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Small Business - Consumers more likely to buy products endorsed with user-generated images

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Small Business - Consumers more likely to buy products endorsed with user-generated images

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Only six percent of people surveyed in the UK (between the ages of 16 to 49) trust traditional advertising, while over three-quarters prefer looking at user-generated images (UGC), according to Olapic, which could have critical implications for brands seeking trust and engagement among consumers.

OG comments: Supports Mapp's messaging on the importance of imagery for consumer-facing content

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Only six percent of people surveyed in the UK (between the ages of 16 to 49) trust traditional advertising, while over three-quarters prefer looking at user-generated images (UGC), according to Olapic, which could have critical implications for brands seeking trust and engagement among consumers.

The report, 'Consumer Trust: Keeping It Real', which details the results of the survey of more than 4,500 active social media users between ages 16 and 49 in the US and Europe (the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden), finds that photos featuring 'real people' are trusted seven times more than traditional advertising.

The study also shows that trust has a significant impact on click-through rates and sales. In fact, over half (56 per cent) of respondents say they are more likely to click on an ad that features a user-generated images and same amount are more inclined to buy the product after seeing this kind of ad.

'And these figures send a strong message to brands about how they should engage with consumers', says José de Cabo, co-founder of Olapic.

'Social media brings streams of authentic images to consumers' fingertips, transforming how they see products and interact with brands. Today's low levels of trust in traditional advertising suggest that consumers are seeking a more honest dialogue with brands and marketers.

De Cabo adds, 'In order for brands to increase engagement and sales, they'll need to adapt to this changing landscape and communicate with consumers in the authentic visual language they crave.'

Top brands have begun to take note, using branded hashtags to increase visibility and engagement. The #NYXCosmetics campaign, for instance, shows that customers who interact with UGC have a 93 per cent higher average order value (AOV) and convert to customers at a rate 320 per cent higher than those who do not.

Similarly, up-market clothing store AllSaints encouraged consumers to upload photos of themselves wearing the brand's clothing with the hashtag #ItsUpToYou. Not only did this campaign make it easier for shoppers to browse through user-generated content; it also increased conversions by 50 per cent within the first week.

The report's findings also show that in the UK in particular, user-generated images play an instrumental role across the customer journey. More than a third (35 per cent) of surveyed Brits are interested in looking at social media photos while 'pre-shopping'-when consumers begin browsing products-and another quarter (24 per cent) turn to user-generated content while shopping online or in-store.

#Selfie

British respondents also showed a particular fondness for brand engagement on social media as almost half (48 per cent) have uploaded photos featuring a brand's hashtag. This trend is even stronger among the younger generation, with 57 per cent of British millennial respondents reporting the same.

The motivation for such social media activism is clear: 86 per cent of British millennial respondents who have posted photos with a brand's hashtag say they did it simply because they enjoyed the product.

The British appetite for authenticity has an important impact on the bottom line, as Brits we surveyed are twice as likely to buy a product endorsed by real people over models or celebrities.

Although all verticals are affected by these trends, the fashion industry is particularly susceptible; in an age marked by heightened consumer backlash against Photoshopped models, 38 per cent of Brits told us they seek ads that feature real people before making a purchase in fashion.

Further reading on social media marketing

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Consumers buy products endorsed with user-generated images

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Only six percent of people surveyed in the UK (between the ages of 16 to 49) trust traditional advertising, while over three-quarters prefer looking at user-generated images (UGC), according to Olapic, which could have critical implications for brands seeking trust and engagement among consumers.

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Campaign - UK adspend slows to 5% as Brexit to take effect says Zenith report

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Campaign - UK adspend slows to 5% as Brexit to take effect says Zenith report

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Brexit will further weaken a slowdown in UK adspend in the coming years, Zenith has forecasted, with advertising growth set to halve to 5% this year.

OG comments: Useful to note for future Brexit comments impacting the industry

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The Publicis Groupe media agency's Advertising Expenditure Forecasts says UK adspend will be down on 2015's 9.2%. Last year Zenith had predicted UK growth of 9.7% and hailed it as "stellar... the fastest growth rate of any mature market".

