Social media use is a near-universal habit. Eighty-six percent of U.S. adults ages 18 to 75 have at least one social media account. On average, social media users have accounts on three to four platforms and log in to two of those accounts daily. The breadth and depth of social media adoption creates a magnetic pull on marketing budgets.

Participants in the 2021 Gartner CMO Spend Survey allocated 11.3% of total marketing expenses to social marketing. This does not include investments in paid advertising on social networks like Facebook or Pinterest. Social marketing is critical to achieving marketing goals, with digital marketing leaders citing it as the number one channel for building awareness and driving conversion, and the number two channel for demand generation and customer advocacy. To support this, paid social channel budgets should be part of a larger, coherent social marketing strategy.

“Individual paid social advertising platforms offer a wide array of creative formats, targeting, testing and measurement, but capabilities vary, and they aren’t interoperable,” says Eric Schmitt, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. “The questions of how many and which platforms to invest in are among the most strategically important asked by digital marketers.”

Audience reach on the top social platforms

At least 10 major paid social platforms compete for ad spend. Meta’s Facebook, Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram lead the pack by percentage of consumers using each platform and by frequency of use.

According to the 2021 Gartner Consumer Advertising and Content Marketing Preferences Survey, there are notable age- and gender-based differences in use by platform:

Age: While younger consumers (Gen Z and millennials) generally outpace their older counterparts (Gen X and baby boomers) on nearly every platform, the pattern is slightly different for LinkedIn. Millennials and Gen X — the two cohorts in the prime of their careers — are LinkedIn’s power users. Eighteen percent log in at least once a week, including the 8% of millennials and 6% of Gen X who check LinkedIn daily.

Gender: Women are significantly more likely than men to use Facebook daily (53% vs. 41%). This variance is consistent across age groups. Pinterest users are overwhelmingly women. Only 11% of men have an account. Men, on the other hand, are more likely than women to frequent Twitter, Reddit and Twitch. This difference is mostly driven by men under 43 years of age.

How to invest your paid social media budget

If you’re in charge of marketing strategy and execution, consider audience uniqueness in conjunction with overall platform size. Gartner recommends the following:

No. 1: Master — and maintain — best-in-class audience targeting 

There are many techniques for effective audience targeting. These include custom audiences, look-alike models, geo-based targeting, interest-based audiences and a cornucopia of advanced analytics and testing techniques. Successful targeting maximizes reach into the desired audience through ad effectiveness and economic efficiency. Make the most of individual platform targeting capabilities, and strive for limited, pragmatic data interoperability.

No. 2: Actively manage paid social media spend 

While Facebook and Google dominate, the market for paid social media remains dynamic and uncertain. Changes in consumer behaviors, privacy laws and antitrust actions fuel the uncertainty. Mitigate risk by reviewing paid social media investments quarterly and anticipating regular changes to the portfolio. Develop a strategy for testing the benefit of new platforms, perhaps by using geography-based techniques designed to measure incrementality.

No. 3: Prepare for ongoing disruption to paid social ad targeting and measurement

Apple and Google have announced critical changes to the use of browser cookie and device identifier data for advertising. Paid social ad targeting and attribution data availability are degrading and hitting paid social performance campaign tactics especially hard.

No. 4: Create content that resonates with brand-engaged users 

Brand-engaged users are people who use a given social media platform at least once a week — and say they like seeing content from and follow brands on that platform. This group doubled from 10% of all social media users in January 2019 to 20% in April 2021 and is principally (76%) composed of Gen Z and millennials. Target these users on the platforms where they’re most abundant by building social content that aligns with their preferences.

No. 5: Tap into streaming TV advertising to complement paid social media 

Adults ages 18 to 43 spend more time on streaming TV than broadcast, cable and satellite. To guide media investments into over-the-top (OTT) TV, connected TV (CTV) and YouTube, stay on top of a market that is fragmented, immature and challenged by the popularity of ad-free services.

No. 6: Pair paid social advertising campaigns with earned media 

The volume of consumer posts about brands has increased sharply since the beginning of 2020. Though Facebook and Instagram experienced year-over-year increases, Twitter continues to dominate as the most prolific platform for brand buzz.

