Mediaboss Marketing

Its a little difficult to strike handshake deals when, you know, youre not supposed to shake hands.

An increasingly denuded 2020 events calendar the live event components of the upfronts are the latest cancelations could soon start to have a chilling effect on their ability to attract new clients.

Lead gen and pipeline will be impacted, said Tiffany Coletti Kaiser, EVP of marketing at digital media solutions company Digital Remedy. The question is not if, but when.

Screwed together

Of course, everyones pretty much in the same boat, which helps leaven the impact for now.

If were screwed, were all screwed in the same way, said Maor Sadra, CEO of Berlin-based user acquisition platform Applift.

In Sadras view, the ad tech industry at large can probably tolerate at least a couple months of the new normal without any ill effects.

Remote work is relatively common in the tech world, and, if anything, the coronavirus crisis is generating higher eCPMs for publishers. Theres also no reason to imagine well see a slowdown in ad spend from companies that sell virtual goods, such as games and utility apps.

There will come a point, though, when the sales funnel starts to evaporate. Events usually generate roughly one-third of Applifts sales leads, and the company hasnt been able to attend any since January.

Several Applift employees were supposed to meet with representatives from Publicis a few days ago, but an hour before the plane was scheduled to take off, the holding company put out a memo cancelling all external in-person meetings.

In a way, this is almost like a test of brand positioning in the market, Sadra said. Hopefully our SEO and our positioning is good enough for people to remember us if theyre looking for a partner.

But Applift, unlike some others, is lucky in that its somewhat insulated in case of a dry spell. The company, which is profitable today, was acquired by German conglomerate Media and Games Invest in June 2019, and that provides a helpful cushion.

If I was burning cash right now and was in a position where I needed to make certain moves, it would be a very different story, Sadra said.

In terms of sales targets, Applift, which sets its targets quarterly, is playing it by ear. March will remain unchanged, but Applift will most likely recalibrate in April, Sadra said, and hope for the best.

B2B account-based marketing vendor Demandbase is doing much the same. Although the sales team is currently on track to hit quarterly goals despite the pandemic, we are being realistic that things may shift and are fully prepared to address any changes, said CEO Gabe Rogol.

No more steak dinners?

Companies in certain industries teleconferencing, home entertainment and pharmaceutical, for example can take the long view and implement thoughtful, data-centric strategies. Theyre well positioned to weather most of the business-related vicissitudes coronavirus brings.

Applift has one client, a bus company, that is pausing its ad spendbecause its also temporarily pausing all of its routes due to coronavirus. Meanwhile, another company that provides in-person training services is panicking for obvious reasons, said Chris Franks, CEO at CleverFunnel, a Denver-based agency that works with the company.

CleverFunnel has several projects in the works with this training company, all of which have been tabled until further notice.

But for companies with the option to do their business online, the coronavirus is a forcing function for the new digital world in which theyll be able to see how much bang they really get from all the money they spend traveling around the world to wine and dine existing customers and new prospects, said Jeff Lunsford, CEO of Tealium.

Companies that are reliant on travel, on steak dinner-type interactions, are going to struggle, and companies that know how to operate efficiently digitally will do well, Lunsford said. I believe face-to-face engagement is extremely valuable, but I also believe its possible to run your business and engage with customers remotely. Ive been an entrepreneur for 24 years, and Ive done it both ways.

Getting creative

Videoconferencing is the obvious replacement for the lack of in-person engagement. But there are also other ways to create connections while in quarantine.

Since networking during happy hour at trade shows isnt possible, Criteo, for example, is encouraging its commercial team to use LinkedIn and Twitter to reach out to other registered attendees of canceled events to request virtual one-on-ones.

Outside of just replacing conference networking, social media is a great tool for salespeople to utilize to continue building leads and connecting with contacts, said Criteo CEO Megan Clarken. By connecting with potential clients online and engaging with what theyre posting and sharing, salespeople are able to build virtual relationships while in-person meetings are on pause.

But some companies are putting a whole new spin on virtual conferencing.

Cockroach Labs is a computer software provider that develops commercial database management systems and usually relies heavily on events to capture leads and generate broad awareness. Without events to attend, it created a virtual badge scan that uses a landing page to capture contact info and then makes a small donation to Women Who Code for every email address it gets. One-on-one meetings with company reps are incentivized with the promise of a larger $50 donation.

