Marketers are finding that their internet ads providea more detailed customer analysis than even media buying agencies hold. About seven years ago, the head of digital at one of the major record labels said something that has stuck with me ever since. It was around the time that the music industry was really starting to […]
Over the years, plenty of companies have claimed to put the customer first. A much more interesting statistic would be how many have actually done so; how many managed to really live the values enshrined in the mantra “the customer is always right”.
Comparing HMV’s and Penguin Books’ social commerce efforts exposes major disparities in brands’ grasp of this complex tool. The new media industry may be obsessed with new ideas, but it’s got a poor track record in coming up with names for them. “Social media” is a great example; leaving aside the fact that all media […]
Smartphone searches are already big business and are sure to grow further, but mobile ads will never be a standalone medium. For the past ten years at least, the new year has been greeted with the claim that it would be the “year of mobile”. So it might seem perverse to point out that, if […]
One of the questions that keeps coming up around social media is/ who should be responsible for it within a business? Is it a part of marketing, or PR, or customer services?
The process of selecting an agency has become much more complex since the rise of digital, with its demand for new and niche skills, and there are pros and cons to sticking with the lead agency model or spreading your roster among a group of specialists.
With all the benefits of personalisation that mobile ad networks bring, out-of-home must adapt to remain competitive. One of the most persistent put-downs of the internet era is to tell someone they “don’t get it”. But even for those who do “get it”, the sad truth is that getting it doesn’t come with life membership. […]
If you’ve started to feel that the ads you’re seeing online are mimicking your browsing habits, then don’t worry. You’re not becoming paranoid. You’re simply seeing the rise of the latest interactive marketing technique; retargeting.
Back in the late 1990s, people talked a lot about ’internet time’. The idea was that, just as one dog year is supposedly equivalent to seven human years, time passed more quickly in the online world. Like the dotcom boom’s ubiquitous put-down about people ’not getting it’, internet time was at least partly self-aggrandisement on […]
Social gaming has caught the eye of marketers, who realise it can tap into a demographic that is out of reach when targeting traditional online gaming audiences.
The barriers that have long blocked the adoption of performance-based fee structures for digital activity are starting to lift. It seems perverse, but for the 15 or so years of its existence, the most accountable marketing medium ever seen has avoided payment by results. But that could be about to change. The idea of marketers […]
Gap’s decision to pull its rebranded logo after the public reacted negatively raises all sorts of tricky issues for marketers. The Gap was right and the blogosphere was wrong. Big bluechip corporations don’t change an iconic logo on a whim – it’s a hugely long and complex process involving consultants and designers, the C-suite and […]
Management consultants are taking over the space once occupied by agencies and delivering strategies designed for a digital world Who do you trust to advise you on your digital strategy? Eight years ago, this was apparently the question that Accenture was most often asked about interactive media. Since then, it has only grown in importance […]
Digital channels are increasingly coming together as marketers bend to the forces of interactive marketing and belt tightening, and look for a better understanding of consumers’ purchase journeys.
Advertiser demand for data and better targeting means the CPE model could be here to stay despite online publishers’ initial concerns. News last week that Diageo was launching its latest three-month campaign for premix drinks with the Mail Online on a cost-per-engagement (CPE) basis has sparked off the controversy around the payment model once again. […]