Insights
From the blog
Notes on growth, marketing transformation, AI, and emerging technology.
Location MarketingFuture-Proofing Your SEO: Making Your Content and Map Listings AI-Friendly
When it comes to search engine optimiation (SEO), strategies change constantly, and the emergence of AI-powered search results is causing another huge shift in strategy. Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly influencing how information is discovered and presented, making an AI-ready SEO stra
Marketing Strategy and TrendsNew Year, New Rules: Complying With DMARC Email Marketing Requirements in 2024
A new year is always a time for change. And in 2024, Google and Yahoo are rolling out updated guidelines for bulk email senders, aimed at boosting deliverability and fighting the good fight against spam. This is good news: not only will it positively impact your deliverability, it’s easy to implemen
Emerging TechnologyFuture-proofing Your SERPs in the Age of SGEs
The search landscape is constantly evolving, and search engines are increasingly incorporating AI-powered Search Generative Experiences (SGEs). To maintain visibility, businesses which rely on local search need to adapt their strategies to ensure they remain visible and competitive in search results
Marketing Strategy and TrendsHow AI-Powered Search Engines Use Structured Data (And Why It’s Important For Your Business Listings)
“How will AI change SEO?” is a question we’re asked a lot. Traditional search engines relied primarily on keyword matching to deliver relevant results, but the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way search engines operate, giving them more power to answer open-ended question
Emerging TechnologyUn-AI: Maintaining the Human Touch in AI-Generated Content
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI, has brought about a paradigm shift in content creation. Generative AI tools like GPT-4, Google Bard, Jasper and others have revolutionized the way we approach content development, offering unparalleled efficiency and a solid foundat
Marketing Strategy and TrendsDouble-Check Your Success: Essential GA4 Implementation Checklist
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has revolutionized data tracking, offering powerful insights into user behavior and website performance. But with that power comes complexity. Implementing GA4 correctly ensures you collect accurate data and gain valuable insights. To prevent missed steps and maximize your G
Emerging TechnologyThe Changing Landscape: Why AI-Powered Search Results Diminish the Role of SEO and Elevate Multi-Channel Branding
The era of meticulously crafting meta descriptions, building backlinks, and obsessing over keyword density – which was already gradually waning – is even closer to its end as artificial intelligence (AI) redefines the parameters of search. While search engine optimization (SEO) has, for years, been
Location MarketingSimplify Your Retail Chain’s Marketing Strategy with Centralized Location Marketing
Chain stores often find themselves confronted with the challenging task of maintaining a cohesive marketing strategy that is both unified and locally nuanced. As competition intensifies, the need for a streamlined approach to location marketing becomes ever more crucial. It is here that centralized
Location MarketingHow Centralized Review Management Can Elevate Your Retail Chain’s Reputation
In the contemporary business environment where online presence significantly influences consumer behavior, managing reviews centrally emerges as a key strategy to enhance a chain store’s reputation. Centralized review management enables a company to handle all reviews from different platforms in one
Location Marketing5 Must-Have Features of a Centralized Location Marketing Platform
Businesses with multiple locations inevitably find themselves in need of a singular, centralized platform that effortlessly integrates all aspects of location marketing. The perfect centralized location marketing platform is an amalgamation of several pivotal features designed to streamline operatio
Location MarketingMaximizing ROI with Unified Location Marketing and Review Management
For location marketing, the decisive factor for success hinges significantly on consistent strategies and robust, centralized management systems. Centralization delivers a quick win for most businesses, creating avenues for substantial returns on investment. In this blog, we’ll look into the many wa
Location MarketingThe Ultimate Guide to Centralizing Your Location Marketing Strategy
In a world dominated by digital touchpoints, streamlining your chain stores’ online presence through a centralized location marketing strategy is not just a necessity; it is the pathway to sustainable growth. Centralizing location marketing involves harmonizing your brand’s identity across various l
Emerging TechnologyDriving Digital and AI Transformation: McKinsey On How To Align on Value and Create a Business-Led Roadmap
McKinsey recently released a book that gives businesses guidance on what it takes to compete in today’s age of digital and AI. Their blog that announced the book, Rewired to Outcompete, speaks to a challenge we’ve often helped businesses address, which is aligning the entire C-suite around a common
