Tips, and tricks to connect with your customers

Technological innovation is taking place at an incredible rate. And with the ongoing pandemic, businesses of all shapes, sizes, and sectors are turning to digital marketing and marketing technology (martech) to recover, keep their companies afloat, and continue to be agile in the face of change. Martech can help you automate, optimise, and ideate your marketing efforts – the right tools can unlock elevated marketing capabilities and campaigns, improve customer experiences, and ultimately transform your business. 

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But what brilliant tech solutions does your specific business need in order to thrive? And what trends will make an impact in the marketing industry in 2022 and beyond? Here are four martech trends and tools I believe you can use to your competitive advantage. 

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The overwhelming importance of customer experience 

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A recent study profiling 1,920 business professionals found that almost 46% have named customer experience (CX) as their top business priority for the next five years, beating product and pricing. The same research also revealed that 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a great CX – emphasising that their loyalty is now directly linked to the experience they receive.

The logic behind this is simple: A happy customer is a returning customer.

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As there is a saturation of brands that offer similar products and services on the market, businesses that want to stand out need to invest time and money into getting their CX to the highest level possible to retain and build long-lasting customer loyalty. Therefore, personal touchpoints between the brand and consumer should constantly be improved and amplified. When this is done correctly, it can create loyal brand advocates – customers who will happily return for more without being reminded and refer their friends and family to the brand. 

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As these touchpoints increase and customers come to expect more from their chosen brands, technology plays a critical role in shortening the distance between the consumer and the business, enhancing these relationships, and dramatically improving CX. Martech solutions make processes easier, more effective, and more efficient. Ultimately, these tools simplify how you connect with your customers, building personal, considered customer journeys that keep them coming back for more. 

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Martech trends and tools for CX success  

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The following four technologies all hinge on how customers experience your brand. By adding these concepts and tools to your martech stack, you’ll be prioritising CX and setting your business up for growth. 

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Trend 1: Increased personalisation - Treating customers as individuals first 

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As more customers expect tailored experiences, there’s rising pressure on businesses to deliver engaging and personalised content that builds a connection with them, treating them as individuals rather than just another number. In fact, according to Salesforce, 66% of customers expect brands to understand their individual needs and expectations, with only 34% feeling that companies treat them as unique individuals. The value of personalisation in today’s changing world can’t be overemphasised enough – McKinsey projects it has the potential to create trillions of dollars in business revenue. 

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But throwing together personalised emails and calling it a day is not enough anymore – more needs to be done to truly connect with your customers and make them feel valued. An omnichannel approach is one personalisation tactic that can help your customers feel more connected to your business. Creative automation tools can also assist marketers in managing, tracking, and understanding customer data to then create more personalised campaigns and unique product recommendations. 

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Whichever personalisation tactics or tools you opt for, be sure to make it clear that you’re not just after a customer’s money but are there to keep them happy and improve their lives.  

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Trend 2: Data and analytics - Fundamental building blocks for personalisation 

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Customising customer experiences starts with data and analytics. If you’re not taking advantage of learning more about your current and prospective customers, you’re missing out on massive business opportunities. Not only on reaching them more strategically but also on nurturing relationships with them and building loyalty.

From insights into buyer behaviours and preferences to better-informed decisions for improved lead generation and conversion rates, marketing data and analytics tools can help you unlock a host of benefits. Most importantly, data is the only business resource that can keep up with customers in real-time, translating to predictive analytics that empower your brand to be proactive rather than reactive.

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Trend 3: The shift to a single view of customers 

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Just as your customers are connected to each other and your brand, your data should be too. Siloed customer data prevents you from tapping into true personalisation because the different puzzle pieces of customer relationships aren’t put together, and ultimately, the end-to-end CX puzzle falls short. 

To solve this, businesses need a central repository for customer data that combines, collates, and analyses various sources of information (social, survey responses, chatbot conversations, and voice transcripts). An effective customer data platform (CDP) can go a long way in providing a unified, complete view of your customers, helping you to understand their changing needs and serve them more effectively. This also means personalised engagement and more meaningful connections.

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Trend 4: More investment in martech architecture and resources 

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Many organisations already use martech solutions, yet only 33% feel that their current stack is useful and meets business needs. This calls for examining existing tools and evaluating their place and benefit to your company. Now is the ideal time to audit your marketing solutions to maximise, improve, or even replace them. 

If you want to improve efficiencies, you’ll need to invest in the right technologies and build a formidable martech stack to future-proof your business. This also means hiring the right people to exclusively perform within this martech role – something that isn’t really a focus in our local market, but should be. 

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The role of human expertise in innovation 

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While these tech trends and innovations can help grow businesses and take CX to a new level, it’s important to remember that there will always be a need for human guidance. Technology is meant to help scale and automate human tasks while improving and streamlining experiences, but it will never replace human ingenuity. In the world we live in, it’s about adapting to the advancements of technology, and this is especially true for roles within the marketing and CX spaces. 

