Author: Simon van Wyk
Simon van Wyk takes a look at what brands are doing to win the hearts and minds of consumers during the FIFA World Cup. With the global spectacle of the FIFA World Cup upon us, it’s interesting to see how the advertising budgets are being carved up. For whichever team ends up hoisting the […]
Content marketing. It’s the catchall phrase used to label creating content and experiences people want to consume, while also conveying a brand message. At its core is the premise that highly targeted quality content begs to be shared. But, what about when it misses the mark? For Wendy’s, the premise of creating quality content to […]
While more large retailers in the US opened their doors on Thanksgiving Day this year and, by all accounts, did rather well, the Thursday sales appear to have been made at the expense of America’s biggest shopping day, Black Friday. According to ShopperTrak, sales on Thursday and Friday collectively were up 2.3% in brick-and-mortar stores […]
The figures reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week show that retail trade rose 0.4% in August, marginally beating economists’ expectations of a 0.3% rise. At the same time, according to the National Australia Bank’s latest Online Retail Sales Index, the rate of online sales growth, which has eased slightly, is sitting at […]
Customer journey mapping and experience design are among the most powerful tools marketers can use for innovating and meeting customer expectations – allowing diagnosis of customer experience issues and formulation of innovative and differentiated brand experiences – but retailers are failing to come to grips with the modern shopper’s path to purchase. As smartphone and […]
For all marketers today the key challenge is to be relevant to customers at every touchpoint. On the web, it’s maximising every opportunity, every dollar you spend. Of course, one of the most powerful ways to maximise the efficacy of your online display marketing is retargeting which effectively gives you another bite at the cherry. […]
Kevin Rudd may be back but I’m not sure it heralds the beginning on a new era of enlightened and dispassionate reporting in the news. The relentless and disrespectful personal campaign against Julia Gillard is but one example of how traditional media is obsessed with personalities, froth and gossip. Not to forget the endless reporting […]
Lessons in how not to handle social media were played out in excruciating detail across the social landscape this week. It all started with the appearance of Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. The experience did not go well for the restaurant’s owners, Samy and Amy Bouzaglos, who came […]
This time around, from an infrastructure capacity perspective at least, Grant Arnott and the people behind Click Frenzy got it right. While the promotion for the Mother’s Day event was muted compared to the crescendo of excitement bubbling around the inaugural sale, four hours into the event, Click Frenzy reported that it had registered just […]
According to IDC, mobile publishers such as Facebook, Pandora, and Twitter are fast taking over the mobile display advertising market in the United States. Overall mobile ad spending in the US increased by 88% in 2012 to $4.5 billion, as marketers spend an increasing portion of their digital ad budgets on mobile. The share of […]
The retail industry is going through a period of dramatic transformation. While bricks and mortar stores continue to play an important part, it’s now just one of the many connection points between the retailer and the customer. Indeed, looking at Australia’s online sales, the National Australia Bank’s latest Online Retail Sales Index shows sales grew […]
Until the Australian Bureau of Statistics begins publishing monthly online retail sales figures in November this year, understanding the real size and growth trajectory of online retail in this country will continue to be difficult to gauge accurately. According to PwC and Frost & Sullivan, Australian online shopping expenditure will grow from $16 billion last […]
Newsweek, the venerable US current affairs magazine, published its last print edition dated 31 December 2012, after almost 80 years on the newsstand. A black and white shot of Newsweek‘s Manhattan office building adorned the cover of the last print edition, with the Twitter hashtag #lastprintissue emblazoned across the front (below left). It was a […]
