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By: Adrienne Adair, SVP, Creative,
MMI Agency

Originally Released in
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Creating content at a pace that continues to grow in response to consumers’ appetites can feel daunting. That each creative asset further needs to grab the audience’s attention in the first three seconds, and bears the responsibility of resonating with that consumer and garnering a like, click or sale, only adds to the challenge.

Continually optimizing performance is the key to a successful and diverse content strategy, and that requires a carefully orchestrated flights of assets to launch, test and learn to immediately develop the next round. The cadence of those assets must be constant and unwavering: assets that vary by message and by imagery. Static assets. Animated assets. Influencer’s assets. Now, multiply those assets by the number of unique audiences.

Given these challenges, how do we preserve the ability to curate original work without blowing the budget in the time it takes to produce it? AI can put invaluable time back in the hands of creatives by using features that allow designers to crowd-share a project in real time to finish a layout in far less time than had been possible.

Web and mobile apps are available to create content quickly through customizable templates and access to thousands of fonts. They can even intuitively reflow your layout from one size to multiple formats with a single click and allow you to publish the content to your social channels directly from the app. AI can be used to analyze and extrapolate an image from simple to complex backgrounds more quickly than with the original image selection tools, enabling designers to composite multiple images in one layout at breakneck speed.

There are also innovations still in development that promise to speed up the work of designers such as AI’s predictive technology that can uncrop portraits, not only showing a cropped subject in full frame, but also giving designers the ability to change the wardrobe or the surrounding background — all with a few clicks.

Want to create a motion video from a static photo? AI can analyze the motion from a selected source video and apply it to a static photo, allowing designers to make stationary subjects dance. Another such innovation on the horizonwill allow easy creation of packaging mocks that apply 2D design elements to 3D packaging composites, reducing an hours-long exercise to just minutes with a single click.

Why should brands be interested in how AI has enhanced these tools of the trade? Because time = money. If the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, the path from imagination to realization on behalf of your brand is more direct than ever.

With these tools, tasks that once took four hours might take as little as 40 minutes. From pandemic repercussions to supply chain limitations to inflation, brands are challenged to make the same level of impact in the market with more conservative budgets. The time saved in production allows more time for creativity and more time to produce a greater number of the most impactful assets to amplify your brand’s presence and maximize performance.

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Artificial Intelligence, In the News, Marketing Frontiers, Press Releases, Stagwell Marketing Cloud, Tech

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In the News, Marketing Frontiers, Press Releases, Stagwell Marketing Cloud, Tech

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The UPS Store, the world’s largest retail franchisor, has partnered with full-service advertising agency Doner and Facebook’s Spark AR Studio to launch an out-of-this-world AR adventure featuring the Moon. The campaign, ‘Moon AR Ad-Venture,’ allows users to experience the many services offered by The UPS Store in new, fun, and engaging ways. Using AR, customers can shred the moon’s surface, send copies into orbit, use a planet-sized stamp, bubble-cushion with booster rockets, and pack and ship across the universe. Plus, users can place the moon in the palm of their hand – or in their living room.

One of the most robust applications ever seen on Facebook’s Spark AR platform, this AR experience pushes boundaries by using six different 3D models to develop five animations, all while maintaining high, photo-real quality of assets. As mentioned above, the campaign launches today. It will run for four weeks nationally across social media channels, specifically Facebook and Instagram. Doner and The UPS Store have enjoyed over two decades of collaboration, with this campaign marking a first for the partnership through its innovative usage of AR.

David DeMuth, CEO, Doner: “We’re always looking for new, engaging and interactive ways to dimensionalise our clients’ brands and this AR experience is a great example of that,” said David DeMuth, CEO of Doner. “For The UPS Store, we’re excited to use this technology to help bring the brand story to life in an interactive and memorable way.”

Michelle Van Slyke, SVP, Marketing and Sales, The UPS Store: “This effort moves beyond mere observation in advertising, delivering a multifaceted, interactive experience that engages people,” said Michelle Van Slyke, SVP, Marketing and Sales, at The UPS Store.

