editor, Author at Mediastreet

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How to Make the Most of Your Public Relations

March 20, 2023 No Comments

By combining PR with branding, content creation, advertising campaigns and social media outreach, companies can generate marketing results and boost their business growth.

Public relations (PR) is essential to any successful strategic marketing plan, but is your business making the most of its PR efforts? An effective PR campaign not only delivers media coverage in your target publications. In addition, optimized PR feeds into all other analog and digital marketing efforts to help your business connect with its audiences, wherever they are.

Why PR is so powerful

Even in the age of digital marketing, public relations campaigns are based on pitching to the media. When just a few years ago, PR professionals focused on print and broadcast media only; they are now extending their efforts to include online-only publications and leading bloggers.

The goal is simple: PR professionals are working with journalists and other content creators to add credibility to the brand they are representing. Media coverage not only creates exposure for the brand. It also adds a layer of credibility and trust that exceeds what other elements of a brand’s marketing strategy can provide.

According to the Institute for PR, audiences consider so-called earned media to be more credible than other sources of information. This credibility is critical to brand development, whether you want to build brand awareness or establish thought leadership in your field. Earned media is the result of effective PR.

The importance of PR is reflected in the industry’s continued growth. PR revenue is expected to grow worldwide from $88 billion in 2020 to $129 billion in 2025. PR agencies in the United States generated $14.5 billion in revenue in 2020. PR grew during the pandemic when advertising and the marketing industry as a whole contracted.

How to optimize the outcome of PR campaigns

To optimize the results of PR campaigns and maximize the benefits of public relations for a brand, marketing and PR professionals need to recognize the strengths of PR. Although online and offline news coverage can support a brand in the short and the long term, PR thrives over time. In addition, PR campaigns have more impact when connected to other elements of a company’s marketing strategy.

Focusing on the long term

Establishing successful media relationships takes time. PR experts understand which publications are interested in covering which brands and consistently pitch relevant stories to their media contacts. They understand that not every journalist will pick up every press release or feature suggestion. Rather than blanket-emailing press releases, PR pros get to know the interests of the most relevant journalist and pitch stories that are likely to make the cut.

The effort of relationship-building and consistency pays off when a brand receives attention in local and regional media outlets, eventually even getting the attention of national media. Industry-specific publications can also offer a great starting point for PR campaigns.

PR is best used as a mid to long term component of a brand’s marketing strategy. Allowing time to establish and nurture media relationships plays to the strengths of PR. Of course, there may be situations when immediate crisis communications are critical to protecting a brand’s reputation. But in most cases, PR excels as part of a long-term strategy.

Combining the strengths of PR with other marketing activities

Despite its undoubted strengths, PR alone is not enough to achieve all of a company’s business goals. Expecting a single PR campaign to increase credibility, drive web traffic, establish thought leadership within an industry and drive foot traffic to local branches is unrealistic.

Saying that, once marketing teams combine PR efforts with other strategic marketing activities, they will soon see the desired results. Combined with consistent brand messaging, for example, PR can improve brand perception among audiences.

While public relations does not necessarily result in immediate sales, stories pitched to the media can effectively educate the public about specific products and services. Many online publications are happy to link to a company’s website, thus helping search engine optimization (SEO) and local search rankings.

How PR, paid advertising and social media work together

Where PR is ideal for improving a brand’s image in the long term and connecting with audiences through a third party, paid advertising offers short-term, data-driven opportunities.

A strategically planned program of paid adverts can immediately increase brand or product exposure. Since the advent of digital marketing channels, it has become easier to reach highly targeted audiences, increasing the effectiveness of campaigns. Real-time campaign performance data allows marketers to iterate messaging and campaign design on the spot, further improving the effectiveness of their approach.

High-quality visual content, including images and videos, can be compelling in local newspapers, broadcast outlets and online channels. By streamlining advertising and PR messages, paid and earned media start working hand in hand to reach users of publications they already enjoy and, more importantly, trust.

Social media has been another fairly recent addition to a marketing team’s choice of channels where they connect with their audiences. Like traditional media, social media offers a range of opportunities, including paid, earned and owned coverage.

While earned coverage continues to come with the highest level of credibility even on social media, a company’s owned media channels offer another opportunity to share the results of PR efforts. By sharing stories that have been published about the brand, marketers are allowing the third-party credibility of those stories to reflect on the brand.

Existing followers will feel reassured in their choice of brand followership, and sharing stories from credible sources may catch the interest of new potential audiences.

Bringing it all together

Successful marketing relies on a solid strategy that joins the strengths of PR and other marketing activities. Combining PR with the power of branding, content creation, advertising campaigns, and social media outreach allows companies to generate the marketing results and overall business growth they are looking for. On its own, PR is powerful, but in combination with other marketing activities, public relations become unbeatable.

By Jessica Wong

Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor

Founder & CEO of both Valux Digital and uPro Digital. Jessica Wong is the Founder and CEO of both Valux Digital and uPro Digital. She is a digital marketing and PR expert with more than 20 years of success driving bottom-line results for clients through innovative marketing programs aligned with emerging strategies.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Content to commerce: how D2C brands can wean themselves off Amazon

March 20, 2023 No Comments

By Ken Leaver

The content-to-commerce strategy for ecommerce businesses is a relatively recent model, but I see it shaking up the industry in a big way.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses that lean heavily on fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) aggregators, in particular, could benefit big time from the model. Let me explain why.

