Outsource Digital

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

How To Interview Better

With the Digital World getting bigger and bigger each day, job opportunities are aplenty. However, so is the competition. Interviewing well is an art form and all too often interviewees are ill-prepared. Honing your interview skills is an essential part of your career path – aim to be offered every job you interview for to maximise opportunities. Job offers can always be turned down, but you have to get them in the first place!

1) Interview As Much As Possible

a) Practice Makes Perfect. Your techniques will improve as will your answers.

b) Improves Your Stress Levels. The more you experience an interview scenario, the more you know what to expect and therefore the nerves will go. The calmer the experience, the better your performance.

c) Increases Your Network. Don’t just see this as an interview – see it as networking. We rarely forget people who have impressed us, so building a network of industry decision makers can open up doors later.

d) Future Opportunities. You never know what may occur within the company in the future, so leave them with a positive impression and you may get a call further down the line.

2) Do Your Research

a) Know The Company

b) Know The Job Role

c) Research The Person Interviewing You. There may be aspects of this person’s background that you share – this could be a good ice-breaker or taking point.

3) Look The Part

a) Match The Attire Of The Company.

b) Take Care Over Your Appearance.

4) Have A Compelling Story

a) Why Are You There? Practice explaining why you are looking for a new job and why this opportunity may be it.

b) Focus On Positives. Regardless of the reasons why you are leaving your current job, focus on the positives and not the negative aspects of your time there.

c) Reflect On Your Career Path. Know your CV and be able to explain the route your career has taken and how you have progressed with each job.

d) Tailor Your Story To The Job. Explain why this opportunity matches your current career aspirations – make it a natural progression from your last job.

5) Questions

a) Prepare Questions. Tailor them to the specific Company and Job.

b) Ask Throughout. Don’t just be an effective responder - be prepared to ask questions throughout.

For more tips and advice, contact a Digital Recruiter at Outsource Digital on 0161 8175028

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Tesco and Weve Trial New Mobile Couponing

A year on from Tesco’s first display ad targeting campaign with Weve, the now O2-owned mobile marketer is helping gain awareness of their new London concept stores. The latest initiative sees mobile couponing driving additional awareness and footfall into the Villiers Street store.

Prior to the trial, Weve identified 40,000 potential consumers who had walked past the store at least 6 times or entered/ exited Embankment tube station over a 2 week period. They then sent the targets mobile messages offering a coupon barcode for £1 off a £3 shop. The mobile barcode was swiped through a new scanning system within the store, which is based around “food on the go”. Weve were able to differentiate between customers to ensure people were only sent a coupon once.

A number of related campaigns between the 2 companies are planned, taking the Supermarket into exciting marketing territory.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Google Add Buy Buttons

Google’s efforts to increase retail search traffic as well as ad revenue has seen them add buy buttons to the search result pages on mobile devices. Positioning itself alongside such sites as Amazon, it will allow consumers to save their payment information and enjoy a fluid online shopping experience. When clicking on the buy buttons, consumers will be directed to the product page on Google to allow them to complete the process.

Harriet Sanders, Digital Recruiter at Outsource Digital says “It’s an obvious next leap for Google – to compete with sites such as Amazon and eBay where consumers can search and buy all in the one place, Google need to be offering the next phase of the shopping process instead of just the search facility.”

A major difference still exists between Google’s new position and the sites they are seeming to now be competing against: what happens post-sale. Sites such as Amazon handle the physical aspect of transactions, purchases and returns yet Google according to the Wall Street Journal, will still be charging retailers through its existing ad model and not embracing the entire process. It won’t be until Google are equipped to handle the post-sales process that they will truly be able to match what eBay and Amazon have achieved so successfully.

Buy buttons have been tested already by sites such as Facebook and Pinterest in an attempt to prevent potential consumers re-directing to another site to purchase. So, for the reach Google enjoy, this is a natural progression in their expansion into becoming a true online marketplace.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Facebook; More Updates!

