Is ‘measurement culture’ killing creativity?

Data has redefined the marketing game in the last decade. Before, marketers would pump content out to their chosen medium and judge its success based on any increase in sales. Now, they sit on top of a pile of data that can tell them exactly how their campaigns are performing.

But is this ocean of data putting the focus of modern marketing too heavily on analysis, measurement and insight at the cost of creativity?

This seems to be a common view, according to a survey of 250...

17 April 2018 | Best Practice

Consumers want customisation and service while brands offer discounts

New research provides further evidence that marketers are missing the mark when it comes to personalisation. According to Epsilon’s report, there is often a disconnect between marketers and the consumers they are trying to reach, centring around a misunderstanding of what the latter actually want from personalisation.

In a survey of consumers, the company found that 32% want brands to customise their offerings to suit them and their specific needs, while another 32% thought that...

12 April 2018 | Personalised Marketing

UK Lords call for action on digital advertising

The UK’s digital advertising industry should take greater steps to self-regulate, according to a newly published report from the House of Lords Communications Committee.

The advertising industry is seen as a success story of the last few decades. The UK advertising in a digital age report claims that the UK is a global hub for the ad industry, adding £120 billion and over 1 million jobs to the economy in 2016.

The industry is, however, in a state of flux. Evidence...

11 April 2018 | Advertising

Case study: Personalised messaging helps reassure consumers making their first ‘adult’ purchase

Despite the relative anonymity of the internet and ecommerce transactions, some people can still be a little uncertain when it comes to making certain more, ahem, risqué purchases.

The adult retail industry (think lingerie and adult gifts) has some fairly unique challenges when it comes to new customer acquisition. The main factor at work here is first time buyers being worried about whether or not the purchase is ‘normal’ and whether they should be embarrassed or...

10 April 2018 | Personalised Marketing

Smaller agencies filling gaps of declining AOR model

Business leaders at large multinational companies that work with marketing firms are still mostly relying on Agencies of Record (AOR). A new survey carried out by the Economist Intelligence unit for Globality asked 307 multinational business leaders with annual turnovers of £1bn, finds that 58% currently use an AOR.

But, as many companies face pressure to create more value from their marketing strategies, many are beginning to move away from large agencies and towards smaller...

9 April 2018 | Best Practice

Instagram and Facebook limiting data access for third-party developers

Both Facebook and Instagram have made changes that will limit the amount of data that third-party developers can access, as the company is still reeling from the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The news came as a shock to many developers, especially the scale of the changes. Instagram has instituted a 96% cut to how often software developers can pull data from its API for mobile apps. The API now allow permits third-party apps to request 200 data updates an hour, down from the...

6 April 2018 | Social Media Marketing

Apple releases GDPR privacy features

Apple has provided details on a number of new privacy features it will be rolling out in order to comply with the incoming GDPR regulations.

CEO Tim Cook said that the company would be implementing the four privacy management tools so that consumers have the ability to obtain a copy of their data, can request a correction of data and deleting or deactivating their account.

The tools will be available on the Apple ID account page in the EU in May, before they are rolled out...

5 April 2018 | Big Data

Spotify grows ad revenue by 63%

Spotify seems to have got through its first day of trading as a public company without any major disasters. The company had looked to avoid the big theatrics that can characterise an IPO with a launch that was different in a number of key ways.

The launch didn’t involve the traditional roadshow for investors, the company did not hire any banks to stabilise the price and it did not force existing shareholders to agree to a lock up period.

New figures from Standard Media...

4 April 2018 | Advertising

23% of UK population listened to a podcast in the last month

According to Acast, the podcasting boom is still well underway, with a survey of 1,335 adults showing that 23% had listened to at least one in the last month.

The company has launched a quarterly Audio Intelligence report to rack audio consumption habits in the UK, US and Australian markets.

“This research is crucial to understanding where the industry is headed,” said Susie Warhurst, UK Director of Content. “The more we know about how people behave and what...

29 March 2018 | Video & Audio Marketing

Majority of students considering taking a break from social media

Students are often portrayed as hyper-connected to the world around them through social media, unable to go anywhere without flashing a quick selfie and unable to eat out without logging a couple of artistically filtered shots of their food.

This perception could, however, turn out to be a little off the mark. The last few years have see the shine come off the social media craze of the last decade, with many people beginning to wonder if constant connection to your peers can have...

28 March 2018 | Social Media Marketing