Emerging TechnologyCrucial Questions Corporate Boards Should Be Asking About Digital Transformation and AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation have become central to business strategy, challenging corporate boards to foster innovation while managing unprecedented risks and ethical implications. Given the speed at which technology is evolving, directors must be adept at asking the righ
Emerging TechnologyI Got Trolled By Google Bard and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog Post
When Google Bard first came out, it didn’t code, and instead said its emphasis was on conversational search. By comparison, in my previous experience with GPT-4, it excels at coding, and over time I’ve gotten pretty comfortable at asking it to generate simple code for website functions as well as la
Marketing Strategy and TrendsAmsterdam’s Anti-Tourism Ad Campaign
When most people think of “negative SEO,” they think of black-hat techniques aimed at competitors, the specifics of which I won’t go into here. The city of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, started up a negative marketing campaign last month. Amsterdam’s “negative” campaign, as it turns out, is a paid
- Emerging Technology
Italy Temporarily Bans ChatGPT – Now What?
With any new technology, expect backlash – one form of which was delivered yesterday when Italy issued a temporary ban on the use of ChatGPT, stating they would begin an investigation of parent company OpenAI “with immediate effect.” As of this writing, it’s ChatGPT and only ChatGPT that they are fo
Emerging TechnologyChatGPT As Tour Guide – Running Routes In Lisbon
In a quick exploration of whether AI can supplant search engines, I used ChatGPT to choose some running routes while I’m in Lisbon. I’m not a planner when it comes to trips, and GPT-4 is now my personal assistant, junior programmer and copywriter, so it seemed like a natural fit to ask it this quest
- Marketing Strategy and Trends
Super Bowl SEO: Who Should Optimize and Tactics To Use
As one of the most-watched annual events in the United States (and additionally popular in many other places around the world), the Super Bowl presents a unique opportunity for businesses of all types to capitalize on the enormous audience it attracts. With a staggering viewership of over 100 millio
- Emerging Technology
Why I Changed My Title To Chief ChatGPT Officer
Disclaimer: this post is (partially) satire. Also, regrettably, ChatGPT was at capacity when I wrote this post, so I had to write it myself. ChatGPT. The AI that we’ve been hearing about – and, for most of us, using – nonstop. It can fix your code, write your press releases, basically everything but
- Customer Experience
Southwest Airlines’ Legacy Systems Failed. Are Yours Next?
Here’s hoping no one reading this was – or still currently is – stranded at an airport over the 2022 holidays due to the massive wave of travel cancellations, or still sorting through a sea of baggage trying to find their generic black rollaway (protip if that’s you: throw an AirTag in there next ti
- Uncategorized
What Would You Buy At Twitter’s Surplus Auction?
For better or for worse, anything and everything going on at Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform becomes a major news story. Now, they can’t even get rid of some surplus projectors without getting national attention. As first reported in Fortune magazine, Twitter is auctioning
Customer ExperienceOmnichannel Marketing: A Retail Experience Essential
It’s been established that an omnichannel presence is an imperative for retailers. By definition, “omnichannel” means providing a seamless shopping experience across all channels, including in-store, online, mobile, and social media. In other words, your customer should be able to purchase your prod
Customer ExperienceAirTags Empowered Flyers With Lost Bags. Then One Airline Wanted To Ban Them
AirTags – introduced by Apple in April 2021 to help people track and find their important belongings – have found a multitude of uses since then. Tucked into your laptop bag in case you accidentally leave it in an Uber, attached to a pet’s collar in case they get out of the house, or placed… Read Mo
- Marketing Strategy and Trends
Twitter’s Edit Button Will Be a Relief For Brands
It’s finally happened. Twitter is implementing an “edit” button, a feature that users have been calling for ever since Twitter came into existence, basically. The feature is currently in testing, and will be made available to paid (“Twitter Blue”) users later this month: Later this month, access wil
Emerging TechnologyWhat Should Go Into Your Long-Term Metaverse Strategy? Some Insights From Gartner
No matter where you think the metaverse is right now in the hype cycle – maybe, like many, you see the recent declines in cryptocurrency and in high-flying publicly traded stocks connected to the metaverse as a sign we’ve just passed the peak of inflated expectations are heading into the trough of d
Marketing Strategy and TrendsElon Musk Takes a Stake In Twitter. What Now?
Elon Musk would have already been a fascinating case study in time management, somehow managing Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, cryptocurrency advocacy and a colorful personal life including an SNL appearance and challenging Vladimir Putin to fisticuffs. And yet somehow he has now found time to get involv
Customer ExperienceFrom Disruptor To Ally: You Can Now Hail a Taxi On Uber
Uber, the ride-hailing company that thoroughly disrupted the taxi industry and was initially met with hostility and even legislation barring them from competing with taxi drivers in some areas, today announced that they’ve reached a deal to list all New York City taxis on their app. Yes, you read th
Marketing Strategy and TrendsGoogle Announces Plans To Limit Cross-App Tracking On Android Phones
Marketers, here’s your latest reminder that conversion tracking is only going to get harder and harder: Google, following Apple, has announced plans to curtail cross-app tracking on Android phones. Google’s moves won’t be put into place for two years, and they’re slightly different than Apple’s move
Location MarketingPresident Biden Recommends a Google “Near Me” Search
One of the fastest ways to find a product or service near you – the Google “near me” search – received a massive endorsement of sorts from the President of the United States yesterday, with regard to helping Americans find accessible COVID-19 testing: “Google “COVID test near me” — go there. Google
- Location Marketing
Will Omicron-Related Staffing Issues Affect Your Business Hours? How To Adapt
As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, businesses that over the last two years may have had to pivot quickly related to lockdowns and orders that limited their in-person operations are facing new challenges – how to operate and communicate when the challenge is not
Emerging TechnologyNFTs: Considerations For Brands
We wrote earlier this year about NFTs (non-fungible tokens) as an innovative new digital product and even an asset class, that artists and brands alike can use to connect with their audience. In this year, we’ve seen the space expand even more, with implementations like the creation of social clubs
Customer ExperienceCX Impact Summit 2021 – What We Learned
Our team spent some time this week attending GetFeedback’s CX Impact Summit 2021, looking for new ideas we could bring to our customers to help them drive the future of customer service and the customer experience. The conference covered quite a few themes on new expectations, digital disruption and
Marketing Strategy and TrendsCelebrating the Launch Of InclusiCheck – On-Demand DEI Review For Marketing Initiatives
Our marketing work crosses companies of all sizes and in widely varying industries. This presents us with numerous opportunities to uncover common needs that aren’t currently being addressed. While many companies have made a commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, which i
Marketing Strategy and TrendsPaypal To Acquire Pinterest? Building a “Walled Garden” For Advertisers
Update: As of October 25, 2021, PayPal has announced they are NOT interested in acquiring Pinterest. We’re leaving this post up as an exploration of the potential synergies between social companies and payment companies in general. PayPal, the fintech company that perhaps was originally best known f
Customer ExperienceCustomer Experience, Exclusive Access, and Follow-Through: Lessons From Nike
Even if you’re not a sneakerhead, you may have noticed the increased interest in sneakers within the last several years – already growing in popularity pre-Covid thanks to the popularity of Kanye West’s Yeezy designs, among others, they’ve entrenched themselves even more as key components of during-
Marketing Strategy and TrendsGetting Employees Back To the Office
If your team has mostly or completely worked remote during the pandemic, you’re not (no pun intended) alone. McKinsey estimated that almost two-thirds of employees worked remotely during this time, versus 25% a couple of years ago – and 80% reported that they enjoy working from home. Most feel they
Emerging TechnologyPeloton and Netflix Prepare To Enter the Gaming Market
