VC John, Accenture – The future of sustainability marketing

Could you tell us a little bit about Accenture and your role within the company?

Accenture is a global technology and consulting organisation. And it's divided into three markets. So you have North America, Europe, and then the rest, which are called the growth markets, collectively. 

My remit covers the growth markets, and it has two components to it. The first is as the sustainability innovation lead as part of the growth and strategy organisation. The second is...

29 November 2023 | Best Practice

Brands are wasting $600m+ in ad spend during the holiday season

A dog wearing an elf hat.

Brands are wasting hundreds of millions in digital ad spend during the holiday season, according to a new analysis by CreativeX, a technology company powering creative decision-making for the world’s largest brands.

The analysis, which assessed over 3.9 million ads from 2021-2022, from 400+ brands across 10 different industries including retail, food and beverage, and consumer packaged goods, found that brands spent over $600m worldwide on ads that are not digitally suitable...

27 November 2023 | Advertising

85% of consumers not interested in using AI

There is a stark disconnect between what brands believe consumers want and what they really need from their online shopping experience this holiday season, according to research from Storyblok, a content management system (CMS) category specialist.

Despite global fanfare surrounding ChatGPT, a global survey of 1,000 consumers reveals that 85% aren’t interested in using AI to help them decide on purchases. Additionally, if offered an AI recommendation, 60% said it wouldn’t make...

21 November 2023 | Automation

67% of UK’s leading e-commerce giants fall short on website performance standards   

Website design sketches.

Research from vshosting~, one of Europe’s leading providers of cloud and managed hosting services for e-commerce and IT businesses, today reveals a major performance gap in UK’s e-commerce landscape.

While UK’s largest e-commerce businesses have enjoyed significant online success, these businesses are trailing behind UK’s fastest-growing businesses when it comes to vital web metrics – a disparity that could impact future security and...

6 November 2023 | Best Practice

1 in 3 customer service agents may quit soon

Two-thirds of customer service agents report that their job is as difficult or more difficult than it was a year ago. More than one in four agents say they are unhappy in their roles, and one in three is considering quitting in the next year.

This is according to research carried out by the Call Centre Management Association (CCMA) and supported by Intradiem.

The survey uncovered a disparity between the intentions of businesses and the reality of agent life. When asked,...

1 November 2023 | Best Practice

91% of shoppers won’t purchase from brands who serve ‘intrusive’ ads

Adverts and bright signs in Times Square, New York.

Intrusive ads that disrupt consumers’ browsing experiences or shopping journeys risk lower engagement and, crucially, lost conversion and sales opportunities, according to research from Wunderkind, a performance marketing channel that scales one-to-one messages for retailers and brands.

Research of 1,000 digitally-active shoppers in Wunderkind’s latest ‘Kindness in Advertising’ report showed that 70% believe advertisers don’t respect their digital...

30 October 2023 | Advertising

Digital marketing skills show positive growth but sector demands outpace professional development 

Core digital skills marketers rely on have improved but that the growing demands of new and evolving technologies are contributing to a skills gap across the majority of industries. 

This is according to research published by the training body Target Internet, in association with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

This year’s report analyses data from more than 10,000 marketing professionals, gathered between 2018 to 2023 and highlights key short and...

24 October 2023 | Advertising

56% of UK consumers always accept cookies without thinking

A third (34%) of Brits admit that they have given up following cyber security best practice because it feels like an impossible task, according to research from Thales.

The research, which surveyed over 2,000 UK citizens, found an alarming level of consumer apathy when it came to keeping themselves safe online.

This apathy is closely tied to feelings of confusion, futility, and information overload. More than half (51%) expressed their struggle to grasp rapid...

11 October 2023 | Best Practice

Amperity recognised as a leader in Snowflake’s Modern Marketing Data Stack report

Amperity, an AI-powered customer data platform (CDP) for enterprise brands, has been recognised as a Customer Data Activation Leader in the Modern Marketing Data Stack 2023: How Data-Forward Marketers Are Redefining Strategies to Unify, Analyze, and Activate Data to Boost Revenue executed and launched by Snowflake, the Data Cloud company.

Snowflake’s data-backed report identifies the best of breed solutions used by Snowflake customers to show how marketers can leverage the...

9 October 2023 | Best Practice

Contextual-driven campaigns on YouTube drive 28% more attention than industry benchmarks

A newly-released study shows brand suitable and contextually-delivered advertising with Channel Factory delivers on average, 28% more attention than industry wide benchmarks according to leading attention measurement platform Playground xyz.

Channel Factory, which helps advertisers deliver brand suitable advertising in more contextually relevant places across YouTube, engaged with Playground xyz to deliver a comprehensive review of 76 campaigns across eight...

26 September 2023 | Advertising