Gen-Z Opps: LifeWay Christian Resources taps first CMO amid spike in paid social spend (Score 63)

Last month, retailer LifeWay Christian Resources appointed Kimberly Massey to the newly-created role of SVP and CMO. In her most recent role as the global team leader of Kimberly-Clark's skincare category & strategy, Massey's efforts reportedly resulted in an estimated 20% increase in revenue for the Hypothesis brand. Her hire shows that LifeWay is focused more on marketing right now, which will likely mean its spend will continue rising.

I expect it's risen in popularity over the pandemic since so many people stopped going to church and started opting instead to read religious books at home.

According to Pathmatics, this company has spent roughly $3.4m on digital ads YTD, already 54.5% more than the roughly $2.2m it spent in all of 2020. LifeWay's estimated full-year spend of 2020 ($2.2m) reached around 7x that of $341.5k in 2019. It has earned ~446.3m digital impressions YTD via Facebook (85%) and Instagram (15%) ads.

Additionally, Magellan reports LifeWay has aired three podcast ads within the past 12 months.

As you can tell by its sharp increases in digital spend and reliance on paid social channels, this company is primarily targeting Gen-Z right now. To do so even more effectively, LifeWay may make forays into additional digital channels such as OTT and/or podcast under its new marketing chief. 

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