DM Magazine February 2023

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Vol. 36 | No. 2 | February 2023

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talkingpoints

Montreal AI Startup Hippoc Receives $3 Million Funding Infusion

Funds to be used for enhanced platform development and global expansion of breakthrough artificial intelligence tools for advertising executives.

Fueled by exponential growth, Montrealbased Hippoc, a breakthrough digital marketing startup, recently announced $3 million in financing from Colvest Holdings Inc. and Distinction Capital (the private investment fund of CGI founder Serge Godin). Funds will be used to expand the business to a wider client base in North America as well as in Europe, and help the company support its vision to further develop its first-of-its-kind intuitive artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed for marketing specialists.

Hippoc — founded in 2019 by Jean-Maxime Larouche and Kévin Combe — launched its ground-breaking technology to resolve issues faced by marketers related to long delays and elevated costs associated with traditional advertising testing, such as focus groups and panels carried out with real consumers. The company’s web-based app, described as the ultimate advertising testing and optimization tool fueled by neuroscience and AI, predicts the cognitive impact of an ad before it appears online. Results are obtained through tests carried out on a replicated average human brain) and are delivered instantly to marketing specialists — from start-ups and SMEs, large corporations and marketing/ communications agencies, to junior and senior advertising designers, and freelancers — who can then validate the effectiveness of their ads.

According to a study conducted by Hippoc, 20 percent of advertising budgets for campaign launches is invested in ads that deliver significantly below average performance. A predictive test conducted by Hippoc can cut these budget losses in half, by identifying these ads before launch, said Larouche.

“Hippoc’s solution is timely for the digital marketing world, which is going through

unprecedented challenges related to measuring performance, stricter regulations, new tools for consumers to restrict access to identifying data, and the imminent end of third-party cookies,” he explained. “Hippoc’s unique and proven platform solves these issues by offering a complete turnkey solution.

Users of the company’s platform are growing exponentially, with thousands of clients already benefiting from the technology, including leading Canadian marketing and advertising agencies Glassroom, BleuBlancRouge and Adviso. Now, Hippoc is expanding across the U.S. and collaborations are already underway with agencies in New York.

“Hippoc offers a powerful, intuitive tool that companies can use to increase the impact and recall of each visual contact between their brand and consumers,” said Charles Beaulieu, Associate from Montreal and Toronto-based Glassroom agency. “In just a few seconds, this solution helps create customer brand loyalty and maximize the ROI of visual content.”

Combe points to a study that shows 49 percent of a brand’s sales from advertising is attributed to the quality of the creative and the message. “More than clicks or mouse movements, an ad’s design — what people look at and remember — it is what plays an essential role in the purchasing decision process, and this is what Hippoc enables advertising and marketing professionals to pre-measure.”

Users credit Hippoc’s turnkey solution for making their advertising creation process faster, more efficient and less subjective since “each product is first sold to the public’s brain,’’ said Larouche.

He explained that affordable packages are available for companies of all sizes, from open-access web applications with special subscription types for SMEs, marketers and freelancers, to personalized corporate options adapted to companies’ needs.

The $3 million funding will support the current Hippoc platform as well as develop integrations with advertising platforms like Google and Facebook (Meta) and new applications, including software to dynamically analyze different types of content, such as interfaces, emails, blogs, animated content, videos and GIFs.

new Honda vehicles. VR has quickly become a critical tool for Honda designers in the development of future mobility products, including EVs, and Honda continues to expand the use of these tools in LA and Japan.

The 2024 Honda Prologue full-electric SUV was the first Honda model designed primarily through virtual reality visualization technology, which was critical in overcoming collaboration and efficiency challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our design teams used the latest VR technology to envision Prologue in different environments and to accelerate crosscollaboration between Honda styling teams in the U.S. and Japan,” said Mathieu Geslin, Honda VR design leader. “It’s an ongoing effort to further explore the technical capabilities of VR and mixed reality in our development centres globally, and we’re really excited about what this will mean for the Honda products of the future.”

View the video at https://youtu.be/ YgZe4d1RtkA

Deloitte Canada unveils Smart Factory and Warehouse

Deloitte Canada recently opened The Smart Factory @ Montreal, a first-of-its-kind facility showcasing an interconnected ecosystem of more than 20 cutting-edge solutions and technologies and intent on transforming manufacturing and warehousing through digital transformation.

of new vehicles

Honda design studios leverage virtual and mixed-reality technology to fasttrack the development

A new video offers a first-ever look at the Honda VR Design Studios in Los Angeles, revealing how Honda is leveraging advanced virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality technology to fast-track the development of

“As Canada’s largest professional services firm, we care about the future of the country,” says Anthony Viel, chief executive officer of Deloitte Canada. “We believe that projects like this will fundamentally transform our economy — and society — and set Canada on a better path. We are proud to leverage our globally recognized expertise in warehousing

and manufacturing to establish this unique and innovative facility. By combining Deloitte’s consulting expertise with valuable software and equipment donations from leading-edge sponsors, The Smart Factory @ Montreal is showing how Canada can lead in the fourth industrial revolution.”

Spanning over 9,000 square feet, The Smart Factory @ Montreal is designed to showcase the possibilities of automation to run production lines, efficiently store and move inventory, as well as track inbound and outbound shipments. In its first year of operation, the state-of-the-art facility is expected to draw hundreds of national and global business leaders to expose them to revolutionary ways of working in order to maximize efficiencies.

According to the 2022 Material Handling Institute’s Annual Industry Report released in collaboration with Deloitte, the top three supply chain company challenges faced by businesses are potential supply chain disruptions and shortages, hiring and retaining qualified workers, and customer demands for faster response time. The Smart Factory @ Montreal leverages the latest technologies and practices to address these challenges expeditiously and at the best possible cost to clients.

The report also shows that the pandemic has accelerated supply chain transformation for 78 percent of companies, particularly those operating in the realm of e-commerce. Several use cases shown in The Smart Factory @ Montreal address this challenge and identify potential technologies to lead in this space with affordable investments.

“Today’s customer expectations are higher than ever before,” says Geneviève Provost, Managing Partner, Quebec and National Capital Region for Deloitte. “With increasing access to information, products, and services, consumers have come to expect a seamless and personalized experience throughout the entire buying journey. By implementing advanced technologies, businesses can improve their efficiency and speed of execution, thereby enhancing the overall customer experience by providing faster delivery times, accurate tracking and inventory management, and overall improved satisfaction. We are thrilled to have this facility in Quebec, which is expected to attract visitors and business leaders from around the world and boost our local economy.”

Using cutting-edge industry 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), sensors, robotics, internet of things (IoT), big data, cloud and edge applications, The Smart Factory @ Montreal demonstrates how digital supply networks are transforming supply chains away from siloed functions into an interconnected ecosystem that is both seamless and transparent.

Operating in real-time with the additional

information provided by accelerated connectivity, these new dynamic manufacturing and warehousing digital networks strengthen supply chain agility and empower companies to make rapid and optimal decisions.

“Canadian businesses tend to be sized for the Canadian market but are often competing against multinationals that have extensive resources and sophisticated systems,” says Alan Taliaferro, Deloitte partner and project leader for The Smart Factory @ Montreal. “This space provides an opportunity to support Canadian businesses by enabling them to learn about, and experiment with, an array of live smart technologies in a fully automated factory and warehouse. By setting stretch goals and embracing change, Canadian businesses will have the opportunity to learn how to achieve a competitive edge in both local and global markets.” ■

Shutterstock introduces generatIon AI to its all-in-one creative platform

Shutterstock, Inc. the world’s leading creative platform for transformative brands and media companies, rolled out its AI image generation platform in late January. The platform is available to be used by all Shutterstock customers globally in every language the site offers. The text-to-image technology converts prompt into larger-than-life, ethically created visuals ready for licensing. It is the latest addition to Creative Flow, Shutterstock’s extensive toolkit that has been specifically designed to power the most seamless creative experience possible.

