Month: June 2021

This “Work that Works” strategy has taken eight months to plot and is currently being rolled out gradually across its 200 offices as they reopen in phases across different geographies. Last spring, the company started to monitor employee productivity and sent out regular internal surveys to gauge worker morale. Via its software infrastructure the company could see how and when people worked, and in what timeframe tasks were completed (on an anonymous basis) and compared them with pre-pandemic work levels when everyone was in the office.

The result was that the executive leadership team was able to see evidence that for maximum efficiency across its workforce, employees needed approximately 2.5 days in the office while the rest could be done more efficiently remotely, according to Sergio Ezama, chief talent officer and CHRO at PepsiCo who led the program. 

“We don’t care about how the sausages are made. If you can do your job sitting on the beach in Bermuda drinking a Margarita, good for you,” said Ezama. “We care about outputs — this company is about outputs and value creation. So if there is a better way to do that, where the output is actually better and in the process, people have better lives, can spend more time with families, then that’s great. And this pandemic has proven that it’s doable. [Before] we were limiting ourselves with stereotypes from the past.”

Like many dads, Ezama saw his kids (aged 10 and six years old) in short windows — racing home to make it in time for dinner and bed — before the pandemic forced the world to adopt remote working en masse. Now, he drops them off at school every day, has lunch with his wife, and is a lot more hands-on in the daytime, because he can be more fluid about which hours he works. “I was a weekend dad before. So, Monday to Friday I was not much of a father I guess. I can spend a lot more time with my wife and kids and with the knowledge that no one will be judging [for not being constantly in the office].”

Ensuring managers lead by example
PepsiCo’s strategy relies entirely on its managers making good decisions about when and how their team can work. And for that reason it’s vital that they not only lead by example and work days remotely themselves, but also undergo training around how not to unconsciously reward or favor those who are in the office over those who are at home, according to Ezama. If not, proximity bias will take root.

Managers and teams will need to communicate clearly to establish their operational cadence, he added. For example, he has been transparent with his direct reports about his own schedule, which tasks he will complete from home and when he will want to be in the office for meetings, to establish a set, monthly rhythm.

“The other thing that is a bit more complicated is we need to make sure that managers are not biased. I don’t want my managers to rate people highly because they serve their preferences as [far as] how to work. So if someone prefers to spend the majority of their time in the office, I don’t want managers to give them a better rating than those who are more likely to choose to work from home more. That’s an important piece to get right,” said Ezama.

The flexibility of PepsiCo’s model will help sustain a strong working environment and culture in which individuals can feel empowered to be creative and work how they know best, according to Jeff Sharpe, CEO of global design consultancy frog. “One aspect that we’ll be keen to watch for is how Work that Works new rituals and protocols create a boundary-less workspace between remote and in-office teammates, and how they track and measure success of this new way of working.”

Competition for talent
The question of what the working model should be in a post-pandemic world has naturally created divisions. And there is no one-size-fits-all. The majority of businesses have decided to seize the opportunity to overhaul their previous working structures in favor of deeper flexibility for employees, while others have clung to more traditional working structures and demanded that employees return to the office full-time — a method that’s expected to have repercussions on the movement of talent. Ezama stressed that it’s flexibility and choice people want, not simply the ability to work from home or work less hard for the company.

But he added that an already competitive talent market is becoming even more so, as businesses start to show their cards on how much they’re willing to increase employee choice in their working models.

“Many companies are pursuing this [hybrid models] and saying it’s for employee benefits,” added Ezama. “That’s certainly an angle that you can take, but we say it is better for business. We have proven results that having more flexible environments comes with increased productivity and [a] reduction in absenteeism and turnover. And it’s made us see we don’t actually need all this real estate. So it’s better for business and the planet. And it’s genuinely better for talent.” 

The changes also mean PepsiCo can reduce its real estate and in turn cut its waste and overall environmental impact. Offices are currently being redesigned to mirror some of what’s the typical post-pandemic standard, with more emphasis on collaborative, creative workspaces and no fixed desks and other COVID-safety protocols.

The company anticipates that the average occupancy rate of its offices will be 50% as a result of the changes. The business expects its overall office real estate to reduce significantly, though it won’t give specifics on how much given it’s still in the planning stages.

Ezama referenced research from Global Workplace Analytics, that shows for every 100 employees who work from home two days a week, PepsiCo will save 70 tons of carbon dioxide from being released.

