CENTER FOR MARKETING AND MEDIA RESEARCH
What worked? How did it work? What did we learn?
The MediaPost Cases focus these three key questions on some of the best examples of successful marketing across channels and segment. These cases explore how brands defined their marketing challenge, conceived, executed and course corrected their solution, and measured results.
Drawing from MediaPost’s live events, awards programs and reporting, MediaPost Cases cut across all of the channels and industry segments we cover. Whether you are looking for what the auto sector is doing in ecommerce or how DTC brands make digital video accountable or other fresh insights, you will find lessons and inspiration from this library of more than 150 cases.
You can search the library by keyword or via the filtering tools here. Paid members of the Center for Marketing and Media Research (CMMR) get access to the full library, which is refreshed weekly with new case studies. Select cases are available for individual purchase as well.
50 Featured out of 192 Total Cases
- Reaching the right audiences, in the right places, at the right time, during a global pandemic can be challenging. Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) reached prospective patients through a targeted OTT/CTV campaign that informed patients of nearby facilities available for treatment, resulting in a CPC of 60% lower than the cross-channel average.
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The Livestream Mall Crawl: Crayola and Mall of America Virtualize The Shopping Ritual
When customers can't come to the mall, Mall of America is bringing the mall experience to them. Using a QVC TV shopping model with its retail tenants, MoA went livestream with major brands like Crayola last year. The live interactivity, planned shopping events and features (think Santa via ZOOM) explored new ways of experiencing the mall ritual.
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Extreme Personalization
Timing is everything...especially in personalized messaging. Ochsner Health leverages real-time email responses to patients' online and offline behavioral triggers to build genuinely conversational experiences and keep their members healthier. What can brand marketers learn about customer journeys from the way a major hospital network treats patients? It's all about letting the user drive the conversation, not technology or marketing.
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ThirdLove Leverages Data with an Integrated Approach
COVID forced performance driven ThirdLove to drastically cut ad spend; shifting focus to marketing efficiencies and repeat business in order to generate profit. They did a lot of testing, learning and data collecting. As a result, a new holistic marketing approach evolved. How does leveraging customer insights, dynamic quizzes, new channels, and 3D technology result in more efficient and better performing marketing strategies?
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The Evolving Practice of Consumer Engagement
A century ago Betty Crocker taught us everything we needed to know about authentic consumer engagement. From personalized connections to data collection to creating engagement and innovation loops. General Mills' CMO, Ivan Pollard, explores how the company draws lessons and inspiration from this CPG icon.
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From Influencers to Hashtag Campaigns: White Castle Deepens Engagement with CPG Shoppers
Thanks to White Castle's QSR roots, social media has long been a significant part of their grocery division's marketing mix. CMO Lynn Blashford talks strategy, and how not only the channel, but the content, plays a crucial role in expanding audience reach to younger consumers. She also shares how embracing the fight against social injustice opened doors for the family-owned brand.
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RentPath Builds Brand By Easing Friction
Every click is a hurdle, not an invitation for users. And every form to fill is a mountain for them to climb. EIS veteran Chester Bullock explains how reducing that friction has increased email's effectiveness in driving qualified leads and at the same time leveraging customer brand loyalty.
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Grocery Outlet's Social Strategy Goes Local
As Grocery Outlet showed during the pandemic of 2020, a firm social strategy for retailers can be used quickly to empower the in-store crews on the ground and across diverse locations. CMO Layla Kasha explores how she built GO's platform strategy to be adroit and powered by local creativity. How do you train, empower and coordinate such a network of brand ambassadors that are in closest contact with your customers?
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Now, About That Chicken Sandwich: Popeye's Inside Story
Who would have known the launch of a chicken sandwich would be the QSR story of the year? Apparently, not even Popeye's own marketing team. Brand Lead Lisa O'Brien shares what happens when consumers take over your launch, blow up the media plan, and create success and PR challenges that were truly unprecedented.
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D2C Brands Tune-In to Primetime
TV's lower ad prices and higher available inventory enabled digital-first advertisers not only to test TV but to test some of primetime's most popular shows. Learn how testing and changing up your media plan can capture revenue growth, greater efficiency and data points while also establishing a consistent form of measurement with OTT.
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Teachable Moments: Failing Fast, Learning Faster to Drive ROI
Every marketing success probably was preceded by a line of valuable failures, but we rarely share that full path to the big win. But failing fast, learning faster is itself a necessary marketing skill. Hedy Payghambari, director of marketing and media at Papa Murphy's, shares her teachable moments and the tools and tactics she leveraged to maximize return on investment on digital channels.
