Michelle Capasso, Partner & Director of Media Services at Connelly Partners, was recently a panelist at the Digiday Business of TV Forum. In her session, Michelle reflects on the major shift that the TV landscape has been experiencing. Transitioning from age-and-gender-based media buying to audience-based media buying, this change still appears to be ongoing. Through the lens of targeting capabilities vs actual scale to find audiences in this new space, Capasso explains the progress, shortcomings, and opportunities in this new space. Watch the full session below.

Andrew Velichansky, Brand Supervisor 

Most brands nowadays have defined their “Purpose.” Beautifully cast in size-64pt font on a cardstock hand-out given to everyone at the corporate office. Two weeks later, it ends up in a Waste Management truck and forgotten until the next annual company meeting where it shows up on the “agenda” slide. 

Box: Checked.

It’s not ill-intentioned. We’re busy, and accountable to hit numbers that are black, not red, no matter how we get there.

But, if an organization is solely focused on selling products or growing share, it’s leaving a lot of value on the table.

What is a brand’s purpose?

It’s its reason for being—the why it exists. A north star that guides the whole organization, inside and out.

We make decisions daily: Is the new product viable? Do we support the social cause? Will the job candidate drive us in the right direction? Having a north star focuses every decision, giving clarity and meaning for employees, customers and beyond. Think: Does the outcome of this decision align with our purpose?

Why do brands need a purpose?

Because without it, they sell commodities and employ uninspired people. 

Take socks and shoes. Common goods, and with too many known (and unknown) brands to count. How was Bombas able to surpass $100MM in revenue in 2018 selling socks in such a highly fragmented market? Their brand purpose is clearly and demonstratively rooted in helping to clothe those in need, donating one pair of socks for each sale. Toms shoes was an early leader in that business model. Comfortable and aesthetic socks and shoes were cost-of-entry. Rooting their commodities in a larger purpose let them break through and scale.

Brand purpose doesn’t end at philanthropy. CVS boldly stopped selling profitable tobacco products in 2014. Their redefined purpose to “Bring our heart to every moment of your health” led them to ditch tobacco products and launch their “Start to Stop” program to help people quit smoking. Weeding out products that didn’t support their purpose freed up space to innovate and sell ones that did. A short-term sacrifice, but long-term bottom-line driver.

Ask Unilever, which reported in 2019 that its purpose-led, sustainable brands (Ben & Jerry’s, Vaseline, Dove, among many others) grew 69% faster than the rest of their business. And a 2019 study by Deloitte uncovered that purpose-driven companies grow three times faster than their competitors. 

The bottom line is better for it, and so are the employees.

The Great Resignation agitated the labor market, sending companies scrambling to adapt their culture and benefits to be more talent-friendly. Businesses are still struggling with retention. Yes, we want money. But that’s not all.

According to a 2021 McKinsey study, employees are more than five times more likely to feel fulfilled when their purpose aligns with their employers’. Two-thirds of millennials consider an employer’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work.

Gen-z is already a core part of the workforce and realizes the power brands have in driving DE&I. They’ll orchestrate brand boycotts. They’ll spike viral sales. And they aren’t afraid to resign from purposeless product-driven companies. They want to feel they’re impacting people, and they want the companies they work for to use their position of financial strength to make peoples’ lives better.

How do we put it into action?

Building a purpose takes time. It’s an ongoing commitment from R&D, HR, marketing, finance, production, and operations. It takes months to develop a meaningful initiative. It takes years to build an authentic purpose backed by substance. And it takes leadership that recognizes the significance of embracing that purpose every day.

We’ve worked with clients to both lay the foundation, and also help those with established purposes find authenticity by crawling, walking and eventually running toward that north star. What does the Defiantly Human methodology look like?

Take our client, Liberty Bank, where we:

• Hosted a series of stakeholder interviews to uncover how their employees viewed the organization’s new mission/vision, and what role they saw the bank playing for customers and the broader community. 
• Landed on a positioning and tagline that embraced who they were at their core and addressed the larger purpose they needed to serve: Be Community Kind.
• Led a set of employee ideation groups to brainstorm products, services, events, hiring/onboarding programs, community relationship building, and much more, all through the lens of Be Community Kind.
• Concepted and helped execute surprise & delight initiatives, including a new brand ambassador program focused on rewarding and paying everyday kindness forward in spontaneous ways.

