Best Buy fills CMO vacancy amid YTD spend decreases (Score 49)

Sales lead: This promotion will directly impact the company's marketing strategy & agency roster. 

• Best Buy (BB) promoted Jennie Weber to CMO, effective March 2023.  
• Weber joined BB in 2013 as entertainment business marketing director. 
• She most recently served as customer experience & insights SVP. 
• This fills the vacancy we told you about when Frank Crowson stepped down last year.  

Target demographic: Gen-X & millennials with a male skew

The company will likely:

• Ramp ad spend back up
• Experiment with new ad channels
• Seek new agency partners

Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: BB spent nearly $7.4m on national TV ads YTD, a 24% decrease from $9.7m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend increased by 18% from $43.9m in 2021 to $51.8m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as NFL Football, NBA Basketball, College Basketball, SportsCenter, and Good Morning Football.

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: BB spent approximately $16.7m on digital display ads YTD, down 37% from $26.4m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 1.6b impressions via desktop video (26%), Facebook (26%), desktop display (25%), YouTube (9%), mobile display (8%), and Instagram (6%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend dropped 22% from $164m in 2021 to $127.7m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 97% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, youtube.com, ign.com, cnet.com, and instagram.com. It placed 3% of these ads through multiple indirect channels onto sites such as msn.com, espn.com, yahoo.com, aol.com, and zillow.com. 

Additional channel insights  

• Vivvix: BB also invests in OOH, print, radio, and local broadcast. 
• Top podcasts sponsored: Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend, Morbid, Freakanomics, and Armstrong & Getty. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Contact the recently promoted CMO to see if you can pick up some of BB's business. 
• Current roster: 
  • Starcom Worldwide: media & digital AOR
  • Wunderman Thompson Atlanta: creative AOR