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Sweet Tweets for Tasti D-Lite (BrandWeek)
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Posted: 03/04/2010
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Thanks to Tasti D-Lite, tweeting produces sweet results. With the TastiRewards program, customers’ loyalty cards are connected to their Twitter or Foursquare accounts. Each time a card is used, updates for Tasti D-Lite are sent through Twitter or Foursquare and the customer earns a point. Fifty points reward the customer with a free Tasti D-Lite cup or cone. "Clearly you can see if someone has 1,000 followers and visits Tasti D-Lite once a week that message will get out there," said B.J. Emerson, director of information and social technologies at Tasti D-Lite. TastiRewards will start with 10 locations, including Nashville, Tenn., Scottsdale, Ariz., Houston, and Miami and expand to 47 Tasti D-Lite stores nationwide this spring.
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|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Tailoring To Customers Both On And Offline (New Media Knowledge)
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Posted: 06/17/2010
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Customers’ purchasing patterns are easily tracked online allowing website display of offers and promotions specific to customers based on their online buying behavior. Even with a unified marketing strategy, the challenge is to maintain consistent customer experiences across online and offline shopping. Monitoring offline shopping experiences can be done with real-time vouchers, coupons, and customer recommendation and review forms. Merging online and offline customer data will allow businesses to successfully retain and cater to their customers anywhere.
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|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Tapping Into Customer Life Cycle Via Emails (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 03/04/2010
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Experian Marketing Services’ “The Remarketing Report” recently reported significant findings regarding the efficacy marketers experience when they send targeted emails to their customers based on where they are at in the sales cycle. From responding to new customer sign ups to bringing them back from the brink of abandoning their shopping carts, marketers that send emails when a targeted event occurs expereince as much as double the open rates and quadruple the click-through rates when compared to other email campaigns. Such campaigns not only influence consumer purchasing habits through cross-sells and up-sells, they also help build customer loyalty. The report clearly demonstrates that, when handled with care, marketers benefit from building campaigns around your visitors’ and customers’ life cycle events.
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|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Text-Happy In 2G:GupShup Offers Simple Texting Service To Millions (Forbes)
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Posted: 08/19/2010
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With 1.8 billion global Web users and 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers, including multiple SIM cardholders, the reach of social media is hard to ignore. Beerud Sheth, cofounder of Webaroo, gets the message loud and clear. Text messaging via basic handset and SMS opens up a path to reach an overwhelming market of hundreds of millions, particularly in India and other parts of Asia. UK’s Portio Research expects the $100 billion market of simple texting to grow by 20% by 2014. Taking text messaging social through a service called SMS GupShup, Sheth aims to enlarge the social scope of interaction from one to one to one to many, or even many to many. Much of GupShup’s (Hindi for "chitchat") revenue comes from a feature that allows users, called publishers, to send messages to users signed up for a group. Another feature targets smaller groups for more personal communication. GupShup makes ideal sense for mass consumer products – Webaroo suggests that as many as 150 brand advertisers like Pepsico and 10,000 smaller-size enterprises like Mumbai Traffic Police are using the platform.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Asia Pacific
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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The Divide Among Us: The Classism in Social Networking (CNN)
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Posted: 11/19/2009
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A recent study by market research firm Nielsen Claritas Research points to a class divide online. The study finds that Facebook draws a more affluent crowd than MySpace, with nearly 23 percent of
Facebook users earning $100,000+ a year compared to 16 percent of MySpace users. Twitter and
LinkedIn draw an even more affluent crowd. 38 percent of LinkedIn users pull in $100,000+ per year. Ethnographer danah boyd witnessed a class divide emerge among American teens' use of social networks in a 2006 study. She uncovered a migration from MySpace to Facebook predominantly composed of the educated and the upper-class. Technology writer and blogger Sarah Perez says that people have a tendency to connect with similar people online as they do offline. Jason Kaufman, a Harvard research science fellow, says that with Facebook "The playing field is a lot more level in that you can find yourself having a wall-to-wall exchange with just an acquaintance. If you pick up the unlikely friend, not of your race or income bracket, the network may [help you]establish a more active friendship than if you met them in real life."
