Pepsi

The ‘Now in the Moment’ spot features two people running through various frozen scenes after taking a sip of Pepsi before eventually arriving at a Nicki Minaj concert. It aims to encourage viewers to live each moment to the fullest and experience new things. A remix of the singer’s ‘Moment for Life’ single runs throughout the ad, which is also available in 3D on YouTube.

The TV campaign marks the second phase of the first ever global campaign for PepsiCo’s flagship brand and aims to appeal a younger generation of consumers. Activity launched last month with Pepsi Pulse, a social media platform that curates entertainment news. Additional marketing activity will include press, outdoor campaigns, on-pack promotions and music events.

If you want to discover new ideas and strategies, focused on marketing, social media, loyalty and engagement strategy then check out Loyalty World USA, October 29th-31st in Las Vegas.

Click here to visit the event website.

No mundo do esporte, grandes equipes costumam ser patrocinadas por grandes marcas — sejam elas de bancos, estatais, financeiras ou fabricantes de eletroeletrônicos. Neste ano, porém, o time do Cruzeiro no futebol e a equipe feminina do Vôlei Futuro, que disputa a Superliga, estampam em seus uniformes o logotipo de uma loja de comércio eletrônico especializada em artigos esportivos talvez pouco conhecida das torcidas: a Netshoes. Mas como uma empresa de nicho e que só funciona em ambiente online pode fazer patrocínios como esses?

Fundada em fevereiro de 2000 pelo empresário Marcio Kumruian, a Netshoes estreou no mercado vendendo tênis e sapatos em lojas físicas. Mas os rumos da empresa começariam a mudar logo no ano seguinte, quando Kumruian e equipe passaram a comercializar artigos pelo MercadoLivre, plataforma online de compra e venda de produtos. Dez anos depois de sua primeira incursão na rede, a Netshoes alcançou o posto de terceiro site de comércio eletrônico mais acessado do país — atrás apenas de Americanas.com e Submarino, ambas marcas da B2W.

O grande crescimento da Netshoes se deu no ano passado, quando saltou seis posições no ranking. “Eles são os únicos exclusivamente online e de nicho entre os maiores”, diz José Calazans, analista de mídia no Ibope/NetRatings.

Audiência, obviamente, não é o fator mais importante para o sucesso de uma loja virtual. A companhia não divulga números oficiais, mas estimativas de mercado apontam que o faturamento da Netshoes hoje ultrapasse 400 milhões de reais. No mercado, há expectativa de crescimento ainda maior nos próximos anos, em especial pela aproximação da Copa do Mundo de 2014 e da Olimpíada de 2016, que serão realizadas no país. Em novembro passado, a companhia recebeu um aporte de valor não divulgado do fundo americano Tiger Global, que tem investimentos em empresas como LinkedIn e MercadoLivre.

Clique aqui para ler artigo completo

Para ficar por dentro sobre estratégias em mídias sociais e como engajar seu consumidor, participe do Loyalty World Brasil, no dia 25-27 de setembro em São Paulo.

Clique aqui para maiores informações sobre o evento.

Just to prove how lucrative this space is becoming check out the recent article by the Sydney Morning Herald on “Data miners find there’s gold in them thar files.”

It talks about which industries are already capitalising on big data and how.

Businesses are starting to see great value in big data and will need to start preparing to build their capabilities in dealing with it. An opportunity that really should not be missed.

An event called Big Data World Australasia, hopes to help businesses gain knowledge and strategies in dealing with big data, as well as bring them face-to-face with those who provide big data solutions. For more info on Big Data World Australasia, click here.

Marketing is changing with the growth of big data and new technologies.  Breaking news in this space! Yahoo have announced the launch of a big data software product, ‘Genome’  click here for a link to this announcement. The future of marketing and gaining consumer insights from Big Data,  will be discussed at Big Data World Australasia 2012, a conference being in Melbourne on November 27th-28th, at the venue Atlantic Group V.

Click here for a link to Big  Data World Australasia 2012.

Gap

Part of the campaign is called T.I.Y—a play on D.I.Y.—that shows customers how to “upcycle” old t-shirts into new items, such as flip flops, the company said. “For T.I.Y., the experience lives across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and blogs,” Tipograph  said “Communities like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are an integral part of consumers’ lives, so it’s important that we engage with them on these properties.”

