The PR Professional's Definitive Guide to Measurement
At Napier, we are always looking at ways of measuring our PR campaigns to ensure they are effective; so we use a range of tools to make sure that we don’t miss anything! We believe evaluation is very important, and ultimately the key to producing a successful campaign.
AMEC, ICCO and the PRCA have combined their extensive knowledge on campaign evaluation and produced the latest edition of the definitive guide to public relations evaluation. The guide is available on all platforms including tablets, phones and PC. The guide they produced is a very effective tool for PR professionals, to measure and demonstrate the success of their campaigns.
The guide will ensure that PR professionals globally are all striving in the same direction and aiming to meet the same expectations. We are strong believers that if you aren’t able to measure something how can you be sure it was successful?
The AMEC framework ensures that you plan campaigns in a way that produces measurable goals and targets as well as showing the impact to the campaign will have by measuring what is most important. Using the framework to understand your brand and the objectives that you want to achieve will put you on the right path.
For a more in-depth insight about the framework and its effectiveness in measuring success visit the PR Professional’s Definitive Guide to Measurement.
Attribution... the Key to Understanding the Potential and Impact of our Marketing?
This week at Napier we are taking a look at the State of Marketing Attribution Report 2017, produced by AdRoll.
AdRoll believes that attribution is the key to understanding the potential and impact of our marketing. When dealing with a range of campaigns, it isn’t always easy to figure out what is and isn’t working in order for you to make the correct decisions regarding your business! We are no longer living in an industry when last click or first click is giving us the precise answers we need. AdRoll see this as an opportunity for a new system to arise.
Attribution Put Simply
For those who are unsure here is a simple definition, “In Marketing, Attribution is the process of identifying a set of user actions (“events” or "touchpoints") that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events”.
The Current Issue
Businesses currently use a simplistic form of attribution which is delaying their decision making. A more detailed form of gathering data should now be used: last click and first click is becoming more irrelevant. A growing number of companies are making the switch over to custom attribution methods, which we also see as a great move.
The use of custom attribution has risen from 31% in 2016 to 39% in 2017. Companies implementing custom attribution on all or most of their marketing activities has risen from 31% to 39%, although North America is outdoing the UK with 51% of businesses implementing the strategy. Companies are currently either carrying out multi-channel marketing attribution strategies or ignoring its potential – this is the last thing that we want! We can see there is uncertainty on how to interpret data, but we don’t want this to be what’s stopping companies from moving forward in terms of attribution.
Types of Attribution
The systems of last click and first click are still the most popular, although their use has decreased, with the adoption of a wider range of methods. Both brand and agency respondents report an increase in custom attribution methods. Custom attribution methods are now seen as being the most effective; 48% of respondents agreed.
When companies were asked if they were actually using multi channel attribution, 60% said they did in comparison to 40% in 2016. Agency respondents stated that algorithm-based methods were most effective but difficult to gather for cross channel journeys.
Impact and Benefits of Attribution
From AdRoll’s research, optimizing media mix was the top goal in 2017. This has overtaken the main priority of 2016, which was understanding the journey and sales cycle. Justifying digital spending was third in line. There is no difference in the list of priorities when comparisons were made between 2016-17. Businesses getting the most out of attribution finally recognize how it is having an impact on their customer contact.
Attribution is said to provide more accountability for marketing, although it is still clear that not all companies are recognizing the positive impact attribution has on building stronger relationships. The respondents stated some of the best outcomes marketing attributions have influenced are, being able to remove activity that doesn’t contribute to customer activity. Having a better view of relative performance on various channels making it possible to relocate any budget to better the campaigns with use of improved resources.
Technology and Effectiveness
Over the years, companies have reduced their confidence in their technology’s ability to support attribution. They have seemingly become more reliant on spreadsheets, vendor technology and custom-built models to carry out attribution. The idea of attribution is to ensure different platforms are able to share relevant data with one another through application programming.
