Latest news with #brandstrategy
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Digital Silk Publishes Guide on Key Performance Indicators for Digital Marketing Success in 2025
Miami, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - July 22, 2025) - Digital Silk, an award-winning agency focused on creating brand strategies, custom websites, and digital marketing campaigns, has published a new guide to help businesses define and track digital marketing KPIs (key performance indicators) that align with their goals in 2025. The report outlines how businesses can potentially use KPI frameworks to measure performance across platforms and improve long-term digital outcomes. Digital Silk Publishes Guide on Key Performance Indicators for Digital Marketing Success in 2025To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: The Role of KPIs in a Shifting Marketing Landscape As marketing teams adjust to new privacy laws, AI-generated content, and shifting algorithms, clear performance metrics are becoming more important. Digital Silk's guide explores how KPIs may help businesses move beyond vanity metrics and focus on measurable results tied to ROI, visibility, and user engagement. The article outlines KPI categories such as SEO traffic, cost-per-click (CPC), return on ad spend (ROAS), customer lifetime value (CLV), and organic conversion rates-each potentially offering insight into digital strategy performance. According to a 2024 Statista report, 54% of U.S. marketers cite data and analytics as a primary focus in their digital strategies, reinforcing the need for structured performance tracking frameworks (source). "KPIs can potentially offer brands a benchmark to measure what's working and where to shift their strategies," said Gabriel Shaoolian, CEO of Digital Silk. "This guide offers a structured way to assess digital marketing outcomes beyond impressions or likes." Highlights from the Guide Overview of performance-focused KPIs by marketing channel Recommendations on pairing KPIs with business goals Tips on avoiding vanity metrics and aligning reports with decision-making Explanation of platform-specific KPIs for SEO, PPC, social media, and email campaigns Why This Resource Matters for U.S. Brands in 2025 With marketing spend under increased scrutiny and budgets shifting toward measurable results, this guide aims to provide businesses with a starting point to refine their tracking practices. It is now available on the Digital Silk blog. Read the full article here: About Digital SilkDigital Silk is an award-winning Miami Digital Marketing Agency focused on growing brands online. With a team of seasoned experts, we create digital experiences through strategic branding, custom web design, and digital marketing services to help improve visibility and support engagement. Media ContactJessica ErasmusMarketing Director & PR ManagerTel: (800) 206-9413Email: jessica@ To view the source version of this press release, please visit Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Arab News
6 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
What today's audiences want from brands — and why news delivers it
While visiting my family in New York recently, I found myself observing how my nephews engage with content, especially news. What they consider news, where they find it, and who they trust to deliver it is vastly different from traditional expectations. This shift is echoed in the 2025 Reuters Digital News Report, which shows that younger audiences, in particular, are more selective than ever in where they get their news and who they trust. Attention is limited, and trust — once lost — is hard to regain. For brands, this presents a pressing challenge: How do you stay visible, relevant, and memorable in such a fast-evolving media landscape? The answer lies in a powerful, yet often underestimated, space — trusted news media. Yes, news. In an age of algorithms and ad fatigue, credible news environments offer something rare and powerful: trust. In a world where trust drives engagement and loyalty, news is a strategic asset for brand building and connecting with audiences. When a brand appears in a trusted news environment, it does not just gain exposure; it also gains credibility. According to CNN's Brand Power study, which surveyed 1,200 senior marketing professionals, nearly 90 percent of marketing leaders say international news is an essential part of their brand strategy. They turn to the news for its high-quality, trusted, and impactful environment. This is the halo effect of strong journalistic brands. Brands benefit from the integrity and authority of the news platforms on which they appear. That trust transfers, and in a time of misinformation and media skepticism, it is more valuable than ever. Today's audiences are informed, selective, and value-driven. They want brands to be authentic and relevant. News provides the context and credibility that help brands meet these expectations. It allows them to show, not just tell, what they stand for. Even as some consumers moderate their news consumption due to fatigue, many remain deeply engaged with trusted sources, especially during major global moments. Events like the 2024 US Election and the COP29 climate summit drew millions of viewers worldwide, demonstrating the enduring power of news to unite and inform. These are the audiences that matter most: thoughtful, curious, and open to meaningful messaging. According to our Brand Power study, marketing leaders recognize this — many agree that brands appearing in trusted news environments during key moments are rewarded with increased brand exposure, elevated brand status, and heightened audience attention, engagement, and interest. There is a persistent myth that news is a risky space for advertisers. The truth is the opposite. Reputable news organizations uphold rigorous editorial standards, making them among the safest and most effective environments for advertising. News audiences are highly engaged and