The social media site that dominates our lives is powering on through 2014 and has introduced a number of changes;

Investments at Facebook - Facebook is set to make ‘large, strategic’ technological investments in a bid to boost mobile revenue and a major force in premium advertiser monetisation.
Quick Stats;

Advertising revenue has risen 64% year-on-year to £1.8bn in the three months to September, with two thirds of that coming from the mobile side.
On mobile, 1.12 billion people now use Facebook each month
703 million people every day, nearly 40% growth from this time last year

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said: “We’re investing in ad-tech for a simple reason. Consumers are shifting quickly to mobile and the advertising industry is not keeping up." He also went on to add, "Similarly marketers are not confident that they can measure mobile ad performance. Many of the most commonly used measurement systems over emphasise the value of the last click. This does not make sense, given that studies of Facebook campaigns show that over 90% of ad-driven in-store sales come from people who saw an ad but didn’t click on it."

This is part of a long-term strategy that includes recent acquisitions such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus Rift.

Places Directory - Facebook's new Places Directory has been discretely released and will be spark fierce competition with directory sites such as Yelp. Places Directory allows you to search the globe for destinations and then narrow down your searches for bars, hotels, restaurants, gyms, landmarks and many more attractions. It's strength lies in the fact results are ranked by user ratings and show comments from your Facebook friends. Places Directory taps into Facebook's existing technology such as Graph Search, Page Locations API, and other elements.

Facebook at work - Facebook is working on extending its network beyond the social realm and into the professional world, according to the FT, citing an anonymous source. Facebook at Work will be very similar to the current Facebook model, with collaborative tools for work on shared documents and professional/social profiles not sharing any information. It is currently being piloted in London, although effectively it has been piloted for years at Facebook HQ as they are known to use Facebook internally.

Facebook Groups - Facebook is set launch another spin off app, although it isn't creating anything new, it's giving Facebook Groups its very own app. With 650 to 700 million monthly active users and 2.5 billion pieces of content every month, its second in size only to Facebook itself. Current users having been trailing through Facebook to access Groups, so this should make it much simpler for those users while also more inviting to new users. But what is Groups anyway? Its effectively a much smaller Facebook in which you can customise your news feed to smaller group such as friends, family or work colleagues.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Digital Marketing Talent Shortfall!

The Online Marketing Institute has identified the most the largest talent gaps and most in-demand digital skills of 2014. The 'State of Digital Marketing Talent' study consisted of interviewing 747 advertising and Fortune 500 marketing executives to find out what skills their teams possessed and which were most desired.

The Missing Skills: It's striking that talent is perceived to be a 1/3 short of where it should be. This could have a detrimental affect on performance, identify your talent gaps within your company and address them. As an individual, look where the gaps might be in your team and gain a greater understanding of these skills (making yourself more valuable to the company).

Desirable Skills: No surprise that Content and Mobile are part of the most desirable skills, however the surprise is that employees have not met these demands and specialised their skills sets by educating themselves further. Opportunity for crossover skills such as Journalism developing into content marketing.

Hiring Issues: A lack of previous work experience could be due to the fact some of the skills are 'new', having been created by new technologies and sectors. Nearly a third of participants are unable to find capable digital talent, we've seen the statistics of the amount of people applying for the same jobs, therefore its crucial your CV stands out from the crowd. Be innovative and showcase your ability!

Further Education: You can definitely teach an old dog new tricks! 66% of marketers would find further education beneficial. Are you participating in available classes? Or are you offering members of your team the opportunity to train further?

Images courtesy of Kelly Services infographic

Friday, November 07, 2014

Marketing Appointments - September & October 2014

Lenovo - Following a very successful 12 months, Chinese company Lenovo aims to become a 'top 10 brand' in Europe. As a result they have hired Jo Moore from Ogilvy & Mather as EMEA brand and consumer marketing director in a bid to push on in European markets. Moore will report to EMEA vice president Jan Huckfeldt, who described the new appointment will support the brand’s marketing strategy switch from “monologue to dialogue” in the region. Jo Moore joins from Ogilvy & Mather, where she was worldwide managing director for global brands and her one of her clients was Motorola, who Lenovo plan to acquire out this year.

