Verizon has found a new marketing lead for its Verizon Value family of brands.

The company hired Mary Sagripanti as vice president and CMO of Verizon Value, effective March 31. Safripanti will be tasked with leading marketing, brand, and demand generation efforts across Verizon Value’s brand portfolio – which includes StraightTalk, Total Wireless, TracFone, Visible, and Walmart Family Mobile.

Sagripanti joins Verizon from Amazon, where she led marketing for the company’s  multibillion-dollar Ring and Blink smart security brands as CMO.

Before that, she spent a year as global CMO for Weber Grills, where she played a big role in preparing the private-equity backed company for its IPO in just six months,

That job followed an earlier five-year stint at Amazon, which included two years leading global marketing and sales for Amazon Fire TV as global head of growth and consumer engagement.

Her career also includes extensive CPG experience, including over 15 years at Kraft, where she rose to a role as general manager for the Kraft Singles, Kraft Natural Cheese and Velveeta businesses.

In announcing the news, Verizon cited Sagripanti’s “reputation as a transformational marketing leader with a track record of driving bottom-line business results and brand momentum,” as well as her passion for “marketing to the value-focused consumer, which she has done with great success throughout her career.”

Sagripanti’s arrival follows the departure of former Verizon Value CMO Cheryl Gresham in February for Starbucks, where she was hired as senior vice president, North America marketing. Gresham had led marketing for Verizon Value since the company established the organization for its prepaid and value brands, after previously serving as CMO for the Visible Wireless brand.

During a January earnings call with investors, Verizon Consumer Group CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath cited “really strong performance” from its Verizon Value business, adding, “I think our refreshed value brands, our value proposition, our relationship with Walmart, as well as expanded total wireless distribution, is working very well.”

OTC health brands dominated InMarket’s “Breakthrough Moments” for 2024, accounting for four of the real-time marketing platform’s nine honored mobile campaigns, which are selected based on a combination of high click-through/engagement rates and sales lift.

Campaigns from Bayer, Olly, Omnit and Azo made the cut, compared with just one health brand apiece in 2023 and 2022 (Curad bandages and SmartyPants vitamins, respectively)

Michael Della Penna, InMarket’s chief strategy officer, credits the health brands’ Breakthrough Moments to their use of multiple products “to appeal to a broader audience,” and to savings offers, important “in a time where consumers are so price-conscious and value-oriented,” he told Marketing Daily.

Both factors were on display in Bayer’s campaign, which promoted allergy relief with  a “Save Up To $28” offer for Claritan, Astepro and Afrin, set against a mowed grass background.  InMarket says the campaign generated a $4.52 iROAS (Incremental Return on Ad Spend ), 3.6% sales lift, and $677,000 in incremental sales.

Olly combined a $4 savings offer with a slideshow of different sleep gummy types, set against backgrounds “of relaxing blue and purple, colors associated with calmness and sleepiness” and featuring punny lines like “Don’t sleep on $4 cash back” and a “Shop Now” call-to action. Results: an $8.15 iROAS, and 2.4% sales lift.

Azo, which markets products that treat female urinary tract and yeast infections,  used a multiproduct carousel, with each page combining “a gradient background palette that perfectly matches the product’s packaging,” a headline highlighting specific product benefits, the Azo logo , and a “Shop Now” button. The campaign achieved a 6.27% CTR, which InMarket notes is 10.5x above the industry benchmark.

Marketing its Alpha Brain supplement, Omnit benefited by using what Della Penna terms the “halo effect” of associating with bigger brands. In this case, that bigger brand was Target, with the ad showing a Target shopping basketfilled with bottles of Alpha Brain – against a background divided between both brands’ colors.  This campaign delivered a 6.17% CTR, 10.3X above the industry benchmark.

Della Penna suggests that health brands have shown up more in the “Breakthrough Moments” partly because they don’t want to lose sales to private label brands. Discounts and portfolios of brands, he says, are effective in heading off “a potential breach for the generic brand on the shelf versus the name brand.

Besides the health brands, 2024’s Breakthrough Moments included two campaigns from alcoholic brands, both of which tied in with basketball:

Coors Light, with a gamified effort that ran during last year’s March Madness (10.08% CTR, 16.3% engagement rate), and Jack Daniels, with a campaign titled “Add Jack to Your Bracket” (5.59% CTR).

Other Breakthrough Moments covered food, drink and gaming:

Danone, introducing Peppermint Mocha and Pumpkin Pie Spice flavors of International Delight cold foams and creamers (over $5 iROAS and $3 million+ in incremental sales).

C4’s Orange Creamsicle energy drink, with a campaign featuring a sweepstakes for an Acura car and a tie-in to 7-Eleven (5.84% CTR, 87% v ideo completion rate, and 2.3% incremental visit lift).

Acer’s Nitro V 15 gaming laptop, which used a bold “Live for Victory” headline and a “Buy Now” CTA, achieving a 5.28% CTR and a quote in the InMarket report from Michelle Leavitt, Acer’s director of consumer marketing:  “We successfully reached our target customers during their shopping journey, significantly boosting awareness and driving them to purchase.”

