News

13/02/12

Fuel's head of digital analytics, Ian Howie, is one of a group of industry experts who talked to B2B Marketing about his views on social search

News Analysis: Social search and what it means for B2B

Author: Alex Aspinall, B2B Marketing

Feathers were recently ruffled at Twitter when Google started including Google Plus returns in its search results. Alex Aspinall investigates

It is no secret that Google is desperate for its social network to succeed. Google Plus is definitely not one of the many projects the search giant is content to see disappear. And this is why it decided to start including Google Plus prominently in relevant search queries.

It is a big move, credited with manipulating a competitive advantage Facebook and Twitter could only ever dream of, prompting calls for anti-monopoly investigations, further fusing the previously distinct disciplines of social and search marketing, and forcing marketers to re-evaluate their use of the platform.

But journalists, and particularly tech bloggers, are prone to exaggeration and the use of inappropriate superlatives. So just how significant is the ‘Search, plus your world’ update?

Not that significant, says Dean Browell, executive vice president of US social media agency Feedback. He says, “It’s no more significant than when Google included live Twitter discussions in its searches, except that hundreds of millions of tweets are sent every day and far fewer items of Google Plus content are created and distributed in order to sift through in the same amount of time.”

There are, however, many industry voices happily attaching greater importance to the search giant’s new social search returns. One of whom is Neil Jackson, head of traffic control at digital agency I Spy Marketing. He believes, “The significance of Google placing Google Plus so highly is that it forces people to take it seriously.”

The degree to which people buy into Google Plus’ relevance is clearly the subject of some debate. But there does appear to be an overriding feeling that the social search update is, at the very least, providing marketers with a new method of ceasing precious centimetres on SERPs. And such opportunities are not sensibly ignored.

Nichola Stott, managing director of SEO agency The Media Flow, describes the addition of Google Plus returns to SERPS as “an extremely significant move.” And her view finds support from Fuel’s head of data Ian Howie, who recognises new possibilities for B2B marketers. He claims, “Marketers with active Google Plus profiles will have an advantage over those who don’t. The ‘white hat’ method would be to build a Google Plus profile, using relevant keywords and creating interesting content, again containing relevant keywords.”

To read the whole article click here

22/11/11

As featured in Utalkmarketing.com

How to build your CRM strategy  By Edmund Smiley-Jones, managing director, Fuel

Creating or developing a CRM programme is a huge commitment by a business and a marketing department. This commitment will take money and staff resources to make it function correctly. Therefore, here are some top tips on how to approach or recalibrate your CRM programme.

Planning your CRM

During the strategic planning stage it?s important to ask yourself the hard questions to determine the nature of your CRM and what you hope to gain from it:

• Do we need a customer relationship marketing programme?
• What data do we require to drive the programme and the business?

This question could determine the outcome of what type of programme is required. If the answer is 'not much' then a simple but affective promotional loyalty programme could be used (e.g. a Costa coffee card or similar)

However, if it is felt that the richer data could be more powerful than a different type of programme should be created like the Wickes MyCard programme, where they collect intelligence on everything from basket spend to time of shop, which channel etc.

This information gives the business individual customer insight, and segment and customer headroom opportunity.

• Do we have the frequency of relationship and basket spends to get robust data? (i.e. a supermarket retailer generally does but a low footfall retailer doesn't)
• Does the data need to be used in real time?
• Can we create an off line single customer view (SCV) or does it need to be a fully connected / transactional SCV?
• What is the right amount of data to run the programme and the business? (It is very easy to get data over load)
• Would a retention or nurture programme do the same job at a percentage of the cost? 
• How committed would the business be to a long term initiative with IT infrastructure investments?

Committing to your CRM

Once you have worked this out, it is imperative to get management to buy in to the programme as this project will require budget and time to see the ROI. Always take the management team on the journey, providing them with progress reports and opportunities to reflect, adjust and question the programme.

Ensure that a full CRM business plan is created so the management team can see:

• When they will see the return on their investment 
• The positive impact it will have on their customers' behaviour and relationships 
• How much they will need to invest into IT from EPOS to web 
• What sales and customer data you are collecting and how this will benefit the business - from changing product mix in store to sales channel and segment propositions

You will also need to work out the 'exit strategy' and the cost of exit. If the programme involves the use of points as a currency (e.g. 1point = £1) then make sure there is a provision on the balance sheet as non redeemed point will be regarded as a liability.

Before any CRM programme is created, tested or launched ensure a full Measurement and Evaluation strategy is in place. Agree with the management team on how they measure success. This will provide valuable information to the success of the programme and whether the business should invest more money into it.

