Mediaboss Marketing

Social media advertising is increasingly a primary focus for retail brands and one platform dominates.

Fifty-percent of retail advertisers are planning to spend at least half of their annual marketing budget in 2020 on social media ads, according to a survey commissioned by Smartly.io and conducted by WBR Insights, research arm of the eTail event series. Smartlys data indicates that retail marketers plan to allocate nearly $65 billion to social media ads in 2020.

In terms of where retail marketers currently advertise, Facebook is far and away their favorite social advertising platform, with 96% adoption, followed by Twitter (75%) and Instagram (59%).

Thirty-six percent reported that Facebook is the platform they dedicate the most spend toward, and 41% said it also gives them the best return on ad spend (ROAS).

Although marketers see a positive return on their dollar, many said that the process is often still too manual and inefficient to easily manage. According to the survey, 83% feel that there is room for improvement when it comes to automating parts of their ad creation and deployment, and 66% do not use any automation technology. To reduce these inefficiencies, 39% of retail marketing teams indicated that they will invest in more robust social advertising tools in 2020.

Additional findings from the study are below.

When compared to 2019, 96% of respondents plan to bump up their spending on Facebook this year, while Twitter (56%) and Instagram (22%) will also see increases.

Nearly half (48%) of retail marketers feel their performance marketing and creative teams do not collaborate effectively in all stages of the marketing process

Forty-seven percent plan to increase their use of dynamic ads on social media

Thiry-nine percent predict they will manage social advertising in-house

The past decade put social advertising on the map for most retail marketers, and our findings indicate that it will only continue to grow in 2020, said Robert Rothschild, VP and global head of marketing at Smartly.io. Capturing the attention of todays consumer demands that advertisers tell stories that seamlessly blend with the organic content that their audience already consumes. Shifting spend to story ads, diversifying across social networks like Pinterest, bridging the gap between performance and creative teams, and investing in technology to scale creative and deliver incrementality in ad performance are ideal solutions that will allow teams to work faster and smarter in the year to come.

Read more:
Social media advertising by retailers to hit nearly $65 billion - Chain Store Age

Are you looking for ways to improve your B2B marketing strategy for the new year, and indeed, the new decade?

Digital trends evolve so quickly that if you're not regularly updating and evolving your approaches, you can quickly lose traction with your clients. Such shifts are generally more evident in the B2C sector, but there are also clear changes for B2B organizations to note, which can help improve performance, engagement, and eventual results.

So what are the latest B2B marketing trends you need to be aware of in 2020? The team from TD Insights have put together this listing of some of the biggest B2B shifts of note, including a focus on customer experience, personalization, data-driven targeting and more.

You can read TD Insights' full report here, or check out the infographic summary below.

More:
New Year Resolutions that B2B Marketers Should Consider in 2020 [Infographic] - Social Media Today

Its a story of old and new. Of tradition and technology, the latter in the form of social media, digital marketing and e-commerce. New techniques for selling hand-crafted products that have been around for hundreds of years.

Its a story of family ties. And like a toboggan sailing down a hill, its been a joyous ride.

We have this really fascinating story of the man who started this company using a centuries-old process, said Gabriel Harren of Minneapolis, a partner in the family business with his older brother, Jackson, of Warroad. His kids got involved, and its bending wood, (a process) which is fascinating to people.

The story began in the early 90s, when John Harren, a Warroad craftsman with family ties to northern Manitoba, became aware of the need for toboggans in remote communities of the North. He learned the trade through a Thompson, Man., mentor by the name of Milton Chaboyer and started a small shop in Warroad in 1995.

His two sons now own the business Jackson oversees production and manufacturing, and Gabriel handles sales and marketing but the elder Harren remains involved as shop manager as he transitions into retirement.

Jacksons wife, Solveig, runs the administrative side of the business and connects with customers.

Jackson, Solveig, John and Gabriel Harren. (Photo courtesy of Northern Toboggan)

Northern Toboggan products today can be found from the arctic to Arizona; basically, anywhere theres snow. The company markets its products to northern Canada through the Arctic Co-op, a distribution network servicing 32 communities in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, the Yukon and northern Manitoba.

Online sales drive the rest of their business.

Over the years, weve just kind of expanded into different products and to different customers, Jackson Harren said. That kind of led us to what we have today, which is a combination of different sizes of toboggans, sleds, snowshoes and outdoor hand-made quality wooden equipment.

