Generation Y (also called Millennials) are the largest demographic to pursue higher education, with over 45% of them joining a university before age 20. However, is this surge in university applications just because of a generational shift? Or are there some external factors that we should be looking at?
The number of ethnic minorities grows rapidly in the UK, and yet most of the brands fail to reach those groups through their marketing campaigns. Ethnic communities are 20 % of UK’s population with 300 billion spending power and with 42% just in London. The...
“It is time our industry acknowledged the growth of our multicultural communities and targeted this niche market,” says Saad Saraf, CEO, Media Reach. Multiculturalism in the UK, especially London, is not a new phenomenon, but it is the biggest and fastest growing sector in the UK...
The UK is changing. We’re living longer, getting more technologically advanced and most importantly, living in a diverse society. Is this important? We think it is. We’re talking about multicultural marketing. Most people translate that to mean ethnic minorities, but that isn’t, and shouldn’t be,...
By Saad Al-Saraf (pictured), founder and CEO of the UK first ethnic and multicultural advertising agency, Media Reach Advertising One of the most important weapons in the marketer’s armoury is information about their customers. It’s an asset that many marketing departments are willing to spend thousands of...
Apple has allegedly lost a large portion of its market share since the release of the Samsung Galaxy S8. Could the release of the iPhone X be enough to pull It back? Only one in six iPhone enthusiasts claim they would be willing to spend one...
At present, there are more than 300,000 Arabs residing in London, with more than half a million spread across Great Britain. These numbers increase during the summer months by up to a million and a half visitors from the Middle East, mainly from the Gulf.
What is the GDPR?
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation – is a new EU regulation intending to combine and strengthen data protection within the EU. The regulation will come into effect 25th of May 2018, giving time to adapt to the changes. GDPR will replace the outdated Data Protection Directive which has many gaps in it as a result of the rapid advancement of technology since 1995, when the directive was made.
DKMS, the blood cancer charity, joins hands with Mediareach to deliver its 2017 “Swab to be a Lifesaver” awareness campaign.
Mediareach was awarded the account in February 2017 following a competitive pitch, highlighting the agency’s unique approach to deliver the charity’s key objectives. Jonny McKay, DKMS Campaign Manager said “We were very impressed with Mediareach’s approach to the campaign plan and the business ethics they represent. It’s great to be working with them on our awareness campaign and we’re looking forward to seeing the results.”
DKMS launched in the UK in February 2013 with the mission to provide every blood cancer patient with a potentially lifesaving blood stem cell donor or help with access to treatment – around the globe.
When you think of “video chat”, you think of Skype. The video calling application has been downloaded over a billion times on smartphones alone since 2012, when tech giant Microsoft purchased the platform for $8.5bn.
Though Skype hasn’t had a significant update since 2006, when it first introduced the video calling feature. All the while, competing applications have emerged offering similar services, such as Facebook Messenger and Apple’s FaceTime. Users were found to be using Skype once or twice a week to video chat, whilst using Facebook or Google’s apps on a daily basis. Skype corporate vice president Amritansh Raghav recognised the need for evolution however, and stated; “We don’t think Skype can rest on its legacy”.
Last week Microsoft updates Skype for the Snapchat generation. The video calling app refreshed its look and added several new features to its video and text chat service. Though the upgrade will initially only be available to Android users, with updates to iOS, Mac and Windows apps coming later this year.
Uber is now dominating the taxi industry, which for decades had been led by local cab companies in countries around the world. How did the megacorporation completely change the industry in just a few short years?
The proactive entrepreneurs Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp continuously sought sources of investment for their app prior to and during its launch in 2010 – raising $44.5 million for international development. Their quick expansion worldwide allowed them to quickly gain an audience before any competition could develop.
Launching in San Francisco was not by chance either. The taxicab market in the area was performing poorly, with the lowest taxi usage rates in all of the US. However, due to San Francisco’s highly interactive tech community who are eager to discover the next new trends, Uber quickly gained notable recognition.