The secret to building lasting, institutional purpose in an organization? Involve everyone. The whole company–all levels, all departments. Workshops and ideation groups without guardrails–ignore budget, timing, and current products and services. That’s when the ideas really flow. It’s easier to take a big idea back down to earth than the other way around.

Most importantly: It’s not a project. Or a task force. Or CSR. It’s a philosophy that requires an ongoing, honest review to ensure everything we do points us toward that north star.

Ideate, evaluate, act. Lather, rinse, repeat.

This week marks the beginning of Women’s History Month, and to celebrate, we asked a few of our leaders to take a moment to reflect on some of the major influences in their lives that helped shape them into the people they are today. Here are some things we can all learn from these remarkable women. 

Find your people

If you were to ask me how I became the first female CCO in the city of Boston, I could mention the hard work, the campaigns I helped create, or my relationships with clients. But really what it comes down to is that I found my people early on. Probably the single most important piece of advice I could give to any aspiring creative director. You have to surround yourself with your personal Board of Directors. I am inspired by mine. The person who will ultimately be your boss of 25 years who sees you as a creative person regardless of gender. The person who develops concepts with you and will take the time to discuss mutual parenting strategies before heading toward an idea. The people surrounding you on a daily basis who are open-minded enough to hear all perspectives but opinionated enough to tell you theirs. And make you laugh. It’s so important that they make you laugh. Most importantly, I’m inspired by my family who lets me be my authentic self while simultaneously reminding me why it’s all worth it. I’m not sure I can pinpoint any one person or thing or event that has inspired me the most over the years, but I know this: I did not do this alone.

– Alyssa Toro, Sr. Partner, Chief Creative Officer – CP Boston 

Don’t be afraid to fail

I have been the beneficiary of three incredible leaders in my career who all helped to shape me into the leader I am today. One who taught me the importance of pushing past comfort zones (by literally shoving me into a role that I didn’t think I was ready for), one that showed me the strength in being an empathetic leader (and how as women that is a huge advantage), and one that attuned me to listening – really listening (what isn’t being said, that you are hearing). However, in each and everyone of those leaders, never once was I made to feel like failure wasn’t acceptable. They collectively led from a spirit of encouragement and never fear. Fear-driven leaders can breed a toxicity that debilitates their staff and the damage often can be unrepairable, thus negatively impacting culture. My advice to any aspiring leader is to provide clear guidelines around expectations, offer all the support when they need it, then allow people the wiggle room to succeed and fail. Let them show you what they are capable of. And in the worst case that there is failure – this is where people will grow the most.   

– Nadine Cole, President, VRX Studios – Vancouver

Compassion and determination are the keys to success

My mom, Marian, has inspired me to lead with determination and compassion. As a divorced single mother, she fearlessly pursued her own career ambitions in education, which is something that I always admired. Beginning as a 5th grade teacher and ending her career as an Assistant Superintendent, she wore many different leadership hats, including Troop Leader for my Girl Scout group! My mom had high expectations for her students and fellow educators, but never let her firm approach affect the relationships she built with everyone she encountered. To this day, students she taught decades ago still keep in touch! That’s the kind of leader I strive to be. 

My advice for aspiring leaders is to strike a delicate balance between being assertive and direct, while still allowing your personality shine through. When it comes to team building, it’s important to create strong relationships with your peers. If you’re all business, all the time, it’s harder to foster those long-lasting connections. Instead, find a way to lead with empathy, as it will earn you respect, and ultimately help your team to achieve its collective goals. No one wants to work for a leader they fear and I’m a firm believer that compassion is the key to success. 

– Alyssa Stevens, Director of Public Relations and Social Media – CP Boston

Be fearless

I have been inspired by so many people in business. Each job I have done, no matter how random and unrelated to my current role, has taught me a skill that helps me today, taught to me by someone I admired. Most important for me, was how the task was done, and by that I mean how people were treated. Respect and kindness can never be overrated.