influential. They are not just scrolling; they are seeking. Research from WARC and Stagwell consistently shows that audiences in news environments are in an active, information-seeking mindset, making them significantly more engaged and receptive to brand messaging. This elevated level of attention leads to stronger brand recall, deeper trust, and a higher likelihood of consumer action. When brands align with quality journalism, they benefit from increased purchase intent and more meaningful emotional engagement. In fact, according to Stagwell research, 84 percent of consumers say they trust brands more when they appear in brand-safe environments, such as trusted news media, underscoring the unique value of journalism as both a high-impact and low-risk advertising channel. The goal is not just to be seen; it is to be remembered and trusted. News helps brands move from awareness to action through storytelling that informs and inspires. We have seen how campaigns integrated into trusted editorial environments consistently outperform traditional formats. They do not interrupt; they connect. According to WARC research, ads placed in premium news environments are up to two times more trusted and 1.5 times more likely to be viewed than those in non-premium contexts. Despite strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of news for advertisers, a concerning trend is emerging: Many brands are retreating from news. A recent WARC study projects that global ad spend on news brands will decline by 33 percent in 2025 compared to 2019. In a world where media is fragmented and audiences are skeptical, news offers something uniquely powerful: a foundation of trust. It provides the credibility, context, and connection that modern brands need to thrive. Brands that embrace news do not just advertise; they build relationships. They don't just sell; they stand for something. And in doing so, they create campaigns that not only perform but also endure. In a distracted world, trust is everything — and news is where trust lives. Advertising in the news is not just good for society; it is a smart, strategic choice for brands. Advertisers have a vital role to play in sustaining a healthy and truthful information ecosystem, one where my nephews and future generations can grow up with access to trusted, credible news.
Forbes
14-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Challenger Brands Win In Turbulent Times
Melissa Sierra is the EVP of Media Integration at USIM, where she has spent over 12 years driving corporate transformation. In times of uncertainty, a lot of brands go dark—slashing budgets, putting campaigns on hold and pulling back from the market. However, history has shown that those who continue to invest wisely in marketing during downturns not only endure but emerge even more powerful. When others zig, it is time to lag strategically, purposely hesitating to re-aim and outmaneuver—not fall behind. The worst thing a brand can do is disappear into the background when customer loyalty is already tentative and competitors are battling for share of mind. These uncertain times aren't a red light; they are a yellow signal to pause, reset and accelerate, but not to stop. Here's where smart marketers lean in: Volatility accentuates regional differences. Don't assume national results reflect what's happening in key markets. Use local-level data to uncover nuances in behavior, spending power and mindset. Customers must feel seen, especially if they're grappling with their own uncertainty. Is your media working? If performance is down, don't just reshuffle the budget; reveal the leakage. Is it platform misalignment, creative fatigue or data lag? Closing the gap starts with visibility. A thorough audit can reveal what's driving impact, what's wasteful and where you can optimize for more ROI. Beware of the "fast and furious" content trap. Messaging that lacks clarity or emotional relevance is just noise. Your customers are overwhelmed, so your message must be clear, concise and value-added. It's time to revisit your brand promise and ensure it's pointing customers toward action. Blind spots are costly; whether in targeting, measurement or media mix. Rising CPMs/CPCs driven by competition, platforms that no longer deliver unique reach or spend that ignores your geographic footprint all chip away at efficiency. You must control where your brand shows up and understand your share of voice in the contexts that matter. Winning By Staying Visible And Smart This is not the time to go dark. It's time to be strategic, visible and precise. Cutting marketing during volatile times often isn't cautious; it's destructive to the brand voice and the equity built thus far, leaving you wide open to play defense. All of this runs counter to a brand seeing growth opportunities that are advantageous to the brand. For example, Olaplex, a relatively new entrant in the beauty industry, has carved out a visible niche through a savvy mix of social media and connected TV (CTV) strategy. Competing in a space long dominated by established brands like L'Oréal and Pantene, Olaplex leaned into digital platforms rather than pulling back during uncertain periods. They prioritized Instagram, TikTok and YouTube—not just for promotion, but to foster a sense of community through influencer collaborations and user-generated content. Beyond social, Olaplex integrated CTV channels into its media mix. This allowed the brand to reach a younger, digitally fluent audience through video-driven storytelling. With a data-informed approach, they tailored messaging to align with audience behaviors, helping it increase visibility and maintain relevance in a crowded market. It's important for challenger brands to leverage emerging platforms, naturally engage with customers and ensure their marketing dollars continue to work hard, even when the world becomes uncertain. Visibility during volatility isn't just a defensive move—it's an offensive strategy. While others pause, strategic brands can claim more mindshare, strengthen their community and extend their relevance. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
