Google Think Digital – Day 3

Day 3 turned out to be a much less attended affair and a bit of a wind down from the previous two days. A lot of the information covered in the six training sessions had already been given by the speakers from the previous two days, so other than going into more detail about these facts and stats and pushing the actual uses and abilities of Google products under your noses a little more than experienced in the previous two days it was more of a day for recapping, reflecting and actually putting a little more thought into how these stats and facts will influence business and ultimately lead us to evolution… and in the process spend a little more with Google, or use more of their products!

Day 3 Highlights

As I said there wasn’t anything new, evolutionary or different about today, however I think a highlight for me had to be the Analytics training session where we looked at ‘The Visit Beyond The Click’ and discovering the value and use of the data presented to us in Google Analytics. Three A4 ‘cheat sheets’ later and i’ve got some good ideas as to what to look for amongst my own data now – and how we can hopefully change either the website or the way we work for the better!

Google Think Digital Summary

The entire experience here at Google’s Dublin offices have been amazing. Seeing what actually goes on in the life of a Googler, getting expert advice driven from the data that they collect and collate and learning how to make the business more appealing to the Google users was a real eye opener. Hopefully the insights, lessons and knowledge gained over these three very fast paced days can help myself and the business to really grow even further in 2014. If you ever get the chance to attend one of these events, or listen to a keynote from Peter Hinssen then I would thoroughly recommend it – and hope I get invited back next year to see how the digital landscape has changed or evolved once more!

Google Think Digital – Day 2

Day 2 promises to be a much more intense and longer affair than the previous day – and they certainly didn’t account for Guiness related sore heads when firing into the days stats and facts! There was a lot of coffee being glugged, and some quiet folk in the morning session but it all makes for the experience, as i’m sure people enjoyed plenty of the black stuff at the home of Guiness!

Day 2 Highlights

The morning session covered some great subjects that follow on from the previous day with self select advertising being the focus of the first 30-40 minutes. Enabling a brand to be where they most need to be and allowing the customer to self select them and then follow the brand through digital and tradditional marketing rather than trying the reverse – tradditional media brings in many which then decrease down the marketing funnel. Stats? 40% of YouTube view time takes place on a mobile or tablet – very true when you’re out and about and need to pacify the kids or have a long an tedious commute.

Secondly we looked at Display Advertising and the options that are now available through Google to help you get to market in this feature. Starting with re-marketing, something that other companies already cover to the Nth degree, we moved through a prospecting of sorts before looking at a variety of new and emerging tech that helps to create and display new ads – and after 6 years of CPA, CPC and CPM i’ve now head CPE (cost per engagement) used for the very first time – a true sign of evolution, or a new way to extract money from brands and advertisers – hmmmm! Affinity segments should also be interesting and useful to use when targetting general areas of people – possible new markets? If you’re not already aware of them well worth checking out Google’s Engagement Ads, Dynamic Ads and Ready Image Ads. They also seem to be pioneering ‘Active View’ a pay per view model which evolves from impressions and their short comings.

The third has to be a personal favourite – Analytics. I absolutely love the tool (99% of the time) and find it amazing to get so much data that needs making into relevant findings. We have everything setup and running in GA but I was always sure there was more – but how much time do you spend on the tool that on a day to day level tells you how you did the day before, then MOM and YOY? The answer is clearly a lot more time than I currently give it. Universal Analytics has been launched and will be the evolutionary tool from Google – so in true style i’ll be adopting the use of the latest tool that gives further weight to Google in my business! Clever Google. Measurement Protocol is another key phrase that i’ll be taking away and researching over a cup of coffee or two. The idea that we can track users opposed to visitors in GA is something we’re going to have to start to adopt now as 98% of people will move between screens and devices during the course of the day. Also worth looking at:

• Customer Journey Tool – http://goo.gl/wmcaYP
• Dimension Widening
• Cost Data Upload

So as the start of the presentation was entitled ‘Measuring the Full Customer Journey’ its well worth taking away:

1. Use segmentation to understand the customer path
2. Check different attribution models applied to the data
3. Get started with Universal Analytics

Pre lunch was reserved for ‘globalisation’ and how Google can help via their AdWords strategists – great presentations from SmartWall Paint and Olympique Lyonnais – more on that when I put together a post on the featured Google Partners!

