Female Millennial, Gen-X Opps: Sephora appoints new CMO amid spend increases (Score 63)

Sales lead: This hire will directly impact the company's marketing strategy & agency roster. 

• Sephora announced Zena Arnold will take over as CMO early this summer.
• Arnold joins from PepsiCo, where she served as SVP of carbonated soft drinks.
• Prior to that, she was the chief digital & marketing officer of Kimberly-Clark. 
• Arnold will handle personalization, performance, creative, loyalty, and integrated marketing. 

Target demographic: Gen-X/millennial women & gift-giving men

The company will likely:

• Continue ramping up ad spend
• Try new marketing channels
• Review the agency roster

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

• YTD spend: Sephora spent approximately $4.3m on national TV ads YTD after not allocating any budget toward this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend dropped 16% from $6.2m in 2021 to $5.2m in 2022.
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as American Idol, The Voice, Today, Station 19, and Good Morning America. 

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

• YTD spend: Sephora spent nearly $28.6m on digital display ads YTD, a 58% increase from $18.1m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 3.9b impressions via Facebook (45%), Instagram (34%), desktop display (13%), YouTube (5%), and mobile display (2%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend jumped 38% from $48.3m in 2021 to $66.7m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 96% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, youtube.com, bossip.com, and madamenoire.com. It placed 4% of these ads indirectly through Google AdX+AdSense and Display & Video 360 onto sites such as youtube.com, fandom.com, chegg.com, buzzfeed.com, and signupgenius.com. 

Additional channel insights  

• Vivvix: Sephora also utilizes OOH, print, radio, and local broadcast. 
• Top podcasts sponsored: Armstrong & Getty, The Daily Show With Trevor Noah: Ears Edition, Behind the Steel Curtain: for Pittsburgh Steeler fans, and Killer Psyche.

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Start working on your pitches so that you can reach out as soon as Arnold officially begins. 
• Current roster:
  • Digitas: media AOR
  • Collectively: media, digital, creative, & social
  • In-house: media