By

Harris Brand Platform

Case Study Download

CONTACT

hello@stagwellglobal.com

SIGN UP FOR OUR INSIGHTS BLASTS

A Size-Inclusive Rollout Shrinks Earnings, but Not Brand Equity  

In August 2021, Old Navy launched BODEQUALITY, a campaign that expanded their clothing line to serve women sizes 00-30. Inventory mismanagement resulted in financial losses; however, Harris Brand Platform data shows that this “failure” comes with a silver lining:

1. BODEQUALITY departed from the traditional women’s clothing market, with apparel specifically designed for curvy women and a strategy focused on size inclusivity.
2. The right idea…Consumers familiar with the Old Navy brand appreciated BODEQUALITY’s mission, and the retailer’s brand equity hit a November high.
3. …The wrong execution: Inventory mismanagement, and supply chain issues, resulted in stores overwhelmed with surpluses of the largest and smallest sizes, and a lack of their most popular mid-range sizes.

Download our case study to discover how consumers responded to Old Navy’s BODEQUALITY campaign, and how this “failure” also did the brand some good.

By: Ray Day

CONTACT:

Ray Day
ray.day@stagwellglobal.com 

We wanted to share our latest consumer and business insights, based on research from The Harris Poll, a Stagwell agency. 

Among the highlights of wave 139 (fielded Oct. 21-Oct. 23) in our weekly consumer sentiment tracking:

ECONOMY, INFLATION WORRIES REMAIN STEADY:

Today, 89% of Americans are concerned about the economy, inflation and jobs – the same high level as last week.

• • 85% worry about a potential U.S. recession (no change)
  • 82% about U.S. crime rates (down 1 point)
  • 75% about political divisiveness (up 1 point)
  • 74% about the War on Ukraine (no change)
  • 72% about affording their living expenses (down 1 point)
  • 61% about a new COVID-19 variant (up 1 point)
  • 47% about losing their jobs (no change)
  • 44% about the Monkeypox outbreak (down 4 points)

INFLATION IS AMERICA’S #1 STRESSOR:

How stressed are Americans, and what’s causing it? The answers are clear in the 2022 Stress in America survey we conducted with the American Psychological Association.

• • 27% of Americans report being so stressed that they cannot function most days.
  • Inflation is the #1 stressor for 83% of adults. That is followed by violence and crime (75%), the current political climate (66%) and the racial climate (62%).
  • 76% say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress in their lives.
  • 68% say this is the lowest point in our nation’s history that they can remember.
  • 57% who indicated money was a worry said that having enough money to pay for things like food or rent/mortgage is their main source of stress.
  • 43% reported feeling that saving enough money for things in the future is their main source of stress.
  • 56% agreed that they and/or their family have had to make different choices due to lack of money in the past month, with Latino/a (66%) and Black Americans (59%) reporting this at a higher level than White (52%) and Asian (45%) American adults.

EMPLOYEES WARMING UP TO BACK-TO-OFFICE:

As we continue tracking return-to-office requirements, a majority of employees still say they will jump jobs if forced back to the office full-time. Yet the numbers of workers resisting return-to-office are much lower than three months ago, based on our survey with USA Today.

• • 57% of employed Americans say companies will lose employees if they require workers to be in-person (down 9 points from June).
  • 73% of remote and hybrid workers say they would find another remote or hybrid job if their company forced them to work from the office full-time (down 5 points from June).
  • In an earlier study with Bloomberg, 57% of workers said they believe that employers now have more power in the job market (a 5-point increase in favor of employers from January).

INFLUENCERS MATTER:

Nearly half of U.S. consumers consider input from influencers when purchasing a product or service – especially younger people, according to our survey with AdAge.

• • 80% of Gen Z consult user reviews before purchasing, and 75% say that recommendations from influencers affect their decision – nearly double the general population at 43%.
  • 40% of Gen Z members have made purchases directly through an influencer’s storefront on sites like Amazon and LTK.
  • 73% also report looking to TikTok creators for product input, with Instagram and YouTube influences being similarly popular choices.