No. 7: Keep your paid social media mix on an agile footing 

While Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram dominate, successful brands set aside media budgets to advertise on emerging platforms. Focus ad spend where your target audiences are likely to frequent, but don’t be afraid to experiment placing ads with smaller, yet growing platforms.

No. 8: Develop a robust pipeline of relevant social content 

To successfully manage social marketing content, optimize your assets, scale your production consistently and efficiently, and build a robust pipeline of user-generated content.

Released by Gartner

Gartner’s annual CMO Spend and Strategy Survey looks at marketing budgets, spending and strategic priorities to capture how CMOs are grappling with a range of geopolitical, social, cultural and fiscal realities. Following record lows in 2021, have marketing budgets recovered? And how are CMOs allocating their budgets as enterprises focus on growth amid uncertainty?

Marketing budgets are climbing back.

Survey results show that budgets have recovered somewhat, with the average marketing spend increasing from 6.4% to 9.5% of company revenue across almost all industries. While this is a significant uptick, budgets still lag behind prepandemic levels — between 2018 and 2020, they averaged 10.9% of company revenue.

Financial services, travel and hospitality, and tech product companies stand out, recording budget increases at 10.4%, 8.4% and 10.1% of company revenue, respectively. In contrast, spending for consumer goods CMOs decreased slightly from 8.3% in 2021 to 8.0% in 2022. Inflationary pressures, cost-of-living increases and lower consumer confidence are hitting consumer goods brands hard.

CMOs are optimistic despite signs of future disruptions

“In the face of telling macroeconomic considerations, CMOs hold on to a belief that their own economic outlook is strong,” says Ewan McIntyre, VP Analyst and Chief of Research at Gartner. “Despite inflation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, supply chain issues exacerbated by China’s lockdown measures and unprecedented talent competition, CMOs appear sanguine.”

The majority of CMOs surveyed think inflationary pressures will have a positive impact on strategy and investment in the year ahead. However, in the past, marketing has been caught off guard by budgetary shocks. It’s imperative that 2022’s optimism turns into optimization. You must take time to plan for uncertainty by building scenario plans and looking at the potential downstream implications of upheaval.

Customer journeys are changing (again)

CMOs are shifting from digital-first to hybrid multichannel strategies. Although online channels take the largest share of 2022 marketing budgets — 56% to be exact — offline channels account for almost half of total available budgets (44%). This is a more equitable split than in recent years. In terms of digital spend, social advertising tops the list, closely followed by paid search and digital display. Social advertising is a logical choice for marketers in 2022, as it continues to offer highly targeted messages at scale.

“There has been a lot of discussion around COVID-19 shifting consumers to a digital-first mindset,” says McIntyre. “However, as Western Europe and North America relax pandemic protocols, customer journeys have recalibrated. CMOs need to listen carefully to their customers and pay attention to the channels they are using, as the current environment more closely resembles a hybrid reality than a state of digital channel domination.”

Marketing embraces “back to basics” 

As buying journeys evolve, budget allocations across marketing spending priorities favor core marketing capabilities. When asked how the marketing budget is being spent on programs and operational areas, CMOs’ top three investments were:

– Campaign creation and management (10.1%)

– Brand strategy (9.7%)

– Marketing operations (9.6%)

This indicates a return to marketing’s core value proposition: to build awareness and engagement with compelling brand marketing and effective campaigns that connect with customers to deliver results. When asked about the issues that CEOs need their CMOs to focus on in 2022, CEOs echo the back-to-basics approach, citing acquisition, retention and engagement as top priorities in Gartner’s 2022 CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey.

Marketing lacks critical in-house capabilities 

While CEO-CMO synergy is a win, CMOs are challenged with capability gaps.

1. 26% of CMOs consider marketing data and analytics as a top-three capability gap.

2. 23% of CMOs include customer understanding and experience management.

3. 22% of CMOs cite marketing technology.