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ShopRite's Paperbird Soars
When Wakefern Food Corp. set out to redefine their Own Brands, they went to their consumer - and let insights drive every step of the process. From brand positioning to packaging design to brand activation, Wakefern treated the launch of Paperbird with the same respect as a best in class CPG brand. Laura Kind, VP of Brand Strategy, shares how her team translated the consumer emotion around messes into highly relatable Paperbird brand work.
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Keeping it Real: Connecting Authentically with Multicultural Consumers
Cadillac skews more heavy to multicultural buyers than other brands, so a lot of its overall marketing plan has that emphasis. The brand's partnership with Regina King, Diddy and Spike Lee give a clear indication of how important it is for the brand to connect authentically with multicultural customers. Not everyone can hire a-list stars and give Diddy a car but there are key takeaways that Alexis Kerr, head of multicultural marketing at Cadillac, shares to help other brands activate on a smaller scale.
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Four Seasons Aggressive SEM Campaign Pays Off
How does a global brand like the Four Seasons Hotel & Resorts oversee media buys for 100+ properties, yet still manage to increase website bookings, boost revenue, and drive incrementality to channels like SEO and direct for each hotel? Very strategically. Traditionally, the luxury hotel chain's media budgets were fixed and held at property level. That is until their agency, Acronym, realized it was limiting their advertising reach. Instead, after a successful test pilot, Acronym unified Four Seasons' media buys, and the corporate office essentially gave them what amounts to a "blank check," which enabled them to provide a more …
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"Knives Out" Cuts Through Box Office Clutter with an Integrated Puzzle Sweepstakes
How does a new film attract the attention of moviegoers when it's competing with a franchise that garnered more than one BILLION dollars at the box office? Lionsgate Films had to contend with just that when they released their murder mystery "Knives Out" on the same Thanksgiving weekend as "Frozen 2". Not only that, they're also both family-friendly films competing for much of the same audience. Their solution? A "gamified transmedia" experience. In partnership with AvatarLabs, Lionsgate created puzzles for fans to solve using the "Knives Out" marketing materials; including its trailer, posters and red carpet events. Each puzzle was …
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PUMA Leverages Taxis in NYC for a First of its Kind Programmatic DOOH Campaign
How do you stand out when launching your first retail store in New York City, the fashion capital of North America? Add to that an extremely limited budget due to prior financial commitments, and that's what PUMA faced when opening its flagship store on Manhattan's bustling Fifth Avenue. The German sportswear company knew they needed to be strategic with how and who they reached in order to get the most from their investment. For that they executed a digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising campaign with geo-targeting technology. By programmatically serving ads in motion fixed on top of taxis and rideshare vehicles, the …
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Adobe XD's SEO & Content Strategy Ignite Website Launch
Is it possible to become one of the go-to websites for your industry within a mere 7 months? It is if you're Adobe XD, and you strategically develop an extensive SEO and content strategy prior to its launch. As a relative unknown in the UX/UI design space, Adobe XD needed to do some investigating before launching Adobe XD Ideas. They conducted in-depth keyword, competitive and content gap research that enabled them to prioritize the topics that UX/UI design professionals were searching for online.
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Atlanta Heats Up Brand Image Via Social Video Storytelling
How does a legendary Southern city change long-ingrained stereotypes? The Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) met that challenge head on with a social-first campaign. The destination marketing organization sought to reshape the city's brand identity through local ambassadors, influencers and targeted social content by leaning heavily into destination assets and content themes that align with the interests of its target audience, the "creative class".
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Finding Burger King Moments In A Fractured Mediaverse
Burger King is prioritizing the moments that matter for the company - whether on TV, OTT, social - to drive incremental traffic and build brand. Learn how BK's media team is leveraging attribution modeling as a guide and asserting performance criteria to judge every old and new channel against how each adds to the mission.
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Engaging Loyal Customers: Beyond Points and Punches
Incentives, discounts and loyalty points are all well and good when getting a loyalty app program off the ground, but over the long haul it takes diversification of benefits and deeper kinds of interaction to engage the loyalist and make them feel special outside of direct use of benefits. A veteran of Amazon's Prime program, Starbucks and currently KFC's Director of Digital Strategy, Ashley Travis, shares the lessons of true loyalty.
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And Now a Word From Alexa: Leveraging Voice Search & SEO Optimization
While most hospitality organizations were trying to connect with consumers at the front desk, the folks at Red Roof Inn set their sights on more strategic voice opportunities. Kevin Scholl, Red Roof's Director of Digital Marketing, discusses leveraging voice technology, SEO optimization and why they're proud to be the only hospitality brand to engage with consumers in their homes and cars via Alexa.
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Pandora Thrives with a Full Funnel Approach to E-commerce
What happens when a retailer's business model is completely upended, and they need to transform a marketing plan that once drove foot traffic into one that effectively drives digital customer journeys. Pandora Jewelry faced just that with only two months to Mother's Day, their biggest sales period. Their solution was a "full funnel" approach pivoting from a strategy that drove store traffic to one driving e-com. Pandora quickly shifted to a digital-only strategy.