How does it work?

The idea with this new model is that you own both access to the customers – i.e. the content – and the products to monetize it.

In typical D2C ecommerce, you own some brands that you sell on a combination of platforms, such as your own site, social channels and marketplaces. FBA aggregators like Branded and Thrasio are highly dependent on marketplaces.

Typically, though, their longer-term goal is to increase the ratio of products sold on their own channels and reduce reliance on Amazon. However, it’s difficult to do this profitably because customer acquisition costs (CAC) are too high with direct acquisition marketing.

Part of the problem is how these companies don’t have this kind of competency, so they need to learn it. D2C companies typically need to drive CAC down by getting better at content marketing and social media as well as building a community of users, among other skills.

With the content-to-commerce model, they solve this from the beginning by owning the customer channel/communities – media assets, access to influencers, and more – from the jump.

The Good Glamm Group

The Good Glamm Group is one of the first large content-to-commerce companies and is considered a pioneer by many in the industry. The firm has raised more than US$250 million to date and its last valuation was over US$1 billion.

Darpan Sanghvi founded the company – then known as a D2C business called MyGlamm – in 2017. But its CAC was too high, so the company experimented with content and acquired POPxo, an influencer marketing platform, in 2020.

The Good Glamm Group is structured into three core units:

Good Brands: Includes D2C beauty and personal care brands like MyGlamm, Organic Harvest, etc.
Good Media: Includes digital media brands that generate more than 4 billion monthly impressions and have over 2 million unique users
Good Creator Co: Includes influencer platform with more than 250,000 creators

In the past couple of years, the company has acquired 12 brands, which I believe puts it close to the aggregator model. The synergies and scale advantages that it aims to give to these brands are almost identical to the approach of aggregator firms.

Photo credit: Good Glamm Group

Good Glamm has also acquired digital media firms like Tweak Media, which has 6 million monthly active users and 15 million monthly impressions. It is now part of Good Media, joining other media assets in the group such as ScoopWhoop.

Form communities via content

Half a year ago, I came to the conclusion that D2C ecommerce brands should begin with content/community first. It means they should use content to build a community of followers via social media and then build brands that would resonate with their followers.

Why? Because this addresses the high CAC problems companies face later when using paid channels. It also prevents overreliance on marketplaces.

Influencers and media assets have the opposite problem. They have users and impressions, but the channels that they have to monetize – e.g. influencer platforms like Grin – often take a big cut. It makes sense for them to do away with an intermediary and deal directly with brands, particularly when they can collaborate with a specific set of brands.

Why aggregators will evolve toward this model

I’ve worked with two different FBA aggregators – Branded and Rainforest Life – over the past couple of years, so I have a decent sense of how they think and operate.

Their long-term goal is to build strong brands and a loyal community of users to wean themselves off the Amazon needle. As these FBA aggregators grow, they invest in more sophisticated marketing teams that can work with influencers and gain virality on social media.

But those efforts typically take time to improve, and they’ve already acquired a bunch of D2C brands with significant sales volumes in the meantime. Their content strategy is playing catch-up to make D2C channels such as Shopify and social selling more relevant than their Amazon sales.

This is why I think we’ll soon see large FBA aggregators like Thrasio move toward the content-to-commerce model in the coming years. It just makes too much sense.

Feature Image Credit: Amazon

By Ken Leaver

An American ex-strategy consultant that found himself in Lazada in 2014 and just loved the region so much he decided to stay. Now I call myself a ‘product guy’ and freelance while living in Bangkok.

Sourced from TechInAsia

In News

Netflix has a new look (and it’s delightfully different)

March 16, 2023 No Comments

By Daniel Piper

Leaning into the language of cinema.

It can sometimes feel like big brands all are all working from the same design playbook. There was a time not so long ago when pretty much every brand used the same gangly-armed cartoon people (a style officially known as ‘Corporate Memphis’). So it’s refreshing that Netflix’s latest visual identity steers clear of tech’s obsession with one-dimensional vectors in favour of something much more cinematic.

The brand has unveiled a set of new iconography designed by Koto Studios, and not only does it lean in to the brand’s existing colour scheme, but it’s also just plain fun. (Looking for more design inspiration? Check out our roundup of the best logos of all time.)

Netflix illustrations — (Image credit: Koto Studio)

Koto (opens in new tab) says it was tasked to inject the language of cinema into the Netflix product experience. “We evolved their previous system by connecting iconography, typography, and illustration to roots within the cinematic universe, referencing effects and techniques reminiscent of the film-making process—in a way that feels immediately Netflix.”

Netflix icons — The new illustrations are delightful (Image credit: Koto Studio)

At the centre of the new visual language is a series of illustrations depicting (often surreal) objects in a delightfully vapour wave palette of purples and reds. Compared with all that Corporate Memphis (opens in new tab), this looks positively cutting-edge, even though the aesthetic is deliberately retro.

“We steered clear of the over-saturated, over-done, one-dimensional approach to graphic language typical of the tech and streaming worlds,” Koto says, “by defining a style that speaks to film enthusiasts, and feels inherently Netflix while remaining true to their core values: pioneering, welcoming, and always stimulating.”

Web design — We’ve seen enough ‘Corporate Memphis’ over the last few years (Image credit: Mitchell Wakefield on Twitter)

Along with the illustrations, the new visual identity includes more varied sizes and weights of the company’s Netflix Sans typeface, designed to “remain legible in functional applications, and flex to bold, cinematic title cards, genre-specific, or thematic comms.”