InMarket’s nine “Breakthough Moments” campaigns were selected from at least 1,000 different campaigns run via the company’s platform in 2024.

Facing declining revenue, mounting losses, and fewer TV viewers, QVC is eliminating 900 jobs and shifting focus to live social commerce.

QVC Group, which owns QVC, HSN, and home and lifestyle brands like Ballard Designs, Frontgate, and Garnet Hill, says the cuts are part of a broader effort to become a leader in live video-driven shopping. The company, which recently changed its name from Qurate to QVC Group, will also consolidate operations in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

The shift marks a deeper move away from legacy sales channels such as linear TV and print catalogs. Instead, QVC aims to build what it calls the world’s leading live social shopping content engine, delivering real-time shopping content “wherever she shops.” That includes social platforms, mobile apps, and other digital screens.

Company executives say the timing is right. They expect shopping on social platforms to double in the next five years, with 68% of those purchases made on impulse. That trend plays to QVC’s strengths, especially for fast-moving categories like seasonal décor, giftables, and home goods.

Still, the changes come amid deep financial challenges. In its most recent quarter, the company reported a 6% drop in revenue to $2.94 billion, compared to $3.14 billion a year ago. Losses ballooned to $1.27 billion, driven largely by a $1.5 billion impairment charge.

QVC hasn’t posted a sales gain since August 2021, and the audience for its core channels continues to shrink. “Comparing 2024 to 2018, QVC and HSN’s main channels reached 44% and 47% fewer homes, respectively,” said David Rawlinson, president and CEO, during a recent earnings call. He attributed the most recent sales slump to distracted viewers focused on elections and hurricane coverage, as well as more cautious consumer spending.

“We are moving quickly to transform into a scaled player in live social shopping and believe we have the key assets to win in this market,” Rawlinson said. QVC has extended his contract for another three years.

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BarkeyOKRP has won Frontier Airlines' agency of record assignment.

The account was awarded without a competitive review. Frontier has worked with a variety of agency partners in the past, but is moving toward a fully integrated AOR approach.

The agency is charged with positioning the low-cost airline as proving a modern, value-driven experience.

BarkleyOKRP will play a key role in shaping Frontier’s brand strategy, creative and design, leading media, social, CRM and analytics efforts.

New work is set for later this year.

“Now we’re taking the next step — pairing our signature affordability with a much better experience, offering people even more, like our new first-class seats and richly rewarding loyalty program,” said Bobby Schroeter, chief commercial officer, Frontier Airlines. 

“BarkleyOKRP stood out with their deep consumer insight, creative strength and proven ability to help brands transform. They’ll be a key partner in building trust and reshaping how people think about flying Frontier,” he added.

Since Barkley and OKRP merged, the agency has won integrated accounts with high-profile companies, such as Visit Florida, Suja Life and Applegate Farms.

Brand work includes Burger King, Corona Premier, Metro by T-Mobile and Planet Fitness.

Jeff King, CEO of BarkleyOKRP, said the agency would put “the scale, creativity and nimbleness of our Big Indie model” to work for the airline.

Frontier fly the U.S., Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America.

Bloomberg has launched a weekly news quiz called Pointed that tests players’ knowledge of the news and also their confidence in their answers. 

“We’re bringing a new verb to Bloomberg,” says Chadwick Matlin, editorial director for Bloomberg's Games. “You can already watch, read and listen—now you can play.” 

Pointed is accessible on Bloomberg.com, on mobile and on the Bloomberg Terminal. It is free to play. It  runs weekly from Thursdays at 6 p.m. EST to Mondays at 11:59 p.m. EST. 

“Pointed is a uniquely Bloomberg experience,” says Joel Weber, head of Bloomberg Explains and Games. “We’re excited to pursue games as a new content category and engage users in unexpected ways.”  

In separate development, Bloomberg has announced the launch of a new Bloomberg Original series: Quantum Marketing with Raja Rajamannar, author and the ief marketing & communications officer at Mastercard. 

There will be six weekly episodes, each delving into the future of marketing in the face of rapidly changing technology. They will be available on all of Bloomberg’s linear, streaming and digital platforms

Specialist media firm Future has debuted enhanced shoppable ad formats designed to drive bottom-funnel performance for its advertising clients.  

The goal, simply, is to leverage shoppable touchpoints across platforms as part of a branded content experience, providing an opportunity to both publishers and advertisers.  

This is not a new idea: What gives it some plausibility is Future’s scope—it claims to reach one in three adults online in the U.S. and the UK—and its first-party data capabilities.

Brands can target readers of Marie Claire, Who What Wear, Homes & Gardens, Tom’s Guide, PC Gamer and other titles who show high purchase intent, the company claims.  

The interactive ads allow users to explore a sponsor’s products via desktop or mobile while enjoying  premium content.

According to Future, the shoppable ad offerings include: 

• Window Shopper, an immersive carousel experience that engages consumers as they scroll, driving clicks to the advertiser’s product.
• Hot Tip, which allows users to tap on any hotspot to view detailed product information. 

"Our ability to move customers through the purchase funnel is distinct, and our custom ad formats are designed to accelerate that process,” says Glenn Iceton, commercial director at Future.

