Influencer Marketing Archives - Page 8 of 10

In News

Why Facebook Video Ads Should Only be Just Six Seconds Long

March 12, 2018 No Comments

Facebook is now the most popular places that advertisers are putting their video ads, even beating YouTube.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Top marketers know that digital video is one of the most powerful tools to increase consumer engagement and brand loyalty. In fact, according to a new study from Clinch, brand marketers are ramping up their production of digital videos with an emphasis on creating campaigns specifically for Facebook and YouTube.

The study found that 78 percent of marketers plan to increase their production of video ads in 2018, while only 43 percent of marketers plan to increase their production of static banner ads this year.

Social is Video

When it comes to digital video campaigns, Facebook reigns supreme, representing 46 percent of all video ads produced. When adding Facebook-owned Instagram into the mix, this number leaps to 74 percent. YouTube comes in a close second at 41 percent.

Says Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch, “It’s no secret that Facebook and YouTube dominate the digital media landscape and we don’t expect this to slow down, particularly with the Facebook algorithm change which requires brands to pay in order to be seen. In 2018 brands will increase spend and leverage the rich data that these platforms provide. However, the data and platform are just two pieces of the puzzle. Creative is the critical third piece. If brands aren’t uniquely tailoring their creative specifically for each platform and by audience, opportunities will be missed and ROI will be lowered.”

Nearly three quarters of marketers are adopting online video from their TV commercials. 44 percent indicated that they don’t shorten commercials for each platform’s suggested length. While TV ads remain a critical source of video content, the user experience of each social platform is very different than traditional TV. For example, TV ads are 15 to 30 seconds long but Facebook and YouTube recommend six-second videos.

Etzioni continued, “We were really surprised to learn that marketers were taking a one size fits all approach to video. In 2018, marketers will awaken to the fact that investment in creative will increase ROI and personalisation at scale, and will become the norm for digital video as it has become for static ads.”

Defining Social Personalisation

While 50 percent of respondents say they personalise their video campaigns, brands can be doing a lot more. Those that are personalising their creatives based on data are seeing big results. Nearly 90 percent of respondents who have customised Facebook or YouTube video ads reported seeing benefits. Furthermore, 70 percent of those who customise said that they have seen improvements in their key performance indicators (KPIs).

According to Etzioni, in the next few months, the definition of personalisation will change. “Rather than creating a handful of versions – one for men, one for women, one for the East Coast and one for the West Coast, we expect brands to be using data insights to personalise at scale. This means hundreds if not thousands of versions of videos where the message and creative is tailored to their specific needs and interests. This will create a more meaningful experience for the consumer and transform video campaigns from simply brand awareness to direct response opportunities,”

The full report, “How Leading Brand Marketers are Using Personalised Video to Drive Sales,” is available for download here.

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In News

Influencer Marketing Trends for 2018

March 9, 2018 No Comments

By Dustin Briley

Influencer marketing was a huge trend in 2017, and it will continue to grow in the coming years. Instagram influencer marketing continues to be a popular choice. Other platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat have also created exciting new opportunities.

Each year, more companies are adopting this strategy into their marketing plans. As a result, best practices are evolving to keep up with the rapid growth. Here’s what you can expect in 2018 and beyond.

The Continued Rise of Influencer Marketing

The way we consume information continues to evolve. Television viewership and radio use have significantly declined. More internet users are also taking advantage of ad blocking software.

These trends require businesses to think outside the box. Google trends show that interest in print and video advertising is on the decline. At the same time, Instagram influencer marketing continues to grow in popularity.

Some Important Influencer Marketing Statistics

Still not sure influencer marketing is a trend that’s here to stay? Consider these statistics:

73% of companies have a budget allocation for influencer marketing
71% of consumers are more likely to buy a product seen on social media
70% of teen YouTube subscribers say they trust the opinion of influencers over celebrities

Companies of all sizes have embraced the effectiveness of Instagram influencer marketing. You can expect it to become a staple of the standard marketing plan over the next few years.

Focus on Micro-Influencers

Seasoned influencers with huge followings also come with a huge price tag. More companies are now interested in micro-influencers with less than 10,000 followers. This levels the playing field, making influencer marketing strategies available to smaller brands.

Micro-influencer success depends on personality, relevance, and reputation within a niche market. It creates an effect similar to a heartfelt recommendation from a close friend. Those who do it right can create a fierce sense of consumer loyalty and trust.

Companies with larger budgets may create relationships with 20 to 30 smaller influencers. This diversification offers a level of protection. Otherwise, a single influencer falling out of favor can destroy an entire campaign.

Importance of Personal Connections

Brands are starting to look beyond basic statistics like the number of followers. Instead, they’re focused on true user engagement.

The best influencers build legitimate personal connections with their audience. Authenticity and trustworthiness will continue to be the hottest commodities.

Successful influencers already have a passion for the brand they’re promoting. Authenticity isn’t a struggle because it already exists.

Higher Quality Video

Customers want to be a part of real experiences. This makes the use of live video one of the top trends for influencer marketing in 2018.

Equipment costs are also coming down. Influencers now have the ability to make high-quality professional-looking videos.

Don’t make the mistake, however, of thinking consumers want professionally scripted videos. Instead, content should continue to feel like honest recommendations from a trusted friend.

Continued Importance of Personal Branding

Social media influencers know the importance of branding themselves over the product they’re promoting. They will continue to focus on establishing personal credibility and building close relationships.

Most people turn to social media for personal connections. Influencers who resort to blatant advertising will soon find themselves unfriended or blocked.

Online media is present in almost every aspect of our lives. This means that almost every person has a brand whether they actively create one or not. Making the effort to mold your brand allows you to ensure it develops in a way that supports your goals.

Long-Term Relationships

Instagram influencer marketing will soon be all about long-term relationships. Individual posts, testimonials, or events may create a short-term boost in revenue. However, lasting relationships create far more effective results.

Expect companies to offer influencers exclusive contracts with longer terms. The goal will be to keep them from bouncing around.

This trend benefits influencers by allowing them to stay true to their recommendations. Constantly hopping from brand to brand hurts credibility and can damage reputations.

Increased Accountability

As more companies put influencers on the payroll, they’ll expect measurable results. A large social network is no longer enough.

Instagram influencer marketing relationships must increase the bottom line. Otherwise, companies will direct their marketing dollars elsewhere.

Monitoring technology helps gauge audience response and effectiveness of various campaigns. A quality software program can measure important factors including:

Social media reach
Number of mentions
Email alerts
Influencer score
Sentiment analysis

Both companies and influencers can benefit from tracking trends towards achieving measurable goals. This helps ensure all parties understand the effectiveness. It also gives you the ability to proactively make adjustments as needed.

Multichannel Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is no longer relegated only to Facebook and Instagram. In fact, it’s no longer exclusive to social media at all.

This trend is known as multichannel influencer marketing. It allows you to repurpose content and multiply outreach across platforms. The result is a significant increase in return on investment (ROI).

You can also post influencer content on your company website. You can further promote your influencer’s work by sending out press releases. There’s a chance that it may be picked up by TV or radio news channels, spreading your message even further.

Increased Demand for YouTube Marketers

More people are cutting the cord from cable. The result is that they’re exploring alternative digital entertainment options. YouTube is now one of the fastest-growing influencer marketing platforms.

Daily video blogs continue to rise in popularity. Keeping viewers engaged with fresh content will help lock in your audience.

YouTube is also the second largest internet search engine, after Google. This makes it an excellent platform for getting in front of new viewers. These viewers are often open to exploring new brand relationships.

Instagram Influencer Marketing Challenges

Instagram’s mysterious algorithm continues to pose challenges for influencer marketers. Recent changes came about with little explanation of the thought process behind them.

No one is completely sure exactly what factors help Instagram decide which posts to show. However, the following tips may help:

Improve engagement by adding hashtags
Post photos that are relevant to the niche you’re promoting
Encourage your followers to turn on post notifications
Post no more than twice a day to avoid over-saturation
Develop a consistent posting schedule

New artificial intelligence programs may also cause Instagram influencer marketing problems. These programs are designed to flag inappropriate or dangerous content. The problem is that they may cause non-threatening posts to be incorrectly blocked.

Expect some hiccups along the way as more safety measures are added to the platform.

Influencer Marketing for Building MLM Networks

Instagram influencer marketing strategies can help grow your multi-level marketing (MLM) business. It allows you to effectively promote your products and recruit new network prospects. You may choose to do this by hiring an influencer, or become one yourself.

How to Find the Perfect Influence Marketer for Your Brand

The best Instagram influence marketer is a thought-leader. He or she is a trusted voice in your particular niche or industry. Here are some tips to help you find the right person to be your brand advocate.

Find Your Target Network’s Preferred Platform

The most important step may be determining where your target network “hangs out.” In other words, which platform are they most likely to use? The influencer you choose should have a strong presence in this location.

Define Your Brand’s Image

Take the time to determine exactly what your brand is all about. Make sure your brand image is consistent and resonates with your target audience. Your chosen influencer must clearly understand your message to properly promote your brand.

Examine the Influencer’s Audience

Make sure the influencer’s audience coincides with the group you’re trying to target. If the demographics don’t match up, that particular influencer may not be right for you.

Analyze the Influencer’s Engagement

Check out your potential influencer’s social media platforms. He or she should have an active online presence and a decent number of followers. Make sure engaging content is consistently posted and followers are responding.

Provide Clear Goals and Objectives

Create a clear outline of your Instagram influencer marketing campaign objectives. Also, provide a framework for your overall message. Doing this ahead of time will give you an idea of whether you’ve chosen the right person for the job.

Allow Room for Creativity

It’s also important to give your influencer some room to breathe. Be careful not to be overly picky or bombard them with demands. If you do this, your influencers won’t be able to bring value through creativity.

Encourage Collaboration

As you grow more comfortable with influencers, their opinions should carry more weight. Encourage collaboration regarding the content of future Instagram influencer marketing campaigns.

Accepting feedback will help to create a more authentic brand message.

How to Create Your Own Instagram Influencer Marketing Campaign

If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you may find that the best advocate for your brand is you. Building your own Instagram influencer marketing requires you to create a sense of authority. You’ll have to give people a reason to follow you and to value your opinion.

Here’s how to get started with Instagram influencer marketing.

Decide on Your Social Media Platforms

Best practices dictate choosing two to four social media channels to cover. This may be influenced by your brand goals and the type of content you want to create.

If you’re visually oriented, Instagram influencer marketing may be best for you. Those who prefer video may be most comfortable on YouTube. If you want to use a variety of formats, Facebook is probably your best option.

Create Compelling Content

Writing posts on your own blog or third-party sites will help you build influence. If you prefer video format, do that instead. It’s the content you provide that really matters.

Covering breaking news and new trends helps to establish you as a thought-leader. It’s important to publish consistently so your name is in front of people in your niche on a regular basis.

Avoid Obsessive Pursuit of Perfection

When representing yourself, a desire for perfection is understandable. However, obsessive pursuit of perfection can be the enemy of progress. Know when to draw the line and decide that finished is better than flawless.

Build Your Community

Once your social media platforms are ready, it’s time to encourage new visitors. Explore similar groups, forums, and fan pages. Start introducing yourself and getting the word out about what you’re doing.

Check the rules for each page you visit, and share your content everywhere it’s allowed. The key to success here lies in taking a helpful approach. Avoid shameless self-promotion and instead simply share information that others may find helpful.

Connect with Other Influencers

Take the time to build legitimate friendships with influencers in your space. You can do this by finding common interests and other ways to connect.

Always be genuine in your interactions. Remember that popular influencers are usually quite busy. Don’t be surprised if you have to try several times before making a real connection.

Fake it Until You Make it

“Fake it Until You Make it” may be a cliche, but it’s also good advice for fledgling influencers. Have full confidence in your Instagram influencer marketing campaign. Before you know it, people will start listening and following you.

Instagram influencer marketing takes time. Continue to be patient and don’t give up until you succeed.

Are You Ready to Make 2018 Your Best Year Ever?

If you want to take your business to the next level, Instagram influencer marketing is just the beginning. You need a well-rounded strategy that covers all aspects of your business plan.

We’re here to help you jumpstart your 2018 network marketing efforts. Want to learn how? Sign up for a personal demo today.

Our program will teach you everything you need to know about getting organized, automating sales, saving time, and growing a network marketing team to make your business thrive

By Dustin Briley

Sourced from Yoobly

In News

Why data needs to play a bigger role in influencer marketing

March 7, 2018 No Comments

By Florencia Lujani

Influencer marketing is in a state of constant evolution, and has as many fanatics as brow-raising skeptics. But despite the critics, 2017 was definitely a year of growth; according a study by Klear, there were double the number of Instagram posts containing #ad compared to 2016. We Are Social’s Florencia Lujani argues that marketers need to get serious about bringing together data and influence.

With 39% of brands planning to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2018, marketers who were previously content with asking themselves “is this influencer right for my brand?”, will now face more challenges. This question alone cannot cover the current complexity of this area – we now need more data and sophisticated tools to help brands identify influencer expertise, score content and analyse target audiences more accurately.

What differentiates influencers?

There are three key areas that distinguish influencers. Their expertise and passion on a specific topic, the content they create every day and the community they were able to build.

When choosing an influencer, marketers should ask themselves these questions: does this influencer have the authority to communicate my message, does their content align with my brand’s, and do they have the right audience? It is virtually impossible to answer these key questions without data, and it is easy to over simplify things. Therefore, tools are absolutely necessary to navigate the market and make sure our influencer selection will be able to deliver business results.

From vanity metrics to authority analysis

First, the basics – how to identify the right influencer for your brand. Even though influencer identification platforms have been around for years, most of them still rely on vanity metrics from public data to establish someone’s “influence”. These aren’t particularly helpful – influence is rooted in authority and it’s not possible to define who has this by looking only at metrics like followers and engagement. The ability to analyse authority is what separates simple databases – which is what most agencies and brands currently use – from more advanced, sophisticated platforms. Without these, two influencers in the same category, with the same number of followers might be difficult to differentiate. It’s in these cases when we see decisions made without any particular reasoning behind them other than “I like this person more than the other one”.

This is the moment when having a tool to discover audience insights becomes crucial. These (such as DemographicsPro, Deep Social and Upfluence) provide better understanding not only of an audience’s age, location, gender and language, but also allow marketers to spot audience brand affinity, interests, most popular hashtags within that community and most mentioned brands. This information is useful both in the planning stage of a campaign or programme, and on the execution of a creative campaign, making the selection even easier because it’s backed by facts and figures.

Analyse content with scoring systems

After you’ve found an influencer with the right audience, it’s time to look at their output. As content creators first and foremost there’s significant differentiation through the personal touches they lend to their work. It’s useful for brands and agencies to try to convert influencer content into data using a scoring system to measure success and the effectiveness of their output (e.g. using a scale from one to ten). Developing a system to standardise this, with a mix of metrics such as quality of the content, production value, impact of messaging, clarity of brand messaging, can help marketers evaluate more easily and fairly.

Look for insightful, meaningful data

There is an evident need to combine all data sets to assess if an influencer is fit for a brand. The industry doesn’t need more tools acting as marketplaces for brands to connect with influencers and brief them in return for a few bucks, it needs tools to provide more insightful, meaningful data to facilitate better decisions. The influencer industry will only continue to mature when data starts playing a bigger, more fundamental role, as it does in other areas of marketing.

So next time you are torn between two influencers, you should lean towards the one that scores highly in the the three key areas: authority, content and community. No one ever said that working with influencers was easy, but at least using data will allow the industry to make better, more informed decisions.

By Florencia Lujani

Influencer Marketing Manager, We Are Social

Sourced from WARC

In News

5 Social Media Marketing Trends to Watch Out For in 2018

March 5, 2018 No Comments

Make sure to keep an eye out for these five social media marketing trends that are taking over the digital marketing world in the upcoming year.

Did you know that on an average, we scroll through at least 300 feet (90 meters) of content daily? Not every brand’s campaign grabs our attention. It is a difficult and competitive game, as brands are trying harder to grab our attention, while our attention span has been reduced to a mere eight seconds. Brand strategy in the coming years will try more than ever to connect with their audiences across a variety of social platforms. It becomes imperative that your campaign works, more so taking into account the speed of feed. We have curated a list of five trends that we believe will impact your social media strategy in 2018.

Adopt Chatbots

https://giphy.com/gifs/11FyVJOvLleR5S

Gone are the days when chatbots meant unresponsive, hilarious and outright ridiculous software. Today, chatbots can do a lot more than just solve customer issues or order pizza for you. Various studies state that 20% of business content could be machine generated by next year. When we teach machines how to create authentic and engaging stories, the potential for advertising and marketing will become multifold. Chatbots interact with the users and deliver the solutions that they are looking for at the speed of light. Bots are developing to become smarter and empathetic. This engagement feels personal, from the user’s perspective. Chatbots are definitely a must-try social media marketing strategy in 2018 for your business.

Momentary content makes for good engagement:

Snapchat was the early adopter of momentary content. Instagram and Facebook followed suit, owing to the huge popularity of Stories format in a short time. These content are ephemeral and disappear in 24 hours. Brands are creating a whole new digital marketing strategy for their momentary content marketing. Having your stories appear at the very top of your follower’s feed keeps your brand at the top of their mind. Many brands do a live story session with a subject matter expert. This helps the user look out for the brand more so as to not miss an informative session. Ephemeral content marketing strategy is something that you should try in 2018!

Augmented reality boom

Augmented reality blurs the line between reality and computer-generated content by enhancing what we see, and hear. The adoption of augmented reality on mobile phones is a quick and easy way for brands to reach their target audience. Many brands are taking their products right inside the homes of users through exclusive filters. IKEA has released an app called Place which allows users to preview how the furniture would look in their homes before they buy. As more people get warmed up to augmented reality, more people will start to feel like they are missing out on things and want to become a part of it. However, you would also have to check where your strategy fits. Make sure your AR adds value for the user and don’t simply create one for the sake of it.

Influencers are here to stay

Influencer marketing has grown so much over the last two years that the popularity has made it difficult to know whom to trust. Consumers expect genuine reviews from genuine influencers. Brands must seek to work with relevant influencers with industry background or knowledge. Viewers are already bored of seeing brands engage popular influencers who promote teeth whitening and a mobile phone app with the same vigor. In 2018, try and create worthwhile relationships with influencers and maintain them. Influencer marketing is going to become more authentic with brands moving to real experts instead of social influencers.

Make more videos

We are addicted to mobile phones, and we love our videos. In 2017, 90% of the most shared content on social media was in video format. If you are not using videos yet, you will have to quickly start using them and master the art of capturing the user’s attention in the first 3 seconds. Video is the quickest and the closest way you will come face to face with your target audience. As with everything, you need to have a clear strategy before creating a video. Taking advantage of Facebook Live and Instagram Live is also a smart strategy. Ensure that the video is of the highest quality and engaging. You will also have to consider making the best design and make sure to add subtitles to attract users when they are watching with sound off.

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In News

Retail Marketers Are Bullish Moving Into 2018

March 1, 2018 No Comments

Nearly 90% of retail marketers will increase marketing spend this year.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

RetailMeNot has released result of a study showing how retail marketers will expand their content, use their marketing spend and what they are planning in 2018 to better engage and convert consumers.

