PayPal Global Study: Will we have a wallet-free future soon?

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Credits: © Piotr Marcinski - Fotolia.com

Credits: © Piotr Marcinski – Fotolia.com

Are you still keen carrying a wallet with you for paying your stuff? I am not. I actually hate it. And I have got my money loose in my trousers very often (not seldomly ending up staright in the washing machine). Now, Paypal might have a solution for me in the future. They recently announced their findings of a new study conducted by Wakefield Research which gives some insights on the end of the wallet: 83% of respondents across five countries (Germany 90%, Canada 87%, U.S. 86%, Australia 80% and UK 76%) would love not to carry a wallet with them. Now, Paypal is reacting to this answer and will be launching Cash for Registers. It will allow merchants to accept Paypal payment as well.

The study made clear that the UK (32%) is most open to choose a smartphone over a wallet when going out if they could only bring one item. Canadians might be struggle the most in the old world: 75% of them don’t carry cash around. Obviously, the beach and the gym (but also restaurants and grocery stores) are places where people would love to leave their purse away in all countries. However, Germans and Americans don’t like it at concerts and sports events, whereas Canadians don’t want it in the bar. And parking mobile apps are very much appreciated today in all countries.

“It’s not about replacing cash or your credit card with a new payment method, it’s about using technology to solve real shopping pain points. PayPal is at the forefront of developing products that make life easier, help shoppers be more efficient, and untether consumers from their wallets forever.” David Marcus, President, PayPal

The question is whether the development we see in terms of getting rid of the penny is increasing. Countires like Canada are trying to reduce the distribution of pennies, following Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Increased metal costs and a questionable need for 1-cent coins might be valid reasons. In the U.S. it costs more to produce a penny than to there is need for it. And while Germans still would bow to pick up change and carry it in general, Americans and Britains are most likely to lose it.

Spot On!
Although I would also call for a wallet-free future, I sometimes think about the problems it might cause for i.e. charity. How often do donate change to charity in a week? And how often are kids proud when you give them some money for their saving-box? Or when we hand over the jar where we collected the money for them? Would we also give and save them money when it is digital? How do you see it? And would you be open for the wallet-free future?

Digital Content, and some stats how we use it in 2013… (Infographic)

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Digital content readership is changing massively. And the guys at Uberflip have done some research around how data was used between February 2010 and February 2013 via Google Analytics and Uberflip Metrics. The infographic that highlights their findings shows how much mobile content usage and consumption is evolving, as well as how much content is shareable.


From a global perspective, mobile content consumtion in terms of visits makes up 21% (from 1,6% in 2010) while desktop traffic is decreasing continously. But mobile is not the only winner in this field. Video is increasing massively as well since 2010: 22% (from 6% in 2010) of internet users are putting video into their content portfolio.

People also change their way of sharing content these days. While in 2010, users were used to sharing their content via email, in 2013 the figure of sharing content via email went down to 53.3% in February 2013 (from 93.3% in 2010). Facebook and Twitter seem to be the big winner here: 27,4% of people are sharing content via Facebook (compared to 3,4% in 2010), and 9,7% via Twitter (compared to 0,5% in 2010).

uberflip-DigitalContent-Consumption

My quote of the year 2013 – Social Media, Social Networks and Social Business

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Credits: © Mirma - Fotolia.com

Credits: © Mirma – Fotolia.com

In 2010, I started pinning down my main message to companies and their C-level managers in one quote. Thereafter, different quotes evolved which I collected in the vision area of the “About” page.

The value of such a quote is for some managers marginal and for others massive when using it to explain the transformation of the business into a digital community-centric company or brand. Take it for what it is, and for what it’s worth for you, or let’s discuss it.

For this year the quote will be about social business strategy…

“Social Networking is business intend. Social Media is business duty. Social Business is business freestyle.”

Just before you start asking… By “business freestlye”, I address all departments in your company (like marketing, sales, customer service, HR, or other) that are responsible for planning, using, handling, and organizing the business tactics and strategy around the brand, product line or service offering of business relevance.

