Analytics, Soda Pop, Post-pandemic Personas & Wheat Pastes Gone Wrong  📈

We’ve curated a charcuterie sampler of sorts to catch you up on all the things you may have missed in Marketingland over the past two weeks. Did you even know there are NEW Google Analytics to contend with? Are you well-versed in basic income pilots reshaping the public paradigm? As workplaces reopen some employees say they’d rather quit than return, and Personas may be the key for tapping into post-pandemic workplace productivity. We’ve got Pepsi-pairings on the mind (and on demand delivery), and an epic case story (read fail) about one company’s marketing misstep that infuriated a nation and incurred Philadelphia’s famous ire – all over oat milk and public art. We endeavor to keep you up to date with each issue of our Bright Brothers Strategy Group’s “COVID-19 Cliffs Notes on Response and Recovery”, and this edition is no different. 

– Your Bright Brothers Team

Sidebar, we’re developing a bang-up presentation with two preeminent place management practitioners for next Friday’s IDA “Advancing Places” MarCom Webinar on May 14^th at 11:15am Eastern. While the description isn’t yet posted, check back here in a few days to sign up. We promise this will be another outstanding opportunity to learn from industry experts who put the emphasis on data, strategy and results!

Are you in reporting hell?  Does cross-channel attribution burn your brioche? Do you feel like you’re wasting more time trying to understand the numbers and that’s keeping you from the (fun and) meaningful work of actually marketing your district? Marketers said that “improving their use of analytics is a top priority, and that existing solutions make it difficult to get a complete view of the customer and derive insights from their data”, according to survey results from Forrester Consulting. Our “data antennae” perked up when we came across this case story about how the NEW Google Analytics is helping identify previously-unnoticed issues; turning valuable analysis time into productive results for one non-profit in Pittsburgh. While the industries may be different than your place management district, the lessons learned are invaluable. Need help interpreting what those colossal reporting consoles and billions of data points actually mean? Let Bright Brothers Strategy Group do the heavy lifting of turning data analysis into quantifiable, tangible initiatives for you.

We’ve been featuring solidarity economy trends like basic income pilots for a while now, but this one is the biggest to date! Los Angeles is seemingly leading the pack when it comes to basic income pilots, and in the latest news L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the largest national and most ambitious pilot yet; a new program offering $1K/mo. to 2,000 families, while South L.A. is reallocating police funds to 500 single-parent households at one K a pop, along with other efforts. One of the longest-running basic income pilots out of Stockton, CA found that after two years, “…the cash the city provided did not dissuade people from working, and that recipients of the money felt healthier, happier and less anxious than people in the control group.” All of these programs are being scrutinized for signs of success (or failure), but so far the trends and returns have been positive. Is your city considering any type of financial assistance programs like this? If so, we want to hear from you!

Photo credit: Sharon McCutcheon, Unsplash

We work with Personas all day long as a well-researched and vetted tool for targeting communications and marketing planning, brand and content strategy, program development and more — so we get excited when we see Personas in use by other entities, and this quick three-minute read from Fast Company provides some interesting insights into the attitudes, behaviors and opinions of four types of workplace Personas you can expect to see “post-pandemic”. There have been scads of articles written about workers’ return to the office (or not), with up to a quarter of employees saying they’d rather quit than go back to the office, after a year-plus of WFH liberation. We’re already seeing massive shortages nationwide within the service industry, and with gig workers shying away from pre-pandemic employment modalities. Your organization or some of your ratepayers may grapple to assimilate or evolve in the coming months, so feel free to share these articles widely to help provide some context. You’re not alone.
 
Photo credit: Benjamin Child, Unsplash

While it may not be good for you, soda aficionados agree that the buzzy, fizzy, electric mouthfeel of carbonated beverages bears no equal. Whether you call it “coke”, cola, pop, soda, soda-pop, tonic or a whole host of regional colloquialisms, PepsiCo is paring meals with specific sodas for a noteworthy pop-up concept this May. Known as “Pep’s Place”, nationwide locations in half of the U.S. states will test a new delivery-only model that puts soda first and maps the flavor profile to appropriate culinary options like ribs, salads, burgers and brownies – based on effervescent flavor. It’s an interesting brand marketing maneuver, and we’re curious to see how it plays out in the broader scheme for the multinational beverage leader. Let us know if a Pep’s Place pops up near you, and what you think of it.

Photo credit: Pep’s Place

There’s a saying most Philadelphians know, and while it’s not specifically from Philly, it definitely sums up the blue-collar, gritty urbanity of the city and its rough-and-tumble populace – and that expression is , “Phuck aroun’ and fine out”. And, that’s exactly what one unknowing brand did just last month. A London, England-based oat milk company, growing on grass-roots marketing initiatives found itself in the middle of a street art imbroglio after a short-sighted faux pas covered many of Philadelphia’s beloved street art installations with tone deaf oat milk ads. The upstarts at the “Minor Figures” oat milk start-up mis-stepped when they plastered repetitive series of posters advertising their brand overtop of original murals and wheatpastes by native Philadelphians promoting social issues like BLM, voting, COVID safety and food justice. This move was perceived a major dis by Philly’s native network of artists, and calls for the company’s head on a platter echoed louder than the Liberty Bell. In a city with over 3,600+ murals and pieces of community art, Minor Figures misjudged their audience and initially tried to downplay the drama. That didn’t work. After public outcry, and a pointed condemnation by Philadelphia Mural Arts Executive Director Jane Golden, the company offered a weak, quasi-apology, and got clowned by locals in return.  After the story broke, artists in other cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Portland reported similar instances of their artwork being destroyed, and a Baltimore-based street artist showed solidarity with their twin city cousins by installing this catenary condemnation in South Philly. It seems Minor Figures’ apology was a flaccid subterfuge for a very presumptuous play into these markets by a foreign business entity. In the end, this egregious error can be filed under “What not to do in marketing”, and underscores Bright Brothers’ “people-first, data-driven” approach to thoroughly understanding your target audiences before undertaking any type of MarCom strategy, tactical deployment or program development. This scenario illuminates the “Power of Personas”, or even more so, “Power to the People” when it comes to defacing their public spaces with unwanted advertisements. Read the room, people!

Photo credit: Conrad Benner, StreetsDept