Key takeaways include the fact that Disney is currently the world’s most powerful brand, thanks to the amazing success of Star Wars. Apple, despite sluggish sales, is still the world’s most valuable brand (now valued at $145.9 billion).

But VW? The Volkswagen brand is in the dumpster, fallen by $12 billion after its foolhardy and illegal emissions activity. Interestingly, four of the 10 fastest growing brands are Chinese.

This information comes from leading brand valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance, which every year puts thousands of the world’s top brands to the test.

“Brands are evaluated to determine which are the most powerful (based on factors such familiarity, loyalty, promotion, marketing investment, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation) and which are most valuable and ranked in the Brand Finance Global 500,” notes the firm.

Stars Wars is the big story: inside theaters and out.

“Disney is the world’s most powerful brand. Disney’s strength is founded on its rich history and original creations, however its now dominant position is the result of its many acquisitions and the powerful brands it has brought under its control. ESPN, Pixar, The Muppets and Marvel are all now Disney owned, but perhaps its most important acquisition of all has been Lucasfilm, and thus Star Wars,” according to Brand Finance.

In other revealing news, though Lego remains a popular brand, its star is fading.

“Lego has lost its position at the top of the table,” notes the report. “Though it remains a very powerful brand and retains its AAA+ brand rating, the Danish company has been beset by a series of controversies of late which threaten to affect its wholesome image. It has been fined by German regulators for attempting to prevent retailers from discounting its products. It was also accused of colluding in censorship for trying to prevent dissident Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei from using Lego in his work. Lego has since reversed its policy of restricting purchases to be used for political ends following widespread condemnation (including from Ai Wei Wei himself).”

And what about China’s “Fantastic Four?”

“Chinese firms are among the top performing from any sector; four of the top ten are Chinese including all four of the top performing brands,” according to the data. “WeChat is a good example. Its user base grew over 40 percent between late 2014 and late 2015 and is now over 650 million, with 70 million outside China.”

And poor Volkswagen — though the company is to blame for its brand blemishes. VW’s brand value plummeted so much its rank went from 17th to a lowly 56th on the charts.

“Volkswagen is also amongst this year’s worst performing brands,” notes Brand Finance. “This may come as little surprise given the scale of the scandal that has engulfed the brand, following revelations that it programmed its diesel vehicles to activate their optimal emission-reduction settings only when being tested and that, driven under normal conditions, they would emit up to 40 times the more nitrogen oxide. In December Brand Finance estimated that VW may see brand value fall by as much as $10 billion.”

The entire report is enlightening and engaging — click to see it here.

The post Brand Finance Report: Star Wars Sends Disney Brand into Hyperdrive, VW Hit Hard by Emissions Scandal appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“More than a third of respondents said that revenue metrics, like customer lifetime value, revenues per customer, and overall revenue increases, were the primary type of metric they used to measure consumer engagement,” according to an eMarketer report.

About 30 percent of surveyed execs also cited campaign metrics, including clicks, conversions, shares, traffic, and web analytics, as primary metrics. However, fewer marketing executives said they relied on sales enablement metrics, service metrics, and finance metrics to measure overall customer engagement success.

“Though not the most popular way to gauge successful engagement, customer service is important—and many consumers feel that good service makes them feel more positive about brands,” noted eMarketer. “In fact, nine in 10 internet users worldwide said so in an August 2015 survey from Ovum and Opinium Research LLP.”

For many consumers — about 81 percent — the issue is often simply to have their questions answered — “implying quite a low bar to reach for adequate customer service.”

While revenue is an obvious top line measurement that matters, customer service remains a critical arena for contributing to brand loyalty as well as boosting future brand revenue.

The post Marketers Measure Customer Engagement Via Revenue Metrics, But Customer Service Counts, Too appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“In addition to being the only ESP with email capture tools built into our platform, we are thrilled to be the only to offer a full-service audience development solution designed with the unique needs of media and publishing companies in mind,” said Tony D’Anna, CEO of PostUp. “We continue to roll out new solutions specifically focused on serving the publisher and media company sector, most recently with our CTR program launch. This latest offering is focused on the foundation and greatest source of revenue in any email marketing program — i.e. its audience.”

One key is building relationships.

“PostUp has extensive experience helping large clients to build their email marketing programs by developing their audiences while building better relationships with them,” a statement emailed to MMW reads. “For instance, they recently worked with GolfChannel.com to increase the size of the company’s database by 32 percent over the last year alone.”