Finally, you need to decide if you should create your own bespoke programme or buy into an off-the-shelf programme (e.g. Nectar).

Engaging the customer

Now is the point to create a visible customer contract with simple rules of engagement. For example, if you buy this product from us we will give you X and we would like to communicate with you regarding Y. Tesco's Clubcard is a perfect example of this.

If you aren't compelling in your customer engagement then the programme that links in with your CRM just won't get the traction with the main body of your customers. You'll discover the only customers who participate in the programme will be your advocates, which will result in you rewarding customer for doing what comes naturally.

In summary

The main concept of the CRM programme is to use the customer data to change behaviour to the advantage of the business with the least amount of investment.

To discover how best to tailor a CRM programme to your requirements, you're best off discussing plans with a marketing biased CRM consultant who would have gone through this process before. Such experience in building and delivering results will mean that, as per the CRM system itself, time and money are spent wisely and equate to an increase in customer loyalty and company revenue.

13/10/11

As featured in Data Strategy Online October | By Steve Hemsley

The sheer mass of information available about consumers on the web is enough to scare marketers into ignoring it. But for those brave enough to confront and harness big data, there are large rewards.

Big data can be a big problem for brands. Information from large, complex data sets - weblogs, social media, smartphone analytics and even medical records - is difficult for brands to capture, manage and process within traditional database systems.

But big data is also the next frontier for innovation, competitive advantage and productivity, according to a research report from the McKinsey Global Institute. It warns that too many companies are missing the opportunities because of a lack of data management expertise.

GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) customer relationship management consultant James Parker agrees that firms need to invest in operations to process big data immediately. "There are even larger data sets today [than 10 years ago] and although consumer behaviour is best monitored by the marketing department, the benefits are to the rest of the business." he says.

Retail is one sector that has great potential for big data. Its customer transactions, both on- and offline, conversations and intentions can all be brought together so that brands can better understand how to reach shoppers.

Wickes head of CRM Natalie Henty says brands must not be scared of the huge amount of data being generated and what it can help to achieve. "You must be focused on what you want to get out of big data or you can spend too much time analysing it," she says. "Rather than trying to make use of every single piece of information it is possible to gather, you must get actionable insight."

Some online businesses, such as Amazon, are already leading the field in this area. The site uses collaborative filtering technology, which allows it to develop automatic recommendations for customers based on their purchase history data.

Kurt Kendall, McKinsey's business lead for its consumer and marketing analytics centre, acknowledges that companies have had information on their customers for years but claims things have changed. "With the right capabilities, you can take a whole array of new data sources - web browsing data, social data and geotracking data - and develop a much more complete profile and with this information, segment better," he says.

"When a customer is standing in the store, a retailer can mine their databases and determine whether this is someone they want to keep and what it will take to keep them," says Kendall.

"The retailer can combine information it has about past purchases with details about the customer collected through the company's Facebook page and elsewhere to determine exactly what price to sell the item and if it is right to negotiate," he adds.

Wickes works with a number of data companies, including data analytics firm Fuel, and collates information from various sources to steer its business and marketing decisions across different product categories. Henty agrees that combining big data sources allows Wickes to understand much more about the people who buy its goods.

"We analyse large segments of data and break them down into small pockets of consumers so our marketing spend is more focused," she says.

 This type of segmentation is made more powerful and innovative when big data is involved. It allows more micro-segments to be created and more personalisation using information such as clickstream web data, which logs how people browse a particular site.

The next stage for many brands that have already achieved detailed segmentation is to add in new areas. Social media sites provide brands with data for sentiment analysis, which can be integrated with retail EPOS data from tills to better understand how the way people feel about the brand translates into actual sales.

When this is achieved, people who already like a brand can be targeted individually in-store or with relevant DM and email content, effectively linking the on- and offline environments where consumers interact with a brand. But while big data allows retailers to more effectively segment and market to their customers, the same information is also being used by price-comparison businesses to push down prices in the market.

With more consumers using their own data to search and compare products and services, there is a risk that companies may see their margins squeezed as they try to compete. Wickes' Henty accepts that big data can put a downward pressure on prices but thinks retailers can still benefit. "The greater visibility for people to shop around means more opportunities for personalisation and to target individuals with the right level of discounts," she says.

Direct Marketing Association (DMA) chairman Scott Logie says any downward pressure on prices will be fair for everyone if big data enables brands to target consumers more effectively. "If people allow their data to be used in marketing, it seems right that they should get something in return, in the shape of special offers or loyalty bonuses," he says. "This has been happening for years with loyalty cards but with big data it is just not so explicit."

