Mediaboss Marketing

HERES THE DEAL: A Memoir, by Kellyanne Conway

Can this marriage be saved? That was the name of a long-running couples counseling column in the defunct magazine Ladies Home Journal, a onetime client of Kellyanne Conways. And its a question that hovers over Conways new memoir, Heres the Deal, its title seeming to assure the kind of straight dope that her former boss Donald J. Trumps ghostwritten chest-thumper, The Art of the Deal (1987), did not deliver.

There is some of that, but also familiarly dizzying spin.

Encouraged in her telling by Trump himself (Write a great book, honey), this is but the latest of the squazillion accounts to splash down from his presidential administration, for which the author was campaign manager, senior counselor and frequent media representative in what she calls, as if it were a rocky theme-park ride, the wildest adventure of my life. Conway clutches policy like a flotation device, but keeps drifting back to the home front in this book.

Introduced by Ann Coulter, the conservative fellow pundette she met while making the cable TV rounds in the late 1990s, Conway and her husband, George T. Conway III, a lawyer, had a Concorde courtship it was intrigue at first sight, she writes and eventually an amazing wedding (the Viennese dessert selection is noted) and an apartment in Trump World Tower. They were blessed by Pope John Paul II on their honeymoon and later with four children, including fraternal twins. More than a decade later, a few months into the highest profile job shed ever had and without any preparatory pillow talk, he who had helped to impeach Bill Clinton and had seemed to cheer the Make America Great Again platform dove onto Twitter and started posting disapprovingly about her boss.

The duplicity of it stung me, Conway writes. Of course it did.

Before long George was telling her You work for a madman in a loud, sinister voice, dramatically ramping up his online output in a manner she found obsessive and helping to found the Lincoln Project, a committee to not re-elect the president she was so close to. Bristling at personal questions from curious journalists, which she perceives as sexist, Conway borrows from both Julius Caesar Et tu, Wolf? she writes of the CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and, a few channels down on HBO, Carrie Bradshaw: Is cheating by tweeting actually a thing?In an afterword, she speculates, George and I may not survive as a couple.

Watching the chin-juttingly independent Conway toggle between her actual husband, her work husband and the Fourth Estate, this critic also flashed improbably on the TCM staple The Philadelphia Story, wherein Katharine Hepburns Tracy Lord is buffeted by mild fianc, violent ex and boyish reporter.

But though both women are fast talkers and snappy dressers with intermittently absent fathers, Lord was a blue blood from the Main Line, and Conway as shell proudly remind you is a Blueberry Pageant Princess raised in Atco, N.J., a tiny town between Philly and Atlantic City. The Golden Girls is what she calls the four Italian Catholic women who raised her, and Kellyanne was also a kind of golden girl: popular, athletic and the valedictorian of her high school who was soon volunteering on Capitol Hill. Primed to support Geraldine Ferraros vice-presidential candidacy in the 1984 election, she instead fell hard for Ronald Reagan.

Conway then known as Fitzpatrick got a law degree; she had enjoyed playing judge, prosecutor, defense counsel and all the witnesses in a mock courtroom as her dolls and stuffed animals sat in stunned silence and then became the E.E. Cummings of pollsters: rendering the name of a firm she founded, the Polling Company, in all lowercase on business cards before it was a hipster clich. She was good at analyzing data and hopping on prop planes to see how it was playing in Peoria; and, as amply evidenced here, she also likes wordplay: Gawk and squawk. Armful of harmful.

We dont trust her numbers, Conways mostly male competitors would sneer.

They hadnt seen my numbers, she writes. But I had their number.

Conway wants to identify and indict her underminers. She catches Steve Bannon, a serial leaker whom she portrays as doing little actual work, standing like a spring break bar bouncer and nodding his head so emphatically he looked like a bobblehead doll in a windstorm. Jared Kushner she characterizes as a hopeless silver spoonster, revisionist historian, a crown prince who used encrypted apps to literally talk to a crown prince.

But while rat-a-tat and packed in a manner to be expected from someone once known as Sally Soundbite, Conways own bid at recording history, written with a book doctor, is spotty and selective. She goes on for pages about opioid addiction and abortion, but other than fleeting mentions of the Second Amendment, completely ignores the issue of gun control, which lands terribly in a month of two massacres. She is furious about incursions of the press, including this newspaper, into her family and private life, but gives them ever more grist by fuming hyper-specifically about her husbands foibles. Though she scorns angry feminists wearing pink hats and yoga pants, her own triumphs over doubting Thomases, the overbilling nonwizards of Ozzes behind Mitt Romneys failed 2012 presidential campaign, are satisfying, in the way a Jacqueline Susann heroine is satisfying.

