Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: Conde Nast shuffles leadership, increases digital ad spend in rebranding effort (Score 38)

Wintour is here, folks. To support a large brand revamp, magazine publisher Conde Nast (CN) expanded the role of Anna Wintour to global chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue. She now has say over all publications in 30+ worldwide markets. 

Where its rebrand initiative is concerned, CN is bringing together its US and global operations to boost profitability. This effort comes around a year after the hire of CMO Deirdre Findlay.

CN also appointed various global editorial directors who will continue overseeing titles in their home markets and now also take on global brand responsibilities. Their goal is to ensure global brand consistency. Amy Astley, Divia Thani and Will Welch will serve as the global editorial directors, respectively, for Architectural Digest, Conde Nast Traveler and GQ. CN will announce the editorial directors of its remaining global brands in early 2021, reportedly.

**Note: These three directors are not located in the US, so reach out to other DMs for the time being.**

Additional hires over the past year include global marketing VP Ariana Gianacopoulos (March) and marketing VP Jaime Aversa Clinton (April).

These leadership shifts will directly impact the way the company's teams create, share, translate, adapt and distribute content via platforms and formats.

**Note: The spend below reflects combined digital ad spend for all of CN's brands, which include Vogue, GQ, Glamour, Allure, Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, The New Yorker, Epicurious, Architectural Digest and Vanity Fair.**

From January to mid-December 2020, Pathmatics reports CN earned ~5.2b digital impressions via Facebook (76%), Instagram (13%), Twitter (6%), desktop display (3%) and desktop video (1%) ads. During this time, the company allocated around $38.1m toward this channel, up 57% from the approximately $24.3m allocated within the same 2019 timeframe. CN's full 2019 spend of around $27 only reached that of around $40.5m in 2018.

Additionally, Magellan reports that the company aired 230 podcast ads in 2020.

CN's sharp YOY increase in digital ad spend and heavy usage of paid social and podcast ads lead us to believe the company is particularly targeting Gen-Z and millennials. To reach this audience, it may also utilize OTT. Kantar data reports CN additionally invests in print media. Additionally, the company has recently shown moderate interest in APIs and services.

Agency & martech readers - These leadership changes could easily lead to changes in CN's agency roster; reach out soon to see what, if any, work is available. To the best of our knowledge, the company still works with creative, media, digital, social and PR AOR SS+K, media and digital AOR Kepler Group, assisting digital partner UI Centric, assisting creative partner CNX and assisting creative and PR partner Crossroads.