NFL - The National Football League has named a new chief marketing officer as it faces mounting pressure from both fans and sponsors due to publicity it has received for not taking domestic violence seriously as a result of a number of incidents that have directly effected the game. Dawn Hudson, former Pepsi senior marketer, has been handed the responsibility. She takes over from Mark Weller who has returned to his previous role of over seeing international expansion of the NFL. This news follows the NFL's appointment of four female consultants to improve domestic violence policies. Time will tell whether these appointments will change the organisation internally or just please stakeholders.

Dixons - Ian McGregor has been appointed by Dixons Carphone as marketing communications director and tasked with leading marketing for the Currys PC World brand. McGregors experience includes his last role as Vice President of marketing at Activision, a senior marketing role at Eletronic Arts, and board account director at London agency Publicis. In his role he will oversee advertising creative, media buying, visual store communications and consumer PR.

Telefonica - Daniel Rosen has been appointed Global Director of advertising for O2 owner Telefonica. He leaves his position as Global CEO of mobile ad agency Joule. Rosen has been hired in order to accelerate revenue growth and product innovation by building closer relationships with the brand, publisher and agencies.

Ab InBev - Former Coca-cola marketer Nick Robinson has joined Ab InBev as UK and Ireland brand chief. He will be overseeing top alcoholic brands such as Stella Artois and Budweiser, who are currently enjoying strong sales on the back of a successful world cup campaign. It is believed that a key factor in Robinson's appointment was his expertise in the soft drinks market, as Ab InBev look to expand their offerings to customers.

Coca-Cola - Following the retirement of Joe Tripodi, Coca-Cola has moved to Marcos De Quinto as chief marketing officer. He moves from his current dual role as VP of the company’s Iberian business and vice president of its pan-European steering group, a role he's been in since 2000. De Quinto has a vast amount of global strategic marketing experience that Coca-Cola will be hoping will help them through a period of disappointing growth

Monday, November 03, 2014

UK Adspend hits four year high!

The latest study from the Advertising Association has shown a 8.5% rise in advertising spend to a grand total of £4.5 billion in the three months leading to June. This is the highest spending we've seen since late 2010. It is believed a maturing attitude to digital marketing played a key role behind this growth, with Internet (17.2%), Radio (17.7%) and Display (5%) all having strong quarters.

Although the growth for the rest of this year is expected to slow to 5%, if we look to 2015 demand for Display will push Internet spending to £8.1 billion (compared to the projected £7.5 billion for 2014). Search marketing is also predicted for strong growth figures next year, growing from £3.9bn to £4.3bn between 2014 and 2015.

Tim Lefroy chief executive of the Advertising Association, says the performance of digital media so far in 2014 points to “digital and creative leadership in e-commerce”. The insight is supported by companies such as Mondelez and Diageo tightening the link between online advertisements and search marketing to move further into ecommerce, which is considered a well of untapped potential for food and drink marketers. Around 60% of UK GDP is household consumption – one of the highest – according to the Advertising Association and “e and m commerce are an increasingly large part of that picture”.

Ad spend was up across the media mix, they were all down in the first quarter of the year, but posted rises in the following quarter. The latest Bellwether report, which said over 25% of companies planned to increase the marketing spend.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Google's Newest Tool: Consumer Barometer

This free tool will let users download customised data and market-specific information in order to help understand how individuals use the internet. Google describe it as a tool that will deliver "consumer insights to support planning and decision-making in a fast changing digital landscape".

They break it down into three areas;

The Multiscreen world - Aims to quantify and understand Internet usage and attitudes across various devices. The base of this section is the entire population, both on and offline.
The Smart Shopper - Focuses on the consumer purchase journey and the role of the Internet in making purchase decisions.
The Smart Viewer - Provides insight into people's recent online video use across different devices.

Data in the Consumer Barometer is collected from two sources; the core Consumer Barometer questionnaire, which focuses on the adult online population and the Connected Consumer Study, which seeks to enumerate the total adult population and is used to weight the Consumer Barometer results. Data has been sourced from 50 different countries, involving over 150,000 respondents.

Snapshot of Multiscreen World in Consumer Barometer

Vertical sectors currently profiled within the Barometer include: clothing and footwear, home appliances, flights, hotels, cosmetics and groceries. New vertical sectors will be added on an ongoing basis as Google extends the insights.