Last week Facebook released some user information that revealed its Snapchat-similar features are outperforming the image-messaging app.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced to analysts that Instagram Stories has over 200 million daily active users. Comparatively, Snap had 161 million daily active users at the end of last year. Snap is expected to report earnings later this month, but analysts predict that it won’t catch up to Facebook’s user base.
Though some research indicates that younger users still opt to use Snapchat as their preferred multimedia application, Facebook has dismissed these findings.
Moreover, Zuckerberg is keen on making Snap’s hallmark augmented reality features central to Facebook’s future. Zuckerberg believes that augmented reality – led by Facebook rather than Snap’s Lenses – will replace TV and other media platforms.
CEO of Tesla and Space X Elon Musk Is now set to become the CEO of Neuralink with his latest goal to connect human brains with computers.
The billionaire entrepreneur has dedicated his recent years to putting forth outlandish scientific projects such as his aims to make an intergalactic human colonial species. And it looks like he’s got no intentions of slowing down in his attempts to turn Sci-Fi dreams into reality. Musk’s most recent venture Neuralink, promises to make human telepathy possible in just a few short years. The tech billionaire tweeted, ‘if somebody doesn’t do it, then I think I should do it’.
Despite all of this, Musk has fears about the future of AI and believes it could be humanity’s downfall and could ultimately lead to the extinction of our race. Musk recently followed up these thoughts at the world government summit claiming however that creating human cyborgs would actually solve part of the problem. Musk believes that the reason behind our possible extinction could be that as AI becomes more intelligent and is able to perform various tasks and jobs, humans will become less relevant. Thus, Musk expressed, ‘people need to become cyborgs to be relevant in a future dominated by AI, a merger of biological intelligence and machine intelligence’.
Facebook has received a lot of negative attention recently due to people filming their own suicides through its live stream feature. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is distraught after discovering that his service, which was designed to connect people, is being used for such dark purposes.
Millennials have become the primary age group for adopting this trend and have taken to live streaming their deaths after revealing the pain and struggles they have been internally suffering from. This issue is becoming extremely prevalent with suicide rates in young people reaching an all time high in 2014 and continuing to rise.
Facebook have now added a suicide-prevention feature to identify posts and comments that display suicidal tendencies. This will be reviewed by Facebook’s community team and if deemed necessary, the user will be sent suicide-prevention resources with options to contact a helpline or get help from a friend, especially if someone begins live broadcasting. Additionally, suicide-prevention organisations are now being made readily available on Messenger, so that they are easily contactable for anyone who may be experiencing suicidal or harmful thoughts.
It’s been a tough few years for the world of watches, even with more luxury brands embracing technology. But as fans flock this week to Baselworld, the Swiss watch industry’s annual showcase, leaders are predicting an uplift in sales.
Last year, sales of Swiss watches fell nearly 10% to about $19.7 billion, François Thiébaud, told attendees, in a prepared statement, that this has been driven by “uncertainty on political, security- related and financial levels, a downturn in tourism in Europe, and a persistently strong franc.”
But sales in China have been strengthening in the last six months. Luxury powerhouse LVMH, says sales in its watches and jewellery division grew by 5%, with TAG Heuer gaining share, in part because of its connected watch. And Richemont, the Swiss parent of brands like Cartier and Piaget, also reported a 5% gain in sales. Swatch’s CEO recently told Bloomberg he predicts sales increases of between 7% and 10% in the year ahead.
With the use of police bodycams on the rise, it seems the technology may soon make its way into the school system.
Last month two UK schools trialled the use of police-style bodycams for teachers in an effort to resolve problems in the classroom. The teachers of two UK secondary schools have decided to trial the technology as they are said to be “fed up with low-level background disorder” according to a criminal justice academic. Thus the wearable cameras are being trialled as a both a means to deter bad behaviour and also as an opportunity to record positive learning in the classroom.