Interestingly, PostUp is the only company that provides a full-service “do no harm” approach to audience development.

“PostUp’s team uses its expertise to design, build, and deploy capture tools on clients’ websites and social media channels, and then closely monitors those tools to ensure that email capture efforts do not negatively impact clients’ KPIs, whether it’s social shares, page views, etc. PostUp takes on the onus of designing, building, testing and tweaking capture tools for optimum performance,” according to the company.

More details are available at postup.com.

The post PostUp Launches ‘Audience Development Solution’ Email Engagement for Digital Publishers and Media Firms appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to details shared with MMW on Thursday, the industry’s “premier digital marketing event” will once again bring together key stakeholders to address the most critical trends affecting digital marketing in hotels today.

With powerful educational and networking opportunities, this is the can’t-miss conference of the year for learning and engagement. HSMAI’s 2016 Digital Marketing Strategy Conference is held the day after the HSMAI Adrian Awards Gala.

“With changing consumer channels, the evolving expectation of personalization, and the explosion of digital sources of information, hotel marketing leaders are facing unprecedented pressures today,” said Robert A. Gilbert, CEO of HSMAI. “This conference is where you can connect with the right people and engage in meaningful, thought-provoking conversations about the most important strategic issues facing hotel marketers today.”

The complete list of speakers as well as other pertinent event details can be obtained here.

The post HSMAI Hosting Digital Marketing Strategy Conference in February appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

An upcoming webinar might show you the way to success in a mobile-first world.

In an era where consumers check their smartphones 150 times a day, and where 87% of millennials admit that they have their smartphone at their side all the time, perhaps it’s time for marketers to rethink the customer journey and invest in a customer engagement model that is centered around the customers’ first screen, the mobile phone.

That’s the hard pitch from the organizers of the February 9th webinar, presented by the MMA and Swrve.

Martin Doettling, Chief Marketing Officer, Swrve Inc. will lead the presentation, which will reportedly help webinar attendees learn:

● The top 3 essential mobile marketing best practices
● How to create a successful mobile strategy
● How to create memorable mobile moments
● How to leverage your existing MarTech infrastructure

To learn more or to register, click here.

The post How Mobile is Shaping the First-screen Customer Experience appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The expertise and precision behind some of the top mobile marketing campaigns in the United Kingdom continue to drive epic results for bricks-and-mortar retailers and online shopping platforms.

According to the latest industry data, mCommerce is growing at a rapid pace across the pond.

“In their survey of mobile users across 10 countries, including the U.K., U.S., Europe and APAC, ecommerce platform provider Episerver discovered that U.K. consumers were the most likely to shop on a mobile device,” BizReport notes.

All told, nearly 60% of those surveyed in the U.K. indicate that they have purchased something from their mobile device in the last month alone.

“While this increase in mobile shopping could take its toll on traditional retail outlets, it’s not all bad news for UK high streets,” said David Bowen of Episerver. “According to our report, 50% of UK respondents place “on the high street” in their top three locations for using a mobile device. As such, it appears that many UK consumers are looking for a combined online and offline approach to shopping, with many using their mobiles to spot deals and opting for increasingly popular in-store “Click and Collect” services.”

The post Mobile Marketers Lighting Up Mobile Commerce Across the Pond appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The new reality? Location targeting, according to the company, whose clients dropped 85 percent of their mobile ad spend on location-targeted advertising to phones and tablets.

“Among MaxPoint’s customer base, mobile advertising is quickly becoming a key way to drive significant offline actions, such as visiting a retail store to purchase a new product or a dealership to test-drive a vehicle,” a report summary shared with MAW reads. “Of the mobile programs MaxPoint ran on behalf of brands during the 2015 holiday season, ads drove shoppers to complete offline activities at a variety of national retail destinations, including grocery, fashion, specialty, and big-box stores, as well as auto dealerships.”

It makes sense. According to BIA/Kelsey, mobile phone and tablet ads that drive consumers to take offline action (i.e., location-targeted ads) accounted for 40 percent of all mobile advertising dollars in 2015 compared to the 60 percent spent on non-location-targeted ads.

BIA/Kelsey has forecast that by 2020, location-targeted advertising will surge as non-location mobile experiences a decrease.

“The shift in mobile ad spend toward location-targeted campaigns is driven by new technologies, deep data expertise, and an understanding of neighborhoods and the stores they surround,” said Joe Epperson, CEO of MaxPoint. “We’re connecting the dots for top brands and retailers with proprietary location-based intelligence that allows them to execute multi-channel and multi-device marketing programs.”