Some facts that might be interesting for each one of those..
Social Networks – Which are growing fastest?
Social Media – Facts, Figures and Stats 2013
Social Business – Some Facts 2013

PS: If you do it right, your workforce will freak out like the guy in this post. Believe me…!

CMOs: Feeling unprepared for digital challenges ahead? 4 in 10 say YES…!

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Sometimes surveys bring out the final truth about the status in which chief marketing officers (CMOs) find themselves in. One of the latest reports by Accenture, titled “Turbulence for the CMO: Charting a Path to the Samless Customer Experience” was done with 405 senior marketers from 10 countries. It makes clear that almost 4 in 10 CMOs think they don’t have the right set up to manage their business challenges in front of them. They are missing the right tools, resources and people.

The annual survey shows a decline in 5% in preparedness compared to 2011. Especially, the digital transformation is lacking behind. Compared to 2011 10% find it challenging to improve their workforce’s responsiveness to digital shifts. Furthermore, CMOs also stated that they find it difficult to keep up the efficiency of marketing operations (8% increase!).

CMO Digital Orientation Accenture 2013

Some deeper findings indicate what CMOs main interest in the business will be. The most interesting observation in the results is that digital orientation has the biggest gap between importance and performance among the five marketing capabilities.

The top priority for them is profitable growth (87%) and operational efficiency (85%). The good point for agencies and consultants is that CMOs have this as a bigger objective that cutting their marketing budgets (58%). From a long-term perspective, consumer expectations for specific experiences have the biggest impact on marketing strategy (65%).

And I am sure, you will detect some more interesting findings in their infographic.

CMO Challenges Accenture2013

Study: More than half of consumers globally trust driverless cars

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It is one of those iRobot myths coming true probably sooner than we are thinking: Driverless cars. Today, Cisco launched some study results which stated that 57% of respondents got no issues in trusting driverless cars to take over driving control for them. However, not all countries are alike…

The study shows that emerging markets are far more open than others. In Brazil (95%), India (86%) and China (70%) of responding drivers would leave control to technology; Japan (28%) and Germany (37%) coming in at the end of the field. Furthermore, 46% of respondents said they would let their kids in driverless cars.

Apart from that 74% of respondents have no problems if cars were tracking their driving habits as long as they could save on insurance and maintenance cost. For a better driving experience 65% of drivers would also be open to share driving habits, height, weight and entertainment preferences with the car manufacturers, 60% even biometrics data. A clear sign that the driving experience can be improved by the manufacturers, and that clients are longing for it.

Car Buying Experience Goes Digital

The most interesting fact of the study was for me that buyers are becoming more open to leave the car dealer out of the purchase process. It clearly shows that the Mad Men sales process is gone. It gets replaced by interactive kiosks at the car dealer’s place people would want, as long as there is someone you can ask when you got problems with the machines. Even better, 55% would even go through the purchasing process via video chats and digital virtual sessions. Obviously again not in countries like Germany and Japan which are not very open to virtual purchasing processes.

Car Buying Experience Goes Digital II

Spot On!
The Cisco study makes clear that the difference in connected car is in the service, not in having Cisco’s latest router. In the end, the next generation of cars should lie in seamless car driving experience that supports car services that help drivers find the right restaurant for their hunger, the appropriate pitstop for their needs, or the next service station before you realize you need it when driving your car.

Study: How Companies Structure Social Media Teams (Infographic)

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In a recent Ragan/NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions survey, PR Daily wanted to know from over 2,700 communication specialists in which way how their businesses use social media. Now, Go-Gulf.com took some of the data and created an infographic that ilustrates the main findings. Interestingly enough, and that is also what we are experiencing these days in our workshops and consultancy business, many of the compnaies have not found a proper way how to generate leads through social media although the capabilities on measuring data seems to be there. 



Find the main findings as follows…
86% companies just look at main data metrics like fans and followers.
80%+ companies only have 3 people maximum managing social media.
65% companies see time as the main challenge using social media.
40% companies wish to increase sales: main goal of social media efforts.
31% companies are capable to track the customer journey from social media to sales.