“Shutterstock has developed strategic partnerships over the past two years with key industry players like OpenAI, Meta, and LG AI Research to fuel their generative AI research efforts, and we are now able to uniquely bring responsibly-produced generative AI capabilities to our own customers,” said Paul Hennessy, Chief Executive Officer at Shutterstock. “Our easy-to-use generative platform will transform the way people tell their stories — you no longer have to be a design expert or have access to a creative team to create exceptional work. Our tools are built on an ethical approach and on a library of assets that represents the diverse world we live in, and we ensure that the artists whose works contributed to the development of these models are recognized and rewarded.”

Shutterstock explains their technology is revolutionizing the way visuals are created for campaigns, projects, and brands by making generative AI accessible to all. They believe our users should not need to learn how to write long, complex prompts to benefit from this technology. That’s why their image generator produces unique, varied, and breathtaking

images from even a single word input or short simple phrases. And with an intuitive style picker and support for over 20 languages, they empower people worldwide to bring their creative visions to life without limits.

The company is also making the experience very convenient for users. Customers can search for stock, create and publish winning designs, and generate content — all in one place. If they want to take it a step further, clients can polish their newly generated asset in Create, Shutterstock’s easy-to-use editing tool that lets people customize their visuals without being a professional designer, and plug it into the rest of the applications that make up Shutterstock’s Creative Flow. This results in the perfect piece of content every time, allowing clients to bridge the gap between idea, design, and execution. Every Shutterstock customer already has access to this entire suite of tools through their current subscription.

Shutterstock explains that they are the first to support a responsible AI-generation model that pays artists for their contributions, making them a trusted partner for generating and licensing the visuals clients need to uplevel their brand. Also, the company has thoughtfully built-in mitigations against the biases that may be inherent in some of their datasets, and they are continuing to explore ways to fairly depict underrepresented groups.

The AI image generator, and the rest of our capabilities that are ready to turn ideas into achievements, can be found on shutterstock.com

Enhanced iWave for Salesforce Integration Brings Automated Wealth Scoring to Nonprofits

iWave, the industry’s top-rated fundraising intelligence platform, released new enhancements to the iWave for Salesforce integration on the Salesforce AppExchange. The latest version includes Automated Scoring, a new feature that enables fundraising professionals to understand the giving potential of new constituents, as soon as they are added to Salesforce. Additionally, nonprofits can optimize their cultivation

talkingpoints

efforts by using customizable scoring triggers to automatically receive the latest wealth and philanthropic intelligence in Salesforce.

By integrating iWave and Salesforce, fundraising professionals can enrich their internal Salesforce data with iWave’s fundraising intelligence to identify ideal donors, find new prospects, personalize outreach, and ultimately raise more donations using a frictionless workflow. Automated Scoring further enhances the ability to prioritize donors who have additional giving potential, and provides new cultivation and solicitation opportunities.

Numerous studies have shown that timing is essential to maximizing fundraising outcomes. For example, donors are much more likely to give a second gift within the first three months. With Automated Scoring enabled, a new donation that meets a predefined threshold can automatically trigger a constituent record to be updated with the latest available wealth and philanthropic data. This ensures that fundraising teams can determine the optimal ask amount and personalize cultivation using up-to-date fundraising intelligence. Other configurable scoring triggers include a new donation, a change of address, and more.

“It’s known that good data provides a greater perspective and ability to do something more effectively, and therefore, is an essential component of decision-making at any forward-thinking organization,” said Mary Cote, VP of Product at iWave. “This is why we are so focused on providing the best-in-class and most accurate fundraising intelligence data. However, the exponential growth of data available on donors introduces a new challenge — ensuring good decisionmaking by having the most up-to-date donor intelligence. To address this challenge, we’re introducing new automation within iWave for Salesforce so that constituent records can receive automatic updates with the latest wealth and giving data.”

iWave, the industry’s top-rated fundraising intelligence solution, enables nonprofit organizations to fundraise with confidence.

In a new era of nonprofit fundraising, iWave solves critical challenges facing fundraising professionals today: how to identify, qualify, and retain donors to raise more major gifts. iWave’s intuitive and easy-to-use solutions give access to the industry’s highest quality wealth and philanthropic information so you can determine who to ask, how much to ask for, and when to ask. Many of the largest education, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations in the World, rely on iWave to power their fundraising efforts.

organizations to attract a wider pool of candidates and can lead to many internal and external benefits, as well.

In addition to a clear EVP, creating engaging job ads to attract talent is crucial in the recruitment process. With most candidates using mobile platforms for the job hunt, ads must be clear, concise, and easily viewed on a mobile device. Job postings need to paint an accurate picture of key aspects of the role while avoiding the granular details, as this may overwhelm applicants.

Offering employee referral programs, in which employees get some form of reward if their referral candidate is hired, is another effective tactic to hire talent. However, it is important to keep in mind that referrals can hinder diversity because employees tend to recommend people like themselves.

Info-Tech’s latest blueprint outlines how IT leaders can work alongside HR to build an effective and efficient IT recruitment process and a great candidate experience:

IT must play a role in talent recruitment and selection - not just HR, says Info-Tech Research Group

In the present labour market, recruitment is one of the top challenges organizations are facing. With candidate expectations going beyond traditional considerations like compensation, organizations need to change their recruitment strategy to attract top talent. To improve talent attraction, selection, and the overall applicant experience, IT must work with HR by becoming involved at crucial stages. To assist organizations in their efforts to encourage and support IT departments’ participation in the recruitment process, global IT research and advisory firm InfoTech Research Group has released its timely, research-backed blueprint Improve Your IT Recruitment Process.

According to Info-Tech’s research, 37 percent of IT departments are outsourcing roles to fill internal skill shortages. Although social media is an exceptional platform for talent recruitment, its proliferation and use by most organizations have made it overcrowded. As a result, organizations are directly competing for talent with industry competitors. Info-Tech advises that organizations must focus on key programs and tactics to improve the effectiveness of their approach to sourcing talent.

The firm’s blueprint indicates that the way an organization is positioned impacts who is likely to apply to posted job opportunities. Therefore, creating an intentional employee value proposition (EVP) is vital to showcase an organization’s unique benefits and opportunities. A purposeful EVP allows

❯ Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and Employer Brand – Define and communicate the unique benefits of working for the organization to potential candidates through a strong employer brand.

❯ Job Postings and a Strong Sourcing Program – Use best practices to create attractive job postings to attract the right candidates and build a strong sourcing program.

❯ Effective Interviewing – Create a highquality interview process to improve candidate interview, assessment, and offer processes.

❯ Onboarding New Hires for Success – Drive employee engagement and retention with a robust program that acclimates, guides, and develops new hires.

To meet growing candidate expectations, Info-Tech recommends that organizations change how they source talent. While the focus on the candidate experience is important throughout the talent acquisition process, social media, technology, and candidate values have made it a critical component of sourcing.

2023

2023 Is the Year of Data Clean Rooms

BY VLAD STESIN

It is well known — and widely celebrated — that third-party cookies and other IDs, previously the building blocks of digital advertising, are disappearing from advertisers’ marketing toolkits as web browsers and platforms integrate new privacy features.

And while such identifiers won’t be mourned in a world where consumers are attempting to claw back control of their personal data and advertisers are trying to win back public trust, there are still valid and important reasons to replace some of their functions — and data clean rooms (DCRs) offer a way to do it.