The global gaming market has always been hot and grew even more in the last year, as in-person social activities took a back seat and people looked for new, and often social, ways to spend their free time – reaching a value over $162 billion in 2020. And the market is only forecasted to grow,… Read
- Location Marketing
What We’ve Learned From Luxe Listings Sydney: Finding Real Estate Buyers (and Sellers)
Amazon, already a retail giant, has been investing significantly in their original digital content in order to gain a bigger foothold in the streaming video market. One of their new original shows, Luxe Listings Sydney, focuses on several high-end agents in the real estate market in Sydney, Australi
Marketing Strategy and TrendsGoodbye, Twitter Fleets
Twitter’s foray into ephemeral social media – Fleets – is going away, less than a year after it was introduced. Fleets, which very closely resembled Instagram Stories, offered a way to share content without it becoming part of your permanent Twitter feed. The service was intended as an attempt to ac
Customer ExperienceMessenger API For Instagram: Grow Your Business
Instagram has quickly become a preferred channel for customers to browse and buy, particularly in the B2C arena, where they are eager to make a visit to a retail location or directly purchase the products shown in their feeds. These customers often utilize Instagram messaging, and in June, the Messe
Marketing Strategy and TrendsDon’t Blame the Intern
By now, you have likely either received, or heard about, the errant HBO Max ‘Integration Test Email’ that was sent out last night. As Mashable said, it was the perfect opportunity for everyone to make the same joke: So, despite it looking like a straight-up phishing scam, it was a pretty standard te
- Marketing Strategy and Trends
Connecting To Younger Investors, From ESG to WSB
Investing has changed. Our publicly-traded client companies have all had to evolve their messaging in recent years to talk less about earnings and more about concepts like Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG), as younger and more environmentally conscious investors have driven compa
Emerging TechnologyEveryone Is Refining Their Retail Offerings – Even Auctions. Are You?
Much has been written in the last several years about the changing nature of consumer preferences when it comes to making a purchase. You probably heard a lot about how ‘showrooming’ would be the death of large-scale retail, while experiential retail and personalization might save small-scale locati
- Marketing Strategy and Trends
“Hype Cycle” For Emerging Quarantines
Do you see yourself in this paradigm? This parody of the popular “Hype Cycle” was floating around the Refinery Lab Slack. It seems to put Tax Day 2021 firmly on the plateau of productivity (and it does feel like the end of the pandemic is in sight), but looking back at the phases of expectations,… R
Emerging TechnologyHow To Market In a “Post-Cookie World”
When Google announced their plans to remove support for third-party cookie tracking in early 2022, they scrambled long-term plans in the marketing and advertising world. Many of our customers have had questions for us about what the “post-cookie world” really means for them and their ability to reac
Marketing Strategy and TrendsDriving In-Store Traffic For Cannabis, CBD and Hemp Brands
CBD and hemp products have found appeal with a wide market in recent years, and markets for medical and even recreational cannabis have opened up in several countries as well as many, but not all, US states. Whether due to rules and regulations or personal preference, some customers will always pref
Emerging TechnologyWhat Does “Super Twitter” Mean For Brands? Breaking Down the Paid Features
At their analyst event yesterday, Twitter gave us the first look at some of the features that will be included in their paid subscription service. These included Super Follow, Safety Mode and Communities. Our team took a look at the potential for these features to affect the user experience as well
Customer ExperienceThree Best Practices for Driving In-Store Traffic with Location-Based Marketing
In-store traffic now takes many forms. For retailers, a customer might prefer to buy online and pick up their items in-store or via curbside pickup, or could choose to visit a store to do their own shopping. Restaurants, similarly, have seen patrons moving toward outdoor dining and curbside pickup.