The division of labor comes naturally for the brothers and their respective careers. Jackson manages the engineering department at Marvin, the window and door plant in Warroad, and Gabriel works in IT sales and marketing for Solution Design Group in Golden Valley, Minn.

Ive always been kind of the dreamer/big thinker, and my brother is just a phenomenal systems thinker-executor-leader, Gabriel Harren said in a phone interview. He keeps us grounded, and I keep us looking forward. I think my biggest contributions are driving the strategy of the organization and then the sales and marketing from largely a digital standpoint.

Northern Toboggan, the brothers say, is like a family farm.

Youre born into it its just a way of life, Gabriel said. Weve always worked in a toboggan company. When you have a family farm, you know what youre doing in the spring and fall, right? Youre planting and harvesting. And so were in a very similar situation where it was just always part of our lives.

So its exciting to see the growth. And then theres also just that pigheaded conviction that theres no way this business is going to sunset with Dads retirement. Thats just not an option.

On a cold Friday morning in early January, Jackson, Solveig and their 5-year-old son, Jean-Paul, showed a visitor around the Northern Toboggan shop, situated in a grove of trees east of Warroad and a few miles south of Lake of the Woods.

John Koets, an apprentice craftsman, was at work building toboggans for the U.S. National Toboggan Championships set for Feb. 7-9 in Camden, Maine. A few other projects, including snowshoe frames, awaited completion but overall, the shop was less crowded than it was during the Christmas rush.

John Koets, an apprentice at Northern Toboggan near Warroad, Minn., sands a toboggan Friday, Jan. 10, for the U.S. Toboggan Championships, set for Feb. 7-9 in Camden, Maine. Northern Toboggan is a race sponsor, and members of the family owned business, including brothers Jackson and Gabriel Harren, will be racing in the event, which will feature about 15 Northern Toboggan racing toboggans. (Photo/ Brad Dokken, Grand Forks Herald)

Basic tools of the trade, including saws, sanders, joiners and dust collecting equipment, filled the shop floor.

Thats kind of the basis of any woodshop, Jackson said. But weve upgraded the size of the equipment and the capability, for sure, over the years.

Most of Northern Toboggans products are made from ash, which they order from Wisconsin, and red oak from eastern Canada, which they buy from a distributor in Winnipeg, Jackson says. The timetable from order to shipment typically is about three weeks, he says less if its a product already in stock.

It depends on our backlog, but if you think about a day for wood processing and bending, and then it needs to dry for a week, Jackson said. And then, you know, a few hours to assemble and then it needs to be finished and dried and packaged.

The shop is set up to easily switch from making toboggans to snowshoes or other products as the need arises, he said.

I know thats been a challenge this year for the guys as weve been taking on more and more products and growing our sales more and more, Jackson said. Sometimes, you can hardly walk through here, but we try to just flow things through it.

Snowshoe frames bent into shape stand in a corner of the shop at Northern Toboggan near Warroad, Minn. The second-generation family business produces a variety of toboggans, freight sleds and snowshoes, among other outdoors products. (Photo/ Brad Dokken, Grand Forks Herald)

The brothers also will be racing in the upcoming toboggan championships. The racing toboggans, Jackson says, are pretty well customized to optimize speed. About 16 or 17 Northern Toboggan-crafted racers will compete in the championships, he said.

We have several customers that were working with directly on customization for the race, Jackson said. Its kind of like Ford and NASCAR, right? You want your sleds to win.

While Northern Toboggan has been an event sponsor for previous championships, actually racing will be a first. Competitors race their toboggans down an ice chute, and the event is based on times.

I think you close your eyes and hope for the best, Jackson said with a smile. The engineering and the work and the preparation that you do before they say go is what matters.

Freighter sleds and several different kinds of toboggans are among the products crafted at Northern Toboggan, a second-generation family business in Warroad. (Photo/ Brad Dokken, Grand Forks Herald)

Northern Toboggan recently wrapped up a Kickstarter campaign, offering a prototype 1800s-era toboggan made with traditional 1800s materials in exchange for a pledge of $500 or more. For an additional $150 pledge, Northern Toboggan included a waxed cotton toboggan pad, and pledges of $680 or more received a custom engraved nameplate with text of their choice, in addition to the toboggan and pad.