Post lunch began with a look at the latest innovations at Google. Everything from the driverless car to the way they get those interesting or slightly different streetviews were covered. There is an amazing video on YouTube that shows a man with 95% blindness going about his daily life in a driverless car. This is such an amazing concept that obviously started for Google as a more effective way to perform streetview and has potentially ended with revolutionising the motor industry. Other interesting topics included ‘Moonshots’ or on a basic level picturing the moon from earth. Indoor streetview that allowed prospective customers to visit shops, coffee houses etc. and check out the size, interior or offering before actually going there. Underwater streetview for the Great Barrier Reef. Voice actions on Android – which even went as far as Geo Locating the command you gave and reminding you when you pass that place i.e. bread and milk from Tesco.

Finally to complete the day came a HUGELY entertaining keynote from Peter Hinssen on Business / IT Fusion & The New Normal. Not only is the man a genius with some great points to make about the state of Digital Marketing past, present and future but he kept the crowd perfectly at the end of two very intensive days and really made sense with some of the theories and ideas he put across. Rather than trying to quote him word for word i’m hunting high and low for either the video of his keynote, or the same keynote somewhere else so that you can appreciate fully how much Peter Hinssen makes sense of the Digital World.

Day 2 Completed… Onto Day 3 and Google Training!

Google Think Digital – Day 1

Working for Mainline Menswear definitely has its benefits – working on my doorstep, alongside a very talented young team, in a rapidly growing business and industry and somewhere that for the past 6 years I have been calling second home – not to mention the discount on designer clothing is pretty good!

Anyway, when the invite came through for Google Think Digital I didn’t think it would come to much. 3 days out of the office when two new members of staff have only just started… I figured my time would be spent behind my desk this week. How wrong was I? Up at half 2 in the morning to head for Dublin sounds like, and is a complete killer, but once you’re here and see that as well as being on Google Squared and part of a company that relies heavily on everything Google we’re part of something MASSIVE – that is only getting bigger and bigger! As i start to write this i’m sat in Google’s head office (or at least Gordon House) staring at HUGE tv’s with the latest trending searches on the wall, more colour than an art gallery – coincidentally all Google colours – an a large white THINK that greets you when you reach the top of the stairs of these very impressive offices. (cheesy but it really does lead you to stop and think)

We’ve all been given our agendas and passes for the day, with proceedings starting at 1pm and ending swiftly around half 4 ahead of a networking supper at the Guiness Factory. Who knows if i’ll be able to make the full extent of the late night entertainment as i’d be heading towards a whopping 20 hour day by the time 11pm comes around – one thing is certain, there is plenty here to learn and who better to learn from than one of the biggest companies in the world?

Day 1 Highlights

The first day was only a short day in the grand scheme of things – a bit of a kick off afternoon that will lead into a full day on Tuesday. But nevertheless there were some serious stats and numbers flying about from some of the big name at Google. For example – we check our mobile phone on average 150 times a day, with 44% of us interacting with something the second we wake up. These are scary stats but show that todays world is connected, and in the eyes of Google we need to be everywhere all of the time.

After discussing global revenue, YouTube, Mobile and Social the day came to an end, but the talks that took place to look at each of these individual disciplines was mindblowing at points. For example:

• 55% of shoppers don’t purchase on their first visit.
• 64% of German web users shop online, with 19% of those doing so in the evening between 8pm and midnight.
• And a whopping 37% of the DAX companies in Germany DON’T have a mobile site.

We then moved onto ‘Generation C‘ and YouTube. An interesting group of people that don’t represent a demographic but more a lifestyle. There were tons of stats around Gen C, most of which are already online but it seems their strongest factor is their F.O.M.O. or Fear Of Missing Out. This fear has to be mastered and worked upon from the point of view of a marketer if they are to succeed. Content, information or something unique must be created and then made to hit upon Gen C’s FOMO.