The other digital aspect of the launch, called Styld.by, is a partnership with Gap and several blogs, including Refinery29, Rue and WhoWhatWear, Tipograph said. Styld.by is a way for the Gap to collaborate with these blogs and to introduce new content and items through them, the company said in a statement. It’s like a catalog, the company said, but the partners get to curate content and engage readers, too.

Source: Direct Marketing News

If you want to discover new ideas and strategies, focused on marketing, social media, loyalty and engagement strategy then check out Loyalty World USA, October 29th-31st in Las Vegas.

Click here to visit the event website.

Over the last few months we have been collating interviews from some of the top Big Data gurus.  Whether your interest is privacy, social media or the new role of marketing, the following 3 interviews should put you in good stead.  Our interviews feature Jeremy Waite, Head of Social Media at Phones4U,  Sarah Phenix, Head of Group Privacy Programme, Barclays and Nilan Peiris runs the internet business at HolidayExtras

How will big data will help you measure your social strategy: Jeremy Waite, Head of Social Media at Phones4U and has worked for Phones4U for one year putting in place their social media strategy. He has previously been involved agency side for 10 years, working with Reebok, MTV, Agent Provocateur and Manchester City.

“Data is massively important to us, but its two sides of the same coin. We’re trying to reflect what we’re doing in retail and replicate that online. You can draw a line down the middle between acquisition and engagement and this is where the most successful businesses understand the fine balance between the two. Swing too far towards acquisition and you start beating your customers around the head with offers. Focus too much around engagement and it becomes fluffy and you won’t see any hard-core figures or numbers”

To read the full two part interview with Jeremy, see the previous post here: Big Data: How will big data will help you measure your social strategy

How Barclays overcame Data Privacy issues :  Data protection and privacy are key factors surrounding the Big Data Industry.  We secured an interview with Ms Sarah Phenix, Head of Group Privacy Programme, Barclays who gave the Big Data World team some enlightening insights as to how Barclays are protecting their clients data and the team process behind that. 

“Within Barclays it has been the awareness around how privacy laws relate to you personally and how you can apply this in work. The more aware and the more we can do awareness campaigns and educate people in a way that reaches them, and they can relate to it, then the more success we have and I feel that is one of our biggest advancements.”

To read the full two part interview with Sarah, see the previous post here: How Barclays overcame Data Privacy issues

How will big data change the structure and strategy of your organisation:  Nilan Peiris runs the internet business at HolidayExtras.  Nilan’s specific role is that of Chief Marketing Technology Officer, with responsibilities spanning disciplines from infrastructure through to online marketing.

“In the online space bringing technology and marketing together is critical if you are going to compete, they really need to be aligned. CMOs who are at the brand end of the spectrum really struggle in the performance marketing arena. These days in order to compete, to get access to traffic, to manage your CPA costs and acquire customers online you need to be able to develop deep analytical capabilities that leverage your data assets to enable you to find opportunities to acquire and convert traffic. “

To read the full two part interview with Nilan, see the previous post here: Big Data: How will big data change the structure and strategy of your organisation

To learn more from Nilan, Sarah or Jeremy, please download our Big Data World brochure: Big Data World 2012

Last year McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) released a report – “Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity” examining the state of digital data and documents and defining the value that can potentially be unlocked by processing this data.

In order to see how big data can create value and examine its transformational potential the report studies in depth five domains – US healthcare, Europeans’ Union public sector administration, US retail, global manufacturing and personal location data. These five domains, according to the report, represent a broad spectrum of key segments of global economy and capture a range of regional perspectives. They also vary in their sophistication and maturity of big data usage and, as a result, offer different business lessons.

Drawing on detailed analysis of these domains the research identifies five broadly applicable ways to leverage big data that offers transformational potential to create value and have implications on how individual organizations will have to be designed, organized and managed.

Creating Transparency.

Making big data more easily accessible to relevant stakeholders in a timely way can create tremendous value. Indeed this aspect of creating value is a prerequisite for all other levels and is the most immediate way… to capture that potential. In many cases these opportunities exist where there is a misalignment of incentives for creating data transparency, such as lack of performance imperative.

Enabling experimentation to discover needs, expose variability and improve performance.