Although the slowdown began before the vote to leave the European Union in June, Zenith said the Brexit impact is likely to weaken growth "over the next few years", while global ad expenditure will remain steady at 4.4% this year and in 2017.

Zenith forecasts UK adspend to grow at between 3% and 4% in 2018 and 2019.

However, Group M's global forecast is more sanguine about the UK, where it says Brexit "has not impacted advertising" even if it has impacted financial markets.

Last year Group M revised its UK forecast up to 7% for 2016, thanks to a surge in digital adspend growth and its latest report, published today, says its 7% forecast remains unchanged.

Both Zenith and Group M's latest forecast, published today, say global adspend is forecast to grow 4.4% in 2018. Zenith further predicts global adspend to be 4.1% in 2019, matching a trend since 2010 when growth has hovered between 4% and 5% annually.

Meanwhile, social media adspend will become larger than newspaper adspend. Zenith predicts social media will account for 20% of all internet advertising in 2019, up from 16% in 2016, and is growing at 20% each year.

By 2019, social media adspend will be $55bn (£43.5bn), just 1% smaller than newspaper advertising, and will overtake newspaper spend the following year.

Worldwide growth in smartphone usage has led to an explosion in growth of social media platforms - particularly Facebook, which has sought to confound ad-blocking technology by blending ads seamless into its news feed.

Online video advertising is growing almost as quickly as social media at 18% a year and by 2019 is forecast by Zenith to total $35.4bn globally, fractionally ahead of radio advertising ($35bn). However, video adspend is forecast to be less than a fifth of TV adspend at 18%.

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UK adspend slows to 5% as Brexit begins to take effect, says Zenith report

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The Publicis Groupe media agency's Advertising Expenditure Forecasts says UK adspend will be down on 2015's 9.2%. Last year Zenith had predicted UK growth of 9.7% and hailed it as "stellar... the fastest growth rate of any mature market".

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Ad Age - Amazon swings into header bidding with cloud-based service for publishers

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Ad Age - Amazon swings into header bidding with cloud-based service for publishers

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Amazon plans to announce a cloud-based header bidding solution aimed squarely at publishers as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

OG Comments: Flagging this as it's useful to know for future programmatic comments

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Amazon plans to announce a cloud-based header bidding solution aimed squarely at publishers as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Header bidding has become one of the most important areas of ad tech because it lets publishers take more offers for their ads at once and gives advertisers a more even shot at inventory. Google and Facebook are gearing up to fight today's ad-tech vendors for publishers' business in the space, but now face the prospect of a very potent new rival.

An Amazon representative declined to comment for this story.

The state of the art in header bidding is something called a header bidding wrapper or container, which makes installation and management easier and doesn't bog down page loading as much.

Amazon isn't labeling its header bidding solution a wrapper because it will be integrated in the cloud, but it seems poised to offer publishers similar advantages. Ad requests will be handled on the server instead of in consumers' browsers, for example, which may mean less lag time loading web pages. The entire auction process will occur in the cloud, the people familiar with the situation said.

Others have pursued similar approaches but the jury is still out, according to observers. "None of them are good right now and no one has one that is truly server-to-server," said a high-level ad tech executive, who asked to speak on the condition of anonymity to protect industry relationships.

Amazon might be the exception to the rule because it already operates a sophisticated business in cloud computing services. It's also regarded as a header bidding pioneer -- as a buyer of advertising.

Now it is moving to the other side of the table, to help publishers better sell online ads.

The move might loosen Google's grip on programmatic ad dollars, which has historically been strong. Header bidding already seemed to be giving Facebook an opening to challenge Google, acknowledging nearly three months ago that it was working on an approach to connect the demand in its Audience Network with publishers via header bidding wrappers.

Header bidding provided by ad-tech vendors has been a thorn in Google's side ever since it took off with publishers in 2015. To stop the bleeding, Google has come up with its own solution similar to header bidding, but it remains in early testing.

"I see this as the titans have been quiet for a very long time and now they've all activated," said another high-level ad tech executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Publishers are likely to be receptive. "People are listening," the executive said. "The way publishers view the world right now is they signed away their fate to Google and the DoubleClick For Publishers-Adx empire. Header bidding is the most recent event that allows publishers to take back control and manage adjacent to DFP and Adx. And a lot of publishers like being in control. Publishers enjoy driving the car."

