We are introducing a bi-weekly summary of the most exciting recent news in marketing technology and trends. If youre trying to keep up, consider this your one-stop shop.
- GetResponse, the email and digital marketing company that helps businesses improve response rates and automate their marketing has opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil. The companys headquarters is in Poland but their worldwide footprint includes offices in the U.S., Canada, Malaysia, and Russia. The Brazil expansion reflects GetResponses attraction to the rapidly growing ecommerce market in Latin America, Simon Grabowski, CEO, said in a statement.
- Marketers in the US are projected to spend US $15 billion on data in 2019 and the US spend is way ahead of Europe. According to MediaPost.com, analysis by OnAudience.com shows European spending on marketing data is expected to reach US $3.2 billion this year, while the US is projected to spend US $12.3 billion. Despite the gap in spending across the Atlantic, total spend on data for marketing is expected to double in nearly all of the countries analyzed, the report said.
- Paid search and social media will account for more than 60% of all growth in advertising expenditures by the year 2020, according to a report by Zenith Media. Spending on paid search will lead, expanding from US $86 billion to US $109 billion between 2017 and 2020 while social media advertising will grow from US $48 billion to US $76 billion.
- IBM has released a suite of new AI tools to help marketers analyze their data and drive sales. Using IBMs new “WEATHERfx Football with Watson” tool, the fast-food chain Subway was able to increase visits to its stores by 15%, according to MediaPost.com. The tool takes into account factors including weather and location plus data analytics, and Subway successfully used it to promote a specific sandwich on the Weather Channel mobile app, driving more traffic to its restaurants.
- The so-called “digital gap” between Hispanics and non-Hispanics in the US just got smaller thanks to the smartphone. Hispanics have the lowest rate of internet usage in the US at 82.8% compared to 86.1% for Whites, 85.4% for Asians, and 83.8% for blacks. Hispanics, however, use smartphones at about the same rate as the three other groups (65.5%) and their use of online social media networks is higher than the average of 60 percent by about 5%, according to a report in eMarketer.com.
- Teens say they are using Snapchat and Instagram more this year than last. More than half (56%) of Gen Z, ages 16 to 24, surveyed by the social video marketing agency VidMob said their Snapchat usage had increased, according to reporting by eMarketer. More than half (55%) also reported increased Instagram use. Nearly 60% said their YouTube usage was also up over the previous years rate.
Mark A. Browne
Mark A. Browne is Portada's Marketing Innovation Editor. He is a bilingual (EnglishSpanish) writer, media relations manager, and content creation professional with an established record providing journalism, copywriting and analytical content services to major publishers, PR agencies and businesses in the United States, Latin America and Europe. His award-winning career as a reporter and editor includes daily and weekly newspaper experience and free-lance writing for major print and online publications.
