Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly digital marketing news roundups, where our expert team brings you the latest exciting developments in the world of digital marketing. This week, we explore LinkedIn’s latest updates as they launch sponsored articles and much more…
Let’s dive into some of the latest and exciting updates and news from the marketing world…
Table of Contents
LinkedIn launches sponsored articles
LinkedIn has introduced sponsored articles, offering marketers an extra tool to boost brand awareness, increase engagement, and generate leads. Users on LinkedIn won’t need to leave the platform to read sponsored content, potentially leading to increased engagement. Here’s how it works: when a company publishes an article, admins can now choose to promote it.
This promotion adds a call-to-action button, such as “Unlock Article,” prompting users to sign up and access the full content. Similar to LinkedIn lead generation ads, this feature’s direct link to in-app engagement is advantageous for LinkedIn and potentially beneficial for businesses. Read more here:
Google Terminates Contract with Appen For Search Quality Raters
Big tech giant Google has pulled the plug on its contract with Appen, a major provider of search engine evaluators (quality raters), effective March 19, 2024. This leaves the future of the Search Quality Rater program murky, as Appen has been a key supplier for years.
The news, announced by Appen on January 20, comes amidst wider layoffs at Google across various departments. According to CEO Sundar Pichai, these cuts are designed to streamline the company’s focus on artificial intelligence development. Read more here:
How LGBTQ+ inclusion boosts profits
There might be a link between inclusion and profitability, new research presented at Davos reveals. A report by Open for Business shows that the top 25 corporations in LGBTQ+ transparency were 2.3 times more profitable than the bottom 25. Launching the report, Open for Business CEO Dominic Arnall stated that this “demonstrates a correlation between LGBTQ+ inclusion and higher investor returns”. One of the drivers for this appears to be the growing global LGBTQ+ consumer market, now larger than many major economies.
With growing global LGBTQ+ consumer spending power, the investor interest in integrating inclusion metrics into environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies is also rising. Meanwhile, 92% of the largest American, British, German and Australian public companies surveyed now consider diversity, equity and inclusion a “material issue” for their business. Read more here:
Marketing generalists will supersede specialists in 2024 (and beyond)
The Drum predicts a shift in the marketing landscape in 2024 and beyond, suggesting that marketing generalists will become more valuable than specialists. They emphasise the need for marketers to possess a broad skill set and understanding of various aspects of the marketing mix.
The rise of integrated marketing strategies is anticipated, where professionals can navigate seamlessly across different channels and disciplines. The article encourages marketers to be adaptable, continuously learning, and focusing on building a holistic understanding of consumer behaviour and market trends rather than specialising in a narrow field. Read more here:
Temu’s ad spend soars as it embarks on a marketing blitz
If you do any sort of paid search advertising, you’ve probably seen Temu are very much everywhere on auction insights. This article highlights the surge is part of an extensive marketing campaign. The company’s aggressive approach to advertising is described as unprecedented, and the article emphasises the scale of the marketing blitz. It delves into the strategies employed by Temu to elevate its brand visibility, indicating that this level of ad spending is unusual in the industry. The article doesn’t specify the nature of Temu’s business but focuses on its remarkable and unparalleled surge in advertising expenditure. Read more here:
Marketing budgets get unexpected boost despite economic uncertainty
The latest IPA Bellwether report finds that most businesses opted to step up their investment in marketing in the fourth quarter. Over one quarter (26%) of businesses report an upward revision of spend in the fourth quarter. By contrast, only around one in 10 (11.3%) reports saw budgets decrease in the year’s final three months.
This means a net balance of 14.7% of businesses made upward revisions to marketing spend in the fourth quarter of 2023. This net balance total is the highest recorded by the Bellwether report since the second quarter of 2014. Read more here:
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