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Less is More: How Policygenius Maintains a Personal Touch in Email Marketing/Marketing Automation
When Policygenius streamlined its manual insurance matchmaking process and redesigned its email program, the brand needed to maintain its roots in human connection while providing expertise to guide customers through the insurance shopping process. Sometimes it's the little things, it turns out, that keep messaging personal, not just personalized.
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Building the Cost-Per-Visit Media Plan
How are digital dollars moving your customers to action? Franchisees need to know exactly where their ad money goes and show results - quickly! Liz Bazner, the director of digital at A&W Restaurants, tells us how in the past few years A&W has been doing just that since moving to a cost-per-visit measurement model for their campaigns.
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Pancheros' Digital-First Brand Makeover
More than a "campaign," Pancheros' recent brand push put digital and data at the center. But how do you reorganize diverse franchisees around social-first local tactics, and relaunch an app so that it nearly doubles participation? The QSR brand's marketing team leveraged data to unlock the power of fanatical customers in a digital-first brand makeover.
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Multicultural Representation In Automotive Advertising
To ensure accurate portrayals of women and girls, the Ford Motor Company team followed insights provided by the ANA's #SeeHer movement. The result was a campaign created by and for Black women, affirming the automotive brand's commitment to supporting the advancement of positive representations of them in media and advertising, both in front of and behind the cameras.
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SimpliSafe Secures Its Next Growth Strategy
SimpliSafe, the category-defining brand of DIY home security, has already succeeded in reaching beyond the digitally savvy base and into general awareness. Company CCO, Don LeBlanc, shares lessons learned as he brings his data-driven marketing culture into awareness campaigns that build brand even as they drive sales.
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From Influencers to Hashtag Campaigns: White Castle Deepens Engagement with CPG Shoppers As a QSR brand, White Castle was at the forefront of using social media to promote their restaurants, but they didn't stop there. The family owned company also extended its social prowess to their CPG side of business. So when COVID hit, White Castle was well positioned to ride out the storm. Selecting influencers, creative concepts, personas, PR- - its marketing team flipped the traditional media mix to elevate and leverage their message well beyond social.
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Waking Up To Gaming
Bud Light's Director of Sports Marketing talks esports opportunities for brands, Bud Light's own strategic approach and how (and how not) to suit up for the virtual game.
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Craftsman Builds Success With Holiday Ugly Sweater Influencer Campaign
The tool business landscape has been growing more and more competitive each year. With sellers like Amazon and Walmart crowding the market; Craftsman needed to come up with a strategy that put their products front-and-center with shoppers during the competitive holiday season. With a very limited budget, Craftsman leveraged influencers and social media...
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Hubble Tests TikTok & the "EYES" Have It!
The sheltering-at-home lifestyle saw consumers watching more video than ever before, including expanding their viewing habits to new platforms like TikTok. Direct-to-consumer contact lens brand, Hubble Contacts, decided they didn't want to be beholding to just FaceBook and took advantage of the new trend. Hubble's Senior Marketing & Creative Director, Dan Rosen, shares how he tested the short-form mobile video platform and discovered a new audience, success and scale.
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AT&T Appeals to the Masses with a Hyper-Customized Video Campaign on Social
There are brands that do what you do, but you know you do it best. So how do you let everyone else know that? If you're AT&T, you produce impactful creative and devise a hyper-targeted, eye-catching media strategy. AT&T enlisted a popular social influencer and artist to create 30 unique executions that targeted decidedly distinct groups with artwork and animation.
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Return on Delight: Thinking Beyond Tecovas' Bottom Line
With a Net Promoter score of 92, the Tecovas brand clearly captured the hearts and minds of boot fans. CMO Rich Lesperance explores how the company thinks beyond the bottom line and invested in the delight metric, both online and in store.
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Flipping the Funnel: Addressable TV and the Success of Audience Modeling and Targeting
What would it mean to your media mix model if you bought people instead of channels? Building out your media campaign with smart data and custom modeling instead of working from the top down. Cadillac is doing just that with their current audience first approach.
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Spider-Man Influencers Spin Web on Twitch, Capturing Gamers
Theatrical ticket data showed gamers comprised 25% of the audience. Historically gamers have proven to be more likely than the general online population to purchase media and entertainment products. Given this, Sony Pictures Entertainment set out to reach this lucrative segment on Twitch; the gamers go to social channel. This was no easy task, since gamers are a tight knit group filled with habitual ad blockers, typically impervious to traditional advertising.
