Our Blog Featuring CMO and executive marketing insights.
Advertising.
BLOG | ADVERTISINGInsights
2024’s AI & Privacy Trends: Navigating Digital Marketing
January 11, 2024
Two Announcements Promise to Shake Up Search in 2024 Marketers, hold on to your hats, 2024 is off to an interesting start, with a couple of key announcements foreshadowing a volatile year to come. While many of us were already planning to allocate investments to evergreen trends like video, content quality, creative testing and site …
2024’s AI & Privacy Trends: Navigating Digital Marketing Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
How To Make Strategic Marketing Cuts That Don’t Sacrifice Growth
December 21, 2023
How To Make Strategic Marketing Cuts That Don’t Sacrifice Growth Given the dramatic change in economic fundamentals coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, overall marketing spend is down for most brands. Higher interest rates and volatile consumer inflation in the media have increased economic concerns and kept VC/PE firms on the sidelines for most of …
How To Make Strategic Marketing Cuts That Don’t Sacrifice Growth Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
The Future of Search: The War for Search Dominance
November 23, 2023
For over two decades, Google has dominated the search engine market – holding over 91% of the market share as of 2022. Its ability to analyze and understand user intent has allowed it to deliver the best possible results and refine the user experience, resulting in an expansion of the search landscape and serving as …
The Future of Search: The War for Search Dominance Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
The Allure of Direct to Consumer: The trap Allbirds fell into and suggestions for maximizing DTC as a sales channel
November 3, 2023
Author: Chris Rigas, Vice President of Media at Markacy Here’s a hot take: DTC companies employ way too many people. Payroll costs are very high for DTC companies The allure of direct to consumer is the possibility of cutting out the middleman and expanding margins; if you don’t sell to wholesalers at discount, you can …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Does Direct Mail Marketing Still Work?
November 16, 2022
Direct mail marketing is a tried and true strategy that businesses have used to correspond with their customers for decades. While a “snail-mail” campaign may seem counterintuitive in the current age of email and social media, direct mail marketing can be an extremely valuable tool for eCommerce brands in particular. It’s a low-cost solution that …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
5 Growth Strategies for Google Ads in 2023
November 13, 2022
No question, 2022 was a juggernaut year for direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing. Prior to the pandemic, many brands had planned modest DTC investments, but following COVID, and a cascade of worldwide lockdowns, retailers were compelled to innovate on the fly. According to Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, their analysts observed “two years’ worth of digital transformation in …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Marketer’s Guide to Performance Max
August 3, 2022
You may have heard of Google’s new automated campaigns feature, titled “Performance Max.” With minimal set up required, and much of the complication stripped away from having to set up multiple Google campaigns, there seems to be a lot of promise and potential with this new type of campaign. But is it too good to …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
How Amazon Marketplace Impacts Brands and Marketers
July 12, 2021
Amazon is a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in another mystery. Expected to own half of the e-commerce retail market this year and with nearly 60% of consumers saying they’ll do more online shopping after the pandemic. Amazon is undeniably a beast. So what is Amazon’s strategy and how can we all learn from …
How Amazon Marketplace Impacts Brands and Marketers Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
How Will the Apple iOS Update Impact Facebook Ads?
June 7, 2021
Late last year, Facebook went on the PR offensive, taking out a series of full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers and rolling out a website decrying Apple’s planned implementation of ad tracking protections, The online campaign warns of the impending App Tracking Transparency update, which will allow iOS 14 users to opt-out of 3rd-party data …
How Will the Apple iOS Update Impact Facebook Ads? Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Digital Digest: Post-Pandemic Ad Spending
May 3, 2021
With the COVID pandemic coming under some semblance of control, companies have been taking notice, with marketers expected to spend 15 percent more on advertising than they did last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. With companies trying to recoup some major losses and maybe even get ahead, many are wondering what their game …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Post Pandemic Ad Spending
May 3, 2021
With the COVID pandemic coming under some semblance of control, companies have been taking notice, with marketers expected to spend 15 percent more on advertising than they did last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. With companies trying to recoup some major losses and maybe even get ahead, many are wondering what their game …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Media Efficiency + MER: A Better Measure for Marketers
April 26, 2021
One of the most common mistakes marketing professionals make is basing media spend on audience cost; this wastes massive resources (the most expensive media you can buy is a cheap one that doesn’t work) and doesn’t take other factors related to media spending into account. It’s much more effective to look at sales results i.e. …
Media Efficiency + MER: A Better Measure for Marketers Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
5 Growth Strategies for Google Ads [2022 Edition]
March 13, 2021
No question, 2020 was a juggernaut year for direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing. Prior to the pandemic, many brands had planned modest DTC investments, but following COVID, and a cascade of worldwide lockdowns, retailers were compelled to innovate on the fly. According to Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, their analysts observed “two years’ worth of digital transformation in …
5 Growth Strategies for Google Ads [2022 Edition] Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
A Profitable Holiday Paradox: The Fifth Quarter
December 19, 2020
By the time December rolls around each year, most retailers have exhausted their promotional playbooks, having focused a significant share of their year-end resources on Black Friday sales. This is especially true in the age of COVID, with rumors of recession echoing the hall, many believe that BFCM may be the last shot at real …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
The 4 Pillars of Influencer Marketing
October 27, 2020
Influencer… If the word makes you think of the Kardashians or over-saturated and inauthentic Instagram posts, you’re not alone. But here’s the truth: influencer marketing can (and should) still be part of your marketing toolbox in 2020. Just not the way you traditionally might think of it. Here, we’ll review the key things to know, the data …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Will Facebook Performance Suffer in the Wake of iOS 14?
