Barcelona recently hosted the mobile industry’s most important event: Mobile World Congress (MWC). Every year, numerous executive directors of telephone companies, producers, and suppliers from all over the world gather in Barcelona. Writing exclusively for ExchangeWire, Anaïs Ferrández (pictured below), marcom manager, Spain, Tradelab, shares her top insights from this year’s show and explains why there is more to MWC than just the launch of the latest Samsung smartphone. MWC is the annual location for the launch of many of the top [...]

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To remain competitive in a crowded marketplace, and ensure sustainable growth, many businesses are focusing on becoming more customer-centric and less product-centric. The old adage of the customer being king has never been more true. At the core of this approach lies the customer journey – the realm of digital marketing, sales, and customer experience teams. The customer journey, crucial for engagement, conversion, and retention, is shaped by data and supporting technology; but, as Anoma van Eeden (pictured below), CMO, Relay42, [...]

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The holiday season is a critical time of year for a vast swath of the American economy (the National Retailers Federation predicts sales in November and December will reach USD$678bn+ [£508bn+] up from USD$655.8bn [£491.7bn] last year). It’s the time of year when many retailers will finally turn a profit. And it’s when a range of sectors – from electronics manufacturers to publishers – receive up to 30% of their sales for the year. In this piece, Matt Tubergen (pictured [...]

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ExchangeWire Research’s weekly roundup brings you up-to-date research findings from around the world, with additional insight provided by Rebecca Muir, head of research and analysis, ExchangeWire. In this week’s edition: Blockchain can revolutionise marketing; US leads Europe in smart home development; Mobile: high traffic, low engagement; and One for the tennis and football fans. Blockchain can revolutionise marketing Marketers are excited about blockchain’s ability to enhance marketing capabilities, finds a study by Emerging Insider Communications. Almost nine-in-ten (88%) believe that blockchain [...]

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly interweaving itself into our lives, with almost 13 billion IoT consumer units predicted to be in use by 2020, and the average UK home already containing more than eight connected devices. Writing exclusively for ExchangeWire, Ken Parnham (pictured below), general manager Europe, Near, explains why, with this proliferation of devices and user touchpoints, ambient intelligence could be the solution to mapping every consumer interaction and boosting campaign performance. Perpetual connectivity is becoming the norm; and the [...]

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ExchangeWire Research’s weekly roundup brings you up-to-date research findings from around the world, with additional insight provided by Rebecca Muir, head of research and analysis, ExchangeWire. In this week’s edition: Changing channels; Comfort buying on smartphones; and Safety of smart devices.  Changing channels Children and teenagers are increasingly watching TV through smartphones and using on-demand services, finds research by MediaCom. A third (33%) of teenagers regularly view TV content via a smartphone, significantly more than the 25% who did so in 2016. Alongside this, [...]

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Marketers in India struggling to produce content that appeals to consumers should look at data analytics and machine learning for clues. These tools play a crucial role in personalising customer experience, says Gulshan Verma, Times Internet’s chief revenue officer. They enable marketers to determine the best time and format to roll out and optimise communication with consumers, he explains in this Q&A with ExchangeWire. ExchangeWire: Last we spoke, you said Times Internet’s use of programmatic was still limited, with single-digit percentage [...]

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Consumers in Asia are more willing to spend time researching products to find the right brand that works for them, which paves the way for companies to build long-term relationships with their customers. The region, however, also is widely disparate with varying smartphone penetration rates. Given this, brands will need to depend on local skillsets to reach out to customers via different touchpoints, says Simon Tate, Salesforce.com’s area vice president for commercial business. They also will need customer relationship management (CRM) tools [...]

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Oracle’s Marketing Cloud offering has evolved rapidly following a string of acquisitions over the last five years: Eloqua, 2012; Responsys, 2013; BlueKai and Datalogix, 2014; Maxymiser, 2015; and AddThis & Crosswise, 2016. In August 2016, Laura Ipsen (pictured below) moved from Oracle’s Global Industry Solutions Group (technology solutions for retail, financial services, utilities, public sector, etc.) to Oracle Marketing Cloud as SVP and general manager, replacing Kevin Akeroyd, who left the company. During an interview at Oracle’s Modern Business Experience event [...]

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Following obstacles in its acquisition of Yahoo, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) reported a year-on-year decline in revenue. However, the company’s Internet of Things business increased 21%, compared to Q4 2015. Financial Highlights – Total consolidated operating revenues in fourth-quarter 2016 were USD$32bn (£26bn), a 5.6% decrease compared with fourth-quarter 2015. Full-year 2016 revenues were nearly USD$126bn (£101bn), a 4.3% decline. Excluding revenues from since-divested local landline businesses and AOL, adjusted full-year total operating revenues on a comparable basis (non-GAAP) would [...]

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