Breaking the Marketing Mold: Abby McNally of Collective Measures On 5 Innovative & Non-Traditional Marketing Strategies That Can Engage Audiences Like Never Before
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Lay the groundwork for your next generation of customers. While Gen Z and Gen Alpha may not yet be your target audience, understanding their motivations now will help you anticipate their needs and ensure your brand is ready when they are.
Traditional marketing methods are no longer sufficient in today’s dynamic and fast-evolving market. To truly engage and captivate audiences, businesses need to think outside the box and adopt innovative and non-traditional marketing strategies. What are these strategies, and how can they transform audience engagement? I had the pleasure of interviewing Abby McNally.
As the Director of Connections Strategy + Brand Media, Abby McNally oversees Collective Measures’ connections strategy and brand media departments. With expertise in building audience strategies that drive performance, she knows how to find unique opportunities for clients based on real audience insights. Before joining Collective Measures, Abby worked at OMD in Chicago where she focused on cross-channel media plans for Walgreens. She later worked with Adobe, focusing on programmatic media strategy for major brands, including MillerCoors, Allstate, 3M, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and Bank of America.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! To start, could you share when and how you got started in marketing?
My marketing career began in college through a variety of internships that allowed me to explore different facets of the industry. I gained experience in PR, graphic design, and copywriting, which provided a broad perspective and helped me identify my strengths and passions. While I loved the creative aspects of my roles, I found myself craving the analytical side — something that would validate the impact of my work.
After some soul-searching abroad and extensive networking with industry professionals, I realized that media offered the perfect blend of creativity and analytics I had been seeking. This led me to my first media role at OMD in Chicago, and I’ve been in the industry ever since.
What has been the biggest shift in the marketing industry and can you give us an example of how it impacted you?
I entered the marketing industry at the dawn of addressable digital media, when clients were just beginning to realize the value of their vast first-party data to reach customers online. Since then, I’ve watched the industry go all in on big data. While advancements in data targeting and measurement have unlocked new opportunities, many brands overcorrected — focusing too heavily on performance marketing at the expense of brand building, which has ultimately limited their growth.
Today, we’re in a period of rebalancing, as more marketers recognize the need to build and maintain brand equity while also capturing and converting demand. This shift has shaped how I think about media and its impact. Both consumers and marketers have become addicted to instant gratification, expecting immediate results. While some media tactics can deliver that, it’s crucial to take a more holistic approach — one that balances short-term performance with long-term brand growth.
I learned this lesson firsthand while chasing performance for a client heavily focused on ROAS. Although we achieved exceptionally high returns for a time, demand eventually softened, causing a significant performance decline. Rebuilding brand demand took months.
Can you explain why it’s essential for businesses to break away from traditional marketing and embrace new strategies?
In a world where nearly any product is just a quick “add to cart” away, brands face more competition than ever. Consumers are also quick to recognize — and ignore — traditional marketing tactics. To truly stand out in a crowded marketplace, brands must embrace differentiation and test new strategies.
Could you share and briefly explain the first major change you made to break the trend of traditional marketing that was not so common?
When I first started in the industry, programmatic advertising was in its infancy. One of my first clients — a large, nationwide drug store — had an extensive first-party dataset through its customer rewards program. Although their media mix had historically skewed heavily toward traditional media channels (linear TV, radio, out-of-home), it quickly became clear that their rich customer data were perfectly suited for programmatic advertising. This shift required us to rethink our approach — moving beyond a purely mass-reach strategy to focus on retention and re-engagement.
What specific results did you see after implementing this change?
Although there were plenty of stops and starts as we worked through data configuration and measurement and fine-tuned our targeting strategy, we ultimately built a program that leveraged past purchase data to better understand consumer behavior and drive sales. Through data analysis, we identified shopping patterns and reached customers with promotions or reminder messaging near the point of purchase. Measurement also revealed what type of messaging drove the most foot traffic and sales.
How do you ensure that these new marketing strategies resonate with your target audience?
When testing new marketing strategies, research and measurement should be your guiding light. Just because a trend is new and buzzy doesn’t mean it will work for you or your audience.
The first step is research — gaining a clear understanding of how your audience may respond. Utilize syndicated data, focus groups, surveys, and social listening to analyze media consumption habits, attitudes toward trends, and buying behavior. If you find a misalignment between your strategy and your audience, pivot and try something else.
