The Consumer Electronics Show highlights the innovations that have the potential to transform the way people work, play and otherwise spend their time. The media and marketing industries are undergoing their own technological transformation, but some basic principles still apply.
“Brands and media partners are innovating at record speeds, but the one thing that has always remained true is the power of storytelling. Storytelling has created culture for many, many years,” Josh Feldman, chief marketing officer at NBCUniversal Advertising Sales and Partnerships, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “It’s our job to tell our brand stories in really interesting and unique ways.”
Brands not only are seeking media partners to help showcase their products amid quality content, they’re also looking to convey their broader mission and responsibilities to society.
“They want to stand up for very specific causes,” Feldman said. “We’ve seen a huge increase in requests for what we just call very simply ‘purpose-driven’ marketing.”
In the past year, NBCUniversal has run campaigns to help give back to communities. Its Family Is Universal effort enlisted Walmart, Verizon and Progressive to donate to Feeding America and No Kid Hungry, among other initiatives to support families facing hardship during the pandemic.
To help veterans make a smoother transition to civilian life, NBCUniversal has continued its “Boots to Boardroom” initiative that highlights the skills of people who served in the military.
Marketing Innovations
Aside from its cause-driven efforts, NBCUniversal has embraced a variety of technologies to give advertisers greater ability to engage with consumers. It worked with Volkswagen on a campaign that let viewers activate an augmented reality experience on their smartphones featuring the character Retta from series “Good Girls.” A campaign for Samsung asked TikTok users to interact with a “choose your own adventure” series of videos in the leadup to the Latin Billboard Awards.
NBCUniversal’s research found that 90% of viewers appreciated its innovations with commercials, while 88% had better recall of those campaigns.
“Technology is so easily accessible for our fans at home that it would be silly for us not to utilize that technology to help further that storytelling,” Feldman said.
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