Direct-to-consumer (DTC): Why consumer brands need to make the economics feasible

Consumer brands seek to establish direct relations with end customers for a range of reasons: to generate deeper insights about consumer needs, to maintain control over their brand experience, and to differentiate their proposition to consumers. Increasingly, they also do it to drive sales.

While some brands have considered establishing a direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel in the past, they’ve often decided against it. However, now is the time to reconsider as Covid-19 has...

25 January 2021 | Advertising

Why digital ad strategy needs a serious reboot in 2021

The start of 2021 has had its ups and downs, but it certainly hasn’t given businesses the hope of stability or the kick-start so many needed to start the year off on a high. In times like this, it’s easy to feel that everything is outside of your control, but the key to taking on the new year and grasping the opportunity ahead will be in the ability to spot what you can control.

Welcome to your new flagship store

Whether your business deals in goods or is service or...

25 January 2021 | Advertising

Influence: How Social Media Influencers Are Shaping Our Digital Future book extract: On ‘influencer legitimacy’

In this exclusive extract from Sara McCorquodale's book 'Influence: How social media influencers are shaping our digital future', McCorquodale explores her path to working with influencers and setting up her agency, CORQ, as well as the relationship between brands and influencers.

The questions that had started to form in my head were these: do we have any reason to believe people with large social audiences have the power to influence their audiences beyond their number of...

22 January 2021 | Content Marketing

Sustainable Marketing: How to Drive Profits with Purpose book extract: On CEO and brand activism

Whether you think it is a good thing, or a bad thing, CEO activism is a real thing!

There are an increasing number of CEOs taking a stand on political and social issues. Their view is that a company should have a higher purpose beyond maximizing shareholder value, and that they can use their position of power as a force for raising awareness and doing good. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, has written extensively on the topic.

In his latest book, Trailblazer – The...

21 January 2021 | Best Practice

The future of shopping and eCommerce: Perspective from Pinterest

I joined Pinterest in the height of the global pandemic. From my home office and virtual landscape, I’ve spent the past six months scaling our advertising business in the UK and Ireland, as well as working thoughtfully to ensure that Pinners in these countries have a personalised, meaningful experience on Pinterest to help them create a life they love. While I didn’t anticipate that my first day would involve meeting my new colleagues via video calls, I have gained invaluable...

20 January 2021 | Commerce

Thinking of going shoppable? Don’t forget to A/B test your video ads

Shoppable video is poised for stardom. Expected to soon become one of advertising’s fastest growing categories, the format is already gaining sizeable investment; with marketing spend climbing by 40% this year in the US alone, up from 33% in 2019.

Much of this meteoric rise is due to the recent ecommerce boom. Amid rapid acceleration in online purchasing — now accounting for 16.4% of all global sales — the blend of commerce and content that shoppable media provides has...

19 January 2021 | Advertising Technology

Digital, content and social roles on the rise in 2021, says LinkedIn

eCommerce personnel, digital content professionals and creative freelancers are expected to be among the fastest growing jobs in the UK in 2021, according to new data from LinkedIn.

The figures appear in LinkedIn's 'Jobs on the Rise' report, which analysed sectors with the highest year on year growth rates in hiring between April and October 2020.

Covid-19 has naturally played a major role in determining which roles are most sought after. In terms of eCommerce, which was...

18 January 2021 | Commerce

Understanding the importance of authenticity in corporate social activism

Over the past few years we’ve witnessed a striking shift in how brands communicate their identity, values and humanity. While companies traditionally avoid taking a public stance on social and political discourse, it seems that more and more brands are choosing to break this mould.

While some chalk up this change to progress, there are countless critics of corporate social activism that argue that brands’ motivations are neither altruistic nor pure. And certainly, when brands...

18 January 2021 | Content Marketing

Marketing predictions for 2021: Will your business sink or swim?

2020 burned hot, with global upheaval from every angle, culminating in an ongoing health crisis that halted the world, challenged communities, and strained economies. The economic future looks perilous, with 2020 expecting to set records for the highest number of retail bankruptcies and individual store closures in a single year. Holiday spending, typically a reliable boost for retail businesses, is expected to be down some 22 to 25% and total U.S. retail sales may see a 10.5%...

15 January 2021 | Best Practice

Why APIs are the key to creating customer connections in a digital world

Have you ever chatted with a company’s customer service representative from a mobile app or made a grocery list with the help of a voice assistant? Or maybe you’ve signed into a website using your social media login for a more personalised experience?

What you may not know is that these types of interactions are supported by a vast network of application programming interfaces (APIs) that are working behind the scenes to connect and integrate various technology systems. APIs...

14 January 2021 | Advertising Technology