University in Italy is Offering a Degree Program In Influencing?
Yes, you read that right. eCampus, an online university with a roster of over 30,000 students, will now offer a three year degree program for social media influencing. It’s a marked shift away from traditional degree programs such as engineering or medicine, but it’s nonetheless a popular pathway for many young people. Is this new program beneficial for today’s environment of heavy reliance on social media influencers, or will it only encourage further forays into narcissism and poor self-esteem typically brought about by excessive time spent on social media? Such is the perceived impact of such a program that soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is supporting the program himself, even offering up nearly 40 grants for students as a part of…
Read MoreIs Everybody Happy?
Ted Lewis, a popular musician in the 1940s is credited with being one of the first, but certainly not the last person to say those words. While it’s not realistic to think that all employees within a company are happy, almost 80% of company executives surveyed about top business priorities cited employee experience as being number one. However, what they said and what’s being practiced are two different stories. What’s Employee Experience? In short, employee experience means recognizing and creating a workplace that environmentally and emotionally embraces and invites the entire workforce. One of the first industries to go down this path were high tech firms. Classified ads for workers included enticements like a fitness center, nursery, flexible schedules, and…
Read MoreBrands are Using Loyalty to Cut Acquisition Costs
The ongoing battle among brands today is the one raging over customer loyalty. The environment of digital marketing is shifting, and this causes competition in various forms. As more brands become aware of the importance of building a loyal customer base — while also keeping their new customer acquisition costs low — some creativity is needed to entice those customers not only to stay loyal, but to bring more people into the fold via referrals. This challenge has led to an increase in loyalty and rewards programs. For example, the recently announced Target Circle is one of the latest iterations of loyalty programs promising perks and benefits for those who choose to spend their money in Target stores. Another way…
Read MorePeople Hate Ads
That was the message nearly 100,000 attendees at the recent Advertising Week conference heard in New York from moderator on a panel of speakers talking about creativity. The speaker went on to say that today’s customer is more apt to sign up for ad-free services or skip to the end of an ad. Another panelist agreed. Add to that auspicious opening, a forecast that advertising revenue outside of political spending is expected to be down 3% this year from 2018. So, what do all these signs mean? Share of Culture One of the big takeaways from the panel discussion was talking about transitioning to achieve a share of culture in advertising. Many marketers have heard of share of category and…
Read MoreDon’t Make These Common Public Relations Mistakes
Public perception may peg the public relations industry as purely focused on “spin” and hyping up clients’ reputations. While these elements are key parts of a public relations agency’s repertoire, there is much more that goes into providing quality PR to a client. Building an effective PR strategy for a client requires a lot of attention to detail and the ability to both act proactively and also react quickly in the event of trouble. But there are many common mistakes that public relations professionals make on a regular basis, and the effects of these mistakes can be far-reaching and more damaging than it may seem at first glance. Conducting an audit of best practices within an agency can identify problem…
Read MoreSuccess Takes Time: A More Patient Approach to Digital Marketing
They say that good things come to those who wait. This can be a difficult concept to adhere to, particularly in an industry where information moves rapidly and consumers seem to shift their opinions seemingly instantaneously. But the fact remains that success in marketing does take time. As much as it may seem that time is short and a window of opportunity is fleeting, the reality is that any strategy must be given time to actually take hold and work before pivoting away from it. What do we mean when we say that a strategy must be given time to work? Consider this example: a brand has contracted with a podcast to do some advertising. The niche of the podcast…
Read MoreAI is Changing Human Communication
Communication is a vital part of the human experience: it’s how we connect, share resources, fall in love, solve problems and build the intricate networks that make up our disparate civilizations. Being such a central part of our lives, it is no surprise that we continue to expand our forms of communication to make it even easier and more efficient. These days, we have even invented ways to facilitate communication with anyone, anywhere across the world. Technology has been a driving factor behind facilitating the expansion of communication, including the invention of the telephone and the fax machine. Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies, such as the Internet of Things, machine learning, and automation, are similarly changing the way humans…
Read MoreHow Digital Marketing Can Cater to the User Experience
Digital marketing presents a unique set of challenges when it comes to reaching consumers in the right way. Typically, finding innovative ways to accomplish this is the name of the game as marketing professionals seek to set their brands apart from the rest. As advertising becomes an integral part of virtually every platform consumers use, it’s important to strike a balance and remember that the interactions a brand has with a consumer should bring value to that consumer, not drive them away in annoyance. How does a brand accomplish this? One way that many brands are beginning to target users is through interactive or rewarding advertising. Consider the example of the Angry Birds game that was incredibly popular and still…
Read MoreDigital Transformation: Buzzword and Challenge
The term “digital transformation” is a popular one in digital marketing, and is never far from the lips of senior executives and marketing consultants the industry over. The spectrum of adoption, however, is wide: some firms have already begun to leverage the benefits of a total digital transformation. Still, others are still struggling to adopt the necessary shifts to their own business operations. The concept of a digital transformation, too, is a broad one: there isn’t just one definition of what it means, and expert’s opinions are varied. “It’s not about doing ‘digital marketing’,” says Ivan Menezes, CEO at Diageo, “it’s about marketing effectively in a digital world.” According to Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group, a digital transformation…
Read MoreHow Marketing is Adjusting to the Shift in Social Media Following Trends
Recently, a meme made its way around social media. Stop following the filtered Instagram models, it admonished, and start following luminaries and intellects — people that have more intellectual power. This recommendation is a reflection of a shift in social media behaviors, and it’s one that marketers would do well to monitor and adjust their strategies as such. Keeping abreast of consumer behavior shifts is one way that marketers can stay in tune with their audiences. For example, much of the language, particularly among millennial-aged consumers, is now shifting more to self-care and acceptance. Now, brands are becoming more inclusive in their marketing, striving not to alienate any groups of consumers who have felt silenced in years past. How does…
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