April 24, 2020
Big news from Apple this week as they begin releasing highly-anticipated iOS 14.5 updates. Labeled as a huge win for privacy advocates and consumers, many e-commerce brands and marketers have been bracing for months, fearing significant impacts to ad targeting & conversion. Among the loudest of Apple’s opposition, Facebook claims that changes could have an adverse impact …
Will Facebook Performance Suffer in the Wake of iOS 14? Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Next Up: AI-Adaptive Facebook Ad Strategies
April 23, 2020
Scale Your Ad Budgets Efficiently If you’re running a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand, there’s no getting around it. Love it or hate it, Facebook needs to be part of your marketing-tactic arsenal. When done right, however, Facebook is one of the most cost-efficient ways to acquire new customers and tell your story to potential customers. It’s …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
How to Win on Facebook
April 22, 2020
Scale Your Ad Budgets Efficiently If you’re running a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand, there’s no getting around it. Love it or hate it, Facebook needs to be part of your marketing-tactic arsenal. When done right, however, Facebook is one of the most cost-efficient ways to acquire new customers and tell your story to potential customers. It’s …
Consulting.
Blog | ConsultingInsights
Tiger Woods | Build vs Partner
January 11, 2024
So Tiger and Nike’s decision to end their partnership wouldn’t normally prompt a note from me but there are actually some very intriguing business fundamentals to explore so I thought it was worth a post. Tiger recently announced he was ended his long-standing relationship with Nike (27 years) and would be wrapping up his recent contract …
Blog | Consulting
The Promise and Paranoia of AI: Transforming Our World and the High-Stakes Implications
November 3, 2023
By: Matt Crider – Strategy Director @ Markacy In an era marked by extraordinary innovation and boundless human potential, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a pivotal force shaping our ever-evolving civilization. Its incredible capabilities have ignited a sense of promise and opened up new possibilities for transforming our world in ways previously only imagined. …
The Promise and Paranoia of AI: Transforming Our World and the High-Stakes Implications Read More »
Blog | Consulting
Top 10 E-Commerce Trends to Plan For in 2023
December 19, 2022
While we’ve all seen the shift happening, nothing catalyzed the world of e-commerce and e-commerce trends quite like the COVID-19 pandemic. Between social distancing keeping people home and stores closed, and manufacturers switching production from consumer goods to PPE, the world saw an unprecedented switch from in-person, physical shopping to online shopping across every industry. …
Blog | Consulting
The Current State of D2C Business
December 19, 2022
The Direct to Consumer (D2C or DTC) model seems to have declined recently. The slowdown comes following several years of feverish growth, causing concerns over its viability. The result is that companies of all sizes and in all growth stages are currently reevaluating their D2C prospects. While the downward trend is of concern, D2C has …
Blog | Consulting
A Q&A From The NYC Venture Summit with Christopher Jones, Chris Rigas, Matt Crider, and Josh Haberman
December 10, 2022
Leaders in the marketing and VC communities discuss the rise & fall of the ‘grow at all costs’ mindset and review the strategies actually leading to sustained growth and investment. Christopher Jones (CJ), Managing Partner at Markacy: For many of the participants in the audience, who cover both the business and investment communities, the last …
Blog | Consulting
2021 Holiday E-Commerce Playbook
October 20, 2022
For most E-Commerce businesses, Q4 is the biggest time of the year for sales and revenue. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday shopping societal triggers help boost demand and conversion rate during these periods. November and December are typically the highest E-Commerce revenue months for many discretionary sectors such as fashion, beauty, personal care, electronics, …
Blog | Consulting
2022 eCommerce Holiday Playbook
October 12, 2022
For many retail brands, the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday promotional periods are the most consequential marketing events of the year. This Q4 push can account for significant increments of annual revenue and expense which require an escalated “all-hands on deck” approach to planning, pacing and execution. As we consider this year’s holiday initiatives, …
Blog | Consulting
The Impacts of Changing Agency Models
September 27, 2022
