30
Jun

Email Marketing – How to stay relevant

By the end of 2017, it’s predicted that there will be 4.6 billion email accounts. To stay relevant you have to adapt to your customers, here’s how to perfect your email marketing strategy. Motion In 2017, emails with videos and GIFs will capture more engagement than static emails. Video – By 2017, video will control 69% of consumer internet traffic Video – Businesses that use video in email campaigns report a 55% increase in their CTR GIFs – The motion in the inbox creates a standout email with increased engagement Contextual Emails In 2017, 7% more emails will land in…

29
Jun

Ten years on: how the iPhone has changed the world of marketing as we know it.

As the iPhone celebrates its tenth birthday on 29 June, the smartphone is more important than it ever has been. It is our most personal device. In fact, many of us would rather lose our keys than our phones. Today, in a world of Audible’s, Uber’s and Deliveroo’s, we are just one click away from convenience and many of us can’t live without our smartphones. This, in no small part, is down to the iPhone. The iPhone revolutionised the mobile phone. It was Steve Job’s vision of integrating the mobile phone with full-colour touchscreens, full internet browsing and MP3 that…

21
Jun

Spotify builds collaborative playlist tool for Facebook Messenger to get people talking music

  Music streaming company Spotify has introduced a social element into the creation of music playlists by integrating a new feature with Facebook Messenger. The comms channel that boasts over 1bn users is historically open to third party developers with Facebook encouraging the creation of bots, games and features that can be housed natively in the service. Spotify is the latest company to embed into that platform looking to inject a degree of fun into playlist creation which enables users to personalise their experience and theoretically expand their time in app. Called Group Messenger, the feature has been pitched as…

19
Jun

Growth despite Google scandal, digital ad spend hits £10bn

Digital advertising spend grew 17.3% in 2016 – its fastest rate of growth for nine years – pushing it above the £10bn mark for the first time, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau [IAB]  and PwC’s annual digital ad spend report. The growth was driven by a marked rise in mobile ad revenues, which were up a headline-grabbing 50.8% to £3.87bn. Mobile now accounts for 38% of all digital ad spend in the UK – up from just 4% five years ago. Mobile now dominates formats including video ad spend (63%). It also took a 76% share of content and…

16
Jun

McDonald’s walks away from Olympic sponsorship three years early

McDonald’s has severed ties with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after ending its contract three-years early. The US fast-food chain has ended its sponsorship with immediate effect after the two parties “mutually agreed” to end their 41-year long relationship. McDonald’s cited its reason for walking away from the deal early as part of a wider business strategy intended to facilitate global growth. In a statement, Silvia Lagnado, the global chief marketing officer at McDonald’s, said: “As part of our global growth plan, we are reconsidering all aspects of our business and have made this decision in cooperation with the IOC…

15
Jun

Facebook to offer brands access to a new generation of human-like chatbots

Facebook is set to usher in a new era of advanced chatbots by offering brands access to a new breed of bots capable of negotiating and thinking ahead in a similar manner to humans. Such a development would further bridge the gap between AI and humans, representing a sea change from the relatively simplistic interactions offered by current gen bots. To do this Facebook’s researchers are working on ways of training its bots to think beyond the here and now by presenting them with conversations between real people as they negotiated deals. In this way super smart programs can be…

14
Jun

Where Next for Flexible Branding?

  Branding styles and trends are ever changing – from the hand painted calligraphic signs of the forgotten age to neon, ever-moving brands of today. Every few years a new style comes into fashion (or more often, back into fashion). Flexible identities is the trend that’s been developing in the last four to five years. Every few months you’ll see an article labelling it as the future of branding. But is it really? Let’s find out. Let’s look at flexible identities from the past, the present, and looking forward to where this trend might go in the future. Some brands…

13
Jun

The First Ever Laser

On May 16, 1960 Physicist Theodore Maiman created the first laser light, by using a synthetic-ruby crystal device. He wasn’t the first to ever develop the theories behind lasers. However, he was the first to create an operating laser device. The light produced by this device was not a true beam as we think of most lasers today, but rather a pulse. Other researchers created the first laser beam shortly after.