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To leverage these martech trends and tools, business leaders must realise that not every technology may work for them – there's no one-size-fits-all stack across all organisations. In other words, they need to determine which tools can help them gain consumer insights, engage with customers, and deliver business outcomes according to their unique needs and objectives. That’s why partnering with the right CX technology partner and integrator is crucial – they’ll be able to advise on the best-in-class global solutions and hold your hand throughout the entire martech journey. 

Consumer data is priceless, especially in today’s rapidly changing business landscape. Gathering customer insights and using them to make well-informed, forward-thinking business decisions is what separates mediocre brands from those that continue to pivot and innovate. By enabling companies to better understand who they are targeting, how and where to reach existing and prospective customers, and how to deliver on changing customer needs, the right consumer analytics have the power to completely transform your customer experience (CX) and service. 

Today’s customers expect and demand a lot more from brands than in the past. They want individual attention, instant and simple experiences, and for businesses to meet them where they are – on their preferred digital channels. Recently, Salesforce Research surveyed 15,600 consumers and business buyers globally to reveal changing customer expectations. The survey highlighted four expectations that are becoming essential for brands to compete. First, personalisation, with 66% of customers expecting companies to understand their unique needs and expectations and 52% expecting offers to be customised. Second, connected, unified journeys, with 76% of customers wanting consistent interactions across sales, service, and marketing departments. Third, innovation, with 88% demanding brands accelerate their digital initiatives and offerings due to COVID-19 – either through new ways to get existing products and services or entirely new products and services. And finally, data protection, with 86% expecting more transparency and only 48% trusting companies with their personal information. 

With these shifting desires, there is even more pressure on businesses to improve their understanding of customers and tweak their offerings to accommodate new needs and preferences. However, doing so at scale is nearly impossible unless you devote incredible amounts of resources and time to gather, collate, and analyse customer data. Thankfully, modern technology solutions make it possible to learn about your customers and prospects based on the information they’re constantly giving you on social, digital, and direct channels. You can then leverage these unified insights for enhanced customer support, tailored products, and hyper-personalised experiences. 

Harnessing a single, unified customer voice and view 

Currently, we’re noticing a key trend around rapidly realising the long-time goal of a single picture of customer projects. What this means is a single, collated view of customers – unearthing how and what they’re communicating (voice) and what makes them tick (view). This combined composition has been attempted in many guises over the years, but thanks to the rise of solid customer data platforms (CDPs), this dream has become a reality, making it easier than ever to piece the often complex customer puzzle together. Combine this with the faster implementation of digital transformation, and companies are looking to lean on a single, unified customer voice and view much more in 2022 and beyond. 

Combining social data with direct communication, such as survey responses, chatbot conversations, email support, and voice transcripts from a call centre, into one voice of the customer is powerful 

– it gives your business a much broader view of what customers are saying to your brand, publicly and even anonymously. Furthermore, when you combine these analytics with the actions your customers are taking (online and offline), you can reap the benefits of a complete view of the customer in its entirety, translating to understanding your customers better and serving them more effectively. In turn, this means engaging with them on their desired communication channels in more meaningful and personalised ways.

The world has moved to a place where this is possible – and as long as it’s done ethically and using the right platforms – there is immense value for both the business and the customer. And because you’ll understand and appreciate your customers more, you’ll naturally have a leg up on the competition. In this case, knowledge really is power. 

Choosing the right technology platforms and partner for the job 

We’ve already unpacked the value of understanding consumers and communicating effectively with them for a brand’s success and growth. But choosing the ideal software platforms and CX technology consultant that align with your business’s unique needs and objectives is crucial too. 

Finding a solution that combines customer data with consolidated channels removes the need to devote years to building big data projects or a dedicated team of employees to do the work. All it takes is making the right choices in the beginning and focusing on implementing and managing your chosen platforms. That’s where the right CX technology partner and integrator come in – they’ll be able to provide the best-in-class global solutions, guided implementation and training, and ongoing support for peace of mind.  

Customer-centricity is becoming increasingly important in our ever-changing world. Connecting better with your existing and potential customers and giving them exactly what they’re after starts with unifying, analysing, and leveraging consumer data – the right way. 

The YOUKNOW family is constantly evolving and growing. Through our partnerships, we gain the tools and knowledge to allow us to provide top quality packages. Today, we’re excited to announce our partnership with none other than Audiense - the world’s number one audience intelligence platform.

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Audiense opens up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to consumer segmentation. Their technology enables users to generate in-depth reports almost instantly, uncovering insights such as audience sentiment and personality, demographics, media affinity, buying mindset and many more. This compounded with YOUKNOW's rich stack of audience analysis technologies enables our clients to get to know their audience right down to their wants and needs.