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Stagwell (STGW) Chairman and CEO Mark Penn to Discuss the Irreplaceable Power of Human Creativity on the Main Stage of Cannes Lions

By

Connie Lin,
Fast Company

Read this article on Fast Company

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Nigeria sits at Africa’s heart: Geographically, it’s nestled middle-left of the curve in the kidney bean-shaped land mass, and its economy boasts the highest GDP on the continent (nearing $450 billion in 2021). The pulse of the country beats with the pace of rapid transformation. It harbors the world’s sixth-largest population, which is also among the fastest growing, projected to surpass the United States by 2050.

It’s a country of strivers, on the verge of reinventing itself—and it has fluxed socially and culturally in recent years. But one constant anchor is the promise of the internet in delivering a better future, reveals a new report from the National Research Group (NRG), a division of global marketing firm Stagwell.

Over the summer, NRG partnered with a media agency based in Lagos, the country’s largest city, to dive deep into the Nigeria’s shifting landscape—one that, despite its position at the heart of Africa, is still a mystery to much of the Western world (if not to the East—where it has caught the eye of economic powerhouses like China, which has poured millions into Nigerian infrastructure to cement strategic trade partnerships).

The report is the first in a series focusing on high-growth emerging markets, and draws from a June-July survey of 5,000 Nigerian consumers, ages 16 to 64, whose responses were interwoven with commentary from academics and industry experts. It sketches the portrait of a country reenergized by young blood, that has lagged on technological development in many ways, but now hopes to leapfrog into the digital race.

NEW DIGITAL NATIVES, CONNECTED BY SMARTPHONES

First and foremost, it notes: Nigeria runs on mobile technology. According to the data, 92% of people in the country own a smartphone, and the device dominates as a mode of entertainment for most. Over half (55%) of all TV shows and movies are watched on smartphones, and the vast majority (83%) of gaming is played on them as well. As NRG’s content and strategy executive Kerri Norton explains to Fast Company, this is partly out of economic necessity. Some Nigerians don’t have other devices for streaming. Laptop ownership is at 70%, and desktop computer ownership is significantly lower at 16%. Less than 30% own tablets or smart TVs, and only 15% own gaming consoles.

But beyond that, mobile is a godsend for Nigerians living with the state’s still relatively poor electricity infrastructure, says Samuel Odusami of SBI Media, the Nigeria-based agency that served as NRG’s local partner on the ground. “Because [Nigerians] don’t have access to uninterrupted power 24/7, mobile technology has become their savior,” says Odusami, adding that power-bank businesses have boomed in Nigeria, helping many stay wired to the internet for longer, on the road or at home, when the grid is down.

Consequently, the often-slow speed of internet is viewed as the biggest tech problem in the market, one that many hope the 5G revolution will solve. Nearly 70% of those surveyed are aware of the impending 5G rollout, and 81% of Nigerians believe it will “transform my country for the better.” In rural and low-income communities, where internet connections are spottiest, many believe 5G offers a chance to “catch up,” as faster streaming translates into more business productivity, the report notes.

“It’s a democratization of access across all socioeconomic classes,” says Anas Ghazi, Stagwell’s chief strategy officer. “It’s allowed for an entrepreneur mindset, as Nigeria [pursues] its largest revenue generation in the next five years.”

THE SKITMAKER HUSTLE

That entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism and “hustle culture” has long reigned in Nigeria, even as unemployment rates increased and the economy struggled. But now, it’s being supercharged by Nigeria’s largest population of youth in the world—skewing the country’s median age to just 18 years old—who have seized upon the internet as a way out of the well. “It’s a window of opportunity for young people,” says Odusami, who cites a rising generation of so-called skitmakers as proof.

Nigerian skitmakers create social media content, but they do it without the popular influencer luxuries—studios to shoot videos, or pricy tools for animation—choosing to invest only in a high-end smartphone, perhaps an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, to stitch together content for YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms.

