Sales & Marketing news

• Just Eat: ‘Marketing is the biggest spend in the business’

  20-03-2017 18:58
  
  Just Eat’s marketing budget is a “whopping figure”, according to chief marketing officer Barnaby Dawe, who believes it has to be that way for a high growth business.
  Speaking today (20 March) at Advertising Week Europe, he said it is absolutely right that marketing should be one of the biggest spends for the business, and that the brand spends more on marketing than technology.
  Dawe said he is “trying to drive efficiencies” so the “ratio of
  
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• Careers doctor: Tips and tricks on team management, mentoring and flexibility

  20-03-2017 18:17
  
  In the latest of our monthly careers podcasts, Microsoft’s Helen Tupper and Sainsbury’s Sarah Ellis discuss leadership, mentoring and the need for flexibility in today’s workplace.
  They are joined by scholars from the Marketing Academy who all have their say on behalf of the marketers of the future.
  Ellis says flexibility should be down to the individual and that the leader, individual and organisation need to work together to make sure this happens effectively.
  “Flexibil
  
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• Life Beyond Marketing: Why marketers are perfectly placed to become business founders

  20-03-2017 18:12
  
  Jamling Tenzing with Huib van Bockel, the founder of Tenzing Natural EnergyFor marketers considering life after the profession, starting a business is the ultimate gamble. Often it involves giving up a prestigious, well-paid role in favour of the uncertainty and challenges that come with setting up a brand from scratch. The pay-off is the opportunity to build something, over which you have complete control and guide it through its early days of growth, ultimately with the aim of creating a succ
  
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• Digital brands have ‘succumbed to magpie syndrome’, says Shop Direct

  20-03-2017 16:01
  
  Digital businesses are overly preoccupied with the online user experience at the expense of back end systems that support customer service, according to a senior executive at Shop Direct.
  Kenyatte Nelson, group marketing director at the online retailer, said during a panel discussion at Advertising Week Europe today (20 March) that many brands had succumbed to “magpie syndrome” whereby they would “chase the shiny stuff” and neglect to develop practical services that genui
  
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• Google apologises and promises to accelerate review after ad controversy

  20-03-2017 15:38
  
  Google will focus on improving its policies, simplifying controls for advertisers and beefing up its enforcement as it accelerates its review into brand safety concerns.
  Speaking today (20 March) at Advertising Week Europe, president of Google EMEA Matt Brittin said the search giant wants to “raise the bar” for safe advertising by improving three key aspects of the service.
  “Within YouTube and the Google display network we need to consider, what do we categorise as being safe f
  
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• Google claims its third-party verification is ‘best in class’ as it launches new ad features

  20-03-2017 13:00
  
  Google has launched two new ad features in a bid to give its advertisers more clarity on whether their campaigns are resonating with consumers.
  The ‘Unique Reach’ feature in AdWords will allow advertisers to see the number of unique users and average impressions-per-user across devices, screens and platforms.
  It is also adding an option that allows advertisers to understand in real-time whether their ads are holding the attention of their audience and the ones most likely to make an
  
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• Ad safety revelations should be a wake-up call for brands, not just Google

  20-03-2017 11:33
  
  Well, that all escalated very quickly. What had been simmering since a February investigation by The Times found Waitrose and Mercedes among the brands sharing a screen with pornographers, white supremacists and other undesirables has boiled over in the past 10 days.
  First, Sir Martin Sorrell called out Google UK boss Ronan Harris on stage in front of the ad industry at an IPA event for not fronting up and taking responsibility for the content published on its platform. Then Harris came out in
  
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• Instagram, Heineken & Next: Everything that matters this morning

  20-03-2017 09:00
  
  Instagram reaches 1 million advertisers
  Instagram says 1 million businesses are now advertising every month on its service, up 400% from the 250,000 using it a year ago. Meanwhile, there are 8 million business profiles, with the UK among the countries with the greatest adoption. And in the last month, 120 million of its users visited a website, got directions, called, emailed or direct messaged to learn about a business.
  Instagram is putting the growth down to brands using the platform to showc
  
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• HSBC, Tesco and Adobe: Everything that matters this morning

  20-03-2017 09:00
  
  British banks facing Russian money laundering investigation
  Some of the biggest names in British banking have been implicated in a major money laundering investigation tied to Russia.
  HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays and Coutts are among 17 UK-based banks that are thought to have processed nearly $740m from the international criminal scheme, according to a report in the Guardian.
  The operation, known among investigators as “the Global Laundromat”, has links to Russi
  
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• Helen Tupper: How to make time for mindfulness at work