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Founded in 2011, Audiense have since continuously developed their platform to maximise companies’ tactical and strategic investments. Audiense’s advanced data science platform has attracted many premium clients. They have also developed strategic partnerships with Twitter and IBM. This gives their clients the edge over their competitors as they can gather rich, detailed insight on audiences that matter to their business in real-time.

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According to the latest G2 Fall Report, Audiense is the global leader in audience intelligence insights for the marketing industry. Audiense Insights enables clients to identify and understand any audience, no matter how unique it is. Effortlessly combine numerous filter options when you compile a report, such as user profiles, affinities, demographics and job roles, generating personalised audience segments. With Audiense Insights in your arsenal, you can make better marketing decisions, modify your targeting, improve relevancy and drive high-performance campaigns at scale.

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To give a glimpse into what Audiense can do, we’ve taken a look at the South African eCommerce audience. Above is only the first of many pages illuminating this audience - this audience is further segmented into smaller groups. Here, we can see that the SA eCommerce audience is 58.57% male, 72.70% English speaking and the brands they trust are Takealot, Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Telkom and Nandos. We can also see that their personality involves interests such as travel, society and sports, values such as openness to change, self-transcendence and modernity and lastly, needs such as liberty, excitement and curiosity. By figuring out who you’re speaking to, you will be able to know how best to speak to them.

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“Audiense is such an important new partner to us. It rounds out our clients’ ability to understand who they want to speak to, how to reach them and what they look like as a group. The ability to take social audience data and transform it into something like a digital targeting pack reinforces the ability for social data to quickly be turned into digital returns. We’re grateful to Audiense for putting their trust in us, and look forward to introducing them to our incredible African clients,” says YOUKNOW MD, Kelvin Jonck.

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Through YOUKNOW, Audiense’s current and future South African clients can now receive local sales, onboarding and technical support.

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“Audiense are happy to welcome YOUKNOW as our trusted voice in South Africa. The strength we have when complimenting other tools such as social listening or survey platforms has proven to be unstoppable. Knowing we have the amazing YOUKNOW team to help spread that message is very exciting,” says Luke White, Head of Partnerships at Audiense. He continues, “When viewing a social listening audience through the social consumer segmentation lens, we can start to see how people are connected among themselves, ignore the noise and unearth more interesting, potentially unexpected communities.” Audiense makes it possible to weed out information that is less relevant and rather hone in on the specific segments that make a real difference to your brand.

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If you’re looking to start analysing your potential target audience in more detail, reach out to us for a demo of what the technology can do for your organisation, by requesting a demo HERE

GWI (formerly known as GlobalWebIndex) recently released its latest set of infographics revealing who the South African market is from demographics to how they make purchases and everything in between.

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GWI conducts monthly surveys in over 46 markets to people between the ages of 16-64 who have access to the internet, what this does is allow GWI to compare global statistics to add context, which makes for some interesting analyses.

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The results start to have a look at demographics. The average South African internet user is 66% more likely to be aged 16-34, mashing together two key generations: Gen Z and Millennials. It is apparent that digitally connected South Africans are more ambitious than the global average, with 63% of South Africans saying they are ambitious compared to a mere 32% global average.

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The top interest for both South African and global connected audiences is music, followed by food and drink, and cooking. The future outlook of the South African audience is not so positive, with only 28% thinking that the economy of the country where they live will get better in the next 6 months. The top driver when it comes to influencing future travel is value for money for both global and South African consumers. South Africans are 9% more interested than global consumers in special offers or deals when it comes to where they travel for a vacation.

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The following section covers how South Africans use technology and electronics. Gen Z and Millennials spend the most time online, with Gen Z on their mobiles and Millennials on a PC or laptop. The top handset brand is Samsung with 63% of South African consumers saying they would buy a Samsung when they next upgrade or buy a new phone, this is followed by Apple at 45%. South Africa is slightly behind the world when it comes to smart home ownership, with a 12% gap between South African and global consumers when it comes to owning a smart speaker for example - a trend that continues with similar results for other smart products.

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Knowing which media your audience is consuming is highly important when you want to know which channels to use when implementing your marketing plan. South Africans spend the most time on social media with an average time of 3 hours and 31 minutes, with the rest of the world spending just over 1 hour less on social media. Netflix seems to be more popular with South African internet users than the rest of the world with 69% of South African consumers having used it in the last month compared to only 42% for the global average last month.

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Since social media is so avidly used in South Africa, GWI decided to take a closer look at how this market uses it. The top two reasons for South African consumers to be on social is to stay up-to-date with news and to find funny or entertaining content. 30% of these consumers have liked/followed a brand on social, 20% have clicked on a sponsored post on social and only 17% have shared a brand’s post on a social network. The top three social platforms in South Africa are Whatsapp, Facebook and YouTube. Interestingly, Whatsapp is less popular for the rest of the world, with 71% of consumers saying they have an account compared to South Africa’s 95%. We are starting to see a trend of consumers leaning towards Telegram and Signal. We will trend this change in the next release.