Ladies, how many times do we feel less-than? she writes. Or apologize even though we did or said nothing wrong? Pass it on: Being you is enough! And once is not enough, as Susann put it but this is real life.

Pass it on: Though its hardly short, this book isnt remotely the whole story, nor is it likely to be the last volume of the Conway Chronicles.

Alexandra Jacobs is a book critic and the author of Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch. @AlexandraJacobs

HERES THE DEAL: A Memoir, by Kellyanne Conway | 512 pp. | Threshold Editions | $30

Read more from the original source:
Review: Heres the Deal, by Kellyanne Conway - The New York Times

Days after a group of people dressed in clothing reminiscent of Nazi brownshirts drove a rented box truck displaying hateful messages down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, a watchdog group is speaking out against the incident and says it has identified the hate group and two of its members.

According to StopAntisemitism, an organization that works to expose people and groups that engage in antisemitic behavior, the group responsible for Saturdays incident is the Goyim Defense League.

The organization also named two people who were captured on video participating in the hateful rally: Jon Minadeo II and Robert Frank Wilson.

We are horrified that innocent bystanders in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, Jewish and otherwise, were subjected to such vile and atrocious hate, Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, told The Times on Monday. When white supremacists like the Goyim Defense League are allowed to spread this type of vile bigotry without any pushback, then it normalizes Jew hatred and sends the message that this is tolerable.

Neither Beverly Hills police nor the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, which responded to the incident, have identified the group or any participants.

StopAntisemitism said it identified the two men based off of physical appearance.

The group also said the antisemitic messaging on the truck has been noted in prior incidents involving the hate group, including in March when Wilson was seen driving in San Diego in a similar truck.

The GDL has also been responsible for passing around antisemitic fliers as well as hanging signs with hate-filled rhetoric on freeway overpasses, StopAntisemitism said.

Sheriffs Sgt. Joana Warren told The Times on Sunday that investigators identified the trucks license plate and were working to identify who rented it.

A Sheriffs Department spokesperson told The Times on Monday that the incident remains under investigation and said she couldnt share any more information.

The Goyim Defense League is a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The group includes five or six primary organizers/public figures, dozens of supporters and thousands of online followers.

It was responsible for at least 74 antisemitic propaganda incidents in 2021, the Anti-Defamation League said.

According to an account of Saturdays incident by StopAntisemitism, the truck was parked in the driveway of the Beverly Hilton hotel, where Minadeo, Wilson and two other members of the hate group dressed in clothing resembling that of the brownshirts in Nazi Germany were seen parading and shouting The Nazis are coming and here comes Jew boy ... were going to make you go extinct.

Another video captures an encounter between the group and a law enforcement officer, StopAntisemitism said. A member of the hate group says Holocaust denial ... 6 million, thats an exaggeration.

The person then thanks the officer, calling him a good goy, StopAntisemitism said.

The truck bore hate-filled messages such as Ann Coulter was right about Jews and Resisting the Great Replacement = Greatest Threat?

The so-called great replacement conspiracy theory is a racist philosophy espoused by white nationalists.

FBI statistics show that Jews continue to be the most targeted minority in the U.S. and that antisemitic crimes are on the rise, Rez said.

Yet, Jews are often overlooked when discussing issues of civil rights and social justice because they are categorized as a model class minority and are inaccurately portrayed as a privileged group, she said. Hateful individuals, both among fringe groups but also in the mainstream, then use this perception as an excuse to attack Jews.

The privileged perception of Jewish people leads to antisemitism not drawing the same level of attention as discrimination against other groups, Rez said, adding that her organization is working to ensure that antisemitism is given equal attention and combatted with the same level of fervor.

The lack of fear that white supremacists have should be frightening to everyone, she said.

Read this article:
Anti-hate group speaks out against antisemitic incident in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills - Los Angeles Times

UPDATE: The Baton Rouge Police Department says that at least three to four juveniles have been arrested for a separate crime but are being investigated for potentially being connected to the armed robberies in the Garden District.

