The total amount isn’t divided over the entire population of the United States, but by about 86 percent who identify themselves as celebrating the day, according to the NRF. That breaks down to an average of $196 per person. Though those in the age bracket of 35 to 44 spend even more, averaging $248.

What is most significant for those in marketing is that 81% of customers seek guidance for gifts from the seller. For sellers, that means Mother’s Day offers an opportunity to direct millions of people to that perfect gift for mom.

Marketing Curation for Mother’s Day

An Ometria blog on Mother’s Day marketing referenced the way brands can capitalize on the desire for inspiration with specially “created gift guides for the occasion, bringing together a carefully curated selection of the perfect gifts.” As they point out, such guides promote both “product bundling and cross-selling” in much the same way that fashion is promoted online with a ‘shop the look.’”

Of course, the more personalized the recommendations, the more likely they are to resonate with the customers. Brands that already have data on buying preferences have something more to build on than those that only have general data on what has proven popular in the past.

But even those brands that are curating in a general way can direct customers toward fine-tuning categories for the gifts. For example, on Macy’s Mother’s Day Gifts & Gift Ideas shoppers are informed that there are 1123 items to choose from, an amount many would find overwhelming to filter through.

Specializing Gifts

To help them winnow down the options, Macy’s offers various categories, like beauty & fragrances, handbags & accessories, jewelry & watches, apparel, and the tech shop, as well as price ranges. While such a wide range of categories makes sense in a department store or a seller like Amazon, retailers with more specialized merchandise offer fewer categories, as Nordstrom does. 

Etsy is even more specialized and highlights its own brand identity in offering personalized gifts for Mother’s Day. “One-of-a-kind finds for every kind of Mom” is what it offers.

The appeal of “one-of-a-kind” marketing is another of the major trends identified by NRF. It found that “the most important factor” for 44 percent of consumers was finding “something unique” for the occasion. It also relates to what Ometria advises those marketers who want to win customers on Mother’s Day: “emotive language that resonates with the recipient and adds a personal touch.”

Of course, tasteful accessories are an evergreen choice, so visiting a local jewelry shop to find a special piece is always a good backup option.

Another thing Etsy has going for it is jewelry. Jewelry makes up a fair share of its offerings and is the category choice for 35 percent of Mother’s Day shoppers. Spending on jewelry is expected to add up to $5.2 billion. This is an amount that the NRF says “represents 31 percent of the expected increase over last year” when Mother’s Day spending amounted to $23.1 billion in total.

There are literally billions of opportunities for marketing around mom this year. People who are primed to buy and who want to be shown ideas are the most receptive to marketing messages.

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The report, entitled Consumers & Data Privacy Perceptions was just released on August 21. It reveals that digital natives found among Millennials, and even more specifically Gen Z, are generally less concerned about maintaining data privacy and quicker to adopt technology that may compromise it. But even older people are sometimes willing to trade in privacy for convenience.

Privacy concerns across generations

Except for the nine percent who say they have no concern at all, younger generations (Gen Z and Millennials)  are not oblivious to privacy concerns, that are identified by about half of the ones surveyed.

The percentage rises to 63 among those who fall into Generation X, though, and to 73 for Baby Boomers. In that last category, only two percent say they have no concern at all, as do six percent of Gen X.

What counts as personal information for consumers

The results for this category are not broken down by percentages for different age groups but by overall rankings. The categories appear in this order: 1. Home address 2. Phone number 3. Birth date 4. Location data 5. Email 6. Name 7. Messages sent via messaging apps 8. Work address 9. Online or mobile browsing habits 10. None of the above

Though it only ranked fourth, location data was one topic the report paid greater attention to, explaining, “we wanted to better understand what exactly causes anxiety when it comes to location.”  Apparently understanding on location data is not the same priority among consumers, though, as only a third indicated they understood how it is used.

The top concerns for location data were tied at 63 percent each: home address being obtained and the possibility of identity theft or fraud. Close behind was “Not knowing how my location information is being used,” a concern for 56 percent. The solution to both concerns would be a comprehensive identity theft protection service, which would alert the users if their data has been compromised.

