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#MarketingTitbits – Instagram Followers, CoolBrands 2015, Google’s 18th Birthday

instagram-coolbrands-google1. Instagram now has 400 million users
It’s been 5 years since Instagram’s release, and the image sharing app’s growth shows no sign of slowing down. Earlier this week Instagram announced that it now has 400 million monthly active users, compared to just 300 million in December last year.

Instagram has now doubled its user base in the short span of just 18 months, which stands in sharp contrast to Twitter, which continues to struggle with user growth. Of course, Instagram still has a long road ahead of them before they catch up with Facebook; however, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom previously credited Facebook for helping the company achieve such a rapid growth.

Click here for more information.

2. Luxury brands lose their ‘cool’ status as digital challengers climb the ranks

Whilst luxury brands appear to be losing their ‘cool status’, digital distributor brands like Netflix and Instagram are moving up the CoolBrands list, according to a survey of 2,500 British consumers and a panel of 36 key influencers.

Apple has managed to retain its position as the UK’s coolest brand for the fourth year running, and Ray-Ban continues to climb high; however, new-comers such as Spotify, Instagram and Netflix are notable inclusions.

To see the top 20 CoolBrands, click here.

3. Celebrating Google’s 18th Birthday

Google’s domain name was first registered in 1997, making this year its 18th birthday. To celebrate this special occasion, Google shows us what each algorithm update was designed to achieve and their influence on content marketing today.

The algorithm updates have been demanding and disruptive to say the least; however, the impact has astounding. In theory, businesses are able to differentiate their brand from the competition, increase traffic to their website and customer loyalty, just by meeting or exceeding Google standards for content quality – it all sounds so easy right?

To see the algorithm updates since 1997 and the impact they have had, click here.

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#MarketingTitbits – Facebook’s Dislike Button, Marketing Campaigns, Google’s Q2 Report

dislike-lightbulb-google 21. Why Facebook’s ‘dislike’ button will be both a challenge and opportunity for brands

Facebook features such as ‘like’, ‘share’ and ‘comment’ have been very popular with their users, and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has now confirmed that a ‘dislike’ button is finally joining the Facebook family. However, brands fear that the new feature could easily create brand embarrassment.

CMO at the Post Office, Peter Markey, believes the ‘dislike’ button could overtake the amount of likes for a brand, causing an uncomfortable situation that needs to be managed carefully. In contrast,  Telefonica’s UK head of strategy, Jonathan Earle, believes the new feature will help engage a new audience and will provide valuable information.

If you ‘like’ the sound of the new feature, click here to read more.

2. 5 of the cleverest marketing campaigns in recent times

In the last few years we have seen some of the memorable marketing campaigns from brands but have they stuck in your mind?

Remember the ‘Dress’ that sparked a lot of attention earlier this year? Dunkin’ Donuts didn’t hesitate to seize the social media moment. They posted a photo of two different donuts – one blue and black, the other white and gold – with the caption, “Doesn’t matter if its blue/black or white/gold, they still taste delicious”.

To see these 5 clever marketing campaigns and draw inspiration, click here.

3. Do your search results stack up against Google’s Q2 report?

Earlier this year, Google published very strong Q2 results, leveraging in particular the continued success of YouTube on mobile devices. However, at the same time they reported a significant decrease in average cost-per-click (CPC).

As many industry observers have already highlighted, the average CPCs are gradually decreasing due to new geographies; however, major markets, such as the UK, are seeing an increase of CPCs on desktops. One major UK retailer reported a 30% increase in their CPCs over the last two years, but will this continue?

Click here for more information.

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#MarketingTitbits – Edible Adverts, Queen Flakes, Design Mistakes

nakd-queen-email1. Nakd erects an edible advert to get customers trying its goodies
This ‘delightfully different’ snack brand created by Natural Balance Foods, set up shop outside London’s Shepherd’s Bush Westfield shopping centre this week with an edible billboard made up of their fruit and nut bars – what a tasty idea!

The main objective for the campaign was to showcase Nakd’s wide range of products available, but to also promote how healthy and convenient they are. The range of snack bars formed the words “Find Your Fave” – encouraging consumers to find and taste their favourite flavour.

Click here to read more about their ‘nutty’ campaign.

