The Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3, is recognized as North America’s largest gaming expo of the year and an opportunity for the most established and rising developers, publishers, and manufacturers in gaming to showcase and launch upcoming platforms, games and merchandise.
Over the course of 4 days, we focused on how the evolution of gaming can impact brands, both inside and outside of the gaming industry. As ever, our goal was to find the ways to help brands achieve their business objectives through the benefits offered by gaming’s evolution.
Advertising Week is known as the premier event for marketing, brand, advertising, and technology professionals spanning across six major cities around the globe. During the course of four days, our teams attended countless talks from some of the industry's best at Advertising Week NY.
Carat has been producing trend reports for several years, to focus our minds on themes for the year ahead.
This year sees a big convergence between content and commerce, messaging and gaming, and ever more creative uses of data, all driven by the speed of connectivity.
It’s no secret that today’s consumer landscape is changing fast. As the popularity of traditional print, broadcast and outdated social mediums become less efficient in reaching consumers, this audience is heading to new areas to engage with their passions through content and experiences. So, where are consumers going next? How can brands reach them there?
Advertising Week is known as the premier event for marketing, brand, advertising, and technology professionals spanning across six major cities around the globe. During the course of four days, our teams attended countless talks from some of the industry's best at Advertising Week NY.
Carat has been producing trend reports for several years, to focus our minds on themes for the year ahead.
This year sees a big convergence between content and commerce, messaging and gaming, and ever more creative uses of data, all driven by the speed of connectivity.
It’s no secret that today’s consumer landscape is changing fast. As the popularity of traditional print, broadcast and outdated social mediums become less efficient in reaching consumers, this audience is heading to new areas to engage with their passions through content and experiences. So, where are consumers going next? How can brands reach them there?
Carat Trends 2021 - The Year of Emotionally Intelligent Marketingdentsu
In 1970 American writer and futurist Alvin Toffler wrote his best-selling book Future Shock. The book defined the phrase as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies brought about by a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time”.
2020 has undoubtedly been that year.
The world feels like a very different place to the end of the previous decade. For brands, the volatile times mean a greater need for emotional intelligence; listening and understanding how their consumers feel and helping people navigate the new world through their products, services and actions.
The complete 'Building A Gaming Social Brand' whitepaper. This publication explores content across the three key phases of the consumer decision journey:
1) Initial Consideration – Trigger
2) Active Evaluation – Information Gathering, Shopping and Buying
3) Post Purchase Experience and Advocacy
12 technology trends from major developer announcements from the largest companies in tech and evolving consumer habits that have dominated the first half of 2019.
We filter these trends through the framework of Empower, Exponential and Enhanced.
2020 VISION: TRENDS TO DEFINE THE NEXT DECADE presented by MICROSOFT ADVERTIS...Geoffrey Colon
Presented, researched and designed by Microsoft Advertising. Authored by Geoffrey Colon and Aya Kikimova of the Microsoft Advertising Brand Studio. Build your brand with intelligent connections at MicrosoftAdvertising.AI.
Five categories: Culture, Marketing, Media, Technology, Economics.
The 5 Trends:
Culture: Private Social Trust
Marketing: Blocked You
Media: Mashups and Mutations
Technology: The Victory of Defaults
Economics: Zebras Eat Unicorns
Connect with Geoffrey on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter @djgeoffe
2020 VISION: TRENDS TO DEFINE THE NEXT DECADE presented by MICROSOFT ADVERTIS...MSFTAdvertising
Presented, researched and designed by Microsoft Advertising. Authored by Geoffrey Colon and Aya Kikimova of the Microsoft Advertising Brand Studio. Build your brand with intelligent connections at MicrosoftAdvertising.AI.
Five categories: Culture, Marketing, Media, Technology, Economics.
The 5 Trends:
Culture: Private Social Trust
Marketing: Blocked You
Media: Mashups and Mutations
Technology: The Victory of Defaults
Economics: Zebras Eat Unicorns
Want to make 2014 a great year for your brand and business? Here are the 10 trends we at Jack Morton believe will make a difference for brands in the year to come. From the obvious social media marketing tactics to the not so obvious (the next iPhone that's not an iPhone), we share our POV on the things we think will matter to marketers in 2014.
