Creative skills top the list for big brand marketers

A team planning with post-it notes.

Creative and production skills topped the list for brand owners and chief marketing officers (CMOs) looking to hire agencies in January, a new survey has found.

The first Marketers Most Wanted report, produced by Studiospace and based on the actual briefs posted by CMOs, also found big demand for brand strategy and user experience (UX) specialists.

The report found that 14.6% of CMOs wanted creative and production support, often on video-based projects.

The...

7 February 2023 | Branding

88% of agencies urge new digital channel adoption to drive ROI and growth in 2023

A plant growing in a glass full of coins.

Most UK media agency professionals (57%) are confident brands can drive growth with the right strategy. This boils down to one key recommendation: investment in emerging media. 88% agree their clients should be exploring new digital channels in 2023.

This was one of the conclusions from a study titled The Advertiser’s Guide to New and Emerging Channels in 2023 conducted by commerce media company Criteo.

The study of more than 800 senior media agency professionals...

17 January 2023 | Branding

40% of marketers expect increase in brand safety concerns

A hard hat on the ground.

Mediaocean, a mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, has released its 2022 Market Report and 2023 Outlook.

The bi-annual report highlights the forces driving the advertising economy as seen by industry leaders, including major changes in consumer behaviour and the overall macroeconomic environment.

In a survey conducted among 600+ leaders from media providers, advertising agencies, and tech companies, Mediaocean collected insights that focused on key...

3 January 2023 | Advertising

The metaverse will change the way we interact with brands

A cartoon of a women enjoying the metaverse.

Dave Flanagan, chief product officer at Sitecore, explains how the metaverse will change the way we are going to interact with the brands we know and love.

Fashion and retail brands are already taking impressive steps into the metaverse and creating genuinely exciting experiences for their fans. Gucci has developed virtual clothes and accessories for digital avatars, while ‘Nikeland’, a store in the metaverse, has welcomed over 7 million people to date.

Though the...

16 December 2022 | Branding

Brand switching is rife amidst the cost of living crisis

Nearly two in three (65%) marketers have had their budgets cut in line with rising costs across the business they work for, while 69% believe brand switching is becoming more commonplace, according to new research from Ello Group.

The cost of living crisis has also resulted in consumers being forced to cut back, with the data confirming 40% have had to scale back their spending recently, due to their disposable income being reduced. Almost one in five (17%) have also switched...

11 October 2022 | Branding

David Shadpour, Social Native: Why brands should focus on authentic content creation

Social Native's founder and CEO urges brands around the world to build an army of creators, and embrace user generated content.

For anyone who doesn’t know about Social Native, what's the company all about?

The name itself, Social Native, has some depth to it. In the early print days, you'd hire a big agency, they would do a photo shoot and they'd print it for you and put it in a magazine. 

Then television came out and you had to do sight and sound. You hire a big...

15 September 2022 | Advertising

Room Unlocked, Alex Payne: Authenticity and purpose in influencer marketing

Alex Payne, Room Unlocked's co-founder, discusses the future of influencer marketing and how it can successfully form part of an overall marketing strategy.

Could you tell us a little bit about what the company does?

Well, several of our clients have described us as a cross between Tinder and LinkedIn, which we quite like. Room Unlocked facilitates partnerships between interesting brands and celebrities and influencers - but our point of difference is that it is all mutually...

12 September 2022 | Advertising

VidMob raises $110 million in Series D investment round

A close up of a dollar bill.

VidMob, a platform for Intelligent Creative, has raised $110 million in a Series D investment round led by Shamrock Capital, with strong participation from a leading group of new and existing investors.

VidMob’s Intelligent Creative platform provides an end-to-end solution to help brands optimise the performance of their creative advertising assets by unifying data and analytics with creative production, delivering improved marketing performance and business results across all...

4 September 2022 | Branding

Student Beans launches tech to connect brands with 5 million potential customers

Student loyalty network Student Beans has unveiled a new brand in its audience verification technology - Beans iD.

The newly-launched tech will enable brands to provide securely gated discounts and incentives to verified members of six key in-demand consumer groups:

• Students (through Student Beans)• Graduates (through Grad Beans)• Healthcare professionals• Military and Armed Forces• First Responders• Teachers

In the UK, there are over five million...

4 August 2022 | Branding

System1 helps brands innovate and profit with ‘Test Your Idea’ platform

A glowing light bulb.

System1, a marketing decision-making platform, has launched its automated Test Your Idea functionality, which provides predictive insights on product prototypes, names, logos, packaging, straplines, promotions and more to help brands maximise profit potential. 

Test Your Idea reports highlight respondents’ emotional responses to concepts as well as their predicted acceptance of ideas and decision speed. Brands can also discover what respondents view as the main advantage of...

15 July 2022 | Branding