What consumers do to try to protect their privacy

Some consumers have started thinking about what they are signing off on in their privacy agreements and taking steps to protect their data. In their responses around half have taken some form of action in the past year. The most popular measures include: adjusted location sharing or privacy settings on my mobile phone, adjusted privacy settings on social media, and paid close attention to privacy agreements.

Interestingly, though, only 29 percent said they were using ad blocking software.That indicates that being bombarded by marketing is not their top concern. That fits with the reports’ other findings that people are generally OK with their information being used for marketing.

Consumers on data used for marketing

The majority of consumers do not object to their location data being used for marketing. Thirty-four percent of respondents said they are comfortable sharing location data for such ends, and another 27 percent said they are indifferent. That leaves less than half — 40 percent — who find it less than acceptable. That leaves 60 percent of consumers as open to location data being used for targeted marketing, which is a pretty good basis for marketers.

That’s pretty close to the 58 percent who say they understand their data is used to personalize experiences and products.  But the percentage jumps all the way up to 82 percent when it includes those that “are either open or neutral in their opinion about sharing data with companies if the benefits are clear.”

The ramifications for personalized marketing campaigns

Consumers do indicate a  preference for personalized content on Google, Amazon, in emails, and on Facebook. However, their responses to the question on if personalization enhances their digital experience indicates there is a great deal of room for improvement: only 39 percent  agreed, while another 37 percent were  indifferent. About a quarter did not report seeing a benefit from personalization.

What the survey responses indicate is that marketers who want to use consumer data for more targeted messaging do have an audience that would find it acceptable that can be further expanded if the personalizations comes across as beneficial to the consumers.

If that is in place, consumers will not consider their loss of data privacy a sacrifice but a fair exchange for the benefit of personalized marketing. That is the foundation marketers who want to capitalize on the constant flow of consumer data, including location data, that comes through devices today, should establish with their customers.

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Convenience, personalization and transparency are the qualities that make online shopping so appealing to customers. Such attributes were not to be found in thrift shops which were favored only by those willing to invest the time in searching through aisles and piles of merchandise in search of something that looked good and fit. But thanks to digitalization, the thrift shop has been reimagined to appeal to the new generation that shops online and expresses concern for the environment. 

Ten years ago, thredUp brought in the capabilities of big data, AI, and mobile technology to transform the thrift shop experience from hunting through stores of cast-offs to a platform that brings up just what you’re looking for with the offer of free shipping. Adapting the model customers have come to expect from shopping on Amazon, algorithms work to deliver tailored recommendations while the shopper can feel virtuous about saving money and the planet. 

How it gets the clothes 

Unlike most other online sellers that manufacture their own goods or purchase from wholesalers, thredUp has to get its product from individuals. To that end, it offers kits to receive the items people would normally donate to a thrift shop with the option of payment or donations for charity. 

While thrift shop donations typically leave it up to the individual to assign values for the tax deduction, thredUp is very clear on the scale it applies to assess how much it will pay for the clothes it accepts for sale. It does warn them that they typically only accept 40 percent of the items sent and can either charge for shipping back unwanted items or pass them on for charity.  

Even if they don’t make a great deal of money on clearing out their closets, though, those who do send their clothes off can feel good about recycling rather than wasting. They also can feel good about getting their wardrobes more streamlined and organized as per the gospel of Marie Kondo. 

Taking the thrift out of the shop with digitization 

In its 2019 Resale Report, thredUp described how it is perfectly positioned to attract “first-time thrifters.” In fact, “the younger generations are leading this charge, with millennials and Gen Z adopting secondhand 2.5x faster than other age groups.” 

It projects continued growth in resale and has the numbers to back it up. In 2018 nearly two thirds off women surveyed said they had bought or would be willing to buy secondhand products as compared to just over half in 2017 and 45 percent in 2016. 

Under the heading “The Innovation & Technology That Created a Resale Revolution,” it lists the four components involved in the business:

1.   Unlocking an endless supply chain

Innovations like the thredUP Clean Out Kit make it easy to sell from home, attracting millions to participate in resale for the first time. 

