<p><img src="https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/8971965/Imported_Blog_Media/20170530-GDPR_Blogpost-1.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="600"></p>
<p>Last Thursday marked a year until the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect. That means businesses have roughly 365 days to make the necessary changes to the way in which they operate and manage risk to ensure they abide by the new law.&nbsp;</p>

<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 24px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">The Arrival of GDPR</h3>
<p>Essentially, the arrival of GDPR will put the control of personal data back into the hands of the individual, allowing a number of rights including the ability to withdraw said personal data. It also means that organisations cannot simply gather data without good reason and must prove that they are doing all they can to protect the data they do hold…at all times.</p>
<p>GDPR also specifies that organisations have to appoint a data protection officer. It’s a role that has to sit outside of IT and outside of the boardroom to have the independence to ensure the business adheres to the regulation. Why? Because it is vital businesses understand the importance and the responsibility tied to these new regulations.</p>
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 24px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">VideoSmart GDPR Training</h3>
<p>Last week, VideoSmart underwent in-depth GDPR training sessions, hosted by its appointed data protection officer; and this didn’t start and end with the development team. Each and every team member, including our resident illustrator, took part in this training to ensure we are GDPR prepared. At VideoSmart, we recognise that it is important that we all make threats and data security our concern, not just those with a data processing or security role.</p>
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 24px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Non-Compliance Penalties</h3>
<p>Undoubtedly, the most memorable part of the session was ‘<em>penalties’</em>. Even the least tech savvy person in the room paid close attention when the facts about fines were unleashed. For example, non-compliance penalties could lead to charges of up to €20m, or 4 per cent of a company’s global annual turnover. It’s not a case of opting in or out, it’s the stark realisation of ‘comply or face the consequences.’</p>
<p>According to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/cyber-security">Cisco’s&nbsp;annual&nbsp;cybersecurity&nbsp;report</a>, today’s average large enterprise can face as many as 70,000 security events per week.&nbsp;</p>
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 24px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Data Security Training</h3>
<p>It is possible to be prepared and prevent attacks, which should be a top priority considering the impending consequences of a successful breach. And that’s why data security training should be on your agenda, if it isn’t already.</p>
<h4 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">We’re GDPR ready, are you?</h4>
<p>&nbsp;<strong>For more information on VideoSmart, contact us at </strong><a href="mailto:hello@videosmart.com"><strong>hello@videosmart.com</strong></a><strong> today.</strong></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

Last Thursday marked a year until the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect. T