The Challenges of Attribution
One of the biggest issues is the restricted use of marketing attribution due to the lack of knowledge. It is more likely that a business will blame this on the differing data instead of their lack of time. The key to breaking down this barrier is defining the customer journey. This year it has been seen that a more effective use of cross device attribution has undergone, in hope that the right individuals will be employed to take advantage of marketing attribution – although this remains a challenge for many.
A large number of companies blame the lack of technology and too much disparate data. Marketers are struggling to gather the data from different platforms and finding a relevant consistency, there is seen to be a gap in the system somewhere. The report showed that campaign tracking/tagging and statistical modelling were the most frequently selected at 36% and 31%.
Insights to action is the area that was seen as the least biggest issue. Although it is still a problem area, there are other significant challenges to be dealt with first. It is clear that there are benefits of multi channel attribution, but respondents found it difficult to determine which channel delivers return on investment. 28% of respondents strongly agreed that multi-device behavior has increased focus on attribution.
Where do we go from here?
Well, it is clear attribution is moving forward with more effective models in place. Gathering more information and analyzing the customer journey are key elements to understanding how successful a campaign strategy has been. Ensure that you are using your employees’ knowledge to their full potential and that they fully understand the effects of how successful a new approach can be to gathering data.
To learn more, download the full report here.
The Top 15 Things We Learnt at INBOUND 2017
Recently, Napier took a trip to Boston to attend the HubSpot INBOUND conference held from the 25th-28th September 2017. As the biggest INBOUND conference HubSpot has held to date, we took full advantage of the advice and information which was offered to us throughout the event.
We returned home with an overload of information, inspiring us to write the top 15 things we learnt at Inbound 2017.
HubSpot Continues to Improve itself:
The value of look-alike campaigns. HubSpot has added Facebook advertising into the standard product, allowing you to target people who are like your website visitors, and we also had a great presentation about using look-alike audiences when advertising with Google. It’s all about building a sales funnel from the bottom, rather than the top. The next level of retargeting is here now!
Several new integrations were announced at Inbound 2017 one of which was a native integration with Shopify meaning it will be possible to sync products and purchases with HubSpot. They also announced there would be an ecommerce ‘bridge’ for those not using Shopify - HubSpot is aiming to become the platform for a bigger ecosystem.
HubSpot are now taking ‘Delight’ more seriously. A stage of the sales cycle that has been previously overlooked. They are doing this through introducing the ‘Customer Hub’ which was fleetingly introduced at Inbound 2017. Although they may not yet have the software to support this focus on ‘Delight’, the theme of the conference very much seemed to be based around account based marketing and essentially customer retention which again highlights the importance of delighting customers and leveraging this relationship to increase repeat business.
HubSpot’s not the perfect answer for all of our clients, but it’s a blooming good solution for many of them.
Paid channels tend to be more measurable than organic. Rand Fishkin gave a great presentation where he highlighted the fact that paid channels tend to be the most measurable. Because they are revenue-generating, the publishers are giving marketers more data. Marketers believe that the organic/unpaid channels are more effective, yet put more effort and money into paid channels because of the measurability.
The importance of a powerful trajectory. A talk by Rand Fishkin, yes the SEO expert himself, revealed that marketers make the mistake of shutting down blog channels or current marketing activities too early. We learnt that it is important to look over the long-term results of an activity, as often when looking at the estimated growth rate, success can be just around the corner.
Topic clusters are the new way to approach SEO. Not to say that traditional methods should be thrown out of the window – they definitely shouldn’t, but there was a lot of buzz around these topic clusters. The idea being that the clusters make it easier for Google to figure out the significance of the pages within a cluster – architect your site so it makes sense to Google.
Reddit is a great place to steal content ideas! Essentially, you can see what content is doing well and rip it off – I mean, use it to ‘inspire’ your own content ideas. Sub-Reddits get really granular on specific topics, up and down voting allows you to gage popularity and their in-depth search parameters means you can delve deep and gain insight into what is current and popular.