Verdict: Although the data presented is very basic, its great to have in a handy go-to place. If you're needing a quick answer to some online behaviour or trends, the Consumer Barometer is a way of finding information quickly in an easy to manage way.

Make up your own mind at: http://www.consumerbarometer.com/

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Personalisation: Taking it to the next level

Creating a personal experience for the consumer is nothing groundbreaking and is often what some brands strive to create, but we take a look at 3 brands that are taking this to the next level through innovation

Burberry - On the 30th of September Burberry announced it's latest initiative have led to a 55% increase in sales over a 6 month period. The campaign allowed customers to customise bottles of the 'Mr Burberry' fragrance, this then tied in with 4OD and Google's ad network to preview adverts with the customised bottles and viewers initials. The ability to see your own customised bottle in an advert creates a real personal touch and potentially a decisive factor in the consumers purchasing decision. The campaign was fronted by two of Britain's most iconic models, Kate Moss and Cara Delvingne, proving to be another great success from Christopher Bailey, in which he sets!

ASOS - The daddy of e-commerce recently announced some changes to its shopping experience with the intention to create a 'more edited and personalised' as it draws closer to its £2.5 billion sales target in 2015. ASOS are looking to move slightly away from their model of browsing through thousands of products, as Chief Executive Nick Robertson suggest the novelty of this is 'starting to wane', with their range growing at such a rapid rate the shopping experience must remain relevant to the user. Following on from their "As Seen on Me" feature, ASOS is allowing shoppers to follow stylist who 'flush up' new products which they believe is a 'clean, simple' way of editing choice. It doesn't stop there as ASOS also plans to roll out recommendations and personalised product ideas based on previous browsing and shopping behaviour, later this year.

Lidl - The German retailer plans on launching a specific website that consumers to get more engaged with the brand, as part of a larger plan to build a community for the brand. Marketing Director Arnd Pickhardt describes it as "We want to offer customers that want to go a step further in terms of engaging with the brand another opportunity. It’s about giving access to information earlier than others, letting them try and test products".

Friday, October 17, 2014

Love Triangle: Lego breaks up with Shell because of Greenpeace!

The actions of pressure group, Greenpeace, have led to Lego ending it's 50 year old marketing partnership with oil giant Shell.

Greenpeace targeted Lego, in a technique that has been refereed to as brand jacking, the Youtube campaign they produced called 'Everything is not awesome' now has over 6.5 million views. The video was comprised using lego pieces which showed a horrific oil spill in an arctic environment and the devastation it caused.

This story is reminiscent of how many brands departed ways with SeaWorld after pressure from public groups and the publicity of the documentary 'Black Fish'. Virgin America dropped SeaWorld from its airline reward programme, while one of its top corporate sponsors SouthWest Airlines ended its 26 year partnership. Other organisations such as American Express also ditched SeaWorld.

Shell must be wary that there is not a similar knock on effect, particularly with the brand jacking technique which can really gain traction and raise awareness among the public.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Google Panda 4.1: What's new?

Another Google update enviability means Winners and Losers, this new update has been dubbed Panda 4.1 (although many of Google's other algorithms were updated) and news broke via Google employee Pierre Far's Google+ page. Medium and small websites are said to have benefitted most from 4.1, in the past Google has been accused of favouring the bigger players, but they expect to see the highest ranking sites to come in a variety of sizes now.

The Panda algorithm penalises content that it believes offers little or no value to users. What is new about the latest Panda update is that Google has developed new and more sophisticated signals to more accurately detect low-quality and thin content from ranking highly,

although it's worth noting that 4.1 has only effected 3-5% of search queries.

Losers

Gaming, lyric and some medical portals suffered organic search visibility losses, this seems to be because these sites tend to have thin, repeated, or aggregated content, and Google deems this type of content as low quality. Lyric websites often have identical content to their competitors, medical content sites have a habit of repeating content, while gaming sites have a lack of content compared to other platforms. Affiliate sites have also been deemed losers by many tech experts due to their thin content.