2.    Creating value with data science

Sophisticated algorithms assign resale value at scale. thredUP uses millions of historical data points to instantly determine what something is worth.

3.    Massive volume & scale with automation

Resellers must be efficient when photographing, listing, and storing infinite SKUs. thredUP automates processing of up to 100K one-of-a-kind items a day.

4.    Technology to shop from anywhere

Mobile apps and personalization have made buying used clothes as easy as buying new. Convenience and trust has attracted a new generation of secondhand shoppers. 

How it achieves personalization 

Like any other online seller, thredUp is rather relentless in its messaging and tries to entice a purchase through discounts and other special offers once it obtains your email address. Since putting in my email, I receive daily messages, including one intended to entice me into the personalized boxes. 

You could also shop by discount, ranging from 20 to 50 percent off. It also lets you select the brands you favor. 

What’s interesting, though, is that it limits you to only one preferred style. I would have preferred having multiple options here, too, and don’t know why the system didn’t allow that. Certainly, we have different wardrobe needs for different moods, and one who is professional during the week may want to be glam or bohemian on the weekend.

To get further insight into personal style, additional option questions on preferences include the following three items: 

Anything we should avoid?

Tell us about your lifestyle and what you’re looking for.

Feel free to share a Pinterest board. 

Actually, some regular online retailers could take a lesson from such questions in narrowing down search results more effectively. Still, it is possible that the predictions of what you would like could turn out wrong, which is why the easy return policies that have become standard for online retailers are in place here, as well (with the exception of the Rescues). 

Taking a page from the Amazon book that offers “try before you buy” for Prime Wardrobe, the boxes deliver a selection of clothing in your preferred size and style with free shipping and free return for a $10 deposit. To help the accuracy of the selections offered, it asks for some optional personal details, including age, height, and weight. 

Making thrifty trendy 

“With cutting-edge technology and fancy logistics, we’re shattering stigmas and converting skeptics,” declares thredUP on its About Us page. 

In its first incarnation in 2009, it was limited to a “men’s shirt swapping company,” a solution that James Reinhart, the Co-Founder and CEO of the company, thought of for his own under-utilized wardrobe. It has since expanded into buying and selling clothes for women and children, boasting over 35K brands — from Gap to Gucci — at up to 90 percent off retail prices. 

It positions its own brand as offering the best option for shopping “with the smallest impact on the planet, your time, and your wallet.” It offers a paradigm shift that is mean to redirect “a new generation of shoppers to think secondhand first.”

The post How a Used Clothing Shop Went Online to Appeal to Gen Z & Millennials appeared first on DMNews.

There are those that are content to do everything through a tech platform and avoid all direct human contact. These are the types of people who avoid going into banks and will always make a beeline for the ATM to get cash or take care of any other kinds of transactions they can’t do online. This is standard for behavior for your digital native millennials or your extreme introverts. 

On the opposite extreme you have the kind of customer who wants to speak to a real live person, preferably in-person. This is the type of person who will travel into the bank and wait to speak to a teller just to check her bank balance. She likely owns a computer and may even have a smartphone, but neither one is used for actual transactions. Marc Prensky identified that group in 2001 as “ digital immigrants.”    

The third group, between the two extremes, is commonly found in the in-between generation known as X. The people in that group have grown up using the phone to make calls but have adapted to using machines and the internet for transactions. Even if they are used to having human cashiers, for example, they will use self-checkout options to save time. 

I identify with the third group. I’ve learned to love online shopping for its convenience and transparency. But there are times when there is a problem with an online order, and I seek out a person to call because the canned chatbot responses don’t solve my problems. 

As we saw in Convenience Drives Consumers’ Tech Demands, customers don’t care about your shiny new tech, only about what improves their experience with a brand.  That’s the thing to remember when setting up communication channels: tech solutions are not necessarily going to make your customers happier, and they can have the opposite effect. 

That was the subject of a recent survey of over 2,000 U.S. consumers commissioned by Invoca. 

