Ru Roberts, Waze: On non-distracting and privacy-conscious advertising

MarketingTech caught up with Ru Roberts, UK Country Manager for Waze, to discuss how the popular satellite navigation app advertises to drivers in a responsible manner.

As a free app, Waze relies on advertising. However, displaying ads to drivers could be a recipe for disaster.

Waze has faced its fair share of criticisms in the past for distracting drivers. Early users will remember things like messages from random drivers popping up constantly. Fortunately, Waze heard...

11 February 2022 | Advertising

Kevin the Carrot ranked most Googled Christmas advert character

Kevin the Carrot.

Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot is the most Googled Christmas advert character, according to data from Google trends.

The friendly little vegetable has been crowned the best Christmas advert character, after data comparing Google searches over the last five years revealed that Kevin the Carrot is the most Googled Christmas advert character.

The data as compiled based on the top six UK retailers, who release hotly anticipated Christmas adverts every year, including John Lewis,...

4 January 2022 | Advertising

Doritos launches augmented reality summer campaign

Bag of doritos

Doritos has launched its ‘Make Your Play’ platform, a campaign aimed at encouraging music fans to return to events this summer as social distancing restrictions continue to ease.

The campaign will utilise augmented reality (AR) technology developed by Poplar Studio and 8th Wall on interactive posters throughout the UK.

Those who spot the posters can scan a QR code and access the AR experience, where a play button stylised in the form of the iconic Dorito chip will be...

7 July 2021 | Advertising

Are you dialling in? Best practice for virtual and hybrid presentations

The past year has brought a magnitude of changes for the marketing teams that most people thought would take a decade to take hold. The immediate impact of the pandemic was cancelled events, and sales presentations and marketing activity had to be re-geared for a virtual environment. Of course, the entire world of business communications had to change. 

The past year has condensed a huge amount of learning into a short space of time, and there’s plenty of best practice you...

14 May 2021 | Best Practice

Case study: B2B marketing is tired: How Wasabi used its entertainment roots to spice things up

Remember the heydey of jingles? The short song that accompanied commercials for your favourite products, one that would start playing in your head out of the blue even if you hadn’t seen the ad in days, weeks, months, years? Even after all this time I still find myself humming the theme for Klondike Bars, Band-Aid Brand and Oscar Meyer… maybe it’s my brain’s subliminal messaging for telling me I’m hungry.

Like any fresh marketing professional coming out of college, I...

22 February 2021 | Campaigns

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

MarketingTech 2020 review: Covid-19, CMO strategy, and compassion

How tough was 2020 for marketers amid a global pandemic? In many ways, it depended on your industry. But navigating Covid-19 was a struggle for all.

It was okay to not be okay at times, with the knowledge that 2021 will - all being well - improve, and the knowledge of the marketing best practices which emerged over 2020. As Scott Brinker put it to this publication in December: "This is stressful, but you're not alone. Everyone's in the same boat, so that makes it a little bit...

4 January 2021 | Best Practice

How marketers can streamline requests and improve productivity in 2021

Marketing teams responding to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and worldwide social tensions have witnessed their workloads, budgets, and priorities being put under scrutiny during this time of upheaval. With events either being cancelled, put on hold, or switching to a virtual environment, social media and digital campaigns along with increased demand for targeted content, have increased. Alongside this, the workforce has also moved online and those water cooler conversations and the ability to...

23 December 2020 | Campaigns

WTF do B2B tech marketers do when the world is WFH?

Technology has really come into its own this year, with broadband straining under the enormous pressure of back-to-back Zooms (“You’re on mute…”), a massive rise in online shopping, and the digitisation of so many parts of our lives. Lenin’s famous quote, “There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen” has never felt more pertinent than this year when we look at the scale of digital transformation across business and personal...

1 December 2020 | Advertising Technology

As eCommerce becomes more vital, the right content strategy is required – whatever your industry

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced marketers' hands in a variety of areas. One of the most evident is around the near-exclusivity of eCommerce - or, anything which isn't bricks and mortar.

Writing for this publication in July, Joel Davis, co-founder and CEO of Mighty Social, noted the need for change in messaging. "Take into account that during the crisis many consumers closely re-evaluated their consumption habits, what they define as essential products, as well as how to live...

17 November 2020 | Best Practice