As the news broke that Facebook would be parting with a truly massive $16bn to acquire messaging service WhatsApp, the internet (as is its wont) was awash with opinion.
Would this devalue Facebook? The market certainly seemed to agree, with almost 5% being shaved off the FB price after hours. So, is this a crazed land-grab that will spell the end of Facebook, WhatsApp, or both?
Or a very smart decision?
The first step in any marketing brainstorm is always a discussion around potential news hooks and what might be coming up soon, so brands love to jump on celebration days as a way to get people talking.
From Christmas special editions, to April Fools’ Day stunts, a national day can be a great chance for brands to share their message, and Valentine’s Day PR hijacking is no exception.
Here I’ve taken a look at seven Valentine’s Day campaigns from this year, with a focus on UK and global brands…
Blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan launched a new responsive website last year as the proportion of traffic from mobile devices began to creep up to 50%.
The revamp has led to impressive increases in traffic and conversions, as well as reductions in the site’s bounce rate.
To find out more about what was involved in the move to responsive design, including the project duration, budget, agencies involved and the impact on visitor behaviour, I spoke to Anthony Nolan’s digital marketing manager Sam Butler.
For more information on how charities are adapting to digital, read our blog posts on three content strategies from the non-profit sector as well as looking at how charities use Twitter and Pinterest.
It’s been a while since I added to our series of posts looking at how major brands use social, so I thought it about time to pass judgment on another unsuspecting marketing team.
On this occasion the brand in question is fashion retailer Nordstrom which it turns out has a rather good social strategy, particularly when it comes to Pinterest.
This article follows on from similar posts looking at ASOS, Coca-Cola, Nike, H&M and Burberry, among others.
Enjoy!
Alongside record earnings figures, one of the big pieces of news to come out of Facebook’s recent Q4 earnings call was the launch of Paper, a new publishing app from its creative labs division.
Paper itself is a fairly straightforward news-curation/publishing app, but its launch and recent comments from Mark Zuckerberg about further releases in the near future paint a fascinating picture of Facebook’s possible future, one which may be quite different from the ubiquitous social platform we’re all so familiar with.
It can be argued that over 50s are one of the final demographics not to be very well understood in terms of their relational social media behaviour with brands.
In the very early years of social, very few begged to ask the question or look into how brands can engage older consumers. It was assumed that they weren’t on the channels at all.
And then the reports started coming through; the ‘Silver Surfers’ (a term I’ve always found slightly patronising) were flocking in droves! It’s a topic the Econsultancy has touched on before in a post looking at six design tips for making your website senior friendly.
But, like a horse without a cart, no one really nailed how to reach them in any meaningful way.