Among its findings was that over half of customers (52 percent) report feeling frustrated with companies that offer “no option for a human interaction” and close to a fifth (18 percent) go so far as to express anger about it. That indicates a setup that relies exclusively on automated communication incurs more negative than positive feeling, as only 16 percent report that they enjoy the experience. 

It’s not a big surprise that Invoca finds variations between age groups with respect to trust in AI. Generally, the younger they are, the more they trust. “AI generated advice (80 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds vs. 62 percent ages 35 plus) — especially when it comes to financial services and healthcare, with 22 percent (each) of 18 to 34-year-olds trusting AI-generated advice for healthcare and finance compared to 10 percent (each) of 65-plus year olds.” 

That’s the  contrast between digital natives and digital immigrants at work. But if you slice things another way, the report also found different preferences between the genders. Women were more inclined to get their information over the phone than men were in all categories. 

While age group and gender are very broad marketing segments, they do serve as a starting point for opening channels that are amenable to one’s target market.  Accordingly, those who are marketing healthcare or financial services would be smart to set up AI for communication intended for customers in their twenties. 

But even when you have a young target market, it still pays to have some human contact available for the significant minority that prefers that form of communication. It becomes even more important when dealing with your Gen X and senior citizens. And for any of the categories aimed at women, removing phone contacts is not the way to go to win their loyalty and influence further purchases. 

As Julia Stead, VP of Marketing, Invoca, observes, “Every company needs to be aware of its customers’ preferences and prioritize them in their marketing strategy. While AI and automation can help with simple interactions or requests, the option to connect with a human should always be on the table for consumers, especially in industries like healthcare and financial services.” 

Brands that offer no phone numbers in the hopes of forcing people to only communicate via automated channels alienate customers, which amounts to incalculable sums of lost revenue. While it’s true that you can’t be all things to all people, brands can at least allow for people to reach them via email, chat, or phone, according to the customer’s preference.

The post Too Much AI? appeared first on DMNews.

For those customers who can afford it, the appeal of luxury purchases is not just a matter of having something that is made specifically for them. Now AR can help them visualize that item, and how it truly reflects the desires at the heart of their lives.

We’ve become familiar with practical use of AR for brands like IKEA, allowing shoppers to visualize furniture in their rooms. Luxury brand are also seeing the possibilities in the technology. For example, Gucci recently released an app that allows people to “try on” a pair of shoes via AR. You can see it in action in this video:

Just as AR can show you virtual shoes on your feet, it can show you a virtual watch on your wrist — even if the watch has yet to be made. That is the approach of Alexandre Meerson, the founder and owner of the luxury watch brand.

Meerson explained to me that no one really needs a watch today, so the selling point for it is not in its function so much as its style. His clients appreciate the fact that if they limit themselves to what is ready-made, they are also limiting themselves to “average quality.”

People buy these watches that are handcrafted in Switzerland by 88 craftsmen to obtain something that really reflects what they are about, and that is worth passing on to the next generation. Meerson calls them “mechanical sculptures.”

He added that “even young clients love the idea of an individual watch that no one else has and that really reflects their personality.” So figuring out what really makes them tick (no pun intended) is at the center of the creative process.

The fully customized watches are not the result of individuals stipulating which color combinations and options to use, but of what Meerson is able to infer about them from conversations. After they place an order, he speaks to them about what brings them happiness in their lives. Elements associated with those experiences and settings are worked into a watch design intended to surprise and delight them.

It must be worth the wait, as the watches take three to 36 weeks to complete. But customers don’t have to wait in suspense for that long to see what the watch actually would look in 3D, thanks to AR. See the video of how the watch design emerges from the screen:

Alexandre Meerson Augmented Reality from Alexandre Meerson on Vimeo.

Meerson uses the tech to allow clients to see the design in 3D. He also finds it useful for carrying a kind of virtual catalog, without having to worry about security or customs, when he travels from his UK base to Paris, New York, Wyoming, Tokyo, and other locations, where he holds special events, and meets with clients or potential clients. That’s the way he adds a layer personal connection to a brand that was, in his words, “born in the internet.”