DTC business models have fundamentally changed how brands, agencies, and marketers interact, and this has only been accelerated by the pandemic. There are more outsourced, freelance options for agencies, more fluidity and less permanence, in employment options for marketers. Let’s examine some of these trends and explore their impacts they’re having on both brands and …
Blog | Consulting
5 CMO Priorities From eTail East 2022
August 18, 2022
Markacy joined many brands and eCommerce technology partners at eTail East 2022 in Boston, the eCommerce & Omnichannel Conference. Markacy Co-Founders Chris Jones and Tucker Matheson hosted a 3 hour workshop at the event on Digital Marketing, Branding and Content and got some insight into what is evolving in the online marketplace. Below are the …
Blog | Consulting
Why DTC Costs Are On The Rise
August 18, 2022
With companies flooding into the e-commerce channel during the pandemic and many traditional off-shore supply chains experiencing disruptions, many DTC companies have seen costs continue to rise in 2022. As the pandemic began, many companies still relied heavily on retail storefronts. While they likely already had their five-year plans in place to slowly migrate to …
Blog | Consulting
Are You Ready to Transition to Google Analytics 4?
July 7, 2022
In 2005 you might have been in college, or maybe you were in high school, excited to finally have a Facebook account. Of course, in 2005 you might have been in the early stages of your career, BlackBerry in hand. Whatever you were doing, you were using the internet for school, for connection, and for …
Are You Ready to Transition to Google Analytics 4? Read More »
Blog | Consulting
Retail Rebound: How Brands Can Leverage Digital Transformation to Survive 2022
July 20, 2021
After a profitable 2019 holiday season with the National Retail Federation reporting a 14.6 percent lift in online sales, retailers were feeling optimistic about in store sales and e-commerce heading into the 2021. But illusions of a buyer boom quickly dissolved as COVID-19 upended the economy. As consumers adapted to the challenges of life in …
Retail Rebound: How Brands Can Leverage Digital Transformation to Survive 2022 Read More »
Blog | Consulting
The Actual Cost of Not Using a Unified Commerce Platform
June 28, 2021
Personally, we at Markacy like to lead our growth strategy with financial analysis and then apply tactics where necessary. That’s because we’ve realized that these other parts simply can’t go unignored anymore. For many retailers today, one of these parts is having a unified commerce platform, which has the ability to provide accurate and relevant …
The Actual Cost of Not Using a Unified Commerce Platform Read More »
Blog | Consulting
What’s the Deal With Cookies Right Now?
June 15, 2021
So what’s the deal with cookies? The worldwide changes in privacy regulation have put most marketers on alert and many are asking themselves how they’ll manage customer data without third-party cookies. Since marketers will no longer be able to rely on third-party data, they’ll need to start building real relationships with their consumers and a …
Blog | Consulting
E-Commerce Playbook for Startups
May 26, 2021
We’ve been thinking a lot about how today’s e-commerce brands can win… tomorrow. With e-commerce continuing to accelerate, it’s more important than ever to build a scalable business model. This means that it’s no longer enough to have a Shopify website and a Direct to Consumer (DTC) drop ship model. DTC brands need to be …
Blog | Consulting
Retail Rebound: 2023 Survival Toolbox
April 20, 2021
After a profitable 2019 holiday season with the National Retail Federation reporting a 14.6 percent lift in online sales, retailers were feeling optimistic about in store sales and e-commerce heading into the new year. But illusions of a buyer boom quickly dissolved as COVID-19 upended the economy. As consumers adapted to the challenges of life …
Blog | Consulting
E-Commerce Trends to Watch in 2022
April 20, 2021
Online marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart and Target are investing heavily in their online and logistics infrastructure to acquire more online consumer spend. Digital brands that are balancing .com and broader marketplace investments are winning and acquiring more customers. Marketplaces have been around for hundreds of years as a place for people to procure, trade and …
Blog | Consulting
Holiday E-Commerce Playbook
October 26, 2020
For most E-Commerce businesses, Q4 is the biggest time of the year for sales and revenue. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday shopping societal triggers help boost demand and conversion rate during these periods. November and December are typically the highest E-Commerce revenue months for many discretionary sectors such as fashion, beauty, personal care, electronics, …
Blog | Consulting
May 2020 CMO Letter
June 6, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many brands approach marketing and customer retention. Learn how to thrive with Markacy's analysis & trends report.