What's Next: Social Commerce - from transaction to truly socialOgilvy Consulting
Social is the most important contributor to e-commerce and a social commerce strategy should definitely be more than paid ads on social. Social, Messaging and E-Commerce platforms are all evolving to connect more deeply social interactions to commerce. Looking through the super rich Asia landscape what are all the different types of Social Commerce? How brands can develop, evolve their approach and capitalise on the real value of social.
Consumers have become increasingly tech savvy, customizing their experiences and curating their minute-by-minute interactions with content, media and social networks. At the same time, the entertainment industry is booming, accelerating in pace and possibility. This has opened a whole new world of content-led marketing, though few brands have truly embraced this strategy to-date, putting real entertainment (and the budgets to support it) at the heart of their marketing. While not all brands can become a large-scale media entity, there is a valid case for making entertainment a permanent component of the marketing mix.
Today, brands should be asking: What content (not just message) is needed to tell my brand story? And how can this support my business ambition? The resulting strategy and breadth of content can then be applied across the year, leading to more opportunities to turn brands into true entertainment properties. The Ogilvy Branded Entertainment Assessment Model™ (Ogilvy BEAM™) brings rigor and consistency to the planning and measurement of this strategy.
At a time when brand stories must come alive through ongoing, multi-platform Branded Entertainment, the balance of logic and magic will bring out the inner greatness of brands.
Luckie & Company's Director of Digital Strategy Chris Zobel provides our annual look at digital trends for the new year, including advances in HTML5, cloud-based music and smartphone adoption.
A review of 2011 looking at all best case studies in social media, PR, experiential, branded content, guerrilla marketing, street marketing, brand activation, advertiser funded programming.
Some of campaigns were created by Havas Sports & Entertainment Russia, or agencies across our network (from our 30 offices in 20 countries). Many of these campaigns were created by other marketing agencies which we recognize as having produced work that we find inspiring and innovative. We encourage and recognize great ideas from anywhere, and anyone.
This document also contains some of our predictions for 2012 across PR and branded content, live and experiential marketing, digital and social media. These predictions were compiled by Ivan Sisnyov and Jez Jowett, our Global Head of Social Media and Digital, also known as @Jezmond.
We hope you find our review of 2011 and predictions for 2012 inspiring and thought provoking. We hope you enjoy the ideas and opportunities they might prompt you to think. If you would like to be inspired face to face then please contact:
CONTACT INFO
Ivan Sisnyov
Executive Director
CONTACT EMAIL ivan.sisnyov@havas-se.ru
Game development innovations like virtual reality and a higher level of internet penetration have made gaming more enjoyable and convenient. Further developments in technologies like blockchain eased asset exchanges within games. While gamers are thrilled to try new releases of their favorite games, game developers should continuously evolve their skills.
https://www.tycoonstory.com/business/game-development-trends-of-2021/
Carat Trends 2021 - The Year of Emotionally Intelligent Marketingdentsu
In 1970 American writer and futurist Alvin Toffler wrote his best-selling book Future Shock. The book defined the phrase as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies brought about by a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time”.
2020 has undoubtedly been that year.
The world feels like a very different place to the end of the previous decade. For brands, the volatile times mean a greater need for emotional intelligence; listening and understanding how their consumers feel and helping people navigate the new world through their products, services and actions.
The complete 'Building A Gaming Social Brand' whitepaper. This publication explores content across the three key phases of the consumer decision journey:
1) Initial Consideration – Trigger
2) Active Evaluation – Information Gathering, Shopping and Buying
3) Post Purchase Experience and Advocacy
12 technology trends from major developer announcements from the largest companies in tech and evolving consumer habits that have dominated the first half of 2019.
We filter these trends through the framework of Empower, Exponential and Enhanced.
2020 VISION: TRENDS TO DEFINE THE NEXT DECADE presented by MICROSOFT ADVERTIS...Geoffrey Colon
Presented, researched and designed by Microsoft Advertising. Authored by Geoffrey Colon and Aya Kikimova of the Microsoft Advertising Brand Studio. Build your brand with intelligent connections at MicrosoftAdvertising.AI.