Publishers in the driving seat — but there’s a catch

First, some context. Even without third-party cookies and IDs, digital advertising is going to continue, in privacy-compliant form. But there is now a new hierarchy in place, based around first-party data. Whereas traditionally advertisers have simply been able to buy whatever data they need from all kinds of brokers, the balance of power is shifting to publishers.

In an age that suddenly prizes first-party data, publishers hold a wealth of it. The potential is for them to show the value they have patiently built through the close relationships they have nurtured with their audience. By working together around first-party data, advertisers and publishers can revive digital marketing — its insights, its targeted ad delivery,

its analytics — in a new, improved form.

But even this is not quite as simple as it sounds. Previously, collaborations between publishers and advertisers were made easy by the availability of third-party cookies and other personal device identifiers. The erosion of those has created extreme fragmentation in audience data, preventing advertisers from getting the precision and performance they need from their ad buys.

Advertisers and publishers looking to collaborate are also painfully aware that there is sensitive customer and audience data on both sides, and that any data sharing needs to be undertaken with extreme care.

Data clean rooms are the missing piece of the jigsaw Data clean rooms offer a means to enable these collaborations. They are part of a category of software that once again enables partners to work together using highly sensitive audience data, but allows them to do it in a careful and responsible way.

Publishers can build premium media products that leverage the data clean room approach, allowing them to monetize the first-party data in their possession by amplifying its value through matching with advertisers.

Advertisers in turn can continue their digital marketing efforts in a way that doesn’t alienate their audiences.

And data clean room companies like Optable offer all the tools

they need to do it. From insights to activation and analytics, data clean rooms implement privacyenhancing technologies that offer advertisers and publishers everything they require to merge their data resources, safely and responsibly, for mutual benefit.

Not only that, but if advertisers use a data warehouse like Snowflake, they don’t even have to move their data out to benefit from better insights and better performance, rooted in real customer data.

Data clean rooms help advertisers and publishers to work together on three fronts:

❯ Campaign planning

Using our clean room, a publisher can onboard its own first-party data and connect it to an advertiser’s customer data. This allows the advertiser to understand the overlap between its own audience and the publisher’s audience. The publisher can also choose to share insights about the audience, providing the advertiser with a more complete picture. These insights can then be used for honing campaign targeting or finding new lookalike customers.

❯ Activation

Once the publisher and advertiser have agreed on an audience, the audience can then be pushed into an ad delivery platform. This can be done directly through a platform like our own by signalling the ad server using a key value or a deal ID. This ensures the IDs

themselves are never shared and both sides maintain sovereignty over their data - a vital detail in a heavily regulated space.

❯ Attribution

Publishers can quickly identify which of the advertiser’s customers were exposed to an ad, and the brand can link this to who has converted. Previously, this would have been done using cookies and identifiers, and that won’t be an option for much longer.

Optable works with many publishers and advertisers who already work together using this new set of technologies. In 2023, we already see more traction than ever before in companies attempting to build products on top of the DCR infrastructure, and establish business models consistent with the new capabilities offered by this approach.

For advertisers, it’s a question of being able to leverage first-party data from publishers that would be unavailable otherwise; combine that with data of their own; and thus achieve the kind of precision and performance offered by that data.

And by following a privacycompliant, consumer-centric approach, brands can be confident that they are operating in a way that respects the wishes and sensibilities of their potential audiences.

VLAD STESIN is the co-founder and CS of Optable, a Montreal-based company that develops advertising technology solutions for the privacyby-design era of the commercial internet.

ISTOCK/ GORODENKOFF

Highlights from Data.ai ’s State of Mobile 2023 Report

BY MICHAEL BROOKE

In mid-January, Data.ai released its State of Mobile 2023 report.

The report provides readers with valuable information and truly compelling insights.

According to research conducted by Data.ai, over 485,000 apps were downloaded worldwide each minute in 2022. In total, 255 billion apps were downloaded last year. This represents an 11 percent growth from the previous year. When it came to app spending, $318,000 was spent each minute worldwide ($167 billion in total) — down 2 percent from 2021. Users have bumped up their average time spent on mobile devices by 3 percent and it now sits at 5 hours per day on average.

Mobile ad spending climbed significantly in 2022 achieving a 14 percent year-over-year growth and it now sits at $336 billion. Perhaps the most staggering number is the 4.1 TRILLION hours humans spend each year on their mobile devices. Collectively, this works out to 11.2 billion hours per day.

Data.ai’s report presents both a worldwide perspective along with

specific countries. It can be quite illuminating to see where Canada ranks in the world. The report highlights some rather intriguing

differences along with a surprise or two. For example, Canadians spend actually more time on their devices compared to Americans.

Leading the pack in terms of daily usage is Indonesia where people are on their smartphones for over 5.5 hours per day. Just three years ago, Indonesians spent just over 3.5 hours per day.

When it comes to consumer spending, China leads the world, reaching just over $55 billion in 2022. Canada doesn’t even appear in the top 20. When it comes to global ad spending the growth in the last five years has been very robust coming in at 18.5 percent. Data.ai notes that short video apps are expected to take money away from social networking platforms.

Over the Top (OTT) apps are both the #1 download for consumer spending in 2022. OTT accounts for 16 percent of dollars spent on in-app subscriptions. Six categories accounted for 50 percent of consumer spending.

Canadians seemed to get a real kick out of Wordle, the 2248 Puzzle and Colouring Match. These

three apps had a combination of over 7 million downloads. However, games took the biggest hit in 2022. Productivity apps proved more resilient. Canadians seem to favour these apps and have moved away from downloading meeting and health apps. Canadians are spending a lot more money on dating apps and audiobooks. It would also appear that Canada, like the rest of the world, loves watching short videos. This again proves the force that is TikTok — they are dominating people’s time and attention.

The report isolates Monthly Active Users (MAU) by age demographic. Canadians 18-24 years old are focused primarily on social media like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter. Those 35-44 are spending a lot of time on Amazon and McDonald’s. Canadians over 45 are focusing their time on the Weather Network, PC Plus shopping and Tim Hortons.

Mobile app adoption across subgenres like Mobile Banking, Digital Wallets and Payment,

and Personal Loans saw rapid growth in 2022. This continues the accelerated push to mobile that began at the start of the pandemic in 2020.

Meanwhile, economic concerns such as high inflation have left their mark on the fintech space. Personal loan apps have flourished across North America, Asia and Africa. Cryptocurrency trading apps took a notable downturn in 2022. There was also turbulence in the crypto-currency market that resulted in the downfalls of cryptocurrencies like Luna and crypto exchanges like FTX.

In 2020 the pandemic prompted rapid growth for mobile shopping, particularly from retailers who needed to maintain sales while consumers were avoiding inperson shopping. Retailer apps saw 43 percent year-over-year download growth in 2020.

As in-person shopping returned in 2022 and high inflation squeezed shoppers’ pocketbooks. Mobile apps became essential tools for cost-conscious consumers to save money. In

Canada, buy now pay later (BNPL) apps completely dominated coupons and rewards apps.

As TikTok has exploded in popularity, so did the amount of money it generated in consumer spending, reaching over $3 billion in revenue in 2022. The social app consumer market in Canada is just over $110 million — up roughly 10 percent over 2021. When it comes to video streaming, YouTube remains the global favourite, followed by Netflix. However, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube are all ranked

higher than Netflix here in Canada

McDonald’s investment in mobile has paid off tremendously for the company in North America. Their app sits atop of both the USA and Canadian food and drink rankings. Using rewards and exclusive offers, their app has become a very useful tool to improve customer loyalty. It’s also helped the restaurant chain stand out from its competitors and brought in more customers.

