Steve Smith
MediaPost
Wilmington, DE, United States
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Past articles by Steven:
Meaningful Marketing Like You Mean It: Northwell Navigates Gun Violence Messaging 03/06/2023
Can a major brand embrace a typically triggering issue like gun violence in America and even make it part of its brand message? As Northwell Health's CMO Ramon Sota told our Brand Insider Summit: Pharma and Health last month, they grabbed that third rail of American culture to impressive effect. Their "it Doesn't Kill to Ask" campaign is a master class in creative messaging as well as genuinely… → Read More
Daily Essentials: Athletic Greens Takes the Narrow-Branding Path 01/27/2023
The DTC growth playbook typically is about product development. From mattresses to sustainable sneakers, gourmet pet food to hyper-comfy socks, the formula is familiar: start with an attention-grabbing offbeat or artisanal take on a familiar category, and then expand the portfolio to "own" a whole category. Former mattress makers are now "sleep brands," with catalogs of linen, pillows, beds.… → Read More
Genentech's Culture Shift: Rethinking DTC 02/09/2023
What do "direct" let alone "consumer" even mean when you are talking across health care providers, oncologists, MS and cancer patients, their worried families? As Erica Taylor, CMO at biotech firm Genentech recognizes, you need to rethink what those terms mean in different contexts. → Read More
Branding Like You Mean It: Walking the Walk at Insider Summits, 2022 01/06/2023
At our Insider Summits this past year, I was especially impressed by marketers who were embracing emerging trends and channels in earnest. They walked the walk of metaverse experimentation, tapping TikTok's potential, breaking through the data driven blandness of current advertising, and even DEI. These folks aren't just checking a box but really thinking harder about innovating. → Read More
Big Country: Zelle Cashes In On DOOH Screens Everywhere 12/23/2022
Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising is about to boom for all of the obvious reasons: cheap and pliant screens that can go anywhere combined with ubiquitous connectivity and mobile devices for better interactivity and tracking. DOOH's potential remains to be seen. But P2P payment system Zelle is an early believer, as it maps well against the it's unique branding challenge. Senior Director of… → Read More
Why Zappos: Keeping It Fresh (And A Bit Weird) After All These Years 12/09/2022
Zappos was D2C before D2C was cool. Shortly after its launch in 1999 as Shoesite.com, it answered the burning question, who the hell wants to buy their shoes online? Indeed, the company soon became the poster child of ecommerce's promise. Part of company mythology involves legendary customer service. In fact, when Zappos's marketers started speaking at our Insiders Summits over a decade ago,… → Read More
Selling Self-Expression: EyeBuyDirect Sees Beyond Discount Identity 11/02/2022
Me-too brands have cluttered and confused the DTC eyewear marketplace in recent years. But EyeBuyDirect was one of the original entrants, founded in 2006. To meet these market challenges, the company recently went through a major rebranding effort around the themes of self-expression and individuality. Brand Director Jim Merk joins us this week to explain how this repositioning and image… → Read More
Candor, Influence, Relevance: Bayer's New Wellness Playbook 10/14/2022
Denise Vitola's very title at Bayer tells you a lot about the changes at work in OTC healthcare marketing. She is VP of Brand Integration, PR, Social and Influencer, Consumer Health. The company has launched and led a range of new products using principally digital channels and especially by coordinating influencer, paid social and PR efforts all at once. Denise is a veteran of PR and marketing… → Read More
Let's Get High With Mike: Tyson 2.0 Wants to Create a Better Buzz For Cannabis Branding 10/06/2022
When it comes to celebrity-aligned brands, they don't get any wilder than Tyson 2.0. The former heavyweight boxing champ likes his weed, and he has formed a company and brand around that passion. Tyson 2.0 produces a full range of flowers, pre-rolls, edibles, and vapes that are distributed at dispensaries nationwide. And they don't mind having fun with it. Tyson himself likes lighting up for… → Read More
Snackable Shopping: Zulily Looks Beyond the Flash Sale 09/30/2022
Many moms know Zulily as a pioneer of the online flash sale. The decade-old brand recently announced a shift in emphasis towards overall value and customer experience. So, we explored what such a pivot looks like when a brand has been so closely associated with a specific e-commerce model with Denise Jaeschke, VP of Integrated Customer Marketing. Denise has past experience on the marketing teams… → Read More