How-Organizations-Structure-Social-Media-Teams

Mehr als die Hälfte der Teenager teilen persönliche Informationen mit Fremden

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Sicherlich haben manche Eltern Bedenken, wie sich ihre Kinder auf Facebook in der Öffentlichkeit darstellen. Aber Anregungen oder Lösungsvorschläge, wie sich ihre Kinder auf dem größten Social Network verhalten sollen, fallen den meisten Eltern nicht ein. Die Gründe liegen auf der Hand: Die Dynamiken und das Wissen ist einfach nicht als Erfahrungswert vorhanden. Doch diverse Nachrichten über Computer-Kriminalität und Cyber-Mobbing lassen die Ängste der Eltern nicht kleiner werden.

Eine aktuelle Infografik von
Mobistealth verdeutlicht den Unterschied in der Vorgehensweise von Arbeitgebern zu Arbeitnehmern im Vergleich von Eltern zu Kindern. Die Zahlen machen klar, dass wir als Eltern das Thema Digitale Prävention Ernst nehmen müssen. Eine Vorgehensweise, die Unternehmen offensichtlich ernster nehmen als Eltern.

Oder wie seht Ihr das…? Und eine Frage an Eltern… Habt ihr gute Tipps für Eltern im Umgang mit Facebook, die sich bewährt haben?



A New Don: How the sales profession has evolved from the Mad Men era

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As a fan of the series “Mad Men” TV series, I have to share this comparison of the sales profession development with you. When we compare the decades from 1950-2010, we realizte that there were some significant differences. From Don and his friends’ wild office parties and massive whisky as well as martini consumption to a straight organized reality where sales automation has taken over and social media rules the communication between people.

Although, we still here at the universities and in seminars from the advertising Gods like Leo Burnett and David Ogilvy, Don Draper’s world has seen a radical shift in sales profession. But in which direction…? The guys from Leads360 have created an infographic that defines the main trends we saw lately…
– 1960: In-person pitch.
– 1970: Door-to-door vacuum pitch.
– 1980: Not really specified in any direction…
– 1990: In the beginning email messaging, later customer relationship management (CRM)
– 2000: Social integration (Social Media)
– 2010: Intelligent sales automation

“Over the last 50 years, many of these fundamental sales strategies have remained incredibly valuable,” states the infographic. Maybe you find the reasons why when reading through it.

Today, we are talking of Facebook as the barbeque with “friends and fans” and of Twitter as the chatter at the toilet. Well, it seems that we haven’t moved away from socializing. Maybe we just need to add some drinks next to our screens…

The_New_Don_Infographic_Sales

Questioning banner efficiency? Native ads perform better than banner ads, says eye-tracking study

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A recent eye-tracking study called “Benchmarking the Effectiveness of Native Ads” states that the visual attraction of native ads (52%) is more frequent than with traditional banner ads. The study which used eye-tracking tools was conducted by Sharethrough and the IPG Media Lab with the aim to identify the impact of banner ads of top brand on the web.

The main findings of the study were..
– 71% of respondents described native ads -based on the fact they had previously had a purchase intent- as “personally identify with”; this number stands against only 50% for banner ads
– 32% of respondents argued that a native ad “is an ad I would share with a friend or family member”. However, only 19% would do so with a banner ads
– 25% of respondents looked more on in-feed native ad placements than on banner ads
– Native ads achieve a 18% increase in purchase intent versus banner ads that get a 9% upside for brand affinity. 

Number-views-native-banner-ads-Sharethrough

Spot On!
The interesting point about this study or me was that native ads and editorial content move closer to another. Almost the same percentage of respondents said they looked at native ads (26%) next to editorial content (24%). However, they potentially spend more time viewing the content still compared to native ads.