Anyone who pledged $100 or more received a winter jacket with the Northern Toboggan logo.

A total of 18 backers pledged more than $6,000 during the 30-day funding period that ended in early December, exceeding the familys $5,000 goal.

What it forced us to do is do about a years worth of marketing and PR outreach in 45 days, Gabriel said. So it was pretty intense, and it was successful. Were very excited about the outcome, getting our pledge amounts and then also just the awareness that it brought to Northern Toboggan company.

Whether for utility or recreation, the people who buy Northern Toboggan products are dads and grandpas and people of all ages, Solveig Harren says.

Jean-Paul Harren, 5, enjoys a ride on a toboggan Friday, Jan. 10, outside the Northern Toboggan shop near Warroad, Minn. The family owned business is in its second generation of ownership. (Photo/ Brad Dokken, Grand Forks Herald)

Theyre wanting something that will be long lasting for their family to use for many years, and they remember, they have memories of riding toboggans as kids, she said. And so they usually have a story to tell. And then we can help them continue making stories for their own children and grandchildren.

We feel like we work with happy people when they reach out to us. Theyre excited because they want to play and have good gear to be out and enjoy the winter. They have great questions because they want to educate themselves if theyre going to make that investment. So its fun.

Continue reading here:
Northern Toboggan, a family business in Warroad, finds niche in the recreation market - INFORUM

27 January 2020

Reed Smith (Worldwide)

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The UK Information Commissioners Office has published a draft Code of Practice on DirectMarketing, which is now out for consultation. Here we discuss thecontext for this and key takeaway points from its 120+ pages.

The ICO is required under the Data Protection Act 2018 topublish a statutory code of practice on direct marketing, so thisis the ICO delivering on that requirement. It draws on the feedbackfrom the call for views undertaken last year. As a statutory code,once finalised, it will need to be presented to government forreview and sign off.

There is already an existing Direct Marketing Code which haslong been one of the most well-read and useful codes of practicethe ICO has produced and is regularly consulted by data protectionand marketing teams alike for guidance on email, post and SMSmarketing rules. The code contains key information and pointersgiven that fines for breaches of direct marketing rules remain themost frequent we see. However, this code is outdated and requiredupdating in light of changes around GDPR and the Privacy andElectronic Communications Regulations 2003, as well as to adapt tonew technologies and marketing techniques.

The draft code covers much of the ground that was covered by theexisting one but there are some new sections and a couple ofsurprises. Broad topics for guidance are as follows:

This is all common sense stuff and there is little new here -for example the useful nugget that a message thatsays your local supermarket stocks carrotswould be considered promotional. Good to know.

The buzzphrase DP by design makes a frequentappearance here as you would imagine. Worth noting the reminderthat data protection impact assessments are required for datamatching in direct marketing, large scale profiling and targetingchildren (remember this is under 18s not just under 13s). Thissection also contains useful clarification around when legitimateinterests and consent are appropriate with the ICO stating that itconsiders it will be hard to demonstrate the balancing testrequirements for reliance on legitimate interests where themarketing involves collecting and combining large amounts ofpersonal data from various different sources to create personalityprofiles.

The section on special category data is worth noting since itmentions that inferring special category data from customer lists(for example if a company sells disability aids) is notsomething which triggers the requirements for a lawful basis forspecial category data under Article 9 unless the data is specificto the individual or used to target marketing on the inference oftheir health status. This is confusing given the ICOsupdated guidance on special category data which states the converseby expressly includes inferences which it issued last year.

Useful details are provided in this section around the GDPRrequirement to inform individuals that their personal data is beingprocessed within one month of receiving the data from anothersource. This point has been overlooked by some companies to dateand involves ensuring practical safeguards to ensure that datacollected from public sources, social media or third parties iseither deleted or the individual contacted within that time. Thedraft also indicates expectations around reliance ondisproportionate effort to do so.

Profiling is a big focus for regulators so it is good to seemore detail in the new code on this area. There is information ondata enrichment, matching and data cleansing. None of this issurprising but will be useful for marketing teams, including achecklist of due diligence questions to consider when engagingthird party suppliers in this area.

This section largely follows the existing code. It is a littledisappointing that more detail has not been added on the thornyissue of what constitutes negotiations for a sale of aproduct or service in the context of the soft opt in consentfor direct email marketing however. The code gives very obviousexamples but does not cover issues such as free services, apps orcompetitions.

This will be the section that attracts the most attention sincethe code picks up on new technologies such as on-demand and OTTcontent services, in-game advertising and mobile apps.

The most useful, but perhaps alarming, section relates to socialmedia marketing. The code discusses commonly used tools such ascustom audience and lookalike targeting. It is surprising the draftstates that individuals are unlikely to expect customaudience targeting, therefore consent is likely to be the mostappropriate lawful basis and that information about such processingshould be drawn to the attention of individuals outside of privacypolicies. It is incredibly rare to see this approach taken inpractice and this is likely to raise an eyebrow or two, especiallysince elsewhere in the draft it is clear that such form ofmarketing does not fall within the Privacy and ElectronicCommunications Regulations.

Similarly surprising is the ICOs advice that the use ofpersonal data for lookalike audiences on social media platforms,another commonly used tool, is likely to make both brand and theplatform joint controllers in relation to the data (and not justthe use of pixels and plugins).

We would expect push back on this advice in the consultationresponses.

On the other hand, the code does not go into detail around theuse of cookies and programmatic advertising. This is largelybecause this is such a big topic where the ICO has issued recentguidance and, specifically in relation to the use of real timebidding, an investigation has been ongoing, with the ICO announcing in December that it continues tohave concerns and is deciding on what action it will take.

Helpful information is provided here on considerations thatshould be made if an organisation is relying upon legitimateinterests in order to disclose or sell data, which the code makesclear is only available in certain circumstances. Further detailedguidance is also given on data brokering services and how to complywith transparency and consent requirements if you operate one.

A reminder is given that data subjects should be informed, viayour privacy notice, of their right to object to direct marketing,and guidance is given as to how a user may exercise that right.Additionally, when relying upon consent to process personal datafor direct marketing purposes, the fact that you cannot swap fromconsent to another lawful basis when an individual withdrawsconsent is repeated hopefully we are all aware of this bynow!

The code also states that (obviously) when operating asuppression list, withdrawal of consent will not preclude anorganisation from keeping that users details on thesuppression list, as the organisations lawful basis foroperating this list is likely to be necessary for compliancewith a legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)).

The draft is open for consultation is open until 4 March 2020.You can provide feedback at ico.org.uk.

The content of this article is intended to provide a generalguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be soughtabout your specific circumstances.

POPULAR ARTICLES ON: Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment from UK

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From Vegetables To Social Media: Key Points From The ICO's Draft Direct Marketing Code Of Practice - Mondaq News Alerts

This could be an interesting one for brand accounts on Instagram.

Looking to further tap into the rising popularity of Stories, Instagram has added a new Stories @ mention option, which highlights any Stories that mention your profile, and enables you to easily re-share them into your own Stories stream.

As you can see in this example (posted by social media expert Matt Navarra), the new option appears as an @ symbol in your Create mode options. When you slide over to this option, you'll note that it also says 'See all 3' at the top of the screen, signifying how many Stories @mentions your profile has at any given time.

When you tap on the 'See all 3' button, you're taken through to a display of thumbnails of Stories frames which mention your profile. You can then select any of the frames listed, and re-share them into your own Stories feed (until they expire).

The option could be great for brands looking to showcase relevant mentions, which could include customer feedback, endorsements, influencer marketing partnerships, etc. It may well be worth taking a look through your Stories mentions regularly, with a view to amplifying relevant messages, adding a level of social proof via customer comment.

At this stage, it's not clear how widely accessible the option is. Instagram rolled out its 'Stories About You' feature a few months back, which provides a similar listing of active Stories that mention your @handle (though in your Mentions feed, not within the Stories flow like this), but that listing is only available to Instagram users with either a business or creator account.

You would assume that the same restrictions apply here, and that @ mention option is not available to individual profiles -but whether it's been made available to all business and creator accounts is not clear at this stage (we've asked Instagram for further clarification).

It may be worth checking your Instagram Create mode options to see if you have it - as noted, for brands, it could be a helpful option for amplifying customer and fan mentions.

Also new on the Stories front, there's this:

Yeah, I don't know. It's certainly something.Technology, huh? Crazy.

Original post:
Instagram Is Adding a New Way to Find and Share Stories that Mention Your Profile - Social Media Today