Programmatic ad spending in the United States is expected to grow at double-digit rates for the next several years, according to a September report by eMarketer, which said it was set to reach $25.23 billion this year. Overall, programmatic will represent 73% of all display ad spending in the U.S. in 2016, eMarketer said.

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Amazon Swings Into Header Bidding With Cloud-Based Service for Publishers

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Amazon plans to announce a cloud-based header bidding solution aimed squarely at publishers as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter. Header bidding has become one of the most important areas of ad tech because it lets publishers take more offers for their ads at once and gives advertisers a more even shot at inventory.

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Research Live - Male, Marries and Millennial Consumers are Most Engaged

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Research Live - Male, Marries and Millennial Consumers are Most Engaged

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New research on customer engagement has revealed that millennials, men, and married people have the highest levels of engagement. Customer engagement specialist Affinion partnered with Oxford BrookesUniversity to survey 18,000 consumers in 13 countries and develop a customer engagement metric.

OG Comments: We wanted to share this as an FYI

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Customer engagement specialist Affinion partnered with Oxford Brookes University to survey 18,000 consumers in 13 countries and develop a customer engagement metric.

The metric - a score of between one and 100 - is intended to show how engaged people are based on their responses to a series of questions about their relationship with their bank, mobile phone provider and favourite retailer.

Results showed that millennials ( 18-34 year-olds) had the highest level of engagement with all three of these: they had an overall customer engagement score of between 67-70 ). Meanwhile the 65+ age group had an engagement score of only 61.

Married respondents also showed higher levels of engagement than singletons: 67 compared with 64; men showed stronger bonds with their banks ( 68 ) and mobile providers ( 65 ), while women had stronger bonds with their favourite retailers ( 69 ).

The global average engagement score was 66: the UK had an average combined score of 63, while Scandinavian countries showed the lowest scores, ranging between 58-60.

"This is the first model of its kind to map the engagement process in this manner," said Janine Dermody, marketing and consumer psychology professor at Oxford Brookes. "Its credibility is not only derived from rigorous testing but also the robustness of the dataset underpinning it.

"The model clearly shows a pathway from initial consumer awareness of a brand, to someone becoming a customer, the building of a relationship between brand and consumer and increasing engagement which finally leads to the ultimate goal for businesses - to create a loyal customer base."

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New research on customer engagement | News

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Customer engagement specialist Affinion partnered with Oxford Brookes University to survey 18,000 consumers in 13 countries and develop a customer engagement metric. The metric - a score of between one and 100 - is intended to show how engaged people are based on their responses to a series of questions about their relationship with their bank, mobile phone provider and favourite retailer.

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Pure Content - Experiential Marketing Driving ROI and Reach for Big Brands

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Pure Content - Experiential Marketing Driving ROI and Reach for Big Brands

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Live event marketing is quickly becoming one of the best ways for big brands to boost engagement by delivering exciting experiences and personalised content to end-users. A new study has found that three-quarters of consumers are more likely to buy products and services if they are being promoted at branded live events.

OG Comments: We wanted to flag this piece as we haven't seen the media talking about experiential marketing too much recently, so this could be a good opportunity for Mapp to share their message on the subject

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Live event marketing is quickly becoming one of the best ways for big brands to boost engagement by delivering exciting experiences and personalised content to end-users. A new study has found that three-quarters of consumers are more likely to buy products and services if they are being promoted at branded live events.

Experiential marketing is defined as an "on-ground" strategy that invites and encourages consumers to be a part of the evolution of a brand. These new and highly creative initiatives tap into social media platforms by encouraging live streams, selfies, snaps, Tweets and written posts, which amplify the reach of the event and enable publishers to glean real-time insights that can be used to inform and enrich marketing campaigns.

Live events, which can range from small activations to huge sponsorships, are also great for driving direct return on investment via immediate sales, on-site sign-ups and customer data. In an era where real one-to-one engagement is becoming a challenge for brands, these events provide a means to creating rich, emotional and lasting connections with consumers.

