Digital Trends: 11.01.21

FACEBOOK REBRAND & THE METAVERSE

Mark Zuckerberg made headlines last week for rebranding his corporation fromFacebook to Meta. Most of the media interpreted this move as putting lipstick on a pig (or lipstick on “a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine”). Take your pick. Either way, lots ofbacklashand pot-shots–including the comically resizing of Zuck’s forehead on Twitter.
In case you’re interested in Zuckerberg's rationale, check out this this11-minute edited version of the announcement. I’m less interested in the brand name change (if you are, check outMark Ritson’s analysis) and more in the idea of anchoring the company – and it’s house of brands – in the concept of the metaverse. It’s a fuzzy topic that compounds different trends and technologies (as Ben Evans explains here) – but change is coming.

THE CREATOR ECONOMY

One element of the metaverse construct is the creator economy – individuals who monetize their digital content and audiences in new ways.Stripehas new research on the growth of this group (48% increase YoY). Shopify (like other social platforms) are trying to attract and cater to these creators through new services –including this cool new partnership with Spotifythat allows musicians to connect their storefronts to their artist pages.Here is new researchthat shares a more nuanced and detailed picture of the day-to-day lives of creators (net: it’s a grind). Whatever happens in this space, Kat Norton needs to continue her dominance as my favourite Microsoft Excel Influencer!

BRIEFS & BRAND PURPOSE

Lots published this week on the heels of the Better Briefs project that conducted research on the briefing process.Download their report here– which shows that 33% of every marketing budget is wasted on poor briefs and misdirected work. I ran a similar, smaller Canadian study a few years agowith similar results. If you’re interested in leveling-up your briefing game, check out thisexcellent Twitter advice thread from Will Humphreyormy free webinar on Modernizing Marketing Briefs.
Marketing Week has new pieces onbrand purpose– the Holy War that is ripping planning departments apart! As marketing researcher Peter Field states in his open letter, “for many people this is an emotional issue, not a rational one.”

APPLE & BRAND STRENGTH

Speaking of strong brands, Apple appears to be benefiting from its move to App Tracking Transparency (ATT), to thedetriment of other advertisers(< $10B loss). Unlike Facebook (sorry, Meta) Apple has incredibly strong and positive brand equity. What other brand couldsell a clothto clean your screen for $19, and sellout? Or make me spend $200 (and counting) on USB-C Adaptors?! Alas, I’m a sucker for Apple – and this spot thatfeatures a song made completely out of Apple soundshits all the right notes. For further Apple fanboy/fangirl content, check out this Twitter thread on how Steve Jobs turned the Apple Store into the most profitable retail space.

MEDIA & ADVERTISING TRENDS

Here are a few new media research / trend decks that are worth a skim:

• Facebook Advertising Trends. Highlight: Stories has increased 164% YoY and CPM 217% lower than average.

• Deloitte Digital Insights. Highlight: On average, people use 5 different social media platforms – most of which drive commerce.

• PublicisSapient Digital Life. Highlight: People are most interested in online services (vs. physical) for new product research, least for grocery purchases.

• Google Creative Advertising Tips. Recommendation: Address customers directly in ad copy ("hey you"), and use offers in headlines.

GOOD THINKING

Here are a few more clever things that I came across:

• Netflix: Is launching the Netflix Book Club, based on books that are being adapted into Netflix shows. Smart extension of IP (similar to their move into gaming and merch).

• OnlyFans: The Vienna tourism board protested against censorship by showing its centuries-old nude artworks via the adults-only social platform (Safe for Work).

• Bowling: My first job in Grade 9 was a Pin Chaser at Phil’s Rouge Hill Bowl. When I had to spring into action and sprint down a lane to untangle a mess of pins – I never felt more alive! So, I devoured this 28-minute video on how technology is transforming bowling, featuring Pete “Who do you think you are…I am” Weber.

Digital Trends: 10.15.21

BRAND PURPOSE
Ever since Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with Why’ Ted Talk went viral throughout agencies and marketing boardrooms, the concept of brand purpose has been a hot topic. Marketers initially embraced the concept like religion, but it has fallen somewhat out of favour lately. New research shows that it works (brand purpose, not religion). Richard Shotten (writer of the hugely useful book The Choice Factory) counters that the research is half-baked, and Samuel Scott takes the middle road to explain how companies should approach brand purpose - namely, committing to credible actions vs. advertising.

BRAND vs. PERFORMANCE
If you’re interested in another polarizing marketing debate, look no further than Brand vs. Performance Marketing. This false dichotomy of choosing between the two is ridiculous, but it does lead to some decent articles and presentations. I'm a fan of the content that Callum McCahon from Born Social shares on social-first brands – here is a great deck on ‘How will tomorrow’s brands be built’, and a video from the agency on a related topic. Some smart thinking in this presentation from the CMO at Trinny London on DTC marketing – marrying brand & performance, through the different stages of business maturity.

DIGITAL MATURITY
Speaking of maturity, some useful stuff on the topic of organizational digital marketing maturity from BCG. McKinsey also recently published something similar, focused on CPGs. Both have some useful ways to frame the different stages of maturity and the components that need to be in place for marketers. It’s interesting to see what's common between these – specifically, the importance of agile workflows and embedded experimentation. It’s not just the tools, it's how people can best organize to use them.

TESTING & EXPERIMENTATION
If you're exploring how to increase your digital maturity through experimentation, this is a super-interesting read from the Doordash Engineering Team blog (and yes, I know how uninteresting that sounds). They share the principles that they put in place to build a test & learn culture and scale experimentation. Here is another useful chart from @johncutlefish on how to choose from different potential experiments. And the last word on experimentation goes to Seth Godin from his blog post ‘Life by Anecdote’: “What evidence would you need to see to change your mind?”