More than anything, I admire and am inspired by people who, through curiosity, sheer determination and tenacity, have achieved great success. Especially people who did not have support to guide them in their younger years. I firmly believe everyone has it in them to do well in whatever field they choose – extraordinary people are just ordinary people who go that extra mile, but having a mentor along the way helps.

I grew up in a family of successful entrepreneurs. I am one of six children, and am currently the only one not self-employed (though I did have my own business for 10 years – I had to!) My dad, although no longer on this earth, still inspires me. After he graduated with a degree in engineering, he, like so many Irish at the time, headed for the USA. As part of this programme to get his visa, he did training with the Marines. One of the key takeaways was something that stayed with him all his life, and influenced me as well. It was these four words: “Just one more step.” No matter how big a task seems or how overwhelmed you feel by the scale of it, just focus on one more step and you will get there – you don’t have to have everything figured out, just the next thing on your list. 

My current inspiration is a mantra I repeat daily as I strive to be more focussed and efficient in a world where we are pulled in so many directions each hour – it’s the following quote from Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

So many of us suffer from imposter syndrome, thinking we are not as bright or as gifted as others, when really it boils down to determination, being fearless and getting into good habits. 

– Vaunnie McDermott, Client Business Director – CP Dublin

Don’t give up, even when things are hard 

This may be cliche, but I owe so much of what I’ve been able to do throughout my career to my mother, who was from a generation of women caught in the middle of the working mom movement. She grew up in the late ’50s when women were schooled in homemaking, only to be told by society in the early ’80s that, not only could she have it all, she was expected to do it all. The issue was that the culture of pressure and expectation hadn’t yet shifted to be supportive of working moms. I watched her juggle those expectations – going back to college, starting a job with young kids, finding her voice – and the toll those expectations took on her, her family, and her marriage. Yet, I watched from the safety in knowing that I was blessed with so many options.  This taught me that doing hard things was not only possible, but so very important.

– Michelle Capasso, Partner, Director of Media Services – CP Boston

Featuring: Scott Madden, Sr. Partner, Director of Strategy and Paul M. Capobianco, Cultural Anthropologist 

What is new nostalgia and why is it such an important component of advertising today? Simply put, it is looking at the past and revealing new ways forward for the future of humanity. It is directly addressing the backwards ideas of the past and thinking about what the future ought to be. 

In this session, we delve into the role of nostalgia in advertising and examine various uses of it. We also discuss the “Great Resignation” and how the Pandemic has caused people to re-examine their values and what they now look for in an employer.

https://vimeo.com/676279509

Featuring: Alyssa Toro, Sr. Partner, Chief Creative Officer, Michelle Capasso, Partner, Director of Media Services, Sarah Taylor, Group Brand Director, Ally Chapman, Senior Brand Strategist, and Kristen Kearns, Executive Producer at Element Productions 

Did you know that women make up over 80% of purchasing decisions? Or, that almost half of those watching the Super Bowl are female? It goes without saying that women are an important demographic that brands should be paying close attention to. In this discussion, we examine Super Bowl advertising from a unique, female perspective. 

We discuss the role of humor, relatability and authenticity in commercials, as well as recent trends in roles and stereotypes, concepting and execution. Using Super Bowl spots and our own survey findings, we explain why the spots were successful or where they missed the mark. 

Connelly Partners Benefits Administration

The recent Massachusetts State Legislation bill H-2985 proposal introduced by Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian is a major development to help address the crushing student loan debt crisis. The proposal would offer companies who contribute to their employees’ student loan debt with an annual $2,000 state tax exemption per employee. It’s no secret that the cost of obtaining a college education has skyrocketed in the last twenty years, far outpacing wage growth. This concerning trend shows no sign of stopping and, as a result, an entire generation of the workforce faces a perilous financial headwind. Four-year colleges costing upwards of $300,000 is an eye-watering amount for both parents and students alike. 

As an employer, we share a responsibility in the student loan debt crisis.

At Connelly Partners, we feel that we share responsibility with our employees, as job requisition requires a college degree to maintain a talented workforce to best serve our clients. 

