Male Opps: American Express ramps up summer experiential activations

Sales Lead: American Express (AmEx) recently invested in an experiential Y2K activation.

• Made by Momentum Worldwide, the installment is part of AmEx's sponsorship of a series of weekend concerts.
• This is the partnership's second year.
• AmEx is pursuing similar sponsorship opportunities with other summer festivals.
• The company will likely:
  • Invest in additional sponsorship and experiential initiatives
  • Return to higher spend
  • Conduct agency reviews
• Target demographic: 
  • Men
    • Millennials
      • To appeal to this audience, this experience was built around 90s cultural trends such as pop culture.
    • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The company secondarily targets Gen-X via more traditional channels (more below).
    • It also targets Hispanic audiences via Spanish magazines.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Recent leadership shifts:

• These experiential activations have ramped up since AmEx hired global brand sponsorships and experiential marketing VP Aaron Burke in December 2022. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
  • Burke was previously the brands and properties AVP at Wasserman.
  • Though he's located in the UK, his leadership has obviously led to shifts toward sponsorships and experiential marketing; reach out to similar DMs in the meantime.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, AmEx has allocated roughly $38.7m toward national TV commercials, down 2% from the roughly $39.4m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The company allocated around $67.9m toward this channel last year after having allocated 19% more, around $80.8m in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: This year's commercials have targeted male sports enthusiasts watching shows such as NBA Basketball, NFL Football, the 2023 US Open Golf Championship, Shark Tank, and NHL Hockey.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The financial services provider has spent approximately $37.6m on digital ads YTD, only about half of the approximately $65.1m spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, AmEx has earned ~5.5b digital impressions via Facebook (52%), desktop display (20%), Instagram (12%), YouTube (12%), desktop video (3%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: The company's estimated full-year 2022 spend decreased by 34% to $142.7m from that of $215.4m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes Google Ads along with print, OOH, digital, local broadcast, radio, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and online video (primarily via Youtube.com) ads.
    • ​​​​​​​Some of AmEx's print ads target Spanish-speaking audiences.
  • AmEx sponsors podcasts such as The Daily, Stuff You Should Know, The Glenn Beck Program, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and Up First.
  • It invests in short-form DRTV ads.
    • ​​​​​​​The company has extremely highly concentrated network TV coverage and will not likely launch a new campaign soon.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: AmEx may seek new US agency partners as it continues shifting its global strategy; reach out soon to remain top-of-mind.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Momentum Worldwide: Creative agency partner (at least for this project)
  • Dentsu mcgarrybowen: Creative AOR
  • Universal McCann: Media AOR
  • Kepler Group: Media and digital AOR
  • Deloitte Digital: Digital AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.