Digital Marketing Immediate Future

Digital Marketing

Both TikTok and Pinterest have experienced huge gains during the last few months. Engagement on Pinterest is up 75%, and TikTok users grew by 34% in April. If you’re not sure how to get started with either platform, here are a few ideas. Pointers for Pinterest With 367…

As always, there’s a lot going on in the world of social media. The top players have been busy introducing updates – from e-commerce roll outs to Bitmojis (yes, MORE Bitmoji). So, buckle up, grab your notebook and get your social media on. Pinterest adds ‘shop’ tab…

Brand as Broadcasters is the concept all business running brand events need to truly deliver greater cost efficiency and standout innovation Running brand events comes at great cost. Marketers have to evidence cost efficiencies that yield tangible returns for the business. Formats have to keep being refreshed to stay ‘new’…

When it comes to conversion, the goal you might be setting doesn’t have to be a purchase – you might wish to measure conversion on increasing followers, engagement on your posts or sign-ups to an email list. Whichever conversion you’re measuring, we’ve got some top tips on what you need…

Don’t let the title fool you, we’re not suggesting that you simply reintroduce old content into your social feeds. In fact, we feel so strongly against this that we went as far as dedicating an entire Serious Social podcast episode to NOT repurposing content. There is, however, a way…

Life has changed. Work meetings are now interrupted by children (our own Managing Director recently had to pause everything because his son was just so darned proud he’d beat a level in a Lego game, which, to be fair, is very impressive). The Emmys will now be televised, and pub…

As the online population grows, so does the pool of consumers – some with time, and money on their hands. In recent weeks, e-commerce businesses in sectors like crafting, beauty and home accessories – as well as gifting – have started to boom. If you’re starting out in…

Though lockdown is in full swing, we haven’t all gone mute as a result. In the B2B tech sector, conversations around AI, cybersecurity, cloud, etc. are all staying strong – but have the discussion points changed, and what can you do to adjust your messaging so you remain relevant with…

It’s a question that really puzzles me. Along with ‘why do some businesses try to mimic the market leader?’ or, ‘why do B2B companies continue to use awful stock photography of people pretending to be businesspeople?’ or, ‘why do travel companies persist with blue filters?’. At the risk of sounding…

While the streets are quiet and the shops are shut, the bars and cinemas are closed – and so are the theatres. But in the theatre, when they are “dark” (there’s no live production), there’s a tradition to leave a “ghost light” centre stage. Partly for the safety of anyone…

Very few of society have faced anything like what we all front up to today. Fluid developments continue to alarm and challenge us. Businesses have been placed in a period of uncertainty whilst they seek support from the government. For now, all we can all do is follow the important…

If you, like us, find yourself suddenly working from home, figuring out new technology and ways of staying connected and bonded to your team on one hand, as well as navigating the current landscape in marketing on the other, we’re here for you. Rapid change and uncertainly can make even…

Twitter is growing – are you missing out? Their Q4 performance report states that they have added 21% more monetizable daily active users to the platform – this takes them to 152million. What does monetizable mean? It’s a user count of how many accounts Twitter can…

IGTV may not have grown as quickly as anticipated, but with additional features on the horizon and monetisation in testing, it could very well be IGTV’s time to shine! Top creators are currently making their megabucks on Youtube and Facebook, swerving IGTV for the simple fact that monetisation isn’t an…

The UK events industry is worth £42.3 billion – and it’s still growing. Gone are the days of cold calls, handshakes and flyers. Today’s event marketers are reaching you when you’re walking, talking, surfing or just casually browsing your favourite job listings site. When you really think…

In October 2019, Instagram launched a new @Creator account to provide tips and advice for Influencers, citing it as “THE place to learn more about what it takes to be a creator from the team at Instagram + the creators who inspire us every day”. Since its launch, the…

When it comes to running a business there are fundamental practices that most follow to ensure a happy workforce, satisfied customers and general success. If bad practices exist, and you don’t treat your customer base correctly, failure is likely to follow. So, how does this relate to social media? Well,…

At IF we love all things social. So, we’re always interested in staying up to date with the latest happenings and bringing them to you in our weekly Social Snapshot! Read on to find out what’s been happening in the past week……

Would you create a White Paper giving it only cursory effort? Would you slap any old image and message on a Billboard? Would you grab any piece of copy and image and throw up on your website? If shooting a TV Ad, would you corral the troops into an…