Entrepreneur
10-07-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Why Everyday People Are Becoming the Most Powerful Influencers for Your Brand
There is power in community, and brands are learning how to harness it through their audiences' voices. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing have long been staples of brand strategy. But in today's digital landscape, authenticity and relatability are becoming far more valuable than fame. Consumers are tuning out polished ads and turning their attention to brands that reflect real stories — told by people who look and live like them. That shift is changing how smart businesses build trust, market products and grow communities — and it's opening the door to a more cost-effective, scalable and human-centered approach to influence. The rise of real people in brand storytelling There are far more everyday people in the world than celebrities, and those everyday people are now driving the next evolution of marketing. As advertising saturation increases, audiences crave authenticity. In fact, 86% of Americans say transparency from businesses is more important than ever. That's why more brands are moving away from curated influencer content and toward community-led marketing. They're spotlighting real customers, user-generated content (UGC) and grassroots brand advocates to tell stories that resonate more deeply than high-gloss ads ever could. Related: How Brands Can Embrace Authenticity in a World Craving Transparency Why "smaller" influencers are driving bigger engagement Enter the nano-influencer: a social media user with fewer than 5,000 followers — but often with the highest engagement rates of any tier. At 2.53% engagement, nano-influencers outperform mega-influencers by nearly triple (0.92%). Brands are taking note. They're shifting focus from high-budget campaigns to everyday content — reposts of customers' testimonials, product use cases and genuine moments. It's cheaper, more effective and fosters a more organic sense of trust. Take Bumble, for example. Instead of flashy ads, the dating and networking app launched #FindThemOnBumble, a docuseries, outdoor, and experiential campaign that featured 112 New York City Bumblers and their real stories. The campaign achieved 15 million media impressions and reached 5.5 million people on Twitter alone. These relatable narratives showcase how the product fits into real lives, creating emotional buy-in without the hard sell. Related: The Rise of Nano-Influencers: How the Smallest Voices are Making the Biggest Impact How community is replacing the traditional "audience" The old model of building a brand following — likes, comments, shares — is no longer enough. Today's most successful businesses are fostering communities, not just collecting followers. This means investing in more personal, participatory spaces: private social groups, live-stream events and digital forums where customers can connect, contribute and co-create. These environments build loyalty, offer valuable feedback loops and make customers feel like part of the brand journey. Consider Lululemon. The brand doesn't just sell apparel — it builds experiences. From local running clubs to wellness events, Lululemon creates space for its community to gather, then benefits from the authentic content they generate by simply showing up. The results speak for themselves, with a nearly 65% year-over-year growth rate of its Essential Membership program in North America, which is now home to 28 million members. The marketing advantage you already have You don't need a Kardashian-sized budget to create meaningful brand buzz. What you do need is a way to make your customers feel seen—and a strategy to invite them to share their experiences. Proactive ways to build a strong brand community include: Understanding what brand community success looks like Ask yourself: Is creating a thriving brand community about engagement rates? Member numbers? Or is it the amount of user-generated content your brand community produces? Setting specific goals for your brand community is a key first step to shaping how it looks in the future. Knowing your brand community Find out where customers who fit your brand persona spend their time and what they discuss in those spaces. This will help inform how you target your community members and convince them that your brand community is worth investing their time in. Using the right platform Where is your brand community most likely to hang out? Depending on your target market, choose a place to host your brand community, whether it's in an exclusive social media group, a brand app, or even a custom forum, where they can connect with like-minded people and access the benefits that come with being a part of the community. Related: Tired of Trolls? Here's Why Creators and Businesses Are Doubling Down on Private Online Communities Providing incentives What do your customers want from you that they can't get elsewhere? A practical way to gain interest is to give people a reason to join your brand community by understanding their needs and providing them with benefits that meet them. When real people tell real stories about how your business added value to their lives, the impact can be just as powerful as celebrity-backed ads — if not more so. It builds credibility, fosters emotional connection, and turns your customers into your most trusted marketers. In a noisy digital world, the quiet power of authenticity stands out. Community-led marketing isn't just a trend — it's a long-term strategy. Businesses that center real people, encourage organic advocacy, and create space for honest stories will outlast those still chasing the influencer spotlight. Ready to break through your revenue ceiling? Join us at Level Up, a conference for ambitious business leaders to unlock new growth opportunities.