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|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction
Region:
Global,
North America
Audience:
Peer Groups & Communities
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The Domino Effect: Popular Pizza Company Taps Into Social Marketing (ClickZ)
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Posted: 09/16/2010
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On the heels of a 61 percent increase in online sales in the UK and Ireland from the same period last year, Domino's is singing the praises of Facebook and Foursquare promotions. The global pizza chain credits growth in web-based sales (jumping from 26 to 33 percent this year) to its social media marketing tactics – which include cultivating a strong presence online with both a global Facebook page and individual local pages, as well as securing 531 Twitter followers and launching Foursquare’s geo-location service. "We've had nearly 10,000 check-ins since it launched from around 3,500 unique visitors," Georgina Wald, spokesperson for the London-based division, said. The company has also enjoyed recent growth in sales by turning their attention to search marketing.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: Crowdsourcing Provides Answers For Online Marketers (Marketing Vox)
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Posted: 07/22/2010
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For marketers looking for solutions to a plethora of problems, crowdsourcing could be the answer. Marketers gain key insight while spending minimal dollars to survey the expertise of entire online communities. Still, crowdsourcing is not without limitations. Primarily, crowdsourcing is dogged by knowing how to separate the great ideas from the bad ones. To illustrate, Jez Frampton, CEO of Interbrand, tells of a creative director who tried crowdsourcing for a campaign and within 48 hours received hundreds of ideas, leaving him with the even bigger problem of how to sift through the crowd’s offerings. (via Forbes). Marketers should not be deterred, as crowdsourcing has a number of advantages, including web usability testing sites like UserTesting.com and Feedback Army, where companies post questions about their websites and testers choose which questions to answer.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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The Name Game: The Web Becomes Truly Worldwide (BBC Business News)
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Posted: 12/17/2009
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Until now, Web addresses for other countries have only been written using the English language. Thanks to internet regulator Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the Web just became more accessible by allowing countries to request new internationalized domain names in their own languages, including non-latin languages and scripts like Chinese. "The IDN [International Domain Names] program will encompass close to one hundred thousand characters, opening up the internet to billions of potential users around the globe," said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of Icann. Approved in June 2008 and expected to go live in 2010, the months in between were dedicated to working out kinks in the translation system.
|
|
Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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The New SimplicITy – Technology for the Ages (BBC Business News)
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Posted: 12/17/2009
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The Office for National Statistics recently reported that “6.4 million people over 65 have never used the internet.” Responding to this age-old need, a new PC was developed to make computer technology more user-friendly for the 60+ age demographic. The SimplicITy–taking its name to heart–features a mere six buttons that allow users to perform a variety of practical applications like web browsing, file creation and documenting photos. Andrew Harrop, head of public policy for charity Age Concern and Help the Aged said, "Pensioners who aren't online are missing out on... potential savings... [and] also often miss out on the best interest rates for savings accounts, not to mention the social benefits of being online.” The SimplicITy is a smart investment for seniors seeking to further open themselves to a tech-savvy world.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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The Plain Truth: Winning Email Tactics (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 05/24/2009
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It’s no surprise that marketers looking for high-impact email solutions take maximum advantage of Web technology to reach their audiences. Simply put, that means incorporating plain text e-mails into the marketing mix. While flashy HTML e-mails are great attention-grabbers and response-trackers, they aren’t always accessible to every user. The first rule of thumb: key content should be viewable without scrolling. Keeping offers, calls to action, brand identity and deadlines/time markers all at-a-glance is likely to increase your impact. While you can legally send unsolicited emails to anyone in the US without asking permission, it’s vital to keep your communications targeted and provide opt-outs. E-mail offers an easy, effective, affordable way to stay connected and build strong, lasting relationships with your customers.