After 5 years of back and forth boomerangs, Instagram has decided to take things to the next level, adding not one, not two but three new features for the ever-popular platform! According to Instagram itself, they are ‘creative twists that’ll make you say yaaassssss’. And will also help you to…

More controls for conversation on Twitter – is this a positive change to reduce trolling or the beginning of closed communities on the platform? One of the latest announcements from Twitter was made during an appearance by Suzanne Xie, Twitter’s director of product management, at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las…

We may be easing back into the world of work after a joyful Christmas break and new year celebrations, but the world of social media has welcomed the new year with open arms; announcing new policies, tests and features almost immediately. To help you stay up to date with the…

Why Media Buyers and networked Creatives agencies are doing Social Media wrong If you were to jump into a DeLorean equipped with Flux Capacitor and punch in a date of…

It’s hard to remember life before social media platforms popped on the scene and revolutionized how we communicate with others and how we express ourselves. Social media was once a place where friend networks were in the thousands. And let’s be honest, it’s not like many people would…

That’s right, it’s that time of year when we all prophesied about what the future year will hold. We usually look back and back-slap the 2019 forecasts that bore a molecule of resonance and success. Some will make simple to prove assertions like ‘live video demand will increase’. Yup, sure,…

If you’re a small business looking to grow and haven’t considered the potential benefits of using social media, you may want to keep reading. We’ve put a concise list together touching upon just some of the many reasons social media is an effective tool in helping grow your business. Increase…

Let’s be honest, we sometimes overcomplicate marketing activities. Planners can be accused of planning a plan to create a plan. Creatives are claimed to create complex artwork for the sake or showcasing their talent. Strategists are believed to strategise the best approach for strategic construction of a tweet in line…

Whether it’s a new platform update, testing a feature or ways to improve social strategy, we’re always fascinated to find out what’s been happening in the world of social media and learn new things. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best articles from the past week we just have to…

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a critical tool for any business as it can ensure you stand out in a very crowded online environment. But did you know that social media also has a part to play in your SEO plans? How? By tying into what Google looks for –…

Marketing teams are busy. Task lists swell daily. I’m not sure any marketer manages to achieve everything they set out to annually. Evolving sales collateral, event planning, commissioning reports, briefing the spring, summer and Christmas Ads, launching NPD, or improving demand generation. There is much to achieve as a team.

At IF we love all things social. So, we’re always interested in staying up to date with the latest happenings and bringing them to you in our weekly social snapshot! Read on for a roundup of the best articles we just have to shout about… Twitter’s testing tweet…

Included in Facebook’s latest Graph and Marketing API update, the social media platform has announced that in 2020 they will limit the number of ads a page can run at one time. Your initial reaction might be that this update could limit capabilities for your business. However, according to…

We recently saw the amazing Kipchoge run the marathon in under two hours. Kipchoge and his team achieved this after their dedication and focus over many, many months. So, you are asking yourself, what has this got to do with social? Here’s why! The big ‘C’ – commitment Like a…

The age-old question… when is the best time to be posting on social media? It’s a tough one to answer. Especially if you don’t have the time to test with scheduling times, or spend time looking into the all-important data. You may have landed with huge engagement figures on Wednesday…

Huh, I hear many of you say. But, it’s true. Having spent months creating a meaningful report or white paper flush with extensive insight and valuable intellectual property, it’s a given that you’re going to place it behind a gate to gather critical data on potential customers. After…

If you’re a B2B marketer, there’s no doubt that you’ve had to sit through countless meetings, presentations and lesson modules that follow the same three-pronged strategy: 1. What’s the buyers’ problem, 2. How does my technology fix it? and 3. How can I prove that my product is the right…

The future of Instagram looks fun, funky and a whole lot more filtered! That’s because they’ve recently opened up the Spark AR filter creation platform for all users, allowing anyone to create augmented reality filters and publish them on Instagram stories! This will open a whole host of new options…

Neuroscience or more aptly neuromarketing is regularly written off as a ‘fad’ by marketers, all the while they respect the uprising of machine AI and big data. If only they realised neuromarketing is an amalgamation of AI, big data and behavioural science, all rolled up into this neat little package…

It’s astonishing the number of people who proclaim this without having even tried using the platform for B2B. “Facebook is more of a consumer channel. We use Twitter and LinkedIn.” Yet, when pressed, the spokesperson rarely has any supporting evidence or experience as to why they’ve landed at this conclusion.