Winners

News websites, download portals and content sites benefitted due to the fact they are regularly updated with new, (presumably) high-quality and unique information. Another thing to note is that sites that were hit by the Panda 4.0 update have been working hard to delete duplicate and thin content over the past few months and as a result have recovered very well, examples include rd.com, Hotelguides.com and Yourtango.com.

Concerned about how this update may affect your website? Although it may seem that Google is trying to catch websites out, they're actually very clear with how they critique content. They suggest referring to the following questions when curating your own content;

Would you trust the information presented in this article?
Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well?
Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Ello Ello; Social Media Game Changer?

It's quite an achievement to be just 8 weeks old and people are championing you as the one to break the Facebook social media monopoly. That's whats happening to new social network 'Ello' though, with the link between the two also stemming from Ello's perceived dislike of Facebook. If you disagree with the Ello manifesto on their website you are then forwarded to Facebook's privacy page (a nice touch!). Their founder, Paul Budnitz, describes Facebook as "an advertising platform not a social network". The Irony is that you were probably made aware of Ello through Facebook. And to find you're friends on Ello, you'll probably have to write a status on Facebook asking them if they're on it!

However, we can't help but think of Diaspora, the once hyped social network. Everyone likes an underdog, but sustaining that takes something really revolutionary. It's early days and therefore it could go two ways, but the fact its exclusive and getting a lot of coverage means it has people's attention, and as a result it hit 50,000 new member requests per hour at some points last week. Tech experts have a mixture of positive and negative views on Ello with our favourite being the Verge calling it “a doomed utopia we can’t stop building.”

Paul Budnitz has a bit of a habit of making success stories from unlikely ventures, potentially a reason his Ello concept is being held in high regard. From a luxury bicycle company, Budnitz Bicycles to Kidrobot, a company that creates art toys and high end fashion accessories (Pharrell Williams is said to be a big fan!), Paul is used to scepticism in his ideas. With the social media space already overcrowded, someone like Budnitz might just be able to discover an unlikely niche.

What really sets it apart it how it plans to make money. Replicating the very successful concept of the iPhone/App store, in which users will be able to completely customise their own Ello with a combination of basic (free features) and add-on features. Its firm stance on being 'anti-advertisement' should be what sets it apart from other social networks.

Friday, October 03, 2014

Tesco's turbulent year!

What a difference a year can make! With news of Tesco wrongly predicting its yearly profits by over £250 million pounds, its another low point during a grim 12 month period. Things seem to be going from bad to worse for poor old Tesco;

Marketing share is down to 28.8%, lowest in decades.
More competitive environment with newcomers gaining market share. Aldi sales increased by 29.1% and Lidl sales were up by 17.7%.
Tesco has seen over £2 billion wiped off its market share.
Tesco's third biggest investor, BlackRock, sold £150 million worth of shares.
Share price is down by a staggering 40% in the past year
Four senior directors have been suspended, while the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority are said to be looking into the situation.

The current situation has led Tesco to bringing in new Finance Director, Alan Stewart, three months early as they've been operating without a financial director for nearly 6 months!

So Tesco's profit target of £1.1bn for this year was optimistic, and it should have been closer to £850m, which is about half of last year's number. Although £250 million might not look like a huge amount to Tesco, it is more than many high street retailers earn in a full year. Tesco explained the problem as "'principally due to the accelerated recognition of commercial income and delayed accrual of costs", the pressure from slightly disappointing sale figures over the last few years has led to this catastrophic error which has really damaged the company.

It's gone from a pioneer in customer loyalty, to trailing behind successful schemes such as Waitroses. Waitrose offer free coffee and a newspaper when they come into the store, however with the clubcard customer more accrue points and 'earn' discounts.

Some people are taking pleasure from this situation and believe it to be karma as Tesco have a reputation for bullying suppliers into low prices, delaying the payment of invoices and also buying land and property to stop competitors.

Dave Lewis, new Tesco Group chief executive, is under a lot of pressure to restore the brand to its glory days, he uncovered the scandal and seems the right man to get them out of this situation. There is a small silver lining in that Mike Ashley, who has a history of successful business investment, has announced he has taken out a put option on 23 million Tesco shares (representing 0.28% of the firm's capital), which effectively means he's taken a bet with Goldman Sachs that Tesco shares will recover.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Phones 4 U: High Street Assassination?