The benefits of a content style guide. HubSpot made the valued point of every business or agency having their own unique style guide, which can be showcased to future clients, whilst being used by our current clients almost immediately.
How to achieve success with content marketing on LinkedIn. From the right call to actions to cohesive and strong visuals, this great presentation revealed how Napier can use compelling content to help our LinkedIn page stand out.
Quality is everything: HubSpot investigated whether the 80/20 rule applies to their blog posts, and found the top 20% of blog posts didn’t produce 80% of the leads. They produced 93% of the leads. It’s the high-quality content that delivers almost all the results. Incidentally HubSpot is now focussing on writing fewer, higher quality posts.
ABM - The Importance of Personalization:
ABM is extremely important. HubSpot hosted many conferences surrounding the subject of ABM. There is a huge focus on nurturing accounts with the Inbound method, and it looks like it is around to stay. With the four main steps: Plan, Create, Nurture and Measure proving to be incredibly successful.
92% of companies recognize the value of ABM and see this strategy as a ‘must have' and B2B organisations that align sales and marketing see a 24% faster growth in revenue. Remember, there are on average, 6.2 stakeholders in the purchasing decisions in B2B organisations – targeting key accounts and moving the account through the buying decision process by having a ‘conversation’ with all stakeholders – personalisation is key!
Personalized emails are a must. HubSpot was able to overhaul their lead nurturing and double their conversions by adding a personal touch to their emails. They pride themselves on creating a human persona who ‘sent’ the emails, in order to form a human connection with their audience.
There are many different things you can do to increase webinar registrations and attendance. The presentation from gotomeeting was great, and we will be using the data to help clients implement tactics that will make their webinar campaigns even more effective. Did you know that 33% of people register for a webinar on the day of the event?
So to End...
Americans and Europeans are different. I didn’t hear one European say they were “super stoked” to be at INBOUND. We were “pleased” to be there, even if we secretly were thinking to ourselves “this is AWESOME”.
Imagination's Jo Ashford - Marketing Expert Interview
As part of our Marketing expert series, we interviewed Jo Ashford, Technology Communications Manager at Imagination. Similar to our previous interviews, we asked a variety of questions, to learn everything we could about our latest marketing expert.
- What do you like to do in your spare time (hobbies)?
I’m a keen baker in my spare time, something which my colleagues, friends and family seem to appreciate. I’d say cupcakes and macaroons are my specialties. I also like going to the gym (probably a good thing considering the baking), photography, cocktails and shopping. Possibly not in that order or as standalone activities/hobbies!
- What food do you like?
Everything except sprouts, swede and oysters! I’m a total foodie and I’ll try everything once, except for Chicken feet. When I was in China I just couldn’t bring myself to try them, even if they do go well with beer!
- What other career would you have chosen if you weren’t in marketing?
If I had my time again, I’d probably do something more creative such as photography. I love capturing moments with my camera, whether it’s the Northern Lights in Iceland or my friend’s kids playing in the garden. I think it would be an interesting career, exposing you to lots of cultures, adventures and experiences.
We then asked Jo to share her future thoughts and insights on marketing, asking her questions surrounding effective campaigns, marketing challenges, and the main activity she would spend an increased budget on.
- What do you think have been the biggest changes to B2B marketing in the past 3 years?
From my perspective, I don’t think looking back at just the last three years highlights how much things have changed in the world of PR, you must go back further to understand the true evolution that has taken place.
- Increased channels. One of the biggest changes in B2B PR is the number of channels that we can now communicate to our audience through. While still highly influential, the media no longer controls everything. Today brands adopted a strategy that embraces both owned and paid media.
- Measurement. When I started out in PR Advertising Equivalent (AEV) was used in all reports when highlighting our successes to clients, along with the volume of press clients. Today, it is a completely different world (and that’s a good thing). Personally, I’m intrigued to see how measuring sentiment will evolve as no one seems to have cracked it yet.
- Social media. Can you imagine a world without Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? Like them or loathe them, social media has changed the face of PR, providing a platform for companies to engage with their audiences, while building awareness, credibility and trust. Social media provides a way for customers to directly speak to brands, as well as acting as a targeting tool. A massive game changer in my opinion.
- What do you think will be the biggest change in the way you approach your campaigns in the next 3 years?
- Will press releases still have a role in campaigns?
- Content amplifications will become more critical
- Better campaign measurement will mean more effective campaigns
- What are your 3 biggest marketing challenges?
- Budget. Marketers always seem to be trying to do more with less. Sadly, I don’t think this will ever change as budgets will always be squeezed BUT on the positive side, I do think it breeds creativity.
- Measuring ROI. Tracking the ROI of every singly marketing activity isn’t always easy or possible.
- Reaching customers in a meaningful way. Today audiences are exposed to so much noise it can be hard to cut above the rest and deliver meaningful information that resonates with them on a one-to-one level and ultimately, converts leads into sales.
- Describe the future of the trade media - will it thrive or do you think there are problems ahead?
The debate about the future of media in the digital age has often been dominated by the fate of national newspapers. I believe often the future of trade magazines has been absent from the discussion. Many assume that, “if the nationals can’t make it, what hope is there for trade magazines?”
While it’s difficult to generalise about the future of trade magazines because each sector has its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, I do think they have a future. I believe that trade magazines are well placed to identify their respective niches and utilise them. It comes down to how Editors package their offering while ensuring they are profitable businesses. Quality editorial is not enough, sadly.
- What is the most over-hyped marketing tactic?
Mobile marketing. While mobile devices have grown massively in popularity in the last few years, it doesn’t mean that traditional PCs will become obsolete in the next few years. Desktops still serve some important purposes and have advantages that cannot be matched by devices with smaller screens. It’s crucial that businesses understand this and don’t get swept away by the idea that mobile devices and mobile advertising are the absolute future of online marketing. While it’s good to have a responsive website that can be viewed equally well on all devices, it’s important that business don’t put all their efforts into a mobile website. At least for the foreseeable future, users on devices of all shapes and sizes will be checking out your website.
- What was the best campaign you've run?
The campaign that I’m most proud of was for Sensus, who were bidding for the GB smart meter programme. Compared to the likes of Vodafone and O2, they were considerably smaller in terms of budget but their product was better. However, they had limited experience in EMEA. I developed key messaging that appealed to all the audiences involved in the decision-making process, playing on Sensus’ strengths and highlighting the weaknesses of their competitors. The campaign lasted five years and resulted in Sensus winning one of the three regions that were up for grabs. That was a good day in the office.
- If there is one thing you could change about the electronics press, what would it be?
To be honest, nothing. I know that sounds like a rubbish answer but they are a nice bunch and so far, they have been easy to work to. Ultimately, if do my job properly and get them interesting and timely news then all will be fine.
- If there was one thing you could change about how agencies work with you, what would it be?
Having been agency side for several years before going in house, my advice would be simple. Make the client’s life easier, don’t add to their workload but make it lighter. Make yourself invaluable so that your client can’t live without you and they’ll love you forever.
- How important will social media be for your campaigns in the next 3-5 years?
Social media is very important to our campaigns at Imagination and that’s only going to increase. For me, I see social media as a more informal way of engaging with customers and prospects and educating them on who we are and what we’re doing. If they have a question, they can ask us directly and get an honest and informative answer. I see that being more important in the coming years.
- If you could get more budget, what activity would you spend it on?
Video content. Yes, content is still king but the kind of content the rules the web is changing. People are busy and don’t always have time to read a 1500-word opinion article or whitepaper. Let’s make life easier and give them more digestible content that they can consume when they like, on any device that they like. Let’s tell a story that can come to life through visuals and truly catch their attention.
How Can Video have Positive Effects on your SEO?
Video has rapidly grown in popularity, proving itself as a vitally important tool for marketers, that also has a positive effect on SEO.
With some studies saying 90% of a customer’s decision to purchase is made before they contact the sales team, marketers are beginning to understand the need to deliver content using a variety of media, which has driven increased use of video in content marketing strategies to help build relationships with online audiences.
Yet, video marketing isn’t easy. Creating the perfect video content can be a gruelling process for marketers, as they struggle with not only creating original and interesting content, but also knowing where to promote their video.
So how can you ensure your video is improving your website SEO?
Follow our Top 5 Tips to make sure you're using video in the right way to improve your SEO:
- Make sure Your Video Content is ‘Good’.
Video content needs to be relevant, surprising and helpful to make a positive effect on your SEO. Make your video stand out from the noise with content that is significant to your targeted audience.
- Tell People About Your Video Content
Creating and posting a video isn’t any good, if no one knows it’s there. It is vital to share, tweet and re-tweet your video. Informing your audience over a variety of social media sites, will not only increase the views of your video, but increase the likelihood of your video being found and driving traffic to your site.
- Host Your Video on Your Website
Often the presence of the video itself on your website, can be one of the most important factors in increasing your SEO. Video is viewed as evidence of quality content, and helps send signals to search engines that your page or site contains rich media relevant to search requests.
- Don’t Forget About YouTube
YouTube is the second most popular website in the world, and it is almost essential to post your Video on the site, as well as your own website. Video’s hosted on YouTube have a much larger potential audience, which in turn can translate into more views.
- Know Why You are Creating Video
The key to achieving successful video content, is to define your goals, and know exactly what you want to achieve from your video. You should set realistic expectations for your video and know who you want to target. Having a defined goal for your video can only help you achieve success in the long run.
Have you read our Facts and Figures of Video Content Marketing Tip Sheet yet? For even more Tips Click Here.
Niroshan Rajadurai - The Second in Our Series of Marketing Expert Interviews
Niroshan Rajadurai, Executive Vice President of EMEA and ANZ at Vector Software, is the second interviewee in our marketing expert series. From his 3 biggest marketing challenges to his favourite hobby, we wanted to learn everything about our latest marketing expert.
- What do you like to do in your spare time (hobbies)?
I enjoy playing cricket, reading business and technology literature and playing the Trumpet.
- What music do you like?
My favourite type of music is Jazz, this is influenced by my interest in brass instruments.
- What other career would you like to have chosen if you weren't in marketing?
It is an interesting question. Marketing is something that became essential as part of my day to day role. My original background was in Electrical & Electronics Engineer and Computer Science. The industry I work in today uses these skill sets. What I discovered early on when I worked as an engineer is that selling and marketing are essential skills both externally to a business and internally to your management. I think irrespective of any career path, marketing is a critical skill, and with the innovation taking place in digital marketing right now, my back ground and modern marketing are merging together. As a child, aeroplanes and robotics/AI always interested me. If I wasn't doing what I was doing today, I would be more involved in the technology in robotics/AI and it's modern day applications.
We then asked for Niroshan 's insights, opinions and expertise into marketing, to help us understand how marketing has developed and changed over the years, especially with reference to Vector Software. We asked him:
- What do you think have been the biggest changes to B2B marketing in the past 3 years?
There has been an evolution in digital marketing and business intelligence services from that digital marketing data. Most CIOs no longer see "digital marketing" as a separate operation within the marketing team, it's now an integral part and channel for pushing messaging. The use of marketing analytics tools also help identify in real time the ROI on campaigns. An upcoming challenge is the growing trend of AdBlocking which continues to challenge how digital marketing techniques will evolve over time.
- What do you think will be the biggest change in the way you approach your campaigns in the next 3 years?
Self enablement for the end customer. We continue to notice the speed at which decisions are made continues to get shorter and shorter in our industry. Our goal is to drive our value through thought leadership, and have our website be a way of disseminating that thought leadership into a focused solution that the customer can quickly and easily identify, evaluate and procure. Part of self enablement could also extend into areas of live chat (seen now on some websites), but could extend to the application of digital intelligence and automation, with further integration into intelligent assistants (e.g. Siri/Cortana/Alexis, etc). Imagine, "Alexis, can you tell me what the current trends in DevOps are for mobile application development."
- What are your 3 biggest marketing challenges?
The first one is staying fresh and innovative. It is important to be on top of the research and new trends in the industry. There is a large volume of data that we consume as an organisation to stay on top of industry trends.
The second one is finding new and meaningful ways to engage with clients and customers.
The third one is to stand out from the crowd. Why are we different to our competitors, and the rest of the buzz around major topics.
- Describe the future of the trade media - will it thrive or do you think there are problems ahead?
To simplify society, there are two different generations in play at the moment, one is more comfortable with printed news and the other, is happy to get content through digital sources with succinct delivery.
The challenge with a periodically trade media, for instance, is that there is a lag between news occurring and it being published… This leads to a staleness in the news, which becomes old news (as it has been covered in others channels) once it reaches the reader. So, the challenge is to find a way to add value to printed news. The information needs to be solution-based, unique and perhaps driving thought leadership.
- What do you think is the most effective and least effective marketing activity you, or your company, undertakes (in terms of ROI)?
The most effective marketing activity is problem-solving based webinars.
The least effective marketing activity is trade show (except for a few countries). It is difficult to get people there, as they have no time to come.
- What is the most over-hyped marketing tactic?
Traditional paid advertising. When it comes to generating leads and filling the ales funnel, traditional outbound marketing tactics -- where marketers push their message out far and wide in the hopes that it'll resonate, it isn't as effective as it used to be.
- What was the best campaign you've run?
Problem-solving based webinars. This resulted in a 20 time increase in the number of people participating and follow on engaging with us.
- What is the worst campaign you've run/tell us about a time when a campaign went wrong?
We found that 'widget' or 'feature' based webinars provided no context to our customers and prospects. They were poorly attended and very often attendees misunderstood what the goal of the technology that was to be presented was supposed to be.
- If there is one thing you could change about the electronics press, what would it be?
To go to the next level, more value needs to be added to the content. The electronics press should create communities to encourage idea and thought exchange. An interesting trend we have noticed is that PodCasts are growing in popularity.
- If there was one thing you could change about how agencies work with you, what would it be?
I have a good relationship with Napier. When I first asked Dave to create content for us, which can be challenging as we are an engineering company, he was patient and provided guidance. This resulted in an evolution for us. So, there is nothing that I don’t like. Agencies need to continue to add value, to challenge us in the way we approach marketing. I am very happy with Napier.
The only thing they could do in the future would be to act more enterprising. They could take control of broader industry challenges and problems and harmonise all of the key players in addressing the challenge, just like a project manager would.
- Can you explain how you define and measure success for your campaigns?
We define success through people’s attendance and engagement with our content. Ultimately we can trace revenue back to campaigns we do, so from a business perspective this is the ultimate ROI. We use tools like Act-On and Sales Force to measure these KPIs.
- How important will social media be for your campaigns in the next 3-5 years?
It's hard to tell. Social media in the traditional sense is over saturated in content. However data contained in Social Media could enable better content delivery to be targeted at individuals. Trends change so quickly, 3-5 years is a very long time away. Decision Engines are growing in popularity and generation one technology in this area is showing promise. Social Media may help drive better decision engines for content delivery to the end prospect/user.
- If there was one wish you could make to improve your company's marketing activities, what would it be?
To continue to be strategic by finding new ways and methods to improve strategic thinking within our customers and prospects.
- If you could get more budget, what activity would you spend it on?
I would spend it on intelligent social media. We would use it to understand what a person needs and find ways to engage with them.
Have you read our first marketing expert interview with David Wright from Microchip? Click here to read the full interview.
Napier's Video Editing Capabilities
We understand that video is the future of content marketing. With an overwhelming 92% of marketers watching videos online, and 59% of senior executives preferring to watch a video than read text, Video content is a must for B2B Businesses.
Our infographic featured below, highlights the potential true value and return on investment from developing this video content. At Napier, we offer full video editing capabilities, to help our clients use successful video content as a useful and realistic campaign medium; or as a way to engage and interact with their audience.
Please take a few minutes to check out our latest Video projects from the Napier YouTube channel. From there you can see great video examples from our designated project playlist.
Check Out Napier’s Latest Video Projects
If we can help you with your video content, Get in Touch and speak to a member of our video team.
What Does HubSpot’s Annual State of Inbound Report 2017 tell Marketers?
As an agency who work closely with HubSpot, we waited patiently for their annual State of Inbound Report for 2017. Each year HubSpot tracks shifts in buying behaviour, marketing challenges and sales strategies, to learn how Inbound Marketing has developed over the past year, and what predictions there is for the future.
70% of marketers surveyed revealed their top marketing priority to be converting leads into customers. This is an unsurprising result, with only a slight decline of 4% compared to last year’s report, suggesting this is still the biggest challenge marketers face when it comes to Inbound marketing.
Last year, we were interested to see that marketer’s biggest priorities for their inbound marketing projects were SEO and blogging. The latest report reinforces this, with 61% of respondents prioritising SEO and 53% prioritising blog creation.
The report highlights the ongoing transformations in inbound marketing, revealing paid advertising to be the highest over rated marketing tactic, and reinforces the co-dependent relationship between marketing and sales, with 44% providing a positive reaction in regards to whether sales and marketing is aligned.
The 2017 report shows that closing more deals has risen in priority for marketers since last year, and 44% of respondents believe improving the efficiency of the sales and marketing funnel is a main priority. Globally a massive 71% primarily conduct inbound marketing, presenting how importance inbound marketing has become for marketers across the globe.
Here at Napier, we were pleased to discover that HubSpot’s findings were closely affiliated with Napier’s focus on increasing the speed of the sales tunnel, to help leads turn into customers faster, and our belief in the importance of increasing SEO.
This report is now obsolete. To search for a more up-to-date report, click here.
Smart Systems Integration 2018 Call for Papers is Now Open
The Smart Systems Integration 2018 has launched its call for papers, meaning experts from science and industry can now submit their manuscripts and apply for one of the coveted speakers’ slots.
The conference will take place in Dresden, Germany from the 11-12 April 2018, and will be accompanied by an exhibition, creating a key platform for the Smart Systems Integration industry to meet and discuss current issues.
A variety of topics will be addressed, including all aspects of smart systems, from the international research on new materials and technologies, innovative smart systems and their manufacturing technologies and issues of integration, to applications in the industry.
The conference will also present application- oriented topics such as, smart mobility, smart health, smart energy, smart production and smart society, with a special focus on software aspects in connection with smart systems.
Awards will be presented to the Best Paper and the Best Poster submissions, and will be rewarded with 500 Euros each, as well as being invited to be a speaker for the event in 2019.
To find out more information about this conference and submission requirements, please click here.
Marketing Law Update
The ICO have recently revealed their draft guidance of the new General Data Protection Regulation which will replace the Data Protection Act 1998. This new regulation will be applied from May 2018, with the aim to set a new higher standard for consent, as it draws upon the Data Protection Act standard of consent in a number of areas, as well containing significantly more detail on European guidance and good practice.
This draft version of this guidance, titled Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Protection has allowed a further insight into the stricter rules both advertising and marketing companies will have to face, once this regulation is in place. The ICO has recently seen progress in artificial intelligence and machine learning, proposing that these a key driver of the developments in the field of big data. This has allowed businesses to process, manipulate and extract meaning from large and complex data sets in ways which previously may not have been possible. With technology such as this influencing the future, it is easy to see why the ICO’s new draft guidance presents a higher standard for consent. This new report includes guidelines such as, to embed a privacy impact assessment framework into big data activities to identify and mitigate privacy risks, as well as proposing that if consent is the basis for big data processing, this will need to meet the new standards and be “unambiguous” and a “clear affirmative action”, which would allow the individual to withdraw the consent.
