Jake Hird

Jake is Econsultancy Australia's Director of Research and Education and comes from a background of online commerical research, development and account management, including a considerable amount of time spent with a leading digital agency and top UK digital group.

He takes a keen interest in emerging digital trends and technology and welcomes any new industry insights or thoughts.

Australian digital marketing: 25 killer statistics

Econsultancy recently launched its inaugural State of Digital Marketing in Australia survey, in association with Marketing Magazine, as part of an effort to benchmark a variety of elements within the region.

We’re asking all marketers in the region to participate while the data collection is still live – as an incentive to complete the survey, those who participate will receive a free copy of the complete report (valued at $400).

However, ahead of the closing date later this month, I figured it would be useful to pick out a handful of interesting pieces of data from our Australia and New Zealand: Internet Statistics Compendium...

by Jake Hird 17 November 2011 23:59pm 6 comments

Digital Cream Singapore: five key takeaways

Last week saw the inaugural event of Econsultancy’s expansion into Asia, with nearly 100 senior client-side marketers attending Digital Cream Singapore.

The event was held in the stunning venue of Singapore National Library’s Pod and the consensus amongst attendees, sponsor vendors and (however biased), the Econsultancy contingency, was that it was a success.

The Digital Cream format was the same as usual, so I managed to sit in on three separate sessions, but in between these, I also managed to have long talks with marketers, industry and trade bodies, vendors and moderators.

As a result, I’ve summarised the five key trends that emerged from the event.

by Jake Hird 15 November 2011 14:12pm 6 comments

25 business-tastic B2B social media case studies

I’ve been asked quite a few times over the past couple of weeks for examples of social media marketing being used in a B2B context.

This is actually more prevalent than a lot of marketers appear to realise – and is certainly something that’s not new to the marketplace.

by Jake Hird 21 October 2011 11:34am 9 comments

What the hell is social influence?

Thanks to the continuing evolution of social media, there’s a lot of talk at the moment around influence, identifying and understanding it in action, as well as how this can be used commercially.

Just last week my colleague, Matt, wrote an insightful post about the intricacies and accuracy of this, but recent conversations I’ve had with quite a few people makes me think that on a wider basis, the fundamentals around this increasingly complex area are misunderstood, and in some instances, overlooked altogether.

by Jake Hird 28 September 2011 10:12am 3 comments

Digital graduate schemes: who's investing for the future?

A large concern that I’m hearing across the industry, certainly in the UK at least, is that there seems to be a widening gulf separating those who have digital skills and those who don't.

I think this is partly due to a lack of training investment by companies, for fear of staff leaving to rival companies later on: the online sector has a reputation for notoriously high staff churn.

by Jake Hird 08 August 2011 10:04am 6 comments

11 ways to measure the value of social media

This article is the third in a series of ongoing extracts from Econsultancy's new Internet Marketing Strategy Briefing. The free-to-download report covers the most important online trends in digital marketing that currently occurring.

Topics covered within the document include customer centricity, channel diversification, data, social media and content strategy.

This extract, written by Econsultancy's US Vice President of Research, Stefan Tornquist, focuses on the ins and outs of measuring social media.

by Jake Hird 01 August 2011 10:28am 16 comments

The fight gets technical: mobile apps vs. mobile sites

This article is the second in a series of extracts taken from Econsultancy's new Internet Marketing Strategy Briefing. The free-to-download report covers the most important online trends in digital marketing that we are witnessing.

Topics covered within the document include customer centricity, channel diversification, data, social media and content strategy.

This extract, written by Econsultancy's Research Manager, Aliya Zaidi, focuses on the more technical aspects in the continuing battle between mobile apps and mobile sites.

by Jake Hird 28 July 2011 11:10am 11 comments

Understanding user experience within customer centricity

This article is the first in a series of extracts taken from Econsultancy's new Internet Marketing Strategy Briefing. The free-to-download report covers the most important online trends in digital marketing that we are witnessing.

This extract, written by Econsultancy's Research Director, Linus Gregoriadis, will focus on the user experience aspect of customer centricity, although other topics covered within the document include channel diversification, data, social media and content strategy.

by Jake Hird 26 July 2011 12:11pm 2 comments

Developing digital economies: should we be looking to the East?

I’ve previously written about the enormous 95% growth the Chinese e-commerce market has had in the last eighteen months, but online shopping aside, I feel that this will extend further into advertising and marketing, as well as the associated technologies.

by Jake Hird 27 July 2011 11:03am 0 comments

Eight presentations on social commerce

Social commerce is a term that’s been around for a while now, and it isn’t going to go away anytime soon. But there still seems to be some confusion within the industry about what it is and what it means.

I’ve dug out a handful of presentations that cover the main facets within this specific, rapidly-evolving area of e-commerce.

by Jake Hird 22 July 2011 12:06pm 3 comments