Assessing the 2021 landscape: Commerce aligned with social set to rocket as brands truly digitise

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that massive disruptions can happen overnight across industries, with customer communication responsibilities from marketing to care often falling to the social media marketing team. The trends we at Socialbakers have seen take shape this year -- from increased usage of social messaging to recruiting niche influencers to help expand social reach -- are likely to grow in the coming year as more and more customer interactions happen...

14 December 2020 | Advertising

Scott Brinker: “Times are stressful, but this is the state of modern marketing now – let’s just embrace it”

The Marketing Technology Landscape, the ultimate who's who of the martech space from social to data and everything in between, is otherwise known as the Martech 5000. Yet that moniker, while memorable, soon became a touch mistaken as ever more companies joined the party. For the 2020 edition, published in April, there are now 8,000 vendors listed.

There was, however, plenty of interest between the lines. Data vendors saw a 25.5% growth since 2019, while management platforms saw a...

2 December 2020 | Advertising Technology

Travis Scott, J Balvin, and McDonald’s: Why some social partnerships work and others are destined to fail

If you went to McDonald’s in September, chances are you encountered Travis Scott. The prolific rapper had the first celebrity meal partnership to be featured on the McDonald’s menu since Michael Jordan’s in 1992. The Cactus Jack meal, named after Scott’s record label, replicated his favorite childhood special-order. The partnership was wildly successful. In its first few weeks, McDonald’s saw many franchises completely run out of ingredients for the meal, forcing a logistical...

12 November 2020 | Influencer Marketing

How user-generated content can be more powerful than influencer marketing campaigns

User-generated content (UGC) is quickly becoming the most popular marketing tool ahead of online influencer campaigns. The public have become accustomed to reality stars and has-been celebrities flogging whichever never-used-gadget that they’ve been paid to promote.

Since the rise of the Insta-marketeer, the Advertising Standards Authority has prescribed new rules for promoting products and services through social media platforms and online blogs, where a paid promotion must be...

11 November 2020 | Content Marketing

Content creators: Here’s how to monetise digital content effectively

Sponsored If you’re a digitally transformed organisation in the brand, publishing or broadcasting space, or any digital content creator for that matter, chances are you’ve discovered that while having a digital content strategy and a platform to share it is one thing, monetising all that great content is another matter.

For digital content creators, monetising digital content is the last great hurdle on the journey to sustainability, with traditional revenue-generating...

2 November 2020 | Advertising

How brands can stand out on TikTok for the right reasons: A guide

All eyes are on TikTok; from users who can’t get enough of its content to the US companies making a bid for acquisition — and brands are waking up to the potential.

High on the list of attractions is scale. In just two years, the video app has gone from 55 million to almost 700 million monthly active users globally. Much of that growth is down to the pandemic-driven spike in demand for digital media, but it’s also fuelled by the specific appeal of TikTok’s short-form...

20 October 2020 | Branding

How to capitalise on interactive voice advertising: A guide

Until fairly recently, advertising has been limited to one-way communications. Advertisers attempt to make lasting impressions on mostly passive audiences in short periods via billboards, broadcast, print, and other mediums. Sometimes their efforts pay off, but it’s hard to track engagement.

That’s because all brands continuously bombard people with static, one-dimensional ads. Consumers grew adept at tuning out dry or repetitive radio, TV, and internet ads — a psychological...

9 October 2020 | Advertising

Understanding the eight metrics YouTube’s algorithm uses to rank videos

YouTube can be commended for making efforts to keep the marketing community updated about its latest developments in algorithms and analytics. This article looks at some of the metrics that YouTube’s algorithm uses to recommend videos to viewers on their Home and Watch Next screens.

Click-through rate (CTR)

On the home screen, YouTube shows the most relevant videos to viewers based on how many times other users clicked on the same videos and found them useful. The same CTR...

8 October 2020 | Advertising

Why digital marketers have to keep up with emerging tech to stand out

The internet is having a moment. Forcing most of the developed world inside and online this year has officially pushed us into the next digital evolution. Among other technologies, augmented reality (AR) is on the rise. Digital marketers need to be aware of AR's vast capabilities in order to reach today's media-bombarded customers in new and exciting ways.

Augmented reality makes perfect sense in scenarios when consumers want to try goods on themselves: makeup, clothing,...

30 September 2020 | Advertising

Beyond the traditional: How YouTube is looking to turn lockdown viewing habits into a marketing win

Lockdown measures have been continuing to ease across the UK and beyond - albeit with some caveats - but there are some habits formed over the past few months that are here to stay. Being stuck behind closed doors led many people to try new things for the very first time, whether that was baking bread, a self-haircut, or working out at home instead of down the gym.

While the evidence on the streets suggests hairdressers won’t be replaced by DIY jobs any time soon, all three of...

15 September 2020 | Best Practice