To keep your knowledge fresh, here are some of the recent training updates you should have received as a graduate from one of our digital marketing training and development programmes.
To build on your digital training, and help with 2015 planning, here are other big changes:
- Christmas ecommerce sales set to break all records
- High street retailers like Walmart now match Amazon prices
- Effectiveness of pre-rolls are compared to banners
- Twitter's market value downgraded as it struggles to maintain audience
- Google tests an "ad-free" web
Email us back if you have questions about how any of these impact on your digital plans.
And all these themes are included in more depth in our digital marketing 2015 training.
To build on your Digital Acceleration training, here are the other 5 big changes:
- Facebook's 'auto-play' video strategy pays, as video uploads set to surpass YouTube
- Apple Pay: Goes live in the US
- Mobile video ad spend: Triples in the UK
- YouTube: new 'Preferred' format shakes up media planning
- Twitter: TV ratings now offered through dual-screening
And for 2015 Smartwatches are about to make intelligent homes even smarter, and connected cars will create a wealth of new touchpoints.
Email us back for tips on what this means for your 2015 BETs or digital plans.
- Internet of Things gets real
- Ecommerce goes social with Twitter
- Digital marketing effectiveness
Take a look and get back in touch if there's anything you'd like advice on about how it could impact you and your team.
- Facebook's ad frequency: How will consumers react to a doubling in newsfeeds?
- Ice Bucket Challenge: A meme and its tipping point
- Social fail? Retailer Gregg's spins a social fail into success
- Mobile ad spend: How Google is winning your budgets
Research and examples on click through. Email us for training tips and refresher courses later this year, or for input into your 2015 digital strategy.
- Media buying gets smarter and better value with 'programmatic' ads
- SEO: More changes from Google are discovered
- Facebook and Snapchat plan 'buy' buttons in their ads
- Why people only have five 'best friend brands' online
- And we interview Google’s leadership team for how real time ad bidding changes the market.
Training deep dives and strategy development for 2015 available in all these areas.
- Facebook's ad targeting: How the cookie got (even) smarter
- "Internet of Things": Latest acquisition and launches as Apple attacks Google
- How much are you worth? Google and Facebook's latest revenue per user numbers
- Programmatic ad buying: Why P&G are now at 70% and saving media costs
Advanced training deep dives are available in all topics, as well as complete digital marketing skills training.
Digital strategists are also helping create the Digital Roadmaps for 2015 for many training graduates - simply email Tutors@DigitalTrainingAcademy.com to find out more.
To support graduates of our training, we've launched new special reports to top-up your knowledge and your existing online classrooms. Select from the 40 key digital topics and markets - from Twitter to WhatsApp, China to Russia. Your trainers and strategists are summarising the stories that matter most for marketers.
Advanced training deep dives are available in all topics, as well as complete digital marketing skills training. Digital strategists are also now helping teams create their Digital Roadmaps for 2015 - simply email the trainers to find out more.
In the same month 'traditional media' giants continued to build their digital portfolios with Disney buying Maker Studios, the largest channel on YouTube.
- Facebook: Profits triple as mobile now accounts for a staggering 60% of its ad revenue
- Google: Links online and offline behaviour with a new in-store mobile shopping trials
- Amazon: Latest PR activity turns kitchens into shopping carts with a digital wand to scans barcodes at home
Full research, case studies and videos our trainers have selected are on click through. If your team are replanning brand activity mid-year, need inputs for 2015 plans, or training 'top-ups' - simply email us and a digital trainer will be in touch.
New research this month showed that 1/5 of all ad spend globally now goes online. Facebook is trying to push that further, continuing to remove the free organic audiences brands enjoyed in the past, as they force companies to switch ad dollars to promote their posts.
This month's case studies that impressed us include Samsung's big win at the Oscars, McDonald's testing SnapChat and Garnier's social tactics in China.
The research is grouped in the sections matching Digital Acceleration training courses.
Need more about the implications of any of this research on the digital aspects of your marketing plan? Simply email us back.