It’s certainly refreshing to see a big tech brand opt for a different visual style. Much like Burberry’s latest rebrand, Netflix’s new look is both retro and futuristic at the same time.

Feature Image credit: Koto Studio

By Daniel Piper

Daniel Piper is Creative Bloq’s Senior News Editor. As the brand’s Apple authority, he covers all things Mac, iPhone, iPad and the rest. He also reports on the worlds of design, branding and tech. Daniel joined Future in 2020 (an eventful year, to say the least) after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more. Outside of Future, Daniel is a global poetry slam champion and has performed at festivals including Latitude, Bestival and more. He is the author of Arbitrary and Unnecessary: The Selected Works of Daniel Piper (Selected by Daniel Piper).

Sourced from Creative Bloq

In News

What Is Advertiser ID in Windows, and How Do You Turn It Off?

March 16, 2023 No Comments

By Matthew Wallaker

Not everyone likes the idea of handing over their data for advertising purposes. Here’s how to turn off advertiser ID on Windows.

It turns out that it’s getting harder to use your computer without anyone tracking your activity. And Windows plays its part in showing you “relevant” or “personalized” ads by using the Advertiser ID.

But what is Advertiser ID, how does it work, and how can you stop it from tracking your activity?

What Is Windows Advertiser ID?

Advertiser ID is a unique code, assigned by Windows for every user on a device. This way, Windows can show different ads for different people that log in on the same device.

When the feature is enabled, it works similarly to browser cookies, as advertising companies and app developers can use the ID to collect data and display personalized ads in the apps that you’re using. For example, location-based apps will access your location and show ads for nearby businesses.

Now, if you’ve decided to turn off advertiser ID, we’ll show you several methods you can use. Before going through the instructions below, check if your Windows account has administrative rights, so you can change your system settings.

1. Turn Off Advertiser ID During Windows Installation

You can turn off the Advertiser ID feature right from the start. When installing the Windows 11 operating system, Windows lets you choose your privacy settings. All you have to do is turn off the toggle for Advertiser ID.

Now, if you’ve missed the chance when setting up Windows 11, you can still turn it off using the methods below.

2. Turn Off Advertiser ID From Windows Settings

Windows 11 is big on privacy and allows you to adjust your settings to control your data easily. Here’s how you can disable the advertising ID feature:

Press Win + I to bring up Windows Settings.
From the left pane, select Privacy & security.
Head to Windows Permission and click General.
Turn off the toggle next to Let apps show me personalised ads by using my advertising ID.

Disable advertiser ID from Windows Settings

3. Turn Off Advertiser ID With Group Policy

Windows Group Policy is another tool that helps you manage your user and system configuration. Here’s how you can use it to disable advertiser ID:

In the Start menu search bar, search for group policy and select Run as administrator.
In the Group Policy window, head to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates> System > User Profile.
In the right pane, locate and open Turn off the advertising ID.
Select the Enabled option.
Click Apply > OK to save your system settings.
Restart your computer.

Turn off Advertiser ID trough Group Policy

4. Turn Off Advertiser ID With the Windows Registry

You can also edit the Windows Registry to turn off the advertiser ID.

In the Start menu search bar, search for registry editor and select Run as administrator.
In the Registry window, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > AdvertisingInfo.
In the right pane, open the Enabled key.
Set Value data to 0.
Click OK and restart your computer.

Turn off Advertiser ID through Windows Registry

If you’ve changed your mind and want Windows to show relevant ads again, go through the above steps again and set Value data to 1.

Does Windows Show Fewer Ads With Advertiser ID Turned Off?

Turning off the advertiser ID doesn’t stop Windows from displaying ads. According to Microsoft, disabling the advertiser ID doesn’t reduce the number of ads you’ll see, but it will make them less relevant to you.

Also, Windows will use the data to display ads on the apps you’ve downloaded from Microsoft Store. For any other apps, you should check their privacy settings and stop them from collecting data about you.

Stop Microsoft From Using Your Information

The truth is, you can’t make your activity invisible while using a device that’s connected to the internet. However, turning off Windows advertiser ID will help you protect your privacy.

Protecting your data isn’t as easy as you might think, but there are a few tools you can use to protect your online privacy, no matter which device you’re using.

By Matthew Wallaker

Sourced from MUO

In News

We ask marketers: how can brick-and-mortar retailers thrive in 2023?

March 16, 2023 No Comments

By Sam Anderson

While we’ve recently lost some high-street retail brands, many are still kicking. How are they surviving – and how will they flourish amid continuing permacrisis? We asked 7 commerce aces from The Drum Network.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was plenty of well-justified concern about the continued existence of brick-and-mortar retail. Since then, we’ve seen evolutions in the shapes of (and footfalls in) towns and cities; accelerated hybridizations like smart stores; and, despite an IRL bounce-back, continued shifts toward online retailers.

What are the features of this evolving environment that marketers should be paying the closest attention to? In the long run, is brick-and-mortar dead – or an indelible part of life? Read on for our experts’ answers.

Martin Ryan, vice president of retail, EPAM

Retailers must urgently adapt physical spaces to meet current and anticipated sales demand. This often involves a multi-year effort due to lease inflexibility.