Last week it was announced that Phones4U went into administration, putting 5,596 jobs at more than 700 outlets at risk, after Vodafone, EE and O2 did not renew their contracts with the company.

Original founder, John Caudwell, described it as an "unprecedented assassination" as he believes the mobile giants may have congregated about ending their contracts with Phones4U. Are they under any obligation to continue trading with Phones 4U though?

However, EE argued that its decision to end its relationship with Phones 4U was strategic, as they look to focus on their own shops and cut out intermediaries. They seemed to of hugely benefitted from the Phones 4U collapse as they have strengthened their position and bought out 58 Phones 4U stores.

Can the middle man survive on the high street now? Being a middle man can be a very profitable role but also highly risk as there is a lack of power. With EE looking to 'cut out intermediaries', will this relate to other retailers such as Carphone Warehouse in the future? This move seems to open up many questions regarding trading in the mobile environment.

While private equity firm BC (that owned Phones 4U) has been criticised for loading the retailer with more than £200m debt. Unfortunately Phones 4U staff will pay the price for this irresponsibility.

In hindsight it seems like a mess, it also shows just how fragile a reputable high retailer is in the 21st century. Could this have a knock on affect to other industries as they look to cut out intermediaries and increase security in a fragile environment? Only time will tell.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Outsource UK broadens expertise with acquisition of Chrysalis Digital Recruitment

Outsource UK, one of the country’s largest independent recruitment businesses, has broadened its area of expertise with the acquisition of the Manchester-based digital recruitment consultancy known as Chrysalis Digital Recruitment.

The deal will see the Chrysalis name disappear and the organisation rebranded as Outsource UK. Chris Crawford and Harriet Sanders, the former owners of Creativesrus Ltd (trading as Chrysalis Recruitment) and all of the existing staff at the Manchester consultancy will transfer to Outsource. Crawford will lead what will become Outsource’s new digital division.

Paul Jameson, MD of Outsource UK said, “This is another great strategic acquisition for us. The businesses are very complementary and this new digital division will expand our IT expertise and broaden our area of reach. Chrysalis specialise in recruiting staff for the digital sector so this acquisition complements our IT specialism and provides new opportunities for growth.”

“This is our third acquisition in three years and is another important step in expanding the business and strengthening Outsource’s competitive position. We plan to continue to grow through strategic acquisitions as well as continuing our period of growth as the economy recovers and the demand for staff increases.”

Chris Crawford said: “I’m really pleased to be joining Outsource UK. Chrysalis are specialists in an expanding market so becoming part of a much larger group will allow us to develop and to gain more market share. When I met Paul Jameson and Outsource, it soon became apparent that we have shared ethics and real synergy in how both organisations work. Like Outsource, Chrysalis was built on a foundation of developing relationships with our clients and focusing on investing in our staff in order to provide a first class quality service.”

Outsource UK Ltd is a national staffing business specialising in the supply of contract and permanent IT and engineering resource to businesses across the UK. The company now employs 60 people and this year has a projected annual turnover in excess of £40 million. MD Paul Jameson created the business in 1991. It is headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire and has offices in Midlands, Manchester and in London.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Facebook: Whats new in September?

Another month goes by and Facebook release another update. They take the expressions "Staying on top of your game" to another level!

"Why don't you like the adverts?"

This week Facebook announced that it will start asking users for more information after they click to hide an advert. With the new feature, users will be presented with a number of options for why they are hiding the ad, including:

It’s not relevant to me
I keep seeing this
It’s offensive or inappropriate
It’s spam
Something else

The purpose is to try and improve the experience for users, and will also use the information to better target ads to other users on the site.

This may seem a little frustrating for users as its obvious that no one likes adverts! But this will be really beneficial for brands as it increases the effectiveness of targeting ads on the social platform.

Facebook; Power Editor Update

Facebook plans to roll out a number of updates to its Power Editor this month, which will make it much easier for advertisers to prepare and also preview adverts before launching them.

Facebook said the following on their planned changes; “In the past, since these ads were anchored to page posts, they were not changeable. With this change, advertisers can now create News Feed ads at scale, preview them during creation, edit them at any time, and bulk import/export them.”

