The ‘cyber five’: Prepping search strategies for peak retail

Black Friday and Cyber Monday, previously competitor sale days, now look set to emerge as one event - a giant ecommerce extravaganza - thanks to increased ecommerce uptake among consumers. The five days from the American Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday 26th November through to the following Cyber Monday are now dubbed the ‘Cyber Five’. This year, it will bring a host of new elements for search marketers to consider. 

Gleaning as much insight as possible into your...

19 November 2020 | Advertising

Travis Scott, J Balvin, and McDonald’s: Why some social partnerships work and others are destined to fail

If you went to McDonald’s in September, chances are you encountered Travis Scott. The prolific rapper had the first celebrity meal partnership to be featured on the McDonald’s menu since Michael Jordan’s in 1992. The Cactus Jack meal, named after Scott’s record label, replicated his favorite childhood special-order. The partnership was wildly successful. In its first few weeks, McDonald’s saw many franchises completely run out of ingredients for the meal, forcing a logistical...

12 November 2020 | Influencer Marketing

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

Know your data – and your limits – before utilising automation to drive campaign ROI

Brands are sitting on millions of pieces of data about customers and their behaviours – and yet many marketers are still failing to effectively apply it to their digital comms.

As a result, it’s leading to an array of lost opportunities. But why is that the case when organisations are exposed to even more ways to analyse their performance, speak to audiences on a deeper level and positively impact business growth?

Perhaps organisations aren’t providing marketing...

20 July 2020 | Advertising

Why security in online forms is key to delivering great customer experiences

The web has made it easier than ever to gather and analyse valuable data from consumers. Whether that data is collected through cookies or online forms, it can transform how you operate by helping you improve the customer experience and develop smarter marketing and sales strategies.

But collecting and using this data can be a double-edged sword: When customers trust you with their personal information, it also means they will hold you responsible if it’s...

15 July 2020 | Advertising Technology

Facebook: Zuckerberg says ad boycott will end ‘soon enough’ as Oxford study explores impact

As the number of companies boycotting Facebook continues to grow, a study from the University of Oxford argues an 'immediate' negative impact could result, particularly in the retail sector.

Various major brands, including Adidas, Coca-Cola and Starbucks - with PlayStation the latest big name to join - are withdrawing advertising to pressure the social network into taking a stronger stand against hate speech.

According to the Information - with the story's veracity later...

3 July 2020 | Advertising

The last (third party) cookie: How to prepare for a new era of digital advertising

In a 1984 episode of Sesame Street, Prairie Dawn, the most-level headed Muppet, is faced with a difficult challenge: she must explain the concept of ‘the last cookie’ to the Cookie Monster. The presentation begins well. Prairie asks the Cookie Monster to eat three of the four cookies on the table, and he does so with typical enthusiasm. But the mood changes when Cookie Monster is faced with the last cookie.

“But Prairie! Prairie! That’s the last cookie! After we eat that...

27 May 2020 | Advertising

The four pillars of good spend management – a key skill amid the Covid-19 downturn

Spend management is hardly the most glamorous component of marketing, but its impact can be game changing. That fact is particularly important as businesses react to the downturn ushered in by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Done well, spend management can free up marketing budget and serve both as a foundation to weather a storm and a catalyst for future growth. Effective spend management enables agile decision making within days (or even hours), allowing marketers to rapidly re-deploy...

26 May 2020 | Best Practice

Getting beyond the buzzword of ‘agile’ digital marketing to improve your customer relationships

Mention the word “agile” in a business setting, and it may lead to furrowed brows and scratched heads. Agility creates a lot of buzz — and a lot of misinterpretation.

To clear up any confusion, agile generally refers to optimizing and managing workflows. According to McKinsey & Co., it involves “using data and analytics to continuously source promising opportunities or solutions to problems in real time, deploying tests quickly, evaluating the results, and rapidly...

21 May 2020 | Content Marketing

Aimee Stone Munsell, CMO, Contentsquare: On leadership, learning, and lateral job moves

Aimee Stone Munsell, chief marketing officer at digital experience software provider Contentsquare, is a firm believer in the adage that a leader is only as good as their team. "A leader's job is to make themselves obsolete," she tells MarketingTech.

Realising the bluntness of that statement, Stone Munsell (left) laughs and clarifies. "What I mean by that is my job is to create at each level of management and leadership, to make the people underneath you successful and the...

18 May 2020 | CMO