Five categories: Culture, Marketing, Media, Technology, Economics.
The 5 Trends:
Culture: Private Social Trust
Marketing: Blocked You
Media: Mashups and Mutations
Technology: The Victory of Defaults
Economics: Zebras Eat Unicorns
Connect with Geoffrey on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter @djgeoffe
2020 VISION: TRENDS TO DEFINE THE NEXT DECADE presented by MICROSOFT ADVERTIS...MSFTAdvertising
Presented, researched and designed by Microsoft Advertising. Authored by Geoffrey Colon and Aya Kikimova of the Microsoft Advertising Brand Studio. Build your brand with intelligent connections at MicrosoftAdvertising.AI.
Five categories: Culture, Marketing, Media, Technology, Economics.
The 5 Trends:
Culture: Private Social Trust
Marketing: Blocked You
Media: Mashups and Mutations
Technology: The Victory of Defaults
Economics: Zebras Eat Unicorns
Want to make 2014 a great year for your brand and business? Here are the 10 trends we at Jack Morton believe will make a difference for brands in the year to come. From the obvious social media marketing tactics to the not so obvious (the next iPhone that's not an iPhone), we share our POV on the things we think will matter to marketers in 2014.
What's Next: Social Commerce - from transaction to truly socialOgilvy Consulting
Social is the most important contributor to e-commerce and a social commerce strategy should definitely be more than paid ads on social. Social, Messaging and E-Commerce platforms are all evolving to connect more deeply social interactions to commerce. Looking through the super rich Asia landscape what are all the different types of Social Commerce? How brands can develop, evolve their approach and capitalise on the real value of social.
Consumers have become increasingly tech savvy, customizing their experiences and curating their minute-by-minute interactions with content, media and social networks. At the same time, the entertainment industry is booming, accelerating in pace and possibility. This has opened a whole new world of content-led marketing, though few brands have truly embraced this strategy to-date, putting real entertainment (and the budgets to support it) at the heart of their marketing. While not all brands can become a large-scale media entity, there is a valid case for making entertainment a permanent component of the marketing mix.
Today, brands should be asking: What content (not just message) is needed to tell my brand story? And how can this support my business ambition? The resulting strategy and breadth of content can then be applied across the year, leading to more opportunities to turn brands into true entertainment properties. The Ogilvy Branded Entertainment Assessment Model™ (Ogilvy BEAM™) brings rigor and consistency to the planning and measurement of this strategy.
At a time when brand stories must come alive through ongoing, multi-platform Branded Entertainment, the balance of logic and magic will bring out the inner greatness of brands.
Luckie & Company's Director of Digital Strategy Chris Zobel provides our annual look at digital trends for the new year, including advances in HTML5, cloud-based music and smartphone adoption.
A review of 2011 looking at all best case studies in social media, PR, experiential, branded content, guerrilla marketing, street marketing, brand activation, advertiser funded programming.
Some of campaigns were created by Havas Sports & Entertainment Russia, or agencies across our network (from our 30 offices in 20 countries). Many of these campaigns were created by other marketing agencies which we recognize as having produced work that we find inspiring and innovative. We encourage and recognize great ideas from anywhere, and anyone.
This document also contains some of our predictions for 2012 across PR and branded content, live and experiential marketing, digital and social media. These predictions were compiled by Ivan Sisnyov and Jez Jowett, our Global Head of Social Media and Digital, also known as @Jezmond.
We hope you find our review of 2011 and predictions for 2012 inspiring and thought provoking. We hope you enjoy the ideas and opportunities they might prompt you to think. If you would like to be inspired face to face then please contact:
CONTACT INFO
Ivan Sisnyov
Executive Director
CONTACT EMAIL ivan.sisnyov@havas-se.ru
Game development innovations like virtual reality and a higher level of internet penetration have made gaming more enjoyable and convenient. Further developments in technologies like blockchain eased asset exchanges within games. While gamers are thrilled to try new releases of their favorite games, game developers should continuously evolve their skills.
https://www.tycoonstory.com/business/game-development-trends-of-2021/
The objective to make profits from games can be easily materialized with the acquisition of advanced game development services. When developing bankable games, focusing on the latest trends will be much beneficial. This document describes some of them.