Summer is traditionally the time many of us slow down – heck, we all slowed down in the very recent heatwave – as many of us go on our holidays or enjoy time at home. And while many things go quiet over the summer, does social media? Well no, there…

We love a good B2B brainstorm – it’s one of our (many) nerdy fascinations. So, when given the opportunity to attend the B2B Marketing Ignite 2019 conference, we simply couldn’t resist. Not to mention, our dear friends and clients at Fujitsu would be speaking on account-based marketing,…

This phrase is relatively new, but the social savvy will recognise it instantly as the hybrid of neuroscience and marketing. Whilst mixing psychology and sales isn’t something new (charm pricing, duh), for the first time social is recognising the power neurology has on marketing – explaining why books like Choice…

With all the rumours that surround privacy on social media platforms and the common suspicions we have about being spied on through our popular handheld devices, Facebook is clearly trying to take a step in the direction of transparency. We all get spooked after having a conversation in our non-screen…

It’s a question we’re frequently asked, and one that doesn’t seem to go away. It’s clear there is still much confusion around the metrics you should pay attention to, versus those that are nothing more than a positive signal. Too many people in industry mistake the latter for stellar achievement.

All businesses are after results – but how do we make sure our social strategy lines up to deliver? While it might seem obvious, strong social needs a strong foundation. Here are the 3 tenets meaningful social content can’t live without: Know your audience Whether you’re in the B2C or…

The very strong chance exists that you enjoy a BBQ! After all BBQ & at-home eating & entertaining is now the UK’s No1 summer home leisure activity, with three out of four households now owning some type of BBQ grill. So you probably aren’t missing out in hosting, attending and…

Music and audio experiences are huge parts of consumers’ lives. Just consider the spectacular rise of podcasts. 6 million adults now tune in to a podcast each week. Ofcom reported that the number of weekly podcast listeners almost doubled in the past five years — from 3.2m…

Another week has passed, which means one thing… time for another Social Snapshot! This week we’re bringing you a variety of content; channel reports, platform updates and ways to help you improve your social strategy. We’re always here to help! Facebook’s working on a new ‘preview’ option for page posts.

It’s always interesting to find out what’s happening in the world of social media, but we understand that sometimes it’s hard to keep up. That’s why we’ve rounded up a range of articles that we just want to shout about! Keep on reading to find out what’s been happening… Fortnite…

Do you know enough about tracking users engaging with your social media activity? Without a tracking pixel implemented on a website, you cannot retarget users who land on your site, create website user lookalike audiences or exclude users who have already visited/converted within a campaign – it means that your…

Seasonality is a very important factor in the marketing world. Our behaviours online certainly change over the seasons. Only a couple of months from now hits the summer slowdown. Consumers are spending less and employees are holidaying more, and a lot of businesses fall into sloth-mode. But, you can also…

Fanfare, please! LinkedIn has finally introduced interest targeting options to their paid campaign manager – three cheers! So all those hashtags you’ve been faithfully adding to organic content and wondering “what exactly is this doing for me?”… wonder no longer, they are indicators for users’…

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Coming from us? We must be bonkers. But, hear us out! To do good, meaningful and impactful social media, you need to be serious about it. Here are 8 reasons why you might want to reconsider your use of social media. If…

When planning messages and creative for campaigns which require an action to be taken, we’ve always got the customer journey in mind. The simplest approach is to ensure you are present to inspire and delight when research takes place, when the action is taken and then following the action to…

Right now as we head into the dead of winter, our summer holiday is just a distant memory. But it’s now, as we turn the heating up at home, that we dream of going away. Our latest research makes it clear that social is a travel essential.

It’s been a good year for social media. Marketers are steadily shifting more of their budgets into social media marketing. In the second quarter of 2018, global advertising spend on Instagram was up 177% year-on-year and, subsequently, influencer marketing continues to grow. But, because social media influencers are…

How well do you know your audience and what they want? As a business, you might be in the camp which has spent countless hours in a boardroom scoping out personas and defining which segments are your best to target for purchase. Alternatively, you’re in a business where that’s either…

Sure, sure… high street economy is a bit on the low side with big franchises announcing closures of big flagship stores, but not everything is lost. The economy, though, is not sinking worldwide. Markets are just shifting towards the easier (at least for the consumer) e-commerce. The online…

Facebook has decided to rename its Canvas ad format and along with the name change come a few new features. If for some rare and unexplained reason you haven’t heard of Facebook Canvas, here’s a recap: “Facebook Instant Experiences, formally known as Canvas, load instantly, they’re mobile-optimised and designed to…

