How M&S increased engagement and achieved listings consistency with 1,063 stores

Marks & Spencer's St Helens store.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is a leading British retailer bringing quality, great value food, clothing and homeware to millions of customers across the UK and around the world, from everyday style on M&S.com, to the very best prawn sandwiches at convenience M&S Simply Food locations.

The problem:

M&S continued to serve its customers throughout lockdown and strived to find new ways to help them shop with confidence and find the information they need online...

18 November 2021 | Automation

Old School: The forgotten tech making a comeback with marketers

In the results-driven world of performance marketing, it can be tempting to jump from tool to tool, scrabbling at the latest must-have tech. 

Despite massive advances in the way that marketers work, at the core of many strategies lies some pretty reliable tech, which shows no sign of being dropped from the marketing mix. 

There is a reason why old tech works, there’s a layer of trust and acceptance that marketers can benefit from - big time.

Old tech,...

16 August 2021 | Automation

Alfi research shows promising growth for programmatic advertising

Half of senior advertising executives expect spending on programmatic advertising to increase dramatically over the next three years.

This is according to a survey by the Florida-based artifical intelligence (AI) advertising SaaS platform, Alfi. The research also found that, when asked to pick the three most important benefits of programmatic advertising, 94% of those asked cited automation.

Programmatic advertising involves the automated purchasing and management of...

9 August 2021 | Advertising Technology

HubSpot: Chatbot usage more than doubled during the pandemic

Hello Sign

Chatbot usage in the UK has more than doubled since 2020, with a third of all marketers now using them to engage with customers.

The findings come from marketing software provider HubSpot’s 2021 Not Another State of Marketing Report, which surveyed 1,500 marketers globally, and found that marketing and social media priorities are shifting to match developing technologies.

Part of a wider trend in the use of automation, the report reveals the acceleratory effect of the...

23 July 2021 | Advertising Technology

The next normal – The recovery will be digital

Tsunamis wipe out things quietly and quickly without giving you time to prepare and react. This is exactly how the year 2020 showed us - the overnight change. Throughout history, the most important lessons emerge from the worst humanitarian challenges. Understanding the development of human evolution motivates us to reflect on what digital transformation really means to humanity. The pandemic accelerated digital transformation. Futurist Gerd Leonard claimed that anything that cannot be...

10 June 2021 | Automation

Why automation is your greatest ally – if you use it right

As an agency owner or marketer, you’re in constant pursuit of two things: demonstrating return on investment and landing new clients. The past year has only intensified the necessity of these pursuits — especially the latter — as you likely tried to help clients through the challenges of the pandemic while shortening and digitising your sales pipeline.

When used properly, marketing automation can make your sales process more efficient and scalable. By automating tasks that...

21 May 2021 | Automation

Never underestimate AI: How retailers can predict the unpredictable

From hoarding toilet paper to shops shutting their doors, it’s fair to say 2020 was one of the most disruptive years for retailers. According to the ONS, online sales grew by 46% in 2020, compared to the previous year. With consumer behaviour changing rapidly in response to the pandemic, retailers have had to adapt and keep pace with demand. This has been the perfect use case for automation, which has proved invaluable as retailers navigate a path through disruption.

The...

16 April 2021 | Automation

Three technical trends to consider for your data-driven marketing initiatives

As we look into the future, it’s important to remember that real widespread change happens slowly for such a large industry. People have been talking about assembling customer 360-degree views and utilising “big data” for closing in on 20 years, and articles detailing how effective and popular AI will be in marketing go back close a decade.

Which is not to say change isn’t happening, but that it comes gradually, in fits and starts as industry innovators latch onto a...

14 April 2021 | Advertising Technology

Two key marketing automation tools you may be missing for your eCommerce clients

More and more, eCommerce companies and online shops are tapping digital marketing agencies to help them advertise their products online - on not just one, but multiple marketplaces. Whether you are adding eCommerce clients to the agency portfolio for the first time or working with these clients - there is a need to break through the noise by advertising on marketplaces.

Successful ad campaigns for eCommerce call for high-quality PPC ads, banner ads, text ads (expanded and simple),...

26 March 2021 | Automation

How AI can build a more empathetic future for marketing

The desire for companies to connect with the emotions of their customers is by no means a new phenomenon. For marketers, the ability to understand the emotional sentiments behind consumer behaviour has been a priority for decades. Yet it has been notoriously difficult to track these sentiments accurately over time.

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a solution to this problem. Consumers today expect a tailored experience and AI has unique capabilities to help marketers by...

2 March 2021 | Automation