The CEO of experiential agency George P. Johnson, Chris Meyer, said: "This is being driven by three things: 1. A shift in preferences by millennials who not only expect but prefer experiences over any other engagement. 2. Data-driven platforms that allow hyper-personalisation and much stronger metrics. 3. Heightened creative thinking applied to experience design to create unique and valuable interactions. Experiential has finally taken its place at the adult table as it relates to marketing mix and investment."

A new report published by the Event Marketing Institute has found that 72 per cent of consumers have a positive outlook on brands that deliver quality event experiences and content, while 74 per cent are more likely to buy a promoted product. Experiential is emerging as a key strategy for brands, as more than half of the marketers surveyed said that they would now be increasing the amount that they spend on live-participation marketing.

Netflix recently used experiential for the promotion of its new Gilmore Girls series, which has a strong millennial audience. More than 200 coffee shops in the US were transformed into the fictional diner in the show, while agency Allied Experiential was brought in to determine the locations that would best drive its reach.

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Experiential marketing driving ROI and reach for big brands

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Live event marketing is quickly becoming one of the best ways for big brands to boost engagement by delivering exciting experiences and personalised content to end-users. A new study has found that three-quarters of consumers are more likely to buy products and services if they are being promoted at branded live events.

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The Drum - Marketing lures inspired by Pokémon Go

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The Drum - Marketing lures inspired by Pokémon Go

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Brands and advertisers are known for jumping on viral trends to help build their own brands. And this case is no different. Many marketers now see Pokémon Go as an enormous opportunity to get their brand in front of new audiences, or to provide something unique for gamers that will get them talking and build conversations about the brand in social media.

OG Comments: We wanted to share this as an FYI, as it was interesting to see marketing tied into the subject of viral mobile gaming.

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If you haven't heard of Pokémon Go, it's time to crawl out of that cave. If you live in a major city, you would have seen crowds of people (heads buried in their smartphones) diligently hunting for the nineties era cartoon characters. Office lunch conversations are now all about where to hunt down the rarest Pokémons.

Many people are calling this a viral sensation - for good reason. Some estimate that there are as many as 9.5 million people playing the game daily.

Brands and advertisers are known for jumping on viral trends to help build their own brands. And this case is no different. Many marketers now see Pokémon Go as an enormous opportunity to get their brand in front of new audiences, or to provide something unique for gamers that will get them talking and build conversations about the brand in social media.

Here are some Pokémon Go inspired marketing lures set by businesses both large and small.

Retailers have started regularly sharing Pokémon Go related content in their social channels. They are also encouraging fans and customers to join in by sharing their own sightings at the retail locations. This is a huge draw for customers and also a great way for brands to engage with their fans.

In addition to taking advantage of the buzz around the game, these updates are driving considerable foot traffic to both large businesses like Target and smaller shop owners.

Businesses who have caught on to the "lure" function of the game are using it to entice customers to visit their stores for some Pokémon hunting while enjoying special promotions. A 'lure' brings a high number of Pokémon to a specific place for a limited time - and has been proven to bring a lot of people with it. It's a great way to increase traffic over a period of time, and with that comes the opportunity to get in front of new customers.

In the past, the words "augmented reality" sounded like a made-up technology that was many years away from reality. As is the case with a lot of technology that's new and not widely used yet, people didn't pay much attention to it and it wasn't on the radar of brands at all.

With Pokémon Go, augmented reality was made accessible to a huge number of people very quickly. No special technology or fancy glasses are needed to have a great time playing the game - you just need your phone and the app.

Although this was created before the Pokémon craze, IKEA's innovative strategy is a great example of how marketers can leverage augmented reality. With the insight that many people return IKEA furniture because they find it doesn't actually fit their space, IKEA created an app that allows people to use their phones to see how a piece of furniture would fit in their homes.

As with anything viral in nature, it's possible that the Pokémon Go craze will disappear as rapidly as it came along. Being able to quickly leverage something that's current and popular with the masses is a way to show you're a timely and relevant brand. It also helps you get in front of new customers whom you may not have had a chance to connect with otherwise.

Another piece of great news for marketers - the game's developer has confirmed that it will be adding sponsored locations for retailers in the future. Looks like the game is here to stay for a while. So go out there and Poké the heck out of it while you can!
Winner of Facebook's Innovator of the Year, ReFUEL4 is the world's leading data-driven creative platform, delivering assets from 10,000 global creators backed by predictive AI technology. Learn more here.