The future will see the development of new store formats, heavily edited store assortments, and some closures. This includes fewer but bigger stores that mix product and experience; a proliferation of smaller stores in convenient locations; and, for some sectors, automated and cashier-less stores and collection points. The store mix will be designed to work on an omnichannel model.

Retailers will continue to experiment with live-stream shopping and remote advisory to ensure the attention of new customer demographics.

The shift from physical to less profitable online sales will cause retailers to scrutinize marketing spend that promotes these channels. They will seek compensating benefits, like retail media revenues. Understanding store conversion rates enable marketers to compare online and offline ROI and build a mix of advertising spend.

Retailers will adopt customer data platform projects, implementing technology to survive in a post-cookie world, where tiny signals from consumer devices and behaviour are processed by AI models to provide probabilistic knowledge about individuals.

Martin LeBlanc, architect & principal partner at Sid Lee Architecture

From a design perspective, brick-and-mortar retail spaces in 2023 need to centre excitement. What’s the incentive to visit? What sort of memories will be created? For Concepts in New York City, for example, we designed a VIP store-within-the-store to offer guests an experience that wouldn’t be possible online.

There are plenty of opportunities for retail spaces to be both reflective of and supportive of the communities they’re located in. This means the prioritization of accessibility but also the inclusion of elements that reflect the city and its people. Something as simple as integrating the work of a local artist goes a long way in cultivating a sense of connection, which is of course the goal when competing with the digital world.

Carly Johnson, vice president, group director of strategy (North America), Momentum Worldwide

Brick-and-mortar retail is in a strong position to not only survive the future but embody what shoppers have always loved about ‘retail therapy’. Looking at the facts alone, despite continued growth in online shopping, in-store still accounts for around 80% of purchases. This past year, brick-and-mortar retailers opened twice as many stores as they closed.

The volley between in-store and online has crystalized how shoppers want to shop. Hybridized shopping has become the sweet spot for most, leveraging the convenience and reach of online with the speed and experience of in-store. There’s a tremendous benefit to mastering this hybrid approach: educate and inspire shoppers online, then convert them in-store where it’s much harder to ‘leave their cart’.

The experience in physical retail cannot be underestimated. Emotion drives behaviour; brands and retailers must create experiences that illicit emotions first. Emotion AI is a form of artificial intelligence that marketers should be paying attention to; it allows us to better understand human emotion while shopping through text, speech and facial expressions. When done responsibly and thoughtfully, it can deliver a more personalized and tailored experience.

Kit Bienias, performance director, growth, Brave Bison

E-commerce plays an influential role in driving store footfall. Readily available reporting tools allow marketers to connect the dots between online and offline. And leading ad networks have released a slew of products designed to drive consumers in-store.

Marketers can propel their brick-and-mortar stores forward through pivoting marketing efforts and leveraging the right tools: ingesting store visit and sale data into ad platforms; rolling out local campaigns in search; and adjusting automated bidding strategies to optimize to omnichannel performance KPIs.

Marketers must recognize the importance of online adverting to influence consumers’ offline behaviour. The sooner you start connecting the dots, the sooner you’ll reinvigorate brick-and-mortar stores.

Chris Dowse, strategy director, Jaywing

It’s a funny time for brick-and-mortar stores. During the pandemic, there was a longing for the freedom of shopping in person – something we didn’t know we’d missed until it was taken away. However, as lockdowns become a distant memory and household budgets become squeezed by cost-of-living increases, expect to see physical retail dial up its experiential role and become more of a wrapper for ‘event’ or treat purchases to bring cheer among the economic gloom.

With the steady increase of workers returning to city centre offices, there’s value in the benefit and convenience of hybrid online and offline services such as in-store click and collect, rather than gambling on being at home for deliveries while on endless Teams calls. The brands that will thrive will be the ones who truly understand their value and the role they play in customers’ lives: convenience and reliability or indulgence and experience.

Becky Simms, founder and chief executive officer, Reflect Digital

The common thread in any commerce setting is the customer. Their needs and desires for a personal approach do not change depending on the setting; their need to feel valued and connected to a brand is constant.

Retailers need to double down efforts to know their customers and personalize experiences, whatever the setting. Thinking about how they can connect a customer journey with in-store tech and provide a rich, personalized experience based on data (that the customer understands they hold) is an exciting prospect. The much-loved loyalty card schemes from retailers like Boots and Tesco place those brands one step ahead. The key will be in the execution.

Holly Ford, head of consumer communications, Evoke Mind + Matter

Covid-19 changed the nature of retail, catapulting e-commerce forward faster than all expectations. In 2021, the UK high street experienced an average footfall decline of 38%. As consumers were forced online, retailers responded by doubling down on their online business and contracting their brick-and-mortar retail footprints.

Lockdown may be over, but the genie is out of the bottle. While certain demographics will always want a physical connection with their favourite retailers, the most successful brands will evolve to a ‘phygital’ approach, offering an optimized blend of experiential and e-commerce to drive equity, loyalty and long-term growth.

Feature Image Credit: Eric Muhr via Unsplash

By Sam Anderson

Sourced from The Drum

In News

The Global DEI Census 2023

March 15, 2023 No Comments

Sourced from the Association of Advertisers in Ireland

15 minutes to boost diversity, equity and inclusion in marketing

On March 15, the marketing industry will launch its 2023 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Census. This is a global, independent and 100% anonymous survey investigating people’s experience of working in our industry.
AAI are proud to champion this effort and we hope you can give it 15 minutes of your time, so that the census gets the largest, most robust participation possible.