Blog | Consulting
Black Swan: Coronavirus And Marketing Strategy
March 16, 2020
A black swan is a term famously coined by author and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, as a metaphorical event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences. Much like the financial crisis of 2008–2009, the recent COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has rattled the world, seemingly out of no-where. …
Blog | Consulting
Top 8 Media Trends for 2020
February 9, 2020
Life moves fast in the media and marketing world. Here, learn about the media trends Markacy predicts for 2020. Life moves fast in the media and marketing world. While in 2019 we saw Snapchat turn into a ghost town and a new short-form video app — TikTok — take centerstage, the start of 2020 has …
Blog | Consulting
How To Select The Best Marketing Partner
September 19, 2019
https://medium.com/media/d6823850ffdb2d3397d5ffc6b6bb9d96/href Business owners of all shapes and sizes struggle to find marketing partners that fit their needs. Whether you’re looking for someone to help with social media, run an ad campaign, produce video content, or build a marketing strategy, it’s always important to make sure you’re in good hands with someone you can trust. We’ve …
Blog | Consulting
Want To Build A Great Business?
September 19, 2019
Over the years, I have worked with over 750 small to medium size business owners. A few of these businesses were corporately owned, but the majority of them were family owned and operated. Many of these business owners were truly inspirational. They wanted to make a difference in the lives of their customers and the …
Blog | Consulting
Warby Parker: Customer Experience
September 17, 2019
The internet has been around since the early 1980s in its simplest form. The first eCommerce companies started popping up in the 90’s — including a few notable names like Amazon, eBay, PayPal, and Alibaba. Throughout the 1990s, 2000s and this current decade, technological advancements in supply chain, logistics, digital advertising have made direct-to-consumer operations possible for almost every industry selling shelf-stable products. …
Blog | Consulting
Warby Parker: Customer Experience Spotlight
September 17, 2019
Warby Parker was first launched in 2010 as the team finished up their graduate degrees. Warby was launched as an exclusively direct-to-consumer brand offering prescription eyewear at affordable prices.
Blog | Consulting
Keep It Simple
September 14, 2019
Last week, Joe Rogan, the comedian, and UFC color commentator interviewed Elon Musk on his podcast: the Joe Rogan Experience. Following the interview, the media highlighted the meeting’s lowest common denominator (in typical fashion): “Musk smokes pot and drinks whiskey on-air” And then, they proceeded to jump on Tesla’s immediate stock price dip of 6% …
Blog | Consulting
How to Approach Your Business (And Career) Like LeBron
September 13, 2019
Many of us look at the great ones and assume they have an underlying skill or trait that serves as the differentiating factor in their success. As a society, we make this assumption across business, athletics, academics, government (well maybe not government, ha) — but effectively every field. We assume there’s a specific reason for someone’s success, …
How to Approach Your Business (And Career) Like LeBron Read More »
Blog | Consulting
Mistakes Small Business Make
September 12, 2019
Creative.
Blog | Creative
The Creative Marketing Cocktail
May 23, 2021
For too long, leadership teams have mentally separated “branding” from “marketing” as two different or efforts. Oftentimes managed by separate people. Unfortunately, brands that do this suffocate their ability to expand new and existing channels, because they miss out on valuable marketing data that can inform their creative decisions and testing strategies. As we’ve worked …
Blog | Creative
Content Is King
September 16, 2019
In 2009, Yeti Holdings, Inc. (YETI) the premier maker of coolers and accessories was 3 years into its journey, with annual sales of $5M. Fast forward ten years later, Yeti is now a public company with annual sales approaching $1 Billion. Talk about hockey stick growth! It started with a quality product Maynard, VP-Marketing for …
Advertising.