In 2017, the Asia-Pacific was the largest regional market for digital gaming but in the present scenario funding in European gaming firms by Chinese acquirers are primarily driving the European market.
Unlike the broader PC market, which continues shrinking, gaming PC sales are projected to increase over the next couple of years. According to NVIDIA, PC gaming accounts for nearly 40% of the overall gaming business. This percentage is higher than those for consoles, phones, tablets, phones, or any other individual gaming fragment.
PC gaming has seen a renaissance, partly thanks to superior graphics and processing but also the meteoric rise of the eSports scene and free-to-play games. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research (JPR), notes that “NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD have enthusiast CPUs and GPUs that are so powerful, when combined with SSD’s and fast memory they absolutely trounce the computing power and gaming capabilities of the newest console generation.”
Gaming has become one of the cornerstones of the entire home and personal PC market. $1000 video cards are flying off the shelves, exciting and demanding new technologies like 4K and VR are on the horizon, and gamers are upgrading in accordance. As major companies evaluate their marketing and R&D budgets, JPR is seeing more investment in gaming oriented designs, and more money spent advertising to this group of consumers. JPR estimated that the gaming hardware market is expected to grow to $30 billion by 2018.
Now, the PC industry is betting BIG on gamers and core gamers are expected to drive recorded growth for PC games. In this report, I hope you can learn how eSports are saving the PC industry and how PC hardware vendors can take advantage of this growing opportunity.
Problem Statement-
As of 2022, Teams has over 270 million monthly active users. Launched in 2017, with 2 million monthly active users, they have been able to grow their users more than 10x times in only 5 years. You’ve recently joined as VP of Product with Microsoft Teams. You realized your forte has been to cater mainly to businesses and educational institutions up until now, with the entire application built around making collaboration better in workspaces and schools and colleges.
However, with offices and schools/colleges opening up, you fear Teams might become obsolete and start losing the growth trajectory they have been on up until now. You want to break your synonymity with only offices and educational institutions and want to bring changes in the current app to acquire more users who are looking to communicate with others.
The Five Biggest Gaming Technology Trends In 2022Bernard Marr
Technology in the world of gaming is evolving fast, and games have long been the place where we see tech innovations in action. Here, we look at the biggest gaming tech trends in 2022, including cloud gaming, VR, the metaverse, NFTs, and esports.
The Ultimate Gaming & eSports Career Guide: Discover the opportunities and sk...Rob Kingyens
The Ultimate Gaming & eSports Career Guide
Are you looking for a career in gaming? Learn about the opportunities and skills you need to work in the footwear industry in this guide.
You’ve probably heard about the explosive growth of esports and gaming, but do you know how to break into the field?
The total global gaming market was valued at $178 billion in 2021 and is forecasted to reach $269 billion by 2025. In January 2022, retail gaming revenue alone in the U.S. reached $4.68 billion. But the fastest-growing sector in gaming is eSports. The eSports industry’s global market revenue is forecast to grow to as much as $1.62 billion in 2024. There are an estimated 621 teams across the U.S. among varying levels of competition, representing more than 1120 players.
This comprehensive guide will provide an in-depth look at the gaming and eSports industry and a roadmap for how to start your career. In addition, the guide contains information about what jobs are available and the skills that you need.
The Ultimate Gaming & eSports Career Guide is your source to discover careers and learn entry points into the industry. In addition to providing information on different career paths available, we also offer exercises on how to begin your career and highlight important skills to help you succeed. In this guide, you can explore the jobs that drive the market, then search for your perfect career by area of interest, skills, companies, or industry experts.
Learn about your skills and interests, identify career options you might pursue, and implement a successful strategy to attain your desired career outcomes.