Meerson’s revolutionary idea in launching his luxury brand was to base it in eCommerce, but also retain the feeling of a French maison in which clients are treated like friends by the designer who maintains a close relationship with them. The approach was radical in the conservative world of handcrafted Swiss watches.

Meerson believed that the combination of online presence, social media, and in-person events, would work — and it has for his brand. His line of custom-designed watches marry old-world craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology in a harmonious relationship that centers on delivering customer satisfaction; anticipated through AR.

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An eCommerce-focused software company called Elastic Path set out to find the answer. As a result of surveying 1,015 consumers and 300 B2C marketing professionals, they found that there is a disconnect between what customers would like and what the pros think they want.

“The Sci-Fi Shopper: How to Future-Proof Your Brand for the New Consumer” is the title of the ebook they published on the subject. Darin Archer, Elastic Path’s Chief Strategy Officer, spoke to me about the difference between assumptions about the appeal of technology and how it actually can be useful in building better relationships between brands and consumers.

Their initial premise was that the “Jetsons” style tech that can be done today is what consumers want. But as it turns out, consumers don’t care about the wow factor of experiencing “sci-fi” style technology. What they really care most about is convenience.

The advanced tech that they found attractive was not “the super flashy,” Archer said, but “what makes my life easier.” As the report tells marketers, today’s consumer “expects streamlined, easy and frictionless” purchase processes. The brands that will win customers are the ones that will deliver it to them.

That means that brands should look into anything that can make it easier for customers to finalize the purchase. That’s where voice activation can be helpful. But as for the tricks of AR and VR, customers, they’re only of interest if they are perceived to be useful. Archer observed that they found that 56 percent of shoppers said VR was over-hyped, but only 38 percent said that of AR.

He suggested that this could be due to the fact that at present there are more practical use cases for AR than for VR. He offered examples like showing what a kitchen appliance would actually look like, in its place in your kitchen, or how a rug not just fills your living room but how it looks under your furniture.

Brands and customers not on the same page

What’s really interesting is how the brands are so far off in identifying the primary concerns of their customers. For example, the top item on a customer’s wishlist (67 percent) is checkout-less payment options.

Only 18 percent of brand representatives identified that as what their customers would like to have. They failed to perceive that customers really wish “to solve pain points like long lines,” Archer pointed out. 

The second technological convenience customers would like is smart devices. More than half (58 percent) identified that, but only a quarter of brand representatives understood that to be desirable for customers. There was a similar gap for voice-enabled commerce, which 57 percent of customers said they wanted, and only 23 percent of brand representatives anticipated that.

Voice is gaining a lot of traction among consumers. Archer explained that, depending on who is offering the data, you’d find that around a third currently use an Alexa or Google Home device. That doesn’t translate into daily use for all, as only a fifth of those with the devices use it regularly. But 25 percent of those do report using it several times a week, and he anticipates that will break into the 50 percent range once they get through the learning curve.

Customers identified the following four categories as the ones they would most like to order through a voice interface:

? Groceries — 69 percent

? Health and beauty products — 67 percent

? Books, movies, and music — 59 percent

? Clothing and accessories — 43 percent

With the rise of voice, he explained, Amazon has ceded its promotion of Dash buttons in favor of Alexa. Additional high tech solutions are being implemented by some manufacturers that want to set up a direct-to-consumer relationship to stimulate sales.

To illustrate the possibilities, he referred to the pet products site Chewy.com. It can work off sensors that could detect when a supply is running low and signal that it’s time to reorder. Even without such sensors, it offers convenience in promoting its Autoship option, which operates similarly to Amazon’s Subscribe & Save.

Even though these programs are obviously designed to increase sales, consumers do opt in because they see the value proposition in it for them, not just for the percentage discounts but for the convenience of having new orders go automatically without their having to lift a finger to replenish necessities. This is the same concept that underlies the appeal of advanced tech to consumers. It’s not just a matter of dazzling them with special effects but of delivering a solution that removes their pain points.