When looking at mobile we found out that more people own a smartphone than a toothbrush (worryingly) and that a very small percentage of people in the audience were actually prepared to unlock their phones and pass them onto the person next to them. I for one didn’t, but have also come across this Google tactic for talking about mobile before. It massively indicates that your phone is personal to you, contains most things that you don’t want to share with others and as this is the case the user should be targetted personally while using their smartphone. The “3 A’s” were great to look at –

• ALWAYS there
• ALWAYS optimized
• ALWAYS relevant

Looking at the stats most users were active on desktop and PC during work hours, while tablets really peaked between 6pm and 9pm. Interestingly mobile was pretty constant throughout the day indicating that people are consuming on the go constantly.  When you also consider that 50% of online purchases take place 19+ days after the initial interaction you have to keep being active and ‘there’ in front of the customer to avoid them leaving or being found by your rivals.

Finally social covered…Google+ of course. Facebook was constantly referred to as ‘the other social network’ while the pitch was made for Google+ to be more than a network and more of a content aggregation tool that can intelligently market to people, whilst also giving them a face, profile and backstory to avoid anonymous trolling or slating of your online business or marketing. Currently G+ has over half a billion users with 190 million active on their profile in the past 30 days and impressively 390 million active in the sense of interactions with Google tools via their account i.e. comments on YouTube, +1 content etc.

The social jugernauts that are Burberry were used as a brief case study to show the worth of Google+ to their social mix with a wide variety of content, imagery and techniques used to grow their brand – if it really needed much growing? Interesting mentions of the contextual appearance of your latest G+ post in Gmail if you’re mentioned or its your newsletter – would love to see this in practice. Having a popular G+  page and displaying this as an ad extension has also been attributed with an average 5/10% increase in CTR which can’t really be ignored! The social chats and discussions looked at hangouts as a marketing and customer service tool before a great chat with Velo Plus of Switzerland. I’m going to try and cover all featured partners in one post, but the two shown on the first day were great examples of how to embrace Google.

So – onwards to the Guniness Storehouse? Sadly not – i fell asleep 😦 but will be raring for Day 2!

Google Squared – Module 2 Roundup

Module 2 has pretty much drawn to a close amidst a blur of classes and hangouts between ‘group 8’ or The Hummingbirds as we’ve chosen to call ourselves (but more on that in another post!). This module has been much more theory and applied knowledge that the first module with a whole host of planning, strategy and analysis methods covered by Aiden and Nick. Tried and tested methods such as S.W.O.T. and P.E.S.T.E.L. have been flaunted alongside some much lesser known (or at least to me) methods. With only a few applying to what you’re doing it has been a little difficult to use these methods during the module, however the theory behind it has been an eye opener and will surely allow me to strategise and plan much better in the future.

We also covered feedback and peer to peer assessments which will definitely become handy next week when we give marks and feedback about our own group performance, our other group members input and ideas and also a chosen other groups final idea and pitch. This is going slightly into interesting territory for me as i’ve never really had a team that i’ve had to assess or grade – at least not openly anyway – so it will be great to see what is said about me, but also what can be said about myself, my peers and another groups idea.

I think another ‘talking point’ of Module 2 has been without a doubt ‘chatterboxgate’ and without going too far into it the use of the chatterbox does seem to be abused by many Squares on a twice weekly basis. I for one absolutely hate the box and the rubbish that is chatted about, however I do see its use in sharing, as i have contributed myself through it a few times – for topical purposes mind! Interesting though that as we draw closer to the Friday 25th deadline for module 2 assignments it would appear that those who ‘chat’ opposed to contribute are the ones asking for extensions to their project deadline… hows it go? #justsaying

Get Social and Social Purpose

After quite a sedate ‘Video & Blogging’ class it was great to get back into it with class number four and five of Squared Online which pretty much exclusively looked at Social Media. Firstly hitting it from a point of view of what networks are out there and what the customer expects we then changed roles for the Thursday class and looked at social strategy, top performing social strategies for a variety of brands and were also set a task by Aiden to look at some brands social presence, but more on that later…

