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Imagine how digital advertising might look in the context of real life conversation. Your prospect mentions their dream destination at a dinner party, and you begin by sharing some of the best deals for airline ticket offers with them, without asking what they really want.

After rounds of persuasion, they agree to buy the ticket, and move the conversation to a different topic. But you begin to continually refer back to the same subject – without waiting for a response, cornering...

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One of the main problems I find is that marketers are too afraid to try new things.

This seems to have changed around the time of the 2008 downturn, before which people used to receive discretionary budgets and marketing was less metric-driven than it is today.

Since then marketers have essentially become spreadsheet administrators and started thinking: “Oh look, this ROI has gone up a bit so let’s spend more on that and less on that”, whilst ignoring the big...

When it comes to marketing technology, ‘shopper tech’ has traditionally been focused on facilitating and speeding up actual transactions.  Yet new research indicates that the service exchange has evolved, with modern shoppers demanding transactions in experiences and not just goods.

According to new research from total brand experience agency Momentum Worldwide and its shopper marketing design consultancy ChaseDesign, shopper technology is no longer an extension of the store experience, but...

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The idea that personalisation alone is the be all and end all for online merchandising is wrong. Despite that, there are numerous plug and play personalisation solution providers, backed by seemingly impressive proof metrics, selling their wares to wide-eyed retailers.

Personalisation or relevance?

The distinction between personalisation and relevance is not mere semantics. They are interdependent.

Personalisation is very often limited to specific eCommerce site elements....

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Albert Camus once said “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world,” and the same could be said for businesses. Today, marketing companies have access to an unprecedented wealth of information about their customers.

With this increase in data comes a corresponding increase in the importance of operating ethically.

Ethics is the study of distinguishing between right and wrong. For any company engaging in online marketing today, this is not an abstract...

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Enterprise intelligence company Brandwatch has launched an influence and analytics tool, Audiences, to draw out campaign insights for marketers.

While Brandwatch has until now been focused on allowing marketers to search for keywords and mentions of a brand, its new tool means they can now gather social intelligence about consumers and identify influencers.

Brandwatch users can use the new tool to build custom audiences...

The way in which people engage with brands has changed. Gone are the days when it was a one-way interaction; younger demographics especially love a value-add exchange with brands they can identify with.

Chatbots have been heralded as one way of opening up the channels, but as with every new marketing tech innovation, you need to get it right. Brands need access to tech that can do the job well and not make the experience clunky and robotic.

One company that recognises this issue is...

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Data collection and the interconnectivity of the internet with daily life have changed the way businesses get to know their ideal customers. In order to identify who to sell to and how to sell it to them, companies have to understand the innate behaviours of these individuals.

Delving into this deeper realm of the consumer psyche requires constant acquisition and analysis of extremely large amounts of data and the right set of tools to uncover meaningful insights from that...

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Once considered cutting edge in the 1980s, targeting consumers based on demographic data, like age group or sex, is no longer an adequate method for increasing marketing ROI, customer acquisition and customer retention.

A 25-year-old student with little income, living with their parents, and enjoying long holiday periods is lumped in the same ‘millennial’ group as the 34-year old head of operations for a growing international business with much more disposable...

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Marketers can discuss customisation and personalisation until they're blue in the face, but unless the consumer feels the benefit, does it even really matter?

Despite the wide variety of options and offers available to them, new research has shown that many UK customers (46%) simply aren't aware they exist.

They survey, carried out by Radius Global Market Research in the US and UK, also found consumers think that brands don't always get customisation efforts right very often - less...