BRANDS GETTING GEN Z RIGHT:

Beats by Dre, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Planned Parenthood, Lenovo and New Balance are doing the right things to capture the attention of Gen Z, according to the latest Ad Age-Harris Poll Gen Z brand tracker, a ranking of brands gaining the most attention from Gen Z members ages 18-24 in the third quarter.

• • Also doing better with Gen Z are Kickstarter, Impossible Foods, Coach, Flex Seal, Foot Locker, Pillsbury, Haagen-Dazs, Bose, Nature Valley, North Face, Crocs, NHL, Paramount, Fiji and State Farm.
  • See full details here.

ICYMI:

In case you missed it, check out some of the thought-leadership and happenings around Stagwell making news:

• • Recap: 4 of the Biggest Transformations from Advertising Week New York 2022
  • America Is Less Divided Than We Think, Says Harris Poll’s CEO
  • Once-in-a-Generation Wealth Boom Ends for America’s Middle Class
  • Ragan and HarrisX unveil 2nd annual CEO/CCO Perceptions Survey

As always, if helpful, we would be happy to provide more info on any of these data or insights. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

Thank you.

CONTACT

hello@stagwellglobal.com

SIGN UP FOR OUR INSIGHTS BLASTS

Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Epicenter Experience is Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s 3rd Acquisition in 2022, Adding Mobile and Location Data to its Evolving Data and Insights Stack

NEW YORK and BOSTON, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, has acquired Epicenter Experience (Epicenter), an enterprise software company that leverages mobile and location data to map and sequence complex consumer behavior patterns. Epicenter will become part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC), a proprietary suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and data-as-a-service (DaaS) products built for in-house marketing teams.

“We have strong momentum building around the Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s insights and analytics capabilities, and we’re excited to add Epicenter’s location-focused platform as another supplement to our data stack,” said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. “With this AI-powered technology, we can deliver more comprehensive data intelligence to brands, helping them more effectively drive customer acquisition and retention goals.”

“With The People Platform we’ve built a tool that provides contextual awareness and behavioral understanding on a granular level, providing our clients with a connective tissue that they’ve come to view as a ‘currency service.’ We look forward to enhancing the SMC with this technology that can be applied within any industry,” said Epicenter Experience CEO and Co-founder Paul Krasinski. “Through these direct-from-consumer learnings we empower our customers across retail, healthcare, consumer goods, sports, entertainment and more to create more valuable, more personalized connections to their audiences at scale.”

SMC has been actively investing in emerging technologies and data-focused platforms as part of its strategy to serve in-house teams with transformative marketing technology capabilities. This is the SMC’s third acquisition in the second half of 2022, following Apollo Program in July and Maru Group in October. Epicenter will continue to be led by its current leadership team including Co-founders CEO Paul Krasinski and CFO Lynne Lipinsky.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

By: Ray Day

CONTACT:

Ray Day
ray.day@stagwellglobal.com 

We wanted to share our latest consumer and business insights, based on research from The Harris Poll, a Stagwell agency. More from The Harris Poll is available at this link.

Among the highlights of wave 137 (fielded Oct. 7-Oct. 9) in our weekly consumer sentiment tracking:

• JOB, COST-OF-LIVING WORRIES UP AGAIN: Today, 86% of Americans are concerned about the economy, inflation and jobs – moderating from last week. Yet worries about affording living expenses and losing a job are on the rise again.
• 86% are concerned about the economy and inflation (down 4 points from last week)
• 82% about a potential U.S. recession (down 4 points)
• 81% about U.S. crime rates (down 1 point)
• 73% about political divisiveness (down 1 point)
• 73% about affording their living expenses (up 1 point)
• 73% about the War on Ukraine (no change)
• 57% about a new COVID-19 variant (down 2 points)
• 48% about losing their jobs (up 3 points)
• 47% about the Monkeypox outbreak (up 2 points)