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The final section of this study covers how South Africans make purchases. TV is still king in Africa, for brand/product discovery, the top way in which these consumers discover brands is via ads seen on TV with 52%, compared to a global average of 33%. The top driver for online purchases is free delivery with 74%. South African consumers prefer to shop in-store as opposed to the rest of the world who prefer to shop online. The top online purchases for both South Africa and the world involve electronics with 26% for South Africa and 32% for the global average.

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These market snapshots are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the type of data and insights gathered from the unified surveys sent out globally. There are over 40 000 data points available to discover key insights from subset audiences globally. For an in-depth explanation of how the data is collected

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ABOUT GWI We thrive on disrupting the industry at the highest level. We're leading the charge with our data solutions, but we've maintained the agility, energy and spirit of a startup. Since bursting onto the scene, we’ve introduced several innovations to the world of market research, from our easy-to-use, lightning-fast platform to our globally consistent, but locally relevant, data. While we’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved – and our growing list of remarkable clients, of course – this is only the beginning. We have even bigger plans for the future.

Centurion, 25 March 2021 — We are proud to announce another important partnership with the world’s number one audience intelligence platform, Audiense. Audiense is the leading platform when it comes to consumer segmentation and cultural understanding of your social audience. Audiense's current and future South African clients can now receive local sales, onboarding and technical support via YOUKNOW; the company that also represents Brandwatch, Khoros, Hootsuite and GWI.

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According to the latest G2 Fall Report, Audiense is the global leader in audience intelligence insights for the marketing industry. Audiense Insights enables clients to identify and understand any audience, no matter how unique it is. Effortlessly combine numerous filter options when you compile a report, such as user profiles, affinities, demographics and job roles, generating personalised audience segments. With Audiense Insights in your arsenal, you can make better marketing decisions, modify your targeting, improve relevancy and drive high-performance campaigns at scale.

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“ Audiense are happy to welcome YOUKNOW as our trusted voice in South Africa. The strength we have when complimenting other tools such as social listening or survey platforms has proven to be unstoppable. Knowing we have the amazing YOUKNOW team to help spread that message is very exciting.”

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Audiense data and insights are complementary, rather than overlapping, this can form a “bridge for intelligence” when stacked with other sources of insights like Brandwatch, GWI, TGI and Kantar.

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When viewing a social listening audience through the social consumer segmentation lens, we can start to see how people are connected among themselves, ignore the noise and unearth more interesting, potentially unexpected communities. From there we can use the unearthed segment to build better listening queries within your social listening tool by tracking those exact people, not keywords or hashtags.” said by Luke White, Head of Partnerships at Audiense

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“Audiense is such an important new partner to us. It really rounds out our clients’ ability to understand who they want to speak to, how to reach them and what they look like as a group. The ability to take social audience data and transform it into something like a digital targeting pack really reinforces the ability for social data to quickly be turned into digital returns. We’re grateful for Audiense putting their trust in us, and look forward to introducing them to our incredible African clients.” - Kelvin Jonck, MD at YOUKNOW

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About Audiense

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Audiense was founded in 2011. Since then, they have continuously developed their platform to maximise companies’ tactical and strategic investments. Audiense’s advanced data science platform has attracted many premium clients. They have also developed strategic partnerships with Twitter and IBM. This gives their clients the edge over their competitors as they can gather rich, detailed insight on audiences that matter to their business in real-time.

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About YOUKNOW

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YOUKNOW started in 2013 with the understanding that there was a disconnect between local industry professionals and the technology vendors they wanted to work with. Geographical, industry, cultural and language differences meant that getting to excellent took a lot more work on both sides than needed. YOUKNOW has supported Crimson Hexagon, Stackla, Domo, Hootsuite, Lithium, Khoros, Brandwatch and GWI (GlobalWebIndex) over the years.

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For more information, visit www.youknow.co.za. You can also follow us on Linkedin and subscribe to our Youtube channel.

Gone are the days when we were stuck with a comparatively nanoscopic 1000 songs - likely on repeat. Presently, we’ve been blessed with music streaming apps like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music to name only a few. Even TikTok has a role to play in the music we choose to stream. Thanks to these apps, our journeys with music have grown exponentially with thousands of ways to discover new songs, genres and artists.

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In their latest Entertainment Flagship Report, GWI covers the latest trends in the music streaming industry in their article Music trends to listen out for. Here’s what they had to say.

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One of the great advantages of using music streaming apps is the aspect of personalisation. In an instant, one can hear songs similar to their favourite songs and thus grow their personal playlists. However, according to GWI, “personalisation can take the excitement out of discovering new artists.” One often feels a sense of pride when finding a hidden music gem on one’s own accord; searching has become an important part of the streaming experience. Even the “algorithmic recommendations” by music streaming services are turned away in favour of more control. It seems that more organic music discovery is preferred by music streamers.