Getting GDPR Ready

<p><img src="https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/8971965/Imported_Blog_Media/YoutubeShopDestination-1.jpg" alt="YouTube the Shopping Destination" width="1024" height="768"></p> 
<h2>With Covid-19 pushing the world online, brands and retailers across the world are faced with the same question: Is it digitalise or die?</h2> 
<p>Along with 2020 came Covid-19 and a switch-over to e-Commerce in consumer behaviour. With social interaction being minimised and the shutdown of hundreds of stores – high streets worldwide have taken a major hit, whereas e-commerce has seen a major boost.</p> 
<p>Covid-19 has caused a permanent change in the way we shop, with <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/06/12/covid-19-accelerated-e-commerce-growth-4-to-6-years/" target="_blank">Forbes reporting this year that total online spending in May alone hit $82.5 billion</a>, up an extraordinary 77% year-over-year.</p> 
<p>The change is evident, with retail giants such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54369802" target="_blank">H&amp;M closing 250 of its stores worldwide</a>, in comparison to online fashion retailer <a href="https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8838365/Asos-quadruples-profits-adds-millions-customer-base.html" target="_blank">ASOS seeing an addition of 3 million shoppers to its customer base</a>.</p> 
<p>The message to brands and retailers alike is clear: <br><strong>adapt to e-commerce or fall behind.</strong></p> 
<h2>But where does YouTube fall into this? The rise of Social commerce:</h2> 
<p>In 2019, <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/youtube-shopping-influence/323503/#close" target="_blank">Google reported that 55% of consumers globally use videos for their purchase decisions</a>, even so far as shoppers saying that they use online video whilst actually shopping in-store.</p> 
<p>With digital commerce being the next step for retailers, <strong>video should be recognised as the most powerful tool.</strong></p> 
<p>It is safe to say that YouTube is somewhat behind on the trend despite being the second most popular social media platform, with over two billion monthly active users and one billion hours of video watched daily.</p> 
<p>Sponsored ads have filled-up our Instagram feeds with a variety of products tailored to our personal algorithm for a long time, and tiktok has slowly been integrating shopping ads to its creators’ content.</p> 
<p><strong>‘Social commerce’ is the next step in influencer marketing and online shopping.</strong></p> 
<p>That being said, YouTube already is a shopping catalogue of sorts; with consumerism-driven video content such as ‘haul’s’, ‘unboxings’, and ‘my skincare routine’-type videos already receiving millions of views.</p> 
<p>However, the Google-owned company, has finally pushed for the next step: asking its creators to use YouTube’s software to tag and track products featured in their videos so that viewers may purchase them directly on the platform.</p> 
<p>This ‘Shopping’ feature is currently in its trial phases; but, if successful, it would open up a whole new revenue stream for the video-sharing platform. It is an opportunity that should’ve been taken advantage of long ago, as <a href="https://www.prestigeonline.com/sg/pursuits/tech/youtube-shopping/" target="_blank">Prestige writes that this feature could generate $22.4 billion by 2025</a>.</p> 
<h2>What is social commerce and why does it matter?</h2> 
<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2014/07/17/why-word-of-mouth-marketing-is-the-most-important-social-media/" target="_blank">Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) Forbes wrote in 2014</a>, that “according to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising.”</p> 
<p>But with social interaction going online in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, and 3.8 billion people using social media across the world. Social media influencer marketing is the digital step-up from Word of Mouth Marketing, as the Digital Marketing Institute recently wrote that 49% of Consumers Depend on Influencer Recommendations to make their purchasing decisions.</p> 
<h2>So, how do you engage your customers online?</h2> 
<p>According to <a href="https://www.insivia.com/50-must-know-stats-about-video-animation-marketing-2013/" target="_blank">Insivia</a>, “viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text.” If you want to reach your customer base, go online, or even better, do so via video.</p> 
<h2>Is the transformation from in-person shopping to online wholly positive?</h2> 
<p>No. For the most part, digital commerce has and continues to bring about a multitude of positive influences to both the customer’s journey and to the marketer’s wallet; with businesses earning $6.50 for every one dollar spent on an influencer marketing campaign.</p> 
<p>Social media has also put the purchasing power firmly in the consumers hands – with a wealth of references and recommendations available on any product by a variety of influencers. However, one vital aspect in a customer’s journey is set to be lost by brands who do not recognise its importance: a personal experience.</p> 
<p>If e-commerce is the future, how will the variety of brands and retailers match the level of personalisation they offered in store to their customer base before the online switch-over? Will brands adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to their digital marketing, or will they recognise the lost potential in the continuation of an individualised shopping experience?</p> 
<h2>Personal – but for millions of viewers?</h2> 
<p>How can you create a personal shopping experience within a platform that engages millions of users per video? The switch from in-person to online removes the opportunity for shop-floor sales advisors to aid the navigation of your purchase, to get to know your personal needs, likes and dislikes, some opportunity to upsell, and the ability to drive repeat in-store visits.</p> 
<p>Not all retail experience is created equally, however, with luxury retailers, jewellers, high-end designers and wedding boutiques, for example, all having relied heavily in the past to close sales through the ‘special’, memorable and personal experience that they can offer their customers.</p> 
<p>Whether it’s being on first name basis with your sales advisor, or they bring you your drink preference, or remember your shoe size – these are all points of personalisation leading you to finalise that purchase on the day.</p> 
<p>A sales associate is the human step between a faceless retailer and customer with individualised needs. Although digital commerce removes the need for human interaction, which is an undeniable benefit to consumers in a pandemic-driven world, this also leads to the potential loss of a highly valuable, personal and human shopping experience.</p> 
<p>Value lays in the sales advisor who would act as the face of your brand, representative of your values, and mental catalogue of all your items alongside personal recommendation and insider-knowledge. These are all set to potentially be lost in the digital revolution if brands don’t recognise and act fast.</p> 
<h2 class="p1"><span class="s1">The solution:&nbsp;</span><span class="s1">Personalised and interactive video</span></h2> 
<p>A solution for this is <a href="https://videosmart.com/solutions/personalisedvideo" target="_blank">personalised</a> and <a href="https://videosmart.com/solutions/interactivevideo" target="_blank">interactive video</a>. A product that can be delivered to the many but be personalised for an individual. With most companies already having a data base of customer information, there is no reason to lose the opportunity to deliver a personal shopping experience through video?</p> 
<p>2020 alongside Covid-19, has already began to outline the winners and losers in retail who have successfully or unsuccessfully adopted the digitalisation of the shopping experience. Will retailers recognise the lost potential in personalising their marketing strategies and shopping experience?</p>