Forbes
10-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How AI Can Drive A Hiring Surge In Your Agency
Abigail Stuart, founding partner of Day One Strategy, with 20+ years in brand and market research, drives innovation and champions AI. How would you finish this sentence: 'In my agency, AI has the power to …'? Chances are, your answer didn't include 'create jobs.' Since 2023, when Goldman Sachs made the bombshell statement that AI could put 300 million jobs at risk, the narrative surrounding AI and employment has been overwhelmingly negative. And it seems that agencies should be particularly worried—Pew Research shows that our workforce, which skews toward educated, well-paid, female professionals, is among the most exposed to AI's disruption. Agencies, both big and small, are feeling the pressure, from WPP's CEO resignation to boutique firms making staff cuts. Yet while we hear reports of competitors making redundancies, at Day One Strategy, we're experiencing the opposite: We're growing and hiring. This isn't happening despite AI; it's happening because of it. Here are three ways agencies can harness AI to create jobs rather than cut them, based on our firsthand experience. 1. Use AI to win more business (and keep it). The most immediate application is enhancing your 'request for proposal' (RFP) process. AI can conduct deep competitive research, analyze client needs and identify unspoken business challenges. Think of it as a tool to boost your knowledge and support you to respond credibly to the RFP, without weeks of desk research. But the step change comes when you move beyond internal efficiency to client-facing innovation. At our agency, we run AI-powered workshops at project kickoff to unlock insights from clients' existing data. Many organizations, particularly in healthcare and pharma, sit on mountains of legacy data that remain impenetrable to the teams who need it most. Using AI to synthesize and surface actionable insights delivers immediate value without extending timelines or budgets. When clients experience your AI-enhanced approach firsthand, retention naturally follows. We've found that as we win more projects, we need more people in client-facing and operational roles to manage the increased workload. The key is hiring professionals who embrace AI innovation while understanding that the careful nurturing of client relationships remains critical to agency success. 2. Expand your offering through AI. Once you're using AI to win more core business, it's time to set your sights wider. Look upstream and downstream in your clients' project workflows. Which adjacent services could you credibly deliver with AI augmentation? We're a market research and insights agency, so our involvement traditionally ended with delivering research reports and recommendations—but not anymore. With a combination of human expertise and AI frameworks, we've moved beyond research into strategy and communications, climbing up the value chain from researchers to guardians of customer insight. Recently, we helped a client test and refine their communications to doctors about their HIV drug. In the past, we'd simply advise on which messages to use. Now, we build personas for customers loyal to competitor brands and use AI to simulate their responses to our client's messaging. We then develop frameworks that sales teams can use for effective objection handling. Having successfully expanded our role within existing projects, we're now ready to pitch for projects in these new areas. And so we're hiring experts in the relevant disciplines, as well as AI strategists who can harness technology to capitalize on commercial opportunities. 3. Build your own AI products. You're winning more core business, you're expanding your offerings … what comes next? I believe that for agencies to succeed in the AI era, we need to do more than just leverage existing technology. We need to build our own. If you're not a tech agency, that may sound daunting. But it begins by creating a culture where your team of AI enthusiasts has the space and support to play. We've found that hiring people with the right mindset and encouraging them to experiment can light fires. We've got everyone building their own GPTs; we take the best ones and scale them. With an established culture of collaboration and courage, you'll be ready to identify a client need that's going unanswered. Where traditional methods are failing by being cumbersome, costly and slow, you can develop a tool that makes things easier, cheaper and faster for your clients. A product can't exist on its own. You'll need to hire talented developers to build a first-of-its-kind solution, subject matter experts to shape it around client needs and implementation experts to ensure it delivers. Choose Your Agency's AI Future AI has the potential to help agencies thrive in a challenging market. But it won't be enough to simply bolt on AI to your existing model; AI needs to be built into your agency at a foundational level. Recent research by McKinsey shows that employees are ready to embrace AI—it's up to leaders to steer the ship toward AI maturity. As a small, tech-focused agency, we've run toward AI and built our positioning around it. We're intentionally targeting clients with the right appetite for AI, and we acknowledge that this approach may exclude more cautious potential clients in the process. That's a sacrifice we're willing to make as we're seeing a growing market that's hungry for this approach. The impact of AI on agency employment isn't predetermined. While some companies will use AI primarily for cost reduction, others will harness it for growth. The difference lies in vision and execution. The question isn't whether AI will transform agencies—it's whether your agency will use that transformation to shrink or to soar. The choice, and the opportunity, is yours. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