The ability for organizations to instrument – to deploy technology that allows them to collect data – and sense the world is continually improving. More and more companies are digitizing and storing an increasing amount of highly detailed data about [business] transactions… Having access to all of these data and in some cases being able to manipulate conditions under which they are generated enable a very different way making decisions that involves bringing more science into management – i.e. applying classic scientific methods to the practice of management. Specifically managers now can use a scientific process of controlled experimentation that includes the formulation of specific hypotheses designing and conducting experiments… and then rigorously analyzing the quantitative results before making the decision

Segmenting populations to customize actions.

Big data allow organizations to create ever-narrower segmentations and to tailor services precisely to meet customer needs. This approach is well-known in marketing and risk management, but can be revolutionary in places like the public sector..

Replacing or supporting human decision-making with automated algorithms.

Sophisticated analytics can substantially improve decision making, minimize risks, and unearth valuable insights that would otherwise remain hidden. Big data either provides the raw material needed to develop algorithms or for these algorithms to operate… Big-data-based analytics today include rule-based systems, statistical analysis and machine-learning techniques such as neural networks.

Innovating new business models, products, and services.

Big data enables enterprises of all kinds to create new products and services, enhance existing ones, and invent entirely new business models

The report has caused quite a few reactions on the Web. According to Economist’ Schumpeter:

In a suitably fact-packed new report… MGI argues that data are becoming a factor of production, like physical or human capital. Companies that can harness big data will trample data-incompetents. Data equity, to coin a phrase, will become as important as brand equity. MGI insists that this is not just idle futurology: businesses are already adapting to big data… The data revolution is disrupting established industries and business models. IT firms are nosing their way into the health-care market: Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault both allow consumers to track their health and record their treatments. Manufacturers are hastening their transformation into service companies: all those sensors allow them to monitor their products and see if they need repairing long before they break down.

Richard Maddox in his blog wrote:

The report describes the state and growing role of digital data that has now entered every sector and economy… there is strong evidence that Big Data can contribute significantly to national economies, creating substantial value for the overall world economy… However, MGI notes the challenges organizations face with reaching the full potential of Big Data, such as limited analytical and managerial talent to make big data advantageous and valuable for businesses.

And, finally, Stowe Boyd noted :

MGI’s analysis shows that companies and policy makers must tackle significant hurdles to fully capture big data’s potential. The United States alone faces a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with analytical and managerial expertise and 1.5 million managers and analysts with the skills to understand and make decisions based on the study of big data (exhibit). Companies and policy makers must also tackle misaligned incentives around issues such as privacy and security, access to data, and technology deployment.

Big data is exploding as more and more information is collected and stored daily. MGI estimates that enterprises globally stored more than 7 exabytes of new data on disk drives in 2010, while consumers stored more than 6 exabytes of new data on devices such as PCs and notebooks [as well as mobile devices]. If utilized correctly, this data can give a significant boost to today’s economy.

Big Data – The Next Frontier Big data the next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity by McKinsey

Download the whitepaper here

The next frontier for competition

Deep analytical talent: Where are they now?

Analyzing large data sets—so called big data—will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus as long as the right policies and enablers are in place. Research by MGI and McKinsey’s Business Technology Office examines the state of digital data and documents the significant value that can potentially be unlocked. However, companies and policy makers must tackle significant hurdles to fully capture big data’s potential – including a shortage of skilled analysts and managers.

The United States alone faces a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with analytical expertise and 1.5 million managers and analysts with the skills to understand and make decisions based on the analysis of big data. In this interactive we explore where in the US economy analytical talent is employed.

Launch the interactive

Read more on the MGI site

If you find this content interesting you might also be interested in hearing from the region’s largest gathering of marketing, loyalty and data professionals strategizing how to improve the effectiveness of their customer engagement strategy and attend En-Gage: The Marketing Show 2012 Middle East

Visit the website | Download the brochure | Contact me

Byron Sharp, Prof. of Marketing Science at the University of South Australia is questioning the benefits supermarkets get from having loyalty programs.

He feels that neither customers nor supermarkets gain much when shopping decision is greatly influenced by store location and parking availability.

He says that people who join the loyalty programs are the people who already come into your store a lot. It’s these people that have time to sign up and will get to realise the benefits from collecting points in exchange for rewards. These people are also unlikely to join loyalty programs for stores they hardly visit, especially as they already have established shopping patterns.

