Winning at the contest for attention
Seth Godin is famous for stating that marketing is a contest for people's attention. With Q1 earnings behind us, I love to uncover how much attention could our top spenders buy. Not everyone has to disclose everything, but many do. Amex informed us that they were able to put $1.34 billion?to work to buy attention in the first quarter of this year. I'd say pretty successful with 3.4 million new cards booked (just under $400 per new card booked). Of course, this is not an accurate?calculation as awareness, other products sold, and a whole host of other benefits will come from this marketing spend. But Q1 was a success in my view. (CAC was ~$440 for 2022 for Amex, by my same flawed calculation). I'm hoping two flawed calculations give you a relative idea.
Capital One on the other hand spent $897 million in order to acquire 1.7 million new cards. This puts Cap One's CAC at ~$525. The point is a lot of new cards were booked in Q1 2023 and honestly, Andrew had called it. Seth Godin may be fantastic at coming up with one-liners, but Andrew can help provide actionable insights that will allow you to succeed for the remainder of the year as well as plan for 2024.
Let me know if you're interested in scheduling Andrew Davidson 's presentation.?Genuinely a session that every marketer has to attend.
Going back to earnings, Emily's Q1 earnings wrap-up is out.
While preoccupied with the collapse of SVB and a looming recession, banks found time to celebrate the consumer and future partnerships.
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A bit orthogonal, but Elon Musk threw his hat in the marketing ring by mentioning that Tesla will "try a little advertising". His products have sold themselves, and perhaps Elon's antics are arguably a form of marketing but looks like we'll soon learn what Marketing from First Principles can look like. This made me think what are some trends we're already seeing today and hit the?first principles of marketing. I came up with 3 that I feel are already at play and will only continue to gain in importance:
1. Increased focus on personalization: AI is the obvious tech here that will supercharge personalization in a big way.
2. Rise of digital channels and Fintech collaboration: I expect a lot of collaboration between TradFi and FinTech. The two are complementary and reinforcing and I think in a post-SVB world, this trend will accelerate. I see TradFi benefitting from Fintech's user-centric services, while Fintech cannot scale on its own and needs TradFi's customer base.
3. Emphasis on Trust & Transparency: Data security, compliance with regulations, and transparent pricing models will continue to be critical to maintaining trust with the consumer. Label me biased, but I'd rather have my digital identity stored with my FI as opposed to Apple, Google, or Amazon.
Next, I want to highlight one of Mintel's most awaited reports.
Mintel's Global Outlook on Sustainability: A Consumer Study is a one-of-a-kind report providing a comprehensive analysis of current market trends, challenges, and opportunities on the topic of sustainability.
Full brochure here.
Lastly, as is typical, when one FI starts focusing on a niche, a number of competitors surface. The Teen space is one of these latest "hot areas" and yesterday we heard an announcement from Venmo announcing their?Venmo Teen Account, expected to launch in June. I think PayPal, with Venmo's brand, has the chops to stand up against the current two key players, Chase & Greenlight. We know a few others are getting ready to enter this space and it'll continue to be of high interest. After all, getting the Gen Z audience early can have significant downstream effects for the winners.
As ever - Anuj