Brand Community:

An Interview with Mark Schaefer, Executive Director, Schaefer Marketing Solutions

BY STEPHEN SHAW

“Markets are conversations”.

That was the opening line in the classic marketing book The Cluetrain Manifesto published in the year 2000. The authors urged marketers to give up mass messaging and speak with a human voice. Their clarion call for radical change resonated with many techno-utopian marketers at the time — the book went on to become a huge bestseller — but it was only several years later that the idea of conversational marketing became feasible with the emergence of the social web.

In the early 2000s social networks began springing up everywhere — first MySpace in 2003, followed in rapid succession by Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, and then a few years later by Pinterest and Instagram. By 2010 marketers recognized the importance of participating on these platforms as they watched their active user bases stretch across the globe. People were flocking to social media in droves, led by millennials keen to connect with their friends, share personal news (and selfies), to voice their thoughts, and of course, marketers are instantly drawn to places where people like to hang out. But instead of engaging in actual conversations, marketers viewed the platforms as just another communication channel — a new, more targeted way to reach an audience, at a fraction of the cost of traditional media.

Talk about unforeseen consequences. The platforms thrived on the sudden surge in ad dollars. And to keep the money rolling in, they skewed their algorithms, as we learned later, to drive engagement by giving undue weight to “us versus them” posts. Indignation and outrage is good for business, apparently. We all know what happened next. The platforms became an echo chamber, giving license to incite hate speech, peddle conspiracy theories, and spread misinformation. Prolonged use began to affect the mental health of teens. To the point where most people now believe that social media does more harm than good.

What we seem to forget, however, is that the mainstream social networks, funded almost entirely by ad dollars, are not all there is to social media. Just as all marketing is now digital marketing, all digital marketing is bound to become social marketing. And that means inviting people to join the brand of their own free will, forming communities of devout fans and followers. Instead of pulling people through the sales funnel by posting thinly disguised

promotional messages, the marketing goal is to keep customers excited and involved — to offer them immediate service and support — to put them in touch with each other – to invite continuous feedback — above all, to get them to participate, in events, in content creation, even in product development.

However, for most companies today, a brand community is merely a way to deflect customer support calls by funneling people through to discussion forums where they can get their questions answered by other users. But where a community actually pays off eventually is in building long-term customer relationships. The challenge is convincing myopic CFOs that all the effort and investment will pay off. Because building an enthusiastic and participatory brand community is not easy. It can take years to reach critical mass. But, as Mark Schaefer points out in his new book Belonging to the Brand, marketers have no choice. He believes that building community is the “last great marketing strategy”. Maybe even marketing’s last gasp.

People “long to belong,” Schaefer says and that presents an opportunity for brands to connect with them on a more meaningful level. The author of nine other books, including the best-selling Marketing Rebellion, the Tennessee resident is well-liked for his humanistic views and folksy charm, making him both a popular speaker and a beloved blogger.

Shaw: Your undergraduate degree was in journalism. How did you end up in marketing?

Schaefer: I loved to write but I always heard you could never make money in journalism. And believe me, I was so poor as a kid, all I ever wanted was to make money. But I loved the people in journalism school — they wanted to change the world. I thought, “This is where I belong.” So, I started out in corporate communications and then I got into sales. And while I was in sales, I got my MBA with an emphasis on marketing and studied under Peter Drucker. So, that was a life-changing event. And then, finally, I got into marketing at a company called Alcoa. I was in product development. I was in charge of CRM. I was the first digital E-business director. We pioneered our first applications in social media. And the company was wonderful. They just pushed me, pushed me, pushed me to realize my full potential. So, I had a great career. And then they wanted me to move to Europe. But I had a personal situation in my life where I needed to try something

else. I started consulting, started teaching, and started writing. And it just became a rocket ship.

Shaw: So that early training in journalism paid off after two decades in marketing at Alcoa.

Schaefer: Leaving Alcoa was traumatic, but it was the best decision I ever made. Here I was this global director, accustomed to working with people all over the world, and then the next day it was silent.

Shaw: How long after you quit Alcoa did you land your first consulting assignment?

Schaefer: Here’s how it started. I was on a plane, talking to this guy. He had this massive global jewelry business. He wanted to sell it and couldn’t because he didn’t have a marketing strategy. And I’m sitting there listening, listening, listening. And finally, I said, “I can do this. I can help you.” I’ll never forget that, because it was really my first consulting job, and he paid me in diamonds. And I completely changed his business and the business got sold and he’s a millionaire — multi-millionaire! So, I thought, “I’m good at this.”

I started my business in 2008 and my blog [Grow] in 2009. And then something completely unexpected happened. Instead of me going after my target audience, my audience found me. I thought I could have a very happy life just working for businesses in East Tennessee, but all of a sudden I had a global audience. And

Mark Schaefer, Executive Director, Schaefer Marketing Solutions

a global audience who loved my blog, and the blog led to books and the books led to speaking. Speaking led to bigger and bigger consulting gigs. I’ve worked for Dell and Microsoft and Pfizer and Merck and Chipotle and Allstate and Adidas and all these amazing brands.

Shaw: Had you started your blog maybe five years later, would you have enjoyed the same fast rise to fame that you did?

Schaefer: When I started, there was a marketing leader I admired who told me, “You’re too late and you’re too old.” I was 49, 50 when I started blogging. I gave my first paid speech, I think when I was 52. So, in that context, I was not really a pioneer. But here’s what was different. I told the truth. I was able to use my experience and my age as a benefit, because all the bloggers back then were kids, whereas I could connect the dots. I thought, “They have no idea how business works.” Now, if I had started five years later, it might have taken a little longer to get traction because it was a little more crowded by then, but I do believe that everybody can find their audience.

Shaw: It’s interesting when you say that bloggers at the time were pretty much just kids. I would argue it’s probably still the same today. Look at the bloggers on Medium. Whereas I look at you as the Malcolm Gladwell of marketing.

Schaefer: Oh man, I love that. I love that, I love that. And it’s true because, you know what, I write my books like Malcolm Gladwell.

Shaw: You do.

Schaefer: Here’s the beauty of Malcolm Gladwell. He does no original research. Here’s what Gladwell does, “Sally woke up one morning and couldn’t find her coffee. She...” and there’s this long story and you’re involved in it. And then he goes, “Of course, she couldn’t find her coffee because, in 2011, Stanford University found,” blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.” That’s how I write my books. Thank you for noticing! You’re my new best friend.

Shaw: You are a consummate storyteller! I think the other similarity to Gladwell is that you have a real interest in social psychology. Would you attribute your success to your ability to unpack the complexity of a situation and play it back in a way that people get?

Schaefer: One hundred percent. I’m a teacher. And I remember when my daughter was a little girl and I was helping her with her homework and she said, “Daddy, I’m so confused at school but when you explain it to me, I understand it. You should be a teacher.” And whether it’s my books or my speeches or my classes, I can unpack complicated things. That is what I’m good at. So, you are a very keen observer.

Shaw: I’m a huge admirer of your work, in particular the Marketing Rebellion. There are so many good ideas in that book and lots of stories. The subtitle is The Most Human Company Wins, and that is a theme that runs through all of your writing. You advocate in favour of marketing becoming a more humanistic discipline. Should marketing become the social conscience of the company, despite the pressures of growth on the CMO today?