The police want residents to stay vigilant and alert to any suspicious activity.

ORIGINAL STORY: BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) Residents in the Garden District are looking over their shoulders after a string of robberies.

I couldnt believe it was only two houses down and across the street from me, said Kristen Macmurdo, a Garden District resident.

Marty Johnson says she saw shocking videos on her Nextdoor app. She says one of her neighbors was robbed and then beaten. She saw others being robbed at gunpoint.

I never thought we would experience this in this neighborhood, said Johnson. Its personal when you cant even leave your house and get into your car safely.

The Baton Rouge Police Department says the suspects are believed to be young Black males carrying weapons. They may be driving a white or a maroon car. Neighbors say several cars have been stolen.

Resident Christine Kooi says she witnessed people trying to leave the neighborhood after a robbery. She says crime often picks up in the summer, but never like this.

It was a white Toyota with a loose front bumper tearing down Cherokee Street towards Park. As the car got to Park, it stopped and a couple of guys jumped out and fiddled with the front bumper, she said.

Garden District Civic Association member Michael Helms says the board is working closely with BRPD. Helms says this neighborhood is in shock because they rarely see crime.

We are gathering information and passing it out to them (BRPD), said Helms. And then also reaching out to our community members, giving them somebody to talk to about their concerns.

Some long-time residents are calling on city-parish leaders to focus more on education and gun control in order to reduce crime.

I think we need a lot more strict requirements for anybody to have a weapon, said Ann Coulter, a Garden District resident.

Residents say they are hopeful police are doing their job. And in the meantime, they are taking it upon themselves to take an extra step to stay safe.

My husband and I went to dinner last night, the first thing we did when we got home was turn on our brights and look in the bushes because at this point, you know, we dont know, said Macmurdo.

Anyone having information on these robberies is urged to contact the Baton Rouge Police Department at 225-389-2000 or Crime Stoppers at 225-344-7867.

Follow this link:
Police investigating juveniles possibly connected to Garden District robberies - BRProud.com

Dive Brief:

The Glenlivet's campaign attempts to both change the perception of whiskey drinkers while also filling the internet with hip young people drinking the scotch whisky, increasing the brand's profile among millennials. The move comes as whiskey sees an increasingly diverse consumer-base.

"#BreakTheStereotype continues The Glenlivets pioneering heritage and shows that we will never be held back by limiting preconceptions. We know there is a diverse range of whisky fans across the globe and that continues to grow yet the old stereotype surrounding whisky remains. Time for us to change that," said Miriam Eceolaza, global marketing director for The Glenlivet single malts at Pernod Ricard, in a statement.

The images were taken by Ugandan-British photographer Danny Kasirye and queer Chicanx artist Devyn Galindo. In addition to the diverse subjects, the scotch whisky featured isnt being drunk out of the standard Glencairn glass neat, but in a variety of different ways, including in cocktails and on the rocks. This is in line with the distillerys campaign featuring Paquin, who advocates drinking The Glenlivet however the consumer prefers, and not allowing so-called experts to cloud or influence how they drink scotch.

Since 1990, the percentage of women whiskey drinkers has doubled, going from 15% of drinkers to 30%. This notable increase has distillers reaching out to women and other diverse drinkers. The Glenlivets efforts are intended to reach out to those consumers in a way that raises brand awareness.

As part of the effort, The Glenlivet has also partnered with Equal Measures, an organization that seeks to deliver greater equity for ethnic minorities and marginalized groups in hospitality. The brand will support the organization through its Education and Mentorship Scheme, providing up to 30 participants with access to qualifications, mentorship and other opportunities. This real-world action could give additional weight to the purpose-driven effort.

Influencing search algorithms to better represent diverse consumers is a tactic embraced by marketers in several industries. Heineken this month sought to fight bias in soccer by buying key AdWords around popular soccer questions to ensure that female achievements were not overlooked. Procter & Gamble brands including Olay and Pantene have also sought to influence algorithms to fight bias.

Follow this link:
Glenlivet fills the internet with diverse whisky drinkers - Marketing Dive

Talk of the metaverse has been ubiquitous over the past several months. In 2021, internet searches for the term increased by 7,200 percent. In December, Facebook rebranded itself as Meta, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared his ambition to help bring the metaverse to life. A month later, Microsoft said that its proposed acquisition of gaming giant Activision provided building blocks for the metaverse.