Facebook buys WhatsApp, Comcast buys Time Warner: more digital media companies unlocking greater economies of scale, and a reminder that all young dotcoms like WhatsApp will in time become far more commercial.
Yahoo leverages Tumblr, in a smart way that will help brands through native advertising options, and Google opens a new set of ad exchange opportunities to target your media budgets.
And following requests from Digital Training Academy graduates, we now have new special research reports in place on Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, India, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russia and South Africa.
Videos, case studies, and full stories on click through.
And this month we're offering you a priority place on the next of our webinars as a graduate of our training workshops.
Following its 'SEO apocalypse' - hiding all keyword data earlier this year - Google is now making email marketing analytics a little harder too, as Gmail starts caching images. This means major segment of consumers will 'disappear' from marketers stats. This month we look at what this means for email ads - and how to work around it.
With WhatsApp and Snapchat amongst the digital success stories of 2013, we also look at the 10 biggest instant messaging apps in the world and examine the implication of the Internet of Things' will have on marketing in the years to come.
Finally, gaze into the future with Amazon's flying delivery drones and Google's super-fast military robots. As digital and the real world merge, the next decade holds some exiting (and slightly scary) implications for us all...
What does it mean for your brand or market in 2014? Simply ask.
Your trainers and strategists are setting up short Live Meetings as part of the free service to support the first 200 of our graduates. These sessions focus on the key elements impacting your specific team. Email us find out about availability.
Always-on training, for always-on marketing.
Always-on marketing needs always-on training support, so guide us on the topic areas you'd like covered in future editions or training webinars.
Need more research or have questions about the impact on your business? Simply email me and I'll connect you to the trainers and strategy specialists for your market.
Always-on marketing needs always-on training support, so guide us on the topic areas you'd like covered in future editions or training webinars.
Need more research or have questions about the impact on your business? Simply email me and I'll connect you to the trainers and strategy specialists for your market.
This update from our team in India, includes the rise of the digital consumer, latest local technology shifts, the growing role of mobile, the continued rise of social, and our editor's selection of case studies of high performing digital marketing. The research tops up your Digital Acceleration training and workshops, building on those guiding principles, and giving additional ideas for how to get the best results from agencies and budgets.
- Full stories and videos on click-through
- Need advice from a digital strategist? Simply email our team
- Case studies for digital marketing effectiveness
Always-on marketing needs always-on training support, so guide us on the topic areas you'd like covered in future editions or training webinars.
Google created more controversy this month, with its new "endorsement ads" placing people's faces next to products they have '+1'ed, and breaking an 8-year promise with huge banner ads appearing on its search results.
In ecommerce, Amazon tested its own PayPal-style buttons, as battles with eBay heat up. And if you're looking for the best value paid media, new data suggests Facebook ads could be 18 times more effective on iPhones than Androids.
Need more research, training support or strategy creation? Here are our team leads:
- Singapore & SE Asia: Andrés Torbado
- Indian subcontinent: Gavin Sinden
- Europe: Peter Mazurkiewicz
- Latin America: Ros Walker
- USA & UK: Email me back
The month's top research and videos are below, and for daily updates follow the news feed on https://twitter.com/DigiAcademy.
Another big change came from Google as they push brands towards paid search by removing some of the free insights. We can show you the workarounds, but marketing with organic search will take a bit more thinking time from now on.
- Mobile: New iPhones, fingerprint ID, Android partners with Kit Kat, and former mobile kings Nokia and Blackberry get sold as the market restructures - big implications for mobile strategies for content and services.
- Social: Pinterest and Instagram begin their first forays into paid ad space, and Twitter announced its long-awaited flotation plans after buying MoPub (we're expecting a mobile ad exchange announcement next).
- Consumers: Think power is shifting to the giants? Then look at our story about one unhappy BA passenger who used 'Promoted Tweets' to complain about his service on a flight!
For what this means for your brand's 2014 plans, and advice on strategy or training approaches, simply email us back with your questions.
Top stories in the online classrooms:
- Path to purchase: New research on how digital impacts sales
- Digital ad budgets: P&G's big switch in the US
- Social media: Fake fans, new ad formats, Facebook's evolution into a paid channel, and tracking Twitter
- New production tools: Why the DoubleClick tool for publishing rich media ads should cut agency costs
New advanced training courses are now in place for all the main digital disciplines, so if your teams need a recap, then simply mail us back.
From social to search, advertising to apps - whichever aspect of mobile is right for your customers, this top-up to your training will help. Since the web "went mobile", customer experiences have changed, so smart managers go further, thinking about the mobile experience of all digital work. Whether it's a simple search engine ad, a post on Facebook, a game or website, small changes have a big impact on your mobile and tablet audiences are increasingly key.
That's why we've included deep links to hundreds more articles and research write-ups.
Updated mobile training is now available, along with bespoke mobile strategy development.
Best from the Digital Acceleration team
This month's update for Academy members also covers these mobile milestones:
- Samsung overtaking Apple in traffic and profitability
- Smartphone growth leaping
- The global mobile ad revenue boost
To top up your Digital Media Planning training there are updates on Facebook's mobile platform, Graph Search going live (with more ad targeting tools), and Twitter's new ad targeting. And if you joined our Social Media Conversation Training there's an update to the breadth of social platforms with a new 'wheel' chart.
Need more background, or extra advice from the tutors as you plan 2014? Simply mail us back.
New research on brand equity shows which brands are the winners among Generation Y, the digitally native 16-34 year-olds, with implications for every marketer - and there's more from Cannes, plus the latest online films that are driving earned media. There are dozens of infographics, charts and research, all grouped in the familiar sections from your Digital Acceleration.
Need quick tips on what these mean for your brand's plans in 2014? As a member of the Academy you can simply email us back.
As always, there's lots changing in digital so in our round-up we focus on what matters for marketers and digital strategists who have graduated one of our training programmes:
- Chat apps become more popular than texts, opening up new relationship marketing channels like WhatsApp and BBM
- Yahoo's new army of Tumblr bloggers gives an extra 120 million daily impressions to sell targeted ads
- Facebook plans video ads, and Twitter's Vine videos grow fast
- Google's launches the latest anti-search spam - "Penguin 2.0"
For specific tips about what these mean for your plans in 2013-14, simply email your questions back to us. With advanced in-company training programmes running in 20 countries this year, it's easy than ever to boost your team's skills or get extra support from digital strategists.
For brands, the key to successful engagement is still in having brilliant conversation and content ideas, but as the landscape changes expect Facebook, Google and Apple to all try squeezing more paid media budgets out of the marketing plan. Good news for brands as competition in the app store sector grows with Google's "Play" store rapidly catching up to Apple. Meanwhile Twitter lands a multi-agency deal that unlocks hundreds of millions of dollars of ad space, blurring the divisions between social paid, owned and earned media.
To support your always-on digital learning, we've also launched:
- New weekly microsites for all the sections below
- New Digital Acceleration Programmes for advanced marketers
- Deep dive workshops in content marketing
- Digital Boosters for brand campaigns
Email us back for more, and click through for the videos and full stories.
Full stories and videos are on click through.
As an Academy Member we want to keep you briefed on how the market is evolving, so we've included dozens of infographics, charts and research reports - as well as the top 100 full stories from our blogs and the DigiAcademy Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/DigiAcademy.
Stories are grouped in the familiar sections from your Digital Training Academy skills development programme and online classroom - full details, videos and high resolution charts are on click through below. Advanced training programmes are running in 20 countries this year, so it's easy for your team to get the extra skills they need to win in digital.
And if you want quick tips about what these mean for your plans in 2013, simply reply back to this email to have a digital strategist send you some extra advice.
Applying best practice in search engine optimisation will get you free traffic from Google, Bing or Baidu; while paid search gives your brand immediate visibility.
This training update covers the latest research, new tips to improve your effectiveness, case studies, the growing role of Facebook in search, and detailed updates about developments at the main search engines. If you have questions - then simply email us back.
Stories are grouped in the familiar sections from your Digital Acceleration Programme, and the supporting online classrooms.
Any questions about putting your Digital Action Plans into action, of getting more from your 2013 digital budgets? Simply get in touch.
Social media remains a game-changer for brands, and with Facebook offering mass reach and a comprehensive range of Paid, Owned and Earned media, it’s important to keep up to date.
The guiding principle for content strategies remains true, so always start by thinking: why would I care, why would I share? Create authentic conversations around topics that genuinely engage.
Full stories on click through, additional special reports on the right hand side, and password reminders to your online classrooms available by simply emailing us back.
Your Digital Acceleration training covered the guiding principles for digital marketing in Unilever, and how to get the best results from agencies and budgets.
This update from our team working in India, covers the rise of the Indian digital consumer - reminding every marketer of the importance of getting both the strategy and the execution right.
Full stories and videos on click-through, and to contact our strategists about what this means for your brand or business plan, simply reply to this newsletter.
Your Digital Acceleration training covered the guiding principles for digital marketing in Unilever, and how to get the best results from agencies and budgets.
This update from our team working in China, covers the rise of the Chinese digital consumer - reminding every marketer of the importance of getting digital strategies right.
It's grouped in the familiar sections from your training, Digital Action Plans, and online classrooms.
There's also more on 2013 training options, Advanced Digital Deep Dives and the new Digital Case Study Library - plus more than 100 full stories and research on click through.
For consumer brands Twitter now works at many levels, and in business to business it's gradually gaining traction:
- Owned media - Publishing direct and driving traffic to brand sites, YouTube or Facebook pages
- Earned media - Spreading ideas and amplifying offline marketing events
- Consumer insight - Listening to what our consumers are saying, and identifying trends
- Carelines - Responding direct to consumer queries
- Crisis management - Ensuring our message is heard, fast
- ...and connects us with mobile consumers brilliantly in both D&E and technically advanced markets
It's marketing in real time. Twitter has completed its move from being a young micro-blogging tool to a major social player, so when you're developing the social aspects of your digital strategy, think about the level of use in your markets, and the role Twitter could play. Click through for more data and case studies.
This month's update includes the annual review of key trends that build on digital training programmes you've taken here at the Academy. We selected these themes after coaching thousands of marketers in more than 20 countries this year, and the continued pace of change is a reminder that digital skills development is an essential "always-on" part of making today's marketer.
Research and news is grouped around modules from our courses, with the sections below building on what's covered in workshops. We've now added special report microsites, updated monthly by our trainers.
What's new in 2013? We're launching new advanced Digital Deep Dives for leading edge marketers, Digital Booster Clinics to strengthen campaigns and owned media, as well as an updated Digital Acceleration Programme to ensure teams continue to be "brilliant across the basics" of the digital channel mix.
Is your mobile strategy in place for 2013? New research shows smartphone sales up 47%, reminding every brand how the web's gone mobile and apps have replaced many sites. We've more on why mobile ad recall beats TV, and how Google is using Free Zone to capture the 'next billion' internet users.
Highlights this month:
- Digital marketing tips on content marketing and SEO
- China: Market data and growth
- Android on 3 in 4 mobiles
- Instagram and Pinterest boost designs to attract advertisers
- Brands experiment with advertising on Windows 8
- Google launches voice-activated mobile search
- Regulators fine Google for privacy breach
And if you're planning 2013 digital and mobile strategies and need support, mail us back - with our journalists writing hundreds of articles each month, and online classrooms with hundreds more resources, help and links may be closer to hand than you think.
Big news in search and social reflect shifting ad budgets, with Facebook and Google moving focus to mobile in the run up to 2013. Highlights include:
- Search: Paid-for ads take over half all online adspend in the UK - one of the only markets Google declares its revenues, and a reliable indicator for others.
- Social: As Facebook tweaks its algorithm, we have tips for you about maximising the reach of your content.
- Mobile: Christmas looks set to step-change mobile web use, with mini-tablets like pre-ordered as gifts, making tablet-friendly site design important in technically advanced markets in 2013.