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TikTok started in 2017 as a combination between a music app and a video app which both allowed users to post short clips and has since skyrocketed in popularity. Through TikTok, a whole new dimension of aesthetic videos and personalisation has been added to music. According to GWI, 1 in 4 TikTokers mainly use the app to discover new music. A prime example of this is the song Moon (And It Went Like) by artist Kid Fransescoli, which gained popularity due to TikTok users using it in their videos - most of the comments on its YouTube video being “I came here from TikTok.”

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Podcasts and audiobooks have been on the rise. According to GWI, “the portion of internet users listening to podcasts via mobile each month has increased by 34%” since 2018. This is largely due to their accessibility on the various streaming platforms. “A human voice conveys understanding and empathy” says GWI, which is exactly what we need as human beings these days with all the hardships that are surfacing due to the pandemic.

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The top 3 music streaming countries are South Africa with 2 hours on a typical day, Argentina with 1 hour and 54 minutes and Brazil with 1 hour and 51 minutes. The country that streams music for the least amount of time is Japan with 27 minutes. The country that listens to the radio for the longest period of time is Poland with 1 hour and 50 minutes while South Korea listens to the radio the least with only 30 minutes on a typical day.

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So, which app is the most popular for music streaming? Spotify is king in most markets, being the most popular in regions like Latin America and Asia Pacific (excluding China). Interestingly, Spotify isn’t even on the map for China or the Middle East and Africa (despite Spotify’s popularity in South Africa). App names like QQ Music, Kygou and Kuwo that are perhaps foreign to more Western countries begin to surface. It seems that Spotify’s biggest competitor is YouTube Music.

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For music streaming, the future is full of possibilities. “Streaming companies have expanded and artists have upped their creativity efforts - even drawing on gaming sites to access wider audiences” says GWI. As with most things in this postmodern age, music streaming companies will likely feature more collaborations and mashups with other industries. Virtual concerts are said to be “well-positioned” to fill the gap left by the closure of music venues in the West and are gaining more and more popularity over time. This is where features like watching in high definition become more of a priority than sharing the experience with friends or fellow fans. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing since we’re already so starved of social interaction.

On 03 March 2021, award-winning branding agency Magnetic Creative announced that they are newly partnered with market research giant GWI, thereby increasing the value of their brand intelligence services.

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Magnetic Creative has made it its mission to “humanise brands,” which makes audience intelligence exceptionally important. A good brand means having a good idea of who you’re marketing to, especially if you want to speak to your audience on their level and on their terms. Today, there is no better way to discover more about your audience than through GWI.

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To Magnetic Creative, “Branding is fundamentally about shaping the direction of an entire business” - it comes down to every employee keeping in the back of their mind the same message, the same purpose and the same overarching goals. Not only is this what they achieve for their clients but also for themselves in their own brand.

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Dean Jackson, partner at Magnetic Creative and MD of the Cape Town office, says the partnership with GWI opens new doors of value creation for Magnetic Creative’s digital strategy and operation. “As a business today, it’s impossible to conceive planning or execution without the aid of purposeful data and insights. Working with GWI in this capacity allows us to better shape how we think, and what we do, for our clients and their customers.”

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“At Magnetic Creative our approach is to combine intelligence with creativity and engagement in order to humanise and elevate brands and the businesses they represent. A trusted data and insights partner such as GWI gives us a huge lift with regards to intelligence that carries through to enhance our creativity and engagement.”

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With more than 18 million interviews under its belt, GWI has become an invaluable resource to tap into consumer insights. It gives businesses direction and focus by informing them of the real wants and needs of their customers. Jackson continues: “Our partnership with GWI gives us the advantage of rich, customised research in order to better understand people and meet them where they’re at – with the benefit of better experiences for customers and ROI for clients.”

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Magnetic Creative is known for its impeccable branding solutions and now together with GWI it can reach even greater heights.

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ABOUT MAGNETIC CREATIVE

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Magnetic is a branding and human engagement agency. We guide and nurture companies to be part of a very human world by creating brands that speak to the intangible and connect emotionally. Together we'll discover your brand's soul, craft its identity, lend it a voice, and cultivate a branded experience that engages your audience in person and online.

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ABOUT GWI

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We thrive on disrupting the industry at the highest level. We're leading the charge with our data solutions, but we've maintained the agility, energy and spirit of a startup. Since bursting onto the scene, we’ve introduced several innovations to the world of market research, from our easy-to-use, lightning-fast platform to our globally consistent, but locally relevant, data. While we’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved – and our growing list of remarkable clients, of course – this is only the beginning. We have even bigger plans for the future.

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MEDIA CONTACT Lebogang Kunene Marketing Manager, YOUKNOW Digital lebo@youknow.co.za

This blog has been introduced in true Reddit fashion. TL;DR stands for “Too Long; Didn’t Read” and is conventionally followed by a short and sweet summary of whatever bit of writing was deemed too long to read. This blog might be a bit more on the lengthy side but I assure you, it’s 100% worth the read.