With companies such as Flype already under fire as they face a fine of £70,000, as a result of them breaching the direct marketing provisions of PECR, the importance of these new requirements this draft guideline brings forward is more cruical than ever, as organizations will have to ensure they use techniques that is compliant with the law. As these organizations begin to prep for these new guidelines, it will be interesting to see how marketing and advertising companies alike, will react and adjust to ensure they stay within the confines of this stricter consent.
PSDpuzzler Tests the Experts
Often it seems you are no longer rewarded for the knowledge you attain and learn within our industry. It has become, rightly so, an expectation of our experts or clients to be confident in their knowledge of the industry or their products. This was why I was pleasantly surprised to learn Power System Designs, have produced a crossword puzzle called PSDpuzzler, available in print, and more importantly online.
This fun and unusual idea allows access to both experts and clients to put their knowledge to the test. It provides a twist of fun, with the online version providing a timer, hints and the ability to pause and save the puzzle. You can also use the solve button to reveal the answers, which shows you how many of your answers are correct and providing a red outline around the ones that are wrong.
PSDpuzzler introduces an element of competitiveness, pushing people to strive to be the best. It can even create friendly competitions between others, as they attempt to get the most right. With the crossword updating monthly it keeps up to date with the newest updates within our industry, as well as testing your knowledge on key terminology and products. It’s nice to see that even though PSD doesn’t offer a physical award, experts and clients alike can feel good about themselves when they succeed in completing the crossword.
The use of this unique idea is sure to boost Power System Designs reputation, presenting them as a serious leading technology company, but who are also not scared of being different from others. This provides an element of competiveness and entertainment on their website, making them distinctive from others.
This is a clever, and entertaining move from Power System Designs. They have provided an amusing, and clever crossword, unique from other websites, and I hope many will take this chance and put their knowledge to the test.
My life as Napier's latest Intern
When trying to find a summer placement, the first thing you have to ask yourself is what can you learn from it? You want to be inspired, to learn how the real working world operates outside of university. A summer placement, especially at a marketing agency, allows you to begin to apply the skills you have been taught in class, to real life situations. This was one of the many reasons I chose to apply to Napier.
More about me
I am a second year student at Bournemouth University, beginning my third and final year in September. I am currently studying Communication and Media, which promotes itself as a diverse and broad course. My course allows me to learn knowledge about all aspects within the media, including advertising, PR and marketing. This was the main reason I chose to study my course, due to it allowing me to learn all the different skills sets needed within each section of the media. I believe this leaves doors open, allowing me to study in depth the main areas that interest me. My marketing units stood out from my other studies, and sparked my interest into discovering how marketing works in a real life agency. I was interested in how campaign strategies are proposed, and what skills are used in ensuring it is a success. This is why I made the decision to do a marketing placement over summer, so I can explore my interest and passion for marketing further.
Napier is one of the leading integrated B2B technology agencies, so it was obviously a very exciting opportunity. Napier provides exposure to all aspects of the Media and I am excited to learn what skills are needed within marketing and PR to succeed in this industry.
Getting the most out of my placement
Throughout my eight-week placement, I want to learn how Napier operates as a company, by understanding the importance of how a team works together. For example, I would like to learn and recognise the importance of the team briefing each other on their key projects, and look forward to understanding what each individual members of the team contribute to Napier.
Throughout my time here I aim to improve my skills within both PR and marketing by learning how campaigns are handled throughout the company, and the importance of the team maintaining a respectable and close relationship with their clients. I also want to learn how Napier provides the best customer service they can to their clients, and what they do to make sure their clients are satisfied with the work they deliver. I am looking forward to learning how Napier solves problems for their clients, and how they brainstorm their ideas for different campaign strategies.
Throughout my time here at Napier I will put 100% into any task given to me, to ensure I get the best experience in all aspects of the media, and hopefully expand and improve my skills within marketing and PR. I would also like to feel more confident within my abilities, and acquire skills that I can use in the future after I have graduated.