Another academic’s opinion is that retailers do benefit from loyalty programs in the long run – it gives retailers customer data. It lets retailers monitor different consumer groups shopping patterns over time and capitalise on that with different in-store activities to influence purchasing behaviours.

For customers, a lot like the instant rewards, such as the fuel vouchers. Being able to shop and then get a discount on their re-fuel on their way home. People know that the bigger rewards take ages to get to and so retailers encouraging customers to make a bigger shop in one week for an immediate reward works.

(For the full article by ABC News, click here.)

For more ideas and strategies on how you can improve customer loyalty, check out Loyalty World Australia 2012.

Another idea taking shape is big data apps or ‘BDA’ as the cool kids might say.

So what are BDA’s?

Well, according to Raj De Datta, CEO and co-founder of Bloom Reach, “BDAs are web-based applications that interpret and use massive amounts of enterprise and web-scale data to deliver more intelligent results for their subscribers,” De Datta writes. “BDAs leverage the best of the cloud; they’re web-hosted, multi-tenant and use Hadoop, noSQL and a range of recommendation and machine learning technologies.”

LinkedIn is a good example of a BDA for the recruitment software market. Salesforce is also on the move in this direction.

De Datta sees BDAs as a natural extension to the SaaS model.

“While both sell into enterprises, BDAs deliver much more value per dollar spent, because each acquired customer adds data to the engine, which in turn improves the service for all its customers,” he writes.

Whether BDAs gain more popularity is not yet certain. But what is known is that BDAs harness the power of both big data and cloud computing.

This blog post was a summary of the article by Loraine Lawson from IT Business Edge. Click here to view the full article.

You can find out more on big data, cloud computing, and mobile, at Big Data World Australasia 2012. This event will give you ideas, strategies, and knowledge to deal with these ‘disruptive’ technologies of 2013!

For more info, visit: www.terrapinn.com/bigdataaustralasia

Customer journey mapping is now synonymous with customer and user experience projects. Designing one can help employees understand the end to end journey for the customer and improve understanding of how various functions are involved in delivering the experience. Building a journey map can also be fraught with political and logistical problems. You’re likely to meet people who don’t understand the benefits or who believe a narrative map rather than a visual one will suffice. You may even have to encourage colleagues to move beyond internal process mapping.

See the below presentation on 5 Critical Steps To Mapping Your Optimal Customer Journey:

Download the presentation here

Below are a few pointers on how to scope and design a customer journey map which can help visualise the optimum experience you want to deliver to your customers.

1)      Words first. Map out the customer journey using single words/statements first. These might be as simple as ‘find & learn’ or ‘get help. The typical journey at a high level won’t be that long and will likely cover 8 or so steps. Be sure to agree the taxonomy of the wording to ensure that everyone across the organisation understands and uses the same terminology in the future

2)      Storyboard. Write the journey as a story or scenario from the customer perspective. You can use this written narrative later in helping a designer bring the story to life using small animations and visuals

3)      Channels and touchpoints. Map out and label the times where the customer interacts with your business. Include the types of channels used for instance retail or online

4)      Driver definition. Outline the experience drivers that really make a difference for the customer throughout their journey. Think about what makes the experience memorable for them. You’ll already have research that tells you what works best for your customers. An idea we will explore in a later post examines how you might want to define the drivers based on financial impact for the business. You should end up with a wobbly line across your journey which shows the areas you intend to provide ‘bells and whistles’ and those areas where you intend to deliver a basic but effective experience

5)      Stress Points. Look at your existing customer feedback and research. Print off your complaint codes and examine why customers aren’t happy with the experience at times. It might be simple things like not getting a bill on time or receiving an incorrect invoice. If you place these on the map against each touchpoint the map becomes a way of identifying potential problems and mitigating against them

6)      Get emotional. Think about the expectations and emotions you want the customer to experience. Think about outlining these on the map. In a later blog post we’ll look at defining customer outcomes and principles as a way of doing this

7)      Language. Make sure the journey map is written from the customer perspective with the language and verbatim they would use themselves. Avoid complex terminology and reserve it for your internal process maps

8)      Throw a wobbler. The journey for most of your customers is unlikely to be linear no matter how hard you try. Think about defining a journey where a customer might have to go back a step or two. Think about flexibility. How are you going to manage that experience?