Marketing Strategy and TrendsBrand Meme Challenge. Level: Bernie
Inauguration Day 2021 passed without a hitch yesterday in the United States, with some notable firsts, like the swearing-in of Kamala Harris as America’s first Black, Asian-American and female vice-president. Many brands enthusiastically and genuinely took part the celebration of President Biden and
Customer ExperienceCo-operational ecosystem resolves the local digital marketing clash between HQ and stores
Mobilosoft, the innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform designed to centralise local digital marketing is expanding its my.mobilosoft platform to Australia and New Zealand after a successful trial. My.mobilosoft is designed specifically for retailers with franchisees or independent store ow
Emerging TechnologyAmazon Alexa Skill Growth Has Slowed. Is That a Good Thing?
Amazon’s Alexa voice platform is used for more than interacting with Amazon itself to purchase items – much of the value it provides to consumers is from a wide ecosystem of “skills”, apps published by third party developers. When Amazon’s Alexa platform was first introduced, the number of skills av
Emerging TechnologyVoice Network ‘Hacking’
If you have been in the telecommunications industry for long enough you would have heard of voice call hacking. In the good old days when there were only circuit switched services namely, PSTN and ISDN, voice call hacking was a big problem. There was one make and model of PBX that was known to be… R
Emerging TechnologyWhat Does Australia’s NBN Mean For Telco Customers?
The NBN (National Broadband Network) has had a controversial history. Politicians have endlessly played politics with it as you would expect. The upgrade just announced is another example of the piecemeal, reactive approach that has plagued the project since its inception. The fact is an internet co
Emerging TechnologyCOVID-19 Winners and Losers In the Telecommunications Industry
COVID-19 will result in winners and losers in the business world. The winners will be those that have evolved, as nobody really believes we will eventually return to the way we operated pre-COVID. For telco customers who are winners in their own sector, what telecommunications services will they dem
Emerging TechnologyTelecoms: When is a rate not a rate?
Have you had this experience? You thought you agreed a rate per minute with your service provider for your most used call types. When you get your monthly invoice, you sum up the total charges for each of your commonly used call types, and sum up the total minutes for each call type, then you… Read
Emerging TechnologyBeware of LNP – There’s a Catch!
LNP stands for Local Number Portability. You will run into LNP if you want to change from one access provider network to another network but keep your existing telephone numbers. The public network is a network of interconnected networks. To enable a calling party to be successfully connected to a c
Emerging TechnologyGoing Contactless: Prepare For Unexpected Expenses
Post-pandemic, many businesses are looking for ways to go as contactless as possible – retailers and restaurants are offering curbside pickup, online ordering is becoming more robust and technology like virtual assistants and robotics is taking the place of in-person interactions. As part of their p
Customer ExperienceWhat Drove Brand Switching During COVID-19?
A recent McKinsey and Company study evaluated the many forces that impacted brand choice and brand loyalty during the COVID-19 pandemic, with an eye toward what would work for brands now in the “new normal” and in the near future in the “next normal.” You’ve probably read a lot about customer experi
Emerging TechnologyGAP and Face Masks – SEO In Your Innovation Strategy
US retailer GAP Inc reported earnings yesterday for the previous quarter. Retailers, as a whole, are seeing falling earnings year-over-year due to coronavirus-related store closures and customer pivots. GAP did have a couple of interesting bright spots in their earnings. Their Athleta brand has been
Emerging TechnologyWhat Could a TikTok Ban Mean For Acquirers Like Microsoft, and Competitors Like Triller?