In this guide, you’ll find the following information:
• Overview of the gaming & eSports industry
• The future of gaming & eSports
• Gaming & eSports Career Library
• Career Planning Strategy to get into the gaming industry
You’ll also find simple exercises that help you:
• form a career planning strategy to get into the gaming industry
• find your passion for the gaming & eSports business and identify an area of interest to pursue
• learn the industry through top teams, companies, and its key players
identify your skills and match them to a place of interest
Looking to learn more about the gaming & eSports industry, the opportunities in gaming, or build the skills you need? Explore our gaming & eSports course — Gaming & eSports Industry Essentials — led by FIT Gaming to learn the ins and outs of the industry while building your expertise to break into the field.
Mastering Multi-Touchpoint Content Strategy: Navigate Fragmented User JourneysSearch Engine Journal
Digital platforms are constantly multiplying, and with that, user engagement is becoming more intricate and fragmented.
So how do you effectively navigate distributing and tailoring your content across these various touchpoints?
Watch this webinar as we dive into the evolving landscape of content strategy tailored for today's fragmented user journeys. Understanding how to deliver your content to your users is more crucial than ever, and we’ll provide actionable tips for navigating these intricate challenges.
You’ll learn:
- How today’s users engage with content across various channels and devices.
- The latest methodologies for identifying and addressing content gaps to keep your content strategy proactive and relevant.
- What digital shelf space is and how your content strategy needs to pivot.
With Wayne Cichanski, we’ll explore innovative strategies to map out and meet the diverse needs of your audience, ensuring every piece of content resonates and connects, regardless of where or how it is consumed.
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
How to Run Landing Page Tests On and Off Paid Social PlatformsVWO
Join us for an exclusive webinar featuring Mariate, Alexandra and Nima where we will unveil a comprehensive blueprint for crafting a successful paid media strategy focused on landing page testing.With escalating costs in paid advertising, understanding how to maximize each visitor’s experience is crucial for retention and conversion.
This session will dive into the methodologies for executing and analyzing landing page tests within paid social channels, offering a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical insights.
The Pearmill team will guide you through the nuances of setting up and managing landing page experiments on paid social platforms. You will learn about the critical rules to follow, the structure of effective tests, optimal conversion duration and budget allocation.
The session will also cover data analysis techniques and criteria for graduating landing pages.
In the second part of the webinar, Pearmill will explore the use of A/B testing platforms. Discover common pitfalls to avoid in A/B testing and gain insights into analyzing A/B tests results effectively.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
Core Web Vitals SEO Workshop - improve your performance [pdf]Peter Mead
Core Web Vitals to improve your website performance for better SEO results with CWV.
CWV Topics include:
- Understanding the latest Core Web Vitals including the significance of LCP, INP and CLS + their impact on SEO
- Optimisation techniques from our experts on how to improve your CWV on platforms like WordPress and WP Engine
- The impact of user experience and SEO
Videos are more engaging, more memorable, and more popular than any other type of content out there. That’s why it’s estimated that 82% of consumer traffic will come from videos by 2025.
And with videos evolving from landscape to portrait and experts promoting shorter clips, one thing remains constant – our brains LOVE videos.
So is there science behind what makes people absolutely irresistible on camera?
The answer: definitely yes.
In this jam-packed session with Stephanie Garcia, you’ll get your hands on a steal-worthy guide that uncovers the art and science to being irresistible on camera. From body language to words that convert, she’ll show you how to captivate on command so that viewers are excited and ready to take action.
Monthly Social Media News Update May 2024Andy Lambert
TL;DR. These are the three themes that stood out to us over the course of last month.
1️⃣ Social media is becoming increasingly significant for brand discovery. Marketers are now understanding the impact of social and budgets are shifting accordingly.
2️⃣ Instagram’s new algorithm and latest guidance will help us maintain organic growth. Instagram continues to evolve, but Reels remains the most crucial tool for growth.
3️⃣ Collaboration will help us unlock growth. Who we work with will define how fast we grow. Meta continues to evolve their Creator Marketplace and now TikTok are beginning to push ‘collabs’ more too.