9)      Heroes. Build a set of ‘hero journeys’ which cover the main customer segments you have. Have a mixture of easy and complex journeys

The main thing to remember is that customer journey mapping doesn’t sit well with every colleague you’ll meet. Mapping is often something that works for some but not for others. Persevere and you’ll have some great maps which can really help visualise the change you want to deliver.

If you find this content interesting you might also be interested in hearing from the region’s largest gathering of marketing, loyalty and data professionals strategizing how to improve the effectiveness of their customer engagement strategy and attend En-Gage: The Marketing Show 2012 Middle East

Visit the website | Download the brochure | Contact me

The supermarket today announced its preliminary results for the 52 weeks to 17 March 2012. Total sales (inc VAT)  were up 6.8 per cent to £24,511 million, while underlying profit before tax was up 7.1 per cent to £712 million. Market share is now at 16.6%.

Despite the public continuing to be downbeat about household finances, chief executive Justin King said that a perception of value for money, through schemes such as Brand Match and coupons and the Live Well for Less campaign, have helped boost profits.

Some 375 million coupons were issued at Sainsburys tills last year, with 125 suppliers taking part in the scheme. It has also resigned its deal with Nectar.

However, he said the public’s appreciation of the company’s brand values has also been important and a trend missed by other businesses during the downturn. He said:  “It was not a race for the bottom, it was the customer saying times are tougher but I want to hold on to what’s true.”

Creating and distributing share-worthy content has proven to be a successful strategy for engaging customers and driving website traffic growth. Information has become a currency. It is valued, traded and consumed, with digital channels widening its reach.  Consumer appetite for information shows no sign of slowing with Google boasting 10,000 searches per second.

Perhaps more interesting, is the growth in sharing information rather than simply the search and consumption of it.  There are 700 status updates on Facebook per second, with Twitter similarly generating 600 tweets per second. (Search Engine Land)  Social networks have enabled consumers to share, comment, “like”, follow and “retweet”.  These social actions translate to viral endorsement and recommendation of the author, the content and ultimately the brand. 

But it all starts with content.  Your target audience is not going to share what they don’t value or find interesting.  Mashable, arguably one of the world’s most successful blogs for ICT and Social media experts, has attributed its success to making a conscious decision to teach users and share top tips on how to use new platforms and applications. (PostDesk)

I recently borrowed this strategy from Mashable and applied it to my own content creation whilst writing whitepapers on digitizing brand experience and socializing businesses.  Within just one day of distributing more “how to” – led content, there was an incredible spike in consumers downloading information and even contacting me directly to express their gratitude for useful and practical information.

It is worth taking a moment to think about why people don’t share your posts or content.  Hubspot’s Social Media Scientist, Dan Zarrella, has argued that there is a science to sharing – Being a trusted resource that creates unique and genuinely interesting content for your target audience is key in promoting sharing.  (Social Media Examiner)

Here are my 5 Top Tips on getting your content shared:

1. Educate – Give your target audience a reason to consume your content.  Most people turn to Google in search of answers.  Let them find you and learn from you by providing top tips and “how to” content which is share-worthy.
2. Become an Authority – The Economist Intelligence Unit has discovered that the sheer volume of information available means that reputation and credibility of the source is the number one motivating factor in consuming and participating in online content. Trust is not free and needs to be earned.  Therefore earn trust by providing valuable, practical and interesting content that addresses your target audiences’ needs and opportunities.
3. Localize – What works in Europe is not necessarily a blueprint for the Middle East.  If you want a response from your regional market, you need to appeal to them with relevant and engaging content that acknowledges regional market conditions and consumer behaviour.
4. Socialize – Don’t make your content a monologue.  Content marketing is about creating conversation with online consumers, encouraging them to take social action.  Invite sharing, commenting and ratings.
5. Distribute – Make sure your channels match the preferences of your target audience.  Tapping into local social networks is key to getting noticed! (Find out how Nike has Gone global while thinking local)

Do you think brands need to get better at creating share-worthy content?  Who do you think is leading the pack? 

Scroll down to comment or join our LinkedIn group to tell us what you think.