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The True Value of Social: Dogecoin Has the Last Laugh Without influencers… influencing, the world would be a completely different place. A simple tweet from someone influential has the potential to skyrocket the value of a product. One such instance of this happening is when space, car and space-car tycoon, Elon Musk, tweeted about the relatively new cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. His social media posts about the cryptocurrency that was initially just a joke generated a whopping 239k mentions.

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In their article on cryptocurrency, Brandwatch states that mentions of Dogecoin on social media have increased 1,239% in 2020, compared to 2019 with “328k mentions of ‘buy’ and another 176k mentions of ‘hold’ as Dogecoin holders asked their peers to hold off on cashing in.” Dogecoin has risen through the ranks to be on par with other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, with the steady increase in Dogecoin conversation almost meeting that of Bitcoin.

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In January this year, we saw yet another display of the power of social media when Reddit group, SatoshiStreetBets pushed to get Dogecoin higher so that people make more money. This is not the first of its kind in the world of Reddit. Groups like WallStreetBets have pushed cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin before. In their article, Brandwatch states “Influencers and online communities have huge power over what people invest in” which couldn’t be more true in the case of Dogecoin. A simple post on Reddit could dictate the fate of this unpredictable cryptocurrency.

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Reddit: The Data Goldmine With 430 million average monthly users, 50,000 words posted a minute, 2.5 billion upvotes each month and 1.2 billion comments per year, Reddit is an often overlooked, rich source of data. Why do we look over it? Everyone’s anonymous, so what good would that data do? Well, being anonymous encourages members to tell the absolute truth. So if you want an honest, in-depth perception of your brand, Reddit is the place to look.

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Wait a second, what is Reddit? Reddit is a forum-based website where people ask questions, post links and comment on and rate posts. The big difference between Reddit and similar sites is that it has a downvote system. A post will be downvoted for several reasons. For example, a post might not be relevant to the subreddit in question. In true Reddit style, it will not be downvoted if a user simply does not agree with what has been said. A Redditor would rather contribute to the conversation in the comment section if they disagree.

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There is a tremendous amount of jargon that comes with being a Redditor, a few examples being: karma, AMA (or “Ask Me Anything”) and Reddit Gold. This may sound foreign right now but lucky for us, Brandwatch has compiled a mammoth Reddit guide that teaches us all about it.

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How to find the right Reddit data In Brandwatch’s latest webinar, Reddit’s Senior Brand Specialist, Ash Dunn, refers to Reddit as the home of “authentic human connection.” This is a place where people go to confide, complain or compliment and these can all be used to your business’s advantage. Here’s how:

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1. Get to know how Reddit works Knowing a little about the etiquette, terminology and methodology behind this massive website will help you to know what to look for. Here’s where Brandwatch’s guide comes in handy once again.
2. Get to know your Reddit audience Since the option to be anonymous is there, most people will take it - especially if they’re divulging particularly controversial information. In this case, you would need to pay attention to the context of the post or conversation (such as the subreddit) by understanding how your audience speaks. By using their terminology in your search, you’ll be able to find the most relevant data.
3. Dig a little deeper You’re not going to get results the same way you normally would with other social media. Profiling users is an art when it comes to Reddit especially. Brandwatch’s Adam Brons-Smith explains in the Reddit webinar that you need to “dig a little deeper.” In his example, he takes a look at the subreddit /r/Golf. After analysing how this specific audience is speaking, he goes on to check their skill levels and uses Brandwatch Categories to see which golfing brand is associated with which skill level.

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To Reddit or Not to Reddit? As we’ve seen, social media is incredibly powerful. Not only can it dictate the fate of cryptocurrencies but, if certain cards are dealt, also that of entire brands. Having a stronghold on all social platforms where your audience might be talking about you - including the allusive ones like Reddit - will allow you to put your best foot forward and develop a killer brand strategy.

I'm sure you've noticed by now that each #KnowItAll (that's what we call each other internally) has their own personalised icon. And yes, we do feel like superstars because of it.

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It has been a YOUKNOW tradition for over 6 years to award our staff with custom illustrations of themselves on their 6-month "workaversaries" to show them how awesome they are and to immortalise them in official YOUKNOW history. But how did it all begin? And who is the mastermind (or master-hand) behind these illustrations?

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About 6 years ago, our CEO Kelvin Jonck found himself scrolling through Superbalist (CityMob at the time) and came across this tangerine-coloured poster of 'The Dude' from 'The Big Lebowski'. A longtime lover of all things pop culture (as is evident in our office décor), Kelvin bought himself a print and hung it up proudly in his home.

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He loved it so much in fact that he began to use a picture of the print as his icon on social media. 'The Dude' has long hair and a beard as did Kelvin at the time. "People always thought it was me," he said, "So this got me thinking, who's the artist?" After a bit of research, Kelvin discovered that his name is Bruno Morphet.