SIRI, AIRPODS & AUDIO
For fellow AirPods users, you might be interested to know that Apple is turning the product into a health gadget. A leaked report shares that Apple is exploring ways it can be used to help with hearing loss, to check your temperature, and even correct your posture. It will also integrate closely with Siri – the voice-based service that The Verge recently criticized. I don’t know why more R&D focus isn’t on audio-based augmentation (vs. visual augmentation through AR glasses). While I see everyone walking around wearing AirPods, I just can’t see a world where everyone is walking around AR smart glasses on. To quote Larry David: "You know who wears sunglasses inside? Blind people and assholes."

DIGITAL ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The digital advertising industry is under a lot of heat for increasing costs, and decreasing targeting capabilities. Scott Galloway throws a haymaker at the industry in this piece, predicting that the industry is on the verge of collapse. If you don’t believe the sky is falling (and I don’t think Scott Galloway does judging by how often his company retargets me with digital advertising) – here are some useful pieces:

• AdWeek highlights the 24 media plan winners from 2021 – love the BNY ‘Podfast’ campaign

• Mediacom provides practical data-backed tips for Facebook advertising (more video, square formats, and longer campaigns)

• Mark Pollard shares 197 TikTok trends from Early 2021 – a fun resource to understand the culture of Tiktok and to explore social content ideas

SMART ESSAYS

• Better Briefs: Mark Ritson shares some research and his profane insights into the poor state of client briefs (90% of marketers fail to brief agencies effectively).

• 7 Principles of Effective Marketing Communications: Really clear, smart overview of the basic components of an effective communications plan. Like a training session in a post by Tom Roach.

• Share of Search: New IPA research that shows the that share of search (as in online search measured by Google Trends data) is linked with market share. Meaning the more share of search increases, the more market share increases. Could be a useful and inexpensive measurement approach for brands.

Finally, as many of you start to head back into the office over the coming weeks and months – consider if you have ‘Tall Zoom Energy’. People are freaking out when they meet coworkers outside of Zoom to discover that they are much shorter IRL!

Digital Trends: 10.01.21

POST-PANDEMIC

As we (maybe? hopefully? finally?) move into a post-pandemic world, what are the lasting changes? Google released research on habits accelerated by COVID that they predict will stick around (online learning, groceries, and cooking at home). COVID has lasted so long now, that even some people are nostalgic for the start of the pandemic and are sharing stories online. And if you’re fearing a return to work because you like doing Zooms in small, uncomfortable spaces from your home – don’t worry, Zoom is now offering small, uncomfortable spaces for your office.

AMAZON & HARDWARE

Amazon continues to find new ways to make it easier for you to spend your money. The company is selling more promoted spaces on its web search results, and advertisers are paying. If you found it too difficult or time-consuming to tap your credit card when checking out, Amazon is now letting you just use the palm of your hand. And if you always wanted a personal surveillance robot to follow you around your house and watch you while you sleep– it can be yours for $999.

TIKTOK & BRANDS

Lots of TikTok in the news now that it has reached 1 billion (!) monthly users. In an effort to court new advertisers, the platform just released research on its effectiveness for brand recall (quite). It also released some helpful resources for brands to plan their holiday activations – Part 1 is here. If you’re interested in how to incorporate TikTok into your marketing plans, check out this new How-To Guide from Hootsuite and this helpful article on the 7 Ways TikTok Works With Brands. That said, the most helpful way to understand how to engage with TikTok is to engage yourself – very different social rituals, creative formats, and production techniques.

VISUAL SEARCH

I’m more bullish on visual search via mobile app than any AR / smart-glasses doohickey. Anytime you see something interesting that you can’t name can be a potential use case. Snapchat recently relaunched its Scan feature that uses the camera and AR to identify clothes, dog breeds, plants, cars and more. Google is also prioritizing shopping via its visual search feature, and is providing guidance for e-commerce storefronts to update their product listings to ensure they come up via results. Here is more from Verge on how Google is making this experience more contextual for shoppers.

SOCIAL & KIDS

Facebook is in the news again about generally making the world a worse place. The company will be testifying why it held back research showing that Instagram harms the mental health of teens. In the rarefied space where meta meets irony, it was reported that Facebook was planning to use the Facebook newsfeed to improve its image (you know, like every brand that it sells advertising to). The good news is that the company is pausing its plan to build Instagram for Kids. Speaking of kids and social media, TikTok now caps screen time for users under 14 in China. I wish them more success than I'm having with my kids.

SMART ESSAYS

• Why do Strategy, Anyway? Love this from Roger Martin – he explains that companies need to maximize learning in strategy – to ask questions earlier, and make adjustments quicker than competitors.

• Professional Certifications, Not Universities, Are The Future Of Marketing. A convincing case made by Samuel Scott on how marketing education should be less waterfall (expensive and intensive upfront) and more ongoing throughout your career. What if you spread your investment in an MBA over an entire career in marketing?

• Advertising Fast or Slow. Faris Yakob channels Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow) to explore how ads on media that people are fully engaged with (slow) perform better than not (fast). I’ll link to anything with the line: “Thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats; they can do it but they’d prefer not to.”

FINALLY

If you want to freshen up your Instagram feed, follow my new favourite photographer that adds paper cut-outs to famous landmarks and locations.

