The need for ‘evolved phygital’: Ramping up the experience

Little did marketers - or anyone else for that matter - realise that it would take a pandemic to turn our well established retail infrastructure on its head. Almost overnight social commerce became our new form of retail architecture. What was already prevalent in China took hold in a matter of months and continues to gain momentum in the West.

Of course, even prior to 2020 the tech was available for marketers to mesh live-streaming, short-form video and social-networking to show...

15 March 2021 | Advertising

The need for mindful marketing in 2021: Take a step back to enable a giant leap forward

An interesting timeline has been unfolding this year, the likes of which we have never seen before. In the space of about 10 months, the global mood has swung from the depths of fear and uncertainty (as the pandemic took hold) to elation (as we started coming out of our respective lockdowns) and back to restrictions and anxiety for our health, our financial well being and our future (as the second wave spreads worldwide).

The dawning realisation is that even with a vaccine on the...

27 November 2020 | Best Practice

Disrupting the eCommerce status quo: Covid-19 and digital transformation

There is no doubt there is a sense that the Great Retrenchment is upon us; yet as ever, where there is a crisis, new opportunities arise.

As Ian Altman, business-to-business growth expert and bestselling author of Same Side Selling, reminds us, the underlying product or service hasn’t changed, but the way it’s presented now has to.

Up until Covid-19 most organisations believed they had reached the pinnacle of digital transformation, when in fact they were nowhere...

23 July 2020 | Advertising

Has social distancing helped usher through the age of immersive digital?

As brands around the world respond to the ongoing disruptive trends and scrabble to re-shape the way they engage with their customers, what we are witnessing is an explosion of immersive digital experiences.

It might seem that up until a few months ago immersive digital interactions were more of a cherry on the top rather than the actual bun. Has the recent enforced social distancing changed our daily habits for good?

On the one hand we have seen a surge of digital...

1 June 2020 | Commerce

Where brands now sit amid Covid-19: Intimacy at scale in a time of crisis

Social noise is getting louder. The big social media platforms from Instagram, YouTube to Facebook have become overly saturated with content, they may be a staple for digital marketing and advertising, but it is increasingly difficult to target an audience on these platforms.

Those brands that are rising to the top are the ones that are continually refining their unique social footprint, and this is all the more relevant in these unprecedented times.

Developing and...

25 March 2020 | Best Practice

Why voice search is where the puck is going for digital

Continually riding the wave of the next ‘big thing’ in social media is certainly a roller coaster ride, and we are now on the cusp of another major change. Voice search has been growing in popularity and is starting to have a transformational impact on the way marketers can influence people to know, like, trust, and eventually buy from a specific brand.

Today’s social media landscape is driven by text and images but this is already shifting as an increasing number of...

25 October 2019 | Advertising

From A to I – Amazon to interchangeability: A guide to the future of advertising today

Digital transformation has reframed advertising and marketing to such an extent that the once familiar reference points no longer exist.  Which is why we decided to deep dive into our learnings to date to extrapolate how we believe the next decade of advertising and marketing will shape up.

From ultra-personalised as in ‘Minority Report’ to a constant stream of data fed straight into our consciousness as in the futuristic film ‘Her’, one thing is for...

12 August 2019 | Advertising

Let’s get away from ‘digital transformation’ – and move towards key marketing moments

Digital transformation has had its day. In fact, the term ‘transformation’ itself is giving way to a new era as organisations across a wide range of sectors reach what can only be described as digital saturation.

As we move collectively into the post-digital era, the digital capabilities and advantages that were once seen as differentiators are now available to every organisation. Marketers and advertisers now have the tools to understand their customers with a new depth...

7 June 2019 | Advertising

Blink and you’ll miss it: How to get the most out of short-lived social content

It is no secret that social media marketing is an ever-moving target. Up until recently there was a firm belief that the longer content remained accessible the more impactful it would be. Now, as counterintuitive as it may sound, there is a swing towards short-lived content, which has to do with Instagram’s rise in popularity.

Instagram is increasingly being seen by brands as a dynamic platform from which to share their more informal side in an almost off-hand manner....

20 March 2019 | Best Practice

Why personalised UX requires a new marketing mindset

The days when the one-directional, sweeping message of the billboard ruled are well in the past. Now, as ad blocking continues to grow in popularity, marketers are faced with the constant pressure of trying to come up with innovative ways of capturing people’s attention without being intrusive.

As we enter a new era where advertising will no longer be invasive or off-target, it looks likely that we are finally reaching the advertising Nirvana of creating a hyper-personalised UX...

29 October 2018 | Advertising