Summer Rerun: Mass Personalization: Walgreens' Road to Customer-Level Marketing 09/02/2022
When Walgreens became a vital channel for the national vaccination push last year, the stakes for media reaching both old and potential customers with just the right message at just the right time and place went sky high. As Senior Director, Media Strategy & Planning Jennifer Peelle outlined recently at our Retail Summit, it called for "personalization at scale." But how to personalize every… → Read More
4th Ave. Market's Value Exchange Is About Empowerment, Not Just Transaction 08/23/2022
Community has become such a throwaway phrase, and just another check box for marketers. It is well to remember that the real roots of retail were at the local level, delivering necessary services to discrete communities and being deeply entwined in their economic health. The online retailer, 4th Ave Market recalls exactly that dynamic, and takes its name from an historic business section in… → Read More
Summer Rerun: LEGOLAND Builds a Bridge To Cognitive Diversity 08/19/2022
LEGOLAND Florida will be the first theme park resort destination to become a Certified Autism Center (CAC). Marketers and employers have only begun to recognize cognitive diversity. But as Kelly Hornick, Director of Marketing and Communications for LEGOLAND tells Brand Insider this week, focusing on niche constituencies is not just about serving oft-overlooked customers. These kinds of outreach… → Read More
Summer Rerun: PepsiCo's Gaming ZEN: Be the Ball 08/13/2022
Gaming is as huge as it has been hard for marketers to crack. Advertising traditionally is all about interruption and distraction, but players engage their favorite shooter or tile-match app specifically to avoid distraction, to immerse their senses, to focus attention. PepsiCo is among the true pioneers marketing into this space. Paul Mascali, who leads that effort, tells Brand Insider this… → Read More
Meaningful Analytics: Walgreens Rethinks the Customer as Patient 08/04/2022
Walgreens is fundamentally changing its relationship to the people it serves. The prescription customer has become the healthcare patient, and Walgreens has had to marshal its data and communications to craft personalized interactions with a massive base, who have often been invisible to the healthcare economy. At MediaPost's Pharma and Health Insider Summit last month, we explored with… → Read More
Building GSK's Social Listening Post: It's More Than 'Engagement' 07/23/2022
To get the most from brand presences on social you need sophisticated listening protocols, data and analytics infrastructure and a plan for democratizing that intelligence so that brand leaders can use it. Those were just some of the key takeaways from one of the highlights of last week's MediaPost Pharma and Health Insider Summit. Danny Gardner, GSK's Analytics Manager, US and NA Social… → Read More
Broadcasting Providence: Podcasting as a Brand Strategy 07/22/2022
When brands truly embrace audio as a persistent content market strategy, there is an opportunity for making a mark. At this week's MediaPost Pharma and Health Insider Summit, Providence St. Joseph Health's Mary Renouf outlined the company's ambitious project for providing a full-blown health information audio station on Internet radio and podcasting. An initial "Future of Health" program… → Read More
"Healthcare is the Stinky Taxi": Can Laso Uber-ize the Doctor/Patient Transaction? 07/15/2022
For most Americans, doctor's visits can be frightening from both a health and financial perspective. As Laso CEO Tim Kaufeldt tells Brand Insider this week, out-of-pocket costs in the high deductibles world of health "underinsurance" has left an opening for a true digital marketplace for ad hoc care. The Laso app matches patients with doctors in an Uber-like way - providing a flat up front cost… → Read More
Summer Rerun: Walgreens Rethinks Pharmacy Customer As Healthcare Patient 07/07/2022
Walgreens played a critical role in vaccinating America during the Covid-19 crisis, and so, suddenly, pharmacy "customers" also became "patients." And many of those patients, often underserved by the overall healthcare system, came with complex histories and relationships with that system. When we spoke with Walgreens' Senior Director, Media Strategy & Planning Jennifer Peelle this spring, she… → Read More
Following the "Better-Seeker" Demo: Genexa Aims to "Clean" Up OTC Meds 06/30/2022
Is "clean" the new sexy? If you are a mom or dad put off by the treacherous-sounding "Inactive ingredients" in your kid's Acetaminophen or OTC allergy elixir, then you are the kind of "better-seeker" Genexa's co-founder David Johnson wants to talk with. Hell, he even puts his phone number on every OTC med he sells across tens of thousands of retail outlets. → Read More