Digital Trends: 09.15.21

NEW HARDWARE: A bunch of new hardware announcements this month. Facebook – the least self-aware company on earth – just released Smart Glasses with Ray-Ban. No doubt a giant engineering feat, I can’t help but marvel at a company known for surveillance capitalism launching spy glasses. A fun write-up here. Amazon is also launching a new TV that is Alexa-powered and Kanye West (first time typing that name in this newsletter) is launching a new music gadget along with his new album.

TWITTER UPDATES: Lots of ‘innovative’ new Twitter updates:

• Communities: Reddit meets Twitter for public / private groups

• Ticketed Spaces: Clubhouse meets Twitter for audio events

• Edge-to-Edge Tweets: Instagram meets Twitter for full-bleed images

For something truly novel, check out this new social platform that gives users 100 posts….for life!

SOCIAL (R)EVOLUTION: The Future from a16z has put together a set of posts on the evolution of social media services. It has the same spirit as the Web 2.0 revolutionary wave, and speaks to how many existing services without an inherently social dimension will be disrupted. Love it.

App Annie also has a new report, with global social media app adoption numbers with highlight the growth of live streaming video.

SMART ESSAYS

• It’s Time for Esports to Stop Idolizing Traditional Sports. I’ve been doing more digging into this topic recently. Very helpful article, building on the big strategic theme of not limiting a new form to traditional models.

• Netflix and Video Games. In a similar vein, another fantastic read by Matthew Ball. Exploring how Netflix views its competitors more laterally than others (i.e., competing for attention with Fortnite, not Disney+).

• Ads, Privacy and Confusion. If you’re interested in keeping up with what is happening in regulatory space regarding privacy, data, technology, and advertising – there is not one that writes about it as clearly as Ben Events. His latest.

• Why the Sales Funnel is the Cockroach of Marketing Concepts. I should say that shitting on the much-maligned sales funnel is the cockroach of marketing article ideas, but this is a good read. No frameworks are perfect, but some are useful (as are funnels in many contexts in my experience).

ADVERTISING STUDIES: Some interesting studies on advertising effectiveness. New research shows that advertising that matches the context of the platform it is consumed is more effective. For example, a Kanye ad on a page with a Kanye article performs 23% better than not. (That’s twice). An interesting report on the positive impact from following creative best practices shared by platforms for digital advertising (tips included). Finally, a useful, data-backed post on how marketers continue to chase the least important metric in social media: clicks.

Speaking of data and privacy, someone on Twitter highlighted the unintentional comedy of the ‘Accept Cookie’ placement on the new Matrix promotional website. BTW the trailer just launched, and it looks awesome.

How to Plan Your Digital Marketing Training Program

Thinking about in-house digital marketing training for your team? Here are 10 questions to ask yourself:

1. Organizational Priorities: What are the business / marketing priorities for my organization that digital needs to support? Consider if/how training can help.

2. Learning Outcomes: What needs to change within my team for this training to be successful? Consider specific, measurable actions by team members.

3. Participant Needs: Who needs to be included from my team and what groups have specific needs? Consider current levels of digital literacy.

4. Training Topics: What topics need to be included to achieve my learning outcomes? Consider what is baseline and what is supplemental.

5. Core Messages: What principles or practices do my marketing / digital leaders evangelize? Consider the important themes to weave in.

6. Digital Maturity: What level of digital maturity does my team need to achieve over the next 18 months? Consider what is both feasible/desirable.

7. Team Collaboration: How do I want participants to interact with each other throughout the program? Consider relationships you want to strengthen.

8. Digital Capabilities: What digital marketing capabilities and resources do I want my team to know more about? Consider use cases to showcase.

9. People & Process: What processes or tools are used to manage digital marketing that I want highlight? Consider internal SMEs/partners to showcase.

10. Program Delivery: How might the program be structured to best serve the needs and learning styles of my team? Consider format and level of commitment.

If you’re trying to figure out if and how to design a digital marketing training program, I love to talk about this stuff so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need a hand :-)

So, I'm writing a book

Over the years I have been chipping away at a book project. It’s sort of half book, half online training. The idea is to provide marketers with a handy resource that consolidates a set of useful strategic frameworks and instructions for how to use them. Many of the frameworks are long-standing and frequently used staples within marketing teams. Other frameworks are new or adapted and address emerging areas of marketing that relate to digital media, user experience, data, and technology. My hope is that this book is something that marketers can turn to when they are experiencing some strategic fuzziness and need some direction. A sort of cookbook for modern marketing. I’m planning to release the book by the end of the year and – presuming unsubscribe rates don’t spike! - will share progress along the way. I will also be asking you for input as I get closer to the release. If you’re interested in getting involved, just let me know :-)

Digital Trends: 06.04.21

CANADIAN E-COMMERCE: The Canadian Federation of Independent Business released research that illustrates the importance of digital marketing and e-commerce for small businesses during the pandemic. It was great to see that 48% of small businesses will stick with e-commerce even after the pandemic ends as a way to boost growth and competitiveness. This mirrors recent Canadian customer research that shows how increased online shopping adoption is here to stay. As I tell my kids, that toothpaste is not going back into that tube!

EXPERIMENTATION & TESTING: For those interested in A/B testing, here is a really interesting post that dissects how the New York Times tests its headlines. The article shows the different variations of headlines used, and the results that illustrate that more headline testing correlates with higher article engagement rates. In a similar vein, here is a fantastic time-laps video that shows how often Walmart changes its ‘digital shelf’ for dog food over a 24-hour period. A great example of how retailers can influence customer choice.

