Experiential advertising and how it is changing marketing
It’s impossible to escape the hype around TV ads during the Super Bowl.
But big brands are also running some really impressive experiential advertising events to coincide with the big game.
Brand activation and its role in driving consumer engagement and awareness
Many popular brands are using activations to build popularity and give the consumer an experience that will make them feel a real personal connection to the company.
How Japan’s Rakuten plans to become a global ecommerce giant
Rakuten is one of Japan’s biggest tech companies, yet it’s still relatively unknown in Europe.
It began as an ecommerce marketplace but has since diversified into areas such as instant messaging and banking.
CEO Hiroshi Mikitani aims to raise Rakuten’s profile outside of Japan with expansion plans driven by further acquisitions.
How can London’s Tech City help startups get to series C funding?
Le Web is a hotbed of entrepreneurs and startups looking to network, make connections and hopefully bump into a generous venture capitalist.
Consequently one of the topics up for discussion is the differing appeal of Europe’s various startup ecosystems.
How the sharing economy will develop in 2015
The sharing economy has grown exponentially in the past few years to the point where it has impacted nearly all industries.
Airbnb and Uber are the most obvious examples, but other sectors such as logistics, utilities and education have also been disrupted by new startups.
Four hallmarks of a successful conversion rate optimization strategy
The difference between success and failure is often in the details.
This is why the virtues of testing and optimizing are continually extolled on platforms which claim to promote best practice.
Successful corporate-startup ventures. Pt 3: Keeping your organisation engaged
The final part of this series looks at how you can become a great partner to startups you partner with, and ensure that you keep your internal stakeholders happy.
Successful corporate startup ventures. Pt 1: Real mutual value
Corporate venturing is currently booming.
In this series of blog posts we’ll share what we’ve learned from our experience in creating partnerships between corporates and startups which deliver value to all sides.
How time tracking can improve productivity and morale
Time tracking is a fact of agency life. You do some work, you record your time. This is logical because you’re charging by the hour: tot up the hours done at the end of the month and you can send an invoice.
But time tracking is something that in-house marketers seem to have never got on with. Surely the only point of doing it is for management to monitor how long your tea breaks take?
If they introduce time tracking, what will the next step be? Rationing of biscuits? A maximum number of loo breaks?
This idea misses something very important: for some activities tracking time is the only way of measuring and improving return on investment.
And at the end of the day, that’s what your boss (and his boss) care about.
Five strategies for agile marketing
While some may cringe at the word, we all know we need to be more agile.
Econsultancy recently hosted a roundtable event on Digital Transformation.
The following were five strategies put forward by attendees for becoming a more agile marketing organisation…
Four ways brands can make early adoption easier and less painful
A recent trip to Japan got me thinking about the disadvantages of being an ‘early adopter’ of new products and technology, and how brands should encourage and reward those of us who get in ahead of the crowds.
Japanese technology shops are particularly fun, with blaring advertisements and garish coloured banners everywhere.
In one, I found ‘easy to drink from’ vacuum mugs in a wide range of colours with a variety of sophisticated caps and drinking spouts.
The humble black screw top I had bought in the UK was completely upstaged by these colourful, feature packed newcomers.
What are the essential skills for modern marketers? [infographic]
Looking to future proof your CV? Want to make sure your marketing team has the right mix of talent?
Our recent Skills of the Modern Marketer report defines the skills that senior marketers are seeking for their team. Both the broad knowledge areas and the deep vertical skills needed to be successful in marketing.
As Neil Perkin’s blog post on the report mentioned last week, we also found a surprising focus on soft skills – in particular, adaptability, inquisitiveness and willingness to collaborate.
We created this infographic to summarise the findings of the report, based on interviews and a survey with senior level marketers.