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If you haven't heard of Pokémon Go, it's time to crawl out of that cave. If you live in a major city, you would have seen crowds of people (heads buried in their smartphones) diligently hunting for the nineties era cartoon characters. Office lunch conversations are now all about where to hunt down the rarest Pokémons.

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Econsultancy - Seven examples of Black Friday email marketing from retailers

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Econsultancy - Seven examples of Black Friday email marketing from retailers

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Your email inbox was no doubt flooded with Black Friday offers last weekend. But did any of them actually make you want to buy something? Following on from our article on how UK brand promoted the event online, here’s how seven retailers executed their email marketing campaigns.

OG Comments: We wanted to share this as an FYI, and an example of successful Black Friday marketing campaigns from 2016

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But did any of them actually make you want to buy something?

Following on from our article on how UK brands promoted the event online, here's how seven retailers executed their email marketing campaigns.

ASOS

Let's kick off with one of the best of the bunch.

ASOS executed a pretty heavy email campaign, first mentioning the event nearly an entire week beforehand.

While this might sound a little excessive, the emails are still quite subtle, designed to build excitement and get customers in the mood.

When the real event finally kicked off, ASOS used a discount code with the promise of 20% off all items.

Just imagine the regret if you forgot to enter the code at the checkout...

It also promoted the Black Friday offer on top of an existing sale of 'up to 70%'.

It's not clear whether the items here were any good, but the email copy sure does makes you want to go and have a look.

Likewise, ASOS's subject lines were nicely done, reinforcing the brand's young and conversational tone of voice.
For more on ASOS, read our post on eight checkout design features that make its site great.
House of Fraser

Unlike ASOS's strong but subtle approach, House of Fraser went overboard on the emails this year, as shown in the screenshot of my inbox below.

The actual emails were fine - they nicely promoted the array of discounts on offer.

It's just a shame they were sent every day for a week, which could be enough to put off even the most loyal customers.

On the plus side, despite going down to 30% off, the emails become get more targeted as the week wore one.

The one below obviously takes into account my previous interest in womenswear.

Zara

In contrast to the aforementioned example, Zara took a very restrained approach, only sending out two emails in total.

As well as being underwhelming (in terms of the discount and the creative) - the subject lines were pretty boring to say the least.

With no indication of how big the offer or how long it'd be on for, I'd be surprised if it received many click-throughs.
For more on Zara, read 'Six reasons I love Zara.com (and a few reasons I don't)'
John Lewis

Surprisingly, John Lewis wasn't very impressive either.

Again, with no indication of the amount of money customers might save, it doesn't give much incentive to click through.

Another thing I found interesting was that its Sunday email - sent when the weekend event was still running - used an entirely unrelated subject line.

This was despite the fact that the email itself was Black Friday related.

Maybe the retailer was trying to be subtle? It just felt a bit misjudged to me,

However, with John Lewis traditionally more focused on Christmas, perhaps Black Friday was deliberately underplayed.

H&M

H&M's emails on and around Black Friday were strong.

With a bold and concise message of 20% off plus free delivery - customers were left in no doubt as to what they could expect.

Furthermore, I also like the fact that its emails included editorial-inspired content, motivating customers with how they could style their bargains rather than just promoting the sale.

The only factor that let H&M down was its slightly dull subject lines.

Not bad - just a bit lacklustre. Still, at least they're concise.

Debenhams

On to Debenhams, and it demonstrated a good amount of variety in its emails.

As well as giving customers a heads up on what was to come, it also included original content, such as a 'Top 10' deal countdown and editorial-inspired imagery.

By incorporating more variety into its messaging, it feels less salesy, meaning customers are less likely to dismiss it as Black Friday noise.

You can read how Debenhams' site redesign led to ecommerce sales growth in this article.

Threadless

Finally, an interesting approach from US retailer Threadless.

On the Wednesday before the event, it sent out this email offering an exclusive 40% off code that expired before the Black Friday deals began.

While this might sound like it'd have limited impact as people would just hold out for Black Friday, it's obviously an attempt to foster customer loyalty for the long-term.

