Analyzing 1M Impressions and 30 Subject Lines: What Makes Bankers Click?

Good morning, ! This week we're looking at how KPMG turned spoof products into real revenue. We also cover the rise of Connected TV in B2B media buying, the decline of content creation pain points, why influencer marketing is now a full-funnel growth engine, and what actually gets bankers to click: subject lines tied to capital, urgency, and real transaction flow.

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AUDIENCE DATA DIVE

What Gets Bankers to Open?

After reviewing 30+ subject lines and over 1M impressions, one trend stands out:
Bankers engage with content that signals capital flow, market pressure, or deal velocity—especially when anchored in real sectors or real returns.

The subject lines that performed best weren’t vague or overly thematic. They told a story:
Who's deploying, where the opportunity is, and why it matters now.

High-Performing Traits

1. Capital in Play + Named Assets

The best-performing headlines led with transaction scale, investment themes, or sector size. When a banker sees "$600M Bet" or "$1T Market," it instantly communicates relevance.

Examples:

• “Private Equity Bets on AI Infrastructure and Data Centers” – 75.68% open rate.

• “T-Mobile’s $600M Bet, PE Real Estate Reset, and the Co-Investing Surge” – 67.79%

• “$69B Automation Boom, Urban Logistics, and Private ETFs” – 59.19%

2. Macro Friction, Sector Pressure, or Strategic Timing

Subject lines that acknowledged market inflection points—especially where dealmaking intersects with cyclical pressure—stood out. It’s not just the sector; it’s the why now.

Examples:

• “Private Equity in Construction: Navigating the 2024 Slowdown” – 73.96%

• “Homeownership Is Stuck—Private Equity’s U.S. Housing Opportunity” – 49.30%

• “Where Energy Capital Stops, PE Starts” – 49.33%

3. Innovation That Drives Deployment

Innovation themes resonated when they were tied to capital strategy—whether it was AI as an infrastructure lever, or cybersecurity as a defensive asset class.
The takeaway: tech works when it's transactionable.

Examples:

• “PE Goes Nuclear. Why? AI” – 72.45%

• “Why Biotech’s Private Equity Opportunity Is Just Getting Started” – 55.27%

• “Cybersecurity Hits $271.9B—PE Eyes Defense as Growth Lever” – 39.89%

What Didn’t Land as Well

Generic or brand-heavy lines underperformed, as did headlines that lacked a clear capital angle or focused on theory over tactics.

Examples:

• “The Market Everyone Ignored Is Scaling Anyway” – 31.91%

• “Monday Must-Read Memo” – 43.05%

• “The Private Equity Letter” – 30.91%

Even regional themes like LatAm or CEE underwhelmed unless paired with liquidity, exits, or valuation movement.

Strategic Implications for Banking Readers

Bankers don’t open emails to learn. They open to scan for flow, timing, and client relevance.

Your subject lines should:

• Start with the investment, not the insight
  ($600M, $1T, 7X Demand—those get attention fast)

• Anchor in the asset or vertical
  (Furniture, housing, cyber, data centers, construction)

• Signal movement or edge
  (Reset, Boom, Shift, Surge, Defense)

Go-Forward Content Formula

Lead with the transaction or theme
→ “AI Infrastructure,” “Housing Opportunity,” “Private ETFs,” “Real Estate Reset”

Add the trigger
→ “Boom,” “Slowdown,” “Pivot,” “$600M Bet”

Tie it to the moment
→ Why it matters now, who’s acting, what it unlocks

For banking audiences, specificity beats storytelling—and capital always beats theory.

AD INTEL

Retail Media Conquesting Grows 50% YoY—Now Table Stakes for RMNs

The number of retail media networks (RMNs) enabling competitive conquesting—targeting ads to competitors’ shoppers—has jumped from 10 in Q2 2024 to 15 in Q2 2025, a 50% increase, per Mars United Commerce.

This rise reflects a broader shift: new customer acquisition is now the top goal for commerce media campaigns, cited by 21.1% of US marketers (M+C Saatchi, Jan 2025), while improved customer targeting is a major driver for 50% of retail media buyers (Koddi, Mar 2025).

Takeaway: Marketers should test conquesting strategies across RMNs that now support them. The feature is fast becoming standard, and early movers can unlock precision targeting advantages. For RMNs, enhancing competitive ad tools and integrating GenAI-powered search could be the key to unlocking larger advertiser budgets.