While the DMA is excited by the potential of this emerging area, it warns marketers not to ignore the potential pitfalls of using large data sets. DMA chief of operations Mike Lordan says brands must be aware of best practice in handling data when dealing with so many possible sources. He claims that only one in four people say they are willing to share their full details with brands online, according to a DMA survey of consumer attitudes towards privacy.

"We've seen high-profile cases of companies losing data or experiencing data breaches," says Lordan. "If brands are to profit from using big data, they must build trust. If they don't, the size of the data sets will be eroded."

 For full online article click here

30/09/11

This week Head of Web Analytics at Fuel, Ian Howie made an appearance in the B2B Marketing publication, article titled HOW TO: Maximise behavioural targeting. Ian's take on things discusses using on site tracking to monitor user behaviour and deliver personalised content and advertising and references our proprietary tracking technology Site Geist.

For the whole article click here

23/08/11

The Fuel team are very excited to hear that we have qualified as finalists in the Best use of Behavioural Targeting category at the Marketing Week's Data Strategy Awards for our work with Gala Bingo.

The award entry focuses on a segmentation that groups Gala Bingo's customers into distinct groups based on admissions behaviour.

The segmentation model forms an integral part of delivering the contact strategy for the CRM programme that has been put in place to provide Gala's customers with a more engaging and fulfilling communications experience

Congratulations to the team who worked on this. Fuel look forward to attending the DataStrategy Awards, which take place on October 19^th at the Lancaster hotel.

31/05/11

This week saw the appointment of Ian Howie to lead Fuel's web intelligence services.

Ian joins us from 1upDigital where he delivered SEO, Paid Search, Display, Google Analytics & Google Website Optimizer to a wide range of organisations such as: Thompson Reuters, Burberry, Haymarket, Procter & Gamble, Doremus, Javelin, The White Company, Amnesty International, National Geographic, Street Car, Moon Pig and EDF Energy

Ian is now running Fuel's digital analytics division working with clients to provide consulting, training and project management in this area and also with our developers to constantly evolve and improve Fuel's proprietary web analytics offering, SiteGeist. His extensive expertise and in-depth knowledge of digital tracking gives clients invaluable insights into what is happening with their online assets and how to maximise revenues in the dynamic and increasing competitive online market place.

Founder Simon Wall said "Fuel's further expansion in to web analytics is a natural progression for us. All of our analysts have expertise in this area and use it every day but we felt that the demand for this as its own business area was too great to ignore. Ian will be working closely with our development team on our own technology SiteGeist, a web intelligence tool that goes beyond the realms of most analytics software. It's a very exciting area and is something that can be used as an incredibly powerful tool for marketers."

18/03/11

Fuel are delighted to announce that following 2 multi award winning projects for the Department of Health for a Stroke campaign evaluation and Smoking prevalence model , we have been reengaged by the government to add second phase projects. This is the first time we have worked with the government since the coalition's review of all marketing spend and ensuing cuts and the projects are testament to the huge value that was placed on our work.

25/02/11

Last night was the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work for Awards Ceremony 2011. Out of more than 1,100 entries, Engine (and its collection of best in class marketing agencies including Fuel), reached 86^th position.

The reasons for achieving this fabulous accolade are numerous but some of the highlights, as claimed by staff across 10 different Engine UK agencies are as follows:

 We have fun together (82%), Engine is important in our lives (80%). We're excited about the future (82%), We like each other (another 80%).

Much of this mutual good feeling towards Engine and our colleagues must be credited to 'Our Little Bit', Engine's CSR team headed up by Brand Manager, Olenka Lawrenson.

In addition to driving the collective environmental consciousness, the team from a cross section of Engine's agencies, lead the companies in the organisation of all 'Feel good' activities including:

Sports- netball, touch rugby, football, chick boxing; 

Great parties & regular social events,

Holistic health & well being initiatives in-house masseuse, resident osteopath, yoga classes, bike to work scheme, nutritionist, healthy food; 

Charitable works supporting numerous good causes through events and bi-annual volunteering days.

And the list goes on...

Combined with the high scores for office environment and the way the business is managed Engine really does come up trumps.

24/02/11

Often people find it's better to avoid predicting the future in case  you  end up looking foolish:

"Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput" - Sir Alan Sugar, 2005

"We'll kill spam in two years" - Bill Gates, 2004

"We stand on the threshold of rocket mail" - U.S. postmaster general, Arthur Summerfield, 1959

"Britain doesn't need telephones" - Chief engineer at the Post Office, Sir William Preece, 1878

With the speed that technology is evolving it's becoming even harder to know what is going to happen next week, let alone in the next 10 years. But we need not accept defeat.