An alarming trend developed at Connelly Partners as 401k participation rates among our younger employees was low. A benefits package should address the needs of the entire workforce demographic. Building a generous 401k matching program and supporting robust medical related insurance offerings is an obvious starting place. As benefit administrators, we must consider that our “under 26” employees in their first or second job out of college are most likely still going to be dependent for medical insurance purposes. Therefore, a benefit this employee can take advantage of is starting contributions to their retirement savings. Well, let’s face it, it’s extremely hard to save for retirement with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt payments looming ahead. 

At Connelly Partners, we wanted to do something about this. So, we did. 

In June of 2016 we became the first advertising agency to partner with Gradifi to introduce a Student Loan Paydown benefit for all our employees. The program is a five year long commitment to our employees to help pay down their student loan debt faster with monthly employer contributions paid directly to the student loan balance. 

The long and short of it? We make direct monthly contributions to employees’ student loan principals over the course of five years for a total of $10,000 per employee. Since June of 2016, Connelly Partners has contributed over $300,000 and counting to our employees’ student loan debt. 

Offering the Student Loan Paydown Program has not only added an important benefit that appeals to the younger workforce, but also increased the participation rate of our 401k retirement plan to one of the highest percentiles in our industry. We couldn’t be happier with the trend reversal to support long term financial wellbeing for all our employees. 

We understand there is no easy solution to the student loan debt crisis. We applaud bill proposal H-2895 as a step in the right direction between government and employers. However, it’s not enough. According to 2022 State House News Service, this bill tax proposal is estimated to cost Massachusetts $1.8 to $6.7 million annually. For perspective, Massachusetts collected $34.14 billion in taxes in 2021. For the greater good of confronting the student loan debt crisis, we hope there will be much more to come by both state and federal governments.  In the meantime, we continue to combat this crisis with our paydown program. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.

Marc Santos, Associate Director of Strategy

I just spent 3 jam-packed days in Nashville at The Market Research Event (TMRE). I listened to and chatted with Insights & Strategy leaders from across the world. A Disney trip for people like me that obsess over understanding humans and what it means for brands and our futures. 

I was inspired by an idea that ultimately led me to a thought: meaning is misunderstood. 

We use meaning predominantly in the pursuit of better understanding something else. What does this or that mean? We don’t give the actual concept of meaning enough love. We don’t think or talk about the meaning of meaning. We use it too one-dimensionally. You know what I mean? Hang with me…

Roughly 40% of English words have more than one meaning (reason enough why my Portuguese grandparents never mastered it). And beyond words, meaning can be feelings, visuals, actions, and implications. It can be past, present, or future. It can change. That all makes meaning the opposite of one-dimensional. 

Here are three implications of meaning for brands and why:

Meaning is dynamic.

Oftentimes, brands think about marketing and product innovation in pillars. The example I’m going to use here is around the idea of convenience.

Over the years, the meaning of convenience has changed. In Grocery or QSR, convenience once meant physical presence in as many locations as possible and has evolved into self-checkouts/kiosks, curbside pickup, and “is my grocery store on Instacart yet?” These are all products of convenience = time saved.

There is a race to provide the fastest, most seamless experience possible. Brands are putting their Benjamin’s and brains towards the cause but as they do, something more macro may be happening. What will it mean to have a relationship with a customer? What if time spent becomes more coveted than time saved? What if one day speedy experiences mean soulless ones?

People are funny. Maybe one day they’ll work harder for brands because they’re willing to, want to, or it becomes normal to. In that world, a brand designed to make it easy – but not engaging – will become boring and forgettable.

Meaning is active. 

You can’t go a day without hearing the words ‘authentic’ and ‘purpose.’ They’re only worse when they’re used in a sentence together. As it’s well-documented, living their stated purpose is where brands can be vulnerable.

That old phrase “SAY WHAT YOU MEAN!” has been totally replaced with “DO WHAT YOU SAY!” because our mental say-do equation has changed drastically over the last few years and instead of giving the benefit of the doubt, we’re actively monitoring and questioning brand behaviors – regardless of whether we’re evaluating them as their customer or never intend to be anyway.  

