Bank of America’s Kim Grant on the ‘daily battle’ for brand relevancy | M&M Global

Bank of America’s Kim Grant on the ‘daily battle’ for brand relevancy

Kim Grant, senior vice president, enterprise media at Bank of America, talks to M&M Global about brand relevancy, big data and her upcoming role as a judge at the Festival of Media Global Awards.

Kim Grant

Be nimble, be relevant, and don’t be afraid to change your game-plan – that is the advice of Bank of America’s (BofA) senior vice president, enterprise media, Kim Grant.

Grant, a 19-year veteran of BofA, has spent the past 15 years guiding the organisation’s media and communications strategy, and is set to join the jury for the Festival of Media Global Awards 2016 – a task she is looking forward to.

“Brands always face challenges and we can’t shy away from that,” she says. “I’m excited to see brands taking new approaches to solving problems, and also how they use a particular mix of channels to meet their goals.

“We don’t often get to peek behind the curtain at other brands, particularly in other sectors, and to see what led them to the solution they came up with.”

Media partnerships

Grant has been busy leading BofA into new media partnerships which would previously have been considered a “risk” for a financial services brand, for instance tying up with VICE in an attempt to engage new audiences.

The VICE deal centred on a personal finance show for Millennials, called ‘The Business of Life’, made in collaboration with Starcom Mediavest Group, which she claims has helped the brand to “stand out and shine”.

“It’s very different from a typical ad placement. We’re looking for things like that, opportunities to do things that haven’t been done before – that are not only new for our brand, but maybe for any brand,” she says. “Those partnerships take a while to build up and they don’t come round every day, but they are definitely worth the investment.”

The primary ambition, says Grant, is to become – and then remain – “top-of-mind” with the brand’s target audience, something which is increasingly difficult to do. She believes that advertisers must “constantly evolve” the message being delivered to consumers, as well as how it being delivered.

“We are engaged daily in that battle for relevancy, but also battles for the consumer’s attention. There are so many things [competing for consumer attention], and not just advertising. It’s that really cute videos of the panda at the national zoo climbing the tree with his mum behind him,” says Grant.

“You just have to be constantly in the mind-set of being nimble, changing your game plan and making sure you’re being relevant. Frequency matters too. Relevant once doesn’t get you where you need to be.”

Big data

Another big focus for Bank of America and Grant is the implementation of a data strategy. Where once data was only available from a handful of sources, even the most traditional of media owners are now offering data solutions to help improve audience targeting and campaign measurement.

“A few years ago people thought that television was dead or dying, but TV isn’t dead – networks are one of the biggest players in big data now, especially in the US, with partnerships between cable operators and networks. They’ve really upped their game, it’s truly remarkable,” she says.

This poses a challenge in itself – where to invest media budgets, when the list of potential partners and channels is ever-growing?

“For all successful marketers, what is important is being in tune with what is happening and making sure you’re not the same old brand – that you’re moving to meet the consumer where they are,” she adds.

The deadline for entries to Festival of Media Global Awards 2016 is Friday 19 February – click here for more details on how to enter

No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply