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5 Podcasts That Marketers Should Pay Attention To

March 6, 2018 No Comments

By John Hall.

According to the IAB Podcast Advertising Revenue Study conducted by PwC, podcasting is growing. Why? Because it offers a more personal and authentic way to engage audiences and is tailor-made for the modern listener who is on the go and eager to learn.

If you’re like the average American, you probably spend just under 4 hours each day consuming audio, and there’s a 50 percent chance you’re a fan of at least one podcast already.

With this kind of growth comes plenty of opportunity to learn and enjoy content, but it doesn’t come without a little bit of chaos. It seems like people launch new podcasts every day. How can you pick the right one for you?

That depends on what you want to learn and who you want to learn from, whether it’s the podcast host who offers inspiration or the guest who shares his or her stories, lessons, and advice.

With marketing trends consistently reshaping the landscape and growing demands for marketing leaders to be both subject matter experts and experts in leadership, CMOs and other marketing professionals are in a unique position. They need the right blend of tactical marketing advice and inspirational leadership guidance to help them do their best work.

There’s a podcast for basically everything now, but it’s important to find the right ones and create a playlist that will help you develop the top skills you need to be a successful marketer. Here are five podcasts you might want to tune into:

1. For experience, listen to “CMO Moves” with Nadine Dietz.

Recently released, this podcast promises to be a good one for everyone’s playlist. With an impressive roster of CMOs from GE, Spotify, HP, Target, Walmart, Mastercard, Verizon, and more, there’s no shortage of expert advice for marketers at any stage of their career.

What makes this podcast especially unique is its format — unscripted and authentic. It’s all about the real people behind the success, who share their failures, advice, inspirations, and personal stories of how they got to lead some of the world’s biggest brands.

2. For inspiration, listen to “TED Talks Daily” by TED.

This podcast is the audio version of the world-famous TED Talks series, and it’s packed full of inspiration and stories on a wide range of topics, from AI to healthcare to the environment to animal science and literally everything in between. If you’ve ever watched a TED Talk and wanted a way to listen to the stories and ideas without having to sit in front of your screen, then add this to your playlist.

Sure, this isn’t a marketing-specific podcast. But the diversity in topics here is awesome and will help you think about new ideas and solutions that may never have occurred to you before.

3. For growth, listen to “How I Built This with Guy Raz” from NPR.

Ever wonder about the stories behind brands and organizations like BuzzFeed, Starbucks, Teach For America, or Lyft? This podcast explores the stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators on their journeys to building and growing their companies, and you get to hear it directly from the people themselves.

“How I Built This” discusses how ideas are transformed into successful companies. If you’re looking to start a new initiative or grow your current company, then this podcast is for you.

4. For media muscle, listen to “The GaryVee Audio Experience” with Gary Vaynerchuk.

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the best-known marketing influencers out there, and he’s notoriously no-BS. If you’re looking to dive deep into media trends, tactics, and solutions to up your marketing game, then this is a good start. “GaryVee” covers a diverse mix of topics, guests, and insights to help listeners learn more about all things marketing.

5. For innovation, listen to “CIO Network” by CIO Talk Network.

Marketing leaders don’t just work within their own departments. They have to work alongside other C-suite members and experts across the company, from sales to production to IT to client service and just about every other team.

Sometimes that requires getting out of your own marketing bubble and stepping into the shoes of others in your company, and “CIO Network” is one way to do that. It includes a broad array of great innovation podcasts that are geared toward the CIO but are also helpful to marketers in understanding and engaging other decision makers.

So, if you’re a marketing leader who’s looking for a simple, engaging way to learn a little bit and tap into a growing medium that spreads thought leadership, insight, and education, you should check out these podcasts.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By John Hall

CEO and co-founder, Influence & Co.@johnhall

Sourced from Inc.

In News

Majority of Travelers Use Review Sites Before Booking

March 2, 2018 No Comments

It’s all about the reviews, so make sure yours are good.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

More than three quarters of travellers use review sites such as Yelp and Trip Advisor to conduct research prior to booking services.

This is according to a survey conducted by The GO Group, an international ground transportation provider.

The respondents were asked about site usage for accommodations, activities, events and ground transportation.

When asked about use of sites for hotels and other accommodations, 13% of respondents said they always check sites; 31% said they do so frequently, 34% said sometimes and 22% said never.

Fifteen percent said they always check sites for reviews about tours and activities; 25% and 34% said they do so frequently and sometimes, respectively. The results for checking on attractions and venues were similar were about the same.

Fewer people use review sites for ground transportation. Only 10% percent said always they did so; 23% said frequently and 40% replied sometimes.

The survey also asked how many people post on review sites. Just three percent said they always posted on the sites, nine percent do so frequently; 40% post sometimes and 26 % responded they have never posted on a review site.

“In addition to or even in lieu of obtaining information and referrals from close friends and family, more people are opting to use content generated by strangers as a guide for booking travel experiences, says John McCarthy, president, GO Group. “As reliance on online review sites continues to grow, it behooves all of us in the travel-related industries industry to regularly review and respond to posts, and monitor them for potential customer services issues.”

The GO Group LLC is the nation’s largest airport transportation provider, offering shared rides, private vehicles, sedans, charters and tours, serving some 90 airports in North America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe and transporting more than 13 million passengers per year.

This study shows just how much babysitting and care you need to put into your online reviews. Like you don’t already have enough to do!

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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

Influencers are Earning Billions in the New Creative Economy

February 26, 2018 No Comments

The new study highlights that the huge economic impact is just “tip of the iceberg” with independent creators.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

So here it is, another study from the USA about the power of the new economy. While it doesn’t feature what Europeans are doing, we can use the information to see just how fast the new creative economy is moving. Put it this way: that horse has bolted.

The new report released by the Re:Create Coalition finds that 14.8 million independent, American creators earned a baseline of almost $6 billion from posting their music, videos, art, crafts and other works online in 2016. The research is only a snapshot of the entire New Creative Economy, analysing just some of the biggest online platforms: Amazon Publishing, eBay, Etsy, Instagram, Shapeways, Tumblr, Twitch, WordPress and YouTube.

Despite the study being conducted in the USA, YouTube’s top earner is British. Daniel Middleton (DanTDM) brought in $16.5 million in 2017 alone. 26-year-old Dan, otherwise known as TheDiamondMinecart, posts daily reviews and gameplay videos plus some other silliness that kids love.

“Before the internet, a creator was forced to rely on traditional gatekeepers like movie studios and the recording industry to be successful. Today, anyone with a creative idea and a wifi signal can be successful and make money on the internet, reaching millions of people around the globe almost instantly,” said Re:Create Executive Director Joshua Lamel. “This analysis is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding the full economic impact of the New Creative Economy. However, its findings demonstrate that millions of Americans rely on the balanced copyright policies that support internet platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Etsy in order to earn billions of dollars from their creative work.”

Selena Gomez is the number one person on Instagram, with close to 70 million followers, more than any other celebrity.

Said study author Dr. Robert Shapiro, “The development of this multi-million user network and multi-billion dollar ecosystem for independent new creators reflects the power of the internet. Even with these highly conservative estimates, this study demonstrates the economic power of the new creative economy and its enormous potential for continued growth.”

For each platform, only a single component of how users can earn income was studied, due to limited public data and insufficient information. Independent creators earn billions of dollars each year online through website ads, sponsorship/influencer compensation, social media traffic, direct sales and other methods, but this study analysed only one revenue-sharing model per platform.

For the full report is here.

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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

Advertising in Fashion Magazines is Dead to us Now

February 19, 2018 No Comments

Now? Fashion brands are meeting with social media influencers directly.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Hundreds of NY Fashion Week influencers were invited to a party specifically held to put them in front of brands that want some of the spotlight. The party was held by a company called Influence, which connects brands and influencers. Together, they create social campaigns that expand visibility and engage new audiences for brands. The influencer gets paid, and the brands get to reach audiences that they might not be able to access using other methods. Welcome to the “now” of fashion and brand marketing.

Influence is a sister company to the already-successful operation called Newswire. Newswire currently have an online portal that publishes thousands of press releases every day. Journalists and influencers can go straight to company news, by keyword or subject search. This means that they can get their news directly from the companies, rather than have the interaction brokered through a PR agency. This renders the traditional PR agency almost obsolete.

The way the PR industry is changing is similar to the way that fashion magazines are going. Teen magazines and fashion publications are no longer the huge, powerful entities that brokered deals between brands/fashion houses and their audiences. Now, it is the online fashion influencers who have huge sway with their fans, and brands can contact them directly. This circumvents the hugely expensive fashion magazines, whose circulations are falling dramatically.

As an example, a top YouTube fashion influencer is Chriselle Lim. Her channel is growing at a breakneck pace. Her videos reveal how to transform basic pieces of clothing into stylish apparel. Chriselle has support from global brands such as Target and Estee Lauder.

The change in the way brands and fashion are marketed has been incredibly rapid. Fashion magazines? Pah. Now Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are the place to put brand marketing spend.

But back to the party. The event hosted hundreds of NY Fashion Week Influencers at Manhattan’s chic Sixty Soho Hotel. Influencers and brands from across the globe arrived to share in networking and developing opportunities for campaign partnerships that strengthen an Influencer’s channel and widen content reach for brands. The party was also used to promote Influence.com itself. And it worked, because here you are, reading about this new company.

Said Director of Influencer Marketing, Magnolia Sevenler, “Whether you are an influencer or marketer, the Influence by Newswire platform provides a community to build your campaigns.”

According to Sevenler, the platform has been well-received from both marketers and creators for its simplicity and reach. “It’s exciting to see all the positive feedback…as we enter a new era of marketing, where micro-influencers can be rewarded for their passions and brands can reach new untapped audiences.”

The company has plans to expand its network and add additional features to enhance users’ experience. And it is doing this all because the fashion magazine industry is destined for a papery grave. It’s time to move on, people, and bring your marketing spend with you.

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In News

Millennials Are Not All Alike (And They May Surprise You!)

February 9, 2018 No Comments

New research studying the millennials market has identified five unique subgroups.

A new research study from Zeldis Research Associates reveals surprising findings for marketers which belie the frequent mythology that Millennials are “all the same.”

Unlike many other market studies attempting to better understand Millennials as a single group, Zeldis researchers identified five Millennial segments based on income, attitudes, and other important factors. This “Seen One Millennial and You Haven’t Seen Them All” study is part of Zeldis’ ongoing investigation into how marketers can better reach and successfully engage this group.

“Despite a lot of the media coverage we hear, Millennials are not one homogenous group, unfortunately and incorrectly characterised by a few negative stereotypes such as lazy or entitled,” said Zeldis Executive Vice President Amy Rey. “Our research shows that there are important differences among Millennials. We wanted to dispel some of the myths and help marketers better understand the nuances that will help make Millennial-targeted outreach, products and messaging more effective.”

Five Identifiable Segments

Based on online interviews with 1000 Millennials aged 21-36, the Zeldis researchers identified five unique segments: Faithful Optimists (31% of the sample), Struggling Parents (23%), Secular Activists (22%) Tech-Savvy Independents (14%), and Pessimistic Conservatives (10%). Some of their findings include:

– Faithful Optimists, the largest segment, tend to be joyful, hardworking, dependable, and religious. They are more likely to be non-white and heterosexual.

– Struggling Parents tend to be pessimistic about their lives and about the country. They don’t pay much attention to politics or technology. They are more likely to be white women with children and tend to be less educated and from rural areas.

– Secular Activists are more likely to be politically liberal, and to be pessimistic about the country’s future. They tend to be single, childless, and secular and are more likely to be part of the LGBT community.

-Tech-Savvy Independents are more politically conservative but also environmentally conscious. Optimistic about the economy, this segment has a higher proportion of males and non-whites, and tends to be from urban locations.

– Pessimistic Conservatives, the smallest segment, are likely to be from suburban areas. They tend to be religious and politically conservative. Skewing male and non-white, they have high incomes but are pessimistic about their economic future.

Though holding some attitudes and beliefs in common with other segments, each group showed nuanced differences that the Zeldis researchers believe are important for companies to understand and apply when marketing their products.

The full results are available at ZeldisMillennialsStudy.com.

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In News

Content Marketing 2018: The Only Way Going Forward For New Age Marketers

February 5, 2018 No Comments

By RP Singh .

Content will be the new currency for marketers going forward if they have to survive in this huge marketplace.

Seth Godin says, “Content marketing is the only marketing left” and I am a firm believer of this statement. The way entire marketing ecosystem has evolved on last 3-4 years, there are some brave decisions required from marketers to survive the next few years. There are multiple reasons supporting the rise of content marketing, I have tried to classify them as Hard & Soft Factors, both equally important in their own right.

Hard Factors

Ad blocking
India is one of the leading countries when it comes to adoption of ad blockers. According to some reports, almost one third of users today have ad blockers installed on their devices. You will agree that these are evolved set of users, always a priority on marketers list to target. So, if they are watching ads, where do you go from here. You serve them content. Content that is useful. Useful can further be defined as Entertaining, Educational, Motivational, Relevant etc. Ad blocking is a global phenomenon today and doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

Reducing ad response rates
Forget ad blockers for a moment. Just compare performance of your advertising today with that of 3 years back. Is it generating same amount of response? The clutter is even more, users have more choices of consuming media which leads to lower performing advertising activities. The newer generations are not interested in advertising, period. The only way to get them along is to provide them with something they care about, something they like, something they consume. Everything that goes to a consumer apart from core product or service can be content marketing opportunity for brands.

Mass targeting is a thing of past
Are you still targeting consumers like Males, 18-35, living in a Metro? No, right? You would rather segment your users beyond demographics. And today, technology allows you to know much about them. So, when you target them almost 1-on-1, you will need a lot content, in different formats. Gone are the days of mass targeting and mass messaging, especially when you have sophisticated technology platforms at your disposal to target individual users.

Blurring Media lines
The lines between Owned, Paid & Earned media are blurring day by day and which medium will become your key distribution platform, based on how consumers take it, is something which cannot be predicted with accuracy today. The key implication of this is that marketers need to create content which can be distributed across Paid, Owned & Earned channels. Needless to mention that you will need variety of content to suit the medium because ‘one content fits all’ will not work anymore.

Soft Factors

Mobile generation
Marketers will need a lot of mobile first or mobile friendly content. The uber mobile users today require snack-able content which can’t be done using your existing assets as they were not created keeping ‘mobile screen’ and ‘mobile behaviour’ in mind. Marketers will need to create, for example, vertical content rather than horizontal to appeal to ‘mobile only’ users. They will need to create ephemeral content for these users who are available on platforms like Snapchat etc.

Newer tech needs content
We have all seen the emergence of newer platforms such as AI, AR, VR etc. What do you deliver to your users using these all-new platforms? You will need a different & newer kind of content. You can’t still serve ads through these platforms meant for content consumption. If your customer outreach strategy involves use of any such technologies, you will need more and more content to satisfy the need of content on these platforms.

Role of Search engines
Search engine algorithms are changing more often now as compared to the past. Having relevant content on your destinations will provide a new competitive advantage to marketers in terms of SEO. Almost all search engines give high ranking to content heavy pages, after all they are all content aggregators at the end of the day.

Complicated buyer journey
Consumer purchase journey was never so complicated. We all love to see, compare, review online before buying anything today. The sales cycles are complex and marketers need different type of content at different stages of path to purchase. They can’t be delivering ‘sales oriented’ content in the awareness stage for a consumer. This phenomenon is even more critical for B2B business where sales cycles are usually very long.

Rise of influencers
We all know how important are the influencers in this Social Media driven marketing world. There are large & micro influencers which a lot of new age users refer to for various decisions related to brands. Marketers have started engaging these influencers for distributing their brand related messaging and these influencers will need content as the social currency to distribute to their own respective followers.

Content will be the new currency for marketers going forward if they have to survive in this huge marketplace. Thankfully, some marketers have already taken initial steps and are learning as they go along, but they will be far ahead of the curve soon if other do not follow the suit.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors’ and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house. Unless otherwise noted, the author is writing in his/her personal capacity. They are not intended and should not be thought to represent official ideas, attitudes, or policies of any agency or institution.

By RP Singh

Sourced from BW Business World

In News

Marketers Plan To Increase Spending On Branded Videos Created By Publishers

January 31, 2018 No Comments

By Alex Weprin

Marketers looking to spend money on video advertising are likely to increase spending on branded videos created in conjunction with publishers this year, and are showing less enthusiasm for traditional 30 second pre-roll video ads.

Those takeaways come from a study by Trusted Media Brands, which examined the state of video advertising in 2018 through its “Digital Video Outlook” survey.

The survey was conducted by Advertiser Perceptions, with respondents including about 300 digital media decision-makers in the Advertiser Perceptions Omnibus Panel.

According to the survey, 35% of respondents said they plan to increase spending on the creation and distribution of branded videos over the next 12 months, compared to 28% that say they plan to increase spending on pre-, mid- and post-roll video ads.

The push for publisher partners is closely related to the widespread problem of brand safety, with 39% of respondents citing that concern as the top reason for partnering with publishers on branded video. Expertise in content creation was the second most popular reason, chosen by 33% of respondents.

By Alex Weprin

Sourced from MediaPost

In News

6 ways ad agencies can thrive in an AI-first world

January 17, 2018 No Comments

By Frederick Vallaeys

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) will change the way search marketers do business. In the latest article in his multipart series on PPC and AI, columnist Frederick Vallaeys shares his strategies for keeping your agency successful in a world of AI-first PPC.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have long been part of PPC — so why are AI and machine learning all of a sudden such hot topics? It is, in part, because exponential advances have now brought technology to the point where it can legitimately compete with the performance and precision of human account managers.

I recently covered the new roles humans should play in PPC as automation takes over. In this post, I’ll offer some ideas for what online marketing agencies should consider doing to remain successful in a world of AI-driven PPC management.

[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]