STATE OF AGILE MARKETING: Speero / CXL recently surveyed marketers on the state of experimentation. Some interesting findings, particularly around barriers to adoption and maturity. Only 7% of respondents strongly agreed that teams are trained on how to run experiments, and only 14% consistently share experimentation learnings across the company. Agile Sherpas released research from a similar survey on Agile Marketing. Again, the lack of training is highlighted as the largest barrier to adoption. For those that attended my Agile Marketing webinar, you might find it interesting to see the breakdown of the most popular practices used by marketing departments to become agile in their own ways.

AUDIO & CLUBHOUSE: While Clubhouse continues to dominate the marketing technology zeitgeist, I still can’t find a Room to hold my interest for more than 5-minutes. Regardless, audio-based social networking & content is hot and all of the major platforms are incorporating their own audio features including Facebook and LinkedIn. I’m personally more interested to see how Spotify will incorporate these features, as it feels like a more natural extension to its audio content - particularly given how more people now use Spotify for Podcasts vs. Apple for the first time.

GOOGLE & ZERO-CLICK SEARCHES: Google is under some fire from some marketing circles due to a study that showed that 65% of searches in 2020 resulted in no clicks. The implication being that more people are using the results that Google shows within the results pages to address questions or tasks – such as finding a location within a Google map or finding an answer within a Featured Snippet. Many markers are responding by creating more SEO-optimized content that answers specific, relevant questions. Speaking of maps, I love what Google is doing here to use AI to help people map more environmentally friendly routes. As someone who is 'navigationally-challenged', I can’t wait for the new augmented reality way-finding features to be released.

Digital Trends: 23.03.21

ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS: New Ipsos research explores the factors that lead to “Fame” campaigns in social media– those that inspire people to share and provide the brand with excess share of voice. Four traits are noted: Cultural Impact, Creative Bravery, Positive Feelings, and Controversy…tough to check all those boxes. Snap also published some new research that reinforces their position that longer ads do not mean better ads (at least not on Snapchat).

GOOGLE & COOKIES: Many folks are pontificating about the future of cookie-less digital advertising, which is only making a complicated topic more difficult to follow. Here is a clear-eyed overview from the WSJ on the implications of Google’s recent changes. This report from Jounce also has some useful perspective, including a helpful visualization of ‘different internets’.

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: The Drum has a great overview of how social platforms are evolving to embrace social commerce (i.e. making posts more transactional). Kantar research says 83% of TikTok’s audience have made purchases inspired by its trending content. YouTube is the last platform to embrace TikTok’s short video format with a new feature called Shorts (following Twitter’s Fleets, and LinkedIn’s Stories). If you are curious about the Influencer / Creator space, this is a very useful guide to what determines rates and terms by #Paid.

FRAMEWORKS & RESOURCES: I love the content that the Spotify Design Team shares through its blog and newsletter. The latest post covers a tool that they use to align teams throughout the design process. Really like the clear Spotify-specific criteria used.

Google also recently published a useful beginner’s resource on ‘Mastering Digital Advertising’. It’s a quick guide that has a good section on ‘waterfall budget planning’. Reminder that I regularly post new frameworks on Kickframe.com.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: Brandwatch (which has an excellent newsletter) shared some telling social media listening research last week. They collected millions of posts containing the phrase “I need a” and pulled out the related terms. Chair, Haircut, and Recipe showed the largest increase (Comprehensive Digital Marketing Newsletter is sadly further down the list). Finally, if you are trying to get out of a Zoom call, check out this new service that sabotaging your own audio streams “making your presence unbearable to others.” Welcome to 2021.

AUGMENTED REALITY: Facebook made news earlier last week by releasing a concept video from its Reality Lab. It was interesting to see that the focus was not on glasses, but rather a wrist-worn device that integrates with your neurons. I’m skeptical about giving FB my primary email address, so this might be a stretch. This concept is more my speed – Pizza Hut just launched ‘specialty-marked boxes’ (is there a more exciting term?!) that turn pizza boxes into virtual Pac-Man games.

Digital Trends: 12.03.21

BROWSER TRAVEL: Now this is fun. A bunch of new sites and services have popped up to help give us our travel fix while we are stuck at home:

• Radio Garden: spin through the globe and tune into local radio

• Window Swap : turn your screen into another person’s window view

• Travel Remotely : roam exotic streets while listening to local sounds

RETAIL ADVERTISING: Facebook released some new research that supports the influential “Long and Short of It” concept. The report advocates for a full-funnel approach to media planning as “in certain instances, brand campaigns can be more effective than DR campaigns in driving sales.” Google also has some new research/perspective on how retailers should balance providing scale (e.g., endless aisle) with curation (e.g., recommended for you). The report reinforces that both approaches need to allow the customer to feel in control throughout the decision-making process.

SUSTAINABILITY & DIGITAL: A few interesting examples of eco-friendliness making its way into digital products: Mastercard recently applied for a patent that will track and reward cardholders for making eco-friendly purchases and VW (of diesel emission scandal fame!) recently launched a ‘carbon-neutral’ website that requires less computing power.

GOOGLE & TRACKING: Google released news last week that once it removes 3rd party cookies from Chrome that “we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web”. The tension between advertiser’s desire for greater targeting with customer/regulator’s desire for greater data privacy continues to play out. Mediacom thinks this will lead to a better advertising model.

SOCIAL PLATFORMS: More product news from the social platforms. Twitter is planning on introducing a Super Follow option that allows users to charge for their tweets (I will gladly pay to avoid certain tweets). LinkedIn is also getting into the employment marketplace space with a new feature that helps freelancers find work. Finally, this is a smart post on how audio is the next frontier for tech/social “The Age of the Ear”. Reply back if you need a Clubhouse invite!