- Video: This month's virals include Bodyform's spoof CEO response to a Facebook posting - an excellent case study with content created in a few days and over 3 million views within a week.
We've grouped the news around the themes in your training. Full stories on click-through, and more resources in your online classroom (email us back if you need your passwords).
As many brands focus on their 2013 budgets, the shifting landscape means digital strategies need to flex too. Highlights from the last month include:
- Social: Twitter boosted page design and ad targeting but restricted APIs
- Mobile: iPhone 5's launch fuels the smartphone war for appstore control
- Regulations: Brands are provoking regulators by cheating social with paid-reviews
- Ecommerce: Grocery sales are growing fast, but miss tricks with optimisation
- Video: Our monthly collection of virals and audience stats
To support your training, each section below relates to a digital training module, with full stories on click through.
Digital marketing regulations tightened up in August, with the Advertising Standards Authority (Australia) ruling fan comments are ads, triggering every other ASA to consider their stance. Privacy is front of mind after Google's record fine for misrepresenting their use of Safari users' data, and Facebook's error in using personal photos in ads, plus Microsoft's strange decision of setting 'Do Not Track' to become the default in their latest version of IE (bad news for advertisers).
Also this month:
- Mobile: Paypal tests McDonalds mobile payments
- Social: Pinterest opens registration, the top 20 Twitter countries, and a review of the first 'social Olympics'
- Video: YouTube is removed from Apple devices
- Search: How search keyphrases are getting longer and SEO tips from Google on 5 biggest mistakes in SEO
To support your training, each section below relates to a digital training module, with full details on click through.
This briefing for Academy Members gives a snapshot of market growth across Latin America. In digital training programmes we explain how to read the landscape, identify priority digital channels and apply 'tipping point' thinking...
It all starts with understanding the channel mix of your consumers and reading the landscape correctly.
Mobile battles intensify as developed markets look forward to Google's $250 USD, and Apple gears up for a revamped iPhone and iPad Mini (video below).
For Paid media, this month's data shows web ad spend growth around the world and mobile ad revenues from Facebook and Twitter - plus the best times to post brand messages in social.
Each section below relates to a module in your digital training, and full stories are at the end of the click.
Successful social conversation strategies demand the right consumer insights and effective reading of the social landscape.
To keep you on top of how Facebook is changing, this special report lists key developments, research and case studies from the last year - full stories and data on click-through.
This month's round-up of digital news covers key developments at Facebook, Google, Buddy Media and Apple, along with the latest in social, advertising and digital integration all structured in the same sections as your digital training programme.
Full stories and videos on click-through, and our strategists can guide you on what this means for your brand and your business plan.
Your data charts this month include top Apps, costs of a Facebook Sponsored Story, the (ridiculously complicated) social media landscape, and as always full stories and videos are on click-through, along with the special report on India.
Digital marketing new approaches:
- Measuring brand campaigns? Google unveiled new TV-style metrics
- Needing new ad platforms? Tumblr finally opens up
- Approaches for tackling Pinterest? Amazon and eBay's social shopping adds pins
Data downloads:
- Asia overtaking the west for online video
- China's internet growth -
Top Facebook brands in the UK
- And which days of the week work best on social.
Instagram's $1bn price tag made sense for Facebook to 'buy' innovation, by blocking Twitter, Google, Apple and MSN. In cloud storage Google is 'building' innovation, with a new offering undercutting Dropbox, SkyDrive and iCloud. Build or buy? Our money is on Dropbox getting bought, as late entrants realise 'buy' will be the only option left.
Future gazing? A great video of Google's 'goggles' - the planned augmented reality glasses straight from a sci-fi movie.
Pinterest is getting our attention since revealing impressive audience stats for engagement. The social media pinboard for pictures and videos has found smart ways to help brands market themselves and looks like one to watch - once the basics are in place with the bigger wins from Facebook and YouTube.
At Facebook the first 8 million 'timelines' are now running, giving marketers new approaches to follow. Twitter unlocked 2 years of its archive - potentially an incredible resource for market research - but only if brands have the right social media listening strategy to wade through the deafening background noise.