This year, 9 in 10 retailers will increase marketing spend, and marketers will spread their increased budget almost evenly among marketing channels such as social, mobile, brand and display. This move reflects the need to ensure that every customer is receiving information in the channel of their choice. Interestingly, 93% of mid-sized retailers (between US$500 million and US$1 billion in annual revenue) are increasing their budget compared to 86% of large retailers (more than $1 billion in annual revenue) indicating an increase.

“Retail marketers are no longer thinking in channel silos. They are approaching commerce holistically with an understanding that consumers are channel-agnostic,” said Marissa Tarleton, CMO, RetailMeNot. “Delivering an experience that meets the consumer in the moment across the shopping journey will be the pathway to success for brands.”

Tackling New Trends and Challenges

While trends like virtual reality are still an exciting frontier, most retail marketers have their sights set on more realistic forward-looking trends. More than half of retail marketers surveyed believe improving mobile web checkout capabilities (52%) and offering exclusive promotions for mobile app users (51%) will positively affect sales growth in 2018. Additionally, voice-assisted shopping is an area that 39% of retail marketers plan to implement, with many retailers hoping to capitalise on increased use of smart home systems and smart speakers.

About 50% of retailers indicated they will use multi-touch attribution in order to better monitor the quality of traffic from their advertising investments. Further, retailers will become more bullish on advertising fraud as they look to ensure that their marketing is reaching the highest quality audience. More than 6 in 10 retail marketers (63%) will increase their direct media buying in 2018 in order to better monitor the quality of their traffic from advertising investments.

Holistic Approach to Increasing Sales

Retail marketers are wisely embracing mobile as a conduit for sales both on the phone and in physical retail stores. Based on our survey, retail marketers believe mobile is the key priority for positively affecting sales growth, and 72% will use mobile marketing to drive in-store sales. Further, 82% will rely on mobile marketing to drive in-app sales.

As marketers look to increase revenue in the coming year, their team structures and channel approaches will evolve to become more cross-functional. In fact, 50% of retail marketers say that their mobile marketing team falls under digital marketing within their organisation, up from 41% in 2016.

Finally, promotions continue to be top-of-mind for driving sales. Most retailers (76%) plan to increase the amount of promotions they are offering in 2018, and 86% will partner with websites and apps that focus on deals, cash back and loyalty programs.

“The convergence between physical and digital shopping will blend even further this year,” said Tarleton. “As retail shifts continue, delivering seamless shopping experiences—be it in-store or online—are critical to success.”

RetailMeNot is a savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of offers to save money while they shop or dine out.

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In News

High Impact Digital Marketing Tips to Sell More

February 27, 2018 No Comments

If you have a sales event coming up, like the end-of-season sales, then here are the tips you need to know.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

The actual benefits of designing commercial strategies around events like America’s Black Friday or China’s Singles Day improve market platforms and strengthen the domestic economic market because it’s a great opportunity to encourage consumption and sales.

On Black Friday, for example, thousands of companies from different industries tag along with the commercial event and offer large discounts on their goods and services. However, competition is rife. An offer can lose its meaning when another company offers a better one, and what’s more, businesses must not only participate in Black Friday, but really know how to stand out and attract consumers.

So how do you as a marketer get your business to stand out?

Here are some tips from Adext. They deploy and optimise online advertising campaigns on Google, Facebook, Instagram and thousands of websites to increase the sales of SMEs that have limited resources for the activities.

1) Plan a strategy: It’s not enough to offer irresistible discounts on events like Black Friday… You need a promotion strategy with a clear action plan and execution dates. You must be clear on what discounts and incentives you’ll promote, how you’re going to put them across, the digital platforms you’ll use, who you’ll target, when and why. The what, how, where, when and why questions are key to developing any action plan. Come up with answers to them while always keeping the goal you want to achieve in mind. In this case, it’s sales.

2) Research your competition and make sure to offer something really attractive: You could offer a 10% discount, but if your main competitor offers 25%… You can imagine the outcome. If you want to take the lead, look at what they’re doing and ask yourself how you can beat their discount and/or add more value (without affecting your profit margins). You could give your prospects something of value like a gift for their loyalty, or an extra incentive for them to buy more. Also, don’t forget to let your imagination roam and build your offer or promotion around a creative concept.

3) Build Anticipation: Teaser campaigns are wonderful for building your target audience’s curiosity. Don’t reveal your discounts, offers or incentives too soon… Let your prospects discover what they are as anticipation builds. They should be interested and intrigued to find out what you’ll offer them on your sales event day. There are several examples of clever, catchy strategies where they invite their prospects to go to Snapchat to discover what the 10 star products reduced to €10 are.

4) Send your prospects emails: You can send a few emails before the big sales day (to build anticipation), and other reminders before the day arrives.