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Bruno Morphet is a DJ and owner of a design company in Cape Town called Plan B Design. After reaching out to Bruno, Kelvin discovered that 'The Dude' was just one of many pieces that Bruno had created inspired by pop culture characters. Another one of Bruno's eye-catching pieces is of 'Dr. Gonzo' from 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' - also in his signature brightly coloured, simple, and flat style. With our office aesthetic, it made sense to have Bruno create icons like these for each of the YOUKNOW staff.

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Since then, a "hall of fame" has grown on one of the office walls, displaying icons of all the past and present #KnowItAlls that have contributed to the growth of the company. "Not only do these icons add to the gratitude for people who put passion and time into the company but they also give employees a bit of identity within the YOUKNOW world," says Kelvin.

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These icons truly bring us together as a unified force to be reckoned with, which is especially important in times like these where we don't often go into the office.One feels a sense of comradery and belonging - even whilst sitting at home on Zoom calls. They've also contributed to the evolution of the YOUKNOW culture and emphasised one of our key values of putting our people first.

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Together with the talented illustrator Bruno Morphet, life has been given both to our online presence and our passion for being part of the YOUKNOW team.

If 2020 were a rom-com, it would involve two attractive, young people meeting by chance online, going on romantic dates and getaways online (don’t ask us about the logistics), having an online feud only to get back “together” and eventually get married (probably online too) and live digitally ever after. I’m sure you don’t need to guess where you’d watch a rom-com like this: online too, right?

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Wrong.

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People are still watching and paying for broadcast TV. In GWI’s latest Entertainment report, they tell us why. We’ve compiled all the highlights of this report, so tune in to find out more.

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More and more people have been watching online TV yet interestingly, broadcast TV still owns the market. One would think with the world moving progressively digital and our faces essentially merging with our cell phone screens, that we’d lean more towards streaming. However, GWI has the facts to back up that this is not true: “According to Broadband TV News, Africa will have 47 million pay-TV subscribers by 2025, up from 30 million at the end of 2019.”

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“Since 2019, time spent watching online TV has increased by 8%, whereas broadcast TV has stayed flat” says GWI, indicating that although broadcast TV remains a giant in its market, its audience is not growing like its counterpart, online TV. GWI also goes into a generational analysis, explaining that the “portion of boomers using streaming services each day has grown by 10% since last year, whereas among Gen Z it remains unchanged.” At the end of the day, as much as apps like Netflix have become a household name, “consumers have restored old habits” and returned to broadcast TV.

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The major difference between online and broadcast TV is that with broadcast TV, viewers simply let the network do the choosing for them when it comes to what’s playing. This and the fact that broadcast TV offers live content like sports events. Online TV is not far behind though. Netflix is “the latest to recognise the benefits of offering live content” introducing a new live channel called Direct, which is currently being trialed in France.

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According to GWI, there has been a “+27% increase in U.S. internet users watching streaming services via mobile.” Mobile devices are also used for “second-screening,” which is when a mobile device is used while watching TV, especially to access supplementary content or applications. This challenges streaming services to make the watching experience more active and engaging. One way they’ve already accomplished this is through the introduction of co-watching add-ons like Netflix’s Teleparty where viewers can watch and chat simultaneously.

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Price/value for money is at the top of the list when it comes to purchase influencers, followed closely by the variety of content available. According to GWI, “free trials often don’t offer enough incentive to subscribe” which means that service providers will need to come up with more creative ways to acquire and retain new customers.

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GWI Report Online TV vs Tv

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As with any company, it is fundamental that streaming services stay aware of their audiences. Not all streaming service providers have the same audience; “a service’s users can skew one way where genres are concerned.”

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Online or broadcast TV?

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If you’re concerned about your escalating binge-watching habit, perhaps broadcast TV would suit you best (although, beware of repeats). That said unlike broadcast TV, online TV is evolving and may soon have adopted all the best features of broadcast TV. If a streaming service provider were here to add their two cents, they’d probably end with “watch this space.”

GWI has recently released a localised, South African report containing insights for one of the top drivers of the world’s economy: Food Shoppers. Food Shoppers are defined by GWI as “Cooking enthusiasts who are the main food shopper in their household.”

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No matter your industry, your audience is bound to include Food Shoppers; cooking is a passion point for many people, regardless of lifestyle. Especially since the start of COVID-19, 7 in 10 South Africans are now interested in cooking - which is a rather large portion of the population to put it lightly. With many maintaining the intention to further explore cooking as an interest once the pandemic is (finally) over, this audience is sure to be one to keep on your watch list.

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Where Are South Africans Shopping?

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The ultimate battle of the brands took place on the pages of this GWI report. Huge names such as Pick n Pay, Woolworths and Checkers went head to head to see who fared best in the world of grocery shopping. Unsurprisingly, Pick n Pay came out on top as the supermarket of choice.

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Who Are South African Food Shoppers?

