NEMOA, the National Etailing and Mailing Organization of America, brought together hundreds of e-commerce and direct marketing professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds for its annual Spring Summit in Boston last week. Media Horizons was pleased attend the conference as a gold sponsor.
A plethora of ideas were shared and discussed by many thought leaders.
Here are our Top 10 Takeaways from the Spring Summit:
It’s no secret that magazines and print advertising have been in a state of consolidation.
Jann Wenner just sold a controlling interest in Rolling Stone. Rodale was acquired by Hearst and Time Inc. was purchased by Meredith, with downsizing likely after both transactions close. And some of the best-known magazines around, including Gourmet, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Life have ceased printing altogether or been significantly refocused.
However, there are signs of life.
Checking my mail one day, I received an oversized postcard from a restaurant called Lena’s Italian Kitchen, offering 20% off my first order. As a New York City resident, I can say that this was the first (and only) solo Direct Mail piece I ever received from a restaurant. As a direct marketer, I applauded their strategy… what a great way to stand out in a very crowded landscape. Just how crowded? According to a recent report from Crain’s New York, crowded to the tune of over 26,000 restaurants across the five boroughs!
With the arrival of 2017, we look back and reflect on some of the defining marketing trends and media habits throughout the past year. While we saw a surge in influencer marketing, a shift in the landscape of streaming video consumption, and proof that consumers’ continue to place their trust in traditional media, one thing’s for sure: the marketing landscape is ever-changing.
But what strategies and tactics will influence marketing in 2017? A number of Media Horizons’ thought leaders share their perspective on what’s in store for brands and marketers in the year ahead.
Flashback to a decade ago and the term “subscription box” was essentially non-existent. At a time when the majority of retail existed through local brick-and-mortar stores and home delivery from postal-mailed catalogs, the explosion of online shopping has since transformed the industry, giving way to entirely new retail sub-industries, including the rapid emergence of the subscription box industry.
A lot has changed recently in the world of search advertising. Google and Bing – the world’s largest search engines – in addition to Apple have all introduced new updates and search marketing functionalities that radically change how advertisers can use them – for the better. Here’s what you need to know:
Summer is in full swing but it’s not too late to finalize your back-to-school marketing campaigns. While students are already dreading their return to the classroom, back to school is a competitive season for advertisers – second only to the holiday shopping season – and retailers must plan accordinly in order to see success.
After dismal sales in the first half of 2016, retailers have something to look forward to in the second half of the year. According to eMarketer, back-to-school sales are projected to increase a modest 2.6% to reach nearly $828 billion.
On April 21, Google rolled out yet another mobile-friendly update with the goal of making it easier for users to get relevant, high-quality search results optimized for their mobile devices.
The new update will rank sites that are not mobile optimized even lower than before to incentivize publishers and ecommerce companies to design with mobile in mind.
The changes are a win for consumers who perform more searches on mobile devices than on desktop computers, according to Google.
For businesses, the message Google is sending is loud and clear: update your site according to their mobile-friendly standards, or risk losing website traffic to your competitors who have.
Although the 2016 election season is already in full swing, the media frenzy has only just begun. A $11.4 billion1 deluge of political advertisements is predicted to take over the radio airwaves, clog up TV commercial breaks, fill mailboxes and inboxes, and target internet users’ computers and devices. Available ad inventory will decrease while placement costs will skyrocket – both online and offline. So what’s an advertiser to do?
Something happened this past holiday season that retailers have never seen before. Consumers retreated in record numbers from stores and malls to shop online from the comfort of their home – and retailers took notice.
For the first time in history, online sales outpaced in-stores sales. Take a look at the stats: Cyber Monday was the biggest day in U.S. online shopping ever; e-commerce revenues were up 16.4% from 2014. Conversely, brick-and-mortar sales decreased 10.4% from 2014, according to ShopperTrak.