Trendapalooza 2021

I spent some time between binging holiday baking and Netflix to skim the latest digital / marketing trend reports published by various companies. I highlight the ones that I found most interesting below.

Facebook 2021 Trends & Topics: Every year, FB reports on the topics that surged in interest across the platform globally. Some predictable COVID-inspired rabbit hole dives this year - gardening and ed-tech topping the charts. Google released a similar report based on search volumes, albeit with a stronger Tiger King skew.

Deloitte 2021 Global Marketing Trends: This report covers many topics, the most interesting involves new research on CMOs – not a pretty picture. Only 3% of CMOs consider themselves high performers (reduced from 5% pre-COVID) in their ability to impact strategic decision-making, contribute to the overall direction of the business, and garner support among their peers for their initiatives. Further - and critical to customer-facing digital initiatives - only 29% have a significant impact on ‘Customer Experience’, less than the CFO (36%) and CIO (46%).

Fjord Trends 2021: This report covers more experiential themes, most of which revolve around how brands can be more present in new mediums and behaviours that are heightened by COVID restrictions - but likely here to stay in some form. Many interesting examples of how brands are creating content that blends edu-tainment, social media, and virtual events. See Amazon Explore for an e-comm focused example.

21 Trends from Trendwatching: Worth reading for the creative naming of the trends themselves (Pamdemoment, Transcycling, Robo-Roaming?), this is a quick overview of some big picture societal trends with real-world examples. A few years ago, a macro-theme was every company is a 'software company', now it seems to be every company is a 'health company'. See how Microsoft infuses mental wellness into its Teams Communication Platform.

2030 Consumer Trends (Mintel): A smart report, with some bold and specific predictions for 2030. Covers a lot of ground, with the most interesting predictions revolving around consumer-led interest in sustainability. Some interesting examples of how sharing and second-hand marketplace concepts can support this shift, from peer-to-peer clothing purchase to subscription-based car ownership.

Forrester Predictions 2021: This report focuses on more business and technology trends. Some interesting projections of how B2B marketers will invest in AI and automation (60% of B2B sellers will use), and the increased importance of digital tools (1/3rd of B2B tech buyers rate chatbots as a top-10 engagement channel). Further, 4 in 10 buyers indicate that human engagement with sellers as become less important.

We Are Social Global Digital Report: A comprehensive global report that covers commerce, privacy, sustainability, and technology topics. I found the section on livestreams most interesting. While many retailers have had to close their shops due to COVID and take to new digital channels to engage customers and sell products, there is evidence that this trend will continue as a way to elevate the online shopping experience. See The Drop – Snapchat’s shoppable show.

Building Digital Maturity in Small Marketing Teams

Over the last few months, I have been training a group of small businesses on building digital marketing maturity. These organizations do not have large budgets, sophisticated martech stacks, or in-house digital departments - in many cases, these are ‘one-person marketing teams’. It can be daunting to figure out how to increase digital marketing maturity in such an environment where the day-to-day demands already feel overwhelming. One client mentioned that the thought of building digital maturity is “like driving a car while changing the tires.” So, how can we figure this out?

Many companies (and consultancies) have developed various digital marketing maturity models, primarily for larger organizations. When completed properly, these models help align teams on:

• The current state of their digital maturity (where are we today?)

• The desired future state for their digital maturity (where are we going?)

• The desired phases of building digital maturity (where to, by when?)

These models also illustrate the critical relationship between Enablement (technology, people, processes) and Activation (customer experiences and marketing use cases).

The same approach can be taken by smaller organizations and marketing teams. To start, marketers need to identify their digital priorities – how do your digital marketing activities and capabilities need to mature to support the overall goals and strategy of your organization? From there, marketers need to explore more tactical ways to support these higher-level digital priorities. This can be done by identifying new marketing use cases (e.g., target customers who abandon shopping cart) and identifying changes to digital channels (e.g., redesign lead capture forms). The following provides a sample of different tactical opportunities for small marketing teams based on different digital channels and different levels of maturity.

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Finally, teams need to create a digital marketing maturity action plan. This plan should identify the digital priorities and the planned steps to digital maturity. It is critical to include what is required at different stages to support these new experiences and activations (Enablers). When completed properly, the plan should align business objectives, marketing initiatives, and technical requirements. The process itself can also help marketers build support for more digital investment, and establish bridges between different departments – particularly Marketing and IT. While it may still feel like you are driving your car while changing the tires, at least you know where you are going.

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The Canadian Digital Marketplace & COVID-19

COVID-19 is having a significant impact on digital marketing, ecommerce, digital media, and other important aspects of our lives and businesses.  Here is a running list of stats that I will update over time as new reports are released:

SPENDING ATTITUDES

Canadians are being more mindful of where they are spending their money during COVID (McKinsey).

SPENDING PATTERNS

15% of Canadians say they've added a streaming service, such as Netflix, Disney+, or Crave, since the COVID-19 pandemic started (Forum).

Ride-sharing in Canada has decreased by 50% during COVID-19 (Forum).

ECOMMERCE ADOPTION

Year over year, Canadian e-commerce sales more than doubled during the pandemic—with a 110.8 percent increase compared with May 2019 (StatsCan).

79% of Canadian adults spent 20% or less of their total shopping budget online prior to the pandemic, but 38% say they plan to spend greater than 20% after COVID-19 (Forum).

RETAIL IMPACT

While Canada's retail sector is expected to shrink by 6.2% overall as a result of COVID-19, ecommerce share of retail sales is expected to rise to 8.7% in 2020 (StatsCan).