What could be so controversial about a social media app that lets a user base of mostly teens share short music videos? Recently, popular social media app TikTok has fallen under scrutiny for its ownership by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, what data it collects on US-based users and whether that data
Emerging TechnologyJob Listing SEO: Google Adds Markup Type For Work-From-Anywhere Jobs
Our company, and many of our clients, have transitioned their teams to primarily or fully working from home due to COVID-19. For many companies, this work-from-home flexibility will be a long-term shift. Google has made some changes to make it easier for job seekers to find positions that are remote
Marketing Strategy and TrendsDon’t Forecast For 2021, Forecast For 2025
This chart from Julia Janks of trends.co caught our attention this morning: In many ways, it represents what we all want to be true – a v-shaped recovery, with steady growth once the economy fully and successfully reopens. However, it comes with both a fundamental truth and a caveat. The fundamental
Emerging TechnologySocial Media Training For Executives, Sales Teams and Other Employee Groups
Our team at Refinery Lab is frequently asked to conduct social media training for the companies with which we work. While most people have a basic familiarity with social networks, not all of your employees will have a strong background in which channels are most useful in a professional setting, an
Customer ExperienceAI In the Age Of Social Distancing: MoonMate
There are several brands that have become much-loved on social media for their quirky personalities, especially on Twitter. One of these is MoonPie (if you’re not following them already, you’re missing out). Recently, the brand has decided to extend itself into another channel, launching the MoonMat
- Press Releases and News
Savage Brands Expands Partnership with Refinery Lab to Strengthen Digital Strategy and Execution Capabilities
Today, Savage Brands, a purpose-driven agency specializing in branding, marketing, leadership development and culture building with more than 40 years of experience, announced the expansion of its digital marketing capabilities through an alliance with Refinery Lab. Refinery will act as an extension
Customer ExperienceHermès Re-Opening Sales – A Good Sign For Experiential Retail
With many retail stores around the world shuttered to stop the spread of COVID-19, concerns have arisen: even when the economy recovers, will permanent changes to consumer behavior mean trouble for brick-and-mortar retail? It’s easy to see why some might think this – even before the pandemic, consum
Customer ExperienceWhat Are “Zero Click Searches” and How Do They Impact Stores?
You may or may not have already heard the phrase “zero click” in reference to Google Searches. It’s a reference to the evolution of Google search results – which have grown from the early days of straightforward organic rankings, to ad-heavy results, to results extensively integrated with other Goog
- Customer Experience
Experiences That Scale
Without going into a full dissection of the “OK, Boomer” meme – which may very well be dated by the time I publish this – I’ll suffice to say it neatly sums up as a terse response to anyone who refuses to evolve their worldview. And, admittedly, it’s the first thing that came to mind… Read More »Exp
Emerging TechnologyAugmented Reality and Sponsored Location-Based Marketing
We talk a lot about location-based marketing on our blog, generally in the context of optimizing your location for findability on services like Google Maps. Maps aren’t new, but for many, the idea of optimizing locations for them is. Gaming isn’t new either, but augmented reality (AR) is – and where
Emerging TechnologyTrading in an Amazon Echo, Or, Anthropomorphizing Our Digital Assistants
“The ghost of her is in the architecture” – Cubanate The Prime Day deal seemed like a no-brainer: trade in my original Amazon Echo and, after a barrage of credits and discounts, receive a new Echo Show with a fancy screen for $4. All I had to do was send back my original Echo to… Read More »Trading
Location MarketingLocation, Location, Location
It’s not just a real estate adage (or perhaps it still is, if you’re talking about search-result real estate). Local search is huge. A recent LSA (Local Search Association) survey found that 87% of respondents used a search engine to find a location for a local business, versus 70% who used the busi
- Emerging Technology
Echo Auto: Alexa On Wheels
We recently attended a webinar presented by the Amazon Alexa team showcasing some of the development opportunities for Echo Auto. (Sidenote: the webinar was delivered via Twitch stream – loving the innovative choice of platform.) If you’re not familiar with Echo Auto, it’s the extension of Alexa voi
Emerging TechnologyNeural Networks and Lottery Tickets
Training an algorithm to recognize images (or to do anything for that matter) is difficult and occasionally overwhelming. But this recent piece from the MIT Technology Review suggests we’re making it harder than it has to be, using neutral networks that are ten, or even a hundred, times too big – re
