Verizon's CMO steps down amid YTD spend increases (Score 57)

Sales lead: Keep an eye on this company because a replacement hire will affect its marketing strategy & agency roster. 

• Verizon Wireless announced that its CMO, Diego Scotti, is stepping down after nearly 10 years. 
• CSO Rima Qureshi will handle CMO duties on an interim basis. 
• We will be sure to let you know as soon as a permanent replacement is named. 

Target demographic: Millennials & Gen-Xers with a male skew

Once it finds a new CMO, the company will likely:

• Make additional agency changes (roster shift earlier this year)
• Continue ramping up ad spend
• Try new ad channels

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

• YTD spend: Verizon spent around $234m on national TV ads YTD, a 38% increase from $170.1m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend fell 10% from $498.4m in 2021 to $446.3m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as NFL Football, College Basketball, NBA Basketball, The Oscars, and NHL Hockey. 

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

• YTD spend: Verizon spent approximately $70.9m on digital display ads YTD, a 93% increase from $36.8m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 8.2b impressions via Facebook (30%), YouTube (28%), desktop display (19%), Instagram (15%), desktop video (5%), and mobile display (4%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend fell 22% from $168m in 2021 to $131.8m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 95% of these ads directly onto sites such as youtube.com, facebook.com, instagram.com, yahoo.com, and espn.com. It placed 5% of these ads through multiple indirect channels onto sites such as zillow.com, nextdoor.com, anandtech.com, espn.com, and tomshardware.com. 

Additional channel insights  

• Vivvix: Verizon also utilizes OOH, print, radio, and local broadcast. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Be prepared to pitch your services as soon as Verizon hires a new CMO. 
• Current roster:
  • Ogilvy: B2B AOR
  • the community: creative & multicultural AOR
  • Publicis: media AOR
  • Rauxa: digital AOR
  • AKQA: digital AOR
  • McCann New York: creative AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix.