Mediaboss Marketing

As we eagerly count down the last few days until Thanksgiving, the Industry Dive marketing team is practicing our own form of thanks-giving.

Just like that one family member that forces you every year to go around the table and say what you're all thankful for, I asked our team to go around and share their favorite marketing tools. "What digital marketing tools are you most thankful for this year?"

And while we could make a long list of tools we use every day, I was more curious to know which tools the team could not live without. Here is a list of marketing tools we are most thankful for this year:

I loved writing this post because you can pretty much find a tool for every job function. Every person on our marketing team plays a different role and serves a different purpose each equally as important as the other. This collection of tools resembles just that. Keep reading to see how each of these tools plays a role in assisting our marketing team function at its best.

As far as I know, Grammarly is the best writer-checking tool in the game. Since I installed this app a few years ago, I cannot imagine how else I would get through a workday without this plug-in catching every spelling and grammar mistake I make.

Industry Dive's VP of Marketing, Robin Re says, "I'm thankful for the Grammarly plug-in. Not only does it catch any typos in my marketing copy and external-facing emails, but now, thanks to the Tone Detector [beta], it gives me a sense of how my email might come across. Which as any marketer knows... the HOW you're saying something is just as important as the WHAT. I can sometimes wander into 'formal' tone and sound robot-like, so this is a nice nudge to lighten it up.

This tool will help improve your marketing copy, edit your emails and generally calm your anxiety about missing a small grammatical error in your writing. I highly recommend installing this app if your job requires you to write regularly.

Moz is another tool to be thankful for, especially if you manage SEO for your website.

Marketing Coordinator,Olivia Iurillo says, "I'm most thankful for Moz's keyword explorer, which we use for SEO. When our editorial team asks for help with headlines or is curious about what our target audience may be searching for, I use the keyword explorer in tandem with SERP analysis to try and determine what keywords will boost organic search traffic."

Savannah Smith, Marketing Campaign Specialist, is thankful for the time saved by this tool.

"It sounds simple, but I'm thankful for the Google Campaign URL Builder. We manage 40+ campaigns in a given week, and being able to quickly create UTM codes to track performance across different sources and mediums is such a time saver."

Building your campaign tracking links could not be easier with this tool.

Google's Data Studio has endless tracking capabilities. It's great if you have someone on your team who knows the ins and outs of the system to help you customize reports to show you exactly what you need to measure. Our entire team uses these reports for various different reasons.

As the Director of Lead Gen, Malinda Gather spends a lot of time working in Google's Data Studio.

"I'm thankful for Google's Data Studio. The number and types of reports you can create are endless, but I primarily use the tool to track landing page performance by campaign and placement. This allows my team to quickly pivot our promotional and copy strategy if the report indicates our current promotion isn't resonating. It's also an easy way to track our most successful promotions."

I, on the other hand, use Google's Data Studio to track contributor content performance. Luckily, I have Jackie (our data analyst) to help build reports like this for me.

When it comes to marketing data analytics, I don't know a better tool.

Wondering if you have the right person in your "to" line of your Gmail email? Or how you might be connected professionally? For those of you who email with people you don't know regularly, you will love this plug-in. You can learn a lot more about the person on the other end of that email thread when their LinkedIn profile (including degree of connection and LinkedIn group membership) pops up on the side of your Gmail inbox.

Marketing Campaign Corodinator, Sammy Srinivasan, loves this tool."I'm thankful for the LinkedIn email plug-in.It tells me more about the prospects/leads that I come across and it makes it far more efficient to see if that person is a fit for our campaign."

Matching a recipient to their LinkedIn profile helps provide more context to the conversation, and of course helps humanize it a bit with a smiling face if they have a profile picture.

There are so many different chat tools to choose from these days. From one-on-one chats to larger group collaborations, Slack is the perfect tool to help improve company-wide communication.

This is a tool we are all thankful for. Our team has a private channel where we share ideas, ask questions and just chat throughout the workday. On the Slack website, they offer helpful tips for in-app collaborations and other various ways to utilize this tool to boost work-productivity (including polls, calendar reminders, and project management notifications).

Sr. Data Analyst,Jackie McCartney, thinks Slack makes work more fun.

The tool I am most thankful for is Canva. Although my go-to tool for designing social media graphics is Photoshop and InDesign by Adobe, I absolutely love having Canvaaround for creating quick, on-the-go graphics.

The Adobe apps are the most robust design tools you can find on the market and are perfect for people trained in graphic design; but for everyone else, Canva offers a large variety of templates for all your marketing needs. You don't need to remember all the optimal social media graphic sizes because Canva has everything pre-set for you. They've also updated their system so you can share your work with others, offering another great resource for team-collaboration.

The real selling point for me is that you can use Canva on any computer by just opening up your web-browser, going to the site and signing in. Adobe apps work best on Apple computers, so I rely heavily on Canva for my graphics when I'm traveling or working from home.

Megan Gavin, Director of Audience Growth Marketing, manages the majority of our social media ads, so she knows everything that goes into creating the perfect ad.

"A picture is worth a thousand words," says Meg."It's especially important when you're limited to a few lines of text in your paid social posts. Unsplash has a vast gallery of free, high-quality images to help provide a cohesive product message and experience to prospective readers."

The last digital marketing tool we want to give thanks for is Zest. Thank you, Zest, for offering us an easy plug-in to share and discover new social media and digital marketing content daily.

Their website reads, "The content you need when you need it.Build your skills to stay ahead of the industry. Let Zests AI personally match you with community-curated marketing content."Install the plug-in and you will be able to share your favorite industry insights with other marketers around the world, as well as discover favorite content that others are reading.

As a trusted source for marketers to discover insights and learn from their peers, Zest reminds me a lot of what we do here at Social Media Today. For example, at Social Media Today, we find the smartest minds in the social media marketing world and work with them daily to create unique content that offers real advice and doesn't add to the content-overload we experience on the internet today. The Zest team is also committed to sorting through content and making sure they only share the best of the best.

You can select topics (such as "social," "SEO," "B2B," etc.) that you want to read about and the system will show all the recent articles suggested for that topic. They also give you a nice profile page so that you can save content and follow other people to see their content suggestions.

Well, that's it from us. Of course there are plenty of other amazing digital marketing tools on the market, but these nine tools improve my team's daily work lives and we are so thankful for them.

See the original post:
Digital Marketing Tools We're Thankful for This Year - Social Media Today

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Tough Cookie

Mozilla, operator of the Firefox web browser, will block the IABs DigiTrust ID, an anonymized, cookie-based identifier used by ad tech and media companies, Digiday reports. Firefox has single-digit share in the browser market just 4% but its a blow to the IAB Tech Lab initiative all the same and for the overall effort to create a pseudonymous ID that spans the web. We know certain companies take the position that there is no sufficient consumer value to justify tracking anonymous audience recognition of any kind, not even for use in communicating privacy choices, said Jordan Mitchell, the IAB Tech Labs SVP of membership and operations. They believe no third party can be trusted. We take a different position: that trust should be established directly between consumers and the brands, and publishers they trust, and with the third parties that those brands and publishers trust. More.

Ecom And Go

Did big retail and apparel brands overcorrect in shifting their sales and marketing mix to the internet and ecommerce? More and more signs point to yes. Simon Peel, global media director at Adidas, said at a conference in October that the brands focus on demonstrable ROI led to an over-investment in digital performance marketing at the expense of brand building. And Gap, which reported quarterly earnings this week, also copped to focusing too much on promotional advertising and discounts. Digital promotions drive results, but it can be risky, because shoppers get accustomed to low prices and subsequently tune out discount marketers when merchandise isnt on sale. Gap CFO Teri List-Stoll told investors that the Old Navy brand, for instance, has frankly become too heavily dependent on messaging around discounting as opposed to bigger-picture brand messaging. CNBC has more on that.

A Bad Influence

People think of the influencer category as purely promotional and its true that influencers are paid to hawk products and are usually judged by the traffic and sales driven by their accounts. But perhaps the most powerful weapon in the influencer arsenal is criticism. Some influencers say that deflating a brand, even without much knowledge or experience with the brand, is part of the authentic daily portrayal of their lives that helps create loyal readers, The New York Times writes. Minor influencers that criticize brands online are rewarded with faster service and remedies to their problems, as the companies try to quickly quash the negative call-out before it becomes a runaway topic on Instagram or Facebook. Criticism from such trusted sources can snowball, and even when issues are resolved or turn out to be incorrect, the brand damage is difficult to reverse. Social marketing pros are well aware of this dynamic. A group of makeup and fashion influencers created a news storm last year when they revealed that brands pay influencers more to slam a rival then to promote their own products. More.

Dont Call It A Comeback

Google, Amazon and Facebook get most of the attention, but tech stalwarts Apple and Microsoft have pulled far ahead of the younger set of Silicon Valley giants (as well as every other company). Apple and Microsoft, with a combined market cap of more than $2.3 trillion, are now twice as large as the entire S&P 500 energy sector, The Wall Street Journal reports. With promising, high-growth revenue streams opening up namely, Apples Services segment and the Microsoft cloud computing business these older forces in the category seem well-positioned to seize more tech industry gains, despite concerns for years about their innovation and growth prospects. More.

But Wait, Theres More

Youre Hired!

Read this article:
Firefox To Block The DigiTrust Universal ID; Apple And Microsoft Are The Kings Of Tech - AdExchanger

Social media is an essential part of big business. When you go on any major platform, youll find all of your favorite big brands, from Geico to Wendys and Chase Bank. Consumers expect the brands they love to be on all major social media channels.

Chase Bank has focused heavily on trying to increase their social media presence. But their effort took it a step too far on Twitter.

Small and large businesses can learn from the banks marketing mistake.

Before we learn what not to do, we have to see what the company actually said in their tweet.

You: why is my balance so low

Bank account: make coffee at home

Bank account: eat the food thats already in the fridge

Bank account: you dont need a cab, its only three blocks

You: I guess well never know

Bank account: seriously?

#MondayMotivation

Politicians responded. Consumers responded. No one was happy with the lack of respect that the bank showed for consumers. Sure, eating out less often and making your own coffee is a great idea, but keep in mind that the bank received a bailout, too. Criticizing consumers did not go well for the company.

But from a marketing perspective, theres a lot that we can learn from Chases Twitter catastrophe.

Chase deleted their post, but consumers did not forget what the bank wrote. The better thing to do would have been to own up to the tweet and apologize, or hold their stance. Before you decide to post anything on social media, consider your audience.

If a post may be too controversial or hurt your business reputation, you may want to think about your audience.

A lot of experts have weighed in on the controversy, and they claim that what Chase wrote would not have been as bad if politicians did not attack the company. Chase was used for political gain, and once Elizabeth Warren commented on the matter, the backlash started to ramp up.

There will be times when followers disagree with you or even unfollow you, but its up to you to determine the best route to handle it.

Oftentimes, theres nothing else you can do besides delete the post and hope that the backlash disappears. In a multinational company, its often too late to delete a post because news outlets have already picked up the story.

Chase eventually owned up to their mistake with a tweet reading: Our #MondayMotivation is to get better at #MondayMotivation tweets. Thanks for the feedback Twitter world.

The bank could have been more sensitive, and social media experts warn big brands to be more sensitive to their consumers.

The bank made mistakes all along the way. Financial stress is a serious concern for their customers, many of whom lost money in the stock market. Many of their customers work more than one job, and have already cut back on costs.

When you post on social media, know your audience, the tone you should speak to them in and always quadruple check to make sure that youre not going to be snarky to your audience.

More:
3 Marketing Tips to Learn from the Chase Bank Twitter Catastrophe - NuWire Investor

The New Zealand Ministry of Health is disappointeda new children's sport initiative is slathered in prominent Cadbury branding.

The chocolate giant has joined forces with the New Zealand Olympic Committee, Paralympics New Zealand andKidsCanto launch the Donate Your Kit campaignnext month. They're asking for second-hand sports gear tobe donated via purple brandedcollection lockers throughoutNew Zealand. Almost 20 have already been set up at sports clubs and event centres.

Days before launch, Cadbury were forced to amend the campaign website. It had encouraged schools to sign up for their own locker, but CEO ofKidsCan, Julie Chapman, said no chocolate or Cadbury branding would be going into schools.

University of Auckland head of marketing Dr Bodo Lang saidif the logo and the colour appear in a school environment he classify this as marketing communication directed at children.

SUPPLIED

Cadbury is supporting a new Donate Your Kit campaign where communities donate pre-loved sports equipment in good condition for kids who need it most.

Deputy director of public health Dr Harriette Carr said while the ministry backed action to encourage physical activity, "we are disappointed at the prominent branding of Cadbury on the campaign's donation lockers".

READ MORE:*Kiwi kids are exposed to 27 junk food advertisements a day, study finds*Consumer NZ calls for tighter rules on junk food promotion*Call for controls on marketing for sugary drinks featuring children's sporting heroes

"We note the current debate about the mixed messages children may receive from having a healthy activity linked with a less healthy one through sport sponsorship," she said, adding they were working on ironing out any confusion.

SUPPLIED

University of Auckland head of marketing Dr Bodo Lang says children are not able to distinguish between advertising and non-advertising - they are very easily led astray.

Lang said commercially, Cadbury's approach was clever because it was apositive initiative. However, from a public health and social marketing perspective, it was murky.

"We've got to be really careful that we don't just slowly encroach on consumers, ie; children, that are not very able to distinguish between advertising and non-advertising - they are very easily led astray," he said.

"With any brand associated with children and schools and donations ... I think we need to make sure that those brands ideally stand for products that are very healthy and wholesome."

There was a need for communities and local and central governmentto say what types of advertising or sponsorship were permitted in schools, he said.

Cadbury NZ head of marketing William Papeschsaid the initiative aimedto help combat exclusion in sports amongst after recent research found onein eight New Zealand kids felt excluded because they didn't have the gear.The company would also donate 10,000 items of new sports kit to children in need, withKidsCanhelping to get the equipment to those who need it most.

"We are deeply concerned about childhood obesity rates in New Zealand and are very clear that our products are a treat that should only be eaten occasionally," he said.

"Cadbury has a strict no marketing to children policy and this campaign abides by that. No Cadbury marketing material is directed at children."

Dunedin dietitian Helen Gibbs said the programme sent a confusing message, and she was concerned by research which suggested kids tended to favour sponsoredproducts.

"Kids are very susceptible to advertising," she said.

"The kids say 'Oh look, it must be good because they've bought [sports equipment]'.

"High energy, low nutrient foods having a favourable association to sport in a child's mind could lead to life-long association of these ideas."

More here:
Experts question new Cadbury initiative to get children involved in sport - Stuff.co.nz

Media Bounty, YRS TRULY and Manifest London have snapped up the top accolades at The Drum Agency Business Awards 2019.

These awards, which celebrate the very best run agencies, took place on November 18, 2019 at The Marriot Grosvenor Square Hotel, London.

Media Bounty won the coveted Grand Prix as well as the Social Media Agency of the Year and Corporate Purpose awards.

The judging panel fell in love with this business. They said: "Media Bounty's vision and values are really clearly articulated, yet go far beyond just words, going the extra mile to effect change for their clients and the industry at large. A great example of a business which exists not simply to make cash for shareholders."

The chair of the judging panel this year was John Rudaizky, partner, global brand and marketing at EY. YRS TRULY was awarded as his personal favourite.

The tiny content studio consisting of six individuals help brands to be better at social. Their approach is data-driven: simply put, if there's no data to support it, they won't do it.

On his winner, Rudaizky said: "In a crowded space, its hard bringing to life a new agency, that brings something new to the choice for marketers. The array of winners and nominations is a testament to that and a reminder that the best brands in the world need a thriving, innovative agency ecosystem for them to success. Within that, social media plays such a powerful role in peoples lives and developing continuous streams of content a challenge for all brands.

"Yrs Truly stood out to me. The work for Giffgaff and other clients, with their approach to content, data and social media. They show huge potential, with smart creative thinking in the end, whatever the technology behind the content, you need to fill the pipes with great content. Good luck to Yrs and all the winners as they continue to grow."

Another big win of the night came from Manifest London who took home Agency of the Year.

2019 was a breakthrough year for Manifest with rebranding, restructuring and redefining of the PR agency. In the process it has added over 1m to its income, attracted global brands like Accor Hotels, Samsung, WWF, VICE and Chivas Brothers, won two Best Places to Work awards, invested over 50k in team training, improved its happiness programme, doubled its brand strategy income, launched a new ventures division with equity in four launch projects and expanded its creative team.

The jury was unanimous in this outstanding award entry. Debarshi Pandit, senior vice president, Sky, said: "Manifest London has given a new definition to the word cutting edge their work stands out in todays cluttered media environment and their leadership and team development is also top-notch."

Grand Prix/ Social Media Agency of the Year/ Corporate Purpose

Media Bounty

Chairs Award

YRS TRULY

Agency of the Year/ PR Agency of the Year

Manifest London

Experiential Agency of the Year

2Heads Global Design

Digital Agency of the Year

TIPi Group

B2B Agency of the Year

Gravity Global

Start-up Agency of the Year/ Diversity and Inclusivity

The Unmistakables

Marketing Agency of the Year 0-50 staff

Synergy Creative

Marketing Agency of the Year 50-150 staff

Teamspirit

Agency Wellbeing/ Great Place to Work 2019/ Business Development

Opinium

Learning and Development

Space & Time Media

Agency Culture

MadeBrave

Recruitment

TIPi Group

Business Transformation

Pufferr Ltd for New Bond Street Pawnbrokers

Growth and Expansion

Aire Global

In-house promotion/ Client Services/ Strategy and Planning

Stein IAS

Creativity and Innovation/Best Use of Technology

Pufferr Ltd for New Bond Street Pawnbroking

Best Use of Data

Mando-Connect

Best Digital Campaign

Movement for Fanta

Most Effective Campaign

Movement for Clarins

Most Creative Campaign

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Gravity Global for Embraer

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Soak Digital for The Adecco Group

Best Live Experience

BrandFuel for Google

The winners were announced at The Marriot Grosvenor Hotel, London on Tuesday November 19, 2019. Register here for 2020.

Connor Bradley, Moore, Riskbox and Winmo are partners of the awards.

Read the original:
Media Bounty, YRS TRULY and Manifest London: The Drum Agency Business Awards 2019 winners - The Drum