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
Digital Commerce Lecture for Advanced Digital & Social Media Strategy at UCLA...Valters Lauzums
E-commerce in 2024 is characterized by a dynamic blend of opportunities and significant challenges. Supply chain disruptions and inventory shortages are critical issues, leading to increased shipping delays and rising costs, which impact timely delivery and squeeze profit margins. Efficient logistics management is essential, yet it is often hampered by these external factors. Payment processing, while needing to ensure security and user convenience, grapples with preventing fraud and integrating diverse payment methods, adding another layer of complexity. Furthermore, fulfillment operations require a streamlined approach to handle volume spikes and maintain accuracy in order picking, packing, and shipping, all while meeting customers' heightened expectations for faster delivery times.
Amid these operational challenges, customer data has emerged as an important strategy. By focusing on personalization and enhancing customer experience from historical behavior, businesses can deliver improved website and brand experienced, better product recommendations, optimal promotions, and content to meet individual preferences. Better data analytics can also help in effectively creating marketing campaigns, improving customer retention, and driving product development and inventory management.
Innovative formats such as social commerce and live shopping are beginning to impact the digital commerce landscape, offering new ways to engage with customers and drive sales, and may provide opportunity for brands that have been priced out or seen a downturn with post-pandemic shopping behavior. Social commerce integrates shopping experiences directly into social media platforms, tapping into the massive user bases of these networks to increase reach and engagement. Live shopping, on the other hand, combines entertainment and real-time interaction, providing a dynamic platform for showcasing products and encouraging immediate purchases. These innovations not only enhance customer engagement but also provide valuable data for businesses to refine their strategies and deliver superior shopping experiences.
The e-commerce sector is evolving rapidly, and businesses that effectively manage operational challenges and implement innovative strategies are best positioned for long-term success.
The What, Why & How of 3D and AR in Digital CommercePushON Ltd
Vladimir Mulhem has over 20 years of experience in commercialising cutting edge creative technology across construction, marketing and retail.
Previously the founder and Tech and Innovation Director of Creative Content Works working with the likes of Next, John Lewis and JD Sport, he now helps retailers, brands and agencies solve challenges of applying the emerging technologies 3D, AR, VR and Gen AI to real-world problems.
In this webinar, Vladimir will be covering the following topics:
Applications of 3D and AR in Digital Commerce,
Benefits of 3D and AR,
Tools to create, manage and publish 3D and AR in Digital Commerce.
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
Everyone knows the power of stories, but when asked to come up with them, we struggle. Either we second guess ourselves as to the story's relevance, or we just come up blank and can't think of any. Unlocking Everyday Narratives: The Power of Storytelling in Marketing will teach you how to recognize stories in the moment and to recall forgotten moments that your audience needs to hear.
Key Takeaways:
Understand Why Personal Stories Connect Better
How To Remember Forgotten Stories
How To Use Customer Experiences As Stories For Your Brand
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
For too many years marketing and sales have operated in silos...while in some forward thinking companies, the two organizations work together to drive new opportunity development and revenue. This session will explore the lessons learned in that beautiful dance that can occur when marketing and sales work together...to drive new opportunity development, account expansion and customer satisfaction.
No, this is not a conversation about MQLs and SQLs. Instead we will focus on a framework that allows the two organizations to drive company success together.
The session includes a brief history of the evolution of search before diving into the roles technology, content, and links play in developing a powerful SEO strategy in a world of Generative AI and social search. Discover how to optimize for TikTok searches, Google's Gemini, and Search Generative Experience while developing a powerful arsenal of tools and templates to help maximize the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
Understand how search engines work
Be able to find out where your users search
Know what is required for each discipline of SEO
Feel confident creating an SEO Plan
Confidently measure SEO performance
2. Carat @ E3 2019 wrap up
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3, is
recognized as North America’s largest
gaming expo of the year. Presented
and organized by the Entertainment
Software Association (ESA), the expo is
an opportunity for the most established
and rising developers, publishers, and
manufacturers in gaming to
showcase and launch upcoming
platforms, games and merchandise.
With 86% of internet users worldwide
gaming on at least one device monthly,
(92% between the age 16 to 24) the
business models behind gaming are
changing fast, reflective of emerging
technology, cultural trends and
platforms that have impacted so many
other categories.