Schaefer: Why the CMO is such a perilous career path is because there’s this major disconnect between the expectation of the board of directors and customers. The board expects marketing to be coin-operated: you put coins in and you get more coins out. And customers don’t care about that. They care about their life and their problems. And I think the mindset of marketing today needs to be, “How do we be so helpful, so human, so generous, so authentic, so unmissable that customers can’t wait to tell other people about us?” Are businesses going that way? Mostly not. Twenty years from now we’re going to look back at this period in time and say, “What were we thinking? Spam? Robocalls? Oh my gosh, those were awful days.”

Shaw: We’ll be looking back at this time much as we look back at the early years of selling patent medicines.

Schaefer: To go back to your question about the role of marketing, there’s this popular mantra that every brand needs to take a stand. But as consumers we go to a gas station because it’s convenient, we buy a coat because we’re cold, and we buy a house plant because it’s pretty. The four P’s of marketing still work, they’re still important. I think purpose is the fifth P, I really do. And especially with young people today, it is really important. But never overlook the fact that the four P’s still work.

Shaw: This brings me to your latest book, Belonging to the Brand which creates a very convincing case that creating brand communities will, I’m quoting you here, “replace the intrusive marketing systems” of today. Yet we still live in an attention economy. The ad market is a trillion-dollar industry with a vested interest in the status quo. How do you see this rebellion, if I may put it that way, playing out over time? Schaefer: No one looks at ads anymore. There is a lot of delusion in marketing. I think marketing is sick, in a lot of ways. It’s not changing like it needs to, it’s not changing fast enough. And all I can do is tell the truth and hope that some people listen.

Shaw: I think the phrase you use in “Marketing Rebellion” is “existential crisis”. The challenge I was raising is that it takes a brave CMO to pull the ad syringe out of their arm.

Schaefer: That’s because CMOs love being wined and dined by the agency. Making commercials is sexy. They don’t want to give that up. There’s a whole scaffolding of relationships and ego that’s holding these sick practices in place.

Shaw: It’s self-perpetuating, that’s for sure. CMOs are not going to shed traditional goto-market methods on a leap of faith. But the other thing you bring up in the book is the impact on society. You point out that 40 percent of people today feel lonely. And 22 percent of millennials have no friends at all. Is social media at the root of all evil here?

Schaefer: That’s a very, very complicated issue. There’s been a steady decline in mental wellness since the 1960s. Increases in divorce rates, more single-parent families, the decline of social institutions like youth sports, and institutions like church and service organizations. We used to belong to all these clubs, but now we spend all our time on our phones. So, it’s a very complicated issue. Social media is this wonderful historic opportunity to meet people and connect in new ways. But it can also be very toxic. It can be a place where there’s bullying and shaming. And I do think, specifically with children today, it’s a big problem. There’s been a lot written about this, I’m not saying anything new. For society in general, there are probably more negatives to social media than positives, at this point.

Shaw: Is it simply a matter of reinventing the concept of social media, decommercializing it? Does the answer lie in creating “digital campfires” — closed communities enabled by platforms like Discord, Mastodon, and Slack? Does it ultimately mean that the big social-media platforms will be displaced by private, invitationonly communities?

Schaefer: I think, in many cases, it already is. This next generation is looking at what’s going on, on Facebook, at Twitter, and they’re saying, “Nope, we’re going someplace else. We’re going to create our own digital campfires where no one can see us.” Social-listening platforms are becoming obsolete because GenZ is hanging out on Discord, they’re hanging out on Fortnite. Young people today are dropping out of mainstream social media.

I’ll give you a quick story, this is heartbreaking. I was working with the brand manager of a Fortune 100 company — we were working on all these creative ideas. And because they had a global universal ad contract, everything she wanted to do had to go through an ad agency and everything came back as an ad. Everything. She couldn’t do anything different. She said, “I’m ready to risk my career by going outside this contract”

because she was so boxed in by this scaffolding of sick practices. There’s going to be a big painful wake-up call in the next two years for major brands.

Shaw: You say marketers should be relevant to people’s lives. You use that word in fact quite a bit. Is it important to have a social purpose that the community can rally around?

Schaefer: There is one wellknown case study that I present in the book and that’s HarleyDavidson. You never hear Harley-Davidson saying, “It’s our Presidents’ Day sale, come on down now.” You could never imagine them doing that. And they never will because everything in that company — and I have personal experience working at the C level with Harley-Davidson — everything they do is dedicated to one thing: helping people achieve their dreams through the lifestyle of motorcycling. This is a friendly way of saying, “We wanna make you a badass.” So, if you want to be seen as a true badass, you’re never going to see a pink-leather jacket, only a black leather jacket. They have this deep, deep emotional connection with their customers, that’s all they work on. It’s just such a different way of thinking.

Shaw: The difference maker, you seem to be saying, is the brand purpose. But is that possible in a commoditized market?

Schaefer: I have a one-word answer: YETI. It’s an ice cooler. Six or seven years ago, I started noticing people wearing YETI caps and YETI stickers on their cars and their laptop computers. I’m thinking, “Wait a minute, this is an ice cooler. What am I missing here?”. I’ll never forget this moment: I was in Wichita, Kansas, giving a speech, and there were a bunch of students there who wanted to have their picture taken with me. And this young woman got out her phone and the whole back of it said YETI. I just couldn’t believe it. I asked, “Why do you have this?” And she went on for ten minutes telling me about how she loves YETI, she believes in YETI. She told me the whole story. She said, “I don’t have that much money but every Christmas I buy

YETI gifts for my family because I believe in YETI.”

Shaw: In the book, you talk about how it was YETI’S head of marketing who was largely responsible for its word-ofmouth popularity, initially by recruiting fishing guides as influencers.

Schaefer: One of the greatest marketing success stories of our generation! It really is. I mean, it was all done through word of mouth. They didn’t have any money to start. They did marketing right because they focused on being meaningful to people.

Shaw: A lot of the ideas in your book are fairly radical and justifiably so because marketing is at the point where it needs bold ideas to survive this existential crisis. If marketing declares ownership of community building, as you propose, and I think it rightfully should, how does it reorganize itself around this idea? How do you now put the community at the heart of marketing thinking and planning?

Schaefer: I think it comes down to this — leadership. It comes down to the culture of the company. If the culture is “always be closing,” the community’s not going to work. And the only individual that can really change the culture of the company is the person at the top who holds the purse strings and is responsible for the strategy. It’s not only got to be mandated, it’s got to be internalized, in performance reviews and objectives and dashboards and measurements. That has to come from the top. That’s the only way it’s going to happen. The culture of the company has to be focused on the community and the customers. I really wish there was a simple answer, but it has to be leadership.

Shaw: Marketing has always been in the business of chasing people where they like to hang out. With a community, you’re asking people to hang out with you. That’s quite a pivot.

Schaefer: This doesn’t have to be a total commitment of the budget. Experiment. Take 10 percent of your budget and try word-of-

mouth marketing, and experiential marketing. Some of the things I talked about in Marketing Rebellion. Try those things. Try community. It doesn’t take a lot of money to create a community. It takes commitment, it takes some resources, but, generally speaking, it’s not going to break the bank to build some momentum. It’s not a 180-degree shift. And maybe the first try won’t work. But maybe you can crush your competition because you’re probably not crushing your competition by offering coupons.

Shaw: Toward the end of the book, you state that NFT tokens could be used to reinvent loyalty programs. And certainly, we all know how loyalty programs work today, very transactional - they don’t really inspire an emotional connection to the brand. How do you see tokens fitting into the picture?

Schaefer: I would encourage you to watch what’s happening with Starbucks right now. Starbucks is creating a token-based loyalty program. It’s not the first to do it but it’s the first to do it on this scale. Starbucks is a really smart company, they have a lot of money, a lot of resources. I expect they’re going to do it right. Now, how do you move that into the community? Starbucks used to have one of the largest and most active communities in the world. I think that someone in the community even redesigned their straws. So they have always used their community to co-create. My prediction is that Starbucks will use tokens as a way to somehow enhance the experience.