Its not just talk; private capital is also rapidly pouring in. In 2021, metaverse-related companies reportedly raised upward of $10 billion, more than twice as much as they did in the previous year. In the past 12 months, one company aloneEpic Games, maker of Fortnitehas not only raised $3 billion to fund its long-term vision for the metaverse but also announced a partnership with LEGO to build a metaverse for kids. The global value creation opportunity from the metaverse could be in the trillions.

What, exactly, is the metaverse? Right now, the interested parties cannot agree on any one definition. But most descriptionsincluding this particularly insightful take from venture capitalist Matthew Ball, who recently shared his thoughts on the promise of the metaverse with McKinseyhave some elements in common:

We believe that the metaverse is best characterized as an evolution of todays internetit is something we are immersed in instead of something we look at. It may realize the promise of vast digital worlds to parallel our physical one. For marketers, the metaverse represents an opportunity to engage consumers in entirely new ways while pushing internal capabilities and brand innovation in new directions.

Now is the right time to adopt a test-and-learn mindset, to be open to experiments in the metaverse, and to move on quickly from failure and capitalize on success.

We do continue to see a healthy amount of skepticism about the metaverse, and companies may wish to exercise caution, since the promise may take some time catching up to the hype. But we believe were at the cusp of a fundamental shift in how people use the internet. (See sidebar, Six reasons the metaverse is here to stay.) Marketers would be remiss if they didnt start exploring what the metaverse can offer. Now is the right time to adopt a test-and-learn mindset, to be open to experiments, and to move on quickly from failure and capitalize on success.

We may still be in the first wave of consumer engagement with the metaverse, but lessons are already emerging from companies that found early success. In some ways, the critical elements of marketing in the metaverse resemble those of designing authentic and compelling brand experiences in the physical world. But the application of these elements in the metaverse can be very different. Much as approaches for driving value onlinecontinue to evolve, the effective engagement of consumers in the metaverse will require its own evolving recipe for success.

Heres what this landscape looks like today and how organizations can think about their metaverse marketing strategies for the future.

Define your metaverse marketing goals. Why do you want to be part of the metaverse? If your brands consumers are there, do you want to increase awareness among new audiences, position your brand and generate favorable sentiment, or promote loyalty? Is your goal to spark innovation in your marketing team? For the near term, the primary goal of brands shouldnt be driving sales directly, since sales of virtual items are still far smaller than sales of physical ones. Whats more, todays metaverse audiences, especially on online entertainment platforms like Roblox, often skew younger, which brings both opportunities and risks.

Identify the platforms that provide the best opportunity and brand fit. Right now, Roblox, Fortnite, Decentraland, Minecraft, and Metas Horizon Worlds are just a few of the metaverse games and platforms out there. Some will be better than others for specific purposes. There is ample opportunity to experiment with multiple platforms to see what works. For example, the luxury brand Gucci has conducted multiple brand activationsto figure out where and how to connect with Gen Z. Last year, it drew 19.9 million visitors in two weeks when it launched a metaverse version of its real-world Gucci Garden on Roblox. Gucci has also partnered with the fashion-focused metaverse Zepeto, announced plans to launch a virtual world on the blockchain-based platform The Sandbox, and created assets for games including The Sims, Pokmon GO, and Animal Crossing.

Design experiences appealing to target audiences. Consumers tend to see brands in the metaverse as innovative, so the bar for delivering innovative experiences is high. Companies need to determine the ideal balance between native advertising, immersive experiences (including games, virtual stores, events, and sponsorships), and real-world activations to complement the metaverse. Take, for example, what the skateboarding retailer Vans did last fall when it launched the interactive skatepark Vans World on Roblox. To build brand awareness and appeal to the companys core demographic, Vans enabled visitors to virtually explore skate sites with friends. Visitors can also earn points through gameplay to spend on virtual sneakers and apparel items, as well as to build customized skateboards in a virtual skate shop. This has successfully engaged both existing and new fansand has seen more than 48 million visitors so far.

Consumers tend to see brands in the metaverse as innovative, so the bar for delivering innovative experiences is high.