These speak to a larger resource challenge, as 58% of CMOs report that their teams lack the capabilities needed to execute on their strategy. It’s mission critical to build and retain the capabilities to deliver against expected goals, yet little has changed year over year when it comes to budget allocations to labor, agencies, technology and media. CMOs know that they must make large-scale changes to marketing, reevaluating the role the function plays to achieve their long-term vision. It’s up to you to lean into your role as a change agent, reimagining and reappraising the components required to drive the marketing machine.

Released by Gartner

Le directeur adjoint de l’agence Comed, Thierry Wunsch, cède son fauteuil de président de l’asbl MarkCom au CEO de Vous Agency, André Hesse.

Dans un bref communiqué de presse, la MarkCom indique qu’André Hesse aura pour mission de “veiller à poursuivre les efforts déjà entrepris pour faire rayonner la MarkCom, d’accompagner les évolutions majeures dans un secteur toujours en grande mutation, de fédérer les membres et d’en convaincre de nouveaux de rejoindre la fédération.”

“Mettons tout en œuvre pour qu’un label MarkCom soit reconnu comme un gage de qualité et de professionnalisme.”

Quels engagements pour les deux années à venir ? 

Capitaliser sur l’événementiel 

> En juin dernier, la MarkCom a organisé la Lama Academy, une série de conférences présentées à la CLC autour de six grandes thématiques, afin de “former les jeunes recrues du secteur marcom aux spécificités du marché luxembourgeois”.

> Le 6 octobre prochain, en collaboration avec Maison Moderne et RTL, la MarkCom lancera les Leo Awards (autrefois appelés les Media Awards) au Tramsschapp, avec un concept entièrement revisité. L’occasion de “célébrer le secteur de la création et de la publicité.

Insuffler un air de renouveau   

Lancée en 2016, la MarkCom admet que le site “ne reflète plus” son identité actuelle et devra donc faire l’objet d’une refonte – sur le fond et sur la forme. “Le contenu devrait pouvoir informer des bonnes pratiques à l’usage dans le marketing digital – que ce soit par exemple au niveau des indicateurs (KPIs) indispensables à prendre en compte, des objectifs à atteindre, des “Dashboards” à éditer […] Mais aussi au niveau des tarifs moyens à appliquer ou des contrats de partenariat qui sont essentiels dans l’accompagnement à long terme.”

A successful marketing and advertising professional for over 20 years, Martina has a long-standing experience with prominent players in the Luxembourg banking industry (Quintet Bank Quintet Private Bank Luxembourg and Nordics and US Bank). She also has extensive knowledge of the marketing business from digital media experience to brand positioning. At KPMG, Martina will be driving the firm’s overall marketing strategy and oversee brand management, client experience, and the markets team.

Stanislas Chambourdon, Head of Sales and Markets at KPMG Luxembourg said: “I am personally very happy to have such talent join our team. We’re confident that her wide-ranging expertise and varied background will not only inspire our team but will also support the strong increase we see in demand for services which is high on our client’s agendas”.

“I’m extremely excited for this new opportunity,” shared Martina McDermott. “I love and live marketing, digital, social and results that come with it. I found in KPMG Luxembourg the type of firm that supports broad mindsets and great empowerment which I hope only to foster, and challenging growth goals. I’m also extremely pleased to meet the team here.”

David Capocci, the firm’s Managing Partner, commented on this new hire: “Attracting top talents is at the heart of our firm’s strategy and I can’t wait to see Martina ’s contribution take shape to support our growth in delivering unmatched services to our clients and help lead what matters most to KPMG: our people”.

Released by KPMG

Les débuts à Rodange

Créée en 2012 par Lucas Tutelaire, les premières années ont été marquées par la gestion de plusieurs gros annonceurs de la Grande Région. Cette collaboration a permis de faire émerger SMART sur le marché et de se positionner en tant qu’ agence media indépendante.

Mais c’est en 2015 que l’agence connaît le démarrage d’une forte croissance. En se dotant d’outils exclusifs permettant l’analyse stratégique de marché, d’étude des cibles et de la concurrence, les clients se diversifient sur le Luxembourg et sur l’ensemble territoire français. Cette année-là est également marquée par le développement d’un bureau à Metz et Paris.

