Verizon completes CMO search amid spend increases (Score 74)

Sales lead: This hire will affect the company's ad spend & agency roster.

Verizon has filled the CMO vacancy we told you about when Diego Scott stepped down in May.
Leslie Berland will take over on January 9th, 2024.
Berland joins from Peloton where she held the same title.
She is responsible for global brand strategy, activation, creative, consumer insights, media, and strategic partnerships.

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

The company will likely:

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

YTD spend: Verizon spent approximately $452m on national TV ads YTD, a 21% increase from $374m 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, NBA Basketball, College Basketball, The Oscars, and NHL Hockey.

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

YTD spend: Verizon spent almost $207.2m on digital display ads YTD, a 74% jump from $119m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022.
YTD data: 25.3b impressions via YouTube (32%), Facebook (25%), desktop display (18%), Instagram (14%), desktop video (6%), 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 94% of these ads directly onto sites such as youtube.com, facebook.com, instagram.com, twitch.tv, and nfl.com. It placed 6% of these ads through multiple indirect channels onto sites such as youtube.com, zillow.com, football.fantasysports.yahoo.com, yahoo.com, and nextdoor.com.

Additional channel insights

Vivvix: Verizon also invests in OOH, print, radio, and local broadcast.
Top podcasts sponsored: Stuff You Should Know, Dateline NBC, The Matt Walsh Show, Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend, and The Daily.

Agency analysis:

Opportunity: CMO hires are the number one sign of upcoming agency reviews, so get in touch now to be top-of-mind.
Current roster:
- the community: creative & multicultural AOR
- Ogilvy - New York: creative & multicultural AOR
- MRM: digital AOR
- Golin: PR AOR
- Zenith Media: media AOR
- Momentum Worldwide: creative
- Pace Communications: digital
- R/GA: creative
- Publicis North America: media buying & planning

Media Spend Estimate Sources: (c) Winmo, LLC, 2024. Used under license.