Gen-X, Boomer Opps: Empire Today appoints marketing chief amid spend increases (Score 50)

Sales lead: Reach out to the new CMO to offer ad space & agency services. 

• Empire Today (ET) selected Mark Krolick as CMO, effective August 2023.
• Krolick joins from Mavis Tire, where he held the same position.
• He now leads all of ET's marketing operations.

Target demographic: Gen-X & boomers

The company will likely:

• Continue increasing ad spend
• Try some new marketing channels
• Seek agency assistance

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

• YTD spend: ET spent around $15.1m on national TV ads YTD, a 20% increase from $12.6m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend increased by 16% from $12.2m in 2021 and $14m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as Gunsmoke, Gutfeld!, Friends, The Andy Griffith Show, and The First 48.

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

• YTD spend: ET spent around $4.2m on digital display ads YTD, a 24% increase from $3.4m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 624.8m impressions via Facebook (63%), Instagram (27%), YouTube (6%), desktop display (3%), desktop video (1%), and Twitter (1%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend increased by 32% from $2.8m in 2021 to $3.7m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 99% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, youtube.com, yahoo.com, and twitter.com. It placed 1% of these ads indirectly through Yahoo DSP onto sites such as yahoo.com, biography.com, seeker.com, politico.com, and youtube.com

Additional channel insights  

• Vivvix: ET also invests in print and local broadcast.
• Top podcasts sponsored: Global News Podcast.

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: CMO hires are the number one sign of upcoming agency appointments. 
• Current roster:
  • In-house: media