When predicting the future, the singularity can assist us.  By practicing predictions from accelerated feedback loops, we can begin to grasp a tighter understanding of future events. Accelerated feedback loops were especially helpful for the development of the mobile web following the fixed line, with smart devices leading to a digitally responsive generation producing comprehensive records of their lives' activities.

With this in mind, I predict that within the next ten years we'll be tracking our lives end-to-end with a multitude of personal sensors - think Nike+ - and openly sharing the information. The opportunity for data gathering from this would be huge, making the loyalty schemes of today appear insignificant.

Here are a few feedback loops for you to explore:

WiFi body scales - WiFi blood pressure - Mass market sensors - Life achievement apps - Life achievement visualisations - Rewards for being active

If you're thinking this all seems rather Orwellian, let me try to convince you otherwise.  I believe with an enhanced understanding of our lives, we will be better equipped to seek out the things that make us happy, and avoid those which cause us pain.   

As stated in Good to Great, the best businesses find concrete numbers to judge and manage themselves by, why then, not apply this to our lives?

However, I'm also inclined to agree with Alan Kay that "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

11/01/11

Adding to Fuel's expanding team of data experts, Paul Moss is bringing 17 years of industry experience to the fold. Paul previously worked as head of data planning at Archibald Ingall Stretton, where he delivered data strategy and proof of effectiveness of online and offline channels for all agency clients, with a particular focus on O2 and EDF Energy.

Prior to this he was at RBG Connect leading the direct marketing, targeting and testing strategies on the HSBC account, as well as the digital analytics strategy for Shell and Rimmel.

At Fuel Paul will be focusing on the development of data planning and analytics of client accounts such as Gala Coral, SMA and Strauss Water as well as working across new business opportunities.

Fuel?s appointment of another data heavy weight is indicative of the increasing expansion of data services. Clients are recognising the growing importance to develop their business and marketing strategies based on a sound understanding of data and the insight it provides.

Co- Founder Jonathan Buck said:

"We're really pleased to have Paul on board. He will be bringing a wealth of experience to a number of our clients as a lead consultant and will be focussing on further developing and strengthening our analytics team and offering."

07/01/11

"I keep saying the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians. People think I'm joking, but who would've guessed that computer engineers would've been the sexy job of the 1990s"

"The ability to take data - to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it, is going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades..."

Hal Varian, The McKinsey Quarterly, January 2009

Data is increasingly being used to tell stories in different and more interesting ways.

I very much enjoy what Feltron is doing. You may not be interested in his Personal Annual Reports from 05 - 09, but they do demonstrate the expressive language of data (making the previously uninteresting, interesting).

Feltron is self admittedly only a couple of steps ahead of a future world packed with sensors and people who have taken 'the red pill' (i.e. those who have started digitalising their life for posterity).

News teams are craving this sort of trackable storytelling, looking forward to a time when people will be able to experience news on a different level, interactively and in real time.  For news junkies, this is incredibly exciting.  Imagine being able to read a story on the BBC News website and then being able to delve deeper into it to find out more about the subject. For example, if a headline reads WHO declares swine flu pandemic, the article might also include the latest WHO data for people to explore.

Giving the reader more power, adding transparency to institutions and enabling stories and comments to evolve from this, will allow the internet to become the great leveller.

06/12/10

As you're reading this the chances are you have taken or will take the red pill.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. Taking the blue pill ends your relationship with the changing world. The red pill allows you to stay in Wonderland and see how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

The reference to the 'The Matrix' reflects the decision millions of people make on a daily basis when digitising their life. The online world, after all, is a second life where there are no boundaries. A world in which you may behave differently to offline. You need to be more careful online though as actions become increasingly trackable and in the most part recorded for eternity. The decision to take the red pill should therefore be a conscious one.

This point is being made as a lot of people using online tools don't realise what equations are being used to interpret behavioural data. Looking back at how Dunnhumby grew to its current strength, working with Tesco to form what we all know as the Tesco Clubcard, is a small form of this. Following the trial of Tesco Clubcard in 1994 the first response from Tesco's then-Chairman Lord MacLaurin was 'What scares me about this is that you know more about my customers after three months than I know after 30 years.'