MaxPoint’s data points to predictions from eMarketer that “consumers 18 years of age and older will use their phones and tablets for non-voice activities an average of 198 minutes per day by 2017, an increase of 13 percent from daily usage in 2015.”

The post MaxPoint Confirms Location-Targeted Advertising Accounted for 85 Percent of Clients’ Holiday Mobile Ad Spend appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

While people in the 18 to 34 year old cohort focus on smartphones for retail activity, their parents (ages 35-54) primarily prefer tablets.

Turns out those younger shoppers are also interested in digital browsing, but often buying in a competitor’s store or hitting an online buy button.

These distinctions — representing extremely helpful information for marketers — are encapsulated in a recent study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The “IAB Digital Shopping Report,” a custom IAB analysis of Prosper Insight data, also illustrates that younger adults are more likely to read a product review on their smartphones (44 percent vs. 32 percent general population) and less likely to do so on tablets (32 percent). “They’re also inclined to check prices on a smartphone (42 percent vs. 33 percent general population) and are less likely to do so on a tablet (32 percent),” reports the IAB. “Those who are 35-54 are more prone to use tablets to read product reviews, locate stores, check store hours, and check product pricing (40 percent vs. 35 percent general population).

The widest gap between phone and tablet is in the consumers 65+ group. These people are more than twice as likely to make a purchase on a tablet (26 percent) than on a smartphone (11 percent). And they’re twice as likely to read a product review on a tablet (31 percent) than on a smartphone (17 percent).

“The use of digital and mobile devices as a core component of the shopping experience occurs slightly differently by age groups,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics, and Measurement, IAB. “If marketers and retailers want to reach the right audiences at the right time in the purchase cycle, they are going to need to understand these distinctions.”

It could be especially critical in the busiest shopping season of the year.

“With the holiday shopping season in full swing, consumers are turning to smartphones and tablets throughout the gift-buying process,” said Anna Bager, Senior Vice President and General Manger, Mobile and Video, IAB. “This report spotlights contrasts in how different generations shop on digital — significant differences that need to be considered in brand marketers’ strategies.”

The “IAB Digital Shopping Report” can be downloaded here.

The post IAB Report: Mobile, Digital Shopping Habits Differ Between Age Groups appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

But things may be changing. This year, those Black Friday shoppers stayed on the couch instead of getting behind the wheel.

“Mobile shopping accounted for well over a third of all online shopping on Black Friday 2015 in the U.S., some 36.1 percent according to e-commerce analytics firm Custora,” reports Forbes. “That’s up from 30.3 percent last year. Keeping with the longstanding trend for mobile commerce, the vast majority of those mobile customers were also iPhone users.”

Reportedly, 77 .6 percent of all orders made on mobile devices took place on iPhones or iPads, while only 22.1 percent were placed via Android devices.

“The good news for Android is that its share of the pie is up slightly from 19.5 percent of orders last year,” noted Forbes.

Google may lament that Apple mobile devices are in the lead for the buying of goods and services (despite Android’s dominance of global market share for smartphone platforms).

But — “iOS is for selling product, and Android is for advertising,” suggests Forbes contributor Ayo Omojola.

In short, mobile is making inroads — the kind that could turn the classic definition of Black Friday on its head.

And what about sales?

“In retail stores, sales on Black Friday dropped to $10.4 billion this year from $11.6 billion last year, according to shopping analytics firm ShopperTrack,” according to Forbes.

The post Black Friday Stampede? Maybe — But On Mobile appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

HP Inc., it seems, is expanding its “Engineered by HP” program through a collaboration with Titan.

For HP, the goal, we’re told, “to infuse technology seamlessly into the way consumers live.”

“Engineered by HP is reinventing the experience consumers have with everyday accessories by making existing objects smarter through innovative materials, design and technology, to keep people connected to the way they live today,” said Sridhar Solur, General Manager of Wearables and Smart Platforms at HP.

Titan, a joint venture of the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, sells more than 15 million pieces annually in 32 countries around the world.

“Building upon successful fashion and design relationships with Movado and Michael Bastian, Engineered by HP provides brands custom-crafted innovation, enabling them to create styles that offer a new era of access and connectivity for their customers,” noted HP’s announcement.

MAW says that HP is currently working with additional designers and fashion brands that will be announced over the coming months.

The post HP to Challenge Apple Watch, Reports Suggest appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.