Adweek September 20, 2021

fixing up consumers’ closets

Clothing brands are coming for what’s in your closet, and they’re turning to third-party platforms for help. The secondhand clothing market is projected to reach 5.4 times its current size in the next five years, according to thredUP’s latest Resale Report. Market research firm Cowen predicts it’ll hit 14% of the total apparel market by 2024, which is double its current share. Brands are capitalizing on this by adding resale channels to their business models, taking back consumers’ used items in exchange for discounts or store credit and selling them again (usually with the help of a third-party platform) as secondhand items. The resale explosion is largely driven by convenience. Third-party platforms like thredUP, The RealReal and Poshmark give consumers access to what’s essentially an enormous online thrift store. Instead of the traditional…

the trust gap

CMOs are facing doubt within their organizations that they can drive growth. Time is increasingly committed to counseling CEOs who believe they have a marketing challenge. And they’re not alone—other C-suite executives are expressing the same concerns about their CMOs, indicating an industrywide dilemma about the perception of chief marketers. The data is startling. According to research by Deloitte, only 26% of CMOs are being regularly invited to attend board meetings, and Spencer Stuart has reported that CMOs continue to have the shortest tenure on average of any member of the C-suite at 40 months. The profession is increasingly under fire. As the alarming realities of declining tenure and lack of trustworthiness dawn for CMOs, there is also a drought of resources to diagnose and solve these issues. Without a more substantial…

music of the heart

When it comes to music for Latin and Hispanic Americans, it’s about more than listening to a song while commuting, or dancing at a special occasion. “Music and culture are intrinsically linked for Hispanic Americans,” said Rob Vélez, senior director of multicultural at video streaming service Vevo. “Our data shows that they find music videos even more culturally relevant than sports, an entertainment genre that historically has been heavily utilized by advertisers to get in front of Hispanic American consumers.” Using its proprietary Vevo Media Tracker, the streamer tracked Latin music video viewership—the third most popular musical genre on Vevo—across the U.S. to reveal not just the popularity of Latin music, but also its significance to the community. Three-quarters of Vevo’s Latin and Hispanic American audience rely on music videos to discover…

amy hufft

How did you get to where you are today? I started my career in magazine editorial and eventually got my MBA at Columbia. It gave me the financial and business acumen to be a better marketer, as well as an incredible network of classmates. From there, I was lucky enough to work with incredible brands at a series of agencies, which was like going to school all over again. Tell us about what you are doing now. I’m responsible for telling the world about Shopify. Ultimately, it means elevating the stories of the 1.7 million merchants on our platform, each of whom have their own unique, inspiring journeys. ‘Don’t put pressure on yourself to fit into someone else’s idea of balance.’ During the pandemic, we saw stories of entrepreneurial resilience, highlighting how Shopify…

doing things differently

SET THE VISION AND LEAD THE WAY As the CMO, you’re responsible for setting the vision and empowering the team to help execute and bring a vision to life. As any leader in the organization that sits at a senior level, you have to inspire the team with the vision. You have to create a story of what the brand can become, where the brand can go, where you want to take customers, how you can make customers’ lives better. And I think as part of that, as a CMO, you have to be able to tell that story. C-SUITE LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT HIRING GREAT PEOPLE I always joke that once you get to the C-suite level, 90% of your job is the C, 10% is management. Whether you’re marketing, finance, operations or…

brand genius

EVEN WITH THE POST-9/11 RECESSION AND 2008’S ECONOMIC MELTDOWN IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR, few economic calamities matched the speed and dread that accompanied the coronavirus. Last year, as service-sector businesses shuttered and layoffs spread like brushfire, America’s GDP took a nauseating tumble of 3.5%. The first half of this year saw a rebound in consumer spending, but not until multiple quarters of profit had vanished into the ether. The last 18 months, in other words, were hardly the sort of period most brands (unless they’re Amazon) would have viewed as an opportunity. And yet, time and again, marketers have proven that few things can foster resilience and creativity quite like a crisis. In this section, you’ll meet 10 of them who proved it. They’re the 2021 recipients of Adweek’s Brand…