Facebook is also updating its objectives, and will provide a number of new options for advertisers to choose to help Facebook optimize their ad performance.

These options include:

Clicks to Website
Website Conversions
Page post engagement for photos
Video View

These changes should simplify the process greatly for advertisers, particularly first timer users. It also makes it more accessible for people who are daunted by technology, especially when it involves parting with cash.

Facebook is Sharing King!

A new report from Fractl shows that over 8 in 10 shares on social sites are on Facebook!

Fractl analysed the one million most-shared articles from the first six months of 2014. Collectively, these articles generated more than 2.6 billion shares, and 81.9 percent of these happened on Facebook!

To put this into perspective here's the rankings of the other social sites; Twitter (8.6 percent), Google+ (4.3 percent), Pinterest (3 percent), and LinkedIn (2.2 percent).

Social sharing has become a crucial part of online marketing and this information should be at the forefront of your mind when creating content. Every post should have a clear goal and be tailored to the social site(s) you (or your followers) plan to share this content on.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Marketing Appointments - August 2014

Homeaway - The online holiday rental company took the decision to appoint former Visa and Vodafone marketer Mariano Dima as chief marketing officer. A newly created role that will oversee all global marketing, corporate communications and brand initiatives. Dima's CV includes 20 years of marketing, product and business development for brands that cinlude PepsiCo, Vodafone, Levi Straus and Visa.

Regus - Eva Eisenschimmel has become the latest senior marketing executive to join Regus. She follows Rick Vlemmiks who joined as their most senior marketer last year. Eisenschimmel, who left Lloyds earlier this year after three years as group marketing director, joins in september and has been tasked with looking after the company’s global marketing efforts.

Ryanair - Ryanair has appointed John Hurley as its first chief technology officer, this move comes as Rynair attempts to forge its 'online travel revolution' that will ‘change the world of online air travel’.
Hurley will be responsibile for developing its fledgling digital and technology strategy, with the company in the process of recruiting a team of up to 200 people across marketing, content and strategy that Hurley will oversee. Hurley joins from educational publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt where he was vice president of software development.

Instagram - James Quarles has made the move from parent company Facebook to his new role as global head of business and brand development for Instagram.
Quarles will be responsible for the overall growth of Instagram as well as “building a broad asset of solutions for brands of all sizes on Instagram”.
The move means he will have to relocate from London to Instagram’s US headquarters and report into the company’s founder and CEO Kevin Systrom.
Instagram has been “deliberately” slowly rolling out advertising on the app since it first began trialling ads with a small group of brands in the US last November. Read more about Instagrams new features.

National Trust - Jordan replaces Clare Mullen, who left 4 weeks ago to move to India. She will take over towards the end of the year, although a date has not yet been set. Harry Heeley, previously commercial director at the Trust, is running the marketing department in the interim.
Jordan’s appointment comes as the National Trust renews its focus on digital. It will relaunch its website and mobile app at the start of next year to shift away from just providing information about its properties to offering more engaging content personalised to visitors based on where they live and their previous visits.

Buzzfeed - BuzzFeed has appointed ad sales veteran Greg Coleman as its new president with the task of ramping up its social advertising offering to brands. He joins from Criteo, where he was president. His other experience includes being a former president and chief revenue officer at Huffington Post and vice president of sales at Yahoo. Coleman replaces Jon Steinberg who left last month to join the MailOnline.
In addition to overseeing sales, creative services, marketing and products and business development, he is tasked with securing a greater share of brands’ ad budget for Buzzfeed’s social advertising offering.

Apple - Musa Tariq has been hired by Apple as they are set to increase their social media activity, something that has been discipline it has been slow to embrace. They hope that Musa, who is viewed as a pioneer in the social media world, will help push the brand on through community management and viral content.
The former Burberry social media director reunites with the fashion house’s previous chief executive Angela Ahrendts, who became senior vice president of Apple Retail in May.
Apple has very few social media accounts with the company discounting the need to engage fans constantly to buy its products until recently. Tariq is tasked with resolving the limited presence, an area chief executive Tim Cook has looked to address through a string of high-profile hires and acquisitions.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

2015 - The year of segmentation

A recent report from the CMO Council has given us an insight into marketers thoughts and plans for next year.