If you enjoyed reading this, you should look at what else the Engage Middle East team has posted:

5 Ways to Encourage Customers to Share Your Content

Top Tips from Microsoft Middle East on social media strategy

Image Source: Mashable

Definition of Mocial

[MObile SoCIAL Networking]

1.  to use a social networking engine (like Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Twitter) through any mobile device (like an Android smartphone, iPhone/iPad, or any other handheld tablet-like or phone-like device).

2. to seek companionship with or check on others while "on the run."

3. to use a mobile device app designed to search for items that connect you with people, businesses, or special events (like through Groupon and LivingSocial)

4. to participate in online gaming (like any of the games on Zynga) through a mobile connection (best enjoyed when competing with others in realtime!)

Staying Connected with Customers 24/7

The explosive growth of smartphones and tablets in recent years is accelerating, and is creating demand for all kinds of mobile applications. As of this writing the Apple App Store, the world’s largest app marketplace, boasts over 500,000 iOS applications for iPhone and iPad.

Mobile access matters

The new generation of high net worth customers increasingly expects information delivered on demand wherever they are, whenever they want it.  These customers are already taking advantage of a wide variety of mobile applications.

If you want to find out how to capitalise on ‘mocial’ to stay connected with your fans 24/7Martin read this presentation by Kubler, Founder, iConsultHotels

If you find this content interesting you might also be interested in hearing from the region’s largest gathering of marketing, loyalty and data professionals strategizing how to improve the effectiveness of their customer engagement strategy and attend En-Gage: The Marketing Show 2012

Visit the website | Download the brochure | Contact me

Most brands have established a footing in social media – designing a  Facebook page, tweeting brand updates or creating a LinkedIn community.  Few, however have managed to inject engagement and interactivity across this platform.  With customers now possessing the same broadcasting tools as brands, marketing needs to be anchored in brand participation, customer dialogue and share-worthy content.

While there is the attempt to digitize brands, most have forgotten to digitize the consumer experience around it.

Nike however, has recognized that marketing needs to be focused on conversation and participation – which is why it remains one the world’s most recognized brands.

So what did Nike do?

Racing past its competitors, Nike has socialized and localized sport. Boasting a brand community of over 5 million members, Nike has kept its fans engaged by introducing the Nike+ GPS app and Sportwatch app. These digital tools gave community members access to local route data, maps, recommendations and support from Facebook friends. Nike’s products were thus promoted by digitizing the running experience, abandoning traditional sales messages for a more interactive, engaging and content-led campaign.

Nike’s Global Digital Brand and Innovation Director, Jesse Stollak, revealed the brand’s strategy is to connect with the customer wherever they are. (Mashable)Nike has managed to digitize the brand experience through its dedication to location-based campaigns; tapping into local social networks within a global brand campaign. In 2010 Nike Grid was launched, revolutionizing the running experience with augmented reality. The city of London was transformed into a digital network of routes and checkpoints to re-energize the running experience. This cocktail of local, social, digital, community and real-world sport, has fuelled sharing, interaction and engagement amongst Nike brand fans.

Image source: Coloribus

Brand loyalty management is important given the enormous investments and impact on the bottom line taking into account the fact that generating new brand users costs 6-10 more than keeping existing brand users. In contexts where brands need to be supported heavily by employees / people (service, B2B, …) big negative impact of employee turnover on customer brand loyalty. Short-term oriented vision hampers development of customer brand loyalty (e.g. focus on sales figures of current quarter).

Download the Presentation on Brand Loyalty Management

Content

1. How big is the challenge?
2. What have we learned?
3. Generating and keeping brand loyalty
4. Measuring brand loyalty

If you find this content interesting you might also be interested in hearing from the region’s largest gathering of marketing, loyalty and data professionals strategizing how to improve the effectiveness of their customer engagement strategy and attend En-Gage: The Marketing Show 2012 Middle East

Visit the website | Download the brochure | Contact me

Big data is quickly becoming very important reveals a recent article by The Australian

But, realising the value from big data is becoming a problem, especially given the skill shortage in this area of expertise. Big data requires one to be an expert in statistics, IT, databases, and statistical analysis. The job description can be liken to a cross between a database architect and administrator.

The demand for big data scientists will grow, albeit rapidly, and supply will not met demand at this rate. As such, people who have big data experience could command a base salary of $120,000 – $140,000.