Purpose is reason – something stated. Meaning is significance – something created. By being hyper-focused on purpose, we’re predisposed to focus on words and messages but when we focus on meaning, we’re naturally in action.  

Meaning is power. 

Using an airplane analogy, meaning plays the role of a rudder. The rudder is important but only plays a role when the pilot engages it. A decision vs. natural occurrence. Meaning is oftentimes used in that same capacity – necessary context to “land the plane” (excuse the bad pun), but what if meaning was in the pilot’s seat and could inspire decisions? 

There is a rapidly-growing department within many of the world’s top brands – Foresight Teams. Rudders in the cockpit. These teams have a challenging job to predict what’s largely unpredictable. Present day Consumer Insight is hard enough given people don’t always say what they mean, do what they say, or tell you what they really think. But sometimes they can indirectly or unknowingly offer clues about what their mindsets and behaviors today suggest about the future. 

With the right blend of indirect association and projective exercises (and the right eyes on the data!), brands can find avenues where meaning can power their longer-term futures vs. solely helping them navigate today.  

Remember… meaning isn’t perfect because it’s created by people who aren’t perfect. We’re illogical and change our minds… a lot. The more brands can prepare for meaning to change, the better.

Hillary Williams, Group Brand Director

With the Holiday season approaching, one word seems to stand out among the rest: Gratitude. It’s always top of mind (or nowadays, “trending”) as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday … and this year that magnified sense of thankfulness feels more relevant than ever for brands.  

Expectations for brands have been dramatically increasing for the past several years and the need for companies to stand for something greater than their products has never been more profound. These expectations are driven by consumer desire to identify with companies through shared values, in order to rationalize purchase behavior via decisions that contribute to the greater good. At the end of last year, a study by Forrester reported that “63% of consumers will choose brands that help their local communities, while 57% intend to buy from companies that contribute to sustainability more frequently over the next two years” (Forrester, 2020). Alongside what companies are doing for society, consumers want to feel personally appreciated and that their business is not being taken for granted. According to a recent study, “48% of people expect specialized treatment for being a good customer,” and will be quick to switch from product experiences that lack appreciation and personalization (Accenture, 2021).

Consumers do not want to feel like they’re being taken for granted by the brands they support, but neither do the employees working for these organizations. The pandemic of the past year has further amplified the search for meaning and purpose in our lives, yielding a shift in perspective on priorities. Recent reports reveal that “25% of polled professionals said the pandemic has made them want to pursue more fulfilling jobs,” (Boston Globe). The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that 2.9% of the entire workforce quit their jobs in August alone, hitting a new monthly record (NPR).

So how can companies effectively navigate this greater sense of purpose and feelings of restlessness to retain and attract both employees and consumers? Simply put⏤  they can show genuine gratitude. Appreciation is a critical foundation of any strong, long-lasting relationship and as Professor Bradley Cannon of the University of Wisconsin remarks, “We did not create or fashion ourselves. Life is about giving, receiving and repaying. We are receptive beings, dependent on the help of others. As such, we are called to gratitude.” Studies show that grateful people tend to be more empathetic, agreeable, joyful and enthusiastic and that the act of gratitude helps mitigate toxic emotions (Forbes). In a University of Pennsylvania study, telemarketers who had a brief visit from the Head of Giving thanking them for their efforts, outperformed the shifts that did not by 50% (Wespire). 

Gratitude starts from within companies, – and the way it’s rooted in the brand DNA and manifested towards consumers are of equal importance.  With this in mind, here are three ways to show gratitude for employees and consumers in a compelling, authentic way:  

