The ‘digital’ opportunity is enormous, with staggering growth in all territories and sectors

Along with the opportunities come some significant challenges as you adapt to highly demanding digitally-savvy customers. These challenges are caused by the pace, complexity and the degree of change.    This shifting environment means that digitally-led business transformation is a complex and on-going journey - an evolution to transition and optimise your business. Even digitally native companies know that they have to innovate and stay ahead of the game because of growing disruption and rapid technological change.

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Chart of the Day: UK adspend is at a record £22.2 billion for 2017, the eighth year of consecutive growth

Adspend for 2017 was a record high following 8 years of continued growth in advertising spend. This according to the latest advertising spend figures for the full year 2017 which are analyzed by The Advertising Association and Warc. It paints a fantastic picture for marketing and advertising, showing increases which have continued for many years and shows that despite any political situation, slumps or increases in consumer demand, advertising is still producing returns, as marketers are still spending and still depend heavily on their advertising campaigns. Internet advertising saw positive increases but it was mobile advertising that produced the biggest by far - a massive increase in mobile ad spending of over 37%. Regional newspapers saw decreases, as did magazines and a small decrease for TV. This could explain why recently UK TV network …

6 implications for selecting and managing today's and tomorrow's marketing technology

We've been sharing the latest Marketing Technology Landscape map by Scott Brinker, @chiefmartec for several years now. You've almost certainly seen one of the earlier iterations since it has been widely shared. I love it because it's a USEFUL infographic - it prompts marketers to review their current Marketing Technology and take action to improve their Marketing Technology Stack. When I discuss it with marketers when speaking or training, it certainly has a big impact, not always in a good way... It prompts that "OMG how do I cope?" fear amongst marketers and business owners due to its complexity. But, for me, from a positive POV, it shows the opportunity of the many tools we have available to deliver more relevant, more personalised communications today. It's inspired the Smart Insights team to create our own Martech infographic which includes both insight and operational tools…

Chart of the day: On Wednesday and Thursday last week, myself and Dave Chaffey presented at B2B Marketing Expo, In ExCel, London about auditing your Martech stack - and now new research has found that most think their marketing technology strategy is successful

Most believe their strategy is successful based on how they achieve their priorities in using martech, but there are significant challenges with data and integration across different platforms, as well as issues with getting relevant and reliable data. This could be due to a number of reasons such as a complexity of data as well as lack of training, skills, resource or time to help with these challenges. Improving data quality is also an issue for marketers as they strive for better data and more accurate targeting. Over half are also working on…

If art is beauty, is science the beast?

 

Many corporations think so, judging from the way they silo their marketing and technology teams. Rarely do CMOs and CDOs bring the brains of both teams to bear on the company's marketing.

 

In an era when 38% of marketing professionals admit to underutilizing data for content strategy, companies that don't marry art and science struggle to snag smarter audiences with shorter attention spans.

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3 key ways to streamline your martech stack and maximize the value of your marketing toolkit

Martech is about finding the right tools to help you reach specific outcomes. Paring down to only the necessary tools will help you control your budget, extract more value from each tool, and see what you've been missing. Streamlining your tech stack starts with three steps. It’s not always true that more options bring greater success. New advances in technology, data analytics, and marketing automation can often create the illusion that we need the latest and greatest tools and force marketers to believe they must keep adding tools to their repertoire to avoid falling behind the competition — or out of touch with customers. But more isn’t always better. Companies often don't fully understand the capabilities of their in-house information, ending up with either extraneous marketing software or not enough. Too many or too few tools can…

Chart of the Day: Reasons why marketers are considering a change of job

As companies continue to grow and the competition increases, staff retention seems to be a recurrent issue for any employer hiring marketers. Especially as the new year unfolds, marketers might decide to pave their career paths differently to what their company allows. Companies should seize the desire for learning and development express by their employees and find newer ways to fulfill marketers in their current working environment, be it through new opportunities for growth or make them feel valued for their contribution. It is imperative for companies to critically understand when people are likely to move on and the motivations that have driven their decision. Andre Rickerby, CMO at Moonpig, asserts the vital need for a business to set their own working culture, referring to that as a “massive retention tool in itself”. Marketing Week Career and Salary Survey shows that while…

Blockchain has revolutionary applications in marketing and will be good news for both publishers and advertisers

Blockchain has been a hot topic in the tech world ever since Bitcoins emerged from obscurity to become the obsession of nerds the world over around 2013. Marketers love finding shiny new technologies to distract them from their day jobs and have enjoyed hopping on bandwagons to prove their down with the latest trends ever since some bright spark realized that newfangled printing press things could be used to churn out flyers to promote the latest in powdered wigs and ruffs. But whilst marketers have been all over other trends, such as the growth of Snapchat or Live video, like a rash, they've yet to properly 'get' what the blockchain can actually do for them. I think this is in large part down to two key reasons: Blockchain is the result of mind-bogglingly clever cryptography and thus…

8 ways by which AI will affect comprehension of data, analyze and utilize data as well as shaping the development of digital marketing tools

Earlier this year, Toyota’s usage of AI for its Rav4 Marketing Campaign got the jaws dropping and the eyes widening. IBM’s Watson had struck again – a Machine Learning (ML) program that used an algorithm to generate ad scripts! The campaign is an example of how Toyota agency-of-record Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles is using what it calls "creative programmatic." The agency wanted to connect the Toyota's Rav4 crossover to the favorite activities of individual consumers but in an unpredictable way. So, Saatchi fed Watson the world's top 1,000 activities - like biking, dancing, and cooking - and asked Watson to pair two activities that had low probabilities of being matched. The agency then used the pairings to create 300 unique videos, which targeted at users on Facebook and Instagram. This is…

To find an agency that understands you inside and out, look past cost and reputation - look for value

Few decisions are as important in your business as finding the right agency to partner with. Choose wisely, and a partner can help your business reach extraordinary heights; choose poorly, and you can bleed time, money, and resources with little to show for it. Just ask the 65 percent of high-potential startups that failed as a result of partner conflict. When the stakes are that high, how do you make such a crucial decision? That's the dilemma BMW is currently facing. In October, it announced it was starting a U.S. agency review. Whether it decides to stay with its incumbent agency or find a fresh partner remains to be seen, but it brings to light the importance of evaluating all the options. [si_guide_block id="74955" title="Download FREE Resource – Agency digital marketing services – the top…