How Sage is using employee advocacy to create a strong voice on social

Last week, Kim Kardashian West - perhaps the ultimate influencer - put digital ink to silicon and tweeted forth. Yet this wasn't quite a case of affirmation-brought-to-you-by-X. The socialite had visited Jack in the Box and wished for a discussion about the experience "pronto." Underneath, rival fast food brands, from Burger King, to Wendy's, to Steak-umm, were queuing up to throw shade.

For some, this may be seen as light relief on the increasingly divisive social...

24 May 2019 | Campaigns

A guide to campaign tracking for simple and stress-free analytics

Any business that wants to be successful needs to know which marketing techniques are effective to their customers, members and target audience. Without this knowledge, it’s impossible to know whether your marketing campaigns are effective or if they are simply wasting your time and money.

Which means that campaign tracking is a fundamental part of digital marketing reporting, and if you’re not doing it, or doing it incorrectly, then you may end up using your budgets for...

22 May 2019 | Campaigns

Why the future agency model needs to be fast and fluid

Is there such a concept as ‘doing things the traditional way’ anymore? In everything from digital advertising to crowdsourcing and mobile marketing, the standard model doesn’t exist.

Equally, the speed of evolution in marketing has meant that brands have had to take a great deal more control over their process. If you want to be agile, responsive, real-time – there’s no space for multiple layers of iteration and approval before you act. 

Of...

13 May 2019 | Advertising

Grad Conn, CXMO, Sprinklr: On changing CMO strategy and the Copernicus effect for customer experience

Grad Conn, chief experience and marketing officer (CXMO) at Sprinklr, is something of a rare breed: a CMO who has been in it for the long haul.

Prior to joining the customer experience management platform last year, Conn spent almost seven years as Microsoft’s US chief marketing officer. Indeed, Conn laughs as he relates the tale of an interview feature he did which riffed on this: “Basically the premise was ‘how did this guy last for seven years?’ What kind...

30 April 2019 | Automation

The age of engagement: Why brands need to interact with customers as individuals

Last month, McDonald’s announced its $300m acquisition of artificial intelligence company Dynamic Yield – a machine learning specialist founded seven years ago - in a rare move for the company. For years the burger giant has avoided acquisitions.

The technology will allow McDonald’s to customise its menu displays based on variables such as weather and the time of day — milkshakes in the summer or McMuffins before 11am.

Dynamic Yield’s technology...

29 April 2019 | Advertising Technology

Is tone of voice being diluted in digital communications today?

There’s no doubt tone of voice is a powerful tool and absolutely vital when engaging with customers – it could be pivotal when attracting prospects.

A strong tone of voice is central to successful brand building. It is the backbone of all written communication and helps to boost recognition and perception when creating engaging, digital messages that resonate with an organisation’s target audience.

With online conversations happening in real-time and at a...

21 February 2019 | Branding

Agencies practice what they preach with ‘mature’ content marketing strategies

Every agency out there has got an opinion – at least, one that you probably have to pay for – about how you need to do content marketing.

It’s gone beyond mere choice. More often it’s become a question of: quality or quantity? Naturally, some believe they can offer the content equivalent of the moon on a stick. Peter Bell, senior director at Marketo, wrote for this publication in November about what he called ‘Frankenblogging’; where off-cuts and...

14 February 2019 | Branding

Three ways marketing will change in 2019: Positivity, authenticity and inspiration

Good marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The best strategies come from paying close attention to what people care about, and how their needs change over time. In today’s consumer-led marketplace, it’s not enough to be the loudest, or the brand that spends the most. You need to show you’re listening the hardest, too.

Think positive

These are trying times, and everyone’s looking for ways to feel more positive. We’re prioritising time with the people...

16 January 2019 | Branding

Marketing’s hidden treasure: How better promotions and engagement can unlock millions to fuel growth

Planning, tracking, and optimising advertising and trade spend has become table stakes for marketers at many consumer-goods companies. Despite those advances, consumer promotions and engagement (CPE) remains something of a forgotten area of marketing spend.  CPE, which includes in-store consumer activation and out-of-store engagement efforts, has too often been overlooked and undermanaged.  However, optimising CPE can, in fact, help businesses realise up to 10 to 30 percent...

14 December 2018 | Branding

CMOs expect their budget to increase, says Gartner – but ROI needs to be seen first

CMOs are confident about their budgets increasing next year, according to Gartner – but if money is to increase, then it needs to correlate directly to business initiatives.

The analyst firm has put together a missive based on interviews with more than 600 marketing executives, with almost two thirds (63%) of CMOs expecting their budgets to go up in 2019. Budgets have remained steady this year, comprising just over a tenth (11.2%) of overall company revenue – and these...

9 November 2018 | Advertising Technology