Millennial, Gen-X Opps: Walgreens's new CMO discusses strategy shifts (Score 71)
Sales Lead: Linh Peters, Walgreens's CMO since May 2022, recently detailed some of her plans to revamp the brand.
- Peters was drawn to Walgreens's mission and purpose to redefine healthcare, focus on community, and build equity.
- So far, she has focused on developing an "interconnected customer experience" across products, services, and offerings.
- Therefore, Walgreens is bolstering awareness of its personalized healthcare services, which appeal to both consumers and businesses.
- Walgreens has also bolstered its offering; for example, it launched a clean room with Epsilon.
- The company also added a self-serve programmatic function with the assistance of The Trade Desk and OpenX.
- Over the coming year, Peters will hone in on growing Walgreens's loyalty program, enhancing its personalization offerings, and continuing to utilize consumer trust to "reposition and elevate" it.
- This will involve shifting away from light-hearted or funny messaging toward one focused more trust and empathy.
- For example, Walgreens launched a campaign earlier in 2023 that had a more serious tone.
- Peters also wants to find ways to increase Walgreens's voice in public conversations.
- Peters is working closely with the media AOR it tapped earlier in 2023, Epsilon.
- The company will likely:
- Continue ramping up cause marketing efforts to promote its mission and purpose
- Keep rolling out new work in general
- Continue increasing TV spend; return to higher digital spend
- Seek additional new agency partners
- Target demographic:
- Primary: Older millennials and Gen-X
- This announcement closely followed Wallgreens's July 2023 appointment of senior owned brand strategy and innovation director Katya Chen.
- Secondary: Business DMs
Additional spending insights:
- Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
- YTD spend: Walgreens has spent approximately $56m on national TV commercials YTD, 26% more than the approximately $44.4m spent by this point last year.
- Last year: The pharmacy chain spent around $98.9m on this channel in 2022 and 4% more, around $94.8m, in 2021.
- 2023 ad programming: Walgreens's 2023 commercials have targeted the male-skewed audience of shows such as the 223 Pro Bowl Games, Today 3rd Hour, the 2020 NBA All-Star Game, The Golden Girls, and NCIS.
- Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
- YTD spend: Since the beginning of 2023, the company has allocated roughly $32.5m on digital ads, down 31% from the roughly $47.2m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
- YTD data: Walgreens has earned ~4.3b digital impressions YTD via Facebook (71%), YouTube (13%), Instagram (12%), desktop display (2%), mobile display (1%), and desktop video (1%) ads.
- Last year: The company's estimated full-year 2022 spend of $80.2m increased by 48% from that of $54.2m in 2021.
- Additional channel insights
- The company utilizes Google Ads along with print, radio, digital, local broadcast, OOH, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and online video (primarily via Youtube.com and Youtube IOS) ads.
- Walgreens sponsors podcasts such as The Ben Shapiro Show, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, The Ramsey Show, The Bobby Brown Show, and My Favorite Murder.
Additional agency insights:
- Opportunity: Additional agency reviews could still follow the March 2023 media AOR shift, so reach out soon if you haven't yet done so.
- Current agency roster:
- Epsilon: Media AOR (March 2023)
- The Trade Desk: Digital agency agency partner (since at least 2022)
- Yamamoto: Creative, digital, social, and experiential AOR
- VMLY&R: Creative and digital AOR
- Berlin Cameron: Creative and digital agency partner
- Hill+Knowlton Strategies: PR AOR
Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser.