The goal is to go viral, and many have flocked to try. The country now has a nest of creators numbering in the thousands—including some with millions of views, says Odusami—who have used their success as a springboard to start full-fledged production companies, even in the mainstream movie industry. Collectively, skitmaker startups employ close to 5,200 people, he says. Among the most prominent is Mr Macaroni, who broke through with YouTube comedy and now tours the world promoting Nigerian issues.

For those who don’t strike it big, skitmaking might be just one of many enterprises. “Even people with 9 to 5 jobs have what we call ‘side hustles,’” says Odusami. “In Nigeria, you can’t [support] a family without multiple streams of income.” They might start blogs or YouTube channels, or they might start a business that has nothing to do with social media—but the internet remains a through line. Learning to code, or leveraging e-commerce to sell Nigerian cuisine in foreign countries, are among the examples he cites.

But despite the hustle, Nigerians still feel “behind” on tech development, NRG’s report finds. Only one in three survey respondents said their country was currently “very innovative,” compared to over half of respondents in India, which served as a pseudo-control group for the study.

According to Odusami, Nigerians hope the grind can help bridge the gap. “They are hungry to feed themselves,” he says. “Hungry to make a name, hungry to become financially independent.”

CRYPTO UNLOCKED

As businesses grew, Nigerians needed a way to accept payments globally—something that wasn’t possible with PayPal, Google Pay, or other legacy platforms. That ignited a boom in enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, one that has dwarfed awareness of crypto in the United States. In Nigeria, 90% responded that they were aware and knowledgeable about cryptocurrencies, while 71% said the same for the blockchain and 59% for NFTs. (In a November 2021 Pew Research report, only 24% of Americans said they had heard “a lot” about crypto.)

“Now you have businesses who accept payments in crypto, in stablecoins like USDC and Binance Coin,” says Odusami. But even as people began to adopt crypto for everyday goods like groceries and taxi rides, the Nigerian government’s central bank in 2021 began to restrict Bitcoin services in the country. According to a recent joint report from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations, the crackdown crippled “millions of young Nigerians” who were making money from crypto trading. However, the report also suggested that some found a way to “lawfully bypass these restrictions and continue the business.” The same month, crypto exchange KuCoin reported that 33 million Nigerians had owned or traded crypto in the last half year.

According to Odusami, 20 to 30 global crypto exchanges have a presence in Nigeria and are actively targeting Nigerian customers—including Binance, which is a client of SBI Media in five African countries.

Meanwhile, the hustle has moved onto the blockchain. Odusami cites the story of a Nigerian man who created his own NFT project from photos of drummers at a traditional Nigerian wedding ceremony—a cultural rite beloved not just in dance, but also as a musical retelling of the betrotheds’ mothers and fathers through the years. The man made a killing—and returned to the ceremonial village to give the drummers 70% of the proceeds.

BIG TECH’S SWAY

According to the survey, Silicon Valley Big Tech companies (including social media) wield tremendous influence in Nigeria, with their command of the culture second only to religious institutions. It tops that of colleges and universities, as well as the government, and both Hollywood and Nollywood.

It’s perhaps no surprise that giants of crypto and social media—which have speckled reputations in the States—are viewed much more positively in Nigeria, because, as Norton explains, the impact of both technologies within the country has been overwhelmingly positive. It offers freedom of entrepreneurship and liberation from circumstances, a lifeline that keeps Nigerians afloat, and working, and connecting with the rest of the world. It might even have the power to combat corrupt governments and state overreach.

But Nigeria is young, and it will still have to fight for its place in a competitive world. “Nigeria is on the map to grow significantly over the next 10, 15, even 5 years,” says Norton. “They want to be where the future is.”

So, it hustles on.

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Missed Advertising Week New York this week? We distill the biggest brand takeaways on brand fandom, political advertising, and media channel transformations below. Follow Stagwell on LinkedIn to keep up with the insights.

Rise of Brand Fandom – Move over, sports teams and celebrities.

Fifty-seven percent of consumers consider themselves a fan of a brand or product – higher than sports (48%), movies (52%), celebrities (54%), or online influencers/personalities (37%).

