Trumps Win Has Ad Agencies Rethink How They Collect Data, Recruit staff

[pstokely]

"Some marketers, concerned that data isn’t telling them everything they need to know, are considering increasing their use of personal interviews in research. Meanwhile, some ad agencies are looking to hire more people from rural areas as they rethink the popular use of aspirational messaging showcasing a ritzy life on the two metropolitan coasts. One company is also weighing whether to open more local offices around the world, where the people who create ads are closer to the people who see them.

“This election is a seminal moment for marketers to step back and understand what is in people’s heads and what actually drives consumer choice,” said Joe Tripodi, chief marketing officer of the Subway sandwich chain.

Even as many ad agencies try to improve their gender and racial diversity, industry executives say they also need to ensure their U.S. employees come from varied socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds.

A diversity hire “can be a farm girl from Indiana as much as a Cuban immigrant who lives in Pensacola,” said John Boiler, chief executive of the agency 72andSunny, whose clients include General Mills Inc. and Coors Light. The agency plans to expand its university recruitment programs to include rural areas."

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

1. well they're right

Consider the supposed "urban millennial" phenomenon, it is a complete fiction but almost unchallenged conventional wisdom. I used to work for a major retailer. What our internal market research department and what our advertising agency told us was usually pretty much irreconcilable and when put to the test our data was right.

Going to cloistered urbanites for insights on anything outside a several block radius of their apartment is probably foolish.