By using a personal tone - even sending it from the Founder of the company - it is designed to make customers feel valued.

A refreshing surprise just before Black Friday hit, it made for one of the most memorable emails of the week.

On to the actual Black Friday emails, and Threadless promoted it with a Christmas-themed creative.

This could also prove effective for getting customers to think about the festive period (and why they might want to come back again soon).

Finally, hats off to the brand for including an original and humourous subject line in its Cyber Monday email.

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Seven examples of Black Friday email marketing from retailers

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But did any of them actually make you want to buy something? Following on from our article on how UK brands promoted the event online, here's how seven retailers executed their email marketing campaigns. Let's kick off with one of the best of the bunch.

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Marketing Tech - What are the adoption barriers of self-serve programmatic platforms?

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Marketing Tech - What are the adoption barriers of self-serve programmatic platforms?

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Despite the clear strategic business advantages, programmatic platform adoption is still often met with significant resistance from some advertising agencies. There is no doubt that change can be difficult and requires costs and investment. Programmatic platform adoption (self-service operation) can be disruptive as it may touch operations, billing, and human resources at any advertising agency.

OG Comments: This is a good opportunity for Mapp to contribute their own article on this topic, looking at it in more detail

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Despite the clear strategic business advantages, programmatic platform adoption is still often met with significant resistance from some advertising agencies. There is no doubt that change can be difficult and requires costs and investment.

Programmatic platform adoption (self-service operation) can be disruptive as it may touch operations, billing, and human resources at any advertising agency.

More often, however, the perception of barriers are often much greater than the reality, thus halting or delaying platform adoption.

Many of these concerns apply to the adoption of any self-service programmatic technology platform. The concerns can be placed into three main buckets: resources, cost, and risk. Upon inspection, however, each of these challenges actually aligns with the underlying core benefits of making the switch.

Overall, the return on investment greatly outweighs the 'costs' of implementing the change.

As self-service operation continues to evolve and platforms become even easier to use, with even more features, the investment into programmatic will only continue to return investment as you get better insight into your ideal customer and data on your marketing campaigns.

No resources for an in-house platform

The lack of knowledge around any business change can naturally provoke confusion and fear about the proposed change. Regarding self-service platform operation, a common legacy concern is that an entirely new team of individuals will need to be recruited to run said platform.
All platforms have multiple safeguards that enable capping buys on a daily level, as well as at a campaign level
The current reality is that often a single platform operator can efficiently run a massive amount of budgets at scale-and typically the operator is an entry or mid-level media professional with little or no prior media trading experience. The time spent previously on managing vendors, complex RFP processes, and spreadsheets can now be directly applied to the application and optimization of the digital media budget.

On an individual level, those who invest to learn platform operation often realize rapid career development and advancement.

As programmatic becomes an even bigger percentage of total display advertising spend, those platform operators will be the key to success for many agencies. Training one person now on platform operation will only continue to be an asset to any company.

Self-service is costly and confusing

Due to the scale of the market opportunity, billions of venture investment dollars flowed into the marketing and advertising technology space over the last ten years. This investment created an environment of continual and rapid innovation-what was once complex is now highly intuitive. And what was once expensive is now highly affordable.

Furthermore, with ad tech investment significantly reduced in the last three to four years, the Darwinian effect ensures that only the strong, usable, and practical platforms survive thus forcing scores of inferior vendors/platforms out of the marketplace.

The result for buyers is now fewer, higher quality software suppliers in the marketplace. Thus, as discussed, with minimal education, most media professionals can become adept at running platform(s) in a short period, with minimal commitment and financial investment.

What if we spend $1m instead of $1000?

This perceived risk can apply to many scenarios including budgeting, creative, targeting, etc. But generally speaking, all platforms have safeguards built in to mitigate against any catastrophic risk.

Speaking to potential overspend, all platforms have multiple safeguards that enable capping buys on a daily level, as well as at a campaign level.

Furthermore, campaigns can be peer and/or vendor reviewed before going live. And with real-time reporting data (and often automated reports), plenty of informational access is available to safeguard against egregious planning. But even with operational risk highly mitigated, self-service operation certainly carries risk of mistakes.

As with any new technology adopted, there is always the potential for risks.