The brands that take a holistic stake in consumers’ lives will drive loyalty, affinity, and advocacy–and not just in the moment. Fandom is not a fad or a flash in the pan; 2 in 5 brand fans have been fans for over 10 years. Focus on helping consumers develop their personalities through your brand by delivering marketing, events and experiences, and content that gives them a platform to express that personality.

“Fandom is critical in the luxury space. Luxury is no longer defined as the most expensive thing –it’s defined by insider knowledge. We’re seeing a dispersion of brands being considered ‘wealth’ and ‘luxury,’ and price point alone won’t keep you in that luxury equity space. It’s important to have fan bases that really think of your brand as luxury.” – Neda Whitney, SVP, Head of Marketing, Americas, Christie’s

Political is the Biggest Media Story of 2022 – Get ready for hotter cyclical media environments as political advertisers diversify digital media channels to engage more voters.

Brands will feel the effect of political messaging as political advertisers spend a record $3 billion in the last three weeks of the election alone.

Many ads will tell Americans they’re poorer than ever because of inflation, for example – how will brands push back and get consumers to continue spending? Brands can no longer afford to be apolitical but risk looking too performative if they don’t back up their positions with actions. Lyft decided to foreground its identity as a transportation company when deciding to act, and as a result, it has provided ride services for voting, vaccines, and reproductive rights.

“We saw in 2016 that so many people chose not to vote because they didn’t have access to transportation. So we asked ourselves: how can we make an impact there? We created a voter access program and saw its immediate impact in 2020. It’s about looking at the issues consumers care about and our services. It’s our job to listen – to talk to elected officials and let them know we can come in as a partner to solve some of the issues our consumers care about.” – Heather Foster, Head of Government Affairs, Lyft

Digital Channels and Political Advocacy – Are political advertisers about to have the digital marketing efficacy reckoning?

This cycle will be the first many realize media buys are not driving impact because of mistargeting. Many voters in battleground districts no longer have traditional television – but there’s a disconnect between ad spending and consumption, with most dollars still going to broadcast. Brands need to get more comfortable shifting the media mix and taking risks with bourgeoning digital channels.

“The idea that there’s the TV generation and then there’s the kids – it’s an antiquated view. The fact is cord cutting is mainstream – now the majority of the population – and the idea that we can say we have a TV strategy and a different digital strategy is fraught with disaster. As we iterate, brands need to think about messaging across the full funnel, and know that TV and streaming work really well together because it allows us to do that. The future will be integrated streaming and linear in a really incremental fashion.” – Ashwin Navin, CEO SambaTV

Resurgence of OOH – OOH is resurging because OOH is modern.

When you start treating it like programmatic or digital it becomes a valuable tool in the funnel. Driving consumer engagement and social amplification through use of the OOH medium. (The Harris Poll found TikTok and other social media platforms are a major source of OOH ad visibility: 82% of TikTok users report frequently noticing OOH ads in content in their feeds, with nearly identical impact reported by Facebook and Instagram users.) And don’t sleep on the innovation underway here: location-based insights, shared AR capabilities, and more are all letting advertisers do more at scale. Embrace the underlying technology capabilities of Out of Home as a resilient pillar of your media plan for 2023.

”Out of home isn’t changing – the strategy is. Media is the new experiential and Out of Home is where people are. The technology that sits behind Out of Home is driving a different strategy lens, a different creative lens, and a different content lens.” – Brad Simms, CEO, GALE Partners.

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Originally Released On

PR Newswire

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.

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Originally Released On

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NEW YORK – Sept. 29, 2022 – Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, hired Mansoor Basha as chief technology officer (CTO) of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC). Joining from the Applied Intelligence Practice at Accenture, Mansoor will be responsible for the technology roadmap, data strategy and cloud portfolio integration across the SMC, Stagwell’s proprietary suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and data-as-a-service (DaaS) products built for in-house marketers.

