How COVID-19 Is Impacting Business Event Planning
70 percent of business event planners have changed previously-planned in-person events to virtual platforms due to the pandemic, and 47 percent expect that once it ends people will still be hesitant to travel, with 27 percent expecting a swift uptick in real-world events due to pent-up demand, according to newly-released survey data from the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). MarketingProfs

Google ad sales steady after coronavirus drop; Alphabet leads tech share rally
2020 first-quarter advertising sales at Google tallied $33.8 billion, with 73 percent coming from search and 12 percent from its YouTube property, and Google's ad business accounting for some 83 percent of revenue for parent firm Alphabet, according to newly-released financial results. Reuters

Spotify-owned Anchor can now turn your video chats into podcasts
Spotify will utilize its Anchor property to make it possible to convert video meeting content into podcasts, offering marketers new options for making use of a virtual hangout video content podcast conversion feature, Spotify recently announced. TechCrunch

Google’s new Podcasts Manager tool offers deeper data on listener behavior
Google has rolled out a new podcast analytics data feature — Podcasts Manager — that provides marketers an assortment of new podcast listening data, the search giant recently announced. Marketing Land

LinkedIn's up to 690 Million Members, Reports 26% Growth in User Sessions
LinkedIn (client) saw its user base increase to 690 million members — up from 675 in January — with an accompanying 26 percent increase in user sessions, and LinkedIn Live streams that increased by some 158 percent since February, according to parent firm Microsoft’s latest earnings release. Social Media Today

Advertisers Continued to Gravitate to Instagram in Q1
Advertisers moved to spend more on Instagram during the first quarter of 2020, with ad spending up 39 percent year-over-year on the platform, holding steady at 27 percent of parent company Facebook’s total ad spend, according to recently-released Merkle data. MarketingCharts

Brands Are Using More Data And Spending More On It: Study
B2B marketers are making greater use of data and spending increasingly to gather it, according to recent report data from Ascend2, showing that 47 percent use engagement data to make marketing decisions, one of several report statistics of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

Most consumers are trying new brands during social distancing, study finds
Brands are seeing newfound levels of audience interest, with an uptick in consumer interest for trying new brands that has been observed during the pandemic, with members of the Gen Z and Millennial demographic seeing the biggest increases, according to recently-released survey data. Campaign US

Marketers Ante Up for In-Game Advertising
A $3 billion in-game advertising market in the U.S. alone has attracted additional advertisers, and a new Association of National Advertisers (ANA) examination of data from eMarketer found some surprises in that most mobile gamers were over 35, with 20 percent being over 50, while the majority were female, several of the in-game advertising statistics of interest to digital marketers. ANA

Data Hub: Coronavirus and Marketing [Updated]
Digital marketing has fared better than traditional campaigns in the face of the global health crisis, according to newly-released survey data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) exploring the differences between the pandemic and the 2008 recession. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at generic advertising “in these uncertain times” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

WHO Releases New Guidelines to Avoid Being Nominated for Viral Challenges — The Hard Times

Major Relief: Microsoft Has Confirmed That The Xbox Series X Will Play Video Games — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — What’s Trending: Embracing Data — LinkedIn (client)
• Lee Odden — 10 Expert Tips for Marketing During a Crisis — Oracle (client)
• Lee Odden — Klear Interviews Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing [Video] — Klear
• Lee Odden and TopRank Marketing — Pandemic Cross-Country Skiing in Duluth, Minnesota: A Personal Timeline — Lane R. Ellis

Have you got your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for taking time to join us, and we hope you will join us again next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

The post B2B Marketing News: Brands Spending More on Data, Spotify Turns Video Chats into Podcasts, & Consumers Trying More New Brands appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Lindström, Martin, 1970-

Neumeier, Marty

Lindström, Martin, 1970-

McEwen, William J

Moraes, Marcela Quartim de, author

LinkedIn may have started out as a simple way to build professional connections and share contact details, but more users are looking to share articles that interest them, the Digital Media Europe conference heard today.