Here are three tips to make your email marketing campaign a success:

Make sure to add an attention-grabbing title or subject line to your email. An email subject line you see all the time, like “Check out our discounts!” will go unnoticed. But if you can entice the reader with something like “I don’t want to freak you out, but you’ll regret it if you don’t take advantage of this” will definitely pique their curiosity and make your open rates go up.
Once they open your email, there must be something of interest for them to look at and read… The body of the email must be pleasant to look at, and easy to read and scan. Use short paragraphs, bold letters, headlines, subtitles, vignettes, images, and of course: good copywriting.
Add a CTA (Call-To-Action), where you specify what you want the reader to do once they’ve read your email. For example, you might write: “Our discounted products will be available in store until we’re out of stock. We’ll be ready to serve you when you arrive” or “Buy your Christmas gifts NOW and make sure you don’t get burned in January”. This action-oriented copy should stand out on the page. And if you have an online store, add a link to it.

5) Take advantage of the power of social networks: There is no doubt that you need to be where consumers spend most of their time. Where’s that? In this digital world, it’s on social media. Join the conversation and interact with your audience. Include the most relevant hashtags (e.g. #Black Friday or #SinglesDay or #Summersales) on your posts, so that prospects looking for discounts and deals can easily find you.

6) Let digital advertising bring you the clients you need: Digital advertising no longer has to be complicated. And it can give you the results you’re hoping for. Adext is the first Artificial Intelligence platform in the digital advertising space that can automate the entire process of creating, managing and optimising your ad campaigns on Google, Facebook and Instagram.

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In News

Are you a Tourism Marketer? Here’s What Travellers are Hashtagging the Most

February 23, 2018 No Comments

If you are marketing anything in the tourism game, this is what you need to know.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

For those that are lucky enough to get away on holiday or go on an extended travel stint, we can predict what actvities you might be doing after a new study has been published by Hotels.com

The company have used a data-crunching bot to track what people are hashtagging the most on their sojourns. More than five million brags globally were analysed using a combination of Tweet data, Instagram posts and travel keywords and destinations mentioned on other social media. So here are the results.

Worldwide travellers are all about the culture: they enjoy musing around museums (300,000 brags), old-town charm (170,000 brags) and a spot of sunshine (130,000 brags), but they can also be found in floating restaurants, erotic museums and night markets.

TOP 10 GLOBAL THEMES

Museum
Rooftop bar
Old Town
Modern Art
Opera
Sunshine
Olympic Games
Cathedral
Gallery
Ballet

This travel bragging trend echoes the findings from the recent Hotels.com Mobile Travel Tracker report, which revealed that one in six travellers search social media before their trip to plan the photos they’ll take. And 56% of people surveyed admit to spending more than an hour a day on their smartphones while on holiday.

While travellers naturally brag about taking in the tourist hotspots and cultural offerings, more people than ever are sharing foodie ‘grams, shopping stories and luxe posts.

#Foodporn
You’re never more than an Insta-scroll away from #FoodPorn and the brag lists are brimming with culinary treats. Cakes in Stockholm and curry in Toronto spice up the brag lists, and New York steak and pizza both made the cut. Perhaps more surprisingly, enchiladas proved twice as popular as modern art in Mexico City, ice cream scooped 10% of all San Francisco brags and Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant in Hong Kong took second place in the Hong Kong chart with more than 20,000 brags.

Shop ’til you drop
Shopping is a must-do for most travellers. Those visiting Paris brag more about the Rue Vieille du Temple, famous for its boutiques, than Le Louvre! Other top shop-spots included Bal Harbour in Miami, the Harbour City mall in Hong Kong, vintage shops in Melbourne and the stylish Cecile Copenhagen fashion brand made the Danish capital’s top 10.

Five-star luxury
When travellers check into a posh, luxury hotel they naturally want the world to know. The stunning 5-star Ritz Carlton in San Francisco topped the city’s brag list, the Four Seasons in Singapore proved brag-worthy and the Park Hyatt came in at number one in Seoul – most likely for its awe-inspiring rooftop pool.

Scott Ludwig at Hotels.com said, “Bragging about your travel experiences on social media has become the norm – if you didn’t get social kudos out of it, it didn’t happen!”

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In News

Adweek Announces Its First Advisory Board, Featuring 24 Top Marketing, Media and Technology Executives

February 21, 2018 No Comments

Adweek has called in the big guns for a huge collaboration which could be an example of how the rest of us will work in the future.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Everyone in advertising knows Adweek, a bible for marketers. Adweek has published articles for the brand marketing ecosystem since 1979. Adweek’s coverage reaches an engaged audience of more than 6 million professionals across platforms including print, digital, events, podcasts, newsletters, social media and mobile apps.

Today, the publication announced the launch of the Adweek Advisory Board, made up of 24 of the most innovative and creative executives who are shaping the modern brand marketing ecosystem.

Adweek says they recognise the need to synthesise a diversity of opinions to maintain its position as a voice in the marketplace. “Our newly formed Advisory Board will provide us – and our audiences – with the thought leadership and expertise we all need to help navigate the complex and constantly shifting ecosystem of today’s marketing and media world,” said Adweek editorial director James Cooper. “Adweek’s ultimate goal each day is helping our readers stay ahead of the curve and do their jobs better.”