Retail e-commerce sales reached a record $3.9 billion in May, a 2.3% increase over April and 99.3% increase over February to $2.0 billion (StatsCan).

SEARCH BEHAVIOUR

60% of Canadians used search during the pandemic to see “what is open or closed near me” in April 2020 (Google).

SHOPPING INSPIRATION

Digital channels are a key trigger for finding new places to shop, 63% of Canadians use digital as a source of insight (McKinsey).

ONLINE SELF-SERVICE

68% of Canadians have tried a new shopping behaviour during COVID (McKinsey).

Consumers have adopted contactless self-serve habits that they intend to continue even after the pandemic (McKinsey).

AMAZON PRIME

49% of Canadians that work from home have an Amazon Prime account vs. 30% of Canadians that do not work from home (PWC).

OFFLINE SHOPPING

Only 63% of Canadian adults are likely to shop in a mall if available and permitted to do so in 2020, and only 18% are likely to attend a live sporting event (PWC).

36% of Canadians are using self-checkout in offline retail, in part to limit physical contact with other people (Deloitte).

Only 7% of Canadians agree that shopping for groceries online is easier (Deloitte).

AT-HOME ACTIVITIES

Canadians have adopted new digital and low-touch activities, including curbside pickup, video chat, and telemedicine (McKinsey).

Canadians intend to continue some at-home habits adopted during the crisis, such as online fitness, wellness, and entertainment (McKinsey).

RETURNING TO ‘NORMAL’

After a lockdown, Canadians are most comfortable returning to grocery stores (58%) and least comfortable returning to cruises (8%) (PWC).

22% of Canadians say their next international vacation will be in 2022 or later (Forum).

Marketing Experimentation & Testing Webinar

A few years ago, I worked with a retailer to help transform their marketing department. One of the goals of this transformation was to enable the team to make more data-driven decisions. This required ‘zooming out’ to understand all of the facets required to make experimentation and testing a core competency and activity for the team. This project was an eye-opener for me. While I understood the people, training, processes, and technology required to conduct marketing experimentation, I didn’t fully appreciate the larger changes required from a leadership and cultural perspective to actually make it happen. Marketing teams need to consider if and how they can ‘check all of the boxes’ that need to be in place to adopt experimentation and testing at scale.

During this 1-hour training webinar, I shared some of my perspective on what marketing teams need to have in place to establish a test & learn culture. We also reviewed how to identify potential experiments, create effective hypotheses, learn from results, and scale testing across a marketing department.

Digital Marketing Measurement Webinar

Conversations about digital measurement often lead to flashpoint events in marketing boardrooms. CMOs that have been sold on the accountability and adaptability of digital media often don’t trust results. Digital marketers often become defensive when it seems that their digital campaigns are held to a higher degree of scrutiny than ‘traditional’ media. The industry as a whole also doesn’t help with the proliferation of new terms and measurement buzzwords that further muddy the waters.

One way that marketers can have more constructive digital measurement conversations is by analyzing and discussing performance figures in the proper context. This needs to be from a strategic context – discussing performance in the context of what digital marketing intends to achieve (outcomes). It also needs to be discussed in a performance context – how the figures relates to a target. Finally, figures need to be reviewed with the lens that makes the results as clear and actionable as possible.

In our upcoming webinar I try to bring digital marketing measurement back to the basics. We start with a definition of measurement terms and the process for identifying goals, KPIs, and benchmarks. We then cover some of the frameworks that marketers can use to start tracking, analyzing, and sharing results. Finally, we review some measurement frameworks and techniques using a case study example.

Agile Marketing Fundamentals Webinar

The principles and practices of agile are clearly on the minds of marketers today. Interest has been steadily rising over the past few years, with the adoption of digital media and technology by marketing teams (and their customers). Marketers are also looking to agile as a way to improve business outcomes by becoming more flexible and efficient. The responsiveness that agile represents is even more attractive to marketers today given the ‘new normal’ that we are all trying our best to navigate through.

So how does agile – a mindset and methodology with roots in software development – apply to marketing? There a number of agile events, artifacts, roles, and tools that represent ways to address long-standing marketing needs.

However, there are a number of challenges that are unique to marketing teams that any agile implementation needs to consider.

We recently hosted a webinar on Agile Marketing, where we explore the opportunities, challenges, and key considerations for marketers adopting agile in 2020. For those unfamiliar with agile, this webinar also provides an overview of the main methodologies under the agile umbrella – Scrum, Lean, and Kanban.

If you are interested in learning more about agile marketing, just reach out and let’s schedule a time to speak. We provide customized training programs and consulting services to help marketing teams on their paths to modernization.

The Unexpected Benefits from Corporate Digital Training

Is the biggest benefit from corporate training actually learning? After delivering customized in-house digital training programs for the past 5 years, I am not so sure. While the main reason that I am hired by organizations is to up-skill their teams on digital marketing, some of the most valuable and lasting benefits that I have seen extend beyond the lessons learned in the classroom (and yes, as someone who has logged thousands of hours developing curriculum it pains me to type that ;-) Here are a few of the more unexpected ways that I have seen digital corporate training benefit organizations:

Aligning on Goals & Gaps

When I begin working with a new client, we assemble an internal cross-functional team to align on outcomes. We start with ‘what change needs to happen’ (not ‘what do we want to learn’). By focusing on outcomes, we can start to identify some of the barriers and gaps that exist. Framing this initial discussion in terms of digital marketing maturity helps teams to align on ‘where we are vs. where we need to go’ and ‘how far is too far’. These types of discussions are critical for organizations, and typically do not happen with much regularity or rigour. Planning a training program provides a safe and constructive space to explore these topics objectively as a group, in a venue bereft of politics. Teams can look in the mirror, then look towards the horizon together.