Jumping back slightly to the ‘Get Social’ class I have to cover the slide or point that most stood out to me. Having run the social media for Mainline Menswear for the past three / four years i’ve overseen the brand rise from a few hundred to 25,000+ ‘likers’ but have to be honest when I say that disenchantment has slightly set in, especially on Facebook. Raising the brand profile from nothing to a quarter of a century has been mainly done through a variety of competitions and giveaways. I’ve seen iPads, Holidays, limited edition bikes, golf bags, Blackberries, gig tickets and more clothing than i’d know what to do with shipped out to tens if not hundreds of lucky people over the past three years. All great on the surface… but much like a duck that looks great on the surface there is a lot of hard work going on under the water. Habitual or opportunist ‘compers’ now adorn my Facebook ‘likers’ list. The problem? They don’t care about the brand and therefore do not interact! Which drags me back to, would you rather have 1,000 likers with a 2% conversion rate or 100,000 likers that ignore your clever and (in theory) relevant posts? Give me a concentrated group of hardcore followers anyday! Anyhoo, the information:

Interesting that ‘competitions’ don’t appear on here, but they are quickly becoming a large part of Facebook. I have to agree though that there is a HUGE perception gap between consumers and businesses and its something that I feel was subconsciously there but has never really surfaced for one reason or another in any form of clarity as to why engaging the perceived level of likers, followers or circlers (if thats their title?) – but as its now here I for one will be trying to change the way we speak to customers for the better!

Onto Social Purpose and the task in hand. It was great to look at Nike as a social media giant (plus I got to pull out the econsultancy blog post i’d read a bit back – http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/62412-how-nike-uses-facebook-twitter-pinterest-and-google) and interesting that Amex was given as an example when not many Squares were Amex customers themselves! I also can’t quite get my head around the stat about Coke – 1.7 billions bottles of Coke sold each day. A colossal amount of a liquid that back in the early recepies actually contained real cocaine (i shit you not – read here). As a little sideline we need to look at the top 10 brands on social media according to Headstream and pick one to examine looking at why they have been chosen over the millions of others and what criteria we feel Headstream might have used to come to this conclusion.

My opinions and thoughts early next week…as I have a video to make

Welcome to the Revolution and My Digital Life

Well i’m now two full sessions into module one of the Google Squared Online course, and despite it being hard work initially to integrate additional learning into a week that is usually taken up by full time work, family and relaxation i think i’m starting to get a hang of not ‘switching off’ at 6pm. The first two classes while being quite light and friendly as everyone finds their feet have been full of information and great tips already. I think the standout points for me from the first two sessions and the Neil Perkin’s video has to be:

• Always ensure that your team is a ‘2 pizza’ nimble and agile team that can quickly adjust and move with the digital times and change.
• That while the ‘Class of 2015’ and beyond will be very socially aware we are heading into a world where our children and grandchildren will struggle to communicate with real people face to face, but to get their attention we must market on their phones & tablets.
• Don’t allow team members to become vertical or siloed – maintain communication at all time.
• Think big, be different, build don’t break & fail small, win big.

While i’ve been in digital / ecommerce / marketing for around six years now its great to get some of the terminology nailed down, rather them being known as whatever we felt like christening the process at the time. It is also a great relief to see that I wasn’t so far off the mark myself with my learning and development over the years and that this course will test me, but not overwhelm me.

‘My Digital Day’ has been added to the G-Drive slides tonight and shows the many digital programmes, software, networks and other platforms that I use on a daily basis. While there are only a few other slides on there it is interesting to see what other ‘Squares’ do on a daily basis. Now onto the Andy Sandoz video and Brian Solis’ conversation prism before Thursday’s class.

Welcome…

It seems like an age since I was accepted onto the Google Squared Online course (and it was, it was back on the 10th of June) but finally the welcome mats have been rolled out, the online campus is up and running and there is only a week until my first test class with the opening class coming two days later. This next week is going to be a mad rush of making sure everything is up to date, chatting with the other September Squares and getting ready for the next six months of hard work!