Engagement-native-ads-content-Sharethrough

Is this another proof for the fact that content marketing is increasingly becoming important and moving in the spotlight of companies and brands? Maybe the infographic helps you find an answer to this question…

Native-ads-vs-Banner ads-infographic-sharethrough-2013

B2B Online Monitor 2013 – Digitale Transformation noch am Anfang

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Online Kanäle -wenigstens die etablierten- werden zu 85% positiv bewertet. Eine Webseite haben alle. Einen Newsletter haben zwei Drittel. Suchmaschinen-Marketing wird von mehr als der Hälfte gemacht. Landing Pages auch von einigen. Online Budgets steigen. Online ist in. Auch in der B2B Welt. Potential in den Themen Social Media, Mobile Marketing oder Online-Kommunikation liegt dennoch brach. Und mit der digitalen Transformation ist es nicht weit. Und das sagen diejenigen, die sich tagtäglich mit dem Thema Online im Marketing, Produktmanagement und der Unternehmenskommunikation beschäftigen. Das sind die vorwiegenden Erkenntnisse des
B2B Online-Monitor 2013, einer Online-Befragung unter 216 Unternehmen zu den Themenfeldern Kommunikationsstrategie und mobile Kommunikation.

Doch es gibt auch die Schattenseiten in der B2B Welt, die uns selbst nicht verborgen bleiben in diversen Seminaren und auf Konferenzen, bei denen man als Sprecher eingeladen wird. Social Media is noch lange nicht integraler Baustein der Online-Kommmunikation (64%). Der Grund: Es wird nicht verstanden, und Social Business schon gar nicht gelebt. Wenn 65% kein Social-Media-Monitoring durchführen, ist das ein klarer Beweis dafür. Das funktioniert aber nur mit einer ordentlichen strategischen Zielausrichtung und -führung. Und genau daran hapert es in B2B-Unternehmen.

Beim Thema Mobile sind sich die Experten nicht so unbedingt einig. Die einen sagen, da liege die Zukunft, die anderen sind da nur teilweise oder gar nicht überzeugt von. Am meisten verwundert hierbei die Unbedachtheit, Unwissenheit und der unerfahrene Umgang beim Thema SoLoMo (siehe auch den Whitepaper-Button, rechst). Lieferte der QR Code noch kurzlich die Option der Kommunikationsverlängerung aus Print und Outdoor in Richtung Mobile und Web, so hat er seine besten Zeiten angeblich schon gehabt – nur noch 12% werden ihn zukünftig einsetzen.

Die digitale Transformation fehlt aber vor allem deshalb, weil den Unternehmen das strategische Handwerkzeug bei der ganzheitlichen Planung der Online-Kommunikationsstrategie fehlt. Ohne Mobile und Social Media geht es halt schwer und wenn das ein “Rand-Dasein” erlebt im Unternehmen, dann ist es eben nicht ordentlich implementiert in die Prozesse oder verstanden von den Mitarbeitern (oder meist dem Management). Wenn dann 35% der Befragten meinen, dass die Strategie Entscheidungsgrundlage für das Aufsetzen neuer Kommunikationsmaßnahmen ist und diesen Prozess vereinfachen kann, dafür aber fast nie Zeit ist, oder Zeit als Argument angeführt wird, warum man keine Strategie-Meetings macht, dann fragt man sich, ob das Thema verstanden wurde.

Die digitale Transformation ist auf dem Vormarsch, eben nur im Schneckentempo. Was wir immer wieder erleben sind die klassischen drei Faktoren, die bei den Themen Mobile, Social und Digitalstrategie von Management-Teams als kritisch angeführt werden – und hinten dran geben wir mal mit an: Unser Verständnis, wie es zu bewerten und umzusetzen ist!

– Kommunikation: Social Business ist Unternehmens-Kultur, Social Media eine Einstellung zum Kunden und Social Networking ist Wertschätzung.
– Menschen: Mobile ist kein Tool, sondern ein Lebensstil aus Effizienz und Echtzeitkommunikation.
– Prozesse: Silos sind Hindernisse und helfen niemandem! Kollaboration ist der Weg der Zukunft.
Und wer mehr wissen will, darf sich gerne mal mit uns unterhalten…