Will retailers recognise the lost potential in personalising their marketing strategies and shopping experience?

YouTube the Shopping Destination: Will Video Become the Next Major Shopping Platform?

<p><img src="https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/8971965/Imported_Blog_Media/Step-into-the-future-1.jpg" alt="" width="1067" height="600"></p> 
<p><em>Article first published by<a href="http://www.theneweconomy.com/strategy/personalised-communications-look-set-to-shake-advertising-out-of-its-slumber" target="_blank"> The New Economy</a>&nbsp;</em></p> 
<p>Marketing has lost its personal side, focusing on data harvesting and not on forming a bond. Personalised communications look set to change that</p> 
<p>The digital age has transformed the marketing and advertising landscape, shifting it from the limited realms of radio and television straight into the palms of our hands, every minute of the day.</p> 
<p>Through social media and data analytics, companies are now able to capture precise details about their consumers, connecting with them on a much deeper level than ever before.</p> 
<p>Although an evolution in marketing is certainly underway, it has become stuck in limbo. Issues relating to trust and wavering loyalty have made it harder for firms in highly competitive markets to reach out, capture and retain customers.</p> 
<p>Likewise, rapidly changing consumer expectations have become a huge challenge, with individuals now demanding enhanced value and tailored campaigns as the minimum. Yet, amid all this, the traditional format of conveying a message has remained intact – in text form, generic and detached, very much an anachronism.</p> 
<h2 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 30px;">The Modern Consumer</h2> 
<p>Without a doubt, the biggest change that marketing has seen in recent years has been the rise of social media and the volume of data that now accompanies consumer purchase and usage behaviour.</p> 
<p>“Most people think this is only occurring online, but consumers are being tracked offline as well, with loyalty programmes and other tracking technology, for example, RfID, CCTV and GPS”, said Dr Kirk Plangger, Lecturer in Marketing at King’s College London.</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Consumer Tracking</h3> 
<p>The masses of data collated from consumer tracking have, therefore, become a hurdle for marketers charged with discovering new insights into consumer behaviour and devising corresponding strategies.</p> 
<p>While social media has given organisations a global platform, irrespective of their size, it has also given them a new range of concerns, particularly regarding the speed at which bad news travels.</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Consumers are Shaping the Markets</h3> 
<p>What’s more, with so much information available, consumers can make more measured and informed decisions when it comes to the purchases they make and the services they use.</p> 
<p>“Consumers are much wiser now, much more selective, much more careful and much more powerful in terms of networking, word of mouth, referrals and so forth”, said Professor Shintaro Okazaki, Editor-in-Chief of the <em>Journal of Advertising</em>.</p> 
<p>With this power, consumers are shaping the markets they interact with. They demand greater value and more engagement, in addition to some level of personal involvement.</p> 
<p>“One of the most important changes in marketing is the co-creation of value, because now consumers want to participate to create something together”, Okazaki continued.</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Web 2.0</h3> 
<p>“Before Web 2.0, we were very reactive and we received information in a very unidirectional way from firms. But, nowadays, because we have tools such as social networking sites, we can transmit our opinions more proactively.”</p> 
<p>As such, it is crucial that companies interact with their consumers more effectively and involve them in some way, which has given rise to the term ‘prosumer’.</p> 
<p>“Prosumers have much more power and they participate with each other through social media”, Okazaki said. “Firms have to listen to them to create more effective personalised marketing communications.”</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Generalised Marketing vs Personalised communications</h3> 
<p>Marketing campaigns can no longer be generalised for mass audiences. So familiar are we with the constant stream of advertising that pervades our lives, through every format and on every screen, that we have become immune to it.</p> 
<p>Personalised communications, on the other hand, still have the power to reach out and deliver a message; they can provide that missing link between individuals and the faceless corporations that influence their lives.</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Personalised Marketing</h3> 
<p>“Personalised marketing not only impacts behaviour, but also consumer attitudes, feelings and associations”, Plangger explained.</p> 
<p>“Consumers respond differently to personalised marketing, but [the reaction] depends on the execution. If the marketer is too blatant with the use of consumer data, many consumers may have negative attitudes and feelings toward the brand.</p> 
<p>But, if the marketer is careful about using consumer data, many consumers may have very positive feelings that could have a significant impact on satisfaction, word of mouth, consumer engagement and retention.”</p> 