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|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global,
North America
Audience:
Business to Business
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The Social Factor For Online Retail (New Media Knowledge)
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Posted: 03/03/2011
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New Media Knowledge recently reported that social networks are responsible for directing 13 percent more traffic to online retailers than they did in 2009. “As more time is being spent on social networking sites, we are seeing retail brands tapping into the power of social media to drive online traffic and sales,” said Robin Goad, Research Director, Experian Hitwise. The competitive intelligence research company says that while Facebook, YouTube and Twitter dominate the social sphere, others sites such as Vimeo, Badoo and tumblr have increased their online traffic by 50% or more in the past year. “It is important that retailers understand which social networks their customers and potential customers are using,” Goad told NMK. What about mobile? “Successful retailers will be those that support their customers across multiple channels depending on the scenario – allowing customers to add items to wish on the go, integrating location based services to provide (opt in) special offers and discounts, mobile price comparison via photo or barcode recognition,” Goad said.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global,
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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The Ultimate Question: To Optimize For Mobile Or Build An Application? (Marketing Vox)
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Posted: 11/11/2010
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A report by Taptu, “The State of the Mobile Touch Web," compares mobile web and applications and reveals upcoming trends business should keep in mind. These days, with so many vendors offering touchscreen devices, it’s not just a matter of optimizing websites or mobile, but determining if the site should also be optimized for nimble navigation and rapid loading pages on mobile touchscreens. While retail and service oriented sites are the most likely to optimize for the mobile touchscreen (20% compared to 3.6%), many consumers are already demanding the technology from the sites they frequent. The report states, "With support for HTML 5 features already being rolled out in these browsers, it's getting easier and easier to create rich touch screen user experiences with the browser without having to create platform-specific apps." Google has integrated mobile browsing into its service offerings. For instance, consumers that conduct searches will now pull up relevant apps accompanying the typical search results that can be downloaded to an iPhone.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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The Virtual Dressing Room (CNET News)
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Posted: 10/27/2010
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Finding the right fit is often one of the most frustrating elements of shopping online. Now, with the help of a new, headless “shape-shifting robot mannequin,” shoppers don’t have to simply leave their purchases to chance. Created by Estonian start-up Fits.me, the virtual fitting room service allows customers to enter their measurements and presto! The “me”-shaped mannequin previews the coveted item in whichever styles and sizes the customer specifies. The service is being tested by retailers across Europe, including Germany's Quelle and U.K.-based Hawes & Curtis. Apparel has potential for huge e-commerce gains. "Only 8 percent of clothing is currently sold online, and Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room is the disruptive technology that will enable online apparel retailers to successfully compete with traditional brick-and-mortar clothing shops," Heikki Haldre, CEO and co-founder of Fits.me said. Initial findings are very positive with a 28 percent reduction in online apparel returns, while sales increased threefold, said Haldre.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global,
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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The Wine Connection: iPhone Application Uses Image Recognition (Red Herring)
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Posted: 12/01/2010
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Intent on increasing consumer interaction Snooth, a social site for all things wine, recently unearthed an iPhone application that gives consumers the low down about bottles of wine. All the consumer needs is a picture of the wine label to find out everything from the nearest place to find a bottle to how much it costs. Other details include reviews, similar products, and food pairing suggestions. The high tech app uses software from Canadian startup TinEye, which allows for a coded image on the wine to be taken by a photograph, despite the curved glass of the wine bottle or the mood lighting of the restaurant or winery. With 820,000 searchable wines and links to 11,000 wine merchants around the globe, the gist behind Snooth's image recognition tool is akin to QR codes, which use matrix codes to effectively marry digital and print information, bringing consumers even closer to information about the goods they consume.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
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The Winning Combination: Tracking Preference and Behavioral Data To Improve Email Campaigns (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 06/17/2010
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Want to increase your business through more successful email campaigns? All it takes is an effort to track customer behavioral data, which will make you better aware of your customer’s needs. Asking yourself if links are being clicked on, if emails are being opened, forwarded, or sent to the junk mail folder is beneficial. Monitoring your website to find out which customers are viewing your Web site and adding various links to your emails to track what customers are looking for will help you better understand their wants and needs. Collecting and analyzing your customer data will put you on the right track to increasing the success of your business.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
