Usasing Pte. Ltd.

14/05/2025

📉 Marketing recruitment hits a 4-year low - By Molly Innes 17 Apr 2025

https://www.marketingweek.com/marketing-recruitment-intent-slumps/

New data reveals that marketing hiring plans have deteriorated sharply in early 2025.

According to exclusive IPA Bellwether data:

📊 30.2% of companies expect job cuts

✅ 50.6% plan to keep staffing levels the same

📈 Only 19.2% plan to increase hiring

This drop follows the rise in Employer National Insurance contributions and growing economic uncertainty, leaving many businesses cautious about expanding their marketing teams.

Following the rise in Employer National Insurance contributions, marketing recruitment intention has swung into negative territory.

21/03/2025

📈 ‘High Support, High Challenge’: How to Lead Marketing Teams in 2024 - By Ian Burrell 18 Apr 2024

https://www.marketingweek.com/marketers-manage-teams-2024/

Managing marketing teams in 2024 means more than setting KPIs—it's about balancing empathy with accountability.

💬 Claire Sadler, CMO at British Heart Foundation, stepped into leadership during lockdown and had to quickly adapt—meeting team members on socially distanced walks and connecting over video calls. She focused on being human-first, sharing parts of her personal life to build trust.

🔑 Today’s leaders must:
✔️ Set a clear vision—even in hybrid work settings
✔️ Support their teams emotionally
✔️ Challenge them to grow and perform
✔️ Balance personal and organisational goals (aka “play for club and country”)

Leadership now is about authentic connection + strong direction.

08/01/2025

🧑‍💼 Building High-Performing Teams: It's About Balance! ⚖️ - By Molly Innes 21 Nov 2024

https://www.marketingweek.com/marketing-leaders-skills-personalities-building-teams/

Great CMOs know the importance of assembling strong teams, but it’s not always easy. Leaders often face challenges like avoiding hiring in their own image, understanding personality types, and using psychometric tests.

🔑 Key Insight: Successful teams come from filling in weaknesses with diverse strengths. Leaders should hire with balance in mind—looking beyond just skills and backgrounds to build a well-rounded team.

Are you focusing on diversity in skills and personalities when building your team? 🤔

All good CMOs want to build strong, high performing teams. However, it’s easier said than done, whether avoiding hiring in your image, mapping out personality types or asking candidates to take a psychometric test, there's no silver bullet for creating the perfect team.

23/11/2024

🎄 Aldi and Coca-Cola Top Christmas Ad Effectiveness Rankings 🎄 - By Amrit Virdi 20 Nov 2024

https://www.marketingweek.com/aldi-tops-christmas-effectiveness-rankings/

In the 2024 Christmas ad rankings by System1, Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot once again takes the lead, achieving the maximum 5.9-star rating for both short and long-term effectiveness. This marks the sixth consecutive year Aldi has claimed the top spot in the festive ad rankings.

Other brands like Coca-Cola, Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Cadbury, Disney, Amazon, Hotel Chocolat, and M&S Food also earned the 5.9-star rating, showing that ads with strong brand-building elements tend to drive sales more effectively. The National Trust rounds out the top 10 with a 5.8-star rating.

System1's analysis highlights that consistent use of distinctive assets, like recurring characters and familiar stories, significantly boosts ad effectiveness. Ads that re-air previous creative or use familiar elements scored an average of 5.6 stars, compared to just 3.9 for completely new concepts.

Consistency in brand-building truly pays off this festive season! 🎁✨

System1's analysis of 2024's Christmas ads has found creative with strong brand-building potential is also more likely to drive sales. Aldi's Kevin the Carrot tops the ranking for both short and long-term effects.

08/10/2024

💼 Marketers Can Unlock Budgets by Being Finance-Friendly - By Jonathan Knowles & Lisha Perez 24 Jul 2024

https://www.marketingweek.com/unlock-budget-finance-friendly/

Marketers can unlock larger budgets by understanding how financial value is created. Though finance might seem complex with terms like EBITDA and ROCE, it ultimately boils down to three variables: growth, profit, and risk.

The Gordon Growth Model simplifies valuation: value increases by growing earnings, improving growth rate, or reducing risk.

For marketers, this translates into six key areas:

📈 Growth: Increase customer numbers and lifetime value.

💰 Profit: Optimize pricing and manage costs.

⚖️ Risk: Focus on stable earnings and positive surprises.

Priorities vary by industry. Growth is crucial for high-margin sectors, while profitability is essential for mature industries. By aligning with these financial drivers, marketers can better demonstrate their impact and secure larger budgets.

10/09/2024

🌟 From CMO to Coach: Guiding the Next Generation of Leaders - By Molly Innes 31 Jul 2024

https://www.marketingweek.com/cmos-pivoting-executive-coaching/

With leadership skills often overlooked in career development, some CMOs are leaving the industry to become executive coaches, helping the next generation apply marketing principles to their careers.

When was the last time you reviewed your personal development plan? In the fast-paced world of marketing, it's easy to get caught up in endless meetings and feedback, leaving little time for personal growth. Burnout is common, and development plans often lack the necessary budget for meaningful progress.

Career coaching may be the solution to these challenges, but the question remains: who’s stepping up to do the coaching?

Some marketers are leaving the industry to coach the next generation and help them apply marketing principles to their own careers.

05/08/2024

Less is more and balanced thinking: Your Marketing Week
https://www.marketingweek.com/less-more-balance-your-marketing-week/

At the end of every week, we look at the key stories, offering our view on what they mean for you and the industry. From the shift within brands towards doing ‘fewer things with intensity’ to Diageo and P&G’s search for balance, it’s been a busy week. Here is my take.

More than a mantra
‘More with less’. ‘Optimised investment’. ‘Less things more effectively’. All phrases that have been bandied about in the last few years, often to put a positive spin on marketers being robbed of a sizeable chunk of their budgets.

We offered a new phrase to the lexicon this week ‘Fewer things with intensity’. Essentially, a different spin on being choiceful. A realisation that for those companies with a house of brands, or a branded house in compromised categories, you can’t do everything and should be putting time, money and energy behind opportunities for growth.

Unilever, Direct Line Group, Britvic and Suntory have all rallied around the notion – and necessity – that it’s time for focus. Indeed, some are relishing the opportunity to clean house.

Britvic CMO Cindy Tervoort has adopted what she describes as “fewer things better” as a philosophy. She told us: “If you’re in a portfolio business, it’s easy to get distracted or to fragment a lot of your efforts and then miss the impact in the market.”

Undoubtedly. Whether it’s being forced to take stock, or forcing yourself into action, reviewing habitual behaviour is paramount. Even more so, making sometimes difficult choices. As long as growth remains sluggish, expect to see more doing fewer things better.

By Russell Parsons 2 Aug 2024

At the end of every week, we look at the key stories, offering our view on what they mean for you and the industry. From the shift within brands towards doing 'fewer things with intensity' to Diageo and P&G's search for balance, it’s been a busy week. Here is my take.