Universities in the US are working towards including big data into their curriculum. As for Australia, there are no formal courses in big data yet, says Jane Hunter, eResearch Lab Director at University of Queensland School of IT and Electrical Engineering.

Overall, there is clear interest in big data in Australia. Businesses will want to start thinking about equipping themselves with the right capabilities to deal with it!

To make a start in gaining ideas and insights into dealing with big data and nurturing the right expertise for it, considering attending Big Data World Australasia in November 2012.

If you are a big data expert or have big data related solutions then consider entertaining opportunities to speak or sponsor Big Data World Australasia.

Have you wanted to now how Microsoft manage their Social Media Campaign? Download this presentation to discover how

Microsoft believe their has been a massive shift in the traditional marketing model:

The traditional marketing model is of course:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Preference
• Evaluation
• Action

Now Microsoft believe the focus  should be based more on the following:

• Peer review
• Recommendations
• User generated content

Their thoughts are that we are all in marketing and that current perception needs to change!

Microsoft use a 4 step approach to Social Media

• People
• Objectives
• Strategy
• technology

And to drive internal alignment they believe you need to:

• Audit Social Channels
• Consolidate guidelines
• Socialise internally
• Set up members
• Communication internally and externally

If you want to find out more about Microsoft’s internal guidelines, social media aims, digital plan, editorial calendar and personal learning’s see their presentation

Download Microsoft’s Social Media Strategy here

If you find this content interesting you might also be interested in hearing from the region’s largest gathering of marketing, loyalty and data professionals strategizing how to improve the effectiveness of their customer engagement strategy and attend En-Gage: The Marketing Show 2012

Visit the website | Download the brochure | Contact me

What are the current trends in customer loyalty programs? How can you increase loyalty and retention? these are very important questions that lots of companies are now asking.

Read this 7 step presentation on how one needs to go about building a customer loyalty program (primarily in the organized retail industry)

Download the presentation

Here are my Ten Key Principles for Building Customer Loyalty Programs

1. Foster consumer engagement
2. Establish a two-way value proposition
3. Capitalize on customer data
4. Properly segment your loyalty program tiers
5. Develop strategic partnerships
6. Develop dynamic tiers
7. Cater to customers’ desires for choice and fairness
8. Avoid commoditization through differentiation
9. Avoid the price sensitivity trap
10. Embrace new technologies

No matter what the economy is doing, the quest for loyalty offers bottom-line rewards for those who prevail. As unique as your customers are, so will be your challenges and successes as you build and refine your program along the way. The pursuit for customer insight shouldn’t be taken lightly or without long-term dedication.

If you find this content interesting you might also be interested in hearing from the region’s largest gathering of marketing, loyalty and data professionals strategizing how to improve the effectiveness of their customer engagement strategy and attend En-Gage: The Marketing Show 2012 Middle East

Visit the website | Download the brochure | Contact me

Im Bezug auf das BigData-Phänomen werden Unternehmen mit diversen praktischen und ideologischen Herausforderungen konfrontiert. Da gibt es beispielsweise das Problem der Logistik – wie man die Daten erfasst und analysiert. Diese Fragestellungen habe ich schon in früheren Blogs angeschnitten und ich werde in späteren Blogs auf sie zurückkommen.

Bevor wir uns darum kümmen, „WIE“ wir mit den großen Datenmengen umgehen, müssen wir uns erst einmal das „WARUM“ überlegen. Was wollen wir mit diesen Daten eigentlich machen? Welcher Nutzen steckt dahinter? Kurz um – warum brauchen wir sie?

Dank des Internets und insbesondere der Explosion von Social Media sind wir mit aber Tausenden Personen weltweit vernetzt – und es werden ständig mehr. Laut meines Xing-Profils bin ich direkt oder indirekt mit 1.809.266 Personen verbunden! Und dies ist noch verhältnismäßig wenig!

Da ergibt sich die Frage: Mit wie vielen von diesen Leuten bin ich eigentlich wirklich verbunden? Wie viele von ihnen kennen mich? Wie viele wissen, was ich mag oder nicht mag, und was meine Lieblingsfarbe ist? Was sind meine Wünsche und Ziele – mal von denen abgesehen, die ich aus der von Xing vorgegebenen Liste ausgewählt habe? Und was weiß ich von diesen Personen? In den meisten Fällen nicht einmal den Namen!