Elevating Internal Expertise

Most organizations have people and pockets of strong digital expertise. The issue is that these individuals and skillsets are often siloed and not accessible (or even visible) by the wider marketing organization. When I design curriculum, I do so in collaboration with these internal digital experts to ensure that the training is relevant to their world – their tech stack, capabilities, teams, processes, and priorities. This collaboration inevitably elevates these internal subject matter experts, and provides a new platform to evangelize their key messages. Whenever possible, I include internal SMEs in training sessions as co-trainers. The training not only becomes more relevant, but participants now know who to go to and how to best work with their internal digital experts.

Establishing Stronger Relationships

I am a big proponent of extending digital training programs to large and diverse teams (not just those directly involved in digital marketing activities). Further, I encourage clients to create cohorts that include a mix of participants from various disciplines. This way, people can be exposed to the questions, ideas, and expertise provided from across departments – which helps build understanding and empathy. New relationships can then more naturally extend beyond the classroom – to smart hallway conversations. Training provides organizations with a common language – a digital lingua franca - to discuss important technology topics, particularly between business and IT.

Identifying New Ideas

It is one thing to say ‘In 2020 every marketer is a digital marketer’, it is another to have all marketers credibly believe it. Too often, internal digital teams and agencies make marketing teams feel that developing digital ideas is not their responsibility. Nonsense. One of the biggest ancillary benefits to digital training programs is the new ideas generated by a large and newly empowered group. These ideas can be explored through specific class activities, or more frequently through organic conversations that we have as a group as we discuss capabilities, trends, and case studies. I have had groups generate ideas that they have put into action (or pitch decks) almost immediately after a class session is over. Confidence is as important as competence. Digital training needs to deliver both.

Modern Marketing RACI

As part of our recent Modern Marketing Briefs workshop, we discussed the importance of having clear roles & responsibilities among teams (before the briefing). This can be a bit of a challenge as more marketing departments are using specialists, shifting work in-house, collaborating with IT, and adopting agile principles. Building (or updating) a RACI chart that reflects these changes can be a useful exercise.

Here is a Google Sheet you can download, customize, and use to get started.

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A Lesson Learned is a Lesson Earned

I recently completed a consulting assignment with a retailer that was focused on modernizing their marketing operations. During our first workshop, the COO vociferously shared that one of his goals for the initiative was to “stop making the same mistakes and doing the same things all of the [bleeping] time.” Half of his team nodded their heads, the other half stared at their shoes. Like most good feedback, it was tough to hear but useful to receive. So, a big focus of the assignment became how to enable teams to better learn from past marketing activities. While I cannot share the specifics of this assignment, I can share a few general tips and tools that you might find helpful if you are facing a similar challenge.

1. Have processes and tools in place to capture actionable learnings

Sprint retrospective meetings are well ingrained within Agile teams, but this practice is not widely embraced by marketing departments today. It can be challenging for marketing teams to take the time to effectively reflect and capture lessons from historical campaigns. Debrief meetings can turn into venting sessions, and lessons – if captured at all – are often listed sparsely as bullets in post-mortem documents. Marketers can better focus their retrospective meetings and capture learnings in a more structured way by using a standardized agenda and input document. Here is an example that you can use to anchor your post-project meetings and codify your lessons learned. You can download a version to modify and use here.

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2. Consolidate and share lessons learned effectively across your team

Lessons are only valuable if you are actually aware of them. Within marketing departments, lessons too often stay locked in PowerPoints or in the heads of individual team members. Marketing departments need a process and tool to consolidate and organize lessons so that they can be easily accessed and used by all team members since some lessons broadly apply to a variety of projects. There are a number of paid online retrospective tools available. If you are just starting out, you can create a shared Google Sheet. Here is an example that you can download, customize, and use.

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3. Ensure briefs and briefings include relevant lessons and tests

Writing a brief is an exercise in looking forward. However, it is important at the start of any new project to learn from the past. Marketing leaders need to enforce retrospection by including relevant lessons learned as a mandatory input for briefing documents (ideally populated by entries from their shared ‘Lessons Learned Library’). For more tactical briefs, marketers should also include any tests that they plan to run in a way that is properly structured (i.e. the hypothesis, test, and implications are clear). The Test & Learn Cards from the awesome book Value Proposition Design can help. You can download PDF versions shared by Strategyzer here and here.

Building Better Brief(ings)

I designed the Building Better Briefs training workshop out of frustration. After 20 years in marketing, I simply had spent too much time in excruciating briefing meetings. Even when the briefs were well written (rare enough), briefing meetings often felt like lifeless formalities. The equivalent of someone reading out their tax returns, albeit with a free lunch. So, I designed a workshop to try and fix this. To do so, I conducted research and spoke with dozens of marketers to figure out what exactly makes a briefing effective. After months of digging and debating, the following themes emerged:

Include the ‘Business Owner’. Often briefs are presented by those responsible for managing the project rather than those responsible for the results. Including the ‘owner’ of the results in the meeting ensures that everyone has a shared understanding of ‘why’ the program is required in addition to ‘what’ needs to be completed. Participants also have the opportunity to have business-related questions answered directly on the spot, without lengthy follow-ups.

Hold Integrated Briefings. Different tactical elements of a marketing program will often be briefed separately to different teams. Briefing ‘core’ and ‘extended’ team members at the same time (from the same brief) ensures that everyone has a shared understanding of the full project scope, strategic context, and key stakeholders involved. Everyone also benefits from hearing the questions and perspectives from others in this larger meeting.