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This Year’s Online Brand Messaging More Relevant Than Ever To Your Customers (Marketing Vox)
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Posted: 05/13/2010
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A consumer preference survey by Opinion Research Corporation suggests that consumers in 2010 have been more responsive to online advertising than ever. Sponsored by Adfusion, a division of ARAnet, the survey’s results showed that consumers scored every type of online advertising higher in 2010 than they did in 2009. Adfusion said consumers preferred brand-oriented articles over other types of online advertising, including banner ads, pop-up ads, email offers or sponsored links. According to ARAnet president Scott Severson, the survey data reveals key information marketers should be paying heed: overall, consumers are tuning in to all forms of online advertising; preference for article-based advertising continues to grow; and younger, wealthier audiences–a highly coveted segment of the population – are receptive to all types of online advertising.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
|
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Top Tips To Evaluate Online Ad Value (Internet Evolution)
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Posted: 09/30/2010
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When it comes to online adverstising, what is the best way to sift through the massive amounts of quantitative information available (impressions, clicks, repeat visits, context, etc.) to determine if a campaign has made any qualitative progress? According to one author, the best way is to follow six simple steps to gain measurable success: (1) Return on Investment (ROI) which, in essence, measures what you get vs. what you give; (2) Branding/awareness, which focuses on cultivating loyalty from existing clients vs. attracting new ones; (3) Positioning/SOV (share of voice), which focuses on edging out the competition; (4) CTR (click-through rate), although this dominant metric is slightly giving way to Engagement, it remains the best way to measure a campaign’s success; (5) Engagement, which is evidence that “the user did something more meaningful than clicking,” such as leaving a comment or playing a game; and (6) “Learning,” which means paying attention to all the different variables that could eventually play a role in future campaigns.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
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Transforming Innovation: New Technology. New Speed. New Price. New Customers. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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Posted: 10/08/2009
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Technology continues to transform the face of innovation at breakneck speed. Where it used to take major moxie, manpower and minutes to launch comprehensive testing campaigns, the newfound ability to incorporate new Web features faster and immediately measure consumer response means companies can now achieve rapid fire results for next to nothing cost. The result? Innovation–the lifeblood of growth–is not only more efficient and cheaper, it also more accurately pinpoints behavior to identify exactly what consumers want. Sophisticated tracking systems enable businesses–from web-based companies to retailers–to exploit new information technology to conduct testing and collect meaningful consumer data to ultimately capture even more consumer spending.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
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Trigger Happy: Ways To Create Successful E-Mail Campaigns (Practical eCommerce)
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Posted: 02/03/2011
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When it comes to e-mail campaigns, there are a handful of strategies to use that can help capitalize on the power of triggered mailings, which have a proven track record of phenomenal response and conversion rates. The best approach is to begin with the simplest e-mails proven to elicit conversion, and then scale up the campaign to include more nuanced and complex e-mails. Here are six proven examples that can help your company establish a personal connection with your customers: (1) Welcome e-mails; (2) Reorder or order reminder e-mails; (3) Birthday or special-occasion e-mails; (4) Transactional emails; (5) Abandoned cart e-mails and (6) Abandoned site browse or search emails. All these examples offer the marketer’s toolbox a number of ways to create and maintain long-term relationships with customers and stimulate repeat business at the same time.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Turning a New Page: Penguin Demos Interactive Books For The iPad (Digital Arts)
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Posted: 04/01/2010
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Imagine pointing on an interactive screen to accurately reveal constellations lighting up the night sky. Penguin Books recently unveiled fantastically interactive books like this one, which uses iPad’s compass app, at the Financial Times Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference in London. Taking Apple’s ePub application beyond the traditional narrative text it is designed to support, CEO John Makinson demoed how a number of titles ranging from popular children's literature to medical textbooks could be ported for the iPad. Makinson views the iPad as an out-of-the-box approach for e-book publishers, saying that "the definition of a book itself, as we can see, is up for grabs." Extended capabilities include embedded audio, video and streaming for both “learning and leisure apps” to further strengthen “Pearson’s, the publishing powerhouse that owns both Penguin Books and The Financial Times, push into digital and online education.”