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“Food shoppers are more likely than average to be female, family-oriented and full-time workers” which makes them “time-poor consumers.” They’re price conscious and manage their money well since they have families to support. Efficiency and ease-of-use are therefore of paramount importance when it comes to their shopping experience.

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What Media Do Food Shoppers Consume The Most?

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Food Shoppers have a heavy online presence, mainly on mobile and social media - which they are more likely to use for research purposes or engagement when wanting to find out more about a brand. They will adopt the tech that will make their day-to-day lives easier since they have so little time as is.

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The Social Platforms That South African Food Shoppers Use The Most:

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With its in-depth reviews and tutorials, YouTube is the go-to platform for Food Shoppers. Facebook follows close behind by a mere 3%, emphasising that word-of-mouth (or in this case, posts) has a huge influence on the products Food Shoppers decide to purchase.

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Interest in online shopping has skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic. Although online grocery shopping is still to see the same incline, there is still an “upwards trend” says GWI. Perhaps this will be dependent on whether more grocery stores adapt to the more convenient door-to-door delivery as an alternative to in-store pickup.

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How Do South African Food Shoppers Discover Brands?

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The top mode of discovery is emails and mailshots from brands, which is great since this is one of the more cost-effective marketing tools. Ensuring to create personalised mailers, include great imagery and an appropriate call to action could be the key to your marketing success. According to GWI, consumer review sites also play a significant role in brand discovery, which shows that Food Shoppers are heavily influenced by the opinions of others.

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Your key takeaway order is on its way!

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Overall, there has been a steady increase in appetite for online shopping. As we’re currently stuck at home and constantly on our devices, we’re exposed to more and more online brand media as opposed to traditional media and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

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To learn more about this audience, take a look at GWI’s report: Exploring Food Shoppers in South Africa.

We often don’t think twice when accepting terms and conditions without even reading them - wanting only to get to the convenience that that app we’ve just downloaded can offer us. The same goes for privacy policies. In our fast-paced digital lives, most of us rush to click “accept” with a tinge of annoyance when a message pops up about cookies. Some of us are more patient, but that optimism is quickly drained when confronted with line upon pesky line of policy.

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What are cookies anyway? In this case, they are sadly not the delicious baked confectionery I know we’re all thinking about. In terms of online privacy, cookies (specifically, HTTP cookies) are text files with small pieces of data that are used to identify you and your computer. Ultimately, cookies are used to enhance your browsing experience by knowing which information to serve specifically to you. There are pros and cons when it comes to allowing cookies. A pro; an easy and personalised browsing experience. A con, they are vulnerable to cybercriminals.

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In GWI’s latest Connecting The Dots report, they speak about our relationship with online privacy as “digital citizens” and how that relationship has and still is evolving in an article called Data For Good. Good news: it’s not all negative. GWI covers the advantages that come with sharing your personal data along with key insights into how people feel about personal data sharing. Still, a relationship is maintained by two sides, and industries that work with consumers’ sensitive information should use it in a way that benefits both parties. Let’s take a look at how the world feels about this.

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The World On Online Privacy

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Ads are what make the virtual world go-'round but rising concerns around data privacy may just threaten them. In early 2020, Google announced its plan to block 3rd-party cookies (also known as trackers or tracking cookies - created by parties other than the website the user is visiting) from Chrome by 2022. This does not mean the end of tracking though, as it just forces companies like Facebook for example to work around it and instead use 1st-party cookies to do the job.

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Interestingly, since the pandemic started there has been an overall decline in concern around data privacy. This could be because individuals are more concerned about how trackers can help the situation. Several apps have been developed that use tracking technology to assist in COVID-19 contact tracing through the use of your phone’s Bluetooth. Many countries have created national apps with this purpose; the South African version being the app called Covid Alert SA.

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GWI calls this a “mindset shift” and notes that “declining privacy concerns are most evident in countries that suffered through the pandemic early on” - these being predominantly China and Europe. Sweden’s decline in concern about the internet eroding personal privacy is most notable at -12% since Q4 2019, followed by Switzerland at -9%. This could be due to these countries being “accustomed to stronger protection of their data.”

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It seems that consumers deem it more “worth it” to share their data if there is a personal benefit to them - although this benefit has to be free to be worth it. According to GWI, “41% of global consumers prefer to exchange their personal data for free services rather than pay for those services to safeguard their data.”

The World Of Digital Citizens

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Now that we’re online more often than not, online privacy has become more important than ever. As we become more informed, we get to know how to be better and better “digital citizens.” Whether the pandemic comes to an end or not, the issue of less online privacy will remain. Whether that should be deemed as an issue or something we can benefit from depends on how we move forward; the right steps involve mindful browsing for consumers and mindful use of digital add-ons such as cookies for businesses.

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Interested in online privacy? Check out our episode of The Unfair Advantage Sessions, YOUKNOW’s Kelvin Jonk speaks to Brandwatch founder and CEO, Giles Palmer about his views on the topic.