Experiment with money-making models. Direct sales may not be front and center on the metaverse right now, but that doesnt mean brands shouldnt be thinking ahead and planning to capture the future potential. Direct-to-avatar sales of virtual goods are already a $54 billion market, and some forward-thinking brands are testing different opportunities to generate revenues. Forever 21, for example, sells a beanie in Roblox for under a dollar. On the other end of the scale, Gucci sold a digital version of its Dionysus bag last year for $4,115more than the price of the physical item itself. Nike is trying out unique NFTs with its recent release of Nike Cryptokicks (a virtual model of its Nike Dunk sneakers), designed by the creative studio RTFKT, which Nike acquired in December.

Just as online-to-offline sales conversions are the norm today, we can expect to see more metaverse-to-offline opportunities in the future, too. In April, Chipotle claimed it was the first brand to enable Roblox players to exchange digital currency for real-life rewards when it offered vouchers for burritos to the first 30,000 visitors to its metaverse restaurant.

Create, leverage, and partner for new metaverse capabilities. For the metaverse, as for any new venture, brands should assess the skills they will need, identify which they already have and which they must acquire, and appoint someone to lead the development and execution of a coherent strategy to capture value. Brands should also aim to work with and learn from others, including the independent developer and creator communities that are active on the platforms already.

Roblox, for example, has hundreds of thousands in its developer community who are actively developing a range of experiences and learning how to make money from them. Last November, NASCAR partnered with Badimo, the developers of the popular Roblox game Jailbreak, to add a branded vehicle to the game for a ten-day event. During that time, gamers visited Jailbreak 24 million timesa 30 percent increase in the number of concurrent players. Creative, branding, and marketing agencies are also rapidly launching new service models and metaverse capabilities, including their own virtual studios.

Furthermore, celebrities and influencers are increasingly attaching their names to metaverse initiatives. In some cases, theyre deeply involved with the actual creation of new immersive media for the metaverse. Last year, for example, the rapper Snoop Dogg built his own Snoopverse in The Sandbox. A few months later, he released the first music video that takes place entirely within the metaverse. The House I Built, like previous Snoop Dogg videos, features dancing, hanging out by the poolside, and driving nice cars. But this time, its his digital double enjoying the lifestyle.

Proactively plan for risks to the brand. There are many cautionary examples of brands that exposed themselves to risk by engaging directly with consumers online without having prepared for the rapid feedback loops of the internet or the potential virality of social media. In the metaverse, the risks can be even higher, since these events are live in real-time and more immersive. Brands would do well to establish basic rules of engagementdetailed policies and enforcement practices they can follow laterfor customer experience, intellectual-property management, user safety, data privacy, and misinformation, for example. Already, in some cases things have not gone according to plan. One global electronics brand launched a new line of products with great fanfare on its metaverse venue, but disappointed fans had trouble gaining access and had to virtually queue outside the venue.

Rethink how you measure marketing success. Measuring the returns on marketing spend is always critical, but the appropriate metrics for the metaverse may not be what you expect. Digital marketing typically focuses on metrics such as the number of visitors, conversions, likes, and shares, as well as the cost of acquiring customers. With the metaverse, marketers may need to define new engagement metrics accounting for the unique behavioral economics at play (such as the scarcity of NFTs, which are supposed to be unique). For example, the online food delivery company Deliveroo deployed virtual drivers to make virtual deliveries in Nintendos popular Animal Crossing game, including promo codes to activate in real life. Within the first hours of play, it racked up three million in-game interactions with players.

With the metaverse, marketers may need to define new engagement metrics accounting for the unique behavioral economics at play.

Clearly, the metaverse already gives companies ample opportunities for brand building and marketing. The current technological limits and modest level of mainstream adoption are not likely to be major obstacles for experimenting, learning, and finding success with marketing in the metaverse.

A few questions will shape its longer-term evolution. Marketers should be aware of these as they shift their focus and marketing budgets to the metaverse:

No matter how the metaverse evolves, levels of innovation and consumer adoption will probably accelerate. When you consider how quickly platforms are evolving and the new use cases emerging, its clear that brands will have incentives to go on testing and learning. It will also be imperative for marketers to secure the talent required to keep up with rapid new developments in areas such as augmented and virtual reality, consumer journey analytics, and social commerce.

Finally, the metaverse has great future potential beyond marketing. To create value throughout the enterprise, companies must take the time to think through the potential strategic implications of the metaverse for sales, operations, production, R&D, and HR. Organizations and brands that plan and execute now will benefit most from the future of the metaverse.

View original post here:
Marketing in the metaverse: An opportunity for innovation and experimentation - McKinsey