The most common theme; improved targeting. When asked, “What steps are you taking to maximise the impact and value of your marketing in the next 12 months?” over 60 percent said improving customer segmentation and targeting was a priority.

What else is on the horizon for marketers in 2015?

Localising strategies (38%)
Further investment in digital and online relationship building (33%)
Testing campaigns to validate potential impact (31%)

What does this mean for your business?

Is there anything worse than receiving a text message or email from a brand that is completely irrelevant to yourself? The opposite can be said when you receive a well thought out one, it makes you feel special. Segmentation offers you the chance to create a personalised experience for your consumers. Improved targeting can go as far as you want it to, but the more time and effort you put into it the more likely you are to improve your chances of people engaging with your brand. Demographics, geographic, buyer frequency, behavioural; these are just some of the categories by which you can segment your audience to create a relevant message.

This is really important for smaller businesses as well. With inferior marketing budgets to global brands; its important to make every penny spent as effective as possible. Local businesses normally compete on a local level which makes geographic segmentation particularly important.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Instagram New Feature - 'Accounts Insight'

Instagram has released a new of new features that could eventually revolutionise advertising on the platform. It's been two years since Facebook splurged $1 billion buying Instagram, and its remained relatively unchanged during that period, but these recent changes definitely echo the 'Insights' pages of its parent company.

These new changes could convince many brands that Instagram is a worthy marketing platform, receiving feedback and data is essential to anything that consumes time and resources. These changes could lead Instagram's change from simple photo sharing app to powerful social network for global brands.

So what's new?

Account insights allows brands to see how they’re increasing brand awareness on Instagram through impressions, reach, and engagement.

Ad insights shows the performance of paid campaigns with brand analytics (impressions, reach, and frequency) for each individual ad delivered to the target audience.

Ad staging allows advertisers and their creative teams to preview, save, and collaborate on ad creative for upcoming campaigns.

Instagram state the reasons for these developments came as a result of brands requesting more info and feedback on their posts, in particular how users engage with them. Prior to this Instagram would send data to brands manually when requested for. The above features let brands monitor the reaction to posts and campaigns, while also suggesting most effective time to post.

Before we get too excited, Instagram's plans to role out the new tools very slowly, with US advertisers receiving them first, after fine-tuning through feedback additional brands will receive them in late 2014.

Monday, August 18, 2014

The Death of Celebrity Endorsement?

Celebrity endorsement is a classic marketing technique used by many brands, but is it still relevant and effective?

Recent academic research studied celebrity endorsement in the charity sector; it aimed to find out if celebrities were actually effective practice for charities and whether it makes the public more likely to donate or give their time for the cause.

According to recent journal articles by three UK academics, “the ability of celebrity and advocacy to reach people is limited”. The research contradicted the idea that celebrities help raise the profile of charities that they endorse and increase the amount donated. The participants in the research were given a list of seven popular charities but 66 percent couldn't match the celebrities to the causes they represented. Also, over three quarters of participants said that seeing celebrities in charities adverts led them to not responding "in any way".

This isn't to say celebrity endorsement doesn't work, they were some instances in which celebrities were matched and were shown to of had a positive effect. However, this group was a lot smaller than expected with just a few celebrities such as George Clooney, Bono and Joanna Lumley being effective advocators.

Similar research from the international journal of cultural studies, found that in the focus groups "people supported the charities that they supported because of personal connections in their lives and families which made these causes important, not because of the celebrities.”

Although it seems celebrities are not as effective in creating responses for charities, the press coverage and mainstream awareness they raise cannot be argued. Angelina Jolie's tireless campaigning to end violence against women has received much press along with her choice to undergo preventative surgery for breast cancer which has raised awareness and inspired individuals to follow suit.

Celebrity endorsement is most definitely not dead, but it's also not what it once was. Selection of celebrities used is a key factor with a small group being real brand-matchers and having the ability to drive positive responses. Although this research focused on the charity sector, this data can be applied to other industries, particularly the information about "personal connections in their lives and families were more important."