Mobile marketers are still trying to master the contextual benefits the platform provides. As they take advantage of the latest formats and targeting options, they also face new challenges related to viewability, brand safety and creativity.
CPG giant Johnson & Johnson has long been a digital advertising pioneer, utilizing video, social and mobile to market its myriad global brands such as its namesake baby products, Band-Aids, Listerine, Neutrogena, Tylenol and more. Phil Schraeder, president of AI company GumGum, recently spoke with Josh Palau, J&J’s senior director of global partnerships, about the challenges the company faces in today’s digital ad marketplace.
Schraeder: You’re a large global company with multiple blockbuster brands. How do you manage all your marketing and advertising to ensure you have consistency around the world?
Palau: Even the most efficient organization would have a really hard time developing one global concept and pushing it out to all the markets in a way that adheres to all the standards, best practices and nuances. To help with this one thing we’re trying to put in place is somewhat of a scorecard that can track how the creative we are developing lives up to the best practices of the platforms we are advertising on and align with our objectives. We use the phrase “what does good look like?” as a way to ensure we are doing the things that the best performing brands are doing. That could range from video length to segmentation to call to actions.
That must be a moving target since digital best practices change so frequently.
It’s a challenge, but many of the core principles are not dramatically changing everyday. Things like sound on vs. sound off might be a new thing to test, but try to stick with the bigger / evergreen principles like having a clear CTA, optimal length, etc.
How do you ensure that your ads go out in a brand-safe environment? There was a lot of discussion about big brands being concerned about the videos or images their ads were showing up in.
There is a lot of work happening in this area that I can’t go too deep on, but I can say that J&J and our partners are committed to brand safety. We know things are going to happen—and so, like all things in life, it’s how you respond that matters.
Which is what you did when you paused your YouTube presence. What did you learn from that?
First of all, there’s no off button—and that’s important to know as you manage expectations within your organization. It was an immense collaboration of J&J, Google and J3 resources to make this happen in the timeline we were all comfortable with.
What we really needed is more vigilance on the publisher’s side since they own the platform. Google was doing a good job of monitoring, but it can always get better – and, frankly, it did. When we think about this we look at: What new measures are you putting in place? What are the existing measures that are changing? Is there a scoring criteria for offensive content?
Looking at all the different formats you now have available, how does this impact how you tell your story?
There are just so many ways to tell a story online. The formats coming out now are a reaction to how people consume content. How do we ensure our creatives still feel energized to tell the story while using new formats that publishers are finding to be successful.
What would be an example?
The six-second bumper ads that Google uses on YouTube is an example of that. When trying to use that format, it can be a challenge because it’s forcing the creative team to try to deliver the best story with a call to action in a such short time frame. However, the industry data seems to suggest it works so we have to always be testing.
And on mobile?
We are pushing everyone to think mobile-first, even if you don’t have mobile-ready creative. We have a few examples of how we’ve been able to manage this. Neutrogena Hydro Boost only had TV creative so we took parts of the assets, and found ways to make them more mobile-friendly vs. re-shooting everything.
Another area to think about with mobile is mapping to the content that people are interested in. For the Neutrogena Light Mask launch, we understood what content people watch for skin care tips and developed creative that looked more closely like that type of content.
So mobile is about finding moments, right?
I think it’s about being present and useful when hitting the audience at the right time. Align content with what they want and let’s respect them by providing something that’s quick, that educates, and that fits into the platform they are on.