But the overall reward of self-service platform operation greatly outweighs the respective risks. It is a common business pattern that those who are willing to (smartly) assume the risks will reap the rewards.

The perceived risks can seem like enough to push anyone away from adopting programmatic.

But, once a deeper dive is taken into the reality associated with each risk, the benefits continue to show investment of in-house adoption of programmatic is worth the cost associated.

Additionally, as programmatic continues to innovate and become even more widely used, adoption barriers will start to disappear, and marketers and advertisers will be more willing to invest.
This is an adapted excerpt from "Adoption of Self-Serve Platform Operation by Advertising Agencies" free whitepaper by Choozle.

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What are the adoption barriers of self-serve programmatic platforms?

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Despite the clear strategic business advantages, programmatic platform adoption is still often met with significant resistance from some advertising agencies. There is no doubt that change can be difficult and requires costs and investment. Programmatic platform adoption (self-service operation) can be disruptive as it may touch operations, billing, and human resources at any advertising agency.

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Econsultancy - Four top digital priorities for B2B marketers: Report

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Econsultancy - Four top digital priorities for B2B marketers: Report

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Back in 2014, Econsultancy's B2B Digital Trends report showed content marketing to be the top priority for B2B marketers. So, nearly three years later, have things changed?  Here are some key charts taken from our latest B2B Digital Trends report in association with Adobe, highlighting four areas of focus right now.

OG Comments: Now is a great time to start thinking about our own predictions and priorities for 2017.

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So, nearly three years later, have things changed?

Here are some key charts taken from our latest B2B Digital Trends report in association with Adobe, highlighting four areas of focus right now.

Playing catch up on content optimization

While the below chart shows content optimization to be the biggest digital priority for B2B organizations in 2016, it is interesting to note that this was top for B2C marketers two years ago.

Today, while optimization still remains important for B2C, personalization and targeting have taken precedence.

If this is anything to go by, it wouldn't be a surprise to see B2B marketers citing the same in 12 to 24 months down the line.

For now, catching up on optimization remains the most pressing matter, as does marketing automation, in part reflecting the continued importance of email campaigns.

Data-driven marketing will be key

Looking even further into the future, it appears that B2B marketers aren't thinking too much in terms of technology innovation or major channel shifts.

Rather, they foresee improvement within a current area of opportunity - data.

More specifically, mastering the tools needed to analyse customer data correctly and optimize the customer experience.

While B2B marketers clearly understand the opportunity data presents, many companies report barriers due to lack of training, resources and involvement from management.

Implementing a strategy to underpin CX

With optimising customer experience cited as the most exciting opportunity now and in five years - what are the elements needed to achieve it?

On a scale of one to five, 50% of marketers rank strategy as 'most important to success'.

While the aforementioned element of data is crucial to developing compelling customer experiences, it is likely to be lost without an overarching strategy to guide decision-making.

Optimising across multiple touchpoints

Lastly, we can see that a big priority for B2B marketers is bringing together all of the above, combining them to create a seamless experience for customers across all channels.

Despite a lack of focus on mobile, delivering a consistent message across all customer touchpoints is still thought to be most important priority.
For lots more information, download the full B2B Digital Trends report.

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Four top digital priorities for B2B marketers: Report

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So, nearly three years later, have things changed? Here are some key charts taken from our latest B2B Digital Trends report in association with Adobe, highlighting four areas of focus right now. While the below chart shows content optimization to be the biggest digital priority for B2B organizations in 2016, it is interesting to note that this was top for B2C marketers two years ago.

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ITProPortal - Do CMOs understand what makes creative customer experiences?

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ITProPortal - Do CMOs understand what makes creative customer experiences?

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The challenge facing all enterprises is to create and maintain the best consumer experience in a digital landscape that is becoming increasingly chaotic. I believe that there is a strategic need for Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) to lead their organisation through the change process and this requires insight from these business leaders.

OG Comments: This could be a good opportunity for Mapp to pull together some top tips, or a byline piece to answer this question.

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"For organisations of all types, the migration towards digital marketing operations offers a host of opportunities and threats - the winners will be those that best understand the technology landscape and how it can influence the customer experience," so says Jon Williams, Senior Vice President at Aprimo.
The challenge facing all enterprises is to create and maintain the best consumer experience in a digital landscape that is becoming increasingly chaotic. I believe that there is a strategic need for Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) to lead their organisation through the change process and this requires insight from these business leaders.

