Creating a unified brand strategy: Why problems ‘start small and multiply’

Creating a unified brand, across all stakeholders and touchpoints, is one of the most important goals a marketing team strives to achieve. Digital transformation has made this need more acute; the importance of social media means a plethora of new channels to get communications right.

As social has made the world more connected, it has also forced companies to make their workplaces more connected and collaborative. Yet many marketing departments struggle to even get that...

2 September 2020 | Best Practice

Why R&D is ‘the wind beneath marketing’s wings’ at Coca-Cola: AI, analytics, and more

Session Even if you are one of the biggest and most recognisable brands in the world, it never pays to stand still.

Coca-Cola is a particular case in point. For years, the soft drinks behemoth regularly topped the charts as the world's most valuable brand. Yet in 2013, according to Interbrand's rankings, Apple took Coca-Cola's crown, ending its 13-year unbroken stay at the top and moving it down to third, behind Google. As of 2019, Apple and Google remain one and two, with...

24 August 2020 | Automation

Consumers who rely on social media for news are less informed. Where do we go from here?

Opinion A major new study from Pew Research has found US adults who predominantly get their political news from social media are less likely than other consumers to closely follow major news stories. But what is underpinning this?

The study, which analysed surveys conducted between October 2019 and June 2020, argued that US adults who rely most on social media for news tend to be younger, are less likely to be white, and have lower levels of education than those who use several...

6 August 2020 | Content Marketing

Branding best practice: Exploring how to create a brand which cuts through the noise

Webinar Having a strong, unified brand image is a must in today's noise-heavy, social-amplified marketing landscape. With the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic added in, it is even more indispensable.

The recent 2020 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands Ranking, put together by WPP and Kantar, is a gold mine of information when it comes to assessing why the biggest brands dominate as they do. As with previous rankings, the influence of technology is apparent: seven of...

4 August 2020 | Branding

Machine learning for marketers: Getting the strategies and processes right

Webinar Machine learning has the potential to transform marketers' operations - but organisations need to overcome various hurdles to achieve success.

Writing for this publication at the end of last year, Phil Midwinter, CTO at Third Foundation, said organisations needed to make a 'serious commitment to data and digital via ML and AI' in 2020.

To achieve this, you not only need the right data, but also the right tools to read between the lines. Artificial...

16 July 2020 | Automation

The state of influencer marketing amid Covid-19: Concern but micro-influencers show path forward

Influencer marketing campaigns, so often trying to achieve a balance between aspiration and authenticity, have seen a fault line rip through them as the coronavirus pandemic has progressed.

For all of the missteps which made the news last year - Philip Morris breaking its internal rules on a campaign, fashion influencer Marissa Casey Grossman's marriage which brought a new meaning to the term 'brand engagement' - the statistics around influencer marketing were solid. According to...

29 June 2020 | Campaigns

Thoughts on how to ensure GDPR does not kill your marketing strategy

Webinar The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was supposed to be a wake-up call for marketers to clean up their act. But how has this actually played out?

It is safe to say the consensus from the industry in 2018 was less than universal. In a blistering New York Times op-ed, Alison Cool noted that, in the run-up to the law's introduction, many scientists and data managers who would be subject to the law 'found it incomprehensible... doubting that absolute...

22 June 2020 | Advertising Technology

AI retail software market set to touch $10bn by 2025, says Omdia

Analyst firm Omdia has predicted that the expenditure on AI software for retail uses across the world will grow to $9.8 billion (£7.96bn) in 2025, compared to $1.3bn in 2019.

The report, titled Artificial Intelligence for Retail Applications, also says that retailers will have invested $37.3bn on AI-driven solutions from 2019 through 2025 globally.

Plenty of use cases are driving the artificial intelligence market within retail, such as reducing cost and improving the...

7 April 2020 | Automation

Ad execs still clinging to crumbling cookie methods as creatives look to the future – survey

The move by Google to end third-party cookies by 2022 has caused something of a difference of opinion in certain marketing sectors, according to a new study.

The report, from Mymyne, a provider of contextual audience optimisation, which polled 100 senior marketing professionals, found that while almost two in five (39%) respondents in creative roles felt as though the impact of Google’s move would be ‘highly positive’, only 13% of ad execs felt the same way.

27 March 2020 | Advertising

Why taking your own path for digital marketing learning is daunting – but worth it

In 2012, SEO was the major concern for any business looking to flex their digital muscle. Every pronouncement and product update from Matt Cutts, then Google head of search quality, was akin to a word from God.

But digital marketing, as any professional knows, does not stand still for long.

Tommy Griffith (left) was SEO manager at PayPal at the time, and was tasked by his superior to put together an introduction to SEO presentation for around 100 marketing employees....

11 December 2019 | Best Practice