Why Spotify is becoming the place to be for brands
Spotify is perhaps not the first platform that springs to mind for social marketers, with the majority of brands focusing on the likes of Facebook and Instagram first and foremost.
The best social stories & campaigns from November 2018
As the saying goes, all good things come to those who wait, so let’s get into the (later-than-usual) best social media stories and campaigns from November – including Spotify, GambleAware, #Dynasties, Vine 2.0 and more.
The genius of Spotify Wrapped, the only marketing campaign I add to my calendar
I’m very excited for next week.
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Five examples of brands using vertical video
2018 saw the launch of IGTV: Instagram’s new platform for long-form videos that are created “in a vertical format that sit upright in the palm of your hand.”
Spotify UX vs. Apple Music UX: How do they compare?
As a music lover in 2018, it is almost impossible to avoid streaming services and their neatly priced subscriptions.
There are two major players that account for 110 million subscribers globally and make up 32% of the US market for music purchases – Apple (15%) and Spotify (17%). As such, it only makes sense to pit the two streaming app giants against one another to see who reigns supreme in terms of having a superior UX.
The best social media campaigns and stories from December 2016
In December, we witnessed many brands celebrating Christmas in typically grandiose fashion, as well as happily waving goodbye to the fiasco that was 2016.
Here’s a round-up of the best stories and campaigns from the month.
12 outstanding mobile customer experiences
I was privileged to hear Avinash Kaushik speak at Syzygy’s excellent Digital Innovation Day last week.
Avinash discussed some of his favourite mobile experiences.
Here are 12 of them.
Five of the all-time best brand tie-ups, including Starbucks, O2 & Zoolander
Last week saw three of the strangest brand tie-ups for a while.
The first was that Nike Starbucks shoe, retailing at $100, the second, a strained Wayne Rooney cameo (see below) in an X-Men adventure (and some blue-faced mascots at a United game), the third, green and red Angry Birds burger buns at McDonald’s.
This got me thinking – what are the best brand tie-ups of the past few years?
Digital audio continues to boast impressive growth in the US: Stats
The North America online audio section of our Statistics Compendium has seen some fascinating data added in the past few months.
Particularly in regards to how significant digital downloads and streaming are to US music fans in 2016.
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Student.com: the website set to revolutionise student accommodation
Student.com has had quite a lot of press recently, what with $60m of investment from the founders of Spotify.
The website is new to me, so I thought I’d have a look through and pick out some points of interest.
Six things that make a good subscription service
In my right hand I have a mug of Brazilian coffee (Fruit and Nut Espresso).
The coffee was delivered through my letter box yesterday, courtesy of Pact Coffee, one of many coffee subscription services.
However, Pact doesn’t like to think of itself as a subscription service. Its founder, Stephen Rapoport, believes many subscription services work for the business but not for the customer.
So, if the model is often abused, just what makes a good subscription service?
What is service design & who uses it?
Service and product design are in the ascendancy, becoming increasingly important within marketing and engineering departments.
Ashley Friedlein makes the claim in his trends for 2016, citing the number of consultancies and systems integrators that have made design acquisitions (see this Wired article for how IBM is beefing up its design creds).
Service design follows naturally from a focus on customer experience (as a central tenet of that dreaded term, digital transformation).