Communicate Roles & Responsibilities. The number of people, disciplines, and teams involved in marketing briefings continues to grow. The result is that it can be difficult for everyone to know exactly what they are responsible for. Turf battles and politics amplifies this. Make sure to establish project governance prior to any briefing meeting and circulate tools like RACI charts for team members to review. Address any questions or issues openly during the briefing meeting.

Establish Common Language. Different people often use different terms to describe the same thing – why would briefings be any different? Walk through the steps and deliverables with the integrated team to make sure that everyone has a shared understanding of terminology (e.g. Concept, Strategy), deliverables (e.g. Plan, Journey), and how they all fit together. This is particularly important when you are in the Forming stage with a new team.

Pose Challenging Questions. With larger groups attending integrated briefings, people often find it intimidating or inappropriate to ask questions or raise concerns. This leads to post-briefing hallway conversations, group emails, and ‘alignment meetings.’ Surface these topics within briefing meetings by openly posing questions directly to the group. Make it more uncomfortable for people not to raise their concerns and ‘give the quiet ones a voice’.

Start Thinking Together. Once everyone is clear on the problem to be solved, require people to share their initial thinking. This is unconventional and will make some people uncomfortable. That is ok. Make it clear that the goal is not to solve or decide anything in the room, rather it is to have everyone benefit from the fresh thoughts and reactions of others. This makes participants lean into the briefing material earlier and transforms one-way briefing monologues into more active discussions.

Outline Delivery Approach. As more organizations move towards agile ways of working, it is important to clarify how the work being briefed fits in with the larger delivery approach. Do recommendations need to be documented as user stories for a backlog? Do hypotheses need to be documented for testing? Do budgets need to be withheld for iterations? Do meetings need to be booked for Sprint Planning? Flush this out in the briefing meeting so next steps are clear.

So, what does a better briefing actually look like? Below is a draft agenda that I shared with participants that reflects these tips in a 90-minute meeting. While your projects, teams, and plans will no doubt vary, I hope these pointers will make your briefings better and less frustrating.

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Kickframe @ 5 Years

This post is a bit of a departure.  I normally write about digital strategy topics and share things that I hope marketers will find useful.  However, I recently passed the 5 year anniversary of starting Kickframe and have become agonizingly self-reflective.  To get out of my own head, I thought that I would share a few lessons that I have learned from my experience as a ‘solopreneur’ (a.k.a. things I really, really wish I knew 5 years ago).  For those who may be considering a similar path, I hope you find these, well, useful.

Know what success looks like for you

After working for years at larger companies, I decided to go out on my own because I wanted control over my work and my time.  I did not have a great epiphany about a business idea or dreams of building a large company with my name on it.  I wanted to work on my terms - that’s it.  Over the last 5 years, I have had a number of people offer suggestions that I should hire staff, take on large digital production projects, or join a larger consultancy.  While these comments are no doubt well-intended, they used to make me feel defensive and self-conscious – am I not doing well enough?  I learned that it is easy to become distracted by the expectations of others and the conventions of ‘what I should do’.  I wish I was better at reminding myself in these moments of the reasons for why I started Kickframe, and that I was (and am) achieving these goals.

Fit how you work into how you want to live your life

Your home-life will always be impacted by the nature of your work.  Commuting, seasonality, business travel, project milestones and other factors all eat away at available non-working time.  When I started Kickframe, our 3 kids were 4 (twins) and 6 years of age.  I expected a demanding work schedule with long hours that would leave me with less time and energy.  I was right.  It took me a stressful first year to finally take steps to force my work into the life I wanted to lead with my family.  This meant committing to being home for dinner / bedtime and prioritizing remote work that allowed for greater flexibility.  It meant booking vacations without a clear view of my work schedule.  It also meant renting an office 5-minutes from my home to easily work early mornings and late evenings when required.  I wish I realized earlier that I can take more control over how I work, so that it better fits in with my life and what is most important to me.

Take a long-term view (in a short-term world)     

As a consultant and trainer, I typically work on projects (vs. long-term contracts or retainers).  The pace is quick, and I need to be planning my next project while completing my current one.  This reality makes it challenging to look too far ahead.  When I was starting out, I was so focused on maximizing my day-to-day, hour-to-hour billings that I would sub-consciously calculate the opportunity cost for meeting someone across town for coffee or lunch.  This myopic heads-down approach led to unnecessary stress and missed opportunities.  It took me a few years to gain the experience and confidence to take a longer-term view of my financial targets (i.e. quarters vs. months), but when I did it gave me the space to breathe and the time to find the right, next thing to work on.  Ironically - though in hindsight not surprisingly - focusing less on maximizing my days led me to more rewarding work.  I wish I was more comfortable placing my financial milestones out further, earlier on in my journey.

Find your own flywheel

One of the things I love most about being a consultant / trainer is the variety of projects I work on and the variety of people I work with.  However, all of this variety can feel disorienting at times.  How am I getting better?  Where is this leading?  What am I building towards?  After a few years, I stumbled upon what felt a bit like my own professional flywheel:

By focusing on this flywheel, I found that I was able to keep up-to-date, challenge myself, sharpen my thinking, and find new business / collaborators.  It also provided me with an overarching connectedness and rhythm to my work.  I wish I was able to place my individual assignments into this larger framework earlier so I didn’t feel like I was constantly losing the plot.

If you are reading this, there is a good chance that we have crossed paths at some point over these past 5 years.  I want to sincerely thank you for your support during the most fun and rewarding chapter of my career.  Here’s to (at least) 5 more.

More digital stuff next week ;-)

 - Tim