Over the course of 4 days, we focused
on how the evolution of gaming can
impact brands, both inside and outside
of the gaming industry. As ever, our
goal was to find the ways to help brands
achieve their business objectives
through the benefits offered by
gaming’s evolution.
2Source: GlobalWebIndex, 2019
3. The ‘Netflix’ for games
Since 2014, subscription-based gaming
services have changed the way gamers
are able to play, giving unlimited access
to select games for a monthly fee vs
purchasing physical copies.
The approach is dominated by
PlayStation Now, Xbox Game Pass and
Nvidia’s GeForce Now and earned
$273M as a category in 2018.
This year, we saw major entrants,
including tech powerhouse, Google
enter the fray with Google Stadia, as
well as gaming publisher, Ubisoft (known
for games like Assassin’s Creed and
Ghost Recon)with Uplay+.
This increased competition to be the
‘Netflix of gaming’ stems from growing
consumer demand. According to
Deloitte, more Millennials subscribe to
video game services than cable, and
that 53% of 23-36 year-olds pay for
gaming services, vs 51% who pay for TV.
3Source: Nielsen, Deloitte
Implication for Brands
As subscription services for gaming become more popular, time spent gaming will
increase. Brands, who wish to connect with increasingly elusive Millennials and Gen Z
audiences will need to begin exploring how they fit into the growing ecosystem as a
result.
4. The rise of the Cloud
One of the hottest topics at E3 was
Cloud Gaming, also known as Gaming
on Demand.
The promise of Cloud Gaming is the
ability to play high-graphic, console-
level games on any device. Similar to
cloud computing, the processing and
rendering of a game will be done on a
remote server, allowing high quality
games to be streamed and played on a
phone or tablet. Once connected to
the internet, you can play at home, on
a bus, or in a café, on any device. This is
a game changer to the gaming industry.
While concerns exist, given its
dependence on a stable, hi-fidelity
internet service (i.e. 5G), the impact of
cloud is on its way. Options for gamers
will include Bethesda's Orion, Xbox
xCloud, Google Stadia, Playstation Now,
Nintendo Online, and NVIDIA's Geforce
Now.
4
Implication for Brands
Cloud gaming increases the incentive for developing cross-device and platform
(e.g., PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo) games. Fortnite, a cross-platform game, already
proved how successful this can be.
As a result, gamers will leave a strong digital trail, as logging in will be required to
continue playing the game on a new or different device/platform. This presents
tremendous opportunity to better reach and retarget consumers with sequential
messaging.
5. Freemium
A recent BrightCove & YouGov survey
discovered that a free trial was the top
reason for consumers to try a new
streaming service, and the same could
be applied to gaming.
Fortnite, one of the most popular games
since its launch in 2017, provides three
low entry points for gamers– the ability
to play cross-device, cross-platform, and
free. With just a smartphone and a wi-fi
connection anyone can get
started. Between Fortnite’s merchandise
(such as character skins and special
weapons) and one-of-a-kind award
winning brand partnerships that keep
the game relevant, Fortnite's publisher,
Epic Games grossed a $3 billion profit in
2018.
An additional model discussed at E3
was the ‘free to join when a paying
customer hosts.’ With cloud gaming
coming down the line, this model will
likely flourish as playing a new game will
be as simple as clicking on a link.
5Source: BrightCove & YouGov, eMarketer
Implication for Brands
As cloud games grow and the industry increasingly relies on a free-to-play model,
advertisers will be courted to advertise in-game and around the game.
Key brand opportunities will be sponsorships for free-to-play games (adding value to
the overall ecosystem) or offers to access a pay-to-play game through a trial period
(adding value to individual consumers).
6. Streamers everywhere
On the E3 showfloor, there was one
constant - streamers. Every inch of the
show floor was covered by a
broadcaster sharing their opinions
directly to their audiences. Top
streamer, Dr DisRespect, was even
banned for excessive streaming,
including streaming live in the bathroom
of the convention.
For distribution, streamers tend to turn to
established game streaming platforms
including Microsoft’s Mixer and
Amazon’s Twitch; but general market
platforms, YouTube and Facebook, are
also a hotbed for streamers and talking
heads due to their vast reach.