The second key to ensuring your strategy resonates is a strong measurement framework that provides real-time feedback. This is easier in digital channels, where engagement metrics are readily available, but tracking brand sentiment through social listening can also offer valuable insights into how your strategy is landing.
Can you share an example of something you tried that didn’t deliver expected results or ended up becoming a financial burden, and what you learned from that experience?
In paid media, new opportunities and tactics emerge almost daily — from Google betas to the rise of new social platforms. At Collective Measures, we know that if we don’t evolve with the market, we’ll quickly be left behind. That’s why we foster an innovative culture that embraces testing and isn’t afraid to fail. We don’t hit it out of the park every time, but we always learn something.
A great example of this is our early tests on TikTok. We applied our knowledge from other social platforms but quickly realized that audience behavior and expectations were different, which meant that traditional social media strategies didn’t translate as effectively. Recognizing this, we adjusted our messaging, targeting, and expectations to better align with user behavior. The key takeaway: always stay nimble, and when something isn’t working, iterate and adapt.
Great. Now, let’s dive into the heart of our interview. Could you list “5 Innovative & Non Traditional Marketing Strategies That Can Engage Audiences Like Never Before”?
- Trends and innovation often start within micro-communities. Identify your most relevant communities and keep a pulse on emerging trends.
- Integrate into significant cultural moments. Music, sports, and art ignite passion and excitement — find authentic ways for your brand to join the conversation.
- Take a stand and voice your values. In today’s divisive climate, this carries some risk, but if your brand has strong values that resonate with your customers, standing firm can foster deeper loyalty and trust.
- Leverage credible and influential voices to amplify your brand. Consumers are always looking for recommendations from their favorite publishers, influencers, and content creators, making strategic partnerships a powerful tool for building brand equity.
- Lay the groundwork for your next generation of customers. While Gen Z and Gen Alpha may not yet be your target audience, understanding their motivations now will help you anticipate their needs and ensure your brand is ready when they are.
What challenges might companies face when transitioning away from traditional marketing strategies, and how can they overcome them?
Without historical performance data or industry benchmarks, shifting dollars away from tried-and-true tactics can be challenging. I’ve found that when advertisers allocate a designated percentage of their budget for testing — focused on learning and evolution rather than immediate performance — marketers feel more empowered to take risks and explore new opportunities.
How do you measure the success and ROI of these new marketing strategies?
Measurement is always a challenge when testing new strategies. It’s often difficult to validate spend on emerging platforms without sophisticated measurement tools or experiential brand activations. However, there are several ways marketers can assess whether their new strategies are making an impact and driving business results. Monitoring search and social behavior is an effective way to gauge interest and sentiment. Brand health trackers can provide insights into how brand awareness, perception, and purchase intent evolve over time. Additionally, advanced measurement techniques like media mix modeling can help validate the ROI of new marketing strategies.
Looking forward, how do you see the role of innovative marketing evolving in the next 5–10 years?
Over the next 5–10 years, I believe AI will completely transform marketing. One major shift will be the evolving role of brand websites. In many cases, AI-powered search engines can provide users with all the information they need without even needing to visit a website. This will undoubtedly result in decreased site traffic and may change the role of brand websites completely. Marketers will need to optimize content differently to appear in AI-generated overviews and rethink how they measure website success. Additionally, as audiences grow accustomed to instant answers and follow-up interactions, brands will need to integrate AI into their websites to replicate that seamless experience.
What advice would you give to business leaders who are hesitant to move away from traditional marketing methods?
- Allocate a specific percentage of your budget for testing.
- Set expectations that the goal of testing is to learn, not to replicate results of traditional marketing.
- Don’t “set it and forget it” — keep an eye on how your audiences are reacting and iterate as you go.
Can you share any upcoming initiatives or plans you have for further innovating your marketing strategies?
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been really focused on helping my clients identify and tap into social micro-communities to mine trend data and uncover new opportunities that will really resonate with audiences. Whether it’s an emerging aesthetic for an apparel brand or a shift in buying motivations for a B2B software, understanding the conversations happening on the ground level can help your brand and marketing evolve alongside your audience.
How can our readers follow your work and learn more about your approaches to modern marketing?
Connect with or DM me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-mcnally-00437520/
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at Built to Lead, advises Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator.
Breaking the Marketing Mold: Abby McNally of Collective Measures On 5 Innovative & Non-Traditional… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.