June 16, 2017

The Figaro Digital Digest: 16th June 2017

As is the norm, it’s been another busy week in the world of digital marketing.

Thankfully, you won’t have to trawl through your Google alerts as we’ve already rounded up the best bits just for you.

Artificial Intelligence Looks to Boost the Economy

Machine learning and AI (Artificial Intelligence) continue to promise big things for the near future.

A new study released by the IDC forecasts an £11tn boost to business revenue between 2017 and 2021. The most encouraging of this appears to come from the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) sector of digital marketing.

Due to the increasingly highly targeted campaigns made possible by AI, CRM has been able to see a higher degree of personalisation, leading to a higher degree of client retention.

The study which evaluated over 1,000 worldwide organisations calculated that the growth in CRM business generated by AI will create 80,000 direct jobs and 2m indirect jobs by 2021.

While AI is still in its infancy, the promised capital and job creation is proving to be a huge investment draw to powerhouses such as Google, who made the technology the focal point of its recent OI conference.

It’s fair to say that although there’s still plenty of ground to be made in the world of artificial intelligence, even its earliest possibilities appear to be revolutionising the industry.

Instagram Promises Transparency

instagram transparency

It appears as though recent warnings from both the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the US’s Federal Trade Commission (FTS) have shaken social media giants Instagram as they promise to increase transparency when it comes to branded content.

Influencers across the platform had previously been warned that they must include the #ad in their image descriptions when working in collaboration with a brand, however, with vows to crack down on social media advertising, Instagram has promised to provide tools to combat misleading campaigns.

The first of many will be rolled out in the coming weeks and this so called ‘paid partnerships’ tool will be designed to clarify whether the posted content is being made in collusion with a brand or company.

Millions of social media influencers rely heavily on paid content and the new crackdowns may lead to less revenue or more reluctance from brands to use social media as a primary advertising tool.
Whatever the outcome, we’re sure that the Kardashian empire will remain intact.

Advertisers Boycott the GDN Over Offensive Content

Back in March, The Times revealed that both the Google Display Network (GDN) and YouTube were broadcasting advertisements following offensive content such as extremist and violent videos, and a recent survey by The CMO Council found that brands were indeed being affected by the association.

The survey which polled over 2,000 consumers found that 37 per cent of respondents believed that ads which followed offensive content had a negative impact on brand perception.

This may give further explanation as to why many UK and US brands chose to boycott the Google Display Network following the discovery by the London based newspaper until promises could be made as to which videos their ads were likely to be linked to.

With a huge clampdown on video content underway, it should only be a matter of time until more regulations are put in place. However, the longer it takes, the more likely it will be that brands will pause their GDN activities.

With digital marketing being an ever-changing industry, it can be difficult to keep up. Luckily, we have that covered for you.

Take a look at what else we’ve discussed in the blogs below.