become a generalist who knows a little about everything, or laser-specific in a certain area, be it paid media, analytics, social media, account management—the possibilities are endless. If I had to name one trend, I’d say data is key. Marketing folks who understand how to look at analytics and use data to tell a story are certainly in high demand. Technical skills in Tableau, SQL and marketing automation tools such as Eloqua and Marketo are becoming more common requests from hiring managers.

I’m a recent graduate and have had trouble finding a marketing position due to lack of internship experience. Any suggestions?

EM: This is the age-old challenge—you have to have experience to get experience. I’d suggest working your network—your relationships are so important. Ask to chat with your parents’ friends in marketing. Chat with recruiters—our team works on tons of marketing positions at varying levels of experience, and we love to provide suggestions and help make connections. Also, it never hurts to volunteer your experience for causes you care about. Being proactive and getting out there makes all the difference. Be thirsty for knowledge and relationships and always be willing to take a chance.

MK: There are still other ways to highlight your experience. For your résumé, focus on projects you completed in school or passion projects you’ve done outside of curricular work. And don’t forget about the power of networking. Making connections is key. LinkedIn is also a great tool—you can join alumni groups and other interest groups, or find employees that work for companies you’re interested in.

MI: Don’t give up! We’ve had clients look for candidates who have recently graduated without internship experience required for an entry-level job. Include any relevant school experience that you can showcase on your résumé to let them know your training has prepared you well enough to get the job.

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