Shaw: Marketing has splintered into many, many diverse specialties that don’t play well together, if I may put it that way. What we’re facing is spiralling complexity. How do marketers manage this complexity? This lack of cohesion?

Schaefer: A great marketing leader today cannot hope to have all the right answers but they need to have all the right questions. Give up the idea that you’re the master of marketing and you have all the answers. What you need to do is dabble in everything. Experiment in everything. You

know, buy an NFT, get out on the metaverse, and play Fortnite. Just learn enough that you know the potential so you can go to your team and ask the right questions. Give up being the smartest person in the room. Have the courage to surround yourself with people a lot smarter than you, probably a lot younger than you.

Shaw: I always like to make the point that a great marketer must have a curious and empathic mind.

Schaefer: Probably the two top skills for marketing today.

Shaw: Last year you gave a TED talk where you spoke about the importance of staying relevant in this era of massive change. And I think you used the metaphor of surfing the next big wave. Is AI going to be the next big wave?

Schaefer: It’s probably the biggest wave, but there are a lot of waves. I think you need to look, just like a surfer, at all the waves coming at you and select one that you think is going to give you the best ride. When ChatGPT came out, I wrote a blog post that said, “This changes marketing forever, beginning now.” I’ve never used those words before in my life. Never. Not even close. This is profound, it really is. It makes artificial intelligence as simple to use as Google. It is going to displace a lot of jobs. It’s going to change everything. All marketing content is going to be AI-generated. But that probably deserves a whole other conversation.

STEPHEN SHAW is the Chief Strategy Officer of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider specializing in delivering a more unified customer experience. Stephen can be reached via e-mail at sshaw@kenna.ca

Are Coalition Loyalty Programs Relevant Data Collection Machines

in 2023?

BY PATRICK SOJKA

Canada has long been a global leader for loyalty programs and our own home grown industry played a major role in the development of the coalition loyalty model. The coalition loyalty program model is one that provides members with many ways of earning that program’s currency and also gives them multiple avenues of redemption.

These coalition loyalty programs have helped shape consumer data collection since the early 1990s but a question must be asked: are they still relevant in 2023? With the advent of inexpensive back end loyalty systems, concerns over ownership of data and individualized marketing we do seem to be witnessing the end of coalition programs as we once knew them.

Coalition programs gained immense popularity early in the 1990s and in Canada this was driven by the launch of AIR MILES in 1992. At that time starting a loyalty program was an expensive endeavour unless you simply wanted to go with a buy 9 get your 10th free punch card type program. That’s where AIR MILES and not long after Aeroplan changed the loyalty landscape in Canada and globally, forever. There isn’t much data gained from punch cards so that made the coalition loyalty program format a great way to collect invaluable consumer data from all aspects of life.

They made it easy for retailers to become part of a large loyalty program with marketing prowess to make any marketing professor

happy! It also created the process of collecting data on members that all the partners in the program could utilize. The growth in the programs was unprecedented — not only in consumer membership but in merchant partners. AIR MILES and Aeroplan dominated the loyalty space for the better of two decades. That domination is presumably what also led to their current market positions.

By the early 2010’s it wasn’t cheap to be a merchant partner in these programs, AIR MILES and Aimia (Aeroplan’s parent company at the time) knew they could charge a premium for their data collection and ability to market to millions. That premium however caught up with them as new technology and software emerged that allowed companies to launch their own loyalty programs for much less than what it cost to be part of the big programs.

It is these new back end systems that have now played a part in changing our loyalty landscape as AIR MILES and others did thirty years ago. The coalition model of the 90s is broken largely in part due to the costs for being associated with them. There is no longer a need for companies to pay a third party like AIR MILES or Aeroplan to collect data for them and to provide marketing to a large number of consumers who may never use their services or products.

Small, medium and large enterprises can now do it on their own and it also alleviates any concerns over privacy and ownership of that data. These companies are now 100 percent

in charge of the data and are not paying a third party who may be sharing that data with other merchants.

Another trend that has emerged over the past couple of decades is individualized or targeted marketing. Coalition loyalty programs actually helped develop targeted marketing as they grew from simply sending out the same bonus miles promotion to millions of members to only sending it out to members whose data showed they were more likely to use that offer.

Again, this was an advantage that coalition programs provided early on but as cheaper technology and software was developed it shifted. The evolution of the cheaper white label loyalty program technology has allowed merchants to collect data on their own customers and provide individualized offers to those customers. As any good marketer knows it costs a lot less to retain a customer than to acquire a new one and even though coalition programs can target customers, their partners were still paying to market to consumers who may never shop with them. Utilizing an in house loyalty program alleviates that problem as most members are previous customers and have a higher likelihood of returning.

It is for these reasons that I have stated in various articles and interviews over the past few years that we may be witnessing a slow death to the coalition loyalty program model.

Aeroplan is no longer a coalition program, they have gone back to their roots and are focusing on

being a frequent flyer program first and foremost. AIR MILES is just a fraction of what they used to be and do seem to be lost in the fray. The one anomaly is the Scene+ program. It has been well known within loyalty circles that Cineplex wanted to build their old SCENE program into a coalition program for the better of a decade or more. And while it took some time they are making some in-roads after they relaunched the program in late 2021. However at this point they can be considered at most a minicoalition program in the likes of More Rewards, PC Optimum and Canadian Tire’s Triangle Rewards.

So does it make sense for small, medium or even large corporations to join a coalition program? For the most part, in my opinion, not any more. You’ll get outliers where it may be working — Home Hardware joining Scene+, Imperial Oil dropping Esso Extra in favour of PC Optimum but most companies big and small — are having a go at it themselves. The initial investment to create a loyalty program and ongoing costs to maintain one are more affordable than they were in the 90s or 00s. With the ability to own your data, create your own targeted marketing campaigns and do it all at a fraction of the cost, it no longer seems that coalition programs are the relevant data collection machines they once were.

PATRICK SOJKA is the founder of rewardscanada. ca. They are a Canadian loyalty rewards resource who have been providing miles, points and credit card tips, tricks, bonuses and more since 2001.

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The State of Customer Loyalty & Reward Programs in 2023

BY ANDY NEMES

In the current economic recession, many businesses were forced to reevaluate their strategies in order to survive. One common thread among the various action plans was to fall back on loyal, reliable customers and try to keep them happy instead of chasing new ones. Industry analyst Forrester specifically called loyalty programs a lifeline during the inflation crisis. But can they really be the savior many companies are looking for?

Businesses put their trust in customer loyalty

In a recent study by Antavo, the Enterprise Loyalty Cloud found that 88.5 percent of companies trust customer loyalty to help them overcome the inflation crisis and potential recession. Called the Global Customer Loyalty Report 2023, Antavo based its findings on a behavioural data set of over 295 million loyalty member actions, over 600 minutes of qualitative interviews, and survey data from over 260 CMOs, CRM executives, and loyalty professionals.

On closer look, 32.6 percent of businesses stated that customer loyalty is somehow important, while 55.9 percent claimed that customer loyalty is absolutely essential, meaning that those who are more optimistic about the role of loyalty are in the majority. Not surprisingly, this sentiment translates to action, as 67.7 percent of respondents plan to increase their investments in customer retention in the inflation crisis and potential recession.

Put together, these two trends forecast a renewed interest in customer retention initiatives, such as personalization, data-driven marketing and loyalty programs.

