Alfi research shows promising growth for programmatic advertising

Half of senior advertising executives expect spending on programmatic advertising to increase dramatically over the next three years.

This is according to a survey by the Florida-based artifical intelligence (AI) advertising SaaS platform, Alfi. The research also found that, when asked to pick the three most important benefits of programmatic advertising, 94% of those asked cited automation.

Programmatic advertising involves the automated purchasing and management of...

9 August 2021 | Advertising Technology

HubSpot: Chatbot usage more than doubled during the pandemic

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Chatbot usage in the UK has more than doubled since 2020, with a third of all marketers now using them to engage with customers.

The findings come from marketing software provider HubSpot’s 2021 Not Another State of Marketing Report, which surveyed 1,500 marketers globally, and found that marketing and social media priorities are shifting to match developing technologies.

Part of a wider trend in the use of automation, the report reveals the acceleratory effect of the...

23 July 2021 | Advertising Technology

Vimeo becomes first video software company to partner with TikTok

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Video SaaS company Vimeo has joined TikTok Marketing Partners, a group of specialist companies that create, implement and measure ad campaigns on TikTok’s video-based social media app.

The partnership gives small and medium businesses (SMBs) access to Vimeo’s suite of video creation tools whilst simultaneously enabling them to take advantage of TikTok’s broad userbase.

Pre-release tests of both company’s capabilities saw participants able to double the number of...

20 July 2021 | Advertising

Omnichannel ad platform Mediaocean takes over Flashtalking

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Omnichannel advertising specialist Mediaocean has confirmed it has acquired ad management platform Flashtalking.

The combined entity will infuse Flashtalking’s best-in-class solutions for primary ad serving, creative personalisation, identity management, and verification with Mediaocean’s modern system of record used by the world’s leading brands and agencies.

The announcement comes at a critical inflection point for the advertising industry as marketers seek...

15 July 2021 | Advertising

Google delays Chrome tracking cookies ban until 2023

Google Chrome

Google has pushed back its planned blocking of third-party cookies on its Chrome internet browser from 2022 until 2023.

Cookies are used by websites to track users' browsing activity to enable digital publishers to better target their adverts.

Many of Google’s competitors, including Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla, have already blocked them. 

Vinay Goel, privacy engineering director for Google's Chrome browser, said: "While there’s considerable progress...

29 June 2021 | Advertising

Most consumers are happy for advertisers to use personal data to personalise adverts

A happy toy with a smiley face.

As many as 61% of UK consumers are happy for companies to use their personal data to personalise ads and offers for them.

Personalisation specialist A Million Ads, in collaboration with research company, Attest, recently conducted global consumer and marketer research identifying perceptions and preferences around personalised advertising.

The results revealed that 77% are very or somewhat annoyed when seeing or hearing exactly the same ad many times over. Moreover, 61%...

18 June 2021 | Advertising

The antidote for an acute case of martech bloat

Marketing budgets are bouncing back to pre-Covid levels after what has been a tough year. But how marketers decide to invest that money has changed, with more resources being redirected to digital-first strategies. For example, the retailer Next recently announced it will now prioritise online marketing, stopping all other forms of marketing and promotion of its physical stores. As they change tack, marketers are expected to expand their investment in martech tools to support their digital...

27 May 2021 | Advertising Technology

How MACH can transform the digital customer experience: A guide

There is no doubt that the global Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digital adoption. For many companies, this move was one they were, understandably, unprepared for. And even for some of those businesses who were already operating online, their technology was either not sufficient enough to adapt at speed, or too general to meet the rapidly changing needs of their customers.

Even post-pandemic, consumer needs are continually evolving, with people shopping on mobile devices, on...

26 May 2021 | Advertising Technology

Martech strategies: Make it, make it good, and make it happen

A marketing strategy that isn’t underpinned by technology and the right processes isn’t a strategy at all. It’s a waste of time.

The events of the last 14 months - as the global pandemic and resulting lockdowns have played havoc with existing business models - have demonstrated again the critical importance of direct contact with customers.

And unless that contact is tech-driven, it will be at best laborious, at worst completely dysfunctional.

Proper...

12 May 2021 | Advertising Technology

How to leverage QR codes to join the contactless revolution

Since QR codes were created in 1994, they've shown up just about everywhere. Marketers used them on drink labels, business cards, and even billboards.

But no matter how trendy they were, many consumers saw QR codes as a gimmick rather than a useful tool. What was in it for them? Why should they visit a company's website to get information, and why would they want to download a separate app to scan a code just to do so? It was a clunky user experience that didn't demonstrate a...

4 May 2021 | Advertising Technology