VC John, Accenture – The future of sustainability marketing

Could you tell us a little bit about Accenture and your role within the company?

Accenture is a global technology and consulting organisation. And it's divided into three markets. So you have North America, Europe, and then the rest, which are called the growth markets, collectively. 

My remit covers the growth markets, and it has two components to it. The first is as the sustainability innovation lead as part of the growth and strategy organisation. The second is...

29 November 2023 | Best Practice

Nearly 95% of internet users use social media platforms

The social media space has grown tremendously in recent years, becoming an inevitable part of everyday life for billions worldwide. Today, social media platforms count more users than ever, and their number keeps rising.

According to data presented by OnlyAccounts.io, as of October 2023, nearly 95% of all Internet users used social media platforms, or 4% more than last year.

Social Media Users Growing Faster than the Global Internet Population

Although the...

28 November 2023 | Customer Experience

Brands are wasting $600m+ in ad spend during the holiday season

A dog wearing an elf hat.

Brands are wasting hundreds of millions in digital ad spend during the holiday season, according to a new analysis by CreativeX, a technology company powering creative decision-making for the world’s largest brands.

The analysis, which assessed over 3.9 million ads from 2021-2022, from 400+ brands across 10 different industries including retail, food and beverage, and consumer packaged goods, found that brands spent over $600m worldwide on ads that are not digitally suitable...

27 November 2023 | Advertising

90% of Brits don’t know how companies use their data

As Black Friday approaches on November 24, millions of Brits are gearing up for the annual shopping sales event of the year, eager to snag the best deals.

However, amid the frenzy of discounts and promotions, Forbes Advisor, the price comparison and financial guidance platform, is reminding consumers to be vigilant about how companies handle their personal data.

A recent study from technology experts reveals that almost nine in ten (88%) Brits are concerned about how...

22 November 2023 | Big Data

85% of consumers not interested in using AI

There is a stark disconnect between what brands believe consumers want and what they really need from their online shopping experience this holiday season, according to research from Storyblok, a content management system (CMS) category specialist.

Despite global fanfare surrounding ChatGPT, a global survey of 1,000 consumers reveals that 85% aren’t interested in using AI to help them decide on purchases. Additionally, if offered an AI recommendation, 60% said it wouldn’t make...

21 November 2023 | Automation

55% of marketers report managing more than 1,000 assets and five channels 

Enterprise CMS Storyblok's survey of 500 senior marketers has revealed that marketers are increasingly becoming overwhelmed by the volume of assets and communications channels they need to manage. 

The increasing complexity of marketing is leading to more mistakes and time lost to admin tasks. For example, 37% of marketers say they spend between 5-10 hours each month simply managing their assets, with 27% saying they have lost more than 10 hours to this routine...

20 November 2023 | CMO

itsu picks TMW Unlimited as new CRM agency

itsu has appointed TMW Unlimited, part of UNLIMITED, as its new CRM partner - the first time the brand has appointed an external CRM creative agency.

The company, which sells Asian-inspired, healthy food, recently reported record monthly revenues, 73% growth in year-on-year restaurant sales and a record number of restaurant openings.

TMW Unlimited will begin work immediately on evaluating itsu’s existing loyalty programme and defining the new customer engagement...

16 November 2023 | Branding

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure utilised by Microsoft for Bing conversational search

A telescope by a lake.

Oracle has signed a multi-year agreement with Microsoft to support the explosive growth of AI services.

Microsoft is using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) AI infrastructure, along with Microsoft Azure AI infrastructure, for inferencing of AI models that are being optimised to power Microsoft Bing conversational searches daily. Leveraging the Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, Microsoft is able to use managed services like Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to orchestrate OCI...

14 November 2023 | Organic Search

Darabase launches ‘world-first’ property inventory platform for outdoor AR advertising

Darabase has launched its global property inventory platform for augmented reality (AR) advertising campaigns, darabase.io.

The platform enables property owners to register their Property's Digital Rights (PDRs), set rules about what digital content can be displayed in their locations, and receive an additional income stream from AR advertising in the real world. It also sees the introduction of a marketplace for PDRs.

With an estimated 1.4 billion AR-enabled devices...

13 November 2023 | Advertising

Amazon Ads unveils AdTech capabilities to improve advertiser outcomes

Amazon Ads has announced a host of new capabilities across campaign planning, activation and measurement that give advertisers more control over the audiences they reach and faster, more actionable insights into ad performance.

Kelly MacLean, VP of Amazon DSP, said: “Advertisers tell us demonstrating the impact of their marketing is their biggest challenge, and that they are still having difficulty measuring performance across the customer journey. They need more actionable...

8 November 2023 | Advertising