Posts made in August, 2020

on Aug 31, 2020

By Travis Johnson The strain on the world’s largest online retailer has created new, tricky challenges for brands. Travis Johnson of marketplace consultants Podean explains what is happening, why and what brands need to do about it before the holiday rush hits. The impact that Covid-19 has had on e-commerce, and on the 800-pound-gorilla that is Amazon, has been profound. According to Bank of America estimates, 44% of US e-commerce spend goes to Amazon and its Q2 earnings showed an increase of 40% – all this while dozens of bricks-and-mortar retailers file for bankruptcy. But all that growth has not come Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Aug 31, 2020

By Shawn Lim With countries in South East Asia (SEA) working hard to ensure their people’s health and safety needs are met during the Covid-19 pandemic, transportation and adapting to the digital economy have become extremely critical, leading to two big brands in the region coming together. Singapore-based super app Grab and FMCG giant Unilever have joined forces to protect Grab drivers and riders on its ride-sharing platform, as well as support the livelihoods of small business owners as they weather the impact of the pandemic. “Working with Grab will give Unilever the opportunity to create a clean and safe commute for drivers, passengers and Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Aug 30, 2020

By Stephen Lepitak Asha Gourinath, Grab’s lead for digital marketing, CRM and growth markets in South East Asia, who is set to be the chair for The Drum’s Digital Advertising Awards APAC, discusses how she’s led her team through the recent, difficult months of lockdown and recession. What’s it been like running the digital marketing team at Grab, while dealing with all the sudden changes of recent months? These are quite challenging times. The business has had to evolve, given changing consumption and demand patterns. There are also always debates about how we go about creating savings and efficiencies; should we cut marketing expenses Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Aug 28, 2020

By Drum Network HireVue, the global leader in virtual interviewing and assessments technology, has appointed 33Seconds as its retained UK PR agency, to help drive awareness and consideration of its on-demand and virtual video interviewing platform. The agency has been appointed following the success of a short-term project that aimed to leverage the dramatic shift to adopting virtual technologies since businesses have been operating remotely. 33Seconds is responsible for all UK press office activity and influencer relations, as well as developing and implementing creative campaigns. Cynthia Siemens, communications director for HireVue, said: “We were impressed with how quickly the team at 33Seconds Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Aug 28, 2020

By Michael Feeley In the context of the Covid-19 outbreak, an overreliance on ‘negative’ and ‘blunt’ brand safety techniques – such as keyword blocking – is costing advertisers and publishers heavily. Recent data from Newsworks estimates that news publishers will lose somewhere in the region of £50m in online ads from April to July, due to brands’ over-zealous use of keyword blocking on any content related to Covid-19 – positive, negative and educational. In a recent Drum panel discussion on brand safety, Harvin Gupta, UK director of solutions engineering at Xandr, and Tina Lakhani, head of ad tech at IAB UK, outlined the key problems Read full story › Source: The Drum...