(c)iStock.com/adamkaz

Gen Yers may have swapped playgrounds for office spaces and Gameboys for smartphones, but since the launch of Pokémon GO, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d fallen into a timewarp back to the mid-’90s.

The game – which uses GPS to transform landmarks in a player’s locale into gyms and Pokéstops, and AR to fuse physical and virtual worlds...

(c)iStock.com/AdrianHancu

Only three eCommerce brands have featured in a list of 20 top brands in a recent customer engagement report by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

The research delved into the relationships customers have with retail brands, but while only three eCommerce names appeared on the list, Amazon topped the list with one in four consumers saying it was their favourite.

1,000 consumers were asked to name their favourite retail brand and were...

(c)iStock.com/Mlenny

Uber launched its own food delivery service UberEats as a direct competitor to Deliveroo on 16 June. Almost instantly we spotted Deliveroo was bidding on UberEATS brand terms on Google (‘Uber eats’ and ‘UberEATS’).

In paid search marketing, brand bidding occurs when someone searches for a trademarked keyword representative of your brand, and is presented with an advert from a competitor.

Using a trademarked term in your adcopy is against Google’s regulations...

(c)iStock.com/George Clerk

The Economist Intelligence Unit recently revealed that customer experience is driving brand equity more than ever. Challenged to engage audiences in the age of the empowered consumer, some of the world’s most iconic brands are turning to experiential brand homes in an effort to break through the clutter and build deeper brand loyalty.

Successful brand homes, such as the Guinness Storehouse...

We’ve heard a great deal about how the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to transform our lives and change the way business is done. With IoT, everyday objects have network connectivity which allows them to send and receive data and making these objects smart.

For brands, this poses an enormous opportunity to connect and engage with consumers in unprecedented ways. So what has this got to do with packaging?

Packaging can connect to the new world of content and deliver value. This increases engagement...

(c)iStock.com/Leonardo_Patrizi

In the same week we’ve written about why brands should get serious about Snapchat’s ad offerings, influencers from its community - including marketers and brands - have announced they'll be speaking at the world’s first ever Snapchat event in London this September.

While not directly affiliated with Snapchat itself, influencers and large brands are already...

Rebranding a company is no mean feat for a marketer, particularly one that’s been around for over a decade.

But for Nihal Pekbeken, whose previous roles include VP of marketing for Ticketmaster and positions at NBC Television, the whole process was a satisfying challenge.

Pekbeken joined online platform Rated People as chief marketing officer around eight months ago, a site that connects tradespeople with those looking to do home improvements.

In the last year,

(c)iStock.com/Martin Prescott

Google has once again stolen a lead as the top brand in the 2016 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, pushing Apple back into second place.

The analysis, by WPP and Millward Brown, shows that Google has achieved a brand value of $229.2bn – up by nearly a third (32%) on last year. Apple meanwhile fell 8% from its 2015 brand value to $228.2bn.

Google’s success is said to be largely thanks to a focus on continual innovation, increased advertising sales and the...

Today, data is how we do business. In the space of just over a decade, data has gone from obscure entity, to secret weapon, to a must-have for any brand wanting to weather turbulent economic times and grow.

It has revolutionised consumer insight and, as a result, we have seen brands get up close and personal with their customers as they come to understand exactly who they are and what makes them tick.

The way we use data has also evolved. Brands no longer just use the information they capture about their...

(c)iStock.com/narvikk

The impact of the internet on productivity and growth in the Chinese marketplace has been nothing short of transformational and the revenue potential that this emerging eCommerce market offers makes China a very tempting digital business proposition. 

According to a report from the McKinsey Global Institute, the projections are that new internet apps could fuel seven to 22% of China’s incremental GDP...