Marketing & Innovation

An increasing number of businesses are turning to hybrid cloud computing to solve their data management issues.Cloud computing is an umbrella term for multiple cloud services including cloud storage, backup and hosting while hybrid cloud technology manages processing as well as the relocation of processing across both public and private resources.

Here’s why the benefits of hybrid cloud solutions may outweigh other cloud computing alternatives for your business.

Hybrid Cloud vs Regular Cloud

Hybrid cloud operating systems offer businesses owners the best of both worlds.

As opposed to the regular cloud, which requires choosing between private or public, the hybrid cloud is a smart combination of both.

In a hybrid cloud system, part of the cloud is managed on-premises privately and the rest offsite through third-party public cloud resources. This mix provides greater flexibility for businesses and more data deployment options.

To meet the growing needs of your business, hybrid solutions can move data between private and public clouds as your demands and budget change.

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Instagram has evolved into a powerful marketing platform geared toward brands of all shapes and sizes.

Immensely-popular Instagram Stories hold a special place in the promotional arsenal. They serve as an extension of an organic media strategy, a tool for spearheading growth and customer acquisition.  Ads tailored to this channel make up and increasing portion of the digital marketing mix, which is reflected in spending across different industries.

And for modern consumers, Stories are a captivating window display to the world, a true haven of discovery. They seek to express themselves visually and take part in something bigger, something that matters. That is why they so eagerly connect with their friends, influencers, and businesses via this booming channel.

The meta-narrative

Creating video ads for Instagram Stories is a novelty trend that started off as a Snapchat knock-off. Despite somewhat humble beginnings, it rapidly gained traction, propelled by the rise of the ephemeral, temporary content.

For marketers, influencers, and entrepreneurs, the floodgates opened when they were rendered able to insert short ads in between these pieces of content. Ads can take the form of 10-seconds photo display or up to a 15-seconds-long video. It is crucial to note right away that they are supposed to fit the Story format and echo its purpose.

They must not disrupt user experience (UX) because people can then tap on the screen and make short work of the advertisement. Also, take into account that the level of activity is off the charts— there are more than 400 million people using Stories feature every day. The million dollar question is how to come up with attention-arresting ads that pierce through the noise and keep UX intact.

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According to a study published by OECD, 70% of the population aged 16 to 65 within the OECD member countries lacks expertise in computer science. This phenomenon, called digital illiteracy , is the result of fears or dislikes and not just a lack of access to electronic resources. Hence,web application designers should be considerate of this lack of digital knowledge while creating a user interface. The OECD study mentioned that the computer skills of users are even worse than what the researchers had anticipated. Here are some thoughts on this subject.

What is Digital Illiteracy?

Literacy is defined by the OECD as the ability to understand and use information to expand one’s capacity. In other words, the study reveals that a part of the population does not have the computing capabilities to track and use digital tools.

Digital illiteracy may not only be the result of a lack of access to computers, but also of a lack of knowledge.

This phenomenon is too often ignored by UX (User Experience) designers. With a computer culture more developed than the average, it is difficult to understand the needs of the end-users instinctively, especially if the target audience is large.

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Whether it be brick-and-mortar businesses or digital platforms, ‘mood marketing’ is prevalent everywhere. Through this article, I would like to describe the prevalence of this phenomenon and depict how marketers are using digital means to target audiences through it. Here’s the definition: “Mood marketing is a relatively new technique where marketers use behavioral data (or “moods”) captured in real-time from social media measures like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, or LinkedIn in order to market their products and services.” (Source: GB News)

With certain subtle and inconspicuous measures, marketers at brick-and-mortar businesses execute mood marketing to get their customers stay longer and buy more. To exemplify my point, here is some research that reveals the effects of colour and scent on a consumer’s mood:

According to a research article entitled “Impact of colour on marketing”, blue and green colours in restaurants calm customers and encourage leisurely dinning. Red and yellow attract attention and stimulate the appetite, hence red is widely adopted by fast-food restaurants.

Certain scents drive a customer not only to buy products but also to pay more. For example, The Scent Marketing Institute mentions the 6th top scent as that of “leather and cedar”, because of its ability to motivate consumers to buy expensive furniture. A research by Aroma 360 exhibited that pleasant fragrances improve the moods of customers and  they stay as much as 44% longer in a business “surrounded by an attractive scent.”

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Point 2: Were advertisers aware of the problem and what were their reactions?

To begin with, some reactions did make an impact, especially that of P&G in 2017, which involved reducing the online advertising investments of the company by $140 million. It is quite normal that the impact was big, and P&G has always been the spearheads of advertising and the first to bring in trends. Worse still for the marketing community, the reports revealed that the impact of this measure had been nil.

But it does not take into consideration Byron Sharp’s studies on advertisingthat show that the impact of a budget-cut on advertising is measured only 3 years after the interruption of the investment, regardless of the brand’s size.

On the other hand, how significant are 140 million dollars for P&G in terms of advertising budget? 2% of the total, which is not negligible. But, the decline in the total advertising budget of the company between 2013 – the most important year of the period studied – and last year is $1.070 billion or 13% of this peak spending. This could mean a disengagement from advertising by P&G or it could mean that its revenues are dwindling down too.

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