|
|
Industry:
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Twitter’s New Swan Song (Fast Company)
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Posted: 06/19/2009
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Twitter’s new change may appear to be one small chirp in the Twitter universe, but has the potential to turn up the volume even further on the lifecasting powerhouse’s increasing relevance. Tweeters now have access to “hive-minded” buzz through the new “search” and “trending topics” additions that appear on every homepage, reflecting real-world trends and socially-relevant topics. With its speed and real-time social relevance that even extends beyond Google’s reach, the powerful new tool could help Twitter top the charts with marketers seeking to spread their latest advertisements and become even more relevant to Tweeters looking to connect with the world around them.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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U.S. Hispanics Prime Target for Internet and Mobile Advertisers (Marketing Vox)
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Posted: 01/06/2010
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The Hispanic online demographic is growing more than twice as fast as the overall national online population. Add to the equation that 88% of Hispanics consume content from their mobile phones, and the environment grows even riper for advertisers to target a population just shy of 50 million. Mobile initiatives from Yahoo include mobile search, US and global news in Spanish, and email and social networking connections, among others while those via internet from Orange Advertising Network include site-specific placements, customized branded entertainment, and direct-response campaigns. Mobile advertisers including HBO, Harley-Davidson, Rite Aid, Arby's and Cheetos have sent opt-in offers and ads to Hispanic users through HipCricket's Hispanic Mobile Marketing Network, which projects that Hispanic buying power will exceed $1 trillion in the next year.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America,
South-Central America
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
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Uplift Modeling: The Upside to Marketing (Ecommerce Times)
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Posted: 07/08/2010
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The key to spending a lot less on marketing while receiving better sales results may be uplift modeling. Specific customers have specific wants and needs; uplift modeling uses intelligent predictive analysis to target relevant needs specific to certain customers. Uplift divides customers into segments, allowing companies to focus solely on the “Persuadables”- customers likely to respond to being contacted through marketing outreach tactics and begin or renew their purchasing as a result. Time and money isn’t wasted on “Sure Thing”, “Lost Cause”, and “Sleeping Dog” customers- those who always buy, never buy or just don’t want to be bothered. Uplift modeling saves valuable company time and money, while avoiding the negativity associated with uninterested customers.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
|
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|
|
Video Girl Barbie Goes Viral (Promo Magazine)
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Posted: 09/30/2010
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In true Barbie fashion, the social girl charged the virtual social world this July to build the buzz for her latest professional stint: videographer. Mattel tapped into social networks Foursquare and Twitter to launch a campaign that criss-crossed the boundaries of traditional marketing. The campaign celebrated the new Video Girl Barbie with a scavenger hunt that had fans scouring San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York to locate Barbie’s real whereabouts. The first follower to find the fashion-forward doll in each city won a Barbie Video Girl doll. “We really embraced social media as a marketing platform a year ago as part of a major campaign in support of Barbie’s 50th anniversary,” says Lauren Dougherty, director of Barbie marketing at Mattel. Barbie currently has 17,600 Twitter followers and about 440,000 likes on Facebook—more than 200,000 of those added since January. Future plans include a promotion that puts the camera in the consumers’ hands with user-generated video, as well as introducing other members of Barbie’s entourage, including Ken, onto the social platforms.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global,
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
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Video Voyeurs: Nordstrom Rack Previews New Store At Construction Site (Marketing Vox)
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Posted: 06/09/2010
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The Nordstrom Rack at Union Square in New York City generated buzz for the launch of its new store by integrating video screens into the facade of the construction. Peephole boxes offered the chance to preview the store’s up-to-the-minute fashion in 30–90 second looped video displays of models browsing racks of clothes and trying outfits on in a virtual dressing room. Touted as 'fun, provocative and playful,' digital out-of-home (DOOH) campaigns like this extend the reach of marketers looking to connect with consumers in places beyond their living rooms. Other successful DOOH campaigns include interactive exhibits and place-based video networks, reaching an estimated audience of 237.4 million in 2009. One Los Angeles shopping mall provides visitors the experience to transform themselves into Avatar’s blue-skinned Na’vi while video screens in Lego stores prompt reality checks when visitors hold a Lego product box in front of the screen.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
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|
Voices From The Crowd: Crowdsourcing May Be Ineffective Tool for Government (Fast Company)
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Posted: 09/02/2010
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Can the rise of crowdsourcing sway public policy? According to a Fast Company article, government should stick to the polls rather than relying on crowdsourcing platforms like IdeaScale, which allows the public to raise its collective voice and vote on ideas from state budgets and federal transparency to health care priorities and education. Government 2.0 crowdsourcing is an ineffective tool because it’s not reflective of the entangled way new public policy is brought to fruition – officials can’t simply tap into public opinion and then implement those ideas into law, no matter how popular they are. The article suggests that “what the government needs isn't more lofty suggestions ("End the income tax!"), but grounded ideas on how to actually get things done in Congress.”
