Digital Marketing Blog

Cannes Lions day one: change the world...but make it fast

Cannes Lions, the most prestigious international creative communications awards festival, kicked off this week showcasing more than 34,000 entries from around the world.

Major brands and agencies battle it out each year in June to win one of the highly-coveted Lion trophies presented at four award ceremonies throughout the week.

The Social@Ogilvy team is on the ground at Cannes, gathering insight into what some of the key messages are during this seven day festival.

Here are four insights from day one highlighting what some of the top minds in the advertising and marketing worlds are thinking about in 2013.

by Heather Taylor 18 June 2013 18:17pm 1 comment

Why CMOs should make business decisions based on consumer needs

Chief Marketing Officers need to become the “Consumer SME” for their company and make business decisions based on consumer needs to achieve loyalty and repeat business.

Consumers are the most important asset to any business. Without consumers buying a product or service, there will no longer be products or services to sell.

Knowing the consumer is the key driver to business success. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) need to take strides at becoming the “Consumer SME” for their company and make business decisions based on consumer needs to ultimately achieve loyalty and repeat business.

by Glen Hartman 18 June 2013 17:20pm 0 comments

Facebook’s Graph Search: will it save f-commerce?

As the CEO of an ecommerce business with over 2,000 shops on Facebook, I have a unique perspective on Facebook selling.

After two years of testing, my company sees fewer sales from our global Facebook presence than from orders originating in New Zealand, where we don’t have a marketing or sales presence, or a country-specific website.

Quite frankly, Facebook has been underwhelming for sales generation.

by Philip Rooke 18 June 2013 16:10pm 0 comments

A day in the life of a... Games Designer

Pete Low is a Games Designer at Chunk, a digital content agency based in Glasgow. Here he explains what he does for a living, and why he loves his job after 17 years in the games industry.

If you're on the hunt for a new challenge then check out Econsultancy's digital jobs board.

by Chris Lake 18 June 2013 13:56pm 0 comments

10 hotel websites that autoplay sound to delight visitors

I read a brilliant article the other day... one of the very funniest things I have read in ages. It was all about how companies in the hospitality sector should play sound to make visitors feel “secure”. Sound, it says, “can help your website achieve major impact”.

Here’s another quote from the article in question:

Website audio can make your website stand out from your competition’s site while reinforcing the marketing and customer service strategies you’re already using.

After pulling myself together I decided to reconsider my views on autosound, which I have up until now considered to be one of the worst user experience mistakes you can make. I set about to find some examples that would make me - and you - see the light (and, ahem, hear the sound).

So then, here are 10 automatic audio experiences on hotel websites that will presumably make you reach for your bank card to book a room. Make sure you have your sound turned up, especially if you’re in the office.

by Chris Lake 18 June 2013 11:51am 4 comments

Is Google sacrificing quality in return for greater diversity?

'Domain Clustering' is a Google update that was never officially announced, but one which has the potential to impact the search marketing landscape.

In this post, Lee Allen, Technical Planning Director and Matthew Barnes, SEO Executive at Stickyeyes, provide an in-depth analysis into this under the radar update...

by Jonny Artis 18 June 2013 11:41am 4 comments

How Econsultancy uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Inspired by the works of our reporting superstar David Moth, I decided that with all these big brands being covered in our series on social strategies, it was high time we threw our own hat into the ring.

As I’m the one doing it (and an egomaniac), I thought it might be fun to talk about how (and why) we use different social channels at Econsultancy...

by Matt Owen 18 June 2013 11:17am 0 comments

Six outstanding automotive marketing campaigns to get your creative motor running

What makes a campaign stand out?

We’re ‘gearing up’ for The Digitals on June 27th, so we thought we’d take a closer look at some inspiring examples that really caught our eye, starting with our Automotive category so expect speed, dangerous curves and terrible car-based puns aplenty…

by Matt Owen 18 June 2013 10:40am 0 comments

Companies struggling with mobile optimisation: report

Though almost three quarters of companies are planning to ramp up their spending on mobile channels this year, the complexities of providing an excellent customer experience on mobile is a challenge.

Two out of five companies surveyed said that delivering customer experiences on mobile is harder than on the web.

Our Reducing Customer Struggle 2013 report, produced in association with IBM Tealeaf, looks at these issues in more detail.

Here are a few highlights from the report...

by Graham Charlton 18 June 2013 10:19am 0 comments

Removing the 'F' word from your brand guidelines

Take a few seconds to minimise this window (careful now, don't close it!) and find an electronic version of your brand guidelines.

If you don't have any or they're buried deep in the darkest reaches of your company filing system, you should be able to find one from your favourite company with a quick Google, or here's a few to pick from.

Open it, hit ctrl-f and type the word 'fun'. How many instances did it uncover?

by Danny Chadburn 18 June 2013 09:16am 0 comments