2. Queen Flakes, gingerbread loyalty and more as brands celebrate Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth II became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch last week, surpassing the previous 63 years and 7 months record held by Queen Victoria. Her Majesty spent the day in Scotland away from the limelight; however that didn’t stop brands from getting involved.

Kellogg’s caught our attention last week with the creation of special ‘Queen Flakes’, which went on sale at Manchester’s Black Milk Cereal Café. Meanwhile, Billingtons have been baking gingerbread men, supposedly the Queen’s favourite biscuit.

To see how more brands have been celebrating, click here.

3. 7 email newsletter design mistakes to avoid

Sublime-looking emails can be easily created with the help of popular email marketing services; however, even small design errors can have a massive impact on the success of the marketing campaign.

Marketing on mobile devices has been proven to be very successful; however, it can also be very tricky to get right. Email marketing templates are now accessible for brands to use for their campaigns, ensuring that the email looks great on small devices, regardless of the dimensions.

Click here to discover 7 email design mistakes.

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#MarketingTitbits – Rugby World Cup, Snapchat Campaigns, Logo Colour Swap

rugby-snapchat-colour 21. A marketer’s essential guide to the Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup, taking place in England and Wales this year, is regarded as one of the biggest sporting spectacles on the planet. This year, the tournament is predicted to have 20,000 hours of broadcast coverage, making it potentially the most commercially lucrative to date.

So what does this mean for marketers? Newspaper group Trinity Mirror believes the Rugby World Cup presents vast opportunities for advertisers to reach the UK population. Research shows that 66% of us plan to follow the tournament this year, providing a massive opportunity for marketers to showcase their brand!

The tournament is fast approaching, so click here to find out more about making the most of the marketing opportunities it will generate.

2. Five seriously creative Snapchat campaigns and their results

Social media has proven to be an effective marketing platform; however many marketers still aren’t using it to its full potential. Snapchat may not seem like an obvious choice for some marketers, but some of the most successful brands are using the platform to run intriguing and effective campaigns.

Brands such as McDonald’s and Calvin Klein have excelled with their targeted campaigns, all with the help of Snapchat. Calvin Klein developed a campaign whereby celebrities were asked to produce selfies and share on Snapchat. The impact was considerable, with Calvin Klein experiencing 140,000 content views and a 15% increase in Snapchat engagement.

Click here to find out more about 5 effective Snapchat campaigns.

3. Here’s what 22 famous logos would look like if they swapped colours

We already know that simplicity is often key to a successful logo. Likewise, if you’ve spent hours agonising over colour combinations, you’ll appreciate the importance of getting the balance right? A Brazilian graphic designer, Paúla Rupolo, recently experimented with swapping brand logo colours with one of their competitors, and the results have been brought to us by AdWeek.

Click here to see what the impact is of switching the brand colours of Sprite and 7UP, Real Madrid and Barcelona, UPS and Fedex, Amazon and Ebay and more.

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#MarketingTitbits – Masters of Marketing, Instagram, Google Analytics

award-photo1. Get your nominations in for brand of the year at the Masters of Marketing Awards
Marketing Week are seeking nominations for the ‘brand of the year’ category at the Masters of Marketing Awards, held at this year’s Festival of Marketing. They’re on the hunt for their readers to name the brand whose work has impressed them the most in 2015.

The Masters of Marketing is a new way of celebrating the most inspirational work in the marketing industry. The ‘brand of the year’ must be capable of showing the power of marketing to the wider business community, as well as demonstrating marketing excellence to their consumers.

To find out how to nominate, click here.

2. How Instagram is changing the way brands look at photography, online and beyond

Instagram has completely reinvented the way people see themselves and others. Design teams are beginning to see the benefits of moving away from over-edited photography and instead are favouring Instagram’s more organic look.

As Nathan Iverson states, evp and design director at Deutsch LA, “Instagram certainly isn’t pioneering the use of effects, but it is resurrecting and evolving an old-school aesthetic”. For advertisers, the network has quickly become one of the top ad platforms for major brands, so designers are beginning to move from traditional designs in favour of content that looks more natural.

Click here for more information.

3. How to stop referral spam from screwing up your Google Analytics stats

Google Analytics users will know the dreaded task of finding ways to stop referral spam, but we might have found the solution. Referral spam has been a trend for the last year or two, and is virtually impossible to prevent. It occurs when some corrupt website owner attempts to send bogus referral traffic to a website or product; however this is not actual traffic.

