Adobe Max 2019

A conference focused on creative and artistic authenticity adds in a dollop of AI After making big ticket acquisitions last year in marketing automation (Marketo, $4.75 billion) and e-commerce (Magento, $1.68 billion) to strengthen an expanding digital marketing portfolio, Adobe turned back to its core mission at Adobe Max 2019, an annual creative conference that…

Experiential Retail Trends

To push back against ‘coach potato’ commerce, brands go bold with in-store experiences. Starbuck’s newest and biggest Reserve Roastery opened this month on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. A 35,000 square-foot, five-story tribute to coffee culture, the bustling location intends to be less about selling coffee and more about extolling the art and science behind it. The…

OOH Advertising Gets Cooler

New digital advertising units from Cooler Screens are helping to put the ohh! in OOH Out of Home Advertising (OOH), which includes billboards and “captive formats” like elevators, lobbies, and theaters, stands out as one of the few traditional channels to enjoy year-over-year growth. According to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America, OOH…

Brands Come to Their Senses

The wellness boom has brands embracing sensory-inspired ideas to deepen connections The $4.2 trillion wellness industry convened in Singapore this week for the 13th annual “Global Wellness Summit” to explore, among other things, how businesses can tap into the full spectrum of human senses to unleash new growth opportunities and make deeper, more memorable connections…

Marketing Buzzwords 2019

A year focused on privacy, streaming, and sonic branding introduced a slew of new buzzwords A recent survey of 100 marketers conducted at last month’s “Technology for Marketing” trade show in London identified the top 10 buzzwords that marketers find the most annoying. These words won’t surprise anyone — as they’ve been misused, overused, and…

When to Invest in UX

LinkedIn’s “Future of Skills 2019 (Asia-Pacific Edition)” report cites Human-Centered Design, aka UX design, as one of the top ten in-demand business skills for this year. Ranked right next to blockchain, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation, the term “UX” – like those other fuzzy marketing buzzword bingo terms – is often derided for failing…

Content Marketing Conference Update

The upstart Cleveland conference highlights new ways to reach audiences with content The advertising industry gathers next week in New York for the 16th annual Advertising Week (Sept. 23-26, #AWNewYork) to figure out how big ideas, big data and the latest tech can make the next generation of advertisements more targeted, memorable, authentic, and experiential.…

B2B eCommerce Best Practices

Longer sales cycles and unique customer needs create opportunities for B2B innovation Forrester forecast earlier this year that B2B ecommerce in the U.S. would reach $1.8 trillion and account for 17% of all B2B sales in the U.S. by 2023. As the statistic suggests, the days when B2B was synonymous with “whiskey and a handshake”…