<h2 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 30px;">Bespoke Ads</h2> 
<p>While many approaches to marketing and advertising remain out-dated, recent developments in technology are propelling personalised campaigns in line with what we have come to expect today.</p> 
<p>One company moving in this direction is VideoSmart, a new service that allows companies to instantly send out thousands of videos personalised for each and every recipient.</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">VideoSmart - Personalised Videos</h3> 
<p>VideoSmart can combine a generic piece of film with a customer’s data to produce a video tailored specifically to them, akin to a personalised TV advert delivered straight to their mobile device or desktop.</p> 
<p>“We work with the client to create an advert that reflects their brand’s personality and tonality, while ensuring that we have clearly articulated their marketing message”, said Sami Aintaoui, Director at VideoSmart.</p> 
<p>“We then overlay the customer data so that all the content within that video is personal to the recipient, and that means that any imagery, maps, narration, text, music, or even the order of the scenes that are displayed, are all specific to that customer.”</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Communications via Video</h3> 
<p>The idea behind delivering communications via video is that, through this medium, customers are more likely to recall the message that has been conveyed, and are more likely to understand it as well.</p> 
<p>“I absorb information better in visual form, other people are audio learners, others prefer text. Traditionally as businesses, we’ve only ever communicated via the latter”, Aintaoui said.</p> 
<p>“With personalised video, we leverage all three, which means we’re satisfying everyone and it also means that a company’s messages are better retained by the customer.”</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Create Unique Brands</h3> 
<p>Indeed, better communications via such media can also help to satisfy increasingly stringent regulations by ensuring that a customer fully understands the product or service they are buying into.</p> 
<p>“If we can alleviate some of the pressures that businesses feel from regulators, their marketers will start to get back what marketers do, which is building brands, building relationships with customers and allowing them to create unique brands that people actually have an affinity to”, Aintaoui explained.</p> 
<h2 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 30px;">New Phase</h2> 
<p>By communicating with potential and existing customers in a more direct, personable manner, as opposed to doing so through a jargon-heavy, corporate block of text, consumers are more likely to stop and listen, and less likely to ‘shop around’.</p> 
<p>Essentially, the medium of video can break existing barriers between companies and consumers, create a more frictionless customer journey and significantly improve customer relationship management systems.</p> 
<p>“It could be used across the customer relationship lifecycle, whether that’s acquiring, growing, on-boarding or retaining customers”, added Aintaoui.</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Online Shopping - Winning Back Lapsed Customers</h3> 
<p>This approach is particularly useful when it comes to winning back lapsed customers, which is increasingly important as online shopping continues to expand.</p> 
<p>Around 63 percent of potential online transactions, or some $4trn worth of merchandise, will be abandoned in the ‘shopping cart’ in 2016, according to a report by BI Intelligence.</p> 
<p>While this figure is a huge concern for retailers, the research also indicates conversion rates can be improved by retargeting shoppers via email after they have left a website.</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Possibilities of Personalised Videos are Boundless</h3> 
<p>According to digital marketing platform Listrak, emails sent around three hours after a shopping cart has been abandoned have a 20 percent click-through rate.</p> 
<p>Now, imagine the same approach, but with a video adapted specifically for the consumer and their purchase.</p> 
<p>It starts by addressing them by name, and then perhaps offers a discount or free delivery; it may answer a query they had about the product and provide some information the absence of which caused their initial hesitation.</p> 
<p>Simply put, the possibilities of personalised videos are boundless. They can take client relationships to a whole new level, and even form a connection that lasts a lifetime.</p> 
<h3 style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">The Future of Marketing</h3> 
<p>As technology continues to march forward, marketers have fallen behind.</p> 
<p>While wading through reams of consumer data and combatting the explosion of social media culture, they have unwittingly neglected the importance of engaging with customers, building relationships and establishing loyalty.</p> 
<p>Now, however, the technology finally exists for these traditional pillars to be combined with a modern data-led approach. The future of marketing has very much arrived.</p> 
<p style="margin-top: 20px;"><strong>For more information about how your customers can benefit from Personalised Videos, contact </strong><a href="mailto:hello@videosmart.com">hello@videosmart.com</a></p>