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Watch Out iPhone – Dell’s Android Mini 3 Smartphone is Coming to China (Tech News World)
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Posted: 12/17/2009
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Dell is well-known for its PCs, but smartphones? That’s right. Dell’s answer to the iPhone, the new Android Mini 3, hits the global market in both China and Brazil in December with help from companies like China Mobile and Brazil’s Claro. Facing competition from a crowd of Android smartphones already on the market, Dell’s decision to focus its Mini 3’s release outside of the U.S. could prove to be a smart move. According to Gartner’s predictions, “[the Mini 3] could take the No. 2 spot in global marketshare by 2012, overtaking the iPhone.” Foreign consumers base purchasing decisions more on the brand’s name, which could position Dell to be first to market in China and Brazil. The technological goodies included in the Mini 3 are yet to be revealed. For now, consumers will have to wait until the smartphone is released.
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Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Asia Pacific,
South-Central America
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Web Analytics Key to Performance (Target Marketing)
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Posted: 05/13/2009
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Carol Ott, director of e-commerce finance and web analytics, of the San Diego based company PETCO gets a fond feeling when she considers how web analytics serve her company. In a discussion with Target Marketing she explains why following the complete picture of customer behavior online can more clearly gauge marketing ROI than first and last click. She emphasizes the importance of continuous assessments and optimization of online programs to stay on top of and adjust to the constant changes in customer behavior. This combined with benchmarks and key performance indicators will help companies evaluate their success.
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Industry:
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Wharton’s Future of Advertising Project (Knowledge@Wharton)
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Posted: 11/19/2009
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According to Wharton School's SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management, advertising has gone the way of the black and white television. Asking the question, “what will replace it?” Wharton’s effort is aptly named the Future of Advertising Project. Practicing what it preaches, Wharton is not only collecting case studies, data and fresh expert insight to identify best practices for the future; it is employing New Media techniques to expand its own audience. Wharton’s approach includes partnering on the launch of a new channel on Google's YouTube site called Fast.Forward. The site features short video clips called "quick perspectives" that elaborate on the future of marketing from executives, ad gurus and academic thought leaders. The project examines the creative combinations of old and new media that are defining the radical new terrain of advertising and expands it to a wider audience.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
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What's In A Name? The Term Cloud Computing Breathes New Life Into An Existing Technology (Forbes)
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Posted: 08/05/2010
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In an industry where fancy buzzwords abound, "cloud computing" really signifies more of a generational evolution than a new technology. While there may be some hype related to doing business "in the cloud," on-demand, internet-based computing leverages the same technology companies like Google and Amazon pioneered and perfected through trial and error. Now, companies can access even more highly evolved programs like Google App Engine and Apache Hadoop - as well as a steadily increasing list of other options - to write their own data center infrastructure applications. In a virtual world where complete computer security is always somewhat questionable, the flexible and economical strengths of cloud computing remains very attractive to corporate computing operations. The end-goal is to partner with trustworthy, security-focused services that respond to and eliminate threats as they are exposed.
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Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
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Where New Technologies Emerge: The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (New Media Knowledge)
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Posted: 03/18/2010
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Driven by innovation, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas again brought hot products to the forefront. A traditional showcase for new and emerging technologies and gadgets, the show provides an interactive forum for companies to reveal their latest and greatest products and services. This year, Yahoo announced a host of new partners for its Connected TV project, which aims to provide Internet service to televisions. In addition, Panasonic TV’s new built-in video camera allows customers to make Skype video calls. Andrew Lim, editor of mobile reviews site Recombu, told NMK, “It's about giving consumers better access to existing services….” Car manufacturer Ford is integrating social media into their services with its Sync MyTouch in-car Internet system, which allows on-the-go drivers to access the Web via WiFi or 3G mobile connection. CES 2010 demonstrated that once-complex technology continues to become more user-friendly.