The silver lining is the impact this will have for new creative ways to build out a [go-to-market] strategy, Jim Walker, VP of product marketing at Cockroach Labs.

But, perhaps, theres also another benefit: Cutting down on unnecessary meetings that should never have been meetings in the first place.

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Tech Companies Get Creative As Coronavirus Threatens To Parch Their Pipelines - AdExchanger

If you find it difficult to keep up with new technologies at work, then be reassured that you are not the only one feeling somewhat overwhelmed. One in three UK employees fear they are lacking skills when compared with their colleagues and believe that because of this they would be overlooked for promotion, according to a survey by OnePoll for PeopleCert in 2019.

The same study found that 67 per cent think retraining could reignite their career, and would consider learning new skills for their current role, such as coding, data analytics, cloud computing and digital marketing.

Bosses also say they are concerned. Research conducted by Burning Glass Technologies for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, found that 52 per cent of business leaders think technology evolves too quickly for their organisations to keep up with the changing skills required, and 10 per cent dont know where to start when it comes to developing a digital training strategy.

A 2019 Open University study, meanwhile, titled Bridging the Digital Divide, found that although there is still a need to increase basic or foundation-level digital skills including how to use spreadsheets and word processing programmes, most employers report that gaining higher and degree-level digital skills coding, cloud computing and data analytics are more of a priority.

Why you should learn to code

The same study found that the lack of appropriate digital skills at intermediate and senior management levels has the most significant impact on their businesses.

It also showed that age appears to have an impact on how keen we are to have access to more digital training. Two thirds (67%) of 18-35 year olds said they would be receptive to more digital training from their employers, with 22% of younger employees even funding their own training in this area.

By contrast, just one in four people over 55 said that they would like digital skills training.

Julie OSullivan has been working in advertising and copywriting for more than 20 years. She returned to freelancing after taking time out for kids but found the skills required had changed and she needed to invest in training. Within just a few years, social media, SEO have changed the way we do things, she says.

Back in the day all you had to do was write. This is not the case any more. I was confident I had the experience and the copywriting skills, but I wanted to enhance my digital skills to ensure I stay on top of things, so I decided to take an online course on digital media.

In order to keep up with a world that is constantly changing, ongoing learning and training is key, says David Willett, commercial director in the Open Universitys Business Development Unit.

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One in three UK employees fear they lack tech skills: Why training is key - Evening Standard

'Itaewon Class' Episode 11 saw Park Sae-ro-yi face Yi-seo's confession after Geun-soo orchestrates a moment to prove to Yi-seo that Sae-ro-yi would never be interested in her.

The episode began with Geun-soo announcing to everyone at DanBam that he would like to quit. He has decided to go after what he wanted and that is Yi-seo. So when Sae-ro-yi tried to understand Geun-soo's reason for quitting the pub, the young man doesn't give a direct answer. Sae-ro-yi accepts what Geun-soo wants and wishes him luck. Now that Geun-soo has taken the first step, the next one is not a far fetch. He joins Jang Corp to learn management and tells his father that Jang Corp now has no one to lead except him considering Geun-won is in prison.

His father sees potential here and assigns Soo-ah to train Geun-soo. He begins working, but from the get-go, it becomes clear that his father's company is nothing like the one run by Sae-ro-yi. Yet, because he now has a goal in mind, Geun-soo finds himself capable of doing things that are necessary.

Can Geun-soo really put himself through the rigorous training and his father's expectations in Jang Corporation now that he has quit DanBam? That is for us to find over the next few episodes, but what is clear is that he is not beyond playing dirty to get what he wants. This we find towards the end of the episode when DanBam employees go out for dinner with Soo-ah and Geun-soo to celebrate.

Now that the truth about Sae-ro-yi's father's death is out in the open, there is a lot of interest from the media about him and his company. So DanBam gets invited again to participate in a tournament date cooking class competition called Best Pub. DanBam has won first place in two consecutive rounds and that's what they are out to celebrate. That and the fact that DanBam has now got $10 billion in investment. During this dinner, all of them end up playing Truth or Dare and when it is Sae-ro-yi's turn to answer questions, Geun-soo asks him if he had ever seen Yi-seo as a woman who he could be attracted to. Sae-ro-yi denies and instead says that he had always looked at Yi-seo as a young friend who is also his partner.

