Getting to grips with social media intelligence – and how brands need more empathy post-Covid-19

DMWF Whether it is social media intelligence, social media monitoring, or social 2.0; call it what you will, the need for speed and clarity has never been greater to ensure your competition does not rush over the hills and far away.

Take McDonald's as an example. The company analysed five years' worth of social mentions and tallied up thousands of requests from customers who couldn't understand why pancakes were served for lunch. As product launches went, it was a...

28 August 2020 | Advertising

How democratising data has been vital for healthcare brands during Covid-19

Session When the Covid-19 pandemic first hit globally, supporting organisations in healthcare took on a significance never seen before. Cloud-based software and infrastructure, helping to share information more easily between teams and keep resources afloat, became crucial.

Many of the world's biggest cloud companies - whose revenues admittedly go well into the billions each month - were able to help. Google Cloud helped provide several public Covid-19 datasets free to the Johns...

25 August 2020 | Best Practice

Why R&D is ‘the wind beneath marketing’s wings’ at Coca-Cola: AI, analytics, and more

Session Even if you are one of the biggest and most recognisable brands in the world, it never pays to stand still.

Coca-Cola is a particular case in point. For years, the soft drinks behemoth regularly topped the charts as the world's most valuable brand. Yet in 2013, according to Interbrand's rankings, Apple took Coca-Cola's crown, ending its 13-year unbroken stay at the top and moving it down to third, behind Google. As of 2019, Apple and Google remain one and two, with...

24 August 2020 | Automation

Moving from reactive to predictive marketing: Three steps from Brandwatch to get your data analysis on track

DMWF How can marketers be more predictive, rather than reactive? It is a question which makes B2B life so rich - and marketing software providers so much richer.

Today's marketing professional has a near embarrassment of riches to choose to put in their arsenal; dashboards filled to the brim with insights, analytics to deploy wherever and whenever; social monitoring tools to spot opportunities - or threats - lurking beneath the surface. Yet it's not about the size of your toolkit...

20 August 2020 | Best Practice

Consumers who rely on social media for news are less informed. Where do we go from here?

Opinion A major new study from Pew Research has found US adults who predominantly get their political news from social media are less likely than other consumers to closely follow major news stories. But what is underpinning this?

The study, which analysed surveys conducted between October 2019 and June 2020, argued that US adults who rely most on social media for news tend to be younger, are less likely to be white, and have lower levels of education than those who use several...

6 August 2020 | Content Marketing

Branding best practice: Exploring how to create a brand which cuts through the noise

Webinar Having a strong, unified brand image is a must in today's noise-heavy, social-amplified marketing landscape. With the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic added in, it is even more indispensable.

The recent 2020 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands Ranking, put together by WPP and Kantar, is a gold mine of information when it comes to assessing why the biggest brands dominate as they do. As with previous rankings, the influence of technology is apparent: seven of...

4 August 2020 | Branding

Machine learning for marketers: Getting the strategies and processes right

Webinar Machine learning has the potential to transform marketers' operations - but organisations need to overcome various hurdles to achieve success.

Writing for this publication at the end of last year, Phil Midwinter, CTO at Third Foundation, said organisations needed to make a 'serious commitment to data and digital via ML and AI' in 2020.

To achieve this, you not only need the right data, but also the right tools to read between the lines. Artificial...

16 July 2020 | Automation

Retailers have a long way to go for autonomous supply chains, says new report

The process of automating the retail supply chain is a slow one according to new research - but the desire for change is strong.

The Retail Supply Chain Digital Readiness report, from Blue Yonder and WMG, University of Warwick, found that of more than 100 global retailers surveyed, only 15% have advanced autonomy in their supply chains.

For those who aren't there yet - level three and four, representing prescriptive or autonomous supply chains respectively - more than...

9 July 2020 | Automation

CMOs maintain optimism for post-Covid marketing budgets despite fears, says Gartner

Marketers are adopting a 'stoic' attitude to their marketing budgets post-Covid-19, but it is an opinion not widely shared by their C-suite colleagues.

That is the top line finding from the latest Gartner CMO Spend Survey, which found almost three quarters (73%) of CMOs expect the pandemic's negative impact to be 'short-lived.' The after-effects, according to heads of marketing, are expected to turn positive within 18-24 months, with CMOs reporting increased investments across...

6 July 2020 | Advertising

Facebook: Zuckerberg says ad boycott will end ‘soon enough’ as Oxford study explores impact

As the number of companies boycotting Facebook continues to grow, a study from the University of Oxford argues an 'immediate' negative impact could result, particularly in the retail sector.

Various major brands, including Adidas, Coca-Cola and Starbucks - with PlayStation the latest big name to join - are withdrawing advertising to pressure the social network into taking a stronger stand against hate speech.

According to the Information - with the story's veracity later...

3 July 2020 | Advertising