Ich glaube, ich habe mir einen Virus eingefangen: Social-Media-Müdigkeit. Viele, die am Anfang des Social-Media-Phänomens schnell zu verrückten Fans von Facebook, LinkedIN, Xing und studiVZ wurden, sind jetzt genau so schnell wieder desillusioniert. Denn wir haben gemerkt, dass die sozialen Medien, zumindest im privaten Bereich, unser Leben doch nicht nicht so sehr bereichen, wie erwartet.

Dies hat man erkannt und mittlerweile befinden sich die Social Media im Wandel. In der Marketingwelt setzt sich das Konzept der „Community“ immer mehr durch: Dies wird deutlich beispielsweise an der stetig wachsenden Anzahl der Gruppen bei Xing oder LinkedIn.

Der Bogen zu Big Data lässt sich nun ganz offensichtlich spannen, denn dieser Community-Ansatz bietet ungeahnte Möglichkeiten für Customer Relationship Management und Kundenbindung. Bonuskartenprojekte (siehe auch Blogeintrag von letztem Dienstag) ermöglichen es zwar, ein Profil der Kaufgewohnheiten von Kunden zu erstellen, aber Social-Media-Profile bieten uns die Gelegenheit an, eine menschlicheres Bild unserer Kunden zu zeichnen – und zwar beruhend auf mehr Kriterien als die Milchsorte, die sie kaufen.

Die Social Media zwingen Unternehmen also dazu, ihre Kundenbewertung neu zu definieren. Denn Kunden sind mehr als nur Käufer von Produkten. Sie haben ein eigennütziges Interesse am Erfolg des Unternehmens. Sie sind also wichtige Stakeholder und haben somit ein Forum verdient, wo sie ihre Meinung, sowohl lobend und kritisch, ausdrücken und austauschen können. Wo kann man dies besser machen, als in Social Media?

Dieser Ansatz hat viele Vorteile. Das Unternehmen hat Zugriff auf das ganze Spektrum von Kundendaten, um eine optimal abgestimmte Marketingstrategie zu entwickeln und zu verfolgen, während die Kunden das Gefühl haben, dass man Ihnen zuhört und sie ernst nimmt.

Sobald sich ein Unternehmen entschlossen hat, in einen Dialog mit seinen Kunden einzutreten und eine Kunden-Community aufzubauen, kann es sich dann um den technischen und, noch wichtiger, den rechtlichen Rahmen kümmern – d.h. das „WIE“.
 
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Wir freuen uns über Ihre Erfahrungsberichte!

Engage: Under pressure to hit the stringent and transparent targets demanded by shareholders, businesses across sectors are sacrificing long term goals in favour of short-term victories. This is the view which is increasingly being recognised both within the media and also increasingly by senior industry experts.

A recent article in Marketing Week raised the opinion that now more than ever marketers are having to carefully navigate between twin focuses. Sacrificing short term targets in favour of long term ambitions can be harmful to investor confidence, while the reverse will ensure a lack of business direction. The article gives some notable examples of ‘best practice’ businesses who are bucking the trend in this respect, rejecting the pull of quarterly targets to forge a new a sustainable future.

But “short-termism” does not need to simply refer to hitting targets. Short-termism also covers the need to engage with customers, potential and current, in real time. With a purely long-term strategy businesses miss the opportunity of instantaneous engagement because their mentality is focused 12-24 months down the road and not in the here and now.

This is very much the view of David Meerman Scott, who in a recent interview told me that a predominantly long term focus was one the reasons that many businesses are not engaging effectively with their customer base.

What seems essential is that business executives recognise the equal importance both of CSR (well worth checking out the work of Tomorrow’s Company on this front) and of real time interaction. These do not have to be autonomous business functions, a digital strategy can be made part of a long-term sustainability plan just as the values of CSR can be extolled in real time to customers.

If short-termism means a blinkered focus on targets then businesses are sure to fail. But if we expand this to mean a commitment to instant customer interaction, and is coupled with a sustainable, long-term, CSR plan, then businesses will be well-equipped both for the future and the present.

To read more about David Meerman Scott’s views on the path to business success in the digital world, follow the link here.