2020 resolutions for influencer marketing: Taking responsibility and control

2019 was a tricky year for influencer marketing. It started with the release of Netflix’s ‘The Greatest Party That Never Happened’ which documented how Fyre Festival’s organisers used influencers to dupe consumers, and then it ended with three well-known UK influencers unknowingly promoting a diet drink laced with cyanide.

With the spectre of Fyre Festival hanging over the industry and warnings from the ASA about ad labelling, 2019 saw more scrutiny of...

10 January 2020 | Best Practice

The rise of ‘algorithm hacking’ – and how it may be leading marketers astray

Even though Robert Burns wrote the line “the best-laid schemes o’ mice a’ men/gang aft agley” more than 200 years ago, it still resonates. In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), many brands are learning this the hard way as a new generation of algorithm hackers subvert their use of cognitive technologies.

AI is increasingly central to driving timely, personalised marketing communications. But by undermining the code they are built on, algorithm hackers...

9 January 2020 | Attribution

MarketingTech 2019 year in review: Influencer regulations, CMO battles, and social change

2019 in digital marketing, through the reporting eye of MarketingTech, has seen something of a two-pronged approach. While the exploration of emerging technologies and their use cases, from voice search to AI to blockchain, continues, it has been tempered with a more measured and nuanced focus.

While this publication found plenty of column inches to tell the stories those making the most of their technological bets this year, from Mastercard, to Starbucks – and will continue...

3 January 2020 | Advertising

Instagram and Facebook introduce features to combat fake news and bullying

Instagram and Facebook have announced the introduction of new features to help combat fake news and bullying.

In 2019, Instagram introduced a feature that filtered comments. This new AI-powered feature is an extension of the earlier one which alerts users with a warning that their caption looks similar to others that have been previously reported based on the words that are used in the caption.

The Instagram team wrote on Facebook: “Today, when someone writes a caption...

17 December 2019 | Advertising

On Black Friday, try showcasing your values instead of slashing your prices

This Black Friday, French cosmetics startup Typology won’t make a single euro cent in profit. That’s because instead of slashing prices and scrambling for customers, the company is launching a campaign called “#BlackForGood”, donating its profits to environmental charities. “This campaign is intended to be a positive and encouraging call to action for those who agree that Black Friday could be better,” says founder Ning Li.

27 November 2019 | Advertising

Like for like? Why the traditional tool of social media affirmation needed to shift

The ‘like’ was unassuming. Few anticipated that a miniature, good-willed icon of a thumbs-up could dictate corporate and cognitive wellbeing. At its best, the like has been massively generative to individual and industry alike. It’s turned people into brands, spawning influencer culture, and has reshaped global marketing.

But the like isn’t always at its best. People have died chasing them (think selfies on railroad tracks) and taken their lives for not...

26 November 2019 | Attribution

Instagram confirms it is hiding likes in the US: The agency and analyst perspective

Instagram has been dabbling in the waters of hiding likes, but with the news last week that the US was being tested the company jumped right in – and certainly made a splash in the process.

Speaking at the Wired 25 event in San Francisco, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri confirmed the rollout. The system, which has seen test initiatives take place in seven countries this year including Australia, Canada and Ireland, will mean some users, while being able to still personally see how...

18 November 2019 | Attribution

For cybersecurity marketers, a sense of clarity is desperately needed

Security marketers are all battling to differentiate the problem they are solving and how the solution or service they provide helps to solve that problem better than anyone else. Driving home this latter point isn’t always easy given how crowded the enterprise security stack is today.

According to CSO, the average enterprise organisation has 75 security products deployed on their network and even more alarming is that 20% of global employees would sell their credentials,...

15 November 2019 | Best Practice

It’s finally time to ditch the vanity metrics – and focus on these measurements instead

Today’s marketers have oceans of data at their disposal that they can use to track a nearly endless array of metrics to measure performance. Being able to eliminate assumptions and objectively evaluate campaigns is something marketers have always wanted. If they’re going to use data effectively, however, they need to acknowledge that not all metrics are created equal.

Vanity metrics are exactly what their name implies: indicators that flatter marketers rather than...

21 October 2019 | Advertising

Why it’s good to get obsessed about your customer service

Digital channels have become more pervasive for personal communications. Businesses realise they can use them in different ways to influence buyer behaviour, and marketing departments have slowly begun to add digital platforms to their technology stacks.  But with so many choices, the power has shifted to the customer, allowing them to control how, when, and where they want to interact with you.

Look at how many ways younger generations communicate with friends, family and...

24 September 2019 | Customer Experience