So how do we get rid of referral spam? Econsultancy shows us how Google Analytics filtering allows the website owner to filter out any concerning referral traffic so they can’t interfere in the future.

To find out how to do so, click here.

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#MarketingTitbits – Periscope, millennials and social media platforms

periscope-millennials-social-smaller1. Periscope has 10 million users but advertising is ‘nowhere near top of mind’
Since its launch back in March, Periscope has gained huge popularity and has gone on to sign up more than 10 million users. Yet despite reaching this impressive milestone, Periscope’s CEO, Kayvon Beykpour, has said that the company is not focused on users, but engagement levels instead.

Unlike parent company Twitter, the platform is choosing to brush big marketing campaigns to the side so that investment can be made into developing their product. However, Periscope is not the only live streaming service available, as established sites such as Facebook begin to join the band wagon.

Find out more on their unusual approach by clicking here.

2. Millennials and mobile: what marketers need to know

Millennials are often a mystery to marketers; they have never experienced a world without the internet and will soon account for one third of all retail spending. But one thing that millennials are not a supporter of is traditional advertising.

According to a new article by Econsultancy, marketers need to catch their attention by appealing to their sense of adventure through curating content that is amusing, exciting and entertaining. Millennials value personalisation with a brand, and with more looking to vloggers or social media sites for inspiration, this is more important than ever.

Click here to find out more.

3. 7 social media platforms that could explode before 2016

During the last decade, social media has experienced exponential growth thanks to the opportunities that it provides to the modern marketer. Forbes has compiled a list of the top 7 platforms that could explode onto the scene this year and threaten the reign of Facebook and Twitter.

The list features fairly new companies such as presentation sharing site, Slideshare, and Hyper, which combine the ideas behind the likes of Instagram and Reddit. However, the inclusion of one of the ‘original’ social networks may surprise you.

Take a look at the full list here.

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#MarketingTitbits – social media, Anchorman, Google

socialmedia-anchorman-google-smaller1. 9 ways social media marketing will change in 2014
 Social media is one of the fastest developing industries out there today. New social networking sites can grow almost overnight and can fizzle away before you’ve even noticed them, for this reason it is essential that marketers keep up!

This week, we saw an interesting article from Mashable that outlines how 9 successful entrepreneurs plan to change their social media marketing in the coming year based on their predictions.

These predictions include “Social won’t be used for sales.” And “LinkedIn will become the most important publisher” but to have a look at the full list and the basis on which they have been predicted, click here.

 

2. What Anchorman 2 taught us about content marketing

During the run up to the release of Anchorman 2, Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News Team were everywhere. Not only did Ron himself feature in a series of Chrysler adverts – his presence lead a 40% increase in Durango Dodge sales. Mr Burgundy appeared on radio stations, collected an award at the MTV Movie Awards (on behalf of an absent Will Ferrell) and released an autobiography.

Clearly – there are many lessons that can be learnt from Anchorman 2’s marketing, especially for content marketing. To have a look at what these lessons are, click here.

 

3. 12 inspiring marketing campaigns from Google

It is arguable that Google doesn’t need to market itself, with 2,161,530,000,000 searches in 2013 alone. However, whether or not this is necessary, they still do. Like many things they do, Google do their marketing well. From email marketing, billboards, Google+ marketing and TV ads, we’ve found an article the showcases Google’s most inspiring marketing campaigns.

To take a look at them and read more, click here.

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#MarketingTitbits – Obama, Growth Vouchers, DHL

ferns-vouchers-DHL-smaller1. Obama goes between two ferns with Zach Galifiankis
‘Between Two Ferns’, with Zach Galifiankis, is a series of videos shown on the Funny or Die website. In each episode he conducts an interview with a celebrity between two potted ferns. His typical interview style consists of normal interview questions, random non sequiturs and some inappropriate comments and questions.

Celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Jennifer Anniston and Bradley Cooper have gone between two ferns in the past but the most recent celebrity to do so was Barack Obama. Some of the topics the pair cover include Dennis Rodman, same-sex divorce and the Affordable Care Act. To watch the video, click here. 