BLOG | ADVERTISING
How to Win on Facebook
April 22, 2020
Scale Your Ad Budgets Efficiently If you’re running a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand, there’s no getting around it. Love it or hate it, Facebook needs to be part of your marketing-tactic arsenal. When done right, however, Facebook is one of the most cost-efficient ways to acquire new customers and tell your story to potential customers. It’s …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Next Up: AI-Adaptive Facebook Ad Strategies
April 23, 2020
Scale Your Ad Budgets Efficiently If you’re running a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand, there’s no getting around it. Love it or hate it, Facebook needs to be part of your marketing-tactic arsenal. When done right, however, Facebook is one of the most cost-efficient ways to acquire new customers and tell your story to potential customers. It’s …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Will Facebook Performance Suffer in the Wake of iOS 14?
April 24, 2020
Big news from Apple this week as they begin releasing highly-anticipated iOS 14.5 updates. Labeled as a huge win for privacy advocates and consumers, many e-commerce brands and marketers have been bracing for months, fearing significant impacts to ad targeting & conversion. Among the loudest of Apple’s opposition, Facebook claims that changes could have an adverse impact …
Will Facebook Performance Suffer in the Wake of iOS 14? Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
The 4 Pillars of Influencer Marketing
October 27, 2020
Influencer… If the word makes you think of the Kardashians or over-saturated and inauthentic Instagram posts, you’re not alone. But here’s the truth: influencer marketing can (and should) still be part of your marketing toolbox in 2020. Just not the way you traditionally might think of it. Here, we’ll review the key things to know, the data …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
A Profitable Holiday Paradox: The Fifth Quarter
December 19, 2020
By the time December rolls around each year, most retailers have exhausted their promotional playbooks, having focused a significant share of their year-end resources on Black Friday sales. This is especially true in the age of COVID, with rumors of recession echoing the hall, many believe that BFCM may be the last shot at real …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
5 Growth Strategies for Google Ads [2022 Edition]
March 13, 2021
No question, 2020 was a juggernaut year for direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing. Prior to the pandemic, many brands had planned modest DTC investments, but following COVID, and a cascade of worldwide lockdowns, retailers were compelled to innovate on the fly. According to Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, their analysts observed “two years’ worth of digital transformation in …
5 Growth Strategies for Google Ads [2022 Edition] Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Media Efficiency + MER: A Better Measure for Marketers
April 26, 2021
One of the most common mistakes marketing professionals make is basing media spend on audience cost; this wastes massive resources (the most expensive media you can buy is a cheap one that doesn’t work) and doesn’t take other factors related to media spending into account. It’s much more effective to look at sales results i.e. …
Media Efficiency + MER: A Better Measure for Marketers Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Post Pandemic Ad Spending
May 3, 2021
With the COVID pandemic coming under some semblance of control, companies have been taking notice, with marketers expected to spend 15 percent more on advertising than they did last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. With companies trying to recoup some major losses and maybe even get ahead, many are wondering what their game …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Digital Digest: Post-Pandemic Ad Spending
May 3, 2021
With the COVID pandemic coming under some semblance of control, companies have been taking notice, with marketers expected to spend 15 percent more on advertising than they did last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. With companies trying to recoup some major losses and maybe even get ahead, many are wondering what their game …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
How Will the Apple iOS Update Impact Facebook Ads?
June 7, 2021
Late last year, Facebook went on the PR offensive, taking out a series of full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers and rolling out a website decrying Apple’s planned implementation of ad tracking protections, The online campaign warns of the impending App Tracking Transparency update, which will allow iOS 14 users to opt-out of 3rd-party data …
How Will the Apple iOS Update Impact Facebook Ads? Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
How Amazon Marketplace Impacts Brands and Marketers
July 12, 2021
Amazon is a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in another mystery. Expected to own half of the e-commerce retail market this year and with nearly 60% of consumers saying they’ll do more online shopping after the pandemic. Amazon is undeniably a beast. So what is Amazon’s strategy and how can we all learn from …
How Amazon Marketplace Impacts Brands and Marketers Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Marketer’s Guide to Performance Max
August 3, 2022
You may have heard of Google’s new automated campaigns feature, titled “Performance Max.” With minimal set up required, and much of the complication stripped away from having to set up multiple Google campaigns, there seems to be a lot of promise and potential with this new type of campaign. But is it too good to …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
5 Growth Strategies for Google Ads in 2023
November 13, 2022
No question, 2022 was a juggernaut year for direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing. Prior to the pandemic, many brands had planned modest DTC investments, but following COVID, and a cascade of worldwide lockdowns, retailers were compelled to innovate on the fly. According to Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, their analysts observed “two years’ worth of digital transformation in …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
Does Direct Mail Marketing Still Work?