6
Implication for Brands
The connection gamers and consumers feel to streamers is
very much real and powerful, much like consumers feel a
strong connection to athletes. Brands need be conscious
of this and find ways to build on the connection they offer.
Two immediate options present themselves: (1)
Surrounding streamers and their content by partnering
with platforms like Mixer, Twitch and YouTube. (2) Partner
with specific streamers or a group of streamers for deeper
integration and effusive endorsements.
Key questions: What values matter to your brand? How
would you like to see those values come to life through
gaming? Ultimately, what do you want to say to gamers?
7. Continued growth of eSports
Endemic businesses, including Super
League Gaming and eLeague were the
first to jump on the eSports opportunity.
Now as eSports viewership and ad
revenue are expected to grow ~20%
annually - traditional media
powerhouses, gaming publishers, and
developers aren't planning to miss out.
• ESPN is currently expanding its eSports
offering by partnering with EA to host
two tournaments featuring the game,
Apex Legends (a Fortnite challenger).
• Following E3, Epic Games hosted the
Fortnight Creative Showdown, their
first major tournament for their Fortnite
Creative game mode. Additionally,
Epic Games will host the Fortnite Pro-
Am, in which pro Fortnite players will
team up with celebrities in 2-person
squads for a $3MM charity prize.
7Source: eMarketer
Implication for Brands
As with traditional sports leagues, there are multiple ways to leverage eSports to reach
and engage with your target consumers that enjoy healthy competition and gaming.
A brand can leverage a light touch approach, such as partnering with streaming
partners (e.g., Twitch, TBS) to simply be there as the action unfolds.
On the high touch end, a brand can integrate itself into the experience of an existing
eSports league/tournament or serve as the founding sponsor alongside a gaming
publisher.
8. IP crossover
The use of established and beloved
entertainment intellectual properties in
gaming has been around for some time.
Today, IP licensing continues to
generate more longevity and fandom
among films and game lovers alike:
• Some of the most anticipated games
of the year are based off films, with
Star Wars Fallen Order and Avengers
topping gamer's most wanted lists
according to an IGN survey during E3.
• Harry Potter, Dragon Ball Z, Stranger
Things, Pokémon Detective Pikachu,
and Blair Witch have also expanded
from the film world and into gaming.
• Conversely, Tom Clancy’s Ghost
Recon and The Witcher are games
being remade as films by Netflix to
create more content for gaming fans.
IP is not the only way to generate fan
excitement. Following its
announcement of Keanu Reeves as a
character, CyberPunk 2077 took social
by storm and is already a highly
anticipated game set for release in
2020.
8
Implication for Brands
Game studios have a strong desire to leverage established and beloved IP. If you are
a well-known and/or beloved brand, there may be opportunity to leverage a
partnership with game studios to create one-of-kind engagements and associations
for your brand.
For example, can a QSR brand be the main source of food in the world of a game?
Could an in-game character be styled by a clothing or beauty brand as a reward?
9. Connecting with gamers
In order to reach the gaming audience,
brands don’t need to jump in head-first
into sponsorships and in-game
integrations. There should be a crawl,
walk, run strategy designed to
approach this desirable community that
fulfill brand goals and objectives. We’ve
distilled the complexity among effort
and investment into 7 gaming
activations into three tiers based on
each activation’s potential to move
your business.
9
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 3
Easy entry point into gaming that can
exist as part of a general media plan
• Mobile Gaming Ads
• Gaming Content Sponsorships
Conscious display of investment to build
consistency with gaming audience built
on a targeted media strategy
• Streaming Platform Sponsorship
• eSports League Sponsorship
Higher cost & effort needed to display commitment
to gaming as a strategic comms pillar for brand
• Streamer Sponsorship
• eSports League Sponsorship
• In-Game Integration
10. Carat @ E3 2019 wrap up
10
Ipalibo Da-Wariboko
Associate Director, Strategy,
Carat US
Michael Liu
VP Director, Mobile, Innovation
and Strategy, Carat US
Check out Carat’s podcast episode,
The Game: The Human Element
Contact Us:
www.carat.com/usa
carat.usmarketing@carat.com