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Deloitte’s 2019 back-to-school survey anticipates very strong sales at the end of this summer. They anticipate back to school spending to hit $27.8B, or $519 per student, up slightly from $510 in 2018. The lion’s share of the total — $15 billion — is allocated to clothing and accessories. School supplies are second at $6.1 billion. The remaining amount is split fairly closely between the categories of computers and electronic gadgets. 

Over half of those purchases occur in-store, the shopping venue of choice for 56 percent of those surveyed. Online shopping is still quite a way behind at percent though that is up from what it has been in the past. 

Whether they’re shopping in person or on their devices, though, most are not waiting for the approach of Labor Day. In fact, Deloitte forecasts that 62 percent of the purchases are made by early August, which means that marketers aiming for that $17.3B need to get started early. 

That is consistent with what Jose Sánchez, Head of Creative Studio, Smartly.io says in his tips for marketers who want to capitalize on this extremely lucrative market in an interview with DMN. He observed that half of shoppers have already completed their back to school purchases by August. 

Smart marketers plan ahead to be sure they have time to work through and test their targeted marketing campaigns that should run from July. That’s the way to avoid  problems arising from “last minute issues,” he said. 

He also recommends thinking through various possible iterations and different possibilities. That allows marketers to test out different formats, lengths, and images in their videos to optimize results. 

Planning video campaigns for back to school

Even when all agree on video ads as the way to go, they have a number of ways to approach them. Video ads don’t have to be highly polished showcases of products but can now include user-generated content, gifs, and even slideshow. Which format you choose depends on context, which includes not just the channel and expectations of the audience but the ads that complement the videos.

Sánchez explained that in a channel like Facebook, consumers have come to expect user-generated content, and a video that corresponds to that likely will do better there than a highly produced one. This typically means short videos, and eight-second ones have been found to perform well, though he said he would not rule out going to 10 seconds if that is what fits the messaging.

It’s important to understand what kind of story the customer wants. “When people are ready to buy for a reason like back to school,” he said, they are inclined to “consume creative that tell them clearly what you have to offer.” For people in that category,  the “customer journey will be shorter,” and they don’t need “a long story.”

But it’s not just a matter of the video alone. You have to think of your “combination of static and video,” he said. “Video will make static perform better because it helps consumers get through their journey” toward purchase.

He also pointed out that there are customers who are not as ready to buy who would require a somewhat extended journey and who may be drawn in by engaging with a somewhat longer video: “At the end of the day it’s a unique journey for each customer. You’re going to find that — especially with a new audience — you need to build the journey for them.”

Another reason to go for somewhat longer videos is when dealing with building an immersive experience, which is effective for people drawn to a brand out of their love for it rather than those who are looking for the lowest prices. “People like to stick longer with what they love,” Sánchez said, and pointed to the phenomenon of binge-watching entire seasons of a program in a day or two as evidence of that habit.

One more pointer he had about planning your video length is to work with the format as the frame. In other words, if you’re aiming for eight seconds, you have to plan a story that fits that rather than attempting to condense what needs 40 seconds into just a fifth of the time. He phrases it as: “Make the format your friend.”

No matter what the length, though, the opening is absolutely crucial, as even in an eight second spot, the first three seconds are what has to grab the viewers’ attention. “You need to engage very quickly and get your message out as fast as possible because people have choices and may not decide to watch through,” he explained. 

So marketers targeting shoppers on the hunt for bargains have to announce their discounts right away. That works for over half of shoppers. According to the Deloitte report, back to school shoppers are very much driven by price. Over half (57 percent) cite “competitive prices” as their reason for a purchase and 69 percent say they respond to sales or discounts. 

As for the remaining 31 to 43 percent, the trick for marketers is identifying what drives them to purchase and conveying that in their videos. This is why marketers have to truly understand the motivations of their customers to craft creatives that will prove effective for their particular journeys.

In some cases, Sánchez said, it takes “some tweaks and iterations to fine-tune the messaging.” That doesn’t mean that the campaign that is not performing as expected needs to be scrapped altogether. For example he referred to one client who kept the same basic video but only changed the opening scenes, which resulted in a lot more views and engagement. 

“I would tell advertisers if you feel that something isn’t working, don’t give up,” he added. “Try small changes, which can sometimes bring you big wins.”  