Many of its 44,000 Twitter followers were shocked at yesterday’s announcement that JD Wetherspoon will be closing all of its accounts across all social media platforms. The reasoning behind this bold decision however, remains relatively vague. Wetherspoon’s CEO, Tim Martin, listed a few reasons why he’s calling it quits –…

Facebook’s Paid Media proposition is changing. After the data breach, and with GDPR coming up, it’s clear why they’re doing it. But, if you use Facebook for advertising, you’ll want to know what’s changing and how. As a Facebook partner, we’ve got all the finer details. In this week’s…

Anniversaries are a great opportunity to celebrate the high points from the last year. They also give brands an opportunity to devise a social campaign to make strengthen their brand messaging and appeal to a particular audience. For optimum success, they’re best celebrated alongside a news story, launches, initiatives, products,…

With digital ad spend growing year-on-year, 2017 was the year that overall digital ad spend finally surpassed TV spend. Total global digital ad spend came to a whopping $209 billion, which is a huge 41% of the entire market. TV is now trailing behind with a $178…

So, a six-year-old can now be on Social Media? Yes, you read that right! Facebook have released an App that targets parents with children younger than 13. This is Facebook’s first product aimed at children and they are not the first to focus on this large, untapped audience. Whilst it…

At IF, it’s been slowly and now concretely drummed into us: Christmas is coming. If your clients aren’t ready yet, then you need to be. Internally, it means designing our Christmas card, sorting the festivities and most importantly, making sure we are effortlessly ready to deliver everything before 2017 magically…

The online consumption of Sports Online sports viewing has been growing significantly and as consumer attention gets scattered across multiple platforms and devices, it is interesting to understand what major marketing players are doing to follow suit. Trends A positive problem? Opportunities arise for advertisers as a need for engaging…

Reporting back to senior management with low conversion rates can become the bane of one’s life. And then to top it off, you are probably working extremely hard to persuade for more budget towards your social campaigns. It’s 2017, and you shouldn’t have to battle to prove the success rates…

It’s safe to say that the use of visual content is going to stick and there is a wealth of data that can be used to support the benefits of this type of content. On average, visuals perform 4.4 x better than text-based content and as social media marketers, we…

How many times have you swayed away from social content, thinking, “What pile of absolute fluff?” That’s right- you are todays customer- a well-informed, savvy and socially aware individual who has access to vast sources of data which hold the truths & certainly the untruths of a brand. This could…

Sometimes social gets a bad rep. This is due to the lingering hangover our industry is still suffering from the bad old days of “social rockstars”, “ninjas” and “gurus” who sold vanity metrics at a premium and contributed very little to actual business objectives. The…

We are all winding down for the festive period, and with that in mind, we have compiled an easy to digest blog consisting of 3 useful infographics to read… While you are eating your cold turkey sandwiches As an alternative to watching the Queen’s speech While feeling sorry for yourself…

There’s a story that Chip and Dan Heath tell in their book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” that I think about often when creating B2B content for social. A Stanford University Graduate by the name of Elizabeth Newton ran a simple…

Twitter’s new marketing campaign opens its doors to non-users clearing the misconceptions they have with the brand and its purpose. CMO Leslie Berland announces the new campaign saying that it’s content and ads will spread awareness of what Twitter has to offer and invite non-users to give…

So the title of this blog was going to be way more offensive than I finally decided. I am just getting to the end of my tether with the use of ‘millennials’ as any sort of quality or useful market segmentation method. Let me break it down for you. Howe…

Anyone who’s seen Peanuts knows the football gag. In it, Lucy challenges Charlie Brown to kick a football which she then moves just as he’s about to punt the life out if it. The joke ran yearly from 1951 to 1983 and yet every time Charlie B somehow…

We presented at the B2B Summit recently, talking about paid social media. Interestingly, the question on everyone’s lips was; how much should social advertising cost? What are the benchmarks for investment and returns you can expect? Well, a Salesforce report (download) gives us some interesting paid social…

From the adorable To the daring From the weird To the wonderful There can be no doubt that the internet loves a good GIF. And that love affair is growing stronger by the day. From 2012…

Sharing your thoughts and expertise can go along way with driving conversation and proving you’re a valuable Twitter contact. Twitter chats may seem like the last thing on your to do list but it’s worth the time and tweets. Answering industry leading conversations and networking with like-minded professionals can set…

