This month’s CMO Guild event was a peer-to-peer discussion for members to discuss top-of-mind questions for the upcoming year.

1 —  Creative QR Code Ideas

Context: QR code adoption has increased significantly during COVID

  1. If you’re selling in wholesale, embedding a QR code on your product or shipment packaging with a clear call to action and links to additional product information or exclusive content, is a great way to tie customers back to the brand after sale.

  2. Create an immersive/AR-type offering alongside one of your products vs. simply driving to your mobile site. In other words, surprise & delight and lean into the camera.

  3. The group held a brief discussion around the efficacy differences between SMS short links vs. QR codes. Most members haven’t had enough experience with SMS short links to have a clear opinion, but it’s definitely a channel that is top-of-mind for folks in 2021.

Additional Reading: QR Codes: How Old Tech Is Driving New Innovation In A Touchless World


2 — iOS 14 Impact on Advertising Strategies

For most companies, Facebook is the primary paid acquisition channel. However, iOS 14’s privacy features will have a significant impact on how Facebook receives and processes conversion events from tools like the Facebook pixel, and will most likely affect the tracking capabilities of companies using Facebook as an ad platform. A handful of Guild members have already experienced an impact. One member had been told by their Facebook rep that all KPIs could be down by up to 20%.

Additional Reading: How Apple’s iOS 14 Release May Affect Your Ads


3 —  Diversified Advertising Channels

  1. Guild members discussed alternative advertising channels to Facebook, namely national television being the most impactful and relatively cheap. Several agencies and platforms were recommended to the group for TV analytics including Tatari (the most popular choice), TVSquared, Alphonso, & Eden. Members also mentioned either using a secondary vendor like TVSquared to help validate Tatari’s methodology.
  1. Youtube was mentioned as a great place for testing future TV creative prior to national launches, however, other members noted that other existing creative assets haven’t performed well on Youtube when ported over from other channels. A couple of members suggested that a more successful approach may be influencer-marketing and long-form content (such as instructional videos and interviews) for that specific channel.
  1. To diversify away from Facebook, a Guild member at a local commerce company mentioned pushing additional spend into geo-specific strategies such as Nextdoor (despite their nascent ad platform) and direct mail. Out of Home prices continue to be extremely low (for clear COVID-related reasons), however if OOH is a core part of your future strategy, it could be an opportunity to make some buys while the price is right.
  1. Members also had a brief discussion about tips and tools for affiliate marketing. Most members gave Impact good ratings, but noted that it may be a tad expensive as an initial solution and suggested switching to it once ready to scale that channel. Another group suggestion was to combine affiliate and PR into a single entity once your org is ready for that.

Additional Reading: How top game developers diversify their marketing strategy in a competitive landscape