Following the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, many quick service restaurants were turned upside down and had to adjust their service models. With closed dining rooms, increased sanitization procedures and a pandemic staring them in the face, many brands shifted their focus to technology to find contactless ways to continue driving sales. With drive-thru, curbside or delivery top-of-mind for many consumers, app and online ordering quickly became the new normal for dining out. 

The digital media space is constantly changing, ebbing, and flowing with the events in society. Large societal shifts and a long list of unknowns have already started to show a large increase in digital media habits. As digital media habits shift, the teams that plan and execute campaigns should be nimble and have the ability to adapt in real-time to mirror those habits. Increased news coverage and data usage present an opportunity for advertisers to reach users with clever solutions and content in a time when they need it most.

In the words of every great investor, "Don't invest in something you don't understand." The same could be said for digital marketing. We all know the world is going digital. But let’s be honest, programmatic can be a complicated marketing tactic to understand. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “programmatic” tossed around. With that being said, let this blog post be a general overview of the exciting world of programmatic advertising and how it works. 

Need some digital marketing inspiration this week? The digital team at VI is always seeking out the latest in digital marketing insights. In an ever-evolving industry, we keep our skills sharp and our clients top-of-mind. 

How do you compete in an oversaturated social ad space? In the era of binge-watching and short attentions spans, marketers are challenged with creating content that is to-the-point, adaptive to the platform and personalized. We need to reach audiences with familiar content, reliable content and consumable content.

I wrote my last blog about snackable videos, so I’ll be sticking with the food theme as I take a minute to dive further into consumable content. To make content consumable, we can’t simply dump content on a user and expect the results to be long-lasting. We need to do more than just engage. We need to maintain engagement. So we must create supportive content that is easily accessible and encourages continued relationships. Enter the age-old solution of storytelling.

Video is one of the most engaging and effective ways to educate your target audience. Let’s face it, video can be used to support almost any objective. While it is usually designed to achieve upper-funnel objectives, it can be used to achieve lower parts of the funnel too. These are a few ways to ensure video is used as effectively as possible at every consumer touchpoint.

One of the most important, but often forgotten, aspects of a digital marketing campaign is conversion or goal tracking. You can put together the most strategic marketing plan with sound strategies and clear objectives, but if you don't have a way to track success, you won't be able to measure campaign success. For this reason, determining success metrics prior to campaign launch is crucial. These success metrics may vary by objective, but are typically conversion goals and/or key performance indicators (KPIs) for each tactic. Keep in mind that determining what action or actions you want a user to take is only the first step. You also will have to determine the best way to track these actions.

“Snackable” 6-second ads have been popping up in the digital space, as well as traditional media, for the past year. And now, industry leaders are saying 2018 is “go-time” for these short videos. As attention spans dwindle and the need for on-the-go information rises, these bite-size videos are giving the consumer what they seek and enticing them for more.

Our media landscape is becoming more fragmented by the day. Audiences are consuming media (especially video content) across multiple platforms, often at the same time. These changing media habits really underline the question of how can we measure TV and digital video viewing, and then compare it on an apples-to-apples level?

Digital, as a tactic, tends to be pigeonholed as just paid search or a series of pixel sizes to be placed on websites as banner ads. In reality, digital has the capacity to be one of the most enthralling & engaging tactics advertisers have in their arsenal.

Since the 2016 presidential election, it seems journalists, digital gurus and the general public as a whole can’t stop discussing fake news and the role it played in public opinion on both sides of the aisle.

eMarketer has recently released its 10 Key Digital Trends for 2017. One of these predictions is that some time in 2017 a live digital video stream will achieve a primetime TV-size audience. To preface this, when we discuss livestreaming we are not talking about current viewing on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. These are programs (usually also on TV) being broadcast through an online source. When looking at why they think this year will have this increase let’s take a look at what we saw in 2016 and what is planned for 2017.