To date, customer experience (CX) technologies have been focused primarily on creating and mapping customer workflows, with some focus on analytics to drive the journey. But how do marketing organisations align to match each journey's step with the right campaign, message, or content?

Whenever was CX simple? What an organisation needs in their customer experiences is a mixture of innovation and creative flair, the correct blend of emerging technologies and consumer convenience. One thing we know for sure is that our experiences with brands have changed and evolved over recent decades. However, whilst the customer's experience changes, the fundamentals of marketing haven't - there is still a lot of work to do to ensure a marketing organisation can align to and match the wide array of activities from its brand.

This is further compounded when driving a synchronised customer experience. Consumer communication channels have grown exponentially, so what do we do when the communication landscape is this chaotic?

Marketing operations support

As we know, channel complexity and content needs are on the increase. Yet our resources continue to remain a constant, which directly contributes to a CX gap. It's just not possible to deliver a great consumer experience at scale, in the best areas, in a cost effective, efficient manner without operational support.

So, what kind of marketing operations support is required? There are several issues that marketing organisations need to address. To be consistent marketing organisations must understand what is going on and when. Without this there is no way of knowing or controlling the communications eco-system.

Design: Anything that is designed must be tried, tested and reviewed. CX is no different. Are organisations applying the same rigour to CX as they do to other marketing activities?

Data Driven: as with everything, the better the data the better the output. CX initiatives should be driven from insight and strategy which works for the business, not against it.

Aligned: The driver for an ultimate experience is alignment. CX must work in partnership with the other things organisations do and it shouldn't be considered as a separate silo.

The CX solution

So, how do CMOs help their organisations move from chaos to an ordered existence? To date, CX technologies have been focused primarily on creating and mapping customer workflows, with some focus on analytics to drive the journey. But why is it that we ignore the fundamental steps necessary to get there? The CX machine is missing an engine to power it. When we consider CX in its environment it's an important piece of the puzzle yet still just one thing for marketers to wrangle with.

We still need to plan, budget, create and distribute campaigns whilst measuring performance, this must be part of an overarching strategy for all CMOs. CX Operations is that machine, that driving force - facilitating, governing and distributing CX initiatives whilst aligning it to everything else happening that affects the customer in one way or another.

How can CX Operations deliver a set of essential capabilities? To start, how do organisations plan their CX operations? Are they well formed, aligned to the business objectives?

Next, do they know how much initiatives for CX actually cost the business and how can the CMO attribute this to ROI? And during the creation process do they apply the same rigour to ensure it meets the demands, and are they able to catch problems before they enter the public domain? Once completed, how do marketing organisations ensure their CX operations are distributed correctly and accurately? And arguably the most important of all, do marketing organisations have an engine as the heart of CX strategy to ensure they are performing and they can prove it?

A question of CMO mindset

Some marketing teams think they are just getting on with it like everyone else and they don't need that engine complicating things. But actually, a recent study found that only 16 per cent of CMOs questioned were delivering customer experiences that truly fulfil their brand promises, so what about the rest?

Two thirds say their efforts are hit or miss. Wouldn't they like more visibility into what is going on from a CX perspective so that they can concentrate on the things that make a difference?

CX Operations exist to manage the multitude of resources required to execute against the many content and channel requirements of CX interactions. Today, there exists an operational backbone that enables organisations to deliver a consistent high quality customer experience efficiently and cost-effectively. One of the biggest CX challenges facing CMOs is to identify the need for change and to trust in the transformative potential that marketing operations technologies can bring to their customer's experience and thereby their organisation's bottom line performance and profitability.

Initially, it is a question of mindset - once we overcome that we can start to help these organisations exploit the considerable opportunities that are present in today's digital environment.
Jon Williams, Senior Vice President,

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Do CMOs understand what makes creative customer experiences?

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"For organisations of all types, the migration towards digital marketing operations offers a host of opportunities and threats - the winners will be those that best understand the technology landscape and how it can influence the customer experience," so says Jon Williams, Senior Vice President at Aprimo.