Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

A three-year study from Scratch, an in-house unit of Viacom, found that a third of millennials believed they won't need a bank in the future. These millennials, defined as those between ages 18 to 33, also ranked the top four banks in the "ten least loved brands" and would rather go to the dentist than to their bank.Is this surprising?

This segment of the population has grown up in an era that saw trust in banking erode due to the financial crisis and a near stagnant economy. This is also a period when new technology has enabled firms like Simple, Moven, Square and PayPal to be more relevant with a generation that would rather handle finances on their phone than in a branch.

Here are some of the findings from the Millennial Disruption Index:

The rise of spontaneous social ads means the end of the ad campaign as we know it. fascinating thing happened at the Super Bowl this year. Typically, Super Bowl advertisers meticulously plan every aspect of their presence months in advance of the big game.

But this time, Coca-Cola, Audi, and Oreo didn't just limit themselves to pre-packaged creative — they also had in place rapid response teams that adapted to events as they happened. So when the rest of America was reacting to the power outage in the stadium, the brands were, too — appropriately and in their own brand voice.

Recently, the Wharton Future of Advertising Program asked more than 175 industry leaders to describe their vision of what advertising would be like in the year 2020. Based on our analysis of the responses to the 2020 Project, the Super Bowl case isn't just a once-a-year stunt — it's a preview of a model that will scale and become a foundational characteristic of major brand advertising. The industry experts had a varied take, but a remarkably consistent theme emerged: the rigid campaign-based model of advertising, perfected over decades of one-way mass media, is headed for extinction....

Healthcare is a $2.8 trillion industry, and it’s currently in a state of chaos. The Affordable Care Act is reshaping the sector. Patients are more mobile than ever, and turnover in the C-suite is skyrocketing, with the average lifespan of a healthcare CEO lasting just three and a half years.

Many of these new CEOs have no healthcare background, making the impact of the turnover even more dramatic. And when new CEOs take the helm, there’s an 87 percent chance they’ll replace the company’s current CMO.

With a shifting landscape comes a restructuring of paradigms, particularly for healthcare marketing. How can we not only survive these changes, but seize the opportunities they present?...

What if tomorrow you woke up and found out that you suddenly had to compete against a customer experience giant – the likes of Southwest, Apple, or the Ritz Carlton. What if one of these well known and deeply loved brands swooped into your marketplace? Would your customers stay? Or would they happily test out the new entrant? Would they be delighted to have options instead of being forced to do business with you and your usual group of hardly differentiated competitors? Could you compete against a customer experience giant?

This is exactly what happened to the B2B supply industry when Amazon joined the industrial distribution market last year. Product categories covered include: lab equipment, occupational health and safety, janitorial and sanitation, office, power and hand tools, and the list goes on. In true Amazon fashion, orders over $50 or more receive two day shipping. In addition, they offer free 365 day returns and financing through their corporate lines of credit. Overnight, B2B suppliers were faced with competing against a company with a notoriously delightful customer experience.

Not surprisingly, there’s been a healthy amount of debate around how willing customers will be to trade in personal service for faceless procurement. But new research by Acquity Group shows that buyers have been quite willing to at least give Amazon Supply a try. Now, to make matters worse, Google is joining Amazon in the fight for the B2B buyer as it rolls out services to the electrical and electronics industries....