1. Walking the brand purpose walk. An oldie but a goodie and no better example in my opinion, is REI. Despite a tough sales year due to COVID related store closures they’re continuing with their #optoutside movement and closing all doors on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, encouraging over 15,000 employees and consumers to spend time outside on the busiest shopping day of the year. REI’s commitment to the #optoutside effort exemplifies their core purpose of “inspiring, educating and outfitting for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship,” on the heels of a period where many reprioritized time outside. This year aligns with their new Cooperative Action Fund, a charity to support “nonprofit organizations promoting justice, equity and belonging in the outdoors.” From a loyalty standpoint, REI offers a $20 lifetime membership offer for customers. This alternate take on a traditional loyalty program reflects their co-op roots and gives consumers frequent discounts, but with a sense of genuine belonging to the organization. Members see themselves as an extension of the company which creates a genuine sense of loyalty vs. generic and artificial discount offer system.
2. Grand gestures that make a statement and prioritize emotional health over immediate profit. After a grueling year in a reimagined corporate world that blurred all lines between home and work, LinkedIn prioritized the mental and emotional health of their employees with a company-wide “RestUp!” week that gave nearly all their 15,900 full time workers an extra week off to recharge. By promoting the well-being of their hard working staff with this dramatic gesture, LinkedIn boosted internal morale and optics with platform users, all with a relatively minimal impact on their bottom line in the grand scheme of things. This move is particularly relevant at a time when other social platforms have been under increased scrutiny regarding their moral compasses – or lack thereof. It helps set a high bar for companies to demonstrate appreciation in concrete ways, which Spanx CEO Sara Blakely embraced as she surprised all employees with two first class tickets and $10,000 to celebrate their recent acquisition by Blackstone. 

3. Public celebrations of appreciation. The best acts of gratitude stem from a company’s brand ethos, and Dave’s Killer Bread’s employment model is based around hiring the best person for the job, regardless of their criminal history. In their recent campaign with Exverus Media they showed the empowering and inspiring stories of workers with criminal backgrounds and reciprocal nature of second chances through a moving long form video that personified their brand values and celebrated employees in a personal way. Similarly, in the midst of the pandemic Burger King’s targeting took an unconventional and compelling shift when they used their on-site advertising to showcase messages of gratitude for their employees, who had to risk their health to keep working through the pandemic. Customers were invited to leave thank you messages when placing an order through the app which resulted in more than 5,100 messages over just three days. While this was a timely and impactful gesture, there’s an opportunity for this type of employee appreciation outside of extenuating circumstances like the past year’s pandemic. A CP client, Liberty Bank recently repositioned the brand around improving the lives of their customers, teammates and communities for generations to come. Their “community kind” brand ethos is rooted in the bank belonging to something greater than itself. The organization lives out this mission on a daily basis with gratitude for their customers and community – whether it’s surprising the community with ice cream at a children’s summer camp over the summer, featuring profiles of inspiring customers on their social channels or OOH that speaks to how inspired they are by the community. These types of public gestures of gratitude both celebrate employees and drive consumer affinity. 

It’s clear to see that this Thanksgiving represents a unique opportunity for companies to lean into gratitude and find genuine ways to thank both their consumers and employees. But more than that, it’s a reminder that gratitude should be something that’s practiced 365 days of the year – positioned around what giving thanks really means for your business and to those that support you from both a workforce and consumer standpoint.

There’s never a dull moment in the world of social media and that especially rings true in the wake of Facebook’s recent scandal and outage. In the simplest of terms, the platform experienced a major outage, the largest in over a decade. Millions of users, who depend on social media every day for communication and work, were left without it. Not to mention, the former employee and whistleblower going public and her subsequent congressional hearing. CP’s own Michelle Capasso and Alyssa Stevens weighed in on the issues and important takeaways. 

Michelle Capasso, Director of Media Services 

Another week, another Facebook scandal…  

Facebook investigations and allegations seem to be in a constant news cycle, but have we truly changed our behavior? Is the one-two punch of a whistleblower and a worldwide outage enough to start a new change movement? Most advertisers, and consumers, seem relatively willing to accept that Facebook is constantly under fire, and unfortunately the platform’s role for a brand’s bottom line is too addictive to completely walk away. This is a company that was under such scrutiny in 2020, with major brands pulling off the platform in light of the social justice movement that summer, yet still made an estimated $84B in ad revenue that year alone. 

And while it’s the company we all love to hate, are we really surprised that they put “profit over people” as many headlines read? Do we hold other massive global organizations to the same standards? We accept that the largest companies in the world are in the business to make money, but does Facebook – or for that matter, any social network – owe us more simply due to our reliance on it for information – or misinformation? 