• GEN Z NOT BANKING ON SOCIAL SECURITY: Of the four generational groups currently in the working world, Gen Z is the least likely to depend on Social Security to fund their retirement – and the most likely to retire early. That’s according to the “Emerging From the COVID-19 Pandemic: Four Generations Prepare for Retirement” survey released this week with the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
  • Gen Z workers (43%) are more likely than older generations to expect to retire before age 65 (versus 30% of all workers expecting to retire before age 65, 37% for Millennials, 24% for Gen X and 14% for Baby Boomers).
  • 67% of Gen Z workers are saving for retirement through employer-sponsored 401(k) or similar retirement plans or outside the workplace.
  • The median age at which Gen Z is starting to save – 19 years old – is much younger than the median starting age for Millennials (age 25), Gen X (30) and Boomers (35).
  • Among Gen Z and Millennials, 73% said they are concerned that Social Security will not be there when they are ready to retire.
  • That compares with 40% of Boomers who expect Social Security to be their primary source of retirement income.
  • Gen X workers have the least faith in Social Security, with 78% saying they are concerned that Social Security will not be there for them when they are ready to retire.

• HIGH SCHOOLERS WANT MORE CAREER HELP: High school students across the country are frustrated with the lack of support they are receiving in preparing for a future career. Our survey with the Data Quality Campaign and Kentucky Student Voice Team found:
  • 54% say the pandemic has changed how they think about what they might do after graduation.
  • Only 35% say their school informed them of which postsecondary or career paths are available to them.
  • 80% of students agree they would feel more confident about their career path if they had better access to information to determine their options after graduation.
  • This lack of career preparation already is showing up in the workplace. Of Gen Z members who interned or started a job this past year, 49% say that they did not feel like their training and onboarding were done well.
  • 58% of interns also report feeling lost at work without anyone to reach for questions and support.

• LESS THAN HALF OF VOTING AMERICA WATCHES TRADITIONAL TV: When it comes to reaching Americans this election season, less than half of voters (49%) have a traditional TV, according to a new HarrisX survey with Samba TV.
  • 1 in 4 of those who do still have traditional TV plan to cancel in the next six months.
  • Independents (42%) are the least likely to have traditional TVs.
  • Millennial and Gen Z voters are more than twice as likely to stream than they are to have a traditional linear subscriptions today. The gap is even wider for younger voters in battleground states.
  • Facebook remains the most used platform by registered voters nationally but has less of an impact in key battleground states.
  • Democrat voters are significantly more likely to use TikTok than Republicans nationally –with 37% of Democratic voters using it weekly compared with 27% of Republican voters.

• MANY WOMEN STILL MISS DEADLY BREAST CANCER SIGNS: October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and most women are unaware of the unusual symptoms of a particularly aggressive and deadly form of the disease, according to our survey with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
  • The good news: 78% of women recognize a lump in the breast as a sign of breast cancer.
  • However, less than half of women would flag redness of the breast (44%), pitting/thickening of the skin (44%) or one breast feeling warmer or heavier than the other (34%) as possible symptoms of breast cancer – specifically the rare and highly aggressive form of the disease known as inflammatory breast cancer.

• ICYMI: In case you missed it, check out some of the thought-leadership and happenings around Stagwell making news:

• How A.I. Could Help You Craft The Perfect Media Pitch

• Should brands be mimicking political advertising methods to attract consumers?

• How SKDK Sees the Midterm Media Landscape

As always, if helpful, we would be happy to provide more info on any of these data or insights. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

SMC’s second acquisition integrates SaaS platform linking global behavioral, transactional and attitudinal data

Maru brings new, global capabilities to SMC. Maru’s SaaS solution, HUB, is a fully scalable survey platform that allows in-house marketers to analyze behavioral, transactional, and attitudinal data all in one place. With tens of millions of survey completes processed a year, the Maru/HUB platform manages research from ad-hoc studies to global trackers. Partnerships with 14 vetted sample partners worldwide allow Maru to connect clients with expertly profiled respondents.  

“Stagwell is pleased to add this sophisticated ‘research as a service’ partner,” said Mark Penn, chairman, and CEO, Stagwell. “Maru will be a great addition to our Stagwell Marketing Cloud and round out our research offering from full-service analytical to do it yourself. Maru is research built for enterprise scale but in simple, convenient and affordable ways.” 

