Male Gen-X, Millennial Media Opps: Bridgestone Americas hires CMO amid spend increases (Score 53)
Bridgestone Americas (BA) is hiring Sara Correa as CMO, effective July 26th. Correa most recently served as VP
and segment CMO of TE Connectivity. She is replacing incumbent of about 10 years Philip Dobbs. In her new role, Correa will be responsible for all marketing for Bridgestone and Firestone. This includes corporate communications, research, engagement, events, brand and digital marketing. Keep an eye on this company as this hire could lead to agency reviews, as well as new marketing strategies.
**Correa does not start until July 26h; therefore, we are unable to confirm her email address at this time.**
According to Pathmatics, BA earned 447.5m impressions YTD through desktop video ads (42%), Facebook ads (30%), Instagram ads (16%), desktop display ads (9%) and mobile display ads (3%). It placed the majority (95%) of these ads site direct onto sties such as youtube.com, facebook.com, instagram.com, discounttire.com and nfl.com. It placed the remainder (5%) through a variety of indirect channels onto sites such as nhl.com, yahoo.com, cnn.com, accuweather.com and slickdeals.net. It spent around $4m on digital display ads YTD, a 11% increase from $3.6m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend equaled $7.5m, a 19% increase from $6.3m in 2019.
**The above digital spend information includes BA's Firestone brand.**
Magellan reports Firestone placed about 100 podcast ads over the last year.
Per iSpot, BA spent around $5m on national TV ads YTD, a massive increase from $440.5k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend fell significantly (54%) from $14.7m in 2019 to $6.8m in 2020. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "NHL Hockey," "2021 Stanley Cup Final," "PGA Tour Golf," "The Office" and "NFL Honors."
Firestone spent around $2.3m on national TV ads YTD, according to iSpot. It did not allocate any budget towards this channel during the same time period of 2020. Spend equaled $4.5m in 2020, a 15% decrease from $5.3m in 2019. It placed ads during programming such as "2021 Indianapolis 500," "2021 Stanley Cup Final," "IndyCar Racing," "Friends" and "Family Guy."
Sellers-- BA mainly targets Gen-X and millennial men through digital display and national TV ads. It has increased spend across the board so far this year, other than national TV spend for Firestone. It also invests in OOH and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. Start contacting the new CMO once she begins to see what types of ad space you may be able to provide.
Agency & martech readers-- BA currently works with media buying/planning AOR GS&F. It also works with iCrossing on digital, Broadhead on creative and Levelwing on social. New CMOs often review their company's agency roster, so start reaching out soon to be top-of-mined.