“I am excited to be partnering with Adweek and joining its Advisory Board,” said GE CMO Linda Boff. “With digital transformation built into our DNA, we are in an especially unique position to guide and advise Adweek and the business community it serves.”

The Advisory Board will meet regularly with Adweek’s senior editorial team at gatherings across the country to discuss the pressing issues of the day. Members will also be on hand to publish thought leadership columns, speak at Adweek events and provide Adweek with insight and analysis on an as-needed basis across all platforms.

“The times we operate in aren’t easy. The pressure to deliver is daunting for even the most experienced here,” said board member Colleen DeCourcy, chief creative officer for agency network Wieden + Kennedy. “When an organisation like Adweek consciously turns its efforts to developing our talent, I am all in. Collaboration feels like the thing we need right now. All boats rise with the tide.”

Adweek’s Advisory Board Members:

Marisa Thalberg, Global CMO, Taco Bell
Linda Boff, CMO, GE
Adrienne Lofton, SVP of Global Brand Management, Under Armour
Andrew Keller, Global Creative Director, Facebook Creative Shop
Cameron Clayton, GM of Watson Content and IoT, IBM
Jon Suarez-Davis, Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ben Lamm, CEO and Founder, Conversable and Hypergiant
Caroline Papadatos, SVP of Global Solutions, LoyaltyOne
Alicia Hatch, CMO, Deloitte Digital
Baiju Shah, Chief Strategy Officer, Accenture Interactive
Joel Stillerman, Chief Content Officer, Hulu
Colin Kinsella, CEO North America, Havas Media Group
Michelle Lee, Editor in Chief, Allure
Tiffany R. Warren, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer, Omnicom, and Founder and President, ADCOLOR
Susie Nam, COO, Droga5
David Sable, Global CEO, Y&R
Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Creative Officer, Wieden + Kennedy
Michael Dill, President and CEO, Match Marketing Group
Bonin Bough, Author and TV Host
Terrance Williams, CMO and President of Emerging Businesses, Nationwide
Kasha Cacy, CEO, UM U.S.
David Mondragon, CEO of Triton Automotive Group and Senior Partner, Motormindz
Linda Yaccarino, Chairman of Advertising and Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal
Nannette LaFond-Dufour, Global Chief Client Officer, McCann Worldgroup

To read further about Adweek’s Advisory Board initiative, click here

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In News

Good Branding Stops Your Customers From Switching, Not Good Deals

February 20, 2018 No Comments

Brand managers, get on it!

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Energy companies in the UK are using specific branding approaches instead of product innovation to keep customers, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

While previous research has tended to focus on pricing, this study looked at the branding strategies and personalities of the Big Six energy firms – British Gas, SSE, EDF Energy, E.ON UK, npower and Scottish Power. They wanted to find out whether increasing consumer loyalty results in reducing switching behaviour. The Big Six represent more than 90 per cent of all energy supplied in the UK consumer sector.

The researchers looked at the electricity market between 2013 – when the number of customers switching providers reached its lowest level – and 2015. And, the researchers did find that brand personality consistency over time is important.

Consistent brands (such as EDF Energy) performed better, and their customers decreased switching. This was compared to firms like npower and Scottish Energy, who had significantly changed their brand personality position or communicated inconsistently in this period.

Providers that had a significantly different brand personality position between marketing communication channels, such as their website and annual report, also had more switching than those that remained consistent. Interestingly, the majority of the brands studied were inconsistent on this measure.

Lead author Dr Richard Rutter says that this research demonstrates the long-term importance of corporate branding. “Brand personality does have an impact on customer retention. The Big Six energy providers recognise the power of brand identity when attempting to persuade consumers to switch providers. Rather than doing so simply on the basis of superior financial offers, they are increasingly looking to build a long-term brand personality with which consumers will identify.

“These organisations wish to be viewed as customer-focused and as offering a fair deal to consumers. There seem to be subtle but important differences in the ways that each company is choosing to communicate with its domestic audience and some are more effective than others.”

Concentrating on companies’ communication through their websites and annual reports, the researchers examined what brand personality dimensions – defined as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness – were communicated most strongly and how consistently each organisation communicated its brand between the website and annual report. They then assessed the organisation’s performance, measured by consumer loyalty or switching behaviour.

They found that brands communicating excitement more strongly, such as EDF Energy, had the lowest levels of switching. The findings also suggest an ideal brand personality for the UK energy sector: low to medium levels of sincerity and competence and high levels of excitement and ruggedness communicated through the website lead to better performance. The authors say the annual report should maintain this, but also communicate a higher level of competence.

Said co-author Prof Konstantinos Chalvatzis, “Under scrutiny from the public and politicians, the energy sector is changing rapidly. Branding within the energy sector has become increasingly important, as energy firms seek to attract and, importantly, retain customers.