“From full service to self-service, SMC believes marketers need to integrate connected technologies to stay ahead and drive business growth in the modern digital economy. This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to that belief,” said Elspeth Rollert, chief marketing officer, SMC. “We pride ourselves on a commitment to entrepreneurs like Ged Parton who are building the future of connected brand ecosystems, and we’re thrilled to have the Maru Group team join SMC.” 

Maru strengthens SMC’s global, blue-chip client list and presence including Buenos Aires, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Southampton, Toronto, and Vancouver.  

“Maru’s suite provides real-time access to insight and results, bringing into one ecosystem adaptive interpretation of behavioral, transactional, and attitudinal consumer data,” said Ged Parton, CEO, Maru Group. “By joining SMC, we’re scaling our services to some of the fastest-growing brands worldwide and translating our belief that understanding the intersection between behavior and emotion is critical to establishing the strongest possible consumer connection to drive better business results.”  

Maru joins SMC as its second acquisition amid an accelerated focus on technology-based marketing innovation from parent company Stagwell. In July 2022, SMC acquired Apollo Program.  

SMC’s leadership team is growing with the appointment of former Accenture Applied Intelligence Practice lead Mansoor Basha as chief technology officer. Mansoor joins Matthew Lochner, managing director; Abe Geiger, chief product officer; and Elspeth Rollert, chief marketing officer.  

Products across the suite are picking up momentum, too, as marketing professionals race to integrate technology. In August 2022, ARound – a shared augmented reality solution for live events  – launched in partnership with the Minnesota Twins, bringing the world’s first stadium-level shared A.R. experience to life. Further, PRophet, Stagwell’s AI-powered tool for predicting the success of media pitches, has launched “2.0” enhanced by partnerships with PeakMetrics, Podchaser, and The Harris Poll. 

Stephens Inc. served as advisor to Maru Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.  

By Mark Penn 

CONTACT

hello@stagwellglobal.com

SIGN UP FOR OUR INSIGHTS BLASTS

Quick, tell me when your state’s primary was. Odds are, most Americans can’t.

Seems like democracy is much threatened these days, and yet no one seems to care much about voting in the most important elections in the country – the primary elections. While turnout has surged in general elections, up to 67% in the last presidential race, it has gone nowhere in primary elections, with most getting between 20% and 40% of voters to the polls. But there are simple reforms that could go a long way toward fixing the primary problem.

As more and more of the country is one-party territory, these primary elections really determine who governs in America and sets the ideological makeup of our leaders. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most outspoken members of Congress and a leader of the “squad,” was elected with fewer than 17,000 votes in a Congressional district that has nearly 700,000 people. She was able to win by mobilizing a small number of activists while the average voter was sleeping. Turnout among eligible Democrats in that key race was 13%, similar to many primaries across the country. Even in this year’s hotly contested primary for squad member Ilhan Omar, only 27% of the voters turned out.

Not only are primaries scattered over 20-odd dates from March to September, but the big money flows to partisan efforts that operate under the guise of being nonpartisan. Many nonprofit civic groups today are just taxpayer-funded partisan efforts to register voters in favorable areas or redistrict for the benefit of one party. Former Democrat Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Redistricting Foundation uses litigation to challenge gerrymandering, but seemingly only where it hurts Democrats. Youth registration–focused Rock the Vote claims to be nonpartisan, but its president released a statement explicitly lamenting Trump’s 2016 victory. Donors simply care more about who wins rather than about making the process more open, fair, and democratic, letting the chips fall where they may.

In a slew of swing-state Senate primaries in May 2022 for elections that will likely determine control of Congress, well under half of eligible voters participated. While an estimated 60% of eligible Georgians voted in the January 2021 runoffs that won the Democrats the Senate, just 27% participated in the May 2022 primary for one of those seats. Herschel Walker won the Republican nomination by receiving 800,000 votes in a state of 7 million active voters. In Ohio, only 20% of eligible voters participated in the Senate primary in which J.D. Vance cleared the Republican field. In both Georgia and Ohio, voters can participate in any party’s primary.

Things were only slightly better in Pennsylvania’s Senate primary, where 32% of eligible Democrats and 39% of eligible Republicans chose progressive John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz, respectively, over more moderate alternatives in a state that is divided quite evenly.