The Census takes place between 15 March and 15 April and the survey can be filled in here.

Globally, the Census is conducted in collaboration with Adweek, Advertising Week, Campaign, Cannes Lions, Effies, GWI, Kantar, IAA, Voxcomm and WFA. In total, over 100 organisations across brands, agencies, media, tech are rallying behind this initiative.

In 2021, one in seven respondents told us they would consider leaving our industry due to a lack of diversity and inclusion. We are facing an unprecedented talent crisis. Together we hope to identify the problems where action can be taken to make our industry a better place for everyone.

Hearing your views will be a critical step to making our industry more diverse and inclusive.

You can fill out the survey here.

Sourced from the Association of Advertisers in Ireland

In News

Pepsi’s 7UP rebrand is rather gorgeous

March 15, 2023 No Comments

By Joseph Foley

Just check out that drop shadow.

Rebrands are so difficult to get right, but here’s one that was well worth the effort. 7Up has just revealed a new look, and it’s got things just right with a punchy, ‘UPlifting’ design.

The brand’s first big international revamp in seven years looks simple enough at first glance, and it certainly feels familiar. But the changes reinvigorate 7UP with fresh punchiness – and just check out those drop shadows (see our pick of the best branding books for more inspiration).

New 7UP branding compared to old 7UP branding — Down with the old, up with the new (Image credit: PepsiCo)

7UP, which belongs to Keurig-Dr. Pepper but is distributed by Pepsi internationally, is the main lemon-lime rival to Coca-Cola’s Sprite outside the US. In this punchy rebrand for use outside the US, obviously the signature green colour remains and the ‘up’ continues to demand attention in its red circle. But the colours have received a refresh, now better reflecting both the lemon and the lime both in the overall palette and the circular shapes resembling bubbles and citrus wedges.

New 7UP rebrand — The canny new 7UP branding (Image credit: PepsiCo)

Best of all, the huge drop shadow on the ‘7’ makes packaging and other pieces look a lot more exciting than before. It’s also possible to simplify the design for other uses without losing its depth. The objective, according to Pepsi, was to create a “bright and confident visual identity system that will echo across cultures, regions, and languages” and to generate “UPliftment”.

“UPliftment is a concept that resonates with people globally,” the company’s senior vice president and chief design officer says in the press release, adding that the new visual identity was inspired by the brand’s “creation of moments of UPliftment throughout its history” (sounds like the brief was more complex than the Coca-Cola design brief).

Just what is UPliftment exactly? I assume it’s the creation of feel-good moments, but the press release goes on to make a promise to bring comedy to people’s lives. “To celebrate its vibrant new look and distinctively zesty taste, 7UP will embody the universal language of comedy to bring moments of UPliftment to people’s lives in unexpected ways,” it says. A little mystifying, but I’m sure it will all make sense. The brand says it will roll out its first ‘consumer engagement platform’ in Spring 2023 to bring ‘unique experiences to people.’

The 7UP rebranding is being launched with the slogan ‘New Get Up, Same 7UP’, essentially a more clever way of the classic, ‘new look, same great taste’ kind of message. It does sometimes make you wonder why the rebrand if they have to explain to people that it’s just the same product, but I’m happy to admire the design. It’s one of the freshest rebrands we’ve seen yet this year, up there with the National Portrait Gallery rebrand and the new Burberry logo.

Feature Image credit: PepsiCo

By Joseph Foley

Sourced from Creative Bloq

In News

The conflict around conflict in agencyland

March 15, 2023 No Comments

By Calum Jaspan

In this outtake from The Weekend Mumbo newsletter, Mumbrella’s Calum Jaspan explores why ‘conflicts’ are still a sensitive topic, how one agency is finding a way around them, and if there is a path forward.

“One is fine. Two is a conflict. Three or more is a specialisation.” That line someone quipped to me this week resonated heavily.

“If I had just one of everything, I’d go broke.”

That one was said by advertising legend (and I think we can call him that in context) Harold Mitchell at Mumbrella360, 11 years ago.

Much to the malign of successful ad agency bosses, they are largely still limited to one client per sector, lest they become specialists and then close off other opportunities.

Many in adland complain that their industry is subject to an outdated system that few other industries are.

Examples often put forward are consulting, lawyers or investment bankers.

A quick google search will show you, for example, that EY’s clients in 2022 included AT&T, and Verizon; 21st Century Fox and Time Warner; Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook.

An agency CEO told me this week: “Consultants, auditors, and media owners all have access to competitive information and a load of details, but for some reason creative, media and earned agencies aren’t able to work across competitors. It’s a legacy that should evolve.

“If you don’t trust your agency but you do the media owners, consultants and auditors then there is a severe problem and you should review your agency partners.”

So why is there still so much conflict around conflict?

There are cases, such as a sector duopoly, where it makes sense to manage conflicts closely.

Take WPP and its forced exit from the Coles pitch last year as an example. Woolworths engaged WPP’s Hogarth, so naturally, they were out of the running.

“Not every client is Coles and Woolies though,” one senior marketer told me this week. “You have to be pragmatic,” they said, and not take a blanket view on things.

Would they engage an agency already working with a competitor? While they admitted it might make them uncomfortable, if the agency displayed effective ethical walls, they would be ok with it.