Digital, in da house

Depuis 2017, SMART prend le virage du digital en intégrant une équipe dédiée pour répondre à une demande croissante :  Social Ads, SEA et display programmatique. Un service consacré à la performance sur le volet e-commerce notamment.  SMART est aujourd’hui une référence du secteur.

La data fait aussi son arrivée dans l’offre de service. Enrichissement de données, définition de personae, l’agence mise sur l’avenir et l’importance capitale de ces piliers stratégiques pour les entreprises.

Cette période a aussi été marquée par le déménagement du siège luxembourgeois vers de nouveaux bureaux à Frisange pour accueillir toutes ces nouvelles personnalités qui font aujourd’hui la puissance de SMART.

Et c’est en 2020 qu’Hugo Houlné, Head of Digital et Julian Menard, Head of Development entrent au capital et deviennent associés.

Des projets, des innovations…

“L’analyse de ces 10 dernières années nous a permis de comprendre qu’il fallait mettre en place de nouveaux services afin d’une part de répondre à une demande croissante, puis d’autre part continuer à servir et atteindre  les objectifs clients. Le bon message, le bon visuel et le bon média sont trois piliers indispensables à la réussite d’une campagne.
C’est pourquoi cette année Deer Strategy, agence de content marketing nous a rejoint pour répondre à plusieurs besoins : ligne éditoriale stratégique, community management, articles SEO…

Aujourd’hui les annonceurs font face à une concurrence de plus en plus forte en digital notamment, les tarifs des plateformes sont en augmentation. Par conséquent, pour conserver un impact publicitaire, nous avons décidé de lancer START, un creative ads. Ce pôle créatif a pour objectif de penser digital en prenant en considération les personae à toucher, les prérequis des plateformes mais aussi leurs usages.”  Lucas Tutelaire CEO de Smart

Avec 20 collaborateurs, plus de 700 campagnes pilotées en interne chaque année, + de 15 millions d’euros d’achats médias,  SMART se positionne en tant qu’acteur incontournable sur le marché.

Communiqué par Smart Media Agency

“We are proud to have made our way through the ups and downs” declared both Farvest Group Managing Directors, Charlotte Boutelier & Margaux Vetzel, to introduce the ICT Spring comeback. They thought big for this new edition! It was based on 4 pillars:  the mix of expertise from a European and international view, themed zones in the exhibition area to deep dive into several key sectors this event intends to explore, workshops sessions and a TV show to interview and share knowledge with targeted professionals and the relationship with outstanding international delegations to create unique networking moments and favor the creation of strategic partnerships thanks to a closer collaboration with the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce.

Use new technologies as an instrument of change

Future World Vice-Chair Sean Cleary clearly said that – considering the current context – “we are going to face huge challenges” in the (near) future. As there are important shifts in the geopolitical, environmental, and social contexts. There is an imminent need to set national mitigation and transformative pathways so as to best respond to these upcoming challenges. This inevitably passes by the ratification of coherent laws and regulations to respect the COP27 objectives.

For these reasons, it appears essential to consider “how we can use digitalization as an instrument to change our economies and societies”, the Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot expressed. Digitalization offers “a whole new range of possibilities”, and can also present as a tool “to reduce our material footprint in different sectors”. In parallel, Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce Director General Carlo Thelen highlighted that “Luxembourg has been preparing to be digital ready”, as the government invested in 5G infrastructures or supercomputing (MeluXina). It is to note that a seamless and successful digital transition goes hand in hand with a collaborative approach.

On this note, different companies innovate in this sense, attempting to go deeper in the exploration of the new technologies capabilities. This is the deeptech company Mentalista wager, specialized in brain-environment interfaces. Its CEO Bastien Didier presented his solution, which consists in analyzing emotions, visualizations, concentration, through the power of… brainwaves! It has never been simpler to interact with your environment, as this solution only requires your brain (and not your body) action. This shows that technology can help us dive deeper into the understanding of our brains. Hence, we can imagine that Mentalista’s innovation could notably be considered for healthcare applications.

AI, Metaverse and NFTs: challenges or advantages? 