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Truman Reinvents Cleaning Solutions via a Hyper-Focused Customer D2C
Do we really need another cleaning product? In an industry that's already over saturated, is their an opportunity for a new company to survive? That's the challenge Alex Reed faced when he and his co-founder, Jon Bostock, launched their D2C cleaning subscription service, Truman's, in February 2019. In such a cluttered market they needed to find their voice and that's exactly what they did.
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Switching Gears: Lexus Broadens it's Image & Audience
The importance of cultural connection points in advertising still holds true to build upon the equity in any established consumer relationship. Lexus 0to60 was created to illustrate how "performance" could create greater affinity within the Black consumer mindset for the Lexus brand.
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Hakuna Brand's Unorthodox Entry into Frozen Deserts At least 80% of new CPG product launches fail each year, so why even bother trying? Hannah Hong and Mollie Cha bothered because they believed they were filling an unmet consumer need; a healthier, dairy-free alternative to ice cream. Both lactose intolerant, the two discovered banana "n-ice cream"- frozen banana chunks blended with a little almond milk. "Like lightning striking," Hakuna Brands was born.
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Mobilizing the Loyalty Journey
The path to customer loyalty will be mobilized, but cracking consumers' limited app awareness and reuse takes a multi-pronged approach. Fazoli's chief marketing officer, Jodi Conrad, explains how the QSR brand used aggressive acquisition tactics, streamlined interface, 360-degree promotion, and data-driven segmentation to grab home screen mindshare. The results not only grew the topline loyalists number but also bottom line participation and revenue.
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Jimmy Bars Takes the Paths Less Traveled How does a new CPG business stand out in the already saturated snack bar market? As building a brand within the grocery industry can prove challenging and expensive, Jimmy Bars' co-founder, Jim Simon, tells us it's vital to not only differentiate oneself but be creative as well.
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Hulu Experiential Campaign Creates Buzz for 'Handmaid's Tale'
How do you generate hype around something that's no longer new? Hulu's series, "The Handmaid's Tale", was heading into it's third season, and the streaming platform needed to come up with a buzz-worthy campaign to help increase viewership and subscriptions. So Hulu partnered with CNN's content studio to create a one-day branded art activation called, "The Shape of History."
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Shapermint's Balancing Act Between Brand & Performance
After its meteoric growth since Shapermint first launched in 2018, the shape wear company needed to better connect with its customers. To stir things up the brand incited a public debate about shapewear and put its customers' feedback at the heart of its new body-positive campaign, "Feel Like the Masterpiece You Are".
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Dove Stays True to Brand with Photo Library Created By Women
Having a quality product isn't always enough. Today's consumers are holding brands to a higher standard, and it's not enough to support a cause and then be done. Consumers are looking for consistency from their brands. Dove's #ShowUS campaign reflects that.
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Compelling Images & Linear Message Inspires New JDC Donors
Tired of being passed by like an old shoe? Then do what the JDC did- make some noise! Founded in 1914, the Jewish relief organization ramped up a multi-channel ad campaign to re-introduce their brand and get noticed.
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Beauty Brand e.l.f. Nabs Gen Zers with a TikTok Explosion
Struggling to capture the attention-challenged Gen Z consumer? Be concise, engage and video, video, video. That's why e.l.f. cosmetics launched their first hashtag campaign on TikTok in a rebranding effort to reach the newly influential audience. The beauty brand wanted to connect with Gen Zers in a way that was platform native, so they did something that had never been done before.
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Mini USA Brings Retail To Consumer, Bumps Test Drives With Invitation To Tweet
It was the first ever, on-demand social media pilot that gave consumers control on what time, day, where, and how they would get to experience their MINI test drive; all with a simple Tweet.
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Puppo's Data-Targeted OOH Campaign has Tails Wagging in NYC
Breaking into an already saturated market that's extremely competitive is challenging enough, never mind if you don't have the budget to back it up. That's what start-up company Puppo came up against. The challenger brand didn't have the resources for large scale advertising. So they decided to break through the noise of the established brands with a hyper-targeted and
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Beardbrand Hits Million Mark In YouTube Subscribers
When Eric Bandholz started Beardbrand in 2013, his goal was to provide tools for men to feel confident about growing their beards.
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Kellogg Interactive Ad Scores Big with Fans During Super Bowl
Looking to score big with your Super Bowl ad? How about selling your product live during football's biggest event of the year? Think it can't be done, think again. In partnership with CBS Interactive, Kellogg aired an interactive, live streaming, connected TV (CTV) Super Bowl ad for it's potato chip brand Pringles. The spot offered viewers a shoppable experience...
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Craftsman Leverages Ad Unit Tech In Dream Garage Contest To Build Awareness In Canada
The contest was built into interactive digital display that allowed users to browse through tools and storage, place their most coveted products inside the garage, and enter to win-all without leaving the ad unit.
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