“You can’t contract your way into good work. Clients get the work they deserve.”

No sooner than I had heard that, I asked another marketer this week if they would be ok with their agency working with another brand in the same category.

“Fuck no!”

I suggested that ethical walls are common practice in many industries and some marketers believe they could work in this industry.

“That’s rubbish,” they responded. “Everyone talks, and you as a journalist should know that!

“How are they making sure there is no leakage?

“If there are businesses that are fine with that, ok. But the minute it fucks up, who are they going to blame?”

Speaking of leaks, while rare, they do happen. Just take the PwC Peter Collins leak that has led news this week.

There are examples, however, of brands being comfortable with their agencies working with competitors.

The Monkeys Melbourne found itself inside the Carlton United Breweries cellar door in 2020 after its client Asahi purchased the Australian beer conglomerate.

CUB then recently narrowed its roster down to two main agencies, Clemenger BBDO and The Monkeys (with a few sub brands being serviced by other agencies).

The Monkeys and Canadian Club have a successful partnership in the books

Its sister agency, The Monkeys Sydney, has helped build Beam Suntory-owned Canadian Club significant market share in recent years off the platform ‘Over beer?’.

Many clients would take issue with this. One agency (albeit separate offices, with separate teams), working on two clients in a fiercely competitive sector.

The Monkeys has flouted the unwritten rule, and that isn’t the only example.

It has been Entain Group’s (Ladbrokes and Neds) rostered creative agency for several years now, so it was a surprise when the Mark Green-headed Accenture Song was appointed as Tabcorp’s new creative and brand agency last month, splitting duties with Ogilvy as its customer agency.

I’m just going to dot the ‘i’ here and say The Monkeys is part of Accenture Song.

Entain’s chief marketing officer James Burnette told me a few weeks ago he has absolutely no issue with the new partnership, and that the brand and agency continue to be happily engaged with each other.

Moving forward?

An industry pundit who has written about this topic in the past suggested clients need to “stop being so sensitive” about conflicts.

With bottom lines to protect, it is hard to pass up business when it stares you in the face. How do agencies generally get around this? They create more agencies. Enter the ‘conflict agency’. Which of course no one really wants to admit it is – it’s a genuine agency that has seen a market opportunity. A very specific market opportunity.

That in itself is an issue. There are so many agencies. No wonder there is a talent crisis.

Holding groups previously sneezed out new agencies anytime they needed to retain a client or add one without having to deal with conflict.

“You have agencies spawned purely for the sake of this. But guess what, they (the client) always end up moving,” one industry source said.

Some have started packaging them back up, but then this naturally leads again to the problem you were trying to solve.

And it even works the other way. Some of Australia’s biggest brands including Optus, Telstra, IAG, Suncorp and the aforementioned CUB work with a roster of agencies, in what could be perceived as an attempt to stash them away from their competitors.

IAG splits creative duties across several agency brands

With some sectors such as financial services now so varied, it seems silly that a brilliant agency is denied the opportunity to work with a new client due to conflict.

“There’s more of them than there are of us, so we need to figure this out,” another agency boss said of a conversation they had with a colleague.

So what is the solution?

One suggestion has been for an agency to license out a campaign to a client. This would promote longevity in brand platforms, reward better work and put up barriers within the scope of work it’s creating for a brand.

Charge for longevity, value and frequency, not hours and people.

And that’s exactly what you can expect to see from Huge, according to Mat Baxter, who has launched the agency locally.

“We want to show clients what you can get from buying a product, instead of people and hours,” he told Mumbrella.

Another option would be, as one pundit mentioned, for agencies to stand up for themselves and stop entertaining conflict as being an issue, or only accepting exclusivity with a client if it promises the same to them.

So maybe Accenture Song and The Monkeys are on to something, and the pitch to clients is that agencies can handle conflicts. But maybe it helps being backed by a company that specialises in them too.

By Calum Jaspan

Sourced from Mumbrella

In News

The Power Of Subject Matter Experts, The Limitations Of AI And The Future Of Digital Marketing

March 15, 2023 No Comments

By David Mahbub

As a marketer and tech enthusiast, in preparation for this article, I wanted to determine how well the popular ChatGPT program might be able to advise C-level executives and marketing teams on the importance of digital marketing.

First, I started with a simple order or request: “Write a 500-word article about the importance of digital marketing when scaling up your business.” In a matter of seconds, I got the article, went through it and started shaping out more specific attributes I considered valuable.

In round two, I added to the request: “The article should have at least three examples.”

Round three: “The audience is C-level decision makers.”

Round four: “Do not highlight x or y.”

After five rounds, I got something decent enough that I might share with readers.

The final article generated by the program was certainly fair and impressive in its insights, pointing out, for example, the rise of affordable marketing options through social media and email. The article also noted the valuable business insights derived from digital metrics such as web traffic and open email rates, among other KPIs teams could leverage. Finally, it summarized a couple of notable cases of companies whose success has been accredited to the strategic use of digital marketing.

I wanted to understand how this particular AI functionality might impact many digital levers in creating content. My key finding as I read these lines created by ChatGPT was that the content was accurate and interesting, but it still didn’t speak to the level of experience or authority of a true expert.

If I had written the article from scratch, I would have never published it the way it was written. So my main takeaway is that AI can be an excellent help for teams and brands to create content—but you need experts on the asking end. The quality of your product will always be strongly influenced by the quality of your creators and their expertise. And the second is that AI is not even close to transmitting the human essence of experience; it can generate good content, but not human content.

