Digital Media News (34)

Nov 25, 2014 7:39:00 AM

Handy Tips To Tackle Spam

It has been estimated that over 95% of all email traffic is spam, and the proliferation of it has led to millions of dollars in lost productivity and additional infrastructure costs for businesses. Those that choose to maintain in-house email servers are fighting a losing battle because spammer tactics are constantly evolving. As a marketer, you need to stay one step ahead of the spammers in order to protect your brand and customers.

Here are a few tricks we have learned to help minimize the risks to your business.

Email Spam

Sometimes it seems like if there wasn’t junk email, there wouldn’t be much email at all! How can your business minimize the risk of receiving email spam and sending it on to your customers?

Nov 21, 2014 8:00:00 AM

No Budget? No Excuse! Make Some Noise With Grassroots Marketing

For anyone starting a new business, marketing and advertising is essential. There’s no point having a fantastic product or service if no-one knows about it. And today’s obsession with social media means that simple marketing strategies have never been more effective and the number of people you can reach out to is endless.

Most big companies have their own marketing teams and often they have huge budgets to utilize,but with start-ups it’s a completely different ball game. So, what do you do when you don’t have the funds or a marketing guru to help you? Just put your creative hat on and push your message across using Grassroots Marketing techniques.

Grassroots Marketing is a cost-effective way to reach your target audience using simple techniques like word-of-mouth, door-to-door sales, competitions - with your product or service forming the prize - and even guerrilla marketing strategies.

Nov 13, 2014 8:08:00 AM

When Experiential Marketing Gets Dirty: The Walking Dead

When season four of the hit TV show The Walking Dead came to the Fox Channel in Portugal, the people responsible for the show’s PR used experiential marketing to come up with a fantastic way of raising awareness and making a big impression.

Before revealing any details, it’s probably worth briefly explaining what the show is about, in case you’ve never seen it. The Walking Dead is an American post-apocalyptic horror drama based on the comic book series of the same name. It’s about a sheriff who comes out of a coma to find a post-apocalyptic world dominated by flesh-eating zombies. There’s your context, there’s your setting…

The Walking Dead gang (including creative agency Torke+CC) teamed up with Portugal’s national blood bank institute IPST to create ‘The Walking Dead Blood Store’, where blood was accepted as currency. While this was clearly an effort to get people talking about the new season, the experiential marketing campaign added a nice touch – it also increased blood donations.

Nov 12, 2014 8:03:00 AM

Engaging Consumers With Creative QR Code Campaigns

They have been around since the early 1990’s, but Quick Response or ‘QR’ codes are still an enigma to many marketers. It is only with the widespread adoption of smartphones that they have entered the mainstream and now they appear everywhere, from bus shelters to beer mats.

So what exactly are QR codes?

Invented in Japan, QR codes are like barcodes, except they can store much more data, including downloadable content. Users scan a QR code with a smartphone, which takes them to aparticular website, promotional offer, or social media page.

Some marketers believe QR codes to be ineffective eye-sores that are mostlyignored, or if they are scanned, offer a disappointing experience for customers. But advocates firmly believe that used correctly, QR codes can be an easy and engaging way to surprise and delight consumers.

Nov 11, 2014 8:38:00 AM

Exciting Social Media Sites To Keep An Eye On

As avid marketers, you’ll be familiar with the usual social media suspects - Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You will have most likely experimented with at least one of them as part of your digital marketing strategy and seen varying degrees of success.

However, there are some exciting social media kids on the block, many of which are unfamiliar to online marketers, and yet they possess great business potential.

While you obviously can’t be on all of them, here are a few thatmight fit into your social media campaigns.

Nov 10, 2014 8:02:00 AM

3 Myths About Programmatic Ad Buying

Some marketers are hesitant to embrace programmatic buying because of some common misconceptions about it. Here are three myths about programmatic buying and the truth behind them.

As we move into the digital age, machines are taking on a much bigger role in online ad buying. In fact, according to a new study by Magna Global, (the ad buying arm of Interpublic Group), programmatic buying, in which marketers use computerized systems to target users based on consumer data and Web browsing histories, is expected to jump 52 percent by the end of this year, to $21 billion globally.

This impressive growth is being fueled by a desire from marketers to cut transaction costs, improve efficiency, and see a stronger return on investment of ad spend.

Programmatic is a major departure from the traditional online ad buying process, in which digital ads are bought and sold by human media buyers and salespeople. Programmatic buying automates the processes that humans have historically had to deal with, like sending insertion orders to publishers and dealing with ad tags.

Nov 6, 2014 8:00:00 AM

Why Brands Need Media Stunts

Every second of every day, brands are battling for our attention. No matter what the medium, we’re constantly bombarded with marketing messages and advertising campaigns. Therefore, it pays for companies to be clever and come up with some creative tactics to get people talking. Media stunts can be really effective, and are arguably a necessity, if you want to avoid mediocrity, break through the humdrum and stand out from the crowd.

So how should you approach creating a media stunt? Well, with careful planning.

The main thing to consider is that publicity stunts can and do work, but only under certain conditions. They have to be unique enough to gain attention but they also need to be relevant to your target audience and consistent with your brand values. Stunts are typically created for shock value, soa lot of care should be taken to make sure they fit into your overall brand narrative.For that reason alone, it’s best not to take unnecessary risks - if you want to use media stunts for your business then it’s always best to engage the professionals to make sure you get it right.

Nov 4, 2014 8:00:00 AM

How To Avoid Becoming A Victim Of Click Fraud

If somebody were to tell you that up to 20% of what you spend on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising may be wasted due to fraudulent activity such as click fraud, would you be worried?

You may be wise to be weary, as click fraud is endemic in the online advertising business, with some marketers claiming that up to 50% of their billed-for ads are generated by non-human traffic.

What is Click Fraud?

Frequently seen in the pay-per-click world, click fraud is the act of clicking on an advert with malicious intent, rather than from any real interest in the advertiser’s offerings. The practice istypically carried out by a competitor or faux middleman, in order to drive campaign costs up to the point that the advertiser has to curtail advertising spends. This paves the way for the competitor to increase their market presence, clicks and sales.

Oct 30, 2014 8:00:00 AM

Augmented Reality: Get Creative With Your Marketing

We live in a busy, cluttered world where consumers are bombarded with messages from every business under the sun. Brands interrupt our social media news feeds, our TV programs, our podcasts, videos and our browsing. You can’t walk down the street, take a train or step in a taxi without seeing some kind of marketing.

The problem with this, for businesses, is that consumers start to tune out to the different forms of communication. When this happens, how do brands get heard? The answer is: they need to get creative.

What is ‘augmented reality’?

It’s an image of a real-world environment that has been supplemented by something computer-generated, such as sound, video or special graphics.

Oct 29, 2014 8:00:00 AM

Brands Go For Gold With Experiential Marketing

Major sporting events such as the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Commonwealth Games always dominate the media, and each throws up a wealth of sponsorship opportunities for brands across the world. Coca-Cola, Adidas, McDonalds and Sony are just a few of the companies that have benefited from the global exposure that the partnerships have bought.

With all the excitement over, we thought we’d take a look at how some of the key sponsors used experiential marketing activations toelevate their brands.

1. Virgin Media: Commonwealth Games

Virgin Media used its partnership with Usain Bolt to launch its interactive ‘RaceBolt’ activation at the Commonwealth Games. Participantswere given the opportunity to race against the world’s fastest man over 30 meters, on a professional athletics track. Usain was on hand in virtual form, on a 40m x 3m interactive LED screen.