With a small selection of checklists, reading lists, ebooks and more there is plenty to get my teeth into – luckily for me i’ve already got the required Linkedin, Google+ and Twitter accounts that are needed for the course. We’re also encouraged to blog throughout the entire experience so i’ll have plenty of snippets and bits and pieces to talk about as I put my coursework and modules together.

So I hope you’ll join me in my six month journey through everything that is Digital Marketing and Google as I work towards becoming one of the digital leaders of the future.

Idlewild London – Freelance Article Submission on Amaze Fashion

A post dated the 4th of November 2012 for Idlewild London on the Amaze Fashion blog, by myself with the seasons must have pyjamas the topic. One of the first pieces of freelance work I ever did I had to submit half a dozen articles a month across a blog network. It was also the first time I ever wrote about women’s clothing or trends. Built purely for SEO and brand building this content has the optimal amount of words, key word mentions and links to pass best practice (as of late 2012 anyway!)

First Paragraph:

With the attention now turning towards how to keep warm and cosy on an evening as well as the clocks going back and the impending appearance of Christmas Idlewild London are sure that you’ll be browsing their website soon enough, be it for yourself or a little treat for your wife, partner or girlfriend. Idlewild London are specialists in branded and designer sleepwear and offer a top range of designer pyjamas and nightwear from top brands such as Calvin Klein, DKNY, Eberjay and Esprit as well as slightly more unique brands that include Derek Rose of Saville Row, Le Monde D’Alba of Lyon and Bodas Nightwear of London.

You can read the full article by clicking here – THIS SEAONS MUST HAVE PYJAMAS FROM IDLEWILD LONDON

Author – Andrew Hoyle

Mainline Menswear Blog – Style Icon: Jake Bugg Wearing Fred Perry, Weekend Offender and Diesel

A post dated the 25th of March 2013 for Mainline Menswear on the Mainline Menswear blog by myself, with indie singer / songwriter Jake Bugg as the topic. Possibly one of my favourite and most read posts to date on the blog I researched Jake Bugg as an artist, but also a style icon and found that his love of designer names fit perfectly with Mainline Menswear’s brand mix. Starting with a little history and a few facts about Jake Bugg I moved on to a type of brands that he regularly wears for gigs, music videos and photo shoots while I finished by associating his look, style and brand choice with Mainline Menswear’s current clothing range.

First Paragraph:

“There are many style icons out there at the moment, but one of the newcomers to music has swiftly caught the eye at the tender age of 19. With his Dylan-esq vocals and youthful good looks Jake Bugg has sold 35,000 copies of his album in the first week of launch making him one of the most iconic young British artists at the moment. So it’s also quite handy that he has a great dress sense and enjoys wearing a variety of brands, most of which can be found on Mainline Menswear. A cursory glance through a Google Images search for Jake Bugg will show thousands of images of the fresh faced Nottingham born lad wearing Fred Perry, Weekend Offender, Adidas Originals, Lacoste and Diesel among many more designer names.”

You can read the full article by clicking here – STYLE ICON: JAKE BUGG WEARING FRED PERRY, WEEKEND OFFENDER AND DIESEL

PR Web – New Look Mainline Menswear Website Launched

A premium press release dated the 10th of May 2013 for Mainline Menswear on PR Web by myself, with the launch of the new Mainline Menswear website as the topic. The entire release focuses on how far the business and website has come in the past nine years, and also touches upon the new features that have been added to the re-designed website for launch. This launch achieved a nice amount of exposure and currently stands at 391,000 entries in Google.

First Paragraph:

“The Mainline Menswear website is currently in its 9th year of existence having been initially launched from a need to subsidise sales for the designer clothes shops throughout the winter in the seaside town of Scarborough. Over the last 9 years the website has experienced plenty of change, with the main differences being the trends on display and the designer names available to browse and shop. Gone are the early days of now extinct or re-born brands such as Burberry, Etienne Ozeki, D & G and Henleys. Modern classics including Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, G Star, Armani, Lyle and Scott and plenty more have taken their places on the Mainline Menswear website.”

You can read the full press release by clicking here – NEW LOOK MAINLINE MENSWEAR WEBSITE LAUNCHED