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B2B Digital Advertising: How to Use it Strategically for Online Marketing Success

Jul 24, 2023 by Mark Baines Category: Advertising, Knowhow 0 comments

Attracting B2B buyers is notoriously challenging because the process can be more complex compared to targeting B2C customers. In the B2B space there are usually various players who each have opinions and purchasing power, they are often diverse and there is considerable competition to contend with.

Content Marketing: mistakes to avoid and tips to take away

Pitfalls in content marketing can be a costly mistake, so its vital to keep aware. We'd like to share our key insights and tips with you to make sure you don't plummet into any costly holes.

Six ways to win with LinkedIn advertising

Mar 21, 2022 by Mark Baines Category: Advertising 0 comments

LinkedIn advertising is sometimes seen as hard to optimise, but here are six ways you can make it simple and effective, to ensure that you know your money is being well spent

How important is advertising to our economy?

Aug 14, 2018 by Mark Baines Category: Advertising 0 comments

The advertising industry supports over one million jobs in the UK and ads £120bn to the economy. Yes – really! These are the figures for 2016.

It’s huge – not only in size and money, but also in its cultural significance, and the way it draws attention and talent to our little island of Britain. However, the advent of data-driven and digital marketing is having a detrimental effect, as the ‘soft’ skills such as empathy and creativity are now less valued than they were, and are being replaced with the hard skills of programming and data analysis.

UK Advertising in a Digital Age

In June therefore the House of Lords launched a Report ‘UK Advertising in a Digital Age’.

Luckily for you I’m here to paraphrase the key recommendations of this important piece of work, as I don’t expect you to read the Report in full, dear reader! Because these will probably find their way into the Statutes book at some point in the future, and will have a big impact on our careers:

  • The Committee recommends that the industry should take greater steps to self-regulate through independent bodies such as the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards.
  • The Competition and Markets Authority should undertake a market study of the digital advertising market to ensure that it is working fairly for businesses and consumers.
  • The Government should review whether competition law is appropriate for the 21st century digital economy.
  • Individuals from all communities and backgrounds, regardless of ethnicity, gender, class and ability, should have access to employment in the advertising industry. The industry should discontinue informal working and recruitment practices, such as unpaid internships, which present a barrier to groups from lower socioeconomic groups. The Government should clarify the law on unpaid internships. This will allow the advertising industry to access a larger talent pool which better reflects the advertisers' audiences.
  • The Government should seek to negotiate reciprocal agreements with other countries under which international workers with a job offer in the advertising industry will have the right to work in the UK. The Government should also introduce a creative industries' freelancer visa.

Some of these ‘recommendations’ will have a huge effect. It’s just a matter of time before they start working their way through the system.

You have been warned!

Display advertising: there’s still life in the old dog yet!

Dec 13, 2013 by Mark Baines Category: Advertising 0 comments

Banner blindness… the downward price spiral of click-through rates… 23% of users with banner-blocking software, and growing at 43% pa… outdated technologies… untargeted impressions… In fact, you’d think that banner advertising was dead in the water. But actually it’s the opposite: 12.4% annual growth (IAB Research) in an industry already worth £1.3bn – now that’s […]

Animals in advertising don’t you luv’em?!

Apr 12, 2013 by Mark Baines Category: Advertising 0 comments

Let’s face it – we all love Aleksandr Orlov – the simple-minded Meerkat who’s heading for an Oscar for his tireless work for Compare the Market. He has nearly 800,000 Facebook ‘likes’, and 20,000 followers on Twitter! And Churchill the dog. What wouldn’t you give to have him espousing your product too! Andrex. Dulux. Even […]