Content marketing

Super Bowl ads 2013: Touchdowns & let downs

It’s that time of year again.  A time where teams come together, exhibiting strategy, tactics, and know-how to attempt to rank above others. A time where lots of careful planning and execution boils down to a “make it or break it” finale. That time of year is Super Bowl Ad season, of course.

While many advertisers gave it their best shot, only a few reigned supreme. Though there has been plenty of analysis of this topic, here’s my recount on the good, the bad and the awkward.

Demographic shifts: a social media marketer’s worst nightmare?

For digital marketers, understanding the audience a platform offers access to is crucial. After all, if you don’t know who you will be reaching, it’s all but impossible to craft messages and experiences that resonate.

The good news: digital channels are generally understood far better than their offline counterparts because users can be tracked far more comprehensively and accurately. The bad news: the make-up of digital channels can change, and sometimes quite rapidly. This is particularly true in social channels, where what’s hot today is not hot tomorrow.

Did Twitter win the Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl is arguably the most important day in advertising, and every year, as much attention is focused on Super Bowl ads as the game itself.

With social media such a big part of brand advertising today, it’s no surprise that many observers pay close attention to how social media is used by brands in conjunction with their multi-million dollar Super Bowl ads as outlined in our earlier Super Bowl post.

Become a content marketing all star. Part one: Graphadelic

In this post, I’ll discuss the best practices for obtaining content, naming and organizing content, and finally marketing your graphic content.  

This is a chance for marketing managers and business marketers to hone their content marketing skills, starting with graphics.

Content marketing strategy: an A-Z guide to success

Content marketing is currently battling ‘big data’ and ‘responsive design’ for the hottest digital marketing phrase of the year. Yet the truth is that while the label has grown in popularity, the notion that content marketing is new is something of a curve ball.

Many brands have been producing regular content for many years, and already appreciate the value of blogs, surveys, whitepapers and videos. They understand the power of content and understand how it can attract the right kind of attention. 

But what is new is that content marketing roles are being created, and teams are being restructured. Content is becoming more tactical as a result.

I see content marketing is a kind of umbrella term for five disciplines: editorial, marketing, PR, SEO and social. It is the glue that bonds these things together, and a predefined content marketing strategy can help these teams to focus on long-term goals.

In this article I’m aiming to outline the various factors behind a successful content marketing strategy, partly for our own benefit (we hired our first content marketer last summer), and partly as a thinking out loud exercise so that you can tell me what I’ve missed. Please leave any pointers and ideas in the comments section below.

Do brands need to care about Vine?

It launched, like no other social network before it, with instructions on how to create the perfect steak tartare and very quickly, became all about spam, pornography and regulation. 

Vine is one of the raft of new launches from Twitter. It’s novel, it’s got some spammy teething problems and it’s already had its first #fail. 

But, assuming that all of this can be fixed (and this is social behemoth Twitter we’re talking about, so that’s a fair assumption) what does Vine mean for brands?

Pinterest changes its look. Can it do the same for social commerce?

https://assets.econsultancy.com/images/resized/0002/8410/pin_1-blog-third.jpgImage sharing social platform Pinterest is currently testing a new look, granting access to a ‘select few’ users before rolling out changes to in the near future. 

So far, so-so. Not a day passes without social sites tinkering with their layout or functionality, but given Pinterest’s incredible performance in the realm of ecommerce referrals, this could be an important one.

Let’s take a closer look…

The four Ps of content marketing

Content marketing is everywhere. As people are increasingly using online conversations as their digital identity, the best strategy for consumer brands to engage with their audiences with is to create content they can use as their own social currency. 

Effectively, content marketing is no longer just relevant to B2B brands or consumer brands where there is a need for factual information and reviews.

Nowadays, every brand can benefit from content marketing – be it blog posts, Facebook apps, microsites or Pinterest boards.

The high street and ecommerce: friends, foes or something in-between?

Given the surge of ecommerce and the collapse of Blockbuster, HMV and Jessops, it seems bricks and mortar shops may eventually disappear.

As technology and delivery mechanisms improve, will we become a nation that stares at a screen, clicking away with a cup of tea?

Online shopping is convenient and simple. The way we research and buy online may be changing, but the High Street can still play a major part in this development.

Technology can enhance and rejuvenate bricks and mortar shopping, creating an interactive and enhanced shopping experience. 

71% of businesses plan to increase digital marketing budgets this year: report

Almost three out of four businesses (71%) plan to increase their digital marketing budgets this year, according to stats included in the new Econsultancy/Responsys Marketing Budgets 2013 Report.

In comparison only 20% of respondents said they plan to increase their traditional (offline) budgets, up slightly from 16% last year.

The average expected increase (for those increasing digital budgets) is 28%, slightly higher than the average expected increase of 26% for offline budgets.

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