As NFTs are commonly used in the financial sector, they can also represent a new lever for the art industry. Gallery 1:1 Founder Sumo, on stage with SCHILTZ & SCHILTZ Partner Nadia Manzari, admitted that he “discovered NFTs at the beginning of last year” and they are “more than an image”. This can be used as a tool to support the artist, and “give people a different way to experience my work”, Sumo added.

Speaking of experience, TechCrunch Editor-at-Large Mike Butcher predicted that the way we navigate in the Internet will considerably change. He explained that “in the future, we will be in the Internet, in the experience”. In other words, these technologies are to enable anyone to travel without moving. Though the Metaverse is a “lovely idea”, it still has a long way to go, notably in terms of regulations regarding the use of avatars and interactions.

In this logic, regulations regarding cyber identity are also required so as to ensure cybersecurity in this new space. “70% of cyberattacks have originated from an identity breach”, Atos Global CTO (Cybersecurity Products) Vasco Gomes alarmed. Although the Metaverse is full of promises, the rate of phishing attacks might increase accordingly. Relying on AI could help interact in the virtual world, alert on threats, or even recover after an attack. “There is hope in AI helping us in metaverses!”

In this sense, SMILE Founder and CEO Pascal Steichen stated that new technologies bring both opportunities and challenges, especially pointing out that “email scam is a big issue at the moment” for businesses. To prevent this, it is important to build trust and protect human rights, notably through raising awareness among the organization (employees, clients, providers). Also, businesses should request help from experts when they have an incident. “Cybersecurity is a share of responsibilities”, he added. Businesses should focus on developing in a reliable and secure way, counting on three ingredients: human, technology, and organizations. These three aspects surely require consideration to help support funding, research, development, capabilities, skills, and so on.

B2B buyers’ appetite for digital commerce often exceeds their ability to make successful purchases online. Compared to traditional buyers, digital commerce buyers are significantly more likely to experience purchase regret. Customers’ embrace of virtual buying has come at the expense of productive decision making and deal quality.

“The potential benefits of digital buying are so exciting that it’s easy to miss warning signs that B2B buyers also face unprecedented challenges,” said Sharon Cantor Ceurvorst, senior director, research in the Gartner Marketing practice. “The obvious solution — proactive sales rep intervention — comes with its own pitfalls. When buyers report their digital purchase process was primarily led by sales reps (as opposed to self-navigated), they make lower-quality deals.”

The survey found that while most deals are transacted digitally, nearly all buyers still engage a sales rep at some point before they buy. Only 24% of B2B buyers in primarily sales rep-led purchases completed a high-quality deal, versus 65% of B2B buyers who self-navigated the purchase process.

Customers are not maximizing the value of either digital or human-led channels due to ineffective customer learning. Digital experiences and seller engagements are too often encouraging shallow, “good enough” learning.

Most digital experiences are designed to make it easy for customers to follow through on their decisions, even when they are misguided. Likewise, sales enablement resources often provide oversimplified recommendations and encourage buyers to move forward without a full understanding of their own needs.

Overcoming “good enough” learning requires suppliers to create self-reflective learning paths that integrate digital and human-led channels to deepen customers’ understanding of their own needs. When buyers experience a self-reflective learning path, they are 147% more likely to buy more than originally planned. This multichannel approach requires a new class of digital experiences. Rather than removing all friction from the digital commerce experience, digital content and sales tools must cause customers to pause, deliberate and make better decisions for their needs.

Gartner recommends marketing leaders seeking to improve digital buying and sales enablement should:

• Offer information and tools that prompt buyers to (re)evaluate their purchase needs to overcome the purchase regret associated with digital commerce buying.
• Help buyers create organizational consensus by offering digital-first tools designed specifically to facilitate shared learning among buying group members.
• Partner with sales to create multichannel learning paths that drive progressive self-learning and decision confidence.

Nos équipes de consulting, creative strategy, graphic design, web design et project management ont été heureux de pouvoir accompagner et fonctionner en harmonie avec la direction et les équipes de communication et marketing de WEALINS. Notre but : donner naissance à un nouveau brand book pensé tant pour le site web que tout autre touch point online et offline de la marque.