“We find that certain energy brands, for example EDF Energy have communicated their personality consistently, while others, such as npower and British Gas, seem to have repositioned themselves. A strong brand personality alone is not enough to prevent consumer switching, rather, particular dimensions of personality are more favourable than others and the relevance of specific personality traits can change.”

The authors recommend that firms should not drastically change their branding each year. Brand managers should also consider how to increase the communication of excitement in relation to their brands without being inauthentic, and ensure that their brand is consistent over time and between different marketing media.

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In News

How to be heard over the noise in content marketing

February 20, 2018 No Comments

Posted by Impression

n the beginning, when online marketing was merely a twinkle in the eye of the internet, gaining online exposure for your brand was straightforward enough.

If you knew what you were doing, a little bit of social media and journalist outreach was an effective strategy to engage with your potential audience. However, as we witness an increase in audiences far and wide consuming the majority of news and content online, it’s fair to say that the landscape has grown up.

Today, social media, blogs and other news portals are oversaturated with content on content on content. It’s becoming increasingly hard to be heard as a brand. As large corporations clock on to the benefits of online marketing, they’re storming into the marketplace with gigantic marketing budgets, campaigns and agencies. Subsequently everything else is drowned out and gaining exposure online as small to medium sized business suddenly becomes impossible.

The content marketing revolution

“An abundance of content online means the quality is decreasing.” I have heard this so many times. I would disagree. Why do people assume scarcity equals value? What this actually means is that in order to stand out against the noise, marketers are having to create unique and remarkable content that is more targeted and relevant for its audience than ever. More content means more opportunities for better quality. It’s just harder to find, and create.

But how can we do this? Content marketing campaigns, of course. Over the last few years, we’ve seen an evolution of the news, whereby there’s a mix of creative campaigns frequenting the headlines in place of traditional media tactics. Whereas branded news and stories dominated the columns in the past, we’re now seeing a shift towards creative marketing campaigns across the news.

Coming from a more traditional PR background, I essentially see this as the digital version of the offline PR stunt. Some maverick somewhere decided that they’d take the principles of PR – coming up with something compelling that will gain virality – and they executed it online. The difference is that digital presents the opportunity to be even more interactive with its audience, leading to additional marketing tactics, data capture and surveys, for example.

Spice it up with an influencer

As more marketeers catch wind of this, it’s almost become to go-to and we’re dealing with the same content oversaturation problem again. Therefore, in order to run a successful and effective content marketing campaign, we need to implement some sneaky alternative tactics.

You may be experts in what you do, but your audience won’t necessarily know that. Let’s be honest, the likelihood is that your brand doesn’t currently hold enough weight on it’s own, causing your content marketing efforts to flop. You need additional authority, and that’s where using influencers comes in.

Start by reaching out to other higher profile businesses in relevant industries to see if they’d provide comment. This may sound like a difficult task, yet you’d be surprised. Business leaders generally support positive exposure for themselves as individuals as well as their brand, and will be more than happy to comply, seasoning your piece with that essential authority.

It’s easier than you think to reach out to high profile experts via public or decentralised social media platforms such as Reddit or Twitter. Gaining comments from experts in their field in this manner not only helps add the weight to gain exposure, but also aids in the share potential, as these influencers have a huge audience on social media.

Top Hopics

A easy way to ensure that people are going to talk about your topic is to make sure people are already talking about your topic. How? Before you start a content marketing campaign that’s relevant to your industry, think whether there are any ongoing controversial conversations, current trends or hot topics that you can piggyback to support your idea.

Sometimes this can be something as simple as national holidays, such as Christmas, Hanukkah or May the Fourth. On that note, pop media such as films and TV series’ gain a load of exposure during the times they are released and broadcast, so try to leech off that coverage as well.

A content marketing piece that is focused around current trends means outreach will also be easier, as you’ll already have a list of media and news outlets that are speaking about your topic ready to outreach with your content marketing piece.

Where shall I begin?

Tapping into influencers and trends is an opportunity to be creative. Sure, go ahead and try a combination of the above, but don’t be afraid of trying something totally off-piste.

One of the beauties of being a content marketer in a time of such an abundance of content is that it means there’s so many fantastic examples of successful creative pieces online already. Don’t just blindly carbon copy, but note the tactics used within these and don’t be afraid of taking inspiration from other ideas.

Reading industry relevant blogs, and using ideation tools such Buzzsumo and ‘Answer the public’ is recommended to get an idea of what already exists around certain topic areas.

I understand if you’re still wary of creating content that has had parallels to content that already has been covered. But don’t always try to be entirely novel in everything you do. Look at Wordsworth or Van Gogh; the best ideas come from inspiration from others, and there’s no reason why this can’t transfer into digital marketing too. I firmly believe that if something has had traction before then a new and innovative slant on, it will be picked up again.

Create something amazing that doesn’t shout louder over the noise, but is heard simply as it whispers it’s relevancy, as a unique and remarkable piece of content marketing.

By Jess Hawkes, Digital PR Specialist

Posted by Impression

Sourced from THEDRUM