- Emerging Technology
Branded Search Audit Tips From Search Engine Watch
It’s a question we get a lot: why are branded search terms important? Many marketers assume anyone searching for their brand will find it anyway – despite common distractors like similar brand names and competitors placing ads to target those searching for your brand. Search Engine Watch has put tog
Customer ExperienceDeck The Halls With Ads And Emails
Fa la la la la… as a digital marketer or even as a consumer, the amount of seasonal advertising you see this time of year may well have you wishing someone spiked the egg nog. But, for a marketer – especially in the B2C space – it’s great to have something as predictable as ye… Read More »Deck The H
- Customer Experience
How To Miss A Customer Service Opportunity
By and large, airlines are not well-regarded for their customer service or customer experience. For every good story you can think of – you can probably also think of a dozen horror stories. It’s easy, though, for most of us to reimagine how the airline customer experience could be improved, often i
- Customer Experience
GPS, DMS, and Thinking About Addresses Like a Computer
Is DMS* the new address? (* – not sure what that is? Keep reading…) Today, when most people say they’re going to “GPS it,” they are, for the most part, still talking about typing a physical street address into Google Maps, Waze or a device in their car. Ultimately, this software will “GPS” that stre
- Emerging Technology
The New World Of AI: We’re Just Scratching the Surface
WSJ put a new, interactive report this week on artificial intelligence and its existing applications – as well as its history and where it may go in the future. “AI” in limited fashion goes back in history around sixty years, but it’s only started to accelerate recently, and it’s expected that AI-re
- Customer Experience
The Glass Box: Exposing Your Business Culture
They say a little transparency is a good thing. But we’ve moved into an era of complete transparency, and for many businesses, that has not turned out to be a good thing – take a look at the near-daily headlines relaying mistreatment of employees and customers at startups and established brands. Tre
- Customer Experience
Why Brand Authenticity Resonates, Especially On Social Media
Today in unexpected headlines, from Co.Design: Domino’s Instagram Is Gross. That’s By Design It’s hard to imagine a brand being “gross by design,” especially when you think about the core value proposition of Instagram: filters that can make your already glamorous images even more so. But, for a bra
- Emerging Technology
A Fintech “Jargon Buster”
We’re regularly asked to explain concepts from the “fintech” world – like blockchain and smart contracts – to our clients, and how it might work to streamline business processes. Many of these concepts are associated with bitcoin, but have broader business applications outside of the cryptocurrency
- Customer Experience
“More Human Than Human?” For Chatbots, No, No One Wants That – Not Really
Chatbots are far from being widely deployed, but have received enough coverage since their introduction that most people are now familiar with the concept. Much like we all became accustomed to interactive voice response (IVR) triaging our phone calls to a company and answering our basic questions,
- Emerging Technology
Marketers Using AI – What Does That Mean?
Here’s a Forbes headline that caught our attention recently: 53% of Marketers Plan To Adopt Artificial Intelligence In Two Years Sounds great, right – but what does it mean? The number comes from the Salesforce Fourth Annual State of Marketing report, subtitled “Marketing Embraces the AI Revolution.
- Customer Experience
Trendwatching’s “Future Of Customer Experience”
Attention-seeking. Attention-saving. Yes, it’s the eternal battle to attract, and retain, customers, but made even more challenging in today’s environment: there’s no shortage of stimuli competing for your customers’ attention. On the attention-seeking side, personalization is back in a big way. Del
- Emerging Technology
Does Your Company Need a Futurist?
This story suggesting more companies are hiring futurists caught our attention this morning. Futurists research and predict trends, then determine how business and industries will need to evolve their product and service offerings to stay relevant to changing societal trends and consumer demands. Fu
- Marketing Strategy and Trends
Kleiner Perkins Internet Trends 2017 Report By Mary Meeker
Every year, digital strategists are keenly attuned to the release of Mary Meeker’s internet trends reports. The 2017 report was issued May 31, and we’ve taken some time to give it, at least, an initial analysis. The full report weighs in at 355 slides, and can be found here on the Kleiner Perkins si
- Customer Experience
IT, Innovation, CX and Marketing – Where Do They Intersect In 2017?
Why do we innovate? There is a lot of buzz around IT transformation, the customer experience (CX) and digital marketing as tools for improving alignment to customer needs, overall competitiveness, financial standing and long-term survivability. This transformation requires innovation, and it is why