Isabelle Roughol, France editor for LinkedIn, told delegates that, compared to five years ago, there are five times as many people coming to the site for content than for jobs searches.

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Visual marketing is an integral part of reaching customers today. For brands concerned with SEO, however, it brings a wide variety of challenges. Search engine algorithms look for specific words, which makes it difficult to challenge competitors by coming up with better photos and videos to dominate search rankings.

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With more than 84% of brands carrying out social media marketing, the greatest challenge is to rise above all the clutter and establish your brands credibility. The effectiveness of social media marketing is highlighted by the fact that it is100 times more effective in sealing the lead-to-closure rate. Hence brands are vehemently using this channel to attain multiple business goals.

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Consider your brand across all visual touchpoints, suggests WebDAM. Include logos, typography, press kit, photography, and icons.

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Not so long ago, customers were isolated. Their ability to voice their dissatisfaction with the service they received from business was severely limited.

The once feared television show Fair Go was just about their only option.

Today they can air their gripes instantly on Facebook, Twitter or other social platforms and build alliances with similarly disgruntled customers. They can take pictures wherever they go and record or even film their interactions.

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Most organisations believe social media has a role to play in their marketing communications, but, equally, most would struggle to explain exactly what that role is. There’s little doubt that social media takes up a significant amount of consumer time and attention but without understanding the influence and quantifying the commercial benefits for brands and businesses, no marketing activity should be above question.

Like every other marketing activity, a social media strategy must be judged on its positive impact on business or brand metrics.

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Dewey Library - HF6161.A38 N55 2016

Online Resource

Online Resource

Online Resource

As regional language media consumption soars during the lockdown, social media app ShareChat goes full throttle with brand integrations

New services, new offers, new alliances and with a little help from technology, brands reimagine their relationship with consumers

How H&M, Zara and Marks & Spencer are buying viscose from highly polluting factories in Asia. By Natasha Hurley.

Conagra Brands, Inc., a Russellville, Ark. establishment, is recalling approximately 2,094,186 pounds of frozen entrees due to misbranding and an undeclared allergen.

International brands have begun sharing prototypes of fashion masks in cotton and blends with Indian suppliers who are awaiting a nod from the Centre to export non-surgical masks.

Several apparel makers and fast-moving consumer goods companies had earlier stepped up to produce medical-grade masks as a philanthropic act when Covid-19 struck but now it is apparent that the pandemic is set to alter lifestyles for at least some time to come.

Several apparel makers and fast-moving consumer goods companies had earlier stepped up to produce medical-grade masks as a philanthropic act when Covid-19 struck but now it is apparent that the pandemic is set to alter lifestyles for at least some time to come.

For years Dior, Saint Laurent and other fashion brands have been quietly using Indian embroiderers, while offering little in the way of employment protection

Tirupur sees chance as global brands come calling for masks

Conagra Brands, Inc., a Milton, Pa. establishment, is recalling approximately 32,400 pounds of canned beef products due to a potential processing defect, resulting in the potential survival of bacterial pathogens in the products.

Conagra Brands, Inc., a Russellville, Ark. establishment, is recalling approximately 130,763 pounds of not ready-to-eat chicken bowl products because the product may contain extraneous material, specifically small rocks.

From advisories and warnings to smart witticisms, brands across categories are reaching out to consumers over the shadow of Covid-19

Advertisers ask consumers to stay calm and keep their distance, find ways to keep the engagement going under a lockdown

Specific tailored marketing pitches using first party data, smoother payment and financing processes and digital launches are among the ways in which auto majors are keeping their brands in the game.

India among the top 3 nervous nations in the world; consumers expect long-term spending to be hit, want brands to spread optimism and cheer: Kantar

Over 150 new players seen in hygiene category alone; food business also sees similar rush

At the end of March, Raja Shanmugam was worried. Either export shipments were getting delayed or payments were not coming through from European buyers. But, when he reopened his factory on Wednesday