Principal lecturer at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth, Tom Ellis, has said the teachers may use the cameras to film “when necessary”.
Meanwhile the cameras, worn by police, parking wardens and even school crossing-patrol officers in Britain, has been used in schools across the US since 2015.
The Mediareach team attended the twentieth edition of the ‘International Food & Drink Event’, eager to seek out trends in the industry and potential marketing prospects with the hundreds of locals and international businesses attending. The IFE is the UK’s Largest gathering of global food & drink buyers and suppliers, connecting every person from every background through a love and appreciation for food across all cultures and those looking to establish their brands as a local household name.
The team were delighted to see so many fresh and innovative businesses enthusiastic to share their unique food brands with the world. We scouted the event for entrepreneurs with raw passion who were seeking guidance on how to edge their product onto store shelves and into people’s homes.
Since 2014 there has been a significant growth in vegan and gluten free diets, with hundreds of stalls advertising related produce. Halal products are also becoming more popular; corresponding with the rise of the Islamic population in the UK.
In the 90s Bill Gates held a strong handle on the tech industry. Microsoft became known as the company that would win at any cost under Gates’ leadership. When Microsoft couldn’t buy a competing app or web browser, it would simply create its own to crush its rival, and would sell it to its huge existing customer base.
Could history be repeating itself in the form of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook? Snap’s recent $3 billion IPO could be seen as a response to its ongoing strive for dominance within the social networking sphere, and the subsequent growing pressure it is facing from its competitors Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook launched Instagram Stories back in August 2016, replicating Snapchat’s feature of the same name. Meanwhile Snapchat reported a dip in user growth in the second half of 2016, which many argue may be due to Instagram’s adoption of the ‘story’ function.
Similarly Facebook started testing Snapchat-style stories in its main app in January. This could result in yet another dip in users for Snapchat.
Gates probably would have adopted a similar tactic in capitalising on the “Stories” feature during the Microsoft era. Moreover it is well known that Zuckerberg has long suffered from Snapchat envy. Facebook attempted to purchase the startup app in 2013 for $3 billion in cash. Unsuccessful, Facebook released rival app ‘Poke’ the following month.
Though Poke didn’t take off, nor did its successor ‘Slingshot’ in 2014, Facebook’s message was clear; anything you can do, we can do…better. However, Snap saw a brief explosion in revenue growth, rising 590% from 2015 to 2016, following it’s IPO filing.
Pinterest introduced an app last month that allows users to identify objects in the real world. The new feature, titled Lens, allows the Pinterest smartphone app to identify objects and thereafter, show you images and information about similar objects uploaded by other Pinterest users. The app functions almost as a kind of ‘Shazam’ for objects. Whether you point it at food, furniture or even the night sky, the Pinterest tool will use its machine vision to display objects that it believes are related.
In a demonstration for the feature, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp used Lens to detect a pomegranate. Pinterest returned results for pomegranate bread, pomegranate sandwiches, and tips for peeling pomegranates. Sharp also described an instance in which Lens was pointed towards the night sky. Pinterest in turn, brought up a selection of nigh-time landscape photos.
Through his relentless barrage of abuse, most notably on Twitter, and consistent claims of the spreading of “fake news”, Trump has branded the field of political journalism as one that is not to be trusted. The executive leader has even gone as far as to deny the Washington press access to his administration.
So it should come as no surprise that there are those that claim that he is destroying the mainstream media as we know it. However, the opposite may be true in fact.
Trump appears to have given news organisations the sustainable commercial future they have been so desperately seeking. According to New York Times chief executive, Mark Thompson, Trump has generated phenomenal traffic for news websites such as the Guardian, Mail Online, Buzzfeed News and The Independent. In fact CNN, an organisation Trump repeatedly condemned for circulating fake news, reported 2016 as the news channel’s ‘most watched year’. As such, these news corporations have seen a significant rise in revenue.