The post Back to School Forecast appeared first on DMNews.

To be sure that their video strategy would work to attract their target market for Belgian and Dutch residents who were interested in vacations, they partnered with Smartly.io, an automated creative ad platform they had worked with before. They were aiming for the early booking customer who plans summer vacations from the end of December through January. 

I spoke with Nicolas Elshout, BENE lead programmatic media buying at TUI Belgium and Jose Sánchez, Head of Creative Studio at Smartly.io, about how the campaign required rapid testing and adjustment to the videos sent out to the social channels over six weeks. The campaign was called, “For you,” Elshout explained. The idea was to say they could offer exactly the type of vacation each person wants. 

The individuals targeted by the campaign were selected based on Facebook data that identified them as being in the planning stage of a vacation, meaning they had started to look but had not yet decided on what they would book. The company started with two assumptions about video that they wanted to test: 

1. Shorter is better, which made them assume six second videos would perform better than 10 second ones.
2. Showing distinct travel personas would engage audiences better than showing footage of activities in beautiful destinations. 

Here’s the video about their plans: 

The first two weeks of the campaign were dedicated to that testing stage, to narrow down the permutations to the best performing ones to run during the remaining four weeks. The primary metric applied  was traffic to their site, so that they weren’t just counting clicks but customer engagement on the site. 

Testing involved three steps: 

1.  Smartly.io’s Creative Studio created video templates for each video variant, both six and 10 second lengths with different opening scenes, focusing on landscapes or personas.  
2. Smartly.io automatically matched these video templates with TUI’s original video assets, which generated over 100 versions of the video ad to test.
3. Over two weeks, TUI A/B tested the results of the different videos to identify which worked best to run that one for the rest of the campaign. 

Two weeks in, they had a double surprise.They found that real life customers didn’t behave the way they expected. In fact, the 10 second videos performed better, and opening the video scenes to show off the destinations rather than focusing on personas had better results 

Sánchez suggested that a possible reason why longer videos performed better “could be related to studies that show part of holidays enjoy the most is planning them.” That could be why viewers were more drawn in by the shots that focused on the destination rather than the views that centered on a persona. 

The ability to test and change the ad campaign on the fly is what assured its effectiveness. Putting in the winning video for the campaign led to a 72 percent lower cost-per-initiate checkout and a 36 percent lower cost-per-purchase. 

With such results, Elshout said that this modular approach will be their “new normal.” They’re already planning on applying the same strategy to their next campaign, which is going to be “more granular,” so they can adjust it to optimize results while the campaign is running. 

With the benefit of agility, they “can launch and test and know what to change” and then implement it without any delay, Sánchez observed. The way forward for marketing, he declared,  is “letting audiences decide what is their preferred way of communication with them,”.

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Walker Sands looked at the latest trends in its The Future of B2B Content 2019 report. And true to its own discovery about adapting video to marketing, it put out the one below. During our phone interview, Tim Morral, Vice President, Editorial Content at Walker Sands Communications, assured me it had been quite effective. He noted about videos in general, “you have to hook them in the first five second.”

The Future of B2B Content from Walker Sands on Vimeo.

I asked Morral if there were any surprises for him in the report. He said there were a few. One of them is the focus on business results. “All content is geared toward revenue results.” Though brand awareness is still part of content strategy, the survey shows that almost a third of respondents expect content to boost sales or gain customers.

In this new context, short form is gaining more importance, which Morral counts as another surprising find. He said “short form content is in line with the survey result, showing 69 percent prefer video.” He believes social video will become a major component of B2B marketing and agrees with the take presented here: Why B2B Marketers Should Embrace Social Video.

“I don’t think that marketers are walking away from long form content,” he added, only they are now branching more into these new ways of gaining attention as they become aware that they “need all channels covered,” and that they “need an integrated approach [with their] content ecosystem.”  

The reason he said he first found this surprising is because he would not have expected “short form content to convert customers.” But he then “realized that short form content like social and video is needed to drive traffic to the long form content that converts.”