Here are three pieces of digital marketing advice my experiment with ChatGPT was not able to articulate.

1. Build a frictionless journey. Interconnect all touchpoints of your digital ecosystem. There is a big difference between multichannel and omnichannel. Do omnichannel strategies and be sure you understand the difference between them. Multichannel is about being present in many channels; omnichannel is putting them together and making sense.

2. Don’t think of digital as one world and physical as another; blend them as consumers do in their day to day.

3. Digital is much more than social and paid media. Ninety percent of my clients “believe” they are covered up because they have a team or set of agencies doing social and paid. Companies must evolve from this crazy idea into attribution and retention models where every source is aligned, measured and understood.

So, on the one hand, we may be able to “create” a 500+ word article in a matter of seconds—including the title—but with a lower level of quality for an in-depth topic based on my personal experience or any other human being.

My takeaway: AI will enable and impact content creation, making it very dynamic for brands and organizations, allowing us to pump in content. But when we talk about high-level knowledge and authoritative content, there is still much to learn from a human brain and experience. For now, at least, no AI seems poised to match a human rationale when it comes to expressing and sharing an opinion as a subject matter expert.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By David Mahbub

Marketing Model Creator. Expert in Strategic Brand Planning. MACH9 CEO Mexico. Speaker and board advisor. Read David Mahbub’s full executive profile here

Sourced from Forbes

In News

ClickMagick Review: Is It The Best Click Tracking Tool Around?

March 14, 2023 No Comments

By Emily Brookes

Whether you’re running ads for a product you sell, or using affiliate links in your blog content, knowing exactly which links are getting the most clicks—and, more importantly, which links are actually converting—is key to maximizing your ROI. ClickMagick is a link-tracking tool that accurately tracks clicks and conversions so that you can optimize your marketing and scale your business. In this ClickMagick review, we’re taking a deep dive into what makes ClickMagick stand out from other similar tools in the market, including its pros and cons, so that you can decide whether or not it’s right for you.

In a rush? Don’t worry! Here’s a quick TL;DR.

If you’re looking to increase your conversions, ClickMagick is a must-have tool. It gives you accurate click data on your ads and marketing campaigns to see what’s working and isn’t.

It works with all advertising and social media platforms; best of all, it’s super easy to use. This tool is a no-brainer if you want to increase ad ROI.

Get a Free 14-Day Trial of ClickMagick Here

Want to know more? Keep reading the full ClickMagick review for everything you need to know about this powerful tool.

ClickMagick Review

Ease of Use
Stability
Customer Service
Price

Summary

ClickMagick is one of the most user-friendly click-tracking tools around. It offers accurate data on all your tracked links, allowing you to optimize your ads and maximize your profits. ClickMagick offers a free 14-day trial, so you can test it out before making a decision.

Pros

Easy to use
Real-time mobile updates, notifications, and metrics
Tracks iOS users
Very reliable with little downtime
Integrates with Google ads
Cross-device tracking
Phone and offline sales tracking
Automatic bot filtering
Easy integration for Google Analytics and other SEO tools
Excellent customer support

Cons

There’s a learning curve at first
You’ll need to enter your card details for access to the free trial

ClickMagick Review: Key Features

Clickmagick review - screenshot of ClickMagick's homepage

ClickMagick enables you to easily monitor and optimize your campaigns’ performance by using accurate data to make the right decisions.

It basically helps you identify which ads are working well so you can double down on your efforts. More importantly, it also highlights any ads that aren’t working so that you can stop wasting time and money on them.

Here’s a closer look at the ClickMagick features on offer.

Link Tracking and attribution

Whatever line of business you’re in, if you’re looking to share links to make money, then having data surrounding them is essential.

It’s all well and good creating links you think people will want to click on, but everything becomes guesswork without the analytics to back this up.

ClickMagick offers a range of link management and link tracking features. This means that you can track your entire sales funnel and always be in control of exactly how your landing pages, blog posts, and sidebar adverts are performing.

ClickMagick can track:

Opt-ins
Sales
Items added to cart
Email clicks
Button clicks

And any other types of links you want to include in your content.

It can also track offline conversions. So even if your customer calls and makes a purchase over the phone, you know exactly which ad it was that converted them.

You can set up ClickMagick to track individual links or whole campaigns. This will give you access to a whole host of analytics and data that can help you tweak any advertising campaigns to ensure they’re working as well for you as possible.

Setting up a tracking link is easy. Once you’ve created an account, simply click ‘Create new link’ and fill in the details as directed. Here you can add tracking pixels, traffic cost (to help you calculate your net profit) and adjust your geotargeting preferences.

Screenshot of adding a tracking link with Clickmagick

Click fraud protection

If you’ve ever been the victim of click fraud or malicious bot traffic, you will know how frustrating it is.

The good news is that ClickMagick provides the tools you need to ensure that your campaigns work as efficiently as possible. This includes several features designed specifically to assist you with combating bot traffic and click fraud and monitoring traffic quality.

It uses self-learning AI to ignore and isolate 99.9% of bot traffic to ensure that it can’t generate fraudulent clicks. On top of this, Click Shield allows you to deal with any bots that slip through the net and anyone who may be clicking on your links for less than genuine reasons.