Mansoor brings more than 20 years of experience across product development, management and marketing, engineering, and new business development. While at Accenture, he was responsible for strategy and consulting, data-led transformation, cloud analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning-based use cases, and scenario analysis for several Fortune 500 companies.

“Every company is now a digital marketing company but most lack the resources to develop the tools they need to actually engage in modern marketing,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “With Mansoor’s deep background in both building and marketing innovative tech solutions, the Stagwell Marketing Cloud is well positioned to build a digital marketing infrastructure that any CMO, at any company, can take advantage of.”

“I’ve spent my career blending business strategy and technical acumen to bring transformative products to market – the very same special combination that attracted me to Stagwell and the Marketing Cloud,” said Mansoor Basha, CTO, Stagwell Marketing Cloud. “From the acquisition of Apollo Program to boost its first-party data infrastructure, to the recent launch of the first shared augmented reality experience in a live event setting with ARound and the Minnesota Twins, it’s clear that Stagwell takes a thoughtful, strategic approach to building the SMC, paving the way for organizations to deliver marketing innovation at whatever scale they need.”

Mansoor also currently serves as an investment advisor to 11.2 Ventures and Purple Arch Ventures, as well as an adjunct faculty member teaching digital marketing at New York University. He will join Chief Product Officer Abe Geiger, Chief Marketing Officer Elspeth Rollert and Managing Director Matthew Lochner on the SMC leadership team.

The Stagwell Marketing Cloud is a proprietary suite of SaaS and DaaS tools built for the in-house marketer, spanning capabilities such as brand intelligence to media activation and influencer management. Products within the cloud include ARound, a first-of-its-kind stadium-level shared augmented reality platform; PRophet , a predictive AI platform for PR professionals; Koalifyed, an end-to-end influencer management platform; the Harris Brand Platform, delivering competitive brand intelligence; and more.

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.

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Stagwell (STGW) Appoints Connie Chan as Chief Growth Officer for Asia Pacific

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By

Jack Neff
AdAge

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Rebranding effort is first work by 72andSunny for Zoom, with VaynerMedia handling global media push

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By: Natasha Bach
Originally Released on PRWeek

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NEW YORK: PR pitch platform PRophet partnered with the Harris Poll to better understand the role that tech, and specifically AI, plays in the PR industry and found that nine in 10 respondents said AI is worth investigating.

The survey found that a large majority of PR pros say AI has potential: 92% said it could transform the way that PR is conducted and think it’s worth exploring. More than half, 55%, pointed to the benefits AI could bring to predicting media interest and sentiment, and 83% suggested it could address staffing shortages. A large majority (90%) responded that AI could help them spend more of their efforts on higher-value tasks.

Despite the optimism expressed by many, other respondents said they do not know enough. Eighty-five percent said they want to know more about AI capabilities within the industry, while 50% acknowledged that they don’t know how AI can be leveraged by PR pros.

Respondents said the biggest opportunity lies in pitching. The survey found that a large percentage of PR pros rely on experience (75%), relationships with journalists (66%) or their gut (72%) when it comes to identifying and pitching the right journalists. But with more finding it difficult to get earned media pickup (77%), a majority (80%) responded that they need better tools to increase coverage.

The Harris Poll conducted the survey online, garnering responses from 127 PR pros primarily based across the U.S.

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Originally released on

PR Newswire

Study Reports 9 in 10 PR Professionals Say AI Will Free Them Up for Higher Value Tasks

NEW YORK (Sept. 13, 2022) – The vast majority of public relations (PR) professionals (94%) want to be a part of changing the future of their field, with over nine in 10 (92%) believing AI has the potential to transform the way PR is conducted, according to new research commissioned by Stagwell’s (NASDAQ: STGW) PRophet, the first-ever AI-driven PR pitch platform built by and for PR professionals that predicts media interest and sentiment.