Despite knowing how Sae-ro-yi felt about Soo-ah, Yi-seo is unable to hold her feelings any longer. In fact she tries to convince herself that she shouldn't be hurt because she has after all known about his love for Soo-ah already. That, however, doesn't stop her from tearing up and when everyone notices, she is embarrassed and tries to flee from dinner.

Sae-ro-yi catches up though because he cannot understand why Yi-seo was hurt by what he had said. When he forces Yi-seo to tell him why she got upset, Yi-seo changes her plan of waiting for him for two years and just blurts out her feelings for him. She repeats how much she loves him, and when Sae-ro-yi tried to tell her that her feelings are misplaced, she disagrees. Sae-ro-yi also tried to remind Yi-seo about Geun-soo, who also has feelings for her but she doesn't concede. Instead, she asks him if there is a chance for the two of them to ever be together and as expected Sae-ro-yi just responds with no and that breaks Yi-seo's heart and on that note, the episode ended with Yi-seo breaking down in tears in the middle of the road.

Considering all the good things that happened throughout out the episode, which also includes Toni, the part-time employee finally having found his father, the ending was distressing. How will this affect Yi-seo? Will she decide to give up on her love and continue to work at DanBam or will she leave Sae-ro-yi?

That's something we would have to wait and watch! 'Itaewon Class' episodes can be streamed on Netflix.

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'Itaewon Class' Episode 11 is all about Yi-seo's heartbreak over Sae-ro-yi's rejection, can she move on? - MEAWW

After a little more than halfway into the 2020 fiscal year, Cape Girardeau's hotel and restaurant tax receipts are running well ahead of last year and are on pace to generate more money than any previous year.

Through the first seven months of FY20, July 2019 to January 2020, the city's hotel tax had generated $501,767.13 and was nearly 9% ahead of FY19, when the tax generated a total of $787,752.54 for the entire year.

Meanwhile, the restaurant tax receipts for the first seven months of the fiscal year stood at $961,874.10, 2.6% ahead of the same period in FY19.

Combined, the hotel and restaurant tax receipts through the first seven months of FY20 had generated $1,463,641.23, 4.7% more than last year's record pace for the same period when the two tax accounts raised just over $2.4 million for all of FY19.

A new location of Offices Unlimited at 900 S. Kingshighway is seen in this undated photo.

Courtesy Tom Kelsey, Lorimont Commercial Real Estate

Offices Unlimited recently moved from 2127 William St. in Cape Girardeau to 900 S. Kingshighway, Suite A, near the intersection of South Kingshighway and Southern Expressway.

The company, owned by Sally Legrand and established in September 2001, handles office furniture and supplies and serves customers throughout Southeast Missouri and several adjoining states.

Offices Unlimited occupies about 6,000 square feet of the building formerly occupied by Cape Tractor Trailer Supply for many years. The building, which sits on two acres, is owned by B&T Rentals LLC.

According to Tom Kelsey, commercial broker with Lorimont Commercial Real Estate, which handled the Offices Unlimited lease, the remaining 11,000 square feet of the building is being remodeled for an additional tenant he says will be announced in the near future.

A True Colors workshop, led by GlennView president and certified True Colors facilitator Tracy Glenn, is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. until noon May 8 at the Jackson Civic Center, 381 Deerwood Drive in Jackson.

The "True Colors Keys to Personal Success" program is a model for understanding yourself and others based on your personality temperament and can be applied in a variety of circumstances, from personal relationships to professional success.

As a certified True Colors facilitator, Glenn will lead workshop participants through a variety of activities to determine their specific personalities and corresponding colors. Each participant will receive a 25-page booklet for future reference.

To register for the workshop or for more information, visit http://www.glennpr.com/public-workshops or call (573) 270-3580.

DSW Signs is hosting a series of BYOB (Build Your Online Business) conference sessions Tuesday at the Drury Plaza Conference Center.