Article first published by The New Economy
&nbsp;
Marketing has lost its personal side, focusing on 

Personalised Communications Step Into The Future

<p><img src="https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/8971965/Imported_Blog_Media/Interactive_Broadcasting_Blogpost-1.jpg" alt="" width="1264" height="846"></p> 
<p>The French newspaper, Le Figaro, is changing the way in which we engage with the news. The daily newspaper is actively adopting video to communicate with its audiences. Of course, using video to convey political issues is nothing revolutionary. However, using interactive video as a national news publisher, is.</p> 
<h2>Interactive Video Player</h2> 
<p>Le Figaro have created an interactive video player that showcases 60 hours of live video per month. With this player, viewers are able to live comment on videos and soon, they will be able to cast a live vote on topics.</p> 
<h3>User-centric</h3> 
<p>As the head of digital within Le Figaro said, “interactions are so important because we don’t want to be TV. The key is being user-centric.” Adding interactive video to news sites not only provides the opportunity to increase audience interaction and thereby subscription growth, they also give insight into what topics audience members want to know more about.</p> 
<h3>Interactive Publishing Strategy</h3> 
<p>Newspapers, such as the London Times and the Financial Times are now also looking to introduce an interactive publishing strategy. And these won’t be the only broadcasters to adopt the trend.</p> 
<h2>Branching</h2> 
<p>The level of interactivity currently adopted by Le Figaro is still fairly limited. But VideoSmart believe this could be taken a step further. Instead of using interactivity per single topic, why not create a 60-second video of the most recent headlines, and let the consumer click in-video links, which leads them to the issues they want to learn more about?</p> 
<h3>Serving Relevant Content to the Viewer</h3> 
<p>This technique, more commonly known as branching, would help to only serve relevant content to the viewer. Because in an age so crowded with information, we need to give customers a say in what they see.</p>

The French newspaper, Le Figaro, is changing the way in which we engage with the news. The daily new

Digital marketing agency providing video marketing solutions, based in London and Porto.

Our People & Our Mission

Data-led &
People first.

Services
at the core.

International
team.

What our
clients say.

The people
behind the platform.

Get
the latest.

Digital marketing agency providing video marketing solutions, based in London and Porto.

Our People & Our Mission

Data-led & .css-19qp8ot{font-family:Archia SemiBold;color:#FC440B;}People first.

Services .css-19qp8ot{font-family:Archia SemiBold;color:#FC440B;}at the core.

International .css-19qp8ot{font-family:Archia SemiBold;color:#FC440B;}team.

What our .css-19qp8ot{font-family:Archia SemiBold;color:#FC440B;}clients say.