Of course, advertisers want to serve their ads to the most relevant users, but this should never be at the sacrifice of brand safety. Fortunately, as a result of contextual targeting, brands can not only remain protected, but they can significantly enhance their favorability, ensuring that ads are being associated with safe and relevant content while capturing attention, engaging more consumers and producing positive reactions.

Contextual targeting is fueling positive associations

Negative content — anything that is plagiarized, false, misleading or based on bias or insufficient evidence — plagues the online world. Naturally, brands want to avoid serving ads on these pages. Similar to how Apple never lets villains in films or TV shows use iPhones, brands want to remove themselves from these situations because of the negative connotations that come from being associated with them. The same goes for online ads.

Fortunately, brands can avoid negative content quite easily. By utilizing contextual targeting, brands can serve ads alongside more appropriate content. This not only ensures stronger brand safety but also helps advertisers reach audiences in a more positive mindset at the point when they are exposed to these ads.

According to research undertaken by MetrixLab in conjunction with Seedtag, when ads were delivered without contextual targeting, 12% of respondents felt that the ad was on a webpage that made them feel negative about the brand. In comparison, only 5% of respondents felt this way when in-image ads were delivered through contextual targeting.

Contextual ads are improving brand favorability

Clearly, it is highly important to place ads with brand safety in mind. While contextual targeting allows brands to do this seamlessly, it also greatly enhances brand favorability.

A recent study conducted by TAG and BSI showed just how important brand safety is to advertisers — using COVID-19 misinformation to demonstrate their point. The survey found that more than 85% of consumers would reduce or stop purchasing products they regularly buy if they discovered an ad for that product had run next to COVID-19 conspiracy theories or misinformation. Furthermore, the same could be said if a favorite brand advertised near hate speech (89%), malware (92%), illegal content (89%) or terrorist recruiting materials (93%). Negative content has a significant impact on consumer behavior.

In comparison, MetrixLab and Seedtag found that when combining contextual targeting and in-content advertising placements, brands are not only being associated with safe and relevant content, but their ads are also fully integrated into the article’s visual content. This was found to improve brand favorability by up to 22%.

By overlaying contextual technology on ad buying, brands can ensure that any ads served are aligned with the content that target audiences are consuming at the exact time of exposure, which matches interest in real time. As a result, brands create a stronger fit between themselves and the content where they are serving ads. In fact, 69% of our respondents agreed that ads fit the page well when delivered through in-image contextual targeting. When delivered without contextual targeting, this outcome almost halved, dropping to 36%.

It is clear that there is a positive correlation between ads and their relevance to the content with which they are being served. In fact, IAS found that a staggering 70% of consumers believe that contextual advertising relevance is at least “somewhat important.”

These findings are reinforced by the MetrixLab and Seedtag study, where 59% of respondents also claimed that they liked the fact that the ads they were being served were related to the content they were reading about. The preference is clear, and this translates into deeper brand favorability and a stronger emotional response from consumers. The ability to target audiences based on real-time content consumption works to the benefit of all parties — content providers, advertisers and consumers.

Study: contextually targeted in-video ads improve message recall

Contextual targeting keeps brands safe and favorable, but the placement also helps them go the extra mile and be impactful.

Brands want to be remembered. Being safe and favored helps but it doesn’t necessarily make a company stand out. By utilizing contextually targeted in-video ads, brands can create a significant increase in the performance of their campaigns. Compared to common video ads, in-image video advertising and contextual targeting lead to stronger recall and memorability, helping to make advertising efforts land better with consumers and create a stronger impact.

MetrixLab and Seedtag’s research found that message recall can improve by as much as four times that of ads that are served without in-image video advertising. Furthermore, brand favorability increases by 370% and purchase intent rises by 390%.

It’s a seemingly simple switch, but the results speak for themselves. Suddenly a brand is well remembered. Messages are not only delivered well but received and recognized.

The post-cookies future is contextual

By leveraging contextually targeted in-content ads, brands can improve the efficiency and impact of their digital advertising. If a campaign utilizes a consumer’s natural inclination to look at imagery featured within content pages, the stats show that it will soon find success.

Contextual targeting allows brands to reach the right audience at the right moment without the need for cookies. It helps to capture attention, driving stronger viewability and maximizing the impact of impressions. Customers remain engaged, spending more time on in-image ads and offering brands a better opportunity to communicate their messages. And finally, it produces more positive reactions. Brands can generate stronger feelings and emotions and improve purchase intent. Meanwhile, brand safety remains at an all-time high.