Modern loyalty programs

aren’t the same as before

Historically, loyalty programs have been seen as purely transactional tools meant for driving revenue. However, in recent years (especially during the pandemic), the role of loyalty programs has been transformed as an engagement tool. Next-gen loyalty programs are now designed to build stronger relationships with customers and reward them for engaging with the brand.

This of course can mean repeat business or higher basket volume. Still, more and more businesses look outside of the buying cycle by rewarding actions like spreading word-of-mouth on social media, sharing zero-party data by answering quizzes and surveys, and even actions like bringing back old clothes or using a sports app to earn points with their workout.

But rewardable actions in a loyalty program are more than just a gimmick to catch customers’ attention. During an economic crisis, keeping buyers close to the brand at all times is absolutely critical, otherwise, a competitor might steal their heart instead.

Loyalty programs:

the way out from recession?

The shift towards a more engagement-focused loyalty program hasn’t gone unnoticed by

the market. According to Antavo’s GCLR2023, 8 out of 10 companies plan to revamp their loyalty program in the coming years. This is a steady increase from last year. The reason behind the decision isn’t a lack of faith (the report also highlights that satisfaction rates haven’t dropped compared to the previous year), but rather to keep up with the trends and to become the new industry innovator.

Market research company Gartner shares a similar boost for loyalty programs, but for new ones: in their predictions for 2023, they forecast that one out of three companies who don’t have a loyalty program will opt to launch one. Therefore, we will no doubt see an influx of innovative reward programs in the coming years.

Just to highlight the difference between an average and a successful loyalty program, Antavo’s report shows that 80.0 percent of companies who measure the ROI of their loyalty program reported a positive ROI, earning on average 4.9X more revenue than what they spend. Naturally, a company needs to have a clear vision for the KPIs they wish to move with their program, but the statistics hint at the fact that a well-received loyalty program can act as a revenue center, and

reward customers for actions that aren’t transactional won’t necessarily hurt the bottom line.

The secret of running a successful loyalty program in 2023 This begs the question, though: how can a brand make sure that its loyalty program falls into this category? Of course, no two reward programs are the same. In fact, it would hurt their appeal. Being different spices up the experience, and each program should be designed in accordance with the brand’s goals and audience in mind.

But for more practical advice, let’s see what Antavo’s report has to say. According to the collected answers, 28.2 percent of companies’ total marketing budget goes to customer loyalty program management and CRM — a 5.4

who redeem personalized offers is 4.5X higher than non-members, states the report.

Loyalty pays back to the world too Lastly, for those willing to give non-transactional engagement a shot, one fairly unexplored area is rewarding social-conscious (ESG) actions. Allowing program members to donate their points to charity might be a familiar concept, but loyalty programs can earn customers’ trust and adoration in other ways as well — like giving points or rewards for purchasing ethically-made products, choosing a healthy lifestyle, participating in crowdfunding, or promoting a noble cause on social media.

Loyalty programs can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to drive both revenue and engagement during the current economic crisis. By building strong relationships with customers their customer lifetime value will eventually increase, as well as their willingness to promote the brand to their friends or to share more data about themselves. But to achieve all of this, it’s important

percent year-over-year increase. The lesson here is that businesses are willing to allocate more budget to customer loyalty programs as they see them as an important part of their overall marketing strategy.

Personalization is another area worth investing in. Just like email communication and product recommendations, loyalty program offers and rewards also benefit from a little bit of personalization. In fact, the average annual spend of members

for businesses to revamp their existing loyalty programs and allocate more budget to customer loyalty programs management and CRM. Furthermore, measuring the ROI of loyalty programs is crucial to ensure that they are heading in the right direction.

ANDY NEMES is the VP of North America and Co-founder of Antavo, the Enterprise Loyalty Cloud that provides best-in-class technology to manage experience-based, paid, and lifestyle loyalty programs online, in-store, or on mobile.

How to Optimize High Volume Mail Center Operations

BY ALAIN FAIRISE

As communication channels increase and more customers transition to digital communications, high volume print mailers must adapt their operation to accommodate their customers’ unique and rapidly changing needs. To create new business opportunities, they need to be able to produce more communications across multiple channels. Many of today’s high volume mailers have to juggle more jobs with shorter print-runs, increased levels of customization, and higher degrees of complexity.

Maximize output while minimizing downtime

Time is money. For businesses that operate on a tight margin, every minute counts. You want your machines humming with activity, because idle printing equipment equals lost revenue. There are steps to transform your business to meet current and future needs. Organizations equipped with integrated and intelligent document handling hardware and automation software are able to:

❯ Process multiple jobs simultaneously with one operator

❯ Reduce job changeover time from hours to seconds without using tools

❯ Pull complex data to create highly personalized batch communications

❯ Ensure document integrity

and security

❯ Decrease postage spend

❯ Save time and money by reducing undeliverable mail

❯ Access remote diagnostics and online support

What does a post-transformation mail center look like?

A modern, ideal mail center utilizes a combination of mailing hardware and software to deliver a highly personalized, multichannel experience. It is equipped with solutions to handle a wide variety of jobs with incredible speed and accuracy without sacrificing document quality and integrity. State-of-the-art folder inserters handle flats, differentsized envelopes, and even booklets at the same time. Folding, pack size, and envelope adjustments are made automatically whenever a job is chosen. Simple user controls ensures that set-up time is reduced to seconds rather than hours, which significantly reduces the need for a dedicated operator and on-site support. New machines have built-in wireless and LANembedded network connectivity, which enables remote diagnostics, remote assistance, and access to usage data.

One folder inserter for multiple applications

Historically, in-house mailers have relied on very large and loud folder inserters to provide for the most economical processing of high

volume mail jobs. As their customers have moved toward online portals and on-demand digital communications, providers are taking on a variety of smaller and more targeted jobs. To support a broader set of requirements a platform that can be leveraged across multiple applications is key, as opposed to a hardware solution that is dedicated to a specific role.

It’s important to have a machine that offers the flexibility to address a wide variety of job options to help easily manage multiple short and large runs. Look for mailing processing hardware with a modular design and scalable features. A modular design means that you can configure the solution to fit your business requirements and expand features and modules as needed.

The RNB Group is a direct mail and print specialist providing print and mailing services to hundreds of organizations across a range of industries in the UK. Similarly, due to evolving customer communication channels, RNB Group needed the flexibility to scale up or down to meet changing volume demands, and to take on work for clients who suddenly had staff working remotely. For some clients, this meant switching to digital channels, for others it meant they needed help issuing

their print communications. With an upgraded suite of mailing solutions, RNB Group is now able to absorb new requirements, often at short notice as well as process high-volume, batch mailings and tailored communications fulfilled through digital and print channels.

“A 10,000 page-print run, which used to be a three-stage job involving three machines and taking 3.5 hours to complete, now takes a single machine one hour to complete” explains Ryan Metcalf, Managing Director, RNB Group.

“This makes for a leaner operation, with other equipment freed-up for jobs that need it.”

More opportunities for outsourced jobs

Many enterprises large and small are doing away with internal mail management and are outsourcing over half of specialized mailings. With company footprints shrinking due to hybrid work situations and other cost savings initiatives this open up opportunities for existing high volume mail service providers for incremental business.

A modern, ideal mail center is equipped to handle a wide variety of jobs.

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In the words of senior CX executive at a UK insurance firm, “Although our intention is to only temporarily outsource e-delivery, with the intent to bring back inhouse in 2 or 3 years, after a while other projects are prioritized. So, if a relationship is going well, it may remain outsourced.” According to another study by Keypoint Intelligence, of firms who chose to outsource mailings and were satisfied with their provider, 75 percent said they were unlikely to take this task back in house.

