Pratik Dholakiya says, “Influencer marketing is not a new thing; it’s been a useful tool in advertising since the 1700s, when chinaware brands like Wedgewood used royal endorsements. From 1875 to the early 1900s, trading cards were used to sell products, and a picture of a celebrity would often be included in the packaging for collectors. American baseball athletes, meanwhile, were even featured on collectible cards in the “Kodas” cigarette brand in the early 1900s. Social media, however, has dramatically up-ended the modern influencer game; as a crowd-sourcing tool, it’s... [...]

Dave Davies says, “Two patents were recently granted to Google that paint a very interesting picture of the future of search. These patents are: Detecting and correcting potential errors in user behavior Guided purchasing via smartphone Before we dive in, I feel it’s necessary to point out that having a patent granted does not mean that Google will be implementing everything (or even anything) contained therein; however, it does illustrate areas they’re considering and willing to invest significant time and money into protecting. That said, these two patents contain ideas and technologies... [...]

An article by Dan Goodin in Ars Technica reports that researchers have found a vulnerability in the code running the phone that can let a malicious program on a wi-fi network take over the phone can use it for all kinds of malicious purposes. The vulnerability is in a chip manufactured by Broadcom that is used for wi-fi connection. This Broadcom chip is also used in Apple iPhones, but Apple has already issued an upgrade that patches the code to avoid the problem. Google says it will have a correction later this month. You can read the whole Ars Technica article here: Android devices can be fatally... [...]

In a recent move, Google modified the function of Google Assistant, Google’s voice assistant that powers the Google app on Android phones, tablets, and Google Home, to integrate it with Google’s shopping site, Google Express. That’s a common tactic of technology companies and often has significant benefits for consumers. Integration lets different applications talk to each other. A well-known example is Microsoft office, which integrates MS Word, MS Excel, etc. That integration lets you insert spreadsheets into Word documents and a lot more. But this new Google integration takes... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “In November 2016, Google launched their mobile-first index experiment and hoped to do enough testing to launch it sometime in the near future. Well, it seems this mobile-first index has proven to be a challenge for Google, and they may not even launch it this year. At the Next10x Conference in Boston yesterday, Gary Illyes from Google said that while the team is hopeful that they will launch the mobile-first index by the end of the year, he feels that it is unlikely. We asked Gary to confirm, and he told us that he did indeed say that at the event. He said the team working... [...]

Collin Colburn says, “If you’ve been following Forrester’s search marketing research over the past few years, you’d know that we talk a lot about search marketing evolving to a broader discovery marketing strategy. As a refresher: a discovery marketer creates programs that help users find your brand in their preferred medium and during their moment of need. Some marketers, especially retailers, have begun to take on this new and challenging charter and are looking to new channels and websites to increase their discoverability. Enter: Amazon, Google’s newest, and biggest,... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “Can influencers and affiliate marketing be a match made in heaven? Online retail’s 800-pound gorilla is apparently interested in finding out. Last week, it was revealed that Amazon has launched a beta of an invite-only Amazon Influencer Program “exclusively designed for social media influencers with large followings and a high frequency of posts with shoppable content.” According to TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez, the program functions like the company’s affiliate program in that participants are paid a commission for product sales that they... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Last September, Google announced it would start using signed-in user data to enable retargeting across devices on the Google Display Network. Starting May 15, audience lists created in Google Analytics will start using that data. Google has started showing the following alert in Google Analytics: Starting May 15, 2017, all properties using Remarketing with Google Analytics will be enhanced to take advantage of new cross-device functionality. This is an important update to your remarketing settings, which may relate to your privacy policy. The change means that advertisers... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Are marketers doing enough to prove the ROI of influencers? Do they even need to? Econsultancy has just published a discussion of the topic, titled Measuring the ROI of Influencer Marketing, in association with Fashion & Beauty Monitor. Let’s look at some of the issues. Influencer marketing is now at the top table The first point to make is that spending on influencer marketing is not insignificant. The past couple of years have seen high profile campaigns, particularly in fashion and beauty, but also in travel, food and beyond. Sponsored social posts from the... [...]

Nikki Gilliland says, “In 2016, almost half of Airbnb consumers were reported to be between the ages of 18 and 34. In contrast, only 28% of hotel guests who booked with Marriott online were millennials. So, with younger generations embracing the sharing economy, Marriott has decided to do something about it by turning to every millennial’s sort-of-favourite app – Snapchat. What’s it all about? Here’s a run-down of the campaign. Using the power of influencers Instead of a standard Snapchat ad, which is often just a 10 second clip, Marriott has created three-minute long ‘Snapisodes’... [...]