Morning Consult Brands: Week in Review & What’s Ahead

By Alyssa Meyers

Week in Review

Digital advertising

Instagram will now allow users to choose whether or not they want the platform to use data about their activity interacting with advertisers offline and on third-party sites to personalize ads.

YouTube is launching 15-second audio ads to target users who listen to music or podcasts in the background, a move that the platform expects will increase ad revenue generated from music, and one that puts YouTube in competition with Spotify Technology SA’s audio-only ad business.

Snapchat, which has been regularly launching performance-based ad products, added a new tool for advertisers that allows them to select app installs as their campaign objectives when using AR Lens campaigns on the platform, use a bidding strategy based on minimum return on ad spend goals and more easily focus their campaigns on in-app conversions.

Retail earnings

Home Depot Inc. beat expectations in its third quarter and reported a 24.1 percent increase in same-store sales, with net sales up 23.2 percent to $33.54 billion.

Target Corp. reported a 20.7 percent year-over-year increase in comparable sales, which includes e-commerce, for its third quarter.

L Brands Inc., the owner of Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret, returned to profitability in its third quarter, reporting a 14 percent increase in sales for the quarter ended Oct. 31.

TJX Cos., which runs T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods, said net sales in its third quarter decreased by 3.2 percent to $10.1 billion compared to the same time last year.

Macy’s Inc. experienced a 20.2 percent drop in its quarterly same-store sales, even as its revenue beat expectations at $3.99 billion.

Holiday campaigns

KFC is re-releasing its 1966 and 1971 U.S. holiday chicken buckets, along with a vintage-inspired 2020 bucket, for the holiday season as brands lean into nostalgia marketing to provide a sense of comfort during the pandemic.

Mid-Atlantic grocery store chain Giant Food has apologized after running a full-page Thanksgiving advertisement in the December edition of its magazine that reads, “Hosting? Plan a super spread,” which the company said was meant to “describe an abundance of food,” but recognized that “in hindsight, the choice of words was a poor one” amid a global pandemic.

What’s Ahead

Companies reporting earnings this week include Urban Outfitters Inc. on Monday and Abercrombie & Fitch Co., American Eagle Outfitters Inc., Best Buy Co., J.M. Smucker Co., Dollar Tree Inc., Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., Gap Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. on Tuesday.

The American Marketing Association is hosting an online class, “Content Planning: How to Create a Winning Strategy for 2021,” with four hours of live instruction each day Dec. 2-3.

The Association of National Advertisers’ Influencer Marketing Conference will be combined with its Brand Activation Conference that was canceled in the spring to form the 2020 ANA Influencer Marketing and Activation Conference Dec. 8-9.

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

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