November 16, 2022
Direct mail marketing is a tried and true strategy that businesses have used to correspond with their customers for decades. While a “snail-mail” campaign may seem counterintuitive in the current age of email and social media, direct mail marketing can be an extremely valuable tool for eCommerce brands in particular. It’s a low-cost solution that …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
The Allure of Direct to Consumer: The trap Allbirds fell into and suggestions for maximizing DTC as a sales channel
November 3, 2023
Author: Chris Rigas, Vice President of Media at Markacy Here’s a hot take: DTC companies employ way too many people. Payroll costs are very high for DTC companies The allure of direct to consumer is the possibility of cutting out the middleman and expanding margins; if you don’t sell to wholesalers at discount, you can …
BLOG | ADVERTISING
The Future of Search: The War for Search Dominance
November 23, 2023
For over two decades, Google has dominated the search engine market – holding over 91% of the market share as of 2022. Its ability to analyze and understand user intent has allowed it to deliver the best possible results and refine the user experience, resulting in an expansion of the search landscape and serving as …
The Future of Search: The War for Search Dominance Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISING
How To Make Strategic Marketing Cuts That Don’t Sacrifice Growth
December 21, 2023
How To Make Strategic Marketing Cuts That Don’t Sacrifice Growth Given the dramatic change in economic fundamentals coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, overall marketing spend is down for most brands. Higher interest rates and volatile consumer inflation in the media have increased economic concerns and kept VC/PE firms on the sidelines for most of …
How To Make Strategic Marketing Cuts That Don’t Sacrifice Growth Read More »
BLOG | ADVERTISINGInsights
2024’s AI & Privacy Trends: Navigating Digital Marketing
January 11, 2024
Two Announcements Promise to Shake Up Search in 2024 Marketers, hold on to your hats, 2024 is off to an interesting start, with a couple of key announcements foreshadowing a volatile year to come. While many of us were already planning to allocate investments to evergreen trends like video, content quality, creative testing and site …
2024’s AI & Privacy Trends: Navigating Digital Marketing Read More »
Consulting.
Blog | Consulting
Mistakes Small Business Make
September 12, 2019
Blog | Consulting
How to Approach Your Business (And Career) Like LeBron
September 13, 2019
Many of us look at the great ones and assume they have an underlying skill or trait that serves as the differentiating factor in their success. As a society, we make this assumption across business, athletics, academics, government (well maybe not government, ha) — but effectively every field. We assume there’s a specific reason for someone’s success, …
How to Approach Your Business (And Career) Like LeBron Read More »
Blog | Consulting
Keep It Simple
September 14, 2019
Last week, Joe Rogan, the comedian, and UFC color commentator interviewed Elon Musk on his podcast: the Joe Rogan Experience. Following the interview, the media highlighted the meeting’s lowest common denominator (in typical fashion): “Musk smokes pot and drinks whiskey on-air” And then, they proceeded to jump on Tesla’s immediate stock price dip of 6% …
Blog | Consulting
Warby Parker: Customer Experience Spotlight
September 17, 2019
Warby Parker was first launched in 2010 as the team finished up their graduate degrees. Warby was launched as an exclusively direct-to-consumer brand offering prescription eyewear at affordable prices.
Blog | Consulting
Warby Parker: Customer Experience
September 17, 2019
The internet has been around since the early 1980s in its simplest form. The first eCommerce companies started popping up in the 90’s — including a few notable names like Amazon, eBay, PayPal, and Alibaba. Throughout the 1990s, 2000s and this current decade, technological advancements in supply chain, logistics, digital advertising have made direct-to-consumer operations possible for almost every industry selling shelf-stable products. …
Blog | Consulting
Want To Build A Great Business?