The study, which was conducted online by The Harris Poll this summer, also part of the Stagwell network, asked PR professionals to identify and assess modern-day challenges in public relations such as lagging technology investment and maintaining relationships with journalists, while considering the efficiencies AI can offer to become more productive and performative in their roles. Ninety percent of respondents said they believe AI will make it possible for them to spend more time on higher value tasks. The survey also asked PR professionals to identify common hurdles they face when seeking earned media coverage from journalists as well as their views on data privacy in PR.

Key insights from the PRophet/Harris Poll research include:

92% of PR professionals say they believe AI is worth exploring.
89% of PR pros say personal relationships with journalists are more important than ever, yet 53% declared they feel like they do not have the capacity to maintain these connections.
72% say they rely more on their gut than they should have to when pitching content.
84% shared that data privacy is a concern when sharing pitch materials with a PR tech platform.

“Countless industries around the world are already reaping the vast benefits AI can provide to improve how they do business, so why not public relations?” said Aaron Kwittken, founder and CEO of PRophet. “Our research with The Harris Poll shines a light on the large appetite brand teams and agencies alike have to leverage AI in ways that not only save them time and money, but allow them to better source and target the right journalists at the right time with the right story.”

The survey also asked respondents to share what they rely on to help improve their pitches. The majority reported relying on experience (75%), established relationships with journalists (66%), or research conducted by a fellow team member (63%). Fifty-four percent said they rely on a PR tech platform to support their pitches, and nearly half (47%) feel they have no true strategy at all when writing pitches.

“Today’s research from PRophet and The Harris Poll shows that earned media professionals are open and ready for AI to play a critical role in the future of their work. They recognize that technology can be complementary to their skills and gives them space to focus on what matters,” said Erica Parker, managing director of the Media Communications Research Practice at The Harris Poll.

Learn more about the findings of this report and access the entire executive summary by clicking here.

Agency and brand representatives interested in taking advantage of AI and learning how PRophet can dramatically improve performance of their media relations efforts, can reach out to sales@prprophet.ai to learn about monthly and annual subscription options and to request a demo. For more information on PRophet, visit www.prprophet.ai.

Survey Method

This survey was conducted online primarily in the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of PRophet from June 17 to July 11, 2022, among 127 public relations professionals. Respondents were recruited from research panels, an open web survey link posted on PR-related social media, and a list of PR professionals provided by PRophet. Raw data were not weighted and are therefore only representative of the individuals who completed the survey.

The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ±8.6 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, please contact awise@kwtglobal.com.

About PRophet

PRophet is the first-ever A.I.-driven data-as-a-service (DaaS) platform designed by and for the PR community that analyzes past stories to better predict future media interest and sentiment using natural language processing and machine learning. PRophet is a flagship product within the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, a proprietary suite of SaaS and DaaS tools built for the in-house marketer, spanning campaign ideation to activation and analysis. PRophet was founded by PR and marketing industry thought leader and entrepreneur Aaron Kwittken in 2020 with backing from political strategist, technologist and author Mark Penn, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Stagwell. To learn more, visit prprophet.ai.

About The Harris Poll
The Harris Poll is one of the longest-running surveys in the U.S., tracking public opinion, motivations, and social sentiment since 1963. The Media Communications Research Practice supports the full scope of clients’ data-driven communications strategy, including paid, earned, social and owned media. Whether the goal is to own and tell their own story through thought leadership research, to measure what the public thinks or knows through public opinion polling, or to influence the policy and legislative agenda by taking a public affairs lens, our consultants guide the research and analysis process, from discovering a unique space a client can own through supporting the full range of outreach activities.

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.

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Mark Penn is the CEO of Stagwell and a longtime pollster and strategic advisor. He’s a former senior executive at Microsoft and has advised politicians including Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.

Mark and Auren discuss Mark’s books Microtrends and Microtrends Squared, in which Mark identified minor demographic trends and predicted their outsized impact on society and the economy. Mark gets into the mechanics of good opinion polling and breaks down the major differences between political and consumer polling, and how internet polling is affecting the industry. They also discuss Stagwell and Mark’s digital-first strategy for disrupting the old-school advertising holding companies.

World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.

You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Mark at @Mark_Penn.

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