For all its injury, the outage put a spotlight on how many small businesses have been built entirely in social media, supporting an entire segment of the economy that wouldn’t exist without the social platform. And they, unfortunately, don’t have the luxury to simply turn that off. Facebook partially weathered last summer’s storm from large brands by refocusing on small businesses who couldn’t afford to leave. The growth of TikTok seems poised to pull small business reliance away from Facebook, but it’s certainly not there yet. So as advertisers, we find ourselves rooting for another social platform to “take over” – although we should be more careful of what we wish for…   

Alyssa Stevens, Director of Public Relations & Social Media

With over 50 million people worldwide identifying themselves as creators and social media being the primary platform for that content creation, an outage, like what occurred across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp last Monday, is a cause for concern amongst the influencer community. 

When the buzzword “influencer” first emerged, it was synonymous with being a blogger. However, as the industry has grown, the idea that someone could influence others purely through their social media page, and without having a blog, is becoming more common than not. With the absence of another platform to support their influence and the very real notion that Instagram could disappear for hours, if not, days…the question begs…what is a social media influencer without social media? 

Following the six hour social media outage, I watched many of our influencer partners be vocal about the effects that this type of occurrence can have on their brand and livelihood. Through the ease and convenience of affiliate marketing and shoppable links and the steady interest from brands to work with them for content creation and brand awareness, influencers use platforms like Instagram to make a living. A day without Instagram means a day without commissionable sales or the ability to complete projects on behalf of brands…a day without a “paycheck.” 

The need for influencers to diversify revenue streams beyond just “renting” the audience they’ve amassed on social media is the key here, but for many creators, it hasn’t been top of mind. I will be curious to see if this outage will serve as a wake-up call for influencers to have a back-up plan for content creation and their business when and/or if this occurs again and for a longer duration.  

CP Analytics Team: Brian Kastelein, Director of Analytics, and Diane Zhou, Data Analyst 

It is estimated that nearly 30 million websites use Google Analytics (GA) so when Google decides to make a change to their methodology for website tracking, saying it’s a BIG deal is not hyperbole. Such a change happened at the end of 2020 with the official launch of Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

If you are just learning about GA4 or, like most organizations, are in the early stages of exploring what this new tool has to offer, here are ten things you should know.

1. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a completely new version of Google Analytics

During the past 16 years, Google Analytics (GA) has undergone an evolutionary process from improving accuracy to expanding features to refining the user interface, culminating in the version of GA that most people are familiar with called Universal Analytics (UA). In late 2020, however, Google brought its newest version, GA4, out of beta. More than just a continued evolution of the UA environment, GA4 is a fundamentally new Google Analytics platform that heralds the cookie-less future.

2. GA4 is built on an event-based data model

The baseline unit of measurement in UA is a “hit.” A hit contains information about a user’s interaction with a web page. Hits are predefined in UA and consist of pageview hits, event hits, ecommerce hits, exception hits, user timing hits, and screen hits (apps) so opportunities to customize tracking of user behaviors is limited. UA consequently relies on cookies to store and recall user interactions and translate them into sessions, repeat visits, etc. By contrast, GA4’s event-based unit of measure represents a fundamental data model difference compared to UA. The event-based tracking in GA4 allows for greater flexibility and customization in measuring user interactions across an organization’s online properties. GA4 is also “smarter” in its use of machine learning so that it is not dependent upon cookies for tracking and reporting key metrics.

3. GA4 is more user-focused and provides a more holistic view of cross-device behavior

If you have a website and an app, congratulations – GA4 provides a more holistic customer view through its cross-device and cross-platform tracking abilities. Its event-based data model allows detailed tracking of user behaviors by appending custom parameters to each event. Here again, in the absence of cookies, machine learning plays a critical role in tracking and measuring user traffic, engagement, etc. Beyond just tracking user behaviors, GA4 will help to make predictions, identify segments most likely to convert, and optimize return.