Ensure document security and integrity with closed-loop verification

each subsequent document to ensure there are no missed or double feeds. Documents are monitored and recorded at each stage of the folding and inserting process. Closed-loop verification process provides an audit trail to prove the right communications go to the right envelope and thus the right recipient each time.

Cut down on undeliverable mail

What is the point of compelling, targeted compliant customer communications if they never reach their intended destination? Undeliverable mail means wasted postage, stock plus additional cost of time and labor to recreate

would delay accounts receivable and the receipt of cash, impacting cash flow and affecting the bottom line. When you think about communications like direct mail, that aim to drive interest and revenue, a 15 percent return rate on mail could really diminish your and/or your customer’s efforts not to mention performance. Therefore, address quality is key to making sure that customer communications get to the right people in a timely and accurate manner.

According to the United States Postal Service (USPS), the total cost to forward, return, and in most cases dispose of these pieces exceeded $1.38 billion in 2021.

has steadily declined, businesses continue to use paper mail for many applications. Several sources suggest paper mail is still relevant. A recent survey by Keypoint Intelligences states that roughly 46 percent of respondents, regardless of age or technology adopter type, had no desire to “go paperless.” According to IDC’s U.S. Outsourced Document Services Benchmark Survey, organizations indicate that 44 percent of current customer communications are printed versus digital mail.

That is only half of the picture. High volume mailers must be prepared for current, and future, customer needs and expectations. Arming your organization with the technology to manage both print and digital communications gives your company access to a wider and growing audience. In addition, investing in intelligent mailing solutions ultimately enables you to offer more competitive pricing, pass along savings to your customer and keep your business thriving.

Consult with a mailing expert Quadient is driving intelligence and digital processing technology into its traditional mailroom systems, providing customers with value-add capabilities that extend well beyond the simple processing of printed mail. Quadient offers a one-stop production experience for hardware, software, and solutions across all communication channels. Competitive leasing offers allow you to amortize the cost of your investment over time, and avoid significant capital expenditures upfront. Among its many benefits, leasing gives you first access to product upgrades and provides tax savings.

It is more important than ever for high volume mailing services to deliver communications that are not only impactful, but also secure and compliant. A closed-loop verification system that enables complete end-to-end tracking of documents. This software works with the folder inserter, calibrates the first document fed, and checks

the pieces. Seventeen percent of Americans (40+ million people) change their residence and nearly 20 percent of all businesses change locations every year. As a result, address databases can deteriorate at a rate of 15 percent annually.

Imagine if 15 percent of an organization’s invoices were being returned as undeliverable? This

That cost is not just absorbed by the USPS, but instead is passed through to the mailing industry in the form of postage increases, which now continue to occur twice annually in July and January.

Be prepared to offer multichannel delivery

While the demand for paper mail

ALAIN FAIRISE is Chief Solution Officer, Mail Related Solutions for Quadient, a leader in helping businesses transform their customer experience by creating meaningful connections through digital and physical channels. Fairise is a strategic leader with more than 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes enhance customer experience with the latest mail-related and digital communications technology.

Sources:

1) Drivers of Change in Customer Communications Survey, Keypoint Intelligence – 2021

2) USPS UAA Mail Rollup, 2021

3) Annual State of Marketing Communications Consumer Survey, Keypoint Intelligence – 2020

4) IDC U.S Outsourced Document Services Benchmark Survey – 2020

What Is The Impact of E-E-A-T On Google Search Rankings?

BY CRISTA-LEA KIRK E-E-A-T.

When it comes to SEO, few acronyms are as important as this one. E-E-A-T is one of Google’s most important ranking factors, influencing a major chunk of organic search results. When done correctly you will reap the benefits from your digital marketing efforts and allow Google to further refine the search intent to connect to correct and valid information online. But how can E-E-A-T improve my Google search rankings and build my website traffic? In this article, I’ll explain what it means and why it’s so important for SEO.

What does E-E-A-T stand for?

E-E-A-T stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust.” It’s a framework that Google uses to measure the quality of your website. This means that if you want to stay on Google’s good side and rank highly in search results, you need to make sure your site has E-E-A-T.

Experience

This aspect of E-E-A-T refers to how long you have been in business and whether or not you have an established reputation online. It also includes other factors such as having a good track record with customers and providing good customer service.

Expertise

Expertise is one of the most important factors in Google’s E-E-A-T equation because it helps determine whether or not visitors will find your content useful or interesting. If visitors can quickly scan through your content and find relevant information that answers their questions, they’ll be more likely to stay on your site longer which leads to higher conversion rates.

Authority

Authority refers to the level of confidence people place in your brand or website as being credible and authoritative when it comes to specific topics. The more authority you have on a particular topic, the more likely you are to rank at the top of Google’s search results pages (SERPs). That’s why it’s important that you build authority backlinks from websites with high domain authority.

Trust

Trust (or lack thereof) plays a huge role in search rankings, too. It’s not enough for a website to have great content and an excellent reputation; it has to also be able to maintain that reputation over time. If Google sees that users are leaving your site because of bad reviews or low ratings, it can hurt your search rankings and make it harder for you to reach new customers.

So, if you want your website to rank highly in search engines like Google, then you need to develop high levels of E-E-A-T soon.

Why is the E-E-A-T important?

The E-E-A-T is a framework that helps you to understand how to build your website, and it’s especially important for SEO because it allows you to create a site that works well for users and search engines.

Ultimately, E-E-A-T will help you to understand your business goals, the audience you want to reach, how you will reach them, and what you will do for each of those people.

This is exactly what SEO is all about!

SEO is more than just keywords and links. It’s about understanding your audience and using that knowledge to create content that resonates with them. The better you know your customers and clients, the easier it is to write

content they’ll love—which means more traffic and better rankings.

What are the benefits of E-E-A-T?

There are many benefits of using E-E-A-T for SEO: Increases traffic. If you provide valuable information to your readers, then they will want to share this information with others. This means that they will link back to your website or blog post through their own websites and blogs.

Boosts search engine rankings. The more links that point toward your site, the higher you will rank in search engines. This is because Google wants users to find what they need quickly and easily when they do a search on their site. For Google to continue to stay relevant and dominate browser preference, they need to ensure that the search intent meets a high-quality reputable website that will answer the query correctly. When Google can see that many people have linked back to one particular site or blog post, then they know this must be good quality content that needs highlighting on their results pages.

Builds trust. E-E-A-T helps you build trust with users by showing them that you have done research into their needs and wants before creating a product or service around them. You can also build trust by providing information on topics they find interesting or useful and providing accurate information on topics they may have questions about.

Increases brand awareness. Taking the time to create content that users find useful and interesting will help you rank better in search engines. In addition, it will encourage users to share that content on social media or link to it from their own websites, which increases your visibility online.

Creates better content. When you’re writing about a topic that interests you, it’s easier to come up with ideas for new articles and topics for your website. You’ll also be able to create more in-depth content that adds value for your readers. And because the information will be more relevant, people are more likely to visit and share it with others.

The bottom line? E-E-A-T is a way of thinking about the user experience of content. You want users to enjoy interacting with everything you create, and if they enjoy it, then they’ll be more likely to share it—and that’s how you get the traffic you want. By using E-EA-T to improve your own website and learning more about what this format means, you can have a big impact in getting more traffic and qualified searches to your website from Google.

CRISTA-LEA KIRK has over 16 years of digital marketing experience. Considered an SEO specialist in the digital marketing industry. Crista-lea is an advisor on Google Ads and SEO strategies for North American and global businesses. She is also founder of the Kal Marketing Agency.

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