Over the years I’ve sat in many meetings hearing statements like: “We need an idea for social!” or “take the ad campaign and ‘socialise it’.” Then there’s this little belter: “We need a viral video!” Or my personal favourite: “that’s a nice idea, let’s shove it on social – that’ll…

Following in the footsteps of Facebook, LinkedIn is now working on its own version of Instant Articles, a feature that makes it possible for publishers to host fast loading, immersive mobile content, accessible instantly within LinkedIn, rather than linking users back to their own site. According to…

At IF, we pride ourselves on evolving. Curiosity is one of our brand values, championed daily by our fabulous staff. Our event format has been well received for many years but it was time to evolve. After a few months of planning and tinkering, all was…

Social listening is all the rage when it comes to analysing consumer behavior, determining people’s views of a brand, service or product and comparing a company’s public reputation to its competitors. One of the challenges social listening faces however is the vast majority of social users the internet classifies as…

Getting your message across can be difficult in the digital age. People have very short attention spans and there is a lot of competition. Twitter allows 140 characters to get the job done, but data shows that tweets shorter than 100 characters get a 17% higher engagement rate. If a…

In the last decade or so, social media has evolved into a data mining, user generated information goldmine, which is drawing ever more attention from those who can interpret the data and put it to good use. This is a…

Freelancing gave me the freedom to experiment and share knowledge without major application. It was invaluable to me as usually social media newbies often land as a junior in an agency with little in the way of being able to experiment with serious application. I feel I was lucky to be just…

Everywhere you go right now the digital marketing world is talking about ‘moments’… Google have their ‘micro-moments’ story, brands are high-jacking moments everywhere to meet their marketing objectives and reach relevant audiences, heck, Twitter even added a new section to the platform called moments – and let’s face it: if…

Our team had the pleasure of going to a seminar by Getty Images talking about the visual trends for 2016. The event took place at their new exhibition offices in London, and it was organized by the lovely folks at The Drum Network (shout-out…

It struck me this week that social media is not really a new thing anymore. I know it sounds obvious. We have been doing it for 12 years. But this year it feels like social media got serious. Serious enough that it is…

Last Spring, in a bid to increase the number of users, Facebook announced its plans to start letting brands and businesses use its Messenger app to handle customer service issues. Then, having reached over 700 million monthly active users last summer, they went public with their…

For many brands using social media to generate sales, the priority list often consists of lead generation, brand awareness, content creation, campaign management and customer service. Whilst all of these can play a major role in creating sales, one important item is missing from that list – online reviews. A…

Demographic data has always been key to any marketing or social strategy. After all, the most compelling campaigns were based on understanding what makes a target audience ‘tick’ – think of the Dove campaign for Real Beauty, the famous ALS Association’s Ice Bucket challenge…

Of all of the consumer tech and social media news coming out of #CES2016 last week, I wasn’t expecting news of a new Twitter ad product to be one of the most talked about. But with its ‘brand enthusiast gallery’ (purely a working title, I hope),…

When I was writing this I did think to myself ‘aren’t we all sick of talking about post-millennials?’ But upon a bit of pre-Xmas digging and realising that these tech-savvy go-getters were going to save Christmas by vowing to spend more than ever before and…

Back in Q1, 2014, Mark Zuckerburg announced Facebook’s $2.5 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, signalling his intention to bring virtual reality into mainstream digital life. Two years on and Facebook have finally begun taking pre-orders for Oculus Rift. That’s right you can now place…

With the new year come new trends…yada yada yada yes. But there’s no denying, as we try to keep up with the cascading popularity of the annual Consumer Electronics Show or #CES2016, that there are some highlights of this year’s show that hold clear opportunities for the…

New services like Facebook’s Instant Articles and Snapchat’s Discover allow publishers to host and monetise content on third-party social media platforms, without the need for users to click through to their site. Media publishers are currently uploading content on social media platforms in the hope users will click back to…

For many of you, tomorrow is the long awaited day. That’s right – there is only one more sleep until the theatrical release of the highly anticipated 7th Star Wars film – The Force Awakens! Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have noticed that (much to…

As we near the end of 2015 I wanted to avoid a ‘social media trends for 2016’ style blog piece. Of course everyone will be eyes on for what is going to happen over the next 12 months, how the platforms will adapt and technology updates will take place. However,…

On 22nd of October, we welcomed back Rachel Kneen, O2’s social media manager, to our monthly Speakeasy to speak about the importance of content. Rachel has been working in social since 2009 – to put that into context, at that time, people spent more time on average on Myspace…