Un nouveau claim a été pensé pour exprimer la relation de confiance que WEALINS construit avec ses partenaires et leurs clients en s’appuyant sur son accompagnement patrimonial, son sens de la collaboration et son expertise : « You lead, We empower. »

Toujours à l’écoute et force de propositions, de services et de solutions sur mesure, WEALINS permet aux membres de sa communauté de progresser sur leurs voies. Ces derniers sont représentés, le regard porté vers l’avant, le futur (à l’instar de la licorne WEALINS), prêts à avancer, une posture qui se veut positive et constructive.

La marque quant à elle est incarnée par une « golden path » (une voie dorée, couleur principale de l’ADN) qui leur permet d’atteindre leurs destinations. « We empower », telle une réflexion dans l’eau, répond aux ambitions de ces « leaders » de projets.

Pour rester dans la continuité de l’identité antérieure, la nature est préservée en tant que contexte dominant, représentant une richesse admirable à l’état pure, sereine, abondante, mais rappelant aussi à une humilité et une responsabilité à garder face à notre planète.

En digital, la présence élégante et premium de l’élément « eau » permet de créer un fil rouge, une expérience de navigation animée par de subtils effets de mouvement (option 16 Juin 2022 permissive): une emprunte unique et identitaire exprimant la fluidité de l’accompagnement WEALINS. Les couleurs de la marque sont légèrement éclaircies et une typographie additionnelle est pensée pour apporter de l’énergie à l’expérience.

Communiqué de presse de Vanksen

Internet Explorer bows out after 27 years of existence. Microsoft owner Bill Gates had announced the news in May 2021, and it’s now official. In the past few years, the browser has become an object of ridicule on the Internet – and mainly as memes on social media platforms.

(Source: Twitter/TomWarren)

Created in 1995, Internet Explorer succeeded to outperform its predecessor Netscape. The former enjoyed a memorable culmination in 2004, representing 95% of research. But the browser got burned soon after due to an accumulation of security breaches, on top of regular bugs which affected its search speed. These sullied the browser renown which was hence known – and mocked – for these flaws.

Since June 15, the few remaining Internet Explorer users are automatically redirected to Microsoft Edge. Microsoft announced that this will last until the new Windows update, which is to erase Internet Explorer once and for all. This is part of Microsoft strategy so as to come back in competition, and eventually to convert Internet users to adopt Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft still has a long way to go, as Google’s Chrome prevails “with roughly 65% in the worldwide browser market”.

Le 9 juin, EY Luxembourg a accueilli dans ses locaux la finale régionale de la compétition internationale Startup World Cup. Le gagnant de cette finale signe sa qualification pour la Grand Finale organisée à San Francisco, du 28 au 30 septembre 2022. Au total, 10 startups locales étaient en lice pour espérer s’envoler vers les États-Unis. Parmi eux, il y avait :

– A352 SARL

– Assets-Lux

– ANote Music

– BlocHome Operating Company

– Boardigo

– F4A

– Gamma Technologies

– KeepLocal

– RoomMate

– WEO

Le jury de cette finale était composé de cinq professionnels et entrepreneurs confirmés dans le secteur de la tech : Hans-Juergen Schmitz (Mangrove Capital Partners), Owen Reynolds (Expon Capital), Dara Nikolova (European Investment Bank), Genna Elvin (Tadaweb), et Keith Hopper (ONE group solutions). Les critères de sélection du jury pour élire le gagnant reposaient sur : le projet en lui-même; la présentation globale; la force d’équipe; la capacité à résoudre les problèmes; le marché et la traction; l’avantage concurrentiel; la rentabilité; la durabilité.

La startup luxembourgeoise ANote Music a su convaincre le jury, qui l’a jugée “prometteuse”, et s’est vue attribuer la première place du podium. Les startups WEO et Food4All ont respectivement remporté les deuxième et troisième places.
Les représentants d’ANote Music seront conviés à la Grand Final à San Francisco, et pourront ainsi rencontrer les autres startups qualifiées. Il y aura plus de 70 startups du monde entier lors de cette grande finale mondiale.