And these are the turnout numbers in high profile races. An abysmal 13% came out to the New York Democratic primary for governor, where Andrew Cuomo’s replacement Kathy Hochul ran for her first full term.

Low primary turnout facilitates the rise of more extreme candidates who could not otherwise be elected by a full constituency. Those who vote in primaries, especially on the right, are more strongly partisan and ideological than other Americans, according to the Brookings Institute’s 2018 Primaries Project.

Less well-known but still powerful positions like district attorney are especially vulnerable to activist candidates in a low-turnout environment. For years, left-wing billionaire George Soros has quietly given millions to “reform-minded” DA candidates, including new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Now in charge of the criminal justice system of the nation’s largest city, Bragg won his office last year in an eight-way Democratic primary that attracted just 250,000 voters, or 29% of the eligible population.

Nonpartisan primaries in which all candidates run on the same ballot may encourage moderation, but they have not solved the turnout problem so far. In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican who voted to convict Trump of impeachment and is facing reelection this year, has survived a Trump-backed challenger so far only because the open primary allowed them both to advance to the general election. Yet just 26% of eligible Alaskans participated. Similarly, the only two Republican representatives who voted to impeach Trump and have survived their 2022 GOP primaries both did so in top-two systems, where the ballot includes all candidates regardless of party. Yet turnout was still low – 19% in California Congressman David Valadao’s district and 37% in Washington Congressman Dan Newhouse’s.

So with all of the hullabaloo over every single placement of a drop box, there is no outcry about how American democracy has been undermined with confusing, little-known primary schedules that favor activists on both sides.

To fix these problems we need to take some urgent steps. First, we need to shine light on this low participation and information as a problem. Second, we should deny tax deductibility status to nonprofits that are carrying out one-party agendas and encourage the growth of nonprofits that want high voter participation in all elections by all voters. Third, we need to set three or four regional primary days in which groups of states all hold their primaries at the same time to cut down on all the confusion of 20 or more possible dates. Further complicating this are Democratic campaigns to meddle with the primary process by deliberately providing tens of millions of dollars to extreme candidates they oppose and hope will be easier to defeat in the general election. Though unlikely to be banned outright, this practice further undermines the primary process, and hopefully the parties will agree to end it in the name of a fair democracy.

By

Natalie Oganesyan
Yahoo! Entertainment

CONTACT

hello@stagwellglobal.com

SIGN UP FOR OUR INSIGHTS BLASTS

By

Assembly on August 2, 2022

Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, announced its second-annual sponsorship of Advertising Week New York, the world’s largest annual gathering of marketing, media, and technology leaders. Stagwell will host two panels on the Advertising Week New York stage, sharing insider insights into the implications for brands of the explosion of political media spending and fresh insights from a new global survey on brand fandom. 

The panels will feature experts from Stagwell’s flagship omnichannel media agency Assembly and leading technology, content, and culture insights firm National Research Group (NRG):  

• Buzz & Devotion: The Fan Economy That Makes the Niche Mainstream in Today’s Culture – Monday 10/17 @ 1:15p: Fan culture has a powerful impact on a brand’s ascension into relevance, power and popularity. Informed by new, original research, we will bring brand experts from McDonald’s together with NRG to explore the pathways for brands to successfully build and activate a fan community. Insights from NRG’s latest thought leadership research will combine with lessons learned from the birthplace of fandom — sports and entertainment — to unlock powerful insights that help brands connect and grow their most devout and influential customers. 
• Talk Politics to Me: Why Every Brand Today Needs a Dose of Political Know-How– Thursday 10/20 @ 1:15p:  Political is THE media story of Q4 2022, and it’s never been a more critical time for all advertisers to know the rules of the game.  Join Assembly, a global omnichannel media agency – with an only-of-its-kind full-service political strategy and media practice – and experts from Lyft and SambaTV for a discussion on the path forward for brands in a politically charged media environment and the convergence of political, advocacy, and commercial advertising.  

Also at Advertising Week New York:  

In addition to staged programming, Stagwell is proud to partner with Brand Innovators to deliver access to intimate thought leadership with leading CMOs and agency experts. Sign up to follow along with insights and other content from Advertising Week New York.  

About Stagwell 

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.