4. GA4 generates more accurate measures of user engagement

There are many new dimensions and metrics in GA4, especially engagement metrics, to solve the inherent inaccuracies of hit-based tracking in UA. For instance, UA measures session length by next-page interactions with ‘hits’ or requests sent to the server. Single-page visits, therefore, record no time since there is no subsequent user action taken. This methodology results in some inaccuracies in metrics such as bounce rate, average time on page, and session duration. GA4’s methodology solves these inaccuracies. By way of an example, a 10-second session with no further action in UA would be considered a bounce. In GA4, that same behavior is defined as an engaged session and ultimately contributes to a new set of engagement metrics including engagement rate, engaged sessions, engaged sessions per user and average engagement time.

5. GA4 integrates event configuration within the analytics interface

With GA4, a single tag in Google Tag Manager (GTM) is used for initial configuration and then all other events can be set up in GA4 directly. When creating or modifying events, up to 25 parameters can be added to capture more details, such as item_name, item_category for eCommerce, and page_title, page_location, and page_referrer for views. While GA4 events have no notion of Category, Action, and Label, the standard convention that is used in UA, these descriptors can be used as GA4 event parameters if desired. Along with there being greater event tracking flexibility in GA4, there are also new challenges as organizations will need to develop a more disciplined approach to planning, implementing, and managing event tracking.

6. The basic setup of GA4 is relatively easy using the embedded Setup Assistant

If you already have a Universal Analytics property set up in GA, creating a new GA4 property is easily accomplished using the GA4 Setup Assistant that is now featured in the Property admin panel. The Setup Assistant provides a step-by-step guide to completing the basic configuration and deployment of the GA4 property. That said, more advanced event tracking, ecommerce configuration, account linking to Google Ads, Big Query, or other platforms within the Google ecosystem requires additional manual configuration once the basic property is deployed.

7. GA4 has no historical data and sets maximum data retention at 14 months 

Because GA4 uses a fundamentally different unit of measurement than UA, no historical data from an existing Google Analytics account is accessible in the GA4 property. Given that, data collection in the GA4 environment only begins once the property is launched, and as such, it is in an organization’s best interest to deploy GA4 as soon as possible so that a set of historical data can begin to accumulate. Additionally, it is worth noting that while UA had few restrictions on data retention, GA4 has a maximum data retention limit of 14 months.

8. GA4 is still evolving and rolling out new features

Since officially bringing GA4 out of beta in late 2020, it is now the default view for anyone setting up a new GA property. That said, Google has continued to evolve the functionality and features of the GA4 environment, offering deeper integrations to other platforms within the Google ecosystem and more robust functionality based on underlying machine learning capabilities (e.g., predictive audiences, attribution settings, etc.) The bottom line is that the GA4 product we see today is far from being a final version and ongoing improvements and enhancements can be expected (And you have one analytic team here at CP that is hoping to see one of our favorite UA features, Google Annotations, brought into the new GA4 environment!).

9. GA4 can (and should be) run in parallel to existing Universal Analytics properties

While the UA version of GA will likely be the primary source of truth for most organizations for the balance of 2021, GA4 should be set up and run in parallel to any existing UA property. As noted above, data in the GA4 environment is not retroactive so it’s advisable to begin building up a base of historical results. Additionally, running UA and GA4 in parallel will afford organizations an adjustment period during which the results between the two platforms can be monitored and compared. There is definitely a learning curve with GA4 and gaining familiarity with the environment, sooner rather than later, will help organizations anticipate likely impacts of fully migrating over to the GA4 environment sometime in 2022.

10. Organizations should launch their GA4 property as soon as possible

Excited, surprised, panicked, or suspicious, no matter how you feel about this completely new way of tracking website and app data, organizations using GA should launch their GA4 property today. As of now, UA will continue to be fully supported by Google, but with GA4 being the anticipated move to prepare for the cookie-less future, it is worth the time and effort to begin to get comfortable with the new way of tracking, the new interface, and the new functionality of the tool. The CP analytics team is actively helping organizations manage the setup, configuration, and comparative tracking of results between UA and GA4. Our services include:

• Basic GA4 Property Set Up
• Event and Conversion Configuration
• Comparative Dashboard Deployment (side-by-side tracking of results between a UA and GA4 property)
• Data Warehousing (ensuring data accessibility for multi-year trending and analysis)
• Full GA4 Migration Project Planning