His third surprise was the increasing number of B2B organization that use external partners. That percentage jumped from 55 percent to 95 percent, “a huge difference,” he noted.

He offered a couple of reasons for that shift. “I think it really underscores the idea that B2B is catching on to the need for sophistication and integration of content. In-house teams may not be equipped to excel in a really diverse range of content types, or have the ability to quickly produce really high quality.”

He explained that the external partner could “be better equipped to consider how a whitepaper may fit and then execute a strategy to multiply its impact, possibly with a video on social, or a blog, etc. So it’s not just about creating quality content but doing it in a way that allows you to amplify the impact.”

“There are all kinds of ways to get the word out and connect with audiences,” he said. The key is to offer what will pique their interest to learn more about your company. That’s not just a question of the “snackable” content form, whether it’s a blog post of short video, but of where they’re posted.”

Businesses are not limited to their own site but can post to social channels and can now not just post blogs but even video to LinkedIn. They can even reach out via a “preferred media channel outlet.” No matter what the medium, it’s important to craft “memorable content,” Morral stated.

I asked him how memorable content is achieved. “It can’t be fluff,” he said. Beyond that, though,  it’s a matter of delivering what “specifically appeals to your niche audience.” So it all comes down to “quality and relevancy.”

The question of relevancy determines whether long or short form content is the appropriate choice. He explained, “short form can appeal to those at the top of funnel who are not willing to invest that much time in content.” It can then push them further down the funnel where they are ready for longer form content. 

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You may have come across the comic showing the interviewer saying “Take a seat” to a the man entering. In the place of the chair is a collection of chair parts. That’s because it’s identified as an interview for IKEA, the brand associated with furniture that comes in pieces to be put together by the customer.

Until now that’s rather the way it’s been for the online IKEA shopper, as well. They had to put the pieces together themselves. The problem was not that IKEA didn’t have an app; it’s that it had three separate ones that do not integrate and allow the customer to do everything on a mobile device. .

The catalog app allows you to view hundreds of pages of merchandise on your phone, but not to place an order, which can only be done on the IKEA site. The virtual reality app called “Place” allows you to visualize its products in your home. While the tech, which was introduced in 2017, is both useful and cool, it doesn’t deliver with a buy option.

The IKEA store app does let you view items that you intend to buy but only to make up a shopping list for the items to be picked up in the store. You can also use it to scan the barcodes of the displays you find while navigating around the store, as you can see demonstrated in the video below.

It seemed that IKEA’s goal was to get their customers into their stores to finalize their purchases. But what if a trip to the store is not convenient, and you just want to order that bookcase or chair from your phone, just like you do at Amazon, Target, or a host of other retailers today?

By the end of the year, you should be able to do that in the United States. IKEA has finally fully embraced a mobile strategy. The app will be available in France (its third largest market) and the Netherlands before it rolls out to its other primary markets, including the United States and China later in 2019.

This app will enable customers to no just see how IKEA products will fit in their homes, based on the measurements they enter, but also to select according to their own style and current needs. They then can place the order within the app itself.

The app will also allow customers to see “product recommendations, ratings and reviews, along with easier searching and browsing,” according to a company representative.

While it is ramping up its app capabilities, IKEA is not giving up on bricks-and-mortar. It continues to open up new stores, though these are smaller scale ones. It has recently opened up these “slimmed-down” retail outlets, some of which specialize in a particular way, in London, Paris, Madrid, and Stockholm.

Those who still want to see and touch the products in person can still use their apps to obtain more information about it, including additional options for textures or colors. It adds on the function of offering to show the piece contextualized within a room or with complementary and relevant items.

Because of these new app capabilities, IKEA is considered taking some of those square feet that make up the huge stores to serve as warehouses to prepare online orders.

It makes sense to allow customers to shop the way they want. Most of us have grown used to letting our fingers do the walking (or should we say swiping?) and pick out what we want and get it delivered without having to travel out to a huge warehouse-like space and find it and haul it home.

But it’s equally important not to alienate the customer who still wants the in-store experience. IKEA is on the right track in finally integrating the pieces together, delivering a seamless customer experience rather than just parts that need assembly.

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