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Gen-X, Millennial Homeowners Opps: Ring announces new security drone, loses CMO (Score 50)

Home security service that flies around inside of users' homes. It is set to hit the market in 2021, retailing around $250. Although the drone is autonomous, users will be able to program it to fly on demand or when something is detected by the Ring Alarm System. In other news, Ring also lost its CMO of about four and a half years Simon Cassels; he is now chief brand officer at GoodRx. The company has not nailed down a replacement yet, as far as we know. It hired channel marketing manager Mackenzie Redden in July 2020 from Pyxos Packaging. 

Per Adbeat, out of the $3.7m Ring spent on digital display ads since September 2018, it spent $3.6m (97%) in this channel after September 2019. It placed 96% of these ads programmatically through Google Display Network onto sites such as patch.com, reddit.com, fanfiction.com, accuweather.com and thesimsresource.com. It placed 3% of these as native ads through Sharethrough onto patch.com. Finally, it placed 1% of these ads site direct onto sites such as reddit.com, accuweather.com, espn.com, xfinity.com and mydramalist.com. 

Magellan reports Ring placed 465 podcast ads over the last year. 

According to iSpot, Ring spent around $34.7m on national TV ads YTD, a slight (9%) decrease from the $37.7m spent during the same time period of 2019. Full-year spend equaled $79.2m in 2019, about double the $39.8m spent in 2018. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "NFL Football," "College Football," "Home Town," "Love It of List It" and "NBA Basketball," targeting male sports enthusiasts.

Sellers-- Ring primarily targets Gen-X and millennial homeowners with a slight female skew, though its national TV commercials also target men. There has been a huge increase in digital display spend over the last year; this channel may allow it to reach millennials more effectively. TV spend has been declining; however, it has spent more in the channel YTD than during the same time period of 2019. TV spend should also spike during Q4 if it follows the same trend as the last two years. Sellers should start reaching out to this company to get their share of these extra ad dollars that should continue into the holidays and into 2021 as it promotes the Always Home Cam. Remember, the company just lost its CMO, so these strategies may change once it hires a new one. 

Agency & martech readers-- We believe Ring currently works with Grey West on creative. As you know, new CMOs commonly review the agency roster. Keep a close eye on this company so you can reach out as soon as it names a replacement CMO.