Need a framework to help your brand stand out? Streamline your brand strategy framework with our tools and templates to cut through the noise
Right now, brands are going through an identity crisis like never before. In the age of digital disruption and bad omnichannel marketing, it can be tough for branding to unify marketing communications effectively. Like your customers, you need to refresh your approach to digital to keep your brand relevant today. But it's easier said than done. We recommend using a brand strategy framework, such as the RACE Framework, to streamline your branding and keep everyone on track.
With a defined brand framework in place, you can strategically manage your brand with trusted data and processes in place to optimize your brand marketing and win more customers. Interested? Find out more about managing your brand with a brand strategy framework, plus our recommended tools to reach, convert…
Christmas advertising is bigger than ever, but are brands delivering festive cheer this year? We've taken a look at the biggest Christmas adverts from 2019
It seems like Christmas advertising starts earlier every year, with brands determined to make an impact with high-budget ads that tell stories and promote a festive feeling as well as their products.
But is this push actually paying off or are brands failing to deliver the messaging that people want at Christmas time? We've taken a look at Christmas ads from some of the biggest UK brands to see whether they think they were worth the marketing budget.
Ikea - James Story
Making a Christmas-appropriate advert that avoids all the hits (Santa, snow, large present boxes, etc.) is a challenge and Ikea takes a decent stab at things here. It’s distinct, but I’m struggling to get past…
Programmatic advertising to grow in 2020, Google faces new lawsuit, Aldi has top Christmas ad and TV ads are "least risky" option
New forecasts have suggested that programmatic advertising could reach record investment this year, with its popularity continuing in 2020.
Google is back in court with a company suing for damages due to the tech giant's anti-competition rules.
UK consumers have named Aldi's Kevin the Carrot as the top Christmas advert this year.
A new study has revealed that TV could offer the least amount of risk when it comes to advertising channels.
We've got all the details for each of these stories with this week's news roundup.
Programmatic advertising expected to grow in 2020
Despite rising concerns over digital ad fraud and brand safety, it seems as though programmatic ad spend is going to continue to increase in 2020.
The latest forecast from Zenith shows that around 69% of media will be traded programmatically by…
Creating a solid seasonal SEO strategy is key to leveraging the peak buying period to its full potential.
Seasonality can make or break an online business.
Failure to get your business ready for the holiday season may result in lost customers, bad reputation and loss in online visibility.
Creating a solid seasonal SEO strategy is key to leveraging the peak buying period to its full potential.
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Here's how seasonality works in digital marketing and what you should do to optimize your site for the upcoming holiday season:
What is seasonality and why SEOs should care
Seasonality refers to regular and predictable trends recurring every calendar year. Different industries may be impacted by different seasonal trends but it is hard to…
O2 experienced a major network issue, the UK government has published a selection of Facebook's internal documents and Iceland's banned Christmas advert has been named 'most powerful' of the festive offerings
While the news has been fairly slow this week in the digital and marketing worlds, Facebook's ongoing struggles following the Cambridge Analytica scandal are continuing. The UK government has now released some documents seized from the social media platform, which includes some interesting internal emails.
One of the biggest stories of the week is O2's massive network issues yesterday (Thursday, December 6th), which left millions of customers without access to their data and many people unable to make calls or send texts.
Ending on a positive note, Iceland's banned Christmas advert has been named the most powerful of all the festive adverts of 2018 - leaving many of the big-budget ads at the bottom of the pile.
Find out more with this week's news…
Unusual Tactics To Help Small Business Win The Holidays
I’m writing this article on the morning of Black Friday, just after I cleaned out my inbox of all the promotional emails I had received from retailers about their special offers.
There were about 10 promo emails in my list. I opened two and clicked through from only one. The others were unceremoniously archived.
This sums up the challenge that small businesses face during the holidays.
Markets have gotten more saturated and enterprise-level marketing technology is readily available to everyone. Instead of competing on a level playing field, it’s harder to reach your customers and bring them back to your store.
This is especially true during the holidays when there are so many retailers (some with massive marketing budgets) vying for the same attention and dollars.
I’ve always liked…
Automating your marketing is key in such a busy marketing period, find out how RedEye’s Head of Future email suggests it is done
Summer is long gone and the Bank Holidays have been exhausted for the year. While ‘normal’ people start to stress about when to put their central heating back on, us marketers are in full planning and panic mode. Two key events loom before us: Black Friday Weekend, and of course the run up to Christmas. It’s all become rather stressful.
With more and more focus on the few weekends left of the year before sales season takes over, it’s more crucial than ever for brands to implement perfectly executed, strategic marketing experiences for shoppers on the approach to Christmas. Brands are not only at war with their competitors, but with the expectations from previous years’ performances and their customer’s expectations (all searching for the next big bargain).
Take a little…
Chart of the Day: Ecommerce becomes the preferred method for Christmas Shopping among UK consumers for the first time ever.
Ecommerce has notched up double-digit sales growth every year for over a decade now. In certain markets, like white goods or electricals it really dominates, where as in others, like FMCG it's miles behind bricks and mortar stores.
It's the time of the year where consumers are thinking about where to buy their Christmas prezzies and marketers are thinking about putting their lovingly developed Christmas marketing plans into action. This year we've got some seriously good news for ecommerce marketers. Bobatoo surveyed over 2000 UK consumers and found that almost two-thirds plan to conduct the majority of their shopping online this year. This is a huge jump on the 2015 figure, when the majority of consumers said they would be conducting most of their shopping in physical stores. If the figures are to be believed,…
Slides, videos, white papers, design galleries, articles and more (+ five quick tips)
Q4...one number and a letter that has heart racing at retailers everywhere... There are lot of great sources to help you with your Christmas and year-end email efforts. In this post I have summarised what I see as the best of the bunch to help your planning & preparation, strategies & tactics, and email design.
(Be sure to read through to the end for some quick bonus tips, too.)
Preparation and planning:
Useful articles and white papers:
19 holiday email planning tips
A month-by-month guide to holiday marketing success
Email marketing holiday planning calendar from ExactTarget and a checklist from Silverpop:
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Strategies and tactics:
A selection of ideas, examples and screenshots:
The retail email guide to the holiday season (from 2012)
The Top 12 marketing tips for the holidays
10 holiday gift…
