Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!
Delivery of products is something that is often a bit of an afterthought for marketers, but new research shows that convenient and efficient delivery options are actually a highly influential part of the buying process for consumers.
With the right tools and knowledge, and following these tips, brands can make sure that their engagement with customers via carefully created email campaigns remains on track.
Passengers at 54 London Tube stations were enabling Transport for London (TfL) to get a better understanding of how and where to engage with them, thanks to a month-long data gathering trial that launched late November.
London station passengers make 31m journeys each day – effectively, a vast advertising audience in motion. But detailed insight on when to market to them once they are on the platform – ie. beyond the entrance collection of aggregated and de-personalised data via Oyster and Contactless payments – has been locked in inefficient and costly paper surveys of the past.
By picking up WiFi connection requests from passengers’ mobile devices as they pass through stations, TfL says it will learn how people move through and change services and where bottlenecks occur, enabling more efficient travels around the system.
The information can also result in increasing revenue from companies who advertise on poster sites or rent retail units – revenue to reinvest into improving and upgrading services across London.
Sue Daley, head of Big Data, Cloud & Mobile at techUK, said: “TfL is unlocking the power of data to gain insights into how passengers are using the network and drive its transformation into a smart transport system.
“The availability of big data analytics tools and technologies means that organisations, of all sizes and sectors, are increasingly able to make data driven decisions that can make a real difference to customers’ lives. In this case, it will mean more accurate passenger insights and easier journeys for customers.”
When a device is WiFi-enabled, it searches for a WiFi network by sending out a unique identifier to nearby routers – known as a Media Access Control (MAC) address. Posters at stations are informing people about the trial and TfL says all data will be automatically de-personalised so that individuals cannot be identified, with no data being made available to third parties and no browsing data collected. However, passengers can opt out by turning off their WiFi while passing through stations.
Shashi Verma, chief technology officer at Transport for London, said: “This short trial will help us understand whether WiFi connection data could help us plan and operate our transport network more effectively for customers. Historically, if we wanted to know how people travelled we would have to rely on paper surveys and manual counting, which is expensive, time consuming and limited in detail and reliability. We hope the results of this trial will enable us to provide customers with even better information for journey planning and avoiding congestion.”
TfL’s collection of ‘pseudonimised’ Wi-Fi data has been discussed with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office and follows its published guidelines.
TfL carried out customer research to test the proposal through a qualitative research exercise and overall feedback from focus groups was positive. Earlier this year, TfL also carried out a two-day modelling trial to understand whether this method of data collection was possible.
Having spent their best years connected to the internet, most baby boomers are big consumers of digital media to entertain and inform them and many are now interested in smart homes. So, if you want to do business with boomers, you had better take a fresh view about what value you provide and how you engage with them.
In Spain, brand messages shared by employees, rather than the company itself, are 24 times more likely to be re-shared. To put this into perspective, the global average is eight times more engagement. The Spanish demand personalised interaction.
Marketing teams’ attempts to engage with their company’s customer experience often fail and set the business back further – learn why and how they should think differently to succeed.
Buster, Monty and the Man on the Moon all created buzz for UK retailer John Lewis, with researchers discovering which ad campaign was the nation’s festive favourite.
First published by the GMA in November, 2013, here’s a reminder of advice by author Susanne Currid – social media tips on using the channel to promote a venue/business.
Plan ahead. Think about what video communications you will need over a 6-12 month period. Don’t plan your video budget based on what you think you need to spend, but on the impact it will have on your marketing and business.
It’s the age of the customer and brand advocacy is on the rise via social platforms – so what’s on the horizon for social marketing?