Future previously introduced interactive video ads and livestream shopping capabilities with Who What Wear.

Can this blending of advertising and content work? 

It already is, to hear Future tell it. 

 “As retail media networks surge, Future is leveraging our decades of experience driving consumers to action with our content,” says Matt Trotta, senior vice president of commercial at Future. 

Trotta argues that Future is applying its expertise in e-commerce “to the digital ad product experience so our clients can see meaningful performance outcomes, such as higher conversion rates from their target consumers.”

Of course, an ecommerce firm better have the infrastructure to exploit these possibilities, and to make sure that the line between content and advertising isn’t too finely drawn. 

Perplexity.ai and Firmly.ai, an agentic commerce platform, have partnered to change ecommerce by developing a native checkout system to improve the shopping experience.

Kumar Senthil, co-founder and chief executive officer of firmly.ai, believes the partnership will change commerce by combining its native checkout technology with Perplexity’s AI.

It not only simplifies the shopping process but also empowers merchants to reach new customers without integration challenges.

With one integration to firmly.ai's API, Perplexity can connect brands and retailers to any ecommerce merchant or new sales channel while retaining their merchant of record (MOR) status. There’s no need to use any engineering resources to start selling on Perplexity the companies said.

Earlier this week, Aravind Srinivas, chief executive officer of Perplexity, wrote on X, “Native transactions are the best way to go after the AdWords revenue. It will take a while to get right and make it seamless. Google is positioned in an evil but legal way to claim maximum credit for any brand awareness that another platform (research or social) provides users. “

Most important in this partnership, merchants remain in control of transactions, customer relationships, and data. They can access millions of potential customers while protecting the value of their brand.

For years, large internet companies like Google, Facebook and Pinterest have struggled to find the exact match to bring ecommerce to their platforms -- such as Amazon and eBay.

Perplexity doesn’t take a percentage of each sale made through its search results, so retailers that sell through the firmly integration will receive all from each purchase.

This week, Perplexity also introduced answer modes to make the core search product better for verticals such as travel, shopping, places, images, videos, and jobs.

“The next step is to get super precise that you don't have to press on these tabs. Available on web for now,” Srinivas wrote on X. “Mobile soon.”

Being a publisher ain’t easy.   Your direct traffic is starting to decline, and you’re struggling to find new and innovative ways to monetize your audience.   Social media and aggregator apps have become the starting point for most of your traffic.  Fewer big advertisers are coming directly to your door, offset only by the increasing number of smaller business advertisers who are going to programmatic channels to access your inventory through data-driven audiences.  What’s more, you must worry about the quality of the content you present and make sure it remains brand-safe in a world that is increasingly, well, just NSFW.

In the old days, most publishers had the simple point of view that “if you build it, they will come.”  Google’s algorithm would surface you to an audience so long as your SEO was on-point.  Now your content is being hijacked by social media platforms, and you are forced to tease the content in exchange for driving to pages that are almost always gated by a paid login account.  It used to be fewer and far between to find content that was behind a pay wall, but these days it feels as though nine out of 10 links require a paid account to read on. 

The open web used to be fully supported by display ads, but that doesn’t feel like the case anymore.  Desktop websites are a smaller portion of the total traffic, and mobile websites are inundated with overlay ads and pop-ups that expired on the desktop many years ago.

To succeed in the digital media industry going forward, publishers need to accomplish three things:

Maintain an advantage. Publishers first need to ensure they are competitive with the rest of the industry.  News sites have tried to do this by leaning into opinion and editorial as a way to create content that can’t be found anywhere else.  Entertainment sites rely on scoops and POV-esque content featuring pundits or trusted sources. 

While I understand these strategies, I am hopeful that more sites will simply create higher quality, more accurate, more engaging content.  They should invest in reporting and try to build an audience based on facts rather than opinion.  Being recognized as a source of accurate facts might be even more valuable than we first think.

Invest in  tools for distribution and monetization.  Publishers need to excerpt part of their content and distribute it into social platforms as a teaser that can be viewed by potential subscribers.  Give the audience something before you ask for money. 

A few of the ad sites do this well by giving me access to two or three articles a month, then asking me to pay. 

Immediate pay walls hurt publishers more than it helps because I will never pay for something I can’t sample first.  Your brand doesn’t carry enough weight for me to pay yet, but maybe if I see the true value in what you offer, I will. 

Reduce ads, increase engagement, build a community. If you reduce the number of ads and focus on a cleaner UI, you can potentially charge more. 

Then give me ways to engage with your audience.  Build out the community of readers and find ways for us to engage with one another. 

Community and discord forums are valuable.  People are striving for connection and being a loyal fan, or reader, can be a way of aligning and building a community. 

Focus less on the ads and more on ways to drive engagement within the community, and readers will come back.  Then you can charge more for your ad spaces because you have created a loyal community.

I think the first two strategies, maintaining an advantage and investing in the tools, are table stakes for online publishing.  Building the community is different and one that can’t be usurped by social media, nor will it lose to AI.  Community is the backbone of the internet, and it just might save the publishing world in the long run.