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Industry:
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Where Only the Strong Survive: Market Testing on the Social Scene (Chief Marketer)
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Posted: 09/25/2009
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Given the ongoing technology explosion, it’s no surprise that consumers’ collective (and opinionated) voice is growing louder and marketers’ ears bigger, or at least more attune to what they’re hearing via the social web. Tapping in to social networks allows marketers to listen to what consumers are saying to not only drive, but refine market testing and distill the ideas that most deeply resonate with their audiences. Marketers must harness the power of social media by immediately engaging as many consumers as they can from the start. By the time ideas and messaging run through various tiers of sub-panels, what’s left is a virtual survival-of-the-fittest where only the strongest ideas survive and “smartness” is ruled only by the human imagination.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Wise Foods’s Scan It To Win It Sweepstakes (Promo Magazine)
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Posted: 03/31/2011
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The 2009 launch of Wise Foods’s first sweepstakes generated 37,000 opt-in email addresses to its database. Last year, the company ran the same program during the same time frame and added another 20,000 addresses to its list. "The biggest chunk of our yearly database has come through this one promotion," said Kevin Foltz, marketing manager for Wise Foods. Designed to capture return visitors, this year, the 90-day sweepstakes is being tied to Wise’s 90th birthday celebration. The company promotes the sweeps via its Website and Facebook page, on partner Coupons.com Web pages, through text messages and banner ads and via in-store displays and header cards.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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World Wise: Navigating a Global Market with an Eye toward China (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 05/24/2009
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Domestic marketers looking to tap into international markets should set their sights on China. The best place to start? “Leveraging search engines, which drive close to 40% of most suppliers' traffic, is the best way to enter a lot of foreign markets at the moment, and for the best price,” said Marisa Edmund, VP-marketing and communications at Edmund Optics America. China’s gross domestic production (GDP) is projected to grow by 8% this year and new research from Accenture reveals ample opportunity exists for customer-focused U.S. companies. An alarming 55% of companies in China switched vendors last year due to a growing international intolerance for poor customer service.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America,
Asia Pacific
Audience:
Business to Business
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Write It. Snap it. Post it. Done. Posterous Launches Mobile App PicPosterous (Fast Company)
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Posted: 09/25/2009
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Touted as the simplest blogging tool to date, Posterous makes it easier for bloggers to post content to multiple accounts with just one step: by emailing post@posterous.com. Anytime users send a document or upload a photo or link, Posterous autoposts the content to any other accounts users specify, including other administered blogs and emailing posts to subscribers. Add the photoblogging app PicPosterous to the mix for yet an even easier way to upload photos and video to your sites quickly. By replacing your built-in camera app and using Apple’s in-app emailing, you snap photos continuously and post them live instead of having to wait until the end of an event. With ease and speed at the forefront of this power-tool app, this may just be the app to woo even non-experts.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Peer Groups & Communities
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Zappos Implements “Video Experience” (CIO Magazine)
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Posted: 04/15/2010
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Zappos recently launched interactive videos detailing Nike products, one of the shoe and clothing company’s largest brands. Initiated from customer queries that were best addressed visually, Zappos used software from Overlay.tv to link videos about various Nike items to its supply-chain system. Among the perks: shoppers can click on featured items to view any current promotions and find out if the product is available in stock. Customers can post video links on Facebook, upload their own videos to Zappos.com and post comments. Zappos objective is not necessarily the bottom line, but it will track stats on customer click-thrus and purchases. "The goal is to create a more pleasurable experience on our site," Kalma says. "The general philosophy is that will lead to purchases."
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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We cut through the clutter of the web to highlight innovation and forward-thinking. The best stories from leading publications – hand selected and organized to provide you a single point of access.
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