As the internet becomes more entrenched within our lives, so too do business relationships with us (especially digital natives), and the data's value increases exponentially. This is the reason why, when I was speaking to a Marketing Manager at a Business Intelligence Symposium last week, he made the statement that O2's data is more valuable than their brand.

In a  world where everyone has  taken the red pill, entering a  digital world, effective use of data can be pictured by imagining how online game achievement systems can be applied to the 'real world' e.g. recognising  when somebody walks in to a shop and rewarding them for their visit.  Welcome to the Matrix (skip to 21mins)

18/11/10

Since joining Fuel and speaking to friends, family and colleagues about my new role, I've noticed a certain amount of 'data distancing'. Even for so-called 'diagonal thinkers', data can be seen as scary stuff, and it's not surprising considering the outdated image data has in this digital and visual age. This is changing though, with new terms such as 'Infomagination', research carried out by UCL shown here and the World Wide Web Consortiums? Linked Data project shown here.     

I'm by no means a mathematician as a new edition to this award winning team, with my past comfortably lying in strategic marketing. It's just the opportunity Fuel has within the marketing space, supporting clients and enhancing creativity, is too big to miss. My data epiphany was sparked by the awesome series back in January that was The Virtual Revolution, demonstrating the impact of the web and its might as an empowerment tool. Particularly poignant for me was the idea that whilst this empowerment is deemed to be free, it does bide by the laws of economics, and there is certainly a cost attached. Whilst the exchange isn't monetary, we are paying with our privacy and that is arguably more valuable.

The Fuel of my excitement:

The web based processing power of 'the cloud', mass adoption of smart devices and the growing development of augmented reality is bringing business intelligence to a new level. It's leading to a deeper relationship between company and consumer and the ability for companies not just to understand consumers better but react to their behaviour in real time to optimize performance  and with mobile accessible data solutions.     

Google's Eric Schmidt talks frequently of 'Consumer Nowness' and  'Mobile First' and that is no surprise considering  that in many European countries there are more mobile phones than humans, with the Mobile web (last estimates I saw) growing 8 times faster than the equivalent fixed line web. When developing this it's the data that drives the change becoming intertwined with your day-to-day like threads in a fabric.

Undoubtedly it's an exciting time in digital. I however, am more excited by what lays beneath the surface of this and that is the much misunderstood world of data. Via this exchange of privacy and soaring adoption the 'infomagination' can be developed to enhance market understanding. The untrackable is becoming trackable. The technology allows for it and is putting an end to the above the line stranglehold.

14/11/10

Following our success at the DataStrategy Awards last month, we are delighted to announce that our work on the Department of Health's Stroke Awareness Campaign has been recognised yet again, this time in the context of our collaboration with advertising agency DLKW.

The multi-channel campaign highlights the signs to look out for with a stroke, and the action that needs to be taken with the memorable acronym, F.A.S.T: (Face; Arms; Speech; Time to call 999). Fuel?s role was to evaluate the campaign in a way that had never been done before. Crucially, we proved that it successfully changed behaviour fast: within a year, an estimated 9,864 more people got to hospital faster, 642 of whom were saved from death or serious disability via clot-busting treatment. It achieved a payback of £3.20 for every £1 spent.

Congratulations to Jonathan Buck and Pau Torres who were both contributing authors in this award winning entry. But the winning didn't stop there...

In a double whammy, Fuel was also part of the Silver award winning team with fellow Engine agency Partners Andrews Aldridge.

This collective won Silver for its work on Department of Health?s - Tobacco Control - A new approach to an old problem. The teams devised a new strategy to increase smoking quit rates by, making greater use of direct response techniques and community partnerships and directing quitters towards NHS support services. Over two years, the CRM programme increased quitting success rates among participants by 57%, the payback was increased by 54% and the cost-per-quit was reduced by nearly a third.

21/10/10

In culmination of 3 other awards achieved for best use of data in Healthcare, Best use of data in Public Sector & The Grand Prix, Fuel was thrilled to be awarded the highly coveted Data Service Provider of the Year at last night?s Marketing Week's DataStrategy Awards.

Joint Managing Partners Simon Wall & Jonathan Buck were present to pick up the bevvy of awards, along with their analytics team and clients from the Department of Health.

No less pleased was Paul Brewer, Head of Marketing Tobacco Control, Change4Life, Alcohol, Department of Health - who was not only personally shortlisted for Data Professional of the Year but also took away Client Brand of the Year

Paul said of Fuel

"Fuel have made a significant contribution to our ability to analyse and evaluate the impact of our marketing communications?"

To find out more about our award winning work please get in touch or take a look though our case studies