September 19, 2019
Over the years, I have worked with over 750 small to medium size business owners. A few of these businesses were corporately owned, but the majority of them were family owned and operated. Many of these business owners were truly inspirational. They wanted to make a difference in the lives of their customers and the …
Blog | Consulting
How To Select The Best Marketing Partner
September 19, 2019
https://medium.com/media/d6823850ffdb2d3397d5ffc6b6bb9d96/href Business owners of all shapes and sizes struggle to find marketing partners that fit their needs. Whether you’re looking for someone to help with social media, run an ad campaign, produce video content, or build a marketing strategy, it’s always important to make sure you’re in good hands with someone you can trust. We’ve …
Blog | Consulting
Top 8 Media Trends for 2020
February 9, 2020
Life moves fast in the media and marketing world. Here, learn about the media trends Markacy predicts for 2020. Life moves fast in the media and marketing world. While in 2019 we saw Snapchat turn into a ghost town and a new short-form video app — TikTok — take centerstage, the start of 2020 has …
Blog | Consulting
Black Swan: Coronavirus And Marketing Strategy
March 16, 2020
A black swan is a term famously coined by author and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, as a metaphorical event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences. Much like the financial crisis of 2008–2009, the recent COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has rattled the world, seemingly out of no-where. …
Blog | Consulting
May 2020 CMO Letter
June 6, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many brands approach marketing and customer retention. Learn how to thrive with Markacy's analysis & trends report.
Blog | Consulting
Holiday E-Commerce Playbook
October 26, 2020
For most E-Commerce businesses, Q4 is the biggest time of the year for sales and revenue. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday shopping societal triggers help boost demand and conversion rate during these periods. November and December are typically the highest E-Commerce revenue months for many discretionary sectors such as fashion, beauty, personal care, electronics, …
Blog | Consulting
E-Commerce Trends to Watch in 2022
April 20, 2021
Online marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart and Target are investing heavily in their online and logistics infrastructure to acquire more online consumer spend. Digital brands that are balancing .com and broader marketplace investments are winning and acquiring more customers. Marketplaces have been around for hundreds of years as a place for people to procure, trade and …
Blog | Consulting
Retail Rebound: 2023 Survival Toolbox
April 20, 2021
After a profitable 2019 holiday season with the National Retail Federation reporting a 14.6 percent lift in online sales, retailers were feeling optimistic about in store sales and e-commerce heading into the new year. But illusions of a buyer boom quickly dissolved as COVID-19 upended the economy. As consumers adapted to the challenges of life …
Blog | Consulting
E-Commerce Playbook for Startups
May 26, 2021
We’ve been thinking a lot about how today’s e-commerce brands can win… tomorrow. With e-commerce continuing to accelerate, it’s more important than ever to build a scalable business model. This means that it’s no longer enough to have a Shopify website and a Direct to Consumer (DTC) drop ship model. DTC brands need to be …
Blog | Consulting
What’s the Deal With Cookies Right Now?
June 15, 2021
So what’s the deal with cookies? The worldwide changes in privacy regulation have put most marketers on alert and many are asking themselves how they’ll manage customer data without third-party cookies. Since marketers will no longer be able to rely on third-party data, they’ll need to start building real relationships with their consumers and a …
Blog | Consulting
The Actual Cost of Not Using a Unified Commerce Platform
June 28, 2021
Personally, we at Markacy like to lead our growth strategy with financial analysis and then apply tactics where necessary. That’s because we’ve realized that these other parts simply can’t go unignored anymore. For many retailers today, one of these parts is having a unified commerce platform, which has the ability to provide accurate and relevant …
The Actual Cost of Not Using a Unified Commerce Platform Read More »
Blog | Consulting
Retail Rebound: How Brands Can Leverage Digital Transformation to Survive 2022
July 20, 2021
After a profitable 2019 holiday season with the National Retail Federation reporting a 14.6 percent lift in online sales, retailers were feeling optimistic about in store sales and e-commerce heading into the 2021. But illusions of a buyer boom quickly dissolved as COVID-19 upended the economy. As consumers adapted to the challenges of life in …
Retail Rebound: How Brands Can Leverage Digital Transformation to Survive 2022 Read More »
Blog | Consulting
Are You Ready to Transition to Google Analytics 4?