 

2. Growth Vouchers: month one results

This time last year, George Osborne first announced Growth Vouchers. The drive behind them is to help SMEs access the advice they need to help them grow. The businesses that participate are allocated a voucher up to the value of £2,000, matched with their own funds, to spend on advice and guidance from industry experts.

The vouchers were launched at the end of January and so far, nearly 1,500 businesses have applied, with nearly 600 vouchers allocated (over £1 million). Nearly 50% of the vouchers issued so far have been for advice in marketing, attracting and keeping customers. If you have not applied yet, it is still not too late. To read more, click here.

3. DHL’s brilliant ad

DHL claim that in many countries the company has more offices, more vehicles and more employees than there competition, which is why they are faster. To illustrate this, they came up with a brilliantly conceived guerrilla marketing campaign to get their competitors advertise for them.

To do this, large DHL packages were covered in thermo-active foil and cooled down below the freezing point, allowing the plastic wrappers to turn black. They then asked for the competitors to deliver the packages to hard-to-get-to addresses in big cities. As the plastic warmed up the message from DHL became clear… to watch for yourself, click here.

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#MarketingTitbits – Budget 2014, content marketing, Growth Vouchers

Budget-contentmarketing-growthvouchers-smaller1. Budget 2014: the key marketing takeaways
Less than two weeks ago the Chancellor George Osborne delivered the 2014 budget. The statement nodded heavily towards businesses and pensioners and Marketing Week have written an article highlighting some of the main benefits to marketers.

Some of the points that the article bring to light include “savings overhaul could spark ISA marketing bonanza” and “big data is a big deal for the Government”. To read the rest, click here.

 

2. Introducing the periodic table of content marketing

Chris Lake, the Director of Content at Econsultancy is the first person to ever create a periodic table of content marketing. The table was created to stand out against an ever growing sea of questionable infographics.

Along with the ingenious table comes an explanation of his thinking along the way. The main areas he focuses on are strategy, format, content type, platform, metrics, goals, sharing triggers and checklists. To take a look, click here. 

 

3. 10 ways to grow your business with a Growth Voucher

Growth Vouchers were introduced in January 2014. They were designed to help SMEs grow their businesses by providing match funding of up to £2000 in the form of a voucher. The vouchers can be spent on strategic advice in one of five different categories:

  • Improving leadership and management;
  • Making the most of digital technology;
  • Managing cash flow, late payments and negotiating finance;
  • Marketing, attracting and keeping customers;
  • Developing skills and taking on staff.

Enterprisenation have created a blog explaining the different ways each of the advice offered can help to grow your business. To read more, click here.

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#MarketingTitbits – Lego, blogging, Marc Jacobs

lego-blog-marcjacobs-smaller1. Lego to co-create marketing campaign with UK fansLego is calling upon all UK fans to help create a marketing campaign by suggesting new product ideas for a global market. Lego’s head of global community co-creation said despite the fact the company is not expecting the new products to be the next Ninjango or Lego Movie, it is hoping to build on the trust it already has within its UK community of fans. Lego are also encouraging the fans to promote this new marketing campaign via their own social media profiles.

Similarly, in the past, Lego have invited fans to give input to their marketing. For example, students in Canada sent a balloon with a Lego figure attached to the edge of space and scenes in the Lego Movie have been created by fans. To read more, click here. 

 

2. Blogger vs. Word Press: which is better for beginners?

If you’ve never written or had a blog before and you’d like to but don’t know how to get started, this is a great article for you. The two most widely used blogging platforms out there are Blogger and WordPress but it can be difficult to decide which one is best for you.

They differ in terms of ease of use, aesthetics and how easy they are to integrate to social media channels but really it all comes down to what type of blogger you are. If you’re looking for a blog that is simple, without much room for customisation, then blogger may be the one for you. However, if you’re more serious about blogging in the long term and want your blog to be totally unique, WordPress is probably the platform for you.

To read the full article, click here. 

 

3. Marc Jacobs takes to Twitter to find face of new campaign

Last week, Marc Jacobs made a controversial decision to find the face of their campaign not by the traditional method of model agencies, but through Twitter. The designer brand asked fans to post a selfie with the hashtag #CastMeMarc.

This is not the first time the company have taken to Twitter; during London Fashion Week they opened a ‘tweet shop’ allowing customers to make purchases simply by tweeting about the brand! To read more, click here.

 

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