Ad optimization

ClickMagick’s ad optimization tools give you accurate real-time data for every ad you run.

You can view:

Clicks
Conversion rate
Profit
AOV
ROAS

And once you’ve got this data, you can use it to tweak your ads to optimize your conversion rates. You can also quickly turn off any ads that aren’t profitable and double down on the successful ones, maximizing your ROI from ads.

ClickMagick Review: Affiliate Marketing

ClickMagick has a range of affiliate tracking tools designed specifically to help affiliate marketers make more money from their links.

One of the best features is the Affiliate URL Builder, which enables you to create tracked affiliate links in seconds.

You must enter your affiliate link into the URL builder and the associated affiliate network. You can then use the tracking link it generates within your content and ads, safely knowing that every conversion will be accurately tracked.

This is a game-changer for affiliate marketers, as it allows you to double down on the type of content producing the highest conversions.

You can even use ClickMagick to create dynamic affiliate links, so if you dislike the landing page for the affiliate product you are promoting, you can create a new landing page of your own and send traffic to that instead.

Another great feature ClickMagick includes is Postbacks, which is server-to-server tracking. This is undoubtedly the most accurate way to track affiliate conversions and can give you a huge edge over your competitors.

Who is ClickMagick Best For?

ClickMagick’s click-tracking software is suitable for anyone looking to optimize their conversions online.

This includes:

E-commerce business owners
Service providers
Affiliate marketers
Lead generation experts

With the ability to track entire sales funnels through the ClickMagick dashboard, it really is suitable for online marketers at all stages of their journey.

Is ClickMagick Easy to Use?

Yes, overall, ClickMagick is refreshingly easy to use. Most users agree that it isn’t hard to get to grips with because a lot of what it offers is so intuitive.

However, if you are struggling, then ClickMagick has a comprehensive ‘Knowledgebase‘ on its website. Here, you will find a number of the common queries they have and detailed answers to them.

ClickMagick is also known for having a super helpful customer support team. So if you can’t find what you need in the knowledgebase, you can get in touch with a support team member who will guide you through what you need to do to solve your issue.

This is great news for anyone new to software of this nature because it means they can feel confident that they will be supported through the whole process.

That being said, just like any other software you use for the first time, there is a learning curve. However, it’s all about practice and getting to grips with what different features do.

ClickMagick Pros and Cons

Pros:

Easy to use
Real-time mobile updates, notifications, and metrics
Tracks iOS users
Very reliable with little downtime
- Integrates with Google ads
Cross-device tracking
- Phone and offline sales tracking

- Automatic bot filtering

- Easy integration for Google Analytics and other SEO tools

- Excellent customer support

Free 14-day trial

Cons:

- There’s a learning curve at first

You’ll need to enter your card details for access to the free trial

ClickMagick Pricing

ClickMagick Review: Screenshot of the pricing page

ClickMagick’s plans are generally based on how many clicks you want to track each month. However, each plan has slightly different features too.

The great news is that every plan has a 14-day free trial that you can take advantage of, so trying ClickMagick and ensuring it is the right option for you is easy.

Starter – $37/month. Up to 10,000 clicks per month, 1 team member, and one funnel tracking project across two customer tracking domains. Data is retained for six months. This plan includes basic online support.
Standard – $97/month. Up to 1000,000 clicks per month, 3 team members, and five funnel tracking projects across ten custom tracking domains. Data is retained for 12 months.
Pro – $197/month. Unlimited clicks, as well as unlimited team members and unlimited custom tracking domains. Data is retained for 24 months.

You’ll need either the Standard or Pro plan if you want to access features such as:

Audience optimization
Mobile app
Cross-device tracking
Offline and phone sales tracking
Click Shield for PPC
Auto cost updates
Live chat and zoom/phone support

ClickMagick Review – The Verdict: Is it Worth The Money?

Overall, ClickMagick offers outstanding value for money. It’s easily one of the best (if not THE best) click-tracking tools around—primarily because of its accurate data, user-friendly interface, and super helpful support staff.

Although $97/month may seem like a lot for small businesses, if used properly, this software has the potential to skyrocket your conversions. So as long as your website is generating a good amount of traffic, to begin with, you should see a decent ROI pretty quickly.

Get a Free 14-day Trial of ClickMagick Here

ClickMagick Alternatives

Hopefully, this ClickMagick review has helped you decide whether or not ClickMagick is the tool for you. However, if you’re still undecided, you will be pleased to know that when it comes to link tracking software there are a couple of other good options to look at.

It’s always worth taking advantage of the free trials that most tools offer. That way, you can be confident that you have made the best choice for you and your business needs.

ClickMeter

ClickMeter is a popular link tracking tool that allows you to monitor all your links in one place. Similarly to the ClickMagick tracking software, you can generate tracking links in seconds to use in your ads and content and monitor them in real-time from your dashboard. It also includes an A/B split testing rotator on all plans.

It doesn’t have as many features as ClickMagick, and it’s not as user-friendly. However, it does offer excellent value for money, so it’s a great option for anyone on a budget.

Check out ClickMeter Here

Voluum

When it comes to tracking links, ClickMagick and Voluum are the two tools that are probably the most similar. Voluum is packed full of useful features, including a mobile app that is available on all plans. It has great team collaboration features and includes live support.

It is slightly more expensive than ClickMagick, but overall it’s a great choice for larger businesses.

By Emily Brookes

Sourced from Niche Pursuits