The 90-minute program will be offered at 8:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., and will cover several topics including:

* How to get to, and stay, at the top of Google

Join the B Magazine newsletter

The weekly newsletter focused on the business of Southeast Missouri.

* The latest trends in online marketing

* Creating a marketing plan with traditional media, targeted mobile ads, YouTube, email and more

Conference speakers will include SEO, SEM and reputation management specialist Kent Oglesby, digital marketing specialist Steve Weir and media targeting specialist Crag Diebel.

RSVP at http://www.connectdsw.com/events.

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A "Caregivers FIRST" training program for caregivers of veterans with physical or cognitive impairments is scheduled for next week at the John J. Pershing Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The training is set for 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. March 19 in the Learning Resource Center (Building 2) at the medical center at 1500 N. Westwood Blvd in Poplar Bluff. The training is free and open to any veteran caregiver. Lunch will be provided.

Participants are asked to register by March 16 by calling Jessi Houchins, (573) 778-4545, or Trish Castillo, (573) 686-4151, ext. 52149.

Registration is underway for the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce's 28th annual Golf Classic set for April 24 at Kimbeland Country Club in Jackson. Lunch that day will start at 11 a.m. followed by tee time for the four-person scramble tournament at noon.

The registration fee for a four-person team is $500. Various sponsorship opportunities are also available, including hole signage for $125 and a team and hole signage combination package for $550.

For more details about sponsorships or to sign up a team, call the Jackson chamber office, (573) 243-8131.

Registration has also begun for the annual Friends of Saint Francis golf tournament scheduled for Aug. 14 at Dalhousie Golf Club. The four-person scramble event will feature two flights with tee times of 7:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., preceded by breakfast and lunch, respectively.

Sponsorship and registration fee information is available at http://www.foundation.sfmc.net/friends-golf-tournament or by calling (573) 331-5791.

And although October is still more than half a year away, registration has begun for the United Way of Southeast Missouri's 33rd annual Golf Tournament set for Oct. 2 at the Cape Girardeau Country Club. Tee time will follow an 11 a.m. lunch.

Entry fee for the four-person team scramble event is $130 per player for those who register by Sept. 18.

To register or for more details, contact Raechel Reinitz at the United Way office, (573) 334-9634.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Sikeston Convention & Visitors Bureau, a division of the Sikeston Chamber of Commerce, will present its inaugural Hospitality Award of Excellence this week to Lambert's Cafe and the Lambert family in honor of their outstanding contributions to Sikeston's tourism and hospitality industry. The award will be presented during a luncheon set for noon Friday at the cafe, 2305 E. Malone Ave. in Sikeston.

The lunch, which will feature door prizes, is $10 per person payable at the door.

The landmark restaurant, founded in 1942 by Eearl and Agnes Lambert and known for "throwed rolls," serves approximately 16,000 customers a week (that's about 830,000 a year) and throws around 2 million rolls annually.

The Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce's next Business After Hours membership mixer will be from 5 until 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Alliance Bank, 2320 E. Jackson Blvd. in Jackson.

Business After Hours events are free and open to members of the Jackson chamber and their guests.

Leadership Cape alumni are invited to a reception for the 2020 Leadership Cape class from 5 until 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Montgomery Bank Training Center, 526 W. Main St. in Jackson.

Leadership Cape is a leadership development program sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.

Those interested in attending the reception are asked to RSVP to the chamber by noon today.

The Cape Girardeau chamber will host a free business safety workshop from 8 until 10 a.m. Thursday at the chamber offices, 220 N. Fountain St.

In this workshop, Lt. Brad Smith of the Cape Girardeau Police Department will share tips on crime prevention for small businesses.

For more information or to register, contact the chamber (573) 335-3312.

Dennis DeLonais-Turner of Oak Ridge has submitted a business license application with the City of Cape Girardeau to operate Little Latitudes Travel, a travel agency at 1650 N. Kingshighway, Suite 304. The business has a projected opening date of April 1.

Jera Hutson of Cape Girardeau has filed a business license application to operate Atelier Provisions at 120 Independence St. in Cape Girardeau. The retail clothing and gift store is scheduled to open March 20, according to the application.

Do you crave business news? Check out B Magazine, and the B Magazine email newsletter. Check it out at http://www.semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.