July 7, 2022
In 2005 you might have been in college, or maybe you were in high school, excited to finally have a Facebook account. Of course, in 2005 you might have been in the early stages of your career, BlackBerry in hand. Whatever you were doing, you were using the internet for school, for connection, and for …
Are You Ready to Transition to Google Analytics 4? Read More »
Blog | Consulting
Why DTC Costs Are On The Rise
August 18, 2022
With companies flooding into the e-commerce channel during the pandemic and many traditional off-shore supply chains experiencing disruptions, many DTC companies have seen costs continue to rise in 2022. As the pandemic began, many companies still relied heavily on retail storefronts. While they likely already had their five-year plans in place to slowly migrate to …
Blog | Consulting
5 CMO Priorities From eTail East 2022
August 18, 2022
Markacy joined many brands and eCommerce technology partners at eTail East 2022 in Boston, the eCommerce & Omnichannel Conference. Markacy Co-Founders Chris Jones and Tucker Matheson hosted a 3 hour workshop at the event on Digital Marketing, Branding and Content and got some insight into what is evolving in the online marketplace. Below are the …
Blog | Consulting
The Impacts of Changing Agency Models
September 27, 2022
DTC business models have fundamentally changed how brands, agencies, and marketers interact, and this has only been accelerated by the pandemic. There are more outsourced, freelance options for agencies, more fluidity and less permanence, in employment options for marketers. Let’s examine some of these trends and explore their impacts they’re having on both brands and …
Blog | Consulting
2022 eCommerce Holiday Playbook
October 12, 2022
For many retail brands, the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday promotional periods are the most consequential marketing events of the year. This Q4 push can account for significant increments of annual revenue and expense which require an escalated “all-hands on deck” approach to planning, pacing and execution. As we consider this year’s holiday initiatives, …
Blog | Consulting
2021 Holiday E-Commerce Playbook
October 20, 2022
For most E-Commerce businesses, Q4 is the biggest time of the year for sales and revenue. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday shopping societal triggers help boost demand and conversion rate during these periods. November and December are typically the highest E-Commerce revenue months for many discretionary sectors such as fashion, beauty, personal care, electronics, …
Blog | Consulting
A Q&A From The NYC Venture Summit with Christopher Jones, Chris Rigas, Matt Crider, and Josh Haberman
December 10, 2022
Leaders in the marketing and VC communities discuss the rise & fall of the ‘grow at all costs’ mindset and review the strategies actually leading to sustained growth and investment. Christopher Jones (CJ), Managing Partner at Markacy: For many of the participants in the audience, who cover both the business and investment communities, the last …
Blog | Consulting
The Current State of D2C Business
December 19, 2022
The Direct to Consumer (D2C or DTC) model seems to have declined recently. The slowdown comes following several years of feverish growth, causing concerns over its viability. The result is that companies of all sizes and in all growth stages are currently reevaluating their D2C prospects. While the downward trend is of concern, D2C has …
Blog | Consulting
Top 10 E-Commerce Trends to Plan For in 2023
December 19, 2022
While we’ve all seen the shift happening, nothing catalyzed the world of e-commerce and e-commerce trends quite like the COVID-19 pandemic. Between social distancing keeping people home and stores closed, and manufacturers switching production from consumer goods to PPE, the world saw an unprecedented switch from in-person, physical shopping to online shopping across every industry. …
Blog | Consulting
The Promise and Paranoia of AI: Transforming Our World and the High-Stakes Implications
November 3, 2023
By: Matt Crider – Strategy Director @ Markacy In an era marked by extraordinary innovation and boundless human potential, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a pivotal force shaping our ever-evolving civilization. Its incredible capabilities have ignited a sense of promise and opened up new possibilities for transforming our world in ways previously only imagined. …
The Promise and Paranoia of AI: Transforming Our World and the High-Stakes Implications Read More »
Blog | ConsultingInsights
Tiger Woods | Build vs Partner
January 11, 2024
So Tiger and Nike’s decision to end their partnership wouldn’t normally prompt a note from me but there are actually some very intriguing business fundamentals to explore so I thought it was worth a post. Tiger recently announced he was ended his long-standing relationship with Nike (27 years) and would be wrapping up his recent contract …
Creative.
Blog | Creative
Content Is King
September 16, 2019
In 2009, Yeti Holdings, Inc. (YETI) the premier maker of coolers and accessories was 3 years into its journey, with annual sales of $5M. Fast forward ten years later, Yeti is now a public company with annual sales approaching $1 Billion. Talk about hockey stick growth! It started with a quality product Maynard, VP-Marketing for …
Blog | Creative
The Creative Marketing Cocktail
May 23, 2021
For too long, leadership teams have mentally separated “branding” from “marketing” as two different or efforts. Oftentimes managed by separate people. Unfortunately, brands that do this suffocate their ability to expand new and existing channels, because they miss out on valuable marketing data that can inform their creative decisions and testing strategies. As we’ve worked …
Let’s Talk Shop.
If you have a marketing need, we would love to see how we can help.
Partnerships & General Inquiries: info@markacy.com