Millennials are struggling in the workplace and are being labelled by bosses as self-entitled, narcissistic, lazy and tough to manage, says motivational speaker and author Simon Sinek. Though Sinek believes to have discovered the reason behind this – “failed parenting strategies”.
After the success of his video on millennials in the workplace, Sinek spoke to The Independent and explained that the parenting style millennials have experienced, combined with social media, work environments and impatient tendencies, may be at fault for generation Y’s professional struggles. He suggests that the above factors have led to a generation plagued by low self-esteem. Sinek noted that whilst growing up, millennials became accustomed to receiving unwarranted praise from their parents. Subsequently he states that they have grown up with unrealistic expectations and face shock when entering the real world as their self-images are shattered.
It wasn’t long ago that clients used to send briefs to agencies by post and bike, but with the advent of technology and more notably, greater access to email through handheld devices, there has been a considerable increase in the workload for staff in advertising firms across the UK and Europe.
This has lead to huge amounts of pressure and stress on marketing agency staff as it has been found that a number are taking their work home and are unable to switch off. As a result, many are leaving the industry altogether.
Earlier this year, France’s labour minister Myriam El Khomri took a stand by introducing the “Right to disconnect” law, which stipulated that organisations with over 50 staff members were required to negotiate with employees on their right to switch off from work.
According to analysis by the Pew Research Center, only 20 percent of 25 to 35 year olds reported a change of address in 2016, compared to 26 percent of Gen Xers in 2000. Meanwhile, in 1990 27 percent reported to have moved homes in the year prior.
Subsequently, today’s young Americans have been revealed to be less mobile than the previous four generations were at the same age, with the trend underscoring a pattern across all demographic groups. The research revealed that the overall share of Americans of all ages who moved homes in the previous year fell to an all-time low of 11.2% in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Economists are concerned by the trend as moving has previously been linked to the pursuit of job opportunities and with the economy improving, they would expect Americans to be moving in greater numbers. Millennials in particular, would be expected to be mobile since they are less likely to be tied down by three of the things that tend to hinder people from moving – a spouse, a house, or a child.
A Dutch vehicle manufacturer has initiated the commercial sale of the world’s first flying car, the PAL-V Liberty. Available in two varieties, the PAL-V Liberty Sport and the Liberty Pioneer are two-person three-wheelers and are capable of flying at speeds of up to 112mph.
Whilst the Sport is the cheaper of the two with the base model starting at $400,000, the Pioneer is priced at $600,000.
PAL-V states that it takes 10 minutes to switch from driving to flying mode and in the air you may travel for 310 miles on a full tank.
The PAL-V Liberty has two distinct attributes that differentiate it from other flying vehicle concepts. The first is that the lift is created by a wind-powered rotor so that the car has the ability to float in the air, whilst the second unique feature is the three-wheel design and the soft-tilting motion in curves.
A Think tank Reform report has revealed that 248,860 public sector jobs could be taken over by AI (artificial intelligence) and automated systems over the next 15 years.
According to Think tank Reform, administrator jobs within the UK’s civil service and public sector may be automated to improve efficiency. The report is based on interviews, data, previous research and Freedom of Information requests, and estimates the changes could save the UK £4bn per year through the reduction of the public sector’s wage bill.
Think tank Reform claims the headcount of the government, police and NHS could be significantly reduced and 24,000 roles in frontline healthcare could be replaced. A Reform representative even stated that “public services could become the next Uber” with the gig economy encouraging further employment of locum doctors and supply teachers.
The report stresses that workforces within public services have been designed to be too hierarchical and “unresponsive to user needs” hence it would be beneficial to replace humans with online processes to complete tasks. One example cited by the report wherein we have already seen this shift is the HMRC which has reduced its admin staff from 96,000 to 60,000 over the last ten years.
Our CEO, Saad Saraf, was part of a Dragon’s Den style panel discussion this week in association with Tech City Stars Reboot Camp. Reboot Camp is a pre-apprenticeship program targeted towards young adults as a means to help them gain skills in Mobile App Development, Interactive Media & Marketing and Pre-Employment Skills.
The event, a variation on the Dragons Den TV show, was an opportunity for the apprentices to pitch their tech business ideas to a panel of potential clients. These included Mediarearch Advertising CEO Saad Saraf, Joana Condeco from Brilliant Basics, James Herbertson from London Nest and a representative from Sphonic.
The young tech stars showcased their presentations on mobile app ideas tackling gaps in the market.
The proposed apps focused on IT solutions and computer repairs, converting teachers notes into word documents, football participation, music composition, task assignments and many other concepts.
A recent Nielsen report has found that the heavy social media user group isn’t Millennials. Generation X (those aged 35-49) was revealed to spend almost 7 hours per week on social media, whilst Millennials spend just over 6 hours per week. Meanwhile adults aged 50 and over were found to spend an average of 4 hours 9 minutes a week on social.
The findings came as a surprise to the president of Nielsen’s social division, Sean Casey, as he noted that social media is usually associated with a younger audience and in fact, is often seen as being synonymous with millennials.
The report has also highlighted how ubiquitous smartphones have become with 97 per cent of 18 to 34-year olds and 94 per cent of 35 to 49-year olds having access to a smartphone device. Additionally, 77 per cent of those 50 and older were also found to use smartphones.
In 2017 we shall see online search evolve from cross-device use to assisted bots and voice search due to the advent of digital assistants such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant.
Voice Search
This year has been predicted to be the year of voice search. In fact, a recent Google study revealed over half of U.S. teens and 41% of U.S. adults use voice search on a daily basis. Due to the growth of AI and digital assistants in voice search, user intent will be gauged more effectively as they evolve from voice recognition to voice understanding. Consequently businesses will need to tailor their optimization efforts to accommodate voice search.
Cross-channel Marketing
This year will also see a greater implementation of cross-channel marketing in search. Though this may sound similar to multi-channel marketing, they are in fact different. While multi-channel refers to a brand establishing a presence on more than one platform, cross-channel allows for the integration of brand visibility across several platforms. This may be implemented through targeted ads for users via email or social media based on their searches. The result will be a consistent brand presence across multiple channels so that users may be able move seamlessly between devices and platforms whilst making a purchase.
We have already started to see an increased use of video in marketing. In fact, businesses without a video marketing strategy in place have most likely fallen behind their competitors. A recent Forbes study concluded that 59% of executives would prefer to watch a video rather than read text and that video consumption will account for 69% of all Internet traffic in the upcoming year.
Video marketing is now a space that is easier than ever to break into and contrary to belief, no longer requires an enormous budget. The latter part of 2016 saw a notable rise in live videos and streaming due to a push from services such as Facebook Live and Snapchat, which in turn helped brands and personalities dominate the field.
In order to develop an effective Video Marketing Strategy, it is important to note that the video content should seek to:
Retailers should prepare for mobile becoming the fastest growing channel in the user-shopping experience. With the growth of mobile, we also expect to see the growth of video in marketing practices. Marketers need to show their products quickly and effectively so that purchase decisions can take place in real time.
Another trend we expect to see is the implementation of AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI will give marketers the ability to target consumers with ads that address their specific interests and needs. AI technology, such as Watson, is making its way into the marketing eco-system.
Greater focus on user experiences will result in the transformation of stores into warehouses. These will allow for experiential marketing, designed to trigger online orders by letting customers see, touch and try products in the warehouse and will result in customers simply going to stores to pickup their purchases.
There will be twice as many channels in the future that marketers need to manage with technologies such as IOT, Chatbots, AR/VR etc. disrupting the retail space. One example is beacons; these are small wireless devices that allow retailers to automatically send notifications and discounts directly to shoppers’ smart phones as soon as they enter a store. Another is the smart mirror, which will enable customers to virtually try on clothes.