THE FUNNEL REPORT

How Influencer Marketing Is Moving Up the Funnel

Influencer marketing is no longer just a top-of-funnel play. With global spend projected to hit $32.5B by 2025 (up from $1.7B in 2016), brands are now using influencers to drive results across the entire buyer journey.

What started as a channel for awareness has expanded into a tool for mid-funnel engagement and even bottom-funnel conversions. Think: influencer-led webinars, product demos, gated content, and co-branded retargeting.

Today’s leading marketers aren’t just buying reach—they’re integrating influencer campaigns with CRM, lead scoring, and nurture flows to track impact more meaningfully. To win, treat creators as strategic partners and align content to specific funnel stages. In a $30B+ market, brands that go beyond visibility will see the greatest ROI. (More)

BUDGET SHIFTS

Inflation’s Grip on Marketing Budgets Is Easing—Slowly

After repeated budget pressure, marketers are finally seeing slight relief. The share of companies cutting spend due to inflation has dipped from 48.7% in Fall 2024 to 43.5% in 2025—subtle, but a sign of early stabilization.

Nearly 40% now say inflation isn’t affecting their budgets, up from 35.5% last fall. Still, very few are increasing spend, with that figure stuck around 16–17% for three straight surveys.

Sector gaps remain. B2C brands report higher cut rates (48%) than B2B (40%), while Transportation (85.7%) and Media (70%) lead in pullbacks.

Marketers are navigating a fragile recovery—easing pressure, but still cautious. A true rebound will depend on the broader economic outlook. (More)

BUYER’S ROOM

Why B2B Buyers Are Embracing CTV in 2025

In 2025, Connected TV (CTV) has become a go-to channel for B2B media buyers, shedding earlier skepticism. With global CTV ad spend projected to grow 33% this year to $48 billion, buyers are attracted by the channel’s brand safety, precise targeting, and high ad completion rates—typically around 90%. Improved measurement and transparency, especially through programmatic platforms, have made attribution as reliable as traditional digital channels.

Pierre Nesselhauf, Marketing Director at CTV platform MNTN, explains: “CTV gives B2B marketing teams the chance to get ahead of the competition, reach valuable audiences, and generate demand. With precision targeting, you can stop wasting money on irrelevant audiences and focus on driving relevant messaging to your key segments. Reporting and attribution transparency are must-haves in CTV, and brands can use these insights to improve campaigns.”

This confidence is prompting B2B buyers to gradually shift budgets from linear TV and some digital formats toward CTV, seeking efficiency and impact. (More)

CREATIVE THAT CONVERTS

Are Content Creation Challenges Fading?

New survey results suggest that many classic B2B content creation hurdles are becoming less of a headache for marketers. The number of marketers struggling to create the right content for their audience dropped from 57% last year to just 40% — a promising sign that targeting strategies may be improving.

Other top challenges have also eased:

• Differentiating content declined from 54% to 43%

• Creating content consistently dropped from 54% to 42%

• Even optimizing for SEO is less of a worry, cited by just 35% this year vs. 45% in 2023.

New to the list this year is content repurposing, with 37% of marketers flagging it as a pain point. Meanwhile, only 27% cited creating quality content as a challenge — down significantly from 44% a year ago, despite the ongoing flood of AI-generated content. (More)

CASE STUDY

Spoof Products, Real Results: KPMG Drives 68% Boost in Deal Value

KPMG launched a bold multichannel campaign to promote its consumer consulting services — reimagining itself as a lineup of fictional CPG products to prove it “gets” the consumer space. The creative concept delivered outsized business results across brand and revenue metrics.

The campaign was designed by The Romans and deployed across print, paid social, programmatic display, and digital out-of-home. What made it stand out? Each ad featured a spoof product (like "Boredroom Bubbles") that mirrored real-world packaging and emphasized KPMG’s advisory value through parody.

CTR outperformed LinkedIn and Meta benchmarks by 480%, and the campaign delivered 9.2M impressions in its first three weeks alone. Most notably, opportunity volume rose by 11%, and deal value surged 68% for KPMG’s Consumer Consulting practice.

This case highlights the ROI of channel orchestration, audience insight, and creative distinctiveness. It proves that even in conservative B2B sectors, smart storytelling — backed by performance data — can unlock meaningful growth. (More)

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