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Business Notebook: Tax receipts on pace to generate more money than previous years - Southeast Missourian

Artificial Intelligence, AI, is rapidly growing; especially in a working environment. However, the current state of our AI means that we can work alongside it in harmony.

AI is often seen in sci-fi movies. Were watching these movies on our screens thinking that is such a lifetime away from us, I wont be around to see robots and hovercrafts when in reality, its amongst us now. But, with how fast technology is growing, is that really a shock?

The question that youre all asking yourself is will AI replace my job? and the answer is no. As it currently stands, AI has been formed in order to improve your life, rather than hinder it. What were seeing in current releases, is AI that will boost productivity and help you to effectively manage a workforce and the day-to-day running of your business.By implementing AI into your business, youll improve the mental health of your staff, and give your workforce more space to breathe which, without AI, they wouldnt have. Its ironic but by introducing AI into your business, you actually make it more human.

As it stands, only 23% of businesses have incorporated AI into their day-to-day working life. Over the next 5 years, Forbes has estimated that AI in the workplace is expected to grow by a massive 50%.

Adzooma understands the importance of a healthy workforce and wants to demonstrate how including AI in a business can bolster the productivity of a team. They have done some extensive research into AI within the workplace and have created the visual below to show you how AI can be utilized.

AI tools such as Pymetrics assess candidates based on their emotional and cognitive characteristics and pair them up to your business and your current employees. While finding a knowledgeable candidate is essential, you also want them to fit into your business and become a great part of the workforce.

By implementing Pymetrics into your recruitment strategy, its estimated that your staff retention will increase by 50%, and itll take 75% less of your time to recruit someone.

The main area where AI will improve your teams productivity is by taking over your admin tasks. We understand how scary this sounds for Administrators, but actually, its known that by 2030, job growth will soar and those Administrators will be transitioned into a higher-skilled role.

There are many benefits to implementing AI into your workforce:

As an example, here are some tasks that would benefit from having an AI system in place:

Since 2010, there has been a 344% increase in the need for data scientists within a business; what with all the eCommerce websites and social media accounts. However, a data scientist can set a company back a tremendous amount of money. On average, the salary of a data scientist is $130,000 per year.

Implementing an AI system to handle forecasting for the business is estimated to reduce errors within the supply chain by 50%.

Here are a few AI tools that will help lighten the load:

X.ai - This AI tool collates all of your calendars and figures out when the best time is for you to conduct, or be a part of, a meeting. Whether thats with your work colleagues or a client.

Otter.ai - An AI tool that takes away the task of minute writing. Otter.ai has a microphone which listens to voices and creates detailed notes. Its great for meetings, interviews and board meetings, where you wouldnt want to miss out on any important details.

Spoke - Spoke is a very clever AI system that is incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to every HR-related. By asking the system a HR-related question, Spoke will produce the answer quickly. Users can ask Spoke questions across multiple channels such as text, email, Slack or web browser. If it cant find the appropriate answer, the AI system will send the question off to the most appropriate person within your team, such as the HR manager.

Skype Translator - This is probably the most known form of AI systems - a real-time translator. Skype Translator has a microphone and speaker system, where users can speak or type their sentence into the tool, and Skype Translator will then translate the text into the desired language. Its great for worldwide communications.

MobileMonkey - MobileMonkey is another AI system that you may be familiar with. MobileMonkey is a tool thats plugged into your website. Its essentially a trained chatbot that will answer customer queries. If the chatbot cant find the correct answer, the message will automatically be fed through to a human.

Chorus - is a great tool for sales representatives. This AI system is plugged into your phone lines and listens and records calls. Chorus also offers its users tips during their calls, and in real-time. This piece of technology is sure to remove the need for training and allows the employees to learn at their own pace.

Cogito - is a similar phone system, however, it listens out for your tone, the words that youre using and your approach with the person that youre talking to. Its all about mindfulness with this system. Cogito will listen to your phone conversations and give you tips as youre talking, telling you to slow down if nerves have got the better of you and youre speaking too quickly.

Read next: Implementing Artificial Intelligence In Your Business (infographic)

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Here's How Including Artificial Intelligence in a Business Can Bolster the Productivity of a Team (infographic) - Digital Information World