Retailers feel there are too many channels to effectively sell through

A TV remote control.

Online shopping has never been more convenient for consumers, who have access to a plethora of channels through which to engage with their favourite brands.

However, this same variety is confounding retailers, with 47% saying there are simply too many channels for them to effectively deliver the best sales experience.

This is according to Wunderman Thompson Commerce & Technology’s “Brands don’t fail... eRetail!” report, which found nearly all (94%) retail...

19 April 2023 | Content Marketing

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

CMO Council explores the remit of earned media – and strained relations between marketing and comms

The Covid-19 pandemic may have forced a change in some respects, but a new report from the CMO Council makes it clear: marketing and comms are still too adversarial, and more media cohesion is needed.

In its report 'Bridging the Gap for Comms and Marketing', the council, alongside Cision, surveyed more than 150 brand leaders, as well as conducting interviews with executives from Schneider Electric, IBM, Nokia, and more.

Ultimately, marketing and comms don't really...

14 October 2020 | Advertising

How to stop spending money on paid search and get noticed organically

Paid search advertising is a digital marketing tactic that remains popular today. Its appeal largely stems from its pay-per-click model that guarantees that advertisers pay for actual traffic rather than mere visibility. But how effective is advertising on popular search engines like Google and Bing?

Teknicks surveyed more than 1,000 internet users to get a better sense of how they find what they’re looking for online. Their answers suggest that search engine advertising - and...

3 September 2020 | Advertising

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

AI for programmatic is great – but tragedy shows us why human judgement remains vital

Artificial intelligence has been an indispensable tool for programmatic ad buying. But algorithms can’t always tell the difference between positive and negative sentiment — you need a human for that.

This was brought home to me in the days following Kobe Bryant’s death in January. The tragic event spurred a tidal wave of activity on social media, which triggered ads for his jersey and other memorabilia items. This came across as tacky to many consumers. One of my...

18 March 2020 | Advertising

Third of ad spend growth to be driven by paid search and social by 2020

One third of all global ad spend growth will be driven by paid search and social media spend within the next two years, according to the latest report by Publicis-owned industry forecaster Zenith.

Annual global ad spend is on track to hit $581bn (£442bn) by the end of 2018, while Zenith raised its predictions for global ad spend growth from 4.1% to 4.5% until 2020, 67% of which will come from investments in paid search and social media ads.

Within that time, paid search...

24 September 2018 | Advertising

Two-thirds of people don’t know difference between Google paid and organic search results

Nearly two-thirds (60%) of consumers don’t know the difference between paid and organic search results on Google, according to a new study by Varn.

The UK marketing agency approached over 1,000 internet users with the simple question; “Do you know which links on the Google search results page are paid adverts?”

A whole 59.7% of people surveyed claimed to be unaware of the differences between the two types of Google listings, implying that the...

6 September 2018 | Best Practice

Google bought data on two-billion Mastercard users for offline retail tracking

Google has made no secret of efforts to bridge the world of online marketing and highstreet sales. It has the tech and dominance in droves, and bricks-and-mortar sales still account for over 80% of commerce - you can’t knock the logic.

In recent tweaks to its Shopping ads, the search giant even said it was making it possible for advertisers to optimise ads based on in-store visits, and while it was vague on the process behind this revelation, a new Bloomberg report may have shed...

4 September 2018 | Advertising Technology

The new search trends eCommerce marketers should embrace

From search engine algorithm updates, to new technology permanently altering user behaviours, the search marketing landscape is constantly evolving.

These evolutions keep us on our toes and, for savvy marketers, present an opportunity to ensure their clients always have the edge over their competitors. Recently, the biggest disruptor to the industry has almost certainly been the advent of voice and visual search – changing SEO forever.

These new search technologies are...

13 August 2018 | Content Marketing