Hello, and welcome to our weekly dispatch of all the most thought-provoking marketing trends and campaigns on our radar.

This week, we’re loving what John Hancock is doing with its new “The Long Game” campaign featuring NFL rookies talking about their long-term goals and passions outside of football. Retirement is a prickly subject for millennials, who came into the work force bearing massive student loan debt during one of the country’s most significant economic slumps (check out this interesting article on Politico for a deeper dive into this subject). We’re seeing a lot of financial brands attempting to change the conversation around money and retirement in the hopes of wooing this demographic. John Hancock CMO Barbara Goose spoke to us about the brand’s vision for this program and the millennial audience.

We’ve also been intrigued by the resurgence of direct mail—yes, direct mail!—which is making a comeback among many brands because of its predictable response rates and its ability to integrate into an account based marketing strategy (Google “Direct Mail Comeback” for some interesting opinions on the subject.) We did our own investigation with marketing executive Scott Kosinski of EyeMed (a division of Luxottica Group) to find out how this old school marketing tactic is performing. Read on for the full report.

Also a “must-discuss” this week: the Sparkling Rain campaign that’s using shopper data and basket analysis (yes, basket analysis—did you even know that was possible?) to align highly-targeted influencer campaigns and programmatic ads with specific consumer groups. As we all know—it’s hard out there for a sparkly no-calorie beverage. It’s a crowded field to play in in 2019. You’ll want to hear what vp-marketing at parent Talking Rain Beverage Co. Sarah Gustat has to say about the strategy.

That’s hardly all the news we have to share, so read on for more marketing tips and insights. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and catch you back here again next week.

Jessica Heasley
Content Director - Chief Marketer