  20-03-2017 09:00
  
  If you’re still in ‘new year, new you’ mode, chances are that you may have committed to embracing some form of mindfulness this year. Perhaps you’re taking up meditation or perhaps you are going to put down your devices and spend more time reflecting. Mindfulness is a trend that has been around for some time and it’s one that is set to stay for a while longer.
  In our hyper-busy, always-on work lives, it appears to offer the panacea for calm and order. However, mindf
  
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• Google, Unilever and Uber: Everything that matters this morning

  20-03-2017 09:00
  
  Google under fire as Sky and Vodafone pull ads
  Media giant Sky and telecoms company Vodafone have joined the growing list of brands pulling spend from Google over fears their advertising is being used to fund hate.
  Over the weekend banks HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) also suspended spending on the search platform due to concerns their adverts were being placed next to content created by hate preachers and extremists.
  The growing list of high profile bran
  
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• Asos on why digital must be a balance between mass reach and targeting

  20-03-2017 09:00
  
  With 51% of its sales now coming through a mobile device and an ecommerce platform built around the likes of Instagram, Asos knows a thing or two about being a digital first brand.
  And according to Celina Burnett, head of marketing analytics, the key to success in social and digital channels is about achieving a balance between mass reach and targeting. In an interview with Marketing Week, Burnett claimed marketers often fail as they get too preoccupied choosing one over the other.
  She explains:
  
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• Apple, Airbnb & Marriott: Everything that matters this morning

  20-03-2017 09:00
  
  Apple launches app to rival Snapchat and Instagram
  Apple has launched a video editing app that allows users to create “expressive videos” by combining video clips, photos and music.
  Clips, which will be available next month, also lets users create animated captions with their voice using the new Live Titles feature.
  The app is already being likened Snapchat and Instagram Stories thanks to its array of filters, but Apple is not launching its own social network. Clips is a st
  
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• Ad blockers, Google & Uber: Everything that matters this morning

  20-03-2017 09:00
  
  Ad blockers to be used by 30% of internet users by 2018With ad blocking growing into a standard practice for so many people, new data suggests its use will only rise in the States.
  According to eMarketer, around 25% of U.S. internet users were using ad blockers as of the end of 2016. However, it notes that their use in the States remains skewed toward desktop/laptop computers rather than smartphones.
  It claims three in 10 internet U.S. users will be using
  
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• The big debate: Is age discrimination rife in the marketing profession?

  20-03-2017 08:00
  
  Age catches up with us all, but in the marketing profession it may catch up with you quicker than you think. The rapid rate of technological change in recent years has led many organisations to prioritise new digital skills at the expense of more traditional forms of expertise, prompting some senior marketers to complain of feeling edged out as they are replaced by younger ‘digital natives’.
  Anecdotal evidence of age discrimination is easy to come by, but it is more difficult to
  
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• Reckitt's formula for online reach

  20-03-2017 01:00
  AUSTIN, TX: Reckitt Benckiser (RB), the FMCG manufacturer, has identified an online strategy which helps it find the right balance between achieving mass reach and granular targeting on platforms like Facebook.Efrain Ayala, Social Media &...
  
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• Music streamers need segmentation

  20-03-2017 01:00
  HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA: In many respects, there is little to distinguish one music streaming service from another except perhaps their audiences – and they need to do more on understanding these."The single most important thing for the music...
  
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• Media spending powers India sports sponsorship

  20-03-2017 01:00
  MUMBAI: Media spending was the biggest single driver of the Indian sports sponsorship market in 2016, increasing by almost a quarter and accounting for over half of the total, new data has shown.According to a
  
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• Google pressured on brand safety

  20-03-2017 01:00
  LONDON:After several public bodies, media owners and brands announced they were pulling ads from YouTube over concerns these were appearing alongside "inappropriate" content, Google has said it will review existing controls and make changes.On...
  
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• Five tips for effective guilt-tripping

  20-03-2017 01:00
  LONDON: Guilt-trip marketing has a role in charity and government communications but brand marketers need to trade carefully in this area if they are to avoid generating anger, according to two academics.Writing in the
  
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• Clarity demanded on digital metrics

  20-03-2017 01:00
  NEW YORK: Following the decisions by Facebook and YouTube to allow the Media Ratings Council (MRC) to audit their advertising metrics, pressure is growing on other digital platforms to follow suit.A new survey of 113 members of the ANA revealed...
  
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• Aussie gambling ad stoush heats up

  20-03-2017 01:00
  CANBERRA: Australia's federal government may slash ads for online gambling sites during live sports, according to media reports, with sports betting making up one in every six ads during live AFL matches last year.The move appears to be a...
  
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