Watch Out for the Adidas Media Announcement
Adidas is stopping its TV advertising. The Guardian pulled all Google ads. These are all signs of something, but not what you think.
When I was in television, we would hear rattling from clients of pulling campaigns because of news coverage or lack of news coverage. Even back then, Saturday Night Live would have one church group or another threatening a boycott—if only they could see it now.
The threats are always there. The big announcements are always there. But beware the public announcements of audience buying. Why would you give away your strategic advantage? Why would you show your cards? Well, I would say it is all part of the negotiations. Any clothing or shoe manufacturer needs an edge. Nike, which passed Adidas years ago in market cap, has a negotiations edge just in its size, celebrity endorsement deals and financial muscle. Adidas needs an edge. Here is how it gets it with TV execs. Coke doesn’t need to make these broad sweeping claims and PR declarations.
In media buying, don’t just watch out for big pronouncements in media or at cocktail parties. Instead listen for the subtle moves by the biggest players, like the slow but steady move from newspaper to native advertising. Listen for the talk around landing page optimization and geo-fencing for personalized delivery. Those strategic maneuvers will not be proclaimed in a media release.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.